Category: Movies

MUMBAI: The pirates seem to be unfazed by the several raids that lead to confiscation and arrests. And if it was mainly the DVDs and VCDs of Hindi films that used to be available a day before their release, now it‘s gone down to Hollywood films.

The Mumbai police along with AA Khan & Associates conducted a raid at Lower Parel station, a western suburb of Mumbai, on 6 May that led to the seizure of 3000 pirated DVDs and CDs of many Hindi and English films.
Interestingly, the team laid their hands on 100 DVDs of Iron Man 2, a day prior to its theatrical release in India.

Along with the DVDs of Iron Man 2, 300 pirated discs of Housefull were also uncovered in the raid along with DVDs of Paathshala and Phoonk 2. However, no arrests were made in the raid. 

Earlier this week, a joint team of AA Khan & Associates and SS Branch, Mumbai Police, also conducted a raid outside Andheri Station, another western suburb, and the team seized close to 4000 DVDs.

Two arrests were made during the raid and the accused where booked under sections 51, 52(A), 63, 68(A) of Copyright Act along with sections 292A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Says AA Khan, “The recent launch of the anti-piracy coalition between Hollywood and Hindi studios will help us push this initiative further. 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.”

In the first quarter of 2010, VCDs and DVDs of over Rs 5.5 million were seized and over 50 arrests made in Mumbai.

MUMBAI: UTV is gearing up to be represented at the Cannes Film Festival with a line up of five titles. The focus will be on new territory sales and to reach new audience in traditional territories for its new age films.

Udaan, Vikramaditya Motwane’s debut film, is the story of Rohan, a teenage boy who after being abandoned for eight years in boarding school, returns home and finds himself closeted with an authoritarian father and a younger half brother who he didn’t even know existed. The film is Rohan’s journey as he strives to forge his own life out of his given circumstances to pursue his dream of being a writer. 

The second film will be Aamir Khan Productions’ Peepli Live that will have market screenings at Cannes. This follows the film’s earlier screenings at the Sundance World Dramatic Competition section screening and Berlinale special screening at the Berlin film festival in February this year.

UTV will unveil some exclusive footage from its upcoming animation films Arjun-The Warrior Prince and Alibaba and 41 Thieves. It will also host private screenings of Arjun-The Warrior Prince for select buyers at Cannes.

There will be a market screening of Harishchandrachi Factory.

MUMBAI: Two PNC films, Ek Tho Chance and Saluun, have won top honours at the 43rd Worldfest Houston, one of the oldest international film and video festivals in the world.

While Saluun won the silver REMI award, Ek Tho Chance won the special jury award (the topmost awards at the festival) in the foreign features category. 

Exclaims PNC chairman Pritish Nandy, “Such international recognition is important because Indian cinema must be taken seriously internationally, not just by the Diaspora but by mainstream international audiences and winning awards at top international festivals like Worldfest Houston is a step in that direction. PNC movies have travelled to over a 100 international film festivals and is recognized as one of the few movie brands that can crossover internationally.”

Says WorldFest Houston Program Director Kathleen Haney, “We were overwhelmed to see the response to both films at the festival more so since these 2 PNC films were selected to represent India out of a total of 3 this year. The distinguished jury members decided that Saluun should be awarded the silver REMI award for its honest effort at showing the spirit of rural India and its intelligent humour and Ek Tho Chance, the special jury award for its high-value content and cinematic excellence.”
 

NEW DELHI: Five films, edited by National Award-winning editor Sreekar Prasad, are part of the 22 films that are being screened during the Habitat Film Festival beginning here tomorrow.

Renowned cinematographer-turned-director Shaji N Karun will inaugurate the Festival and Prasad who has won the National award seven times will be the Guest of Honour. The festival will take place at the India Habitat Centre from 2 to 9 May.

The Festival will also feature the AIDS Jaago series with short films by Mira Nair, Vishal Bhardwaj, Santosh Sivan, and Farhan Akhtar in collaboration with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The five films edited by Prasad are Raag Birag (Assamese) by Bidyut Chakraborthy, Kutty Srank (Malayalam) by Shaji N Karun, Yuva (Hindi) by Mani Ratnam, Terrorist (Tamil) by Santhosh Sivan, and Firaaq (Hindi) by Nandita Das.

Among the other films being screened, the Hindi films are Road To Sangam by Amit Rai and Phir Khabi by VK Prakash. The Bengali films are Angshumaner Chobi by Atanu Ghosh and Antaheen by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury.

The Malayalam films are Madhyavenal by Madhu Kaithapram, Kadaksham by Sasi Paravoor, and Patham Nilayile Theevandi by Joshy Mathew.

The two Tamil films are Pokkisham by Cheran and Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya by Gautam Vasdudeva Menon, the two Marathi films are Ek Cup Chaya by Sumitra Bhave and Sunil Sukthankar and Janma by Shirish Rane, and the two Kannada films are Mukha Puta by Roopa Iyer and Vimukthi by P Sheshadri.

The other films are Sontha Vooru (Telugu) by Sunil Kumar Reddy, Paltadcho Manis – The Man Beyond The Bridge (Konkani) by Laxmikant Shedgaonkar, Basundhara (Assamese) by Hiren Bora, and Haat: The Weekli Bazar (Rajasthani) by Seema Kapoor.

MUMBAI: Two years after the release of Singh Is Kinng, its distributor Viacom18 has been sued in the US on grounds of copyright infringement by the American Rights Management Company.

According to the lawsuit filed yesterday in New York District Court, the company has claimed that the Viacom-distributed film Singh is King is a rip-off of the 1929 short story Madame La Gimp made by Damon Runyon.

The film has also been copied from films like Frank Capra‘s Lady For A Day, A Pocket Full Of Miracles and Jackie Chan‘s Miracles, the lawsuit claims.

According to the complaint, the company obtained rights from Sheldon Abend‘s Author‘s Research Company in 2000. 

Abend was an esteemed literary agent who represented the estates of authors including Runyon, George Bernard Shaw, Tennessee Williams, David O. Selznick and many others.

In the 1980s, Abend took on MCA, Alfred Hitchcock, and Jimmy Stewart in court after the classic film Rear Window was shown on television.

Abend controlled the underlying short story that served as the basis of the film, and the case culminated in a landmark 1990 Supreme Court decision that established the so-called ‘Abend Rule‘ that deals with the continued distribution of a derivative work during the copyright renewal period of the underlying work.

Since Abend emerged victorious in that case, there haven‘t been many lawsuits targeting distribution of derivative works, but that could be changing.

In 2008, the Sheldon Abend Revocable Trust sued DreamWorks and Steven Spielberg over Disturbia, a film that was either inspired by or directly stolen from Rear Window.

The litigation has been stuck in the pre-trial phase since the case was filed. In early April, the plaintiff filed a memorandum with the New York District Court on why the case should be heard.

In its lawsuit in the Singh Is Kinng case, the American Rights Management Company has claimed damages to the tune of $30,000 per infringement, and/or $150,000 per willful infringement.

Apart from Viacom18 and Studio18, companies like The Indian Film Company, Vipul Shah‘s (producer) Blockbuster Entertainment, Reliance MediaWorks, Big Home Video, MTV India and Viva Entertainment – involved with the film in various ways – have also been named in the lawsuit.

Produced by Vipul Shah and directed by Anees Bazmee, Singh Is Kinng stars Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Sonu Sood and Kirron Kher.
 

MUMBAI: Mukta Arts Ltd will release its next film Hello Darling on 9 July. Presented by Malpix Pictures, the film is being produced by Ashok Ghai and directed by Manoj Tiwari.

The film is the story of three beautiful women paying same coins to men while tackling a sexual harassment case.

The film stars Gul Panag, Eesha Koppikar and Celina Jaitley along with Javed Jaffery and Divya Dutta.

Other credits include music by Preetam, lyrics by Shabbir Ahmed, choreography by Remo, story by Pankaj and Sachin who wrote the blockbuster comedies Apna Sapna Money Money and Kya Kool Hain Hum and cinemtography by Ravi Yadav.

MUMBAI: Reliance Big Entertainment Ltd, a member of Reliance ADA Group, has acquired an undisclosed majority shareholding in the Los Angeles and London-based international film sales company IM Global, promoted by Stuart Ford.

Ford‘s holding company, Ancramdale, will, however, retain a significant equity position in the business and the 40-year-old LA-based Brit will continue as CEO under a multi-year deal.

In February this year, the two companies formed a sales alliance that saw IM Global handle Reliance‘s prolific Hindi film output internationally – a groundbreaking arrangement in terms of a mainstream Hollywood player distributing Bollywood cinema. 

The successful sales alliance has now transpired into Reliance acquiring a majority stake in IM Global. This extended relationship between the two companies ensures an increased capability for independent film financing by
IM Global, an expansion into sales and financing for top tier non-English language cinema as well as selective rights acquisitions for India and other Asian markets.

Said IM Global CEO Ford, “After a phenomenal first three years, the company is ready to move onto the next stage of its strategic growth. I simply could not wish for a more dynamic partner to help nurture that progression. We‘re also looking forward to support Reliance extend its presence in Hollywood and the worldwide film community.”