Category: Movies

MUMBAI: The Singapore government has earmarked $156 million over five years to develop the country‘s media content sector. This is in addition to $340 million already committed to interactive digital media research and development.

This initiative is part of the government‘s ongoing plan to attract the world‘s creative community to partner with Singapore media companies.

Accordingly, the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) announced three of its new initiatives at the Cannes Film Market.

The government‘s plan aims to provide the best environment for media business, while leveraging R&D to position Singapore at the leading edge of digital media. Emphasising the creation of new intellectual properties, as well as the formation of new digital media industries. The three initiatives outlined by the MDA include:

The International Film Fund: (TIFF) Provided to Singapore-based production and post-production companies with the opportunity to executive produce and/or co-produce films of global appeal with international partners, MDA launched The International Film Fund (TIFF), the latest funding initiative which will encourage projects to be shot in and out of Singapore.

The fund will allow a contribution of up to $3.4 million per project, covering 17 to 20 projects ranging from animation, live-action features and post-production projects. MDA will take a share of the rights and revenues of the films as appropriate for its investment.

The TIFF is in addition to $882 million of private equity investment in Singapore that is currently available to filmmakers.

Stereoscopic 3D Development Fund: As a result of its inaugural 3DX Festival, a global gathering of the stereoscopic 3D filmed entertainment and technology sectors which took place last November, Singapore has earmarked $6.7 million for its stereoscopic 3D Development Fund.

Under this fund, Singapore has committed to co-produce a slate of three 3D films, all of which will be in production by the end of March 2010, and which are being offered for pre-sale at Cannes. The first title of the slate is Amphibious, a science fiction adventure project to be directed by Brian Yuzna.

Mediapolis @ one-north: Currently under-development, Mediapolis @ one-north is a state-of-the-art studio complex which offers sound stages, digital production, post-production, broadcast and distribution facilities. A colaboration between the Singapore Government and private sector investors, Mediapolis @ one-north will span 47 acres (19 hectares) and will serve as a catalyst for film, television, animation, video game and emerging new media production.

In addition to the studio complex, the master plan for Mediapolis @ one-north includes research and development labs and work lofts as well as retail and recreation amenities and accommodations.

MUMBAI: Car manufacturing company Renault is this year‘s official sponsor for the Cannes Film Festival.

As part of the agreement, from 13 to 24 May, a fleet of about hundred vehicles including 70 Vel Satis and 30 Espace will drive film personalities and festival guests to and from the venue.

It may be recalled that Louis Renault‘s Voiturette appeared in the Lumi?re brothers‘ early films in 1899, when the first film studios were built in Boulogne-Billancourt at the same time as the first Renault factory came up on the Ile Seguin.

Renault is continuing its commitment to film and television production today through an active policy of sponsorship and product placements. Several models from the Renault range are featured in films in this Festival‘s official selection including Les Herbes Folles by Alain Resnais.

Renault has also been encouraging Les Toiles Enchantées, a not-for-profit organisation chaired by Alain Chabat that screens movies in children‘s hospitals, by lending two vehicles to transport projection equipment and crews to children in hospitals around Cannes.

MUMBAI: Reliance ADAG‘s Big Pictures is gearing up to market 18 new films to the international buyers, distributors and media during the upcoming Cannes Film Festival ‘09.While Kites, staring Hrithik Roshan and Barbara Mori, will serve as the production company‘s

tent pole international movie at the festival, the other films from the Big Pictures basket include both various regional (Bengali, Marathi, Malayalam and Kannada) as well as World cinema projects.

Part of the Bengali film genre, the 18-film list has Rituparno Ghosh‘s Abhomaan and Shob Charitrao Kalponik. While Abhomaan stars Dipankar De, Mamta Shankar, Jisshu Sengupta, Shob Charitrao Kalponik stars Bipasha Basu and Prosenjit Chatterjee in pivotal roles.

Bengali film director Baddhadeb Dasgupta‘s Janala, starring Tapas Paul, Swastika Mukherjee and Indranil SenGupta, will also participate in the 2009 festival.

The other films from the regional kitty are Malayalam director Shaji N Karun‘s film Kutty Srank, Kannada director M S Sathyu‘s Ijjodu and Marathi film actor and director Amol Palekar‘s Samaantar.

Films such as Piyush Jha‘s Sikandar, David Dhawan‘s Do Knot Disturb, Shyam Benegal‘s Well Done Abba, Vinod Pande‘s Chaloo Movie, Simerjit Singh‘s Chak Jawana and Vinay Shukla‘s Mirch will also be promoted at Cannes this year. , The films are in various stages of production.

The Big Pictures‘ catalogue for the festival will also include films like Ghajini, Rock On!, Luck By Chance and 13 B.

Amongst other production houses, Eros will promote Saif Ali Khan‘s
first home production Love Aajkal and Amitabh Bachchan starrer Aladin while UTV Motion Pictures will unveil its slate for 2009-10 to international distributors.

UTV will also focus on non-traditional European, South East Asian and Latin American markets for their earlier films like Jodhaa Akbar, Taare Zameen Par, Swades, Delhi 6, Dev D, Rang De Basanti, A Wednesday, Welcome to Sajjanpur and Fashion.

MUMBAI: Eagle Films has entered into a tripartite agreement with the Berlin-based production companies Advise Film and TV Production and the Austrian group Wega to co-produce a feature film tentatively titled Waltz on the Raga.

This agreement follows a long and positive interface between Umesh Mehra and Nils Vise, managing directors of Eagle Films and Advise respectively, at a location marketing event organised by the Film & Television Producers Guild of India at Mumbai in collaboration with Berlin Partner GMBH (coordinated by Mr. Kamal Roy, Director of the Berlin Asia Pacific Film Festival) in November 2008.

The letter of intent to co-produce the movie was formally endorsed by the respective managing directors of the two companies and Dr. Veit Heiduschka, their counterpart in Wega, at Vienna some days back.

Guild President Manmohan Shetty expressed his elation on the agreement which justifies the premier objective in organizing such events. Shetty stated that this agreement will undoubtedly herald a new chapter in co-production ventures between Guild members and prospective international producers.

Guild Secretary General Supran Sen expressed his pleasure at this tie-up and hoped that more such deals can be cracked in the future through enterprising initiatives undertaken by the Guild on the lines of the November event.

MUMBAI: Tata Elxsi, Prime Focus and Shemaroo Entertainment featured prominently in The Golden Cursor Animation Awards held in Mumbai recently.
While Tata Elxsi bagged three awards for Roadside Romeo, Prime Focus bagged two; one for its special effects in Love Story 2050 and the other for LG.

Shemaroo Entertainment bagged two awards – one for its mobile game Ghatotkach: Eat on Before Dawn and the next for Rhyme time in Toyland in the best animated edutainment content category.

In its second year, the awards were graced by the presence of world renowned animation and gaming artistes – Anthony Christov, Art Director for the Academy Award winning Wall-E and BAFTA winning Ian Livingstone of Tomb Raider fame as the chief guests for the evening.

A highlight this year was the ‘Amateur Storytelling Contest‘ that received more than 200 entries.

The winners of Golden Cursor Animation Awards were chosen after a comprehensive three-stage process that involved the Indian Animation Industry nominating some of their best work across 25 categories.

Post that, a panel of experts shortlisted the top 3-5 nominees in every category and the same were presented to an eminent jury panel comprising the animation industry‘s most revered names, who shortlisted the entries based on the pre-determined parameters.

The distinguished panel of judges for the awards included Madhusudanan – Director and CEO-Geon Studios, Mr.Madhavan – CEO-Crest animation, Gitanjali Rao – Animation film maker, Yunus Bukhari – VFX Producer, Artery Animation & Fx, Ashish Kulkarni – CEO, Big Animation, Puneet Sharma – Technical Advisor, Arena Animation & Anand Gurnani – CEO, Animationxpress.com

Prominent winners of the awards were : best animated feature film Roadside Romeo – Yash Raj Films, Walt Disney and Tata Elxsi, best student short film Stuk, best short film Professional Samba Mamba (Ooga Booga) – Vaibhav Studios, best animated TV series Chota Bheem – Greengold, best animated TVC (TV commercial) Sulekha.com – Famous Studios, best animation PSA (Public Service Announcement) Flavours – Viacom 18, best channel Id/promo Flying Menace (Ooga Booga) by Vaibhav Studios.

Other awards were best title sequence Roadside Romeo Yashraj Film Studios and Walt Disney, best animation/live action LG – Prime Focus, best VFX feature film, Love Story 2050 – Prime Focus, best lyrics Roadside Romeo, Yashraj Film Studios and Walt Disney, best music Roadside Romeo Yashraj Film Studios and Walt Disney, best animation (Professional) Roadside Romeo-Tata Elxsi.

Best mobile game Ghatotkach: Eat on Before Dawn Shemaroo Entertainment, best online casual game Conga Bugs – Game Tantra, best PC game Ghajini FX Labs, best animated edutainment content Rhyme time in Toyland Shemaroo Entertainment, Best Comics Moksha – Vimanika, Best Console Game Hanuman Boy Warrior – Aurona Studios and many others.

MUMBAI: In celebration of the International Family Day (15 May), Excel Home Videos has brought together all-time great family film titles on DVD.

The DVDs are perfectly suited and entertaining for kids and grown-ups alike, where one can find touching stories on the fears, joy and adventures of children and adults young at heart.

The DVDs include The Sound of Music, Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang, King and I , Big
Cheaper By The Dozen, Little Miss Sunshine, Keeping Up With The Steins, Home Alone, Ice Age, Horton Hears a Who! and Night At The Museum.

NEW DELHI: The DVD of Billu, a film by Shah Rukh Khan’s home production Red Chilies, has been released by Eros, less than three months after its commercial release.

Costing Rs 299, the DVD has additional features like Making of the film, Making of Songs

–Marjaani, Hit Hitand Khudaya Khair. It also contains some scenes which were not shown in the theatrical release.

Produced by Gauri Khan and directed by renowned director Priyadarshan, the film has besides Shah Rukh Khan, Irrfan Khan, Lara Dutta, Om Puri and comedian Rajpal Yadav. The film also has Kareena Kapoor, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra in special appearances in three item songs. The film‘s music has been composed by Pritam who has set tunes to the lyrics of Gulzar.

Billu is the story of a simple ordinary man Bilas Rao Pardesi, a barber by profession and lives with his wife Bindiya and two kids in the village. One fine day a superstar enters their life. Changes are witnessed in their life, in terms of the people residing in the village and friends, but Billu does not change.

MUMBAI: This year‘s Cannes Film Festival, due to be held from 13 to 24 May, will have hordes of Bollywood films to be showcased.

Films like Aladin, Kites and What‘s your Rashee are among the prominent ones to be showcased at the Cannes Film Market.

Eros is promoting Saif Ali Khan‘s first home production Love Aajkal and Amitabh Bachchan

starrer Aladin. Both the films are Eros co-productions and the company is distributing them worldwide.

UTV Motion Pictures will unveil its slate for 2009-10 to international distributors. What‘s Your Rashee, directed by Ashutosh Gowariker with Priyanka Chopra and Harman Baweja in lead roles, is a romantic comedy which will see Priyanka playing 12 roles.

Other UTV films include the animated features Arjun – The Warrior Prince directed by Arnab Chaudhari and Alibaba and the 41 thieves directed by Soumitra Ranade. Other films from the UTV stable include Paan Singh Tomar, directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia, a biopic with Imran Khan and Mahie Gill in the lead roles.

Big Pictures will unveil the first look of ‘Kites‘ starring Hrithik Roshan, Barbara Mori and Kangana Ranaut and 17 of its art house films directed by Rituparno Ghosh and Amol Palekar among others.

Aage Se Right, directed by Indrajit Nattoji with Shreyas Talpade and Kay Kay Menon in the lead roles, Hook Ya Crook directed by David Dhawan with John Abraham and Genelia D‘Souza and Main Aur Mrs Khann directed by Prem Soni starring Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoor, will also be shown on the occasion.
Kaminey, directed by Vishal Bharadwaj starring Priyanka Chopra and Shahid Kapur, Rajneeti directed by Prakash Jha, Dharma Productions‘ Wake up Sid directed by Ayan Mukherjee starring Ranbir Kapoor, Konkana Sen Sharma and Rensil D‘Silva‘s untitled venture with Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan will also be showcased at the Film Market.

Apart from marketing its forthcoming films, UTV is also focusing on non-traditional European, South East Asian and Latin American markets for their earlier films like Jodhaa Akbar, Taare Zameen Par, Swades, Delhi 6, Dev D, Rang De Basanti, A Wednesday, Welcome to Sajjanpur and Fashion.

MUMBAI: Bollywood is possibly going through its darkest financial period in its over century-old existence. The producer-multiplex row is hurting stakeholders across the board.

Single-screen theatres and multiplexes have cut down on shows to reduce their operational losses. In the past five weeks there have been no new releases in Hindi with just a few in English. Going by the fact that Hindi films draw a large amount of moviegoers than those for English films, footfalls have dropped considerably, as a result of which cinema halls have been facing severe drop in their income.

Single-screen cinema halls in central Mumbai like Premiere and Chitra have seen a drop in revenue of between 60 to 75 per cent. “Though there are no new Hindi releases, Marathi films like Mee Shivajiraje Bhosale Boltoy have kept us afloat,” said Premiere Theatre manager Prem Kamat. “Our business has come down by 75 per cent, I do not want to shut shop as it will go against our ethics.”

Single-screen theatre Plaza that also shows Marathi films has managed to sustain its business to 50 per cent because it is alternating three films between four shows, one screening regularly in the matinee show. etc have been showing Bhojpuri films. “Bhojpuri-speaking cinegoers mainly women along with their children throng our cinemas in the afternoon and the evening shows more so because of the summer vacation in schools,” says Kalpana theatre manager Liaqat Khan.

According to trade analyst N.P. Yadav almost all of the 85 single-screen theatres including the ones in Thane and close to 30 multiplexes have been forced to cancel between five to 25 shows per week. A few Marathi films like Mee Shivajiraje Bhosale Boltoy and a few others have saved theatres located in areas where Marathi filmgoers exist.

Avers executive director Manoj Desai of Maratha Mandir and G-7 theatres like Gaiety, Galaxy, Glamour, Gossip and Gemini, “Our business has gone down by as much as 80 per cent. This situation is graver than the one we saw in 1989, when we were on a month-long strike.” Though Desai has kept his theatres open, he has been forced to cancel 50 shows across the six theatres under his control.

MUMBAI: Mukta Arts has posted a net loss of Rs 18.35 million for the fourth quarter of the fiscal ended 31 March 2009, as against net profit of Rs 112.16 million a year ago.

The revenue of the company slumped 47 per cent to Rs 251.01 million as against Rs 433.36 million in the corresponding quarter of the last fiscal.

The total expenditure of the company also came down to Rs 267.86 million in the quarter as compared to Rs 312 million in the prior year.

For the full year, Mukta Arts‘ net profit fell 66.35 per cent to Rs 43.84 million as against Rs 130.30 million in the previous fiscal. Revenue rose to Rs 1.66 billion, from Rs 1.11 billion in the previous year.

Mukta Arts has four films under production – Right yaaa Wrong (Sunny Deol, Irfan Khan, Konkona Sen, Isha Kopikar); Hello Darling (Celina Jaitley, Gul Panag, Eesha 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 (KP Nishan Nanaiah, Sunny Hinduja, Girija Oak, Ishita Sharma, Dwij Yadav, Tom Alter).