Japanese car and pickup manufacturer Toyota is looking to sell 10.4 million vehicles in 2009 partly by significantly ramping up sales in India, China, Russia and Brazil.

According to a story in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal, Toyota wants to quadruple sales in India to 200,000 vehicles by 2010.

Toyota’s equally ambitious about the Chinese market, where it wants to sell over a million vehicles by 2010.

While it’s not abandoning its traditional markets, Toyota clearly sees more opportunities in emerging markets.

Toyota CEO Katsuaki Watanabe told the WSJ (subscription required):

New markets outside Japan, the U.S. and Europe are the key to future success.

With much of the American auto industry in doldrums, the stars seem to be aligned in favor of Toyota reaching the 10 million goal.

If Toyota hits its ambitious target, it’ll be the first to sell over 10 million cars annually, notes the WSJ. The company is expected to sell 9.34 million vehicles this year.

Some 31 odd years back, we watched Sholay for the first time in a small town in the hinterlands of south India.

Sholay was like nothing we’d ever seen before. It had a fearsome villain who quickly became a household name, fine music, moving romance and above all non-stop action that kept us glued to the screen.

Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag 

We were spellbound by Sholay’s villain Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan), laughed at the antics of Veeru (Dharmendra) and Jai (Amitabh Bachchan), mesemerized by the beauty of Basanti (Hema Malini) and almost cried when Jai died in a hail of bullets at the end.

Though we were too young to realize it then, Sholay was a work of art.

When we heard that Sholay was being remade by Ram Gopal Varma, we were shocked at the sheer effrontery of the idea. Our first thought was that it’d be like remaking Casablanca without Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. Can you imagine that?

So, how can you have Sholay without Amjad Khan or Sanjeev Kumar, both long dead now and Hema Malini, now too old.

Our initial unease was confirmed after watching Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag this evening.

Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag is a piece of trash combining all of the worst elements of Hindi cinema.

A pathetic screenplay, poor acting, miscasting, disgraceful music and above all incompetent direction come together in the dismal ensemble

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