Category: Hindi

MUMBAI: UTV has expanded its movie slate for the fiscal and is eyeing a revenue of Rs 4.50 billion from this segment, up 42 per cent from the year-ago period.

A list of 12 movies have been firmed up for 2010-11, a large part of it will be via the co-production route.

Narrowing its risks, UTV will also indulge in a high element of pre-sales activities. In the pre-sale of music, home video and satellite TV rights of each film, UTV hopes to cover up 50 per cent of its production costs.

UTV has already undertaken the pre-sale of some of the TV and music rights for select titles from the slate that amounts to over Rs 800 million.

UTV‘s movie pipeline that opened with Raajneeti will quickly follow with Karan Johar‘s I Hate Luv Stories. The film is set for release on 2 July.

16 July will see the release of Udaan produced by Sanjay Singh, Anurag Kashyap and UTV. Later on 23 July, UTV Spotboy will release Chillar Party.

UTV‘s co-production with Aamir Khan titled Peepli Live will release on 13 August while its home production Paan Singh Tomar, directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia, will open on 27 August.

Another UTV co-production with Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Guzarish, starring Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai, will release on 19 November. 10 December will see the release of UTV Spotboy‘s No One Killed Jessica. The releases of the year will end with the Farah Khan directed Tees Mar Khan.

The company‘s account for 2011 will open with Vishal Bhardwaj‘s Saat Khoon Maaf. The release dates of We Are Family and Delhi Belly have not yet been declared with the latter still stuck in the production stage.

UTV posted an operating profit of Rs 950.64 million from the segment, as against operating profit of Rs 537.83 million a year ago.

UTV deployed a capital of Rs 4.82 billion towards movies and posted an operating profit of Rs 950.64 million from this segment on a turnover of Rs 3.15 billion for the fiscal ended 31 March 2010.

MUMBAI: Yash Raj Films‘ Lafangey Parindey will release on 20 August.
The film, produced by Aditya Chopra and directed by Pradeep Sarkar, has Neil Nitin Mukesh and Deepika Padukone in the lead.

The film is a gritty romance set on the streets of Mumbai and is rumoured to be about bike gangs of Mumbai. This required Neil to engage in serious and authentic fights on the streets.

Lafangey Parindey will be Sarkar‘s second film with the YRF banner. He had earlier directed Laaga Chunari Mein Daag.

Sarkar‘s first film was the Saif Ali Khan and Vidya Balan starrer Parineeta, based on the novel by Sharatchandra Chattopadhya.

MUMBAI: Even as his film Raajneeti is attracting audiences, Prakash Jha has announced his next project Aarakshan.

The film, based on the issue of job reservations and student politics, stars Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgn and Manoj Bajpayee in lead roles. 

While Devgan and Bajpayee featured in Raajneeti, it is the first time that Jha would be working with Bachchan.

It is speculated that Katrina Kaif may also feature in the film.

Like Raajneeti, Aarakshan would be also shot in Bhopal.

MUMBAI: This week will see the release of two diametrically opposite films Krantiveer –The Revolution and Mr Singh & Mrs Mehta. 

Krantiveer – The revolution, touted as a sequel to the 1994 Nana Patekar-Dimple Kapadia starrer Krantiveer, is a medium budget film that will release all over the country in around 450 to 500 screens. The film stars Sameer Aftab and Jahan Bloch and evolves around the theme that in the post-Independence era there is still much to achieve and people still “await the morning.”

Manu Kumaran’s small-budget film Mr Singh & Mrs Mehta, on the other hand, will release in 47 screens mostly those of PVR. Starring Prashant Narayanan and Aruna Shields, the film is a story of two people – Ashwin and Neera – who find their spouses having an affair. Drawn together by shame and anger, they find comfort in their growing friendship even as they resolve not to be like their unfaithful mates.
 

MUMBAI: Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has decided not to withdraw the ban order against Chennai-based Pyramid Saimira Theatre Ltd (PSTL) MD PS Saminathan.

Sebi had imposed interim direction on Saminathan and other promoter Nirmal N Kotecha in April last year and had barred both from trading in securities till further notice. The regulator alleged PSTL for misconduct, forging a Sebi letter and of making misleading public announcements.

Shortly thereafter, Saminathan had requested Sebi to withdraw interim directions. However, in its order on Monday, Sebi turned it down saying that it did not find Saminathan‘s explanation convincing.

Saminathan explained that he had bought shares only for the purpose of raising money for PSTL. The Sebi also questioned Saminathan‘s announcement to the stock exchanges that he proposed to acquire 704.5 million shares of PSTL from promoters at Rs 200 a share. Sebi rejected Saminathan‘s submissions defending his actions “without merit”.

In November last year the regulator banned PSTL for seven years from the market.
 

MUMBAI: Looks like the release date of Mani Ratnam‘s Raavan did not match the stars of the film.

Not only has the film been getting a lukewarm reception at the box-office both nationally and internationally, its pirated prints were out on the day of its release on 18 June.

 
If that were not enough, the anti-piracy cell of the Mumbai police along with A.A. Khan & Associates seized 600 pirated prints of Raavan in raids between 18 to 20 June.

In a raid on 18 June at Andheri East, 1206 discs of Rajneeti, Kites, Prince of Persia were seized. In another raid on the following day at Dindoshi, a raiding party initially seized 300 prints of Raavan from an Activa bike that followed the seizure of several 6 in 1 DVDs of Raavan, Raajneeti, Prince of Persia, Kites, Ek Second ..Jo Zindagi Badal De and Badmaash Company among others. Again, in a raid on 20 June in Nalasopara, 314 discs of Raavan along with those of Rajneeti, Ironman 2, Prince of Persia and Kites were seized.

MUMBAI: UTV has sold the distribution rights of Karan Johar‘s I Hate Luv Storys to Mukta Arts for the territories of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

Says Mukta Arts CEO Ravi Gupta, “Since we are strong on the distribution front in places like Delhi, UP and Punjab, we were more inclined to get the distribution rights of the film in these areas.”

I Hate Luv Storys, starring Imran Khan and Sonam Kapoor, is a romantic comedy produced by Dharma Productions and UTV Motion Pictures and is directed by debutante Punit Malhotra.

The film is scheduled to release on 2 July
 

MUMBAI: Days after the news broke that some MLAs of Rajasthan were treated with the screening of Prakash Jha‘s Raajneeti from a pirated disk, the Mumbai Police along with AA Khan & Associates seized more than 9,500 pirated discs of the film along with those of recently released films estimated to be worth Rs 950,000 in a raid in South Mumbai.

The raids conducted by the team in South Mumbai seized pirated discs of Rajneeti, Prince of Persia, Shrek-3 and Kites.

The distinguishing factor in this raid was that close to 80 per cent of the discs seized were of Hollywood movies, underlying the fact that such titles have an increasing demand in the pirated market.

In the past few months, agencies like AA Khan & Associates and United Copyright Protection Association (UPCA) have been conducting raids across major centres in Gujarat and Maharashtra.
 

MUMBAI: Raavan, which was released in three language versions, mopped up Rs 200 million on the opening day, according to box-office figures released by its co-producer Reliance Big Pictures.

The Hindi, Tamil and Telugu versions were released simultaneously in 2,200 screens worldwide.

Box-office trackers said the film fared well but didn’t have a terrific opening as Housefull, Badmaash Company, Kites and Raajneeti.

On the national scene, the film opened to a response between 50 to 60 per cent in several multiplexes. Industry trackers said the film, however, did poorly in other multiplexes and got occupancy between 20 to 30 per cent.
 

MUMBAI: The London Indian Film Festival will be held in London from 15 to 20 July.

The festival covers a wide range of themes including family dramas, coming-of age tales and twisted urban romance.

The festival will open at Cineworld (Haymarket) on 15 July with the UK premiere of Dibakar Banerjee‘s Love, Sex Aur Dhokha. 

Other highlights of the festival include Mahesh Manjrekar‘s City of Gold and Saeed Akhtar Mirza‘s Last Chance Mumbai. Then there is the Amit Rai- directed Road To Sangam. The festival will close with the UK premiere of AB Corp. Ltd.‘s Vihir (The Well, directed by Umesh Kulkarni.

The winning filmmaker will receive an award of ?1,000 on 20 July.