Category: Hindi

BANGALORE: The Karnataka tourism minister G Janardhana Reddy yesterday announced his government‘s plans to build a film city similar to the Ramoji Rao Film City at Hyderabad.

The minister said that the possibility of setting up a one-of its- kind film city in the country would be explored on a public-private-partnership basis.

The proposed film city would be named after late Kannada film thespians Rajkumar and Vishnuvardhan.

If the proposal was accepted by the Karnataka chief minister and other cabinet members, the film city would be set up at Hesaraghatta where a land has already been earmarked for a film city.

As an acknowledgement of Vishnuvardhan‘s contributions and service to the Kannada film industry, the state government also decided to name its annual lifetime achievement award after him.

“The award would henceforth be called Dr. Vishnuvardhan Lifetime Achievement Award,” said CM B S Yeddyurappa while conceding to the suggestion of the members of the Sandalwood industry.

The state government has also decided to set up a Vishnuvardhan memorial in Bangalore or at Mysore at a cost of Rs. 100 million.

While the place for the memorial has not been decided, opinions differed as to where it would be located with a faction of the Sandalwood industry wanting it to be set up at Abhiman Studio in Uttarhalli in Bangalore. The CM said that the proposed memorial would be built after consulting the family members of the late star.

MUMBAI: Backed by the success of three genre-defining blockbusters of 2009 in Kaminey, Wake Up Sid and Dev.D, UTV Motion Pictures has announced an aggressive line up of four films for the last quarter of the fiscal (January to March 2010).

Take a look:

Chance Pe Dance, directed by Ken Ghosh starring Shahid Kapoor and Genelia D‘souza. The film will have a worldwide release on 15 January.

India‘s official entry to the Oscars this year, Harishchandrachi
Factory will hit the screens on 22 January. This Marathi film directed by Paresh Mokashi is a co-production of UTV with Paprika Media and Mayasabha.

Peter Gaya Kaam Se, directed by John Owen stars Rajeev Khandelwal and Lekha Washington. The film is scheduled for a March 2010 release.

Finally there is Paan Singh Tomar directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia. The film stars Irrfan Khan and Mahie Gill. It will also be released in March 2010.

Says UTV Motion Pictures CEO Siddharth Roy Kapur, “While 2009 has been a low year for the film industry in general, we released some interesting films which etched themselves in the minds of the audience.

“Dev.D, Kaminey and Wake Up Sid created new benchmarks for what can now be perceived as commercial cinema. Our slate for 2010 promises to be a very entertaining mix and we are very excited to be bringing audiences such a wide array of interesting cinema.”

The New Year will also have UTV releasing films like Prakash Jha‘s Raajneeti, Sanjay Leela Bhansali‘s Guzarish, Anees Bazmee‘s Thank You, Rajkumar Gupta‘s No One Killed Jessica, Vishal Bhardwaj‘s Ek Bataa Saat, Aamir Khan Productions‘ Delhi Belly and Peepli Live.
 

MUMBAI: 2009 proved to be a good year for Reliance Big Pictures. Paa and 3 Idiots turned out to be two of the successes of the year. Now Reliance Big is hoping that 2010 will turn out to be a bigger year. It has lined up a mixed bag of offerings ranging from mainstream masala to regional and art house films.

Take a dekko at its slate for 2010:

Kites, produced by Rakesh Roshan and directed by Anurag Basu starring Hrithik Roshan, Barbara Mori, Kangana Ranaut and Kabir Bedi, will have its release in Hindi and English simultaneously.

Well Done Abba, produced by Big Pictures in association with Sahyadri Films and directed by Shyam Benegal stars Boman Irani, Minissha Lamba, Sammir Dattani, Ila Arun, Sonali Kulkarni, Ravi Kishen, Rajit Kapur, Ravi Jhankal and Yashpal Sharma. It is slated for a January 2010 release.

• Mani Ratnam’s Raavan in which Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan will be seen together on screen for the first time is a modern day adaption of Ramayan. The film is being readied in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu for a 10 August release.

The Vinay Shukla-directed Mirch stars Konkana Sen Sharma, Raima Sen, Shahana Goswami, Shreyas Talpade, Rajpal Yadav, Boman Irani, Sushant Singh, Arunoday Singh and Prem Chopra among others. The film, scheduled to release in 2009 got stuck because of the multiplex strike and is to release later this year.
 

Says Big Pictures CEO Sanjeev Lamba, “2009 was a challenging year for us. We had targeted to release 18 films in 2009 in late 2008. Who knew that we would have to face a long multiplex strike then. We released only 11 films while the rest got delayed for several reasons.

“But, on the whole, the year 2009 was a year of satisfaction for us and we are very happy. With Kites, Well Done Abba, Raavan and other films which would be releasing till the middle of next year, we are hopeful that next year too would be an equally good year for us.”

Big Pictures also has eight regional languages that would release next year.

Prominent among them are Shaji Karun’s Malayalam film Kutty Srank starring Mammooty, Kamilini Mukherjee, Padmapriya and Meenakumari. Then there is Rituparno Ghosh’s Bengali film Abohomaan starring Dipankar De, Mamata Shankar, Ananya Chatterjee, Jishu Sengupta and Ria Sen.

They are followed by Buddhabed Dasgupta’s Bengali film Janala starring Tapas Paul, Swastika Mukherjee and Indraneil Sengupta. Then we have the M S Sathyu directed Ijjodu starring National award- winning actress, Meera Jasmine and Anirudh in the lead roles. Finally,there is a Tamil film titled Singam directed by Hari starring Surya and Anukha. It will release in the second quarter of next year.
 

BANGALORE: Kannada Sugama Sangeeth and theatre artiste and film music composer C Ashwath‘s death on his seventy-first birthday yesterday was followed by death of Kannada film thespian Vishnuvardhan in the early hours this morning.

Vishnuvardhan, a film actor and a singer died of cardiac arrest.

Born Sampath Kumar, Sahasa Simha, (A lion in fighting/action) as he was called adopted the name Vishnuvardhan at the instance of Puttanna Kanagal who directed him in the Kannada film ‘Nagarahavu‘, a film which gave him recognition and stardom.

Vishnuvardhan acted in over 195 films in his 35-year career. As a singer, he started singing in movies occasionally and of late he had started singing devotional songs for albums.

Some of his famous songs are Hegiddharu Neene Chenna -‘Sahasa Simha, Shashiya Kandu Moda Helithu – ‘Sirithanakke Savaal‘; Thuthu Anna Thinnoke – ‘Jimmi Gallu‘; Beda Annoro Unte – ‘Sididedda Sahodara‘; Kannadave Nammamma – ‘Mojugara Sogusugara‘.

His body was brought to his residence in Bangalore from Mysore and will be cremated shortly.

Ashwath, who learnt Hindustani classical music from Devagiri Shankarrao Joshi became an exponent of Bhavageete and Janapada Geete. Besides singing for a number of his own compositions, Ashwath composed music for 22 films, including a number of award winning movies.

Karnataka Higher Education minister Aravind Limbavali announced that the government would consider beginning a music school for children that Aswath wanted to open under the ambit of the newly established music university in Mysore.

MUMBAI: For the fourth time, an endangered wildlife species has been given protection by the Government, thanks to a documentary film by the renowned filmmaker Mike Pandey.

Following the persistent efforts following the film, Timeless Traveler- the horseshoe Crab, believed to be the oldest living being on earth (reportedly older than the dinosaurs), has been put under Schedule IV of the Wildlife Act. This means that it can be used for research but cannot be killed or poached by anyone including private collectors.

The crab has been considered important to humanity as scientists want to know how it has survived for millions of years. 

Timeless Traveller – the horseshoe crab was made by a team of young filmmakers like Gautam Pandey, Arjun Pandey and Doel Trivedy and produced by Mike‘s production house.

The documentary was awarded two prestigious international awards at the Albert Festival in 2005: the ‘Best Film for Protection Of Wildlife‘ award and the ‘Best Film for Protection Of Marine Life.‘

Earlier, Mike‘s films on wild elephants The Last Migration – Wild Elephant Capture in Sarguja in 1994, on whale sharks Shores of Silence – Whale Sharks in India and on vultures Broken Wings had led the government to act to protect these species.

Recently, the ‘Time‘ magazine listed him at the third place in its list of Environment Heroes of the Twentieth Century.

MUMBAI: UTV Motion Pictures said Tuesday it would release a slate of four films for the fourth-quarter of this fiscal ended 31 March 2010.

UTV will kick off the New Year with Chance Pe Dance, a movie directed by Ken Ghosh, that will release on 15 January.

Next to follow will be India‘s official entry to the Oscars this year. Harishchandrachi Factory,,directed by Paresh Mokashi, will hit the screens on 22 January. The movie is co-produced by UTV production along with Paprika Media and Mayasabha.

Peter Gaya Kaam Se, starring Rajeev Khandelwal and Lekha Washington, is scheduled for a March 2010 release. The same month will also see the release of Paan Singh Tomar.

Other films to be released by UTV later in the year include Prakash Jha‘s Raajneeti, Sanjay Leela Bhansali‘s Guzarish, Anees Bazmee‘s Thank You, Rajkumar Gupta‘s No One Killed Jessica, Vishal Bhardwaj‘s Ek Bataa Saat and Aamir Khan Productions‘ Delhi Belly and Peepli Live.

2010-11 will also see UTV release two animation films – Arjun, The Warrior Prince and Alibaba & the 41 Thieves – and one kids film Chillar Party.

Says UTV Motion Pictures CEO Siddharth Roy Kapur, “While 2009 has been a low year for the film industry in general, we released some interesting films which etched themselves in the minds of the audience. Dev.D, Kaminey and Wake Up Sid created new benchmarks for what can now be perceived as commercial cinema. Our slate for 2010 promises to be a very entertaining mix.”

Among the releases of UTV in 2009 were films like Delhi 6, Kurbaan, What‘s Your Rashee, Phir Kabhi, Main Aurr Mrs Khanna and Telugu and Tamil releases of remake of A Wednesday.

MUMBAI: There is no stopping the 3 Idiots. The Aamir Khan movie, distributed by Reliance Big Pictures, has grossed Rs 1 billion in its first four-day run across the world.

The movie released in 2126 screens, including 366 screens overseas. Says Reliance Big Entertainment chairman Amit Khanna, “We are privileged to have been associated with 3 Idiots and its immensely talented team led by Vinod, Aamir and Raju. The ramp-up to Rs. 1 billion in 4 days is phenomenal and we are confident that the film will continue to blaze new records in the weeks to come.”

Shot on location, the film chronicles the tale of three friends in an engineering college. Says producer Vinod Chopra,” The response to 3 Idiots has been overwhelming. It is the highest grossing Hindi film ever in Australia on its opening weekend. Similarly in the US, I have been given to understand that that the film would be highest ever for a Hindi film.”

3 Idiots has surpassed Aamir‘s last year blockbuster Ghajini that collected Rs 900 million in its first four days of release.

MUMBAI: Zee Talkies‘ Natarang starring Atul Kulkarni and Sonalee is scheduled to release all over on 1 January.

Creatively stimulating, entertainingly enlightening and beautifully arresting, Natarang is a cinematic canvas with just the right strokes of acting talents, story, music, cinematography and but of course path-breaking direction.

Set up in Maharashtra‘s rustic hinterlands, the film bears the dust of its rural life, and treats you to some beautiful film-making there within.

Directed by Ravi Jadhav, the film compels you to reflect back on the simplest desires of life. As Guna Kagalkar, the lead character of the film, played by Atul Kulkarni inspires you to do just that. The passion, obsession, zeal and undying desire to set up a tamasha theatre company, leaves you completely spellbound. 

Based on a story by the same name by veteran Marathi author Anand Yadav, it has cinematography by Mahesh Limaye, screenplay to Ravi Jadhav and dialogues and lyrics to Guru Thakur. The film has music by duo Ajay-Atul.

Right from the time Natarang went on floors, it has been enveloped by curiosity from film critics and cinema lovers alike. It has been showered with applauds from not just Indian but also international film critics.

It‘s screening and subsequent honours at the 11th international MAMI film festival, the 8th Asian Film Festival etc is a definite proof of its cinematic prowess.

In fact in the MAMI film festival, it became the only Indian film to be selected in the 14 ‘Above the cut‘ category films for its outstanding cinematic merit.
 

MUMBAI: A week after its release, James Cameron‘s Avatar still reigns the Indian box-office with its 10-day collection totaling a whopping Rs 500 million that makes the film the fourth-biggest Hollywood film ever in India.

Not only has Avatar broken box-office records of Hollywood films like of 2012, Titanic and Spiderman 3 but also ranks No. 7 amongst the big Bollywood films in India surpassing the opening week collections of top Hindi films like All The Best, Kaminey, Delhi 6 and New York. The film has, in fact, beaten the openings of recent high profile Hindi films like Rocket Singh and Paa as well.

The epic action adventure has broken several records in India and abroad and is still going strong at the box-office.

In the overseas circuit, the film collected $620 million worldwide with a cumulative drop of just 10 per cent from last week.

Released on 18 December across India, Avatar earned a record Rs 10 million through its paid previews across India, the highest for any Hollywood film in India. The film then created a record by grossing Rs 67 million on the opening day itself, making it the biggest ever Friday opening for any Hollywood film in India.
 

MUMBAI: Former Indian Police Service officer Aftab Ahmed Khan has taken over the cudgels to eradicate piracy by conducting several raids across the metropolis.

On 26 December, the SS Branch and Bandra Police along with AA Khan & Associates conducted a raid near the Bandra railway station and seized over 2500 DVDs and CDs.

Among the seizure were 69 DVDs of 3 Idiots, 500 DVDs of Avatar and 366 DVDs of Paa.

Says Khan, “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.”

The raids were conducted jointly by PI Tangad Palli of the SS Branch, Police Inspector A V Chaudhri from Bandra Police station and three member team from AA Khan & Associates, headed by former Senior Inspector Dhanavade, field officer Habib Rehman Khan and Joseph.

Two of the accused caught red-handed were booked under Sections 51, 52(A), 63, 68(A) of the Copyright Act along with Section 292A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).