Category: Hindi

MUMBAI: Yash Chopra, founder of Yashraj Films has been awarded the ‘FIAPF Award for outstanding achievement in film’ in the Asia-Pacific region. The Award is determined by International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF).

The jury grand prize was presented to The Prisoner (India), produced and directed by Pryas Gupta and Hongse Kangbaiyin (The Red Awn, China); and starring Best Actor nominee Rajat Kapoor.

Winners in the Asia Pacific screen awards for 2008 were announced in Queensland, Australia on Tuesday. Around 700 film industry celebrities from the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the United States attended the ceremony.

Thirty two films representing 17 countries were finalists in the awards, with winners coming from India, Kazakhstan, Israel, Korea, Australia, Turkey, Iran and China the awards.

The awards were determined by an international jury headed by academy award nominated Australian director Bruce Beresford.

2008 APSA international jury president Bruce Beresford said “I was impressed by the quality and originality of the films and I have enjoyed the experience of being around so many talented filmmakers.”

Asia Pacific screen awards chairman Des Power said, “The Asia-Pacific region is the emerging giant of cinema. The quality and depth of story-telling amazed not only our jury this year but is certain to attract more audience at the global level. There is a growing fascination and respect for films from this diverse region. It is a tribute to the filmmakers that they now have a globally recognised award and the broadcast reach of CNN International to promote their work.”

MUMBAI

: Golmaal Returns, the sequel of superhit film Golmal, has managed to get approximately Rs 528 million at the box office since its theatrical release on 29 October.

In India, the movie collected Rs 473 million with the Mumbai circuit accounting for Rs 177.5 million, the company said in a statement.

Additionally, Golmaal Returns generated overseas revenues of Rs 55 million in its first weekend of release. In UK, it grossed Rs 15 million while Rs 10 million came from North America and Rs 20 million in the Middle East. The comedy film earned Rs 5.1 million in Pakistan.

Produced by Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision, the movie was released at 1,050 locations worldwide.

The film, directed by Rohit Shetty, starrs Ajay Devgan, Tusshar Kapoor, Arshad Warsi and Shreyas Talpade reprising the role originally played by Sharman Joshi. Also, Kareena Kapoor, Anjana Sukhani, Amrita Arora and Celina Jaitley are new additions to the cast.

MUMBAI: Koffee Break Pictures Ltd has set up a new post production unit in Mumbai.

The new facility will provide end-to-end solutions for the post production and visual effects to feature films and television shows involving editing, finishing, computer graphics and sound facilities.

The company says that the unit will add significantly to its revenue due to the rapidly growing demand of visual effects and animation in the Indian and international film industry. Koffee Break Pictures is aiming to generate an annual revenue of Rs 180 million from the new unit.

“This new unit has the latest high-end systems installed, and will be proved efficient in providing end-to-end solutions in post production. We are targeting a revenue of Rs 1.5 million every month from this unit,” says Koffee Break Pictures CEO Varun Gada.

Apart from digital intermediate, the company will also be able to provide design and package services such as title sequences with 2D and 3D animation, video deliverables such as broadcast promos and multi format digital deliverables such as DVD deliverables.

At present, the new unit is working on the company’s second animation film Green Chic – Finding Dad. Prior to this, the company produced My Friend Ganesha in 2007.

Koffee Break Pictures already runs an animation studio in Mumbai.

MUMBAI: James Bond‘s franchise movie Quantum of Solace, which was released on 7 November across India, has collected Rs 170 million over the weekend.

Sony Pictures, which is distributing the film in India, is targeting a gross box collection of Rs 520 million. Casino Royale, the last Bond movie, had grossed Rs 420 million.

The secret agent‘s latest flick was released in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, apart from English. It was released across 570 prints – 166 in English, 214 in Hindi, 100 in Tamil, 82 in Telugu and eight in digital.

The latest adventure of Daniel Craig has grossed $106.5 million across the world in 60 territories.

The film, which is slated to release in US on 14 November, has already broken the British record for a Friday opening, where it was released on 31 October. The 22nd Bond Film has managed to collect $7.99 million (?4.9 million) at UK cinemas on Friday, 31 October.

MUMBAI: Taiwan will showcase work of renowned Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman from 28 November in Taipei.

In total, 15 Bergman‘s classics will be shown in the festival, including early films never screened in Taiwan.

Taiwan film and culture association director-general and director Hou Hsiao-Hsien said that Begman films conveyed the theme of detachment but in different methods.

The film festival is organised by the Council for Cultural Affairs of the Executive Yuan and sponsored by the TFCA.

Hou said that although not every Bergman’s film would be screened in the festival, the collection of 15 films in total was still a rare opportunity since the film copies had been difficult to retrieve.

MUMBAI: Fashion, co-produced by UTV Motion Pictures and Madhur Bhandarkar, has claimed to garner Rs 336 million in its first week of release at the worldwide box office.

Released worldwide on 29 October in 750 theaters, the Priyanka Chopra starrer has already earned Rs 90 million from in-film advertisements and co-promotions alone.

The film is made on a budget of Rs 180- Rs 200 million.

UTV Motion Pictures CEO Siddharth Roy Kapur said, “Fashion has surpassed all expectations with the sort of business it has achieved in just a week of release, coupled with the critical acclaim it has generated in India and around the world.

“It has shattered the myth that a heroine oriented film cannot do the sort of business that a movie with a male protagonist can. The success of Fashion is testament to what can be achieved when you bring together a visionary director, a talented cast and crew, a compelling script, great production values, aggressive marketing and a sound distribution strategy.”

MUMBAI: Golmaal Returns, the comedy film by Shree Asthavinayak Cine Vision, is being accused of infringement of copyright act by Shakuntala Bhatia, the owner of Kiron Production.

Bhatia has filed a complaint against the producers of Golmaal Returns with the Indian Motion Picture Producers‘ Association (IMPPA). In her plea, Bhatia has alleged that the film directed by Rohit Shetty is a direct copy of 1973 release Aaj Ki Taza Khabar, starring Kiran Kumar, Radha Saluja and Asrani, which was produced by her husband Rajendra Bhatia.

Bhatia claimed that she was in process of re-making Aaj Ki Taza Khabar herself and has demanded a compensation of Rs 50 million from the producers of Golmaal Returns.

Golmaal Returns starring Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor, Tusshar Kapoor, Shreyas Talpade, Arshad Warsi, Celina Jaitley, and Amrita Arora, was released on 29 October.

MUMBAI: The first Eastern Neighbours film festival is scheduled from 6-9 November at Utrecht in the Netherlands. The film festival, with the aim to promote the films and culture of Eastern European countries, will showcase over 30 films.

The festival will have movies, short films, documentries and short-films from 14 different countries.

As per the film festival’s artistic director Rada Šešic, the intention if this festival is to showcase the region’s cinema, which is “modern in cinematic style and appealing for the world audience” while at the same time having kept its unique “Eastern European black humour” and “Eastern European sense of storytelling”; to allow the Dutch to get acquainted with its neighbours some of which have already joined the EU (Bulgaria and Romania) and some of which will in the future; and to broaden the Dutch audience’s “knowledge and mind about Muslims and their culture” through films from Balkan countries that have significant Muslim population, such as Bosnia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Albania, and Kosovo.

The films will be from Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Turkey, Russia, Moldova and Belorussia. Some of the films to be screened are: Shadows, Upside Down, Magic Eye, Corridor#8, Das Fräulein and Plastic Jesus.

MUMBAI: Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Anand Sharma held the first meeting of the organising committee of the 39th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in New Delhi. The meeting was to review the arrangements for the festival which will begin on 22 November in Goa.

In his note, Sharma said that Indian cinema over the years has attracted global attention, and events like IFFI-2008 should serve as a platform to evoke greater interest of global audience. The event should be mutually enriching for visiting delegates from International film arena and the Indian film industry.

The minister also announced that 200 seats will be reserved for delegates from the film fraternity to ensure their larger presence at the opening night at Panji.

Additionally, a system of daily registration has been introduced to enable the local film buffs to register themselves on daily basis by paying Rs 100 and watch three films of their choice from the Indian section.

Over 5000 delegates, from India and abroad, are expected to attend the festival, which will have cinema of the world, competition section, foreign retrospective, film heritage section, and Indian retrospective besides Indian panorama as major attraction.

This time there are three country focuses – Russia, Switzerland and Iran.

A Film Bazaar will be organised by the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) on the sidelines of IFFI-2008. The Film Bazaar aims at creating opportunities for networking and business for producers, filmmakers and distributors from across the world.

MUMBAI: Gearing up for the release of Bond‘s next flick Quantum of Solace’s on 7 November in India, Excel Home Video has launched a Bond extravaganza DVD collection.

The offering includes a DVD box set collection of all the 21 Bond films on to two-disc edition set along with bonus features. This is the first time that all the 21 Bond movies will be seen together in one collection, priced at Rs 12,000.

Presented on two-disc special (ultimate) edition DVDs spanning 42 discs, this will also grant access to “Bond archives, 40 hours of documentaries, featurettes, commentary by directors, interviews of the cast and crew.”

In addition, the box also offers exclusive ‘collectables’ that include poker chips and playing cards as seen in the last Daniel Craig starrer Casino Royale.

Says Excel Home Video CEO Roby Abraham, “The Bond box set includes all the fast-paced adventures, high-performance sports cars, futuristic gadgets, narrow escapes, explosive battles, a bevy of brazen bond girls and other intoxicating ingredients that comprise the ultimate spy character. As this set encompasses the entire bond legacy, it’s a mega-collection that is a must-own for all bond fans whether their favorite 007 is Sir Sean Connery, Sir Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan or Daniel Craig.”

In addition to the box set, the vanilla one-disc DVDs will also be available individually at Rs 299 each as part of the bond bonanza. The offer is valid till 31 December ony.

The films in this offer include Dr No, Diamonds Are Forever, From Russia With Love, You Only Live Twice, For Your Eyes Only, On Her Majesty‘s Secret Service, A View To A Kill, Goldfinger, Goldeneye, Thunder Ball, License To Kill, Live And Let Die, Octopussy, Die Another Day, Moonraker, The Man With The Golden Gun, The Living Daylights, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day and Casino Royale.