ITV

Category: Hindi

  • Neil Nitin Mukesh-Puja Gupta starrer Shortcut Romeo to be screened at Cannes Filmfest

    Neil Nitin Mukesh-Puja Gupta starrer Shortcut Romeo to be screened at Cannes Filmfest

    NEW DELHI: Shortcut Romeo, Hindi remake of a popular Tamil film, will be among the new Indian films to be screened at Cannes in the festival‘s 66th instalment.


    A new romantic thriller, it has been produced, written and directed by southerner Susi Ganeshan under his own banner, Susi Ganesh Productions. Much of the present film was shot in Kenya in East Africa.


    This is a remake of his own 2006 Tamil box office hit “Thirittu Paysale”. The current Bollywood version stars Bollywood hearthrob Neil Nitin Mukesh as Romeo, with Puja Gupta as his love interest. Ameesha Patel appears in a negative role.


    Ganeshan has already helmed half a dozen features in Tamil since 2002 and is a disciple of senior Tamilian director Mani Ratnam, who currently works mostly in Mumbai and is regarded as one of the most original and creative of all Indian directors whatever the language.

  • Dimple Kapadia collects Padma Bhushan award of Rajesh Khanna

    Dimple Kapadia collects Padma Bhushan award of Rajesh Khanna

    MUMBAI: India‘s first superstar Rajesh Khanna was posthumously awarded Padma Bhushan, India‘s third-highest civilian award this morning.


    The award was collected on his behalf by his wife Dimple Kapadia.


    Khanna died on 18 July last year.


    Padma Bhushan award was also posthumously conferred upon comedian Jaspal Bhatti, who expired last October.


    Among others who received awards were industrialist Adi Godrej and artist S H Raza received his Padma Vibhushan, India‘s second-highest civilian award.


    Wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt, shooter Vijay Kumar, Sholay director Ramesh Sippy and actor Nana Patekar received the Padma Shri. Meanwhile, Boxer Mary Kom was awarded the Padma Bhushan but was not present at the ceremony to collect it.


    The awards were handed out by President Pranab Mukherjee.


    The first batch of awards were handed out on 5 April when actresses Sharmila Tagore and Sridevi along with cricketer Rahul Dravid collected their awards.

  • Pooja Bhatt to make film on late singer Bhupen Hazarika

    Pooja Bhatt to make film on late singer Bhupen Hazarika

    MUMBAI: Filmmaker and actress Pooja Bhatt will direct a movie on the late poet, composer and singer Bhupen Hazarika.

    Bhatt‘s next film titled ‘Dhumuha‘ is based on the life of Hazarika and his relationship with the filmmaker Kalpana Lajmi who directed several films like Rudaali, Darmiyaan, Daman: A Victim of Marital Violence and Chingaari.

    The legendary singer who died on 5 November 2011 was awarded with the Dada Saheb Phalke Award, Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, Sangeet Natak Akademi, India‘s The National Academy for music, Dance and Drama.

    In 2012, Hazarika was posthumously conferred India‘s second highest civilian award Padma Vibhushan by President.

    The film will commence its shooting from 31 January 2014 after Lajmi gets ready with the script.

  • ‘Miss Lovely’ bags the top prize at 11th IFFLA Fest in LA

    ‘Miss Lovely’ bags the top prize at 11th IFFLA Fest in LA

    NEW DELHI: Ashim Ahluwalia‘s feature Miss Lovely bagged the Grand Jury Prize while Nitin Kakkar‘s Filmistaan received the top Audience Award at the 11th annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA).

    Ship of Theseus by Anand Gandhi received Honourable Mention from the Grand Jury for features in the concluding ceremony, which ended with the screening of the Los Angeles premiere of Deepa Mehta‘s Midnight‘s Children based on Salman Rushdie‘s novel.

    The short film Tatpaschat by Vasudev Keluskar also won an Honourable Mention from the Grand Jury.

    The documentary Beyond All Boundaries by Sushrat Jain and the short film Unravel by Meghna Gupta not only won the best Grand Jury awards in their categories, but also the Audience prizes.

    This year, the festival showcased more than 35 film features, documentaries, and short films at ArcLight Hollywood, home of IFFLA since its inception. "The awards are always bittersweet for all of us in the programming team as we truly believe in the exceptional talent and relevance of each film which has been so carefully chosen," said lead programmer Terrie Samundra. "That being said, we wholeheartedly share the enthusiasm of the audience and our prestigious jury. A huge congratulations to the winners!"

    The 2013 feature film jurors were International Director of the Feature Film Programme at the Sundance Institute Paul Federbush, director/editor/writer Kanika Myer (Halo, Heart of India), and assistant curator of Film Programmes at Los Angeles County Museum of Art Bernardo Rondeau.

    The Best Documentary Award was decided by The Hollywood Reporter and Los Angeles Times film critic Sheri Linden, Senior Programmer at Film Independent Maggie Mackay, and Producer Nadine Mundo (Chelsea Settles).

    Judging the short films were filmmaker and IFFLA alumni Prashant Bhargava (Patang), film curator and director of Industry Programming at Palm Springs ShortFest Kathleen McInnis, and actress Sheetal Sheth (ABCD, Looking for comedy in the Muslim World).

    Miss Lovely, described as the "most hard-hitting film in the festival" by feature jury spokesperson Rondeau, is the story of two brothers caught in the grimy world of sub-Bollywood soft porn in the 1980s.

    Beyond All Boundaries follows three cricket players from poor backgrounds whose love of the game becomes a microcosm of India‘s national obsession with the British import.

    Filmistan is the story of a Hindu man, accidentally taken prisoner in Pakistan, who forms a bond with his captors based on a shared love for Bollywood music dramas.

    Christina Marouda, who founded this festival eleven years earlier and is now working as director of development at New York‘s Museum of the Moving Image, also credited the mentorship of older independent stalwarts such as director Anurag Kashyap, whose gangster drama Gangs of Wasseypur opened the festival last week, and supportive producer Guneet Monga, honoured this year along with cable television executive Bela Balaria at the Festival‘s Sixth Annual Industry Leadership Awards.

    In addition to the many independent films on view, the festival this year also screened the blockbuster Tamil-language fantasy film Eega and the animated adventure Arjun the Great, a co-production between India‘s UTV and The Walt Disney Co.

    Although the festival has become an essential stop for producers and directors of challenging personal films, one of its most popular features always has been the "Bollywood by Night" sidebar, an ongoing tribute to mainstream Hindi music dramas. This year, "Bollywood by Night" was a five-film tribute to the late producer director Yash Chopra, who died in 2012.

  • Tips’ Ramaiya Vastavaiya being readied for release on 19 July

    Tips’ Ramaiya Vastavaiya being readied for release on 19 July

    NEW DELHI: Since the last one week, readers were getting curious seeing the ad that mentioned ‘Ram is coming‘, never knowing that it was part of the promotional campaign of Tips and Prabhudeva‘s upcoming film Ramaiya Vastavaiya.

    Today, the makers finally unveiled the posters of the film that stars Girish Kumar (Kumar Taurani‘s son) and Shruti Haasan. The film is a remake of Prabhu Deva‘s directorial debut Telugu movie Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana.

    The story revolves around a young man (played by Kumar) who lives on the fields of Punjab. He falls in love with Haasan and follows her to her farm, where her elder brother (Sonu Sood) challenges him to produce more seed on their fields. If he wins, he will be allowed to marry her, is the condition to marry.

    Shot in India and overseas, Ramaiya Vastavaiya has been produced by Kumar Taurani.

    The film, which was earlier scheduled to release in June, will now release on 19 July, 2013.

  • Soccer icon David Beckham joins Sky to promote sports through long-term partnership

    Soccer icon David Beckham joins Sky to promote sports through long-term partnership

    MUMBAI: Soccer icon David Beckham is joining British pay TV service provider Sky as an ambassador work to support grassroots sport and encourage participation across Britain and Ireland.

     

    During this long-term partnership, Beckham will also feature in ads to promote sport and services offered by Sky.

     

    In his role as a Sky ambassador, he will help to use the power of sport to change lives through the Sky Sports Living for Sport initiative. Now in its tenth year, this free initiative uses the stories and expertise of athlete mentors to inspire young people to learn new skills and improve their lives. Around 30,000 young people a year participate in the programme, which reaches one third of all secondary schools in Britain and has just launched in Ireland. Beckham is managed by Simon Fuller’s XIX Entertainment.

     

    In joining Sky, Beckham teams up with other sporting icons part of the company’s support for British sport and grassroots participation. They include Olympic gold medalist Jessica Ennis CBE, who became an ambassador for Sky Sports last year; Sir David Brailsford, Principal of Team Sky and the architect behind the exceptional performance of British Cycling; and Sir Bradley Wiggins, five times Olympic gold medalist and first ever British winner of the Tour de France.

     

    Beckham said, “Sky have followed my career since I broke into the Manchester United first team. They have done a huge amount to promote and encourage involvement in sport in Britain and I am delighted to be joining them. I have always been passionate about the importance of sport in the lives of young people. It is not all about winning – just getting involved in sport gives you confidence and skills for life. I was lucky to have some amazing role models when I was younger, and I am excited about the opportunity to work with Sky to pass on some of that knowledge to the next generation.”

     

    Sky CEO Jeremy Darroch said, “It is great to welcome David to Sky. Sport is at the heart of what we do and both we and David believe in its power to excite, inspire and change lives. As a hero and inspiration on and off the field, David is a perfect ambassador to help us get more people involved in sport.”

  • Centenary Film Festival to feature retro of Ray

    Centenary Film Festival to feature retro of Ray

    MUMBAI: A screening of the silent film ‘Throw of Dice‘ to the accompaniment of live music orchestra by maestro Nishat Khan will mark the opening of a special festival being held next week to mark the centenary of Indian cinema.


    A key highlight of the festival includes a special “Satyajit Ray Retrospective” and display the artwork of the cine craftsman of Indian cinema.


    Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari will inaugurate the Festival and also an exhibition on “Indian Cinema 100 (Celebrating a Century: An Audio Visual Voyage)”.
     
    The six-day festival will commence on 25 April and conclude on 30 April with a play on the life and times of Dadasaheb Phalke by Aamir Raza Hussain.


    The festival will travel to the Siri Fort auditorium, Jamia Milia Islamia University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and India Habitat Center in an effort to bring it to the doorstep of film lovers in the capital.


    The extravaganza will also include screenings of some classics as well as contemporary Indian films by master directors such as Bimal Roy, Guru Dutt, Shyam Benegal, Adoor Gopalakrishnan and others.


    The festival will also pay tribute to some of the finest actors of popular Indian cinema, who are no longer alive, through the screening of their films. They include Balraj Sahni, Dev Anand, Shammi Kapoor, and Rajesh Khanna among others. The films being screened represent a sprinkling of various flavours of Indian cinema from major film producing regions of the country.


    Eminent filmmakers and actors have been invited to interact with the audiences over the course of the six day festival.


    Films Division will showcase documentaries which have captured on celluloid post-Independent India in all its myriad perspectives through gems out of its rich archives, such as news reels, documentaries, shorts, features and animation films on diverse subjects.


    Another key highlight of the festival is “Cut-Uncut,” a three-day workshop conceived and being executed by members of the Central Board of Film Certification. This event will showcase the growth and evolution of censorship in Indian cinema, through workshops and insightful panel discussions.


    The Centenary celebrations would culminate in the National Film Awards ceremony at Vigyan Bhavan on 3 May, including the presentation of the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke Award to thespian Pran by President Pranab Mukherjee.

  • Ek Thi Dayan: A modern take on witch lore

    Ek Thi Dayan: A modern take on witch lore

    MUMBAI: Superstition about witchcraft is a worldwide phenomenon but beliefs differ from continent to continent. In India, witches are supposed to be found only in deep jungles late at night. Hence, the areas where such jungles exist have more people believing in witches and their sightings. Balaji‘s Ek Thi Dayan binds itself with no such borders and decides to invade a Mumbai mansion. Ek Thi Daayan is about a childhood witch revisiting the protagonist, Emraan Hashmi. It seems like she gets reincarnated every 20 years. After all, why should the privilege of reincarnation be limited only to humans? According to this film, a witch need to be reincarnated too to take her beau back with her no matter how many incarnations it takes!









    Producers: Shobha Kapoor, Ekta Kapoor, Vishal Bhardwaj, Rekha Bhardwaj.
    Director: Kannan Iyer.
    Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Huma Qureshi, Konkona Sen Sharma, Kalki Koechlin, Rojotava Dutta, Pawan Malhotra, Bhavesh Balchandani, Visshesh Tiwari, Sara Raj Arjun.


    Hashmi is courting Huma Qureshi and both plan to adopt an orphan (Bhavesh Balchandani) even before they are married. They are a rare couple who, without a justification, want to adopt an orphan instead of making their own kids. Later in the film you learn that the witch story is all about sacrificing a child on 29 February every leap year that coincides with lunar eclipse for her to sustain. As a result, the couple had no time to marry and produce a child and needed one off the shelf for the script‘s sake!


    Hashmi is a renowned professional magician. While he performs his tricks, Qureshi, for whatever reason, monitors his shows on close circuit. During one of his shows, things go wrong as he hears eerie voices distracting him from his act, almost costing his assistant girl her life. Hashmi feels he is being stalked. His past seems to have caught up with him. He takes the help of the psychiatrist whom he had consulted as a child. Under a spell, Hashmi is made to recall his childhood experience thus taking the story forward in a flashback.


    Young Hashmi (played by Visshesh Tiwari) is reading a book on witches and occult and learns that by pressing the button 6 in the lift, 666 being the sign of devil, the lift will take him straight to hell which is supposed to be somewhere underground! He makes a trip with his sister (Sara Raj Arjun) only to have a witch chase him. It would seem that Hashmi is actually from the witch‘s world too and the witch has always loved him and hence has come to take him back.


    Instead, having come in the form of Konkona Sen Sharma, she seduces his widowed father, Pawan Malhotra. It is 29 February and an eclipse and the young Hashmi is a worried lad; his book warns about this and there is murder in the air. His fears prove right; the witch manages to kill his sister as well as his father. He survives because he follows his book which says if you cut off a witch‘s hair, she loses all her power. Hashmi grows up to become a magician as predicted by the witch because a lizard had fallen on his head!


    Now the witch is back and Hashmi suspects Kalki Koechlin is the one since as she has suddenly come on the scene from Canada and wishes to buy out his haunted house. Hashmi‘s doubts about Koechlin grow stronger when a balcony barricade gives way and his wife, Qureshi, falls four floors to the ground.


    It is 29 February and eclipse again and Hashmi realises the only child that the witch can kill this time is his own adopted child, Balchandani. When he does not find him anywhere, he knows the only place the child could be is hell. Since he knows his way around, he enters hell to save the boy. There he is surprised by the real witch but manages to save the child and render the witch ineffective by cutting her hair until a sequel (which a viewer is threatened with at the end) needs her back.


    For a supernatural/ horror genre, the film is too long at 134 minutes. The script has similarities to recent films, Aatma and Raaz2, and hence is too predictable. The first half is okay but the director loses grip as the second half goes haywire. Music is weak. The dialogue is uninspiring. As for performance, Sen Sharma is the best of the lot while Qureshi keeps making smiley faces so much she drips syrup. Koechlin is only a red herring and as such has nothing much to do. Child artistes are all good but Sara Raj Arjun is the most natural while Visshesh Tiwari and Bhavesh Balchandani also do very well.


    Ek Thi Dayan has had a weak opening despite Ram Navmi holiday in many parts and with negative word of mouth its prospects are poor at the box office.

  • Yash Raj Films celebrates 1 million fans on Facebook

    Yash Raj Films celebrates 1 million fans on Facebook

    MUMBAI: Marking yet another milestone in its illustrious journey, Yash Raj Films (YRF), has become the first Indian production house to have a million fans on Facebook.

    As a celebration of this achievement, the banner‘s Facebook page cover photo is a collage of the the hits it has produced featuring almost every star it has worked with in the recent past.

    The banner enjoys a strong digital presence and regularly engages the audiences with interesting and interactive content. Yash Raj Films digital team constantly strives to entertain the audiences, just like their films. Their Facebook page has the fastest growing fan base with an addition of more than 3000 likes every day.

    Yash Raj Films‘ page reflects a new theme every month. The current theme is, ‘YRF Dance Dhamaka‘ which showcases all the dance tracks from all YRF films. The production house regularly holds contests and updates their digital properties with latest and exclusive news.

    Last year, YRF churned out one of the biggest hits in of 2012 Ek tha Tiger with Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif in the lead. This year too, it has a couple of much looked forward to releases like Arjun Kapoor starrer Aurangzeb and Amir Khan and Abhishek Bachchan starrer Dhoom:3.

    Started in 1970 by one of the most respected and accomplished film makers from India Yash Chopra, the banner has given Indian and global cinema goers some timeless cinematic pieces like Silsila, Trishul, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayegne, the Dhoom franchise and Chak De! India.

    YRF has been known to keep up with times and often produce movies much ahead of the times, a legacy that has been passed on passed its founder the Late Yash Chopra. Its success on the digital/social media forum is another example of how the production house understands its audiences and puts in the effort to be where they are.

  • Endemol India takes Hindi re-make rights of Traffic

    Endemol India takes Hindi re-make rights of Traffic

    MUMBAI: Endemol India‘s motion pictures arm Eyedentity Motion Pictures has acquired the remake rights of Malayalam emotional thriller, Traffic.

    The film will have an eclectic ensemble cast with Manoj Bajpai in the leading role. Traffic is slated to go into production in July and is scheduled for release later in the year. Rajesh Pillai, the director of original Traffic, has signed up to direct the Hindi remake as well.

    Based on an inspiring true story, the plot of Traffic intertwines multiple stories around one particular incident bringing together five protagonists from diverse backgrounds and a series of events that change their destiny. This emotional thriller with a powerful narrative and a dramatic climax has been adapted in Hindi by Suresh Nair.

    Endemol India CEO Deepak Dhar said, "Our acquisition of Traffic heralds the advent of Eyedentity Motion Pictures in mainstream Bollywood cinema. At Endemol, we have always believed that if the content is strong, it will always find its audience and Traffic meets that criteria in every respect. As part of our move into a new phase of significant growth, we look forward to producing some great content for the silver screen."

    Eyedentity Motion Pictures will produce 3-4 films every year with an equal mix of scripts for both regional as well as mainstream Bollywood audiences.