Category: Movies

MUMBAI:The Maharashtra state government has suspended the licenses of 34 cinema houses across Mumbai which include both multiplexes and small screen theatres.

The suspension of the licenses apply to those cinema houses which did not screen any Marathi film for at least four weeks in one year.

Deputy chief minister and home minister RR Patil stated that all theatres were supposed to screen at least one Marathi film for four weeks in a year. However, since a lot of theatres were not abiding by the order, the blackout was called for.

The blackout of these screens range between two to eight days. Thus, while some screens out of the 34 will face suspension for two days, the blackout in the other theatres will range between six to eight days.

The suspension order include single screen theatres like Maratha Mandir, Eros and Sharda and multiplexes like Cinemax (Versova).

MUMBAI: Nishtha Jain‘s Lakshmi and Me which had been screened at the recent IAWRT Film Festival in Delhi, received the Gold Award for the best documentary while five films received more than one honours each at the annual awards of the Indian Documentary Producers Association (IDPA).

The Gold Award in the Best Short Fiction of a Director category was received for Lost and Found by Harshwardhan G Kulkarni. His film Colours of Konkan: MTDL also got three awards: Excellence in Scriptwriting for an advertising film, Best Corporate Film for Tailormade Films, and Best cinematography for Navneet Misser.

Our Family by K P Jayasankar and Dr Anjali Monteiro received the Gold for sound design (fiction and non-fiction) and script-writing (fiction and non-fiction) and Silver for editing. Lost and Found got the Silver for Navneet Misser for cinematography.

MUMBAI: India is to sign a document under the film co-production agreement with the United Kingdom. This will enable the Indian and UK film industries to co-produce films.

The union cabinet has given its approval to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for signing the Annex (rules of procedure) to the film co-production agreement signed with the government of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in this regard.

The agreement would encourage the making of films reflecting the diversity of culture and heritage of both the countries and benefit both co-producers.

MUMBAI: The International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) has announced the winners of the Idea IIFA Awards 2008 for the technical category.

While Chak De India has swept off 5 awards, Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om has bagged 4 out of the 14 awards that were announced.

Chak De India has bagged the awards for technical excellence in best cinematography for Sudeep Chatterjee, best editing for Amitabh Shukla, best sound recording for Manas Choudhary and Ali Merchant, best sound re-recording for Anuj Mathur and best screenplay for Jaideep Sahni, who jointly shared the honours with Anurag Basu for Life in a Metro.

Close behind is Farah Khan’s Shah Rukh starrer Om Shanti Om winning 4 Awards for best art direction for Sabu Cyril, best VFX for Red Chillies Entertainment, best costume designing for Manish Malhotra, Karan Johar and Sanjiv Mulchandani and best makeup for Bharat-Dorris, Ravi Indulkar and Namrata Soni.

Furthermore, the choreography award has gone to Vaibhavi Merchant for the song Aaja Nachle from the film Aaja Nachle, while Javed Sheikh and Ejaz Sheikh has won the best action award for the movie Shootout at Lokhandwala.

The Award for best sound recording has been bagged by H Sridhar for Guru for the song Barso Re. Also, A R Rehman has won the Idea IIFA Award for best background score for the same.

Imtiaz Ali‘s Jab We Met has fetched the director the IIFA award for best dialogue.

The IIFA award winners will be presented their trophies at the IIFA Weekend that will be held from 6-8 June in Bangkok.

The technical category announcement was made following an industry voting audited by PriceWatehouse Coopers, the auditing firm for the IIFAs and the Oscars.

The results were arrived at on the basis of a compilation of nominations that was received category wise for the movies released during ‘07.

NEW DELHI: ‘Mahek’ by K. Kanade, which had earlier bagged the best feature film award at the 10th Arpa International Film Festival in Hollywood, has won the Best Feature Film (Family) Platinum Remi Award at the prestigious 41st Houston International Film Festival 2008 in the United States.
The film had been nominated for as many as six categories including the Best Feature Film at the Festival which has just concluded here: Director, screenplay, first Feature, best foreign film and best Family Film.

The Festival – which in accordance with the quality of the films also gives Gold, Silver and Bronze Remi to other films that take part – chose the animation film ‘Man Pasand’ by Dhvani Desai based on a Panchantra tale for the Gold Remi, while ’68 Pages’ by Sridhar Rangayan was given the Silver Remi. A Canadian film ‘Daily Planet: India Unleashed’ by Anne-Marie Varner for the Discovery Channel, also received the Gold Remi.

Both ‘Mahek’ and ‘Manpasand’ have been produced by the Children‘s Film Society, India.

‘Manpasand’ was recently shown at the Mumbai International Film Festival and the Women’s Film Festival of the International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT) where it was the opening film.

‘Mahek’ had its world premiere at the prestigious 51st London Film Festival 2007 and later was screened at several International Film Festivals including the 32nd Cleveland Film Festival, and at St Louis, Chicago, Frankfurt and Sydney. This was the only Indian film at the Houston festival.

Mahek is a little girl‘s journey towards self-realization. It looks at the world through the imaginative eyes of children and examines their rights. What children miss most is respect – for them and for their imagination. Eleven-year old Mahek wants to be the best in everything, but she does not know what she is best at. To complicate things, an old, magic-less Modern Fairy walks into her life.

The cast of the film include Shreya Sharma, Anuya Bhagwat, Madan Deodhar, Anuja Borkar, Dheeresh Joshi, Madhavi Gadgil and Lalan Sarang. The international crew was made up of Music Composer Mathieu Lamboley based in Paris, Associate Director Matthias Schwelm based in Berlin, and Second Associate Director Sania Jhankar studying at Tisch, New York. The Indian crew had DOP Mrinal Desai, Co-Writer Kedar Dharwadkar, Editor Suchitra Sathe, Sound recordist Anmol Bhave, Re-recording artists Anup Dev-Subir Das, Costume designer Dinaaz Gabrani and Makeup Director Kavita Koparkar.

Legendary artist Mario Miranda did the sketches for this film. It is for the first time that Miranda has drawn for a Hindi feature film.

According to Kanade, “My first feature film Mahek looks at the world through the imaginative eyes of children and examines their rights. What children miss most is respect. Respect for them and respect for their imagination. For a child, a flower is as important as food, shelter and clothing. The education system in India could put more emphasis on aesthetics and philosophy.”

Kanade is an alumnus in film direction from the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune who also completed the Producers Program from UCLA. His thesis film ‘Chaitra’ won Three National Film Awards and two National Awards at MIFF. It was included in a special DVD release: Master Strokes- 20 First Films from 45 year history of FTII. ‘Mahek’ is his first feature film.

NEW DELHI: The makers of Kahani Gudiya Ki, based on the true story of the young Muslim woman whose first husband had come back after she had re-married under the presumption that he was dead, have said they will go ahead with the release of the film despite the threats they have been receiving from various quarters.

Prabhakar Shukla, debutante director of the film which had been screened at the Ninth Osian‘s Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema in Delhi in July last year, told indiantelevision.com that he had already received a ‘U‘ certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification and there was no reason for not releasing the film.

The film is first releasing in some territories and will avoid Meerut, Mumbai and Delhi. Depending on the response to the film, it may be released in the rest of the country next week.

The case had become headlines when Zee News in September 2004 aired the story of the young Gudiya whose first husband Mohammed Arif returned after being released as a Prisoner of War by Pakistan. By that time, she was married to Taufeeq and was in the eighth month of pregnancy. A village panchayat of Muslim clerics – telecast live by the news channel – ruled that she must go back to her first husband, leaving her second husband in shock.

Now more than three years later, Gudiya who lived in a village in Meerut district, is dead and neither of her two husbands – both re-married – wants to accept responsibility for the child, Shukla said.

The film stars actor Divya Dutta in the title role, with Rajpal Yadav, Seema Biswas, Arif Zakaria, and Akhilendra Mishra. It has music by Vivek Prakash, and had been choreographed by Saroj Khan. It had been shot in Mumbai and in Nago Thane village near the metropolis.

Shukla had conceived the film soon after he read about the case in 2004, and had even obtained Gudiya‘s written permission to make a film on her life. But he had to re-shoot the last portion again a few months earlier after she died. He had now not only raised the question of what she had gone through, but also about the fate of the child who is living with Gudiya‘s mother. “The issue therefore is one of human values and not merely the story of one woman,” Shukla said.

He said he was aware that a Muslim organization had held demonstrations at Janatar Mantar earlier this month and also given a memorandum to the Information and Broadcasting ministry seeking a ban on the film. He said he had also read news reports that Arif, the first husband, had filed a case against him charging him with making the film illegally. But he had not received any notice. In any case, he had in his possession Gudiya‘s written permission and also a recording of her interview with him. Even her father had given his consent.

After receiving threatening phone calls, he had filed an FIR in the Oshiwara Police Station in Mumbai.He had also sought police protection for the theatres where the film is released. The film had also been sold for overseas distribution.

Asked if he had taken liberties with the story, he said changes had only been made for cinematic effect ‘close to reality‘, but he had stuck to the original story.

He said Divya Datta and the other cast members had immediately agreed to act in the film when he approached them, and ghazal king Jagjit Singh had sung three ghazals in the film.

Shukla has made more then 275 commercials and has made two music videos for Crescendo Music. His next film is a comedy Main Tension Mein Hoon.

MUMBAI: Yash Raj production‘s new film Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic starring Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerji is slated to release on 27 June this year.

Produced by Aditya Chopra, the film has been directed by Kunal Kohli.

“Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic is about people like you and me who wish for a little bit of magic in our lives, and don‘t realise that the angels who bring it to us are right amongst us. The film is simply about all we need in our lives ….. Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic,” said director Kunal Kohli.

Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic is the second film of the year from the Yash Raj banner. Yash Raj‘s first release this year will be Tashan, which will open across all theatres on 26 April.

MUMBAI: Adlabs Cinemas, part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, has opened its first four-screen cinema at Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. Formerly known as KG Cinemas, Adlabs will now run the cinema by the name of KG Adlabs.

Adlabs Cinemas COO Tushar Dhingra said, “We are excited to offer the Adlabs experience to cinema lovers in this region through one of the most prestigious cinemas in the state. We have just begun to penetrate the southern region and expect to capture a big market share in the South by end of 2008. Coimbatore is considered to be the Manchester of south India with a booming textile sector, engineering hub and plans for major IT players to start operations in the city. We see immense potential for this property which presently sees over 10,000 admissions a day.”

The new Adlabs will have four widescreen viewing screens with a total seating capacity of 2253 seats. The cinema will be refurbished phase wise with Adlabs‘ crystal-clear DTS sound, superior Xenon projection systems, plush seats and, food and beverage offerings.

Adlabs Cinemas presently has 156 screens spread over 58 properties nationwide.

MUMBAI: National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC) has been allocated a sum of Rs 300 million for five years by the Information & Broadcasting ministry for film production and promotion of new talent.

NFDC is also ready to release four films this fiscal. While three out of these four films, namely The White Elephant, Lucky Red Seeds and Via Darjeeling, are co-productions with NDTV Imagine, Mirchi Movies, and Moxie Entertainment respectively, Bioscope is a solo production film from the NFDC stable.

Via Darjeeling, a film by Arindam Nandy, is ready to release this July. The film stars Kay Kay Menon, Parvin Dabas, Sonali Kulkarni, Vinay Pathak, Rajat Kapoor, Sandhya Mridul and Simone Singh.

“Via Darjeeling is ready for a July release. The film will be distributed by PVR across the country,” stated NFDC MD Nina Lath Gupta.

Lucky Red Seeds, directed by Anjali Menon, is slated to release this November.

“Lucky Red Seeds represent the memories seen through the young eyes of Vicky – one of the millions of Indian children raised outside their country. The film, in Malayalam, will be released in November with English subtitles,” said NFDC production manager D. Ramakrishnan.

Bioscope, NFDC‘s solo production, has been written, scripted and directed by KM Madhusudhanan. The film depicts the inner meaning of moving images.

It is a story about Diwakaran, and what became of his very close friend, the “bioscope”. Traveling through villages, he erected tents and screened early film strips using a projector, known at that time as “bioscope”.

Both Bioscope and The White Elephant are currently under the production stage and will see a release in the latter part of the fiscal.

Additionally, NFDC will participate in the film market at the 61st Cannes festival next month to promote its new productions.

“We have entered Bioscope and Lucky Red Seeds for the festival screenings and are hoping that these two movies will be selected. The names of the shortlisted films are awaited,” said Gupta.

Also, NFDC has appointed film actor Om Puri as their new chairman. The actor assumed his new role from 4 April ‘08 onwards for a period of 3 years.

The appointment has been made after a gap of almost one year when film distributor and financier Manmohan Shetty resigned from the post.

Talking about his plans Om Puri stated that he will encourage and promote young film makers who have the potential of making a good film which is rich in content. NFDC will recognize young talent with interesting projects and help them produce films.

He also wants to promote various workshops like in the area of script writing and screen play as deserving talent can be tapped.

Furthermore, Om Puri also plans to introduce an effective concept called “cooperatives”. In this model if the script or the film demands established and famous actors, a unanimous arrangement will be reached between NFDC as a production house and the cast and crew of a particular film. After deciding on the script, NFDC will approach them with an offer to work in the film on a subsidised fee.

If the film becomes a success in the box office, the profit garnered will be shared with all those who are involved in the project. The idea behind this concept is to give boost to film makers with experiential and viable scripts but limited budgets. This proposal will help procure prominent talents for small budget films.

Earlier, Dadasaheb Phalke awardee and film director Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Bollywood actor Hema Malini had served as chairman of NFDC.