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Category: Hindi

  • Atul Agnihotri mulls action film with bro-in-law Salman Khan

    Atul Agnihotri mulls action film with bro-in-law Salman Khan

    MUMBAI: Filmmaker-actor Atul Agnihotri, who along with his brother-in-law Salman Khan gave a stupendous hit in Bodyguard, is all set to again team up with the actor for his proposed upcoming film said to be an action film.

    Said Atul in confirmation, “I am doing a movie with Salman. It is completely an original script…and not a remake. It is in a scripting stage and I am actively involved in the project.” “The work is under progress. It is difficult to talk more about it as we are still working on it,” he added.

    Considering that most of Salman‘s films like Wanted, Dabangg, Bodyguard, Ek Tha Tiger and Dabangg 2 have revolved around larger-than-life-action and were all blockbusters, the producer is also not shying away from taking the benefit of this genre.
     

    If all goes well, Atul intends to begin work on this project from next year.

    It may be remembered that Atul made his debut as a director with Dil Ne Jise Apna Kaha made in 2004 that featured Salman Khan, Preity Zinta and Bhoomika Chawla. But the film didn‘t do well. Undeterred by this, he directed and even turned producer with Hello in 2008, a film based on the novel One Night at a Call Centre in which Salman had a cameo.

    Atul returned to production with Salman-Kareena Kapoor starrer action-romantic film Bodyguard in 2011 that went on to become a huge hit at the box office.

  • UTV’s Kai Po Che to premiere at Berlin Film Fest

    UTV’s Kai Po Che to premiere at Berlin Film Fest

    MUMBAI: UTV Motion Pictures‘ upcoming film Kai Po Che is scheduled to have its world premiere at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival scheduled to go under way next month.

    The film, based on Chetan Bhagat‘s novel The 3 Mistakes of My Life, will be screened at the film festival on 13 February.

    The film, which stars newcomers Sushant Singh Rajput, Raj Kumar Yadav and Amit Sadh in lead roles, portrays the journey of three friends as they discover cricket, religion and business in their respective fields.

    Said Disney UTV Managing Director – Studios, Siddharth Roy Kapur, “We are incredibly proud that Kai Po Che has been selected for a world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival. What is even more creditable is that it is the only Indian film in the official panorama selection announced by the festival this year.

    For a film dependent entirely on its strong story line rather than its lineup of stars, this is a huge achievement and for that I would like to commend Abhishek Kapoor and his entire cast and crew for bringing all their talent and passion to bear, to make Kai Po Che a film for the ages.”

    Set against the backdrop of religious politics, the story of Kai Po Che underlines the three mistakes made by Govind. The film as well as the book is set in Gujarat and hence the title Kai Po Che.

    Thirty-one fictional features from 23 countries will provide insights into contemporary world cinema production at the 10-day-long Berlin ale festival.

    The film will hit screens in India on 22 February.

  • Third Indian Screenwriters conference in Mumbai from 25-27 Feb

    Third Indian Screenwriters conference in Mumbai from 25-27 Feb

    MUMBAI: The 3rd Indian Screenwriters‘ conference will be held from 25 to 27 February at Bandra in Mumbai.

    Organised by the Film Writers Association (FWA), the conference will be attended by a host of senior writer-directors from the industry and experienced lawyers and legal experts. But, there is a hitch, only members of the FWA are eligible to attend the event. Non-members will need to register as members first.

    The agenda of the conference has been divided in two parts. One is the ‘creative issues‘ of television and film writers and the other is professional and legal issues faced by them.

    According to the FWA website, the first includes deliberations on the “disconnect/connect of popular entertainment with our social reality, questions of why a society in dramatic transition is not reflected in our cinema and TV, the representation and portrayal of women in our stories, whether and how these interpretations influence audiences, the new definition of heroism in cinema today and the rise of machismo, what happened to the common man‘s issues, why most TV shows seem to lose the plot, what is really driving content on TV today, does the screenwriter have a social responsibility, and such.

    The latter will address the provisions of the Minimum Basic Contract for film writers and the Minimum Basic Contract for TV writers and the Copyright Act.

  • Maha Govt. Hikes entertainment tax on multiplex tickets

    Maha Govt. Hikes entertainment tax on multiplex tickets

    MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government on Wednesday announced additional entertainment tax of 10 to 20 per cent on multiplex tickets priced above Rs 250.

    The step followed complaints that multiplex owners arbitrarily hiked ticket rates of blockbuster movies.

    On a ticket costing Rs 251 to Rs 350, the additional entertainment tax will be 10 per cent, for tickets priced between Rs 351 and Rs 500, the additional tax will be 15 per cent more and for tickets priced Rs 501 and above, it will be 20 per cent.

  • Salman Khan is best admired star on social media

    Salman Khan is best admired star on social media

    MUMBAI: Salman Khan beat Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan to become the most admired star on the social media.

    Looks like with two back-to-back Rs 100 crore hits last year in Ek Tha Tiger and Dabangg 2 and the unprecedented success of Bigg Boss 6, Khan has once again proved that he‘s the undisputed king of Bollywood, box office and the idiot box.

    The Dabangg actor also won an award for the best use of social media at this year‘s Zee Cine Awards. A research conducted by Asterii Analytics said, “We used sophisticated web analysis tools to scan millions of pages on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, blogs and online forums to quantify the total volume of buzz and conversations on Bollywood stars.

    A shortlist of 30 possible candidates was developed in the first phase. We developed 25 parameters to rank the candidates on the total volume of buzz. Using this four-phased process, we came to a single score and the top three candidates were Salman, Shahrukh and Bachchan. And Salman Khan emerged as the winner with a consistently high margin.”

    Salman has 7,516,597 fans on Facebook and 3,266,882 followers on Twitter. Not just that, the actor has fan club pages on Facebook and Twitter with over 757,057 and 577,919 followers respectively.

  • Prasad Lolayekar takes over as CEO of Entertainment Society of Goa

    Prasad Lolayekar takes over as CEO of Entertainment Society of Goa

    NEW DELHI: Prasad V. Lolayekar, Director for Art and Culture in the Goa Government and Officer on Special Duty to the Chief Minister, has been given additional charge as Chief Executive Officer of the Entertainment Society of Goa.

    This follows the resignation of Manoj Srivastava, who was Deputy Director in the Directorate of Film Festivals of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry. Earlier, Srivastava had been a producer with Doordarshan.

    During his tenure from June 2008 to 31 December 2012, Srivastava managed the International Film Festival of India on behalf of the Goa Government, since the ESG had been established for collaborating with the DFF after Panaji became a permanent venue for the IFFI in 2004.

    During his tenure, Srivastava introduced short films to IFFI by launching the Short Film Center in 2008, giving a fillip to short film movement.

    Ever since, the short film movement began in India. During his tenure, Goa bagged the Best Film Destination Award last year.

    From a state having five films shot each year, Goa last year boasted of shooting 79 films. Sources said the non-existent film business in Goa has shot up to an industry of Rs four billion.

    The attendance at the IFFI has risen from a paltry 3,700 in 2008 to over 13,000 in 2012.

    During Srivastava’s tenure, the first Digital Film Archive in Asia was set up in ESG, apart from Goa Cinephile, a famous Film Club for Goans and development of film culture in Goa.

  • Film industry protests against service tax and VAT

    Film industry protests against service tax and VAT

    MUMBAI: Emboldened by the day-long fast that film and TV actors, filmmakers, technicians, theatre owners and distributors down South resorted to, the Film and Television Producers Guild of India has threatened the government that if the 12.36 per cent service tax is not rolled back, they will be forced to stop all film shootings from February onward. They have also threatened to not allow any film to release during this period either.

    It is well-known that many actors do not pay their service tax from their own pocket; most of them openly tell the producer that he has to pay them 12.36 per cent by way of service tax over and above their acting fee. Producers have evaluated the cost of every project to be 12.5 per cent more, thanks to this additional service tax passed on to them by a majority of actors.

    “The latest findings have put the Hindi film industry on the back foot. First of all, there is no guarantee of films doing well these days. Add to that the burden of service tax even before you start rolling the cameras. This is grossly unfair,” pointed out the source.

    Confirming the news Film and Television Producers Guild of India President Mukesh Bhatt said, “We have spoken to the I & B Ministry and the state government. We are compelled to enforce a closure by the end of January if service tax and VAT are not waived off. We cannot take the burden any longer.”

    It is said that the film fraternity is again meeting on Wednesday to chalk out a final decision.

  • Sujoy Ghosh mulls Kahaani 2 with Amitabh Bachchan

    Sujoy Ghosh mulls Kahaani 2 with Amitabh Bachchan

    MUMBAI: Sujoy Ghosh, who had vowed to have his close associate Amitabh Bachchan in all his forthcoming films in any capacity, after he directed the veteran super star in Aladin, is mulling with the idea of working with the megastar in Kahaani 2, the sequel to his successful 2012 thriller Kahaani.

    The director, who has achieved a lot of fame with Kahaani, was speaking to this writer on the sidelines of a recent award function in which he annexed the best story writer award with Advaita Kala for Kahaani.

    “I am assuring you that Amitabh Bachchan will be part of Kahaani 2 in some way or the other. His blessings matter a lot to me. I can‘t see myself making any films without him,” Sujoy observed. Incidentally, Bachchan who was not in the ensemble cast of Kahaani, had lent his voice for the song Ekla chalo re.

    The director says he will roll the camera as soon as the script is locked.

    Asked as to when he would embark on shooting the film, Sujoy quipped, “I am still scripting the film so I can‘t say exactly when I will start shooting. The story will be a continuation from where we have left Kahaani. He however spilled the beans on Vidya Balan‘s role in the film. “She will be seen in an action avatar,” he added.

  • Matru ki Bjli ka Mandola fails to thunder at the box office

    Matru ki Bjli ka Mandola fails to thunder at the box office

    MUMBAI: Vishal Bharadwaj‘s Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola has belied expectations that it would be a blockbuster. The film also could not cash in on its solo release status following the postponement of Kamal Haasan‘s Vishwaroopam, which was slated to release the same day.

    Opening the film for paid previews on 10 January, a day before its exhaustive release went against the film as the bad reports percolated fast leading to a relatively poor opening on Friday. The film could not pick up momentum even on Saturday and Sunday and went on to close its opening weekend with Rs 203 million, way short of being a chartbuster.

    Table No 21 safely saw its way through in the first week and collected Rs 95.2 million, adding another Rs 11 million during the second weekend to take its ten-day total to Rs 106.2 million.

    Dabangg 2 collected Rs 108 million for week three. The film‘s total collection now now stands at Rs 1.42 billion.

    Khiladi 786 has added a symbolic Rs 3.5 million for its fifth week to collect a total of Rs 661.5 million.

  • Karan Johar titles next film as Hasee Toh Phasee

    Karan Johar titles next film as Hasee Toh Phasee

    MUMBAI: Film-maker Karan Johar has announced that his next production venture will be titled Hasee Toh Phasee.

    Dharma Productions will co-produce the film with Phantom Production while Vinil Matthew will direct Hasee Toh Phasee.

    The film stars Siddharth Malhotra and Parineeti Chopra as the lead pair.

    This will be Malhotra‘s second film with Dharma Productions after his debut movie Student OfThe Year.

    Chopra, on the other hand made an impressive debut with Ladies VS Ricky Bahl and was later seen in Yash Raj Films‘ Ishaqzaade.