Category: Movies

MUMBAI: Out at Shimla on location hunting for his directorial debut film, acclaimed actor Ravi Baswani passed away yesterday afternoon following a heart attack.

Baswani was best known for his roles as photographer Sudhir Mishra in the cult film Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron and the carefree Lakhan in Chashme Badoor.
 
He was recently seen in films like Lucky-No Time For Love, Bunty Aur Babli and Pyar Tune Kya Kiya. Baswani was also quiet liked by the small screen audience and was very often seen on television.

Filmmaker Sai Paranjpe, who directed Chasme Badoor, remembers Baswani as a fantastic actor who had a great career ahead of him but couldn‘t adjust to the industry.

“I am shocked. He was immensely talented. His comic timing was perfect,” Paranjpe said.

MUMBAI: Looks like Indian movie production houses are planning to shift shelter from the Alternative Investment Market (AIM).

After raising capital to fund their movie projects and build initial scale, the production houses are finding liquidity, additional pools of investment and scrip movement of their stocks an issue at AIM. UTV Motion Pictures delisted while the promoters of the Indian Film Company intend to entirely buyback the shares.

The latest to express this intent is Eros International. The AIM-listed movie production company said Tuesday it plans to shift to London‘s main bourse after completing its Indian listing.

“It is our intention that following the completion of the Indian listing, we will begin the process to move from AIM to the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange,” Eros stated.

Eros has filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and is awaiting approval. It plans to raise Rs 3.5 billion via an initial public offering (IPO) in a parallel listing that would help fund its ambitious expansion plans.

“For Indian media companies like UTV and Network18 Group who were looking at diversifications into movies, London‘s junior market provided an easy platform to raise capital. Eros also jumped into the bandwagon as it sought to move primarily from a movie rights distribution company to a business model that included film production. But shares of these companies lacked substantial liquidity and market cap couldn‘t scale up,” says a media analyst who tracks movie stocks.

Eros feels after three years of listing on AIM, the main market will help fuel its next phase of growth.

“We now have over three years of track record of successful growth on AIM and believe that the Main Market represents a natural progression for us given our size and maturity as a business. We also hope to access additional pools of investment capital and liquidity as a result of the planned move,” it said.

Eros, which today announced its preliminary results for fiscal ended 31 March, has posted a profit before tax (pretax profit) of $49.5 million, up 2 per cent from $48.4 million a year ago.

Revenue fell four per cent to $149.7 million, accounted for by a 17 per cent slip in television syndication income to $52.9 million. Cash flow from operations was up 59 per cent to $108.3 million, from $68.2 million in the year-ago period.

Net debt reduced by 19 per cent to $104.3 million, while administrative costs fell 21 per cent to $16.2 million.

Theatrical business

Theatrical revenues grew by eight per cent to $50.2 million (from $46.3 million). The company released 83 films in the year, (as compared to 94 films it released in 2009) of which 13 (2009: 22) were released globally including Tamil and other regional films.

Television business

Revenues fell by 17 per cent to $52.9 million, as against $64 million in the earlier year. Eros said that the fall was in line with expectations as television revenues had grown by 94 per cent in 2009 from just $33 million in 2008.

Eros said that revenues came from new and existing deals with Star, Zee TV, Sony, Sun TV, B4U, Kalaignar TV and other television broadcasters in India as well as dubbed and subtitled markets internationally.

Revenues include subscription revenues from the Ayngaran Tamil television network in Europe.

Digital and Home Entertainment

Revenues from the digital and home entertainment segment were up marginally to $46.6 million (from $46.2 million). The company said that several films were exploited on the major DTH platforms such as Dish TV, Tata Sky, Airtel digital TV and Reliance Big TV in India on pay-per-view basis, marking the beginning of a new revenue stream.

MUMBAI: A popular franchise just cannot be disbanded, may it be Superman, Batman or our very own Munnabhai.

After almost drawing the curtains on his next Munnabhai venture Munnabhai Chale Amrika, Rajkumar Hirani has once again revived the idea of making the film for Vidhu Vinod Chopra.

He is now scripting the next Munnabhai with his co-writer Abhijat Joshi. Once it‘s done, production work will start.

Initially, it was planned that in Mumnnabhai Chale Amrika, Munna and Circuit would go to America to meet its president. But Hirani lost interest after Karan Johar used the same idea of his protagonist meeting the US President in My Name is Khan.

Under tremendous pressure from distributors and also from the masses to bring back Munna, Hirani has planned to revive the film. “Wherever I go, people walk up to me and ask, ‘Where is that Munnabhai film, the trailer of which was shown with Eklavya in 2007? Some slightly aggressive people remarked, “Aap ne trailer dikhaya, film kahan hai?,” Hirani avers.

“Munna and Circuit are very interesting characters we have created and we can relate many socially relevant subjects using them,” Hirani adds.

The new film will see an aged Munnabhai to suit Sanjay‘s current age and personality.
 

MUMBAI: Angelina Jolie‘s latest film Salt that opened in India with 464 prints in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu simultaneously on 23 July became the star‘s biggest opening film in India when it garnered Rs 78 million in its opening weekend.

The success of the espionage thriller that released on 23 July has cemented Jolie‘s position as an action star comparable to James Bond and Bourne. It opened with a solid $36m at the US box office.

Said Sony Pictures India MD Kercy Daruwala, “The film has done great business thanks to Angelina Jolie‘s appeal with both men and women. Moreover, the spy genre has always appealed to Indian audiences. In fact this looks like it could be the highest grossing female-led Hollywood film in India.” 

Salt follows the tremendous success of Sony Pictures‘ The Karate Kid which is still continuing a long run at the box-office in its seventh week.

Sony Pictures‘ next releases are the $150m plus Adam Sandler comedy Grown Ups on 13 August as well as the studio‘s next four-language release, Resident Evil: Afterlife, in 3D that will release on 10 September. This will be followed shortly by the much-awaited Julia Roberts starrer Eat Pray Love in October.
 

MUMBAI: After having distributed over 60 Hollywood films in India, PVR Pictures will start distributing Indian films abroad in the next six months.

PVR has already tied up with an independent company for overseas distribution and sale of Indian films abroad.

Says PVR president Kamal Gianchandani, “Initially, we will make our presence felt in the UK and US and are looking for alliances in other countries too.”

On the home front, PVR recently released Rahul Dholakia‘s Lamhaa and Priyadarshan‘s Khatta Meetha in certain Indian territories.

In 2010, PVR will also distribute Hollywood films like The Twilight saga: Eclipse, The Expendables, Agora, Piranha 3D, Step Up 3D, The Eagle of the Ninth, Fair Game, The Hole, The Rum Diary, London Boulevard and Biutiful.

PVR Pictures will release about six to eight Hindi films. In the regional films market too, PVR is looking to distribute seven to eight films, says Gianchandani.
 

MUMBAI: T-Series has acquired the music and audio visual rights of all films from the Eros Films stable. This includes the music of three of the forthcoming releases of this year – Anjaana Anjaani, Ra.One and Rockstar.

As part of the alliance, the music and audio visual content of films under the Eros banner shall be exclusively distributed globally by T-Series on all the platforms in all formats including all physical formats, Radio & Television and Mobile and digital formats.

On the mobile and digital distribution front, Hungama Mobile, the exclusive digital distribution partner of T-Series, will provide the digital footprint for Eros catalogue across Telcos, Internet, IPTV and mobile networks. 

Through its international partnerships with iTunes, Rhapsody, Amazon MP3, among others, the T-Series-Hungama alliance will power this vibrating content to South Asian consumer‘s outside the country.

This move is seen in continuation of its aggressive acquisition spree that started two years ago with music of all A grade films being released under T-Series, followed by the acquisition of Reliance Big Music catalogue in December last year.

Apart from steering sales on physical formats, T-Series will also champion the reach of Eros‘ Music through its global network of licensees, publishers and aggregators and all formats of revenues that arise from radio, television & public performances.