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Tag: Nitesh Tiwari

  • After Pops, exits continue at Leo Burnett

    After Pops, exits continue at Leo Burnett

    MUMBAI: It was in the month of April this year that the advertising fraternity got a shock with K V Sridhar’s exit news from Leo Burnett. Pops as the industry fondly calls him quit the creative agency after 17 years of association. Looks like with the legend leaving a few others too have decided to follow suit.

     

    Indiantelevision.com has learnt that over a dozen mid-level creative professionals have put in their papers at the agency. Highly placed sources within Leo Burnett confirmed the news.

     

    Leo Burnett chief creative officer RajDeepak Das was not reachable for comments at the time of filing the story.

     

    It can be noted that executive creative director Ashwini Iyer Tiwari who too had put in her papers a few months back is all set to make her debut in filmmaking.

     

    With Pops and Arvind Sharma, who bid adieu to the agency last year, gone the recent exits have definitely raised a few eyebrows. With the new leadership in place will the agency win back the confidence of creative guns? Only time will answer that.

  • I am scared of not living up to the audiences’ expectations: Amitabh Bachchan

    I am scared of not living up to the audiences’ expectations: Amitabh Bachchan

    NEW DELHI: Megastar Amitabh Bachchan has one fear: “I am still scared of not living up to the expectations of the people,” he says.

     

    Now in his early seventies, the star says box office figures do not affect him so much as what people say about a film in which he has enacted a role since the expectations from him have grown over the years.

     

    Bachchan also denied that he overawes other stars on a film set and he has confidence in his fellow stars. However, he admitted that he does help them feel comfortable, even as he denied ever giving tips to directors or interfering with their vision of a film. He said he liked working with children as he found them very ‘uninhibited’. “It is a wrong premise that I direct other directors or stars,” he reiterated.

     

    The star was speaking at a press meet about his latest film, ‘Bhootnath Returns’ directed by Nitesh Tiwari and produced by Bhushan Kumar and Krishan Kumar of T-Series and Abhay Chopra, Kapil Chopra, and Renu Ravi Chopra of BR Films.

     

    Being released on 11 April, the film has been presented in the name of the late B R Chopra and the late Gulshan Kumar. Others in the film are Boman Irani, child actor Parth Bhalerao, and Usha Jadhav, though there are guest appearances by Ranbir Kapoor and Shah Rukh Khan.

     

    Although the story to a large extent deals with elections, Bachchan denied that it was in any way made to capitalize on the poll season, adding that the story had been related to him more than eighteen months earlier. He also said the same actors could not be taken as it was a completely new story.

     

    Tiwari said he had taken up the film as a sequel to the first film as ‘Bhootnath’ had captivated the audiences even as it left a strong message-oriented impact. “I cannot give any assurance about a sequel of ‘Bhoothnath Returns.’ There was a lot of pressure working with Amitabh Bachchan, and two big production banners but they really made me feel comfortable with them.”

     

    Bachchan particularly praised Yo Yo Honey Singh who had sung a song in the film. “You do not need to put a lot of efforts working with him,” Bachchan added.

     

    Bachchan said the film takes off from where the first film ended, when Bhootnath lands in heaven but is a butt of humour as he could not frighten even a child (Banku in the earlier film) so he is sent to earth again in the slum colony Dharavi where he meets Akhrot who is the only human who can see him. The film then goes on to comment on elections and Khan and Kapoor make appearances to encourage people to exercise their franchise.

     

    While reiterating that he had retreated from politics as that was not his arena, Bachchan said “every vote makes a difference, and it is in any case the democratic right of citizens.”

     

    Bachchan said in answer to a question that AB Corp was still in the business of making films, but did so in collaboration with other filmmakers. Insisting that he was doing films that could be seen by the family, he was also doing a series with Sony which is being overlooked by Anurag Kashyap, apart from coming for another season of ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’.  

     

    Bhushan Kumar said he had been very excited when he heard the story and had immediately agreed to come on board as producer as it had been his dream to do a film with Bachchan.

     

    Parth, who is a child star from Marathi cinema, said he had been frightened at first when told he would have to act with Amitabh Bachchan. But later he enjoyed working as he had a lot of fun with him.

  • I will return after ‘Bhootnath Returns’: Nitesh Tiwari

    I will return after ‘Bhootnath Returns’: Nitesh Tiwari

    MUMBAI: After his first directorial debut, Chillar Party, Leo Burnett’s chief creative officer (CCO) Nitesh Tiwari’s second film Bhootnath Returns, starring Amitabh Bachchan, will hit the screens in April, this year.

     

    And it is after this that the man will return to the creative agency.

     

    “I was supposed to join back in February and because of the film it got a little delayed,” says Tiwari rubbishing the various speculations about him not coming back to Leo Burnett.

     

    “I will be back in April once the film releases,” says Tiwari.

     

    Another rumour doing the rounds in the industry is that of Leo Burnett’s chief creative officer India subcontinent KV Sridhar (Pops) leaving the agency.  

     

    “I’m not going anywhere. It is all rubbish,” says Pops to indiantelevision.com. “If I stand for elections for Aam Aadmi Party, I will let people know,” he adds in humour.

     

    In 2012, both Pops and Tiwari were handed over the additional roles of looking at the subcontinent and pan-India, respectively, with an aim to better and grow the agency.

     

  • National Awards: Vidya Balan wins for Dirty Picture, Deool & Byari share best film

    National Awards: Vidya Balan wins for Dirty Picture, Deool & Byari share best film

    NEW DELHI: Continuing her winning streak, Vidya Balan has once again won the award for the best actress for her role in the film ‘Dirty Picture‘ in the 59th National Film Awards for 2011.

    The best feature film award went to ‘Deool‘, produced by Abhijeet Gholap and directed by Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni, and ‘Byari‘ (Byari language), produced by TH Althaf Hussain and directed by Suveeram.

    ‘Deool‘ also won awards for best actor for Girish Kulkarni who also won the award for dialogue.

    The top award carries Swarna Kamal and cash prize of Rs 250,000.

    In Non-feature film category, the top honour of best film went to ‘And We Play On‘ (Hindi & English), directed and produced by Pramod Purswane. The award carries Swarna Kamal and Cash prize of Rs 150,000.

    In Best Writing on Cinema category, the Swarna Kamal went to the book titled ‘RD Burman – The Man, The Music‘ written by Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Balaji Vittal, published by Harper Collins India, while Manoj Barpujari from Assam was awarded Best Film Critic.

    The winners were announced by chairpersons of the jury: Rohini Hatthangady for feature films, filmmaker Ramesh Sharma for non-feature films jury, and the veteran filmmaker and author Vijaya Mulay for the best writing on Cinema. The awards will be given to the winners in a ceremony on 3 May.

    Earlier, the Jury Chairpersons submitted their report to Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni, who said the efforts of the juries enabled the awards to achieve new heights in terms of enhanced participation in different categories and the prestige associated with such awards.

    In Feature Film category, five films have won three awards each. These Films are ‘The Dirty Picture‘, ‘Bal Gandharva‘ (Marathi), ‘Anhe Ghorey Da Daan‘ (Punjabi), ‘Deool‘ and ‘Ranjana Ami Ar Ashbo Na‘ (Bengali). Six films have won two awards each: ‘Chillar Party‘, ‘Azhagarsamiyin Kuthirai‘ (Tamil), ‘Aaranya Kandam‘ (Tamil), ‘Phijigee Mani‘ (Manipuri), ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara‘ and ‘Game‘ (Hindi).

    Vidya Balan has already received the Best Actress award at Filmfare, Screen, Stardust and Zee Cine awards for her portrayal, which Hatthangady described as ‘brave and effortless performance portraying the rise and fall of a B grade actress‘.

    The Award for Best Direction has gone to ‘Anhe Gohrey Daan‘ directed by Gurvinder Singh.

    The film ‘Chillar Party‘ bagged the Best children‘s film award. Its artistes Irfan Khan, Sanath Menon, Rohan Grover, Naman Jain, Aarav Khanna, Vishesh Tiwari, Chinmai Chandranshuh, Vedant Desai and Divji Handa, along with Partho Gupte of ‘Stanley ka Dabba‘, jointly won the best Child Artiste award.

    The Indira Gandhi Award for the Best Debut film of a Director was won by the Tamil film ‘Aaranya Kandam‘, directed by Kamararaja Thiagarajan. The film also got the best editing award for Praveen KL. ‘Azhagarsamiyin Kuthirai‘ (Tamil) won the award for the best film offering Wholesome Entertainment.

    ‘I Am‘ by Onir, a compilation of four stories on identity, won the National award for the best Hindi film and the best lyrics award for Amitabh Bhattacharya. Anand Bhate won the Best male playback singer Award in the Marathi film ‘Bala Gandharva‘, while the best female Playback singer award went to Roopa Ganguly in the Bengali film ‘Abosheyshey‘.

    The Best Supporting Actor award went to Appu Kutty for ‘Azhagar Samiyin Kuthirai‘ (Tamil), and the best actress toLeishangthem Tonthoingambi Devi for the Manipuri film ‘Phijigee Mani‘.

    The Award for Best Cinematography went to cameraman Satya Rai Nagpaul for the Punjabi film ‘Anhe Ghorey Da Daan‘. The Best Music Direction Award was won by Neel Daat for the songs in the Bengali film ‘Ranjana Ami Ar Ashbo Na‘ which also got the best Bengali Film award. This film also got a Special Jury Mention for Anjan Dutta.

    The Hindi film ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara‘ won two awards: choreography for the song ‘Senorita‘ by Bosco-Caesar; and best audiography to Baylon Fonseca.

    ‘The Dirty Picture‘ and ‘Bal Gandharva‘ shared two other awards: best make-up for Vijram Gaekwad for both films; and costume design for Niharika Khan in ‘The Dirty Picture‘ and Neeta Lulla for ‘Bal Gandharva‘.

    The best Special Effects award expectedly went to ‘RA.One‘ while the Best Screenplay award went to Vikas Bahl, Nitesh Tiwari, Vijay Maurya, and Rajesh Bajaj for ‘Chillar Party‘.

    In the Non-Feature film category, three films have won two awards each. The Film ‘Tiger Dynasty‘ has won the Best Environmental Film and Best Cinematography awards. Awards for Best Direction and Best Editing weld to the film ‘There is Something in the Air‘, while ‘Panchakki‘ has been awarded Best Short Fiction and Best Music Direction.

  • Chillar Party bags best Indian film award at ICFFI

    Chillar Party bags best Indian film award at ICFFI

    MUMBAI/HYDERABAD: The 17th International Children Festival India (ICFFI) concluded in Hyderabad with the Andhra Pradesh governor ES Narsimhan calling upon filmmakers to treat making films for children as a corporate social responsibility and set aside budget for atleast one children‘s film every year.

    While Iranian film Alafzar (Meadow) directed by Mohammad-Ali Talebi won the Golden Elephant for Best feature Film in the international section, the Nitesh Tiwari and Vikas Bahl directed Chillar Party received the Golden Elephant for the best Hindi film in the Indian section. The children‘s jury also selected the film as the best film.

    The German film Vorstadkrokodile 2 (The Crocodiles Strike Back) by Christian Ditter won the Golden Elephant in the international category from the children‘s jury. Both the adult and children jury selected Nineandhalf Goodbye by Halina Dyrschka of Germany as the best film.

    In the little character category Varun Haldar and Vineeta Nayak‘s Hamari Duniya received the best director award. Umesh Kulkarni won the best director award for Vihir while his film received a special mention from the children jury.
    Lost in Africa by Vibeka Muasya, a collaboration between Denmark and Kenya received the best director award in the international category. The children jury also made a special mention of the film.

    Nila Madhab Panda‘s I Am that already has several international laurels to its credit, received two awards; one by Sanjay Chouhan for the best screenplay for I Am Kalam and the other by actor Harsh Maya who won the best actor award for his role in the film.

    The colourful closing ceremony was attended by Andhra Pradesh Information and Public Relations minister DK Aruna, Kerala Social Welfare minister MK Muneer, Children‘s Film Society (CFSI) chairperson Nandita Das and CFSI CEO Sushovan Banerjee.

    Das revealed that around 175,000 children attended the week-long festival.

    , that saw a participation of 152 films from 40 countries, ended on Sunday with the presentation of awards.

    While the award for the Best Indian director was bagged by Umesh Kulkarni for Vihir, . Sanjay Iranian film Alafzar (Meadow) directed by Mohammad-Ali Talebi won the Golden Elephant for Best feature Film in the international category, while the German film Vorstadkrokodile 2 (The Crocodiles Strike Back) by Christian Ditter was named the Best Feature Film in the international category from the children‘s jury.

    The seven-day film festival was organised by the Children‘s Film Society of India along with the Central and Andhra Pradesh governments. 

  • Two Chillar Party sequels in offing

    Two Chillar Party sequels in offing

    MUMBAI: Going by the response that his first production venture Chillar Party has been getting, Salman Khan has decided to make not one but two sequels of the film. With this move, Khan has apparently made it clear that he‘d like to be on board for the entire series.


    Confirming the same, co-director Vikas Bahl said, “We actually shot the film two years ago. And when Salman came into the picture the kids were again back into action. They bonded so well with Salman, that it would be heartbreaking for them if he had moved on.”


    On Khan coming aboard for the two sequels, Bahl added, “Yes we‘ve written two more screenplays for the Chillar Party series. In one, all the kids get together to take the slum-kid Fatka (Irfan Khan) and all his slum-mates to school. In the third film, the kids are the think-tank for the Indian Olympic squad hired by the government.”


    Incidentally, the first film had delved on several issues as child employment, love for animals and politician’s involvement in housing society matter.


    Bahl, along with writer-director Nitesh Tiwari, is in the process of writing the fourth story of the Chillar Party series.