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Tag: Saif Ali Khan

  • Everybody is a winner at Sansui Colors Stardust Awards

    Everybody is a winner at Sansui Colors Stardust Awards

    MUMBAI: The year 2014 has proven to be a great year for the Indian Film industry. Last year, we saw several path-breaking performances by actors, musicians, producers and directors. As the first viewer’s choice awards of the year, the Sansui Colors Stardust awards ceremony celebrated the hard work and determination of the entire Indian film fraternity in 2014. The star-studded ceremony honoured several actors across genres like mainstream, action, drama, romance-comedy and even those filmmakers who have showcased newer facets of entertainment.

    The event saw several renowned names from the industry, entertaining the audiences with stunning performances and superlative talent.  Encompassing a Persian stage theme designed by Omung Kumar, the evening was hosted by Saif Ali Khan, Karan Johar, and Riteish Deshmukh who left the audience in splits with their rib-tickling humour. Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit-Nene, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Parineeti Chopra set the stage on fire with some sizzling performances.

    The red carpet was graced by the host of stars such as Amitabh Bachchan, Sonam Kapoor, Bipasha Basu, Randeep Hooda, Tabu, Imtiaz Ali, Sooraj Barjatya, Huma Qureshi, Jacqueline Fernandes, Dia Mirza, Arjun Kapoor, Sonu Sood, Omung Kumar, Kunal Kohli, Pradeep Sarkar, Ramesh Sippy, Neha Dhupia, Asha Parekh and many more.

    The Sansui Colors Stardust award show is slated to air in January 2015 only on Colors.

    Here is the list of winners who walked away with top-honours:

     

  • ‘Happy Ending’… Weekend watch

    ‘Happy Ending’… Weekend watch

    MUMBAI: Saif Ali Khan seems to be trying new ideas lately. His Go Goa Gone was a rare zombie movie on Indian screens. With Happy Ending, he tries something contemporary in theme and treatment. In other ways though, The hero is love proof; five affairs and he is still single because he refuses to or is not the kind to fall in love. No permanent commitments from him.  

    There was a time when shooting a film abroad was a novelty and, sort of, made up for a weak script to an extent. That is to say, the visuals helped distract the viewer from the narrative. That fad died out. People soon realised that shooting abroad was generally not relevant to the film. Yet, Happy Ending is based in the US and still things remain the same. All major players are Indian and always the bosses, while the whites are mere extras.

    Saif Ali Khan has written a book, Payback Time, which became a best seller. He is now a celebrity, loaded with cash, driving a convertible sports car and changing girlfriends frequently because he does not believe in love. He is living on his past glory and money. His best seller made him enough money to afford all of the above and his logic is, why work when I can enjoy life? However, he soon comes face to face with the fact of being, a one-book wonder. His money has run out and his car has been towed away for failing to pay instalments. It is over five years since his first and only best seller and cash as well as the glory have faded.

    Producers: Dinesh Vijan, Saif Ali Khan, Sunil Lulla.

    Directors: Raj Nidimoru, Krishna DK.

    Cast: Govinda, Saif Ali Khan, Ileana D’Cruz. Kalki Koechlin, Ranvir Shorey, in guest roles, Priety Zinta and Kareena Kapoor. 

    Saif’s problem doubles as he has also failed to live up to his commitment to deliver another manuscript to his publisher. To add to his misery his own agent has introduced another writer, Ileana D’Cruz, to the publishers who writes romantic mush which takes her to the top position. She is now a best seller.

    Saif is an ‘I specialist’, which is to say that he is all about “I, Me and Myself”. He does not see beyond his own nose. His encounter with Ileana starts with envy followed by mental games until he realises that she herself knows she is selling pulp to people through her bestsellers. Broke to the core, Saif needs money urgently. He also needs his convertible back besides money for booze and affairs. To add to his troubles, he is stalked by his last girlfriend, Kalki Koechlin. He had broken up with her but she is still in love with him and plans to spend rest of her life with him. This break up is one-sided because Saif has not been able to convey his decision to Kalki.

    This is when his agent convinces him to stoop a little and meet Govinda, a super star of single screens who wants to capture multiplex audience too, for which he needs a script. Saif is assigned to write it and he accepts it because, he is told, “Paise ka koi problem nahi.” The problem is, Saif is not a romedy writer which is what Govinda wants while Ileana specialises just in those! Also, another problem with Saif is that, he has written many manuscripts but never been able to complete any because he has never been able to find a happy ending. 

    Saif has his alter ego to guide him, which is a version of Saif who is potbellied, unkempt and always hogging on some food or other. On his say so, Saif manages to date Ileana over the weekend and they become friends. Next, Saif accompanies her to her book reading and book-signing road trip to another city. Spending the night in the same room, after initial resistance, both agree to have sex on the condition that there would be no binding, no saying ‘I love you’ on either side. 

    Predictably, love happens between them, which neither one of the two is willing to confess. It is time for Ileana to leave for India. Saif is uncomfortable but still refuses to believe he could fall in love. It takes some convincing from his ex, Preity Zinta, and his alter ego, the potbellied Saif, until he agrees to stop her before she boards her flight. His script with a happy ending is now ready for Govinda. 

    Happy Ending is a fun film most of the time despite the pace dropping in the second half; some trimming could make it racy. The film’s mainstay is its visuals and dialogue. The dialogue are witty and peppy and worth a chuckle. Direction is generally good with some patchy moments. Music holds appeal in the film more than it did on audio tracks. Of the cast, Govinda excels as a caricature of a super star. Ranvir Shorey does very well despite a small role. Saif, in both his roles, is underplayed; a wise thing to do after the debacle of Humshakals. Ileana is fair. Kalki is okay.

    Happy Ending caters mainly to high-end multiplex and metro crowd who can get its subtle humour, mostly thought up in English. A slow starter, Happy Ending is an ideal DVD watch.

  • ‘Happy Ending’ making match on Tinder

    ‘Happy Ending’ making match on Tinder

    MUMBAI: The much awaited Happy Ending that stars Saif Ali Khan, Ileana D’cruz, Govinda, Kalki Koechlin and Ranvir Shorey is set to release on 21 November. Directed by Raj & DK, Happy Ending is a story about two writers Yudi and Aanchal who are both commitment phobics, and their journey towards a happy ending. Pegged as a ‘Rom-Com about Rom-Coms’, the digital campaign for this film has gone ahead of the traditional social media of Facebook and Twitter and has explored the popular dating app Tinder.

    The lead pair of the film, Yudi and Aanchal (Saif and Ileana) joined Tinder three days prior to the release. Post the announcement on social media, a lot of people ‘matched’ their profiles on Tinder and started having a conversation with the characters. The activity quickly picked up and in less than an hour both their Tinder profiles had over 100 matches.

    On Twitter, many users engaged in fun conversations with Yudi & Aanchal where the characters asked them to meet them on 21 November hence popularising the release date.

    The Glitch group head entertainment strategy Mehak Sabat said, “Look around and you will find the youth is on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tinder. If social media platforms are evolving, so should our movie promotion campaigns. With Happy Ending, we are the first to tap the potential of Tinder. We have gained immense traction on the app ever since we have launched this activity, and users are not only reacting to the novelty of the campaign but also relating with the movie protagonists.”

     “A small research in our circle helped us find out that Tinder is full of commitment-phobic people! Young boys and girls just looking to spend some fun time together not really caring about ‘Where is this relationship going?’ and knowing our characters as from Happy Ending Yudi & Aanchal, we were sure they would definitely  be the first ones to sign up on Tinder. What better way to get the boys to fall in awe of Aanchal and the girls to fall for Yudi?,” Eros International marketing team said.

     Happy Ending releases in theatres this Friday.

     

  • ‘Humshakals’…Dumbshakals

    ‘Humshakals’…Dumbshakals

    MUMBAI: In Humshakals, Sajid Khan tries to do one better on the Royal bard, William Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s one of the earliest plays was Comedy Of Errors, a play about two sets of identical twins. That was a short play about mistaken identity. On a mistaken notion that he can do better than Shakespeare, Sajid makes a film about a set of three identical sets of people who are not related. They are not separated at birth twins or triplets; they are just identical. Having taken this suicidal step, Sajid goes on to create a comedy.

     Sajid has had a successful debut and follow-up in his rise as a director of films from a standup comedian of a kind who regaled in running down film folks on TV. He had a great start with Heyy Babyy! Followed by Housefull and Housefull2. Disaster caught up with him soon after when he delivered a dud in the remake of 1983 Jeetendra hit, Himmatwala; he made the mistake of trying to better it.

    This time he makes the mistake of trying to improve on Shakespeare and that is quite a task. Gulzar presented a fairly decent version of the Shakespeare story in Angoor in 1982 where he had the advantage of two among the best artistes playing lead roles in Sanjeev Kumar and Deven Verma.

    Saif Ali Khan is Ashok and Riteish Deshmukh is Kumar, both childhood friends. Like Ashok is the ward of a Tata or Birla kind of family whose father is in coma and the business empire is left to him to handle. His hobby is to gather people over free drinks and tell them PJs. It does not matter that he is an heir to an empire, he still wants to be known as a standup comedian. Actually, if that has nothing to do with the film’s script thereafter, nothing or no sequence has relevance. Sajid Khan just tries to put together a feature film of 159 minutes together with whatever content he comes across, relevance being immaterial.

    Producer: Vashu Bhagnani.

    Director: Sajid Khan.

    Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Riteish Deshmukh, Ram Kapoor, Bipasha Basu, Tamannaah Bhatia, Esha Gupta, Satish Shah.111

    So, Humshakals goes on to being one marathon jamboree of poor jokes, sick jokes, dated jokes and no jokes at all. And, the film is shot in UK where even the whites speak Hindi dutifully, an asylum has Indian attendants and doctors and it is India Raj in UK, a sort of payback for the British Raj in India.

    If Angoor had great talents in Sanjeev Kumar and Deven Verma handling two roles each, here we have two limited actors in Saif and Riteish trying to better them with three each. Yes, not to forget Ram Kapoor. I mean, how many nails can you add to a coffin?

    Till most of the first half, the film has one Saif and one Riteish after which another pair is added, both with same names and the third comes in the form of a villainous doctor’s handiwork who gives a face change to two of his assistants. Mercifully, the writer director are a easy with three Ram Kapoors, introducing them gradually.

    What do these three humshakals do? They do buffoonery in the absence of scope for showing any histrionics. But, even in buffoonery, Satish Kaushik takes the cake as he excesses by all accounts as even Akash Khurana joins in at the end. The three girls, Bipasha Basu, Esha Gupta and Tamannaah Bhatia remain at the director’s back and call to make an appearance when he can’t think of anything else.

    There is nothing such a script here but just an attempt to put together gags which, sadly, are dated and PJs. Direction is juvenile. Music is poor with no song carrying appeal. The use of foreign locations is not justified.

    There is nothing that works for Humshakals and, this rather costly film, will be a big jolt for its investors.

  • Saif Ali Khan to speak in Gujarati in ‘Humshakals’

    Saif Ali Khan to speak in Gujarati in ‘Humshakals’

    NEW DELHI: Sajid Khan’s films are always known for their out and out comic content and his spur full wit. His upcoming film Humshakals is just an addition to his list of this condominium films. Based on the concept of comedy tripled, audiences are going gung ho to see the glimpse of this comedy flick.

     

    Humshakals has an elaborate star cast comprising Saif Ali Khan, Ritiesh Deshmukh, Ram Kapoor, Bipasha Basu, Esha Gupta and Tamannah.

     

    What we hear is that, Saif Ali Khan will be seen speaking in Gujarati in the film fluently and some glimpse of it will be seen in the trailer as well. In fact, it was Saif himself who decided to experiment with his accent for his role to add the comic twist in the film.

     

    This is for the second time he will be seen playing a Gujarati in a film. He had played a Gujju boy in Kal Ho Na ho.

     

    “Saif had to learn Gujarati little more fluently, and since it is not that difficult a task he started to talk to everyone on the sets in Gujarati,” said a source close to the production team. 

     

    Produced by Fox Star Studios and Pooja Entertainment, Humshakals is directed by Sajid Khan and is all set to release on 20 June.

  • 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.

  • Star Gold’s HD push

    Star Gold’s HD push

    MUMBAI: It’s getting high on High definition (HD). We are referring to the Star network’s Hindi  movie channel Star Gold which has strategically, started premiering movies first on Star Gold HD, then following up with a first airing on its standard definition (SD) service.

    It’s all in the line of giving its viewers a value add.  Explains Star Gold executive VP Hemal Jhaveri: “We are categorically looking at premiering certain content that we have acquired only on Star Gold HD. It’s a very clear vision we have for keeping the FPCs for both the HD and SD feeds very different from one another. If a viewer is going to pay premium prices he deserves something extra, so we figured why not premiere movies, may be a week or even a month in advance, than our SD feeds. We are clearly focused on strengthening our HD portfolio and it does attract and appeal to premium audiences. ”

    Amongst the first films to get this treatment was the Saif Ali Khan starrer Bullett Raja which had its HD premiere on 21 February followed by the SD premier a day later.  Youth centric flick Yaariyan which is to have its SD first run on 21 March at 8 pm premiered on Star Gold HD on 16 March. 

    And Jhaveri is quite buoyed by the viewer feedback that Yaariyan has generated. Says he:  “We have always focused on offering a mix of varied movie genres to our audiences, with entertaining content. Being a youth centric film, Yaariyan has connected very well with the younger generation and with the music being very popular among the audience we are positive of receiving a good response for the premiere.”

    Star India has close to 33 channels in its network. And Jhaveri says it leaves no stone unturned in terms of promoting the big ticket film premieres airing on Star Gold and Star Gold HD on all its channels.  He adds: “We also carry out a 360 degree marketing drive for the movies as well. We treat each movie on its merit, some require heavier push with on-air promotions and some would require a separate campaign. So each movie is treated on its content merit.”

    Jhaveri believes the HD premiere tack will work well on the advertising front. Says he: “We are really sure that more and more brands will want to reach out to premiere customers through our HD feed. It’s been great in terms of qualitative feedback and we are confident of building more traction for our HD portfolio.”

    Meanwhile, he points out that the network is going easy on handing out fat cheques to buy films this year as the market is overheated.  “We have already made enough acquisitions last year but as far as this year is concerned we are going to be really selective and to a certain extent not really acquire any movie,” discloses Jhaveri. “For the first time you will see a lot of unsold movies in the market, so we are just being very stringent in the content we acquire for this year and will do so only if the need arises. ” 

    Star Gold has a movie library of 1,100 titles which it shares with its sister channel Movies OK. In 2012, the network had acquired over 500 films from the Viacom 18 group followed by the deal with superstars Salman Khan and Ajay Devgn in early 2013 for all their films till 2017.  Additionally, the network signed a deal for other exciting movies for its 2014 movies line up. Some of the high profile premieres slated for the year include: Jai Ho, Kick, Bombay Velvet, Bang Bang, Roy, Action Jackson, Singham 2, Hamshakals, Bobby Jasoos and Creature.

    To its credit is the information tidbit that the network has successfully premiered the maximum number of Rs 100 crore Bollywood films, including blockbusters such as Singham, Bodyguard, Ra.One, Housefull 2, Bol Bachchan, Son of Sardaar, Dabangg 2 and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.

    The telecast of Yaariyan should help nudge its viewership – which saw a slippage last week -up.   Star Gold SD received 164,983 GVTs in week 10 of TAM ratings against 176,596 GVTs in week 9 (-11,613) even as sister channel Movies OK generated 130,606 GVTs in week 10 against 116,767 GVTs (-13,839).

      

  • America gears up for the 15th IIFA Weekend and Awards 2014 in Tampa Bay

    America gears up for the 15th IIFA Weekend and Awards 2014 in Tampa Bay

    MUMBAI: As we draw closer to the 15th International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Weekend & Awards in Tampa Bay, Florida, the Academy held a press conference on the lawns of the U.S. Consulate in Mumbai, today. Friends of IIFA, members from the film fraternity were present today along with U.S. Ambassador Peter Haas, and the Tampa Bay delegation to show their support for the upcoming celebrations in the United States of America. The 15th Videocon D2H IIFA Weekend and the Tata Motors IIFA Awards will be held from the 23rd – 26th of April.

     

    Actors Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit Nene, Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Bipasha Basu and music director Pritam were on hand to announce the details of the Videocon D2H IIFA Weekend. Leading the delegation from Tampa were Mayor of Tampa Bay – Bob Buckhorn, Hillsborough County Commissioner – Al Higginbotham and Santiago Corrada, President and Chief Executive Officer of Visit Tampa Bay and the IIFA hosts from Tampa Bay, Dr. Kiran Patel and Dr. (Mrs.) Pallavi Patel.   

     

    Peter Haas, U.S. Consul General in Mumbai said, “I’m excited by IIFA’s decision to hold this year’s awards ceremony in Tampa, Florida.  Bollywood fans across the United States will be thrilled that India’s biggest film stars are coming.  We look forward to other Indian companies choosing the United States as their travel destination and stand ready to assist.”

     

    The 15th edition of the Videocon D2H IIFA Weekend in April 2014 is set to include multiple star-studded events including the IIFA Rocks (a fashion and music spectacular), the IIFA Magic of the Movies & Technical Awards, and the crown jewel Tata Motors IIFA Awards.

     

    The Tata Motors IIFA Awards will be hosted by Shahid Kapoor and Farhan Akhtar. The first set of star performers at the Videocon D2H IIFA Weekend include Hrithik Roshan, Priyanka Chopra, Madhuri Dixit Nene, Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Sonakshi Sinha, Bipasha Basu, Pritam and Vir Das among others. The performances would be choreographed by the internationally-renowned Shiamak Davar. More stars would be announced in the next few weeks.

     

    The sale of tickets for the Tata Motors IIFA Awards has been brisk with more than 15000 tickets being already sold without any announcement of performing stars. The response from the audience is phenomenal and the Indian contingent is looking forward to the first-ever IIFA Celebrations in America.

     

    Business events include the FICCI-IIFA Global Business Forum which focuses on business opportunities across the two geographies, the Global Leadership Honours and a Media and Entertainment Strategy Summit led by Ernst & Young and FICCI’s Entertainment division.

     

    The FICCI IIFA Global Business Forum will take place over two days (24th & 25th April) at the Tampa Convention Center. Hosted by the University of South Florida College of Business, the business forum will be addressed by several leading visionaries and business leaders including Indian IT visionary, founder and Executive Chairman of Infosys, Mr. Narayan Murthy and FICCI President Siddharth Birla. The business forum’s verticals will focus on renewable energy, pharma, healthcare & life sciences, tourism, IT and cyber security, infrastructure, education and higher education.

     

    For the first time this year, the IIFA EXPO comprising a B2C showcase of businesses from India and US would be on view. The focus areas are property, wellness and tranquility, jewelry, banking, tourism, bridal wear, clothing, handicrafts and artifacts.

     

    Additional unique events include an IIFA Masterclass with an international actor and IIFA Stomp which is a celebration by the Tampa Bay community to welcome IIFA on April 23rd – a unique celebration of Indian music, dance and cuisine in the Curtis Hixon Waterfont Park in Tampa. This open for general public event, will feature popular DJs led by Ravi Drums and Akbar Sami.

     

    Long time friend & supporter of IIFA, International Actor, Anil Kapoor said “There is nothing as unique as Bollywood, and Tampa is in for a treat this year! The IIFAs are a great platform for us to showcase our work to the world. This April, IIFA will bring the magic of Indian Cinema to America.”

     

    Speaking on her years in the US, Madhuri Dixit Nene said, “Very few know that I lived in Florida for a while. I have been to Tampa Bay and I can tell you honestly it is a beautiful city and the people there are warm and welcoming. Thank you for hosting us. We are gonna rock.”

     

    Saif Ali Khan commented saying, “It’s always amazing to give our Indian and international audience a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness one of the finest celebrations of Indian culture and cinema. IIFA is really going to rock this year!”

     

    Mr. Ranjit Yadav, President, Passenger Vehicles, Tata Motors said, “After an exciting debut last year, Tata Motors is again joining hands with IIFA to delight their global audiences. With our newly showcased, next-generation cars – the Zest and the Bolt, at the recent Auto Expo 2014, we also have some new emerging superstars to add to the excitement. Engineered for global markets, through global teams across India, UK and Korea, these cars will set new standards in their respective segments just like the IIFA Awards. These cars are a true representation of our Horizonext philosophy, with best-in-class offerings and will showcase the Next in Design, Performance and Infotainment. We will bring many more such exciting best-in-class offerings and we hope to receive your support in our journey, in the Future”.

     

    Kareena Kapoor Khan said, “There is a great pride when representing your country and the Indian film industry, and IIFA makes that possible for all us. I am excited to reach out to our fans and Indian Cinema aficionados in the USA and across the world. I’m sure IIFA 2014 is going to be a phenomenal success as it ventures into USA.”

     

    Mr. Sabbas Joseph, Director, Wizcraft International & IIFA said, “In our 15th year, IIFA continues to build bridges through cinema across communities throughout the world. We are determined to bring the magic and magnitude of Indian culture as Tampa Bay is set to witness the spectacle that is Indian cinema, when IIFA comes to the US, this April.”

     

    Bipasha Basu said, “Over the years, I have been privileged to have been a part of and performed at several IIFAs and have watched them grow from strength to strength. It is commendable that IIFA continues to be a magnificent celebration of Indian Cinema and IIFA’s efforts to promote Indian Cinema on a global scale are really praiseworthy. As an ambassador of Cinema, I whole-heartedly support this noble endeavor and will continue to do so. It would be fun to be in North America this year, because with a huge number of Bollywood fans in the country, it will only be a remarkable celebration.”

     

    At the onset of IIFA 2014, Videocon announced the launch of Videocon 4K 4 IIFA Facebook contest where the users can participate, play and win a chance to experience IIFA in Tampa Bay, US. Mr. Anirudh Dhoot – Director, Videocon Group stated, “In our 6th year of successful association, Videocon d2h along with IIFA, shares a similar outlook of promoting excellence in entertainment. The focus of both IIFA and Videocon d2h is adding variety and value in its entertainment quotient.  Videocon d2h which is now Asia’s Most Promising DTH brand strives to provide the best viewing experience in Asli HD through its DTH services and now reaches more than 10 million homes. We provide a very good platform for IIFA as well to reach out to this discerning audience.”

     

    Gaurav Banerjee, General Manager, Star Plus said, “We are proud to partner Wizcraft for over the last ten years in the biggest celebration of Indian Cinema with the IIFA weekend. This year with Tampa Bay as the host, a fantastic line up of talent and support from the industry, we promise to create a blockbuster evening reaching IIFA to millions of households worldwide through Star Plus.”

    Having travelled to some phenomenal destinations across the globe over the last 15 years, IIFA has graced the shores of the UK, Europe, Middle East, South East Asia, South Africa, Sri Lanka Amsterdam and Canada. Fans and enthusiasts of Indian Cinema from around the world can expect to see their favorite stars descend into Tampa, Florida during the weekend and witness Indian Cinema’s most glorious event unfold for the first time in America. With world-class infrastructure and facilities and having hosted a myriad of international concerts, events and the Super Bowl four times, Tampa Bay is the ideal choice for the 15th IIFA celebrations.

     

    The Videocon D2H IIFA Weekend is presented by Videocon D2H and the Tata Motors IIFA Awards is presented by Tata Motors. The IIFA Weekend &Awards will be broadcast globally on Star Plus, for the 10th year running.

  • Saif Ali Khan’s ‘Bullett Raja’ set for World TV Premiere on Star Gold

    Saif Ali Khan’s ‘Bullett Raja’ set for World TV Premiere on Star Gold

    MUMBAI: Saif Ali Khan is all set to increase the ‘garmi’ on all television screens this February! Star Gold, the Home of Bollywood Blockbusters, is geared to kick start the year 2014 with the World Television Premiere of the widely acclaimed action film Bullett Raja on Saturday, 22nd February 2014 at 8 pm. Besides Bollywood superstars Saif Ali Khan, Sonakshi Sinha, the film also stars actors Jimmy Shergill, VidyutJamwalandhas been directed by National award winnerTigmanshu Dhulia

    Star Gold has been entertaining the ardent movie buffs showcasing the best of Bollywood entertainers such as Dabangg, Singham, Bodyguard, Ra.One, Housefull 2, BolBachchan, Son of Sardaar, Dabangg 2, BhaagMilkhaBhaag and others. As a one stop destination for the latest Hindi blockbuster releases, the channel is all set to once again recreate an action packed entertaining experience with the premiere of ‘Bullett Raja’, a des-chic, guns and gore affair, set against the backdrop of conniving UP politics and mafia

    Commenting on the premiere, Hemal Jhaveri, Executive Vice President, Star Gold said, “We have always focused on showcasing a mix of all genres to our viewers with entertaining content; and have always received a phenomenal response for our premieres from the viewers.  Besides a great star cast, Bullett Raja isone of the few critically acclaimed commercial entertainers of 2013. With this premiere, Star Gold once again reiterates its promise of bringing the latest and biggest Bollywood premieres on TV”

    World TV Premiere of Bullett Raja on Star GOLD, Saturday 22nd February at 8pm

     

  • Sajid Nadiadwala’s production unit is like his “extended family”

    Sajid Nadiadwala’s production unit is like his “extended family”

    MUMBAI: Sajid Nadiadwala is busy juggling between outdoor schedules of multiple films, which are being shot all around the world. With such a choc-a-bloc schedule, one cannot help but wonder, how his crew members effortlessly manage to be away from their families for days, sometimes months, at a stretch.

     

    The producer says that the outdoor shooting schedules stretch for more than two to three months on an average. “We end up spending more time with each other than we do with our own families. This would be impossible without their dedication. They are, undoubtedly, my extended family,” says Sajid, who is also getting into direction with Salman Khan starrer Kick.

     

    The films in his bags include: Phantom, an action thriller starring Saif Ali Khan and Katrina Kaif. The film recently finished its schedule in Beirut, Lebanon and has now commenced shooting in the snow-bound valley of Gulmarg in north Kashmir. Coincidentally, Heropanti, the film marking Tiger Shroff’s debut, is also being shot in Kashmir. It’s a ten-day shoot schedule for both, Phantom and Heropanti and they will be shot in different parts of Kashmir.

     

    Alia Bhatt and Arjun Kapoor starrer 2 States was being shot in Delhi, Chennai and Pondicherry. The Salman Khan starrer Kick is being shot in Karjat and the production unit stays there, despite being only a few hours away from Mumbai. Imtiaz Ali’s directorial venture Highway is in the post-production stage. This film has been shot across maximum number of locations, planned for 60 days but finished in 52. 

     
    With extreme hard work and dedication of everyone involved, Nadiadwala Grandsons Entertainment is all set to present five movies spanning genres, this year.