ITV

Tag: Ram Kapoor

  • Sony Music Entertainment announces digital deal with Zee Music Company

    Sony Music Entertainment announces digital deal with Zee Music Company

    MUMBAI: Global music giant, Sony Music Entertainment India and Zee Music Company today announced a strategic world-wide digital deal where in Sony Music will manage all digital assets for Zee Music’s upcoming Bollywood releases. The tie up further extends to exploring Publishing for Zee Music’s assets for the rest of the world through Sony/ATV. Apart from the Zee Music releases, Sony Music will also be working on also other tent pole films with leading production houses including Vishesh Films, Dharma Production and Fox Star Studios. This deal will cumulatively grow Sony Music’s digital market share by 15%.

     

    Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited had recently announced its foray into the music label space with its venture, ‘Zee Music Company’ and acquired the music rights of over 20 major motion pictures. With this announcement Sony Music will have access to all of Zee Music’s releases including Holiday, Bang Bang, Bombay Velvet, Humshakal, Hawa Hawaii to name few.

     

    Commenting on the same, Sanujeet Bhujabal, Marketing Director Sony Music India said, “In the past we have worked with leading content creators like YRF and Disney.  This strategic association will provide a global foot print to all the prestigious releases. This is a huge opportunity and together we believe we will be able to provide the best of music entertainment to fans.”

     

    Further adding on Anurag Bedi , Head Zee Music Company said, “We’ve had a great relationship with Sony Music in the past, and are excited to have them as the digital partner for some of our forthcoming films. Partnering with Sony Music will be mutually beneficial as we have a robust slate for this year which includes about 20-25 films, all of which are produced by leading production houses.”

    The soundtrack of Holiday featuring Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha will see Pritam collaborate for the first time with A. R. Murugadoss ad the songs are already creating ripples! Humshakals with  Saif Ali Khan, Ram Kapoor and Riteish Deshmukh who will be seen in a triple role Sajid Khan promises to be a laugh riot with some crazy music by the effervescent Himesh Reshammiya. While Bang Bang the action thriller film directed by Siddharth Raj Anand and featuring nations heartthrob Hritik Roshan and Katrina Kaif will have music by the magical duo Vishal –Shekhar. The much talked about Bombay Velvet feature Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma in lead roles while Karan Johar  plays the primary antagonist features Music director Amit Trivedi who began working on the soundtrack after the release of Dev D and adds that the music of the film reflects the age of 1960s Jazz era of Bollywood. The lyrics are being written by Amitabh Bhattacharya.

  • ‘Welcome 2’ back with ‘zaikedar dilli’

    ‘Welcome 2’ back with ‘zaikedar dilli’

    MUMBAI: As things heat up in the national capital with the political parties battling it out for aam admi’s attention, Life OK’s second season of the reality show Welcome 2- Baazi Mehmaan Nawaazi is all set to add more spice to the existing drama!

    The ‘desi’ version of the international reality series, Come Dine with Me, will now explore the Delhi cuisine and culture with common man, this time around.

    Unlike the first season which was hosted by actor Ram Kapoor, this one will be sans a host and celebrities. The previous season featured actors hosting dinner at their places and will bring together a bunch of New Delhi-based strangers from different walks of life. They will be seen bonding over food, entertainment and ‘mehmaan nawaazi’ (hospitality) with one specific theme each week.

    Produced by Miditech, the series started from 17 March and is aired every week Monday to Friday at 10:00 pm and will run for eight weeks.

    India Gate Basmati Rice continues to be the presenting sponsor of the show. Moreover, the channel has roped in Pantene 6 Oil Nourish as the powered by sponsor.

    The reason behind having no host this time around is, the makers wanted to focus on the five contestants. “This time we just wanted to focus on the five contestants each week. The show concentrates on Dilwalon Ki Dilli, the melting pot of cultures offered with a dash of masala, drama and entertainment. This season is all about laughter, food, excitement, drama and different personalities,” echoes Miditech co-founder Niret Alva.

    Fifteen episodes have been canned till now. The makers and the channel believe that it is going to be a fun ride. Celebrities are expected to come in but much later. “This time we are keeping this season more on the lines of the international format. Some celebs will definitely join in every now and then to pep up the drama and entertainment quotient, but that will come much later,” reveals Alva.

    Life OK general manager Ajit Thakur expounds: “It is our endeavor to introduce clutter-breaking content and our reality shows are always served with a twist. As five contestants from culturally diverse backgrounds come together, the show moves away from the run of the mill kitchen politics and takes you into the actual kitchen conversations.”

    Alva revealed that selecting the contestants was very tough. “We were looking for the characters from different walks of life. We needed permissions to invade their homes. Apart from this, we also needed the contestants for five days without even telling them what’s going around.”

    In its first season, the show aired from 21 January to 23 March 2013. There were nine groups that involved 45 celebrities, with five celebrities featuring in the show every week.

    While the channel has pinned high hopes on this series, whether they will succeed it or not is a different story altogether. Says a highly placed media planner (name withheld on request): “The channel has been innovating and launching new shows time and again to sustain viewership and maintain numbers. But according to me, they should not try content which has not worked for them in the past. The first season did not work well for the channel and that was the clear indication that audiences are not interested in such content.”

    The media planner further goes on to say that: “To fill the vacant slot, they could have extended the shows which are doing well for the channel like Mahadev and Shapath. This strategy would have got them a few numbers.”

  • Nagesh Kukunoor makes a mark with ‘Lakshmi’

    Nagesh Kukunoor makes a mark with ‘Lakshmi’

    MUMBAI: His unprecedented subjects have always enticed the serious movie buffs. However, filmmaker Nagesh Kukunoor’s last few attempts at movie making went awry as he received flak from almost everybody. But his recent attempt with Lakshmi seems to be a comeback of sorts for the director.

     

    Kukunoor’s recent film that is set to hit the theatres on Friday is already getting rave reviews from people who have watched it. The director, who is remembered for films like Hyderabad Blues, 3 Deewarein, Iqbal and Dor, has tried his hand at a topic that is a pressing issue of the time.

     

    Lakshmi starring Monali Thakur, Shefali Shah, Satish Kaushik, Ram Kapoor and Nagesh Kukunoor himself, deals with the harsh realities of human trafficking and child prostitution. He has brought to the fore the issue that continues behind closed curtains in rural areas of India. Interestingly, the film has already won the Best Film – Mercedes Benz Audience Award for Best Narrative at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in January this year.

     

    “A gut wrenching story of a 14yr old thrown into human trafficking. The experience is difficult to put into words,” writes a Twitter user.

     

    A well-known film critic posts, “#Lakshmi Outstanding. Better than Teen Deewarein, Iqbal and Dor. Welcome back, Nagesh Kukunoor.”

  • Stand-up comedian Kapil Sharma is in Forbes India celebrity 100 list

    Stand-up comedian Kapil Sharma is in Forbes India celebrity 100 list

    MUMBAI: In a short span of time, stand-up comedian Kapil Sharma has made a place for himself in the industry and in the hearts of many Indians. Now, it is time for him to celebrate his success as the artiste whose show Comedy Nights With Kapil has kind of become a phenomenon in the country, has been listed in Forbes India’s “celebrity 100” list.

     

    Sharma has secured the 93rd position in the list while other popular TV stars like Ram Kapoor, Ronit Roy and Sakshi Tanwar have been placed below him, said the magazine’s official website.

     

    Kapil came in to the limelight after winning season three of the reality show The Great Indian Laughter Challenge. He has also featured in various seasons of Comedy Circus before starting his own production house K9 Productions under which he produces Comedy Nights with Kapil, aired on Colors.

     

    He has also been nominated alongside Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar and Deepika Padukone for CNN IBN’s Indian of the Year (Entertainment).

     

    “Thank you god and my fans for making it possible…” Kapil posted on Twitter after the announcement.

     

    The show is India’s highest rated serial in the non-fiction category garnering viewership rating greater than reality flicks like KBC and Big Boss.

  • Balajis bright new sparks

    Balajis bright new sparks

    MUMBAI: Even as television channels churn out soap operas in a bid to outdo each other, more and more youngsters are finding themselves dreaming of making it big in films and television.
    Glamour struck as these young guns are, more often than not, they are not really equipped to deal with the big, bad world that lurks beneath the shiny surface.

    This is where companies like Balaji Spark aim to step in to handhold and nurture the new talent. “Our philosophy is about nurturing. We want to do everything a parent does for a child,” exults Balaji Motion Pictures CEO Tanuj Garg about Balaji’s new talent management arm.

    With its mission to identify and manage new talent, Spark will represent both on-screen and directorial talent discovered and launched by BMPL and Balaji Telefilms in films and television, respectively. The unit will be under BMPL, and will be helmed by Firoz Engineer, who will report into Garg.

    Spark’s job will also be about guiding new talent, managing their image and PR among other things. Garg clarifies that among the hundreds of applications Balaji receives every day, its casting directors single out only such talent that they feel is worth grooming. “We are not looking at 100 people or so. It is just going to be a handful of them, who we will oversee so that there is some kind of class and pedigree involved,” he says.

    With the likes of Yash Raj Films and Viacom18 Media too having established units offering similar services, what would differentiate Spark from the rest? “We clearly don’t look at ourselves as agencies or brokers because we don’t think that’s the way talent is managed or launched. Some of the biggest names in the industry have been launched by us, and we continue to do so. It is our responsibility to help them and not use them as commodities,” quips Garg.

    Spark is all about about parenting and not deal making like others, says Tanuj Garg
    Indeed, actors such as Smriti Malhotra-Irani, Sakshi Tanwar, Ram Kapoor, Prachi Desai, Rajeev Khandelwal, Shweta Tiwari, Sushant Singh Rajput, Ronit Roy, Hiten Tejwani, Urvashi Dholakia and more recently, Rajat Tokas and Paridhi Sharma of Jodha Akbar fame, rose from the Balaji stable to achieve iconic status. Garg points out that currently, Spark will focus on the selected lot of actors instead of searching for newer faces. “We don’t want to disturb the applecart and lure people to come to us. We might do that later but as of now, our immediate plans are to nurture the talent we want to launch in TV or films,” he says.

    Spark will have a simple fee structure where it gets management fee, which is a certain price of the deal. All value-added services like paperwork, PR etc. will be part of the deal. Spark will get anything between 10-25 per cent of the deal, which is in keeping with industry standards. The contract timeframe will be a minimum of three years, though it may vary from deal to deal.
    Elaborating on Spark’s low intensive business model, Garg says: “Consumers don’t have to know about us. What matters is people in the industry know us for they will consume our talent.”

    Hats Off Production’s JD Majethia agrees. “Take the example of Sushant Singh Rajput; if he didn’t have the push of Balaji, do you think he would have been where he is today? Balaji has launched so many faces and since there are so many opportunities, it is bound to set new limits,” he says.

    Beyond Dreamz’s Yash Patnaik too feels Spark will only benefit the industry as new talent will get an umbrella where they can get groomed and hone their skills.

    Not just budding youngsters, Spark will also be managing Balaji head honcho Ekta Kapoor. “People want her for shows, as speaker or to host them. She is a brand to reckon with, and she has realised it is high time she came out if there is an interesting and exciting offer. So we will be handling her,” says Garg excitedly.

    Spark plans to partner with other entities across the nation to work with its artists to recognise the right opportunities for them in terms of brand and cause endorsements, performances and appearances on various shows and events.

    With a record-breaking career graph thus far, we are sure, Balaji will only forge ahead with this venture…

  • Bipasha Basu in Sajid Khan’s Humshakals

    Bipasha Basu in Sajid Khan’s Humshakals

    MUMBAI: Sajid Khan is now gearing up for his upcoming comic caper Humshakals. The latest addition to this film is Bipasha Basu, who was last seen in Aatma. Besides Basu, Saif Ali Khan, Riteish Deshmukh and Ram Kapoor will be playing triple roles in the movie.

     

    While Tamannaah Bhatia has been paired opposite Saif, Bipasha will play Riteish’s love interest. Other details about the characters in the film have still been kept under wraps.

     

    Humshakals is produced by Vashu Bhagnani and Fox Star Studios and is expected to go on floor from September.

     

    Sajid Khan started his directing career with Heyy Babyy and followed it up Housefull and Housefull 2. His recent Ajay Devgn starrer Himmatwala remake bombed at the Box-Office.

  • Godrej launches the all new Godrej Expert Advanced

    MUMBAI: Hair colour brand Godrej Expert has released a new television commercial (TVC ) for its gel based powder hair colour Godrej Expert Advanced. The commercial has been conceptualised by Creativeland Asia.

    The new TVC features television actor Ram Kapoor and Vidya Malavde of the Chak de India! fame playing a middle aged couple. Malavde gifts Kapoor a Godrej Expert Advanced for his birthday. He is shown to be in constant worry of his ever increasing grey hair which makes him feel old. The TVC shows how his wife convinces him to try the brand out resulting in Kapoor feeling younger and happier.

    The Kapoor and Malavde TVC will be shown in the North, West, and East markets while for the South the same advertisement features Arjun Sarja and Devayani.

    Godrej chief operating officer, sales and marketing & SAARC Sunil Kataria said, “A lot of first time users of hair colours exhibit an extremely apparent state of inertia caused by lack of awareness or just by the fear of colouring ones hair. This issue has been brilliantly addressed through the TVC, where a reasonably concerned husband gets convinced by his wife to try colouring his hair. It is an extremely relatable TVC, showcasing a relationship between couples and how one influences the other to use Godrej Expert Advanced.”

    With this new television commercial, the brand intends to make itself the relevant product in the eyes of the first-timers. while remaining compelling for the current users and competition users.

  • Balaji joins hands with PNC to produce Shaadi Ke Side Effects

    Balaji joins hands with PNC to produce Shaadi Ke Side Effects

    MUMBAI: Balaji Motion Pictures has joined hands with Pritish Nandy Communications (PNC) to produce the sequel of PNC‘s 2006 hit Pyaar Ke Side Effects.

    The sequel titled Shaadi Ke Side Effects stars Farhan Akhtar and Vidya Balan in principal roles. They are joined by Vir Das, Ram Kapoor and his wife Gautami, singer-actress Ila Arun and singer Hariharan who will play Farhan‘s father in the film.

    Saket Chaudhary, director of the original, would also direct the sequel.

    The iconic characters, Sid and Trisha, come to life in the sequel, now as husband and wife. Sid having beaten his fear of marriage and Trisha having finally gotten around to saying her vows the third time round. Now they must address themselves to the impossible task of coping with each other‘s fantasies and realities. Will they succeed? That is what Shaadi Ke Side Effects is all about.

    Avers producer Pritish Nandy, “We have the hottest stars of 2013 with us in Farhan after Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and the star of the upcoming film Bhaag Milkha Bhaag and Vidya after The Dirty Picture and Kahaani together for the first time on screen. They make the perfect Sid and Trisha, each fighting for space in their marriage. Shaadi Ke Side Effects is a witty, sexy, hilarious comedy that will warm your hearts and to all you newly-weds, it‘s time to pick a side again in the war of Mars versus Venus.”

    This film will be the second outing of Ekta Kapoor and Vidya Balan together after The Dirty Picture. Observes Ekta, “Shaadi Ke Side Effects is going to be a laughathon and entertainment all the way! It‘s going to be exciting working with Farhan who is extremely talented and of course Vidya Balan who is an actress par excellence and my personal favorite.”

    Shaadi Ke Side Effects goes on floors on 17 February and is likely to release on 6 December, this year.

  • DDB Mudra executes campaign for Big Bazar’s IMSH

    MUMBAI: DDB Mudra has created a campaign for retail chain Big Bazar‘s India‘s Most Stylish Homes contest. The idea was to drive sales around the month of December which in India is not traditionally the ‘holiday season‘. Unlike the western countries, it is not a very ‘active consumption period‘ for Indian retail. The campaign aims to promote the affordability of stylish decor, and also attract new customers to its stores.

    It suffers with festive fatigue after the Pujo, Diwali and Id period. Also in India with every region celebrating its own new year; the date holds little cultural significance apart from being a fun, westernized concept. Though people are embracing the idea of New Year, it is still not seen as a strong enough reason to spend.

    The idea was to capitalise on the increasing demand for style in the consumers‘ shopping criteria. People want to look, feel, live and project style in everything that they do. Extending this concept to stylish homes and to attract home makeovers, Big Bazaar spanned the entire space of furniture, appliances, storage, kitchen ware, home décor, crockery to create an exciting range with best offers and roped in Ram Kapoor and Sakshi Tanwar for a two-week long contest ‘India‘s most stylish homes‘ is a pan India contest, where the winners can play host for the famous couple for a day. To take part, customers must shop for a minimum of Rs 300 and send in pictures of their homes.

    The individual 106 store winners and 31 city winners are chosen by a team of interior designers. However, in the final stage, a national winner will be selected based on the decisions of judges as well as the brand ambassadors.

    DDB Mudra Mumbai group creative director Anand Karir said, “Big Bazaar is the last word on best deals in daily home essentials in every Indian household. So when the client came to us with an idea of an event where they wanted to showcase their vast range of trendy home fashion products, something they had never highlighted hitherto, we decided to also communicate it in a new way that‘s completely different from what we usually do for the brand.”

  • Mere Dad Ki Maruti to release on 15 March

    Mere Dad Ki Maruti to release on 15 March

    MUMBAI: Yash Raj Films‘ (YRF) next venture Mere Dad Ki Maruti (MDKM) under the Y-Films banner, has finally got a release date. It will release universally on 15 March.

     

    For some time now, it has been seen that YRF is becoming the perfect platform for budding talent. After having successfully launched Ranveer Singh and Anushka Sharma in Band Baaja Baaraat , it followed up by casting Arjun Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra in Ishaqzaade.

     

    Through Mere Dad Ki Maruti, the production house is all set to launch Saqib Saleem and Rhea Chakraborty. Incidentally, Saqib had earlier made his debut with Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge under the same banner.

     

    MDKM is an outrageous comedy set against the backdrop of a loud Punjabi wedding in Chandigarh. The film tells the story of a boy who sneaks his dad‘s fancy new car out to impress the college hottie and how all hell breaks loose when he loses it.

     

    MDKM also stars Ram Kapoor as the khadoos dad in his first full-fledged comedy role.

     

    MDKM also marks the directorial debut of Ashima Chibber who has been associated with some of the most talented directors of our times like Shimit Amin‘s first Assistant Director (AD) on Ab Tak Chappan and Chak De India‘ among others, The director‘s last project was as first assistant director to Imtiaz Ali in Rockstar.