Let’s be honest. Very honest. I still remember July 2014 for many reasons. Universities that cleared SY BCOM had just started TY BCOM classes. I was taking small steps into film journalism and writing for my website with a few friends. I still remember the PR and marketing team that now handles Brahmastra coming to my college to promote one of his releases in 2014. He has appeared in four of his films, Xpose, Holiday, Bobby Jasoos, and Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, and has interviewed one celebrity with a group of journalists. Sonakshi Sinha for Holiday. Well, it’s personal. July 2014 is also remembered for what is billed as the biggest Hindi movie release to date, Brahmastra starring Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Amitabh Bachchan and Nagarjuna.
On 22nd July 2014, Karan Johar announced his new film starring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt and directed by Ayan Mukerji. He blocked the Christmas 2016 date for the film’s release. It’s been a journey since then. Dragon became Brahmastra and Ayan became Shiva in the lead role, but one thing he remained consistent throughout this journey was Team Brahmastra’s dedication to making the biggest Hindi film. I won’t go into the details of the budget, but at the moment I can assure our readers that this is the most expensive Hindi film ever made.
According to insiders, the feature film is ridden with over 3000 VFX shots, the highest number ever for an Indian film. Visual effects are done by Prime Focus and as we speak, work is underway to polish and put the finishing touches on their loving work. It took nearly 3000 days from the announcement to today. So it took Ayan 3000 days to bring his dream project and vision to the big screen. Being a VFX-heavy film, the behind-the-scenes events took longer than the on-camera shots. Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Amitabh Bachchan, Nagarjuna and Mouni Roy shot over his 200+ days. It also includes a fair amount of patchwork scenes to get the visual effects right.
Brahmastra also forms the core of my journalism career. Memories of breaking news around the movie are still fresh in my mind. Everything is on my mind, from writing long articles about Brahmastras around the world for the newspapers I was in charge of, to writing details about Shah Rukh her Khan’s cameo appearance in the film. The memory is fresh in my mind that Shah Rukh Khan was dancing when I heard and wrote EXCLUSIVELY that he was doing a cameo shoot at Mumbai’s Film City. Since writing about the release delay, he’s only nine days until the movie’s release… sounds surreal. One of the most moving moments of his in my journalism career is the day he broke his Brahmastra release date of September 9, 2022. “What if I’m wrong?” was the question on my mind. A few weeks after the break, I was invited by the team to take a peek at his poster for Motion. The moment the release date appeared on his September 9th, 2022 turned out to be a touching moment. So far, I consider it his one of the most special exclusive updates to the movie. I can’t imagine what’s going through Ayan, Ranbir and Alia’s minds at this point if they were just nervous about the breaking news. Someone I know has seen his Brahmastra. In his words, he was positively shocked and surprised by the movie (because he didn’t like the trailer). .
The eight years of Brahmastra also coincide with personal growth over time. From newcomers and even fanboys to being here with some maturity… it’s a journey again.After eight years and seven of his jobs, Brahmastra is just around the corner. All my work has stories of Brahmastra. Some rehashes and many exclusives. Stay tuned, it’s worth the wait. I hope that all efforts to create a true blue spectacle of Hindi cinema will bring in rich profits. Let’s pray that And on a light note, hopefully this movie will also pave the way for some of the smaller newsbreaks I wrote about his Brahmastra 2 character… Introducing Dev aka Mahadev to the story. Who is Deb? If you want to know, maybe try it the day before the release of Part 1. (wink)
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