Category: Hindi

MUMBAI: After its record-breaking opening weekend collection, New Moon, which released on 20 November across worldwide, will release in India on 11 December.

PVR Pictures will release New Moon with over 300 prints and for the first time, the company will release a dubbed version of the film in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu as well.

Titled as Amavasya in Telugu and Digilan in Tamil, New Moon, with its wide release, is expected to create a record-breaking haul in India as well.

Says PVR Pictures head distribution (worldwide) Deepak Sharma, “With record-breaking collections that New Moon has achieved internationally in its opening weekend, we are very excited to release it across the country. We are confident that it will break the record set by 2012 and be one of the biggest films of the year.”

The film has created a world-wide history by achieving the numero uno position through its box-office collection of $140.7 million in the US. At the international box-office, the vampire romancer bowed to $118.1 million for a worldwide opening total of $258.8 million.

The first part of the saga, Twilight released on 20 November in India and has received a good opening with over a 60 per cent occupancy ratio on the weekend.

The Twilight Saga has already become a blockbuster book release in India with over 3, 00,000 copies of the book that have been sold so far. Hachette India, the publisher of the Twilight series, is confident of adding more copies to this number, once the film releases in India.

MUMBAI: Shemaroo Entertainment has released Pancham Unmixed, a film that attempts to explore legendary composer the late R. D. Burman‘s music.

Directed by Brahmanand S Siingh, the film is expected to evoke awe, admiration and nostalgia among audiences the way most of R.D.‘s music does even today.

Says the director, “I relate to R.D. wholly, hence I took up the huge task of making a lyrical and definitive film on him. The process was a long winding one, took me practically 3 years of active work to get all of them together and over 1500 hours of edit time, to make the structure and narrative as gripping and seamless as possible. The journey has no doubt, been a fascinating one and the entire experience, a very defining one.‘

This film has attempted to explore legendary composer R. D. Burman‘s music. It takes an incisive look into the composer‘s reflective artistry and buoyant, but also lonely inner being. Featuring a host of Pancham Da‘s close friends, colleagues and admirers like – Asha Bhosle, Gulzar, Javed Akhtar, Manna Dey, Shammi Kapoor and Rishi Kapoor among others – Pancham Unmixed is the most comprehensive film made on the composer till date,.

Avers Shemaroo Entertainment Director Hiren Gada, “Pancham Unmixed is undoubtedly a passion product. The passion behind the launch of this collectors edition DVD is obvious from its packaging, marketing strategy, the coffee table book and the promotions. It is our homage to a great music composer who has given so much to the world. Pancham Unmixed is yet another jewel in our catalogue.”

The collectors pack that comprises of 2 DVDs: Disc 1 has the film ‘Pancham Unmixed‘ and Disc 2, titled ‘Pancham Magic‘ has 30 timeless Original Video Songs composed by R. D. Burman is priced at Rs. 999.
 

BANGALORE: A division bench of the Karnataka High Court has stayed the operation of a 17 September 2008 order of a single bench, quashing a provisio of Section 4 of the Karnataka Entertainment Tax Act 1958. Exhibitors of Kannada will now have to pay Rs 48 per show instead of Rs 118.

The exhibition of non-Kannada films, however, will still attract an entertainment tax of Rs 118.

The provisio allowed the state to levy entertainment tax for the state’s languages – notably Kannada, Konkani, Kodava, Tulu and Banjara and a different one for exhibiting films of other languages in Karnataka.

Contesting that the Kannada film industry was small and ill-equipped to compete with films of other languages, the State had filed an appeal, stating that by virtue of the earlier single bench order, it was forced to collect Rs 118 per show irrespective of the language of a film.
 
The State earns about Rs 560 million annually by way of entertainment tax from 790 theatres. Twenty nine per cent of the revenue comes from theatres in Bangalore.
An Ernst & Young report pegged the revenue of the Kannada film industry for FY 2009 at just about Rs 500 million, a little more than 2 per cent of the Rs 17.73 billion revenues earned by the South Indian Film industry made up of the four states – Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

MUMBAI: The pre-release hype of Karan Johar‘s Kurbaan was so much that people presumed it to be the biggest hit of the year. On the contrary, the film opened below expectations.

Going by the paid previews held a day earlier, no one could even guess that the film would fare dismally once it opened in regular shows.

The collections of the first day was around 55-60 per cent at multiplexes while in single-screens it was between 35 to 40 per cent. The film, a UTV release, did a net business of approximately Rs 40 million on day one in India with the Bombay territory contributing Rs 15 million.

Reacting to the box-office performance of Kurbaan in his multiplex, Fun Cinema COO Vishal Kapur said, “While the response to the paid preview was very good all over, the opening has not been all that good; the reactions not being very positive. Though the weekend occupancy was on the higher side, to expect the same from Monday to Thursday was a bit dicey.”

Reacting to the collections over the weekend, trade analyst Amod Mehra says, “No one wants to see films on terrorism anymore. Yes we had New York in between, but the film was not publicized as a film based on terrorism. On the other hand, the Dharma Productions film was publicised in a wrong manner.”

Said Cinemax senior vice president Devang Sampat, “Our expectations to rake in around 85 to 90 per cent collections went awry on Sunday when we recorded just 50 per cent sales.”

Come Monday, the business fell 55 per cent lower than that recorded on Friday and the release of Venus Records & Tapes‘ De Dana Dan next week will impact further business of Kurbaan.

In the overseas market too, the film has under-performed in the three key markets of UK, US and Australia.

MUMBAI: Such is the buzz around James Cameron‘s Avatar that multiplexes across India are gearing up to encash on it before the movie hits theatres on 18 December.

Filmed with a fusion camera developed by Cameron himself, Avatar is expected to revolutionise film-watching experience for which multiplexes are investing huge amounts for upgrading their infrastructure to bring this extravaganza to moviegoers in 3D.

Commenting on the hype around Avatar, Fox Star Studios India, CEO Vijay Singh says, “There is an incredible buzz building up for Avatar across the India media, our theatrical partners and the core audiences.

“The dramatic increase in the number of 3D screens, as well as the strong interest that we are getting from the Hindi, Tamil and Telugu language markets reaffirms the strong buzz for the film.”

While Avatar will be released in 2D as well as 3D formats, theatre owners are particularly expecting a huge demand for 3D version. From the time producers Fox Star Studios screened a 20 minutes footage of the film for exhibitors in August, the number of 2D and 3D screens in India have increased from around 12 to 40 and 60 to 70 screens respectively till 18 December.

This covers cities across India including major markets like Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad as well as smaller centers like Coimbatore, Amritsar, Kerala, Jaipur and Ahmedabad.

Says Fame Cinemas AVP – Distribution, Programming and Corporate Sales Aditya Shroff, “I believe that the 3D version of Avatar is going to be the revolutionary movie for this generation and hence we are trying to go as wide as possible with the 3D release. To me Avatar will do to 3D what Reliance did to mobile phone usage in India.”

Fun Cinemas COO Vikas Kapur avers, ” We had already installed 3D screens in our plexes in Andheri and Chembur by Scrable Entertainment before we screened Journey To The Centre of the Earth last year. Yes, by the time the film is released, our plexes at Bengaluru and Amritsar will have 3D screens in place.

To a question as to what makes multiplexes interested in fitting their plexes with 3D screens, Kapur avers,” After Titanic, James Cameron has come out with a beautiful film in Avatar, the trailers of which are being show all around. Since, they feel that the film, a mix of animation and action, will do great business, multiplex owners are going in for 3D screens.”

Adds Scrabble Entertainment CEO Ranjit Thakur, “The askance for 2K Digital and 3D Systems is coming from all corners of the county. Even the single-screen exhibitors want to capitalise on the opportunity of screening Avatar in 3D.”

“The demand for the film has created a worldwide shortage of digital equipment and even silver screens for 3D are hard to get,” Thakur adds.

In the past, 3D Hollywood films like Ice Age 3, Final Destination and Journey To The Centre of the Earth have done good business in India.

GOA: The Indian Panorama at the IFFI – 2009 was inaugurated by the Secretary – Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, (Government of India), Raghu Menon today.

The chairman and members of feature and non-feature film jury were felicitated on the occasion. Muzaffar Ali, chairperson of the feature film jury introduced the co-members of the jury Leslie Carvalho, Raja Mitra and Bobby Bedi.

Members of the non-feature film jury who were also present at the inaugural included Paromita Vohra, Sameer Hanchate and Kapilas Bhuyan.

Speaking on the occasion, Ali said, “Viewing 104 films to arrive at a decision to select the 26 films for the Indian Panorama Feature Film Section on the basis of the theme, structure, treatment and design of the film made for quite an enlightening experience.” 

He said that he was happy that the films presented a pan-Indian representation and hoped that the language of moving images would bring about a brotherhood world over and help get over armed conflicts.

Ali later urged the Secretary (I&B) to facilitate screening of such critically acclaimed films on Doordarshan, to not only help ensure a wider audience to these directors, but also to make good quality cinema available to larger number of people.

While the Konkani film Paltadcho Manis (The man Beyond the Bridge)‘ directed by Laxmikant Shetgaonkar was a unanimous decision of the jury to be the opening film for the Feature Film section, Dot In for Motion opened the Indian Panorama Non-Feature Film section.

During the 10-day film festival, of the 44 films that would be screened in the Indian Panorama, 26 will be feature and 18 non-feature films.

MUMBAI: Salman Khan‘s Veer, a period romance set in 1875, is set to release worldwide on 22 January.

20 years ago, Khan initially had conceived the idea of making a movie on the exploits of a Pindari soldier.

Directed by Anil Sharma of Gadar fame and distributed by Eros International, the epic saga stars the actor in the role of Pindari soldier, who is torn between his love and duty. 

Newcomer Zarine Khan will star opposite the actor as his lady love in the historical romance.

The film also stars veteran actors like Mithun Chakraborty and Jackie Shroff along with Sohail Khan, Bharat Dhabolkar and Lisa Lazarus-Miss UK in pivotal roles.

MUMBAI: Warner Bros Pictures India has joined hands with Wide Frame Films for their next Bollywood film, Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge?, starring Ajay Devgn, Konkona Sen Sharma and Paresh Rawal.

The film to be produced by Amita Pathak, daughter of Kumar Mangat will be directed by Ashwani Dheer.

Says Warner Bros Pictures India deputy managing director (theatrical) Denzil Dias, “The script of Atithi… itself is a non-stop laugh riot and adding the comical talents of Ajay Devgn, Paresh Rawal and Konkona Sen, we have a winner at the box-office.” 

Avers Amita Pathak, “When my director (Ashwani Dheer) narrated the script to me, I could completely relate to it as we have also faced a similar scenario at home leading to a lot of funny and frustrating situations. We felt it made the perfect premise for a rip-roaring comedy. And that is how Athithi Tum Kab Jaoge was born.”

To be shot in over 50 days at Yashraj Studios and other locales of Mumbai, the film is slated to release on 26 February next year.

MUMBAI: Reliance Big Entertainment (RBE), under its creative partnership deal with Brad Pitt’s production company Plan B Entertainment, has reached an agreement to produce a sci-fi film Dark Void, based on an upcoming video game with the same name.

The two companies have taken film rights from its developer and publisher Capcom.

The theatrical version of the Dark Void will be developed as a sci-fi action franchise by RBE and Plan B Entertainment, as a part of the development and production financing deal (termed a creative partnership) which was announced at the Cannes Film Festival last year.

RBE chairman Amit Khanna commented, “We are delighted that our creative partnership with Plan B has led to this agreement to develop the Dark Void motion picture based on Dark Void.”

Dark Void (the game) is a new property from Capcom, which will be released on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 computer entertainment systems and PC in North America on 19 January, 2010 and across Europe on 22 January.
“As a game, Dark Void was developed with a wide-screen mentality – a world full of adventure presented in cinematic scope and scale,” said Capcom Entertainment Sr VP licensing Germaine Gioia. “Plan B recognised the potential of our newest property and is as excited about bringing Dark Void to life in cinemas as Capcom is to bring the interactive experience to home theatres.”

Dark Void is a blend of aerial and ground-pounding combat which centres on Will, a pilot who crash lands in the Bermuda Triangle following a routine mission. Will wakes up to find himself in “The Void,” an alternate world resembling a primitive earth where aliens with superior technology are planning to take over civilization. Together with a faction of humans who have disappeared into the Void, Will takes on the alien race using their own advanced technology including a high-powered jet pack to defeat them and keep order in the civilized world.

The deal was brokered by CAA on behalf of RBE and Plan B, and by UTA on behalf of Capcom. Plan B was additionally represented in the deal by Jon Liebman and Cynthia Pett-Dante at Brillstein Entertainment Partners.

MUMBAI: Excel home Videos and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment has released romantic comedy Bride Wars on Blu-ray Disc (BD) and DVD in India.

The Blu-Ray is priced at Rs 1,199 while the DVD costs Rs 499.

Directed by Gary Winick, Bride Wars stars Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway as bestfriends who have always done everything together, including planning all the details of their dream weddings at the ultimate bridal destination – The Plaza Hotel.

But a clerical error and subsequent clash in wedding dates pits the two brides against each other in a competition that quickly escalates into all-out war.