Category: Hindi

  • Vidya Balan sheds extra kilos for her next movie

    Vidya Balan sheds extra kilos for her next movie

    Vidya Balan who started her Bollywood career with Parineeta, has been simultaneously lauded and criticised for her full-figure.

     

    The talented actress is undergoing a transformation for her upcoming film opposite Emraan Hashmi. Directed by Mohit Suri, the Vishesh Films production will see Vidya play a florist working with a posh hotel. The role demanded Vidya to shed a few kilos to fit the mould, and Vidya readily complied.

     

    The filmmakers did not ask Vidya to lose weight, but she knew that the role demanded so. She is an intelligent artiste who puts in a lot of effort to portray characters convincingly, so she is on a strict diet and exercise regime.

     

    This has not happened for the first time, many actors have actually shaped up as and when the role demands for. Best example would be Kareena Kapoor for her film Tashan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan for Dhoom 2 and many more.

    Vidya Balan was last seen opposite Emraan in Ghanchakkar. Prior to that, the two worked together in Milan Luthria’s The Dirty Picture.

  • Interactive Television introduces CAM for brands in India

    Interactive Television introduces CAM for brands in India

    Interactive Television (A WPP Group Company), one of the leading cinema advertising company which works with over 9,000 screens across India, has announced the launch of a third party monitoring tool – Cinema Audit Monitoring (CAM) which is being carried out in collaboration with Ipsos-media ct. This monitoring will be carried out in top eight cities covering 200 screens which contribute approximately 70 per cent of the cinema adex in a given week. The selected screens include key multiplex chains like PVR, Big Cinema, Cinemax, Inox, Fame, Fun, DT, SPI and Wave Cinemas.

     

    The country’s film entertainment industry is the largest in the world in terms of the number of films produced (approx. 900) and its theatrical admissions (approx. three billion).

     

    The film industry has evolved over time and technology has played a major role in the way cinema is presented to audiences in theaters. Movies which were previously released on just 200-300 screens are now screened in over 2,000 on day one. This has significantly improved the probability of every movie to make money and ensure profitability. The Rs 100 crore plus box office collections movie club has thus come into existence and is growing every year.

     

    The year 2012 was an exciting year for the Indian film industry with footfalls returning to the big screen. The domestic theatrical segment grew at a CAGR of 23.8 per cent y-o-y contributing 76 per cent to the Rs 112.4 billion film Industry and it is expected to continue its growth trajectory and be worth Rs 193.3 billion by 2017.

     

    According to Interactive Television founder and CEO Ajay Mehta, “Interactive’s proprietary tool CAM is a game changer for brands investing in cinema advertising in India. The results of the monthly audit will help our existing and potential clients recognise the growth opportunities for their brands whilst choosing cinema as an advertising medium. With this audit, we aim to provide transparency and visibility to our set of clients to assist them in result oriented media planning and buying.”

    Ajay Mehta believes Interactives proprietary tool CAM will be a game changer for brands investing in cinema advertising in India

     

    Cinema in India is big, but cinema advertising is not that great. Cinema advertising in India varies between Rs 200-250 crore; which is less than a per cent of the adex of overall media spends. Even UK has more than two per cent of their overall media industry, but India is not even one per cent claims Interactive Television’s report.

    The report goes on to explain: the key reason is that there is no monitoring system is in place. Because of which the clients always question the measurability and ROI of the medium and therefore are not sure if their ads are playing or not and thus remain wary of including cinema in their media plan. Interactive Television tackles this issue through its proprietary tool CAM as it claims.

     

    The findings of the first round of monitoring, which was conducted in August 2013, is already out. And the report captures all the brand ads screened before the movie and during the interval. It also includes the order in which they were played. The report also highlights the product categories, top spenders and their presence across eight cities.

     

    The other key information areas which this report includes are – total numbers of brands present in cinema during the audit period, occupancy details before and during interval, commercial duration, commercial position, number of times each ad was played, total number of ads being played and average number of ads played with big movies.

     

    CAM reporting will be done on a monthly basis and monitoring is done with big releases in that particular month. The August 2013 report indicates that the F&B category is leading in cinema, followed by personal care.

  • Shuddh Desi boy to now play lead in YRF & Shekhar Kapur‘s ‘Paani’

    Shuddh Desi boy to now play lead in YRF & Shekhar Kapur‘s ‘Paani’

    MUMBAI: The hunt for the male lead in Paani is over! Close on the heels of his outstanding performance in Shuddh Desi Romance, both Shekhar Kapur and Aditya Chopra had no hesitation in confirming Sushant Singh Rajput to play the lead in their upcoming flick Paani.

    According to Kapur, Sushant is one of the most inspiring young actors to emerge out of India. “It‘s going to be exciting director-actor collaboration with him in Paani.” The film is based in a future world where war over water has broken out. Water is now owned by international corporations who use thirst as a weapon of control. In one such future city, a young love story breaks all the rules and in the ensuing war, water flows back to its people.

    The film will have a strong Indian and western star cast. Sushant will be joined by a young leading actress from the west.

    The film, produced by Aditya Chopra and directed by Shekhar Kapur, will be shot in India and overseas. Music will be by A. R. Rahman.

    Paani goes on floor mid-2014.

  • Matt Bomer to play Montgomery Clift in Indie feature

    MUMBAI: The heart-throb, who plays the lead in White Collar, is all set to play Montgomery Clift in the biopic of the legendary star. Matt Bomer has been finalised to take on the role of Clift. Financed by Pier 3 pictures’ Michael Din, Janine Glaime and Huri Henley-Cohn will begin shooting sometime in 2014.


    Scripted by Christopher Lovick, the movie directed by Larry Moss will have Bomer portraying the Hollywood icon. He was last seen in The Normal Heart along with Julia Roberts and Mark Ruffalo.





    Clift was a big Bollywood male star, rivaled to Marlon Brando but a car accident scarred his good looks, leaving him haunted for the rest of his life. He received an Oscar for one of his last performances – Judgement at Nuremberg.

  • Tigmanshu wins Best Director at Norway Bollywood film festival

    Tigmanshu wins Best Director at Norway Bollywood film festival

    Tigmanshu Dhulia was presented the best director award for Paan Singh Tomar at the 11th Norway Bollywood Film Festival at a packed Loreskog cinema center in Oslo on 17 September.

     

    While filmmaker Rahul Mittra bagged the Best Producer award for his last year’s hit Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster Returns, Jimmy Sheirgill got the best actor award for the same film.

     

    Organised by Nasarullah Qureshi, this festival is one of the biggest film festivals in Scandinavia, attracting hundreds of Indians, Pakistanis and Norwegians each year, apart from top names from Bollywood.

     

    Mittra and Dhulia also announced the date of their upcoming film Bullett Raja starring Saif Ali Khan, Sonakshi Sinha and Jimmy Sheirgill which is releasing on 29 November.

  • Salman to launch Salman Khan Productions

    Salman to launch Salman Khan Productions

    Salman Khan is all set to take his stardom to another level. Word has it that he will soon launch his own production house Salman Khan Productions with a remake of Subhash Ghai’s Hero, which had launched Jackie Shroff’s career as a leading man.

     

    With this project, Salmaan would finally stem into independent production house separate from the film produced by his two brothers.

     

    We all are aware that Sohail and Arbaaz have their own production houses. While Salman would remain closely associated with his brother’s production, he would now launch his own production house Salman Khan Productions with a remake of Hero. Salman secured the remake rights from his friend Subhash Ghai almost a year back and confided in him that he would start this venture with Hero.

    Salman has also asked Subhash Ghai to compose the music of the new-millennium Hero. Ghai has agreed to officially turn composer. (A lot of Ghai’s music in the past was ghost-composed by him).

  • John Abraham gets award for Madras Caf

    John Abraham gets award for Madras Caf

    John Abraham has been honoured with Pride of the Nation award for exploring the story behind India’s former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination in Madras Cafe. The award was presented to the actor by Anti Terrorist Front’s chairman M S Bitta.

     

    The movie which revolves around the sensitive issues like the Sri Lankan civil war portrays John in the role of RAW agent. Despite the movie being banned in certain cities, Madras Cafe managed to break the clutter of commercial films and emerged as a hit.

    And now being inspired by real life patriotic stories, John also has future plans to make a movie on Abdul Hamid who was awarded with the Param Vir Chakra for his courage during the 1965 Indo-Pak war.

  • John Abraham gets award for Madras Café

    MUMBAI: John Abraham has been honoured with Pride of the Nation award for exploring the story behind India‘s former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi‘s assassination in Madras Cafe. The award was presented to the actor by Anti Terrorist Front‘s chairman M S Bitta.






    The movie which revolves around the sensitive issues like the Sri Lankan civil war portrays John in the role of RAW agent. Despite the movie being banned in certain cities, Madras Cafe managed to break the clutter of commercial films and emerged as a hit.

    And now being inspired by real life patriotic stories, John also has future plans to make a movie on Abdul Hamid who was awarded with the Param Vir Chakra for his courage during the 1965 Indo-Pak war.

  • Ghai to inaugurate multiplex in Kolkata in six months

    Ghai to inaugurate multiplex in Kolkata in six months

    In between helming his film institute Whistling Woods International and wielding the megaphone for his directorial comeback Kaanchi, Subhash Ghai will soon inaugurate a three-screen multiplex spread over 35,000 square feet under his brand Mukta A2 Cinemas in the City of Joy.

    Coming up in the next six months at Junction Mall, Barasat, in Kolkata, this will be Mukta A2 Cinemas’ debut in West Bengal after having similar such multiplexes in Vadodara, Ahmedabad and Gulbarga. The first plex was opened in Gujarat back in July 2011.

    When contacted, Nice Property director Prabhakar Kumar confirmed the news and said: “Mukta Arts has been in the distribution and exhibition business for a while now and with this chain of multiplexes, they only plan to strengthen their foothold in the industry.”

    Junction Mall, Barasat, in a total mall area of 150,000 square feet, is marketed by Nice Property and is a joint venture project with North 24Parganas Zilla Parishad.

    Sources said plans are afoot to invite actors the likes of Abishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Sonali Bendre to Kolkata for the first fifteen days to promote the plex.

    Also, tickets will be economically priced, keeping in mind consumer spending behaviour in Kolkata, sources informed. “Mukta Cinemas is looking at 1,200 seats. The pricing is slightly lower than other multiplexes,” a source revealed.

    It is further learnt that the company has signed an 18 year lease contract and as per the agreement, the rent will be Rs 60 per sqft.

    “Even if Mukta Arts achieves 50 per cent occupancy rate, this venture would give good returns to the company,” observed a media analyst, adding that there are not many high-quality plexes in the vicinity, upping the possibility of the plex doing well in future.

    Ghai’s Mukta Arts is primarily engaged in motion picture production apart from production, distribution, and exhibition of television serials and entertainment software, equipment hiring, and generation and distribution of content for the entertainment industry.

  • Raveena to play Jazz singer in Bombay Velvet

    MUMBAI: Raveena Tandon is all set to appear in the big screen again with Bombay Velvet. The actress who was last seen in the Amitabh Bachchan film Bbuddah… Hoga Terra Baap, will be seen playing the role of a Jazz singer in the film.


    However more details of the film and her role are currently unavailable.





    Bombay Velvet is directed and co-produced by Anurag Kashyap. The film is said to be based on historian Gyan Prakash‘s Mumbai Fables and it is the story of how the city became a metropolis against the backdrop of love, greed, violence and jazz music. The film features Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma in lead roles.