Category: Movies

MUMBAI: Super Cassettes Industries Ltd (T-Series) has threatened to drag Percept Picture Company to court if it releases the upcoming Akshay Kumar starrer 8X10 Tasveer.

T-Series had, on 28 August 2008, entered into an agreement with Percept Pictures to jointly produce the film Tasveer, now renamed 8X10 Tasveer. T-Series was to also hold the music rights.

However, on 4 March 2009, T-Series decided to pull out of the agreement, and the issue was settled amicably. As per the new deal, it was agreed that the music label would keep the music rights and withdraw from being a co-producer. The money (50 per cent of the project cost of the film) was to be returned to T-Series in two post-dated cheques.

T-Series alleged that though Percept honoured the first payment of Rs 5 million, the second tranche of Rs 66.7 million was not made. As a counter-move, T-Series said it would enter back as co-producers and asked the laboratory to stop the delivery of film prints/negatives until further notice in writing.

“The company shall take legal action to protect its interests and rights,” T-Series said in a statement.

When contacted, Percept Picture CEO Navin Shah told Indiantelevision.com that the issue has been resolved. “There was some miscommunication from the bank‘s side and we have given a new DD of the same amount to T-Series. We will be releasing the movie as per schedule and T-Series will hold the music rights,” he said.

However, T-Series president – Marketing, Media, and Publishing (TV) Vinod Bhanushali refuted this. “As of now, we have not received any DD and are planning to take legal action,” he said.

T-Series has urged the film and entertainment industry and trade not to deal with any rights in the film without prior written consent of Super Cassettes Industries Limited. If they do so, they shall be liable for damages and legal action at the option of Super Cassettes Industries (T-Series), the company said.

Clearly, this is one T-Series musical note that Percept Picture Company wouldn‘t like to hear.

MUMBAI: Adlabs USA, a subsidiary of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, will distribute Zee Entertainment Enterprises‘ (Zeel) next production Manorama in the US.

Directed by Eeswar Reddy, the Telugu film will hit the US screens on 27 March, coinciding with the occasion of Ugadi (New Year festival in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka).

“Manorama belongs to a romantic thriller genre. The plot unveils to relate the life of Manorama and how her name relates to the story. It is a woman centric film that has been woven around the present society,” says director Eeswar Reddy.

Hong Kong: Fifty-nine per cent of the respondents of a survey of exhibitors conducted at Hong Kong International Film and Television Market (Filmart) said that the Chinese mainland would be the market of greatest potential for the overall entertainment industry.

More than 60 per cent of the respondents said that the overall business results over the past 12 months were ‘very good’ or ‘quite good’. TV had the greatest growth prospects, followed by digital entertainment and films, the respondents felt.

Sixty-seven per cent of the respondents said that the TV industry also had good prospects in the mainland, followed by the digital entertainment industry with 56 per cent, and 54 per cent from the film industry.

According to a Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) press release, the results were obtained from face-to-face interviews about markets and industry trends from 330 industry players from across the world.

China had the largest potential for Hong Kong (HK) content, with Taiwan ranked as second largest for HK content in TV and the digital entertainment. The USA ranked second as the market with the largest potential for the film industry.

China was the most popular place to start a business in the next three years with a ranking of 56 per cent, with HK coming in second at 53 per cent.

Respondents regarded HK as the best platform for reaching the Chinese mainland and other Asian markets with 74 per cent agreeing that HK was a major Asian content production, distribution, trading and film financing center.

Ninety-five per cent said that co-production would continue as a hot trend and 81 per cent agreed that cross-border convergence is expected to bring in more business opportunities.

Hong Kong: Indian buyers at the 13th edition of Filmart in Hong Kong are a dissatisfied lot this year.

“There are very few action films of the kind that are popular in India on offer at Filmart this year,” says a regular buyer at film markets such as Filmart and Cannes. “There are a number of subtle factors involved in the decision to buy films at Hong Kong,” he added.

“While there are fewer cinema goers because of the meltdown, the price of movie rights has not gone down this year. In some cases, the charges have gone up,” revealed another film buyer.

Jackie Chan’s diminishing popularity in India is another important deterrence for buyers from India. His type of films are either too expensive or not viable. “Viewer fatigue with Jackie Chan and martial arts movies has started happening in India,” said an Indian buyer from South India.

“The really big films that will be well accepted will have buyers, and the sellers of big films generally provide the buyer with a reverse negative print. But Indian film buyers will be selective in picking up small films,” said a buyer from Mumbai.

Another big bugbear for Indian buyers at Filmart is conversion of the films that are hawked here. Very few of the sellers have the films in the internegative format. Most sellers at Filmart generally provide the movies on HDCAM or DigiBeta format.

Indian buyers need the content on Reverse Negatives (RN), since very few Indian theatres run movies using digital projection. Cost of conversion, though lower in India, could adversely affect the viability of screening the film in the Indian sub-continent.

“I know of buyers from India who are still sitting on the films that they purchased rights for during the last edition of Filmart because conversion and dubbing is a big cost factor. Quality dubbing in the different Indian languages also affects the profitability,” said another Indian buyer.

MUMBAI: Late British reality TV star Jade Goody‘s (27) life story may soon shape into a Hollywood movie. Based on her autobiography Catch a Falling Star, the movie, temporarily titled the same, will highlight Goody‘s poverty stricken childhood and later her battle with cancer.

Trustees of Goody‘s fund set up to aid her two sons reportedly proposed the idea of making a biographical film on her. Through the movie, they also plan to raise awareness of cervical cancer among the masses. Nick Love of The Football Factory fame has been approached for this project.

Goody died on Sunday after battling cervical cancer for around seven months. She is survived by her husband Jack Tweed and two sons Bobby (5) and Freddie (4).

Hong Kong: Jackie Chan could find his way into the Goa international film festival this November. “We have invited Jackie Chan for the 40th International Film Festival,” revealed Directorate of Film Festivals director SM Khan while speaking with www.indiantelevision.com at the 13th Edition of Filmart at Hong Kong today.

“We have plans to showcase six or seven of his films through a special Jackie Chan section,” added Khan.

Last year Hollywood’s John Landis, Frenchwoman Catherine Deneuve and Iranian Niki Karima were the foreign film personalities who were invited for the Goa International Film Festival.

‘Next month we will begin calling for entries for the international competition at the Goa Filmfest. From the entries that we receive, 21 movies will be shortlisted. An international jury will pick up the best,” said Khan.

Hong Kong: The Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum today announced the winners for the HAF awards, the Technicolor Bangkok awards, the Lacarno Open Doors awards and the Paris Project awards.

The HAF Excellence award this year was presented to Charlie Young, director of Christmas Rose (Hong Kong), for being the first project to successfully achieve full financing at the HAF.

Wanted by Dante Lam and The Murderer by Na Hong-jin were awarded HKD 100,000 (USD13,000 approx) each for projects originating in Hong Kong and outside of Hong Kong respectively.

The Technicolor Bangkok awards of $20,000 (approx. HKD 156,000) each were given to Blood Maple and the Passion of the Kid (Thailand) by Chartchai Ketnust and Veritigo (Vietnam) by Chuyen Bui Thac.

The Locarno Open Doors award – 5,000 Euros (HKD 50,000) – were presented to Help By Li Ying and Winter Vacation by Li Hong-qi. Both the projects are from the Chinese mainland. The projects will be invited to participate at the Locarno International Film Festival’s Open Door’s award section in 2009. Two round trips and hotel accommodations will be provided to each project.

The Paris Project award –Euros 5,000 (HKD 50,000) – was presented to And Protect, Protected by Baomi Kawase (Japan). This includes one round trip and hotel accommodation at the Paris Cinema International Film Festival to participate in the Paris Project 2009.This year’s line-up included film projects from 11 territories.

The HAF is one of the leading hubs of film-financing in Asia. This year it saw a 38 per cent increase in applicants for places in the forum, with guest registrations numbering over 900. This year’s Forum has also organised close to 500 successfully concluded meetings.

MUMBAI: The Indo-Polish Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IPCCI) has partnered with Epelpol Entertainment

to organize the ‘Experience the Real Taste of India‘ Film Festival in Poland.

The seven-day Hindi film fest, which opened in Warsaw on 24 March, will travel to 12 Polish towns including Poznan, Wroclaw, Gdansk, Koszlin, Lodz, Szezecin and Bydogosz.

The festival was inaugurated with Deepa Mehta‘s Water.

Hong Kong: The opening ceremony for the fifth Entertainment Expo Hong Kong (EEHK) and the third Asian Film Awards was held yesterday evening at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC).

“Covering nine multimedia events in four critical sectors – film, television, digital entertainment and music – Entertainment Expo has firmly cast Hong Kong as the entertainment capital of Asia,” said HKTDC Chairman Jack So.

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Financial Secretary John Tsang said, “We will shortly establish a new office – “Create Hong Kong” (CreateHK) – to support the development of our creative industries. CreateHK will realign resources from various government departments to enable us to respond more effectively to the industries‘ demands, and better serve them through a one-stop service.”

Jang added, “In my Budget last month, I earmarked $300 million, to support the development of our creative industries over the coming three years. This will be in addition to the existing funding schemes established to support our design and film sectors. The Government‘s total financial commitment to creative industries is currently more than $1 billion.”

EEHK’s three founding events include the Hong Kong International Film and Television Market, or Filmart, the Hong Kong International Film Festival and the Hong Kong Film Awards Presentation Ceremony. EEHK also features six core events: the Asian Film Awards; the Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum; the Hong Kong Music Fair; the IFPI Hong Kong Top Sales Music Award 2008; the Digital Entertainment Leadership Forum 2009; and the Hong Kong Independent Short Film and Video Awards.

Hong Kong: During Hong Kong’s 100th year of movie making, Japanese films walked away with awards in five of the 13 categories at the 3rd Asian Film Awards organised by the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society.

Tokyo Sonata, a story that portrays the breakdown of a Japanese family after its patriarch loses his job at a prominent company, was awarded Best film.

Tokyo Sonata also received the best screenwriter award for its screenwriter trio of Kurosawa Kiyoshi, Max Mannix and Tanaka Sachiko from Japan, The Netherlands and Hong Kong respectively.

Hirokazu won the best director award for his Still Walking, a film about a family commemorating the drowning of one of its family members.

Oscar award winning film (Best foreign language film) Departures lead star Motoki Masahiro was awarded Best Actor for his performance in the film. In the film Motoki plays a cellist who works in a funeral parlor business after his orchestra is dissolved. India’s Akhsay Kumar was among the nominees for this category for his performance in the Hindi super-hit film Singh is Kinng.

Japan’s Hisaishi Joe won the award for the best composer for his music composition for Ponyo on the Cliff. India’s AR Rahman composition for Jodha Akbar among other’s had also been nominated for this category.

Zhou Xun won the best actress award for the mainland Chinese film The Equation of Love and Death. India’s Deepika Podukone was also in the reckoning for this category for her performance in Chandni Chowk to China.

India’s Nitin Chandrasekhar was one of the nominees for best production designer award for Jodha Akbar. The award was won by Daniel Yan-kong Lee for Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon.

The Nielsen Box Office award was conferred on India’s Priyanka Chopra. The Edward Yang New Talent Award was conferred on Taiwanese director Wei Te-Sheng. Hong Kong director Tsui Hark and his wife Shi Nansun were presented with the Outstanding Contribution to Asia Cinema award.

Awards for the other categories went to: Best Newcomer – Mainland China’s Yu Shaoqun (Forever Enthralled); Best Supporting Actor – South Korean Jung Woo-sung (The Good, the Bad, the Weird); Best Supporting Actress – Filipino Gina Pareno (Service);Best Cinematographer Europe’s Jola Dylewska (Tulpan) ; Best Editor South Korea’s Kim Sun-min (The Chaser);Best Visual Effects – Craig Hayes from the Chinese mainland (Red Cliff).

The award ceremony was held at Hong Kong yesterday. Michelle Yeoh was the president of the jury that decided the awards.

The glittering ceremony was hosted by VJ and MC Derek Li, Monaco born Hong Kong’s top model Lisa S and character actor Terence Yin. The awards ceremony was tastefully interspaced with audio visuals and performances by Justin Lo and Alan, among others.