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Tag: Dubai International Film Festival

  • Rahman gets Lifetime Achievement at Dubai Filmfest

    Rahman gets Lifetime Achievement at Dubai Filmfest

    NEW DELHI: Oscar-winning maestro AR Rahman, 45, has won one more Lifetime Achievement Award – this time at the Eighth Dubai International Film Festival.

    Hollywood and Bollywood stars walked the red carpet at the opening of the Festival which will continue till 14 December. The Festival opened with the world premiere of ‘Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol‘. ‘Laptop‘ by Kaushik Ganguly is among the nine Asian films in competition.

    Tom Cruise returned to Dubai after shooting major scenes for the action-thriller in the emirate over 23 days, including stunts on the 828-metre high, 160-floor Burj Khalifa skyscraper, currently the world‘s tallest freestanding structure. He was joined on the red carpet by the film‘s director Brad Bird and his co-stars Paula Patton, Simon Pegg and Anil Kapoor, one of several Bollywood stars attending the festival.

    A “public interactive session” with the director Farhan Akhtar and stars Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra of upcoming Bollywood action-thriller ‘Don 2‘ proved to be a major attraction. Other attractions from India include the world premiere of Maneesh Sharma‘s comedy ‘Ladies vs. Ricky Bahl‘ with stars Ranveer Singh and Anushka Sharma.

    This film is within the annual “Celebration of Indian Cinema” section which includes a diverse range of Indian films in Bengali, Tamil and Malayalam as well as Hindi. It includes a special two-film tribute to composer AR Rahman.

    The festival will screen 124 feature films, including 11 from India, six from Japan, three from South Korea and two films from both Hong Kong and the Philippines.

    The Muhr AsiaAfrica Competition includes Asian films that have previously competed at this year‘s Cannes Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival and Tokyo International Film Festival.

  • DIFF opens with MI: Ghost Protocol

    DIFF opens with MI: Ghost Protocol

    MUMBAI: the 8th Dubai International Film Festival opened with the screening of the Tom Cruise starrer Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

    Cruise, who shot some of the key events including a daredevil stunt hanging from the Burj Khalifa in the movie, attended the screening making him the biggest Hollywood star to attend the festival.

    Also present were Anil Kapoor and music director A R Rahman. Kapoor plays a cameo of an Indian playboy in the film.

    Said Cruise, “It is easy to climb a building and jump out of it but I am scared of falling. I trained with helmets and pads but when I had to shoot actually at the Burj Khalifa I told myself ‘Ok, this is the moment of truth‘ but it is very entertaining for the audience,” Cruise said, adding that he likes to celebrate locations through his movies.

    For the knowledge of Indian fans, most of the shots depicting Mumbai in the film were actually shot in Dubai. “Locations add to the film and we try to shoot there but one of the magic of movies is that you can create that environment,” Cruise said about creating Mumbai outside India.

    The festival, which is screening 171 films from over 56 countries, has a special section ‘Celebrate India‘ dedicated to the films from the country.

  • Dubai fest to celebrate Indian cinema this year

    Dubai fest to celebrate Indian cinema this year

    MUMBAI: The eighth Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF), to be held from 7-14 December, will, in its ‘Celebration of Indian Cinema‘ programme, will feature three world premieres, two international premieres and several first-ever regional screenings of films in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and Bengali.

    “With our selection this year, we wanted to bring the true diversity of Indian cinema to DIFF,” said DIFF consultant for the subcontinent programme Dorothee Wenner.

    The celebration will flag off with the premiere of Yash Raj Films‘ Ladies vs Ricky Bahl on 8 December. The film, directed by Maneesh Sharma depicts the story of suave and charismatic conman Ricky Bahl (Ranveer Singh) who makes a living by deceiving women until he meets his match in the form of Anushka Sharma‘s character.

    Also making its world premiere will be Shalini Usha Nair‘s Palas In Bloom (Akam), based on renowned author Malayattoor Ramakrishnan‘s celebrated Malayalam novel Yakshi. Debutant director Muthusamy Sakthivel‘s Tamil film Life is a Game (Maithanam) will also make its international premiere at the festival.

    Srijit Mukherji‘s 7th August (Baishe Srabon), that will also making its international premiere, explores the dark underbelly of Kolkata. On the other hand, Karan Gour‘s Corrode (Kshay), that makes its Middle East premiere, is a psycho drama based on the story of a woman‘s need for an unfinished sculpture that blossoms into an obsession.

    Competing in DIFF‘s Muhr AsiaAfrica Awards for feature films will be Kaushik Ganguly‘s Laptop that shows how a single commodity – a laptop – connects several lives and narratives as it changes hands to change lives. The film will make its international premiere at DIFF.

    Also, making its world premiere and contending in the Muhr Asia Africa Awards for short films would be Rohit Pandey‘s Safe (Mehfuz) that depicts the story of a city shaken by violence, a man who looks after its dead, and a woman wandering its empty streets.

    Vying for honours in DIFF‘s Muhr AsiaAfrica Awards for documentary films will be Sandeep Ray‘s Sound of Old Rooms (Kokkho-Poth) and Anand Patwardhan‘s Jai Bhim Comrade which follows the music and the tradition of Vilas Ghogre, a leftist poet and singer, who hung himself in protest against the deseceration of Dr Babasheb Ambedkar‘s statue. Both films will be screened in the Middle East for the first time at DIFF.

  • DIFF lifetime achievement honour for AR Rahman

    DIFF lifetime achievement honour for AR Rahman

    MUMBAI: This year the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) will honour music director AR Rahman with a Lifetime Achievement award. Rahman will receive the award during the 8th DIFF to be held from 7-14 December.

    Winner of two Academy Awards and two Grammy Awards, the 45 year old Rahman will be the first musician to receive a Lifetime Achievement award at the film festival.

    Rahman‘s Slumdog Millionaire, which was screened at DIFF 2008, won the musician two Academy Awards for Best Original Music Score and Best Original Song, while his score for 127 Hours, which screened at DIFF 2010, won him Golden Globe, BAFTA and Academy Award nominations.

    While at Dubai, Rahman will also kick off his world tour with a concert supported by the Festival in the city on 9 December.

    This year DIFF will also present the Lifetime Achievement Award to veteran Egyptian actor Gamil Rateb.

    Others from the Indian film industry who have won the Lifetime Achievement Award at DIFF include Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Yash Chopra and Subhash Ghai.

  • Middle East countries ban Anurag Kashyap film

    Middle East countries ban Anurag Kashyap film

    MUMBAI: Citing that the film is vulgar in nature, the Dubai government, along with other countries in the Middle East, has banned Anurag Kashyap‘s That Girl In Yellow Boots (TGIYB) from exhibition.

    Confirming the same Kashyap said, “When TGIYB was doing the round of festivals last year, we were not allowed to screen it for the festival panel at Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) because of the subject matter.”

    The film revolves around a young girl Ruth who comes to the city in search of her father, but is soon faced with moralistic questions when she takes up a job as a masseuse to make ends meet.

    “TGIYB is for a mature audience. I don‘t know who in the middle-east decides whether the viewers are mature enough to watch the film or not, but I guess it‘s a moralistic stand,” adds Kashyap.

    Interestingly, the Censor Board of Film Certification gave an ‘A‘ certificate to the film and passed it without any hassle.

    The film releases worldwide on 2 September.

  • Dubai International Film Festival to kick off on 10 December

    Dubai International Film Festival to kick off on 10 December

    MUMBAI: This year’s red carpet at the third Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) will witness a row of Bollywood stars along with a diverse selection of movies from the Indian subcontinent. DIFF will be held from10 to 17 December.

    The Festival will screen director Mira Nair’s new film The Namesake, a film on the emotional aftermath of an interracial relationship suffered by non resident Indians in the United States. The festival will also see the gala premiere of Kabir Khan’s Kabul Express set post 11 September 2001, when journalists swept down to Afghanistan to witness the impending war and the unruly situation in the terrain, asserts an official release.

    DIFF managing director Shivani Pandya said, “The Dubai and the GCC are fast becoming an important market for Indian cinema, contributing massively to their box office revenues. The festival hopes to assist in the growth of this market and with the support of the Indian industry and Indian talent we feel we have a winning formula.”

    Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan, will be a guest of honour and will receive a DIFF Salutes trophy for his lifelong contribution to cinema during a special presentation entitled ‘A Conversation with Shah Rukh Khan’ at the Madinat Theatre conducted by TV news anchor Riz Khan.

    Actresses Kangana Raut, Sameera and Sushma Reddy and Ayesha Dharker will share the red carpet with the likes of Diane Kruger (Helen in Troy), Ivana Milicevic (Casino Royale), Maria Grazia Cuccinota (All the Invisible Children) and Joy Bryant (Bobby).

    Actors John Abraham, Arshad Warsi and Irfan Khan, will join DIFF with international names such as Oliver Stone, Richard Gere, Moss Deff, Barry Osbourne, Joshua Jackson, Lawrence Fishburne and Kal Penn. Actor Dev Anand, will be a part of DIFF’s proceedings this year, as will Mohan Lal, representing the South. adds the release.

    DIFF will run an annual programming segment called Cinema of the Subcontinent , with the latest in cutting-edge, non-commercial offerings from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan.

    Representing diversity of sub-continent cinema and encapsulating the art and spirit of the region will be The Bong Connection by Anjan Dutt which follows two young men’s search for personal goals in a country other than their own, Mohammed Naqvi’s (Pakistan) Shame set in 2002 in a remote village in Pakistan, where a 30 year old Mukhtaran Mai’s life changes forever when the tribal council sanctions a punishment against her for a crime allegedly committed by her younger brother.

    Nagesh Kukonnor’s DOR, John Jeffcoat’s Outsourced which focuses on the manager of a call centre dispatched to Indian train his own replacement. The chaos of Mumbai assaults his senses and his new office is paralysed by cultural misunderstandings, Mani Ratnam’s Iruvar , Tareque Masud’s (Bangladesh) Ontarjatra.

    Mohammed Ehteshamuddin’s Shah Rukh Khan Ki Maut is about an impoverished Pakistani boy, a die hard fan of the Indian star, who is nicknamed after his idol. The film explores the impact of Bollywood in Pakistan and touches upon the lives of the faceless under age millions who are part of its urban landscape and Rajnash Domalpalli’s Vanaja.

  • SRK to be honoured at Dubai International Film Festival

    SRK to be honoured at Dubai International Film Festival

    MUMBAI: The Dubai International Film Festival (Diff) has announced this year’s festival will honour Shah Rukh Khan, Oliver Stone and Nabil El-Maleh and for their outstanding contribution to cinema, as part of the Diff Salutes programme.

    The festival will run from 10-17 December 2006 at the Madinat Jumeirah. Diff Salutes is a retrospective tribute that celebrates the work of distinguished film makers from Asia, the Arab world, and Hollywood. This follows last year’s In the Spotlight segment, which honoured Oscar-winning American actor Morgan Freeman, the Egyptian “king of comedy” Adel Imam, and Indian producer-director Yash Chopra.

    Diff chairman Abdulhamid Juma said, “Within three years, Diff has come a long way in capturing the attention, participation and awareness of the regional and international film industry. The presence of these legends will confirm the festival as a forum that celebrates milestone cinema.

    “Retrospective screenings of their acclaimed work will provide further momentum to Diff’s objective of inspiring an emerging generation of film makers, who we think will take the industry to new levels of growth.”
    Stone has won the Oscar thrice. Stone won two oscars for the Vietnam films Platoon and Born On The Fourth of July.

    At the forefront of several genre trends, his films are well crafted epics that deal with the effect of history on the individual and vice versa. A distinct feature of Oliver Stone’s movies is the unique use of cameras and film formats, as seen in JFK (1991) and Natural Born Killers (1994). Stone’s most recent film, World Trade Center, follows the thread of his earlier works in documenting events in the US that impact people’s lives.

    King Khan has appeared in over 55 films. Two of his films were India’s official entries in the Oscars: Paheli (2006) and Devdas (2002).