De Dana Dan
Encyclopedia
De Dana Dan is a 2009 Hindi comedy
film directed by Priyadarshan
. The story is a partial adaptation of Priyadarshan's own Malayalam film Vettam
. This film is also inspired by the 2000 Hollywood comedy flick Screwed. The film has a huge star cast which includes Akshay Kumar
, Sunil Shetty, Katrina Kaif
and Sameera Reddy
in lead roles.
Filming began on 1 December 2008 at Mehboob Studios in Mumbai. The film was released on 27 November 2009.
As with most Priyadarshan films, it is known to be one of the most confusing Bollywood
movies ever, with the huge star cast and all the characters running around after each other (causing hilarious scenes and consequences), hence the name De Dana Dan meaning "one after the other", or "helter skelter" in other words.
Ram works for a courier service in Singapore. He had originally come there to work in Chinese films, but he was not selected. Anjali (Katrina Kaif), is in love with Nitin and Manpreet (Sameera Reddy) is in love with Ram.
Harbans Chadda (Paresh Rawal), is a flop businessman, but acts to be great. He has a son, Nonney Chadda (Chunky), who is as useless as his father. An Inspector, Mr. Wilson Pereira (Sharat Saxena) is trying to arrest Harbans for his bounced cheques. Anjali's father, Kakkad (Tinu Anand) signs a deal with Harbans and decide to get Nonney and Anjali married to each other. Later, when Harbans is in a casino, he sees Mr. Oberoi (Manoj Joshi). Someone tells Harbans that Oberoi is one of the richest Indians in Singapore. Harbans lies to Oberoi to get Nonney married to Oberoi's daughter, who turns out to be Manpreet.
Afterwards, both Anjali and Manpreet demand money from Nitin and Ram respectively and tell them that their marriage has been fixed with someone else. After hearing this, Nitin tries to commit suicide on a street, by coming in the way of a car. Luckily, the car brakes hard and saves Nitin. But actually, that car is Ram's courier car. Then they tell each other that their girlfriends are getting married. To get some ransom, they kidnap Moolchand the dog. But while driving the van, the trunk opens and Moolchand runs back. This makes the cops think that Nitin has been kidnapped. On reaching the hotel, Nitin calls Anjali and tells her about their plan. She comes rushing to the hotel. When they come to know that the dog has run away, they decide to order a dead body from Mamu (Asrani), a Mafia Don. They plan to throw the dead body on the railway tracks along with Nitin's driving licence and spead the rumour that the kidnapper has killed Nitin.
Later, when Kakkad finds out that Harbans has fixed his son's marriage with someone else, he threatens Harbans that he will break the marriage. He also finds out that his daughter has run away and that her credit card was last charged at particular hotel, and goes there, as he did not want Anjali to get married to Nitin. Meanwhile, Nitin had ordered the dead body from Mamu stands outside the hotel with an orchid flower in his hand (as told by Mamu) to receive it. At the same time, Kakkad reaches there. Nitin, worried, begins to run. He tries to open many doors, and while trying to open a particular door, drops the orchid flower which was in his hand. He runs into the neighbouring room, as the door was open, and hides under the bed.
Kakkad sees the flower which was in Nitin's hand just outside the door of a room. Believing that Nitin is in that room, he rings the bell once or twice, and then attempts to kick open the door. At the same time, Paramjeet Singh Lamba, the one staying in that room, opens the door. He gets kicked on his chest badly, and falls on the floor. Kakkad holds his collar, and asks him where she is. Paramjeet Singh replies that she is in the bathroom. Kakkad runs into the bathroom, hoping for Anjali to be there. But instead, Kamini Lamba, Paramjeet's wife, is in the bathroom. She pushes him out of the bathroom and then Kakkad runs out of the room. Paramjeet then reports to the hotel staff about this incident.
After some time, Nitin tries to escape out of the room, but Harbans opens the door at the same time, while talking on the phone. Nitin tries to go under the bed again, but as he tries from the other side this time and bangs his head on some luggage kept under the bed. Seeing nowhere else to go, Nitin hides into the wardrobe. Harbans, irritated with calls that he is getting, throws his phone into the wardrobe, and locks it. Therefore, Nitin get stuck in a wardrobe.
The film reunites the trio of Akshay Kumar
, Sunil Shetty and Paresh Rawal
with Priyadarshan, who directed them in the first Hera Pheri film. This is the first time the trio has acted together since 2006's Phir Hera Pheri
, although Rawal and Shetty appeared in Priyadarshan's Chup Chup Ke
and Hulchul.
, and a major portion was shot in the Pan Pacific Hotel which is in the center of the town. The flood scene in the film, that took 15 days to complete, was shot in Mumbai by creating a set similar to the Pan Pacific Hotel. An article in Slate Magazine describes the shooting of a flood scene in Goregaon studios with locally hired white people. The film took 80 days to complete.
23 crore in its opening weekend in India, thus making it the tenth biggest opening weekend of all time at the time of its release. It collected 34.19 crore at the end of its first week. In its second week the film crashed collecting 10 crore nett. It added another 5 crore nett towards the end of its run, bringing the total gross collections to Rs. 49 crore from India. The film was declared an "Above Average" grosser in India.
Meanwhile, it did very well overseas debuting at No. 9 position in the U.K collecting £ 3,08,029 [approx. Rs. 2.34 crore] on 48 screens in its opening weekend, with the per screen average working out to £ 6,417. In the US, it debuted at No. 20 position and collected $ 7,72,377 [approx. Rs. 3.57 crores] on 69 screens in its opening weekend, with the per screen average working out to $ 11,194. In Australia, it debuted at No. 12 position and collected $ 96,597 [approx. Rs. 40.96 lacs] on 14 screens in its opening weekend, with the per screen average working out to $ 6,900. At the end of its run in the U.K it collected £ 5,60,943. At the end of its run in the US it collected $944,979. At the end of its run in Australia it collected $2,00,000.
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
film directed by Priyadarshan
Priyadarshan
Priyadarshan is an Indian film director, producer, and screenwriter. In a career spanning over two decades, Priyadarshan has directed over 80 films in several Indian languages including Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu...
. The story is a partial adaptation of Priyadarshan's own Malayalam film Vettam
Vettam
Vettam is a 2004 Malayalam romantic comedy film directed by Priyadarshan and starring Dileep and Bhavna Pani.The film is an adaptation of the 1995 American film French Kiss.-Plot:...
. This film is also inspired by the 2000 Hollywood comedy flick Screwed. The film has a huge star cast which includes Akshay Kumar
Akshay Kumar
Akshay Kumar is an Indian film actor, producer and martial artist who has appeared in over a hundred Hindi films. When he began his acting career in the 1990s, he primarily starred in action films and was particularly known for his appearances in feature films commonly called the "Khiladi series",...
, Sunil Shetty, Katrina Kaif
Katrina Kaif
Katrina Kaif is a British Indian actress and former model who appears in Indian films, mainly in the Hindi-language film industry. She has also appeared in Telugu and Malayalam films. She was voted the sexiest Asian woman in the world by Eastern Eye in the years 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011...
and Sameera Reddy
Sameera Reddy
Sameera Reddy is an Indian film actress, primarily working in the Hindi film industry and Tamil industry. Apart from Bollywood, Reddy has also appeared in a number of Telugu, Bengali and Malayalam films.-Early life:...
in lead roles.
Filming began on 1 December 2008 at Mehboob Studios in Mumbai. The film was released on 27 November 2009.
As with most Priyadarshan films, it is known to be one of the most confusing Bollywood
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
movies ever, with the huge star cast and all the characters running around after each other (causing hilarious scenes and consequences), hence the name De Dana Dan meaning "one after the other", or "helter skelter" in other words.
Plot
Nitin (Akshay Kumar) and Ram (Suniel Shetty) are lucky in love, otherwise their life is a big zero as their bank balance. Nitin's employers dog, Mulchand Ji (as he must be called) always does wrong things, but the blame is put on Nitin, and he is usually kicked into the pool as a punishment.Ram works for a courier service in Singapore. He had originally come there to work in Chinese films, but he was not selected. Anjali (Katrina Kaif), is in love with Nitin and Manpreet (Sameera Reddy) is in love with Ram.
Harbans Chadda (Paresh Rawal), is a flop businessman, but acts to be great. He has a son, Nonney Chadda (Chunky), who is as useless as his father. An Inspector, Mr. Wilson Pereira (Sharat Saxena) is trying to arrest Harbans for his bounced cheques. Anjali's father, Kakkad (Tinu Anand) signs a deal with Harbans and decide to get Nonney and Anjali married to each other. Later, when Harbans is in a casino, he sees Mr. Oberoi (Manoj Joshi). Someone tells Harbans that Oberoi is one of the richest Indians in Singapore. Harbans lies to Oberoi to get Nonney married to Oberoi's daughter, who turns out to be Manpreet.
Afterwards, both Anjali and Manpreet demand money from Nitin and Ram respectively and tell them that their marriage has been fixed with someone else. After hearing this, Nitin tries to commit suicide on a street, by coming in the way of a car. Luckily, the car brakes hard and saves Nitin. But actually, that car is Ram's courier car. Then they tell each other that their girlfriends are getting married. To get some ransom, they kidnap Moolchand the dog. But while driving the van, the trunk opens and Moolchand runs back. This makes the cops think that Nitin has been kidnapped. On reaching the hotel, Nitin calls Anjali and tells her about their plan. She comes rushing to the hotel. When they come to know that the dog has run away, they decide to order a dead body from Mamu (Asrani), a Mafia Don. They plan to throw the dead body on the railway tracks along with Nitin's driving licence and spead the rumour that the kidnapper has killed Nitin.
Later, when Kakkad finds out that Harbans has fixed his son's marriage with someone else, he threatens Harbans that he will break the marriage. He also finds out that his daughter has run away and that her credit card was last charged at particular hotel, and goes there, as he did not want Anjali to get married to Nitin. Meanwhile, Nitin had ordered the dead body from Mamu stands outside the hotel with an orchid flower in his hand (as told by Mamu) to receive it. At the same time, Kakkad reaches there. Nitin, worried, begins to run. He tries to open many doors, and while trying to open a particular door, drops the orchid flower which was in his hand. He runs into the neighbouring room, as the door was open, and hides under the bed.
Kakkad sees the flower which was in Nitin's hand just outside the door of a room. Believing that Nitin is in that room, he rings the bell once or twice, and then attempts to kick open the door. At the same time, Paramjeet Singh Lamba, the one staying in that room, opens the door. He gets kicked on his chest badly, and falls on the floor. Kakkad holds his collar, and asks him where she is. Paramjeet Singh replies that she is in the bathroom. Kakkad runs into the bathroom, hoping for Anjali to be there. But instead, Kamini Lamba, Paramjeet's wife, is in the bathroom. She pushes him out of the bathroom and then Kakkad runs out of the room. Paramjeet then reports to the hotel staff about this incident.
After some time, Nitin tries to escape out of the room, but Harbans opens the door at the same time, while talking on the phone. Nitin tries to go under the bed again, but as he tries from the other side this time and bangs his head on some luggage kept under the bed. Seeing nowhere else to go, Nitin hides into the wardrobe. Harbans, irritated with calls that he is getting, throws his phone into the wardrobe, and locks it. Therefore, Nitin get stuck in a wardrobe.
Cast
- Akshay KumarAkshay KumarAkshay Kumar is an Indian film actor, producer and martial artist who has appeared in over a hundred Hindi films. When he began his acting career in the 1990s, he primarily starred in action films and was particularly known for his appearances in feature films commonly called the "Khiladi series",...
as Nitin Bankar - Suniel ShettySuniel ShettySunil Shetty is an Indian film actor, producer, hotelier and liquor and fashion boutique owner. He is mainly active in Bollywood.-Career:Shetty made his acting debut in the 1992.His film Balwaan which was a moderate success. He gave 2 hit films in 1993 Pehchaan and Waqt Hamara Hai. His first...
as Ram Mishra - Katrina KaifKatrina KaifKatrina Kaif is a British Indian actress and former model who appears in Indian films, mainly in the Hindi-language film industry. She has also appeared in Telugu and Malayalam films. She was voted the sexiest Asian woman in the world by Eastern Eye in the years 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011...
as Anjali Kakkad - Sameera ReddySameera ReddySameera Reddy is an Indian film actress, primarily working in the Hindi film industry and Tamil industry. Apart from Bollywood, Reddy has also appeared in a number of Telugu, Bengali and Malayalam films.-Early life:...
as Manpreet Oberoi - Paresh RawalParesh RawalParesh Rawal is an Indian actor of Gujarati background.Making his film debut in 1984, he mainly played supporting and villain roles throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Since 2000 he has mostly played comic roles.- Family and early life :...
as Harbans Chadda - Neha DhupiaNeha DhupiaNeha Dhupia is an Indian actress who appears in Bollywood films. She is a former beauty queen and winner of Femina Miss India 2002.-Early life:...
as Anu Chopra - Archana Puran SinghArchana Puran SinghArchana Puran Singh is an Indian television presenter and film actress. She is most known for comedy roles, and as a judge on comedy shows, like Sony TV India's Comedy Circus.-Career:...
as Kuljeet Kaur - Aditi GowitrikarAditi GowitrikarAditi Gowitrikar is an Indian model, actress and a doctor. She won Gladrags Megamodel, and the Mrs. World contest in 2001, and appeared in reality television series, Bigg Boss .- Biography :...
as Pammi Chadda - AsraniAsraniGovardhan Asrani , popularly known simply as Asrani, is an actor in Indian films whose Bollywood career has spanned over 35 years. His wife Manju Bansal is an actress.-Early life:...
as Maamu (DON) - Chunky PandeyChunky PandeySuyash 'Chunky' Pandey is an Indian film actor who has appeared in various Bollywood films. He has appeared in over 55 movies in a career that has spanned over two decades and has been nominated once for his supportive role in Tezaab...
as Nonny Chadda - Johnny LeverJohnny LeverJohn Prakasa Rao Janumala famously known as Johnny Lever is an Indian film actor and comedian. He was born to Prakash Rao Janumala and Karunamma Janumala and brought up in Mumbai. He started his career in 1984 and has acted in over 350 Bollywood films...
as Kaala Krishna Murari - Manoj JoshiManoj Joshi (actor)Manoj Joshi is an India film and television actor. Joshi began his career in Marathi theatre, also putting up performances in Gujarati and Hindi theatre...
as Brij Mohan Oberoi (Manpreet's Dad) - Rajpal YadavRajpal YadavRajpal Yadav is an Indian film actor, known for his comedy oriented roles.-Early life and education:Rajpal Yadav was born and brought up in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, where he received his education.He did his college from Sardar Patel Hindu Inter College, Shahjahanpur.He played in Shahjahanpur...
as Dagdu - Tinnu AnandTinnu AnandTinnu Anand is an Indian actor and director from Bollywood, who is most known as the director of Amitabh Bachchan's movies including, Kaalia , Shahenshah , Main Azaad Hoon and Major Saab .He is the son of veteran writer Inder Raj Anand and uncle of director Siddharth Anand.Anand recently...
as Mr. Kakkad (Anjali's Dad) - Vikram GokhaleVikram GokhaleVikram Gokhale is an well known Indian film, television and stage actor, notable for his roles in Marathi theatre and Hindi films and television...
as Paramjeet Singh Lamba - Supriya Karnik as Mrs. Kamini Lamba
- Shakti KapoorShakti KapoorShakti Kapoor is an Indian Bollywood actor. He is notably known for playing vulgar comic and villainous roles. He is known for acting alongside comedian Kader Khan as his sidekick along with Asrani in over 100 films.-Early life:...
as Moosa Heerapurwala / Suber - Sharat SaxenaSharat SaxenaSharat Saxena is an Indian actor working in Bollywood films. He has acted in nearly 160 Bollywood films.Saxena started his career in the early 70s and has mainly played either supporting roles of a father, uncle or villainous roles....
as Inspector Wilson Pereira
The film reunites the trio of Akshay Kumar
Akshay Kumar
Akshay Kumar is an Indian film actor, producer and martial artist who has appeared in over a hundred Hindi films. When he began his acting career in the 1990s, he primarily starred in action films and was particularly known for his appearances in feature films commonly called the "Khiladi series",...
, Sunil Shetty and Paresh Rawal
Paresh Rawal
Paresh Rawal is an Indian actor of Gujarati background.Making his film debut in 1984, he mainly played supporting and villain roles throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Since 2000 he has mostly played comic roles.- Family and early life :...
with Priyadarshan, who directed them in the first Hera Pheri film. This is the first time the trio has acted together since 2006's Phir Hera Pheri
Phir Hera Pheri
Phir Hera Pheri is an Indian Bollywood film released in 2006.The film stars the three men from the previous film: Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal and Suniel Shetty. Bipasha Basu and Rimi Sen are the leading actresses of the film. The movie released on 9 June 2006. The movie was inspired from Guy...
, although Rawal and Shetty appeared in Priyadarshan's Chup Chup Ke
Chup Chup Ke
Chup Chup Ke is a 2006 Bollywood film directed by Priyadarshan. Originally titled as Khatta Meetha, the story of the film is adapted from the Malayalam film Punjabi House , with a tagline of "Love meets confusion meets love." The film has Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor in their third film...
and Hulchul.
Filming
The shooting of the film started in December 2008. The film was shot in SingaporeSingapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, and a major portion was shot in the Pan Pacific Hotel which is in the center of the town. The flood scene in the film, that took 15 days to complete, was shot in Mumbai by creating a set similar to the Pan Pacific Hotel. An article in Slate Magazine describes the shooting of a flood scene in Goregaon studios with locally hired white people. The film took 80 days to complete.
Box office
De Dana Dan collected Rs.Indian rupee
The Indian rupee is the official currency of the Republic of India. The issuance of the currency is controlled by the Reserve Bank of India....
23 crore in its opening weekend in India, thus making it the tenth biggest opening weekend of all time at the time of its release. It collected 34.19 crore at the end of its first week. In its second week the film crashed collecting 10 crore nett. It added another 5 crore nett towards the end of its run, bringing the total gross collections to Rs. 49 crore from India. The film was declared an "Above Average" grosser in India.
Meanwhile, it did very well overseas debuting at No. 9 position in the U.K collecting £ 3,08,029 [approx. Rs. 2.34 crore] on 48 screens in its opening weekend, with the per screen average working out to £ 6,417. In the US, it debuted at No. 20 position and collected $ 7,72,377 [approx. Rs. 3.57 crores] on 69 screens in its opening weekend, with the per screen average working out to $ 11,194. In Australia, it debuted at No. 12 position and collected $ 96,597 [approx. Rs. 40.96 lacs] on 14 screens in its opening weekend, with the per screen average working out to $ 6,900. At the end of its run in the U.K it collected £ 5,60,943. At the end of its run in the US it collected $944,979. At the end of its run in Australia it collected $2,00,000.