Category: Hindi

MUMBAI: Of the four releases last Friday, Mirch was appreciated but that did not show on its collections. The other three – 332 Mumbai To India, Kaalo and Payback – are very poor.

Mirch has managed positive reviews as well as appreciation from few who watched it. The movie, however, suffered on account of poor promotion since the public awareness about it was poor.

The other three films – 332 Mumbai To India, Kaalo and Payback – struggled to keep shows going with their poor subjects and poorer face values.

As for the weekly box office returns, No Problem has proved to be a loser with its script proving to be a major drawback. Labelled as a comedy, it had neither comic situations nor any support from the cast or music. A tedious watch, it has managed to net a measly Rs 220 million in its first week run in India. The trade wrote it off on day one.

Band Baaja Baaraat, a Delhi centric romance, has collected Rs 100 million during its first week. Having benefitted due to poor opposition from new releases this week, the film‘s performance over the second weekend was steady, though with collections on the lower side with Rs 60 million.
 

MUMBAI: No Problem has reported a gross collection of Rs 425 million worldwide in its first week, according to box-office data provided by Eros International Media.

In India, the film has earned Rs 360 million while the other Rs 65 million has come from overseas.

The film, produced by Anil Kapoor Film Company, Rawail Grandsons Entertainment & Software and Spice Entertainment, released across cinemas on 10 December in more than 1,200 screens worldwide. Eros has acquired the distribution rights of the movie.

Speaking on the film‘s opening, Eros International Media SVP, distribution, Nandu Ahuja said, “No Problem opened positively and has fared fairly well over the week. The collections remained steady through the week and we have got a good showcasing of the film over the second week too.”

No Problem stars Anil Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt and Akshaye Khanna along with Sushmita Sen, Kangna Ranaut and Neetu Chandra.
 

MUMBAI: Jaipur-born filmmaker Naman Goyal, now a US resident, is in plans to make Rajiv Meets Rachel, a Hollywood film with an Indian taste.

A romantic comedy, the film would be based on dating.

The English film is about an Indian boy who meets and falls in love with an American girl in New York. He wants to bring the untouched realms of love affairs of persons from different nationality.

Goyal, who believes one of the main reasons for the success of Slumdog Millionaire was the publicity surrounding the song ‘Jai Ho‘, is planning a similar strategy with two songs sequences, one of them complete with Bollywood-style dress changes and background dancers keeping the lead couple company in New York‘s Central Park.

Goyal is confident that Rajiv Meets Rachel would be an instant hit with the American audience because it targets the global English speaking audience and not the Indian Americans. According to him, the message of the film is that all cultures of the world have positive and negative aspects and it‘s up to an individual to pick up the best things.

Goyal says he chose to come to America to learn the art of filmmaking instead of Mumbai because “I have always been influenced by the way Hollywood films were made and the way they were executed.”

Goyal felt “learning the American way of filmmaking would be very fascinating and would also give me an edge because of the consideration one gets if one comes back to Bollywood.”

Planned to shoot the film in July-August next year, Goyal is now trying to rope in a top Hollywood actress and an A-list Bollywood hero to play Rachel and Rajiv.
 

MUMBAI: Cinépolis India has appointed Devang Sampat as its head of strategy.
Having worked in the organisation for 12 years, Sampat was president-sales, marketing and operations at Cinemax when he exited the company.

Confirming his joining Cinépolis, Sampat says, “I am very excited to join a world leader in cinema exhibition and look forward to making significant contributions to the exciting and dynamic growth of Cinépolis in India.” 

Comments Cinépolis managing director and country head Milan Saini, “As Cinépolis moves towards an aggressive expansion path in India, Sampat‘s proven track record as well as his enormous and diverse experience in the industry will be a great asset to the organisation.”

Sampat has been directly associated with the Indian film exhibition industry for over a decade, specialising in corporate strategy and planning.
 

MUMBAI: A pecularity about Bollywood is that film folks pick a hot topic and to capitalise on the subject are prompt to announce a film. Didn‘t scores of filmmakers register titles on their films based on the 26/11 attacks?

Now to capitalise on the 2G scam, UK-based financier Hiten Gupta of Hiten Group has announced his maiden project, a film titled Radia-tion. The film will trace Radia‘s life as a young entrepreneur who went on to grab national headlines after the 2G scam was exposed.

The film that will be the directorial debut of Satchit Puranik will have Poonam Jhawar playing the role of Radia.

It is said that the film‘s Indian line producer, Manoj Nandwana, was looking for a subject for a Hindi film but wanted to do something different. After a lot of thought, he pounced upon the idea and decided to go ahead with a film loosely based on Radia‘s life since it had intrigue, power and exploitation.

MUMBAI: Indian documentary Inshallah Football bagged a special mention award at the 7th Dubai International Film Festival that wrapped up with a glittering ceremony on 19 December.

Directed by Asvin Kumar, Inshallah Football documents the true story of 18-year-old Basharat Baba aka Basha, a talented footballer selected to play professional football in Brazil. However, the dream gets distant when Indian authorities denied him a passport. The rason: his father happens to be a former militant, a reason enough to punish.

The festival played host to 157 films from 57 countries that included an array of contemporary Arab cinema, a competition focused on the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Arab world, Asia and Africa.

For the first time, the Dubai Fest presented the Muhr Emirati Awards for excellence in filmmaking to UAE filmmakers. Fourteen films made by UAE nationals competed in the first Muhr Emirati, shortlisted from more than 30 entries. Malal by Nayla Al Khaja bagged the Best Muhr Emirati film.

Actors Sean Penn, Sabah and Souleymane Cisse were honoured with Lifetime Achievement Awards.

MUMBAI: Farah Khan‘s Tees Maar Khan that releases on 24 December is set to net
Rs 500 million in its opening weekend, according to a prediction of media research and consulting firm Ormax Media.

The box office prediction has been arrived using the company‘s newly launched film research tool Moviescope.

Moviescope is a ‘Film Research Engine‘ designed to take care of all the needs of a producer. This includes four components – ad pre-test, film pre-test, awareness tracking (Cinematix) and exit polls.

Using consumer data on various parameters, Moviescope can predict the opening weekend collections of a film a week before its release and the lifetime box-office (LBO) within three days of release.

Ormax Media CEO Shailesh Kapoor says, “Moviescope covers various aspects of film research, conducted through a series of quantitative and qualitative techniques. For a producer buying into all four parts of the engine, the opening weekend and lifetime box-office can be predicted up to 5-6 months before the release. For other films, Moviescope can make these predictions a week before the release, though early estimates are available up to six weeks in advance.”

“Cinematix has been a very successful product since its April 2010 launch. Encouraged by its success, we have launched Moviescope as our latest endeavour to offer a one-stop product to provide all the answers that producers will need to know about their film‘s performance,” he adds.

The prediction of Tees Maar Khan has been calculated assuming that the film will release in about 1600 cinemas.
 

MUMBAI: Disgruntled by the way he has been projected in Kumar Mangat and Eros Entertainment’s upcoming film Toonpur Ka Superhero as the animated character Guppy Lahiri, Bappi Lahiri has taken legal recourse and sent a legal notice to the makers Kumar Mangat, Krishna Lulla and director Kireet Khurana.

Confirming the news and revealing that Bappi Lahiri is away to Delhi, his wife Chitrani said, “Yes, we have served a legal notice to Toonpur makers. Beyond this, I cannot say anything.” 

Toonpur Ka Superhero, a live action 3D animation film, has an animated character Guppy Lahiri who looks similar to Bappi Lahiri. Lahiri has alleged that having a character look similar to him, the makers of the film have made fun of him.

It may be noted that thespian Manoj Kumar had sent a similar notice to the makers of Om Shanti Om, in which a character in the film displayed the same body language and mannerism as him.

MUMBAI: Two of Bollywood‘s named filmmakers, Prakash Jha and Sudhir Mishra, have teamed up.

Starting with Mishra‘s new film Yeh Saali Zindagi, Prakash Jha Productions has taken charge of Mishra‘s films. In this regard, Mishra, known to be a fiercely independent-minded filmmaker, has happily incorporated suggestions made by Jha in the film.

Comments Jha, “Sudhir and I are basically like-minded filmmakers. If two filmmakers can see in the same line of vision, then why not? When I suggested minor changes during editing, Sudhir didn‘t mind incorporating them.”

In fact, Jha, intends to produce more films for Mishra and other outside directors as well. While Jha would personally direct big films like Raajneeti, outside directors would have the freedom to create a more intimate tightly budgeted cinema for Prakash Jha Productions. Old friend Nana Patekar is expected to direct a film for Jha.

MUMBAI: Multiplex chain operator Cinemax India plans to invest Rs 1 billion and almost double its screens to 200 by 2013.

Cinemax, which has most of its footprint in Maharashtra and Gujarat, also has plans to further raise capital after it reaches a particular size and scale.

“We have an investment plan of Rs 1 billion. We may be raising capital a year or 18 months down the road. This could be either through QIP or a follow-on issue or other fund-raising instruments,” says Cinemax India chief executive officer Sunil Punjabi.

Cinemax will be adding 30 screens by the end of this fiscal. It is currently operating 33 properties with 105 screens in 18 cities.

“We will be investing Rs 450-500 million over the next six months. We will have 30 more screens by the end of the fiscal,” says Punjabi.

Cinemax is targeting a revenue of Rs 2.4 billion this fiscal and Rs 3.8 billion in FY‘12. For the first half of FY‘11, the company‘s income from operations stood at Rs 907.2 million. In the fiscal ended March 2010, Cinemax had posted a revenue of Rs 1.55 billion.

“We will be expanding on a pan India basis. Our Delhi multiplex with the gaming zone will be up in March 2011,” says Punjabi.

Among the new thrusts will be to ramp up its gaming business. “We already have Giggles. We are adding a youth entertainment gaming brand, Versus. The cost per outlet of this is Rs 40-50 million. Versus will be there in our Delhi multiplex. We are in the process of signing up 2-3 more,” says Punjabi.