Surprise, surprise.

Heyy Babyy, that ugly Bollywood ripoff of Three Men and a Baby, has fared better than Chak De India in its first weekend at the U.S. box office.

Heyy Babyy came in only at No-24 in the box office chart for the August 24-26, 2007 weekend but its weekend gross was much higher at $612,486.

In its first weekend (August 10-12), Chak De India came in at No-20 but grossed only $351,887 although the movie featured Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan a.k.a King Khan.

Released in 68 theaters in the U.S., Heyy Babyy’s cast includes Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan, Riteish Deshmukh and Fardeen Khan.

Chak De India was distributed by Yash Raj while Heyy Babyy was backed by Eros International.

Both movies were filmed in Australia.

With the release of Heyy Babyy, Chak De India fell to No-39 in the August 24-26 U.S. weekend box office chart from No-25 the previous week.

The Indian economy may be growing up at a fast clip but it’s not lifting all boats equally.

Management consultancy firm Hay Group has put out a new report that the wage gap between managers and clerks is increasing in India.

The pay gap multiple between managers and clerks in India is 7.4 in 2007. This means that the gross base salary of managers is 7.4 times that of clerks in India.

The wage gap multiple was 7.0 in 2006 and 6.3 in 2005.

We think the gap is likely to persist and grow in India as the Continue Reading…

Reliance – Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group’s BigFlicks.com entertainment web site has gone live (albeit in alpha mode i.e. a kind of test version).

BigFlicks’ selection of Indian entertainment content is supposed to include Bollywood and Indian regional movies, TV programs, movie songs and music videos. Currently, the content is mostly a sparse selection of Hindi, Telugu and Marathi movies.

There’s also an Adult Movie selection - with five movies currently - that can be viewed anywhere except in India.

BigFlicks’ target market seems to be primarily the NRI crowd in the U.S., UK, Canada, Middle East, South East Asia, Europe and Australia, given the high broadband penetration in these countries and the presumed craze of desis abroad for Indian content.

Users can stream the BigFlicks content for free or buy or rent the video content via download, which can take from 30 minutes to three hours.

Movies cost from $4.49 to $19.99 to buy. For instance, last year’s Hindi hit movie Rang De Basanti costs $14.99 while the Telugu movie Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana is $4.49.

But does the BigFlicks launch matter from a $$$$ perspective? 

While we suspect the free option will prove popular, we seriously doubt that NRIs will Continue Reading…

Domino’s Pizza is expanding in India big time.

The pizza chain, which opened its first Indian store in 1996 and has 156 outlets now, wants to have 500 outlets by 2010-11.

The U.S. Pizza company plans to invest Rs 350 crore to support its expansion, reports ET.

Domino’s India is looking at an additional 60 outlets by March 2008, 70 more by 2009 and the rest by 2010-11.

Domino’s has its Pizza outlets across the country from Simla in the north to Chennai in the south.

Like other international fast food players operating in India, Domino’s has also Indianized its menu. For instance, it offers Paneer toppings as well as Chicken Seekh Kebab and Keema Do Pyaaza Pizzas.

Given the obesity issues that have arisen here in the U.S. in the wake of eating high fat food such as Pizza, you have to ask yourself whether the expansion of Pizza chains in India is good over the long term?

Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt is most likely headed back to his father-in-law’s place on September 27.

Now out on bail, Sanjay Dutt will have to return to his father-in-law’s place once he is served with a copy of the judgment (readers of Rabindranath Tagore’s fine story Kabuliwallah will recognize that father-in-law’s home is an euphemism for jail).

Sanjay Dutt was sentenced to six years of Rigorous Imprisonment on July 31 for possession of illegal weapons acquired from those involved in the Mumbai bombings that killed 257 people in 1993.

After three weeks in jail, Sanjay was given bail last week until his lawyers could get a copy of the judgment from the Mumbai court that sentenced him.

Sanjay’s lawyers are appealing his conviction to the Indian Supreme Court.

Taiwanese PC vendor Acer is acquiring Gateway for $710 million in stock ($1.90 per share) in a deal that should mean more difficult times ahead for struggling computer company Dell.

The merger would lead to a company with $15 billion in annual sales and 20 million PCs shipped.

Acer intends to retain the Gateway brand creating a multi-brand PC company.

The deal will make Acer the No-3 PC vendor globally behind HP and Dell besides strengthening its position in the U.S.

The purchase should more than double Acer’s PC market share in the U.S. to about 10.8%. 

Acer has been aggressively courting customers in the U.S. market with very low prices. We purchased an Acer dual core Intel PC with a 19-inch LCD monitor in early August for Continue Reading…