Category: Movies

MUMBAI: Shemaroo Entertainment is set to release the DVD titled The Path of Non Violence – with Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela on 30 January.

The DVD features documentaries on Gandhi and Mandela and is priced at Rs 299.

Shemaroo has licensed the content from American Institute of Education for release on the home video format.

According to the company, while Mahatma Gandhi’s documentary explains his struggle against the British Empire, Nelson Mandela’s documentary films his struggles, triumphs and the adversity which drove him to greatness as an African leader.

The DVD also showcases the words of colleagues, opponents and world leaders as they put Mandela into perspective as one of the great patriots of all time and an inspiration to people worldwide.

Shemaroo Entertainment director Hiren Gada says, “This documentary on Gandhi and Mandela will definitely be a great pick not only for the common man’s interests, but will also serve as a great educational material for schools and institutions who would want to study the works of Gandhi and Mandela.”

MUMBAI: The second edition of the Women‘s Film Festival (WFF) will be held from 1 March onwards.

Hosted by Indo-Korean Cultural and Information Centre in Chennai, the festival will be organised by The Inko Centre in association with National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), National Film Archives (NFAI), The Directorate of Film Festivals of India (DFFI), The Indo-Cine Appreciation Foundation, Chennai, Women’s International Film Festival in Seoul and Sathyam Cinemas.

WFF, which ends on 8 March, will screen approximately 150 films produced in 30 countries. The films selected will be either those which are made by women directors or films made by male directors whose work presents a distinct women’s perspective.

The festival will also hold an international seminar on the subject ‘The Eye Behind the Camera: Looking at Films’.

MUMBAI: Reliance Big Pictures, the motion pictures brand of Reliance Big Entertainment, is set to release Zoya Akhtar’s Luck By Chance across 900 screens worldwide.

While the film, co-produced by Excel Entertainment, will hit approximately 700 screens in India, it will open across 200 screens in the overseas market that include USA, Canada, UK, UAE, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.

Luck By Chance, to be released on 30 January, is a narrative about the Bollywood film industry and how people from different walks of life come to Mumbai to make it big in an industry where luck clicks more than hard work.

This film marks the debut of Zoya Akhtar as the director and stars Farhan Akhtar, Konkana Sen Sharma as leads. Hrithik Roshan has a special appearance in the film.

MUMBAI: Raaz – The Mystery Continues, co-produced by Vishesh Films and music label Sony BMG, has raked in Rs 210 million in its first four days at the box office in India. Overseas collections were yet to be tabulated at the time of writing.

The film, which is being domestically distributed by Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) India, is hoping to rake in close to Rs 350 million as the film’s first week collections.

Written by Shagufta Rafique, Raaz – TMC witnessed a simultaneous release in India and internationally across 1000 screens on 23 January.

Says Sony Pictures Entertainment India MD Kercy Daruwala, “It‘s a great start. Raaz-TMC has been a great success all over and we are proud to be associated in this venture with Vishesh Films.”

Earlier, SPE had distributed Sanjaya Leela Bhansali’s Sawariyan in India.

Raaz – TMC stars Emraan Hashmi, Kangana Ranaut and Adhyayan Suman. The music of the film, released by Sony BMG, has been composed by Raju Singh, Sharib-Toshi, Pranay M Rijiya and Gourov Dasgupta. Sonu Nigam, KK, Shreya Ghosal, Toshi and Krishna are the playback singers of the movie.

MUMBAI: Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment‘s latest venture The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn is being directed by Hollywood director Steven Spielberg.

The film stars Jamie Bell Billy Elliot as Tintin, while Daniel Craig (Quantum of Solace) plays the nefarious Red Rackham.

The starcast also includes Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Gad Elmaleh, Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook. Nick Rodwell, Stephane Sperry and Ken Kamins are the executive producers.

The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, from a screenplay by Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish, is the first in the series of 3D motion capture films based on the iconic character created by Georges Remi, better known to the world by his pen name “Herge”. The film is due for release in 2011.

While Paramount Pictures will release the film in the US and in all English speaking territories including Asia (except India), Sony Pictures will distribute the film in Continental Europe, Eastern Europe, Latin America, India and the remainder of the world.

The second feature in the series is scheduled to be directed by Peter Jackson, with a potential for a third film as well.

Spielberg and Jackson will bring Herge‘s stories to life employing state-of-the-art performance capture technology developed by Jackson‘s Weta Digital.

MUMBAI: The Delhi High Court has rejected a plea by Reliance ADAG‘s Big Entertainment seeking a stay on Nagesh Kukunoor‘s directorial venture Aashayein, starring John Abraham as the lead protagonist.

Big Entertainment, which had made a part-payment of approximately Rs 40 million towards the acquisition of the distribution rights of the film, approached the court alleging that Percept Ltd and Super Cassette Industries, the co-producers of the film, had misrepresented facts and changed the storyline from the previously agreed upon script while signing the agreement.

Meanwhile, while disposing off the plea, the court has asked the co-producers to pay 30 per cent of the paid amount in proportions of 15 per cent each as compensation to the company.

Earlier in June 2008, Big Entertainment had signed a distribution agreement with co-producers Percept Ltd and Super Cassette Industries for theatrical, non-theatrical, world satellite, television and overseas home video rights. The total value of the deal stood at Rs 180 million, of which around Rs 40 million was paid as token amount.

In the petition filed to the court, the company had stated that while signing the deal, Aashayein was supposed to be a commercial film and it was assured to them that the co-producers would not change the storyline anyhow.

However, in July 2008 when Big Entertainment was shown the completed film, the company claimed that the storyline had undergone a complete transition and was nowhere a commercial film now.

The bench, comprising Justice Manmohan Singh, observed that since Aashayein is ready for release, it would be harmful for actors, investors and exhibitors if the release of Aashayein was stayed.

MUMBAI

: Breakthrough’s 5th Tri Continental Film Festival is screening 28 human rights documentary films from the global south, comprising approximately 20 countries.

The festival, which ends on 25 January, will see 11 Asia premieres, eight India premieres and one World premiere. The four sections in the festival this year are:

Body Public – The section will showcase six films from five countries. Four are from India and two co-productions from Spain/South Africa and Canada/Iran. The films explore the engagements of the human body with the public space.

Not All in Good Faith – Seven films from nine countries will probe and bring to the forefront the indignity and exploitation rendered by neo-liberal development ventures and businesses across the globe.

The Line That Defines – Dwelling on the post-modern subject of border crossing, this section comprises four films from five countries. In different ways, the films trace the role of the political border in the making of a refugee, an exile or an illegal immigrant.

Zones of War – Any area marked by extreme violence can be broadly termed as a war zone. Eleven films from nine countries explore these zones of violence and aggression in various historical and contemporary circumstances around the world.

Speaking on the selection of films, festival director Alika Khosla says, “This year’s selection of 28 films from more than 20 countries not just represent these protagonists but also gives them a voice that we are sure will resonate with our own circumstances close to home.”

The 5th Tri Continental Film Festival jury comprises Aruna Vasudev (India), Nick Deocampo (The Philippines), Madhusree Dutta (India), Amir Muhammad (Malaysia) and Anurag Kashyap (India).

“Watching these documentaries from all over the world is an eye opener. You see the sheer courage of the people in their ordeal to survive. Everyone should watch these films, it’s a rare chance to get a glimpse of the world that we some times don’t know about,” said Anurag Kashyap.

NEW DELHI: The 5th International Children’s Film Festival closed here earlier this week with all participants emphasizing the importance of making meaningful films that were entertaining and yet sent subtle messages that the young could understand.

A major effect of the festival was the large number of children who said they wanted training to be able to make animation and live action films for the young.

Karnataka Secretary for Kannada, Culture and Information B R Jayaramaraje Urs said the very fact that several thousand children from more than 50 schools had attended the festival, and the fact that it had been held in five towns and cities of the state simultaneously, showed how popular children’s films could be.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of the Festival, he promised all help from the state for promotion of children’s cinema in the state and said the Government was actively considering the subsidy for children’s films from two to four films every year. At present, two films get Rs 2.5 million each per year.

Others present at the closing ceremony included Mr A R Raju who is a former Vice-President of the Film Federation of India, star Ramesh Arvind who stole many hearts with his presence and antics on the stage, and director V Manohar. They made a plea to parents to ensure the young got to see good films and said it was necessary for the government or the exhibition sector to make arrangements for such screenings.

The Festival, organized by the non-governmental Children’s India in five different towns and cities in Karnataka, was aimed at ensuring that children even in remote places got to see good films. The Festival was held simultaneously at Bangalore, Tumkur, Davangere, Bijapur and Hampi (Hospet). The District Commissioners along with local NGOs supported the Festival at all the venues outside Bengaluru and ensured greater participation of children.

Several foreign delegates had attended the Festival. They included Gerardo Nieto who is Director of the Carthagena International Film Festival in Colombia, Bangladesh filmmaker Khalid Mehmood Mithu along with his children Arjo Shrestho and Shiropa Purna who are also filmmakers in their own right, Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Varlotta, and Anis Ben Mohammed who is in charge of International Affairs in the International Film Festival for Children and Youth in Tunisia.

Urs also released the souvenir of the Festival, which apart from giving details of the Festival and having several articles on children’s cinema, also has messages of President Pratibha Patil, Karnataka Governor Rameshwar Thakur who had inaugurated the Festival, Karnataka Information Minister Katta Subramanya Naidu, and Children’s Film Society, India, CEO Kuldeep Sinha who was the Guest of Honour at the inauguration. The Festival was also attended by Andhra Pradesh Children’s Film Society Chairman M Vedakumar.

In a surprise announcement, Anis announced a proposal for a co-production between Colombia, Italy, Tunisia and India for a children’s film.

N R Nanjunde Gowda, founder of Children’s India, called upon children who had ideas to come forward the way Master Kishen or the two children from Bangladesh were doing. He said his organization would annually organize a workshop for children on filmmaking.

Master Likhit, who has won the Karnataka State Best Child Actor award for his role in the film ‘Naanu Gandhi’ was felicitated on the occasion. The film’s director Nanjunde Gowda earlier received an award from Carthagena International Film Festival in Colombia Gerardo Nieto in the Children’s films (education) category.

More than 40 films from over ten countries including India had been screened at all the venues in the five towns and cities. A seminar on the future of children’s cinema in the age of television, and Open Forum discussions with all the delegates and directors from India and overseas, were also held during the Festival.

The Festival had special packages from Colombia and Bangladesh apart from films from Italy, Iran, Germany, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, China, the United States and other countries. The Festival also paid a tribute to 75 years of Kannada cinema with the screening of nine acclaimed children’s films.

NEW DELHI: Moser Baer Entertainment has filed a petition in the Bombay High Court against movie rental company Seventymm Services (Seventymm.com), seeking compensation of Rs 500 million for violating its exclusive video rental rights.

Moser Baer has alleged that Seventymm is offering 434 movies for which it does not have the rights. Moser Baer has acquired the sole and exclusive video rental rights for these films.

The titles include popular Hindi films like Jab We Met, Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa, Yuva, Shaurya, 36 China Town, Garam Masala, Hungama, Halla Bol, Apna Sapna Money Money etc.

Moser Baer is also seeking an injunction preventing the movie rental company from renting the titles further.

When contacted, Seventymm founder Raghav Kher declined to comment.

NEW DELHI: 42 Kms, a film based on the Mumbai Marathon, has failed to get any relief from the Bombay High Court which has asked the producers to go back to the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT).

42 Kms‘s producers, Matrix Media and Nisha Chainani, are locked in a battle with Standard Chartered Bank over amounts lent by the bank. The bank contends that the rights of the film had been assigned to it after the producers borrowed Rs 12.5 million.

Earlier, Standard Chartered had obtained an order of status quo from the DRT on 2 January, which is still continuing.

The court has asked the producers to go back to the DRT and then to the appellate tribunal before approaching it.