Category: Movies

NEW DELHI: The Informaton and Broadcasting Ministry plans to invest close to Rs 2 billion in restoring 2000 movies.

An additional Rs 4 billion will be pumped in to restore a further 4000 movies in the second phase, a senior official of the I&B Ministry told Indiantelevision.com.

Falling under the ambit of the National Film Heritage Mission, the plan is to also digitise around 8000 movies. The Planning Commission has allocated Rs 6.6 billion as an initial grant to the National Film Heritage Mission.

The Government is keen to preserve the history of Indian cinema and feels this should be done in the next few years as the centenary of Indian cinema will be marked in 2013, exactly 100 years after the country’s first indigenous feature film, Raja Harishchandra, was produced by DG Phalke.

A report is being prepared by the Ministry in this connection, and the proposal will include acquisition of films and film artifacts in private hands.

“Restoration can cost anything between Rs 800,000 to Rs one million per movie,” the source added.

Artifacts, posters, vintage equipments, costumes, properties, and stills and other materials will be kept at the Museum (tentatively titled Museum of the Moving Image) which is coming up in a heritage building, Gulshan Mahal, (built in 1834) in the Films Division Complex in Mumbai.

Asked if the Division would administer the museum when it is ready, the official said since it was coming up in that premise, the charge had initially been given to the Films Division. The government has allocated Rs 1.164 billion for setting up the Museum.

The aim is to make the museum an interactive one and it should gradually become the hub of film activity in the country. The new museum block will house cinema theatres, an amphitheatre, a demo studio and store space.

The National Buildings Construction Corporation and the National Council of Science Museums were also collaborating in the project.

The Ministry has started the process of collecting such classic film properties, according to National Film Archives, Pune, director Vijay Jadav.

Meanwhile, the Films Division plans to restore a total of 2,650 films, of which 1,450 belong to the ‘silent era’ and 200 that are on video format. There are as many as 200 films (400 reels of 4,000 minutes‘ duration) that have decomposed due to fungal infection and will require digital restoration at a cost of Rs 300 million.

NFAI that has a collection of 6,000 films has already restored 48 films and digitised 148 others in 2009-2010. Doordarshan is already in the process of restoring most of its software.

MUMBAI: A four-day-long film festival based on Rabindranath Tagore‘s novels is being currently held in Tripura.

Film actress Madhabi Mukhopadhyay was present in the inaugural function today. 

The film festival is a part of the year-long celebrations of the Nobel laureate poet‘s 150th birth anniversary being celebrated in the north-eastern state.

Cine Delve advisor Samiran Roy said, “Films made by internationally famed directors like Satyajit Ray, Tapan Sinha, Purnendu Patri and several documentaries on Tagore will be screened in the festival.”

‘As a tribute to the great poet, who had visited Tripura seven times between 1899 and 1926, we are celebrating his 150th birth anniversary with a year-long programme,‘ Sarkar said.

According to Sarkar, the state government would set up a museum and research centre at the 93-year-old Pushpavant Palace, currently the governor‘s house (Raj Bhawan). The Nobel laureate stayed in the palace during his last visit to the state in February 1926.

The state government is building a 1,800-seat Rabindra Memorial Centre in the capital city at a cost of Rs 275 million.

Tripura has also proposed to the union civil aviation ministry to rename the Agartala airport after Rabindranath Tagore.
 

MUMBAI: As a part of the special promotional exercise of Balaji Telefilms‘ forthcoming release Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai, Fame Cinemas will showcase a special retro-themed stall in association with Balaji and JD Institute of Fashion Technology.

Through this, Fame will offer moviegoers a chance to get a feel of the era in which the film is based.

In the activity spread over two weekends from 16 July, multiplex patrons can come to the stall, displaying wardrobes of retro-themed attires and accessories.

They can chose the outfit and accessories of their choice and dress like their favourite stars and preserve the memory in the form of a picture which would be given to them on the spot.

MUMBAI: Aamir Khan‘s Peepli Live will be premiered at this year‘s Melbourne International Film Festival on 6 August.

The festival, which will run from 22 July to 7 August, will feature Peepli Live in a special category called ‘Not Quite Bollywood‘. The festival will screen films from over 50 countries over a period of 17 days.

A satire on the farmers‘ suicides and subsequent media and political response, Peepli Live is the first Bollywood film that has been featured in the competing section of the Sundance Film Festival to be held from 15 July.

The Anusha Rizvi film stars Naseeruddin Shah, Omkar Das Manikpuri, Raghubir Yadav, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Malaika Shenoy.
 

MUMBAI: After the release of Milenge Milenge, Boney Kapoor has set his eyes on three sequels – Mr India, Wanted and No Entry.

All the three films will start rolling out next year after the release of the Nana Patekar-Harman Joshi- Genelia D‘souza starrer It‘s My Life.

While the details of the sequels of Mr India and Wanted are not known, it is said that Kapoor‘s son Arjun will make his debut as the young Mr India.

No Entry 2, on the other hand, would be an Indianised version of the Hollywood hit Hangover. All the lead actors like Anil Kapoor, Salman Khan and Fardeen Khan have double roles with them playing fathers and sons.

MUMBAI: The Saif Ali Khan- Deepika Padukone starrer Love Aaj Kal is being remade in Telugu.

Directed by Jayanth Paranji, who also directed Munnabhai MBBS in Telugu, the film will have Pawan Kalyan essaying Saif Ali Khan‘s role while Ileana D‘cruz will play that of Deepika Padukone.

But sadly, Rishi Kapoor will not be seen in the film. His role of the sprightly old Sardar will be played by Paresh Rawal.

The plot of the film, however, will undergo a few changes. Paranji admits that though the essence of the story will be the same, the film will be a different take on Love Aaj Kal.

Unlike the Imtiaz Ali film in which Rishi Kapoor narrates the story of his younger days, Paresh will tell the story of a friend of his.