Category: Movies

MUMBAI: British film Slumdog Millionaire has bagged the Cadillac People‘s Choice Award at the 33rd Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

The TIFF awards were announced at the end of the 11-day festival that closed with the screening of Stone of Destiny, a Scottish period thriller.

Directed by British national Danny Boyle, the film is a story of an 18-year-old underdog who surmounts heavy odds to win the jackpot on the Indian version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”, with eccentricities of Mumbai‘s slum as a backdrop.

Slumdog Millionaire, was shot entirely in Mumbai with a star cast that include Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan, Mahesh Manjrekar and Saurabh Shukla, besides newcomers, Dev Patel and Freida Pinto.

The music of the film has been scored by AR Rehman.

MUMBAI: Disney animation executive Andrew Millstein has been named Walt Disney Animation Studios GM in the US.

Industry effects production veteran Jim Morris will take on a parallel role as Pixar Animation Studios GM. The announcement was made by Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios president Ed Catmull. Both executives will be responsible for guiding overall operations of their respective studios, and will continue to oversee all aspects of production related to animated features, short films and special animated projects. They will report directly to Catmull.

Catmull says, “Jim and Andrew are two of the most talented, capable, and experienced production executives working in animation today, and we‘re fortunate to have them running the day-to-day operations of our two animation studios. Andrew has been a key player at Disney for over 11 years and has had experience running studios and dealing with all of the technical and creative issues associated with that role. Jim is one of the most respected figures in the world of special effects and was instrumental in creating some of ILM‘s greatest achievements.

“Most recently, he did an incredible job producing WallL-E for Pixar, and has assumed an important role in that studio‘s overall operations. As general managers, Andrew and Jim will continue to lend their guidance and expertise to all of our upcoming production efforts.”

MUMBAI: Shyam Benegal‘s latest venture, Welcome to Sajjanpur, is set to be screened in the competition section of World Cinema at the London Film Festival, to be held from 15 October to 30 October.

Welcome to Sajjanpur will be featured on 25 October at OWE1 and on 26 October at Waterman‘s Art Centre in London.

Presented by UTV SpotBoy, the film will be released on 19 September in India.

Welcome to Sajjanpur revolves round the story of Mahadev, one of the few educated young men from Sajjanpur. Mahadev’s ambition is to be a novelist. However, he makes a living by writing letters.

“Welcome to Sajjanpur is a journey to the real India and shares with you some harsh and some not so harsh reality of that India. It also brings alive the simplicity and the beauty of the heartland which is far removed from the city life. Its Mr. Benegal’s uncorrupted storytelling style that makes you thoroughly enjoy the ride to this India,” UTV Spotboy COO Vikas Bahl.

The film stars Shreyas Talpade, Ravi Kishan, Divya Datta and Amrita Rao, amongst others.

MUMBAI: Maya Entertainment Limited (Mel) is foraying into films with Ramayana – the Epic. The 3D animation film is being made on an investment of $4-5 million.

Directed by Chetan Desai, the film will be ready by December and is slated for released early next year. domestic consumption super hero movie and one tv series – development.

“We are investing $4-5 million for the film,” says a source in the company.

Bollywood personalities will lend their voice to the mythological characters. Actress Juhi Chawla will dub for Sita, Manoj Bajpai for Ram, Ashutosh Rana for Ravana and Mukesh Rishi for Hanuman.

Mel is also working on other domestic content projects. “We are developing a super hero movie and one TV series,” says Maya Entertainment Ltd managing director Ronald D‘Mello.

On the outsourcing front, Maya has an order book of $5 million.

MUMBAI: Eros Pictures, the film production arm of Eros International, has entered into a co-production venture with Sohail Khan Production.

While any specific project has not been formalised as yet, the announcement signals that the two companies will be working together to co-produce films in the near future.

Eros International and Sohail Khan Production have worked in the past on projects that include releases like Partner and I, Proud to be Indian.

Meanwhile, Eros is also releasing worldwide the Salman-Sohail multi-starrer Heroes on 24 October.

Commenting on the development, Eros International India president Sunil Lulla said, “We are excited about tying up with Sohail Khan with whom we enjoyed the success of Partner last year. With this tie-up, we are looking forward to presenting some more wholesome entertainment to audiences.”

“Sohail Khan Production and Eros enjoy a special relationship and I am happy to join hands with Eros who have good global marketing and distribution infrastructure. Aligning with them, we hope to recreate the phenomenal success of Partner and present some exciting cinema on a global platform,” added Sohail Khan.

MUMBAI: After setting up an animation studio in Mumbai six months back, Koffee Break Pictures, the producer of My Friend Ganesha, has expanded its capacity.

The company will be using Harmony, an advanced software from Canada-based animation software Toon Boom Company.

Harmony enables studios to produce digital and traditional animation with powerful features, such as morphing, inverse kinematics and its glue effect.

Koffee Break Pictures executive producer Varun Gada said, “We have now devised a better system both in terms of hardware and software which will now be capable of taking heavier work.”

The studio was set up to undertake the pre-production, production and post production work of full length animated feature films, both 2D and 3D.

The production house has commenced its first classical 2D home production, a 90-minute animated feature film titled The Green Chic – Finding Dad, targeting the kids’ genre. It is a 2D animation film promoting vegetarianism and will have simultaneous theatrical release in international markets.

MUMBAI: Adlabs, part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, will release 3D Hollywood movie Journey to the Center of the Earth in Big Digital 3D at Adlabs’ cinema in Vashi, Navi Mumbai.

Hollywood studios are backing the new 3D format with animation hits like Disney’s Chicken Little and concert films like Miley Cyrus’ Hannah Montana and U2 in US and Europe.

Adlabs claims that it is bringing the experience to India with Big Digital 3D. Adlabs had also launched 6D cinema in Agra earlier this year through a partnership with Israel-based Cinema Park Network.

“The Big Digital 3D experience is a quantum leap from old analogue 3D that involved red-blue glasses or cumbersome headgear that gave you a headache,” said Adlabs Digital Cinema COO Patrick von Sychowski. “Within a few years most Hollywood blockbusters are expected to be made in digital 3D and we at Adlabs are bringing this experience to India for the first time.”

Based on the Jules Verne novel, Journey to the Center of the Earth is the first live-action feature film to be shot and released entirely in digital 3D.

MUMBAI:Hrithik Roshan starrer Krrish will be screened in the 13th Pusan International Film Festival.

It will be showcased as part of its segment ‘Superheroes in Asia‘ which will feature films like Gekko Kamen from Japan, Thailand‘s Mercury Man and Korea‘s Hong Gil Dong and retrospectives focusing on new wave films from Romania and classic Korean cinema.

The festival will kick off on 2 October in Haeundae, a Pusan neighbourhood.

Three Chinese films, Er Dong by Yang Jin, Jalainur by Zhao Ye and Routine Holiday by Li Hongqi, will also be screened.

The festival will close with the screening of I am Happy by Yoon Jong Chan. The movie is based on a Korean novel.

This year‘s festival will feature 315 films from 60 nations, of which 48 will be screened outside of their home country for the first time.

MUMBAI: Eros Pictures, in association with Boundscript Pictures, has announced the plan to make a sequel of Sujoy Ghosh’s yet to be released film, Aladin.

The sequel is slated to go on floors mid next year. The original cast, which had Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt and Riteish Deshmukh, is expected to return for the sequel.

Eros‘ announcement comes ahead of Aladin‘s release. The company said it had a look at the first cut of Aladin and was confident that the sequel would work.

“We are very proud of Aladin as it is a 100 per cent Indian product and are very confident of its universal appeal among audiences. I am not worried about the fate of this product at the box office but we will continue to invest our faith in such cinema which can be watched across the globe and Aladin 2 will be a bigger challenge in every aspect as it will be many times more than Aladin 1,” said Eros International MD and chairman Kishore Lulla.

Added Eros International India president Sunil Lulla, “I am confident with Aladin, we have a Hindi film for a global audience. It is going to be a complete family entertainer with universal appeal as there is a little something for everyone – lots of magic and fantasy for the kids along with action adventure and romance for the youth. Adding to that, the film guarantees some of the best and most complex visual effects seen in Indian cinema, hence the sequel will be a bigger challenge with higher expectations.”

MUMBAI: UTV Motion Pictures has lined up four Tamil and two Telugu films.