ITV

Category: Movies

  • PVR launches entertainment city in Noida

    MUMBAI: PVR Ltd has announced the launch of an entertainment city comprising multi-screen theatres, a bowling alley, a skating rink and food plazas in Noida.


    The venture, launched in association with the Logix Group, will be a part of the shopping centre being developed at Logix City Center in Sector 32. The entertainment city will be spread over two floors in the shopping centre with a total area of 150,000 sq ft.


    It will comprise a 15-screen multiplex with four gold class theatres, a 24-to-28 lane bowling alley, an Olympic size ice skating rink and food courts with restaurants, a microbrewery based Beer Island and food kiosks.


    The project, that is in the planning and design stage, will open to the public 30 months from now.


    Said PVR Ltd Ajay Bijlichairman and managing director, “The entertainment city will be a mecca of entertainment in the NCR (national capital region) as we will house all formats of entertainment under a single roof.”


    Added PVR Ltd Group President Pramod Arora, “The entertainment city will be a complete retail entertainment format which will showcase the best of lifestyle entertainment, leisure and casual dining formats. It will be the ultimate fun destination for the entire family.”


    Logix City Center is a mixed-use development project comprising shopping, office towers, entertainment and luxury hotels. It is spread across an area of 1.2 million sq. ft.

  • Hungarian film to open Shanghai fest

    MUMBAI: Hungarian film Czuckor Show will be the opening film at the 13th Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) that opens on Saturday.


    Producer Ferenc Pusztai said that he‘s hopeful that writer-director Tamás Dömötör‘s film will go well with Chinese audiences.


    Czuckor is a love triangle that ends in suicide is inspired by a true story that first was dramatised on the stage in 2007.


    The film will first screen at the SIFF and vie for the Jin Jue (Golden Goblet) award on 14 June.


    Czuckor is a co-production of KMH Film and Dropout Films of Hungary and Anagram Produktion of Sweden.


    The producers took a loan of 250,000 euros from the state-run Hungarian Film Fund for the making of the film.
     

  • Idaho film fest postponed

    MUMBAI: Organizers of the Idaho International Film Festival (IIFF) have postponed this years annual event, usually held in September to March next year.


    According to a press release, IIFF organizers had long been thinking about moving the festival dates. 


    “The primary reason for the change is that it allows us to gain access to the best new, independent, American film titles available,” writes IIFF executive director, Lyle Banks. “Having the festival in September has precluded us from showing films that have screening commitments at Sundance, Toronto and the American Film Institute festivals.”


    All submissions currently in possession of IIFF will be considered for the spring event. Submissions will not be returned and IIFF is currently not accepting any more submissions.


    Last year’s four-day festival screened as many as 50 films from 14 countries including a number of award-winning independent films like Charlie Valentine and Cookies and Cream.


    The festival was founded in 2001 In order to promote independent filmmaking from within as well as from outside Idaho, the festival was founded in 2011.
     

  • Bigflix Vod gets rebranded to MyBigFlix.com

    MUMBAI: With an objective to give personalised movie-watching experience a whole new dimension for users across the world, video-on-demand website bigflix.com has changed its name to MyBigFlix.com.


    With a KPMG research report on video-on-demand and streaming media consumption stating that the consumption of on-demand media is on a constant rise and will continue to do so, BigFlix.com has created a more personalised connect with its users with MyBigFlix.com.


    Speaking on the rebranding, MyBigFlix.com business head Murtuza Kagalwala said, “We are very glad to have taken this step to re-brand our broadband website to MyBigFlix.com, where it‘s all about my movies. The team has been constantly observing user-behaviour with regards to movie entertainment watching habits on the internet and concluded with interesting key inferences.”
    “Another interesting report by KPMG says that digital media consumption jumped pretty dramatically from 6 hours and 14 minutes to 7 hours and 28 minutes over the last six months (Sept 2009 to March 2010), says Kagalwala.
    Those who preferred online viewing were a vast majority at 93 per cent who cited the availability of on-demand content as the reason they watched TV shows online. Also the ability to get content free was the second-most important reason at 80 per cent and the convenience of watching their factor anytime they want, at 73 per cent. “We at, MyBigFlix.com will have much more for our users to make it more personal in the coming months and take movie watching experience to a whole new level,” added Kagalwala.
    Movies is all about one‘s preference and video-on-demand is about what consumers want when they want to consume, hence MyBigFlix is all about making this available for its existing and new users.


    There is a special feature, Playlist which allows the user to add his favourite content be it TV shows, movies, music videos, trailers from over 2000 movies and more than 100 television shows from MyBigFlix.com content catalogue.


    The website currently has 10 million visitors month-on-month across the world of which 5 to 6 million visitors are from India with an average time spend of 110 minutes per-user per-month.

  • European Film Fest in Delhi from 12 June

    MUMBAI: Film aficionados in New Delhi can look forward to watching quality selection of films related to war, modern myths, environment, romance and religion at the European Film Festival (EUFF). The even will be held from 12 to 20 June at the Teen Murti Bhavan auditorium in New Delhi.


    The festival will see the screenings of as many as 23 films and will open with the Belgian film, The Hell of Tangiers. 


    Some of the films to be screened at the festival are Investigator (Hungary), Chopin, Desire for Love (Poland), Small Engine Repair (Ireland), One Hundred Nails (Italy), Solitude (Spain), Grave Decisions (Germany), Roosters Breakfast (Slovenia), 7 yrs (France), In Real Life (Netherlands), Soul at Peace (Slovakia), The Age of Stupid (UK), ‘The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner (Bulgaria), All the Queen‘s Men (Austria) and Playing Solo (Finland).


    Entry to the festival will be free on a first-come-first-served basis.
     

  • Anupam Kher plays Hitler in romantic biopic

    MUMBAI: Debut director Rakesh Ranjan Kumar is directing a romantic biopic on Hitler titled Dear Friend Hitler.


    The film is based on the Nazi ruler‘s relationship with his long-term mistress, Eva Braun. 


    While Anupam Kher plays Hitler, Neha Dhupia will essay the role of Eva Braun.


    The film that is scheduled to release by this year-end tells the story of Hitler‘s final days in his Berlin bunker. It was there that he married Braun in a brief civil ceremony about 40 hours before he killed himself on 30 April,1945.


    The first Bollywood film that will focus on Hitler who chose the swastika, an ancient Hindu symbol as his Nazi emblem, shows the dictator‘s love for India and how he indirectly contributed to Indian independence.


    The film will also focus on the fate of the Free India Legion, an armed unit made up of Indian soldiers that was raised in 1941 and attached to the German Army.


    The film‘s title alludes to two letters that Gandhi wrote to the dictator. Gandhi addressed Hitler as ‘Dear Friend‘ before requesting him not to go to war.

  • Sebi imposes Rs 10 mn fine on Manmohan Shetty for insider trading

    MUMBAI: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has imposed a Rs 10 million fine on former Adlabs Films MD Manmohan Shetty for violating insider trading guidelines.


    Shetty had violated the norms by selling off 1 million shares of the company before the 24-hour deadline after the decisions of the board meeting was to be made public. 


    In an earlier reply to a show-cause notice issued by the regulator, Shetty had termed the sale as an “inadvertent error” without any “malafide intention”.


    The Adlabs board had met on 22 April 2006 to recommend dividend on equity shares for financial year 2005-06 and to consider the proposal of demerger of the company‘s FM radio business. The meeting was adjourned and later concluded on 23 April that was a Sunday.


    The company informed the exchanges about the details of the board meeting, and these were relayed by the bourses shortly before 10 am on 24 April. Within 15 minutes after the information was flashed, Shetty sold 7.5 lakh shares of Adlabs. Later around 3.15 pm, he sold another 2.5 lakh shares.


    While the total market volume was 18,39,171 shares, Shetty sold 10 lakh shares at an average price of Rs 402.60 per share on the BSE on 24 April, 2006.


    According to the regulator, the rule barring insiders from trading in shares for 24 hours after a board meet is to allow the public to fully understand the information and prevent insiders from getting an ‘early mover advantage‘.


    SEBI also noted that Shetty had not sold any share between 1 January and 23 April 2006.

  • Wedding Party to open MIFF 2010

    MUMBAI: Director Amanda Jane‘s The Wedding Party will open this year‘s Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF).


    The Wedding Party is set against the backdrop of an impending wedding, and follows the romantic and dramatic turns of the Thompson family and their relationships – from a deviant brother, and a sister with intimacy issues, to parents who have separated as a result of the father‘s infidelity, each couple must each face the one lesson that will get them through the complications of love.


    The film features Australian actors including Isabel Lucas, Josh Lawson, Steve Bisley, Rhonda Burchmore, Essie Davis, Adam Zwar, Geoff Paine, Kestie Morassi, Nadine Garner and Bill Hunter.


    This year MIFF 2010 will run for 18 days from 22 July 22 to 8 August with over 200 films scheduled to participate from around the globe in programme spotlights including international panorama, documentaries, neighbourhood watch, backbeat, animation as well as a special retrospective focusing on the subversive and political cinema legend Joe Dante.


    Titles already announced to screen at this years festival include Chinese films City of Life and Death and Petition that was withdrawn from the festival last year after a controversy.
     

  • LIMA awards New Moon with license of the year award

    MUMBAI: The International Licensing Industry Merchandisers‘ Association (LIMA) awarded Summit Entertainment‘s The Twilight Saga: New Moon this year‘s license of the year award at the ongoing Licensing International Expo in Las Vegas.


    LIMA also honoured the film as the best film, television, celebrity or entertainment programme. Nordstrom won the best retailer award for its New Moon programme.


    In all, LIMA handed out 16 International Licensing Excellence Awards with honorees ranging from classic brands, such as Mattel‘s Barbie (best character/toy brand) and Hasbro‘s Scrabble (best licensed promotion) in partnership with Subway to first-time winners like Food Network (best corporate brand program).


    While ESPN won the best sports and sports-themed entertainment programme honour, video game maker Electronic Arts was named best sports entertainment licensee for its FIFA soccer games.


    LIMA also honoured lifetime achievement awards to industry pioneers Alan Hassenfeld and the late Stephen Hassenfeld of Hasbro who were brought into the Licensing Industry Hall of Fame.

  • Annual eco-film festival to kick off on 8 July

    MUMBAI: In its endeavour to spread awareness about environmental issues through cinema, the Vasundhara International Film Festival, an annual eco-film fixture, will kick off on 8 July and will travel to 20 cities in four states across India.


    The festival will go to Madhya Pradesh (Indore), Karnataka (Hospet and Koppal), Maharashtra (Kolhapur, Sangli, Miraj, Nashik, Nagpur, Amravati, Solapur, Aurangabad, Ahmednagar, Ratnagiri, Jalgaon, Thane, Baramati, Satara, Karad and Mumbai) and Goa.


    Declared festival director Virendra Chitrav, “The festival will be held in two phases from July to September in 11 cities and from October to December in nine cities. The event that will have 30 national and international award-winning films participating, will get going from Amravati. The films will be screened in each city for four days.”


    Other scheduled activities include workshops, nature walks, panel discussions, lectures, cultural programmes and book and photography exhibitions.


    Delegates will be asked to write slogans on the environment and the best five slogans will win prizes. These will be put up on a tree called the commitment tree at each festival venue.