Category: Hindi

MUMBAI: Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd, the company that owns The Times of India Group, is mulling a 10 per cent stake in K Sera Sera Productions Ltd, a film production company.

K Sera Sera will be issuing convertible warrants to BCCL. “BCCL has in-principle agreed to subscribe to the warrants of the company, amounting to up to 10 per cent equity. The investment could be to the tune of Rs 100 million,” K Sera Sera managing director Sanjay Lai tells Indiantelevision.com.

K Sera Sera board will meet on 7 September to consider and approve the proposal. The BCCL investment could substantially shore up investor interest in K Sera Sera as the movie company is working on a revival plan.

Indiantelevision.com was the first to report that K Sera Sera had plans to raise Rs 1 billion through a global depositary receipt (GDR) offering. The company has lined up a slate of 10 movies and will be investing Rs 1 billion towards this.

In an earlier GDR, the original promoters of K Sera Sera had exited. The GDR holders have 57.90 per cent stake in the company, while 41.32 per cent is with the public.

K Sera Sera has announced plans to bid for an IPL (Indian Premier League) team. “We are studying the process of bidding and are interested to own an IPL team. Funding is not a constraint,” says Lai.

IPL chairman Lalit Modi had stated that an IPL team would cost between $250-300 million. It remains to be seen how K Sera Sera can find the resources to get into the big league of cricket.

MUMBAI: Fame Cinemas today unveiled its new three-screen multiplex Fame Fun-n-Shop Mall in Pune.

With this multiplex, Fame now owns two properties in Pune.Fame Fun-n-Shop is a fully 2k digital theatre and has a capacity of 1015 seats.

Speaking on the occasion, Fame Cinemas MD Shravan Shroff said, “With Fame Fun-n-Shop, we have covered two very different catchment areas of Pune, thereby targeting a wide range of audience.”

Fame now owns a total of 25 multiplex properties across India.

MUMBAI: South Korea‘s most prestigious film festival The Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) has decided to honour filmmaker Yash Chopra as the ‘Asian Filmmaker of the Year‘ at this year‘s event.
The PIFF praised Chopra for making ‘remarkable contributions‘ in establishing Hindi cinema on the global stage.
“His efforts in raising the international profile of Indian movies through joint investments and co-productions with Hollywood have been highly acknowledged,” the PIFF said in a statement.

India‘s leading film production company, Yash Raj Films founded by Chopra, 76, has been “a hotbed of developing new talent. His tireless five-decade long devotion has made considerable contributions to enhance the global status of Indian films as well as Asian cinema, “the PIFF said.

The festival will be held from 8 to 16 October in Busan, earlier known as Pusan.

MUMBAI: After acquiring Adlabs Films Limited (Adlabs) in 2005, Anil Ambani is now changing the name of the company to Reliance MediaWorks Limited.

The company said the original name, Adlabs Films, was reflective of the company‘s initial business as a film processing laboratory. But the company has now seen growth in the scale of its operations in the areas of exhibition, film and media services and television software.

Adlabs Films Chief Executive Officer Anil Arjun says, “The name Reliance MediaWorks Limited more accurately reflects our identity as a diversified film and media services company with a global presence. We are privileged to draw upon the international recognition of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group brand, to further strengthen our leadership position in the media and entertainment business.”

Interestingly, the brand Adlabs is with Manmohan Shetty, the founder of Adlabs Films who sold out to Reliance.

Adlabs has entered new segments of the film production value chain including digital post-production, digital cinema mastering, studios/shooting floors, film and TV equipment rentals, visual effects and image enhancement, film restoration BPO and other value added services.

MUMBAI: Ultra is set to release Twin Mission on 11 September in India. The film will also see a simultaneous release in Hindi under the name, Judwon Ki Jung.

Twins Mission is a 2007 Hong Kong martial arts-action-comedy film directed by action choreographer Kong Tao-Hoi and starring Wu Jing,Gillian Chung, Charlene Choi and Sammo Hung among others. The film is a bit of a spoof of the popularity and success of the Twins and leaves the audience with a cliffhanger ending.

Ultra is also planning to release the film in Tamil and Telugu in the near future.

MUMBAI: Cinemax has gone digital. For the first time, viewers got the taste of the technology

when the 3-D Hollywood horror film Final Destination premiered at Cinemax-Versova recently.

Cinemax that commenced its digitalisation with Cinemax-Versova is planning to fully digitise screens in additional five locations; Cinemax-Eternity Mall Thane, Cinemax-Sion, Cinemax-Growell Kandivali, Cinemax-Vashi and Cinemax-Dev Arc Mall Ahmadabad. The six locations were shortlisted after thorough market research and surveys.

Said Cinemax India Ltd senior vice president Devang Sampat, “We are very excited about this development and consider this as an important step in working against the piracy. The 2K Digital technology installed at our six locations will enhance the overall reception-quality of Cinema and our patrons will be benefitted.

“Our aim is to provide the latest in technology to our audiences and Digital-Screens fits the bill. Even the maintenance of old machines would be reduced with the entry of slick Digital Projectors and better sound and picture quality is anticipated. The manual labour cost is also reduced to a considerable extent. We are very upbeat with this and will see more installations in future”.

Cinemax is one of the largest owners of multiplex properties in India with 75 screens spread over 24 locations. The exhibition chain is a combination of high-end multiplexes and budget retrofit single-screens.

MUMBAI: Chennai-based Sathyam Cinemas is to have its new eight-screen multiplex in one of the city‘s upcoming malls Express Avenue.

The over 12-lakh sq. ft complex will have a total of nine lakh sq. ft retail space, two-lakh sq. ft office space and a 60-70 room hotel on a built-up area of over one lakh sq. ft.

The destination mall will also feature a 40,000-sq. ft theme-based food court and will have a parking facility for 1,700 cars. The mall will also house an array of luxury and premium brands among which Marks & Spencer and Dubai-based Landmark group‘s LifeStyle will be anchor stores.

Sathyam Cinemas currently operates a six-screen multiplex in Chennai that has an annual viewership of more than three million.

Chennai currently has four multiplexes namely Sathyam Cinemas, Inox Chennai, Mayajaal and Abirami Mega Mall.

MUMBAI: Shemaroo Entertainment has acquired the overseas distribution rights of Blue, the Akshay Kumar film directed by Anthony D‘Souza.

Produced by Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision, Blue‘s star cast includes Sanjay Dutt, Zayed Khan, Lara Dutta and Katrina Kaif. The film is slated to hit the theatres on 16 October.

Says Shemaroo Entertainment director Hiren Gada, “Shemaroo Entertainment will release the film across 650 screens worldwide. While the major focus will remain on US, UK and the Gulf, the film will also be released across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Europe, Netherlands and Malaysia.”

In a bid to promote the film internationally, Shemaroo is also planning to premiere in Dubai, London and New York.

Says Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision director Dhilin Mehta, “Blue is an ambitious project in term of style, production values, standards and creativity. We are trying to release the film in maximum number of screen, to get an international appeal and target people of all ages.”

While the music of the film has been composed by A R Rahman, Resul Pookutty is the sound designer.

The cinematography has been done by Laxman Utekar.

MUMBAI: Big Pictures, the film production arm of Reliance ADAG, is set to release Amol Palekar directed Marathi movie Samaantar on 4 September.

The company is planning to release the movie in 25 theatres across Maharashtra, including Mumbai, Pune, Nasik and Kolhapur. Samaantar will also see simultaneous release in two screens in Delhi and one at Nandan, Kolkata (with English subtitles).

While Sharmila Tagore is acting for the first time in a Marathi movie, Palekar is himself making a comeback on-screen after almost two decades. The film also stars Makarand Deshpande, Sameer Dharmadhikari, Kishor Kadam, Aishwarya Narkar and Radhika Apte.

Big Pictures COO Mahesh Ramanathan had earlier told Indiantelevision.com that it would be spending Rs 15 million on promoting the film.

Samaantar reveals lost traces of two persons‘ impeccable love for each other. While Sharmila Tagore plays a potter, Palekar essays the character of an industrialist who is a loner.

MUMBAI: The Information and Broadcasting Ministry, in a tribute to Dev Anand, has decided to screen his 1960‘s classic Hum Dono in colour. Three other hit films of Dev Anand will be screened including Guide.

Hum Dono, in which Dev Anand played a double role, also starred Nanda, Sadhana and Leela Chitnis.

Incidentally, this is the third black and white film to come out in colour. The first was K. Asif‘s Mughal-e-Azam that was followed by BR Chopra‘s Naya Daur.

Said Directorate of Film Festivals director S M Khan, “It is a retrospective of Dev Anand‘s film in which films like Guide, Jewel Thief and Taxi Driver will be showcased.”

The screenings will be held in New Delhi from 4 to 6 September.