Category: Hindi

MUMBAI: After splitting from Paramount and stitching an equity deal with Reliance ADAG, Steven Spielberg‘s DreamWorks Studio has inked a seven-year distribution deal with Universal Studios.

According to the agreement, Universal will distribute the films created by DreamWorks.

Universal will receive an eight per cent fee for releasing about six films a year starting 2009 and it will bear the marketing costs. It will distribute the movies around the world except India where Reliance Big Entertainment will distribute them.

Spielberg made his early films, including ‘Jaws’ and ‘ET: The Extra-Terrestrial,’ for Universal.

In a statement, Speilberg said, “While it feels great to come home again, it feels like I never left.”

Universal Studios president and COO Ron Meyer said, “We couldn‘t be more pleased to welcome the DreamWorks team back to Universal and our long history of success together will continue.”

However, DreamWorks still has contractual obligations to complete around 33 pending projects with former Paramount. But Universal could share domestic distribution on some of those films.

In September this year Spielberg and Snider had signed a $1.5 billion deal with Reliance ADAG.

MUMBAI

: BigFlix COO Kamal Gianchandani is taking up the additional charge of heading the distribution business of Big Pictures, the movie production and distribution arm of Reliance Big Entertainment.

Gianchandani replaces Manoj Chauhan, who has quit the organisation.

In his new role, Gianchandani will look after the domestic film distribution for Big Pictures. He has prior experience in this area as the COO (Pictures) of PVR Pictures Ltd.

The film production activities of Big Pictures fall under COO Mahesh Ramanathan.

ANTALYA: The Fourth Eurasian Film Festival has seen a marginal increase of participation from India in terms of delegates.

The festival did not have a single entry from India against at least one last year (Frozen by Shivajee Chandrabhushan). In fact, the festival last year also had greater Indian participation, at least three other films– Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth – the Golden Era, Asif Kapadia’s Far North and A Mighty Heart.

The festival this year has one Indian – Osian’s Raman Chawla – in the jury of the Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) and for the first time has an Indian distributor – Sun Stone Entertainment of Mumbai headed by Sanjay Jumani – who has put up a stall in the three-day Film Market.

In addition, the market has three delegates including Kamal Jain of Superfine Films and Sashi B Kumar of Mudra Arts. Though in the the market, three others including Ultra’s S Narayanan and Sunil Doshi of Alliance Media (which procures films for NDTV Lumiere), failed to turn up.

Interestingly, Spierfilms of the United Kingdom which also has a stall in the market, has been marketing some Indian films like those by Priyadarshan.

The one Indian film which was slated for a Gala Screening here – Hindi thriller Mission Istanbul directed by Apoorva Lakhia – was cancelled because of what a festival spokesperson described as a break of communication between the Indian distributor and the festival authorities.

While the large gathering at the inaugural venue was held spell-bound by the highly popular singer Candan Encetin who performed for almost two hours, several senior personalities of Turkish cinema were honoured for their contributions. They included actress Hulya Avsar who received an award as a successful star, honorary award went to SESAM (Union of Professional Owners of Cinema Works) President Yilmaz Atadeniz, renowned actor Musfit Kenter who received the Yildrim Onal Memorial Award, and actress Filiz Akin who received a special medallion of the Golden Orange.

The 9-member jury headed by actor Tuncel Kurtiz will adjudge the Turkish feature films, a five member jury headed by director Selim Demirdelen will adjudge the National Short film competition and another five member jury headed by Günes Karabuda – Director (Jury President) will examine the entries for documentaries. There is also a jury for script development.

ANTALYA: A day after the 45th Altin Portakal (Golden Orange) Film Festival got underway, the Fourth International Eurasian Film Festival commenced here with the presentation of lifetime achivement awards to some renowned personalities of world cinema and the screening of the opening film.

Conducted by actress Azra Akin, awards were presented to renowned genius storyteller and master director Paul Verhoeven, actor Michael York and Polish composer Zbigniew Preisner.

The inaugural ceremony commenced with a concert by renowned musicians Barbaros Erköse and Ilhan Ersahin. It ended with the screening of the opening film, the Turkish-Italian co-production A Perfect Day by Ferzan Özpetek.

Speaking at the ceremony, Engin Yigitgil who is President of the TURSAK Foundation which organizes the Festival, said the festival was a passionate journey for cinema under the banner of a festival which reconciled three continents.

The Festival’s Honorary President and the Mayor of Antalya Metropolitan Municipality Menderes Türel said the festival had led to greater competition and improvement of the standard of Turkish films and also covered a large geographical area in terms of countries participating.

Paul Verhoeven who is also heading the Grand Jury at the Festival said he was working on a film set in Turkey and had already been looking for locations in Antalya and Istanbul.

The other members of the Grand Competition Jury, the NETPAC Jury, the Critics’ Award jury and the SIYAD juries were also announced. Majid Majidi, 2008 Golden Bear nominee with his latest movie The Song of Sparrows, and Cameron Bailey, co-director of Toronto International Film Festival are also members of the jury which will vote for the “Best Film” and the “Best Director” categories of the competition section.

Tuna Erdem of Turkey and Raman Chawla of India are members of the Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) jury, while the critics jury are Engin Ertan, Asli Selçuk, Burcu Aykar Sirin, and Ceylan Ozçelik.

The Grand jury will be presenting two awards: $ 75,000 for the “Best Film” and $ 25,000 for the “Best Director”.

MUMBAI: Chennai-based Pyramid Saimira Theatre Ltd (PSTL) chairman PS Saminathan is set to acquire seven million equity shares of the company for a proposed price of Rs 1.4 billion.

Saminathan will buy the 24.9 per cent shares of the company at a proposed price of Rs 200 per share from NC Ravichandran and Nirmal Kotecha.

With this, Saminathan‘s personal holding in PSTL will go up to 46.8 per cent, or 13,258,575 shares, of the total paid up capital.

The mode of proposed acquisition is by way of Inter-se Transfer and the date of proposed acquisition is from 15 October, 2008.

The shares of PSTL closed 19.97 per cent up at Rs 73.30 on Monday on the BSE.

MUMBAI: UTV Motion Pictures has signed Katrina Kaif for two films. Both the films are slated to release within two years.

Says UTV Rampage Motion Pictures Ram Mirchandani, “We are proud to have Katrina in the UTV family. Katrina is one of the most talented and successful actress of the industry today and I am sure that this exciting collaboration is the first step in the wonderful future that lies both for Kaif and the UTV family.”

Adds Kaif, “UTV brings to the table a very strong legacy in film production and distribution. I am very happy to be associated with them, and I am sure we will make some great films together.”

MUMBAI: Regulations for marketing campaigns for the upcoming 81st Academy Awards were distributed to film companies last week by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The only significant changes from the previous year apply to eligible songs and scores.

For 2008, CDs of eligible scores may be distributed to voting members of the Music Branch anytime prior to the nominations announcement on 22 January, 2009. Following the announcement, the nominated scores may be distributed to all voting members of the Academy.

In both cases, each music track must be titled, include the name of the composer(s) and be identical to the music used in the finished film. The CD may contain only music written by the eligible composer(s). Music written by other composers, licensed music or music that is otherwise ineligible for award consideration, is not permitted.

CDs of nominated songs also may be distributed to all voting members, following the same guidelines as for nominated scores. Distribution of eligible songs prior to the nominations announcement is not permitted, though as a result of a rule change announced in June, the Academy itself will be sending DVDs containing film clips featuring the songs to Music Branch members during the nominations balloting phase. The DVDs will contain the same clips to be screened at the annual voting event at which branch members may cast their nominations ballot in person.

Neither video excerpts nor sheet music may be sent at any time. In 2007 all audio and video recordings and sheet music were prohibited for the categories.

Campaign regulations are issued by the Academy each year to ensure fairness in the Awards competition and to remind all involved that the Academy’s decisions are based solely on the merits of the eligible films and achievements. Violations of the regulations are subject to penalty, though in recent years the level of compliance has been very high.

Complete regulations for all categories can be viewed online at www.oscars.org/regulations/.

The Oscars will be presented on 22 February, 2009, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood and Highland Center and televised live by Star Movies in India. The Oscar presentation will also be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

MUMBAI: Retail chain for mobility solutions Cellucom has tied-up with Madhur Bhandarkar‘s upcoming flick Fashion. Cellucom is the co-sponsor and official mobility solutions partner of Fashion.

As part of the tie-up, Cellucom has also announced a nationwide offer for its customers. The offer entitles each customer to a scratch card on the purchase of a mobile handset or a laptop from select brands. The scratch card will have an assured free gift from selected outlets – diamond jewellery by Gitanjali, Fashion movie tickets, Fashion audio CDs or an Airtel connection. The company will give away gifts worth Rs 10 million during the offer.

Says Cellucom Group MD and CEO Arun Nagar, “Associating with the movie Fashion will help us tap our key audience, as both, Fashion and Cellucom, target individuals with a sense of style and the inclination to stay ahead with the latest from the world of fashion and technology.”

MUMBAI

: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Ampas) has announced that the field of Documentary Short Subject entries for the 81st Academy Awards has been narrowed to eight films, of which three to five will earn Oscar nominations.

Voters from the Academy’s Documentary Branch viewed this year’s 31 eligible contenders and submitted their ballots to PricewaterhouseCoopers for tabulation.

The eight films include The Conscience of Nhem En, David McCullough: Painting with Words and Downstream.

The 81st Academy Awards nominations will be announced on 22 January, 2009. The show takes place on 22 February, 2009 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood and Highland Center. In India it will air on Star Movies.

MUMBAI: On the occasion of Diwali, BIGFlix.com has announced an offer with Special Diwali Filmy Cards.

The offer comprises three Special BIGFlix Diwali Filmy Cards which can be gifted and availed to get movies from the catalogue of 1300 titles on www.broadband.bigflix.com . These cards are available in three variants to enable to download multiple movies on BIGFlix.com.

BIGFlix Diwali Filmy Cards offers are as follows:

• Movies worth $15 @ $9.99,
  
• Movies worth $ 25 @ $15.99
  
• Movies worth $40 @ $24.99
  

Says BIGFlix,com business head video-on-demand Murtuza Kagalwala, “Diwali is a very special occasion for all Indians across the globe with a whole lot of excitement, fun and gifts. The Diwali Filmy Cards is an offer with the best of movies to gift our loved ones at very affordable discounts with exciting prizes to watch out for. We launched this offer keeping in mind people’s immense love for Indian movies best timed with the spirit of Diwali festival this season.”

People who buy more number of Diwali Filmy Cards can win gifts like LCD TVs, laptops, iPODs, mobile phones and free movie downloads.