Category: Hindi

MUMBAI: Film aficionados in New Delhi can look forward to watching quality selection of films related to war, modern myths, environment, romance and religion at the European Film Festival (EUFF). The even will be held from 12 to 20 June at the Teen Murti Bhavan auditorium in New Delhi.

The festival will see the screenings of as many as 23 films and will open with the Belgian film, The Hell of Tangiers. 

Some of the films to be screened at the festival are Investigator (Hungary), Chopin, Desire for Love (Poland), Small Engine Repair (Ireland), One Hundred Nails (Italy), Solitude (Spain), Grave Decisions (Germany), Roosters Breakfast (Slovenia), 7 yrs (France), In Real Life (Netherlands), Soul at Peace (Slovakia), The Age of Stupid (UK), ‘The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner (Bulgaria), All the Queen‘s Men (Austria) and Playing Solo (Finland).

Entry to the festival will be free on a first-come-first-served basis.
 

MUMBAI: Debut director Rakesh Ranjan Kumar is directing a romantic biopic on Hitler titled Dear Friend Hitler.

The film is based on the Nazi ruler‘s relationship with his long-term mistress, Eva Braun. 

While Anupam Kher plays Hitler, Neha Dhupia will essay the role of Eva Braun.

The film that is scheduled to release by this year-end tells the story of Hitler‘s final days in his Berlin bunker. It was there that he married Braun in a brief civil ceremony about 40 hours before he killed himself on 30 April,1945.

The first Bollywood film that will focus on Hitler who chose the swastika, an ancient Hindu symbol as his Nazi emblem, shows the dictator‘s love for India and how he indirectly contributed to Indian independence.

The film will also focus on the fate of the Free India Legion, an armed unit made up of Indian soldiers that was raised in 1941 and attached to the German Army.

The film‘s title alludes to two letters that Gandhi wrote to the dictator. Gandhi addressed Hitler as ‘Dear Friend‘ before requesting him not to go to war.

MUMBAI: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has imposed a Rs 10 million fine on former Adlabs Films MD Manmohan Shetty for violating insider trading guidelines.

Shetty had violated the norms by selling off 1 million shares of the company before the 24-hour deadline after the decisions of the board meeting was to be made public. 

In an earlier reply to a show-cause notice issued by the regulator, Shetty had termed the sale as an “inadvertent error” without any “malafide intention”.

The Adlabs board had met on 22 April 2006 to recommend dividend on equity shares for financial year 2005-06 and to consider the proposal of demerger of the company‘s FM radio business. The meeting was adjourned and later concluded on 23 April that was a Sunday.

The company informed the exchanges about the details of the board meeting, and these were relayed by the bourses shortly before 10 am on 24 April. Within 15 minutes after the information was flashed, Shetty sold 7.5 lakh shares of Adlabs. Later around 3.15 pm, he sold another 2.5 lakh shares.

While the total market volume was 18,39,171 shares, Shetty sold 10 lakh shares at an average price of Rs 402.60 per share on the BSE on 24 April, 2006.

According to the regulator, the rule barring insiders from trading in shares for 24 hours after a board meet is to allow the public to fully understand the information and prevent insiders from getting an ‘early mover advantage‘.

SEBI also noted that Shetty had not sold any share between 1 January and 23 April 2006.

MUMBAI: In its endeavour to spread awareness about environmental issues through cinema, the Vasundhara International Film Festival, an annual eco-film fixture, will kick off on 8 July and will travel to 20 cities in four states across India.

The festival will go to Madhya Pradesh (Indore), Karnataka (Hospet and Koppal), Maharashtra (Kolhapur, Sangli, Miraj, Nashik, Nagpur, Amravati, Solapur, Aurangabad, Ahmednagar, Ratnagiri, Jalgaon, Thane, Baramati, Satara, Karad and Mumbai) and Goa.

Declared festival director Virendra Chitrav, “The festival will be held in two phases from July to September in 11 cities and from October to December in nine cities. The event that will have 30 national and international award-winning films participating, will get going from Amravati. The films will be screened in each city for four days.”

Other scheduled activities include workshops, nature walks, panel discussions, lectures, cultural programmes and book and photography exhibitions.

Delegates will be asked to write slogans on the environment and the best five slogans will win prizes. These will be put up on a tree called the commitment tree at each festival venue.

MUMBAI: The Ministry of Commerce & Industry will felicitate filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar at the India show in Dubai on 9 June.

Organising the show that is being held from 8 to 10 June in Dubai, the Ministry will honour Bhandarkar for his outstanding work and contribution to the Indian cinema.

Says Bhandarkar, “I am highly honoured and very delighted. It is always motivating when one gets such felicitations of encouragement. I extend my heartiest thanks to the organisers of the show and the audiences worldwide who have always stood by me.”

The components of the show include a made in India trade exhibition on all the three days, a networking meet organised by Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO) and Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, an India Business Summit organised by FIEO, CII & IBPC, Dubai and India culture evening and Indian cuisine dinner.

Earlier this year, Madhur was also awarded in Moscow and Egypt for his contribution to Indian cinema.
 

MUMBAI: Cinemax promoter Himanshu B Kanakia has pledged a total of 5.87 million shares, representing 20.96 per cent stake in the company.

In a fresh development, Kanakia pledged 265,000 shares on 2 June. With this, he has pledged 62.66 per cent of his personal holding in the company (9.37 million shares).

On 31 March, the promoters of the cinema exhibition major had pledged 41.51 per cent shares of the entire paid up capital, representing 60.72 per cent of the promoters’ shareholding.

Cinemax had posted a net profit of Rs 169.7 million in the fiscal ended 31 March 2010 on a net income of Rs 1.68 billion. Total expenses incurred in the year were Rs 1.58 billion.

Shares of Cinemax were trading Tuesday at Rs 49.95 on the BSE till 1 pm.

MUMBAI: In Tamil Nadu, politics always wins. While Kites has fallen flat with the cinema hall owners boycotting the movie in the state, it is the political drama Raajneeti that is being shown in the theatres.

The entire cast of Raajneeti didn‘t go to Colombo to the IIFA after the South India film industry threatened to ban actors attending the function, a move that has gone down well with the fraternity in Tamil Nadu.

The Hrithik Roshan-starrer Kites, however, could not fly long and the cinema theatres yesterday banned the film from screening in Tamil Nadu.

The act is seen as a result of the showdown Bollywood had with the South India film industry when several actors namely Salman Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Sanjay Dutt, Govinda and Anil Kapoor, among others, attended the IIFA awards in spite of being warned not to.

Says film critic Bhawana Somaaya, “I was always of the view that holding of the IIFA awards in Sri Lanka was not the right decision. The TN film chamber had requested the Bollywood film fraternity to stay away from the awards, going by the torture Tamilians are facing there day in and out.”

The South India film fraternity warned that Bollywood should not go out to celebrate “where our brethren are suffering.”

Other future films that could also take a hit are the Sanjay Dutt starrer Lamha and Sunil Shetty‘s Red Alert.

“Some Bollywood artistes did attend the awards ceremony. Resultantly, the film fraternity in Tamil Nadu has picked up a fight and have taken the first step and pulled down Kites. I feel this fight is set to go fiercer,” observes Somaaya.
 

MUMBAI: The recently formed Bollywood-Hollywood coalition against piracy has been flexing its muscles by the week.

Following up its raids not only in the interiors of Maharashtra but also in Gujarat last week, the police, along with United Copyright Protection Association (UPCA) and AA Khan & Associates, conducted raids in Wada, Ahmedabad and Mumbai.

The joint operation seized 25,000 pirated discs of recent releases like Raajneeti, Prince of Persia and Kites among others, and 22 DVD writers worth Rs 260,000. 

While the Mumbai police conducted multiple raids across Mumbai and seized close to 6000 pirated discs, AA Khan & Associates conducted a joint raid with a PSI Kolekar from Wada Police Station of pirated on film discs manufacturing plant outside Mumbai.

This raid led to a seizure of a total of 12,956 pirated DVDs of recently released Hindi and English films worth Rs 140,000. The team also seized 22 DVD writers and two processors. The team recovered 3,000 pirated DVDs of the recently- released Rajneeti.

Under the jurisdiction of B Ward BMC, UPCA conducted a raid at the junction of Yusuf Meherali road and Abdul Rehman Street, Majid Bunder, Mumbai. The team along with BMC Officers seized a total of 1500 pirated discs of films. Another raid that was conducted at Malwani Market in Malad (west) along with Malwani Police Station on a stall vendor selling pirated discs, 2,984 pirated discs were seized. Three people were arrested in the raid estimated to be worth Rs 409,600.

At a raid conducted near Hotel Sarovar outside Kandivili (west), nearly1,400 discs was seized from the stalls estimated to be worth Rs 200,000.

In Ahmedabad, the UPCA conducted a joint raid with a team from Sirkach Police Station, Ahmedabad on a godown of pirated movie discs where it seized a total of 5,265 pirated DVDs of Hindi and English films worth Rs 263,550.

AA Khan commented, “Piracy is a serious offence and one which is rampant within major parts of the city. We along with Mumbai Police are dedicated to the cause of arresting the increase of such activities. However, the job of the police is nullified since the common man goes and purchases movies from such pirates. People need to remember that besides denying the creators of the content their fair share, the proceeds from such sales fund several illegal activities including terrorism in India and abroad.”

MUMBAI: In a rather shaky box-office year, it is the political thriller Raajneeti that has made its way to the fourth largest release as it scoops up Rs 620 million in the opening weekend.

The Prakash Jha-directed movie trails behind Shah Rukh Khan‘s My Name Is Khan that netted Rs 850 million, Kites (Rs 650 million) and Housefull (Rs 640 million).

Produced jointly by UTV Motion Pictures and Walkwater Media, Raajneeti took home Rs 510 million from India where it released in 1900 screens.

The film made a total business of $315,048 in the UK, $916,446 in the US and $500,000 in the Gulf.

Raajneeti opened in 2200 screens globally compared to Rakesh Roshan‘s Kites that opened in 2500 screens.

Avers trade analyst Taran Adarsh, “The film did good business in multiplexes as well as single-screens in both smaller towns and big cities. Resultantly, the film garnered over 90 per cent collections. The audience feedback has been very good and the first week collection is bound to be excellent.”

Raajneeti has, thus, in its first weekend managed to clear of the Rs 550 million that was riding on it. “Having pre-sold the satellite TV and music rights at an additional revenue of Rs 220 million, the film will undoubtedly do surplus business,” says a trade analyst.

With the release of Mani Ratnam‘s Raavan only on 18 June, Raajneeti has two clear weeks to run free without real competition as small-time films Ek Second Jo Zindagi Ko Badal De and The Camp hit the screens this Friday.
 

MUMBAI: UTV movies will be available for UK audiences on BT Vision, a leading IPTV platform provider with presence in over 170 countries.

UTV has inked a deal with Shemaroo Entertainment UK which has an exclusive content aggregation agreement with BT Vision.

UTV will open up 22 of its movies on the video-on-demand services of British Telecom Vision. Films on offer across UTV‘s catalogue for the last three years include Race, Fashion, Kaminey, Wake Up Sid and Kurbaan.

As per the deal, a viewer will be able to watch four to five films from the UTV stable every month on the IPTV platform for BT Vision‘s pay-per-view and video-on-demand services.

B T Vision recently launched a ‘Bolly and Beyond‘ section in which Indian films are made available on demand services.