What’s Your Raashee? (2009-movie) : Bollywood Hindi Film

What’s Your Raashee Movie Details :

What’s Your Raashee? Movie is a 2009 Bollywood romantic comedy Film , directer is Ashutosh Gowariker. It was producer are Ronnie Screwvala and Sunita A. Gowariker. The Movie starring Harman Baweja and Priyanka Chopra, with Darshan Jariwala and Dilip Joshi in supporting roles.The film is based on the Gujarati novel Kimball Ravenswood by the playwright and novelist Madhu Rye, and follows the story of Yogesh Patel, a Gujarati NRI, who must marry in ten days to save his brother from harm; Yogesh agrees to meet twelve potential brides (all played by Chopra), one from each zodiac sign.

Gowariker had always aspired to make a romantic comedy and was inspired to adapt Rye’s novel into a feature film after watching a play based on the same source material. Later, he bought the rights and co-wrote the screenplay with playwright Naushil Mehta. In the process, several plot changes were made for the cinematic adaptation, notably the similarity between the twelve girls, and the ending. Since Gowariker was against using prosthetics to create the twelve characters, Chopra worked on her body language and her voice to make them distinct. Principal photography was extensively done at sixty-seven locations across Mumbai, and partly in Baroda and Chicago. The soundtrack, consisting of thirteen songs, each representing an astrological sign and one compilation, was composed by Sohail Sen, with lyrics by Javed Akhtar.

The film’s master copy was stolen from Adlabs before its release, and a few days later was recovered by the police, who found and seized several pirated copies of the film created from the master copy. The film had its world premiere at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival and was released on 25 September 2009. With a box office gross ₹17 crore, it was unsuccessful and received mixed reviews, with criticism for its over three-and-a-half-hour run time and its screenplay. However, the film garnered acclaim for its soundtrack and Chopra’s performance, which received a nomination for the Screen Award for Best Actress. She also became the first actress in history to portray twelve roles in one film, a feat considered for inclusion in the Guinness World Records.

• Directer : Ashutosh Gowariker
• Producer : Ronnie Screwvala,Sunita A. Gowariker
• Screenplay : Naushil Mehta,Ashutosh Gowariker
• Starring : Harman Baweja,Priyanka Chopra
• Music : Sohail Sen
• Cinematography : Piyush Shah
• Editer : Ballu Saluja
• Art Direction : Nitin Chandrakant Desai
• Costume Design : Neeta Lulla
• Makeup Department : Asha Hariharan,Madhav Kadam
• Production Management : Jennifer Pabley,Ilana Rossein,Ranjeet Singh Solanki
• Assistant Director : Chaitanya Chopra,Madhavi Deshpande,Riddhi Malhotra,Sandeep Modi
• Art Department : Beth Gatza,Sunil Gujar,Kshamata Sachin Gurav,Ramakant Kanojia
• Sound Department : Vijay Das,Stephen Gomes,Shaikh Gulam Hussain,Lochan Kanvinde
• Visual Effects : Tushar Anchan,Abhishek Arya,Supriya Avate,Badarinathchinimilli
• Production company : UTV Motion Pictures,Ashutosh Gowariker Productions
• Distributer : UTV Motion Pictures
• Genres : Comedy,Drama,Romance
• Release date : 25 September 2009
• Running time : 211 minutes
• Country : India
• Language : Hindi

Star Cast of The Film :

• Harman Baweja as a Yogesh B. Patel
• Priyanka Chopra as a Anjali / Sanjana Rasikbhai Shah / Kajal Thakkar / Hansa Parekh / Rajni Parmar / Chandrika / Nandini Mansukhlal Desai / Dr. Pooja Garodia / Vishaka Indravadan Zaveri / Bhavna Hasmukhbhai Shukla / Mallika Desai / Jhankhana
• Anjan Srivastav as a Bharatbhai Patel
• Manju Singh as a Shakuntala B. Patel
• Dilip Joshi as a Jeetendra ‘Jitubhai’ B. Patel
• Ajeeta Kulkarni as a Jyotsna J. Patel (as Ajita Kulkarni)
• V.M. Badola as a Nanaji (as Visswa Badola)
• Darshan Jariwala as a Devubhai ‘Devu’ Patel
• Bhairavi as a Kantabhabhi D. Patel (as Bhairavi Vaidya)
• Geeta Tyagi as a Anila Kamdar
• Rajesh Vivek as a Bhautesh Joshi
• Yuri Suri as a Moolrajbhai (as Yuri)
• Daya Shankar Pandey as a Chand (as Dayashankar Pandey)
• Marcell Dsouza as a Sooraj (as Marshall D’Souza)
• Pratik Dixit as a Khodi
• Gautam Saugat as a Nanaji’s Lawyer
• Bhim Vakani as a Kacharbhai Patel
• Bharti Shah as a Kokilaben Patel
• Ram Girdhar as a Ramnikbhai
• Pooja Kasekar as a Sanchita
• Kamal Adib as a Taralbhai Parekh
• Milind Joshi as a Khushalbhai Jamnadas
• Manoj Shah as a Mansukh Jassani
• Sheila Pillai as a Shraddha Jassani
• Balwant Jadhav as a Village Headman
• Pramod Moutho as a Indravadan Zaveri (as Pramod Muthu)
• Shilpa Mehta as a Jayvanti Zaveri
• Tejpal Singh Rawat as a Govardhan
• Honey Chhaya as a Hasmukhbhai Shukla (as Honey Chayya)
• Asha Bhende as a Pragnaben Shukla (as Mrs. Asha Bhende)
• Ashok Kelkar as a Jhankhana’s Father
• Atmaram Shroff as a Jhankhana’s Dada
• Ranjeet Singh Solanki as a Talanti
• Laura Atwood as a Ravenswood Commuter
• Tommy Bartlett as a University of Chicago Finance Professor
• Suzy Brack as a Ravenswood Commuter
• Debbi Burns as a Office Worker
• Joe DeVito as a Chicago Commuter
• Gene Fojtik as a Entertainment Executive
• Erron Jay as a College Student

Story of The Film :

What’s Your Raashee? Yogesh Patel, a young man in a hurry. Yogesh must find his dream girl within 10 days to save his family from utter ruin. Finding the dream girl is tough enough. Finding her in a hurry is even tougher.

Production :
Development :

Ashutosh Gowariker had always aspired to make a comedy, however, after making the historical drama Jodha Akbar (2008), he wanted to make a “frothy” romance or “something non-historical, light and fun”. The director had always wanted to make a romantic comedy along the lines of It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), Roman Holiday (1953), Chupke Chupke (1975), Baaton Baaton Mein (1979), or When Harry Met Sally… (1989). Gowariker wanted to do a film that would require less research compared to his previous films as he felt he did not have “to go into historical details. But a good comedy is a challenge of its own. The process of arriving at the humour is extremely difficult.”

After watching the play A Suitable Bride based on Madhu Rye’s Gujarati novel Kimball Ravenswood, Gowariker decided to adapt it into a film. He read the source material to learn more about it and then bought the novel’s film rights. In an interview, Rye revealed that he did not agree with Gowariker’s description of the novel as a “frothy romance”. Rye said that the novel can be considered a cunningly crafted sex thriller driven by devilish characters while also being both a “side-splitting tingly comic” story as well as “a profound study of human nature.” Gowariker co-wrote the screenplay with playwright Naushil Mehta.When asked if he was worried that the writers would make drastic changes in the adaptation, Rye replied: “I hope they do.” Due to the length of the novel, several changes were made with Rye’s permission.

The ending was altered by the writers; the protagonist chooses a completely different girl in the film than the one he selects in the novel.Rye was concerned about the reactions of viewers who had read the novel, and it took Gowariker a while to convince him to agree.The writers were highly impressed and relieved by the characters’ fine detailing in the novel, adding: “The written matter was very strong and we had to just get a few layers on that.” While writing the screenplay, Mehta and Gowariker decided to have one song for each zodiac sign to bring out the personality of each sign and its related girl. They had to write each character with different nuances.The title of the film is taken from a fictional book, What’s Your Raashee?, about the compatibility between the sun signs, which the protagonist reads in the film.

Film Casting :

The casting of the lead pair was leaked well before the intended official announcements. Gowariker cast Harman Baweja after watching the trailer of his debut film, the science fiction romance Love Story 2050 (2008).He asked Harman’s father, Harry Baweja, to show him the film’s rushes and was impressed with his performance, calling him the best person for the part. Following this, Priyanka Chopra, who had worked with Baweja in Love Story 2050, was cast to play all twelve of the potential brides, each related to one of the twelve zodiac signs.On casting Chopra, Gowariker said: “I have always liked Priyanka’s work, right from Hero: Love Story of a Spy. She’s been fabulous in all her films. So when I thought of somebody doing twelve roles I thought about her, as I thought she had the potential.” When Gowariker offered the film to her, Chopra instantly agreed to star in it.

Chopra became the first actress in cinematic history to portray twelve distinct characters in one film and was considered for inclusion in the Guinness World Records.On being asked about the decision of casting one actress to portray twelve characters, Gowariker said: “If we had taken twelve different actresses then the most beautiful one would have to be chosen. So beauty would get more importance. But by taking one girl to play all twelve roles, the importance shifts to the characters.” Gowariker decided not to use prosthetics or makeup to create different looks for the characters but to make them distinctive using hair and costumes. He wanted to differentiate the characters through their mannerisms and traits.

Baweja, who is a Scorpio like his character Yogesh in the film, said that he could relate to the character. While reading the script, he told Gowariker that some of his character’s dialogue was what he would usually say. At the time, Chopra described the film as the “most difficult and important” in her career. She found playing twelve characters equivalent to performing in twelve different films. She had to have a different look for each of them but had very little time to prepare and establish each character on screen, since each character had “one song and about two scenes”. Since all the characters except one were between ages eighteen and twenty-four, Chopra found it difficult to make every character look distinct. She said that there were not many options other than changing her hair and the characters’ outfits to portray them. As a result, she chose to work on her body language and experimented with her voice and accent to make the characters distinct from one another, describing it as “a real test”.

In an interview with Bollywood Hungama, Chopra was quoted saying “when people play multiple characters, they have structures, they are from different parts of the world, sometimes they are a twenty-year-old and then become a forty-year-old in the same film, some with eyes small, etc. I have no clutches . All the girls I play in the film are in the age group of eighteen and twenty-four.” Additionally, she found playing the Capricorn girl, a teenager, very tough, saying: “To play a 15-year-old girl without make-up or special effects to make me look younger was the most challenging role for me. I had to look fifteen years old just through my body language. I didn’t want any of the twelve girls to be caricatures.” Chopra also read Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs and Love Signs to prepare for the parts. Initially, it was planned to film one character at a time, however, that did not happen.

Film Shooting :

Film shooting Started in Mumbai on 6 December 2008. The art direction was handled by Nitin Chandrakant Desai, Piyush Shah did the cinematography, and Ballu Saluja edited the film. Before the filming began, several rehearsals were done to choose the right look for the characters. Neeta Lulla was brought in to design Chopra’s clothes, while a non-film hair stylist named Asha Harirahan was chosen to design twelve different hair styles and the look of each character. It had a single start-to-finish schedule and was filmed at 65 different locations across Mumbai.

Gowariker remarked that shooting this film was more challenging than Jodha Akbar because of filming at so many locations. He found it more time-consuming and challenging but also called it an exciting experience. The second schedule started in January in Mumbai, with scenes also being filmed in Chicago and Baroda, and was scheduled to last until April 2009. The film was also shot at the Mehboob Studio and Film City. The musical numbers were choreographed by Terence Lewis, Rekha Chinni Prakash, Chinni Prakash, Raju Khan, and Rajeev Surti. The song “Aaja Lehraate” was filmed in a single continuous take using a five-camera setup. It was a draining process for Chopra and Baweja, since each mistake required returning to the beginning and filming all over again.

Chopra also had to learn jazz dance for one of the characters. For another song featuring all twelve characters, Chopra had to shoot for 22 hours to keep the continuity of the whole musical sequence. She had to change the costumes and makeup for each of the twelve characters while filming the song. At one point, Chopra fainted on the set and Gowariker wanted to postpone the filming, but she insisted on finishing the scenes. Her heavy workload filming for several productions, travelling for endorsements, and performing at live shows took its toll; she was admitted to hospital because of exhaustion and was kept under observation. After spending three days in hospital, she was discharged and immediately resumed filming to avoid delaying her other projects. Film Shooting was completed by the first week of May 2009.

What’s Your Raashee Movie Songs / Music :

What’s Your Raashee? is the soundtrack album to the 2009 romantic comedy film of the same name. The soundtrack is composed by Sohail Sen and the lyrics are penned by Javed Akhtar. It was released by Sony Music on 9 September 2009 and upon release, the soundtrack received critical acclaim from music critics, who commended Sen’s musicianship and vocal ability.

• “What’s Your Raashee? – Pal Pal Dil Jisko Dhoonde” – Sohail Sen
• “Jao Na” – Sohail Sen, Tarannum Mallik
• “Aaja Lehraate” – Shaan, Bhavya Pandit
• “Bikhri Bikhri” – Sohail Sen, Marianne D’Cruz
• “Maanunga Maanunga” – Ashutosh Gowarikar, Pamela Jain
• “Sau Janam” – Udit Narayan, Madhushree, Sohail Sen
• “Dhadkan Dhadkan” – Sohail Sen, Tarannum Mallik
• “Aa Le Chal” – Aslesha Gowarikar, Harman Baweja
• “Pyaari Pyaari” – Alka Yagnik, Sohail Sen
• “Su Chhe” – Sohail Sen, Bela Shende
• “Salone Kya” – Sohail Sen, Tarannum Mallik
• “Koi Jaane Na” – Rajab Ali Bharti, Bela Shende
• “What’s Your Raashee? – Chehre Jo Dekhe Hain” – Sohail Sen

”Chehre Jo Dekhe Hain” Full Video Song :

• Singer – Sohail Sen
• Composer – Sohail Sen
• Lyricists – Javed Akhtar
• Music Label – Sony Music Entertainment India Pvt. Ltd.

“Jao Na” Full Video Song :

• Singer – Tarannum Malik
• Composer – Sohail Sen
• Lyricists – Javed Akhtar
• Music Label – Sony Music Entertainment India Pvt. Ltd.

Release :

The first-look poster of the film was released in January 2009. It resembled a book cover and was designed by Nabeel Abbas. The first teaser, featuring all twelve female characters along with the male protagonist, swaying to the title song, was released in July 2009. To promote the film, the makers teamed up with Facebook to develop an application for users to check their compatibility with their partners as well as to make new friends based on their sun sign. This required users to answer questions about their personal preferences; based on common characteristics with other signs, a list of users with whom they were compatible was shown and they were offered the opportunity to add those people as friends. According to the makers, the application was launched to tie the promotional activity with the theme of the film.

Sunita A. Gowariker, the co-producer of the film, later said: “The entire idea ties in well with the theme of the film and yet is not restricted to being only about the film.”

The master copy of the film was stolen from the Adlabs Processing at Film City before its release. When Gowariker learnt about the incident, he lodged a police complaint immediately. The case was taken over by the Mumbai Crime Branch. UTV Motion Pictures sent a legal notice to Adlabs Films and UFO Movies, the film’s processing and digitising laboratories. It was later revealed that a top official of the lab had sold the master copy for 200,000 rupees to film pirates to make pirated copies of the film to sell in India and overseas.Several people were arrested, including the manager of Adlabs Processing, for allegedly stealing the master copy and producing pirated copies. The print was later recovered by the police, who also found and seized pirated CDs and DVDs produced from the master copy.

What’s Your Raashee? was produced by Ronnie Screwvala at UTV Motion Pictures in collaboration with Ashutosh Gowariker Productions, with Gowariker’s wife, Sunita, serving as the producer. The film had its world premiere at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival on 19 September 2009, with more than 2,000 attendees at Roy Thomson Hall. The film was released on 25 September 2009. It had a good opening at the multiplexes but poor attendance elsewhere. Following criticism of the film’s excessive length, in mid-week, three songs were cut from the film’s theatrical prints to reduce the length of the film.

However, the new length was still over three hours, and it was not confirmed if the length was reduced on all of the prints across India. During its run, it grossed 160 million at the box office and was considered as a financial failure. Two weeks after the theatrical release, What’s Your Raashee? was released for pay-per-view viewing on various DTH platforms such as Tata Sky, Airtel Digital TV, and Dish TV. Distributer is TV Home Entertainment, the film was released on DVD on 10 December 2009 across all regions, with no bonus content. VCD versions were released at the same time. Blu-ray versions were released in 2011.

What’s Your Raashee Movie Review :

This film review are Mostly Positive from Critics, IMDB Public Reviewing site give 4.6 Star Out Of 10 Star with Reviewers are 2573.

What’s your Rashee is a good movie. It is a light hearted film. The performance of the cast is also good.

The only drawback was the number of songs. 13 songs is too much, also these songs made the movie lengthy. It cost this good movie big time.

If you have time and nothing to do then you can surely watch WHAT’S YOUR RASHEE. u won’t be dissapointed.

Critics Rating by Taran Adarsh, from Bollywood Hungama give 1.5 star out of 5 Star.

What’s Your Raashee Movie Box Office Collection :

INDIA

Other Related Film Post :