Category: Hindi

MUMBAI: Documentary maker Colin Dcunha’s short film Mumbaikar Ganesh has been awarded the Western Union Short film Prize 2011 at the ‘Bollywood and Beyond festival in Australia. The filmmaker will be traveling to Australia to attend the awards gala on 12 March.

Mumbaikar Ganesh is the story about two Ganeshs from Mumbai. A young man, Jai Arjun Ganesh, speaks about his childhood in Mumbai and his ambitions for the future while he participates in the festival of Lord Ganesh – the beloved god,who eradicates all obstacles.

The film was awarded the Best Film in the Dimensions Mumbai category at the 2001 International Film Festival, Mumbai (MAMI).

Collin graduated with a specialisation in advertising from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. He was the student representative from India at the 2005 Cannes Lions Awards and was awarded the Konig Ludwig Trophy in 2009 for his advertisement ‘Take Off‘.
 

MUMBAI: Two Indian co-productions – Patang (India/USA) and Marathon Boy (UK/USA/India) – are set to feature at the 10th Tribeca Film Festival (TFF).

Patang, written and directed by Prashant Bhargava will be screened in the World ‘Narrative‘ section. The family drama, set in the backdrop of India‘s largest kite festival in Ahmedabad, was recently screened in Berlinale forum.

Marathon Boy, directed by Gemma Atwal, will participate in the ‘Documentary‘ competition of the festival. The film follows Budhia, the four-year-old prodigy plucked from the slums of India and trained for marathon by Biranchi Das, a judo coach who runs an orphanage in the eastern state of Orissa. The film had received support from the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund.

Among the lineup of films announced, TFF 2011 will include feature films from 32 countries including 43 world premieres and 10 international premieres.

The festival will run from 20 April to 1 May in Lower Manhattan.

MUMBAI: Balaji Motion Pictures has decided to make a sequel of its 2010 hit film Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai.

But, unlike the prequel, Emraan Hashmi doesn‘t feature in this film. It would be Akshay Kumar who would essay the role of Dawood. Kumar‘s role in the film will feature lots of action sequences. 

Milan Luthria‘s sequel will continue with the original tale of Shoaib (Dawood) and how he builds up his empire following the death of Sultan (Haji).

Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai starred Ajay Devgn, Emraan Hashmi, Prachi Desai and Kangana Ranaut in the lead roles.

MUMBAI: The week‘s solo release, Yeh Faasley, proves a futile exercise with no takers; whatever little chance it had of drawing a few curios viewers was lost to two Oscar winning English movies, King‘s Speech and Black Swan, also released last week, taking away its target audience.

Tanu Weds Manu has done reasonably well in its first week to collect Rs 178 million. To its advantage, poor 2nd week opposition, Yeh Faasley, keeps the film‘s collections steady with 2nd weekend business of Rs 55 million to take its 10-day total to Rs 233 million.
 
7 Khoon Maaf confirms its rejection at the box office with a poor Rs 20.8 million to show for its 2nd week, taking its two-week total to Rs 156 million.

With collections of Rs 18 million, Patiala House‘s three-week total is now Rs 297 million.

MUMBAI: The Taipei‘s Asia Pacific Film Festival has awarded filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta with the best feature film award for his Bengali film Janala.

The organizers of the festival had the award sent to the directorate of film festivals under the information and broadcasting ministry since Dasgupta couldn‘t collect the award personally because of his pre-occupation.

Janala revolves around an urban couple, Bimal (Indraneil Sengupta) and Meera (Swastika Mukherjee). On a visit to his old school, Bimal witnesses the dilapidated condition of the building, especially a window, through which he once used to look outside. 

He decides to gift the school with a new window without informing his fiancee. The headmaster of the school, which is under the grip of village politicians, is annoyed by Bimal‘s gift and rejects it.

Produced by Reliance Big Pictures, the film has already been premiered in the Masters of World Cinema section at Toronto International Film Festival. It has also been screened at London Film Festival, Mumbai Film Festival, Hong Kong Asian Film Festival and the Dubai Film Festival. 

MUMBAI: Ajay Devgn, N R Pachisia and Praveen Talreja, having bought the Hindi remake rights of the Telugu film Maryada Ramanna, have signed Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge director Ashwini Dhir to direct the venture.

The script of the Telugu film will be reworked according to Bollywood taste buds.

While Devgn will play the male protagonist in the musical comedy, the female lead would be selected after the script takes a formal shape.

Having seen the audiences’ reaction to his earlier comedies like the Golmaal series and All the Best, Devgn has been taking more interest to do movies in this genre.

MUMBAI: Lucknow-based politician Kush Bhargava is geared up to release Monica -The Politics Of Murder, a film based on the recent telecom scam.

The film releases on 25 March.

A political thriller, the film cuts across party lines. It is about an ambitious woman who gets trapped in circumstances beyond her control and is murdered.

The film revolves around the corporate-political nexus in the telecom sector. The protagonist Monica has Divya Dutta playing Nira Radia.

Directed by Sushen Bhatnagar, the film has Ashutosh Rana, Yashpal Sharma and Kittu Gidwani.

While Bhargava was having a tough time finding backers for his film, Anup Jalota jumped on board and has offered to present the film.

MUMBAI: The Palm Beach Women’s International Film Festival has invited Tamil feature film Om Obama to be part of the films that would be screened. The film will have its US Premiere at the inaugural edition.

The film is a comedy about a South Indian village that prays for Obama’s success in the presidential campaign as they believe that he can save them.

The Whistelblower, directed by Larysa Kondracki, won the best feature film at Palm Springs International Film Festival 2011.

The maiden edition of the women’s film festival will be held from 7 to 10 April will include 10 world premieres, 7 US premieres and several films from 15 countries.

MUMBAI: The motion picture distribution company 52 Weeks Entertainment has acquired the Indian distribution rights of Om Puri starrer English movie West is West, a sequel to East is East from the worldwide sales agent Icon Film.

West is West is slated for release in India in April this year. The movie was released in UK on 25 February and had a strong opening. It collected a little over $1.2 million (Rs 55 million ) at the weekend box office with 184 screens.

West is West producer, Leslee Udwin, who also produced East is East, said: “There were two territories in which the choice of distributor was of great importance to me. The UK and India/Pakistan; partly because I know the film will perform superbly in the territories if correctly handled, and partly because the team of actors and crew come from those countries and so I felt a big responsibility there.”

“West is West is the sequel to the internationally acclaimed film East is East, a ground-breaking film which broke cultural barriers around the world,” 52 Week Entertainment’s Suneil Wadha added. “As a strategy, in India the film is set for an April release along with the North America & Canada. The timing of the India release is in keeping with the World Cup and exams time. These kind of films grow with word of mouth for which you would require time.”

West is West is is based on and inspired by autobiographical events, and produced by the same creative team.

The sequel takes the Khan family on a journey from Salford, England to rural Pakistan. West is West is as much the coming of age of 13-year-old Sajid as of his father, 60-year-old George ‘Ghengis’ Khan. George, in a last attempt to make a good Muslim and a good son of him, decides to pack Sajid off to his first wife and family in the Punjab, whom he had abandoned 30 years earlier. In the process the tables are turned on George when he comes face to face with his own transgressions, and realises that it is he himself who has much to learn.

Written by Ayub Khan-Din (BAFTA winner), directed by Andy De Emmony (BAFTA nominated) and produced by Udwin (BAFTA winner), West is West stars Om Puri, Linda Bassett, Jimi Mistry, Emil Marwa, Ila Arun, Lesley Nicoll, Vijay Raaz and introduces Aqib Khan. The music of the film is by Shankar-Eshaan-Loy & Rob lane.
 

MUMBAI: The voting process of the 12th International India Film Academy awards got going when Kareena Kapoor cast her first vote. She was accompanied by IIFA Advisory Board member Karan Johar and Wizcraft International Entertainment, director Sabbas Joseph. Later they were joined by Anil Kapoor, Boman Irani and Riteish Deshmukh.

Having cast the first vote, Kareena Kapoor said: “It is a great privilege that has been bestowed upon me to cast the first vote and inaugurate the 12th IIFA voting weekend. IIFA has set a high standard with its voting procedure and has hence established a benchmark for excellence and credibility. This being the IIFA’s premiere in North America, I am eagerly looking forward to the IIFA weekend in Toronto.”

“I have been performing in the last four editions of the IIFA, but this edition would be a very emotional one for me for the organisers have kept a retrospective on my grandfather Raj Kapoor,” she added.

On his part, Karan Johar said: “After going around several destinations in the world, the IIFA is entering North America for the first time. This is a unique opportunity for our film fraternity getting to know that country. We, all in the film fraternity are collectively acting as ambassadors in promoting our film industry there in Canada.”

Anil Kapoor also spoke high of the IIFA and its going to Canada this year. “These kind of going around countries help filmmakers from both ends to network and explore new horizons. It was way back when the IIFA was held in South Africa. There I met a filmmaker who got interested in my film My Name Is Gandhi when I narrated him the script. This is how he came on board and my film got made,” he observed.

The IIFA voting process is closely monitored by PricewaterHouse Coopers (PwC), the official auditors for the event. The popular category nominations will then be available for the global audience to participate in the voting process.

The three-day 2011 edition of the IIFA would be held in Ontario from 23 to 25 June this year.