Category: Hindi

MUMBAI: Anil Ambani has announced big plans to enter Hollywood movies. Reliance Big Entertainment, the media and entertainment company of the Reliance ADA Group, has inked a string of “development deals” with Hollywood talent: Nicolas Cage‘s Saturn Productions, Jim Carrey‘s JC 23 Entertainment, George Clooney‘s Smokehouse Productions, Chris Columbus‘ 1492 Pictures, Tom Hanks‘ Playtone Productions, Brad Pitt‘s Plan B Entertainment, and Jay Roach‘s Everyman Pictures.

The deals provide for the creation of a development silo for each of the production entities. They also carry the possibility of Reliance co-financing projects that emanate from these these deals.

Reliance Big Picture, the division of Reliance Big Entertainment that will focus on media investments outside of India, sees the development deals as the first major building block in the creation of a virtual studio, or new-generation media company.

Reliance Big Entertainment chairman Amit Khanna said, “Reliance Entertainment has a dominant position in India but, when it comes to motion pictures, it has been obvious that we need to extend our footprint to Hollywood. We are pleased to have devised this unique method of investing, whereby Reliance Big Picture can help advance the goals of several of the most important creators in the global industry. I expect to have further such development deals in the near future”.

The deals are part of Reliance Entertainment‘s long-term strategy for media investments in Hollywood, as it aims to build a fully integrated movie company with substantial holdings in production, distribution and exhibition.

The deals also secure Indian rights for resulting films which Reliance co-finances. Additionally, Reliance expects to attract suitable productions, with appropriate incentives to India.

Reliance Big Entertainment president Rajesh Sawhney, “We are totally respectful of the existing first-look deals that each of our partners enjoys, and are confident that the respective studios will welcome our development silos and our subsequent co-financing ability. We are breaking completely new ground and not just as an Indian-based company”.

Creative Artists Agency (CAA) was instrumental in brokering the deals and is advising Reliance Big Entertainment on its Hollywood strategy.

The Hollywood announcement came soon after Reliance unveiled its 69-film two-year plans at Cannes on Friday.

Earlier this year, US-based billionaire investor George Soros picked up 3 per cent stake in Reliance Entertainment for $100 million.

MUMBAI: Big Entertainment, the media and entertainment arm of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (ADA) Group, has lined up 69 films in nine languages for production and distribution over the next two years.

The languages include Tamil (Vikram Kumar), Telugu (Krishna Vamsi), Kannada (Girish Kasaravalli) , Marathi (Amol Palekar), Bengali (Rituporno Ghosh and Buddhadev Dasgupta), Punjabi (Manmohan Singh), Malayalam, Gujarati and English.

Reliance Big Entertainment chairman Amit Khanna in a statement said that the deals include a two-film deal with Vidhu Vinod Chopra including his English-language gangster film Broken Horses, a six-film deal with Excel Entertainment promoted by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani including Shah Rukh Khan starrer Don II.

There is also a two-film deal with Shyam Benegal, four-film deal with Madhur Bhandarkar, three-film deal with Vivek Agnihotri and two-film deal with Sudhir Mishra.

Out of the total films, those in post production stage are Rock On, Sarkar Raj, Love Story 2050, Pathshala, Tamil film Yaavaram Nallam, Hulla, Summer 2007, Punjabi film Mera Pind and Shabri.

Films in production stage are Luck By Chance, Daddy Cool, Singh is Kinng, Sultan-the Warrior, Dulha Mil Gaya, Sikander and animation film Hey Krishna.

Khanna also added that Reliance ADA group at present has 106 operating cinema screens which is expected to go up to 400 by the end of the calender year 2009.

MUMBAI: Eros International has sewed a multi-year international partnership deal with Jaman.com, an online destination for international and independent films.

As per the deal, Eros will distribute approximately 100 Bollywood movies from its catalogue on Jaman.com.

“As the popularity of Bollywood films grow globally, Eros continues to lead in meeting this demand in India and internationally. Our partnership with Jaman allows us to expand our reach even further. We believe this relationship will create new audiences for Bollywood and Eros films all over the world,” said Eros International EVP business and corporate development Marcus Vannini.

The section of Eros titles available on Jaman.com include Sholay, Mother India, Don, Being Cyrus, Heyy Babyy, Omkara, Devdas, Dil Se, Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, Provoked, Salaam-e-Ishq, Chalte Chalte, Cheeni Kum, Munna Bhai MBBS, Lage Raho Munna, Bhai, Deewar and Namaste London.

“Eros has an incredible history of innovation and success showcasing blockbuster Bollywood films with stars including Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukherjee and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. We are delighted to bring these movies to new global audiences through our global entertainment platform,” said Jaman.com GM and VP corporate development Faisal Galaria.

Jaman.com will allow viewers to rent or stream free, ad-supported movies from its library including the Eros catalogue, which can then be viewed on PCs, Macs, televisions and home-set-top boxes.

MUMBAI: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Pictures has acquired the rights to the children‘s book The Facttracker, which will be now produced into a live action feature film.

The Facttracker has been written by Carter Eaton,who will adapt the book into a screenplay along with his writing partner Ian Lendler.

MGM has roped in David Silverman (The Simpsons Movie, Monsters Inc.) to direct the film.

Shawn Levy, who directed Night at the Museum, will partner with Legally Blonde franchise producer Marc Platt to produce The Facttracker.

Levy will produce through his 21 Laps Entertainment Company, while Platt will produce through Marc Platt Productions.

“This is an incredibly rich family-film franchise where facts versus fiction. The film is battled out by a slew of dynamic, boldly drawn characters. It‘s exactly the kind of visual, heartfelt comedy that 21 Laps is looking to do. To pair such vivid material with superb creative partners like producer Marc Platt and filmmaker David Silverman is a thrill,” said producer Shawn Levy.

MGM vice president production Becky Sloviter will oversee the development of the film with Cale Boyter, MGM executive vice president production.

MUMBAI: Adlabs Cinemas, part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, has opened at Nagpur and Sholapur.

The two-screen Sangam Adlabs at Nagpur has a total seating capacity of 1122 including gold and silver class seats.

The two-screen Bhagwat Adlabs at Sholapur has a total seating capacity of 649 which includes platinum, gold and silver class seats.

Adlabs Cinemas COO Tushar Dhingra commented, “It gives us great pleasure to announce the launch of Sangam Adlabs in Nagpur. Along with Sangam Adlabs, we are also marking our presence in Sholapur today. With this we have now opened 18 cinemas in Maharashtra. We are certain that with the convenient location and modern comforts, we will revolutionise the movie-watching experience in both Nagpur and Sholapur.”

Adlabs Cinemas presently has 160 screens spread across 60 properties nationwide.

MUMBAI: PVR has launched the opening of its another multiplex in Mumbai comprising six screens at Oberoi Mall, Goregaon in Mumbai. The multiplex, with 1783 seats, is called PVR Goregaon.

The new multiplex boasts of leg rooms, liberal seat width, swanky interiors, and state of the art sound and projection system for movie goers.

With the opening of the multiplex, the total number of screens of PVR in operation has gone up to 90 at 23 locations across 13 cities in nine states.

MUMBAI: UK pubcaster The BBC announced some key changes to the deal terms offered to UK film producers, a move that has been warmly welcomed by Pact.

The changes are intended to support one of the stated intentions behind the Government‘s implementation of the UK Tax Credit system – namely to increase UK producers‘ stakeholding in the films they make and ensure that film revenues in part flow back into supporting a sustainable film industry in the UK.

When the UK Tax Credit was introduced in 2007, the BBC, the UK Film Council and Film Four signed a joint statement to the effect that, wherever possible, any tax credit that was claimed on a film and used to fund the budget would be treated in the finance plan as if it were equity funding provided directly by the UK producer – it would give the producer a proportionate share of initial receipts alongside the public funders and the other equity financiers.

As many films do not reach the net profit stage, this was seen as an important way to push the producer‘s stake-holding in the film higher up the chain and give a financial return on a par with other investors in the film.

In reality, this has proved hard for the BBC and producers to achieve in all cases.

The key change the BBC is making, therefore, is to create a corridor for the producer from the BBC‘s own equity recoupment. This will apply wherever the tax credit has not been treated as producer‘s equity even though the funding has been used to help finance the film.

The corridor will be a standard 30 per cent of the actual equity recoupment the BBC receives on a film and is intended to put the BBC back into the position it would have been in if the tax credit had been treated as equity funding from the producer.

The BBC and Pact have also agreed to a number of other changes: The BBC‘s broadcast licence in the UK will be for a maximum of 15 years. After five years, if the BBC has no further plans to transmit then either the BBC or the producer may look to exploit those rights elsewhere in the UK, sharing profits 70/30 if the BBC is unrecouped and 50/50 if the BBC‘s equity has been repaid.

The BBC is also dropping several of its standard requirements around development, in particular the charge of a 50 per cent premium on development costs incurred to date if the project is turned down by the BBC and picked up by another financier. The requirements for trust accounts at development stage will also be abolished.

BBC‘s head of operations and business affairs for fiction Claire Evans said, “A healthy and sustainable UK Film industry is of real value to the licence fee payer and the BBC therefore has an important role to play in UK film. We believe these changes will deliver tangible benefits to UK producers by helping to significantly recalibrate the producer‘s place in the value chain of UK film production and by unlocking the residual value of the films we have helped to create”.

BBC Fiction controller Jane Tranter said, “Six months ago we created the new Films Board at the BBC and announced an increase in funding to ?12 million a year. Together with this announcement, these measures demonstrate the BBC‘s commitment to British Film. The development slate is in rude health and we are feeling ambitious and excited for the future.”

Pact, Feature Film vice chair Andrea Calderwood said, “We‘re delighted that the BBC has shown the way forward with this initiative, which will make a real difference to British film producers. Independent producers put a lot of investment – of commitment as well as money – into their films to make them happen, and this will give them the chance to make a proper return on their investment.

“Providing a genuine share of revenues to producers of successful films creates a real partnership between the BBC and producers to support a sustainable British film industry, and allows us to work together to build up the quality and range of British films.”

BBC Films has an annual budget of ?12 million per annum (increased from ?10 million from the previous BBC Charter period) and is an established and credible force within the UK and international film industries.

Recent films have included Eastern Promises, The Other Boleyn Girl, The History Boys.

The remit of BBC Films includes the active development of a broad range of film projects supporting both new and established talent from the initial scripting stage through to raising finance, resourcing, casting and eventually, production.

Pact is the UK trade association that represents the commercial interests of independent feature film, television, children‘s and animation and interactive media companies. It is the largest representative group of screen-based content producers in the UK and the largest trade association in the film, television and interactive media sectors.

MUMBAI: Moving Picture Company India (MPC) has partnered with Movico Technologies to digitize, promote and sell archival footage through Movico‘s new video aggregation website.

MPC owns approximately 12,000 hours of video footage that include travel destinations, exotic locations, political events, profiles of Bollywood stars, celebrities, music performances and stock footage from India, Afghanistan and Bhutan.

Movico will undertake the digitization, classification and repurposing of footage that will allow Moving Picture Company to easily access the video library for its own production use. It will also help the company make select footage, available for worldwide sale, to other content producers.

Movico Technologies is a video software startup that integrates key video, mobile, PC and internet technologies to build next generation video software products to serve the needs of video producers and distributors.

Said Movico Technologies director and co-founder V.N. Saroja, “The deal has been divided into two segments. In the first segment, we will digitise and catalogue MPC footage, identify the best pieces and repurpose the same for sale. For providing this service, we will receive payment on cost per hour basis. The second phase includes marketing of the repurosed footage, which will be available on our website. The revenue generated will then be shared between us and MPC,” she added.

Adding further, MPC chairman and MD Ramesh Sharma said, “We have always believed our library has great value waiting to be unlocked, and this partnership with Movico will allow us to tap both the Indian and the global market.”

Also, Movico has tied up with several international stock footage websites for cross-promotions. Besides, it has tied-up with international producers for stock footage consumption and with content distribution platforms for global delivery.

Movico has plans to create a sophisticated, tightly integrated, multi-purpose video production, storage and broadcast management system capable of handling enterprise class loads. Hence, to materialize the same, the company is aiming to invest $1 million in the project.

Additionally, the company also intends to raise $5 million this year to strengthen its portfolio of product, service, and aggregation, targeted at the video content market.

MUMBAI: UTV Motion Pictures has tied up with Michaelson Films to launch its first solo Hollywood production Ex-terminators.

UTV CEO Ronnie Screwvala will produce the film along with Jay Michaelson, Lawren Sunderland, and scriptwriter Suzanne Weinert.

UTV CEO Ronnie Screwvala said, “Over the last few years, we have forged some great working relationships with the leading studios in Hollywood and with top acclaimed international talent. This has led to some unique projects such as The Namesake, I think I Love My Wife and The Happening. We are now proud to announce our first independent production in the US.”

The film marks the directing debut of cinematographer John Inwood, and stars Heather Graham, Jennifer Coolidge, Matthew Settle, Joey Lauren Adams and Amber Heard.

Director John Inwood stated, “It‘s such a privilege to be directing Suzanne Weinert’s excellent script, with such an immensely talented cast! Heather, Jennifer, Amber and Matt are such a force and such a pleasure to work with. Every scene exceeds my highest expectations. I tried to follow the essential principle of directing – that more than half the job is casting well. I think we have done just that.”

Ex-terminators is a dark comedy centering on Alex (Graham), a lonely accountant whose one act of rage results in her being sentenced to court ordered therapy.

NEW DELHI: Perhaps for the first time in living memory, a feature film based on a real-life character is being released after being shown to him following a Court order.
“Mudrank“, the controversial film on the fake stamp paper scam, is expected to be released on 23 May as it was given the green signal by scam kingpin Abdul Karim Telgi in Yerwada (Pune) Jail on 22 April last month. The film was shown to the undertrial after he filed a petition against the filmmakers, though they had already got a U/A certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification.

The film’s director Shakir Sheikh told a news conference here that the film has generally stuck to the true story of Telgi, though the name of the central character has been changed to Abdul Rehman Velgi.

Shakir Sheikh, who hails from Pune, has made a couple of films in Marathi and is making his debut in Hindi with ‘Mudrank’. The film stars Kailash Manav in the role of Velgi, and others in the cast include Milind Gunaji, Shahbaz Khan, Raza Murad, Deepak Shirke, Anjan Srivastav, Amita Nangia, Shiva, Aly Khan and Nirmal Pandey.

It also includes Rakhee Sawant, Sambhavna Seth, Aliza Khan and Elena in four item songs. Justifying the songs, Sheikh said research had shown Telgi was fond of visiting dance bars in Mumbai. Seth who was present said though Sawant was a known face, she felt she had performed better as a dancer. The music for the film has been scored by Bappi Lahiri.

Though the film was completed by the mid of last year, it was delayed initially by the CBFC and later because of litigation. The film is being released in Mumbai territory by the producer Bhagwan Saungar himself.

Kailash Manav, a stage actor for almost 17 years, said he was chosen because he resembles Telgi to a large extent, and Sheikh decided to make the film only after meeting Manav. The actor studied the mannerisms of Telgi for some time, and the film was then shot in a period of one month.

Sheikh said he had been able to depict the true story of Telgi because the latter had pleaded guilty in the main cases against him and only some minor cases were pending.