Category: Hindi

MUMBAI: Sending strong signals to the market that the music and movie company is on a major growth curve, Tips Industries said Wednesday it intends to buy back shares at a premium from its prevailing price.

The buyback offer price would not exceed Rs 75 per share, Tips said. The shares of Tips rose 6.24 per cent to close today at Rs 50.25 on the BSE.

Tips said that the amount would not exceed Rs 198.10 million, being 25 per cent of aggregate of paid-up equity capital and free reserves of the company as on 31 March 2009.

The offer will open on 17 March and close on 23 August. “The proposed buy back is expected to lead to reduction of outstanding equity shares, which may in turn increase the earnings per share and return on equity of the company in future, thereby creating long-term shareholder value for the continuing shareholders. The proposed buy-back is also a reflection of confidence of the management in the future growth prospects of the company,” Tips said.

Tips’ promoters currently hold 9.52 million shares, representing 54.99 per cent of the company. Post buy back, promoters‘ holding will increase to 64.9 per cent. Also, the promoters will apply for exemption from making an open offer as required by regulation 11 of the Takeover Regulations after completion of buy back of such number of Equity Shares by the Company, which would result in an increase of 5 per cent voting rights in the company.

Collins Stewart Inga is managing the issue for Tips.

Tips produced the latest hit Ajab Prem Ki Gajab Kahani. The company posted a net profit of Rs 114.54 million on a turnover of Rs 662.98 million for the fiscal ended 31 March 2009.
 

MUMBAI: Sylvester Stallone and Denise Richards have been nominated for Bollywood‘s annual Golden Kela Awards that recognises the worst performances.

Stallone and Richards  have both been nominated for the ‘Baawra ho gaya hai ke Award‘ that translates as ‘Have you gone Crazy Award‘ for their performances in Kambakkht Ishq and Unfortunate Love.

The film has been nominated for seven more of the awards including worst film.

Abbas Tyrewala has been nominated in the ‘most atrocious lyrics award‘ category for the track Chiggy Wiggy from the film Blue.

The awards ceremony is to be held in New Delhi on 12 March.
 

MUMBAI: Amitabh Bachchan and Farhan Akhtar have failed to save Teen Patti and Karthik in a week that also saw the weakening of My Name Is Khan‘s (MNIK) box-office run.

The Shah Rukh Khan starrer has grossed Rs 1.75 billion over two weeks, with India alone accounting for Rs 1.02 billion. The film‘s overseas collections are significant, leading Fox Star Studios India CEO Vijay Singh to say that MNIK “would become the No. 4 biggest grosser in the Middle East behind Superman, The Dark Knight and Mummy.”

Teen Patti, starring Bachchan, Ben Kingsley and Madhavan, had a dull start of 15 to 20 per cent occupany in theatres. The film managed to garner Rs 37.5 million over four days.

While the collections of Karthik Calling Karthik was around 40 to 45 per cent on day one, the film showed falls at most places on Monday despite it being a holiday on account of Holi. The business on Monday was around Rs 12. 5 million, taking the total collections to Rs 112.5 million in the first four days of release.

This week will see the release of Warner Bros’ Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge, Studio 18’s Road, Movie and Director Rajesh Ranshinge’ Rokkk.
 

MUMBAI: Anti-piracy raids in two locations of Mumbai have uncovered 21,000 CDs and DVDs worth Rs 150,000.

The first raid at Lamington Road resulted in the seizure of around 6000 pirated CDs and DVDs that included those of last week’s release Toh Baat Pakki, Up in the Air, It’s Complicated and My Name is Khan. The total value of confiscated goods was around Rs 60,000.

The second, carried out at Chembur at a shop in Basant Park and Orbis Shop near the railway station, helped the raiding team uncover 15000 pirated CDs and DVDs. Goods confiscated at Chembur were pegged at around Rs 99,800.

The raids were conducted by a four-member team from AA Khan & Associates along with officials from the area-specific police station.

MUMBAI: The film industry is disappointed with the 2010-2011 Budget for ignoring most of their demands. The one exception, though, is the rationalisation in the customs duty structure for import of raw stock by charging customs duty only on the carrier medium to remove the differential rates between importing digital masters of films and cinematograph film.

Says Motion Picture Dist Association (India) Managing Director Rajiv Dalal “ We are pleased with the Finance Ministry‘s decision to address the film industry‘s concerns over customs taxation on the import of DVD Masters. Charging customs duties on DVD Masters based on carrier medium instead of transactional value will allow for greater importation transparency as well as increased foreign direct investment into the Indian film and television sector.” 

Explains Shemaroo Entertainment Director Hiren Gada, “Earlier Customs duty used to be charged on intellectual property (DVD and Beta formats) imported from abroad on the carriage medium. But with the FM’s decision to rationalize the customs duty structure on the carriage medium, importing films from overseas would get cheaper. By this Hollywood would be the biggest beneficiary.”

The Budget also seeks to imply service tax on IPR copyright film and music. “Earlier, only VAT was imposed on the copyright (film) because the government had said that copyright was a product. Now, you cannot subject service tax on a product on which we pay VAT,” questions Gada.

“This would mean that the industry will have to shell out 10 per cent of its revenue by way of tax. As it is, the film industry is reeling under high entertainment tax and growing piracy. Producers are furious and I am sure in the coming week, there is bound to be a serious reaction to this step of the government,” adds Gada.

Laments producer Harry Baweja, “As it is there is a considerable drop in the production of films and if the government sticks to its proposal of charging service tax, production is bound to go down considerably.”

MUMBAI: Freida Pinto, the Slumdog Millionaire actress, has been roped in to play a priestess in fantasy-action drama, Dawn of War.

The Greek epic will be directed by Tarsem Singh Dhandwar. While the movie has been written by Charley Parlapanides and Vlas Parlapanides, it has been edited by Robert Duffy.

With production due to start in April, the film is slated for a 2011 release.

Freida Pinto will play the oracle priestess Phaedra who joins Greek mythic warrior hero Theseus, portrayed by Henry Cavill who heads a successful war against imprisoned Titans.

MUMBAI: Even as film producers are developing cold feet to release their movies during the IPL window, Hollywood major Warner Bros. Pictures is readying to open up its movie pipeline for viewing across cinema theatres in India.

The first release will be ahead of the Indian Premier League that kicks off on 12 March while the other three will hit the screens before the T20 matches ended on 25 April.

Warner Bros will release Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge on 5 March, followed by Clash of the Titans on 2 April. Coming to the cinemas next will be Jaane Kahan Se Aayi Hai on 9 April, followed by Hindi animation film Bird Idol that would release on 23 April. 

Says Warner Bros. Pictures India deputy managing director (Theatrical) Denzil Dias, “We are extremely excited to release not one but four films in this period where most distributors stay away. We are confident that our films will appeal to all audiences and will make them laugh, cry, fall in love, cheer and most importantly be entertained. Whereas IPL will engage people from 12 March to 25 April, we hope that unlike yesteryears where cinema halls have seen a very low attendance, this year Warner Bros. will bring a lot to cheer amidst the cinema lovers.”

Warner Bros. Pictures has recently released hit films like Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince, The Dark Knight and The Hangover.
 

NEW DELHI: In a major disappointment to the infotainment sector and particularly the film industry, the Union Budget for 2010-2011 has ignored most of the demands made by the industry and even by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

However. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today announced a rationalisation in the customs duty structure for import of raw stock by charging customs duty only on the carrier medium to remove the differential rates between importing digital masters of films and cinematograph film. The same would apply to music and gaming software imported for duplication.

However, Mukherjee said “in all such cases the value representing the transfer of intellectual rights would be subjected to service tax.”

He justified the service tax, saying that “in keeping with the tradition of Indian cinema, I shall provide a surprise ending.”

At the outset, Mukherjee said India is a nation of movie-goers, and the film industry had been experiencing difficulties in importing digital masters of films for duplication or distribution loaded on electronic medium vis-a-vis those imported on cinematographic film, owing to a differential customs duty structure.

However in such cases the value representing the transfer of intellectual rights would be subjected to service tax, implying thereby that all revenues generated out of transfer of Intellectual Property Rights will be subject to service tax.

Also, promotional material like trailors and making of films imported free of cost in the form of electronic promotion kits will be fully exempted from basic customs duty and countervailing duty.

MUMBAI: Two big films, Teen Patti and Karthik calling Karthik, are set for release this week to combat against the might of My Name Is Khan.

The first film, starring Amitabh Bachchan and Ben Kingsley, has been directed by Leena Yadav. It is the story of a man and the situations he gets into when he realises that not everything is random as widely assumed. Venkat Subramanium (Amitabh Bachchan) figures out a mathematical formula decoding the card game of poker that helps him precisely point out which card is held by whom. Thus begins a game of intrigue, greed and avarice that affects all those connected to Venkat, including his colleague (Madhavan) and his students.

On the other hand, Karthik Calling Karthik, based on depersonalisation, is the story of an introvert called Karthik, played by Farhan Akhtar, whose life changes with the help of someone who also claims to be Karthik.

Directed by Vijay Lalwani, the film stars Farhan Akhtar and Deepika Padukone in lead roles while Ram Kapoor and Shefali Shah play supporting roles in the film.
It is going to be quite interesting to see which film takes the lead.

MUMBAI: Shethia Audio Video‘s Road To Sangam has won yet another award, this time at the Macon Film Festival, Geogia, in the narrative feature film category. The film, produced by Amit Chheda, has been written and directed by Amit Rai.

Commented Chheda, “I am happy that the film is being appreciated in all corners of the world. There are still a number of film festivals that we have sent the film to. We expect more such awards.”

With this win, Road To Sangam has totally won seven awards worldwide.
The film, besides starring Paresh Rawal and Om Puri, also has Javed Shaikh, Pawan Malhotra, Swati Chitnis, Masood Akhtar, G. P. Singh, Rajan Bhise, Sudhir Nema, Rakesh Srivastava, Yusuf Hussain, Vijay Mishra and others.

If the film was so good, why did it fail to garner eyeballs in India? “The strategy behind releasing the film was not right and may be the film was released at a wrong time,” quips Chheda.