ITV

Category: Hindi

  • NFDC to trim staff in move to turn profitable

    NEW DELHI: The National Film Development Corporation, which expects to turn into a profit-making body by 2012-13, hopes to reduce its manpower by 30 employees in the near future in a move to cut costs.


    The Corporation had in December 2008 reduced its manpower to 139, after offering Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) to 70 employees by paying them Rs 70 million. This has resulted in an annual saving of Rs 20 million.



    The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has given the NFDC a grant-in-aid of Rs 120 million for VRS.



    Launched in May 1975 with a corpus of Rs 30 million in 300,000 equity shares of Rs 100 each, NFDC got an additional share capital of Rs 35 million when the Film Finance Corporation and the Indian Motion Pictures Export Corporation were merged into it in 1980.


    NFDC presently has an authorised capital of Rs 140 million and a paid-up capital of Rs 139.9 million. It has recently been given a fresh equity of Rs 212.3 million and has been allowed conversion of its working capital into equity.



    Ministry sources also told indiantelevision.com that the interest on Rs 57.4 million on working capital loan has been waived. It has also been given Rs 200 million as preferential equity for restoration and digitisation of NFDC films, and a sum of Rs 300 million has been set aside in the Eleventh Plan for production of films in various regional languages.



    The government released Rs 65 million in 2008-09 and a provision of Rs 65 million has been made for 2009-10 for financing films in regional languages.



    The NFDC had in 1992 also launched a trust in the name of Cine Artistes Welfare Fund of India with a corpus of Rs 48.9 million, which presently stands at Rs 63.6 million. Just under 1000 cine artistes have availed pension and other benefits and around 450 are doing so at present.



    NFDC has so far produced or financed over 300 films which include 17 international co-productions, the most prominent being ‘Gandhi’ which won eight Oscars including one for Indian costume designer Bhanu Athaiya.



    The NFDC showed a loss of Rs 92.549 million in 2003-04, which came down to Rs 38.674 million a year later. The Corporation showed profit of Rs 24.815 million in 2005-06 but again ran into a loss at Rs 50.56 million and Rs 22.76 million in 2006-07 and 2007-08 respectively.

  • G.I. Joe romps in $100.5 million in opening weekend

    MUMBAI: Paramount‘s G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, based on the comic book series and the television series by the same name, took the box office by storm when it grossed $100.5 million in its opening weekend.

    In America, the movie fetched $56.2 million, according to studio estimates. The film also roped in $44.3 million overseas.


    Though critics came out with a harsh review of G.I. Joe, the film had a stupendous opening and is likely to be among the handful of films that grossed $400 million in America alone.


    The overall box office collections of the film showed a rise of 22 per cent from the same weekend a year ago, when the batman sequel The Dark Knight still stood at the No. 1 film even after four weeks in release.


    G.I. Joe, featuring Dennis Quaid, Channing Tatum, Sienna Miller, Marlon Wayans and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a globe-trotting adventure about an elite military unit taking on a corrupt arms dealer, follows Paramount‘s Transformers as the latest toy story to make it big at the box office.


    It may be noted that critical reviews of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen earlier this year had Paramount skipping screenings for critics and releasing G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra in theatres that went unnoticed by reviewers.

  • PVR swings into Q1 net loss of Rs 128.6 mn

    MUMBAI: The multiplex industry has been hit hard and how. PVR has slumped into losses for the first quarter ended 30 June as revenue plunged by 45.82 per cent.


    The company suffered a consolidated net loss of Rs 128.6 million (after share of minority interest), as against a net profit of Rs 4.6 million a year ago.


    PVR clarified, “The quarter under review was an abnormal quarter for exhibition industry due to the ongoing tussle between producers/distributors and multiplex owners over revenue sharing. Due to the above tussle no films were released across theatres during the period April to mid June. Accordingly the Company incurred losses mainly on account of decline in revenues. Hence the financial results for the current quarter cannot be effectively compared to the quarter ended 30 June, 2008.”



    Total income came down to Rs 445.6 million, from Rs 822.5 million, mainly due to unavailability of movies.


    “We entertained over 2.3 million patrons during the quarter under review, less by 34 per cent from FY 2008, courtesy the tiff between multiplex operators and producers. Occupancies witnessed a fall from 32 per cent to 20 per cent against similar period last year,” the company said.



    Around 35 screens of PVR were shut down during the period of strike. Thus, occupancy for the quarter after factoring closed screens would be approximately 17 per cent.



    Meanwhile, total expenditure of the company came down to Rs 602.5 million, as against Rs 806.2 million in the previous fiscal.



    The company disclosed that 5.27 per cent (or 500,000 shares) of promoter’s stake is pledged, amounting to 2.17 per cent of the total paid up equity, as on 30 June.



    The movie exhibition segment suffered an operating loss of Rs 152.6 million in the quarter as compared to an operating profit of Rs 50.6 million. The revenue from the segment was Rs 399.3 million (from Rs 627.8 million), while capital employed till 30 June was Rs 3.09 billion.



    In movie production and distribution business, operating loss narrowed to Rs 17.1 million, from prior year’s Rs 34 million. The capital employed till 30 June was Rs 402.6 million.



    PVR has 108 screens in India, including 13 operated by its subsidiaries. Its 46 screens are enjoying entertainment tax exemption, the company said.

  • Adlabs plans to invest Rs 2 bn in FY’10

    MUMBAI: Reliance ADAG-owned Adlabs Films Ltd, the largest multiplex operator by number of screens, plans to invest Rs 2 billion this fiscal for expanding its lines of businesses.

    Adlabs is also considering raising long term resources by issue of equity shares or other securities by way of rights offer to existing members. The board will meet to this effect on 12 August.


    The company is setting up a studio at Film City in Mumbai which will take away Rs 800 million. Adlabs, which already has 457 screens, plans to add 80 screens during the year.


    “We will be investing Rs 2 billion this fiscal and are adding 80 screens in the year,” Adlabs chief executive officer Anil Arjun tells Indiantelevision.com.


    For the 12-month period ended March 2009, Adlabs swung into a net loss of Rs 513.75 million as it ramped up its multiplex business. Revenue, however, more than doubled to Rs 6.62 billion. While income from theatrical exhibition was at Rs 3.4 billion, the film production and distribution segment kicked in Rs 2.1 billion. The film facilities business posted a revenue of Rs 1.3 billion.


     

  • Ultra releases ‘Sanam Teri Kasam’ on home video

    MUMBAI: Ultra has released the home video of Sanam Teri Kasam. The film directed by Lawrence D‘souza stars Saif Ali Khan, Pooja Bhatt, Atul Agnihotri and Sheeba among others.

    Said to be a triangle with a twist where Atul Agnihotri completes the third angle,
    the film includes songs like ‘Ek Baar Ek Baar Pyaar Se Tu Bol‘ and ‘Sanam Yeh Pyar Hi To Hai‘.


    While the VCDs cost Rs 99, the DVDs cost Rs 199 each.

  • Love Aaj Kal crosses Rs 1 billion in first week

    MUMBAI: Eros International‘s Love Aaj Kal has raked in Rs 1.08 billion in its first week, making it the biggest grosser of the year.

    The movie, made in association with Illuminati Films Production, has collected Rs 750 million from India alone.


    Says Eros International senior VP – Distribution-India Nandu Ahuja, “We are thrilled that our first venture with Illuminati Films has proven to be such a huge success. The superb run of the film in the first week has superceded all expectations. The Raksha Bandhan holiday greatly helped boost up admissions mid week”.


    Love Aaj Kal was released with approximately 1200 prints in over 1800 screens worldwide.


    “Love Aaj Kal has performed incredibly well in all the overseas markets. We were expecting a commercial success but this kind of response has been overwhelming with all major markets indicating remarkable box-office results,” says Eros International president (Distribution) Europe and Africa Pranab Kapadia.

  • Gulshan Bawra dies at 72

    MUMBAI: Noted lyricist Gulshan Bawra passed away due to heart failure at his Pali Hill residence today, 7 August.

    Born in Pakistan, 72-year-old Bawra who has songs like ‘Mere Desh Ki Dharti‘ (Upkar), ‘Yaari Hai Imaan Mera‘ (Zanjeer), ‘Agar Tum Na Hote‘ (Agar Tum Na Hote), ‘Waada Karle Saajana‘ (Haath Ki Safai) and ‘Kasme Vaade Nibhayenge Hum‘ (Kasme Vaade) to his credit, bagged two Filmfare Awards for his songs in Upkar and Zanjeer.

    It may be interesting to note that of the 240 songs he had written till date, half of them were composed by RD Burman.

  • ‘Cooking with Stella’ to premiere at Toronto

    MUMBAI: Cooking with Stella, a joint production of BR Films and Hamilton Mehta Production, will have its world premiere on 16 September at the Toronto Film Festival.

    The film that was selected from over 3000 entries is amongst the top 20 films that have been given the honour of holding a world premiere at the Festival.


    Said BR Films MD Ravi Chopra, “Here is a different flavour of a film that is coming for both India and the international market. We at BR Films and Hamilton Mehta Productions are taking our relationship forward with this venture.”


    Adds BR Films CEO and executive producer Sanjay Bhutiani, “BR Films had an integral role in the making of Cooking with Stella. Since the film was being shot in India, we did the production planning, execution and logistics of the film including casting and budgeting. It was a complex task which involved Indian, Canadian and British crew for over 45 days in New Delhi. We are more than delighted with this honour.”

    Cooking with Stella, written by siblings Deepa Mehta and Dilip Mehta is a warm-hearted social satire portraying the inequality of life and subtly highlights the disparity between servants and their employers through the lives of a Canadian diplomatic couple and their South Indian cook.

  • Shemaroo releases 4-DVD pack of Kurosawa films

    MUMBAI: In order to make World Cinema more accessible to the Indian audience, Shemaroo World Cinema has released a 4-DVD pack of films of Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa.
    A collectors pack, for all Kurosawa fans, the pack includes Kurosawa films like Rashomon, Ran, Madadayo and The Quiet Duel. This pack also contains a booklet that includes synopsis of all the four films and the filmmaker‘s profile along with certain trivia.

    As a bonus, a 20-minute short film made by students of Whistling Woods International titled Any Which Way is also included in the pack.

    All the four films are also available individually on DVD at Rs 349 each while the 4-DVD collectors pack is priced at Rs. 999.

  • Excel and Twentieth Century Fox releases ‘Mirrors’ on DVD

    MUMBAI: Excel Home Videos and Twentieth Century Fox has announced the release of Mirrors on DVD.

    The DVD is priced at Rs 399.


    The movie is a remake of Korean feature Geoul Sokeuro, directed by Alexandre Aja.


    The horror flick that stars Kiefer Sutherland as Ben Carson, a disgraced former New York City cop, revolves a mysterious mirror that brings out the worst aspects of people whenever they look at themselves in it.