ITV

Tag: Motion Pictures

  • SRK says he fulfilled life-long dream with Ra.one

    SRK says he fulfilled life-long dream with Ra.one

    NEW DELHI: Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan a.k.a. King Khan said he had always wanted to play the superhero in films, though he admitted he may be too old to play the role at the age of 45.

    “The idea was that if I could muster enough resources, enough talent, the best in the world, then perhaps I would attempt it and Ra.One is a step in that direction,” Khan said.

    Ra.One, one of the most expensive films ever made in India, had a special screening at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA), in collaboration with Eros International and Red Chillies Entertainment in Los Angeles on the eve of its release in North America.

    The event was held at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, and the screening was attended by IFFLA patrons, sponsors, and Hollywood media and entertainment executives.

    Khan was accompanied by the movie‘s director Anubhav Sinha, Oscar winning sound designer Resul Pookutty, and Red Chillies Entertainment VFX COO Keitan Yadav. They addressed the audience before the screening and later participated in a Q&A session.

    IFFLA Chairman Arnold Peter said that Red Chillies VFX, a division of Red Chillies Entertainment, founded by Khan and his wife Gauri, “was making waves both in Bollywood and Hollywood with its fine-cut innovations. It is really the spirit, the
    inspiration and the muscle behind today‘s film.”

    IFFLA, the premier Indian film festival in North America, will celebrate its 10th anniversary from 10 to 15 April next year.

  • SAFF to honour Shammi Kapoor with tribute

    SAFF to honour Shammi Kapoor with tribute

    MUMBAI: The South Asia Film Festival (SAFF) that opens in Goa on 15 September will honour Shammi Kapoor by way of a tribute, the organisers have said in a statement.


    “As a tribute to the legendary actor Shammi Kapoor, a special screening of his film Brahmachari would be showcased during the festival,” South Asia Foundation (SAF) secretary general Rahul Barua said.


    Apart from the 1968 film, Kapoor‘s 1964 film Kashmir Ki Kali, starring Sharmila Tagore, will also be screened at the festival.


    This year the festival has etched out a special segment on films from Bhutan. “In its 6th year, the festival promises a rich haul of more than 50 films from all the eight South Asian countries. Bhutan is the focus country of SAFF-2011. A delegation from the Bhutanese film industry and members of the Motion Pictures Association of Bhutan (MPAB) will represent its industry.”


    Veteran film personalities like Subhash Ghai, Randhir Kapoor, MaheshBhatt and Sharmila Tagore would conduct workshops on various aspects of filmmaking like scriptwriting and direction.


    The SAFF works towards policy advocacy and promoting peace and harmony with an objective of strengthening socio-cultural relationship among the South Asian countries.
     

  • Tamil, Telugu version of Chillar Party in offing

    Tamil, Telugu version of Chillar Party in offing

    MUMBAI: Though Chillar Party didn’t do well at the box office, the UTV Motion Pictures and Salman Khan film has found takers.

    It is now heard that Madhu Mantena, who had earlier made Ghajini, wants to remake the film in Tamil and Telugu.

    Mantena has reportedly approached co-writer, director Vikas Bahl and has almost finalised the deal.
     
    Said Bahl, “Chillar Party is a universal story and after the great response in Hindi, it is now attracting the Tamil and Telugu markets as well. They have approached us for the rights. My talks with Madhu Mantena are in a nascent stage right now. While it‘s interesting, we have to just wait and watch to see where this is headed.”

    It is now to be seen if Salman Khan will be a part of the South Indian language

  • ‘We want to be strategically well entrenched in the Bollywood market’ : Siddharth Roy – UTV Motion Pictures CEO

    ‘We want to be strategically well entrenched in the Bollywood market’ : Siddharth Roy – UTV Motion Pictures CEO

     

    UTV Motion Pictures Plc (UMP Plc) has emerged as one of the top film production companies, challenging established players in scale and box office hits across different genres and budgets. The roster includes Jodhaa Akbar, Race, Fashion and Mumbai Meri Jaan.

    Listed in Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange, UMP has set its eyes on good scripts, filmmakers, and talent while scaling up. Taking a cautious approach on film acquisitions, the company’s focus has been to set up a good team and produce movies on their own.

    UMP has also attempted to line up an international IPR basket with movies like The Namesake and The Happening. The adventure has been mixed so far and 2009 could see a retrenchment of such plans, though a $2 million project is being produced singularly by UTV for the first time in the US.

    Riding with a series of hits, UMP targets a revenue of Rs 3-3.5 billion this fiscal. The company has also inked syndication deals with Zee and Colors to maximise revenue opportunities while retaining the first airings for UTV’s Hindi movie channel.

    Finding the turf too competitive and price-driven at this stage, UTV has exited the home video business. The company inked a deal with Moser Baer, licensing for five years the home video rights for 25 movies produced till June 2009.

    With Walt Disney an equity partner, UTV has grabbed the distribution rights of Disney’s Hollywood content for the Indian market. This has not halted UTV from entering into a string of relationships with Hollywood majors including Fox.

    In an interview with Sibabrata Das, UTV Motion Pictures CEO Siddharth Roy Kapur talks about the challenges that film producers face with pressure on star costs and RoI (return on investments) and how the company has grown into a powerhouse in such a short span of time.

    Excerpts:

    UTV has cut costs in its broadcasting operations due to economic slowdown. Will the motion pictures business see a similar scale back plan?
    We will maintain the same pace as we did in 2008. There is no scale back plan. We released 10 movies in 2008. For 2009, we have 15-18 movies in the release pipeline.

    The capital employed in the movie business till the first half of Fy’09 is Rs 7.26 billion. Will the deployment see the same pace?
    Yes, we will maintain that pace – or even deploy more capital. We could see some rationalisation in star prices and production costs. We have started talking to talent and they are being receptive. We are also trying to generate more efficiencies in the production process and in the print and publicity expenditure.

    The Namesake and The Happening has been UTV’s efforts to build an international IPR basket. Will 2009 see a retrenchment in these plans as we don’t hear of any movie with Will Smith or others kicking off in the year?
    We are making a $2 million film called Ex Terminators. This is the first time that UTV will be producing on its own a film in the US. We realise that holding an IPR for Hollywood movies has great value as the DVD market is very strong in the US. The threatical exploitation is, in any case, a perishable commodity. But we want to be strategically well entrenched in the Bollywood market. We will be involved in international projects on an opportunistic basis. We are still in talks with Will Smith and are trying to find the right script and movie to make with him.

    In a bid to scale up, several Indian film studios have burnt their fingers by acquiring movies at high cost. Has UTV consciously decided to stay out of such acquisitions?
    A few months ago, acquisition costs had really shot up, making it difficult to recover money from some projects. But studios have their own strategies as they are in different stages of life cycle. Our focus, though, has been to put in place a production and development team. We have also cemented a strong relationship with talent.

    Acquisition prices will see a change as we are entering a period of economic slowdown. Though we acquired two movies (Race and Kismat Konnection) out of the 10 that we released in 2008, it is not part of our overall business plan. Our strategy is to produce our own movies. We are not looking at acquisition to scale up.

    Do you see pressure on revenues this fiscal because of recession?
    We expect our turnover to grow to Rs 3-3.5 billion this fiscal. And in FY’10 we hope to notch up Rs 4-5 billion. This will not include the revenues from The Namesake and The Happening.

    ‘We could see some rationalisation in star prices and production costs. We have started talking to talent and they are being receptive‘

    How much did two of your biggest hits – Jodhaa Akbar and Race – contribute to the kitty?
    They accounted for 30 per cent of our total revenues in 2008. But we also had hits in Fashion, Welcome, Aamir, Mumbai Meri Jaan, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! and The Happening.

    Our business model is to produce a few big budget movies while lining up mid-range and small films. We do not want to put all our eggs into one basket. We make movies in different genres, with different makers, and in different budgets. We are developing various labels to address different segments. The common thrust across all the segments is to have quality that is really consistent.

    Will the RoI improve in the coming years?
    The RoI for studios is dicey. While for single producers it is good, for distributors it is difficult. For us, it falls in the 10-15 per cent range. It should stay similar in FY’09. Cost structures (star cost) make any change in RoI difficult.

    UTV Motion Pictures did a deal with Disney to distribute their Hollywood content in India. How big a revenue opportunity will this throw up?
    India is a small market for Hollywood content. We will be paid a commission by Disney for disitributing the movies. We want to maintain the revenue opportunities with more prints and language dubs.

    Walt Disney has done a co-production with Yash Raj Films. But despite having a stake, why haven’t they gone ahead with a joint Bollywood movie project with UTV?
    We are talking to them on various scripts.

    Why did UTV decide to exit the home video business?
    We want to focus in the content creation and aggregation business. We will be in the theatrical distribution business because we want to have a presence in the last mile to the exhibition theatre. There is tremendous competition in the home video segment and based on commercial and strategic considerations, we decided to license our home video rights to Moser Baer for the next five years. Moser Baer will have the rights to all our movies that are released till June 2009.

    We will handle the home video business in overseas markets and have offices in US, UK and Dubai.

    Will we see a more aggressive regional movie lineup from UTV in 2009?
    Mainstream film producers getting into regional cinema will happen, but it will not be their main activity. Regional language films are heavily dependent on theatrical revenues. Satellite TV and home video rights, in fact, are sold together and form a minor portion of the revenue mix. Though the launch of regional channels has led to a rise in revenues from TV rights, it is still not large enough for us to justify making more movies in this space.
    ‘For us, the RoI falls in the 10-15 per cent range. Cost structures (star cost) make any change in RoI difficult‘

    Do Bollywood films make a more strong multiple revenue stream?
    Theatrical accounts for 55-60 per cent of the total revenue kitty while satellite rights make up 15 per cent and home video 5-7 per cent. Music and overseas rights contribute 10 per cent each. Going forward, home video and music will increase while satellite rights will fall as broadcasters come to terms with the slowdown in the economy.
    Will UTV continue to do syndication deals?
    We have done syndication deals with Zee and Colors. We will continue with the syndication model as we have our own Hindi movie channel. Unless, of course, we get a very good pricing for a 3-year or 5-year deal.
    Will UTV’s big drive in 2009 be scaling up?
    Our focus in 2008 was to get the team in place and work with right scripts and talent while scaling up. We will continue to build on that in 2009. We will explore all revenue opportunities including new ones like pay-per-view (PPV) on DTH. We offered Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye to DTH operators on PPV mode within a short time of theatrical release. This is a massive opportuinity in future and we intend to properly monetise the satellite market in a big way.
    UTV has invested in gaming companies. How are you exploiting the new media opportunities?
    We have mobile gaming for all our movies. For developing console gaming, it would require a long lead time and we do not have the product yet for it.

  • Disney’s ‘Haunted High School Musical’ to be released in theatres in 2008

    MUMBAI: Walt Disney Motion Pictures president of production Oren Aviv has announced that the High School Musical franchise will hit the big screen in 2008 with a musical feature titled Haunted High School Musical.

    The Disney musical has received global recognition and has become a phenomenon among youngsters across the world. Aviv states, “Given the enormous universal appeal and phenomenal popularity of the ‘High School Musical’ franchise, we wanted to bring that same energy, excitement and entertainment to the big screen with a unique and original idea. We’re now ready to transform ‘High School Musical’ into a memorable theatrical musical experience with ‘Haunted High School Musical.”

    The Emmy Award-winning Disney Channel original movie premiered in 2006 and went on to reach over 100 million viewers worldwide. In the U.S. the movie’s soundtrack was the No. 1 album of the year in 2006 (certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA) and is a top-seller in international territories. Additionally, 6.5 million DVD units have been sold to date around the world, states the company.

    High School Musical 2, reuniting the film’s original cast with director Kenny Ortega, will premiere on Disney Channel this summer.

    As a take off from the movie, the 42-date arena concert tour featuring cast members Ashley Tisdale, Vanessa Hudgens, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu, Monique Coleman and special guest star Drew Seeley (Zac Efron was unavailable due to his movie production schedule) was sold-out. Additionally, Disney Theatrical has licensed the script for local school productions, and it is anticipated that 2000 schools will produce stage versions in the first year alone.

    Internationally the High School Musical aired on Disney Channels (26 worldwide) and free-to-air broadcasters, reaching over 100 countries. For the September 2006 premiere in India, the music was re-recorded in Hindi with Indian instrumentation and rhythmic beats to achieve a “Bollywood” sound.

    In India the HSM phenomenon spread to a multi-city on ground activity tilted ‘My School Rocks,’ giving an opportunity to twinkle toed kiddies from across the country to represent their schools by auditioning to the music of the local adaptation of the musical.

    Disney Channel Worldwide president Rich Ross stated, “When people think ‘big screen’ for a TV movie, they generally don’t think this big – but no plasma TV could contain our plans for ‘High School Musical 3,’ thanks to the Walt Disney Studios.”

    Disney Channel Worldwide president – entertainment Gary Marsh commented, “‘High School Musical’ exploded off the TV screen and into the lives of kids and families everywhere. It skyrocketed to heights never before achieved by a TV movie, so it’s only fitting that its next incarnation should be as a major motion picture. Now millions of kids and families can ‘get their heads in the game’ one more time — and continue to experience this cultural phenomenon”

    High School Musical premiered on Disney Channel on 20 January 2006, and went on to win the Television Critics Association Award for Outstanding Children’s Programming, and received two Emmy Awards (of its total six nominations), a DGA Award, an Imagen Award for Best Children’s Program and a Humanitas Prize nomination. The soundtrack received a Billboard Music Award for Soundtrack of the Year, and was nominated for an American Music Award in the Favorite Album (Pop/Rock) category. The film even earned an entry in the Guinness World Record Book as the first TV movie to deliver nine concurrent singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

    Additionally, High School Musical has spawned a No. 1 New York Times bestseller – High School Musical – The Novel, which has sold over 1.2 million copies. High School Musical was also the first TV movie to be offered on the iTunes Music Store, adds the release.

     

  • Digital cinema co. Interworld releases first production on 19 January

    Digital cinema co. Interworld releases first production on 19 January

    MUMBAI: Interworld, a digital cinema firm, has announced the release of its first movie Mr. Hot Mr. Kool on 19 January and is aiming to produce around 15 movies a year.

    Mr. Hot Mr. Kool is a romantic comedy targeting college going youth and young professionals. The company says that the other movies in the pipeline would be produced keeping in mind the target audience, trends in cinema and towns with digital theaters.

    Interworld Digital’s platform “DigiCine” claims to be the only platform in India which is based on high end technology and provides opportunity to show movies broadcast by various digital cinema operators in the same theater during different shows. The firm also proclaims to be the first to present a pay per use model for theater owners.

    “We are proud of being India’s first Digital Cinema Company certified with ISO 9001:2000.”

    The company also states in an official release that they are confident that the Motion Pictures Division will make good profits as the first venture itself has recovered the full amount even before the release of the movies by selling various rights.

    Interworld is currently in the process of selecting and finalizing of the theaters in Mumbai, Delhi and UP circuit for up-gradation to show movies on digital mode. The distribution of movies to these theaters will be via satellite mode, adds the realese.

    “DigiCine is end-to-end Digital Cinema Solution. Our equipments are fitted with high precision and are fit to work in extreme Indian climate of very cold, humid or hot even up to 45 degrees. We have designed and architected the equipment like Digital Servers and projectors to suit Indian environment and needs, and they are manufactured in Norway and Singapore,” says Interworld.

  • Sinha moves to Percept Picture Co Motion Pics; Sand to head PPC TV

    Sinha moves to Percept Picture Co Motion Pics; Sand to head PPC TV

    MUMBAI: Percept Picture Company (PPC) business head – television Akhauri Sinha has moved to the company’s Motion Pictures division and will be jointly heading it as business head with current PPC Motion Pictures business head Chitra S.

    Confirming the same to Indiantelevision.com, Sinha said, “I will now be heading the feature films’ division of PPC with Chitra. It was a great experience working in the television area but now I am quite excited about the new journey.”

    The change in portfolio came about last week.
    According to reliable industry sources, Salil Sand will be stepping into Sinha’s shoes as the business head of PPC’s television division. Sand is currently involved with Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahi as its creative head.

    When queried on the reason for having two business heads for one division, Sinha said, “We have many projects lined up in 2006 – 2007 and hence it made sense to divide the responsibilities.”

    In the pipeline from PPC Motion Pictures this year are Jai Santoshi Maa and Madhur Bhandarkar’s Corporate. “It is a bit too early to talk about the other projects,” he added.

    Prior to joining PPC, Sinha was general manager television at UTV and also has been associated with UTV’s animation division.