Category: Movies

NEW DELHI: A unique digital Film Archive has been launched in Panaji working on the digital asset management technology with classic films that can be viewed at the click of a button.

Inaugurating the Archive, Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat said that though it was beginning with just over 150 films, the aim was to ultimately increase the capacity to 10,000.

An initiative of the Entertainment Society of Goa to provide the latest in cinematic art, the Archive is supported by the National Informatics Centre – Goa. The inauguration is followed by the Demo of the technology.

It will provide production updates, technical knowhow, old classics, film encyclopaedia etc. and is not only textual but also visual. Aiming to have the biggest collection of Indian and foreign film classics, the archive currently begins with over 150 films and over 300 film books and periodicals.

ESG Chief Executive Officer Manoj Srivastava told indiantelevision.com over a telephonic interview that the Archive has over 200 film books and periodicals. Magazines like Screen International, Variety etc., and brochures of most International Film Festival are available. The Encyclopedias of films are the knowledge power house of cinema.

The salient feature of this Archive is the Digital Film Archive. The films of the archive can be viewed with a click of a button. Presently, the Digital Film archive has over 130 films including all the Short Film Centre films of 2008.

The film Archive is open to the members of Goa Cinephile. The general public can also gain entry with an entry fee of Rs 50 per day to view the Digitally Archived films. The ESG Film Archive is only a reference Library.

The inauguration was followed by the screening of the Golden Lamp Tree Award winner of the Short Film Centre – 2008 “Plot Point”, a Belgian film by Nicholas Provosi.

MUMBAI: Big Pictures, the motion pictures brand of Reliance Big Entertainment, is set to release its next on 27 March.

Co-produced by Sudhir Mishra’s CineRaas Ltd, Sikandar has been written and directed by Piyush Jha.

The film stars child artists Parzaan Dastur and Ayesha Kapur in pivotal roles. Others in the film include R Madhavan, Sanjay Suri and Arunoday Singh. The music of the film has been composed by Sandesh Shandiliya, Justin-Uday and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy while the lyrics have been penned by Prasoon Joshi, Neelesh Misra and Kumaar.

Sikandar, a suspense thriller, revolves around the story of a young boy who has a dream to play football for the national team. It’s about his aspirations and challenges and how his life unfolds when one day he finds a gun on his way to school and deals with the exploitation and manipulation of innocent people in a state that has witnessed decades of violence and insurgency.

NEW DELHI: Bollywood filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt has launched a movement at the filmmaker’s level against genetically modified food coming from the United States and other countries through his new directorial verture, Poison on the Platter.

Produced in association with the Coalition for a GM-Free World, the documentary seeks to expose the nexus between biotech multinational companies from the US and Government regulatory bodies in India.

Described as the first Indian documentary on adverse health impact of GM foods, Bhatt‘s film makes a mockery of the Central Government‘s claim of not allowing import of any GM foods in the country as it conclusively demonstrates that supermarkets in India are flooded with harmful food stuff and biotech MNCs are cashing on the ignorance of unsuspecting consumers in India.

“It is by far the most disturbing subject that I have dealt with in my documentaries, simply because it concerns nearly every single person living on this planet,” says Mahesh Bhatt, presenter and anchor of the film.

MUMBAI: Multiplex chain operator Fame Cinemas has expanded its footprint to Panchkula, Haryana, with the launch of a three-screen property. Fame Panchkula boasts of a total seating capacity of 652.

Fame Cinemas MD Shravan Shroff said, “People of this city are known for their penchant for luxury and their affinity to style along with comfort. I can assure you that at Fame Panchkula we will go all out to provide our patrons the best possible experience. We will also keep this venue buzzing with premieres and other opportunities to meet movie stars.”

With the launch of this new multiplex, Fame Cinemas now has a total of 73 screens spread across 20 properties nationwide.

MUMBAI: MGM Consumer Products has signed a licensing agreement with Dolce and Gabbana to produce items based on the studio’s Rocky franchise.

Under the agreement, Dolce and Gabbana will introduce consumers, domestically and internationally, to a special collection of Rocky branded T-shirts, tank tops, robes, boxers and sweat pants.

Later this year, the Dolce and Gabbana Rocky line will be available to select high-end boutiques and will feature the Italian Stallion logos and motifs as well as other classic images and title treatments from the Rocky films.

The line was introduced last month during the Milan Fashion Show where Dolce and Gabbana models walked the runway with ‘The Italian Stallion‘ branded t-shirts.

MUMBAI: Excel Home Videos has released Anton Corbijn‘s German documentary Control on DVD.

Priced at Rs 499, the DVD also includes features like ‘about the movie‘, ‘about the director‘, ‘awards‘, ‘screenings‘ and ‘poster‘.

Control is based on Deborah Curtis‘s journal, ‘Touching from a Distance‘. It also encapsulates interviews with people who knew Curtis.

The documentary was premiered at Cannes Film Festival. It also bagged the best British independent film award in 2007. The movie was also honored with the best new British feature award and the most popular feature film prize at the Edinburgh Film Festival and Melbourne International Film Festival respectively in 2007.

Sam Riley plays the role of Curtis in Control where he depicts the singer‘s struggle in coping with teenage marriage, infidelity, epilepsy and growing fame.

MUMBAI: Year 2008 witnessed UTV Motion Pictures foray into a variety of genres with films like Wednesday, Welcome to Sajjanpur and the recent cult movie Dev.D.

And in 2009, the company has joined hands with Dreamforce Enterprise, a division of Ram Gopal Varma Film Factory, to co-produce its new venture Agyaat-the Unknown.

Described as a “uniquely differentiated thriller”, the plot of the mid-budget film revolves around the story of a film unit on a shoot in a remote jungle in Sri Lanka.

“UTV has always been experimental about the projects it ventures into and has been a trend setter in the Indian film industry. Agyaat with RGV is another step in this direction,” says UTV Motion Pictures COO Ram Mirchandani.

Mirchandani notes that such films are a popular genre abroad including blockbusters like Blairwitch Project and Predator. However, no Indian producer has ever risked a film in this genre with Indian actors and a story designed to cater to the Indian audiences. “We are happy to partner with RGV on this film and given his expertise in film making we are sure to deliver a fantastic product,” Mirchandani states.

Commenting on the partnership, RGV says, “I have always believed in pushing the envelope and together with UTV, we look forward to making the very first of this kind of film in India.”

MUMBAI: Whistling Woods International (WWI) has partnered with entertainment job portal 1takemedia.com in a bid to offer filmmakers the opportunity to generate revenues and provide them a platform to display and distribute their work.

The competition will see film participation across various genres including fictional short films, documentaries and live and animation wherein the length of each film can vary between under 10 minitues to 60 miniutes.

While the prize money for the fictional short films category is Rs 50,000, the documentaries and live and animation category will witness a reward of Rs 1,00,000 each.

The competition will be judged by filmmakers like Subhash Ghai, Ketan Mehta, Vikram Bhatt, John Mathew Matthan, Mike Pandey and Jabbar Patel.

Also, the submitted films will be distributed through 1takemedia.com wherein the portal will share 50 per cent of the net income coming from the distribution of the films with the filmmakers.

MUMBAI: The Screen Actors Guild (Sag) national board of directors in the US voted 73 per cent to 27 per cent to reject the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) “last, best and final offer” dated 19 February, 2009.

Sag states that it entered this round of negotiations to send a clear message that it was ready to make a deal. “In an effort to put the town back to work, our negotiator agreed to modify the Guild’s bargaining position to bring the Guild in line with the deals made by our sister unions.”

The AMPTPs last-minute, surprise demand for a new term of agreement extending to 2012, Sag notes, is regressive and damaging and clearly signals the employers’ unwillingness to agree to the deal they established with other entertainment unions.

According to the body, the demand for a new term of agreement was not part of their final offer of 30 June, 2008; it was not part of the federally mediated talks of November 2008, and should not have been inserted into the discussions when Sag returned to negotiations on 17 February, 2009.

Says sag, “What management presented as a compromise is, in fact, an attempt to separate Screen Actors Guild from other industry unions. By attempting to extend our contract expiration one year beyond the other entertainment unions, the AMPTP intends to deleverage our bargaining position from this point forward.”

“Screen Actors Guild’s goal is to successfully complete these negotiations and get the industry back to work as soon as possible. The AMPTP has clearly stated their need and desire for financial certainty and industry peace. This new proposal does the exact opposite, and will only result in constant negotiating cycles and continued labor unrest,” Sag adds.

AMPTP, meanwhile, reiterates that its offer is strong and fair – and has been judged to be strong and fair by all of Hollywood‘s other major guilds and unions. “We have kept our offer on the table – and even enhanced it – despite the historically unprecedented economic crisis that has clobbered our nation and our industry,” states AMPTP.

“The Producers have always sought a full three-year deal with Sag, just as we negotiated with all the other Unions and Guilds, and have offered Sag a way to achieve an earlier expiration date without contributing to further labor uncertainty. We simply cannot offer Sag a better deal than the rest of the industry achieved under far better economic conditions than those now confronting our industry,” AMPTP opined.

MUMBAI: UTV World Movies has tied up with Shemaroo World Cinema, for releasing its library titles in the Indian home video market.

Through this strategic partnership, UTV World Movies takes another step towards making contemporary, award winning World Cinema available across several platforms.

UTV World Movies has a library of over 600 titles from over 40 countries spread across languages and genres comprising Oscar winning and nominated titles such as The Lives of Others, Divided We Fall and The Counterfeiters. It also has Oscar nominated and other award winning films like Waltz With Bashir, Machuca, Your Name Is Justine and The House of Flying Daggers.

Shemaroo World Cinema has a collection of titles of several renowned film makers like Jean-Luc Godard, Akira Kurosawa, Pedro Almodóvar, Roman Polanski, and Claude Chabrol, among many others.

Through its association with Shemaroo World Cinema, UTV World Movies would release Oscar winning titles like The Mission and A Room With A View. The collection is slated to hit the Indian market by April 2009.

UTV Global Broadcasting executive director Shantonu Aditya says “After successfully launching India‘s first world cinema channel across cable and DTH platforms in the country, we are very pleased to expand our content delivery model to include home video and are confident of the combined strength of our content along with Shemaroo‘s acumen in the home video segment.”

Shemaroo Entertainment director Hiren Gada says, “After receiving a good response for our Shemaroo World Cinema initiative recently, we are delighted to enhance our catalogue, with that of UTV World Movies. With UTV World Movies appealing collections, and our strong distribution network and wide product presence across the home video platform, we are certain that we will be able to optimise and create a product presence. The common objective of our collaboration is to grow the World Cinema market and create mature audiences.”