Category: Hindi

NEW DELHI: Twelve films, including one each from China and Israel, have received awards in four categories in the Fifth We Care Film Festival on Disability Issues that was held online earlier this year.

The films also include some made by or starring people who are physically or mentally challenged.

The recipients of the three awards in the category of films of up to one minute duration are: ‘Dark’ (Visually Impairment) by Indranil Goswami of Mumbai; ‘Chal’ (Come…) on inclusion by Jayesh S Pillai and Haveesh Vemuri of Kanpur; and ‘Sonal’ on Disability Awareness and Cerebral Palsy by Arjna Gaurisaria of Mumbai.

The top three films in the up to five minute category were: ‘Girl Star: Anuradha the Medical student’ on Physical disability by Pallavi Arora of Delhi; ‘Sparsh’ on Cross disability by Vrishnika of Delhi; and ‘Shri Rakum School for the Blind’ on Visually Impaired by Miditech of Delhi.

In the 30-minute category, the films were ‘Believe Me’ on the Downs Syndrome by Rajani Ratnaparkhi of Pune; ‘Nobody‘s Perfect’ on Cerebral Palsy by Bhaskar Hazarika of Delhi; and ‘You wanted to make a film?’ on the Physically Challenged by Gali Weintraub of Israel.

‘Bullets and Butterflies’ on Physical Impairment by Sushmit Ghosh of Delhi; ‘To Whom I am Concerned’ on the mentally challenged by Somya Sharma of Delhi; and ‘Children of the Stars’ on Autism by Robin Aspey of China won the awards in the category of films up to 60 minutes.

The awards were given away by eminent Danseuse Sonal Mansingh, UNIC Director Shalini Dewan, Asian Academy for Film and Television founder Sandeep Marwah, and Poonam Natarajan, Chairperson of the National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities. Brotherhood founder Satish Kapoor, who has founded the annual film festival, was also present.

Announcement was also made about the sixth festival for next year, which will be held for the first time in collaboration with the United Nations Information Centre as part of its celebration year-long campaign to mark the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Two sets of three DVDs each containing the award-winning films were also released on the occasion, apart from the launch of a website www.wecarefilmfest.net where all films on disability issues are available for viewing. The 12 films were selected by the 48 films entered from countries like the Philippines, China and Israel besides India.

Marwah’s studio had given the technical support for the making of several films on the issue of disability.

Kapoor told indiantelevision.com that the next festival would be held in February 2009 and the awards will be distributed on 3 May 2009 to mark the day when the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities came into force earlier this year. The film festival will be organized first in Delhi and will then travel to Mumbai/Pune and Kolkata.

He said he had began six years earlier by using the audio-visual media to initiate discussions and dialogue for the integration of people with disability into the mainstream of society, there was immediate realization among various sections of society for the need of such an initiative. Brotherhood had, through several projects, demonstrated that film and documentaries can be a powerful medium for educating the public about disability issues, dispelling myths, stereotypes and misconceptions about persons with disabilities and promoting a new approach to disability which guarantees equal rights and opportunities and equal access.

Physically challenged achievers – Divya Arora and Shibani Gupta – and Sanjeev Sachdeva who compered the programme – were honoured on the occasion.

Brotherhood is the pioneer in organizing film festivals on disability issues in India and has since 2003 organized five international Special Film Festivals jointly organized by the World Bank, the National Trust, Tamana Welfare Society and Asian Academy of Film and Television, Icongo, Iridium Interactive etc.

MUMBAI: Unlike the Indian cinema industry, which has brands like the Khans and the Bachchans participating in marketing stints to promote the end product that would consequently pull in audiences into theatres and create box office hits, the nascent yet growing Indian animation industry is still to witness anything of such kind, at least in the near future. This is because the industry is still under the spell of outsourced content.

Hence, industry experts and marketers, present at the Animated Feature Forum in Mumbai on 23 August to discuss the future prospects of the Indian animation industry, believe that the only way to drive brand India into animation is by producing “good original content”.

The Animated Feature Forum was organised by Animation Xpress with an aim to provide professionals from both the cinema and the animation industry with a platform to share and discuss their expertise domain.

According to Walt Disney India managing director Mahesh Sampat, the Indian animation industry is not only apprehensive about creating original content but also doubtful about the potential that the domestic market holds for the industry. “Since we as Indians, have grown up watching animated films, mostly comprising non-Indian content, we continuously seem to be under the influence of these outsourced materials. Well, now we have to start realising the potential that Indian art holds for us. The Indian film market witnesses more that three billion theatre admissions every year and 75 per cent of its revenue comes in from theatrical releases. Hence, there is a huge potential in the domestic market itself, which the industry needs to tap.”

Live action feature film directors, who now desire to walk into this new art form, believe that the biggest challenge in making animation films lay in scripting, story telling technique and visual design. They also state that if these challenges can be met confidently, then the return on investments are huge.

Govind Nihalani, whose first animation film is set to release by 2008 year-end, believes, “The animated genre can be targeted at all age groups. Hence, Indian content needs expertise in scriptwriting to maintain universality. We need to engage people, and only a good script, clubbed with a fantastic visual identity, has the potential to do so. Once we can master the craft of scripting and visualisation, we can create an emotional connect with the audience, and once that is created, our ROI will definitely be huge. This is because the audience would want to experience the film again and again.”

Meanwhile, marketers like Turner theatrical head and L&M Jiggy George believe that though, currently, the merchandising prospects of the animation industry is negligible, with the growth of the retail segment, along with the mobile and gaming market, the growth prospects of the “animation merchandising” market also looks optimistic.

“Currently, the retail market, home video segment, and the digital, mobile and gaming market are growing at an incomprehensible speed. Along with this, the animation industry is also growing at a rate of 140 per cent per annum. Furthermore, the industry is migrating from the small screen to the big screen. Its products are now fighting against live action films to capture that same Friday release slot in the same multiplexes. This means, the modules to fully exploit these properties that did not exist earlier, are now visible to us as marketers,” says George.

“Also, since animation films generally have a very long shelf life, they can be exploited for a very long time. However, this exploitation, and hence merchandising, can happen only when the product (film) has created a ‘brand stickiness‘ for itself. This is because, its only when the consumers recall the brand, will they buy the merchandise. Thus, to create that brand stickiness, the content created will require being seamlessly powerful and original,” George adds.

MUMBAI: Shemaroo has released Phoebus Media and Anushvi Prodcutions‘ 2D animated feature ‘Dashavatar‘ on VCDs and DVDs. Dashavatar explores the origin and the dynamism of the various avatars of Lord Vishnu, packed with action and adventure.

The movie is of approximately 120 minutes and the DVD has English subtitles. It also comes along with a set of tattoos, where children can get themselves tattooed on their own. The DVD is also inclusive of a booklet, which is informative as it describes each of the ten avatars of Lord Vishnu.

This series of heroic exploits of Lord Vishnu is woven into an interesting narrative, with an outstanding quality of animation, voices of many acclaimed actors and melodious music.

Popular actors like Sachin Khedekar, Shreyas Talpade, Rupali Ganguly, Tom Alter and Ashish Vidyarthi among others have lent their voices in this animation film.

MUMBAI: Professionals from both the film and animation industry are set to have their first joint interaction at the Animation Xpress Animated Feature Forum (AFF), which has its big ticket premiere on 23 August in Mumbai. The focus of this conference will lie on the future of animation feature films in India.

The AFF is a focused initiative from Indiantelevision Dot Com‘s AnimationXpress that will begin with its first edition on 23 August, but will continue 24/7 online through interactive online forums and blogs as well as on ground events frequently.

According to Animation Xpress co-founder, CEO, and managing editor, Anand Gurnani, “Unlike the Indian cinema industry that can make 10 films in one year and market them well too, the animation industry’s expertise lies only in production. The people here take at least two to three years to release a single film and do not know how to promote and market it. Thus, this conference aims to provide a platform to both these industries wherein they can share not only their domain expertise with each other but also help the Indian animation industry grow further.”

Speaking about AFF, Gurnani said, “Getting film folk and trade to attend the conference has been an experience and our fingers are crossed. Frankly speaking, this is a modest beginning. An assured positive outcome is that there will be a movement towards bringing animation into the mainstream and all the discussions as well as the networking is really going to be useful for our animation industry colleagues.”

House Full

Animation Xpress is releasing a very interesting report which has data and images of more than 50 Indian animated features that are in the works. This report called House Full which will be periodically published will serve as a ready reckoner not only for the animation folks but also the film industry and financers as well.

The Creative Talent Network

A unique Creative Talent Network which is open to all pre-production artists and scriptwriters (free but pre-registration is required) – will be held from 10 am to 1 pm at the Hyatt Regency where the pre pro artists and scripwriters can meet and network to pursue collaboration amongst themselves and with producers who have booked table space.

This will be followed by the conference which begins at 2.30 pm and goes on till late in the evening.

The following is the programme of the event:

10 am to 1.00 pm
Creative & Pre Production Talent Network

1.30 pm
Conference Registration Begins

2.30 pm: Keynote
Mahesh Samat, Managing Director, Walt Disney (India)

3.00 pm: Director‘s Cut
Govind Nihalani
Kunal Kohli
Rohit Vaid
Arnab Chaudhari
Gitanjali Rao

3.50 pm: I to ROI
Siddharth Jain, Irock Entertainment
Jiggy George, Head of Theatrical & L&M, Turner
Abhimanyu Singh, MD, Contiloe Pictures
Ashish Kulkarni, BIG Animation
Krishika Lulla, Eros*

4.40 pm: Tea Break

4.55 pm: Development to Post
Aditya Krishna, VP-Development, UTV Motion Pictures
Aman Kwatra, Production Head, 2nz
Nalin Singh, MD, Indiatales
CB Arun Kumar, Head of VFX & Animation Operations, Pixion
Pankaj Khandpur, Creative Director, Tata Elxsi, VCL

5.45 pm – The 2D pipeline
Deepak Jadhav, Founder, DREAMS

5.55 pm: Marketing & Innovation

Navin Shah, CEO, P9 Integrated
Pranay Atwal, Starcomm
Saurabh Varma, CMO, Reliance Entertainment
Smita Maroo, Shemaroo
To be announced

6.55 pm: Distribution & Release
*Kercy Daruwala, Managing Director, Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sandeep Bhargava, Studio 18
Utpal Acharya, Inox
Devang Sampat, Cinemax

To be announced
8.00 pm: Cocktails & Dinner

The partners and supporters for AFF include:

Gold Partners: DREAMS and Screen, Silver Partners: Indiatales, Autodesk, Contiloe Pictures, BIG Animation, Cornershop. Multiplex Partner: Cinemax, Media Support; Trade Guide, UTVi, Cinema Today, Indiantelevision.com, expressindia.com. The event is also supported by the Indian Motion Pictures Producers Association.

MUMBAI: Mauj Mobile, in association with Eros Multimedia, has developed mobile content for the film Hijack, which will hit theatres on 5 September.

Mauj Mobile is a telecom solutions company that offers services in mobile content and applications, mobile software and services, and mobile media solutions.

Mauj will provide ringtones, graphics, video clips, CRBTS, animations, themes, colour logos and wallpapers based on the film.

People Infocom (Mauj) CEO Manoj Dawane said, “Hijack has given us an opportunity to develop content that is fun-filled and exciting, in keeping with the feel of the movie, and we have utilised this to the best in the form of ringtones, videos, animations, wallpapers, etc. We are optimistic about the uptake of the movie in the form of mobile content. The content will also ensure maximum visibility for the film before its final release.”

Hijack is an action thriller, starring Shiney Ahuja and Esha Deol.

MUMBAI: P9 Design, the film publicity design vertical of Percept Holdings Group’s international film-marketing company P9 Integrated, has created publicity design for C-Kkompany.

The designing company has done posters, stills and billboards for the Balaji Motion Pictures upcoming film, releasing on 29 August.

P9 claims that it has designed the publicity campaign for C-Kkompany by keeping the unique theme, subject and genre of the film in mind. The USP of the film was kept in mind while designing the posters and stills and a major thrust was giving to the onscreen chemistry that the characters share. All the creative have backdrop and images of middle class settings in Mumbai connoting the theme of the film.

The film is about three middle class characters Tushar Kapoor, Rajpal Yadav and Anupam Kher who are known for their buffoonery acts and are always in some kind of a problem somewhere related to money.

P9 Integrated AVP – business development Rahul Merchant said, “In today‘s time where every weekend there is a clutter of film releases, it has become pivotal for every movie that gets released to get noticed. P9‘s publicity design vertical tries to give every film a distinct look through an apt well thought concept and approach for designing posters by effectively understanding the script, defining the target audience, finding an insight, deciding positioning of the film and then delivering the execution.”

P9 recently has also embarked in providing website designing and promo designing services.

P9‘s film chronicles include Shaurya, Summer 2007, Hastey Hastey, Dus Kahaniyan, Dhol, Bombay To Bangkok, Return Of Hanuman, Mumbai Salsa and Loins Of Punjab. Their upcoming films include Rubaru, Right Yaa Wrong, Rang Rasiya, Aashayein, Firaaq, Pankh, Manikantan, Kanchivaram, Tasveer 8x 10 among others, said a company release.

MUMBAI: Deepa Mehta‘s Heaven On Earth will be premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.

Produced by BR Films, the film has Preity Zinta in the lead role. She plays the role of repressed women. Deepa Mehta‘s Sam And Me will also be showcased at the fest as part of a presentation called Dialogues: Talking with Pictures.

The Akshay Kumar-starrer Singh is Kinng will also be screened at the Toronto Film Festival beginning 4 September. The film festival which will run till 13 September will also showcase a total of 312 films.

Preity Zinta, Akshay Kumar, Nandita Das, Anees Bazmee from Bollywood and former cop Kiran Bedi are some of the popular Indians who have been invited to the fest.

The other films which will be screened are Toa Fraser‘s Dean Spanley, Jodie Markell‘s The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, Rod Lurie‘s Nothing But the Truth, Gavin O‘Connor‘s Pride and Glory and Joel Coen‘s Burn After Reading.

MUMBAI: Tropic Thunder, the Ben Stiller comedy, has surpassed The Dark Knight on the US box office by collecting $26 million in the first week.

The Dark Knight collected $16.8 million over the same period. The movie, starring Christian Bale as Batman, had held the top spot for four weeks and raked in $471.5 million over five weeks.

Tropic Thunder is a comedy about three actors who want to shoot a Vietnam war movie. But somehow they end up in the real conflict with the real gunmen.

James Cameron‘s Titanic remains the highest-grossing film in the US with takings of $601 million.

MUMBAI: Warner Bros. Pictures has announced that it has moved back the release date of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to Summer 2009. The sixth installment of the blockbuster Harry Potter franchise will now open in the US and in the major international markets on 17 July, 2009. The announcement was made by Warner Bros president and COO Alan Horn.

Horn says, “Our reasons for shifting Half-Blood Prince to summer are twofold: we know the summer season is an ideal window for a family tent pole release, as proven by the success of our last Harry Potter film, which is the second-highest grossing film in the franchise, behind only the first installment.

“Additionally, like every other studio, we are still feeling the repercussions of the writers‘ strike, which impacted the readiness of scripts for other films—changing the competitive landscape for 2009 and offering new windows of opportunity that we wanted to take advantage of. We agreed the best strategy was to move ‘Half-Blood Prince‘ to July, where it perfectly fills the gap for a major tent pole release for mid-summer.”

Warner Bros. Pictures Group president Jeff Robinov says, “The release date change does not alter the production schedule for this or future Harry Potter films. Post-production on Half-Blood Prince was completed on time, and the studio‘s release plans for the two-part Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will not be affected by this change. We know Harry Potter fans are eagerly anticipating seeing the final chapters unfold onscreen. In fact, the good news for them is that the gap will now be shortened between Half-Blood Prince and the first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.”

David Heyman, the producer of all the Harry Potter films, adds: “When Jeff Robinov explained the rationale behind moving the release date of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to July 2009, it was immediately apparent that this offered us the potential to reach the widest possible audience. I am extremely proud of this latest film and of the work of David Yates and our incomparable cast; I believe we have developed and pushed the series further still. We are all looking forward to sharing it with Harry Potter fans around the world, even if we have to wait just a bit longer.”

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the Muggle and wizarding worlds and Hogwarts is no longer the safe haven it once was. Harry suspects that dangers may even lie within the castle, but Dumbledore is more intent upon preparing him for the final battle that he knows is fast approaching. Meanwhile, the students are under attack from a very different adversary as teenage hormones rage across the ramparts. Love is in the air, but tragedy lies ahead and Hogwarts may never be the same again.

MUMBAI: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures has acquired Ken Kaufman and David Agosto’s pitch with Peter Segal attached to produce and direct.

Segal is the director of the comedy Get Smart starring Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson and Alan Arkin. The project reunites Segal with two of the producers of Get Smart, Andrew Lazar and Michael Ewing. Ewing is Segal’s longtime producing partner.

Based on an original idea by Lazar, the untitled project will be an action comedy featuring an ensemble cast. On the pitch idea, Callahan Filmworks will team with Andrew Lazar’s Mad Chance Productions. MGM executive VP, production resident and MGM VP, theatrical production Luke Ryan will oversee the project for the studio.

Boyter says, “This project is a character-driven action-comedy that‘s wrapped inside a big concept, and it harkens back to movies such as Lethal Weapon and 48 hours. We feel fortunate to have Pete Segal driving the train as his body of work indicates that he‘ll deliver the right blend of action, comedy and drama.”