Category: Hindi

MUMBAI: French audiovisual attache Mohammed Bendjebbour is quitting his diplomatic posting. After setting up the Mumbai audiovisual office for the French Embassy, the affable Bendjebbour is believed to be have taken up a plum posting in the private sector by this summer. Unconfirmed reports are that he will be handling a first of its kind Indo French project in India.

Bendjebbour has been at the forefront in India of the French government‘s initiative to increase interaction between India‘s and France‘s film industry.

Just last month, Bendjebbour had organised a retrospective of French cinema in Mumbai. An MBA, Bendjebbour has had diplomatic postings in the US prior to India. Despite several attempts, Bendjebbour was not available for confirmation of his departure.

BANGALORE: The 74th year of Kannada cinema will see two film award ceremonies on back to back Sundays in early March, both at the same venue – the Bangalore Palace grounds.It will be promoted and broadcast by two Kannada channels.

The first one, Airtel Pyramid Saimira Cinegandha awards 2007, is to be held on 2 March. This was announced by Kannada channel Kasthuri and Pyramid Saimira in Bangalore.

Earlier, Sunfeast-Udaya had announced the Sunfeast Udaya TV awards to be held on 9 March. Year 2007, which saw a number of Kannada films hitting the jackpot at the box office, is being touted as the golden era for Kannada cinema by Kasthuri TV – a channel headed by Anitha Kuamaraswamy’s Kasthuri Media (KMPL) who is the wife of former Karnataka chief minister Kumaraswamy.

Eighteen categories of awards have been announced. Besides, there are special awards – Saptaswara awards to seven music directors; Snehasanjeevi awards to four Kannada film personalities as well as the Dr. Rajkumar Trinetra awards to his sons Shivrajkumar, Raghavendra Rajkumar and Puneeth Rajkumar.

KMPL claims that it has appropriated weightage to various parameters for determining the nominations and the winners, some of which are: A jury comprising of actor Srinath, veteran journalist P G Srinivas Murthy, Karnataka Film Chambers of Commerce secretary Thomas D’Souza, Karnataka censor board panel members Srinivas Christa and Girija Mahesh; the films performance at the box office; SMS votes; data collected from randomly picked 2000 people from each district of the state. Next year, Pyramid Saimira’s Saminathan plans to bring in actual count of viewers and their votes – from around 1.5 million cinegoers.

Besides key sponsors Airtel and Pyramid Saimira, Kasthuri has roped in other national and regional sponsors including Frito Lays and Venkateshwara Textiles. Big FM which came in late, is the radio partner.

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Sunfeast & Udaya announce Kannada Awards 2006

Sunfeast Udaya Kannada film awards slated for 9 March

MUMBAI:The problems facing UTV‘s Hrithik Roshan-Aishwarya Rai starrer Jodhaa-Akbar are spreading. Madhya Pradesh joined the neighbouring state of Rajasthan in banning the film after demonstrations against it by the Rajput community at cinema theatres.

The ban on Jodhaa-Akbar in the two states have essentially killed the film‘s prospects from middle India. If that were not enough, the district administration of Ambala in Haryana state have also imposed a ban on the screening of the film following similar protests by the Rajput organisations.

“The government has suspended the screening of the movie in the (Madhya Pradesh) state with immediate effect as protests at cinema halls have posed a threat to maintenance of peace,” commercial tax department additional secretary DPS Parihar was quoted as saying after the ban was invoked.

In his order banning the screening of the film, Parihar said the decision was taken in accordance to provisions under the Madhya Pradesh Cinema (Regulation) Act, 1952.

Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, UTV Motion Pictures director Siddharth Roy Kapur said: “Talks are going on with the respective authorities and we expect the film to resume very soon in the theatres.”

There are also some reports that if the ban is not revoked, exhibitors may institute a shutdown in protest. However, there have been no confirmations made from the exhibitors‘ end on this as yet.

“The multiplexes will earn huge revenue losses if such bans keep taking place. Once the films are passed by the censor board there is no reason as to why such incidents should take place. The issue should be taken up at the district or state level depending upon where the ban has taken place,” said Cinemax VP marketing and programming Devang Sampat.

Meanwhile in a text message to Indiantelevision.com, UTV Software Communications CEO Ronnie Screwvalla confirmed that he would be moving the courts if the ban was not revoked.

The film‘s director Ashutosh Gowarikar was quoted as saying, “I am very sad that people are appreciating the movie in cities but the film is not being screened in some places. We are getting a good response from overseas. I want people to watch the film first and then express their views.”

MUMBAI: UTV Motion Pictures has claimed that its recent release Jodhaa Akbar has grossed Rs 385 million worldwide in the opening weekend.

The company says that the first week box office collection in India is Rs 250 million, which puts the film amongst the top five weekend openings of all the time for a Hindi film.

However, like some of the films like Om Shanti Om, Sawariyan, Lage Raho Munnabhai, Fanaa, the Rs 400 million Jodha Akbar too have seen late releases due to disputes over revenue sharing terms with multiplexes. As a result the Hrithik Roshan-Aishwarya Rai starrer Jodhaa Akbar had its full release on Saturday.

The dispute ended with UTV reaching an an agreement to take a revenue share of 41 per cent for the second week‘s collections from the multiplex owners.

UTV had originally demanded a 42.5 per cent share from the second week collections while multiplex owners were willing to part with 40 per cent.

Besides the film has still not hit the screens in Rajasthan and some parts of Gujarat.

In the overseas market, the company claims that the opening is amongst the top five weekends of all time for an Indian film and in US, it is the second highest opening weekend of all time.

The film has seen a simultaneous release in 26 countries, in 1100 screens worldwide and dubbed in three different languages – Hindi, Telugu, Tamil; and subtitled in English, Arabic and Dutch.

NEW DELHI: An all-India film society meet is scheduled to be held at Kolkata, the birthplace of the film society movement. This will take stock of the movement which is completing 50 years in December.

MUMBAI: Multiplex operator Pyramid Saimira Theatre is planning to invest up to Rs 3 billion in its group companies.

The board of directors also decided to increase the borrowing powers of the company to Rs 30 billion, from the present Rs 15 billion.

Besides, the board also approved the commencement of food and beverages business as contemplated in the `other object` of memorandum of association.

The meeting also considered and took on record that Pyramid Saimira Production International, a subsidiary of the company, is engaged in production of feature films and television content.

Pyramid Saimira Entertainment, Singapore, a wholly owned subsidiary of the company is considering a proposal to acquire majority stake in Pyramid Saimira Production International to leverage and synergize production and distribution operations.

MUMBAI: The Network18 Group, in association with the Department of Social Communications Media (DSCM) at Mumbai‘s Sophia Polytechnic, organised the second edition of the Network18 Award for Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking.

This year, the honour went to a team of ten girls from DSCM for Dus Nau Aath Karlo Baat, a documentary featuring the work of Childline India Foundation, an organisation that supports the rights of children.

Sponsored by Network18, the award is initiated by the group‘s creative wing The Cell and carries a cash prize of Rs 50,000. Moreover, the winning group will get a chance to have their documentary aired on CNBC TV 18 on the show Through the Looking Glass along with their interview.

Network18‘s managing editor Senthil Chengalvarayan, who was the chief guest at the event, gave away the prizes.

“A documentary like Dus Nau Aath Karlo testifies to the filmmakers‘ power of observation, and ability to empathise with and care for fellow humans. Hats off to the makers of the film,” said Chengalvarayan.

Network18‘s network creative director Zubin Driver said, “Students are not encouraged to make documentaries in our country. Fortunately, through this initiative by The Cell, we will be able to encourage as well as provide a much-needed boost to documentary filmmakers.”

The elated winning team said, “We can‘t believe that we finally did it. It‘s overwhelming to be selected from such a talented group of entries.”

Driver also added that “the art of documentation is important,” and hence, “winning or losing in this space is irrelevant.”

To promote the award, Network18 had launched a poster campaign across various venues in the city, including art galleries, college campuses, cafes and other public places.

MUMBAI: Delhi is all set to host a two-day film festival ‘We Care Film Fest‘ on the lives of the disabled. Starting 21 February, the film festival is the fifth in a series of similar festivals organised annually.

MUMBAI: Bollywood actress Mallika Sherawat is slated to play an ascetic who befriends Jesus of Nazareth in a forthcoming US film that centres on a legend that he visited India, reports Reuters.

The Aquarian Gospel by filmmaker Drew Heriot is about Jesus‘ life between the ages of 13 and 30, when legends have it he travelled through India, Tibet and Persia. The Gospels do not document this period in his life.

Heriot said that Sherawat had been the first choice to play the role of the ascetic in the $15-million film, set for release in 2009. “After viewing her work, we then saw interviews of her and were extremely impressed by her intelligence and her background,” he told Reuters in an e-mail.

The actress said it would be a challenge to bring to life her character as a female yogi in The Aquarian Gospel.

“I find that in most mythological and spiritual film stories, women seem to be lacking any true wisdom or a sense of humour,” she said in a statement released by her publicist. “I look forward to bringing both of those qualities to this character.”

Sherawat created a stir in her Bollywood debut with multiple kissing scenes in Khwahish. She also played the role of an Indian princess in the Jackie Chan film The Myth.

NEW DELHI: The Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC) Film Festival will be held in New Delhi starting 22 February. Inaugurating the event will be Anand Sharma, Minister of State for External Affairs, Government of India.

The nine-day event, which runs until 1 March, will screen nine films and a documentary from ten affiliated countries including Australia, Bangladesh and South Africa.

To be held at Siri Fort auditorium, this film festival is a joint effort of the Directorate of Film Festivals and the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India.

“This is a part of India‘s commitment to the IOR-ARC,” said Malay Mishra, Joint Secretary (MER), Ministry of External Affairs. “We had pledged our commitment at the 7th Council of Ministers Meeting held in March 2007 in Iran. Since India is a global power in cinema, it was evident that we should start,” he added.

Speaking to the press, additional director general of the Directorate of Film Festivals Neelam Kapur said, “This is a package of ten very powerful and socially sensitive films on a variety of subjects. It will also be interesting to see how cinema has evolved in these countries, and if there is some similarity with Indian cinema as Indian cinema is popular in most of the member countries.”

Among the films will be Yolngu Boy, an Australian film which tells the story of three Aborigines that trek through Australia, and From so Far, a Mauritian documentary that tells the story of Indian immigration in Mauritius. Representing India in the festival will be Chak De! India.

“The director of the Australian film Stephen Michael Johnson is arriving tomorrow, and during the course of the festival we expect the directors from Mauritius, Bangladesh, Kenya and Bangladesh to come,” said Mishra.

“We also expect film students and people from the film fraternity to come at the screenings,” said Kapur. “The movies that will be shown at the festival will not be the same as ones screened at the IFFI. In fact, we intend to bring the Indian panorama to Delhi and Kolkata in the next few months,” she added.

Asked whether this is going to be an annual event Mishra replied, “We haven‘t thought about this on those lines. This is something that we‘ll decide in the future.”

The festival is wholly funded by the Government of India, and the passes will be available free of cost from February 19 at Siri Fort auditorium.

The IOA-ARC is a regional cooperation initiative established in Mauritius in March 1997 with the aim of promoting economic and technical cooperation and currently has 18 member countries: Australia, India, Kenya, Mauritius, Oman, Singapore, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mozambique, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Yemen, Bangladesh, Iran, Thailand and the UAE (Seychelles withdrew in 2003).