Category: Movies

MUMBAI: The Writers Guild strike in Hollywood has affected the start-up date of the Johnny Depp-Amitabh Bachchan starrer Shantaram. Mira Nair has said that the shooting will commence only after the script is completed. In the meanwhile Nair is busy with her other two projects, ‘the reluctant fundamentalist’ and a musical.

MUMBAI: Having gone through a super successful year with three top-ranking comedies, Namastey London, Heyy Babyy and Bhool Bhulaiyaa, Akshay Kumar is gearing up for the release of Welcome, his next big laugh-out-loud comedy, releasing on December 20 worldwide.

MUMBAI: The standoff between Hollywood studios and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) continues.

The producers offered a new set of proposed pay formulas for digital media. This, however, has been rejected by the WGA.

The AMPTP had unveiled a New Economic Partnership to the WGA, which included groundbreaking moves in several areas of new media, including streaming, content made for new media and programming delivered over digital broadcast channels.

The entire value of the new economic partnership would deliver more than $130 million in additional compensation above and beyond the more than $1.3 billion writers already receive each year.

“We continue to believe that there is common ground to be found between the two sides, and that our proposal for a New Economic Partnership offers the best chance to find it.

“Revenues obtained in the initial market of release no longer cover the costs of production, much less distribution and marketing. There is no such thing as supplemental or ancillary or secondary market any longer and hasn’t been for years. All windows and media are needed for the vast majority of productions just to recoup initial costs, much less break even or make a profit.” says AMPTP.

The WGA dismissed the studios‘ proposal as mere hype. “It amounts to a massive rollback. In their new proposal, they made absolutely no move on the download formula which they propose to pay at the DVD rate, and continue to assert that they can deem any reuse “promotional,” and pay no residual even if they replay the entire film or TV episode and even if they make money.

“We had presented a comprehensive economic justification for our proposals. Our entire package would cost this industry $151 million over three years. That‘s a little over a thre per cent increase in writer earnings each year, while company revenues are projected to grow at a rate of 10 per cent. We are falling behind.

“For Sony, this entire deal would cost $1.68 million per year. For Disney $6.25 million. Paramount and CBS would each pay about $4.66 million, Warner about $11.2 million, Fox $6.04 million, and NBC/Universal $7.44 million. MGM would pay $320,000 and the entire universe of remaining companies would assume the remainder of about $8.3 million per year. As we‘ve stated repeatedly, our proposals are more than reasonable and the companies have no excuse for denying it.

“The AMPTP‘s intractability is dispiriting news but it must also be motivating. Any movement on the part of these multinational conglomerates has been the result of the collective action of our membership, with the support of Sag, other unions, supportive politicians, and the general public. We must fight on, returning to the lines on Monday in force to make it clear that we will not back down, that we will not accept a bad deal, and that we are all in this together,” the WGA said.

The two sides plan to return to the bargaining table on Tuesday.

MUMBAI: Learning a good lesson from the clash of the two big Diwali releases this year is Ajay Devgan. The same day release of the two films spelt bad business for atleast one. Ajay Devgan starrer Halla Bol which was scheduled for a 21 December release has decided to defer its release date to 11 January. as two other big films are set to release on the same day. Aamir Khan’s Taare Zameen Par and Akshay Kumar’s Welcome both release on 21 December. Getting chain theatres is also a problem when so many big banners release on the same day.

Averting this big clash was Ajay Devgan. Foreseeing a loss in business, Ajay Devgan requested the distributors, Pyarmid Saimira to postpone the release date.

The film now releases on 11th January along with Mukta Arts’ ‘Bombay to Bangkok’ and ‘My Name is Anthony Gonsalves.’

MUMBAI: After tasting the first flush of success at IFFI regional cinema is now poised for take-off.After the success of Marathi film, Kaalchakra, the Assamese film Jaatinga Ityaadi and the three Manipuri films the next in line to receive accolades is Zuzari, a Konkani film.

The small budget Konkani film is making news at IFFI. Based on Goa’s freedom struggle the film has been made on a small Rs 2 million budget. The film has received a good response when it was screened as part of IFFI- related activities. The film is the maiden venture for producer Sawardekar. As the film is unable to get a theatrical release the producer is planning on releasing it on DVDs.

And as all these films get their deserved place regional cinema continues to provide hope in an otherwise starved for quality industry.

MUMBAI: Eros International‘s EyeQube Studios has started its first visual effects post-production with Bollywood film Aladin.

Co-produced by Eros International and Boundscript, the film has a star cast of Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt and Riteish Deshmukh. Already on floors, the movie is based on the Arabian Nights but in a Bollywood format.

Aladin is part of a five-film deal between Eros International and Sujoy Ghosh‘s production company Boundscript.

Eros International India president Sunil Lulla says, “We will be leveraging our strength into new areas by using the most talented expertise in the special effects arena through EyeQube, our recently launched visual effects company.”

EyeQube Studios is a subsidiary company of Eros International in which leading international talent Charles Darby has a minority stake.

EyeQube creative director and senior visual effects supervisor Charles Darby says, “We are approaching Aladin with the same proven methods employed on large-scale Hollywood productions. We have designed the look and feel of the show prior to filming and also been involved with the production design to help weave in our effects more naturally. Basically, this film will really surprise people, it will open their eyes to a new kind of Indian film, the visual effects for this production are well thought out and will amaze the audience.”

All the five co-produced films with Boundscript will have high-end visual effects.

“We have chosen the toughest audience for our film – kids who are exposed to the best of the best today with the Harry Potters, Lord of the Rings, hence their benchmark is higher. With Aladin, we want to present a visual delight and a film with definite positioning for children, in sync with Hollywood summer blockbusters. Through Eros‘ global positioning, we hope to present the film on a worldwide platform at par with the other leading state-of-the-art visual effects films,” says Ghosh.

MUMBAI: The Lions Club of SOL Mumbai held their annual Bollywood Gold awards at a suburban Mumbai venue. The winners included Shahid Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Arjun Rampal, Sagarika Ghatge, David Dhawan. Music company T-Series bagged “India‘s best Music Company Award.”

Lions of SOL Mumbai felicitated all the recipients at an entertaining function. Divya Khosla Kumar accepted the award on behalf of T-Series.

T-Series have produced music albums this year such as Om Shanti Om, Bhool Bhulaiyaa. Their next week’s release is Aamir Khan‘s Taare Zameen Par.

MUMBAI: The UP government has lifted the ban on Yash Raj Films‘ (YRF) latest flick Aaja Nachle, after offending parts were deleted from prints across the country.

MUMBAI: Mukta Arts has sold telecast rights for 12 movies to Zee Cinema in a deal worth Rs 220 million, while the remaining 14 in the library come up for renewals in different periods.

MUMBAI: Rajkamal Bhuyan, the producer of the Assamese film Jaatingaa Ityaadi screened at IFFI-2007, said that he was motivated by the urge to call a spade a spade to make the film.Jaatingaa Ityaadi shows how militancy in Assam has created a deep fear psychosis among people and how militants lure innocent young men and women into their fold.

“This film is an attempt to showcase the real face of militancy which has destroyed the social fabric of Assam”, Bhuyan said.

Bhuyan informed that it was difficult to screen the film across theatres in Assam and other North Eastern states as most of the theatres were either in poor shape or were not receiving enough viewers due to the fear of militant attacks. Therefore, the effort was being made to reach maximum viewers through release of VCDs/DVDs. “A good response has been received from overseas markets, especially Australia and USA for the film’s VCDs/DVDs”, he informed.

The film was shot in a period of three weeks at a cost of Rs 4 million.