Category: Hindi

Producer: Anjum Rizvi Director: Hemant Madhukar Music: Bappa Lahiri Cast: Jimmy Shergill, Sanjay Suri, Hazel, Kaveri Jha, Sachin Khedekar

MUMBAI: A Flat, coming from the producer of A Wednesday, created some expectations in the film trade if not yet with the moviegoers. However, the film falls in a totally different genre; it is of supernatural kind, a ghost story.

A Flat works on a script of convenience. Jimmy Shergill starts earning and decides to buy a flat. This while seeking opportunities to move abroad to USA for better prospects! When he does leave for the US, the flat is rented out to his friend, Sanjay Suri.

Jimmy has dumped his girlfriend, Kaveri Jha, for a brighter future in the US. However, Jha is pregnant with his child. Filled with guilt and remorse, Jimmy decides to return and make up with her. His father, Sachin Khedekar, who visits Jimmy’s flat to spruce it for his arrival, is found brutally murdered in his flat and for Jimmy the nightmares turn into real life horror. He gets locked in his own flat and experiences ghost sightings and undergoes all sorts of torment. That is when he comes across a Himachali girl, Hazel’s, diary. Upon reading, he finds that she too has been betrayed and killed in the same place.

The second half is devoted to creating her story as well as creating a villain of the story; sadly this part is weak and fails to justify all that the hero, Shergill, goes through.

Jimmy Shergill does a convincing job throughout. Sanjay Suri is fair. Hazel is too raw for the role. Direction is limited by weak script. Musical score needed at least one haunting number to set the tone of the theme. The background score is effective.

A Flat does not thrill and falls flat on entertainment quotient.
 

MUMBAI: Balaji Motion Pictures and Alt Entertainment‘s Shorr had its US premiere on the opening night of the Tenth Annual Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council (MIAAC) Film Festival in New York on 10 November.

A special festival cut of Shorr was shown at MIAAC, as the final theatrical cut will be ready before its anticipated release in March-April next year. 

Inspired from various daily newspaper stories, the film revolves around three interconnected stories set during the popular and chaotic Ganpati festival in Mumbai.

Shorr is a production of Alt Entertainment, a sister concern of Balaji Motion Pictures that released Love, Sex aur Dhokha earlier this year.

The festival concludes on 14 November.
 

MUMBAI: The Directorate of Film Festival, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and the Government of Goa have decided to honour Manoj Bajpayee for his contribution to new emerging cinema on 22 November, the day the International Film Festival of India kicks off in Goa.

Bajpai has played memorable roles in films like Bandit Queen, Satya, Shool, Aks, Pinjar and Raajneeti to name a few.

Comments Bajpai, “I am very happy and humbled by this decision. They selected me for my work that is yet more rewarding. To be honored and facilitated in the presence of international film fraternity is definitely great. For me, as an actor, film making a constant changing process. Indian cinema has come a long way and my contribution to it has brought me pleasure. As an artiste, I too, I have evolved along with it.”

The ten-day festival that will conclude on 2 December will see a strong presence of Bollywood in terms of tributes and films, including celebrating the birth centenary year of yesteryear actors Ashok Kumar, Motilal and Nadia.

This year, the IFFI has a record number of 450 film entries from 55 countries.
 

MUMBAI: For the first time in the annals of Indian film history, director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra has decided to break away from the concept of an interval, “the artificial divide”, as he calls it, in his forthcoming film Run Milkha Run and also all his future films.

” There needs to be a shift in the manner in which we format our films. Films in the West don‘t have intervals forced on them. Why should we not ape them in this respect when we ape them in everything else? It‘s high time we do away with the pre interval and the post interval halves,” Mehra quips.

It may noted that some of the Bollywood films like Raj Kapoor’s Sangam and Mera Naam Joker had as many as two intervals.

Run Milkha Run is largely patterned along the life and times of India‘s ace sprinter Milkha Singh. The film would have either Akshay Kumar or Abhishek Bachchan as the probable leads.

MUMBAI: Mumbai 48 Hour Film Project (48HFP), an international filmmaking competition, is starting its Mumbai leg today. The competition will see filmmakers make a film in 48 hours. The competition will see teams getting the genres on Friday and would have to return on Sunday with their fully finished film scripted, shot, edited and scored over the weekend.

The genres that will be allotted include comedy, drama, fantasy, film de femme, film noir, horror, mockumentary, musical or western, road movie, romance, sci fi, silent film and thriller/suspense. 

Over 800 filmmakers have signed up from across the country – Bhopal, Gwalior, Indore, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune among others.

Avers jury member Nagesh Kukunoor, “The 48-hour format is a great sign to the world of filmmaking that is burdened with ridiculous deadlines. I‘m looking forward to some crazy creativity in the competition.”

The team that wins the Best Film-Mumbai accolade will become a contender for the Best International Film competition. Mumbai‘s Best Film will also be screened at the Miami International Film Festival 2011. The 41st International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Goa, will also screen the top films from the competition in Mumbai.

Ten best films from the world over will then be screened at the Cannes 2011 Film Festival‘s Short Film Corner.

Among the film personalities supporting the event as jury members besides Kukunoor are Amol Palekar, Dolly Thakore, R. Balakrishnan, Paromita Vohra, Shimit Amin, Manish Jha and Niranjan Iyengar.

MUMBAI: Eros International Media, the recently listed pure play movie production company, has posted a consolidated second-quarter net profit (after minority interest) of Rs 453.3 million, up 12.9 per cent over the year-ago period.

The company‘s total income, however, fell 30.87 per cent to Rs 1.88 billion for the three-month period ended September. Expenses also dropped to Rs 1.32 billion, from Rs 2.13 billion in the year-ago period.

Profit from operations before other income, interest & exceptional items was at Rs 562.7 million, from Rs. 583.1 million in the earlier year.

On a standalone basis, Eros‘ net profit fell to Rs 175.9 million, from Rs 292.7 million a year ago. Total income was Rs 934.5 million (from Rs 2.46 billion), while expenses were down at Rs 657.4 million (Rs 2.01 billion).

During the first half of the current fiscal, consolidated net profit rose 29.5 per cent to Rs 608.4 million, as against Rs 470 million in the second quarter of FY‘10. Total income was at Rs 3.15 billion compared to Rs 3.37 billion in the earlier year.

The profit from operations before other income, interest & exceptional items increased 20.4 per cent to Rs 809.2 million.

Eros was listed on Indian bourses on 6 October after completing its Rs 3.5 billion IPO. The company raised funds primarily for acquiring and co-producing Indian films including Hindi as well as certain Tamil and other regional language films.

In the first half, Eros has released 39 films – the highest by any player in the sector. The list includes Housefull, Anjaana Anjaani, Paathshaala and overseas release of Dabangg and Endhiran (Tamil & Telugu), Ravanan, Singham, Sura (in Tamil) and Haapus in Marathi.

Eros also signed a multi-film content licensing deal worth Rs 640 million for broadcast on Zee Entertainment. This deal involves exclusive broadcasting of a select number of Eros International’s films across Zee Entertainment’s television network.

Eros said it has signed, to date, Rs 2.4 billion worth television and music syndication deals that will start augmenting revenues and deliver earnings that have attractive margins in FY’11 and FY’12.

Commenting on the results Eros International Media MD Sunil Lulla said, “At the heart of our business strategy is our catalogue, our strong movie pipeline mainly tied up through our co-productions and our strong distribution network in India and international market leadership through our parent Eros International plc. With over a 30-year successful track record backed by a unique de-risked business model underpinned by our portfolio pre-sales approach, we are proud to have achieved a scale second to none by staying focused and building on our core competency of content and distribution. Our strong margins bring out how we successfully leverage our scale and our co-production relationships to keep down costs and bring revenue predictability, reflecting robust business fundamentals.”

MUMBAI: After several years of co-productions and joint investments, the two most prominent global film industries – Hollywood and Bollywood signed a historic declaration between the city of Los Angeles and the Indian film industry at Paramount Pictures in Hollywood. The two parties also supported the creation of the Los Angeles-India Film Council to increase Indian film production in Los Angeles.

As part of the declaration, the city of Los Angeles and the Indian film industry, represented by the Film and Television Producers Guild of India and the Film Federation of India, agree to develop and strengthen motion picture production, distribution, technology, content protection and commercial cooperation between the two filmmaking communities.

Speaking at the event, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said, “This declaration reinforces our city‘s commitment to attracting international production. During the year, we have already seen Hindi movies such as My Name is Khan and Kites filmed in Los Angeles and we enthusiastically welcome further Indian production in Los Angeles.”

Mayor Villaraigosa was joined by California Film Commissioner Amy Lemisch, Paramount Pictures CEO Brad Grey, Motion Picture Association Asia Pacific President Mike Ellis and Motion Picture Association India Managing Director Rajiv Dalal along with Bobby Bedi, L. Suresh and representatives from Reliance Big Entertainment and UTV Motion Pictures who represented the Hindi film industry.

Commented Motion Pictures Association India managing director, Rajiv Dalal, “More than 2.4 million people in America and 1.8 million people in India work in the motion picture and television industry. We look forward to continued commercial cooperation with the U.S. film industry on joint investment and co-productions, which will only increase economic development and job growth in both nations.”

This is the second major step towards economic development and cooperation between Hollywood and the Indian film industry this year.

In March, the two industries came together in Mumbai to launch the Alliance Against Copyright Theft (AACT), a Bollywood-Hollywood content protection coalition in India.

MUMBAI: The collection figures during pre-Diwali period between Navratri festival and Diwali are always very dull. Watching cinema is least of people’s priorities during this time. No wonder then that all the films released during this period have fallen like nine pins.

The only film that got a head start was Salman Khan’s Dabangg which established its merits before the Navratri festival began.

Dabangg had a glorious opening weekend and completed the first week run with Rs 807.97 million gross followed by Rs 371.22 million in second week, Rs 164.19 million in third and Rs 35.84 million in its fourth week.

The film totalled Rs 1.38 billion gross, amounting to a net take home of about Rs 760 million which would stand at second highest after 3 Idiots.

The total recovery of Dabangg for the producers should easily touch Rs 1 billion with music rights accounting for Rs 60 million, domestic video for about Rs 20 million, overseas fetching Rs 37.5 million and satellite rights billed at Rs 130 million.

The film did not have many takers for overseas and domestic rights and they were sold cheap. However, the prices for satellite rights and music were revised upwards after the film’s tremendous response.

MUMBAI: Veteran Al Pacino is shortly coming to India to shoot Love MeForever that he himself is writing and producing. For location-scouting, Pacino intends visiting Nainital and Mussorie.

The film will have Pacino play a reclusive writer who slips away from his world of chaos and becomes nature-friendly that serves as an inspiration for his next book.

The film will also have Meryl Streep playing the role of an activist who never fears to standup for people’s rights. It is heard that her role has been modeled around the life of Mother Teresa.

Several Hollywood stars like John Travolta, Oliver Stone, Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman and Britney Spears have earlier come to India either for a visit or for filming purposes.
 

MUMBAI: The Diwali week is a sought after slot for major film releases. This Diwali had two major films lined up for release, both in the comedy genre.

While Golmaal 3 enjoyed a sort of brand equity edge since the earlier two versions have fared well, Action Replayy just failed to ignite the imaginations either in the trade circles or, when released, of the movie buffs.

Diwali day is usually dull for cinema halls and the collections pick up only a day after. Accordingly, the all India Friday collections of Action Replayy were a meagre Rs 17 million, Golmaal 3 registered a decent Rs 60 million.

On Saturday, both films leapfrogged with Action Replayy collecting Rs 78 million and Golmaal 3 raking in Rs 177.3 million. On Sunday, Action Replayy managed Rs 50 million, facing rejection, while Golmaal 3 managed to collect Rs 165 million.

Golmaal 3 has, thus, collected Rs 402.3 million for the opening weekend while Action Replayy got Rs 145 million.

Golmaal 3 is the first film to cross the Rs 400 million mark after Dabangg which had collected Rs 470 million in its opening weekend.