ITV

Category: Hindi

  • The Curios Case of Benjamin Button now on home video

     NEW DELHI: Big Video released a two-disc DVD and two-disc Blu-ray of The Curios Case of Benjamin Button on 27 June.

    The Blu-ray disc is priced at Rs 1499 while the DVD is available in two different packaging options: the premium Steel-book at Rs 799 and the standard at Rs 599. The film is also available on VCD at Rs 299.


    Directed by David Fincher and set in Baltimore, the film is a tale of a not-so-ordinary man and the people and places he discovers along the way, the loves he finds, the joys and romance of life and what lasts beyond time. The film is an exhilarating adventure that takes viewers on a breathtaking journey filled with romance and redemption.


    Called “a monumental achievement” that ‘must be experienced‘, the film stars Academy Award nominee Brad Pitt pitted against another Academy Award winner, Cate Blanchett. The Curios Case Of Benjamin Button also stars Academy Award nominee Taraji P. Henson, Academy Award winner Tilda Swinton and Julia Ormond.


    The two-disc DVD and two-disc Blu-ray boast of over three hours of special features including interviews with stars Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett with behind-the-scenes footage of their on-screen transformations, an in-depth documentary revealing the unusual journey of the film itself including the secrets of its award-winning visual effects and an exploration of the groundbreaking computer wizardry that brought the magical world of Benjamin Button to life.


    Says Big Music & Home Entertainment CEO Kulmeet Makkar, “This epic masterpiece is a grand experience as one traces a time-traveler‘s journey into the joys of life, the sadness of death and a love that endures beyond time. It‘s a film one just cannot afford to miss!”

  • FFI to organise its own international film fest at Indore

    NEW DELHI: For the first time since its establishment, the film industry’s recognized apex umbrella organization Film Federation of India (FFI) is organising an international film festival in Indore.

    The FFI, which has always collaborated with the Directorate of Film Festivals of the Union Government in the organisation pf the International Film Festival of India, is holding its own festival in association with the State Government of Madhya Pradesh between 9-16 October.



    The 7-day extravaganza will have a collage of sections such as World Cinema, Country of Focus, Documentary, Retrospective (Foreign Film Personality), Tribute (Indian Film Personality) and many other interesting sections.


    Germany will be the Country of Focus in this first festival, it is expected that the festival will showcase the best in recent German cinema.



    Madhya Pradesh is not only providing financial assistance and co-operation, but also pumping their administrative machinery to ensure that the best possible infrastructural facilities are made available to the festival authorities. Efforts are being made to bring high profile Artists/Producers to the festival.



    The MP Government is promoting the conclave as a high profile event on its agenda and endeavouring to develop the entertainment brand value of Indore in general and MP in particular.



    Film industry sources said if the experiment succeeds, this festival is expected to become an annual but a roving event, just as IFFI used to be in its early years.

  • Pyramid Saimira Q4 net loss widens to Rs 853.72 million

    MUMBAI: Pyramid Saimira Theatre Ltd (PSTL), which is under the Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India) scanner for a forged open offer letter, has posted a net loss of Rs 853.72 million for Q4 ended 31 March 2009, compared to a net loss of Rs 31.12 million a year ago.

    PSTL‘s turnover has been clobbered in the fourth quarter which has reported an income of Rs 590.93 million from its exhibition business, as against Rs 1.84 billion in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. In the food and beverages segment, the company earned Rs 215.97 million from food and beverages as against Rs 614.88 million a year ago.


    “During the quarter, the company had 248 screens and through which 16.86 million tickets were sold, with an Arpu (average revenue per user) of Rs 47.86 at an occupancy rate of 32.35 per cent,” PSTL said in a release.


    The company, which has been dogged by controversies, said that the board has approved the extension of the financial year to 15 months up to 30 June 2009.


    Additionally, issues related to income tax, increase in leakage rate, recession and strained working capital finance has cost Pyramid Saimira dearly.


    For the 12-month period ended 31 March 2009, the company reported a net loss of Rs 1.38 billion, as against a net profit of Rs 578.74 million a year ago.


    Income from exhibition came down to Rs 5.24 billion as against Rs 5.50 billion in FY‘08. Expenses of the company rose to Rs 6.62 billion as against Rs 6.46 billion in the year ago period.


    Meanwhile, the company has disclosed that it has sustained serious losses in its DTH business in Europe, as it could not sustain operations due to the worsening of Europe consumer spending power. However, as a JV partner in the business, the company has “conservatively decided to write off its investments from its books” during the fourth quarter of FY‘09.

  • Ijjodu selected for Ahmedabad Intl Film Festival

    MUMBAI: Reliance Big Entertainment‘s Kannada film Ijjodu has been selected for the Ahmedabad International Film Festival which is being held from 25 to 28 June.

    The film, the official selection in the Feature Films Competitive category, was screened on 27 June.


    The film starring Meera Jasmine, Anirudh, Srivatsa, Nagkiran and Arundhati Jathakara is directed by M S Sathyu.


    The film is a story of a young photo journalist‘s brief encounter with a girl who was made a ‘Basavi‘ at the altar of the village deity to save people who were hit by a devastating epidemic. Basavi is a cult very similar to that of the Devdasi.


    Director MS Sathyu and Meera Jasmine were present at the film‘s screening.


    Commenting on the official selection for the competition, director MS Sathyu said, ‘‘I am happy that Ahmedabad International Film Festival has selected Ijjodu in the competition section. The film has a positive theme and will be of interest to Indian as well as international audience. The film juxtaposes the old and new, past and present, ritualistic and contemporary.‘‘

  • PM to look into recommendations of entertainment committee

    MUMBAI: Talking to a four-member film industry delegation that called on him, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh vowed to look into the recommendations of the information, communications and entertainment Committee that he had set up in 2006 when he headed the previous government. The Prime Minister also promised them that he would protect the industry against piracy and said that he wanted “Indian cinema to flourish”.

    Said producer director Mahesh Bhatt, “Piracy is like the kiss of death for us. Through stringent anti-piracy laws, the government should arrest piracy. The PM assured us that he would do everything to protect the film industry.”


    Post their meeting with the Prime Minister, the delegation met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee who said that he fully agreed to the fact that the Indian film industry deserves recognition and support from the Government as he believed that the Industry serves as the ‘cultural ambassador of India‘ overseas.

    “The Indian film industry deserves all due respect and support from our Government as it serves the nation and promotes our Indian culture worldwide.” Mukherjee added.

    Mukesh Bhatt, Amit Khanna and Manmohan Shetty were the other members of the delegation.

  • UTV activates launch dates for 14 films in FY’10

    MUMBAI: After a slump in releases for two months, production and distribution houses are in process of finalising the screening window for their films.
    Taking the lead was Indian Film Company (IFC) which earlier declared their films to be exhibited from July till April 2010.
    Following IFC, UTV Motion Pictures (UMP Plc) today re-announced the slate of 14 films that would come up for show from August till March 2010. Their gameplan: two releases a month barring December and March which will see single launches.

    “We have carefully planned and cautiously lined up our releases,” says UTV Motion Pictures CEO Siddharth Roy Kapur.


    Ramgopal Varma‘s horror film Agyaat kicks off the lineup and will hit the screens on 7 August. This will be followed up by the Shahid Kapur – Priyanka Chopra starrer Kaminey, directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, that will release on 14 August.


    Aage Se Right, a quirky comedy with a starcast comprising Shreyas Talpade and Kay Kay Menon, will release on 4 September and Ashutosh Gowariker‘s What‘s Your Raashee? (starring Priyanka Chopra and Harman Baweja) will hit the screens on 25 September.

    Dharma Productions‘ coming-of-age comedy Wake up Sid with Ranbir Kapoor and Konkona Sen Sharma will release on 2 October, while the romantic comedy Main aur Mrs Khanna starring Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoor will follow on 16 October.


    November kicks off with Ken Ghosh‘s dance untitled musical starring Shahid Kapur and Genelia D‘Souza and Rensil D‘ Silva‘s Qurbaan, again from the stable of Dharma Productions, starring Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Vivek Oberoi. They are scheduled for release on 6 and 27 November respectively.


    David Dhawan‘s Hook Ya Crook, starring John Abraham and Genelia D‘Souza, will release on 11 December.

    Season‘s Greetings, with Tabu and Shreyas Talpade, will hit the screens on 1 January and the political drama Rajneeti, starring Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Ajay Devgan, Nana Patekar and Arjun Rampal will release on 22 January.


    Peter Gaya Kaam Se, a romantic thriller with Rajeev Khandelwal, and a still-untitled bio-pic by Paan Singh Tomar starring Irrfan Khan will release on 12 and 26 February respectively.


    Deven Khote‘s directorial debut Phillum City, starring John Abraham, ends the lineup for the fiscal on 12 March.

  • Ultra releases DVDs of ‘Team – The Force’

    MUMBAI: Ultra Distributors has released VCDs and DVDs of TEAM – The Force. Presented by DN Chaturvedi of ABC Pictures and directed by Ajay Chandok, the film is produced by Manoj D Chaturvedi, Sanjay Chaturvedi and Bharat Chaturvedi. The music is by Dabboo Mallik and story by Yunus Sajawal.

    The film is the story of three friends – Sohail Khan, Rajesh Hirjee and Yash Tonk – who live as paying guests in Baba`s (Kharbanda) house. They aspire to make it big in the music industry, but none of them get anywhere.


    Besides Sohail Khan, Amrita Arora, Yash Tonk and Rajesh Hirjee, the film has Sayaji Shinde and Kulbhushan Kharbanda in the cast.


    The VCDs cost Rs 99 while the DVDs cost Rs 199.

  • Shemaroo sweeps Indian DVD awards

    MUMBAI: Shemaroo Entertainment has swept the Indian DVD Awards. While it has taken home 13 awards, Big Home Video has bagged nine while Palador and Swathi Soft Solutions won three awards each.

    The categories that fetched awards for Shemaroo Entertainment are: best animation movie – (National) – Dashavatar, best direct-to-disc entertainment – Shilpa‘s Yoga, best major technical – Audio Presention – Studio – (National) – Jodhaa Akbar, best major technical – Authoring Design – (National) – Jodhaa Akbar, best major technical video presentation – Studio – Jodhaa Akbar, best major technical – Menu Design – (National) – Slumdog Crorepati, best major technical new release – Regional ( Bengali ) – Kaalpurush, best major motion picture catalogue release – (International) – All About My Mother, best major technical new release – Regional ( Marathi ) – Aevdhe Se Aabhal, best multi-disc collection – National – Golden Era of Bimal Roy, best packaging design – The Big B unleashed, best music performance – Platinum Asha.


    Said Shemaroo Entertainment Director Hiren Gada, “It is a proud moment for us to get recognised for our work. We have been the pioneers in this business of making DVDs and have seen the home entertainment industry grow ever since. This award reaffirms our commitment in bringing out state-of-the-art DVDs and entertaining masses with our new releases.”


    For Big Home Video, the winning titles that garnered awards included ‘blockbuster theatrical award‘ for The Dark Knight, ‘ major theatrical new release‘ for Ghajini, major motion picture catalogue release‘ for ‘Satyajit Ray Signature Collection, ‘major technical – Authoring Design‘ award for Jodhaa Akbar, ‘multi-disc collection award‘ and the ‘best picture boxset‘, films like Gone With The Wind, Casablanca, Ben-Hur and Malgudi Days won in their respective language domains.


    Said Big Music & Home Entertainment CEO Kulmeet Makkar, “These awards are recognition of our commitment towards bringing the best in home entertainment to the customer. Big Home video‘s vision is to release the biggest of Indian and International movies on all available home entertainment platforms.”


    The three categories for which Palador annexed its awards are: best major motion picture catalogue release (International) The One World Collection – Alfred Hitchcock boxset, best major technical ‘Menu Design‘ (International) – Mel Brook‘s The Producers – special awards and best multi-disc collection – (International) -Bergman boxset.


    Swathi Soft Solutions, Chennai won two awards for best major technical – Regional- Nritya Saptahan, for best multi-disc collection classical music – Mridanga Cintananil.

  • Films Division plans two-day war film festival

    MUMBAI: The Films Division (FD), in cooperation with the Armed Forces Film & Photo Division (AFFPD), is organising a two-day festival of rare and vintage war films on 25 and 26 June.

    In all, 80 films on World War II and the struggle for Indian Independence that have original footage of the participation of Indian troops in the warfront will be screened during the festival.


    The event will be inaugurated at the hands of Retd. Maj Gen E. Dsouza (Victoria Cross winner, World War II).

  • Mike Pavone is WWE Studios executive VP

    MUMBAI: World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has named Mike Pavone as executive VP for WWE Studios.

    Pavone will lead WWE Studios’ theatrical releases, direct-to-DVD movies and series along with reality programming. He will report directly to WWE chairman Vince McMahon.



    Pavone brings with him more than 18 years of experience in the film and television industry having worked as a writer, producer, director and actor. His projects include titles such as: Prison Break (Fox), High Incident with Steven Spielberg (ABC), Jack and Jill (WB) and Against The Grain (NBC).


    Since 2008, Pavone has been a strategic consultant to WWE’s creative writing department, collaborating on the company’s television programmes, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.


    McMahon says, “Mike brings a great combination of both filmed entertainment and television experience to his new role. We are confident that he can expand the breadth and depth of opportunities for WWE Studios“.