Category: Movies

MUMBAI: Most of this year’s movie award ceremonies that give awards to best in all categories have been done away with. Films that have done well with the audience and at the box office have already got their appreciation.

Now it’s the time for awards for such films that made you want to gouge your eyeballs, slit your wrists, and cry for the hard-earned money lost. First in the line is the Ghanta awards that was held last Sunday.

The worst actor award went to Himesh Reshammiya (Radio), the worst actress award went to Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (Raavan), worst breakthrough award went to Aditya Narayan, the worst couple award was bagged by Uday Chopra and Priyanka Chopra, the worst director award was given to Sajid Khan while the worst film award went to Pyaar Impossible.

The Ghanta awards had nominated films from Diwali 2009 to Diwali 2010. Next in line is the Golden Kela awards to be held in New Delhi on 2 March.
 

NEW DELHI: Persistence Resistance, the annual festival of shorts and documentaries, has commenced with a seminar on Film festivals as public cultures followed by the inaugural screenings.

The seminar had 10 eminent speakers from six international and three Indian festivals. Both the films screened at the inaugural were world premieres. The first was Paromita Vohra‘s brand new documentary Partners in Crime, followed by You Don‘t Belong by Spandan Banerjee.

Shohini Ghosh’s bool ‘Fire’ was released by Sharmila Tagore. There were keynote addresses by Colin Gonsalves, advocate and Peter Wintonik, filmmaker.

Persistence Resistance 2011 also has retrospectives of Arun Khopkar, Rahul Roy and Kim Longinotto. In addition, there are four invited packages: the Doc Alliance films brought by Dok Leipzig, selections from the London Documentary Film Festival, selections from the Asian Network of the Documentary, of the Pusan International Film Festival, and diploma films by students from the Zelig Documentary School, Italy.

There will be a workshop on crowd funding with Charlie Phillip, Sheffield Doc/ Fest and Jamie King of the Vodo on-line distribution platform. The workshop will be moderated by Peter Wintonick. And, UN Women (formerly UNIFEM) presents a seminar on ‘Gender and Governance‘ based on the work of Kim Longinotto and Rahul Roy.

The annual festival has been organised by the Magic Lantern Foundation and spearheaded by Gargi Sen.

On the theme of ‘Edge of Visual Narrative;, the Festival from 7 to 10 February will screen more than 80 films, many of which are distributed by Under Construction, as well as special invited packages, in a multitude of viewing spaces.

Oranges and Mangoes by Priyanka Chhabra and It‘s cricket, no? by Sudhir Aggarwal and Gregory French are also being premiered at the Festival.

The films can also be seen on http://festivalonline.persistenceresistance.in/ by registering on the site by creating a username, check email for an activation link, logging in and checking the menu.

MUMBAI: Subhash Ghai-promoted Mukta Arts has picked up a 26 per cent stake in Maya Digital Studios, an acquisition that would allow the movie production company a presence in computer animation and digital VFX.

“ We have acquired a 26 per cent stake in Maya,” Mukta Arts consultant and advisor Ravi Gupta told Indiantelevision.com.

While refusing to give out financial details of the deal, Gupta said the amount would be paid to the Ketan Mehta-promoted company over six months.

Mukta Arts will nominate one person on the board of Maya Digital Studios. “We will be doing this within two months. And with the deal in place, Mukta will have a post-production and VFX outfit that we were bereft of all this while,” said Gupta.

Maya Digital Studios already has stakeholders in Mehta, his wife Deepa Sahi and American computer graphics veteran Frank Foster.

Maya will continue to do outsourced work for major banners across the world and will also look at creating “intellectual property” of its own. It will soon add studio facilities at Film City, Mumbai, and Goa.

Founded in 1996, Maya Digital Studios has worked with global clients to deliver projects in television, film and game animation. The studio has worked on projects for BBC, Ragdoll, Rainbow, Mike Young Productions, Electronic Arts, Sony, Activision and Google and is currently working with Brown Bag, Big Screen Entertainment, and VGI Entertainment. The studio’s first theatrical 3D CGI feature –Ramayana The Epic released in 2010. It is also partnering on co-productions to develop IP for the global TV market.

Mukta Arts is working on new initiatives to scale up the company‘s turnover. Indiantelevision.com recently reported on the company‘s plans to foray into the multiplex business for which it has earmarked an investment of Rs 500 million over a 12-month period.

MUMBAI: Vikram Bhatt, known for his films like Raaz, 1920, Shaapit, Fear and Life Mein Kabhie Kabhie, is ready with his latest film Haunted, the country‘s first next generation stereoscopic 3D film.

The film is slated for release on 15 April.

Avers Bhatt, “Haunted is my most challenging and fulfilling film. The challenge began from the scripting stage itself for we had to visualise the country‘s film of this genre. The style was new and the technology was new too.”

Haunted is the story of a man (Mahakshay Chakraborty) who has been given the responsibility of selling a mansion in the hills. When he goes to the house, he realises that it is haunted. He cannot do anything with the property till he gets to the bottom of this issue. The rest of the film seeks to unravel the mystery.

Talking of how he adapted the film in 3D technology, Bhatt observed, “We had to acquaint ourselves with the technology, learn to adapt it. This part was a major feat and I must thank the entire technical team for coming up with the end-result. I would never have been able to achieve this milestone without them.”

The technical crew of Haunted comprises Hollywood technicians like Brent Robinson, Christan Jeams, Cassidey and Michael Reuben Flax.
 

MUMBAI: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, known for his films like Rang De Basanti and Dilli 6, is all set to plunge into the mythology genre with his next home production Raja and the Legend of the Flute in 3D technology.

Earlier titled Paanch Kaurav, the saga is about “the philosophy and consciousness of Krishna woven into a father-son story.”

The film will be made on a budget of over Rs 1 billion and will go on the floors soon, said Mehra.

An avid admirer of Krishna, Mehra said, “As a small kid, he killed big demons like Kaalia Nag and he used to steal butter and milk. As a youngster, he was a Casanova, dancing with the ‘gopis‘. While Radha was elder to him, she was his consort but was engaged to someone else. And then as a man, he grew up to be the greatest ‘yogi‘ of all times. He led the ‘Pandavas‘ in the ultimate war of ‘Mahabharata‘, of good versus evil. What a complete character!”

The mythological thriller will prove to be a ‘genre breaker for India’. It will be filled with visual effects and will be shot on larger than life sets.

MUMBAI: Sunny Deol, known to play heroic roles in films like Damini and Gaddar, is soon to play a pundit in Mohalla Assi, a film by Chandraprakash Dwivedi.

Said Deol in a statement, “The script of Mohalla Assi is very different and interesting, especially the character I play is very unique – it‘s not quite like anything I have played yet. You will see me in an entirely new avatar. It‘s true that I will be playing a pundit. Therefore, I will be dressed in clothes that are typical for a pundit, right down to a ‘choti‘ to complete the look.” 

Deol’s attire in the film, unlike what he has worn before, is replete with a dhoti, kurta, gamcha (cotton towel) and kolhapuri chappals. He would also be sporting a ‘choti’.

The film is based on a popular Hindi novel ‘Kashi Ka Assi‘ written by Dr. Kashinath Singh. It is set in a famous and historical ‘mohalla‘ (locality) on the southern end of Benaras on the river bank of Ganga.

The film is being produced by Vinay Tiwari of Crossword Entertainment.