Category: Hindi

MUMBAI: Martin Scorcese will co-produce Shah Rukh Khan‘s Indo-Hollywood project Xtrme City along with David Weisman.

Scorsese has proposed making the film as a fully equal co-production between Khan‘s company Red Chillies and Scorsese‘s company Sikelia Productions in Hollywood. All creative decisions would be shared equally between Khan and Scorcese.

Xtrme City, dealing with the Mumbai mafia and slums, is also about romance, families and obligations. It focuses on an American who gets wrapped up in trouble with the Mafia after heading to India in order to help his father-in-law with a kidnapping plot.

The film, starring Leonardo Di Caprio, will be directed by Paul Schrader. “The script that I am dealing with is about two men who‘ve worked together – an American policeman and an Indian ex-bhai. But it‘s not a gangster film. It‘s not a Satya, Company or Sarkar. It‘s a different kind of film,” Schrader is reported to have said.

MUMBAI: Singham, a cop story produced by Reliance Pictures, went on the floors today.

Starring Ajay Devgn and Kajal Aggarwal, director Rohit Shetty turns action director with Singham.

The director, who is known for his flair for comedy, has conceptualised, designed and will be executing the action for the film.

The action of the film has been designed on an extravagant level. For the very first sequence, the director plans to blow up 20 cars.

Quizzed on this particular action sequence, Shetty avers, “The scene is set in a parking lot, where a kidnapping takes place. It is a chase scene between Ajay and some gangsters for which we will require to blow up cars. In the shot, there will be about 200 cars of which we will be blowing up 20 cars.”

MUMBAI: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures‘ Zokkomon is slated for release on 22 April.

Zokkomon is an action adventure film about an ordinary boy who overcomes extraordinary challenges. Kunal, played by Darsheel Safary, is the orphaned boy who discovers how cruel life is when he is abandoned by his heartless uncle.
 
Left to fend for himself, Kunal discovers the hero within and begins his epic journey of adventure and transformation to become Zokkomon.

Directed by debutant Satyajit Bhatkal, the film stars Darsheel Safary in the lead role along with Anupam Kher and Manjiri Phadnis who made a name in Aamir Khan‘s Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na.

MUMBAI: Veteran songstress Asha Bhosle is going to make her acting debut in Maaee (Mother).

The Marathi film is produced by Subhash Dawar of Alliance Entertainment and Nitin Shankar of Rhythm D‘vine Entertainment.

“Acting is something that I hadn‘t done so far. I‘ve done enough of playback singing in my career and when this opportunity to act in Maaee came my way, I thought why not give it a try. The first thing what excited me about the project was the script. When I heard it, I was sure that I wanted to be a part of the film. It‘s a fictional story about a mother-daughter relationship and Padmini Kolhapure is playing my daughter,” said Bhosle in a statement.

Directed by Mahesh Kodiyal, the film is said to have struck an inedible chord with Bhosle, resulting in giving a nod to the venture.
 

MUMBAI: Nikhil Panchamiya’s Mastang Mama will release in the month of July.

Directed by Vikram Singh, the film has Tanay Chheda, the young boy who jumped into films by playing the teenaged Jamal in Slumdog Millionaire and won further laurels by playing the autistic child in My Name is Khan.

In Mastang Mama, Tanay essays the role of a mischievous ‘nephew’ (bhanja) who always pokes fun at his maternal uncle (mama) played by Ruslaan Mumtaz in the film. The film chronicles the misadventures of both Tanay and Ruslaan. It is a humorous take on their dysfunctional relationship.

Starring Kulraj Randhawa, Gulshan Grover and Asrani in prominent roles, the film is currently in its post-production stage.

MUMBAI: After thinking of restarting his ambitious stalled English film Broken Horses, Vidhu Vinod Chopra has decided to get the film out of the backburner. Chopra had announced the film in September 2009.

Initially busy to complete his film 3 Idiots then and later with his protégé Rajesh Mapuskar‘s film Ferrari Ki Sawaari, Chopra was not able to find time to get Broken Horses, which he is writing as well as directing.

Now Chopra has decided to devote all his attention to Broken Horses. Last year, the producer-director had spent time in the US working on the script and scouted for locations.

The producer-director is now in Los Angeles for the pre-production work and would be stationed there till mid-March to finalise arrangements for shooting of the film. T
Slated to be shot in New Mexico from September, the film is currently in the casting process.

MUMBAI: Looks like cricket will hog the limelight the whole year. Soon after the World Cup and the fourth season of the IPL ends, the Celebrity Cricket League (CCL) that seeks to combine the two religions in India – Cricket and Cinema – would start in the first week of June.

For the first time in the country, CCL will create a platform where film fraternities of the South and Bollywood will battle each other to be one up on each other through cricket.

The first season of CCL will comprise four teams – Bollywood, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada film industries – playing six league matches culminating in an explosive final.

As a curtain raiser of the mega event, Bollywood XI and South Superstars XI will clash in a day and night encounter at VDCA cricket stadium in Vizag on 5 March.

While the Bollywood team (Mumbai Heroes) will be led by Sunil Shetty with Salman Khan as the icon player, the Kannada team will be led by Sudeep. Surya will lead the Tamil team and Venkatesh will be the skipper of the TeluguTeam.

MUMBAI: The Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (Oscars) has called for the screenplay of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Guzaarish to be kept as part of its permanent script collection.

Touching on the sensitive subject of mercy-killing, Guzaarish opened to rave reviews and was praised for its finer nuances, right from the script to the thought behind it, the characters and actors playing them and even to the music and cinematography.

According to Bhansali the film makes one aware about the beauty of life and what we have and how we should cherish what we have.

This year Guzaarish has won several awards like the Star Screen awards, Filmfare awards, Zee Cine awards and Stardust awards. The film, however, bombed at the box office.

MUMBAI: Tanu Weds Manu has done reasonably well over the weekend, improving marginally each day and facing a small drop on Sunday because of the India-England World Cup match. The film has several interesting situations as an NRI doctor with an Indian heart falls for the first girl he meets in the process of an arranged marriage match.

Having opened with Rs 31.8 million on Friday, it collected Rs 113.5 million in the opening weekend. The film, however, has registered a major drop on Monday, which is more noticeable at single screens.

According to distributor Sanjay Mehta of Bobby Enterprises, Delhi, “Tomorrow the Board exams start which would show on collections. The film, however, has an open run next week and should show some gain due to that.”

Meanwhile, 7 Khoon Maaf is a box office debacle from Vishal Bhardwaj, an outcome of a senseless script and indulgent execution. Having been rejected from day one, it added precious little to its opening weekend figures of Rs 96 million to end the week with Rs 128 million.

Patiala House added another Rs 60 million to its first week total of Rs 219 million to take its tally to Rs 279 million.

Yeh Sali Zindagi has bravely survived through its 3rd week to add about Rs 10 million to its previous total of Rs 94 million; thereby crossing the Rs 100 million mark. Its total net collection stands at Rs 104 million.

MUMBAI: Eros International Media has announced that it will release Chalo Dilli on 29 April.

The film is produced by Eros in association with Big Daddy Productions (owned by Mahesh Bhapati’s Globosport) and Bheegi Basanti Production.

Directed by Shashant Shah, the film stars Lara Datta and Vinay Pathak in lead roles.

Chalo Dilli is a journey which, along with the two protagonists, showcases the real India and its colorful and funny people with their eccentricities.

Said Eros International Media managing director Sunil Lulla, “We are looking forward to releasing a strong and interesting slate this year with Chalo Dilli. The film is an exciting collaboration with Mahesh and Lara and is going to take audiences by surprise with its strong content and fabulous casting.”

Commenting on the synergy, Big Daddy Productions’ managing director Mahesh Bhupathi said, “We are extremely excited that our first production is with the number one studio in the business. Through Eros International‘s global positioning, we hope to present the film on a worldwide platform. We have a lot of faith in the script and believe that the audiences can expect a sure-shot rib tickler.”

Chalo Dilli is currently in the post-production stage.