Category: Hindi

MUMBAI: The Delhi High Court has dismissed the plea of Hollywood major Warner Brothers alleging copyright violation against the maker of a Bollywood film.

Warner Bros. had, in the lawsuit, contested that Mirchi Movies‘ Hari Puttar– A comedy of terrors was too similar to the title character of its franchise, Harry Potter.

Justice Reva Khetrapal, however, said there is no “commonality” between the names and allowed the producer of the Bollywood film to release it on schedule (this Friday).

Mirchi Movies COO Munish Purii said, “The judge has taken serious note of Warner Bros coming to the court at the eleventh hour and the injunction application is dismissed.”

Mirchi Movies had delayed Hari Puttar’s release, which was due on 12 September following the legal row. It will now release on 26 September.

Hari Puttar is a comedy flick that revolves around a 10-year-old Indian boy whose family moves to England.

MUMBAI: Subhash Ghai promoted Mukta Arts plans to invest Rs 850 million this fiscal.

The company has lined up four Bollywood movies during the year. The films include Ghai’s Yuvraaj which was made on a budget of Rs 500 million, Neeraj Pathak’s Right Yaaa Wrong, Manoj Tiwari’s Hello Darling and Paristosh Painter’s Paying Guest.

“We will be investing Rs 850 million in the fiscal,” says Mukta Arts CEO Ravi Gupta.

Mukta Arts has already sold for Rs 650 million the distribution, TV, home video and music rights for the film Yuvraaj. While Eros has bagged the distribution and TV rights as part of a Rs 730 million three-movie deal, T-Series has got the music and Ultra the home video rights.

Mukta Arts has paid Rs 2.5 million to acquire a 51 per cent stake in Chennai-based value-added service company Coruscant Tec. “Though Coruscant is a small company, it was attractive to us because of the tie ups it has with the telecom operators. We see potential in growing this company as 3G Spectrum opens up,” says Gupta.

Red Carpet, where Mukta Arts has a controlling stake, has tied up with four directors. “They are at the pre-production stage. We will make small budget movies through this company,” says Gupta.

MUMBAI: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Ampas) in the US which organises the Oscar Awards, has announced that the annual online drawing for some of the most sought-after seats of the year is about to get underway.

From 22 September for one week, fans may apply on Oscars.org to win seats on the Academy Awards red carpet. There are only 300 seats available along the 500-foot-long walkway that leads into the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center.

The winners will watch and cheer Oscar nominees, presenters and other ceremony guests as they arrive at the 81st Academy Awards on 22 February, 2009. Following the red carpet arrivals, the winners will be invited to watch the Academy Awards telecast at a nearby location.

In previous years, as many as 20,000 fans have applied online for the limited number of bleacher seats. In India the Oscar awards will air on Star Movies.

The application form will be available at www.oscars.org/bleachers. The online-only application process will close on Sunday, September 28.

To be eligible for the random drawing, an individual must complete the application form in its entirety. Applications may only be submitted online. Forms may not be returned via U.S. mail, fax or private delivery service such as UPS or FedEx.

Applicants may register up to four persons; however, only one form will be accepted per person or group.

Those whose names are selected in the random drawing will be notified in early October. They will then be required to submit additional information for security purposes prior to final approval. Eligible attendees will receive a confirmation letter in early December with information pertinent to the event.

MUMBAI: The stand off between the Screen Actors Guild (Sag) and the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) cotinues in the US. 87.27 per cent of the 10,298 Sag members who responded to a mail-in poll said that the union should continue bargaining in an effort to achieve a fair contract.

12.73 per cent of those who responded said they would accept the terms presented in the AMPTP’s 30 June offer to SAG.

Postcards were mailed to 103,630 paid-up SAG members on 28 August 2008 with a return deadline of 15 September. There was only a 9.94 per cent return. Postcard return statistics matched almost exactly the geographic distribution of Sag members, with 56.07 per cent of the responses from Hollywood, 20.83 per cent from New Yotk and 23.10 per cent from regional branch members.

The results of the poll indicate that members agree with the actions passed by SAG’s national board in July and August.

Sag president Alan Rosenberg stated, “I am encouraged to see that members-at-large agree with the strategy of the national board and their national negotiating committee. This membership poll provides clear insight and direction concerning how actors feel about their futures. Clearly they expect Screen Actors Guild to protect them from exploitation in new media, and to preserve longstanding principles and contract provisions.”

Sag national executive director and chief negotiator Doug Allen commented, “Our objective was to take the pulse of our members and I am pleased that the response reflects the resolve we have seen from SAG members around the country throughout this negotiating process. The AMPTP suggested we send their June 30 offer to our members to ratify. These poll results indicate that was wishful thinking on their part. We will now urge the AMPTP to roll up their sleeves and to put in the hard work required to bargain a fair, equitable agreement as soon as possible.”

Meanwhile the AMPTP retorted in a statement saying that the mass postcard mailing by Sag negotiators was a farce. The AMPTP says that the questions were devised to give Sag negotiators only the answer they wanted to hear.

MUMBAI: Reliance ADA Group has signed a deal with DreamWorks SKG to start a new $1.5 billion company, completing Steven Spielberg‘s exit from Paramount Pictures and providing Indian billionaire Anil Ambani a foothold in Hollywood.

The deal is expected to finance a minimum slate of 32 movies over six years, says a source in Reliance. “The $1.5 billion amount is being raised through a mix of equity and debt,” he adds.

Reliance will pump in $550 million as equity investment while JPMorgan Chase & Co. will lead the debt financing.

When contacted, Reliance Big Entertainment president Rajesh Sawhney refused to offer his comments.

Meanwhile, Paramount said in a statement it will let Spielberg and DreamWorks chief Stacey Snider join the new company immediately.

Reliance had earlier announced it would produce a slate of 69 movies in nine languages over two years. The list included developing and co-producing movies with Hollywood stars George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks, Jay Roach, Nicholas Cage and Chris Columbus.

“It is a big step for Reliance which has already lined up a rich slate of Bollywood films. Hollywood, after all, dominates the film business across the world. Reliance already has a strong presence in the multiplex and FM radio business and plans to enter the broadcasting arena by the year-end,” says an analyst who tracks the company.

MUMBAI: The historic Hollywood cinema El Capitan is up for sale for $ 31 million.

Located opposite the Kodak theatre on Hollywood Boulevard where the Oscars ceremony is held every year, the cinema was built in the 1920. It showed plays between 1926 -1936. Orson Welles‘ 1941 classic, Citizen Kane, was premiered at the E1 Capitan.

After suffering severe damages in an earthquake in 1994, the CUNA insurance group acquired it and leased it to Walt Disney which uses it to showcase its new films.

MUMBAI: Studio 18, the international distributors of Kidnap, has advanced the release date of the film to Wednesday, 1 October in the UK/Ireland, US/Canada and the Middle East.

Kidnap was earlier slated to release on 2 October.

The date was advanced with an aim to coincide the theatrical release of the Sanjay Dutt-Imran Khan starrer with Eid, which in all likelihood, will be celebrated internationally on 1 October.

The film has been directed by Sanjay Gadhvi and features music by Pritam.

MUMBAI: Eros International has already invested over $200 million in approximately 60 content deals.

The company anticipates further content deals including expanding beyond Hindi and Tamil to other languages.

Eros also said it would continue to make select acquisitions during the current financial year.

During the fiscal, Eros has entered into content deals with Lionsgate, Hungama Mobile and Star TV.

Eros is set to release Drona on 2 October. Other releases over the next few months include Heroes, Yuvvraj, Aladin and Billo Barber.

MUMBAI: Mukta Arts has acquired 51 per cent controlling stake in the Chennai-based VAS (value added service) company, Coruscant Tec.

The deal also allows Mukta Arts the option of acquiring the balance 49 per cent.

Coruscant will provide a platform for Mukta Arts‘ short content created by Whistling Woods students and its audio and film content.

Founded in 2003 by Ajay Adiseshann and Probir Roy, Coruscant Tec claims to be one of the first companies to provide content and applications related to the mobile value added services space (MVAS). These cover ringtones, wallpapers, Video on Demand, applications, m-comics, mobizines, mobiepisodes and java games.

Coruscant Tec already has several tie-ups in place for content aggregation as well as for distribution of content through major telcos.

Coruscant is undercapitalised and was seeking investors who could create and aggregate content which is the key to this business, Mukta Arts said.

MUMBAI: Actress Nicole Kidman has signed up to produce and star in a new action film, The Eighth Wonder.

The movie is based on an action adventure around an archaeological discovery.

The Eighth Wonder is being produced by 20th Century Fox. The movie is writted by the writer of Mr and Mrs Smith, Simon Kinberg.

Kinberg has also worked for Jumper, X-Men: The Last Stand and Ben Stiller‘s upcoming sequel, Night at the Museum 2.

Kidman‘s latest film, Australia, will open in United Kingdom in December.