Category: Hindi

BANGALORE: The much awaited Hrithik Roshan-starrer Kites faces an uncertain future in Karnataka, with the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) asking the exhibitors not to screen the movie in the state.

Reliance Big Pictures, distributor of Kites, has raised the ire of the apex film body by releasing more than the permitted number of prints of the film in the state. According to the rules of the KFCC, other language films can release only 21 prints of the film in the state. 

As a special case, Reliance Big had been permitted to screen the film in 24 theaters in Karnataka. However, KFCC says that Reliance Big has released more than 45 prints in just South Karnataka alone. Reports allege that approximately 90 plus prints of the movie have been circulated in Karnataka.

Some theaters have withdrawn Kannada films to make room for the screening of Kites and the Chamber fears that the box office performance of some of the running Kannada films and those to be released soon would be affected by the release of Kites in the state. Also, two Kannada films that were slated for release today in the state have no theaters, claim industry sources.

Reportedly, the KFCC has demanded compensation from Reliance Big for the losses incurred and has demanded an undertaking that Reliance Big will not repeat this in future.

Also, reportedly, KFCC has threatened not to release any films in the theaters that release Kites in the state.

Also Read:

Non-Kannada film releases in Karnataka to be withheld till 18 August

Karnataka film crisis: Non-Kannada film exhibitors bear the brunt

47 more non-Kannada cinemas close in Bangalore

Kannada film producers‘ fraternity takes on filmdom embargo

Kannada filmdom mess: Media persons attacked

Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce elects new governing body

Non Kannada theaters defy moratorium, release new films

Kannada film talks postponed; Non-Kannada films to release next week

MUMBAI: The 67th Venice International Film Festival will honour filmmaker Mani Ratnam with the Jaeger-LeCoultre ‘Glory to the Filmmaker‘ award when it goes underway from 1 to 11 September.

This year, Swiss watch manufacturer Jaeger-LeCoultre that is celebrating its six years of partnership with the Venice International Film Festival, has instituted the Jaeger-LeCoultre ‘Glory to the Filmmaker‘ award.

After being presented the award, Ratnam‘s name will be added to the likes of Takeshi Kitano, Abbas Kiarostami, Agnes Varda, and Sylvester Stallone who have been past winners of the award.

Speaking on the choice of Mani Ratnam for the honour, Venice Film Festival director Marco Mueller said, ” Mani Ratnam used to initially make movies only in his native tongue, Tamil, but has now been one of a handful of filmmakers to successfully handle the transition to the All-India market. 

One of the great innovators in contemporary Indian cinema, he helped introduce the auteur concept to contemporary Bollywood. His movies display precision and poise and have always been removed from the bombast and bluster of mass-produced regional cinema. Ratnam‘s most celebrated films have become part of the cinematic imagination of the sub-continent.”

On the occasion, Ratnam‘s Raavan will premiere which would be graced by the cast and crew of the film including Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Vikram and music maestro A.R. Rahman.

Raavan has been produced by Ratnam‘s Madras Talkies in association with Reliance Big Pictures. The film will be distributed globally by Reliance Big Pictures and IM Global.

MUMBAI: Days before a film releases, illegal DVDs of the film normally make their way to pirate vendors on the streets. This week, however, movie buffs could not get their hands on a DVD of the Hrithik Roshan starrer Kites in Mumbai and some parts of the country.

That‘s on account of Reliance Big Pictures‘ countrywide initiative to curb piracy of the film in states like Gujarat, New Delhi and the NCR region. The distributor has been conducting a major exercise to counter piracy in these areas.

Avers Reliance Big Pictures VP Sanjay Tandon: “We have appointed six agencies in Mumbai and one each in Gujarat, Delhi and the NCR region respectively and have seen to it that there is no piracy of our film in these places. Knowing clearly well that piracy cannot be erased but can be controlled; we are trying our best to control piracy of our film.”

An anti-piracy initiative, known as the Anti-Piracy Coalition, between big Indian production houses like Reliance, UTV, Eros, Studio 18, Yash Raj Films and the US-based Motion Pictures Distributors Association (MPDA) was announced at FICCI Frames held in Mumbai earlier this year. “This is the first film to be monitored as part of the Anti Piracy Coalition,” reveals Tandon.

A. A. Khan of A. A. Khan & Associates is one of the agents keeping a close watch on bootleggers in Mumbai. Says he: “This time, the surveillance against pirates is at its optimum best. We have increased our manpower who have gone all over the place as investigators. In this regard, I thank the SS branch of the Mumbai police who have been on their toes to help us in our initiative.”

Just last week, the SS branch of the Mumbai police along with AA Khan & Associates seized close to 15,000 pirated copies of recently released Hindi and Hollywood films.

MUMBAI: With the installation of a second high-end negative bath and additional facilities, Reliance ADA group company Reliance MediaWorks has expanded its UK operations.

This move will enable the company to handle processing bonded feature films for Hollywood, British and European producers shooting in the UK.

The laboratory, one of the only two film processing facilities operating in London‘s Soho district, is a widely preferred destination for film negative processing for leading commercials and high-end television work including majority of BBC‘s productions like Spooks, Waking the Dead and New Tricks, the box-office hit Earth, the feature film version of the hit series Planet Earth among others.

Reliance MediaWorks UK currently offers front-end, processing restoration, 2D to 3D conversion and post-production services to Broadcasters and Studios. The company has added additional 5000 sq ft premises on Poland street in London to house its extensive film and media services offering.

Commenting on the expansion, Reliance MediaWorks CEO Anil Arjun said, “Our London lab has developed a reputation as one of the top processing labs anywhere in the world. As an integrated global film and media service provider, we see a strong business opportunity across Europe, which is why we are making significant investments to increase the capacity of our London lab and enable it to support work on major feature film productions as well.”

Reliance MediaWorks has already processed several independent UK and European feature films, having recently also catered to Indian film productions in London and UK.

MUMBAI: Last week saw the release of three low-cost films – Bumm Bumm Bole, Bal Hanuman 2 and Kushti and none could muster a face-saving opening.

While the industry was expecting the Darsheel Safary-starrer to at least manage a good opening, the numbers that it has registered at the box office are extremely disappointing. And the same is the case of Hanuman 2 and Kushti.

Given the fact that Kushti has Rajpal Yadav in a duel with Khali, people seemed excited to view the film from the comedy angle but the film also couldn‘t register a decent opening.

Though Bal Hanuman 2 saw some excitement among children, its opening too couldn‘t excite the box-office.

Avers Fun Cinemas COO Vishal Kapur, “Among the three films, we screened only Bumm Bumm Bole and Bal Hanuman 2, both made for the children audience. But due to poor content, the films could attract only between 20 to 25 per cent footfalls. On the other hand, Badmaash Company and Housefull continued to do great business.”

Yash Raj Films‘ Badmaash Company that had registered an opening weekend haul of Rs 135 million, grossed Rs 210 million in its opening week. And now, the film, in its second weekend, grossed Rs 90 million.

Meanwhile, Sajid Nadiawala‘s Housefull that had grossed Rs 950 million in its first week globally, annexed Rs 480 million in India alone in its second week.

All eyes now rest on the much publicised Hrithik Roshan-Barbara Mori starrer Kites that will hit theatres on 21 May.
 

MUMBAI: The film and television sector has emerged as a strong sector offering varied opportunities to the growing youth demographic of the country.

And thus, has emerged many training schools to tame this amateur lot who can get trained to have a cutting edge over the untrained contenders.

The latest addition to this catch-up on training school line up is the Ramoji Academy of Film and Television (RAFT), launched by Ramoji Film City (RFC). The other such institutes include FTII, AIFT and Whistling Woods. 

The institute aims to offer training in filmmaking and is designed to address the in-demand disciplines of the film industry that can pave way for a better career.

RAFT curriculum has been designed in tune with the industry demands and expectations, says the company. The curriculum includes film direction, cinematography, acting, editing and sound design.
 

MUMBAI: As part of its regular endeavour to promote the development of the cinema in India, the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) will conduct Screenwriters‘ Lab 2010 this year.

Screenwriter‘s Lab 2010, being done in association with Binger Filmlab and Locarno International Film Festival, is a workshop designed to prepare screenwriters with original Indian stories for working with the international filmmaking market place. It aims at improving a completed screenplay in its final stages and to increase the international marketability of the same.

The first session to be held from 7 to 9 August during the Locarno International Film Festival, Switzerland, in which participants will get first-hand experience of the workings of the international film community and will also get to train with their screenplay mentors.

The second session to be conducted at Film Bazaar, Goa from 23 to 26 November will be where participants will apply their training and pitch their revised screenplays to participants at the film market.

The workshop will be conducted by Marten Rabarts, Artistic Director, Binger Filmlab, aided by experienced international guest mentors.

MUMBAI: Prakash Jha’s Raajneeti, that boasts of a big star cast like Ajay Devgan, Nana Patekar, Ranbir Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah, Arjun Rampal, Katrina Kaif among others, is releasing worldwide on 4 June.

Since the story of the film is about Indian politics and youth, UTV Motion Pictures, co-producer of the film, has chalked out a unique marketing strategy involving the youth.

The cast and crew of the film has been going around visiting colleges in cities like Bangalore, Indore, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Chandigarh and Lucknow. 

“Like in Chandigarh colleges, we had a discussion on ‘Should voting be made compulsory,‘ while in those in Bangalore, the topic of discussion was ‘Should one be a graduate to get into politics.‘ There would be other topics like ‘Woman Empowerment’ etc that would be discussed as we move further,” says UTV Motion Pictures SVP Shikha Kapur.

Besides UTV has roped in Star News (TV partner), Radio Mirchi (Radio partner) Dainik Bhaskar (Media partner), Kingfisher (travel partner), Book My Show (online partner) and Wizcraft (event managing partner).

To a query if the radio promos would be as normal as always, Kapur avers, “No, these would be also different from what is normally done on air. We would be having discussions on politics among the youth, similar to the ones we are doing on college campuses.”

Another promotion ploy that UTV has embarked on in the promotion of Raajneeti is that the national anthem has been re-rendered by Adesh Srivastava. “We thought it would be a nice thing to do. These would be shown in cinema halls very soon,” divulges Kapur.

UTV is going to release the film with 2,100 prints worldwide.

MUMBAI: On the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, Mukta Arts has produced a Bengali film, Nauka Dubi being directed by Rituparno Ghosh.

The film starring Raima Sen, Ria Sen, Prasanjeet and Jeeshu Parna Sen is scheduled to release in August.

Avers Subhash Ghai, “I loved the film when I saw the first cut of the film. 

What inspired me the most was how Rituparno carries the deep love story and sensitivities of Tagore‘s classic story with great visuals. That emboldened me to take this film onto a different level to reach out to many people including non-Bengali audiences all across. This is one of the best film of Rituparno.‘‘

Some of the films produced by Mukta Arts are Joggers Park, Iqbal, Rahul, Apna Sapna Money Money‘ and the soon to be released Hello Darling.
 

MUMBAI: Film distribution and exhibition is a science and an art. Indian cinema distributors, exhibitors and producers now have a tool to help them finetune this further, courtesy media research and consulting firm Ormax Media.

Called Cinematix, the tool allows those involved in a film‘s release to gauge audience awareness and interest levels in watching it. And it is currently being tested in the three cities of Mumbai, New Delhi and Ahmedabad.

In its expansion plans, the tool will be introduced in cities like Lucknow, Kolkata and Hyderabad in the next three months.

Basically, six weeks before a film is released or the week when the promos go on air, Ormax executives call audiences to generate feedback, points out Ormax Media co-founder & CEO Shailesh Kapoor. 

Every Monday, subscribers (producers, distributors, advertisers) of Cinematix then get a detailed report with age, gender, city and sector-wise analysis, for all the films releasing in the corresponding period.

“By this, they will come to know whether a film has been marketed well or needs to further finetune their marketing, media planning and promotion strategies,” points out Kapoor.

Kapoor says that Hollywood studios as a norm track the variables of pre-release awareness and intention to watch amongst audiences. “Once we have a body of data in place over a few weeks, Cinematix will allow producers to predict their opening weekend collections as well,” he adds.

All this would involve a lot of money. Where will Omax Media recover the money from? “We have two kinds of packages for producers or production houses. One is an annual charge, where we do the tracking of all their films releasing during the year while the second is on a film basis,” Kapoor observes.

Cinematix has been put into operation from last week when YRF‘s Badmaash Company was released. Side-by-side tracking of Rakesh Roshan‘s Kites was also being done. “By Monday, we got the information that Kites was the front runner in terms of popularity followed by Badmaash Company,” reveals Kapoor.