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Tag: Mira Nair

  • PVR Director’s Rare to re-release Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay on 22 March

    PVR Director’s Rare to re-release Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay on 22 March

    MUMBAI: PVR Director‘s Rare is all set to re-release Mira Nair‘s multiple awards winning film, Salaam Bombay on 22 March in its zest to commemorate twenty five years of the film that brought innumerable accolades to India.

    Speaking on the re-release, PVR Ltd JMD Sanjeev Kumar Bijli said, "I am immensely pleased to announce the re-release of Salaam Bombay through PVR Director‘s Rare. The movie is a stunning chronicle that opened doors for Indian cinema globally. Through our platform PVR Director‘s Rare, it is an excellent opportunity to revive Salaam Bombay for today‘s audiences. Mira Nair has effectively captured the struggle of the street children and the true essence of a city like Mumbai. We hope to continue bringing such meaningful cinema to our patrons in the future too."

    Salaam Bombay is a gritty tale set in the red light district in Mumbai and chronicles the day-to-day life of street children, drug-pushers, pimps & prostitutes. It follows the life of a young kid Krishna who has come to the big city to earn Rs. 500 and is nurturing the dream of going back to his mother someday. The actors in the movie were real prostitutes and the street kids of the city.

    It won the National Award for Best Film and 25 international awards, including two at Cannes- the Camera D‘Or and the Prix Publique (the most popular film in the festival). It was selected as one of the best 1,000 movies ever made by a leading publication in New York. It was also nominated for the Academy Award for best foreign language film.

    The film will release on 22 March in PVR Cinemas and Cinemax at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Pune and Gurgaon through the PVR Director‘s Rare banner.

  • Special 26, ABCD hit the right notes at the BO

    Special 26, ABCD hit the right notes at the BO

    MUMBAI: Akhsay Kumar-starrer Special 26 opened slow on Friday but as the word of mouth spread, the film started picking up from Friday evening itself and went on to consolidate over the weekend. The film‘s performance is at its best at premium multiplexes.

    The film‘s cost for Indian theatrical rights is about Rs 320 to 340 million and should face no problems making it. The film has been appreciated for all round performances by the artistes as well as for its climax. The film collected Rs 265 million for its first weekend. Some extra benefit is expected on Valentine‘s Day.

    Remo D‘souza‘s ABCD: Any Body Can Dance with no stars on the billboards had an excellent opening, in fact better opening response than the star cast film Special 26. ABCD has greatly drawn the youth and its choreography has been much liked by the youth. The film had a wonderful weekend and collected Rs 184 million for its first three days. The film should get a major boost on the Valentine‘s Day.

    David with Neil Nitin Mukesh in the lead continued to do poor collecting a mere Rs 35 million for its first week with as much as Rs 15.8 million coming from the Bombay Circuit.

    Mira Nair‘s much talked about Midnight‘s Children has been rejected by moviegoers. No amount of controversies and staying in the news has helped the film which collected just Rs 12.5 million to show for its first seven days.

    Vishal Bharadwaj‘s Matru Ki BIjlee Ka has added Rs 1.2 million to its collections in its fourth week taking its tally to Rs 393.7 million.

  • Mira Nair’s Reluctant Fundamentalist to open here in April

    Mira Nair’s Reluctant Fundamentalist to open here in April

    MUMBAI: PVR Pictures is gearing up to release Mira Nair‘s The Reluctant Fundamentalist in India screens in April next year.

    The film, based on Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid‘s eponymous novel, is the story of a young man chasing corporate success on Wall Street. Post the September 2011 tragedy in the US, he finds himself embroiled in a conflict between his American dream, a hostage crisis, and the enduring call of his family‘s homeland.

    "It‘s an honour to be distributing The Reluctant Fundamentalist in India and we are thankful to Mira for trusting us with her film. We are very excited about the film‘s prospects in India and are keenly looking forward to its theatrical release," averred PVR Limited joint managing director Sanjeev Kumar Bijli in a statement.

    The Mira Nair film was recently awarded with the first Centenary Award and presented with a Silver Peacock, a certificate and a cash prize of Rs 10 lakh at the just concluded International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa.

  • Mira Nair gets Indian Cinema Centenary Award at 43rd International Film Festival of India

    Mira Nair gets Indian Cinema Centenary Award at 43rd International Film Festival of India

    PANAJI: The Golden Peacock award and a cash prize of approximately Rs five million for the Best film went to the Gurvinder Singh-directed film Anhey Ghorey Da Daan (Alms for a Blind Horse), at the 43rd International Film Festival of India which concluded over the weekend.

    The film is produced by for the National Film Development Corporation and the prize money will be shared equally among the producer and director.

    The Silver Peacock and Rs one million for the best director went to Kyu-hwan Jeong for the Korean film The Weight.

    Marcin Dorocinski in the Polish film ‘Rose‘ by Wojtek Smarzowski and Anjali Patil in the Srilankan film ‘With You, Without You‘ by Prasanna Vithanage received the Silver Peacock and a cash prize of Rs one million each for best actor and best actress.

    The Special Jury Prize the Silver Peacock and a cash prize of Rs one million went to director Lucy Muloy for her Cuban film ‘Una Noche‘.

    The awards were announced by jury chairman Goutam Ghose in the presence of jury members Malani Fonseka, Lech Majewski and Annamaria Marinca who read out the citations. The fifth member of the jury, Derek Malcolm was not present. Ghose wished there were more categories considering the standard of the films. The awards were given away by His Excellency the Governor, the Chief Minister, the chief guest, the Guest of Honour, Mr Wagh, and Mr P Krishnamurthy.

    There also was a special award, instituted this year to mark the centenary of Indian cinema. This award went to the film The Reluctant Fundamentalist by the renowned filmmaker Mira Nair, which was also the closing film of the festival which was screened at Kala Academy after the closing ceremony. The jury for this award comprised Goutam Ghose and Kishwar Desai who were present and Buddhadeb Dasgupta who could not be present.

    Apart from Goa Governor V B Wanchoo and Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, those present at the closing included the eminent Australian filmmaker Paul Cox as the Guest of Honour, P Krishnamurthy who is Secretary to the Government of Goa, and Vishnu Surya Wagh who is Vice-Chairman and Manoj Srivastava who is CEO of the Entertainment Society of Goa.

    The glitter and shine was leant to the evening by the Chief Guest Nandamuri Balakrishna who is prominent actor of Telugu cinema, and Jackie Shroff, Vishal Bharadwaj, and Shreyas Talpade who are all involved with Hindi cinema.

    The closing ceremony was held at the gaily decorated at the specially constructed hangar on the Football Grounds next to Kala Academy, and presented by actors Rahul Roy and Simone Singh who referred to the rich tapestry of cinema that had been presented. The Festival had commenced on 20 November.

    Speaking on the occasion, Parikkar promised to come up with a new Festival theatre by 2014 and also set up film studios, and film schools in the state.

    Balakrishna, son of the late N T Rama Rao, said piracy was affecting the industry and therefore there was need to create technical standards to fight this. An actor of 98 films, Balakrishna paid tributes to three actors who had made it big in political life: his father N T Rama Rao, M G Ramachandran, and Jayalalitha.

    The Guest of Honour, Paul Cox, said India had taught him the meaning of life, which should be an act of love. In a world of increasing globalization, there was need to reflect on our roots and cinema should show more kindness and humanity than the violence that it had become known for. Referring to Indian cinema, he said gems like Satyajit Ray‘sPather Panchali had affected him deeply and he referred to the beautiful fusion of the film with the music of sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar. "Some films leave us humbled and speechless", he said.

    The culture and diversity of India was exhibited in the cultural programme that followed, where there was a short film clip accompanied by folk dance performances from different parts of the country, among them Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Manipur and Goa. The choreographer of the cultural programme, Longinus Fernandes was felicitated by Mr Wagh.

    Accepting her award, Patil said the award had cast a huge responsibility on her that she owed to her director Prasanna Vithanage, and she dedicated it to artistes who thought with their heart when creating their works. Marcin was not present but in a message screened on the occasion thanked the Indian authorities for having found him worthy of the award, adding that he was busy promoting his next film ‘Manhunt‘. Jeong said he truly thankful for the award and admitted that he had fallen in love with Goa.

    Accepting his award, Gurvinder Singh said he wished the ‘Golden Peacock can fly to heaven and bring back to earth the late Mani Kaul‘, who had been the artistic director of the film. The 3,500-strong audience stood in silence for some time to pay homage to Kaul who had died of sickness about two years earlier.

    In her acceptance speech, Mira said that it was not very easy to make a political film in this age and covering four countries.

    IFFI Director Mr Shankar Mohan said the process of consolidation which had begun last year had been carried with new features. He also expressed his gratitude to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry and its media units, the Goa Government and the Entertainment Society of Goa and the people of the state for the huge support extended to the Festival.

    The inauguration on 20 November had been attended by the Information and Broadcasting Minister Mr Manish Tewari, the Ministry Secretary Uday Kumar Varma, Mr Parrikar and Chief Guest Akshay Kumar.

    The Festival had featured around 300 films, including 162 films in the international section from seventy countries, of which 84 were Indian Premieres.

  • Doha fest to open with Mira Nair film

    Doha fest to open with Mira Nair film

    MUMBAI: The fourth edition of the Doha Tribeca Film Festival is all set to begin with the screening of Mira Nair‘s The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

    The film examines Islamic extremism from a new perspective through a yarn about an exceptionally bright Muslim youth, Changez (Riz Ahmed), who clinches a Princeton scholarship and lands a plum position with an equally plum firm as a financial analyst. He is eager to be part of the American dream, and with a boss whose mantra is money (read profits), not religion or appearance, Changez is all set to soar.

    But 9/11 dashes his hopes, and the America that was so welcoming begins to look at him with suspicion, even hostility. His American girlfriend, Erica (Kate Hudson), trying to grapple with her own personal demons, angers Changez when she in some sort of misplaced ignorance and enthusiasm, paints all the wrong images in her art exhibition.

    The Doha Film Institute, which organises this annual Festival, has co-funded Nair‘s latest work – as part of the efforts to turn Qatar into a culturally vibrant nation.

    Nair, who won the Golden Lion at Venice in 2001 for her Monsoon Wedding, a boisterous look at Indian marriage, also presented The Reluctant Fundamentalist at Venice as the opening movie last August.

  • Venice fest to screen Mira Nair’s latest film

    Venice fest to screen Mira Nair’s latest film

    MUMBAI: Mira Nair‘s latest film The Reluctant Fundamentalist will open the 69th Venice International Film Festival that will run from 29 August to 8 September this year.

    Based on the best-selling novel of the same title, The Reluctant Fundamentalist is an international political thriller that follows the story of a young Pakistani man, chasing corporate success on Wall Street, who ultimately finds himself embroiled in a conflict between his American Dream, a hostage crisis and the enduring call of his family‘s homeland.

    The Reluctant Fundamentalist, which screens out of competition, stars Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland, Liev Schreiber, Martin Donovan, Om Puri, Shabana Azmi, Haluk Bilginer and Meesha Shafi. The film was shot in the cities of Lahore, Delhi, Istanbul, New York and Atlanta.

    Mira Nair, Golden Lion winner in 2001 for Monsoon Wedding, returns to the Venice Film Festival for her fifth time after having participated in 1991 with Mississippi Masala, in 2002 with the episode from the collective film 11‘09‘01 and in 2004 in Competition with Vanity Fair.

  • PVR bags India rights of Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist

    PVR bags India rights of Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist

    MUMBAI: PVR Pictures has acquired the India rights of Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist, a political thriller based on Mohsin Hamid’s novel.

    It tells the story of a young Pakistani man working on Wall Street who is deeply affected by the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

    PVR had evinced keen interest in a separate Indian version of the film where references to sensitive issues such as terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism would be toned down. However, Nair was not for it.

    There was also talk about dubbing the film in Hindi for the Indian market but Nair disallowed it too. She is of the belief that one version of The Reluctant Fundamentalist should be released in India and the rest of the world.

    Munich-based K5 has acquired the international rights of the film and represented it in Cannes Film festival.

  • Doha Film Institute finances Mira Nair’s ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’

    Doha Film Institute finances Mira Nair’s ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’

    MUMBAI: The Doha Film Institute (DFI) is to finance internationally acclaimed and award-winning filmmaker Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist based on Mohsin Hamid’s bestselling novel by the same name.


    The film, a Mirabai Films and Cine Mosaic production, marks DFI’s first financing involvement in an independent feature film. The project underscores DFI’s ongoing goal to foster creativity and storytelling by supporting key independent productions from international filmmakers around the world.


    Adapted by Bill Wheeler, Mohsin Hamid, and Ami Boghani and produced by Lydia Dean Pilcher, The Reluctant Fundamentalist is the second major international production to receive financing from the DFI. The institute first ventured into international production earlier this year with the Arabian epic Black Gold along with Quinta Communications.


    Commenting on The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Nair said, “My father lived in Lahore before the partition of India and Pakistan. I am inspired to make a contemporary film about Pakistan, especially in this day and age when the perceived schism between Islamists and the Western World becomes more pronounced each day. In Doha Film Institute, I have a like-minded partner who shares a common belief in this story and its ability to affect change, having supported this project from the very beginning. In this day and age to have creative freedom to make a film that is political, timely and multi layered is a gift.”


    The film is a riveting thriller about Changez, a young Pakistani man chasing corporate success on Wall Street in the era of globalization. After 11 September, Changez experiences a seismic shift in his own attitude, unearthing allegiances more fundamental than money, power, and maybe even love.


    Commented DFI executive director Amanda Palmer, “Mira Nair is one of the most recognised filmmakers working today, someone who Qatar has long admired for her talent and commitment to making films that tackle strong subject matters with enduring humanity. And with the tenth anniversary year of September 11, the importance of this story cannot be understated.”


    Other crew members include cinematographer Declan Quinn, costume designer Arjun Bhasin, production designer Michael Carlin and editor Shimit Amin.