ITV

Category: Movies

  • ‘Shob Charitro Kalponik’ to be screened at Durban Film Festival

    MUMBAI: Big Pictures‘ Bengali film Shob Charitro Kalponik (All characters are ficticious) directed by Rituparno Ghosh‘s has been selected for the ongoing 30th Durban Film Festival that is being held from 22 July and will go on to 2 August.

    Shob Charitro Kalponik that stars Bipasha Basu, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Jisshu Sengupta, Pauli Dam and Sohag Sen will be screened in the Panorama Section of the festival along with films by directors like Woody Allen, the Dardenne Brothers, Lars von Trier, Laurent Cantet, Steven Soderbergh, Takeshi Kitano and Michael Winterbottom.


    Written and directed by Ghosh, Shob Charitro Kalponik is the story of Radhika‘s journey into the life of her late poet-husband, Indraneel and the revelations and contradictions she learns about Indraneel as a poet and husband.


    Says Big Pictures COO Mahesh Ramanathan, “Our efforts to broaden international horizons for Bengali films are beginning to be successful. Rituparno‘s work has been widely acclaimed globally. Shob Charitro Kalponik‘s selection in the Panorama Section of Durban film festival is a first ever premiere for a Bengali film in the African continent.


    “With this success, Big Pictures has now secured selection for 10 of its world cinema titles in over 12 prestigious international festivals in the last six months. It‘s a historical first for any production house in India.”


    Shob Charitro Kalponik is expected to release on 28 August in India.

  • UTV kick-starts theatrical release of World Cinema with ‘Waltz with Bashir’

    MUMBAI: With the acquisition of 140 new titles this year for theatrical release, UTV World Movies has gone beyond television screens to take its audience on a cinematic journey.

    The channel has announced its foray into the theatrical release of its award-winning titles with the premiere of Waltz with Bashir, an Israeli animated film that will be followed by The Song of Sparrows and I Always Wanted To Be A Gangster and The Counterfeiters.


    Directed by Ari Folman, Waltz with Bashir is a personal account of the horrors of the 1982 Lebanon War. The film will have its premiere at the PVR Phoenix Mills on 29 July that will have a large number Bollywood celebrities including famous directors and stars attending.


    One of the film‘s producers, Roman Paul would join the celebrations that will have a large number of Bollywood celebrities including famous directors and stars attending.


    Announcing the launch of the first theatrical release, UTV World Movies Business Head Sameer Ganpathy said, “Being on television that caters to World Cinema for the last 18 months and in the home video business along with Shemaroo Entertainment for the last eight months, we felt that this was the best time to venture into theatrical release of films from this genre.”


    “Selected of the 700 films already in our library, these films are between one to two years old while a handful are old but cinematic gems,” Ganpathy adds.



    The winner of the best foreign film award at this year‘s Golden Globe Awards, the film was also nominated at this year‘s Academy Awards. The film has also bagged multiple film honours including a Golden Globe award for best foreign film, best animated feature award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and both the best picture award and best foreign language film award from the National Society of Film Critics.

  • FWICE wants ‘no work’ on Independence Day


    MUMBAI: The Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) has declared that no production activities like shooting, recording, post-production of films, serials, video albums, etc. should be held on 15 August, it being Independence Day.


    Any said activities logged on that day can put producers in unavoidable circumstances.

  • T-Series acquires music rights of ‘3 Idiots’


    MUMBAI: T- Series has bagged the music rights of 3 Idiots.
    The film produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra and directed by Rajkumar Hirani.


    The film is based on a famous novel Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat has Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, R.Madhavan, Sharman Joshi and Boman Irani in lead roles.


    The music of the film has been composed by Shantanu Moitra while lyrics are penned by Swanand Kirkire.


    The film is slated for release on 25 December.

  • TBS orders additional episodes of ‘Tyler Perry’s ‘House of Payne’

    MUMBAI: TBS has ordered 20 episodes of the comedy Tyler Perry‘s House of Payne additionally taking the total for the series to 172 episodes.

    TBS has ordered 46 new episodes of House of Payne in recent weeks. House of Payne and its spinoff, Tyler Perry‘s Meet the Browns, rank as ad-supported cable‘s top two original sitcoms of all time among adults 18 to 49, viewers and households.


    So far this year, the shows are television‘s top two series in delivery of African-American adults 18 to 34. House of Payne is distributed by Debmar-Mercury and licensed by TBS.


    “Tyler Perry has created the first sitcom in history to reach this many episodes in just two years, an amazing achievement that only a handful of top comedies have been able to achieve after many, many years,” said Debmar-Mercury‘s co-president, Mort Marcus.

  • 20th Century Props to go under hammer

    MUMBAI: After four decades of being in Hollywood, 20th Century Props is reported to be going out of business putting more than 93,000 items, from the rattan furniture used on The Golden Girls to Howard Hughes‘ desk from The Aviator, under the hammer next week.

    The outfit was unable to stay in business, as more and more production has left California for cheaper destinations, while the networks have scaled back on drama series in favor of more cost-effective unscripted options. 20th Century Props‘ some 93,752 pieces, insured for about $8 million, will be offered through an auction that runs July 28 to August 1, beginning each day at 9:30 a.m. PST.


    The pieces will be auctioned by Great American Group from 20th Century Props‘ 118,000 square-foot warehouse and live via webcast at www.greatamerican.com with simultaneous bidding.


    “This is a time to honour and recognise 20th Century Props led by Mr. Harvey Schwartz,” observed Mark Weitz of Great American Group. “We expect interest from around the world as this is an historic collection of Hollywood memorabilia.”

  • Robert Rodart to helm Spielberg pilot

    The story of the pilot is set shortly after aliens have wiped out most of the human population and centers on a ragtag group of soldiers and civilians led by widower Tom Mason (Noah Wyle) who struggle against the occupying alien force.

    In the pilot, directed by Carl Franklin, Bloodgood, Schram, Gabriel and Knight all play members of the group. Bloodgood will play Anne Glass, as the rapist working with the children to help them with the trauma of the alien invasion.


    Schram will play Karen, an athletic tomboy who works as a motorcycle scout. Gabriel will play Lourdes, a pretty teenager who has lost family and helps run the camp‘s makeshift commissary.

  • Taylor Hackford is DGA president

    MUMBAI: Taylor Hackford will succeed Michael Apted as president of the Directors Guild of America (DGA).

    Hackford was chosen during the Guild‘s biennial national convention at the Directors Guild headquarters in Hollywood on Saturday last. Steven Soderbergh was re-elected national VP and Gilbert Cates was re-elected secretary-treasurer. Hackford faces the challenge of navigating the next round of contract negotiations looming in 2011.


    The 135 delegates on hand also elected members of a new national board of directors. The DGA includes more than 14,000 members. After a year and a half of labor unrest which included a four-month writers strike and a protracted stand-off for the actors union.


    Hackford took aim at Internet piracy in a statement after his victory. “We have to be aware of the challenges we‘re facing in protecting our work on the Internet,” said Hackford. “What‘s euphemistically called ‘Internet Piracy,‘ I choose to call by its true name, ‘Internet Theft.‘ It threatens the future of our economic lives: our employment, residuals and pension and health plans. Solutions won‘t come easy, but they must be found, if we are going to survive as professional filmmakers.”


    The WGA contract expires on 1 May 2011 while the SAG, AFTRA and DGA deals expire two months later on June 30.

  • Top officials from UTV motion pictures division resign

    MUMBAI: UTV‘s two senior executives from the motion pictures division have put in their papers.

    UTV Rampage Motion Pictures chief creative officer Ram Mirchandani and UTV Motion Pictures COO – production Alpana Mishra are serving their notice period till mid-August.


    “15 August will be my last day with the company,” she quips.


    Mirchandani, who has had a six-year stint with UTV, is planning to produce films independently though his newly established production house Rampage Motion Pictures.


    “Rampage Motion Pictures was set up three months back. I plan to produce commercially viable independent films under this banner,” says Mirchandani.


    “I will make an exit from UTV around 13 August, once the projects that I am associated with are released,” Mirchandani adds.

  • ‘Tum Mile’- first Bollywod film on natural disaster

    MUMBAI: Sony Music in association with Vishesh Films is the final stage of production of Tum Mile– a film that shows the city of Mumbai as never before. They have recently released the first-look poster of the film and have also come up with a theatrical trailer.

    The film shows the city of Mumbai engulfed by giant clouds on the night of 26 July, 2005. The film starring Emraan Hashmi and Soha Ali Khan is slated to release on 13 November.


    Says Sony Music Managing Director Shridhar Subramaniam, “Tum Mile is the first disaster movie in Bollywood of this scale. And it is quite necessary to showcase the scale, the canvas and the authenticity of the deluge to the audience. When it comes to entertainment, the first impression might not be the last one, but it definitely does a lot in carving setting up the project in audiences‘ minds.”


    Mahesh Bhatt agrees, “The idea behind the first-look poster and theatrical teaser is to showcase the true hero of Tum Mile which is the storm and the deluge. The fear lies in the unknown and its anticipation. Both these units make you feel the fear of the impending danger looming over the city.”


    “I think this is one of those few images that are both emotionally and rationally strong. It evokes fear while at the same time also flaunts the scale of the movie. Tum Mile being the first natural disaster movie in India on this scale – it was necessary to showcase the extent we have gone to re-create the Mumbai deluge. And it has to be seen to be believed,” adds Mukesh Bhatt.


    The first look image has been designed by Archan Nair. “The brief given to me was to show the city of Mumbai as never seen before. It had to showcase the wrath of nature and evoke awe and fear at the same time. It took me over 3 months, over 100 reiterations and over a 300 layers to create this image. At the end of it, I think it‘s worth the pain” Nair divulges.