Category: Movies

MUMBAI: The third Riverside Bollywood Film Festival being held this month will screen Bollywood film classics once a week.

Yesterday, the festival screened the Karan Johar classic Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham that features Amitah Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Jaya Bachchan, Kajol and Karena Kapoor.

“Bollywood is a distinct form of cinematic experience. It incorporates music and visual language that is extremely different from Hollywood but is linked with Indian poetic traditions, as well as being reminiscent of 1930s musical cinema in Western countries,” said Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa, assistant professor of Tibetan, Chinese and Himalayan history and faculty-in-residence for the Honors College Riverside Community that is hosting the festival.

Like Hollywood, Bollywood is concerned with depicting glamour, wealth and fashion, all of which are aspirations for the middle and lower classes, she added.

On 21 October, people at the festival will be witness to Hum Aapke Hain Koun that stars Salman Khan and Madhuri Dixit, while YRF’s Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. will screen on 28 October.

MUMBAI: Percept Pictures and Rising Star Entertainment have signed a distribution deal with Springboard Films, a subsidiary of PVR Pictures, for the release of Allah Ke Banday across six territories in the country.

Directed by Faruk Kabir, the film stars Naseerudin Shah and Sharman Joshi and is scheduled for release on 12 November.

Says Rising Star Entertainment managing director Ravi Walia, “There are already some five films releasing on that day and it doesn‘t make sense to confuse the consumer on choice. Bakri Eid was the best period post-Diwali. So far the film promos have got excellent reviews; we plan to continue our promotional activities throughout October. Our partner, Percept Pictures, has planned out an extensive marketing plan and road-show during the Diwali phase.”

Allah Ke Banday centres around the life of children taking up to crime at a young age and deals with various socio-economic problems that plague many lives that represent the future of this country.
 

MUMBAI: Amitabh Bachchan is in plans to copyright his voice so that no one makes misuse of it.

Bachchan was quoted saying that he was not aware that his voice could be misused and lead to a lot of corruption. Bachchan said that he will take the help of the law to prevent misuse of his voice.

Bachchan’s success in copyrighting his voice could lead to legal action against hundreds of mimicry artistes who imitate him in entertainment programmes.

MUMBAI: On a plaint moved by 20th Century Fox on Sohail Maklai‘s upcoming film Knock Out starring Sanjay Dutt, Irrfan Khan and Kangna Ranaut, the Bombay High Court has directed Sohail Maklai Entertainment Private Limited (SMEPL), to give Fox Studios a copy of their screenplay and adjourned the case till13 October.

The Mani Shankar directed film is facing plagiarism charges from the Hollywood studio. The studio says that Knock Out is a blatant copy of Fox‘s film Phone Booth that stars Colin Farrell.

What‘s interesting to note is that both the films show the protagonist taking a victim hostage within a phone booth and forcing him to reveal certain dark secrets.

Reacting sharply to the plagiarism charges, Mani Shankar says that the Fox‘s film itself is copied from Kari Skogland‘s Liberty Stands Still.

The case cropped up after 20th Century Fox moved the Bombay High Court alleging a copyright infringement and sought an injunction on the release of Knock Out.

MUMBAI: Ajay Devgn, whose latest film Akrosh is set to ignite the silver screen this Friday, has plans to direct his next venture. He will produce under the Devgn Entertainment Software Ltd banner.

The film, an emotional family drama, will have script by Robin Bhatt and will star Devgn with his wife Kajol.

The film will also have a young romantic pair, the casting of which is in the final stages.

Devgn‘s last film Once Upon A Time In Mumbai, in which he portrayed the character of Haji Mastan, fetched him critical acclaim. Two other films of Devgn, besides Aakrosh, that is scheduled to release this year are Golmaal3 and Toonpur Ka Superhero.

It may be noted that Devgn‘s debut directorial venture U Me Aur Hum, which for the first time in India introduced filming by a helicam, did average business.

MUMBAI: The Kerala Government honoured Kutty Srank, the film that recently bagged the best film award at the National Film Awards 2010.

The Chief Minister of the state V. Achutanandan along with the leader of the opposition Oommen Chandy and the filmmakers association had organised a function to honour the efforts of the makers of the Reliance Big Pictures film.

Reliance Big Pictures, represented by Mahesh Ramanathan, director Shaji N Karun, screenplay writers Hari Krishnan and P F Mathews, costumes designer Jayakumar, cinematographer Anjuli Shukla, editor A Sreekar Prasad and actress Padmapriya were felicitated at the function that was followed by the screening of the film.

The film, a Reliance Big Pictures‘ first Malaylam production, was first released on 23 July and later re-released again on 24 September.

MUMBAI: The Australian High Commissioner to India Peter M Varghese has awarded Fame Cinemas Managing Director Shravan Shroff the 2010 Alumni Excellence Commendation for Media and Entertainment award.

The award ceremony was held at the Australian Embassy in New Delhi.

This award is presented to individuals in recognition of their academic achievements and professional pursuits since studying in Australia.

Speaking on the occasion Shroff said, “I am extremely honoured to receive this award. I learnt a lot academically and later on professionally during my years in Australia and I am grateful to the country for bestowing this honour on me.”

Shroff did his Business Management studies at the Melbourne Business School in Australia.

He is credited with setting up Fame Adlabs and dozens of premium multiplexes throughout the country, all part of the Fame India conglomerate with an aggregate value of over Rs 3 billion.
 

MUMBAI: After delivering two consecutive hits in Race and Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, Tips has lined up three big star films.

The first to roll out will be the Abbas-Mustan directed Race 2 that has Abishek Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra, Anil Kapoor and John Abraham. The film will go on the floors in June 2011.

Besides, the production company has two other films lined up. The first is an untitled venture starring Salman Khan to be directed by Rajkumar Santoshi, while the second, yet untitled, will have Akshay Kumar.

While Ramesh Taurani confirmed the news, he refused to divulge any further details