Category: Movies

MUMBAI: The Ministry of Commerce & Industry will felicitate filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar at the India show in Dubai on 9 June.

Organising the show that is being held from 8 to 10 June in Dubai, the Ministry will honour Bhandarkar for his outstanding work and contribution to the Indian cinema.

Says Bhandarkar, “I am highly honoured and very delighted. It is always motivating when one gets such felicitations of encouragement. I extend my heartiest thanks to the organisers of the show and the audiences worldwide who have always stood by me.”

The components of the show include a made in India trade exhibition on all the three days, a networking meet organised by Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO) and Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, an India Business Summit organised by FIEO, CII & IBPC, Dubai and India culture evening and Indian cuisine dinner.

Earlier this year, Madhur was also awarded in Moscow and Egypt for his contribution to Indian cinema.
 

MUMBAI: Cinemax promoter Himanshu B Kanakia has pledged a total of 5.87 million shares, representing 20.96 per cent stake in the company.

In a fresh development, Kanakia pledged 265,000 shares on 2 June. With this, he has pledged 62.66 per cent of his personal holding in the company (9.37 million shares).

On 31 March, the promoters of the cinema exhibition major had pledged 41.51 per cent shares of the entire paid up capital, representing 60.72 per cent of the promoters’ shareholding.

Cinemax had posted a net profit of Rs 169.7 million in the fiscal ended 31 March 2010 on a net income of Rs 1.68 billion. Total expenses incurred in the year were Rs 1.58 billion.

Shares of Cinemax were trading Tuesday at Rs 49.95 on the BSE till 1 pm.

MUMBAI: In Tamil Nadu, politics always wins. While Kites has fallen flat with the cinema hall owners boycotting the movie in the state, it is the political drama Raajneeti that is being shown in the theatres.

The entire cast of Raajneeti didn‘t go to Colombo to the IIFA after the South India film industry threatened to ban actors attending the function, a move that has gone down well with the fraternity in Tamil Nadu.

The Hrithik Roshan-starrer Kites, however, could not fly long and the cinema theatres yesterday banned the film from screening in Tamil Nadu.

The act is seen as a result of the showdown Bollywood had with the South India film industry when several actors namely Salman Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Sanjay Dutt, Govinda and Anil Kapoor, among others, attended the IIFA awards in spite of being warned not to.

Says film critic Bhawana Somaaya, “I was always of the view that holding of the IIFA awards in Sri Lanka was not the right decision. The TN film chamber had requested the Bollywood film fraternity to stay away from the awards, going by the torture Tamilians are facing there day in and out.”

The South India film fraternity warned that Bollywood should not go out to celebrate “where our brethren are suffering.”

Other future films that could also take a hit are the Sanjay Dutt starrer Lamha and Sunil Shetty‘s Red Alert.

“Some Bollywood artistes did attend the awards ceremony. Resultantly, the film fraternity in Tamil Nadu has picked up a fight and have taken the first step and pulled down Kites. I feel this fight is set to go fiercer,” observes Somaaya.
 

MUMBAI: The recently formed Bollywood-Hollywood coalition against piracy has been flexing its muscles by the week.

Following up its raids not only in the interiors of Maharashtra but also in Gujarat last week, the police, along with United Copyright Protection Association (UPCA) and AA Khan & Associates, conducted raids in Wada, Ahmedabad and Mumbai.

The joint operation seized 25,000 pirated discs of recent releases like Raajneeti, Prince of Persia and Kites among others, and 22 DVD writers worth Rs 260,000. 

While the Mumbai police conducted multiple raids across Mumbai and seized close to 6000 pirated discs, AA Khan & Associates conducted a joint raid with a PSI Kolekar from Wada Police Station of pirated on film discs manufacturing plant outside Mumbai.

This raid led to a seizure of a total of 12,956 pirated DVDs of recently released Hindi and English films worth Rs 140,000. The team also seized 22 DVD writers and two processors. The team recovered 3,000 pirated DVDs of the recently- released Rajneeti.

Under the jurisdiction of B Ward BMC, UPCA conducted a raid at the junction of Yusuf Meherali road and Abdul Rehman Street, Majid Bunder, Mumbai. The team along with BMC Officers seized a total of 1500 pirated discs of films. Another raid that was conducted at Malwani Market in Malad (west) along with Malwani Police Station on a stall vendor selling pirated discs, 2,984 pirated discs were seized. Three people were arrested in the raid estimated to be worth Rs 409,600.

At a raid conducted near Hotel Sarovar outside Kandivili (west), nearly1,400 discs was seized from the stalls estimated to be worth Rs 200,000.

In Ahmedabad, the UPCA conducted a joint raid with a team from Sirkach Police Station, Ahmedabad on a godown of pirated movie discs where it seized a total of 5,265 pirated DVDs of Hindi and English films worth Rs 263,550.

AA Khan commented, “Piracy is a serious offence and one which is rampant within major parts of the city. We along with Mumbai Police are dedicated to the cause of arresting the increase of such activities. However, the job of the police is nullified since the common man goes and purchases movies from such pirates. People need to remember that besides denying the creators of the content their fair share, the proceeds from such sales fund several illegal activities including terrorism in India and abroad.”

MUMBAI: In a rather shaky box-office year, it is the political thriller Raajneeti that has made its way to the fourth largest release as it scoops up Rs 620 million in the opening weekend.

The Prakash Jha-directed movie trails behind Shah Rukh Khan‘s My Name Is Khan that netted Rs 850 million, Kites (Rs 650 million) and Housefull (Rs 640 million).

Produced jointly by UTV Motion Pictures and Walkwater Media, Raajneeti took home Rs 510 million from India where it released in 1900 screens.

The film made a total business of $315,048 in the UK, $916,446 in the US and $500,000 in the Gulf.

Raajneeti opened in 2200 screens globally compared to Rakesh Roshan‘s Kites that opened in 2500 screens.

Avers trade analyst Taran Adarsh, “The film did good business in multiplexes as well as single-screens in both smaller towns and big cities. Resultantly, the film garnered over 90 per cent collections. The audience feedback has been very good and the first week collection is bound to be excellent.”

Raajneeti has, thus, in its first weekend managed to clear of the Rs 550 million that was riding on it. “Having pre-sold the satellite TV and music rights at an additional revenue of Rs 220 million, the film will undoubtedly do surplus business,” says a trade analyst.

With the release of Mani Ratnam‘s Raavan only on 18 June, Raajneeti has two clear weeks to run free without real competition as small-time films Ek Second Jo Zindagi Ko Badal De and The Camp hit the screens this Friday.
 

MUMBAI: UTV movies will be available for UK audiences on BT Vision, a leading IPTV platform provider with presence in over 170 countries.

UTV has inked a deal with Shemaroo Entertainment UK which has an exclusive content aggregation agreement with BT Vision.

UTV will open up 22 of its movies on the video-on-demand services of British Telecom Vision. Films on offer across UTV‘s catalogue for the last three years include Race, Fashion, Kaminey, Wake Up Sid and Kurbaan.

As per the deal, a viewer will be able to watch four to five films from the UTV stable every month on the IPTV platform for BT Vision‘s pay-per-view and video-on-demand services.

B T Vision recently launched a ‘Bolly and Beyond‘ section in which Indian films are made available on demand services.