Category: Hindi

MUMBAI: Eros International, the India unit of Eros International Plc, has firmed up nine anchor investors including Reliance Mutual Fund, IDFC and Blackstone, a source familiar with the development said.

The anchor investors would take up Rs 690 million as Eros proposes to raise Rs 3.5 billion through a public float in India.

The initial public offering (IPO) issue starts on 17 September and closes on 21 September.

India Capital Fund is the other name floating around, the source added.

Eros is expected to post a net profit of Rs 1.1 billion in FY‘11, up from Rs 827.95 million a year ago, making it the most profitable Indian movie company. Analysts project the net profit to touch Rs 1.5 billion in FY‘12 if things go down well with the company.

The pure play movie company reported a revenue of Rs 6.55 billion in FY‘10 compared to UTV Motion Pictures‘ topline of Rs 3.15 billion. “It is easily the largest film company in terms of revenue. It has a proven track record but in the movie world nothing can be predictable,” a market analyst said.

Eros has fixed the price band of its IPO between Rs 158-Rs 175 a share.

The Aim-listed Eros International Plc has a market cap of Rs 21.94 billion (304.33 million GBP). It plans to shift to London‘s main bourse after completing its India listing.

MUMBAI: PVR Pictures, the film production and distribution arm of the PVR Group, will release the highly-anticipated suspense thriller, The American, starring George Clooney in the title role and directed by Anton Corbijn.

The film also stars Violante Placido, Thekla Reuten and Paolo Bonacelli.

Says PVR Pictures Head-Worldwide Distribution Deepak Sharma, “We are very excited to bring The American to Indian audiences. It is a fast-paced action thriller with a huge star cast. We are glad to have been recognized for our strong distribution network and will ensure maximum distribution spread for this movie”.

As an assassin, Jack (Clooney) is constantly on the move and always alone. After a job in Sweden ends more harshly than expected, Jack retreats to the Italian countryside. He relishes being away from death for a spell as he holes up in a small medieval town.

Jack takes an assignment to construct a weapon for a mysterious contact, Mathilde (Thekla Reuten). Savouring the peaceful quietude he finds in the mountains of Abruzzo, Jack accepts the friendship of local priest Father Benedetto (Paolo Bonacelli) and pursues a torrid liaison with a beautiful woman, Clara (Violante Placido). Jack and Clara‘s time together evolves into a romance, one seemingly free of danger. But by stepping out of the shadows, Jack may be tempting fate.

MUMBAI: SRS Group plans to invest Rs 500 million in its multiplex business by adding 23 screens, taking the total number to 50 by the end of this year.

As part of this expansion plan, the company , which has diverse interests ranging from real estate to multiplex cinemas, retail and food and beverages, has opened its first multiplex in Patiala and 10th in the state of Punjab.

Says SRS Group president Tinku Singh, “As per our expansion plan, we will come up with more new offerings in Punjab and other parts of the country by the end of this financial year.”

The new SRS multiplex has four auditoriums with a total seating capacity of 1,117 people. The first film to be screened at the multiplex is the Salman Khan starrer Dabangg.

Says SRS Group chairman and managing director Dr. Anil Jindal, “We are very happy to inaugurate our 10th multiplex in Punjab and are working towards expanding our network on a pan India basis. SRS Cinemas is one of the fastest growing vertical within the SRS portfolio. “

With the opening up of this multiplex, SRS now has 27 screens with a capacity of 6919 seats in six locations across three states spread over an area of 43,805.95 sq feet.

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: Megastar Amitabh Bachchan has been selected to receive the best actor award for his role in the film Paa while Ananya Chatterjee is to get the best actress award for her role in the film Bengali film Abohoman by Rituparno Ghosh who has been chosen for the best director award in the 57th National Film Awards for 2009.

The Malayalam film Kutty Srank, directed by the wellknown Shaji N Karun, has been chosen as the best feature film of the year and has also won four other awards in different categories: cinematography by Anjali Shukla, original screenplay by PF Mathews and Harikrishna and costume design by Jayakumar. Its editor Sreekar Prasad won a Special Jury award for this and two other films: the Hindi film Kaminey and Kerala Varma Pazhazzi Raja in Malayalam. This is the first time that a woman cinematographer has won the national award in the category.

The Aamir Khan-starrer 3 Idiots by Raj Kumar Hirani won the award for best popular film providing wholesome entertainment, apart from getting two other awards: best re-recording of the final mixed track for Anup Dev and best lyric Behti Hawaa Ka Thha Woh by Swanand Kirkire.

Lahore in Hindi by Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan has won the Indira Gandhi award for best debut film of a director, with actor Farouque Shaikh getting the best supporting actor award.

The best supporting actress award went to Arundhati Naag for her role in Paa, which also received the award for best Hindi film of the year and best make-up for Christein Tinkey and Dominie Till. The film was produced by Amitabh Bachchan’s AB Corp.

The Nargis Dutt award for the best film on national integration went to Delhi 6 by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. The film also received an award for best production design for Samir Chanda.

Shyam Benegal’s film Well Done Abba got the award for best film on social issues while the best children’s film award was shared by Putaani Party in Kannada by Ramachandra PN and Keshu by Sivan. Both these films were produced by the Children’s Film Society, India.

The awards were announced by the feature film jury chairman Ramesh Sippy, non-feature jury headed by Mike Pandey and book jury member Sharad Dutt (in the absence of Chairman Samik Bandopadhyay), in the presence of additional director general in charge of the Directorate of Film Festivals SM Khan and several jury members.

The awards this year had been selected in a two-tier process: first by five regional juries and then by the central jury.
 
The award money ranges between Rs 50,000 for Rajat Kamal to Rs 2,50,000 for Swarna Kamal. The awards are expected to be presented in mid-October.

Khan said that with this announcement, the backlog of the national film awards created by a legal case in Delhi High Court had been cleared.

Best child actor award went to Jeeva and Anba Karasu for their role in the film Pasanga (Tamil) by Pandiraj which also won the best Tamil Film award and best dialogues, also written by Pandiraj.

The best non-feature film award was shared by The Postman by B Manohar and Bilal by Saurav Sarangi. Cinema Yaana in Kannada by K Puttaswamy received the best Book on film award while CS venkateswaran who writes in Malayalam won the best critic award. The Marathi book Eka Studioche Atmavrutta by Prabhakar Pendharkar got a special mention.

Rupam Islam won the best male playback singer award for Mahanagar@Kolkata in Bengali while Neelanjana Sarkar got the female singer award for the Bengali film Houseful.

The award for best adapted screenplay went to the Kannada film Kanasemba Kudureyaneri.

The Hindi film Kaminey received the best location sound award for Subash Sahoo while Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja received the sound designer award for Resool Pookutty, who was winner of the Oscar for Slumdog Millionnaire.

Abohoman has also won awards for best Bengali language film and best editing for Arghyakamal Mitra.

The best music direction award went to Anuraj Kashyap’s Hindi film Dev D with music by Amrit Trivedi while Ilayaraja got the best playback music award for Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja, which has also got the best Malayalam film award for T Hariharan.

The Telugu film Magadheera received awards for special effects for R Kamal Kannan and choreography for K Siva Sankar.

The other awards for the regional languages went to: Assamese – Basundhara by Hiren Bara; Kannada – Kanasemba Kudureyaneri by Girish Kasarvalli; Konkani – Palatadcho Munis by Laxmikant Shetgaonkar produced by the National Film Development Corporation; and Marathi – Natarang by Ravindra Harichandra Jadhav.

In the non-feature awards, some of the main awards were: best debut shared by Kaushal Oza for Vaishnav Jan Toh and FTII’s Tathagata Singha for Ekti Kaktaliyo Golpo; compilation film Pandham Unmixed by Brahmanand S Singh on RD Burman; environment – In For Motion by Anirban Dutta; social issues – Mr India by Haobam Paban Kumar; Special award for child artiste Aasna Aslam in Kelkkunnundo; short fiction Boond by Abhishek Pathak; cinematography for Deepu S Unni for Gaarud which got the re-recordisng award for Lipika Singh Daral; editor Tarun Bhartiya and narrator Ranjan Palit for In Camera; and special mention to Nitika Bhagat for Vijay.

MUMBAI: Producer Karan Arora is making a Bollywood 3D film Kaali -The Goddess in which pop star Shakira will play Goddess Kali.

The two-hour film, being made under the banner of High Ground Entertainment Ltd. will be shot in London, failing which it will be shot in a city in Eastern Europe.

Confirming the news Arora said, “Shakira has agreed in principle to do the film. But she is yet to sign on the dotted line as the money part is being worked out.”

Adds Arora, “We wanted someone dusky and Shakira is dusky. Besides, we wanted an international star.”
 

MUMBAI: Ram Gopal Varma is making a sequel to his 2002 film Department that was itself a prequel to the Nana Patekar-starrer Ab Tak Chhapan.

The film revolves around encounter specialists who fall apart following a war between dons who they owe their allegiance to.

Wanting to take the characters of Pradeep Sharma, Vijay Salaskar, Daya Nayak and Sachin Vaze, Varma has Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgn and Abhishek Bachchan playing the cops while Amitabh Bachchan will play a senior cop.

The turning point of the film comes when Dutt, who plays the role of Pradeep Sharma and Ajay Devgn who plays Daya Nayak, forces others in the department including Abhishek Bachchan (who plays Sachin Vaze) to take sides. What follows remains the crux of the film.
 

MUMBAI: The release of Sun Pictures‘ Enthiran has been postponed from 24 September to 1 October.

After a very successful trailer launch last Saturday, the buzz was that the film will take a gargantuan opening worldwide. Perfection is the key word. One more week delay does not matter at all for a film which has been in the making for two years and is reportedly made on a budget of Rs 1.75 billion.

Sun Pictures is making all efforts to showcase the film on the international scene on a bigger platform. It has to get the best of the screens and poised for a wide release. The film‘s Hindi version Robot is also being released like a Bollywood biggie.

Robot was earlier to release on 3 September before being pushed to 17 September due to post-production work.
 

MUMBAI: Warner Bros. India will distribute Maya Digital Media‘s animated feature Ramayana – The Epic.

The film will be released in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu on 15 October.

The film is the directorial debut of Chetan Desai and features voiceovers by Bollywood stars Manoj Bajpayee, Juhi Chawla and Ashutosh Rana for Ram, Sita and Raavan respectively.

Said Warner Bros Pictures India deputy managing director Denzil Dias, “Chetan Desai‘s version of this epic has taken animation films in India to the next level and one has to see it to believe it. We are delighted to be associated with this project.”

Added Maya Digital Media chairman and managing director Ketan Mehta, “We want to take the most popular Indian story to a global audience. Warner Bros, with its reach and expertise, provides the ideal platform to launch this new avatar of Ramayana, where the past meets the future and mythology meets technology. It‘s the story of the original Indian superhero.”

Ramayana will be the second attempt by a Hollywood studio in the area of Indian animated feature content, after Walt Disney India‘s co-production with Yash Raj Films‘ Roadside Romeo.
 

MUMBAI: The London Film Festival, scheduled to be held between 13 to 28 October, will showcase UTV Motion Pictures‘ Udaan and the soon-to-be-released Paan Singh Tomar.

While Udaan will be showcased in the UK market for the first time since its release in June last, Paan Singh Tomar will have its world premiere at this festival.

Besides Udaan and Paan Singh Tomar other Indian films that will be showcased at the festival include Autumn (Harud), I Am Kalam, I Am Sindhutai Sapkal (Mee Sindhutai Sapkal) and Just Another Love Story (Aarekti Premer Golpo).

Says UTV Senior Vice President- International Distribution and Syndication, Motion Pictures Amrita Pandey, “It‘s a very proud moment for us to have two of our films out of the seven Indian films that will be showcased at the most prestigious film festival in the UK this time. Our films have been doing well with the audiences at large, where London as a market has always been extremely encouraging, considering the strong and passionate movie watching crowd who are popularly known to appreciate good cinema. “

Udaan was officially selected to compete in the Un Certain Regard (A Certain Look) category at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival and was the first Indian film to be part of Cannes‘s official section in seven years. The film also won awards at one of world‘s largest children‘s film festivals, Giffoni Film Festival in Italy, namely, the Audience Award and Best Music Score.

MUMBAI: The Film and Television Producers Guild of India Ltd. that has been entrusted by the Directorate of Film Festivals with the task of recommending 10 films for the Panorama Section of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI 2010), has recommended Milan Luthria‘s Once Upon a Time In Mumbaai for the said section.

Commented Luthria, “When it rains, it pours! After an outstanding performance at the turnstiles, the film is now heading for IFFI and hopefully, will grab major awards. It is definitely turning out to be a major milestone for me!”
The movie, produced by Balaji Telefilms, turned out to be a hit at the box office.