Category: Hindi

MUMBAI: The International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2010 that is to go underway in Goa from 22 November will have a special retrospective on French filmmaker Jean Becker.

Officials of the Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG), co-host for the festival, have revealed that as many as four films will be screened as a part of the retrospective in honour of the legendary filmmaker. The retrospective would open with his 1983-made film titled One Deadly Summer.

Other films of Becker that would be screened are Elisa (1995), Conversation with My Gardener (2007) and Love Me No More (2008).

In 1961, Becker made his first film Un Nomm La Rocca (A Man Named Rocca) followed by three films including Tender Voyou (Tender Scoundrel) (1966), that were critically and commercially successful.

MUMBAI: The third edition Of ‘Rendez-Vous With French Cinema’ is set to begin here on 4 December when the organisers will pay a tribute to the late director-writer Alain Corneau. He passed away on 30 August this year, a fortnight after his new film Crime d‘Amour (Love Crime) released.

Corneau, who was a jury member at many Indian film festivals and shot Nocturne Indien on different locations in the country in 1988, was in love with India and was a regular visitor here.

As part of the event, as many as seven French films will be screened with English subtitles at Metro Big Cinemas and Fun Cinemas. Romantic comedy Heartbreaker, starring Romain Duris, Vanessa Paradis and Julie Ferrier, will kickstart the four-day festival.

”The eclectic mix of films lined up for the third Rendez-vous with French Cinema in India is set to mesmerise the Indian audience,” Unifrance general manager Regine Hatchondo said in a statement.

The fest is organised by the French embassy in India along with Unifrance, an official organisation dedicated to promote French cinema worldwide. It aims to establish a platform to showcase various facets of contemporary French movies in India.
 

MUMBAI: Paying a tribute to Satyajit Ray and Rithwik Ghatak, Sri Lankan filmmaker Vimukthi Jaysundara has decided to make a Bengali film.

“Yes, I am making a Bengali film that you can say is my tribute to Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak. Today, I stand as a director because of their films. Their films have inspired me in many ways,” Jayasundara said on the sidelines of the 16th Kolkata Film Festival where his film Between Two Worlds was screened. “My film is my last war movie. After this, I will make a couple of movies based on a ‘character‘, he added.

Jayasundara will start his new experiment with a Bengali film and will shoot the film at various locations of north Kolkata and Rajarhat. “In the Bengali film, I will portray a character who is an architect and stays out of Bengal but comes back to the state after several years,‘ averred Jayasundara.

Jayasundara, known for making films on the impact of the civil war in Sri Lanka between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan Army, has received international acclaim, one from the Cannes Film Festival 2005 and the other from the Venice Film Festival.
 

BANGALORE: Anuj Saxena’s Maverick Productions is likely to produce a Marathi film, the plans for which will be drawn up shortly. This was revealed by Saxena to www.indiantelevision.com on the sidelines of a press conference to announce the ‘2nd BeYu Fashion Awards’ to honour fashion designers for their contribution to global fashion in Bangalore.

Maverick has had a number of film releases- mainly regional films, under its belt– Aloo Chat and Houseful (Kannada) Gulumal (Malayalam) in 2009 and Chase in 2010. It had announced a Gujarati film, Naatheyo, in October 2009. On the anvil is the under production Hindi film ‘One and Only’ starring Kangana Ranaut and debutante Chirag Paswan.

A Malayalam film ‘Best of Luck’ starring Manmooty is slated for release this month. The production house says that it has five films in various stages of production and a number of advertising films in its show-reel, besides which it is planning to produce a few documentaries.

Saxena is the managing director of the Rs 1 billion Elder Healthcare that is a part of the Rs 7 billion Elder Group of Companies. Elder Healthcare spends large part of its revenues towards mass media communications and marketing revealed Saxena. Last year it spent Rs 300 million towards advertising and brand building of the number of healthcare product brands that its portfolio contains. These include Fuel, ‘Just for Men’ hair color, Fair One, Tiger Balm, AM PM, Be Yu and Blistex.

The BeYu fashion event will run in Bangalore for two days, starting 19 November. BeYu is a premium German cosmetic brand in Saxena’s Elder Healthcare Ltd. Portfolio.

Saxena is also an actor and has performed in television soaps such as Kkusum and a few Bollywood movies.
 

MUMBAI: The Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) has tied up with Kingfisher Airlines, UB Group, Big 92.7FM, Qatar Airways, HPCL, BSNL, Rupa, The Lalit, Corporation bank, GIDC, EDC, HDFC Bank, Bright Advertising, Lokmat, the Leela and Macroman M-Series for the ensuing International Film Festival of India (IFFI).

Said Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) CEO Manoj Srivastava, “We have partnered with 16 leading brands so far who will work together for IFFI 2010. We have resolved to work collectively by pooling in our resources to make the film festival IFFI Goa 2010 a resounding success.” 

IFFI, the country’s most prestigious film festival, offers ample branding opportunities.

Kingfisher and Qatar Airways will set up a number of lounges – for actors, delegates, Goa Cinephile members and celebrities at the venue. “With the assistance of our partners we would like to extend facilities to everyone who is a part of IFFI 2010” added Srivastava.

UB Group divisional vice president and chief executive Govind Tiwari added, “Having worked together before we have developed a strong working relationship. We are extremely happy to partner with ESG for IFFI 2010 and will continue to do so. Kingfisher’s in – flight magazine and in-flight television will promote ESG’s initiatives and IFFI 2010 throughout the festival.”

Canacona based Intercontinental – The Lalit’s General Manager Shrikant stated that even through their property was based over 80 km away from the venue of the film festival, they have partnered with ESG. “Our CMD Jyotsna Suri was extremely keen that we support ESG in whatever way required,” he added.

Commenting on the association with IFFI 2010 Kingfisher Airlines Limited VP – Agency and Sales (Western and South India) Bhanu Kaila averred , “IFFI is a premier film festival of the country. As it celebrates its 41st edition in Goa, we are delighted that Kingfisher Airlines is associated with this marquee event as the official airline partners. Travelers will now be able to enjoy the award winning Kingfisher experience”.

Established by the Government of Goa in 2004 as the nodal agency in the organisation of IFFI, the main objective of ESG is to frame an entertainment policy to help cultivate Goa into a world-class international entertainment nerve center of the country.
 

MUMBAI: Thirty films will vie for prize money worth over Rs1 million at the short film centre (SFC) at the 41st International Film Festival of India (IFFI), starting in Panaji from 22 November.

It is said that the international competition section at the SFC will have 20 short films from India, Australia, US, Spain, Mexico, Iran, Britain, UAE and China.

The winner in the international competition section wins a prize of Rs 500,000 as part of the Golden Lamp Tree award, while the silver lamp tree award will carry a cash prize of Rs 300,000.

The environment competition will have ten films from India that will vie for the coveted Vasudha award, which is India‘s only government award for an environmental film. The Vasudha award will carry a purse of Rs 300,000.

The films will be judged by a jury comprising Green Oscar winner Naresh Bedi (chairman of the jury), documentary filmmaker Romulus Whitaker and founder and director of the International Film Festival of Innsbruck Helmut Groschup.

The jury for the SFC‘s international competition comprises Indian director Goutam Ghose, Russian actress Oxana Federova, French producer Patrick Jorge, actress Helene Cardona and founder of the London Film Academy Daisy Gili.

More than 8,500 delegates from across the world will take part in the 10-day film festival that ends on 2 December.
 

MUMBAI: Going by Cinematix, the weekly tracking tool that measures the awareness and interest to watch upcoming releases, Sanjay Leela Bhansali‘s Guzaarish is set to have a lukewarm opening at the box office.

In the week before its launch, the film scored lower than Hrithik Roshan’s last film Kites on Unaided Awareness (42% vs. 55%) and Interest (58% vs. 71%).

As per the predictive model, Guzaarish will have a net opening weekend collection of Rs. 170 to 180 million assuming that the film releases across 850 cinemas. This would mean that the movie will not feature in the list of the top 10 opening weekend grossers of this year.

The predictive model takes into account the film’s performance across the four Cinematix parameters – Unaided Awareness, Total Awareness, Appeal and Interest.

Data over the last six months has been used to predict a film‘s opening weekend net collection on the basis of its Cinematix scores. The model can predict the opening weekend collections of a film with an error margin of less than 15 per cent.

Films currently in the Cinematix track include Break Ke Baad, Rakta Charitra 2, Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey, Band Baaja Baaraat, Yamla Pagla Deewana, Run Bhola Run, Dhobi Ghat, Toonpur Ka Superhero, Tees Maar Khan, No Problem etc.

Developed and run by media research and consulting firm Ormax Media, the weekly Cinematix track is conducted across the key theatrical revenue markets – Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Indore
 

MUMBAI: Accusing the makers of Golmaal 3 of higlighting stammering and making mockery of it, the Indian Stammering Association (TISA) has sent a legal notice to the producers of the film.

The association wants the makers to delete all the scenes where the character stammers. In the film, Shreyas Talpade who plays the character of Laxman, stammers and the other characters make fun of him.

The producers have to respond to the notice before 14 December.

Golmaal 3 released on 5 November. The movie is directed by Rohit Shetty and also stars Mithun Chakraborty, Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor, Arshad Warsi, Tusshar Kapoor and Kunal Khemu among others.
 

MUMBAI: Delhi-based Satyam Cineplexes plans to add 12 screens by the year-end to take its total tally to 32.

Satyam just launched a new multiplex at Ansal Royal Plaza in Jodhpur. The new three-screen multiplex that will screen between 15 to 18 shows per day has a seating capacity of 663.

Besides Indore and Jodhpur, the company plans to build multiplexes in tier ll cities like Aurangabad, Mysore, Rohtak and Jaipur. It has already raised Rs 550 million through private equity, internal accruals and debt for the next 30 screens that it will open in the near future.

Said Satyam Cineplexes managing director Deven Chachra, “Our 30 years of experience in the cinematic business will give us an edge over other players in Jodhpur and I am sure that we will be able to continue our success story here too. With the launch in Jodhpur our total screens reaches 20 and we have plans to take the total count to 32 by the end of 2010.”
 

MUMBAI: Nila Madhab Panda, whose debut film I Am Kalam is inspired by the life of the former president A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, is working on two more films to make a trilogy on the lives of helper boys popularly know as ‘chhotus.‘

“It will be a trilogy. I am working on both the stories (part II and part III) and it will be like (Satyajit Ray‘s) Apu trilogy on the growth of the main character and different facets of his life,” Panda says.

Produced by Smile Foundation, a national development organisation, I Am Kalam is a movie on the plight of the underprivileged and highlights how the privileged can play a role to uplift the former.

Unlike the first part, the sequels won‘t be inspired by the ex-president. The trilogy will actually concentrate on the story of chhotus and will delve into various facets of their lives. “I will start shooting the second part early next year,” Panda revealed. 

I Am Kalam marks the debut of Delhi-based 12-year-old underprivileged child Harsh Mayyar in the lead and French theatre actress Beatrice Ordeix. Gulshan Grover and child actor Hussan Saad play pivotal roles. It is tentatively slated for release early next year.

Panda, who hails from Orissa, has produced and directed over 60 documentaries, short films, television drama and films for national broadcasters in the last 12 years.