Category: Hindi

NEW DELHI: Eminent film critic Aruna Vasudev, who recently stepped down as founder-director of the Osian’s-Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema, was felicitated for services to film criticism and the growth of Asian cinema.

In the event, organised by the Delhi Malayalee Film Society and the Habitat Film Club, the critic was paid laudable tributes by film society movement veteran N P Radhakrishnan and educator president Professor Omcherry N N Pillai.

Several award winners in the 54th National Film Awards were also felicitated on the occasion. They included Films Division chief producer Kuldip Sinha. Sinha announced that the Division had a collection of over 8,000 films in its digital archives, which could be used for research by anyone.

Though Vasudev is no longer director of the Festival, she continues as a consultant, and is also on the Board of Directors of the Osian‘s Connoisseurs of Art. She is currently a consulting editor with Wisdom Tree for its series of books on Indian cinema, of which six have already been published.

Vasudev founded the world’s first quarterly on Asian cinema, ‘Cinemaya’, in 1988 and was later one of the founders of the Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC), of which she is the president.

MUMBAI: Eros International will release Drona in cinemas across UK and worldwide on 2 October.

Directed by Goldie Behl and produced by Eros International and Rose Movies, Drona features Abhishek Bachchan and Priyanka Chopra.

The movie will see many special effects shots that are executed by EyeQube Studios, headed by Charles Darby whose credits include Titanic, The Matrix, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, The Fifth Element and Minority Report.

Commenting on the release of Drona, Eros International India president Sunil Lulla said, “Eros International is immensely proud to release a film of Drona‘s calibre to a worldwide audience and one that has given Eros the opportunity to further push the filmic boundaries of Indian cinema and explore new territories with our unparalleled collective imagination.”

Inspired by Indian mythology and translated to the modern day, Drona is a tale of one man‘s journey through myths and legendary legacies. The lead protagonist, ‘Drona‘ (Abhishek Bachchan), takes a voyage that forces him to confront his fears and to become the hero he was destined to be.

“Drona is one of the biggest budget films to emerge from India and unequivocally the technical best. With this film, we have once again taken the decision to plunge into ever deeper creative depths and to treat our audiences to innovative and original film content,” added Lulla.

MUMBAI: The standoff between the Screen Actors Guild in the US and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) continues.

In a bid to convince its members to press for a more satisfactory agreement, the mebers of Sag‘s negotiating board had sent a 14-page newsletter to its members called ‘Your negotiating committee fights on to achieve a fair contract‘.

It had articles such as ‘The beginning of the end of residuals‘ and ‘Why can‘t Sag just give in?‘ and also includes a polling card calling on members to vote to continue negotiations or accept the final AMPTP offer. Sag members continue to work under the old contract that had expired in June 2008.

Meanwhile the AMPTP had rebutted saying that Sag‘s mass postcard mailing is designed to give Sag negotiators the answer they want to hear – and only the answer they want to hear. The two questions on the postcard “poll” are written in a completely one-sided way, characterising the 30 June final offer as unfair.

The AMPTP statement notes that the 12 pages of material accompanying the postcard are just as one-sided and are filled with misrepresentations. AMPTP refutes Sag‘s negotiators insistence that talks are ongoing. The facts are exactly the opposite says the AMPTP.

“No informal negotiations regarding SAG‘s TV/Theatrical contract have been going on, and for Sag‘s negotiators to suggest otherwise is to intentionally mislead the membership. AMPTP has made the new media template work for directors, writers and actors (in two separate Aftra agreements), and all have now gone back to work. It‘s long past time for Sag members to begin enjoying the higher wages, plan contributions, streaming and other new media residuals already being paid to other Guild members.”

Sag‘s national executive director Doug Allen maintains that the reason a new contract has not been signed is because the AMPTP has not put forth an accepatble offer.

MUMBAI: Reliance ADAG‘s BigFlix.com is planning to add 5000 movie titles to its Video-on-Demand (VoD) platform by the end of this fiscal.

Bollywood will comprise 65 per cent of the titles while regional films will take up the balance 35 per cent of the content.

BigFlix.com, which has just completed one year, has 1400 titles available on its VoD platform.

“We have already signed contracts with content owners for 900 titles, which will soon be added to our VoD platform. Also, within the next seven months we are looking at acquiring and adding 2800 more titles to the BigFlix platform,” BIGFlix.com COO Kamal Gianchandani tells Indiantelevision.com.

The VoD and DVD rental service provider will acquire films on a revenue share arrangement with the content right owners. Says Gianchandani, “Content owners will share 25-40 per cent of the revenues that we generate.”

While Bollywood will be the main focus, regional films will include Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi, Bengali and Gujarati, Gianchandani adds.

Meanwhile, with an aim to expand its movie rental business, Bigflix aims to launch 100 more rental stores across ten cities during the fiscal. The company currently has 17,000 titles available across its 100 movie rental stores.

“Presently, we are running 100 rental stores across ten cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Indore. We are looking at adding 100 stores in these cities by the end of this fiscal,” Gianchandani says.

MUMBAI: Multiplex chain operator Fame Cinemas has organised a “Four play theatre festival” this September.

The plays, which are to be shown at Fame Malad, include Vagina Monologues (English and Hindi version) directed by Mahabano Kotwal, All About Woman directed by Hidaayat Sami, and Namak Mirch directed by Shivani Tanksale and Sumeet Vyas.

“The idea behind Fame organising a Four play theatre festival in Bombay was that most neighborhoods do not have a ‘Prithvi’ or an NCPA and most theatre aficionados have to travel long distances to be able to get their fill on theatre. By bringing these plays to the local multiplex, we are hoping to provide theatre with a larger platform and provide our patrons with an alternative means of entertainment,” says Fame Cinemas chairman Shyam Shroff.

Fame India AVP distribution corporate sales and programming Aditya Shroff adds, “Even though this is a one off, if this concept takes off, we could make an annual affair of it.”

Theatre personalilities have welcomed this move. Says Hidaayat Sami, “This initiative has opened up a whole new opportunity for those in the theatre business as we now have many more venues to stage our plays. We are delighted to be a part of this festival and grateful that Fame has pioneered it.”

MUMBAI: Hollywood director Steven Spielberg is meeting Reliance Communications chairman Anil Ambani in New York to finalise what‘s expected to be up to a $1.2 billion deal, reports Businessweek.

Reliance, in the bargain, would become a 50 per cent owner of Spielberg‘s new studio. The Indian conglomerate is expected to infuse $500 million equity infusion.

A further financing of $750 million for DreamWorks‘ film production with JPMorgan Chase (JPM) is expected.

If the deal gets closed, the three-year Spielberg-Paramount spat will finally come to an end. The deal is part of Spielberg‘s ambitious plans to restart the DreamWorks studio that he is relocating from Paramount Pictures (VIAB).

NEW DELHI: Hindi films dominated the 54th National Film Awards for 2006. While Rajkumar Hirani‘s Lage Raho Munnabhai won four awards, Vishal Bhardwaj’s Omkara took three.

Lage Raho Munnabhai won the best popular film, “for providing wholesome entertainment“, best screenplay, best lyrics, and best supporting actor award, that went to Dilip Prabhavalkar. Konkona Sen Sharma was declared the best supporting actress for Omkara.

All the four awards for Punjabi films, presented by President Pratibha Patil, went to the same film Waris Shah – Ishq da Waaris , directed by late Manoj Punj and starring pop star Gurdas Mann. Also, all the four for Konkani went to one film, Rajendra Talak‘s Antarnad.

The best feature film award went to Malayalam movie Pulijanmam.

Kannada film Care of Footpath, produced by Shylaja Shrikanth, brought 12-year-old Kishan S S the best children‘s film director award. The film had been directed by Kishan when the child was nine years old. He has now found a place for himself in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the youngest film director in the world.

Dilip Kumar, and veteran actress Saroja Devi received the Lifetime Achievement Awards to commemorate the 60th anniversary of India‘s Independence, and Tapan Sinha received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for contribution to cinema for 2006. The Award, instituted by the Union Government, carries a cash price of Rs 1 million, a Swaran Kamal and a shawl.

Awards were presented in 31 different categories in the feature film section and 22 categories in the non-feature film section. Three awards were given away for best writing on cinema.

While the best feature film award in Hindi was given away to Khosla Ka Ghosla, the best feature film award in English went to Quest.

While Bengali film Podokkhep brought veteran actor Soumitra Chatterjee an award for the best actor, Tamil cinema‘s Priyamani was honoured with the best actress title for Paruthi Veeran.

The award for the best animation feature film, introduced this year, went to the Telugu film Kittu , directed by B Satya and animated by Kodavanti Bharaj. Another award introduced this year – best make-up artist – went to Anil Motiram Palande for Traffic Signal.

Additionally, Madhur Bhandarkar was named the best director for Traffic Signal. Divya Chahadkar was given the best child artist award for Antarnad, a Konkani film, the Indira Gandhi award for best first film was taken home by Malayalam film Eakantham and Hindi film Kabul Express.

The best non-feature award went to Bishar Blues by Amitabh Chakraborty. The film also received the audiograohy (Partha Barman) and editing (Amitabh Chakraborty and Amit Debnath) awards.

The first non-feature film of a director went to Andhiyum by Jacob Varghese. The renowned Aribam Syam Sarma, who has won numerous awards, shared the best biographical film award for Guru Laimayum Thambalnagoubi Devi with Minukku by M R Rajan.

The children‘s film Nokpokliba, directed and animated by Meren Imchen, won the best animation award for non-feature film while the best short fiction film award went to Ek Aadesh – Command for Choti by Ramesh Asher who also won the best director award.

G P Ramachandran (Malayalam) and Rafique Baghdadi (English) shared the award for best film critic awards while the best book on cinema award was given to ‘Helen: the life and times of an H-Bomb’ by Jerry Pinto. Assamese critic Utpal Datta received a special mention.

The feature film jury was chaired by renowned filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta with thirteen other members, while the non-feature jury was headed by K Bikram Singh with five other members. The book jury, with three members, was headed by Madhu Jain.

I&B Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi, who was present on the occasion, stressed the need for filmmakers to shoulder a social commitment through their films. He said the national film awards had not only helped regional cinema, but also promoted an understanding among different cultures within the country. He claimed that the film industry had seen resurgence in the three years. He announced that in reference to the wishes of the president expressed during the presentation of the 53rd national film awards, the award money had been increased five times.

Interestingly, the National Film Awards for 2005 were also presented early this year. This is because the process for the 53rd National Awards for 2005 had got mired twice in court cases, first on the requirement of censorship and then when feature film jury member Shyamali Banerjee Deb challenged some of the awards.

MUMBAI: Pyramid Saimira Theatre, the distribution and exhibition arm of the Pyramid Saimira Group, has acquired the distribution rights for three movies – Saroja in Tamil, Hinglish movie Shoot on Sight, and Ganesha Mathe Banda in Kannada.

The company recently released Hindi film Mukhbiir on 29 August.

Saroja and Shoot on Sight are expected to hit the theatres on 5 September and 19 September, respectively. Saroja is being directed by Venkat Prabhu and the cast includes SPB Charan, Premji Amaren and Siva.

Shoot on Sight has been directed by Jagmohan Mundhra. The movie is inspired by the bombings that occurred in London on 7 July, 2005, resulting in the death of 52 people on London‘s underground network. The cast includes Naseeruddin Shah, Brain Cox, Greta Scacchi, Om Puri, Gulshan Grover, Sadie Frost and Mikaal Zulfiqar. Shoot on Sight has already been released across 60 screens in the UK.

Meanwhile, Veruthe Oru Bhariya, the latest Malayalam film starring Jayaram, has grossed collections of approximately Rs 15 million within two weeks after being distributed in Kerala by Pyramid Saimira Theatre. The film, directed by Akku Akbar, was made with a budget of Rs 14 million.

Speaking on these developments, Pyramid Saimira Group chairman and managing director PS Saminathan said, “We are very happy with the way Veruthe Oru Bhariya has been received by our audiences in Kerala. It was a conscious decision on our part to release the movie across selected 33 screens in the state as this would ensure that collections remain steady over a period of time. We will also be releasing Saroja, Shoot on Sight and Ganesha Mathe Banda shortly and we’re sure that these films will also do exceedingly well. We have also recently released Mukhbiir which is running successfully all over India.”

MUMBAI: Sahara One Motion Pictures has acquired the global distribution rights for the forthcoming film EMI for Rs 375 million. The film is slated to release on 29 October.

EMI (equated monthly installment), directed by Saurabh Kabra, is a co-production between Popcorn Motion Pictures and Balaji Motion Pictures.

“We have acquired the global distribution rights of the film EMI for Rs. 375 million. This includes the print and publicity initiatives for the film as well,” says Sahara One Motion Pictures distribution head Sharath Pal.

Unlike other films, EMI will release on Wednesday. “This is to coincide with Diwali,” adds Pal.

The film stars Sanjay Dutt, Arjun Rampal, Ashish Choudhary, Urmila Matondkar, Malaika Arora Khan, Neha Oberoi, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Pushkar Jog, Manoj Joshi and Dayashankar Pandey.

NEW DELHI: Thespian Dilip Kumar, the legendary Lata Mangeshkar and veteran actress Saroja Devi will receive the Lifetime Achievement Awards to commemorate the 60th anniversary of India‘s Independence during the presentation of the 54th National Film Awards by President Pratibha Patil.

Tapan Sinha will receive the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for contribution to cinema for 2006. The Award, instituted by the Union Government, carries a cash price of Rs one million, a Swaran Kamal and a shawl.

Meanwhile, awards will be presented in 31 different categories in the feature film section and 22 categories in the non-feature film section. Three awards will also be given away for best writing on cinema.

A day after the President gives away the Awards, a festival showcasing these films will commence at the Sirifort complex in New Delhi. The films will be screened from 3 September to 12 September.

A total of 47 films will be screened during the 10-day period. Of these, 31 are feature films and 16 non-feature films.

Interestingly, the National Film Awards for 2005 were also presented early this year. This is because the process for the 53th National Awards for 2005 had got mired twice in court cases, first on the requirement of censorship and then when feature film jury member Shyamali Banerjee Deb challenged some of the awards.

From this time onwards, the prize money has been hiked five times, after President Pratibha Patil directed the government to do so during the 53rd National Awards presentation ceremony.