Category: Hindi

MUMBAI: Adlabs Cinemas, part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, has opened its first four-screen cinema at Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. Formerly known as KG Cinemas, Adlabs will now run the cinema by the name of KG Adlabs.

Adlabs Cinemas COO Tushar Dhingra said, “We are excited to offer the Adlabs experience to cinema lovers in this region through one of the most prestigious cinemas in the state. We have just begun to penetrate the southern region and expect to capture a big market share in the South by end of 2008. Coimbatore is considered to be the Manchester of south India with a booming textile sector, engineering hub and plans for major IT players to start operations in the city. We see immense potential for this property which presently sees over 10,000 admissions a day.”

The new Adlabs will have four widescreen viewing screens with a total seating capacity of 2253 seats. The cinema will be refurbished phase wise with Adlabs‘ crystal-clear DTS sound, superior Xenon projection systems, plush seats and, food and beverage offerings.

Adlabs Cinemas presently has 156 screens spread over 58 properties nationwide.

MUMBAI: National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC) has been allocated a sum of Rs 300 million for five years by the Information & Broadcasting ministry for film production and promotion of new talent.

NFDC is also ready to release four films this fiscal. While three out of these four films, namely The White Elephant, Lucky Red Seeds and Via Darjeeling, are co-productions with NDTV Imagine, Mirchi Movies, and Moxie Entertainment respectively, Bioscope is a solo production film from the NFDC stable.

Via Darjeeling, a film by Arindam Nandy, is ready to release this July. The film stars Kay Kay Menon, Parvin Dabas, Sonali Kulkarni, Vinay Pathak, Rajat Kapoor, Sandhya Mridul and Simone Singh.

“Via Darjeeling is ready for a July release. The film will be distributed by PVR across the country,” stated NFDC MD Nina Lath Gupta.

Lucky Red Seeds, directed by Anjali Menon, is slated to release this November.

“Lucky Red Seeds represent the memories seen through the young eyes of Vicky – one of the millions of Indian children raised outside their country. The film, in Malayalam, will be released in November with English subtitles,” said NFDC production manager D. Ramakrishnan.

Bioscope, NFDC‘s solo production, has been written, scripted and directed by KM Madhusudhanan. The film depicts the inner meaning of moving images.

It is a story about Diwakaran, and what became of his very close friend, the “bioscope”. Traveling through villages, he erected tents and screened early film strips using a projector, known at that time as “bioscope”.

Both Bioscope and The White Elephant are currently under the production stage and will see a release in the latter part of the fiscal.

Additionally, NFDC will participate in the film market at the 61st Cannes festival next month to promote its new productions.

“We have entered Bioscope and Lucky Red Seeds for the festival screenings and are hoping that these two movies will be selected. The names of the shortlisted films are awaited,” said Gupta.

Also, NFDC has appointed film actor Om Puri as their new chairman. The actor assumed his new role from 4 April ‘08 onwards for a period of 3 years.

The appointment has been made after a gap of almost one year when film distributor and financier Manmohan Shetty resigned from the post.

Talking about his plans Om Puri stated that he will encourage and promote young film makers who have the potential of making a good film which is rich in content. NFDC will recognize young talent with interesting projects and help them produce films.

He also wants to promote various workshops like in the area of script writing and screen play as deserving talent can be tapped.

Furthermore, Om Puri also plans to introduce an effective concept called “cooperatives”. In this model if the script or the film demands established and famous actors, a unanimous arrangement will be reached between NFDC as a production house and the cast and crew of a particular film. After deciding on the script, NFDC will approach them with an offer to work in the film on a subsidised fee.

If the film becomes a success in the box office, the profit garnered will be shared with all those who are involved in the project. The idea behind this concept is to give boost to film makers with experiential and viable scripts but limited budgets. This proposal will help procure prominent talents for small budget films.

Earlier, Dadasaheb Phalke awardee and film director Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Bollywood actor Hema Malini had served as chairman of NFDC.

MUMBAI: Warner Bros Pictures India is set to foray into regional film production. The Hollywood major has stitched an exclusive multi-movie deal with Soundarya Rajnikanth‘s Ocher Studios to get a footprint across the four southern languages.

According to the terms of the deal, Warner Bros will be involved in funding the film projects. The pact covers the production and distribution of Live-Action South Indian language films to be released by Warner Bros.

Soundarya Rajnikant, the daughter of superstar Rajnikant, said that it is a great privilege for her company to associate with a world leader in the entertainment industry. “Ocher Studios has always strived towards achieving high standards in quality content creation, and with Warner‘s expertise in the marketing and distribution space this association will definitely create an impact in the film industry,” she added.

While Warner Bros specializes in the creation, production, distribution, licensing and marketing of all forms of entertainment and their related businesses, Ocher Studios offers its services ranging from VFX, digital film lab, non-linear editing, CGI, and pre-production.

“We are thrilled with this opportunity to expand our local production business across all four southern languages by getting into a strategic alliance with Soundarya Rajnikant of Ocher Studios. As is our practice, we will work closely with our partners to impart our experiences and expertise in a collaborative way,” said EVP Warner Bros International Richard J Fox.

Added Warner Bros. Pictures India country head Blaise Fernandes: “We are excited and proud to be working with Soundarya Rajnikant who is extremely talented, has good insight into film making and knows the pulse of the southern market. Given Soundarya and Ocher Studios‘ creative skills combined with our marketing and distribution network, this is a perfect synergy between the two companies to come together.”

MUMBAI: HBO, the television programming subsidiary of Time Warner Inc, is now the official sponsor for The South Asian International Film Festival (SAIFF) 2008.

The HBO-funded short film competition will begin from 22 October and continue till 28 October. The festival is being held in New York City this year.

“For the past four years, I‘ve seen the enormous talent that the South Asian film community has to offer. This short film competition will help the emerging South Asian filmmakers, seeking a ‘break‘ into the film industry. What better way to be recognised than by their peers, the New York City creative community and HBO,” said SAIFF president Shilen Amin.

The winner, to be chosen from among five finalists, will receive a cash award of $2,500 from HBO.

Also, the completed short film will be considered for exhibition on the programming services of HBO.

MUMBAI: The Walt Disney Studios has launched Disneynature, a new production banner that will produce big screen nature documentaries.

Disney veteran Jean-Francois Camilleri, who has served as senior vice president and general manager for Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures France, will head the new unit.

Disneynature will be based in France, where Camilleri and his team will oversee the initiation, development and acquisition of high quality feature projects.

The significance of the new banner goes beyond the studio, with The Walt Disney Company embracing this new initiative around the world through a number of its businesses, including publications, licensing, parks and educational outreach.

Among the first films to be released domestically under the new label will be Earth, from award-winning British producer/director Alastair Fothergill, whose credits include Planet Earth series for the BBC and The Blue Planet.

Earth, which is produced by BBC Worldwide and Greenlight Media and co-directed by Mark Linfield, will take the viewers on a tour of the home planet. It will be narrated by renowned actor James Earl Jones and will premiere theatrically on Earth Day, 22 April 2009. The film will also be released under the Disneynature banner in Latin America.

“We love balancing heritage and innovation and Disneynature is a perfect example of this. We are placing the legacy of Disney’s ‘True-Life Adventures’ in the hands of great modern filmmakers using dazzling technology,” said The Walt Disney company president and CEO Robert A. Iger.

“Disneynature is a concept we look forward to building across the company and across the globe for years to come. And, we hope these films will contribute to a greater understanding and appreciation of the beauty and fragility of our natural world,” added Iger.

The Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook added, “Our goal is for Disneynature to offer event films that will appeal to everyone who is captivated by the grandeur of nature and the wonder of great filmmaking. Thanks to today’s state-of-the-art creative tools, filmmakers have an unlimited ability to tell nature’s limitless stories. These stories are as engrossing as any works of fiction and are of a scale and scope that can only be fully appreciated on a big screen. At Disneynature, the sky is truly the limit.”

Some of the Disneynature projects currently in development or production are:

• 
  The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos – Co-directed by Matthew Aeberhard and Leander Ward, and produced by Paul Webster (Kudos Pictures), this film will take viewers to the isolated shores of Lake Natron in northern Tanzania for a birds-eye view of the mysterious lives of flamingos. Worldwide roll-out begins December 2008.
  
• Oceans — Nearly three-quarters of the earth’s surface is covered by oceans. French co-directors Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud have set out to capture the full expanse of these waters that have played such a crucial and constant role in the history and sustenance of man. The deep and abundant oceans are places of great mysteries and dangers that this film will dare to explore. Domestic release 2010.
  
• Orangutans:One Minute to Midnight – Directed by Charlie Hamilton James and produced by Frédéric Fougea, this film tells the true story of a six-year-old male orangutan and his little sister, who must take an incredible journey to find a home and a family. Worldwide release 2010.

MUMBAI: TheMoviesClub.com, a co-operative built on a community business model, has created a new microfinance movie co-operative that is managed online.

The club will acquire completed independent movies and enable its members to invest directly in those movies and share in their financial success. Movies will be acquired only on the basis that the purchase provides a controlling stake of at least 51 per cent of the movie, if not 100 per cent.

Furthermore, the site also plans to provide its members a discussion forum and give them an equal vote opportunity on movie selection, acquisition, marketing and promotion.

Director Alan Parker stated, “The future of the movie industry lies in the evolving of distribution and this is the first step for a different business model to take the industry away from reliance on major studios for successful movie releases. The movie market can be profitable on modest sales based on this model, and enables TheMoviesClub members the opportunity to also make money out of it as well.”

TheMoviesClub.com, launched in March ‘08, hopes to acquire its first movie in summer. Frequent site updates will follow during April and May, and a launch event will follow in Edinburgh International film festival.

MUMBAI: Pyramid Saimira Theatre Ltd managing director P S Saminathan has been elevated to the post of chairman with immediate effect. He will continue in his capacity as managing director of the company.

The announcement follows the exit of V Natarajan who submitted his resignation as chairman to the board of directors of the company.

As a part of its latest initiative, Pyramid Saimira has announced that it will invest Rs 4 billion in the joint venture it has floated with China Society of Music Research Board (CSMRB), a unit of the Chinese ministry of culture.

NEW DELHI: Filmmaker Yash Chopra has strongly defended his brand of cinema saying that he does not show mere commercial romanticism but infuses a lot of meaningful content into it,

Speaking on the sidelines of a festival of films by his elder brother B R Chopra, Yash Chopra said that it was erroneous to say that his films did not have the kind of social commitment that one saw in the films of his brother.

While noting that he had got his first break as a director in his brother’s ‘Dhool ka Phool’, he said he was entitled to make his own kind of cinema.

Asked about the absence of his son Aditya from the assemblage of the large number of members of the B R Chopra family and others who attended the festival which concluded here over the weekend, he said his son was busy with the release of their film ‘Tashan’.

Paying a tribute to his brother, he said Baldev Raj Chopra was probably the only filmmaker in India who had never made any compromises and gone ahead and made the kinds of films he wanted irrespective of their commercial outcome.

The cinematic tribute from 18 to 20 April with nine masterpieces from the BR stable were part of ‘Guild Greats’, an initiative of the Film and Television Producers Guild of India. Co-organised by ASSOCHAM, the event was sponsored by Time Broadband Services Group’s ‘My Time‘ to kick-start the announcement of IPTV service launch in India through empowering technology and compelling content.

Yash Chopra recalled how his brother had proved wrong filmmakers at the time who felt films on themes like widow re-marriage, rehabilitation of prostitutes, or a court room drama sans songs would never be able to woo audiences.

Speaking at the inauguration and a discussion on the second day, BR’s son Ravi said his father has always been a man of principles who has continued to make films that he felt committed about, irrespective of the financial returns. BR is a ‘karmayogi’ who firmly believes in the motto of BR Films from the Mahabharata which says one must do one’s duty without worrying about the consequences. Ravi said he would not dare re-make any of his father‘s films because he could never bring out the finesse they contained, and stressed that the message in his father’s films came out in a subtle manner without the film turning into a documentary.

Amit Dev who is chairman of the ASSOCHAM Committee on Convergence said though India had the largest entertainment industry in the world, it global share was not very high. He said the Guild and ASSOCHAM had come together on a single platform and the offshoot was creation of a Content Licensing Centre. He announced another festival of Dr Chopra’s films would be held later in the year.

Time Broadband MD Sujata Dev said the launch of IPTV (Internet Protocal Television) on TV sets, computers and mobiles would make TV more interactive, and help to fight piracy and empower content protection. Time Broadband is preparing to shortly launch IPTV over both Mobile and Broadband in India , through collaboration with recently licensed progressive telecom operators; under the brand of “MY TIME” content package.

MUMBAI: Chennai-based Pyramid Saimira Theatre Ltd (PSTL) will invest Rs 4 billion in the joint venture it has floated with China Society of Music Research Board (CSMRB), a unit of the Chinese ministry of culture.

MUMBAI: Mukta Arts has posted a net profit of Rs 112.16 million for the fourth quarter of the fiscal ended March 2008, down from Rs 149.78 million a year ago.

Revenue, however, rose to Rs 433.36 million, up from Rs 295.19 million. The company released three films during the quarter – Bombay to Bangkok, Black & White and Marathi blockbuster Valu.

For the full year, Mukta Arts‘ net profit went up marginally to Rs 141.15 million, as against Rs 137.16 million for FY‘07. Revenue rose to Rs 1.09 billion, from Rs 967.43 million in the previous year.

Mukta Arts has six films under production – Right yaaa Wrong (Sunny Deol, Irfan Khan, Konkona Sen, Isha Kopikar); Yuvraj (Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor, Zayed Khan, Katrina Kaif); Kande Pohe (Shreyas Talpade, Tushar Dalvi, Shipa Tulaskar, Subhodh Bhave, Bharti Achrekar); Hello Darling (Celina Jaitley, Gul Panag, Isha Koppikar, Javed Jaffrey, Chunky Pandey); Paying Guest (Shreyas Talpade, Ashish Choudhary, Vatsal Seth, Javed Jaffrey, Celina Jaitley, Riya Sen, Neha Dhupia, Sayali Bhagat) and Cycle Kick (K.P. Nishan Nanaiah, Sunny Hinduja, Girija Oak, Ishita Sharma, Dwij Yadav, Tom Alter)

The earnings per share (face value Rs 5) for the year 2007-2008 was at Rs 6.25. The Board has declared an interim dividend of 40 per cent.