Tag: T-Series

  • Teraa Surroor- One man show

    Teraa Surroor- One man show

    Himesh Reshammiya counts mostly on his musical score to make his films and attract audience. His latest, Teraa Surroor, is described as a ‘Lethal love story’, Earlier titled Guns N Roses, the film is a sequel of his 2007 movie, AapKaaSurroor.

    In the earlier film, AapKaaSurroor, Himesh, a singer, is framed for a murder and jailed in Germany where he is for a music concert. If he does not prove his innocence in a day’s time, he loses his lady love. The only way he can do that is by breaking out of jail and finding the real culprit.

    This time, in Teraa Surroor, Himesh changes roles. His girlfriend, Farah Karimaee, is arrested in Ireland and it is up to Himesh to prove her innocence.

    Himesh is out partying and lures a dancer at the club to bed. Next, he walks into a hotel suite and shoots down a few drug dealers. Soon, like a good boy, he goes home and confesses to his girlfriend who he is slated to marry in a month’s time that he has strayed, that he slept with another woman!

    Farah sulks and does not want to have anything to do with Himesh. Despite her wedding being a month away, she decides to go on a singing assignment to Ireland to celebrate India Day on an invitation by a Facebook friend! Farah’s mother, Shernaz Patel, is fond of Himesh and wants the duo to talk over things and end their differences. But, Farah wants a break and proceeds to Ireland.

    When Farah lands in Ireland, she is asked to proceed to the hotel by her Facebook friend as he could not reach the airport to receive her. While she is on her way, her cab is surrounded by cops. She is found to be carrying contraband drugs. Arrested, she is tried and promptly sentenced to jail. When asked if she would like to inform anybody back home, she asks Himesh be informed. She also learns the hard way that the host country does not celebrate anything like India Day!

    Himesh is on mission now. He has to get his fiancée out of jail and find the culprit who planted the drugs on her. Farah’s lawyer, Monica Dogra, informs him that there is no way she can come out without completing her term. The only way to bring her out seems to be jailbreak. There are experts on just about everything and Himesh finds the expert on jailbreaks, Naseeruddin Shah, who has fled from various jails as many as 14 times!

    Meanwhile, Kabir Bedi, the police chief here, and Shekhar Kapur, the Indian Ambassador in Ireland, both old chums, are busy doing their bit.

    Shah makes up a plan to spring Farah out of jail and Himesh follows it to the T; Farah is out and the entire Irish police force is after them. Both make it safely to a port from where they would be helped to reach India. But, Himesh has a job to complete. He asks Farah to wait for him and returns to settle scores with the man who framed Farah.

    Teraa Surroor suffers from a patchy script. There are so many glitches and contradictions which are jarring. The director, Shawn Arrahna, concentrates more on scenic visuals and finesse rather than flaws in the content. Though he manages to keep the first part taut, the film meanders post interval. Not to deny that the attention to locations makes the film a visual delight. Though some of the songs are rehashed by Himesh from his earlier film, all six songs in the film are tuneful.

    Himesh has grown a six-pack and muscles and even bares given an opportunity. Otherwise, he carries a single look throughout. Guns speak louder than muscles in this film. Farah’s role is limited mainly to looking forlorn in a jail cell when not appearing in flashbacks in songs. Shekhar, Shah and Bedi just add some face value to the roaster, their roles being limited.

    Teraa Surroor has not had an expected opening response and its hope lies on the weekend.

    Producers: T Series, HR Musik.

    Director: Shawn Arranha.

    Cast: Himesh Reshammiya, Farah Karimaee, Shekhar Kapur, Naseeruddin Shah, Kabir Bedi, Monica Dogra, Shernaz Patel.

    Global Baba…One more baba!

    As the media started exposing the misdeeds of various babas with huge following, they found a new breed of followers, the filmmakers. The reason being, the exploits of these babas offer a filmmaker a fair bit of scope for comedies.

    Abhimnayu Singh is a sharpshooter killing his targets at whim. He is the henchman of a local woman politician because of which no cop dare to touch him. Now, police, led by Ravi Kishan, has arrested Singh. Kishan is leading him towards deep woods on the pretext of wanting a leak. The purpose is to kill him and make it look like an encounter. Singh knows he is trapped and, as a sort of last wish, wants to know who dared order his kill. He learns that his death has been ordered by the same woman politician he did all the dirty work for.

    Singh uses the same ploy of wanting to relieve himself and, in the process, tries to escape. But, the full police force is after him and he is shot in the back by Kishan. Singh falls into a rapid and assumed dead by the police. But, in Hindi films, whoever is shot and falls in to a river or sea, never dies.

    Singh emerges on the other side of the river where some aghori baba removes a bullet from his back with his bare hands. He was seemingly shot thrice but removing one bullet somehow brings him back to life. He has surfaced in some holy town on the banks of a holy river.

    On the run, Singh comes across one of his own taporis, PankajTripathi, who now poses as a maunee baba. He chose to be so because he had a problem with his speech. Tripathi sells a grand plan to Singh and that is to turn into a baba. There are all kind of babas so standing across a shop, Global Hair Cutting Saloon, the name is decided. Singh will become Global Baba with a feigned global following.

    Soon enough, GB has earned name, fame and an unprecedented following. You don’t see any global followers but the politicians of all hue and cry line up at his ashram, built on a grabbed land. Baba has become all powerful, blackmails politicians and even swings arms deals. Politicians seek his favours because he can create a communal riot on whim, can turn public opinion against any politician.

    No baba vs. politicians film is complete without a media person involved, better still if the person happens to be a female. So there is Sandeepa Dhar, a TV reporter working for the channel owned by home minister, Akhilendra Mishra, who plants her at the Singh’s ashram. Finally, Kishan realizes that Singh survived the bullets and has become Global Baba now.

    Just about everything in this film is routine, oft seen in this kind of films which springs up time and again. Here, what keeps the film alive to an extent is the thrill angle. Sadly, that interest factor is killed in the climax when the makers decide to keep the end open. May be it is an ambition of a sequel or make an intellectual point, this is lame. No justice for the villain, no dhishoomdhishoom; you know the villain so now go home. But, villain is known to the viewer from frame one!

    There is not much to say about technical aspects of the film. However, there are a few performances worth a mention. Of the cast, Tripathi excels. Singh manages to look appropriately sinister. Tripathi is very good. Kishan has little scope. Sandeepa is fair. Sanjay Mishra is wasted.

    Global Baba lacks face value to attract the audience.

    Producers: Vijay Bansal, Priya Bansal.

    Director: ManojSidheshwari Tiwari.

    Cast: Abhimanyu Singh, PankajTripathi, Ravi Kishan, SandeepaDhar, Akhilendra Mishra, Sanjay Mishra. 

  • Digi Osmosis unique campaign for ‘Ki & Ka’

    Digi Osmosis unique campaign for ‘Ki & Ka’

    MUMBAI: Digi Osmosis has crafted a unique campaign for R Balki’s latest production Ki &Ka from the T-Series Films stable by creating a special app for the Ki & Ka facebook page. Once the viewer has watched the trailer on Facebook, a question pops up asking the viewer ‘Who are you in your life, Ki or Ka?’. It further asks  viewers if they are the independent, career-oriented, outspoken Ki or the homely, loving and caring Ka. 

    After the viewer answers and clicks the share button, the trailer is shared on the user’s timeline on Facebook with another caption – ‘I’m Ka in real life but you know, ??????ling (Feminine) and ???ling (Masculine) means the same thing!’

    Commenting on the campaign Digi Osmosis founder Manish Kumar said, “For this trailer, the strategy was simple; there are thousands of people who identify with Ki&Ka on a very personal level. They will find it to be a very interesting activity and in turn share it with their friends. Their friends in turn, find it a quirky and engage with the trailer, repeating the process. This encourages share-ability, a factor crucial for social media and creates a simple viral chain garnering the reactions required. ”

    Ki & Ka director and producer R Balki mentioned that “It has been a terrific learning experience for me working with the Digi Osmosis team. I gave them the trailer of Ki & Ka and they just had a few hours to convert it into an active engagement piece rather than a passive experience. They developed an app embedded in the trailer to make the viewer see herself/ himself as the characters in the story and respond. Simple. Innovative. And really on the ball.”

  • Digi Osmosis unique campaign for ‘Ki & Ka’

    Digi Osmosis unique campaign for ‘Ki & Ka’

    MUMBAI: Digi Osmosis has crafted a unique campaign for R Balki’s latest production Ki &Ka from the T-Series Films stable by creating a special app for the Ki & Ka facebook page. Once the viewer has watched the trailer on Facebook, a question pops up asking the viewer ‘Who are you in your life, Ki or Ka?’. It further asks  viewers if they are the independent, career-oriented, outspoken Ki or the homely, loving and caring Ka. 

    After the viewer answers and clicks the share button, the trailer is shared on the user’s timeline on Facebook with another caption – ‘I’m Ka in real life but you know, ??????ling (Feminine) and ???ling (Masculine) means the same thing!’

    Commenting on the campaign Digi Osmosis founder Manish Kumar said, “For this trailer, the strategy was simple; there are thousands of people who identify with Ki&Ka on a very personal level. They will find it to be a very interesting activity and in turn share it with their friends. Their friends in turn, find it a quirky and engage with the trailer, repeating the process. This encourages share-ability, a factor crucial for social media and creates a simple viral chain garnering the reactions required. ”

    Ki & Ka director and producer R Balki mentioned that “It has been a terrific learning experience for me working with the Digi Osmosis team. I gave them the trailer of Ki & Ka and they just had a few hours to convert it into an active engagement piece rather than a passive experience. They developed an app embedded in the trailer to make the viewer see herself/ himself as the characters in the story and respond. Simple. Innovative. And really on the ball.”

  • Colors develops live event property ‘Suron Ke Rang’

    Colors develops live event property ‘Suron Ke Rang’

    MUMBAI: Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) Colors from the Viacom 18 stable has created a musical property focusing on developing a string of live music events called Suron Ke Rang catering to its music-loving viewers. The first concert will celebrate the illustrious life and the works of the man behind the establishment and the solid standing of T-Series in the Indian film industry today – Gulshan Kumar. 

    This first-of-its-kind association with Bollywood music giant will bring together over 40 musical stalwarts, 60 popular and unique compositions across three decades to launch the Suron Ke Rang – Salaam Shri Gulshan Kumar tribute concert.

    With names like AR Rahman, Shankar Mahadevan, Anuradha Paudwal, Mika Singh, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Himesh Reshammiya, Shaan, Alka Yagnik, Udit Narayan, Abhijeet, Anup Jalota, Sapna Mukherjee, composers like Pritam Chakarborty, Raju Singh along with new age sensations like Tulsi Kumar, Mithoon, Benny Dayal, Ankit Tiwari, Meet Bros, Akriti Kakkar, Amaal and Armaan Malik and DJ Chetas will all come together for a soulful and visually appealing musical evening while paying homage to Gulshan Kumar. Singer Sonu Nigam and actor Ayushmann Khurrana will be the hosts for the evening. Conceptualised and produced by Kickstart Entertainment, this musical extravaganza will be held in Mumbai on 22 September and will be aired on Colors later this year.

    Colors CEO Raj Nayak said, “Over the years, we have strived to present Indian viewers with multiple entertainment avenues across genres and categories. Suron Ke Rang is another step in this direction – curating content beyond the realm of films to celebrate the best of the music industry. Our first offering will be a tribute concert celebrating the illustrious life of Shri Gulshan Kumar and his contribution towards changing the face of the Indian music industry with songs that have touched the hearts of millions. We are happy to join hands with T-Series for this unique concert, a company which has changed the face of Indian music with a multitude of offerings in every genre catering to music-lovers with varied preferences.”

    T-Series chairman and managing director Bhushan Kumar added, “Suron Ke Rang – Salaam Shri Gulshan Kumar is a celebration of T-Series and pays tribute to my father, Shri Gulshan Kumar, for his contribution towards making the Indian music industry a global phenomenon. It was his vision that has helped us to become the biggest music production company in India today and we could not think of a better way to thank him for his forward thinking. We are happy to join hands with Colors, another visionary in the world of television, and are looking forward to collectively provide global viewers with the best in music and entertainment.”

  • Salman Khan Films & T-Series roll out ‘Main Hoon Hero Tera’ video on

    Salman Khan Films & T-Series roll out ‘Main Hoon Hero Tera’ video on

    MUMBAI: Harnessing the power of digital, Salman Khan Films (SKF) and T-Series have rolled out, exclusively on hotstar, the video premiere of the song Main Hoon Hero Tera, sung by Salman, for the film Hero starring Sooraj Pancholi and Athiya Shetty.

     

    Starting 6 pm on 6 August, the full song has been made available to the entire user base of hotstar, the video on demand platform from Star India.

     

    The exclusive-to-hotstar video features footage of Salman singing the song in a recording studio, intercut with high emotional drama and action points from the film Hero produced by SKF and Mukta Arts, set to release on 11 September.

     

    The video of Salman singing Main Hoon Hero Tera will remain exclusive to hotstar till midnight of Saturday.

  • Shruti Hassan to star opposite Ajay Devgn in Milan Luthria’s ‘Baadshaho’

    Shruti Hassan to star opposite Ajay Devgn in Milan Luthria’s ‘Baadshaho’

    MUMBAI: Milan Luthria has cast Ajay Devgn and Shruti Hassan as the lead pair in his upcoming film Baadshaho.

     

    Luthria, who is known to give his actors a look makeover, be it Vidya Balan in The Dirty Picture or Devgn in One Upon a Time in Mumbai, is working towards doing the same with Hassan.

     

    Another leading lady for the movie is likely to be finalized shortly.

     

    Co-produced by T-Series’ Bhushan Kumar and Luthria’s, Baadshaho is slated to release on 25 March, 2016.

  • YouTube launches buffer-free offline video in India

    YouTube launches buffer-free offline video in India

    MUMBAI: YouTube has launched an offline feature in India as part of a larger initiative to make YouTube easier to enjoy on mobile devices, while lessening the burden of data for its growing base of mobile users. This is part of YouTube’s first release of its ad-supported offline feature on Android and iOS, which was announced earlier this year with the launch of Android One smartphones.

     

    The new offline feature for the YouTube app lets people take videos offline, using WiFi or their data plans.  Once taken offline, the videos can be viewed without an internet connection for up to 48 hours, allowing people to enjoy YouTube videos without worrying about slow connections. For videos where this feature is available, people can choose to add the video for offline viewing by tapping on the offline icon that sits under the video frame.

     

    YouTube vice president of engineering John Harding said, “In a country like India, the future of the internet is mobile. 85 per cent of the internet population will connect to the internet with a mobile phone before any other device. Already, we’re seeing over 40 per cent of our traffic in India come from mobile devices, and we want to make sure we are making YouTube as enjoyable as possible for these mobile-first users. By launching this offline experience on YouTube in India today, we hope to help people move past the challenges of data connection, speed and cost to enjoy a smooth, buffer-free version of YouTube.”

     

    Much of India’s popular YouTube content is ready for people to view offline from indie comedy to Hindi movies and select Bollywood and pop Bhangra music.

     
    “We are delighted to launch this new offline experience on YouTube with some of India’s household names for entertainment and music, including T-Series, Saregama and Yashraj Films. Making these popular videos available for temporary offline viewing will help fans connect more easily with their favourite content, and we hope to continue helping Indians affordably access YouTube over the next year. This new feature will also help our partners bring more viewers to their content and find even greater success on our platform,” said YouTube Asia-Pacific regional director of YouTube partnerships Ajay Vidyasagar.

     

    The launch of YouTube’s offline feature is YouTube’s latest effort in a series of initiatives to make video content more affordable and accessible to the large base of mobile internet users in the country. Earlier this year, YouTube worked with Tata DoCoMo to introduce “YouTube Recharge,” a new video data add-on for prepaid users that gave them more affordable access to YouTube on their mobiles devices.

     

    Saregama India MD Vikram Mehra said, “As a partner of YouTube we welcome this new feature which will allow people from small towns who are surfing from poor bandwidth to enjoy our vast repertoire.”

     

    Added Shemaroo Entertainment director Jai Maroo, “We are one of the oldest partners of YouTube India and have a very successful partnership putting the best of bollywood content and monetizing it, where today we do between 46 to 60 million views per month.  Given the access and pricing issues to date in this country, we do see that user behavior that somewhere consumption gets restricted and this offline initiative will help increase consumption.   YouTube has created a win win situation where this feature is easy and seamless for the user while still protecting the interest of the content owner and the advertiser.” 

  • Yo Yo Honey Singh goes digital; launches album on Hungama

    Yo Yo Honey Singh goes digital; launches album on Hungama

    MUMBAI: From launching Happy New Year trailer on Whatsapp to releasing Mary Kom pictures on social media, the industry is getting innovative with its marketing and promotional strategies and moving more towards the digital space. Yo Yo Honey Singh has also taken a digital leap.

    The latest album of the famous singer/rapper has been launched on the Hungama, a first of its kind initiative. “The main objective behind launching the album on an app was to distribute it to 20-25 million people at the same time who subscribe to the app,” said Hungama Digital Media CEO and MD Neeraj Roy.

    Launched by the press of a button on a smartphone, Desi Kalakaar is the first album of Yo Yo Honey Singh with a romantic angle. The album consists of eight songs. While the video of the title track was released on 26 August starring Sonakshi Sinha with the rapper, the videos of the other songs will be released over time. Shot like short movies with a basic storyline, all the videos will feature foreign locations.

    The album was released exclusively on all digital platforms across Hungama on 26 August, while it will be launched very soon on iTunes, YouTube and other platforms.

    Talking about the marketing strategy for the album, the MD said, “We are looking at a lot of famous forums to launch the album as it contains both music as well as rap songs. We are looking at taking the album to the international Honey Singh fan base through the app.”

    Excited about the launch, Hungama Digital Media COO (Consumer Business & Allied Services) Siddharth Roy said that he is confident that the album will succeed due to the Honey Singh magic and also because the artist has been extensively pushed and promoted by T-series.

    While the COO did not comment on the marketing and distribution cost, he added, “We will distribute the album to telecom giants like Vodafone live, Airtel music etc. We are expecting revenue by the audiences subscribing to the song through hello tunes and caller tunes. We are also looking to launch the album on the DTH platform through a campaign with Tata Sky. While the streaming is free for the audiences, the ads that come during the video will help us generate revenue.”

    The Hungama team may also add gaming element to the album by the second or third video release.

    While Honey Singh, Bhushan Kumar, Neeraj Roy and Siddharth roy were present at the launch, Sonakshi Sinha could not come due to prior engagements.

    Hungama exclusively sources content from 300 providers and distributes it in 60 countries over 500 networks.

  • Akshay Kumar to topline ‘Airlift’ – the untold story of the world’s largest human evacuation ever

    Akshay Kumar to topline ‘Airlift’ – the untold story of the world’s largest human evacuation ever

    MUMBAI: One of India’s biggest moments of triumph, virtually untold to date, is now being recreated on the silver screen in the form of ‘Airlift’. The film, to be helmed by ace ad film-maker Raja Krishna Menon will feature Akshay Kumar in the lead and supported by an interesting and highly talented ensemble. 

     

    Airlift is the story of Indians stranded in Kuwait during the traumatic time of the Gulf War. A story of how they, with the help of Ranjit Katyal (Akshay Kumar), manage to survive the Iraqi invasion, and against all odds travel a thousand kilometers across the border into Amman, Jordan. From Amman, 1,70,000 Indians were brought home by the largest and the most successful evacuation ever attempted by any country, in the history of the world. Over 59 days, the Indian government systematically flew over 488 Air India commercial flights into a war zone to evacuate all 1,70,000 Indians and safely bring them back home. Airlift is an uplifting and entertaining edge-of-the-seat thriller and is the story of the biggest ever human evacuation in the history of mankind.

     

    Airlift, presented by Nikhil Advani, is a co-production between T-series, Cape of Good Films, Crouching Tiger and Emmay Entertainment.

     

    Talking about the film, Nikhil Advani says, “Airlift is a story that every Indian will be proud to hear. It is a story that needs to be told and I am happy that we are able to bring this unique tale of triumph of the human spirit, and of our country, to the big screen. It also gives me an opportunity to work with Akshay once again, a partnership that I have always cherished”

     

     

    Bhushan Kumar, the presenter had this to add on what made him back this project, “What drives me to a film is its genre, concept and the conviction I have in the subject. When I first heard the story of Airlift, I fell in love with it and was convinced. I normally back films with good music but Airlift goes beyond great music and has an exceptional screenplay. I firmly believe that once this story comes alive on celluloid, the audience will equally appreciate the film. The role that Akshay plays is filled with heroism and I am sure that he will add immensely to the portrayal of the character on screen”

     

    Filming beings April 2015

  • T-Series signs Yami Gautam and Pulkit Samrat for a love story

    T-Series signs Yami Gautam and Pulkit Samrat for a love story

    MUMBAI: For its musical love story tentatively titled ‘Junooniyat’, T-Series has bought on board Yami Gautam and Pulkit Samrat.

    The film will be directed by Vivek Agnihotri.

    Yami will play Samrat’s love interest in the film. Yami who shot to fame after ‘Vicky Donor’ plays a bubbly, adventurous girl while Pulkit will come as a surprise in a never-seen-before avatar.

    Agnihotri who previously directed ‘Chocolate’, ‘Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal’ and ‘Hate Story’ will direct a romantic film for the first time.

    Producer Bhushan Kumar said, “We are bringing together a fresh pairing of Yami Gautam and Pulkit Samrat. It is a musical love story which will be shot in India.”