Category: Hindi

MUMBAI: In two raids conducted in Kandivali and Malad, the SS branch of the Mumbai police along with AA Khan & Associates seized close to 15,000 pirated discs. The team found discs of recently released Hindi and Hollywood movies in a bid to counter movie pirates.

In the first raid carried on 7 May, the team raided libraries and a small warehouse near Malad Station, uncovering 7,899 pirated discs of recent releases while on 12 May, a similar raid was conducted across seven stalls in Thakur Complex, Kandivali (East) that resulted in the seizure of 7000 discs. Among the seized discs were more than 560 discs of Badmash Company, the major Bollywood release last week along with 968 and 1,162 pirated discs of Housefull and Iron Man 2 respectively.

AA Khan & Associates have filed the cases in SS Branch, headed by Sheela Sail, DCP, Enforcement SS Branch. 

Said AA Khan, “I am glad that our sustained efforts of conducting raids have begun to show results. Piracy is one of the major problems, since recent times its dangers are evident on a larger scale. We will try our level best to reach to the root cause of this problem. While it would be unrealistic to except it to be eradicated overnight, we have taken our formative steps in the right direction.”

During the raids the police made three arrests at Malad and four at Kandivali. The accused have been booked under Sections 51, 52(A), 63, 68(A) of Copyright Act along with sections 292A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Besides, last week similar raids were conducted across Andheri, Lower Parel Station, Malad station and Kandivali across stalls, small warehouses and libraries.
 

MUMBAI: Vistaar-Religare is set to produce the Hindi version of the stars Demi Moore and David Duchovny-starrer The Joneses, at an estimated budget of Rs 600 million.

Set to go on the floors in the next few months, the film would be directed by Bhavna Talwar who had earlier directed Dharm with Pankaj Kapur as the lead protagonist.

While the focus in the original is on the couple played by Moore and Duchovny, Talwar‘s Hindi adaptation would shift the focus from the couple to their son.
Talwar hopes to rope in Ranbir Kapoor to play the son.

The Joneses released on 16 April across America.

MUMBAI: Amar Mohile, known for his background scores in films like Sarkar, Sarkar Raj, Ek Hasina Thi, Jail, Shootout at Lokhandwala, Agyaat, Nishabd, Aaka Suroor and Ek Ajnabee was recognised in the recently concluded East End Festival 2010, London.

The film festival showcases hot talent and homegrown films alongside larger independent releases from across London and beyond.

The festival nominated him in the category of best feature soundtrack for the English film, Land Gold Women.

Land Gold Women recently won the National Award for Best Film in English. The film also won the Royal Reel Award for excellence in filmmaking at this year‘s Canada International Film Festival and for best film and best screenplay at the FCA Purple Orchid Award.

Mohile is currently working on an international album that has a rich blend of vocals and live instruments from across the world besides his various film commitments.
 

MUMBAI: India‘s first 3D digital animation film Bal Hanuman 2 is all set to release on 14 May. The film would be released in only select theatres that are equipped with special projectors, the likes of which were used while screening the James Cameron epic, Avatar.

The film, directed by Pankaj Sharma, can be best viewed using a specs like one did watching Chhota Chetan. 

Bal Hanuman-2, that centres around Hanuman‘s childhood, explores adventurous childhood antics of Lord Hanuman.

Talking in detail about the filming of Bal Hanuman 2 to indiantelevision.com, Sharma says “In order to give depth to the film, every scene is filmed with two cameras, one from the right and the other from the left hand side. Later, both the footages are mixed and converted into digital prints or transferred to a Hard Disc. The whole process makes the budget double compared to a normal 2D film for example if one has a total footage of 1 lakh metres from a single camera, shooting with two cameras would result in a footage of 2 lakh metres. Naturally, tickets to see this film will be costly, but once you‘ve seen the result, you will not regret for the money you‘ve spent.”

Pankaj Sharma had earlier directed Bal Ganesh, Bal Ganesh-2, Panga Gang (all for Shemaroo) and Bal Hanuman.

NEW DELHI: There is need to adjudge entries submitted for the National Film Awards at two levels – regional and central – and the number of award categories should be increased, according to the Expert Committee on National Film Awards headed by eminent filmmaker and member of Parliament Shyam Benegal.

The Committee said in the report submitted to Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni today that there should be a two-tier viewing of films by the Jury to facilitate the selection process. It has proposed a Central Jury and five regional Juries to cover languages in different regions. It has also outlined guidelines for the regional jury composition.

It has also been stated that in view of the need to fine tune the awards according to the emerging realities of cinema, new awards should be introduced in audiography, music, best screenplay and dialogue. In order to make the nomenclature of Awards more contemporary, the Committee has recommended the Award for Best Art Direction should be called Best Production Design. It has recommended the raising the number of awards in the feature film category from 31 to 34. The cash prize for special jury award in feature films should be raised from Rs 1,25,000 to Rs 200,000.

Receiving the report from Benegal who was accompanied by actor Sharmila Tagore and filmmaker Rajiv Mehrotra, Soni said the Ministry would now process the recommendations made by the Committee. Also present on the occasion were I and B Secretary Raghu Menon, Special Secretary Uday Kumar Varma, Film Festivals Director S M Khan and JS (Films) D P Reddy.

The Committee was constituted at the initiative of Soni to make recommendations for upgradation of the National Film Awards. The committee studied in detail the various categories of awards, mode of selection of awards by the Jury as well as the awards function.

The Committee has made some key recommendations for non-feature film awards. It has recommended that the awards for Environment, Agriculture and Education may be split in two categories: Best Educational Film and Best Film on Environment. The cash component of Awards for Best non-feature Film and Best Direction may be doubled from Rs. 100,000 to Rs 200,00 and brought on par with Feature Films. The Best Scientific film should be called Best Science & Technology Film. The Committee also recommended raising the Cash Component of Special Jury Award from Rs 50,000 to Rs 200,000 and that of Best First Non-feature Film Award from Rs. 50,000 to Rs 1,25,000 on par with the similar award in the feature film category.

The Committee also consisted of Ms Sai Paranjpye, Ashok Vishwanathan, Vishal Bhardwaj, Nagesh kukunoor, Mohan Agashe, Ms. Waheeda Rehman, Jahnu Baruah and Shaji N Karun.

The National Film Awards were instituted in 1954 and aim at encouraging the production of films of aesthetic and technical excellence, and social relevance, contributing to the understanding and appreciation of cultures of different regions of the country in cinematic form and thereby promoting integration and unity of the nation.

MUMBAI: Besides building bridges and expanding borders by holding IIFA awards in different countries every year, the International India Film Academy (IIFA) has decided to spearhead a charity initiative in Sri Lanka this year where the 11th IIFA awards are to be held from 3 to 5 June in Colombo.

The charity initiative, in association with the Sri Lanka Cricket Board, Unicef and Habitat for Humanity, has been taken with an aim to positively impact those afflicted in the country.

The financial contributions generated through efforts of the IIFA, the Unicef and the Sri Lanka Cricket Board is being made to the ‘Cricket for Change‘ project wherein former child-soldiers, children of refugees, are being rehabilitated.

The proceeds of the cricket match to be held on the second day of the IIFA weekend between Indian celebrities and Sri Lankan players will go as charity to these child soldiers.

As a symbol of solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka, IIFA has tied up with Habitat for Humanity, an international, ecumenical Christian, non-governmental, non-profit organization, initiated by former US president Jimmy Carter.

Both IIFA and Habitat for Humanity will adopt and rebuild a village of refugees from time to time. To this effect Habitat for Humanity has roped in Salman Khan as its ‘Ambassador of Change‘ who has undertaken to rehabilitate 100 homes of refugees.

Commented Khan, “I wholeheartedly support IIFA‘s inintiative that aims to give back to the Sri Lankan people, their due for the hardships they have faced. IIFA has successfully build bridges between countries over the last decade and I hope this initiative will do the same for Sri Lanka too.”

MUMBAI: Following on the heels of the good collections by Sajid Nadiadwala‘s Housefull last weekend, there‘s some cheer at the Bollywood box-office this week too.

While Housefull continued to pull in audiences, the Parmeet Sethi-helmed and Shahid Kapoor-starrer Badmash Company from Yash Raj Films grossed Rs 135 million as the weekend ended.

Apparently, the film had a relatively slower first day but then gathered momentum over the next two days as word-of-mouth helped the film attract audiences to both the single-screens and multiplexes.

Says Fun Cinemas COO Vishal Kapur, “The film opened better than expected especially for two reasons; first, it is a Yash Raj film and secondly, it is a Shahid Kapoor starrer. The opening weekend was good, given the fact that the film has tremendous youth appeal and that in turn witnessed in the youth turning out in huge numbers. The film will hopefully do even better in the whole first week.”

Meanwhile, Gurinder Chadha‘s It‘s A Wonderful Afterlife (Hai Mar Jawaan! in Hindi), the second release of the week, has had a disastrous start at the box-office, notwithstanding the fact that the film boasts the presence of Shabana Azmi.

“On Sunday, the English version of the film did decent business, garnering around 40 to 50 per cent footfalls while the Hindi one fared very poorly,” avers Kapur.

Housefull, which ended its first week with a worldwide box-office of Rs 950 million, continued with its good run into its second weekend. An industry observer points out that collections were between Rs 100-120 million just in India. “The film has been doing pretty well,” he says. “The film, already a hit, is destined to be a big grosser.”

Bollywood has had a run of bad luck with nearly 17 films bombing or doing less than average business since My Name is Khan was released in January. Housefull was the first film to break that run. And now with Badmaash Company also notching up a success, trade observers are happy that good times are back again.

MUMBAI: Aamir Khan‘s Peepli Live is among the three Indian films that will be shown at the Seattle International Film festival, to be held from 20 May to 13 June.

The central subject of Anusha Rizvi‘s directorial debut is the tragic rash of farmer suicides that has plagued India for the past decade and turns it into a fleet footed, incisive and very funny satire about the social absurdities afflicting the country.

The second film, Paresh Kamdar‘s Khargosh, will be screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section. Khargosh centers on a small-town boy in a remote Indian village who accidentally enters into the adult adventure of love. It is a delicate portrait of what it means to grow up.

The third, a student animation film called A Request from Earth, will be screened under the FutureWave Shorts, Short Films and Adobe Youth Voices section. In the film, students from India animate the impact of pollution and how to make the earth healthier.
 

MUMBAI: Ian Botham, the ex-cricket captain of England, is set to star in Patiala House. 54-year old Botham, nick named Beefy, will be accompanied by fellow England players, Graham Gooch and David Gower.

It is reported that the cricketing legends make a guest appearance in the film. 

Directed by Nikhil Advani, the film stars Akshay Kumar,Anushka Sharma, Rishi Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia and Prem Chopra. It is the story of a second-generation Sikh in London who gives up his dream to save his father‘s reputation until he meets a girl who gives him the strength to stand up for what he believes.

The film is being produced by Mukesh Talreja of People Tree Pvt Ltd.

MUMBAI: Rakesh Roshan‘s Kites has fallen into the copyright trap.

The Bihar City Civil Court has ordered a stay on the release of the film till Rakesh Roshan and officials of Happy Hours Entertainment appear before the court on 24 May. 

The order follows a case filed by Laxmi Prasad of Sunbeam Holdings alleging non-receipt of amount due to them for selling the copy right of the action scenes amounting to approximately Rs 100 million to which Rakesh Roshan had apparently agreed to pay half the sum.

This means that the film, scheduled to release on 21 May, may get delayed.