All articles by Bhuvan Lall – Page 2
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Mundra unveils Sonia Gandhi biopic
An English-language biopicof Italian-born Indian Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi has been unveiled byLos Angeles-based film director Jag Mundra. The film, Sonia, willprofile her as a reluctant leader who entered politics only to fulfil thedreams of her assassinated husband. It's based on the book Sonia - ABiography, written by Indian ...
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Arclight picks up Hindi Carmen
Arclight Films todayannounced that it has picked up world sales rights to Chamki, ShyamBenegal's Hindi film adaptation of Carmen."We have been activelylooking at projects out of India and believe that this film has the potential ofbeing a truly global film," said Gary Hamilton, managing director of Arclight."Shyam Benegal is a ...
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Blair heralds signing of India/UK co-production treaty
UK prime minister TonyBlair, currently on a three day tour to India, announced in New Delhi today(Thursday) that the UK and India would be "signing an agreement on filmproduction" during his visit.The agreement, trailed inMarch2005 by British culture secretary Tessa Jowell and Indian ministerfor Information and Broadcasting Jaipal Reddy, will ...
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The Rising shatters box office records in India
Hindi blockbuster, MangalPandey - The Rising has broken boxoffice records for a Hindi film in India, taking $5m in its first week onrelease the highest ever on record.The film opened on Aug 12 on600 screens in India and grossed $3m in its first three days; so far in itssecond ...
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Page 3 takes top Indian film award
Page 3 directed byMadhur Bhandarkar and starring Konkona Sen-Sharma won the best film award atthe annual Government of India's National Film Awards. The film is the story of a young journalist trying to makeher name in Mumbai.Yash Chopra's Veer-Zaarashared the most popular film award with Cheran's Tamil film, Autograph. The ...
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Billionaire businessman snaps up India's Adlabs
Anil Dhirubhai AmbaniEnterprises has bought an $80.2m controlling stakein India's largest filmcompany Adlabs through subsidary companyReliance Capital.The publicly-listed Adlabsis a leading player in film production,post-production,distribution and exhibition with several multiplexesand 52 digital exhibitioncinemas. The deal is one of thebiggest in Indian entertainment history.Adlabs also owns productioncompany Entertainment One (India) Ltd, ...
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Billionaire businessman snaps up India's Adlabs
Anil Dhirubhai AmbaniEnterprises has bought an $80.2m controlling stake in India's largest filmcompany Adlabs through subsidary company Reliance Capital.The publicly-listed Adlabsis a leading player in film production, post-production, distribution andexhibition with several multiplexes and 52 digital exhibition cinemas. The deal is one of thebiggest in Indian entertainment history.Adlabs also owns ...
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UIP reorganises Indian distribution
ParamountFilms of India Ltd (PFI), distributor of UIP product on the sub-continent, hasoverhauled its set-up across Indiaand entered into agreements with four local distributors to release Paramount,Universal and DreamWorks films.PFI,which is one of the oldest motion picture distributors of American films inIndia, will now work with Shringar Films in Maharashtra, ...
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Rai to play royalty in Dutta's Indian biopic
Aishwarya Rai is play royalty in a biopic on the lifeof Gayatri Devi, the former Maharani of Jaipur. A film based on her autobiography A PrincessRemembers is being directed by Indian filmmaker J. P. Dutta (Border).Rajmata Gayatri Devi (as she is now known) has given her consent to Dutta tocast ...
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Indian industry speaks out against film smoking ban
Senior figures in the Indian film industry havespoken out against the government's plan to ban smoking scenes in films.Lastweek, the Indian government announced it would ban all scenes showing smokingor cigarette packs in films and TV programmes. The new law will apply to bothIndian films and to foreign films released ...
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India bans smoking scenes in films
The Indian government has banned all scenes showing smokingor cigarette packs in films and TV programmes. The new law will apply to bothIndian films and to foreign films released in India.The move, part of a anti-tobaccoclampdown, also bans film-makers showing cigarette packs, billboards or usingany item with a cigarette brand ...
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Nair embarks on Namesake shoot
Filmmaker Mira Nair has begun a two week shoot in India of TheNamesake, an adaptation of Pulitzer-prize winning Jhumpa Lahiri's debutnovel of the same name. 'It's nice to be back in India and I am looking forwardto the shoot in Kolkata, a city that has mesmerised me since mychildhood,' Nair ...
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Bollywood legend Sunil Dutt dies
SunilDutt, 75, legendary Bollywood actor and current Youth and Sports Minister diedfrom a heart attack in his home in Mumbai. AmongDutt's most memorable films wereMother India (1956), and Padosan. Theman took Indian cinema by storm in the 60s and 70s following his big break in Mehboob Khan's Mother India .Among ...
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Indian billionaire Spices up Kapur's Buddha epic
Indian billionaire Dr Bhupendra Kumar Modi has set up an internationalfilm production outfit in Los Angeles called Spice through which he willproduce his epic feature film Buddha to be directed by ShekarKapur.He has hired Patrick De Bokay as the film's executive producer andPascal Borno as its international sales agent.The film, ...
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Film releases put on hold in India as cricket fever bites
A string of major film releases have been postponed inIndia's film capital Mumbai because of the start of the cricket test matchseries today (March 8) between Pakistan and India.Distributors fear that the test matches, which are hugelypopular in India, will adversely affect the takings of their films in cinemas.The series, ...
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VIP media fund backs Kapur's Water
Shekhar Kapur has tied up with Europe's VIP Media Fund, toco-produce and distribute his films. The first two films announced as part of this collaborationare: Paani (Water) being produced and directed by Kapur and renownedauthor Deepak Chopra under the banner of their company INTENT, and Buddhabeing produced by Kapur and ...
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Veer Zara, Hum Tum top India's Oscars
Shahrukh Khan and Rani Mukherjee bagged the best actor andbest actress award for their role in Swades and Hum Tumrespectively at the 50th Filmfare awards (Indian Oscars) in Mumbai on Saturday.Rani also bagged the best actress in a supporting role for the film VeerZara. Yashraj Film's Veer Zara, was awarded ...
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Fox, UTV partner on Nair's Namesake
Indian production anddistribution outfit UTV has partnered with Fox Searchlight on Mira Nair'sThe Namesake. The film is based on the 2001Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Namesakeby Jhumpa Lahiri and the script is written by Sooni Taraporewala.The novel tells the story of a Calcutta family who leaveIndia to come to Cambridge, ...
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Fox India closes distribution office
20th Century Fox has closedits Indian distribution arm in Mumbai after 73 years of operation. CEO AdityaShastri has already left the company to joinMumbai based UTV. Fox, which opened its officein 1932, had recently been suffering losses on its Hollywood releases and tried to diversify operations in India byparticipating in ...
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Douglas to co-produce Racing The Monsoon in India
Indian film financiersSahara One Motion Pictures and Percept Picture Company have announced that theywill be the primary backers of the Michael Douglas project Racing TheMonsoon - acting as co-producers with Douglas's production company FurtherFilms.The film will be shot in theAmby Valley near Mumbai - a luxury resort created by Sahara ...