Tag: Bollywood

  • ‘Yaariyan’ fares well, ‘Dedh Ishqiya’ struggles at the box-office

    ‘Yaariyan’ fares well, ‘Dedh Ishqiya’ struggles at the box-office

    MUMBAI: Music has saved the day for Yaariyan as the film, despite mixed reactions, has had a very good opening weekend collections. The film has managed to collect Rs 16.5 crore.

     

    Dedh Ishqiya opened slow but improved gradually on Saturday and Sunday but further improvement in collections will be needed to make the film a worthwhile investment. The sequel to Ishqiya has collected about Rs 11.3 crore in its opening weekend. The festival of Lohri today may affect collections for a day. 

     

    Mr Joe B. Carvalho is a poor film that meets with poor fate; the film ends its week one with a meager Rs 3.15 crore.

     

    Sholay 3-D collections dipped further during the week to end its first week with a figure of Rs 8.3 crore.

     

    Dhoom 3 continues to be on a record setting spree having added Rs 19.73 crore in its third week in its Hindi version and collecting another Rs 2.76 crore for the fourth weekend thus taking its total for Hindi to Rs 267.74 crore for 24 days and with the addition of TnT versions, the film has collected Rs 280.49 crore.

  • Ranveer Singh to host the fourth edition of the Gionee Star GiMA Awards

    Ranveer Singh to host the fourth edition of the Gionee Star GiMA Awards

    MUMBAI: The fourth edition of Gionee Star Global Indian Music Awards (GiMA) Awards powered by Reliance 3G will see the ever dynamic Ranveer Singh take centre stage to once again host music’s premiere awards.

     

    Ranveer also hosted the second edition of the awards, which proved to be a hit among the audiences enthralling with an opening rap. Seeing the very best of India’s musical talent on one platform, the ground event will take place on 20 January, 2014 and be held at the newly inaugurated National Sports Club of India (NSCI) stadium in Mumbai.

     

    Speaking on hosting the awards, actor Ranveer Singh said: “It is a huge honour to be invited back to host an awards ceremony of this caliber celebrating Indian Music. The last time around was thrilling as I got to interact with the best musicians and singers this country has on offer. The Gionee Star GiMA is such a great platform and I am happy to celebrate an integral part of the Indian culture with the biggest names in music today.” 

     

    Gionee Mobiles partner and India head Arvind Rajnish Vohra added, “Music is a genre which has a universal appeal and it cuts across all the age groups and geography and in India music is part and parcel of the culture. We can’t even imagine our culture without music. Gionee is excited to partner GIMA which allows the brand to connect with TG by celebrating the spirit of music and recognising the magic created by the artists.” 

     

    Commenting on the roping in Ranveer Singh as host, Wizcraft International director Sabbas Joseph said: “Ranveer is one actor known for his spirited persona. The last time he hosted, we received such an overwhelming reception that we just had to get his infectious energy back on the GiMA stage. So I am confident the appreciation will be two-fold as the Gionee Star GiMA commemorates the spirit of the Indian music industry in its 4th year and Ranveer Singh joins in on the celebration.”

     

    GiMA provides a unified platform to celebrate and recognise those who push the boundaries of Indian Music, across a wide range of film and non-film music genres. This year, for the first time, GiMA has included new categories across pop, indie and EDM, making it a total of 13 awards in the Non-Film music categories and 11 awards for Film music. With greater representation of Indie artistes, GiMA has incorporated more contemporary music this year.

  • Sony Music gets the fastest 1 million subscribers on Line

    Sony Music gets the fastest 1 million subscribers on Line

    MUMBAI: Sony Music Entertainment’s exclusive tie-up with Line has garnered a massive response by crossing a subscription of 1 million users.

    It has earned the fastest million subscriptions on the application by providing the latest music information in India.

    The official account of Sony Music EWntertainment caters to fans of major genres of music including Bollywood, Indipop, Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi and International music with a catalogue of over a million songs.

    Commenting on the same, Sony Music Entertainment India marketing director Sanujeet Bhujabal said, “We are extremely thrilled with the response of 1 million users on LINE. We are the only Music Label actively engaging with the Social platform and it has helped us to move a step further and directly engage with consumers With this tie-up, we are very sure that LINE will secure its position as a favourite app for music in the near future.’ 

    Line, the free messenger application, broke the 200-million download mark worldwide. Since the initial launch, the company has expanded the service to roughly 230 countries in 11 languages, including Chinese, Spanish and Indonesian.

  • RIP, Farooq Sheikh

    RIP, Farooq Sheikh

    MUMBAI:   The year has been a sad one for the Bollywood fraternity and the fans as well who had to bear with the loss of some of talents of the industry. And with one more legend leaving us, the end will end with a sad note.

     

    The 65-year-old actor contributed to the new-age cinema, theatre and television. He started his career with theatre where he actively participated in plays with Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA). His play with Shabana Azmi Tumhari Amrita was appreciated by audiences the world over for 12 years till 2004. The play completed its 20 year run on 26 February 2012. A sequel to this play was staged in India in 2004 titled Aapki Soniya with Farooq Sheikh and Sonali Bendre as main leads.

     

    His Bollywood career started with Garam Hawa (1973) where he played a supporting role. Farooq Sheikh best known for his roles in Shatranj Ke Khiladi, Chashme Buddoor, Kissi Se Na Kehna and Noorie, passed away in Dubai after suffering a heart attack. He was last seen in Club 60.

     

    In the late 90s, he acted in a number of television serials. Chamatkar on Sony and Ji Mantriji on Star plus are among the few. He also worked in a TV serial Shrikant which aired on Doordarshan from 1985 to 1986.

    Before Koffee with Karan became a household name, it was Jeena issi ka naam hai which was one of the most talked about chat show. The show, hosted by Sheikh, aired on Zee where he interviewed many Bollywood celebrities. His sense of humour and direct humble approach was the USP of the show.
     

  • Movies, celebrities and songs were the top Google searches of the year

    Movies, celebrities and songs were the top Google searches of the year

    MUMBAI: This year, the number of people searching for Sunny Leone was much more than actors like Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif and cricket maestro Sachin Tendulkar, making the adult film star the most searched personality this year, reveals Google India’s annual Zeitgeist.

     

    Google India today announced its annual Year End Zeitgeist that takes a look at 2013 through the collective eyes of the world on the web. Zeitgeist offers a unique perspective on the year’s major events and hottest trends, based on Google searches conducted in India.

     

    This year, searches for Bollywood hits and the Indian Premier League topped the trending charts, showing that Indians’ first love, as ever, is for stars, movies, cricket and songs. Actor Shah Rukh Khan was fifth in the list, followed by singer Honey Singh, south Indian film actress Kajal Agarwal, Kareena Kapoor, Sachin Tendulkar and Poonam Pandey.

     

    SRK starrer-Chennai Express topped the Zeitgeist chart, followed by IPL 2013 and the musical blockbuster Aashiqui 2.

     

    Narendra Modi, who with his political campaigns made much noise all across in the country also  emerged the leader in the most searched news category. Other popular searches in the news category were Blackberry phones, Rahul Dravid, Saina Nehwal and Vijay Mallya.

     

    Local entertainment was also popularly searched on mobile this year. Top three searches on mobile were restaurants, bars and movies followed by coffee, cricket score and fast food.

     

    The report reveals that there was an uptick in searches for e-commerce sites. Flipkart and Olx.com were the most searched as online shopping sites.

     

    “From a search trends perspective, 2013 was clearly the year of entertainment. Online shopping, banking and e-commerce also continued their upward trend – a clear testimony to Indians embracing online transactions,” said Google India VP and Managing Director (Sales and Operations) Rajan Anandan.

  • Airtel releases a report on the mobile attitude of people in 2013

    Airtel releases a report on the mobile attitude of people in 2013

    MUMBAI: Mobile phones have certainly made our lives very easy. From surfing the details of the favourite celebrities and looking for the chartbusters to downloading wallpapers and popular songs, mobile users are doing everything over the phone.

    And keeping this in mind one of the leading telecommunications company, Bharti Airtel, which has operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, released Airtel Mobitude2013 – the 5th edition of the Indian annual survey that captures the mobile attitude of customers highlighting their preferences.

    The report reveals that mobile TV, Bollywood, Hello Tunes, Re 1 entertainment store and gaming ruled customer preferences. Mobile TV witnessed the highest traction this year with a whopping 400 per cent plus jump in viewership over last year. Viewers were glued to entertainment channels most to catch up on all their favorite TV shows and this witnessed an unbeatable traction of over 800 per cent over sports and about 200 per cent over news.

    Bharti Airtel (India) chief marketing officer consumer business, Govind Rajan said in a release: “Today, while the mobile phone is an indispensible 24X7 companion for customers across age groups and geographies, each individual’s preferences and usage requirements differ. Mobitude captures these trends to bring out the true reflection of the customer’s likings and usage habits. The verdict this year has interesting findings of the preferences of more than 194 million customers across the country!”

    Interestingly, the preference of viewers shifted in terms of Bollywood content. In the imagery downloads category, heartthrob Sunny Leone won hearts to top the charts beating Bollywood divas including Katrina Kaif, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra. Breaking the records of the past five years, the young newbies in the industry dethroned the most popular ‘Khans’. Bold spirited actors – Sunny Leone, Sherlyn Chopra and Poonam Pandey emerged as the most downloaded, surpassing the total downloads of their male counterparts. While Ranbir Kapoor tops charts in the male category in the imagery download, Bollywood’s hottest celebrity Katrina Kaif who topped charts for four consecutive years is out of the top five league. On the other hand, Aamir Khan continued to be out of top 5 for the fourth consecutive year.

    In Hollywood, the beautiful preggies Megan Fox and Drew Barrymore made it to the top downloaded in the female category and unlike their Bollywood counterparts, Hollywood hunks Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise are defying age to top the download charts.

    In terms of songs, Indians preferred romantic songs over the filmy item numbers. Customers are now humming the romantic number Tum Hi Ho of the movie Aashiqui2 making it the most popular download in the Bollywood Hello Tune category. Other songs like Jeene Laga Hoon from Ramaiya Vastavaiya with newbies in lead roles trend more over songs with popular celebrities. Even Priyanka Chopra’s hit international track Exotic was among the most downloaded English songs.

    In the sports category, Sachin Tendulkar ruled charts with a whopping 124 per cent jump in download compared to last year followed by Roger Federer. Our other men in blue – Dhoni and Yuvraj however were bowled out from the Top five league to give way for women power with Serena Williams, Sania Mirza and Saina Nehwal who joined the wagon this year.

    Driven by the popularity of the Airtel Re 1 entertainments store, data usage continues to grow at a fast pace. The number of data users jump 124 per cent from last year and data consumption jumped 220 per cent.

  • Bollywood comes out in support of the LGBT community

    Bollywood comes out in support of the LGBT community

    MUMBAI: Everyone was in for a shock yesterday when the Supreme Court ruled that there was no constitutional room for change in Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that holds same gender sexual relationship an offence. The Bollywood fraternity, which in the age of social media has become really vocal, especially when it comes to supporting the social causes, even this time came out to criticise the SC’s ruling. Many people from the industry started tweeting as soon as the news broke.

     

    Section 377 of IPC makes gay sex an offence punishable with up to life imprisonment, said a bench of justices GS Singhvi and SJ Mukhopadhaya while overruling an earlier verdict by the High Court that had decriminalised same sex relationship.

     

    Filmmaker Karan Johar tweeted: “#Sec377 is not just a violation of human rights but also makes democracy seem like a mirage in our country….”. This was even retweeted by fashion designer Manish Malhotra.

     

    Actor Adil Hussain wrote: “Ramdev and Judiciary have forgotten the Role of Shikhandi and Brihannala in Mahabharata.Wonder what Values they are talking about!! #Sec377.”

     

    Filmmaker Farhan Akhtar, who has been initiating many movements of late online, was upset with the ruling as well, but expressed himself in just one-liner, “The Supreme Court got it wrong today.”

     

    Actor Richa Chadda, who has been known for her fiery and strong characters, tweeted, “The Supreme Court criminalises love, again. Sad day.”

     

    Kabir Bedi wrote: “It’s a sad day when the Supreme Court of India does not uphold the democratic rights of sexual minorities. #Sec377 #LGBT”. He continued, “The State should stay out of the bedrooms of consenting adults. SC upholding regressive law seems bigoted. #Sec377 #LGBT.”

     

    Even actor Anushka Sharma, didn’t hesitate to present her disappointment. She tweeted, “So disappointed with the SC (supreme court) verdict. Freedom is such a deceptive term. Rights are an ambiguous mystery.”

     

    Singer-actor Shruti Haasan wrote, “11.12.13 a day that reminds us how blatant regressing and oppressing someone has become – plan b move bedroom to another planet and time… (It is) frightening how someone else decides how when and who you should love – basically freedom of choice isn’t legal anymore.”

  • Big B is the undisputed king on Twitter among B’wood celebs

    Big B is the undisputed king on Twitter among B’wood celebs

    MUMBAI: In his career spanning more than four decades, no actor has been able to surpass the craze of Amitabh Bachchan. And now the shehansha of Bollywood seems to be ruling the social-media space as well. According to the “Bollywood Twitter Index”, a social media analytics report released by To The New, a leading digital services ecosystem in India, AB has been crowned the undisputed king of Twitter among his Bollywood counterparts.

    The report is based on a research by ThoughtBuzz, the social media analytics’ arm of To The New. The Bollywood Twitter Index reveals that Amitabh Bachchan continued to reign over the micro-blogging site with the highest number of followers, clocking a growth of 87 per cent over the last year, followed by the Khan-brigade – Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan. Making an appearance at number five, Priyanka Chopra is the only actress in the top five Indian movie celebrities’ list.

    Despite gaining the maximum number of followers over the last one year with 151 per cent increase, Bollywood’s Dhak-Dhak girl, Madhuri Dixit narrowly missed making it to the list this year. She was nudged out by B-town fashionista, Sonam Kapoor, who hung on to the number 10 position with an 87 per cent increase in followers since last year.

    Other significant gainers include Akshay Kumar with a 99 per cent increase and Deepika Padukone with an 82 per cent increase in the number of followers over the last year.

    One of the most interesting things to note is that despite being virtually inactive, Aamir Khan has continued to attract fans, having amassed nearly two lakh new followers in the last two months. Aamir’s only tweets in the current year are about narration of his experience of meeting David Cameron, Prime Minister of United Kingdom and #ThankYouSachin during the cricketer’s last test match in Mumbai.

    Other revelations that the study makes: Around 27 percent conversations that Bollywood celebrities indulge in on Twitter are about promoting their work or films; around 24 per cent of the tweets are about their personal experiences or general interactions with their fans; the rest of the Twitterverse discussions are based around promoting their own brands (9 per cent), favourite quotes (7 per cent), opinions about specific issues (6 per cent) and social causes (4 per cent).

  • 92.7 BIG FM and Star Plus join hands for Big Star Entertainment Awards

    92.7 BIG FM and Star Plus join hands for Big Star Entertainment Awards

    MUMBAI: Since last three years, on the New Year’s Eve, Star plus has been honoring the biggest entertainers from television, films, music, theatre and sports. It has not just been popular but also gives a chance to start the year with a good omen. And thus, encouraged by the success of the previous three seasons, 92.7 BIG FM in association with Star Plus is presenting the fourth edition of BIG Star Entertainment Awards.

    This awards ceremony is completely ‘for the people and by the people’ and gives the audiences an opportunity to nominate and vote for their favourite entertainers across fields. This year, the awards promises to be an intensely exciting affair, giving the audience not only a larger than life experience in terms of entertainment and glam quotient but will also herald the most unforgettable New Year extravaganza on Star Plus on 31 December.

    92.7 BIG FM and Star Plus will keep audiences informed of the nominations and conduct a mass voting drive where thousands of people are expected to participate and vote for their favorite entertainers. The dazzling awards ceremony to be held on the 18 December promises to be a star studded affair which will feature the finest of Bollywood and TV entertainers delivering their best performances.

    Speaking about the awards, 92.7 BIG FM business head Ashwin Padmanabhan exults: “We are proud to launch the fourth edition of BIG STAR Entertainment Awards this year. The platform offers people a chance to choose their favorite ‘superstar’ from different fields of entertainment. We thank our partners Star Plus for coming together with us on this property yet again.”

    The BIG Star Entertainment Awards 2013 will be promoted across multimedia platforms which include radio, television, outdoor and digital.

  • Amrita TV announces a reality show for pairs

    Amrita TV announces a reality show for pairs

    MUMBAI: A dance reality show Let’s Dance is giving an opportunity to dance enthusiasts to participate in pairs. The show would soon be launched on the Malayalam TV channel, Amrita TV. The participants should be in the age group of 18-30 and can be husband-wife, sisters, brothers, brother-sister, friends, or any two people who share a good chemistry and have a knack for dancing.

     

    Each pair will have a choreographer and they will go through several elimination rounds. The show is inviting contestants from across India as well as the gulf. The judging panel will consist of known choreographers and celebrities.

     

    Previously, the channel has hosted two other dance shows – Super Dancer and Super Dancer Junior – that were quite popular with the masses. Even this time around, the channel is making sure to create the right buzz. Many different dance forms will be a part of the show including classical, contemporary, Bollywood, hip-hop, jazz, kalarippayattu, salsa, samba and musical theatre styles.

     

    According to the channel sources, Let’s Dance will have good quality set with LED walls, bright lights and amazing sound systems.

     

    The auditions for the show will begin on 14 December in Kerala and the last date for submission of entries is 13 December.