ITV

Category: Movies

  • Eros to raise Rs 3.5 bn via India IPO

    MUMBAI: Eros International Media, a subsidiary of Aim-listed Eros International Plc, is planning to raise Rs 3.5 billion via an initial public offering (IPO).


    The company is also considering a pre-IPO placement of up to Rs 200 million with certain investors.


    Eros, which has filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI), said that the issue is for less than 25 per cent of the post-issue capital of the company.


    At present, of a total of 71.41 million equity shares, Eros Worldwide holds 69.60 per cent stake while Indian company Eros Digital Private Limited holds 30.39 per cent. The remaining is with the individual promoters.


    The company will use Rs 2.8 billion from the proceeds of the issue to acquire and co-produce Indian film rights, primarily Hindi films, as also Tamil and other regional language films. The surplus amount will be used towards general corporate purposes including meeting future growth requirements.


    In FY ‘10, the company released 19 Hindi and 75 regional language films.


    For the year ended 31 March 2009, Eros International reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 733.01 million on a total income of Rs 6.28 billion. For the six-month period ended September 2009, Eros posted a net profit of Rs 471.07 million on a turnover of Rs 3.39 billion. The company has a debt of Rs 2.10 billion.


    Enam Securities, Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, Morgan Stanley India and RBS Equities (India) Limited are the book-running lead managers, while Link Intimate India is registrar to the proposed offer.

  • Reliance Big Pictures to release Abohomaan on 22 January

    MUMBAI: Reliance Big Pictures will release Rituparno Ghosh‘s Abohomaan on 22 January.This would be the first Bengali release coming from the Big Pictures stable in 2010.


    Says Reliance Big Pictures‘ CEO Sanjeev Lamba, “After Shob Charitro Kalponik, we are extremely glad to extend our relationship with Rituparno Ghosh to release Abohomaan. The film‘s response across various festivals is a testimony to the maestro‘s craftsmanship brilliantly with the most talented actors in Bengal.”


    The film that has travelled extensively in the international festival circuit will be the production house‘s second dealing with Ghosh. It has been well received at various international film festivals including Montreal World Film Festival 09, Pusan International Film Festival 09, Mumbai Film Festival 09 and Morocco Film Festival 09.


    Says director Ghosh, “Abohomaan has garnered a very heartening response from film festivals all across the world and is finally set for a theatrical release in Bengal. I am very eager to know how the cineastes in our home territory will respond to the film.”


    Abohomaan explores the nuances of relationships as a married Aniket, one of Bengal‘s finest directors, falls in love with Shikha, an actress as young as his son. Shikha bears an uncanny resemblance to Deepti, Aniket‘s wife as she was in her younger days. And thus begin the trials and tribulations of what was till then a picture perfect family with a father, mother and son.


    The film has Deepankar De, Mamata Shankar and Jishu Sengupta essaying stellar roles. It also has Ananya Chatterjee and Riya Sen who makes her debut in Bengali films with Abohomaan.

  • Erica Motley is acquisitions consultant at Icon

    MUMBAI: Erica Motley has been appointed as international acquisitions consultant of Icon Entertainment International.


    She will report to the company‘s new chief executive Stewart Till. She will work closely with Chloe Sizer, head of development, and Toby Hill, head of UK acquisitions, to acquire new projects for international sales.


    Her appointment is part of Icon‘s first moves since it was acquired by New York-based Access Industries last November.


    Motley previously worked with Till at United International Pictures, where she was vice-president of international acquisitions when Till was chief executive. At UIP, she was part of a worldwide distribution team and involved in such projects Elite Squad, Torrente3 and Old Boy.


    Commenting on Motley‘s appointment, Till said, “She has fantastic relations with the US filmmaking community and will be a great asset to the company. In her role she will be the point of contact for all US-based producers, agents and financiers.”


    Motley began her film career as an international acquisition executive at HBO. She later joined Fox, where she launched channels and negotiated deals with film studios, international sales agents and independent producers.


    Most recently, she has been working as the packaging and distribution consultant for the American Film Company on Robert Redford‘s The Conspirator.

  • Avatar is highest grossing IMAX release globally

    MUMBAI: Avatar has become the highest grossing worldwide IMAX release, as the opening day in China combined with global holdovers pushed its box-office tally past the $71million mark set by The Polar Express.


    The film grossed approximately $12.7 million over the weekend and boosted the tally to $67 million as Avatar surpassed The Dark Knight‘s $65 million haul to become the highest initial worldwide release.


    The Polar Express reached $71 million after several re-releases. However Avatar overtook that figure yesterday and is set to cross $100 million later this month. Initial reports from IMAX said that midnight shows at all 11 Chinese screens were sold out. 


    Avatar currently stands at $20 million internationally from 71 screens (rising to 82 including China) and $47.1 million from 179 North American screens. The film added $8.7 million domestically over the weekend, accounting for 12 per cent of the total $68.3 million domestic weekend gross from 3 per cent of the screens.


    The international take was $4 million and that amount included a record international single day on Saturday of $1.425 million.


    In further good news for the company, the extraordinary pace of IMAX ticket sales for Avatar powered IMAX Corporation to its first $100 million global box-office quarter for the period ending 31 December, last year.


    The company said this result marked an approximately 225 per cent increase on the fourth quarter from a year before, when global box office amounted to roughly $31 million.


    Approximately $54 million of the $100 million came from Avatar in 2009. Gross box office of Hollywood films shown on 230 IMAX screens around the world in 2009 climbed 108 per cent to a record $270 million compared to $130 million in fiscal 2008.

  • SPC to release Holofcener’s Please Give in April

    MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Classics (SPC) will release Nicole Holofcener‘s Please Give on 23 April.


    The film will have its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival later this month.


    Please Give is about a husband and wife who buy the neighbouring apartment but must wait for the cranky elderly woman who lives in it to die before they can commence refurbishment.


    SPC owns worldwide rights of the New York-set comedy starring Catherine Keener, Amanda Peet, Rebecca Hall, Oliver Platt and Thomas Ian Nicholas.

  • Roman Polanski hearing on 6 January

    MUMBAI: A Los Angeles judge has scheduled hearing in the Roman Polanski‘s criminal case on Wednesday.


    It‘s the first time the 30-year-old sex case will be back in Court since a state appeals court rejected Polanski‘s bid to have it dismissed last month.


    Polanski who was arrested late September on a fugitive warrant is under house arrest at his Swiss chalet.


    Swiss authorities have not yet ruled on whether to extradite Polanski to Los Angeles. Polanski fled the US in 1978 on the eve of sentencing after pleading guilty to having unlawful sex with a minor in 1977.

  • PVR gets board nod to dilute 10% stake to Thai firm

    MUMBAI: Delhi-based cinema exhibition major PVR board has approved the proposed allotment of equity shares to Major Cineplex Group Plc of Thailand on a preferential basis.


    The company will allot a total of 2,557,000 equity shares of Rs 10 each, amounting to 10 per cent of the equity, at a price of Rs 165 per share, including a premium of Rs 155 per share.


    “With this, the Major Cineplex Group will hold a 10 per cent stake in PVR,” said PVR CFO Nitin Sood.


    Major Cineplex Group is Thailand‘s leading lifestyle entertainment company with core business in multiplexes, film distribution, lifestyle neighbourhood malls, bowling and karaoke, ice skating rink, fitness clubs and advertising media.


    Major Group, listed on the stock exchange of Thailand, currently operates about 350 multiplex screens, 500 bowling lanes, 300 karaoke rooms and 2 ice skating rinks in the country.


    Major Group is also a joint venture partner with PVR in PVR bluO Entertainment Ltd.


    Meanwhile, the board also approved the allotment of 11.40 per cent, 290 secured redeemable non-convertible debentures of Rs 1 million each to be issued in the form of separately transferable redeemable principal parts (STRPPs) of Rs 100,000 each.


    However, PVR said Monday that allotment to DT Cinemas Ltd, DLF Group‘s cinema business, has been deferred for certain pending compliances with regards to handover of properties to the company.


    “There are certain clarifications forthcoming from DT Cinemas‘ end and as soon as things are clarified we will go ahead with the acquisition,” adds Sood.

  • Rajesh Khanna and Shriram Lagoo to be feted at Pune Film Fest

    MUMBAI: The seven-day Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) that goes underway on 7 January will be inaugurated by Dev Anand in the presence of State Ministers Sunil Tatkare and Ramesh Bagwe at Bal Gandharva Rang Mandir.


    Chairman of the PIFF, Suresh Kalmadi said that the film festival would be the official film festival of the Government of Maharashtra from this year, as 2010 is also the golden jubilee year of the state.


    This year, PIFF will confer lifetime achievement awards to Rajesh Khanna and Dr Shriram Lagoo for their outstanding contribution towards Indian cinema and theatre. 


    Starting this year, PIFF will introduce ‘Sachin Dev Burman international award for creative music and sound‘ for individuals who make a significant contribution in the field of music.


    The first recipient of this honour would be music composer Pyarelal of the famous Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo.


    This year, more than 150 films from 42 countries would be screened at six venues that include E-Square on University Road, Inox on Bund Garden Road, Fame at Fatima Nagar, City Pride in Kothrud, NFAI on Law College Road and NFAI on Paud Road.


    Apart from the State Government, the festival is also being supported by the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Directorate of Film Festivals, National Film Archives of India (NFAI), Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), Alliance de Francais and Whistling Woods.
     

  • Hurt Locker takes top honours from National Society

    MUMBAI: The Hurt Locker earned three of The National Society Of Film Critics‘ top 2009 honours when it claimed the best picture, best director for Kathryn Bigelow and best actor for Jeremy Renner.


    The Society‘s 64 members voted using a weighted ballot system and awarded the best picture award to the Iraq war tale by a clear margin. It earned 64 votes, followed by Olivier Assayas‘ Summer Hours with 23 and Quentin Tarantino‘s Inglourious Basterds with 17.


    Summer Hours topped the foreign language category with 61 votes followed by Jan Troell‘s Everlasting Moments on 21, Corneliu Porumboiu‘s Police, Adjective and Claire Denis‘ 35 Shots Of Rum on 20 apiece.


    Bigelow was the clear winner in the director‘s category on 85 votes followed by Assayas with 23 and Wes Anderson with 18 for Fantastic Mr Fox.


    Jeremy Renner won a closely-contested best actor contest bagging 30 votes above 24 for Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart and 15 for Nicolas Cage for Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans.


    Yolande Moreau won the best actress award with twenty two votes for her performance in Seraphine followed by Meryl Streep on 21 for Julie & Julia and Fantastic Mr Fox and Abbie Cornish in third place with 19 for Bright Star.


    Anges Varda‘s The Beaches Of Agnes won best non-fiction film, Joel and Ethan Coen took the screenplay prize for A Serious Man, Christian Berger won for his cinematography on The White Ribbon and Nelson Lowry took top honours for his production design on Fantastic Mr Fox.


    The Film Heritage Award went to the restoration of Rashomon by the Academy Film Archive, the National Film Center of The National Museum Of Modern Art, Tokyo, and Kadokawa Pictures, Inc.

  • Warner Bros. Pictures set to break own box-office records

    MUMBAI: The Warner Bros. Pictures Group is set to break the all-time industry worldwide box-office record of $3.66 billion, set by it in 2007, for the year 2009 with a projected year-end gross of $3.99 billion in global receipts.


    Warner Bros. Pictures domestic gross is projected at $2.13 billion, surpassing the industry record of $1.789 billion set by the studio in 2008. Warner Bros. Pictures International continues to perform extremely well at the global box-office with a projected $1.86 billion year-end gross. 2009 is the ninth consecutive billion-dollar-plus year for both the domestic and international film distribution arms.


    “We‘re really proud of this achievement and it was only possible through the combined efforts of an incredibly talented group of people, including everyone involved with the creation, production, marketing and distribution of more than two dozen films worldwide over the last 12 months,” said Warner Bros. Pictures Group President Jeff Robinov.


    “We have a great team leading our global efforts, including Sue Kroll, Dan Fellman and Veronika Kwan-Rubinek, and along with Barry Meyer and Alan Horn, I congratulate everyone involved in helping us attain this success and look forward to continuing our creative and commercial winning streak,” Robinov added.


    Highlights of the Warner Bros. Pictures Groups success in 2009 include:


    Warner Bros. Pictures opened nine films in the #1 position at the U.S. box office in a single year-Gran Torino, Hes Just Not That Into You, Friday the 13th, Watchmen, 17 Again, The Hangover, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, The Final Destination and Where the Wild Things Are.


    Warner Bros Pictures had 12 weeks of #1 movies at the U.S. box-office, more than any other studio in 2009.
    The Studio has had five films gross over $100 million domestically in 2009- Watchmen ($107 million),
    Terminator Salvation ($125 million), The Hangover ($277 million), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ($302 million) and The Blind Side ($185 million, still in release) and Sherlock Holmes is projected to cross the $100 million mark.


    The Studio has also had five films gross over $100 million internationally in 2009-Yes Man ($132 million), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ($205 million), Gran Torino ($121 million), The Hangover ($190 million and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ($632 million).


    Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the highest-grossing worldwide film of 2009 with $934 million in worldwide box-office receipts. It‘s also the second-highest domestic-grossing Harry Potter movie at $302 million and the third-highest-grossing internationally with more than $632 million at the overseas box office.


    The Hangover earned more than $277 million domestically, making it the top-grossing R-rated comedy of all time. The film is also the highest-grossing R-rated U.S. comedy overseas of all time at $190 million.


    The Blind Side spent its third week in release at the #1 spot at the U.S. box-office and has grossed $185 million domestically to date and continues to play at 2766 locations throughout the holidays.


    Gran Torino marked the biggest opening weekend ever for a Clint Eastwood film and his highest-grossing film ever domestically and worldwide. The film grossed $148 million domestically and $121 million overseas.


    Friday the 13th had the largest four-day opening of all time for a horror film.
    Among the Studios 2010 releases are Valentines Day (from New Line Cinema), starring Julia Roberts, Anne Hathaway, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Garner, Jamie Foxx, George Lopez and Queen Latifah; Clash of the Titans, starring Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes; Sex and the City 2 (also from New Line), the sequel to the 2008 box-office hit; Christopher Nolans Inception, starring Leonardo DiCaprio; and Harry Potter and the Death.