Obama names Indian-American Muslim as special envoy

Obama names Indian-American Muslim as special envoy

Your friend Mike Ghouse missed the opportunity for a greater personality.

Rashad Hussain is an activist par-excellence from my home town Dallas and is greatly influenced by the Indian ethos of Pluralism and inclusiveness. He would fit right in with President's Obama’s idea of one world, where we respect every nation and their sovereignty.

He will strengthen the pluralistic values of America, and President’s desire to encourage the community of nations to review our values of Liberty, Justice and co-existence as catalysts for prosperity. As a Special envoy to the OIC, Rashad will initiate a positive relationship between America and the Muslim nations, I am proud of his heritage; an Indian, a Muslim and an American.

We have to maintain a healthy balance within our communities and with all nations, what is good for America has got to be good for the world and vice versa to sustain the equilibrium, he is the right man for the job. May God bless him in uplifting America’s role in creating a better world for the good of all.

Continued: http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2010/02/obama-names-indian-american-muslim-as.html

Valentines Day taking on a new meaning

Valentines Day taking on a new meaning

Valentine’s Day is a designated day to celebrate love, where two people choose to express their affection for each other. Through out the history, words have taken on new and expanded meanings, so is Valentine's Day.

Valentine Day is a universal expression of affection between any two individuals. Between husband and wife, between two people in love, be it mother and son, father daughter, brother sister, friends, uncles, aunties, Grand Pa and Grand Ma.

Continued - http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2010/02/valentines-day-taking-on-universal.html

Stay in Mumbai, Sena will kill you

Law and order must prevail, the nation cannot afford to have groups vanadalize others, there's got to be a dialogue to find out what is it they really want? As terrorizing other people will do more harm to Mumbai than any good - Mike Ghouse

Stay in Mumbai, Sena will kill you. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/Stay-in-Mumbai-Sena-will-kill-you-Anurag-Kashyap/articleshow/5569120.cms

Anurag Kashyap

Director Anurag Kashyap says the Hindi film industry lacks integrity and that if Bollywood had united, the ruckus created by the Shiv Sena over Shah Rukh Khan's "My Name is Khan" could have been avoided.

"If it is considered to be an industry, people should have unity among themselves. At least once, they should unite and show that we are working, we are also professionals. They never do that so these people dare and take advantage of it," Kashyap said.

The Shiv Sena had opposed the film's release after Shah Rukh Khan refused to apologise for saying that Pakistani cricketers should have been included in the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) matches. Sena activists had vandalised several theatres in Mumbai that were to screen "My Name Is Khan", which also stars Kajol.

"Bigger the star you fight with, higher the media attention you draw. They make use of it too. Nothing...you need not to go to Australia or Pakistan and die in their hands, stay in Mumbai, Shiv Sena will kill you," said Kashyap, who has made films like "Black Friday" and "Dev D".

Asked if he was tagging the Shiv Sena as terrorist, he said: "What to say...people are scared of them, they are pelting stones on cinema halls, breaking glasses, incurring damages. What is their standpoint?

"Shah Rukh Khan said that teams should be allowed to hire Pakistani players and they say that Pakistan had attacked us, how could Shah Rukh advocate their inclusion in the IPL teams? We are subjected to more attacks from insiders here. You need not go anywhere and have an unfortunate death, stay in Mumbai," Kashyap added.
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Protesters Call On 'Khan' Star to Leave India

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703525704575061174036495404.html?mod=WSJ_hp_editorsPicks#

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Khan Premieres Quietly in Mumbai

Khan' Premieres Quietly in Mumbai

An article by Arlene Chang and comments by Subra Narayan

Courtesy of Wall Street Journal

The movie "My name is Khan" is going to be yet another block buster Bollywood movie, the extremists in India have been destrucitve and preventing it from being shown in Mumbai, India. As an Indian, I have to figure out how to mitigate conflicts and nurture goodwill for the well being of my mother land.

I ask the Wall Street Journat to assess the economic impact bullyism will have on Mumbai? It will make every one's life difficult. What about the Jobs that the ordinary people would lose? If it were in the United States, the cities like Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad would scout the businesses to move to their cities, offer incentives, tax breaks and safety and security of every one in the City. When there was electricity shortage in California, Texas Cities advertised in California papers to move to Texas including my own Dallas ... and we wooed some businesses, and Atlanta beat us a few times as well. Let the competition and free market determine the survivability of a City.

For the sake of Mumbai, and every one in Mumbai including the Sainiks, I hope the Mubaikers wake up and stops the bullyism. If the businesses move out, then these guys stand to lose, then they will chase all North Indians out of the city, and when they loose more, they would chase any one who does not speak Marathi and at the end, they may realize that they were wrong. Let's not lookdown upon the misguided, but sit down with them and see if they are a tool of others or if they sincerely believe in it, let there be a dialogue that, let them see the value of India together is better off than Maharashtra, Gujarat, TN, Bengal or others separately. I would urge a real genuine heart to heart conference on the topic.

This article is shared at http://www.mikeghouseforindia.net/ and DallasIndians@yahoogroups.com in existence for nearly 6 years serving the every one in Dallas, prior to that the community was served through Asian American Journal published between 1993-2000 and Asian news Radio, the first Desi talk show radio in Dallas that began in 1996. You are welcome to join, if you have positive things to contribute and to make the world a better place to live for every one, please do so.

We do allow extreme views for us to understand the insignificant but potent hate that pervades in our society and learn to work at it. Hate mongering is not any one's monopoly - there is an equal percentage of Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Christians, Buddhists (alphabetical order) and others who spew nothing but hate, we cannot exclude them, they are part of the society and we hope some day, they can see that hate produces hate, belligerency produces belligerency and it makes sense to mitigate conflicts and nurture goodwill.

Let events like this bring people together to find solutions. I hope the comments that flow in here would be suggestions to make life better and not hate mongering or blaming or cursing. I challenge your goodness to write here, you are welcome to show your meanness, because I believe, some day, you will see that it makes sense to respect the otherness of other.

Jai Hind
Mike Ghouse
www.MikeGhouseforIndia.net
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'Khan' Premieres Quietly in Mumbai
Terror in the Maximum Cityby Subra Narayan

Should Pakistani and Australian cricket players be allowed to play in the upcoming IPL? Well that is a decision best left to IPL, which is a private organization and the Government of India, as it is somewhat of a political issue. But a handful of thugs have no right to decide who can come to India to play cricket or whether its citizens have the right to live and work in any part of the nation. The Sena goons have hijacked and terrorized my beloved city of Bombay, oops Mumbai, for well over four decades, resorting to unlawful means, inciting violence and destruction of public property.

This city was not built in a single day, but these senseless goons waste no time in bringing life to a standstill by way of their infamous bandhs and morchas. And now they have decided it is time to inflict their wrath on Shah Rukh Khan for his comments on including Pakistani players! I don’t care much for his movies or acting talents, but there was nothing wrong when he said that cricket or any other game for that matter should not be influenced by politics. He had every right to speak his mind, in his capacity as the owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders, whether you agree with him or not, whether you like his movies or not. If you don't agree with what he said, then well write about it, invite him to a duel on multiple TV channels, pick his brains and let him have it in front of an audience.

But why threaten to picket his upcoming movie release, why call him a traitor and why arouse hundreds of misguided folks who have nothing better to do than burn effigies, posters, bash people and destroy property!

Sachin Tendulkar echoed the sentiments of a majority of Indians when he unequivocally stated that, ‘I am a proud Indian first and then a Maharashtrian’. Needless to say he incurred the wrath of India’s moral police, the self-appointed demagogues. Are we living in a civilized society or the Stone Age? It is a complete mockery of the Constitution which upholds every citizen’s right to freedom of speech and expression. India recently celebrated 60 years of being a Republic, not a Banana Republic!

We elect our leaders democratically in the hope that they will uphold the law, ensure citizens’ safety and improve their lives. We don’t elect them so that they can sit and watch helplessly while an unlawful bunch of vitriol spewing hooligans continue to issue diktats on the law abiding, tax paying citizens of the nation. Shame on such a government for letting this happen in one of the largest metropolis whose folks take pride in this wonderfully diverse cosmopolitan hub.The whole country is aghast at the merciless treatment being meted out to Indian students in Australia, rightfully so.

But what about the goondas in Mumbai that rail against their own countrymen who migrate from other parts of the country for a livelihood. In the 60’s when the tiger was young and had just tasted blood, the target was predominantly South Indians and Gujaratis. Now the Uttar Bharatiya is being attacked and forced to learn Marathi or else! Vir Sanghvi’s latest column in the Hindustan Times poignantly captures the essence of the moment as he traces the birth of the Sena in the 60’s and its achievements or lack thereof. Ironically as history has shown us so many times, that once you create a Frankenstein it always comes back to bite you. In this case, the Sena is Congress’s Frankenstein!

Pinky Virani, an activist and author of “Once was Bombay”, tackles the negative forces that are responsible for the decline of this once beautiful city and comes down heavily on the Sena. And now decades later the tiger may be aging but doesn’t seem to have given up its old habits. Many people are of the opinion that India’s time has finally arrived on the world stage and we are racing speedily towards becoming a superpower.

The events in the last couple of months tell a different story though. How can a bunch of ruffians be allowed to decide who has the right to settle down and live in Mumbai? Or for that matter how can petty politicians decide whether Hyderabad belongs to Telangana or AP? You may disagree with me on this issue, but the founding fathers did a big disservice to the nation by allowing the formation of states on a linguistic basis.

The Bombay Presidency should have been left untouched in 1960 which eventually gave rise to linguistic, regional and parochial jingoism. We should all be proud of our mother-tongue, but that shouldn't form the basis for who gets to live in your mother-State. Languages cannot be forced down someone’s throat, they should feel free to learn and enjoy it.

I love to sing in Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada & Malwi, although my singing abilities are questionable. But the point is that language should not be a determinant in who gets to settle down in which part of the country, if it is a free nation. Every schoolchild knows to recite the Pledge, which glorifies India’s rich heritage and cultural diversity.

We were unified as one country in our freedom struggle against the British. But somehow after 60 years, we seem to have become more disintegrated, parochial, fanatical and even fascists on our way to becoming a superpower. Is “India Shining”? Jai Hind!

February 11, 2010

'Khan' Premieres Quietly in Mumbai

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703525704575061174036495404.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_world

By ARLENE CHANG

MUMBAI—The film "My Name is Khan" premiered in Mumbai Friday amid tight security and on a much-reduced number of screens after right-wing protesters earlier this week damaged cinemas slated to show the new movie by Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan.

Activists of the Shiv Sena party, a Hindu nationalist group, earlier this week vandalized movie theaters scheduled to show the film, ripping posters of the movie and breaking windows. They were protesting the views of Mr. Khan, who said that Pakistan's cricket players should be allowed to participate in India's professional cricket league. Mr. Khan is co-owner of Kolkata's cricket team and a hugely popular star in the sub continent.

Police took 2,739 protestors into custody and 108 have been charged with damaging property, said D. Sivanandhan, Mumbai Police Commissioner.

View Full ImageReuters
Indian police personnel stationed outside a theater scheduled to screen "My Name Is Khan."

Originally, 63 screens were scheduled to show the movie; only 13 did so Friday. None of the city's theaters screened morning shows for the film. Fun Cinemas and INOX were the first two multiplexes to start screenings for the film with their matinee shows.

"There were people who came in to buy tickets early in the morning, in anticipation of the shows starting, and some obviously went away," said Vishal Kapur, chief operating officer of Fun Cinemas. "But, when we opened bookings, there was a huge rush and our first show was a full house." An official at BIG Cinemas, another multiplex chain, said: "We have screened one show and the response good, but we have still not decided the fate of a full opening; we are still testing the waters."

Many theaters across the city resembled a fortress, with hundreds of police personnel stationed in and around their premises.

The distributors of the film, Fox Star Studios, expressed relief at the film's phased release in Mumbai and were optimistic about the film's prospects. "The past few days have been very difficult for us and business in Maharashtra has definitely been impacted," said Vijay Singh, CEO of Fox Searchlight. "But, what's important is that the audience has loved the film and the response to it has been absolutely rock solid."

Fox Star Studios will market and distribute the film throughout India; Fox Star is a joint venture between Twentieth Century Fox and Star, which are owned by News Corp., owner of Dow Jones & Co., the publisher of The Wall Street Journal.

Analysts say the Shiv Sena is trying to put up a show of strength and regain its hold on the Marathi-speaking voters of Mumbai, the capital of the state of Maharashtra, by resorting to violence over Mr. Khan's comments. The Sena, which was founded in 1966 by cartoonist Bal Thackeray, lost many voters to the rival Maharashtra Navnirman Sena in last year's state assembly elections. The MNS was formed by Raj Thackeray, nephew of the Shiv Sena founder. Both compete for the votes of Mumbai's natives, many of whom feel they have been bypassed by the city's growing wealth amid an influx of immigrants from elsewhere in India.

"The Sena has been a powerful party in Maharashtra and the fact that they did not do well in the last assembly elections is definitely still playing on their minds," said Mahesh Rangarajan, a political analyst at Delhi University.

"They are trying to regain lost ground by their tactics."
arlene.chang@wsj.com

You are welcome to share your suggestions at:

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Press Release in behalf of Indians of North Texas

INDIA MOURNS THE LOSS OF ITS HERITAGE = DRAFT PRESS RELEASE IN BEHALF OF INDIANS OF NORTH TEXAS -

I am pleased to request India Association of North Texas and Indians in behalf of the Indian community to share the following press release and hold a candle light gathering to honor Bo, an end of an era. This is an intial draft, it will be revised with a few good comments that extoll the virtues of our great heritage.

I request India Association of North Texas and Indians in behalf of the Indian community to share the following press release and hold a candle light gathering to honor Bo, an end of an era.

This is an intial draft, it will be revised with a few good comments that extoll the virtues of our great heritage; India.

INDIANS MOURN THE LOSS OF AN ANCIENT TRIBE

Dallas, Texas, February 11, 2010.
http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2010/02/press-release-in-behalf-of-indians-of.html

The Indians of North Texas are saddened to note the end of an era with the death of Bo, of the Bo Tribe in the Andaman Islands, a Union Territory of the Democratic Republic of India. It is a loss of our heritage.

Marking the end of a language and an entire people, the last member of the Bo, an ancient tribe that lived in the Andaman Islands, has died. When Boa Sr., as she was known, died last week, she was believed to be about 85 years old. Her husband had died years beforehand, and Boa, whose name means "land" or "earth" in the Bo language, had no children.

The Bo are believed to have first come to the Andaman Islands – located roughly 850 miles off India's east coast in the Bay of Bengal – 65,000 years ago. Bo was one of at least 10 pre-colonial languages spoken on the islands. According to Survival International, an advocacy group for native peoples throughout the world, the Bo was one of the oldest surviving human cultures on earth.

Of the thousands of Great Andamanese who once inhabited the islands, only 52 people are still alive today. But Boa Sr., who also spoke a local dialect of Hindi as well as the amalgam language called Great Andamanese, was the last of her particular tribe."

"She was the only person who spoke Bo," Anvita Abbi, a professor of linguistics at India's Jawaharlal National University, told The Times of London. "At times, she felt very isolated and lonely as she had no one to talk to in her own language."

In 1970 the Indian government began relocating the Bo to a settlement of concrete row houses on Strait Island. Boa Sr. was moved in 1978, and Abbi said she often said that she missed her old life in the jungle."What's important is that we learn from this lesson and do everything we can to protect the remaining tribes like the Jarawa and the Sentinelese, who are still there and remain threatened," Greg said.Now kept in a protective quarantine by the Indian government, the Sentinelese received worldwide attention in 2004, when they were filmed running out of the jungle firing arrows at passing helicopters shortly after the Asian tsunami killed thousands on the Andaman and Nicobar island chains.

Abbi argues that preventing the extinction of other Andamanese languages is crucial if we hope to expand our understanding of how language in the region evolved over time."It is generally believed that all Andamanese languages might be the last representatives of those languages which go back to pre-Neolithic times," Abbi told the BBC.But the death of a language also has other implications. "A language contains the memories and experiences, everything that explains and encapsulates a way of life," Grig said. "It's sad for the entire world."

The Undersigned Indians are planning to hold a candle light gathering to mourn the loss of one of our wings that made us a composite India.

We are proud of our heritage - a multi-faith, multi-cultural, multi-regional and multi-linguistic society, where we have come to accept and respect every which way people have lived their lives. For over 5000 years, India has been a beacon of pluralism and co-existence; it has embraced into its fold the Aryans, the Greeks, the Turks, the Christians, Jews, Muslims, Bahai and the Zoroastrians along with her own indigenous traditions of Hindus, Jain, Buddhists and Sikhs.

India has over 300 indigenous tribal cultures, her own traditional medicine and we mourn the loss of an era, and one of the oldest living tribes on the earth has come to and ends with the death of Bo.

Candle light gathering

Place:
Date and Time:

Source of information is listed at: http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2010/02/ancient-tribe-goes-extinct-as-last.html

Signed by

Mike Ghouse

Please add your name at this link, the best few short comments will be incorporated in to the press release.

http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2010/02/press-release-in-behalf-of-indians-of.html#comments

5 reasons to watch 'My Name Is Khan'

Movies - Indiatimes - Movie news, views, reviews from across India

5 reasons to watch 'My Name Is Khan'
08 Feb, 2010 12:00 am ISTlSmrity Sharma/INDIATIMES MOVIES

SMS NEWS to 58888 for latest updates

As Shah Rukh Khan – Kajol starrer ‘My Name Is Khan’ gears up to hit screens this Friday, we give you 5 good reasons to not miss this one.

Karan Johar has previously given us hits likes ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’, ‘Kabhie Khushi Kabhi Gham’ with Shah Rukh and Kajol. The director returns again with My Name Is Khan with the two talented actors. Karan has self admitted that SRK- Kajol bring out the best in him. He said in an interview, “I’m blessed to have them in my film. I don't know what it is about them.. It's just magic. They build an inexplicable energy on screen. When I direct a scene with Shah Rukh and Kajol, I know I'm doing my best work.”

No doubts then that MNIK will be a complete entertainer and get you your ticket money’s worth.

A different kind of love...

Lead actors Shah Rukh and Kajol are all over the place saying that MNIK is a love story but a different kind at that. And one aspect that makes the love affair between SRK and Kajol’s characters in the film different is that SRK is playing a person suffering from Asperger's syndrome – a kind of autism where a person shows significant difficulties in social interaction, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests.

Jodi kamal ki....

They have made you laugh, they have made you cry, they have made your heart skip a beat, they have made you fall in love... and now they both return to entertain you yet again.

Music...

The music of ‘My Name Is Khan’ has got great reviews and the songs have been topping the chartbusters, with ‘Sajda’ and ‘Tere Naina’ being the hot numbers played on radio stations very often. Picturized on a dynamic jodi of SRK and Kajol, the songs will come alive on the big screen for sure. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy are the music directors of the album that boasts of some beautiful singers like Rashid Khan, Adnan Sami, Shankar Mahadevan, Shreya Ghoshal, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Richa Sharma and Shafqat Amanat Ali.

Theme...

Unlike the general perception, ‘My Name Is Khan’ is not about terrorism. So after the average success of John-Katrina’s ‘New York’ and Saif-Kareena’s ‘Kurbaan’, all those who are in second thoughts about watching MNIK should now make a decision in the positive.

As Shah Rukh Khan puts it, “‘My Name Is Khan’ is not about terrorism but it focuses on themes concerning the relationship between the Western world and Islam and how that has changed over the past few years. The movie revolves around the journey of one family and how it changes because of 9/11.”

SRK adds, “MNIK is a disabled man’s fight against the disability that exists in the world — terrorism, hatred, fighting ... My Name is Khan is also about Islam and the way the world looks at Islam but we are not taking any sides.”

Forbes India: How Aamir sold 3 Idiots

Forbes India: How Aamir sold 3 Idiots
Elizabeth Flock / Forbes India
Published on Fri, Feb 05, 2010 at 13:16, Updated on Sat, Feb 06, 2010 at 09:19 in Business section

When Aamir Khan, producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra, and director Rajkumar Hirani, sat down and watched the first half of the first cut of 3 Idiots together, they knew they were watching something that had the potential to go “big time”. A boisterous drama about three friends dealing with the pressures of engineering school, and one friend teaching them how to dream, was a story they knew would stick. They guessed multiplexes in cities would overflow. They figured they had a fair chance at beating Ghajini, an Aamir Khan starrer and the biggest grossing Hindi film of all time.

But something bothered them. In smaller towns, regional cinema was still king and Hindi cinema just a joker. In Gujarat, a star like Vikram Thakur at his peak, could bring in close to Rs 7 crore. A top grossing Hindi film on the other hand could hope to rake in just Rs 3 crore.

“We felt we aren’t connecting enough with our audience… There’s a business capacity of seven, but we are only doing three. So there’s a lot of business we aren’t reaching out to,” says Khan as he talks to us from his Pali Hill apartment in Bandra, a Mumbai suburb. He’s wincing from a leg injury sustained earlier during the day, but is intent we hear what he’s saying.

“Do they want to be entertained? Yes. Do they like watching films? Yes. But are they watching our films? No. They’re watching regional films.” It could only mean two things, he reasoned. One, Hindi films aren’t marketed well. And two, film makers from Mumbai don’t understand small town India. Khan was determined to figure out both answers. But how?

The ball begins to roll
When a team of 25 marketing people met in August 2009, led by Prabhat Choudhary of Spice PR, who helped market four of the top five all time hits of Hindi cinema, the team didn’t know what the central idea to market 3 Idiots could possibly be. Khan’s brief though was clear. Whatever they did, they had to get to the man in Bhopal, and the man in Varanasi.

For a while, Khan had been toying with a rather vague idea. The movie starts with Aamir Khan, who essays the role of the central protagonist, having disappeared into oblivion. The rest of the flick is about his friends looking for clues to find him. How, Khan wondered, would people react if he disappeared in real life? Would people wonder where he was? Would the media write speculative stories on Khan’s whereabouts? But more importantly, how could the whole thing be orchestrated?

Through all of August last year, they debated on the plan. They tied up with online gaming firm Zapak. And that was where they found the answer: A-R-G, or Alternate Reality Gaming. Participants in these games interact directly with characters in the game, work with other participants to solve challenges, analyse the story and stay connected on email, telephones, and the internet. The main narrative for this form of gaming is usually based in the real world.

By September, ARG took over 60 percent of 3 Idiots’ marketing efforts. A Facebook profile “Amir the Pucca Idiot” was created, a page that would be controlled and updated entirely by Khan. It became a talking point because it was the first time an Indian celebrity had done this. People wondered whether it really was Aamir Khan’s page. His status updates appeared in the papers. “Aamir the Pucca Idiot” would be an instrumental part of Khan’s disappearance to remote B towns, too.

By October, the 3 Idiots team had to activate the game. Before that, teams needed to be dispatched to do a recce of all the places Khan would visit during his disappearing act. They would be dispatched to small towns in Gujarat, Punjab, Bengal, and Madhya Pradesh, among others. It would be expensive and logistics would be a nightmare. “We’d only marketed to 6-8 metros,” Chaudhary told Khan. “But there are 80 towns with at least one multiplex we had never even marketed to.”

Of doodles and bum chairs
By October, two months before the release of 3 Idiots, no one knew much about the movie. There were no hoardings. No signs at theaters. And to build the suspense, multiplexes were sent bum chairs (like the ones the 3 Idiots sit on in the film); stickers that read “You are the 4th idiot”. No one knew what it all meant.
But on October 30, the 3 Idiots team made their first break of communication. They launched the film’s trailer to a gathering of trade people, multiplexes, and media. Ghajini was in the media for a year and a half before it released. 3 Idiots would only be in the media for two months.

In December, Khan was also busy designing T-shirts. “I said I can’t design, I’m not a designer, but I can give you my doodles,” says Khan. Pantaloon created a T-shirt line with the doodles, and 3 Idiots Converse sneakers.

Featuring Khan’s doodles instead of just replica merchandise worked. Pantaloon sold more than 1000 pieces per day in its opening week, and then sold out of the merchandise twice. The doodle T-shirt was also created as a gift friends could send to one another on “Aamir the Pucca Idiot” Facebook page, whose profile now had almost 2 lakh fans.

BusinessofCinema (BoC), who did the digital marketing, launched the Pantaloon gifts on Facebook, plus ticketing applications, and 3 Idiots videos and songs. Most of all, BoC readied themselves for the launch of the ARG game. And then, on December 12, Aamir Khan disappeared.

Director Hirani and Producer Chopra claimed not to know where he was. All that was left behind was a video on the film’s website, idiotsacademy.com. “I shot a video, and I said, ‘If you want to be a part of this of game, well... For two weeks, I will be traveling around the country. I will appear seven places, will give you seven clues to find me. For the first clue you need to get it from Sachin Tendulkar.’ And then I kiss my wife goodbye and walk out the door,” says Khan.

I am not here
Khan first reappeared in Varanasi, disguised as an old man. “I couldn’t tell anyone who I was,” he says. The 3I team shot footage of what he was doing, but no TV stations could find him. Choudhary worried, “How will media take it? Will they think it’s a gimmick to ignore?” And at every stage, someone on the team said this would not work.

It didn’t help that a lot of the 3I recce team’s planning didn’t work out. Choudhary broke his collarbone in a rickshaw accident. Instead of spending the night at Varanasi station as planned, Khan decided to find his mother’s home in Varanasi.
“I really went to Varanasi to make friends over there. It had to be a genuine process. I didn’t know who I would meet or how they would react to me. It was happening organically,” explains Khan. He talks for more than an hour about Varanasi, recounting the story of a rickshaw driver he calls “damn funny”, and the four men who help him find his mother’s house.

After Khan left Varanasi, he let it be known he was there. 20,000 people trampled the tea shop where Khan had just been. The local media went crazy. “They found the story fascinating because they saw how unplanned the whole thing was. The English media picked it up only four times in those two weeks, but Hindi news channels and local print and TV media went ballistic. I was on the front page. They would report every new clue we announced, and interview the people I had met,” says Khan.

Khan not only evaded the media, but also goaded them. “I had been given the names of 15 editors in each city. So when I left their city, I wrote each of them handwritten letters on my letterhead that said ‘I was passing through your city and felt like having sweets. So I bought some mithai and got you some as well. Love, Aamir’. It was a like a tease,” Khan says and smiles.

Khan gave only four interviews to TV stations during the entire tour, all to regional TV stations. Regional stars were selected to interview Khan. On Mahua TV in UP, for example, Bhojpuri star Ravi Kishnan interviewed Khan. “Other than those four, I thought TV stations shouldn’t get me. All they get is what I shoot and send to them. I don’t have a deal with them, so I don’t know if they will bite. But I had not been available, so I knew they were thirsty for me,” says Khan.

The strategy was deployed for the print media as well. He stayed clear of mainstream English dailies and spoke very selectively to regional newspapers. For the first time in recent history, B towns were clamouring for an upcoming Hindi film.

Final notes
When they started, the ARG game was just a small part of Khan’s disappearance. It was more like a contact program, “something like what Obama would have undertaken,” explains Choudhary. But soon, many fans found out about idiotsacademy.com. They learned to play the ARG (a first ever for a Hindi film), competing against one another to find out where Khan was. Fans played other games on the website, too, racking up around 4.5 million plays, says Rohit Sharma of Zapak, which designed the game.

And not once during Khan’s journey was 3 Idiots mentioned. When he went to a girls’ school in Palanpur, Gujarat, to highlight the importance of the girl child’s education, Khan asked the girls to shout their message to TV cameras. “The girls didn’t say ‘3 Idiots releases on December 25!” Khan laughs. Instead, they said girls need as much a chance to go to school as boys do. “Now people will either connect to that or say the guy is bullshitting. I think we made a strong emotional connect.”While Khan was in the middle of this journey, and excitement was at a peak, “Aamir Khan the Pucca Idiot” decided to hold a Facebook live chat with fans. Khan would be on video, and fans could type in from Twitter, Facebook, and Youstream.

The BoC guys expected Khan’s live chat to happen from Mumbai. At the last minute, they were told to take their hi-tech equipment to Delhi and then set it up in a small village outside.

On December 19th, without a single hitch in streaming, more than 1 lakh users chatted with Khan from Pakistan, Bangladesh, the US, and cities and many B towns in India. It was the first time an Indian celebrity had done something like this. Over 300,000 status updates were shared that day, according to Facebook’s international communications team. On Twitter, #AamirKhanLive was the sixth most buzzed keyword in the world.

Six days after the chat, 3 Idiots was finally released.

How much could all of this have worked? The biggest opening any film had ever had was Ghajini, with a first day collection across India of 9 crore. 3 Idiots’ collected Rs. 13 crore on the first day. Over that weekend, the collections added up to Rs. 100 crore. The film was watched in 40 countries. Nineteen days after release, the film set a box office record for the industry, grossing Rs. 315 crore worldwide. It is the highest grossing Bollywood film of all time, not adjusted for inflation. As we go to print, 3 Idiots had grossed Rs. 365 crore.
Khan didn’t forget Vikram Thakur and his magic number: Rs. 7 crore. 3 Idiots beat it by a mile at Rs. 9 crore. Choudhary says from Ghajini to 3 Idiots there’s been a 30 percent jump in collections in B towns like Benares, Bhopal, and in Faridkot.

Last weekend, Chance pe Dance was released. Its net collections on the first day release were 2.15 crore for all India. 3 Idiots got 2.75 crore that day, meaning it’s still number one three weeks after release.