Category: Movies

MUMBAI: Hyderabad-based animation and gaming art company DQ Entertainment has partnered with Onyx Films and Fidélité Films, France to produce the 3D stereoscopic feature film, The Prodigies.

The film is being produced at a global budget of $28 million and is expected to hit theatres in March 2011.

While Warner Bros Pictures, Studio37 from Orange Group and Kinology will be responsible for the distribution and sales of the film.

The Prodigies is an adaptation by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patelliere from the novel written by Bernard Lenteric in 1982. Directed by Antoine Charreyon, the film uses the motion capture and 3D stereoscopic technologies. Artistic director is Victor Antonov while the character design is from Humberto Ramos and Francesco Herreira, designers of Marvel Comics.

Said ONYX Films chairman & CEO Aton Soumache, “After Renaissance, we wanted to bring a new form of visual entertainment to teenagers and young adults. The 3D stereoscopic technology offers an immersive experience combined with the ambitious and visually challenging graphic designs and a compelling storyline. The skilled team at DQE is doing great justice to this challenging theatrical production.”

Added DQE chairman and CEO Tapaas Chakravarti, “Commencing the production of The Prodigies as a full stereoscopic 3D movie, Onyx is using DQE‘s technical and creative capability and floor capacity to complete this production on record time. We aim for the production to be premiered and distributed worldwide by Warner Brothers and Orange Studio 37 by the beginning of second quarter of 2011.”
 

MUMBAI: The impasse between Reliance Big Pictures and the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) regarding the exhibition of the Hrithik Roshan-starrer Kites has ended.

Reliance Big Pictures has offered an apology to the KFCC and agreed to comply with the KFCC norms. As per KFCC rules, only 21 prints – 17 in Bangalore and four in the rest of Karnataka – of a non-Kannada film can be released.

Says KFCC member & producer Madhusudhan Reddy: “Now that Reliance Big Pictures has agreed to abide by the rules of the KFCC, the Chamber has allowed the film to be screened in 24 theatres in Karnataka with 17 screens in Bangalore, four in the rest of the state and three new multiplexes. We have allowed them the additional three prints they had earlier asked for, as they have withdrawn the film from the other excess theatres that they were planning to screen it in. The screening of Kites will commence with immediate effect starting from the afternoon show, today.”

Yesterday activists of the KFCC swung into action disrupting shows across Karantaka as the film released in 50 plus screens. They had directed exhibitors not to screen it in the state.
 

MUMBAI: It has knocked up fairly impressive financials. Cinema theatrical exhibition company Inox Leisure has reported a seven per cent higher net profit at Rs 260.6 million for the financial year ended 31 March 2010. In FY09, net profit had seen a drop of eight per cent.

Inox‘s net sales rose 12.2 per cent over FY09 at Rs 2.56 billion. Multiplex income generated during the fiscal was Rs 2.54 billion which is 12.53 per cent higher than the previous year. However, the company did lose out heavily on its film distribution income, when it fell to Rs 1.9 million as compared to Rs 15.2 million in FY09. Even the Rs 2.9 million it made via film production did not do much to offset the loss in distribution income.

Inox‘s net profits are higher than last year, but a point of worry is the fact that it has spruced up its operations. The company‘s operating profit fell 6.4 per cent to Rs 209.5 million. What helped add green to its bottom-line was the tax provisions it had made, and excess entertainment tax paid earlier which it no longer has to make and the same being credited to the company‘s P&L account, under taxation in the previous years. 

On the plus side from an investors point of view, the overall increase in net profit, has led to the company‘s EPS has gone up to Rs 4.24 (Rs 3.96 in FY09).

Inox launched six new properties in FY10, at Hyderabad, Indore, Kolkata, Siliguri, Visakhapatnam, taking its tally of total screens in operation from 91 to 119. Also, the company‘s properties under operation are 32 as on 31 March 2010, as against 26 at the end of the last fiscal. The company also successfully made an open offer bid for Fame earlier this year, and now owns a stake of 50.48 per cent in the exhibition chain.

The company‘s loan fund rose to Rs 1.86 billion as compared to last fiscal‘s Rs 449 million.
 

BANGALORE: The much awaited Hrithik Roshan-starrer Kites faces an uncertain future in Karnataka, with the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) asking the exhibitors not to screen the movie in the state.

Reliance Big Pictures, distributor of Kites, has raised the ire of the apex film body by releasing more than the permitted number of prints of the film in the state. According to the rules of the KFCC, other language films can release only 21 prints of the film in the state. 

As a special case, Reliance Big had been permitted to screen the film in 24 theaters in Karnataka. However, KFCC says that Reliance Big has released more than 45 prints in just South Karnataka alone. Reports allege that approximately 90 plus prints of the movie have been circulated in Karnataka.

Some theaters have withdrawn Kannada films to make room for the screening of Kites and the Chamber fears that the box office performance of some of the running Kannada films and those to be released soon would be affected by the release of Kites in the state. Also, two Kannada films that were slated for release today in the state have no theaters, claim industry sources.

Reportedly, the KFCC has demanded compensation from Reliance Big for the losses incurred and has demanded an undertaking that Reliance Big will not repeat this in future.

Also, reportedly, KFCC has threatened not to release any films in the theaters that release Kites in the state.

Also Read:

Non-Kannada film releases in Karnataka to be withheld till 18 August

Karnataka film crisis: Non-Kannada film exhibitors bear the brunt

47 more non-Kannada cinemas close in Bangalore

Kannada film producers‘ fraternity takes on filmdom embargo

Kannada filmdom mess: Media persons attacked

Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce elects new governing body

Non Kannada theaters defy moratorium, release new films

Kannada film talks postponed; Non-Kannada films to release next week

MUMBAI: The 67th Venice International Film Festival will honour filmmaker Mani Ratnam with the Jaeger-LeCoultre ‘Glory to the Filmmaker‘ award when it goes underway from 1 to 11 September.

This year, Swiss watch manufacturer Jaeger-LeCoultre that is celebrating its six years of partnership with the Venice International Film Festival, has instituted the Jaeger-LeCoultre ‘Glory to the Filmmaker‘ award.

After being presented the award, Ratnam‘s name will be added to the likes of Takeshi Kitano, Abbas Kiarostami, Agnes Varda, and Sylvester Stallone who have been past winners of the award.

Speaking on the choice of Mani Ratnam for the honour, Venice Film Festival director Marco Mueller said, ” Mani Ratnam used to initially make movies only in his native tongue, Tamil, but has now been one of a handful of filmmakers to successfully handle the transition to the All-India market. 

One of the great innovators in contemporary Indian cinema, he helped introduce the auteur concept to contemporary Bollywood. His movies display precision and poise and have always been removed from the bombast and bluster of mass-produced regional cinema. Ratnam‘s most celebrated films have become part of the cinematic imagination of the sub-continent.”

On the occasion, Ratnam‘s Raavan will premiere which would be graced by the cast and crew of the film including Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Vikram and music maestro A.R. Rahman.

Raavan has been produced by Ratnam‘s Madras Talkies in association with Reliance Big Pictures. The film will be distributed globally by Reliance Big Pictures and IM Global.

MUMBAI: Days before a film releases, illegal DVDs of the film normally make their way to pirate vendors on the streets. This week, however, movie buffs could not get their hands on a DVD of the Hrithik Roshan starrer Kites in Mumbai and some parts of the country.

That‘s on account of Reliance Big Pictures‘ countrywide initiative to curb piracy of the film in states like Gujarat, New Delhi and the NCR region. The distributor has been conducting a major exercise to counter piracy in these areas.

Avers Reliance Big Pictures VP Sanjay Tandon: “We have appointed six agencies in Mumbai and one each in Gujarat, Delhi and the NCR region respectively and have seen to it that there is no piracy of our film in these places. Knowing clearly well that piracy cannot be erased but can be controlled; we are trying our best to control piracy of our film.”

An anti-piracy initiative, known as the Anti-Piracy Coalition, between big Indian production houses like Reliance, UTV, Eros, Studio 18, Yash Raj Films and the US-based Motion Pictures Distributors Association (MPDA) was announced at FICCI Frames held in Mumbai earlier this year. “This is the first film to be monitored as part of the Anti Piracy Coalition,” reveals Tandon.

A. A. Khan of A. A. Khan & Associates is one of the agents keeping a close watch on bootleggers in Mumbai. Says he: “This time, the surveillance against pirates is at its optimum best. We have increased our manpower who have gone all over the place as investigators. In this regard, I thank the SS branch of the Mumbai police who have been on their toes to help us in our initiative.”

Just last week, the SS branch of the Mumbai police along with AA Khan & Associates seized close to 15,000 pirated copies of recently released Hindi and Hollywood films.