Fashion (film) Fashion Theatrical release poster Directed by Madhur Bhandark Produced by Madhur Bhandark Deven Kho Ronnie Screwval Zarine Meh Screenplay by Ajay Mon Madhur Bhandark Anuraadh Tewari Story by Ajay Mon Narrated by Priyanka Ch Starring Priyanka Ch Kangna Ran Mugdha Go Samir So Arbaaz Kh Arjan Baj Music by Salim-Sulai Cinematography Mahesh Lim Editing by Deven Murdeshw Distributed by UTV Moti Pictures Bhandark Entertainm Release date(s) October 2 2008 Running time 178 minut Country India Language Hindi Budget 20 cror (approxima Box office 36.75 cror Fashion (Hindi: फैशन, Phaiśan ? ) is a 2008 Indian film co-produced, co-written, and directed by Madhur Bhandarkar.[2] The film has a massive star cast which includes Priyanka Chopra, Kangna Ranaut and newcomers Mugdha Godse and Arjan Bajwa. Based on the dark side of the world of fashion, the movie depicts it through the protagonist's eye. Kangna plays a former supermodel who faces downfall and comes to the streets; though the story resembles the biography of Geetanjali Nagpal, the director has denied that it is based on her life story.[3] Priyanka Chopra and Kangna Ranaut won awards for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, respectively, at the 2009 National Film Awards for their roles. Plot Aspiring model Meghna Mathur ( Priyanka Chopra) expresses her wish to go to Mumbai and pursue her dream of becoming a supermodel. Against her dad's wishes, Meghna leaves her house with dreams in her eyes to strike it big in the modeling world. She experiences some major difficulties in her initial days auditioning several times but being rejected. But she gets a good helping hand with an old acquaintance, Rohit ( Ashwin Mushran), an aspiring gay designer who assists big shot designer Vinay Khosla (Harsh Chhaya). She keeps bumping into another struggling model, Maanav ( Arjan Bajwa) while making the rounds of modeling agencies for auditions. She visits Rahul Arora's fashion show where she comes face-to-face with reality of the major people in the industry including the reigning supermodel Shonali Gujral (Kangna Ranaut). She is mocked by the show choreographer Christine and is advised to visit hotshot photographer Kartik ( Rohit Roy) for her portfolio. To pay Kartik's high fee she attends functions and even shoots for a lingerie advertisement, all the while mentored by another smalltime model Janet ( Mugdha Godse). Subsequently, Meghana's lingerie pictures appear on the cover of a magazine found by her relatives. Meghna becomes good friends with Maanav and even starts sharing his apartment after she faces accommodation problems. Meghna is noticed by a top official Anisha Roy ( Kitu Gidwani) of a major modeling agency Panache who brings her to her boss, Abhijit Sarin’s ( Arbaaz Khan) notice. Abhijit is impressed by her ambitious nature and go-getter attitude. Panache’s face is Shonali but though very successful, her drug abuse starts becoming a problem for her and subsequently for Panache. Just as Abhijit decides to put Meghna for a fashion show organised by Vinay Khosla a misunderstanding happens which leaves Meghna being replaced in that fashion show. She is left emotional and comforted by Abhijit. Abhijit then decides to terminate Shonali’s contract and ropes in Meghna as Panache's new face. Shonali warns Meghna that she will lose herself just as she did. Meghna becomes an overnight success which nips the budding relationship between her and Maanav. She also starts having an affair with Abhijit. Meanwhile, Janet grabs an opportunity of being designer Rahul Arora's ( Samir Soni) showstopper. Rahul gets worried as his mother becomes increasingly doubtful of his sexual orientation and asks Janet to marry him though he tells her that his relation with his boyfriend will be compromised to some extent. Shonali, on other hand, has a wardrobe malfunction and her career ends. Her drug abuse gets worse and she lands up at a rehab centre. Meanwhile, Meghna becomes pregnant with Abhijit's child and reluctantly has an abortion due to the conditions in the contract. She tells about their relationship to Abhijit's wife and Abhijit terminates Meghna's contract with Panache. An angered Meghna, unable to believe what happened, resorts to alcohol to relieve herself. She gets into a verbal fight with Janet and on the same night attends a rave party where under the influence of cocaine, she unknowingly ends up having a one night stand. When she comes to her senses, she feels guilty of her act and realises how low she had fallen. She returns to her parents in Chandigarh. Broken and depressed Meghna lives in Chandigarh for more than a year but she has lost all taste for life including her self- confidence. However, encouraged by her father, she goes back to Mumbai. There she befriends Janet again and models for Rohit's show. However, she freezes on stage and gets negative reviews from the whole industry and media. She visits Maanav to ask forgiveness and learns that he is engaged. Shonali is shown on TV as a highly disturbed alcoholic on the streets. Meghna brings her home and takes it as a challenge to rehabilitate Shonali. She also gets an offer from Rahul to be his showstopper and accepts. One day before the show, Shonali goes missing from Meghna's home. Just before Meghna is to walk the ramp, she gets a call from the police that Shonali has been found dead apparently from a drug overdose. Meghna becomes frigid with sadness, but overcomes the grief and walks on the ramp, which not only revives her career but also heals her self-esteem. She ultimately acknowledges that her ensuing success is not due to her own efforts to revamp herself, but due to Shonali and Shonali alone, for she was the one who instilled once again her newly found self-confidence and gave her a self-recognition in this so- called glamorous world of fashion. Meghna hence gives up her drinking and smoking habits. The movie ends with Meghna walking the ramp in Paris. Cast Priyanka Chopra as Meghna Mathur, a small town girl who becomes a very successful model Kangna Ranaut as Shonali Gujral, a successful model who faces a downfall Mugdha Godse as Janet Sequeira, a model Arjan Bajwa as Maanav, a struggling model Samir Soni as Rahul Arora, a leading designer Ashwin Mushran as Rohit Khanna, an aspiring designer Kitu Gidwani as Anisha Roy, head of a top-notch modelling agency Arbaaz Khan as Abhijit Sarin, a powerful fashion business tycoon Suchitra Pillai-Malik as Avantika Sarin, the wife of Abhijit Sarin Rohit Roy as Kartik Suri, a photographer Raj Babbar as Meghna's father Kiran Juneja as Meghna's mother Chitrashi Rawat as Shomu Manini Mishra as Sheena Bajaj Harsh Chhaya as Vinay Khosla Konkona Sen Sharma in a cameo appearance playing herself Ranvir Shorey in a cameo appearance playing himself Wendell Rodricks in a cameo appearance playing himself Manish Malhotra in a cameo appearance playing himself Karan Johar in a cameo appearance playing himself Madhur Bhandarkar in a cameo appearance playing himself Diandra Soares in a cameo appearance playing herself Kanishtha Dhankhar in a cameo herself Model Aanchal Kumar in a cameo playing herself (Jalwa-fashion show) Usha Bachchani as Sheetal Rakshanda Khan in a cameo appearance as the reporter Rohit Verma as Viren (special appearance) Atul Kasbekar in a cameo appearance as photographer Reception Box office reception The movie released on 29 October 2008 with Golmaal Returns. It had an extremely good opening and most of the shows were a sellout. According to Delhi based distributor Joginder Mahajan "Both films are faring exceptionally well at the box office. Content wise, Fashion is for upper crust audiences and is attracting youngsters; Golmaal Returns is for the masses. However, as per the current statistics, the reaction for Fashion is going at around 70 percent, while Golmaal Returns has fallen to 50 percent. Stay wise, the former is a long-term movie and the initial reaction for it has been 100 per cent."[4] In the end, Golmaal Returns came out to be the fifth highest grossing film of 2008 but Fashion was thirteenth.[1] Fashion recovered half of its costs - around Rs. 8.5 million - from in-film advertising through its sponsors and endorsements from brands like Lenovo, Sunsilk, Reebok and Kimaya even before it released.[4]Fashion collected 33 crore in it first week worldwide. Box office India declared the film as "average" after it grossed Rs. 36,75,00,000.[1] Critical reception Critics praised Priyanka Chopra and especially Kangna Ranaut, for delivering remarkable performances as supermodels who lose everything in the world of fashion. Newcomer Mugdha Godse was also credited for a confident debut.[5] Taran Adarsh from indiaFM gave the film a 3.5 out of 5 rating, saying " Madhur Bhandarkar, the undisputed king of realistic fares, comes up with yet another hard- hitting film that enlightens you, moves you, motivates and deflates you, even shocks and surprises you and of course, entertains you." He commented "Post Aitraaz, Fashion is another medal that shines the brightest when you look at her (Priyanka's) body of work. But the real star is Kangna. Her role may not be as lengthy as that of Priyanka, but the actress pitches in an awesome performance. Her confidence at the very start is infectious and her overall performance deserves an ovation. Mugdha Godse is, again, supremely confident."[5] While Rajeev Masand from CNN-IBN gave the film a rating of 3 out of 5, saying " Stop thinking of it as a realistic expose and treat it as just another masala potboiler and chances are you won’t complain. " He, in particular, praised Kitu Gidwani's act as the tour de force performance in the film. Rajeev noted, "Priyanka Chopra turns in a respectable performance, one that will inevitably go down as her best. Ditto for Kangna Ranaut who plays the eccentric superdiva with such an awe and first-timer Mughda Ghodse invests such sincerity into her role..."[6] Subhash K. Jha called it a truly outstanding film and wrote, "Bhandarkar takes us through a labyrinth of emotions, some devastating in their gut-level directness. But at the end, we come away with a film that gives us something to hold on to permanently even as the characters on screen lose practically everything worth holding on to." Jha noted, "This is Priyanka's coming-of-age film. She looks like a zillion bucks. And acts like a woman who connects with the darkest, most desperate human emotions without wallowing in them. What Kangna does in Fashion, no other actress can do. But there're no surprises in her performance as she has done it before. Mugdha is the female discovery of the year. "[7] Nikhat Kazmi from The Times Of India said "(in the movie) show stopper (read scene stealer) is crazy, kinky, Kangna who does an exquisite metamorphosis from a wispy, high-strung, nervous child- woman to a stunning ramp diva. Watch her handle her wardrobe malfunction, make faces at her nagging manager or exchange bitter workplace truths with rival Priyanka in the ladies' washroom and you'll realise she's perfected the Girl Interrupted act after similar roles in Woh Lamhe, Life in a Metro and Gangster. The men? No place for them, especially since the women completely overshadow them."[8] Indianinfo.com gave a glowing review for the film saying, "Bhandarkar takes us through a labyrinth of emotions, some devastating in their gut-level directness. But at the end, we come away with a film that gives us something to hold on to permanently even as the characters on screen lose practically everything worth holding on to. A truly outstanding film." [9] Music Fashion Studio album by Salim-Sulai Released 11 September 2008 Genre Feature film soun Label T-Series Producer Salim-Sulaima Salim-Sulaiman chronolo Roadside Romeo (2008) Fashion (2008) Ra Ba J (2 Professional ratings Review scores Source Rating Bollywood Hungama [10] Planet Bollywood [11] ThaIndia [12] The music is composed by Salim-Sulaiman. The lyrics are by Sandeep Nath and Irfan Siddique. The music has been endorsed by Sunsilk for their new advertisement and is promoting the movie.[13] Reception The album received positive reviews especially for songs like "Mar Jawan" and the main theme. The Newsdose.com said that "It’s an above average album with classics like "Mar Jawan" and Theme of Fashion. Madhur Bhandarkar finally get's a good soundtrack for his movie and Salim-Sulaiman carried on with their good form. A must listen for everyone." [14] Bollywood Hungama was impressed and said "Fashion works in totality and while numbers like "Fashion Ka Jalwa", "Aashiyana" and "Kuch Khaas" are good in their own right. The cake is taken by the "Fashion - Theme" and "Mar Jawan" which are the pick of the lot. In his career so far, Madhur Bhandarkar's films haven't been known for their music, even though the albums of Corporate and Page 3 still saw some sales on the stands. However, Fashion is all set to break the jinx while turning out to be the first Madhur Bhandarkar film ever to boast of a truly mass as well as class appealing score."[15] ThaIndia said "Composers Salim-Sulaiman have created great music for the film Fashion and the success or failure of Madhur Bhandarkar’s movie at the box office wouldn’t change the fate of the album which beyond doubt is a commercial success." [16] Track listing Song Singer(s) "Fashion Ka Jalwa" Sukhwinder Singh , Satya Hinduja & Robert Bob Omulo Pict on Priy firs a fa sho Kan firs app "Mar Jawan" Salim Merchant & Shruti Pathak Pict on Priy firs fas sho Kan aw insp wal "Kuch Khaas" Mohit Chauhan & Neha Bhasin Pict on t mo of P and Baj "Aashiyana" Salim Merchant Pict on Priy rise to fam "Fashion Ka Jalwa (Remix)" Sukhwinder Singh, Satya Hinduja & Robert Bob Omulo Pict on in a club faci do "Mar Jawan (Remix)" Salim Merchant & Shruti Pathak Pres bac scor wh mo Awards The awards it won are highlighted in bold. National Film Awards Best Actress - Priyanka Chopra Best Supporting Actress - Kangna Ranaut Filmfare Awards Best Director - Madhur Bhandarkar Best Actress Award - Priyanka Chopra Best Supporting Actress Award - Kangna Ranaut Best Female Playback Award - Neha Bhasin Best Female Playback Award - Shruti Pathak Best Female Debut Award - Mugdha Godse Best Screenplay Award - Ajay Monga, Anuradha Tiwari, Madhur Bhandarkar Star Screen Awards Best Actress - Priyanka Chopra Best Female Playback - Shruti Pathak For "Mar Jawaan" Best Supporting Actress - Kangna Ranaut Best Supporting Actress - Mugdha Godse Best Story - Madhur Bhandarkar, Ajay Monga, Anuradha Tiwari IIFA Awards Best Actress - Priyanka Chopra Best Director - Madhur Bhandarkar Best Supporting Actress - Kangna Ranaut Best Story - Anuradha Tiwari, Madhur Bhandarkar, Ajay Monga Stardust Awards Best Actress - Priyanka Chopra Best Supporting Actress - Kangna Ranaut Breakthrough Performance Male - Arjan Bajwa Breakthrough Performance Female - Mugdha Godse Best Film Best Director - Madhur Bhandarkar Apsara Film & Television Producers Guild Awards Best Actress - Priyanka Chopra Best Supporting Actress - Kangna Ranaut Best Female Debut Award - mughda godse Bollywood Hungama Surfers Choice Award Best Actress- Priyanka Chopra