All articles by Bhuvan Lall – Page 8
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India's film industry counts the cost of Bolly-flops
Bollywood is facing a serious downturn this year, after a string of high-profile flops and not a single local box office success in the first six months of 2002. Inspired by 2001's hits including Lagaan and Gadar, a number of period films were launched this year. The two big ...
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India scraps $2m limit on bank financing for films
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has withdrawn the $2m ceiling on banks for film financing, opening the way for much-needed boost to industry investment.The RBI stated that banks should fix an overall exposure limit to the film industry and ensure that advances are distributed over a number of films ...
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India's Hinduja Group announces Hollywood-style studio for Mumbai
The Hinduja Group, one of the oldest overseas distributors of Bollywood films, has announced plans to set up a Hollywood-style studio enterprise in Mumbai. Their Indian film production and distribution venture 'In Network' company will produce 15 - 20 features a year. The Hinduja group has already entered film financing ...
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Patriotic fever hits Bollywood
As the threat of war intensifies, Indian filmmakers are rushing to make patriotic movies, with five separate films about the famous Indian freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, in various stages of production.Bhagat Singh was hanged on March 23, 1931 for his uprising against the British. There have already been three films ...
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Record-breaking Spider-Man sets new precedent in India
Columbia Tristar India's release of Spider-Man has set at least three new records in the territory having grossed nearly $1.4m from 250 screens on its first weekend - just three weeks after its US debut.The film was released simultaneously in English and three local languages - Hindi, Tamil and Telugu ...
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India's location shooting rules to be relaxed, as local production soars
As a result of meetings held in Cannes last week, the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is considering relaxing the rules for international companies planning to shoot films in India.Senior government officials met several filmmakers who showed interest in shooting in India but were put off by the red ...
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Indian film industry brings Bollywood flavour to Cannes
Indian Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj is heading to Cannes with a high-profile delegation of the Hindi film industry, including Yash Chopra, Yash Johar, Karan Johar, Subhash Ghai, Ramesh Sharma, Uma Gajapati Raju, Ronnie Screwvala and Amit Khanna. With the assistance of Government funding, the Indian pavilion will ...
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Canada's Decode to shoot The Church Mice
Canadian Production company Decode Entertainment has announced plans to make its first children's feature. The film: The Church Mice is to be shot like the Hollywood feature film Babe, combining computer graphics and live-action. Funded by the Canadian government, the feature is expected to go into production in around 18 ...
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Columbia develops European dramas
Columbia Tristar International Television (CTIT) has announced that it is developing local European dramas and plans to launch them internationally at Mipcom in October. CTIT has Spanish, French, German and Italian-language connections in the region. The model of As If - a European youth drama format that first aired on ...
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India's first film completion guarantor launched
Los Angeles-based Film Finances and Bandit Queen producer Bobby Bedi's Kaleidoscope Films have launched India's first film completion guarantee company, with Indian director Yash Chopra also expected to join the outfit.Richard M Soames, president of Film Finances, revealed that the Indian joint venture will seek to provide completion guarantees for ...
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Indo-Canadian production treaty imminent
India and Canada are on the brink of signing a co-production treaty that will extend the nascent film production relationship between the two territories, which has already seen a number of Indian films shoot in the country.Cwurrently, Indian film star Manoj Bajpai is to star in (Exotica), an Indo-Canadian feature ...
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Indian banks find confidence to fund films
Indian information and broadcasting minister, Sushma Swaraj has cleared the way for the Industrial Development Bank of India, the Bank of India and the Reserve Bank of India to grant loans to filmmakers.The move comes as part of 'Operation Clean-Up', an initiative launched to prevent the use of 'underground' money ...
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India's Zee Group plans major Asian studio
India's Zee Telefilms has taken a further step towards realising its ambitions of creating one of Asia's largest studios, by acquired a majority stake in Padmalaya Telefilms, a Hyderabad-based film, television and animation production company, for $12m. Padmalaya Telefilms has more than 300 films, including 60 in-house productions and several ...
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India removes restrictions on film investment
The Indian government has lifted restrictions on foreign investment in the burgeoning film and broadcasting industries, in a landmark move that is expected to have wide-reaching effects on the growth of the sector.The move, on March 5, followed a review of the entertainment sector policy, with the Cabinet of Ministers ...
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Lagaan sweeps Indian Filmfare Awards
Aamir Khan's performance as Bhuvan in his debut film as a producer, Lagaan won him the Best Actor Award at the Filmfare Awards 2001, held at Mumbai's bandra-Kurla's MMRDA grounds. Lagaan also won the best picture and best director award for Ashutosh Gowarikar. Indian Actress Kajol was the popular choice ...
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Indian love story attracts multiple suitors
The Taj Mahal, the Mughal monument of love and India's premiere tourist attraction has become the favourite subject of a handful of Indian filmmakers. There are at least four films in pre-production and one already complete on the story of the Taj. Indian Writer-director-producer Akbar Khan last week began filming ...
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Afghanistan to host Indian film festival in Kabul
The Indian Information and Broadcasting Ministry and the Directorate of Film Festivals have announced that they will be hosting an Indian Film Festival in Kabul in late January. Up to 10 films will be screened at the festival with likely contenders including Satya, Lagaan and Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. ...
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Indian directors, cable cos agree piracy measures
The representatives of Indian film producers and cable operators havereached an agreement to check video piracy which poses a serious threat tothe Indian film industry. Under the terms of the deal it was agreed that no film should be exhibited without a valid licence from the copyright holder. Also, ...
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Zee confirms Indian partnership with AOL offshoot
Zee Telefilms , India's largest media firm, and AOL Time Warner offshoot Turner International (India) Private Ltd, have agreed the establishment of a joint venture outfit that will distribute Zee's channels abroad and AOL's in India.The deal sees Zee hold 74% of the new Delhi-based company, Zee Turner Private Ltd. ...
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Indian superstar Kumar dies, aged 90
Veteran film actor and the first Indian superstar Ashok Kumar died in Mumbai on Monday (Dec 10) aged 90. Ashok Kumar, born Kumudlal Kanjilal Ganguly, made his debut in the film Jeevan Naiya, before becoming the face of the 40's and 50's. Adding to his charisma was the meaningful roles ...