Category: Movies

MUMBAI: The motion picture distribution company 52 Weeks Entertainment has acquired the Indian distribution rights of Om Puri starrer English movie West is West, a sequel to East is East from the worldwide sales agent Icon Film.

West is West is slated for release in India in April this year. The movie was released in UK on 25 February and had a strong opening. It collected a little over $1.2 million (Rs 55 million ) at the weekend box office with 184 screens.

West is West producer, Leslee Udwin, who also produced East is East, said: “There were two territories in which the choice of distributor was of great importance to me. The UK and India/Pakistan; partly because I know the film will perform superbly in the territories if correctly handled, and partly because the team of actors and crew come from those countries and so I felt a big responsibility there.”

“West is West is the sequel to the internationally acclaimed film East is East, a ground-breaking film which broke cultural barriers around the world,” 52 Week Entertainment’s Suneil Wadha added. “As a strategy, in India the film is set for an April release along with the North America & Canada. The timing of the India release is in keeping with the World Cup and exams time. These kind of films grow with word of mouth for which you would require time.”

West is West is is based on and inspired by autobiographical events, and produced by the same creative team.

The sequel takes the Khan family on a journey from Salford, England to rural Pakistan. West is West is as much the coming of age of 13-year-old Sajid as of his father, 60-year-old George ‘Ghengis’ Khan. George, in a last attempt to make a good Muslim and a good son of him, decides to pack Sajid off to his first wife and family in the Punjab, whom he had abandoned 30 years earlier. In the process the tables are turned on George when he comes face to face with his own transgressions, and realises that it is he himself who has much to learn.

Written by Ayub Khan-Din (BAFTA winner), directed by Andy De Emmony (BAFTA nominated) and produced by Udwin (BAFTA winner), West is West stars Om Puri, Linda Bassett, Jimi Mistry, Emil Marwa, Ila Arun, Lesley Nicoll, Vijay Raaz and introduces Aqib Khan. The music of the film is by Shankar-Eshaan-Loy & Rob lane.
 

MUMBAI: The voting process of the 12th International India Film Academy awards got going when Kareena Kapoor cast her first vote. She was accompanied by IIFA Advisory Board member Karan Johar and Wizcraft International Entertainment, director Sabbas Joseph. Later they were joined by Anil Kapoor, Boman Irani and Riteish Deshmukh.

Having cast the first vote, Kareena Kapoor said: “It is a great privilege that has been bestowed upon me to cast the first vote and inaugurate the 12th IIFA voting weekend. IIFA has set a high standard with its voting procedure and has hence established a benchmark for excellence and credibility. This being the IIFA’s premiere in North America, I am eagerly looking forward to the IIFA weekend in Toronto.”

“I have been performing in the last four editions of the IIFA, but this edition would be a very emotional one for me for the organisers have kept a retrospective on my grandfather Raj Kapoor,” she added.

On his part, Karan Johar said: “After going around several destinations in the world, the IIFA is entering North America for the first time. This is a unique opportunity for our film fraternity getting to know that country. We, all in the film fraternity are collectively acting as ambassadors in promoting our film industry there in Canada.”

Anil Kapoor also spoke high of the IIFA and its going to Canada this year. “These kind of going around countries help filmmakers from both ends to network and explore new horizons. It was way back when the IIFA was held in South Africa. There I met a filmmaker who got interested in my film My Name Is Gandhi when I narrated him the script. This is how he came on board and my film got made,” he observed.

The IIFA voting process is closely monitored by PricewaterHouse Coopers (PwC), the official auditors for the event. The popular category nominations will then be available for the global audience to participate in the voting process.

The three-day 2011 edition of the IIFA would be held in Ontario from 23 to 25 June this year.

MUMBAI: The 9th Annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) has announced the 13 short films that will screen in the 2011 festival.

The films will be presented in two programmes each, one screening twice throughout the six-day festival. The films were selected from over 350 submissions worldwide.

“We are extremely happy with the quality of the submissions we received for the short-form medium this year. This has been a record year for submissions and it was a difficult process pairing the selection to these 13. We believe this year‘s selection of films delivers strong, compelling, and humorous live action and animated narratives that will engage and deliver to our festival goers. We are also excited to premiere a number of these films for the Los Angeles audiences,” said IFFLA executive director Christina Marouda.

Short films that will be screened at the festival are Beholder, Idol, In That Moment, The Return Address, The Stitches Speak, Tubelight’s Moon, Wheeling Dreams, Just That Sort Of A Day, All Is Well Façade, Joy of Giving, Mumbaiker Ganesh and The Eclipse Of Taregna.

The IFFLA programming team includes Rani Breslow, Isaac Klausner, Sudeep Sharma, and Rachael Sevilla along with Executive Director Christina Marouda and Programming Consultant in Mumbai Uma Da Cunha.

The festival takes place from 12 to 17 April.

Producer: Om Prakash Mittal Director: Yogesh Mittal Cast: Anupam Kher, Pawan Malhotra, Tena Desae, Rushad Rana, Kiran Kumar, Suhasini Mulay, Sudha Chandran, Seema Biswas, Rajendra Gupta

MUMBAI: Om Prakash Mittal of Bhawani Pictures is a veteran film distributor in Delhi-UP circuit. While being very discerning about what films he acquired for release in his circuit, it is surprising that he chose to make Yeh Faasley as his production venture; let alone succeed, the film will have a tough time finding minimum number of patrons to perform a show!
Yeh Faasley is a murder mystery that has gone out of vogue because there are not many who can justify the genre. With a thin plot and a thinner script, the film becomes tedious to watch.

Tena Desae loves her doting father, Anupam Kher; he has brought her up since she was a tot when her mother had died. In the course of events, Tena finds out that her father has a violent streak in him; she also realises that he has not told her all about her dead mother. Through Pawan Malhotra, a former royal, she learns that her mother was passionate about music, a passion she shared with Malhotra.

Tena Desae now believes that her mother did not die a natural death as she was made to believe and starts snooping around. Her suspicion falls on her father, Anupam Kher, which makes her sue him in the court of law. The film meanders then on to a predictable end.

Performance wise, Anupam Kher and Pawan Malhotra do well. Tena Desae does not impress.

With average direction and photography being below par, Yeh Faasley has poor prospects.
 

NEW DELHI: The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has asked stakeholders to send in suggestions for celebrating the centenary of Indian cinema in 2013.

The Ministry has put in a note on its website in this connection. The note says that a preliminary meeting was held under the chairmanship of secretary Raghu Menon for drawing up a blueprint for the celebrations.

Although Indians began making films soon after the Lumiere Brothers exhibited their kinetograph in July 1898 in Mumbai, these were only recording of actual events taking place.

It was only in 1913 that D G Phalke made the country’s first indigenous feature film, ‘Raja Harishchandra’, in which he enacted several roles – particularly since it was considered taboo for women to act. He is today known as Dadasaheb Phalke, the father of Indian cinema. His struggle to make the film has been recorded in the Marathi film ‘Harishchandrachi Factory’ by Paresh Mokashi.

It is understood that the Museum of the Moving Image coming up in the premises of Films Division in Mumbai and the National Centre for Animation and Gaming will be two key announcements for the centenary celebrations.

MUMBAI: As part of its celebration of international films, the Cannes Film Festival starting 11 May will screen a documentary on Indian cinema.

A delegation of makers like Rakeysh Mehra and Shekhar Kapur and a few others met Amitabh Bachchan to discuss ideas and content for a documentary on Indian Cinema, which they believed that the Cannes Film Festival would screen in this year’s celebration of International cinema.

Bachchan, who will narrate the documentary, will share his insights about the Indian film industry, that is more than 120 years old and is one of the largest film producing nations in the world.