Category: Hindi

MUMBAI: Big Cinemas, part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, has now expanded its footprints to Greater Noida and Chandigarh.

The cinema chain has opened a four-screen theatre in the two regions respectively. While the new property of Big Cinemas at Ansal Plaza Mall in Greater Noida has a total capacity of 928 seats, the property at Paras Downtown Mall in Zirakpur has a total capacity of 1010 seats.

Says Big Cinemas COO Tushar Dhingra, “Both cinemas are the first multiplexes in their respective areas and are strategically located in the largest malls in their cities. These launches are in line with our plans to provide an international quality experience to rapidly growing catchment areas in the country.”

With the new launch, Big Cinemas now has a total of 198 screens spread over 78 properties in India.

MUMBAI: After attracting rave reviews for his latest directorial venture Dev D, Anurag Kashyap is now ready to release his next on 13 March.

Presented by Zee Limelight, Gulaal casts Kay Kay Menon as the lead protagonist and also marks Jesse Randhawa’s foray into Bollywood.

The film’s cast also includes names like Deepak Dobriyal, Aditya Shrivastav, Mahie Gill, Raj Singh Chaudhary, Ayesha Mohan and Abhimanyu Singh.

Penned by Anurag Kashyap, Raja Chaudhary and Aparna Chaturvedi, Gulaal’s story is similar to a Shakespearean fable. The film is an attempt to bring back poetry and songs to cinema to ‘inspire, shock and provocative’.

MUMBAI: US film studio Lionsgate has reported revenues of $324 million for the third fiscal quarter ended 31 December 31, 2008. This is an 8.4 per cent increase from $299 million for the prior year‘s third quarter.

Lionsgate, however, has posted a net loss of $93.4 million compared with income of $7.3 million in the same quarter for the previous fiscal.

EBITDA for the third quarter was a negative $88.9 million compared to a positive $11.7 million in the prior year‘s third quarter.

The loss was primarily attributable to the underperformance of theatrical wide releases in the quarter along with a reserve taken for the Company‘s HIT Entertainment North American DVD distribution deal due to several factors, including softness in the preschool non-theatrical retail market and unusually high returns from the field when Lionsgate took over distribution of the line. These losses more than offset gains in Lionsgate‘s television business.

Lionsgate co-chairman and CEO Jon Feltheimer says, “During the quarter, we were negatively impacted by some of the same broad economic factors reported by other companies in the media and entertainment sector. However, the primary factor contributing to this quarter‘s loss was the underperformance of our feature film slate. This will have a significant negative impact on our EBITDA and free cash flow for the whole year. Looking forward to fiscal 2010, with the solid performance of our television, home entertainment, international and library businesses, coupled with a smaller film slate and lower associated marketing costs, we anticipate significant positive EBITDA next year.”

The company‘s film backlog was $442.4 million at 31 December, 2008. Film backlog represents the amount of future revenue contracted but not yet recorded from the licensing of films and television product for television exhibition and in international markets.

Overall motion picture revenue for the quarter was $254.9 million, a decrease of two per cent from $261.0 million in the prior year‘s third quarter, as declines in home entertainment, international and Mandate Pictures offset growth in theatrical and television from motion pictures.

Theatrical revenue of $69.3 million increased nine per cent from $63.8 million in the prior year‘s third quarter. Saw V continued the strength of the Saw horror franchise and the documentary Religulous also performed well in platform release. The wide releases The Spirit, Punisher: War Zone and Transporter 3 compared unfavorably to releases in the prior year‘s third quarter.

Lionsgate‘s home entertainment revenue from all segments was $101.5 million, an 11 per cent decline compared to $114.6 million in the prior year‘s third quarter. There were no high-profile new theatrical releases on DVD in the quarter. Significant home entertainment titles in the quarter were Beer For My Horses and continued sales of Rambo, The Bank Job, Forbidden Kingdom and War, which were released in previous quarters. The Company has slated the releases of such major theatrical titles as Saw V, Tyler Perry‘s The Family That Preys, Bangkok Dangerous, My Best Friend‘s Girl and Transporter 3 for the fiscal fourth quarter to avoid the glut of major studio releases before the holidays, as it has done in the past.

Television revenue included in the motion picture segment was $39 million in the third quarter, a 25 per cent increase from $31.3 million in the prior year third quarter, led by titles such as Tyler Perry‘s Meet The Browns, Rambo, The Bank Job and The Eye.

Lionsgate‘s international revenue declined by eight per cent to $41.1 million in the third quarter compared to $44.6 million in the third quarter of the prior year. Principal revenue contributors in the quarter were Saw V, Punisher: War Zone, The Eye and Conan The Barbarian.

Television production revenue in the quarter was $69.2 million, an increase of 82 per cent from $38 million in the prior year‘s third quarter due to increases in domestic television series episodes delivered, $14.5 million of revenue generated from the company‘s joint venture with Ish Entertainment and revenue increases from the company‘s Debmar-Mercury television syndication business.

Primary contributors were deliveries of Mad Men Season 2 (AMC), Crash (Starz) and Scream Queens (VH1). After the end of the quarter, Turner Broadcasting ordered a total of 80 episodes of the House of Payne spin-off, Tyler Perry‘s Meet The Browns, to air on TBS this summer and in syndication next year. The television division remains on track to approach $250 million in revenues this year.

MUMBAI: After the termination of the distribution pact with Universal Studios last week, DreamWorks co-founder Steven Spielberg has moved into newer pastures to churn out the much-needed cash required to finance, market and distribute the Oscar-winning director‘s forthcoming slate in partnership with Reliance Big Entertainment.

DreamWorks Studios has secured a deal with Walt Disney Company. Under the terms, Disney will market and distribute at least six live-action films coming out of the Studio’s Touchstone Pictures banner each year. The first project from the production basket will be released sometime in 2010.

Reliance, a 50:50 partner with DreamWorks in a newly created company, will get to distribute these movies in India.

Under the new agreement, Disney will also provide a bridge financing loan to DreamWorks to match up to the $350 million coming in as equity from Reliance ADAG‘s pocket.

Disney stepped in after Dreamworks and Universal Studios axed their distribution pact signed last year following disagreements over financing.

The deal will help Disney boost its annual movie slate without incurring further financial risk. Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook said, “Spielberg has made some of the biggest films of all time and continues to be one of the great icons of our industry. Thus, his motion pictures will be the perfect compliment to the already robust slate of Disney.”

Last year, post the DreamWorks Studios-Paramount break up, Spielberg partnered with Reliance Big Entertainment to build a $1.5 billion company that would finance 32 movies over six years.

However, stung by the ongoing economic recession bug, the funding would now be raised in various legs. JPMorgan Chase & Co is arranging a $350 million debt within three months. Reliance will put in a similar amount as equity.

MUMBAI: The new and contemporary Dev D, Anurag Kashyap’s latest directorial offering, has raked in Rs 95 million in its opening weekend in India.

Producer by UTV Spotboy Motion Pictures, the small budget film was released with 450 prints in India on 6 February across various territories; it saw a very limited release in the US market.

Says UTV Spotboy Motion Pictures CEO Vikas Bahl, “The film saw almost 76 per cent occupancy during Saturday and Sunday. Delhi witnessed roughly 90 per cent occupancy while Mumbai observed approximately 75 per cent.”

Standing against perceived trends, Dev D has fared well not only amongst the multiplex audiences but has also notched good numbers from single screen theatre goers.

“Dev D has received extremely good response from the single screen viewers as well. Apart from Delhi and Mumbai, the film has batted quite well across single and multiple screen theatres in Pune, Bangalore, Chennai and the interiors of Punjab,” Bahl adds.

MUMBAI: After a stint of over two years at Percept Picture Company, Milind Dabke has put in his papers as chief financial officer.

As CFO, Dabke was also overseeing key relationships at PPC apart from handling the legal, production and commercial operations of the company.

Dabke has played key roles in the co-production ventures of Percept with T Series and Sony Pictures. At PPC, he had overseen the production process of films like Tasveer, Aashayein and Firaaq.

MUMBAI: Pacing up to set new records for itself, Academy Award winner Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire has bagged seven top honours at the British Film Academy Awards (Bafta) after being nominated in 11 categories.

At the Bafta, the rags-to-riches story not only won Boyle the best director award, but also brought India’s coveted musician A R Rehman the award for best music. The other Indian to sweep a Bafta Award this year for Slumdog was Resul Pookutty for sound mixing.

Also, apart from winning the best film title, the Mumbai-based story further notched top honours screenplay (by Simon Beufoy), editing and cinematography.

Slumdog Millionaire tells the story of a young, uneducated man from the slums of Mumbai who appears on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (Kaun Banega Crorepati– Hindi version) and exceeds people‘s expectations, arousing the suspicions of the game show host and of law enforcement officials.

Meanwhile, Dev Patel, the lead protagonist in the film who was also nominated in the best actor category for Slumdog, lost the prize to Hollywood actor Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler.

British actor Kate Winslet pocketed the best actress award for her role as a Nazi concentration camp guard in The Reader.

While Spain‘s Penelope Cruz won the best supporting actress award for Vicky Cristina Barcelona, late Heath Ledger of Australia was named the best supporting actor for his outstanding role as the Joker in The Dark Knight.

Meanwhile, Slumdog will be eyeing more honours at the Oscars where it has got 10 nominations including for best picture. The film already won the Golden Globe award for best drama.

MUMBAI: Last year it had two big success with Taare Zameen Par and Jaane tu Ya Jaane Na which notched up huge box office collections. Both were co prods with Amir Khan Productions.

But PVR Pictures has been struggling to find its feet with films such as Contract not doing well as expected and the recently released Merein Khwabon Mein Jo Aayein getting thumbs down reviews from film critics.

In mid 2008, it received $28 million in funding from ICICI Venture Funds Management and JP Morgan Global Special Opportunities Group in order to allow it to double its movie output to eight to 10 pictures in 2009.

Hence, it is no surprise that the Bijli brothers have been looking for the right professional to come and steer their fortunes in building a production slate of films which will extend the PVR group‘s strength from just exhibition and distribution to production. This time they has opted for former Sony Pictures India executive vice-president –production Uday Singh who has joined PVR as its CEO.

Singh has had almost 13 years of experience at Sony Pictures, on most occasions releasing international titles. He steered the international studio into domestic production with the Sanjay Leela Bhansali mega flick Saawariyan around a couple of years ago.

Confirming the development, Singh said, “Yes, I will be joining PVR Pictures as CEO sometime next week and I would be handling the distribution and production aspects of the company.”

Singh joined Sony Pictures India (then Columbia Tristar) in 1996 as managing director. Later, in early 2008, as a part of a major restructuring exercise, Singh was handed over the film production of the company.

MUMBAI: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Ampas) in the US has engaged Radical Media (@radical.media) to produce the film segment that will open the 81st Academy Awards, to be telecast on 22 February.

The piece, which will include guest appearances by some of the contemporory moviemaking icons, will look at celebrating the language of films and the spirit of moviemaking.

It will be directed by Bennett Miller, who was earlier nominated for the Oscars in 2005 for Capote.

The initiative will mark the second association of @radical.media with the Oscar show. In 2002, the production firm had produced the film segment that opened the 75th anniversary of the Academy Awards.

@radical.media is a multi-platform integrated entertainment and media company that produces and distributes television, feature films, commercials, digital content and design. It has produced projects, including the Oscar winning documentary The Fog of War, the Grammy Award-winning Concert for George, the pilot episode of the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning series Mad Men and the Emmy-winning 10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America.

MUMBAI: Big Pictures, the motion pictures brand of Reliance Big Entertainment, has acquired the worldwide marketing and distribution rights of the Hrithik Roshan-starrer Kites. Produced by Filmkraft Productions, the film is slated for a Diwali release.

A romantic thriller, Kites will be marketed and distributed worldwide by Reliance Big Entertainment. The company plans to utilise the strengths of all of its group companies, engaged in the media and entertainment space, to synergise benefits emanating through co-promotions, branding, joint promotions and 360 degrees marketing initiatives for the film.

Commenting on the development, Filmkraft Productions (India) chairman Rakesh Roshan said, “This is the biggest film to come out of India ever; and a film targeted at both the Indian as well as the worldwide audiences. We believe that Reliance Big Entertainment will leverage its marketing machinery and distribution platforms to take this film to the widest possible audience the world over.”

Kites, Filmkraft Productions‘ most ambitious project yet, is directed by Anurag Basu and also stars Mexican actress Barbara Mori, Kangana Ranaut, Nick Brown and Kabir Bedi. The music of the film has been composed by Rajesh Roshan.

Reliance Big Entertainment president Rajesh Sawhney said, “Kites will have the widest release ever for an Indian film. Partnering with the visionary producer-director Rakesh Roshan is a landmark achievement in our endeavor to create India‘s dominant filmed entertainment company.”