ITV

Category: Movies

  • Open Frame to discuss pubcaster services in last 50 years in September

    NEW DELHI: A total of over 50 documentary and short feature films from 22 countries will be screened in the Open Frame from 11 to 17 September organised by the Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT).

    The highlight of the programme this year is a panel discussion on ‘Commemorating 50 years of Public Television’ coinciding with 50 years of the advent of Doordarshan in the country, which will be addressed among others by Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni.

    Others who will take part in the discussion on 14 September at India Habitat Centre are filmmakers Adoor Gopalakrishnan and Shyam Benegal, legal luminary Fali S Nariman, and I&B Secretary Raghu Menon.

    One full-length feature film, Firaaq, by actor-director Nandita Das will also be screened during the Festival on 13 September.

    Apart from films commissioned by the PSBT for Doordarshan and some other Indian films, the countries from which films have been sent include Japan, South Korea, Congo, the Netherlands, United States, China, Palestine, Israel, South Africa, Liberia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Australia


    , Germany, United Kingdom, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Italy and France.


    There will be a large number of India or South Asia premieres of the films being screened, some entered by non-resident Indians.


    There will be two film appreciation workshops to be conducted by Suresh Chhabria, former director of the National Film Archives of India and currently a faculty member of the Film and Television Institute of India.

    There will be one Input presentation and discussion with Abhijit Das Gupta, National Coordinator, INPUT, and Subramaniam V. Raman, Programme Officer, Max Mueller Bhavan, Kolkata.

    Other discussions will be on ‘Sexual Violence as a weapon of war’, ‘Gender, Hijab and Identity’, and a presentation by Akanksha Joshi on ‘Profiles of Courage and Compassion in Gujarat after 5 years.’


    Some interesting films include Can you hear me? Israeli and Palestinian women fight for peace by | Lilly Rivlin of he United States, The Sari Soldiers by Julie Bridgham (which is an American-Nepal presentation), Project Kashmir by Senain Kheshgi & Geeta V. Patel (US), Afghanistan unveiled by Brigitte Brault & the Aina Women Filming Group of Afghanistan, No! The Rape Documentary by Aishah Shahidah Simmons (US), and Morality TV and the loving Jehad by Paromita Vohra.

  • Three Big Pictures’ films find way to Montreal Film Festival

    MUMBAI: Three films from the Big Pictures basket is scheduled to be showcased at the 33rd Montreal World Film Festival that is being held from 27 August to 7 September.

    While Shyam Benegal‘s Well Done Abba (Stolen Well) Shaji Karun‘s Kutty Srank (Sailor of Hearts) will be screened today. Benegal‘s film will also be shown tomorrow and the day after. Both the films have been selected for the ‘World Greats‘ section.


    Rituparno Ghosh‘s Abohamaan (The Eternal) has found a place in the ‘Focus on World Cinema‘ section and will be screened today, tomorrow and day after.


    Says Big Pictures‘ COO Mahesh Ramanathan, “It‘s really an honour to have three of our films at Montreal. Shyam Benegal, Rituparno Ghosh and Shaji Karun are masters in their field. They‘ve won critical acclaim and enjoy an international reputation. We‘re honoured to have these three Indian masters as part of our portfolio.”

  • Three producers pitch in for ‘Host 2’

    MUMBAI: Singapore‘s Boku Films, Korea‘s Chungeorahm Films and the Media Development Authority (MDA) have entered into a production agreement that will see the production of Host 2, a sequel of the 2006 hit The Host.

    Host 2 is the first Singapore-Korea co-production which comes after the sealing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in 2007 between MDA and KOCCA that emphasised the support of co-productions on Asian projects.


    The film scheduled for a 2011 release will be a joint venture of Korean producer Choi Yong-Bae of Chungeorahm Films and award-winning Singapore filmmaker Kelvin Tong of Boku Films.


    Other investors of Host 2 are SK Telecom and the Korea Creative Contents Agency (KOCCA).


    The Host attracted an audience of 13 million in Korea and till date remains the highest-grossing Korean film of all time.


    The monster movie about a mutant creature going on a rampage in Seoul was sold to 134 countries and grossed $90 million worldwide.


  • Venezuelan president considering Venice visit

    MUMBAI: Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has said that he is considering going to Venice for the premiere of South of the Border. Chavez is the subject of Oliver Stone‘s next film.

    South of the Border which screens on Monday, features interviews with seven other Latin American leaders — including Cuba‘s Raul Castro, Brazilian leader Lula da Silva and Bolivian Evo Morales who talk about Chavez‘s views critical of the U.S.


    The President who has reportedly said that he enjoyed the Stone documentary, on Thursday said that he was considering taking Stone‘s invitation to the world premiere of the film.

  • Bella Thorne in HBO’s Big Love

    MUMBAI: Bella Thorne has been signed to play an important role on the upcoming fourth season of HBO‘s Big Love.

    It is understood that the role Thorne was to play was Christie, Barb‘s (Jeanne Tripplehorn) niece and Cindy‘s (Judith Hoag) daughter who has deep anger issues.


    But sources indicate that Thorne will in fact play Barb‘s daughter Tancy, replacing Jolean Wejbe, who played the role the first three seasons of the polygamist drama.


    Thorne recently played Christian Slater‘s daughter on NBC‘s My Own Worst Enemy and on ABC‘s Dirty Sexy Money.

  • The Twilight Saga: New Moon Midnight to screen at 382 locations

    MUMBAI: Regal Entertainment Group, a picture exhibitor owning and operating the largest theatre circuit in the United States has announced that tickets are now on sale for the midnight screenings of Summit Entertainment`s The Twilight Saga: New Moon.

    Fans will throng 382 Regal Entertainment Group locations in evening of 19 November to enjoy the midnight shows.


    Said Regal Entertainment senior vice president marketing and advertising Dick Westerling, “Our moviegoers can be amongst the first to see New Moon at special midnight shows in 382 Regal Entertainment Group theatres across the country.


    “Regal is excited to present the latest release based on Stephenie Meyer‘s bestselling book series. This film has a tremendous amount of awareness from fans around the world and is one of the most highly anticipated movies of the year.”

  • Times Group likely to take 10% in K Sera Sera

    MUMBAI: Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd, the company that owns The Times of India Group, is mulling a 10 per cent stake in K Sera Sera Productions Ltd, a film production company.

    K Sera Sera will be issuing convertible warrants to BCCL. “BCCL has in-principle agreed to subscribe to the warrants of the company, amounting to up to 10 per cent equity. The investment could be to the tune of Rs 100 million,” K Sera Sera managing director Sanjay Lai tells Indiantelevision.com.


    K Sera Sera board will meet on 7 September to consider and approve the proposal. The BCCL investment could substantially shore up investor interest in K Sera Sera as the movie company is working on a revival plan.


    Indiantelevision.com was the first to report that K Sera Sera had plans to raise Rs 1 billion through a global depositary receipt (GDR) offering. The company has lined up a slate of 10 movies and will be investing Rs 1 billion towards this.


    In an earlier GDR, the original promoters of K Sera Sera had exited. The GDR holders have 57.90 per cent stake in the company, while 41.32 per cent is with the public.


    K Sera Sera has announced plans to bid for an IPL (Indian Premier League) team. “We are studying the process of bidding and are interested to own an IPL team. Funding is not a constraint,” says Lai.


    IPL chairman Lalit Modi had stated that an IPL team would cost between $250-300 million. It remains to be seen how K Sera Sera can find the resources to get into the big league of cricket.

  • Fame opens 2nd multiplex in Pune


    MUMBAI: Fame Cinemas today unveiled its new three-screen multiplex Fame Fun-n-Shop Mall in Pune.


    With this multiplex, Fame now owns two properties in Pune.Fame Fun-n-Shop is a fully 2k digital theatre and has a capacity of 1015 seats.


    Speaking on the occasion, Fame Cinemas MD Shravan Shroff said, “With Fame Fun-n-Shop, we have covered two very different catchment areas of Pune, thereby targeting a wide range of audience.”


    Fame now owns a total of 25 multiplex properties across India.

  • Warner tops as Hollywood continues bull run

    MUMBAI: Hollywood has had its fourth straight good run overseas, amassing $7 billion during the eight-month period ended August, up from $6.9 billion a year ago.

    Warner Bros. stood at the top, raking in $1.41 billion with the support of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, according to Nielsen EDI. Harry Potter mopped up $611.1 million from the overseas market. Incidentally, Prince emerged as the fifth title in the six-film series to gross more than $600 million internationally.


    The biggest title for Paramount Pictures was DreamWorks‘ Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen that grossed $428.6 million, significantly contributing to the $1.25 billion the production house garnered through August.


    Sony also recently hit the $1 billion international box-office mark with Ron Howard‘s Angels & Demons that grossed $351 million from overseas collections since 13 May. Terminator Salvation grossed $246 million since 27 May, nearly doubling its domestic take.


    Disney has reported total foreign box-office to date of $934.5 million, slightly ahead of its 2008 figure ($926 million) with Pixar‘s Up making $155.5 million abroad.


    This year, Universal has recorded $800 million from the offshore box-office with the action title Fast & Furious jumping the season by opening internationally in April and driving its way to $195 million so far.


    Last year, films from all six major studios grossed a total of $9.9 billion overseas, marginally up by 4 per cent from 2007‘s $9.5 billion.


    Trade analysts hope that the same would continue with a good line up of upcoming titles through the year‘s end.


    Among Sony‘s upcoming titles are Julie & Julia starring Meryl Streep and disaster film 2012 directed by Roland Emmerich. From the Disney stable, later this month, comes a Bruce Willis sci-fi thriller Surrogates followed by director Robert Zemeckis‘ 3D animated film based on A Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey.


    The trade expects Universal‘s Inglourious Basterds, directed by Quentin Tarantino, will continue its running streak till December and so will Pixar/Disney‘s Up.



  • PIFF to honour Yash Chopra

    MUMBAI: South Korea‘s most prestigious film festival The Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) has decided to honour filmmaker Yash Chopra as the ‘Asian Filmmaker of the Year‘ at this year‘s event.
    The PIFF praised Chopra for making ‘remarkable contributions‘ in establishing Hindi cinema on the global stage.
    “His efforts in raising the international profile of Indian movies through joint investments and co-productions with Hollywood have been highly acknowledged,” the PIFF said in a statement.

    India‘s leading film production company, Yash Raj Films founded by Chopra, 76, has been “a hotbed of developing new talent. His tireless five-decade long devotion has made considerable contributions to enhance the global status of Indian films as well as Asian cinema, “the PIFF said.

    The festival will be held from 8 to 16 October in Busan, earlier known as Pusan.