Category: Hindi

MUMBAI: Oscar nominated psychological thriller Black Swan will release in India on 4 March.

The film, directed by Darren Aronofsky, stars Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, and Mila Kunis.

Black Swan revolves around Nina (Portman), a ballerina with a prestigious New York City ballet company whose life, like all those in her profession, is completely consumed with dance.

When artistic director Thomas Leroy (Cassel) decides to replace prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre (Ryder) for the opening production of their new season, Nina is his first choice. But she has competition in the form of a new dancer, Lily (Kunis), who impresses Leroy as well.

Swan Lake requires a dancer who can play both the White Swan with innocence and grace and the Black Swan who represents guile and sensuality. While Nina fits the White Swan role perfectly, Lily is the personification of the Black Swan. As the two young dancers expand their rivalry into a twisted friendship, Nina begins to get more in touch with her dark side – a recklessness that threatens to destroy her.

Swan Lake has already won a Golden Globe and BAFTA award for Best Actress and has bagged 5 Oscar nominations (best picture, best actress, best director, best cinematography and best film editing), apart from receiving standing ovations at numerous international film festivals.

MUMBAI: Shah Rukh Khan has completed making a documentary on K Asif’s Mughal-E-Azam.

Not too many people know that the actor owns the original camera on which his favourite film Mughal-E-Azam (1960) was shot. Khan is a self-proclaimed fan of the classic and has now finished making a documentary on it.

During one of these discussions, Akbar expressed the desire to pay a tribute to his father and make a documentary on the classic. Khan, who has always been in awe of K. Asif’s direction in the film, liked the idea and immediately took upon himself to produce the film under his banner Red Chillies. Khan also volunteered to be an anchor for the documentary.

The 40-minute-long documentary, put together by Deven Munjal, will have a lot of information on the classic and interviews and comments from many film folks.

MUMBAI: Sometime ago, Priyadarshan, in an interview, had said that he would no longer do comedy films. The only comedy that the filmmaker is committed to doing is the sequel of Malaamal Weekly for Percept Pictures. Entitled Malaamal Robbery, the film will be about a group of people wanting to rob a bank only to discover that it has no money.

Right now, Priyadarshan is doing his homework for his upcoming film on AIDS, the story idea of which he narrated to Aamir Khan who has given his nod to produce the film that will be minus songs and commercial trappings.

Till sometime ago, Priyadarshan was busy shooting Ratan Jain’s thriller Tezz, but the film is now stranded because of bad weather. The film is waiting for the sun to shine on its fate. The makers are waiting for the sun to come out in Scotland where the rest of the film is to be shot.

Almost 60 per cent of the film is ready, “I will complete the balance in one stretch, but we cannot shoot before summer when the sun comes out, ” avers Priyadarshan.

Meanwhile, Priyadarshan is finishing the Malayalam film called The Arab Camel and Madhavan Nair that stars Mohanlal. The film will also be made in Hindi.
 

MUMBAI: Ram Gopal Varma has decided to cut on his spending. He has decided to finish his next Telugu project, Dongala Mutha in just five days with an eight-member crew.

Further, Varma has also decided to pen down cost-management guidelines for filmmakers in the form of a book. Says the director, “Nowhere in the world do filmmakers waste so much money and time in pampering stars, indulging in mammoth crew costs. We don‘t need vanity vans for stars if they‘re shooting all day. A film can be made at a fraction of the current budgets and in less than a week.” 

In fact, RGV‘s cousin Madhu Mantena, producer of Ghajini, asked his brother to actually pen a manual on cost-effective filmmaking by which Bollywood directors can reduce their budgets by 60 to 70 per cent.

Mantena also intends to enter Varma‘s Dongala Mathu in the Guinness Book Of World Records for making a film in less than five days with an eight-member crew.

MUMBAI: Swati Shetty, Walt Disney Studios International Production (India) executive director, theatrical productions and acquisitions, has resigned.

Speaking to a Walt Disney insider, indiantelevision.com gathers that Shetty is  on her way out, but the date she leaves the organisation is not certain.

 
Shetty joined Disney India in 2005 from Star India and was initially responsible for ad sales of Disney channels. Before handling the motion picture business, she was the India director of Disney-ABC International Television.

Having overseen the theatrical, production and acquisition aspects of local language films for Walt Disney in India, Shetty was promoted to her current position in May last year.
 

MUMBAI: Rajshri Productions‘ Love You Mr Kalakaar is set for release on 13 May.

Starring Tusshar Kapoor and Amrita Rao in the lead roles, the film is about how an artist makes his niche in a cut-throat corporate world. The film also highlights how there is an artist hidden in everyone of us waiting to be discovered.

Others who feature in the film are Ram Kapoor, Madhoo, Prem Chopra, Kiran Kumar, Yateen Kayekar, Jai Kalra and Kunal Kumar. The film introduces Prashant Ranyal and Snigdha Akolkar.

The associate producers are Sooraj R Barjatya, Rajjat A Barjatya, Ruchi Ajit Barjatya and Kavita Barjatya.

The film produced by Kamal Kumar Barjatya, Rajkumar Barjatya, Ajit Kumar Barjatya has story, screenplay, dialogue and direction by S Manasvi.
 

MUMBAI: As a special gesture to filmmakers making Rajasthani language films, the Rajasthan government has decided to give a subsidy of Rs 500,000. This was announced by the state chief minister Ashok Gehlot.

With this, the six-and-a-half-decade-old Rajasthani film industry hopes to match the standards of Tamil, Telugu, Bhojpuri and Kanada films. 

About a fortnight ago, a delegation of Rajasthani film producers had met Gehlot and sought subsidies and drew the state government‘s attention towards the plight of the local film industry.

Confirming the initiative, Rajasthan government principal secretary, finance CK Mathew said, “We have cleared the proposal that allows an aid up to Rs 5 lakh for all the Rajasthani films after their completion. The producers, after getting clearance from the Censor Board, can apply for this aid.”

The state government has been providing 100 per cent entertainment tax exemption to the Rajasthani films shot in the state.
 

MUMBAI: Filmmaker Avtar Bhogal will shortly release his new film on the controversial subject of honour killings prevailing among the Indian and Pakistan communities in Britain.

Titled Honour Killings, the film sheds light on the issue of murder in the name of protecting family honour. Such acts have seen an alarming rise in cases across UK and parts of the western world over recent years.

Presented by Ek Onkar Films, the multi-cultural film is primarily set in London, although the narrative also takes the story to parts of India and Pakistan.

In Honour Killings, Bhogal brings together on screen an accomplished pool of British, Indian and Pakistani acting talent, including Bollywood film industry veteran Prem Chopra, Gulshan Grover and Pakistani actor Jawed Sheikh.

Bhogal is known for a series of films dealing with issues related to women.
 

MUMBAI: In a special strand titled ‘Beyond Bollywood‘, the Glasgow Film Festival this year has chosen to focus on Indian filmmaking.

“India is experiencing an amazing blossoming of independent filmmaking. Beyond all the celebrated traditions of Bollywood, there is a whole generation determined to reflect all the different aspects of Indian life in their stories and films,” says Allan Hunter, co-director of the festival.

The highlights of the festival include the British premiere of Dev Benegal‘s Road, Movie and Ritwik Ghatak‘s Titas Ekti Nodir Naam (A River Called Titas).

Also scheduled to screen at the festival are India‘s 2010 Oscar entry Harishchandrachi Factory and Autograph, a rework of Satyajit Rays classic Nayak.

The Glasgow Film Festival runs from 17 to 27 February.

MUMBAI: Two Indian filmmakers bagged awards at the Bristol-based Wildscreen Festival, better known as the Panda Awards or the Green Oscars.

The two Indian winning entries showcasing the best of wildlife and environment films produced across the globe were Mysore-based duo Krupakar and Senani Hegde‘s The Pack: Episode 5 in the ‘Animal Behaviour‘ category and Rita Banerji and Shilpi Sharma‘s The Wild Meat Trail in the category to promote filmmakers from developing countries. 

The Wild Meat Trail portrays community and individual hunting practices in different parts of North-East India, tracking the complex transition of these utility and ritual-based hunting traditions into an increasingly commercial activity geared to generate cash.

The film also traces the journey of an individual, Tarang, who tries to bring in workable ideas of conservation and sustainability to his village and the Nyishi community of Arunachal Pradesh.

It is said that the film was made to draw attention to the rapidly declining wildlife population in the North-East and the possible ways to bring positive change through community-led conservation.

The other film The Pack: Episode 5 has Hegde unraveling the secret lives of Asiatic wild dogs in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve of southern India. Until a few decades ago, Asiatic wild dogs, known locally as Dhole, were branded as bloody killers and vermin by humans, and were mercilessly slaughtered to near extinction.

Another Indian film that made it to the short list was Bangalore-based filmmaker Sandesh Kadur‘s North-Eastern Diaries: Seeking Wildlife in the Eastern Himalayas.

The Wildscreen awards received 446 entries this year, out of which 67 were shortlisted for the final.