Category: Hindi

MUMBAI: Antardwand, a film based on a real-life incident of forced marriage
directed by Ad film cinematographer-turned-filmmaker Sushil Rajpal, is being released nationwide on 27 August with 125 prints by PVR.

The film, however, is yet to get a distributor in Bihar since PVR does not have a presence there.

Antardwand has already bagged the 55th National award for best film for social cause and best actress award at MAMI. “Only because it bagged a National award last year, PVR stepped in. It is more important that such social-based films get a theatrical release. People should know what is happening around them. The idea is not to concentrate on its commercial success,” says Rajpal.

The film is based on a real incident to which he was a witness to. Talking on the story, the director avers, “Antardwand touhes the sensitive subject of groom abduction or ‘pakrauah shaddi‘, so rampant in Bihar and Eastern UP. My film is a peep into the reality that is happening in the interiors.”

“Kidnapping grooms and forcing them into marriage is rampant in Bihar. Last year alone, over 1,000 such cases were registered. One of my friends was also a victim. So when I decided to make a film, this subject instantly struck me,” he reveals.
 

MUMBAI: Salman Khan’s Being Human Foundation is producing the Hindi remake of Mee Shivajiraje Bhosle Boltoy.

The producers have signed in Anil Kapoor to play the pivotal role.

Kapoor will play the role that Sachin Khedekar played in the Marathi film. While talks are on with other likely actors, director Mahesh Manjrekar prefers to be guarded on the matter. Says Manjrekar, “Don’t want to divulge anything further.”

Mee Shivajiraje Bhosle Boltoy also had Manjrekar essay the role of Shivaji.

Meanwhile, Being Human Foundation has also decided to remake Manjrekar’s take on the education system film Shikshanacha Aicha Gho that will have Khan play a father of two kids. Kangana Raut will play the female lead in the film.

MUMBAI: Director Amit Rai has bagged this year‘s Gollapudi Srinivas Memorial Award for his Hindi film Road to Sangam that stars Paresh Rawal and Om Puri.

The award comprising a cash prize of Rs 1.50 lakh and a memento would be presented to Rai by Anil Kapoor at a function in Chennai on 12 August. Sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan, actress Vidya Balan and director Madhur Bhandarkar would also participate in the event.

On the occasion, veteran artiste Girish Karnad would deliver the memorial lecture on the topic Mythology on Celluloid.

Past winners of this award include Leslie Carvallho for The Outhouse (English), Shyama Prasad Agni Sakshi (Malayalam), Manju Bora Baibhab (Assamese), Subrata Sen Ek Je Ache Kanya (Bengali), Janaki Viswanathan Kutti (Tamil), Ram Madhvani Let‘s Talk (English).

The award has been instituted by writer and actor Gollapudi Maruthi Rao and his family, to perpetuate the memory of his son Srinivas who died in 1992 in an accident during the shooting of his debut film.
 

MUMBAI: Venus‘ forthcoming film, tentatively titled Bullet Train, will go on the floors in September.

Directed by Priyadarshan, will star Anil Kapoor, Ajay Devgn, Suniel Shetty, Kangana Ranaut and Sameera Reddy.

The action thriller will be shot in the UK while the first schedule of 45 days will start in the first week of September. The second schedule will also take place in the UK early next year.

Says Venus managing director Ratan Jain, “We are working for an appropriate title of the film, Bullet Train is just the working title, since most portions of the movie will be shot in a train.”

The film will be cinematographed by British Richard Butlan and a British action director would be part of the film‘s crew.

The film is slated to release in the summer of 2011.
 

NEW DELHI: Supran Sen, Secretary General of the Film Federation of India, has been invited as a special invitee to the Locarno Film Festival.

Sen has been asked by Locarno Film Festival President Marco Solari to take part in a discussion on “Open Doors” dedicated to independent Indian Cinema. 

The festival authorities are keen to take the initiative to start a fruitful collaboration with India in the perspective of 2011 edition.

The Locarno Film Festival is a key festival along with Cannes, Berlin Carlovy Vary et al in the whole group of festivals in the world accredited to the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF).

Sen is an office-bearer in the executive of FIAPF.

MUMBAI: Films with good content always work. This has been proved by Prakash Jha‘s Raajneeti, Walkwater Media‘s Tere Bin Laden and now Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai, a Balaji Telefilms venture.

The gangster film that depicts the crime scenario in Mumbai during the 70s and 80s has not only got good reviews but has also done good business. The film opened to about 75 to 80 per cent occupancy.

Though Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai took a slow start, the terrific word-of-mouth resulted in an escalation in business from the first day itself and the film went from strength-to-strength on Saturday and Sunday.

“The film has netted Rs 220 million in its first weekend,” says Balaji Group CEO Punit Kinra.

The other release, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, got a decent opening with around 40 to 50 per cent occupancy.

Said Fun Cinemas COO Vishal Kapur, “The Ekta Kapoor film opened well and the weekend saw an occupancy of between 80 to 85 per cent, though on Sunday there was a 100 per cent occupancy. The Twilight also did well business with occupancy of around 70 to 75 per cent.”

After grossing Rs 230 million in its first weekend, Priyadarshan‘s Khatta Meetha, on the other hand, fell badly from Monday onwards. The Monday to Thursday total was approximately Rs 90 million. Its week one total stands at approximately Rs 320 million.

“Though we have reduced the shows, the film was still doing well having weekend occupancy of about 70 per cent,” says Kapur.

Walkwater Films‘ Tere Bin Laden has proved to be a profitable venture for its producers due to its low production cost and good-to-average theatrical returns. “In its limited shows, the film is doing decent business,” said Kapur.

MUMBAI: The 31st Durban film festival that was held from 22 July to 1 August has named Aamir Khan‘s film Peepli Live as the best first feature film.

Written and directed by Anusha Rizvi, the film is a satire on the farmers‘ suicides and subsequent media and political response in India.

Earlier, Peepli Live has been to festivals like the Sundance Film Festival and Berlin Film Festival. But it is at the Durban Film Festival that the film won an award.

The jury that zeroed in on the awards included producers Aihara Hiromi of Japan and Christoph Thoke of Germany and South African academic, writer and producer Bhekizizwe Peterson.

Peepli Live stars Omkar Das Manikpuri, Raghuvir Yadav, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Naseeruddin Shah and Malaika Shenoy.

MUMBAI: Big Cinemas, a division of Reliance MediaWorks and member of the Reliance ADAG, will celebrate the Spirit of Indian Independence Day by hosting the ‘Spirit of my Tiranga‘ festival across 11 theatres in USA from 7 to 15 August.

The cinema chain has lined up memorable movies like Rang De Basanti, Lage Raho Munnabhai, 3 Idiots, Chak De India, Namaste London, Rock On, Sivaji, Dasavtharam and Indian that would be screened free.

To further enhance the audience experience during the ‘Spirit of My Tiranga‘ festival, Big Cinemas would also be playing the National Anthem in auditoriums before the movie screenings and the lobby would be buzzing with saffron, white and green decorations and patriotic Indian songs and videos.

Commenting on the festival, Reliance MediaWorks CEO Anil Arjun said, “The Indian Diaspora in USA has strong linkages with their origins and they like to celebrate occasions which bind them to their community. Big Cinemas‘ ‘Spirit of My Tiranga‘ festival is our attempt to organise a memorable event where the Indian community can come together to not just enjoy some of their all time favourite movies but also feel a part of the Indian Independence Day festivities.”

Big Cinemas US has 190 screens present across 20 cities and has created a pan US footprint. The circuit accounts for 20-35 per cent of Hindi features‘ box office collections and over 70 per cent of Tamil and Telugu
theatrical revenues from the US.
 

MUMBAI: This year’s Chennai International Film Festival has strengthened its advisory panel consisting of film luminaries like Tamil Film Producers Council president Rama Narayanan, Suhasini Mani Ratnam, Kushboo, Revathi and Rohini.

The Indo-Cine Appreciation Foundation (ICAF), which has been organising the festival for the last seven years, has joined hands with two powerful bodies – South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce (SIFCC) and Film Federation of India (FFI) from this year.

“The aim of the festival is to put Chennai on the global map of film festivals. The budget this year has been almost doubled when compared to that of last year, as we are planning to screen more films,” said ICAF secretary E Thangaraj.

“Apart from the Woodlands multiplex, where we normally screen movies, SIFCC‘s theatre will be one more addition like last year. We are expecting support from the Tamil Nadu government and other bodies of Tamil cinema,” he added

MUMBAI: Delhi-based multiplex major PVR has reported a first-quarter net profit of Rs 50.7 million compared to a net loss of Rs 128.5 million a year ago that was hit by a row between plexes and film producers over revenue share arrangements.

Total income jumped 131 per cent to Rs 1.03 billion, from Rs 445.6 million in the year ago period, as the premium multiplex operator hiked average ticket prices by 29 per cent. PVR‘s earlier-year quarter was badly bruised by the absence of fresh content as film producers choked supply to represent their bargaining power.

“The average ticket prices across the comparable properties in the quarter under review grew by Rs 38 (29 per cent growth) over the corresponding period of the previous year due to increase in ticket pricing across various properties across our cinema circuit,” the company said.

The company said that it entertained approximately 5.1 million patrons during the quarter under review, higher by 122 per cent over Q1 FY’10. Occupancies witnessed an increase from 19.9 per cent in Q1 FY10 to 29.3 per cent in the quarter under review.

Meanwhile, total expenditure of the company rose 63 per cent to Rs 876.3 million, as against Rs 538.9 million a year ago.

The cost on account of film distributor share went up by 183 per cent (from Rs 96.7 million to Rs 274.2 million). “During the quarter film distributor share under review increased to 28.9 per cent of operating revenue, higher by 450 bps as compared to 24.4 per cent of operating revenues during the quarter ended June 2009. This has increased partly on account of lower film hire payouts due to older films being played at cinemas in quarter ended June 09 and partly due to higher payouts to distributors on account on new revenue sharing arrangement signed between the producers/distributors and multiplex operators in Jun 2009,” the company said.

The movie exhibition segment saw a net profit of Rs 45.2 million in the quarter as compared to a net loss of Rs 130.3 million in the earlier year. The revenue from the segment was Rs 948.4 million (from Rs 395.7 million).

During the quarter under review, the company has added a total of 13 screens with 3,143 seats. As of date, PVR operates 136 screens across 32 properties and 17 cities. A total of 47 screens enjoy tax exemption.

The company is expected to commence operations in 44 new screens over the next nine months.