Category: Hindi

Hong Kong: The Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum today announced the winners for the HAF awards, the Technicolor Bangkok awards, the Lacarno Open Doors awards and the Paris Project awards.

The HAF Excellence award this year was presented to Charlie Young, director of Christmas Rose (Hong Kong), for being the first project to successfully achieve full financing at the HAF.

Wanted by Dante Lam and The Murderer by Na Hong-jin were awarded HKD 100,000 (USD13,000 approx) each for projects originating in Hong Kong and outside of Hong Kong respectively.

The Technicolor Bangkok awards of $20,000 (approx. HKD 156,000) each were given to Blood Maple and the Passion of the Kid (Thailand) by Chartchai Ketnust and Veritigo (Vietnam) by Chuyen Bui Thac.

The Locarno Open Doors award – 5,000 Euros (HKD 50,000) – were presented to Help By Li Ying and Winter Vacation by Li Hong-qi. Both the projects are from the Chinese mainland. The projects will be invited to participate at the Locarno International Film Festival’s Open Door’s award section in 2009. Two round trips and hotel accommodations will be provided to each project.

The Paris Project award –Euros 5,000 (HKD 50,000) – was presented to And Protect, Protected by Baomi Kawase (Japan). This includes one round trip and hotel accommodation at the Paris Cinema International Film Festival to participate in the Paris Project 2009.This year’s line-up included film projects from 11 territories.

The HAF is one of the leading hubs of film-financing in Asia. This year it saw a 38 per cent increase in applicants for places in the forum, with guest registrations numbering over 900. This year’s Forum has also organised close to 500 successfully concluded meetings.

MUMBAI: The Indo-Polish Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IPCCI) has partnered with Epelpol Entertainment

to organize the ‘Experience the Real Taste of India‘ Film Festival in Poland.

The seven-day Hindi film fest, which opened in Warsaw on 24 March, will travel to 12 Polish towns including Poznan, Wroclaw, Gdansk, Koszlin, Lodz, Szezecin and Bydogosz.

The festival was inaugurated with Deepa Mehta‘s Water.

Hong Kong: The opening ceremony for the fifth Entertainment Expo Hong Kong (EEHK) and the third Asian Film Awards was held yesterday evening at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC).

“Covering nine multimedia events in four critical sectors – film, television, digital entertainment and music – Entertainment Expo has firmly cast Hong Kong as the entertainment capital of Asia,” said HKTDC Chairman Jack So.

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Financial Secretary John Tsang said, “We will shortly establish a new office – “Create Hong Kong” (CreateHK) – to support the development of our creative industries. CreateHK will realign resources from various government departments to enable us to respond more effectively to the industries‘ demands, and better serve them through a one-stop service.”

Jang added, “In my Budget last month, I earmarked $300 million, to support the development of our creative industries over the coming three years. This will be in addition to the existing funding schemes established to support our design and film sectors. The Government‘s total financial commitment to creative industries is currently more than $1 billion.”

EEHK’s three founding events include the Hong Kong International Film and Television Market, or Filmart, the Hong Kong International Film Festival and the Hong Kong Film Awards Presentation Ceremony. EEHK also features six core events: the Asian Film Awards; the Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum; the Hong Kong Music Fair; the IFPI Hong Kong Top Sales Music Award 2008; the Digital Entertainment Leadership Forum 2009; and the Hong Kong Independent Short Film and Video Awards.

Hong Kong: During Hong Kong’s 100th year of movie making, Japanese films walked away with awards in five of the 13 categories at the 3rd Asian Film Awards organised by the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society.

Tokyo Sonata, a story that portrays the breakdown of a Japanese family after its patriarch loses his job at a prominent company, was awarded Best film.

Tokyo Sonata also received the best screenwriter award for its screenwriter trio of Kurosawa Kiyoshi, Max Mannix and Tanaka Sachiko from Japan, The Netherlands and Hong Kong respectively.

Hirokazu won the best director award for his Still Walking, a film about a family commemorating the drowning of one of its family members.

Oscar award winning film (Best foreign language film) Departures lead star Motoki Masahiro was awarded Best Actor for his performance in the film. In the film Motoki plays a cellist who works in a funeral parlor business after his orchestra is dissolved. India’s Akhsay Kumar was among the nominees for this category for his performance in the Hindi super-hit film Singh is Kinng.

Japan’s Hisaishi Joe won the award for the best composer for his music composition for Ponyo on the Cliff. India’s AR Rahman composition for Jodha Akbar among other’s had also been nominated for this category.

Zhou Xun won the best actress award for the mainland Chinese film The Equation of Love and Death. India’s Deepika Podukone was also in the reckoning for this category for her performance in Chandni Chowk to China.

India’s Nitin Chandrasekhar was one of the nominees for best production designer award for Jodha Akbar. The award was won by Daniel Yan-kong Lee for Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon.

The Nielsen Box Office award was conferred on India’s Priyanka Chopra. The Edward Yang New Talent Award was conferred on Taiwanese director Wei Te-Sheng. Hong Kong director Tsui Hark and his wife Shi Nansun were presented with the Outstanding Contribution to Asia Cinema award.

Awards for the other categories went to: Best Newcomer – Mainland China’s Yu Shaoqun (Forever Enthralled); Best Supporting Actor – South Korean Jung Woo-sung (The Good, the Bad, the Weird); Best Supporting Actress – Filipino Gina Pareno (Service);Best Cinematographer Europe’s Jola Dylewska (Tulpan) ; Best Editor South Korea’s Kim Sun-min (The Chaser);Best Visual Effects – Craig Hayes from the Chinese mainland (Red Cliff).

The award ceremony was held at Hong Kong yesterday. Michelle Yeoh was the president of the jury that decided the awards.

The glittering ceremony was hosted by VJ and MC Derek Li, Monaco born Hong Kong’s top model Lisa S and character actor Terence Yin. The awards ceremony was tastefully interspaced with audio visuals and performances by Justin Lo and Alan, among others.

Hong Kong: Strategizing to rise above the economic downturn and restoring the faith in the film industry, Salon Films (H. K.) Ltd announced strategic alliances with Zhejiang Hengdian Film Production Co. Ltd, Yoshomoto Kogyo Co. Ltd, MediaCorp Raintree Pictures Pte. Ltd, Access Asia (Cayman) Ltd, China Film Foundation, Media Development Authority Singapore, Enlight Pictures, National Arts Entertainment Ltd, and Pearl River Film Company Ltd, at the 13th edition of the Hong Kong International Film and TV Market (Filmart) in Hong Kong.

The alliance will jointly promote development and growth in the region, creating stronger cultural connections between East and West and exploring new commercial opportunities for the film and television industry.

Salon president Fred C Y Wang informed www.indiantelevision.com that the Singapore government has agreed to contribute Singapore $100 million over three years for the venture. Wang has been the driving force behind the alliance.

Wang said, “Professional experts in the region including technical, financing, star powers in front of the screen and producing resources will contribute to the artistic and commercial success, I wish that the filmmakers from the Indian film industry

too become a part of the alliance.”

Representatives of filmmakers from mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore were present at the press conference.

MUMBAI: Percept Picture Company is ready to roll out its next production Aashayein in May. But the date of release will surely not coincide with the head rolling entertainment

property of the Indian Premier League season.

“We will be releasing Aashayein in May but not until the IPL fever is over. The film will see a release only after 24 May,” says PPC distribution head Ashok Ahuja.

Written and directed by Nagesh Kukunoor, the film is co-produced by Percept Picture Company and T-Series. It stars John Abraham and newcomer Sonal Sehgal in the lead roles.

Post Aashayein, PPC plans to push its next production venture onto the big screens pan India during June.

After Aashayein, we will be releasing Raftaar sometime in June. The film stars Imran Hashmi and Aditya Pancholi, Ahuja adds.

Meanwhile, as big producers gear up to deprive multiplexes of new filmed content from 4 April, PPC is running full pace to release the Akshay Kumar-starrer 8×10 Tasveer on 3 April.

When asked whether the producer‘s strike would have any impact on the films box office revenues, Ahuja quipped, “Not at all. We have already got permission from the film producers and distributors‘ associations to release Tasveer on 3 April and the strike begins from 4 April. So the film will continue to run at all multiplexes despite the strike going on.”

Made at a budget of approximately Rs 50 crore, 8×10 Tasveer is a thriller film starring Ayesha Takia as the female lead protagonist. Also directed by Nagesh Kukunoor, the film features Sharmila Tagore, Javed Jaffrey, Anant Mahadevan, Girish Karnad, Benjamin Gilani, Rushad Rana, Andrea Tully,and Pia Shah in supporting roles.

The film‘s music is composed by Salim-Sulaiman with a title track by Bohemia.

HONG KONG: The 33rd edition of the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF), which kicked off yesterday, is shaping up to be the largest and the best attended ever. The event recorded a 58 per cent increase in registered filmmakers, celebrities and guests as compared to the previous edition in 2008. HKIFF will run through till 13 April, 2009.

Jackie Chan helped kick off the event yesterday by lending his star clout to HKIFF which opened with the world premiere of Chan‘s new Chinese language gangster thriller Shinjuku Incident.

Screening of over 300 titles from 50 countries, including 20 world premieres and 17 international premieres are scheduled during the current edition of HKIFF. Also, filmmakers from over 30 territories plan to introduce their films to the Hong Kong audience. This year’s Festival has had eager support from the audience with over 85 sold out screenings as on 22 March, including Monsters Vs. Aliens, The Badger Meinhof Complex and Yang Yang.

“The record attendance to the festival this year is a testament to the diverse and exhilarating programming, the value of the festival as a launch pad for films, and the discovery of film talent,” said HKIFF Society’s executive director Shaw Soo Wei. “The HKIFF represents a destination to capture the fastest growing markets, the abundance of co-production opportunities and film-project financing in Asia.”

With the increased number of directors, producers and cast members attending the festival, the screenings will see an increase of 66 per cent in its ‘Meet the Audience’ sessions from 64 to 106 this year. Film makers such as the three time Academy Award

winning director Oliver Stone, five time Academy Award producer Arthur Cohon and Academy Award winning actor William Hurt, Emmy award wining actor Kiefer Sutherland and Dreamworks Animation CEO Jeffery Katzenberg will be visible at the event.

MUMBAI: 85-year-old veteran Telugu film actor Kantha Rao died on Sunday, 22 March, at around 11 pm in Hyderabad. Rao had been suffering from liver cancer for the last few years.

Rao, whose original name is Thadepalli Lakshmi Kantha Rao, was born on 16 November, 1923.

Rao has acted in more than 400 Telugu mythological, social and folklore movies. His last film was Balakrishna starrer Pandurangadu.

He acted in a few Hindi and Kannada movies too. In the 1960s, he was the third force in Telugu cinema, behind NT Rama Rao and Akkineni Nageshwara Rao.

HONG KONG: To promote Hong Kong film directors of the new generation and explore opportunities for cooperation on film productions

and investment, the Hong Kong Film Development Council (FDC) chairman Jack So led a delegation of 20-odd members to visit Singapore and Malaysia this week.

So says, “To make a breakthrough for our film industry, we would have to join hands with Mainland China, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan and pool resources of the five places to develop the film industry of the region as a whole. The market of Chinese language films can be expanded through cooperation in areas such as financing, production and distribution, etc”.

The FDC rolled out the Hong Kong Film: New Action project last December to promote Hong Kong films and directors of the new generation. The latest visit joined by FDC members and film directors of the new generation followed the council’s trips to Guangdong Province and Taiwan last December to promote the project.

“Singapore and Malaysia have a Chinese population of over nine million in total. The region is an important market for us. Besides promoting Hong Kong films and the new generation directors, our meetings with the local film industry seek to establish a basis of cooperation in different aspects so as to explore more market opportunities” adds So.

During their stay in Singapore, the delegation visited the Media Development Authority and various film industry associations. Both parties got an in-depth understanding of each other‘s market and mode of operation, paving the way for future mutual cooperation.

Meanwhile, the FDC will stage large-scale business forums and promotional sessions to further promote the project during the “Hong Kong International Film & TV Market” (Filmart) event. The forums and promotional sessions will provide film practitioners from the Chinese language film markets of the aforesaid five places to engage in direct business negotiations with Hong Kong’s directors and filmmakers.

MUMBAI: Come April and audiences will get to see the Aamir Khan-starrer blockbuster Ghajini in theatres one more time.

In the wake of the Producers‘ Council decision to ban all new releases in multiplexes from 4 April onwards, producer Madhu Mantena has decided to re-release the film, this time with additional footages.

Says Mantena, “It‘s a co-incidence that Ghajini will complete its 100 days at the box office just when the strike will commence in April. Since there will be no new films releasing at that time, Ghajini is a movie viewers will look forward to watch in theatres.”

Ghajini, which has already grossed 2 billion worldwide, will be re-released with approximately 200 prints pan India.