Category: Hindi

MUMBAI: Year 2008 witnessed UTV Motion Pictures foray into a variety of genres with films like Wednesday, Welcome to Sajjanpur and the recent cult movie Dev.D.

And in 2009, the company has joined hands with Dreamforce Enterprise, a division of Ram Gopal Varma Film Factory, to co-produce its new venture Agyaat-the Unknown.

Described as a “uniquely differentiated thriller”, the plot of the mid-budget film revolves around the story of a film unit on a shoot in a remote jungle in Sri Lanka.

“UTV has always been experimental about the projects it ventures into and has been a trend setter in the Indian film industry. Agyaat with RGV is another step in this direction,” says UTV Motion Pictures COO Ram Mirchandani.

Mirchandani notes that such films are a popular genre abroad including blockbusters like Blairwitch Project and Predator. However, no Indian producer has ever risked a film in this genre with Indian actors and a story designed to cater to the Indian audiences. “We are happy to partner with RGV on this film and given his expertise in film making we are sure to deliver a fantastic product,” Mirchandani states.

Commenting on the partnership, RGV says, “I have always believed in pushing the envelope and together with UTV, we look forward to making the very first of this kind of film in India.”

MUMBAI: Whistling Woods International (WWI) has partnered with entertainment job portal 1takemedia.com in a bid to offer filmmakers the opportunity to generate revenues and provide them a platform to display and distribute their work.

The competition will see film participation across various genres including fictional short films, documentaries and live and animation wherein the length of each film can vary between under 10 minitues to 60 miniutes.

While the prize money for the fictional short films category is Rs 50,000, the documentaries and live and animation category will witness a reward of Rs 1,00,000 each.

The competition will be judged by filmmakers like Subhash Ghai, Ketan Mehta, Vikram Bhatt, John Mathew Matthan, Mike Pandey and Jabbar Patel.

Also, the submitted films will be distributed through 1takemedia.com wherein the portal will share 50 per cent of the net income coming from the distribution of the films with the filmmakers.

MUMBAI: The Screen Actors Guild (Sag) national board of directors in the US voted 73 per cent to 27 per cent to reject the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) “last, best and final offer” dated 19 February, 2009.

Sag states that it entered this round of negotiations to send a clear message that it was ready to make a deal. “In an effort to put the town back to work, our negotiator agreed to modify the Guild’s bargaining position to bring the Guild in line with the deals made by our sister unions.”

The AMPTPs last-minute, surprise demand for a new term of agreement extending to 2012, Sag notes, is regressive and damaging and clearly signals the employers’ unwillingness to agree to the deal they established with other entertainment unions.

According to the body, the demand for a new term of agreement was not part of their final offer of 30 June, 2008; it was not part of the federally mediated talks of November 2008, and should not have been inserted into the discussions when Sag returned to negotiations on 17 February, 2009.

Says sag, “What management presented as a compromise is, in fact, an attempt to separate Screen Actors Guild from other industry unions. By attempting to extend our contract expiration one year beyond the other entertainment unions, the AMPTP intends to deleverage our bargaining position from this point forward.”

“Screen Actors Guild’s goal is to successfully complete these negotiations and get the industry back to work as soon as possible. The AMPTP has clearly stated their need and desire for financial certainty and industry peace. This new proposal does the exact opposite, and will only result in constant negotiating cycles and continued labor unrest,” Sag adds.

AMPTP, meanwhile, reiterates that its offer is strong and fair – and has been judged to be strong and fair by all of Hollywood‘s other major guilds and unions. “We have kept our offer on the table – and even enhanced it – despite the historically unprecedented economic crisis that has clobbered our nation and our industry,” states AMPTP.

“The Producers have always sought a full three-year deal with Sag, just as we negotiated with all the other Unions and Guilds, and have offered Sag a way to achieve an earlier expiration date without contributing to further labor uncertainty. We simply cannot offer Sag a better deal than the rest of the industry achieved under far better economic conditions than those now confronting our industry,” AMPTP opined.

MUMBAI: UTV World Movies has tied up with Shemaroo World Cinema, for releasing its library titles in the Indian home video market.

Through this strategic partnership, UTV World Movies takes another step towards making contemporary, award winning World Cinema available across several platforms.

UTV World Movies has a library of over 600 titles from over 40 countries spread across languages and genres comprising Oscar winning and nominated titles such as The Lives of Others, Divided We Fall and The Counterfeiters. It also has Oscar nominated and other award winning films like Waltz With Bashir, Machuca, Your Name Is Justine and The House of Flying Daggers.

Shemaroo World Cinema has a collection of titles of several renowned film makers like Jean-Luc Godard, Akira Kurosawa, Pedro Almodóvar, Roman Polanski, and Claude Chabrol, among many others.

Through its association with Shemaroo World Cinema, UTV World Movies would release Oscar winning titles like The Mission and A Room With A View. The collection is slated to hit the Indian market by April 2009.

UTV Global Broadcasting executive director Shantonu Aditya says “After successfully launching India‘s first world cinema channel across cable and DTH platforms in the country, we are very pleased to expand our content delivery model to include home video and are confident of the combined strength of our content along with Shemaroo‘s acumen in the home video segment.”

Shemaroo Entertainment director Hiren Gada says, “After receiving a good response for our Shemaroo World Cinema initiative recently, we are delighted to enhance our catalogue, with that of UTV World Movies. With UTV World Movies appealing collections, and our strong distribution network and wide product presence across the home video platform, we are certain that we will be able to optimise and create a product presence. The common objective of our collaboration is to grow the World Cinema market and create mature audiences.”

MUMBAI: The recent Slumdog phenomenon has forced Bollywood to believe that to expand a film’s audience base beyond the Indian diaspora internationally, filmmakers have to strategically join hands with international marketers who exhibit a better understanding of the overseas cinematic landscape. Slumdog was marketed and distributed by Fox Searchlight.

And now taking a hint from this, The Indian Film Company (TIFC) has roped in LA-based world sales company, American World Pictures (AWP), to handle the international sales of its first international feature presentation Little Zizou.

Little Zizou, Sooni Taraporevala’s first directorial venture, is a Mumbai-based film that is presented by TIFC and Mira Nair (of Monsoon Wedding and Vanity Fair fame).

“We look forward to our association with AWP who will be enabling Little Zizou to reach out to audiences in countries across the world,” said IFC CEO Sandeep Bhargava.

In a bid to attain global recognition that would help international marketers to push the film across the global region, Zizou was showcased at the Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival in New York and at the Asia-Pacific Festival of First Films, held in Singapore.

While the film bagged two awards – best director and best screenplay – at the Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival, it clinched the best producer award at the Asia-Pacific Festival of First Films held in Singapore.

Said AWP Sr VP – international Sales Jeffrey Goldmann, “We fell in love with Little Zizou on watching it. It is a simple, sweet and well-intentioned comedy with a message of tolerance at its heart. We introduced the film to buyers at EFM (Berlin) and will continue to do so at the upcoming markets to lock distribution.”

Initially, Studio 18 will undertake a selective Indian theatrical release of Little Zizou on 13 March and depending on the film’s audience response, the company will expand the number of releases further.

The film stars Boman Irani, Sohrab Ardeshir, Zenobia Shroff, Shernaz Patel, Mahabanoo Mody- Kotwal, Imaad Shah, Kunal Vijaykar, Kamaal Sidhu in pivotal roles and introduces Jahan and Iyanah Batlivala. It also features John Abraham in a guest appearance.

MUMBAI: Excel Home Videos has released the 2007 Turkish-German film The Edge of Heaven on DVD.

Priced at Rs 499, the DVD includes additional features like filmography, awards, screenings and poster.

Directed by Fatih Akin, the film won the Best Screenplay Awards at Cannes Film Festival and European Film Awards in 2007. It also won five awards at Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival for best director, editing, supporting actor, supporting actress and special jury award.

In November 2007, The Edge Of Heaven bagged Critics Award at European Cinema Festival. European Parliament awarded the movie with Lux prize for European cinema.

The Edge of Heaven revolves around six characters. An old man and a hooker in a live-in relationship, a young scholar reconciling his past, two young women falling in love, and a mother putting the shattered pieces of her life back together.

NEW DELHI : It‘s not just Slumdog that has put India on the Oscar map. Smile Pinki, the story of an Indian girl cursed with a cleft lip, has also helped lift India‘s image by winning the best documentary short subject film prize at the 81st Academy Awards this year. Pinki, who has been completely cured of the curse of having been born with a cleft lip in a free operation, is the central focus of the film, made by Megan Mylan. The 39-minute Smile Pinki is a chronicle of how Pinki from Mirzapur district in Uttar Pradesh, along with thousands of others from different parts of India, are operated upon without charge, at a hospital funded by the international charitable organisation ‘Smile Train’. The film was premiered at SilverDocs and was also nominated for best documentary short at the 2008 International Documentary Association 2008. Director-producer Megan Mylan is an Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker and Goggenheim Fellow. Earlier, her film Lost Boys of Sudan, co-directed with Jon Shenk, won an Independent Spirit Award and was nominated for two national Emmys.

MUMBAI: The might of the marriage between Hollywood and Bollywood may have just arrived. Slumdog Millionaire, the rags-to-riches story using Indian actors and landscape, has taken home eight Oscars including that of the best picture award and the best director for Danny Boyle.

Indian musical maestro A R Rehman has scooped two Oscar awards – best original score and best soundtrack.

Slumdog, the feel-good account of a Mumbai orphan’s break away from poverty, has further picked top honours for editor Chris Dickens, cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle and screenplay writer Simon Beaufoy. The Best sound mixing prize was bagged by Ian Tapp and Resul Pookutty, another Indian to represent the country on the red carpet.

Says PVR Pictures CEO Uday Singh, “Slumdog‘s win at the Oscars has opened up new avenues for Indian cinema to travel abroad. The win only suggests that if the content is right and is padded with the right mix of marketing and distribution strategies, no Indian film can be kept away from reaching out to the global audience.”

The other India-based film to capture the Oscar attention is Smile Pinki. The film, made by Megan Mylan, has won the best short documentary prize after contesting against four others in the same genre.

Congratulating the Slumdog Millionaire and Smile Pinki team for winning the prestigious Oscar Awards, the Minister of State of Information & Broadcasting and External Affairs Anand Sharma said that this is the finest hour of Indian cinema in the global scenario.

The other winners at the 81st Academy Awards include:

Best actor (male): Sean Penn for Milk

Best actor (female): Kate Winslet for The Reader

Best sound editing: Richard King for The Dark Knight

Best visual effects: Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best documentary short subject: Megan Mylan for Smile Pinki

Best documentary feature: James Marsh and Simon Chinn for Man On Wire

Best actor in a supporting role: Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight

Best live action short film: Spielzeugland (Toyland)

Best makeup: Greg Cannom for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best costume design: Michael O‘Connor for The Duchess

Best art direction: Donald Graham Burt (art direction) for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best animated short film: La Maison en Petits Cubes

Best animated feature film: Wall.E

Original screenplay: Dustin Lance Black for Milk

Best actress in a supporting pole: Penelope Cruz for Vicky Chistina Barcelona

Best foreign language film: Departures (Japan)

MUMBAI: Excel Home Videos has released Academy Awards nominated film The Savages on DVD in India.

The company has priced the DVD of the comedy-drama at Rs 499.

The Savages is written and directed by Tamara Jenkins. It is inspired by Jenkins‘ personal experience with aging family members and ill health.

The movie revolves around two siblings who are forced to face the ghost of their pasts – and their future together during a family crisis.

The movie has been critically acclaimed and has garnered multiple “Best Screenplay” and “Best Actress” awards. It was premiered at Sundance festival and also got selected in many other film festivals in 2007.

Beside The Savages, Excel had released on DVD movies like Sleeping Beauty, Persepolis, Amu and Lagaan.

MUMBAI: Warner Bros. Pictures’ The Dark Knight has crossed the $1 billion threshold in worldwide box office revenue with a $1,001,082,160 gross till date.

Presented in association with Legendary Pictures, the $185 million-budget film was released last year on 16 July in Australia, 18 July in North America, and 24 July in the United Kingdom.

“Chris Nolan has taken the Batman franchise to a new level internationally,” said Warner Bros. Pictures international distribution president Kwan-Rubinek. “Audiences around the world have really embraced The Dark Knight, which has more than doubled the gross of any of the prior films in the franchise.”

The Dark Knight is a superhero film directed and co-written by Christopher Nolan. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, the film is part of Nolan‘s Batman film series and a sequel to 2005‘s Batman Begins. Christian Bale reprises the lead role.

The Dark Knight has pocketed eight academy award nominations, including one for Heath Ledger, who has been nominated as best supporting actor award for his role of the joker.