Category: Hindi

MUMBAI: There is going to be a flood of film releases today. Seven Hindi movies are going to hit the screens, mainly in the small budget genre.

Films being released today are Aashayein, Hello Darling, Antardwand, Madholal Keep Walking, Gumshuda, Geng and Soch Lo in Hindi and Aarohan in Bengali. Barring Aashayein, that has John Abraham in the lead, most of the other films are small budgeted with relatively lesser known star cast.

Being the holy month of Ramzan, most big banners refrain from releasing their films during this time. Two films, Antardwand and Aashayein, have done their promotional bit. But other small films may not find enough takers since these films haven’t had good marketing or publicity. A big box-office draw for them could be tough this week.

Regarding Aashayein, there is a catch: the promos of the film were out many years back, but then the release date was postponed. But then the movie is backed by Percept and Reliance Big Pictures is distributing it. Like Peepli Live, here‘s another film that comes straight from the bowels of the `Other‘ India: one that lives beyond the neon-lit metros.

Antardwand, on the other hand, has won a national award and has big filmmakers coming out and promoting the film. There could be a curiosity among filmgoers to find out more about ‘groom abduction’.

MUMBAI: Dutch Media Entertainment India (Me-India), in collaboration with the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and the creative sector, is going to hold five-day programme for delegates from the films, television, animation and gaming industry from 10 to 15 October.

This programme is a serious attempt to create a more active and conducive utilisation of resources between both the countries in the field of entertainment.

The programme has three important pillars:

Knowledge: Delegates will be informed about the financial and practical aspects on doing business in the Netherlands as well as the Dutch media-and entertainment industry (TV, film, internet, gaming and animation).

Creativity: The most important creative locations and areas will be visited. Creative sessions with counterparts operating in the Dutch media-and entertainment industry and visits to relevant players within this sector will be a part of this programme. 

City Hopping: Four creative cities in The Netherlands (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Maastricht) will be hosting and guiding the delegates during their visit. Shooting locales and media companies in these cities will be visited.

Salient features of Netherlands for Indian Entertainment Industry are: Netherlands is the only European country with mainstream Hindi Cinema, it has 300 (TV) production companies, it has European pioneers in the field of animation and gaming, it is the home of reality TV, it has the largest TV studios in Europe and it is one of the most dynamic creative industries worldwide.

There are two major funds- one private and one Government that can be made available for all appropriate projects.

Dutch Media Entertainment India (Me-India) is developed by a Dutch business cluster of 15 companies along with the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. It focuses primarily on stimulating and seamless expansion of the creative industry in the Netherlands and India alike. Me-India initiates activities for all operating in the creative Media & Entertainment sector. It tries to encompass all the players (public and private) through their activities in their programs and encourage beneficial partnerships

MUMBAI: Madhu Mantena is likely to make it to the Limca Book of Records because he is releasing four of his own films in four different languages releasing within a span of 40 days in different markets. 

The films, Jhootha hi Sahi (Hindi and directed by Abbas Tyrewala), Rakta Charitra (Telugu film directed by Ram Gopal Varma, Autograph (Bengali, directed by Srijit Mukerjee) and Rakta Charitra II (Tamil, directed by Ram Gopal Varma) will be released on 15 October, 17 September, 24 September and 27 September respectively.

Avers Mantena, “I was not even aware of this, but I got a call saying that it is a record of sorts. And when you are releasing four big films in different markets within such a sort span rest assured that you will not notice something like this.”

Mantena‘s last film, the Aamir Khan-starrer Ghajini, turned out to be a stupendous hit.

MUMBAI: Under protest threats from both the MNS and the Shiv Sena, the Maharashtra government has decided to make it mandatory for multiplexes in Mumbai to allot prime slots to Marathi films.

According to the new guidelines, multiplexes stand to lose their licence if they treat Marathi cinema as secondary to any other cinema. It will hereafter be mandatory for all the 27 multiplexes in the city to allot prime time slots to Marathi films.

Currently, it is mandatory for multiplexes to show 112 shows in a year. According to reports, three out of the out of 27 multiplexes have violated the norm. The three multiplexes are I-Max (Wadala), Fame (Kandivali) and Inox (Nariman Point).

Due to bad or poor content, multiplexes managed to draw only 15 per cent of the audience in the last three months that made screening Marathi films an expensive business.

Says Cinemax CEO Sunil Punjabi, “I would put it this way that one should promote regional movies, not only Marathi films. I am also of the view that if a film’s content is good and attractive it can always be put in prime time slots. We at Cinemax always promote Marathi films to the hilt in cities and specially in the interiors. This government initiative will now pressurize film producers to make good and meaningful Marathi films that would draw in audience into theatres and mulyiplexes.”

As far as lowing ticket rates for Marathi films go, the government has decided to address the complex problems by constituting a committee that will study the matter in detail and come out with its recommendations.

Multiplexes in Mumbai have said that they are agreeable to lowing the rates if they get a government circular.

Recently, over 40 multiplexes came forward to screen Marathi thriller Sa Sasucha.

NEW DELHI: Even before the submission of the final report by the Expert Committee which went into improving the status of the International Film Festival of India, a suggestion for widening the competition section to make it a global contest has already been implemented.

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry on the basis of an interim report has also increased the number of entries in the competition section to 18, up from the earlier 15. The competition has over the past 13 years been confined to Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The final report was submitted by Chairman Pritish Nandi to Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni, who said the other recommendations would be processed expeditiously by the Government.

Another recommendation that is being implemented from the IFFI 2010 in November is to introduce two new awards- Best Actor and Best Actress. The winner of the award will be given a Silver Peacock, a certificate and cash prizes of Rs one million each. The total cash awards would now amount to Rs nine million.

Members A K Bir, Govind Nihalani and Kishwar Desai were also present when the report was submitted.

With a view to positioning the festival to be at par with international standards, the committee has recommended that workshops may be held at IFFI to discuss new technology initiatives and Master Classes should be conducted by eminent people from world cinema.

As part of the exercise, the Committee constituted four sub committees to study issues that would enable the upgradation of the festival: Technical Sub-Committee chaired by Bir, Sponsorship Sub-Committee chaired by Ms. Pooja Shetty Deora, Events Sub-Committee chaired by Nihalani, and Structural Reforms Sub-Committee chaired by Nandy.

The Technical Sub-Committee has given a list of technical upgrades required to improve the quality of the viewing experience at IFFI. The Sub-Committee’s report along with Bir’s report for IFFI 2009 prepared for the Madgaon auditorium and his ‘Future Viewpoint’ document for a new auditorium in Goa were also placed before the Expert Committee. The Sponsorship Sub-Committee outlined measures for building brand IFFI internationally.

The Events Sub-Committee has proposed a series of initiatives under the aegis of New Products Platform (NPP). The committee recommended upgradation of the web site for IFFI on the lines of other international film festivals. It also suggested that the Film Market must be developed to international standards and provide business opportunities to Indian film makers. It also felt that International studios and sales agents should be invited for IFFI.

The Committee also recommended that in the Indian Panorama section, the Jury should not be bound to select 5 films from among 20 recommended by FFI and the Film Producers Guild may pick a lesser number if it so chooses, if the standard of excellence is not met. To enhance participation, the Committee recommended Q&A sessions to be held post Indian Panorama screenings at IFFI.

The sub committee on Structuring has outlined a roadmap regarding IFFI’s future structure keeping in mind its mandate and responsibilities in the future.

Other members of the Committee were: Kamal Haasan, Shabana Azmi, Karan Johar, Prasoon Joshi, Nandita Das, Maithili Rao, Lakshmikant Shetgaonkar, C.S. Sapra, Chief Secretary of Goa, and the Director in the Directorate of Film Festivals. The Joint Secretary (Films) was the Member Secretary.

The Committee was constituted at the initiative of Soni. The Committee was also to make recommendations regarding the changes to be made in the selection of Indian Panorama films, both feature and non feature categories, and the resultant changes were to be carried out by amendment in the Indian Panorama regulations.

MUMBAI: Bengali film Aarohan will screen in the Focus on World Cinema section of this year‘s Montreal International Film Festival that will be held from 26 August to 6 September. 

Written and directed by Pinaki Choudhury, the film stars Soumitra Chatterjee, Sandhya Ray, Somodarshi Dutta and Rituparna Sengupta.

The festival will showcase films under the following sections – World Competition; First Films World Competition; Hors Concours (World Greats, out-of competition); Focus on World Cinema; Documentaries of the World; Tributes; Cinema Under the Stars; and Canadian Student Film Festival.

An Indo-France co-production, India by Song is directed by Vijay Singh and will be screened in the Documentary section of the festival.

Focus on World Cinema section showcases films from America, Europe, Asia and Africa.
 

MUMBAI: Peepli Live has reported a box office collection of Rs 344.5 million in India, according to UTV Motion Pictures.

The non-star cast satirical comedy movie, which got rave reviews, had collected Rs 286 million in its first week, while in its second weekend it managed Rs 58.5 million, UTV.

Peepli Live is co-produced by Aamir Khan and UTV.

Meanwhile, the movie has collected over Rs 50 million from the overseas markets. Peepli Live was released with 109 prints in the US, Australia, and Gulf countries.

In the US the film grossed approximately $600,000 in its two-week run, while in the Gulf the film roped in $300,000. In Australia, the film collected $80,000 while from the rest of the world it grossed $130,000.

Aamir Khan is now gearing up to release the movie in the UK on 24 September. He will tour the country extensively to promote the film

MUMBAI: Two Indian films, Sidharth Srinivasan‘s Pairon Tale and Amir Bashir‘s Harud, have been added to the slate of Indian films to be screened at the Toronto International Film Festival. Both the films will be screened in the Discovery section of the festival that lasts from 9 to 19 September.

Pairon Tale is produced with the support of Rotterdam International Film Festival‘s Hubert Bals fund. Importantly, the Fund provides automatic distribution in the Benelux territories. It was among the 25 projects that were selected from over 350 other competing films.

Toronto international film festival co-director Cameron Bailey said, “Srinivasan makes a bold break with traditional Indian art cinema here. Although the film shows some influence both from Ingmar Bergman and the socially engaged tales of Satyajit Ray and Gury Dutt, Soul of Sand feels much more contemporary.”

Actor-turned director Aamir Bashir makes his directorial debut with Harud (Autumn). The film shot in Kashmir tells the story of Rafiq and his family and their struggle to come to terms with the loss of his older brother Tauqir, a tourist photographer, who is one of the thousands of young men who have disappeared since the onset of the militant insurgency in Kashmir.

The festival’s Discovery section showcases new and emerging directors. This year the section includes 27 films, out of which 15 will have their world premieres.

Other Indian films to be screened at Toronto this year are Anurag Kashyap‘s That Girl in Yellow Boots and Kiran Rao’s Dhobi Ghat.

MUMBAI: The National Film Awards committee has now decided to accept digital films for consideration of awards.
The decision comes after a petition was filed by filmmakers from Manipur where cinema halls have been shut down due to militancy and filmmaking has gone totally digital.

Films can be submitted in digital format even if they have not been released with a celluloid print. An expert committee led by filmmaker Shyam Benegal has recommended this and a few other changes that will be implemented from National Film awards 2009 onwards. Last year‘s awards are likely to be announced on 15 September.
 
The cash prize for the best film has been increased from Rs 100000 to Rs 150000 to the director and producer each. For the best debut non-feature film award, the cash prize has gone up from Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000. In the special jury award, the cash component has been increased from Rs 125000 to Rs 200000 as far as feature films are concerned and Rs 50,000 to Rs 100000 for non-feature films.
This year hence, some new award categories have been instituted. Best location sound recordist and sound designer are the two new awards in the Sound category. An award for background score has also been introduced. There will be separate awards for adapted screenplay, original screenplay and dialogues. The award for best film on Family Welfare has been abolished.

MUMBAI: The after effects of the threat to multiplexes by two political parties to show Marathi films have initially paid off.

Over 40 multiplexes have come forward to screen Marathi thriller Sa Sasucha directed by Kishor Pandurang Belekar.

Said Belekar, “Multiplexes have come forward to screen my film. Over 80 cinema halls including multiplexes in Mumbai have decided to screen the film. There was nothing in the horror genre in Marathi film. I showed video quality to multiplexes and they agreed to screen the film.”

It has been divulged that multiplex owners have been calling up Belekar, asking him for posters of his film to be put up along with Hindi films.

Said Fun Cinemas COO Vishal Kapur, “The move by multiplexes to show Sa Sasucha has not necessarily been the fallout of the political protests from MNS and Shiv Sena. When we saw the video rushes of the film, we thought that the film‘s content was indeed good and would attract audience. We decided to screen the film.”