Category: Hindi

MUMBAI: Goa will promote itself as a destination for shooting films during the upcoming International Film Festival of India (IFFI).

Addressing the delegates of South Asian Film Festival (SAFF), Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG)‘s chief executive officer Manoj Srivastava said, “The Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) will have a stall during ensuing IFFI, which will showcase Goa as a destination for shooting films. We are trying to attract people. How do you attract people? We have to give them benefits and make it easier for them to shoot.”

Srivastava said that initially when IFFI travelled to Goa, the state did not have a film culture. But with the passage of time, the participation of locals has increased. “Goa has enough to shoot. Except snow, the state has everything. Even if you want to create a desert scene, it can be done having the beach as the background.”

ESG is a nodal agency created by the state government to promote film culture and film related activities in Goa.
 

MUMBAI: Umesh Kulkari’s Short Film Vilay (Dissolution) won the top award in the International Competition section of the Thai Short Film and Video Festival held from 26 August to 5 September in Bangkok .

The film centres on a grandson returning home and remembering with pain and sorrow, the open-door welcome he always got from his late grandmother in their old-word home, all of which had totally changed in the new-age city.

Dissolution was one of 15 entries in the International section that had entries from countries like Israel, Finland, Malaysia, Brazil and Austria.

Kulkarni won the top prize at this festival last year too for his film The Three of Us.

It is also heard that Kulkarni’s debut feature film The Well will be screened at the World Film Festival of Bangkok in November. The festival will also screen Laxmikant Shetgaonkar‘s Man beyond the Bridge.

Thailand’s Short Film & Video Festival is 14 years old, and is proof of the popularity of this film-genre in the Land of Smiles. In fact, the jam-packed hall of the vibrant Bangkok Arts & Culture Centre is a welcome sight.
 

MUMBAI: Beleaguered Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. has found a new suitor in Indian conglomerate Sahara India Pariwar.

Sahara’s bid to rescue the debt-laden studio is $2 billion (Rs 94 billion). The talks are, however, at an exploratory stage.

Another Indian conglomerate, Reliance Entertainment , had earlier bid for MGM but later walked out of it. 

Meanwhile, MGM lenders have agreed to forgive debt payments for the seventh time in a year. This gives the studio time till 29 October to restructure its $4 billion debt.

Spyglass Entertainment has signed a non-binding letter of intent to take over the management of the studio.

MGM was up for sale in November and bids came from various companies, including a $1.5 billion offer from Time Warner. But the bid amounts failed to win the nod of MGM’s creditors.

MGM‘s assets include the James Bond franchise and half of “The Hobbit” films, its name and logo, the United Artists operations, and a library with over 4,000 titles.
 

MUMBAI: A special task force formed by Pakistan to revive its film industry will be visiting Mumbai to learn lessons from Bollywood, a senior Pakistani senate committee chairman disclosed in Panaji.

Speaking to reporters in Panaji, Nilofar Bakhtiar, chairman of a senate committee on culture and tourism, said that she would having several meetings for the 16-member task force with top Bollywood personalities. 

Said Bakhtiar, leader of a delegation of Pakistani officials and filmmakers to the South Asian Film Festival (SAFF), which is underway in Goa, ‘We recently formed a task force to revive Pakistani cinema in which we have leading filmmakers as members. If they come to India, it would have good impact on our industry and future relations of both the countries. Indian cinema is extremely advanced and we want Indian filmmakers to work with us. We also want training opportunities for our actors and directors in India.”

‘It took us a long time and tremendous pressure to allow Indian cinema to be aired in Pakistan. We would like India to reciprocate,‘ she added.

MUMBAI: Multiple major Inox Leisure has launched its first multiplex in Kanpur.

The company has started its four-screen multiplex at Z-Square Mall, which has a total seating capacity of 1103 seats. 

Inox Leisure CEO Alok Tandon said, “The launch of Inox in Kanpur will ensure that movie lovers enjoy the top-of-the-line experience. With Inox’s convenient location, easy accessibility and modern comforts, we aim to revolutionise the movie watching experience in the city.”

Inox launched with the screening of Dabangg and We Are Family.

With the launch of this multiplex, Inox now has a total of 37 multiplexes and 140 screens in 25 cities across India.
 

MUMBAI: Debutante Rakesh Mehta‘s art house film Khudakushi will be the Indian attraction at the Buffalo Film Festival, New York and also the Cyprus Film Festival, Greece.

The movie deals with serious issues like terrorism and reflects the dire situations persisting even in today‘s times.

The filmmaker has no qualms about stating bluntly that his film isn‘t meant for mainstream affair. The film has no star power riding on it nor does it offer song and dance sequences.

“There‘s no point in beating around the bush so I‘d prefer saying upfront that. there‘s no commercial viability in my film. I conceptualized the film for critical acclaim and I am glad that it has met its purpose,” observes Mehta.

Though Khudakushi has so far won nine selections at various film festivals around the world and has already won two awards, Mehta doesn‘t intend releasing it in India.

BANGALORE: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has rapped the Karnataka Film Chambers of Commerce (KFCC) for imposing restrictions on the screening of non-Kannada films in Karnataka.

As reported earlier, Reliance Big Entertainment (Big Pictures) had approached the CCI challenging the restrictions by the KFCC on the number of prints of a non-Kannada film that could be released in Karnataka during the simultaneous release of the Hind and Tamil versions of ‘Raavan’. As per the KFCC rules, a non-Kannada cinema can be screened only in 24 halls in the state with a maximum of 21 in Bangalore. Big Pictures is the distributor of the film.

In an interim order on 9 September, the CCI stated that the KFCC was in a dominant position in the relevant market (Karnataka) and was imposing unfair, discriminatory, arbitrary and unreasonable restrictions on the supply of films for exhibition of Big Pictures.

The order further stated: “KFCC has been restrained from taking any action and from imposing restrictions, direct or indirect, to prevent any producer/distributor in relation to supply of prints of the films (Kannada and non-Kannada) to the informant (Reliance) if the producers/distributors are willing and desirous to supply the same to the informant for exhibition in Karnataka.”

The order is effective till September 21, the next hearing date.

A few weeks ago Big Pictures had decided to put on hold its plans for Kannada cinema, sources said.

MUMBAI: Life Express deals with the theme of career women, their priorities and the issue of surrogate motherhood. The film describes the latter as a burning issue!

Producer: Sanjay Kalate Director: Anup Das Cast: Rituparna Sengupta, Divya Dutta, Kiran Janjani, Yashpal Sharma, Aloke Nath, Nandita Puri

Surrogate motherhood may be making news from time to time but usually it is not for the reason the film bases its story on.

Rituparna Sengupta is a rising bank executive while her husband, Kiran Janjani, is also some sort of a high flying corporate honcho. Her bank is more generous in meeting out promotions to her than passing loans it would seem!

Kiran Janjani is so busy punching computer keys, he has time to neither listen to his wife person to person nor on cell phone nor even read her email! How does he find time and inclination to sire a child in such a situation?

Well, somehow he does. In between some day dreaming of parenthood, Rituparna is waved the promise of another promotion, a vice president, no less within a year if she continued to work with the same zeal!

Since promotions can’t be put on hold, the mother-to-be decides to put her pregnancy aside for future date. Her efforts to discuss the issue with her husband fail on all counts, talk, call, email and she makes the decision on her own.

Turmoil follows in the relationship but both soon come to terms with what has happened. Among various suggestions to have a child sans pregnancy, that of finding a surrogate mother convinces the duo. And, as if watching the process of leading the theme to surrogacy so far was not enough, the second half takes a turn for the worse. At display here is poverty, exploitation and hopelessness of rural folk as if the village was located in some famine hit African country! But, this is done in a way to justify women offering their womb for hire! 

As it goes on unwinding, Life Express becomes more and more intolerable, draining one‘s mind and energy. It is a product of one‘s enthusiasm to tackle a social issue but losing way as soon as it starts. Nothing much to say about performances or other aspects; photography (Anil Chandel) and background score (Raja Narayan Deb) is praiseworthy to an extent.

While Rituparna tries to contact her husband Kiran Janjani on his cell phone or through email but fails, wish she had chosen to SMS him instead!! An ordeal could have been saved to the makers as well as prospective viewers!

MUMBAI: Producer BR Krishnan of BRK Films has decided to make a Tamil film titled Anna Salman (Brother Salman) inspired by the ups and downs in the life and relationships of the actor.

While the film will have model turned actress Rittu Sachdev essaying a double role , search is on for the actor who will play Salman in the film.

Says Krishnan in a statement,”I am still looking for a hero to play Salman‘s role. We all love Salman Khan and his movies. When I read the script, I immediately decided to do the film.”

The film will incorporate certain sequences that will show the protagonist‘s various run-ins with the law. The hero will also spend some time behind bars. But on the whole, the script paints the protagonist as a golden hearted person whose willy-nilly gets him into wrong situations.
 

NEW DELHI: The government has chalked out a turnaround plan for the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) that includes a capital infusion of Rs 30 million and conversion of debt into equity.

The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the revival plan. The package would include the conversion of the outstanding government loan of Rs 197.7 million, along with accumulated interest of Rs 86.3 million on it, into equity.

The fresh infusion of equity of Rs 30 million along with internal accruals/recovery of outstanding dues of Rs 29.5 million will be used by the Corporation to finance its computer hardware and software, establish an Art House Digital Exhibition Network and renovate/upgrade their properties.

The conversion of loans into equity and interest outstanding thereon will rid the Corporation of the heavy interest burden and liability to repay the loan. It will further help them in cleaning up the balance sheet and start afresh.

The net worth of the Corporation will turn positive and the paid up and authorized capital of NFDC will increase to Rs 454 million and Rs 453.9 million respectively.

The NFDC expects to commence making profits from 2010-11 onwards. A higher level of equity in the Corporation will enable it to fulfill its mandate of promoting the growth of Indian Cinema.

NFDC was incorporated as a public sector undertaking in 1975 with the objective to plan, promote and organise an integrated and efficient development of the film industry of the country in accordance with the economic policy and objectives laid down by the Central Government from time to time. Accordingly, NFDC has funded/ produced over 300 films in 18 Indian languages. NFDC commenced production over the last two years and produced eight films.

The NFDC also won one award in the National Film Awards for 2009 announced yesterday – Konkani film Palatadcho Munis by director Laxmikant Shetgaonkar.

However, once a profit-making PSU, NFDC started incurring losses after 2002-03 with the entry of private channels that led to splitting of advertisement revenue from Doordarshan, which was a major source of its income.

A substantial part of its advertisement revenue was litigated and remained un-recovered. As a result, the paid up capital of the Corporation got eroded and it landed into financial crisis with its net worth dipping to negative. The Corporation had lo keep its operations afloat with a working capital loan of Rs 197.7 million provided by the Government.

However, since the performance of the Corporation did not improve, a revival plan was prepared with the assistance of SBI Caps, which contemplates redefining of the business profile of NFDC, infusion of fresh equity and conversion of the Government loan into equity. The revival plan was examined by the Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises (BRPSE) and it made various recommendations for revival of NFDC.

The accumulated losses of the Corporation as on 31 March 2009 stood at Rs 276.2 million. An amount of just over Rs 367.5 million was owed to NFDC by advertisement agents, and it had lodged cases against 16 such companies.

Meanwhile the Corporation hopes to reduce its manpower by 30 employees in the near future in a move to cut costs. The Corporation had in December 2008 reduced its manpower to 139 after offering Voluntary Retirement Scheme to seventy employees by paying them Rs 70 million. This has resulted in an annual saving of Rs 20 million.

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry had given the NFDC a grant-in-aid of Rs 120 million for VRS.

The NFDC had in 1992 also launched a trust in the name of Cine Artistes Welfare Fund of India with a corpus of Rs 48.9 million, which presently stands at Rs 63.6 million. Just under 1000 cine artistes have availed pension and other benefits and around 450 are doing so at present.

The NFDC showed a huge loss of Rs 92.549 million in 2003-04, which came down to Rs 38.674 million a year later. The Corporation showed profit of Rs 24.815 million in 2005-06 but again ran into a loss of Rs 50.56 million and Rs 22.757 million in 2006-07 and 2007-08 respectively.