Category: Movies

Hong Kong: Strategizing to rise above the economic downturn and restoring the faith in the film industry, Salon Films (H. K.) Ltd announced strategic alliances with Zhejiang Hengdian Film Production Co. Ltd, Yoshomoto Kogyo Co. Ltd, MediaCorp Raintree Pictures Pte. Ltd, Access Asia (Cayman) Ltd, China Film Foundation, Media Development Authority Singapore, Enlight Pictures, National Arts Entertainment Ltd, and Pearl River Film Company Ltd, at the 13th edition of the Hong Kong International Film and TV Market (Filmart) in Hong Kong.

The alliance will jointly promote development and growth in the region, creating stronger cultural connections between East and West and exploring new commercial opportunities for the film and television industry.

Salon president Fred C Y Wang informed www.indiantelevision.com that the Singapore government has agreed to contribute Singapore $100 million over three years for the venture. Wang has been the driving force behind the alliance.

Wang said, “Professional experts in the region including technical, financing, star powers in front of the screen and producing resources will contribute to the artistic and commercial success, I wish that the filmmakers from the Indian film industry

too become a part of the alliance.”

Representatives of filmmakers from mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore were present at the press conference.

MUMBAI: Percept Picture Company is ready to roll out its next production Aashayein in May. But the date of release will surely not coincide with the head rolling entertainment

property of the Indian Premier League season.

“We will be releasing Aashayein in May but not until the IPL fever is over. The film will see a release only after 24 May,” says PPC distribution head Ashok Ahuja.

Written and directed by Nagesh Kukunoor, the film is co-produced by Percept Picture Company and T-Series. It stars John Abraham and newcomer Sonal Sehgal in the lead roles.

Post Aashayein, PPC plans to push its next production venture onto the big screens pan India during June.

After Aashayein, we will be releasing Raftaar sometime in June. The film stars Imran Hashmi and Aditya Pancholi, Ahuja adds.

Meanwhile, as big producers gear up to deprive multiplexes of new filmed content from 4 April, PPC is running full pace to release the Akshay Kumar-starrer 8×10 Tasveer on 3 April.

When asked whether the producer‘s strike would have any impact on the films box office revenues, Ahuja quipped, “Not at all. We have already got permission from the film producers and distributors‘ associations to release Tasveer on 3 April and the strike begins from 4 April. So the film will continue to run at all multiplexes despite the strike going on.”

Made at a budget of approximately Rs 50 crore, 8×10 Tasveer is a thriller film starring Ayesha Takia as the female lead protagonist. Also directed by Nagesh Kukunoor, the film features Sharmila Tagore, Javed Jaffrey, Anant Mahadevan, Girish Karnad, Benjamin Gilani, Rushad Rana, Andrea Tully,and Pia Shah in supporting roles.

The film‘s music is composed by Salim-Sulaiman with a title track by Bohemia.

HONG KONG: The 33rd edition of the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF), which kicked off yesterday, is shaping up to be the largest and the best attended ever. The event recorded a 58 per cent increase in registered filmmakers, celebrities and guests as compared to the previous edition in 2008. HKIFF will run through till 13 April, 2009.

Jackie Chan helped kick off the event yesterday by lending his star clout to HKIFF which opened with the world premiere of Chan‘s new Chinese language gangster thriller Shinjuku Incident.

Screening of over 300 titles from 50 countries, including 20 world premieres and 17 international premieres are scheduled during the current edition of HKIFF. Also, filmmakers from over 30 territories plan to introduce their films to the Hong Kong audience. This year’s Festival has had eager support from the audience with over 85 sold out screenings as on 22 March, including Monsters Vs. Aliens, The Badger Meinhof Complex and Yang Yang.

“The record attendance to the festival this year is a testament to the diverse and exhilarating programming, the value of the festival as a launch pad for films, and the discovery of film talent,” said HKIFF Society’s executive director Shaw Soo Wei. “The HKIFF represents a destination to capture the fastest growing markets, the abundance of co-production opportunities and film-project financing in Asia.”

With the increased number of directors, producers and cast members attending the festival, the screenings will see an increase of 66 per cent in its ‘Meet the Audience’ sessions from 64 to 106 this year. Film makers such as the three time Academy Award

winning director Oliver Stone, five time Academy Award producer Arthur Cohon and Academy Award winning actor William Hurt, Emmy award wining actor Kiefer Sutherland and Dreamworks Animation CEO Jeffery Katzenberg will be visible at the event.

MUMBAI: 85-year-old veteran Telugu film actor Kantha Rao died on Sunday, 22 March, at around 11 pm in Hyderabad. Rao had been suffering from liver cancer for the last few years.

Rao, whose original name is Thadepalli Lakshmi Kantha Rao, was born on 16 November, 1923.

Rao has acted in more than 400 Telugu mythological, social and folklore movies. His last film was Balakrishna starrer Pandurangadu.

He acted in a few Hindi and Kannada movies too. In the 1960s, he was the third force in Telugu cinema, behind NT Rama Rao and Akkineni Nageshwara Rao.

HONG KONG: To promote Hong Kong film directors of the new generation and explore opportunities for cooperation on film productions

and investment, the Hong Kong Film Development Council (FDC) chairman Jack So led a delegation of 20-odd members to visit Singapore and Malaysia this week.

So says, “To make a breakthrough for our film industry, we would have to join hands with Mainland China, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan and pool resources of the five places to develop the film industry of the region as a whole. The market of Chinese language films can be expanded through cooperation in areas such as financing, production and distribution, etc”.

The FDC rolled out the Hong Kong Film: New Action project last December to promote Hong Kong films and directors of the new generation. The latest visit joined by FDC members and film directors of the new generation followed the council’s trips to Guangdong Province and Taiwan last December to promote the project.

“Singapore and Malaysia have a Chinese population of over nine million in total. The region is an important market for us. Besides promoting Hong Kong films and the new generation directors, our meetings with the local film industry seek to establish a basis of cooperation in different aspects so as to explore more market opportunities” adds So.

During their stay in Singapore, the delegation visited the Media Development Authority and various film industry associations. Both parties got an in-depth understanding of each other‘s market and mode of operation, paving the way for future mutual cooperation.

Meanwhile, the FDC will stage large-scale business forums and promotional sessions to further promote the project during the “Hong Kong International Film & TV Market” (Filmart) event. The forums and promotional sessions will provide film practitioners from the Chinese language film markets of the aforesaid five places to engage in direct business negotiations with Hong Kong’s directors and filmmakers.

MUMBAI: Come April and audiences will get to see the Aamir Khan-starrer blockbuster Ghajini in theatres one more time.

In the wake of the Producers‘ Council decision to ban all new releases in multiplexes from 4 April onwards, producer Madhu Mantena has decided to re-release the film, this time with additional footages.

Says Mantena, “It‘s a co-incidence that Ghajini will complete its 100 days at the box office just when the strike will commence in April. Since there will be no new films releasing at that time, Ghajini is a movie viewers will look forward to watch in theatres.”

Ghajini, which has already grossed 2 billion worldwide, will be re-released with approximately 200 prints pan India.

MUMBAI: Mumbai police has seized 2960 pirated DVDs of Gulal, just a week after the theatrical release of the Anurag Kashyap directed movie. Gulaal, the home production of Zee Limelight, was released on 13 March.

The cost of the DVDs total to approximately Rs 8,80,000. The seizure was aided by the Society for Copyright Regulation of Indian Producers for Film and Television (Script).

Assisted by the Script team, the Dadar and Shivaji Park police stations of Mumbai conducted raids on three establishments on 17 March in Dadar. Four people were arrested and an FIR has been registered at the Dadar police station under section 51, 52(A), 63, 64 and 68 (A) of the copyright act 1957. The Mumbai police are making a detailed enquiry in the matter.

It has been estimated that piracy causes a loss of Rs 6 billion annually to the Indian music and film industry.

Gulal is a critically acclaimed contemporary film set in the backdrop of college politics and regionalism and stars KK Menon, Aditya Srivastav, Piyush Mishra, Ayesha Mohan, Abhimanyu Singh and Jessie Randhawa.

MUMBAI: UP, the new animation film from the Disney-Pixar Studios, is set to inaugurate the 62nd Festival de Cannes this season. The festival will run from 13 May to 24 May.

This is the first time that a 3D animation film will serve as the opening ceremony film at the Festival de Cannes.

Produced under the supervision of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios chief creative officer John Lasseter, UP will be premiered on Disney Digital 3D on 13 May.

Directed by Pete Docter, UP is a comedy adventure. The film is about 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen who fulfils his dream of a great adventure when he ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies away to the wilds of South America, only to discover that he has brought with him his biggest nightmare, a 9-year-old Wilderness Explorer stowaway.

UP will be released in the United States on 29 May while in France it will hit the screens on 29 July.

MUMBAI: Excel Home Video has partnered with NDTV Lumiere to release Honeydripper, a film written and directed by John Sayles, on DVD.

Priced at Rs 499, the DVD also carries features on ‘about the movie‘, ‘about the director‘, ‘filmography‘ and ‘awards and screenings‘.

Winner of the NAACP Image Award in the best independent film category, Honeydripper is a down south fable of the birth of rock n roll.

MUMBAI: National Geographic Entertainment has acquired the theatrical, DVD and television rights of the comedy flick Amreeka, written and directed by Cherien Dabis.

The film, which is set for a fall release, was premiered at Sundance Film Festival.

Presented by E1 Entertainment and Levantine Entertainment, the star cast of Amreeka includes Nisreen Faour, Melkar Muallen, Hiam Abbass, Alia Shawkat, Yussef Abu-Warda and Joseph Ziegler.

Amreeka traces the story of a Palestinian woman and her son who migrate to the US for a better future.