Box Populi
Imagine if… Cruise promoted his film on ‘Jassi’
At the IIFA awards there were some puzzles that even the pacy dancing and 
super-pacy editing of the footage couldn‘t solve.
For instance, why was Shah Rukh Khan complaining on-stage about Saif Ali Khan not keeping in touch, and why were the emcees on the red carpet Purab Kohli and Neha Dubey (competent and understated) focusing so much on the clothes that the stars wore? Agreed this is the model derived from the Cannes film festival. But our stars looked distinctly ill-at-ease answering questions about their clothes, accessories, etc.
The funniest encounter was with director Ken Ghosh. When Neha asked about his tie he retorted, “Aw, you don‘t like it?”
Tie me up.
Judge for yourself the quality of the live performances. We had to wade until dark to get to the show‘s highest-light, namely the two Bachchans with Aishwarya Rai.
As Abhishek rocked all his leading ladies in the audience out-did themselves in winning brownie points. Rani Mukherjee had an edge. She whistled, clapped and finally got to her feet to give her favourite co-star a standing ovation. Rekha looked like she would rush to stage and shake a leg if only her sari and jewellery weren‘t too heavy for physical activity.
Thank God she wasn‘t quizzed about her attire on the red carpet. It would‘ve taken the whole evening.
If exuberance is a measure of passion and affection then Rani deserved one more award that evening for the most enthusiastic spectator of the evening. Runner-up would be Boman Irani who whistled and swayed to Abhishek‘s dance steps. Boman‘s dimunitive wife looked visibly ill-at-ease watching her husband doing the whooping act.
I was surprised to catch Ram Gopal Varma in earnest conversation with Ashutosh Gowariker and Ronnie Screwvala on BBC‘s Business Bites… surprised because Varma isn‘t really a television person. Though he comes alive in print, on the visual medium one can see his bashful repudiation of the media glare.
Varma was sadly subdued. On the other hand Ashutosh Gowariker simply came alive, talking nineteen-to-the-dozen about the various reasons why our cinema doesn‘t get international recognition. He spoke about how he would like to see, ahem ahem, Satya screened in various parts of the world.
Ramu disagreed. He thought our cinema wasn‘t good enough, give or take an, ahem ahem, Lagaan.
He didn‘t think much of the food either. He kept picking on it with his eyes intently glued to the table, like a schoolboy at boarding school being forced to polish off his porridge.
Later Ramu admitted to me that sitting and eating while discussing serious issues on cinema wasn‘t the best way to spend an evening.
He was uncomfortable. So were we, watching Priyanka Chopra and Arjun Rampal plugging their new film on Koffee With Karan… a re-run, it made mention of Yakeen as a film to be released in March.
Much better marketing positioning for Yakeen was obtainable on Yeh Meri Life Hai where Priyanka showed up as a judge at a beauty contest and handed over her film‘s brochures (caught in conspicuous close-ups) with some dialogues about “Zindagi mein yakeen…” blah blah!
A lot of stars are whipping up a soapy lather to promote their films. We saw Mallika Sherawat on Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai, Urmila Matondkar on Aahat and now Priyanka on Yeh Meri Life Hai.
One of these says I suspect Tom Cruise will turn up on Jassi to promote his latest film. I guess everyone is aware of the growing importance of the visual medium, and none more so than the talented youngsters who bare their hearts on the various talent-scouting contests.
But could we please have less melodrama on these cute chronicles of callow aspirations? On the newly-started Fame Gurukul I saw a rejected candidate weeping hysterically to the tune of Lata Mangeshkar‘s Rulake gaya sapna mera. And when a girl was about to leave for Gurukul her sister and mother wept like the contestant was leaving for her Sasural.
I wept too… When I saw Sony‘s The Kumars At House No. 42. The guests were Ismail Merchant and Helen Bonham-Carter. With Ismail gone so recently it felt odd and sad to see him on air talking about his cinema. His leading lady cribbed good naturedly about how Ismail didn‘t pay them well. Well… if it‘s any consolation, no one gets paid well in India either.
A low-budget shoe-string presentation with a conscience Pehchaan was Sahara‘s Friday premiere. I remember Raveena Tandon who produced the film for Sahara was very excited about it because it was based on an actual newspaper headline.
A politician‘s daughter-in-law commits suicide. What happened?
Director Shrabani Deodhar pieced together the whole scenario leading to the girl‘s death through the character of the dead girl‘s friend Mridula (Raveena Tandon) who very conveniently, happens to be a lawyer married, every inconveniently, to a man whose father (Vinod Khanna) is the defence lawyer for the accused.
Bahu versus Sasurji in courtroom… decent premise. But the presentation lacked the hard-hitting quality required to make it swing into action. The politicians‘ brigade came across as specially tacky. As for the righteous team of crusaders led by Raveena… the good guys kept going into college and dancefloor flashbacks which took away the edge from the crusader‘s tale.
Nevertheless I‘d rate Pehchaan much higher than the average fare on television, and certainly more spunky than last week‘s Friday Premiere. The women were allowed to step out into the forefront. Apart from Raveena (sassy and spirited) there was Juhi Parmar as her pal who‘s killed in her influential Sasural, and Rati Agnihotri as Raveena‘s supportive mom-in-law.
The presentation could have done with better production values. But then, you can‘t have a TV premier for a film with the budget of a Parineeta or Sarkar.
(
MUMBAI:If there is a soundtrack to cinema-going, it is the crackle of popcorn and in 2025, audiences at Cinépolis India clearly couldn’t get enough of it. The multiplex chain has revealed its annual popcorn consumption data, showing that moviegoers across its network devoured close to five million tubs of popcorn last year. Broken down, that works out to around 570 tubs every hour, or roughly 10 tubs disappearing every single minute, enough to keep the kernels popping almost non-stop.
In sheer volume terms, Cinépolis sold around 12,000 tonnes of popcorn during the year, underlining just how central the snack has become to the big-screen ritual. Long after the opening credits roll and before the end credits fade, popcorn remains the constant companion.
To celebrate National Popcorn Day on January 19, 2026, the cinema chain is now turning the spotlight on the snack itself. From January 20 to January 31, Cinépolis will run a nationwide “Popcorn Happy Hour”, offering a buy one get one free deal on popcorn across its locations. The limited-period promotion is designed to add a little extra crunch to the moviegoing experience, without adding to the bill.
“Popcorn is the official movie partner, and at Cinépolis, it is the sensory anchor of the cinema experience,” said Cinépolis India managing director Devang Sampat. “With the Popcorn Happy Hour offer, we are making it easier for audiences to add that to their visit, without compromising on quality.”
Sampat added that the consumption data is more than just a fun statistic. Tracking what patrons buy and when they buy it helps the chain refine its food and beverage offerings and shape the overall in-cinema experience. “Our 2025 data helps us understand what patrons are choosing, so we can keep improving the menu and the experience,” he said.
The popcorn push sits within Cinépolis India’s broader Foovies framework, an in-house strategy that treats food and beverages as a core part of cinema-going rather than a side order. The approach focuses on curated menus, value-led campaigns and data-driven decisions, using consumer behaviour to guide what lands at the concession counter.
As theatres continue to compete not just with streaming platforms but with every other leisure option vying for attention, the numbers suggest one thing remains rock-solid: when the lights dim, popcorn still rules the aisle. And with millions of tubs already behind it, Cinépolis is betting that the humble kernel will keep audiences coming back for another bite and another show.
