Category: Hindi

MUMBAI: Fox Star Studios India is all set to release Black Swan in India on 25 February.

Black Swan revolves around Nina (Natalie 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 (Vincent Cassel) decides to replace prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre for the opening production of their new season, Swan Lake, Nina is his first choice.

But Nina has competition: a new dancer, Lily 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.

Nina fits the White Swan role perfectly but 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.

Directed by Darren Aronofsky, the film is a psychological thriller starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel and Mila Kunis.

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

MUMBAI: A five-day Australian Film Festival has been organised in Mumbai from 23 to 27 March.

The festival will include the premiere of a latest Australian film, hold a retrospective of Australian director Bill Bennett and also have a Knowledge series and master classes by Australian film professionals. 

The Knowledge Series will be held in collaboration with Ficci-Frames 2011 that is to be held from 23 to 25 March.

The festival, which will also provide a grant for the development of an Indo-Australian project, is being organised by an Australian Film Initiative, a group of Australian film professionals that promotes Australian films and distribution networks.
 

MUMBAI: Steven Spielberg‘s sci-fi thriller I Am Number 4 will hit theatres worldwide on 18 February.

The film, based on a book by the same name, is being presented by Dream Works Pictures and Reliance Big Entertainment.

Produced by Spielberg and Michael Bay, the film is about nine teenaged aliens who have different powers and are sent to earth to hide from their enemies. These nine aliens can only be killed in numerical order and with the first three already dead, John Smith (Alex Pettyfer) has just learned that he is number four.

Directed by D.J. Caruso, the film tracks the story of Smith, who is on the run from ruthless enemies sent to destroy him. While trying to save himself, John encounters unexpected, life-changing events.

The film stars Dianna Agron, Teresa Palmer, Callan McAuliffe and Timothy Olyphan.

MUMBAI: UTV has appointed G Dhananjayan as the Chief-South Business for its Motion Pictures division. He will report to UTV Motion Pictures CEO Siddharth Roy Kapur.

Commenting on Dhananjayan‘s appointment, Kapur said, “We are confident that with the wealth of experience Dhananjayan brings to the table, he will be a valuable addition to the senior management team at UTV and will help lead our efforts to building a strong business in the regional film space particularly in South India.

Dhananjayan, who has over 24 years of work experience was earlier with Moser Baer, serving as its Chief Executive – Film Business. In his tenure, he was instrumental in making it India‘s largest Home entertainment company.

Prior to Moser Baer, Dhananjayan has had significant stints with Vodafone and Airtel, where he led the sales, marketing and operations team and played a pivotal role in achieving incredible growth in both subscriber base and revenues. In addition to this, Dhananjayan also worked with Nerolac Paints and RPG – Saregama Music India in the past.

Averred Dhananjayan, “UTV has been a front-runner in the Hindi film industry and has constantly experimented with path breaking and contemporary cinema, which has been both creatively and commercially successful. In an aim to further strengthen their presence in the South, I am looking forward to work with the team in spearheading the business there.”
 

MUMBAI: The remaking rights of Dabangg have not been sold to any one yet, a source at Arbaaz Khan Productions has revealed.

Media reports had stated that Salman Khan’s Dabangg is to be remade in Telugu as Gabbar Singh.

“Many keen filmmakers from the South did approach Arbaaz for the remake rights, but he has decided to wait for the right time to sell the same . As far as this Telugu film is concerned, the makers may get into legal trouble if they are calling it a remake of Dabangg as the rights are still with the production house,” the source said.

For some time, news has been going around that Pawan Kalyan was to remake Dabangg in Telugu under his own banner Pawan Kalyan Creative Works with director Harish Shankar at the helm.

MUMBAI: Sony Pictures India will release the critically acclaimed documentary Inside Job in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore on 4 February to be followed by a subsequent rollout in other cities.

Inside Job is the first film to expose the shocking truth behind the economic crisis of 2008. The global financial meltdown, at a cost of over $20 trillion, resulted in millions of people losing their homes and jobs.

Through extensive research and interviews with major financial insiders, politicians and journalists, Inside Job traces the rise of a rogue industry and unveils the corrosive relationships which have corrupted politics, regulation and academia.

Directed by Charles Ferguson and narrated by Matt Damon, the film has been nominated for a Best Documentary Feature for the Academy Awards. It has also garnered eight other nominations at various critics awards including the San Diego Film Critics Society Awards and the Gotham Awards.

In India, the film was screened at the Mumbai Film Festival, last year. It was also screened at the prestigious film festivals of Cannes, Toronto and New York.

MUMBAI: The 3rd International Children‘s Film Festival will be held from 5 to 11 April in Lucknow.

The festival comprises various sections such as world competition, children‘s feature films, animation features, world competition for animation shorts and an Indian section. Awards will be given in all these categories.
 
It may be remembered that the 2nd edition of the film festival received as many as 223 entries from 38 countries like Poland, France, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Spain, UK and USA.

Jury members of last year‘s festival consisted of film critic and screenwriter from Serbia, Vladislava Vojnovic, filmmaker Shaji N. Karun, filmmaker and writer P. R. Ramadasa Naidu and Japanese independent documentary and TV producer Toshifumi Matsushita.

MUMBAI: Excel Home Entertainment and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment have released the live-action film Marmaduke directly on Blu-Ray and home video.

The film did not have a theatrical release in India; hence it directly premieres on home video.

The Oscar-nominated film is based on Brad Anderson‘s popular comic strip that has run for more than five decades. The film centers on a rural Kansas family and their pets – a Great Dane named Marmaduke (voiced by Owen Wilson) and a Balinese named Carlos (voiced by George Lopez).

Marmaduke‘s owners, a married couple, relocates from Kansas to Orange County, California. Marmaduke has some social problems at an upscale dog park and has some misadventures when he gets out of the yard.

Marmaduke is available on Blu-Ray for Rs 1299 and DVD for Rs 499.

MUMBAI: Dil Toh Baccha Hai had a meek opening on Friday collecting around Rs 40 million, but it consolidated on Saturday and Sunday to finish its first weekend with Rs 142. 5 million at the domestic box office.

The film lacks in comedy and romance and has started dropping from Monday. Due to lack of any other release, the film had an exhaustive release and seems to have exhausted its potential. The film could have done with some trimming, its playing time being about 245 minutes.

Says Raj Bansal of Jai Pictures, Jaipur, who has released the film in Rajasthan Circuit, “The film carries an ‘Adult‘ tag and in a traditional circuit like ours, it affects the collections considerably.”

Dhobi Ghat has made the most of brand Aamir Khan and his free services to the film, ending its first week with little over Rs 110 million. While the film is expected to recover most of its investment from the domestic box office, the rest would be a bonus.

Yamla Pagla Deewana continued to do well in Delhi and Punjab in its 2nd week.

MUMBAI: Nasreen Munni Kabir who chronicled the lives of Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan in her documentaries, has come up with a book that narrates the making of Guru Dutt‘s evergreen film Pyaasa titled The Dialogue of Pyaasa.

The book that takes a detailed look at both the man and his work presents a detailed look at the film‘s making with its famous dialogues and evergreen songs. Considered a masterpiece, the film had a flawless script by Abrar Alvi and Dutt‘s deft direction.

The lyrics by Sahir Ludhianvi were brought to life in songs like Jaane kya tune kahi, Hum aap ki ankhon mein, Jaane woh kaise log the jinke, Jinhe naaz hai Hind and Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaaye by music maestro SD Burman.

Kabir had earlier helmed In Search of Guru Dutt, a three-part documentary on the legendary Indian actor, writer, director and producer on the occasion of his 25th death anniversary.

The book, would be launched on Wednesday and includes extensive commentary by Kabir. It will be available in Hindi, Urdu and English.