MUMBAI: Pritish Nandy Communications‘ (PNC) has joined hands with London-based distributor and sales agency High Point Media Group wherein the latter will handle the company‘s titles in markets outside India.
The first film to be included under this deal is Saeed Akhtar Mirza‘s Ek Tho Chance (Last Chance Mumbai).
Set in Mumbai, the film follows the mixed fortunes of varying characters who populate the city.
MUMBAI: Inox Motion Pictures is set to release its first production venture Morning Walk on 10 July. The budget of the film is pegged at approximately Rs 75 million.
“We are planning to release the film across 200 screens,” says Inox head-marketing Harsh Vardhan Gangurde.
Directed by Arup Dutta, Morning Walk casts Anupam Kher and Sharmila Tagore in pivotal roles. The other actors include Rajit Kapoor, Divya Dutta, Shayan Munshi and Nargis.
Child actor Avika Gor (of Balika Vadhu fame) also makes her on screen debut with this film.
The music of the film has been composed by Jeet Gannguli. Ustad Rashid Khan, Shaan and Shreya Ghoshal are the playback singers.
Says Inox Motion Pictures Alok Tandon, “Morning Walk marks our foray into production and we have ensured that the film appeals to family audiences. Inox Motion Pictures was started with the endeavour to make films that offer quality entertainment to all.”
MUMBAI: Twentieth Television president and COO Bob Cook has put in his papers to float his own company – MBN Inc.
Cook‘s new company will develop digital platforms for Twentieth‘s syndicated programmes and also for other production companies.
Cook plans to remain at Twentieth for a few more months before making his exit.
Speculations are on that Greg Meidel, who runs MyNetwork TV for News Corp, will take up Cook‘s post.
Meidel joined MyNetwork TV a few years ago as the nascent network looked to expand its original programming. But the division has now switched gears and is essentially a programming service airing off-net fare and WWE wrestling.
MUMBAI: Sarod maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan died in San Francisco on Friday following a prolonged kidney ailment.
He was 88 and is survived by his wife Mary, 11 children and an extraordinary musical legacy that includes the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael, California.
The Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni has expressed grief over the demise of the maestro. In her condolence message the minister noted that Ustad Ali Akbar Khan was one of the most accomplished of Indian musicians in the Classical tradition. “In the death of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, the world of music has lost a legendary figure and the void left by his death can never be filled,” she added.
Born on 14 April, 1922 in East Bengal (Bangladesh) Khan learnt how to play various instruments before he dipped into the sound of music. His father, Baba Allauddin Khan, was one of the great names of Hindustani music.
In his early twenties, he made his first recording in Lucknow for HMV. He then became the court musician for the Maharaja of Jodhpur where he worked for seven years.
In 1955, on the request of violin master Yehudi Menuhin, Ali Akbar Khan first visited the US and performed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Responding to a wave of interest in the West, he began teaching and living in the US and, in 1967, founded the Ali Akbar College of Music in California, where he had been teaching since, along with tabla stalwart Ustad Zakir Hussain. Khansahib also opened a branch of his college in Basel, Switzerland, run by his disciple Ken Zuckerman, where he taught when on his world tours.
The late American violinist Yehudi Menuhin, who became one of his earliest champions in the West had said that he considered Khan “an absolute genius, the greatest musician in the world.”
In 1991, Mr. Khan received a MacArthur Fellowship, widely known as the “genius” grant. He later received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
NEW DELHI: Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said today that she has raised the issue of exemption from counterveiling duty (CVD) for unexposed colour films with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, a demand the film industry has been raising for well over two decades.
Soni was assuring a high-level delegation from the film industry led by Film Federation of India (FFI) president Jitendra Jain.
Soni also said that she would shortly initiate steps to fight software piracy, which was doing incalculable harm to the industry.
The unexposed negatives are not produced within the country, but the industry still has been paying CVD. Though this was removed in 2002, it was re-imposed in 2004 at the rate of 16 per cent.
The minister also said that in her meeting with Mukherjee, she had stressed the need for parity in taxation amongst all media. She also assured the delegation that she had raised the issue of exemption from service tax to the film industry.
FFI secretary general Supran Sen told indiantelevision.com that the minister had also indicated that relief was expected in fringe benefit tax for the film industry, which had to pay huge FBT in the matter of booking of hotels, travel, food etc. even while traveling for professional work.
He said as the meeting related to budgetary demands, the minister agreed to take up separately the demand seeking relief on remittances abroad under Section 195B of the Income Tax Act as these are for professional work or hiring foreign technicians.
The delegation comprised Sushma Shiromanee, L Suresh, Sakshi Mehra, Ramesh Mehra, Ajay Sarpotdar, S Vidhani and Rajinder Singh among others.
MUMBAI: The fourth edition of the South Asian Film Festival (SAFF) will begin in Goa on 26 June. Over 50 films will be screened at the festival, under the theme ‘dissolving boundaries‘.
Said South Asian Foundation secretary-general Rahul Barua, “The festival hopes to create an environment of peace and harmony among the countries of the region.”
Barua confided that the festival provides a forum for filmmakers to discuss their work, exchange creative and technical expertise in filmmaking, and facilitates marketing of films from the countries within the region that will enhance mutual trade opportunities.
The special feature of the SAFF in Goa will be the screening of 12 Iranian films. “Although Iran does not fall in South East Asia, it has similar challenges and difficulties but they make very good films,” Barua added.
Countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will participate in the festival. Films will be screened in four categories: short films, documetary films, classic films and mainstream feature films. The opening night will feature a film from Maldives.
The festival will also feature contemporary films like Dhokha, The Promised Land and Fashion among others. SAFF Goa will see celebrities like Shyam Benegal, Manisha Koirala, Mahesh Bhatt, Madhur Bhandarkar, Prasanna Vithanage and Enamul Karim participating in the event.
The entertainment society of Goa and Kala Academy of Goa are collaborating with the South Asia Foundation and will screen all the films at both the venues.
MUMBAI: The anti-piracy wing of the Indian Music Industry (IMI) today organised a training programme for police officers of Maharashtra to raise their awareness about intellectual property rights (IPR) and the importance of its protection.
The programme attended by over 100 police officials included officers across all cadres. Raising concerns over the protection of India‘s intellectual property, IMI discussed the importance of creating awareness about copyright laws amongst police officials.
IMI claims that it has been regularly conducting training programmes on IP enforcement in India and had the distinction of conducting 150 training programmes in different parts of the country during last year with the twin purpose of training the ground level police officers and explaining to them importance of the enforcement of IPR laws in the country in the national and international context.
Intellectual Property (IP) is defined “as any original creative work manifested in a tangible or intangible form that should be legally protected.”
MUMBAI: The three-year agreement between The Dallas Film Society (DFS) and the American Film Institute (AFI) has come to an end.
The agreement came into force in 2006 to support the launch of city‘s international film festival and help establish it among the film industry‘s foremost events.
The 2009 AFI Dallas International Film Festival (DIFF) was the concluding event under the agreement.
“AFI is proud to have played a role in launching the Dallas Film Society‘s annual film festival. Dallas is home to many of this nation‘s premier arts organisations and the AFI is honoured to have helped establish a proper place for films along with the other arts in this great city,” said AFI president and CEO Bob Gazzale.
“The relationship with the AFI has helped DIFF to take its place among the nation‘s top 20 film festivals with more than 100,000 attendees in our first three years,” added Dallas Film Society Chair Ruth O‘Donnell Mutch.
The two entities are now discussing ways of working together on project basis.
MUMBAI: Thanks to an innovative new deal between Big Cinemas and London-based More2Screen, leading specialist in arts-based alternative content programming for cinema, culture fans can now look forward to the first-ever screenings of world-class Operas in Indian cinemas.
The first offerings of this partnership will be two high quality productions from England‘s internationally-renowned Glyndebourne Festival, the operas La Cenerentola (Cinderella) and Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar).
This will be followed by an all-star tribute concert from Petra, Jordan, The Pavarotti Tribute Concert, honouring the late tenor Luciano Pavarotti featuring his former singing partners Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras along with Andrea Bocelli and Sting.
Screenings will take place at Big Cinemas‘ plexes in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Pune. To be launched by the end of June, the screenings will pave the way for a new era of top-class, pre-recorded performances to be enjoyed on the big screen.
“Global awareness among Indian audiences has made them desirous for distinct international experiences. By screening Operas at our plexes, we are not just providing an enriching cultural experience to our patrons but are also providing them a chance to enjoy Operas in the best seats and at very affordable rates,” said Big Cinemas COO Tushar Dhingra.
NEW DELHI: Although films are being made in digital format and the government is in favour of digitisation, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) still does not have any guidelines for censoring digital films as a separate entity.
According to Prasan Sinha, who claims to have made the first full-length digital Hindi feature film Kismet – Ek Anokha Moad, the film was ultimately certified as a video film despite the fact that it has been produced for the large screen.
Sinha told indiantelevision.com that he had drawn the attention of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry officials who saw the film when it was screened at the India Pavilion at the Cannes International Film Festival last month. He was assured that the CBFC was studying this issue.
While films made in the film format are aimed for the large screen, those produced on video format are meant for television or for home viewing.
Sinha said apart from the fact that digital technology is much cheaper, there is much more clarity in video and sound. This technology is also more suitable for special effects
. Digital technology has also helped to fight the scourge of software technology, he added.
Made on a budget of around Rs 4 million with new stars, the film is based in rural India and is about the effect of urbanisation. The film also sends a message about self-employment according to producer Abhay Yadav who has also acted in the meeting.
Kismet – Ek Anokha Moad is slated for release towards the end of July.