Category: Hindi

MUMBAI: The largest meet on the business of entertainment in Asia, Ficci-Frames 2010, got off today with a political statement when Chief Minister Ashok Chavan categorically said that India “does not need another censor board”, clearly alluding to the recent controversy relating to the film My Name is Khan.

Chavan assured the film fraternity, which included eminent filmmakers Yash Chopra and Karan Chopra apart from Shah Rukh Khan himself, that the state government will not allow any second censorship when the country already has the Central Board of Film Certification, indirectly referring to the Shiv Sena protests against My Name is Khan after Shah Rukh Khan‘s statement about Pakistanu cricketers not being taken by the IPL (Indian Premier League) franchises.

Chavan said that there was need to send out the message that one needed to uphold the Constitution of the country and support democratic means.

He claimed that the phased release of the film ‘My name is Khan’ in the face of protestors was not a mere political stunt but a well thought out strategy to send out a message to those who fomented trouble.

Addressing the inaugural session, Chavan also assured all help to the film industry in curbing piracy which was resulting in huge losses. He said there were adequate laws to deal with the menace but there was need for greater implementation and enforcement.

He also assured both the Ficci and the film industry that the state government would extend all help in marking the centenary of Indian cinema in 2013 and he would personally look into any suggestions in this regard. 

He said the aim was to work towards the best infrastructure support for the entertainment industry in the state.
 

MUMBAI: Besides last week‘s releases of Right Yaa Wrong, Hide & Seek and Na Ghar Ke Na Ghaat Ke, it was the screening of IPL matches in select single-screens and multiplexes that was catching attention.

IPL is being screened at Inox, PVR and Big Cinema, amongst others. The multiplexes are using cheerleaders in the hall, celebrity visits and stalls offering a variety of cuisines.

Till Sunday, the multiplexes could not pull in the expected crowd. Says Cinemax vice president Devang Sampat, “The response is not that encouraging, may be because the league is in its initial days. I‘m sure, as the tournament progresses, crowds will start coming in big numbers.”

Despite all these marketing tactics, the ‘not-so-good‘ seems a little discouraging.
Avers trade analyst Taran Adarsh, “Cricket has always been a strong opponent and I foresee movie business taking a backseat during evening and night shows, during the tournament. The period is also not conducive, since school and college examinations are underway and not just kids, their parents too prefer staying indoors.”

Meanwhile, the opening of the three films that was released last week was poor. Though the reports of Right Yaa Wrong and Na Ghar Ke Na Ghaat Ke have been good, footfalls to theatres receded because of two reasons. One, the films were not promoted properly and second, people were glued to their TV sets and didn‘t want to venture to the theatres.

This week will see the release of films like Love Sex aur Dhoka, Lahore, Shaapit and Idiot Box.

MUMBAI: With the reopening of ImaginAsian Theatre as Big Cinemas Manhattan in Midtown East – New York, Big Cinemas has strengthened its global footprint.

After undergoing major renovations over the last few months, including aesthetic, audio and visual enhancements, the theatre, in its new form, now features brand new and comfortable recliner seating, remodeled restrooms, expanded lobby with an updated concession stand, LCD screens and box-office as well as BARCO 2k digital projection.

The theatre strives to bring the best of movie-going experience and customer service to its patrons. It will host several premier and special shows in keeping with its aim to provide a distinguished programming plan to its patrons.

New York has a large and affluent Asian Indian population with over 300,000 Indians having a strong affinity towards Indian movies and the theatre will now provide a destination for a luxurious cinematic experience.

Says Reliance MediaWorks CEO Anil Arjun, “New York, with its fast-growing and prosperous population of Indians, is the epicenter of growth for us and we see considerable opportunity here in the exhibition infrastructure space starting with the redevelopment of Big Cinemas Manhattan. The theatre has undergone some remarkable changes and we are proud to present it as such a distinguished movie destination with best of amenities, services and film programming.”

Similarly to its strategy in India, Big Cinemas is setting up standalone properties and cinemas in malls in the US and existing properties are being taken over, renovated and operated by the company while taking advantage of their already considerable infrastructure and brand value.

Big Cinemas has aggregated a network of over 188 screens in 27 theaters across East Coast, Midwest and West Coast that now regularly screen Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Punjabi movie features, in addition to Hollywood.

NEW DELHI: ‘Kambakkht Ishq’ which starred some Hollywood personalities, has been voted the worst film of 2010, wits its heroine Kareena Kapoor being voted the worst actor in the Second Annual Golden Kela Awards held over the weekend.

Actor Harman Baweja and director Ashutosh Gowariker won the worst awards in their respective categories for the film “What’s Your Rashi”.

Interestingly, Hollywood stars Sylvester Stallone and Denise Richards won the ‘Bawra Ho Gaya Hai Ke’ award for ‘Kambakkht Ishq’. The avant garde filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar won the ‘Bas Kijiye Bahut Ho Gaya Award‘, asking him to stop making films.

The Golden Kela Awards are generally patterned on the Razzies, the awards for the worst of Hollywood. About 3,00,000 people voted online for their ‘favourites‘ this year.

But the main attraction of the evening was Chief Guest Cyrus Broacha, who was awarded the Cyrus Broacha Memorial Award, on which he said, “It‘s great, I‘m thrilled …I hope to win this award every year “.

Rani Mukerji and Shahid Kapoor won the worst pair award for ‘Dil Bole Hadippa’, which also won the awards for the most ‘Original‘ Story as it is based on “She‘s the Man”.

The Worst Supporting Male and female actor awards went to Ranvir Shorey and Deepika Padukone (in her role as ‘Meow Meow’) in ‘Chandni Chowk to China’, which also won the Insensitivity Award. 

Jackie Bhagnani in ‘Kal Kissne Dekha’ and Shruti Haasan in ‘Luck’ won the world newcomer awards for male and female respectively.

The Most Irritating Song was ‘Love mera hit hit’ (Billu) while the most Atrocious Lyrics were ‘Love me love me’ (Wanted).

The Lajja Award for Worst Treatment of a Serious Issue went to Kabir Khan and Aditya Chopra for ‘New York’. The Dara Singh Award for Worst Accent was given to Abhishek Bachchan for ‘Dilli 6’, while his starrer with father Amitabh Bachchan got the Black Award for Emotional Blackmail.

Taran Adarsh was named for the Critic‘s Award, while Fox got the award for ‘When Did This Come Out’.

Reacting to his award on twitter, Abhishek said “Another milestone in my career. I won the golden kela award 4 worst accent in Delhi 6. Chalo at least delhi 6 won something. I‘m overjoyed!!”

John Wilson, Founder / Head RAZZberry of the Razzies, said: “If our having given Sylvester Stallone 30 nominations and 10 statuettes in the course of our history, and also having awarded Denise Richards a Worst Supporting Actress dis-honor for ‘The world is not enough’ played a part in the two of them sneaking off to India to continue their bad film-making careers, please accept our most sincere apologies. Our intentions were for Stallone and Richards to be punished — not Indian movie-goers!”

Jatin Varma, Organizer of the Golden Kelas, said: “More and more people are joining our ranks every year to get back at Bollywood. This year, 300,000 people voted. Next year we hope to touch the 3 billion mark set by 3 Idiots.”

NEW DELHI: President Pratibha Devisingh Patil will present the Dadasaheb Phalke Award to legendary Cinematographer V K Murthy and the National Film Awards for 2008 in a ceremony at the Vigyan Bhavan here on 19 March.

The Bengali film ‘Antaheen’ by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury got the best feature film while ‘AFSPA 1958’ by Haabam Paban Kumar was named as the best non-feature film award for the 2008.

Information and Broadcasting Ministry sources said that the process for selection of the best awards for 2009 will begin shortly thereafter and the awards will be presented by September this year, thus bringing up-to-date the process delayed by a Court case.

Bala who directed the Tamil film ‘Naam Kadauul’ was named best director, while Upendra Limaye and Priyanka Chopra got the best actor and actress awards respectively for the films ‘Jogva’ in Marathi and ‘Fashion’ in Hindi in the 56th National Film Awards announced here this afternoon. Shams Patel won the best child artiste award for the film ‘Thanks Maa’ in Hindi.

The award for the film providing popular and wholesome entertainment went to the Hindi ‘Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!’ by Dibakar Banerjee. The Malayalam film ‘Bioscope’ by K M Madhusudhanam won a special jury award.

Hindi films continued to dominate the feature films, with as many as 13 awards while Marathi films got six (five for one film ‘Jogva’ by Rajeev Patil) and Bengali films got five (four for ‘Antaheen’ which had also featured in the Indian Panorama at the last International Film Festival of India at Goa). Tamil films got three awards, followed by Assamese, Malayalam, and Kannada films with two each, while English, Kokoborok, Tulu, and Oriya got one award each. One award (best film on family values) went to a bilingual English-Gujarati film ‘Little Jijou’ by Sooni Tarporevala.

‘Bollywood Melodies’ by Ganesh Anantharaman got the award for the best book on cinema while the book “The Director’s Mind” by Ujjal Chakraborty got a special mention. The Assamese critic Altaf Mazid and Manipuri critic R K Bidur Singh shared the best film critic award.

The Indira Gandhi award for the first film of a director went to Neeraj Pandey for his gripping Hindi thriller ‘A Wednesday’ while the Nargis Dutt Award for the best feature on national integration was taken by Assamese film ‘Aai Kot Nai’ by Manju Borah.

Interestingly, a film directed by the Indian subsidiary of a foreign production house – Walt Disney- got an award (‘Roadside Romeo’ by Jugal Hansraj as best Animation film) while the film ‘Land Gold Women’ on honour killings in the United Kingdom made by a British-based Indian, Avantika Hari, got the award for best English film.

The Marathi film ‘Jogva’ by Rajeevi Patil got five awards: best film on social values (age old social customs), actor Upendra Limaye, male playback singer Hariharan, and music direction by Ajay and Atul. Playback singer Shreya Ghoshal won the award for both ‘Jogva’ as well as ‘Antaheen’.

‘Antaheen’ also received awards for cinematography by Avik Mukhopadhyay, and lyrics by Anindya Bannerjee and Chandranil Bhattacharya.

‘Fashion’ also received the award for supporting actress Kangana Ranaut. ‘Firaq’ by the Nandita Das who is now chairperson of the Children’s Film Society, India, won two awards: editing by A Sreekar Prasad who had until now won the largest number of national awards for any single film editor, and art direction by Gautam Sen.

The monumental ‘Jodha Akbar’ by Ashutosh Gowarikar won awards for costume design by Neena Lulla and choreography by Chinni Prakash and Rekha Prakash. ‘Rock On’ by Abhishek Kapoor won the Best Hindi film award as well as the supporting actor award for Arjun Rampal.

MUMBAI: 2010 seems to be the year when lifetime achievement awards are coming in hordes to Amitabh Bachchan.

On 12 March it was announced that the sixth Muscat International Film Festival will honour Big B with the lifetime achievement award.

And now, the Hong Kong International Film Festival too has decided to confer Bachchan with the same honour.

Bachchan will be presented with the award at the event‘s Asian Film Awards, to be presented on 22 March.

Says Bachchan in his blog, “It is the year of Lifetime Awards ( LTA ). Hong Kong‘s Asian Film Festival now wishes to honour me with similar recognition before the end of the month. Yet another moment when the Indian tricolour shall earn recognition on foreign soil. A moment of pride for me, a fraternity of which I am a part and a country whose citizenship I cherish.”

Bachchan has appeared in more than 100 movies in a career spanning four decades. He recently starred in Paa that got him the best actor award from Screen as well as Filmfare.
 

MUMBAI: There seems to be no stopping for Amitabh Bachchan. Close on the heels of bagging the Filmfare best actor award, Amitabh Bachchan is going to add another feather on his cap.

Bachchan will be honoured with the life time achievement award at the sixth edition of the Muscat International Film Festival, to be held from 13 to 20 March.

“In a few days it will be Muscat in the Sultanate of Oman and the International Film Festival, where there shall be decoration for a Lifetime of Achievement,” Bachchan wrote on his blog.

Big names from the world film industry like Mohanlal, Resul Pookutty, Antonino Sucameli, Franko Nero and Masdah Azahbah will be attending the festival.

A total of 72 films from 20 countries will be screened at the festival, organised by the Ministry of Heritage and Culture in cooperation with the Oman Film Society (OFS) and the International Film Fraternity of Oman (IFFO).

Bollywood actress Shabana Azmi is the president of the jury of the international section of films in competition.

MUMBAI: Bollywood filmmaker Abbas Tyrewala has roped in David Bryan, the supervising art director for the Oscar-winning film The Hurt Locker, as production designer for his next venture, 1-800-Love.

Starring John Abraham as the lead protagonist, the film is a romantic comedy based in London.

“We wanted to portray the real London that is rarely seen. It‘s an amazing city with very diverse locations. In particular, we were looking for a real iconic studio apartment for our lead actor John Abraham,” Bryan said in a press release.
 

MUMBAI: Tips has postponed the release of its action-thriller Prince from 26 March to 9 April.

Among gossips in film industry circles that producer and managing director of Tips, Kumar Taurani got dreary to release the film during the time of IPL, Taurani clarifies, “The IPL tournament is to go on till 25 April. If I was wary of the IPL tourney, why would I announce the release of my film on 9 April.”

“The fact is that Prince is a very ambitious project that has some world-class action sequences that requires the usage of special visual effects and to make them truly breathtaking, is taking some time. The visual effects are being done by the best visual effects studio in the business. We are just reworking on a few scenes that has resulted in the delay.”

The film narrates the story of a thief who wakes up one morning to realize that he has lost his memory and his life is at stake.

The film, that has Nandana Sen in the female lead, has been directed by Kookie V. Gulati.

The release date of the Hindi action thriller movie ‘Prince‘ starring Vivek Oberoi is changed to April 9, 2010. Earlier, the film was scheduled to release on the 26th of March. It is unclear and slightly tricky why Kumar Taurani postponed the release but it seems that the producer must have got frightened because a significant cricketing event, IPL T20, will also be taking place during the same time, thereby dividing the focus of the audience.

Producer Kumar Taurani clarifies, “Basically, ‘Prince‘ is a very ambitious project for us and has some world-class action sequences, which require the usage of special visual effects and to make them truly breathtaking will take some time. We don‘t want to leave any stone unturned in making this project an extraordinary success.”

‘Prince‘ is the story of a thief, who wakes up one morning only to realize that he has lost his memory and his life is at stake. The movie is directed by Kookie Gulati and stars Vivek Oberoi alongside Nandana Sen, Aruna Shields and Neeru Singh.

The release of actor Vivek Oberoi‘s much-awaited flick “Prince” has been deferred by post production work.

Now, the thriller will hit theaters on April 9.

The movie was previously set for a March 26 release, but work on its post production and visual effects of high-powered action scenes is still going on.

In a press statement, Kumar Taurani, managing director of Tips Industries and producer of “Prince”, said, “‘Prince‘ is a huge project, with some out of the world action sequences and visual effects. Hence, we are leaving no stone unturned. The visual effects of the movie are done by the best visual effects studio in the business; we are just reworking on a few scenes, which has resulted in the delay.”

The film tells the story about a robber who is successful in committing the biggest theft of his life, only to get up next day and memorize nothing and becoming the most wanted man in India.

Directed by Kookie V. Gulati, the film also has Nandana Sen. (With Input from Agencies)
 

BANGALORE: Liquid Comics will be making ‘Beyond’, a film based on Deepak Chopra’s graphic novel story and screenplay.

Last year, Liquid Comics completed the management buyout of Virgin Comics (VC). Before the buyout, VC was led by the founding management team of Gotham Chopra, Sharad Devarajan and Suresh Seetharaman.

Filmmaker Suri Krishnamma will be directing the movie which is currently in development as a UK production. Liquid Comics Founders, Gotham Chopra and Sharad Devarajan, will produce the film with John Garland and Michael Dufficy.

Deepak Chopra, who created the story and wrote the screenplay, announced the deal, saying, “Beyond is a story about reality being multi-dimensional and how we can take journeys to realms we never dreamed of by separating the veils that partition our minds. I hope to open audiences‘ minds to the fact that all reality is a projection of a paradigm or worldview.”

Beyond is a supernatural thriller about a businessman, Michael Morton, who arrives in India with his wife, Anna and son, Ty, on a vacation. While Michael is distracted on a phone call with an overseas colleague, Anna and Ty wander through a typically teeming Indian shopping bazaar.

Then the inexplicable happens – Ty watches as his mother wanders into a small store but never comes out. She’s vanished without a trace. Michael searches for his wife, at first irritated by her elusiveness, but soon turns frantic, as he can’t uncover any clue to her whereabouts.

Things then turn even stranger and desperate when Michael hears his wife’s whispering, crying for his help. Tracking the sounds, Michael and Ty are led on adventure of both physical and metaphysical danger as they stop at nothing to reunite their family.

Liquid Comics uses the medium of graphic novel publishing to develop properties for theatrical live-action films, animation and video games. It has created graphic novels with acclaimed filmmakers and creators including John Woo, Shekhar Kapur, Deepak Chopra, Guy Ritchie, Dave Stewart, Jonathan Mostow, Edward Burns, Nicolas Cage, and others.

It currently has a number of film and television projects in development including the Warner Bros. film adaptation of ‘Gamekeeper’ with director Guy Ritchie; ‘Virulents’ with director John Moore; ‘Voodoo Child’ with Saturn Films and Reliance; ‘The Leaves’ with Summit Entertainment and ‘The Stranded’, in development for television, with the Syfy Channel.