Priyadarshan, the director who experiments with different genres of films, is now planning to make film titled Grrr. He says that this film will have the swamps and jungles of Sunderbans and deals with man-eaters.
Priyadarshan says that he will touch many issues in the film and the film will be akin to Steven Spielberg’s Jaws. Amitabh Bachchan plays the role which is more like that of Jim Corbett, the hunter-naturalist who wrote The Man-eaters of Kumaon.
The shooting of the film is expected to start soon.
Director R Balki of Cheeni Kum fame will start shooting for the film Pa which will feature Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Vidya Balan. This film is being produced by AB Corporation.
The announcement of the film was made last year but delayed because of the illness of Amitabh and other commitments of Abhishek. Moreover, Tabu, who performed splendidly in Cheeni Kum, is supposed to be in the film, but for reasons unknown she skipped the role only to be replaced by Vidya Balan.
The film will start its first 25-day schedule on March 2 in Mumbai and then at other locales in North India and outside the country.
Slumdog Millionaire has won eight awards including Best Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Sound Mixing, Film Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Direction and Best Film.
Hereunder are the winners of 81st Academy Awards presented on Sunday evening at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles:
Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire Best Actor: Sean Penn, MilK Best Actress: Kate Winslet, The Reader Best Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire Best Original Score: A.R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire Best Song: A.R. Rahman for Jai Ho penned by Gulzar Slumdog Millionaire Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire Best Cinematography: Anthony Dod Mantle, Slumdog Millionaire Best Sound Mixing: Resul Pookutty (India), Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke Slumdog Millionaire Best Film Editing: Slumdog Millionaire Best Short Documentary: Smile Pinky Best Foreign Film: Departures (Japan) Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award: Jerry Lewis Original Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black, Milk Animated Feature Film: WALL-E Animated Short Film: La Maison en Petits Cubes Makeup: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Costume: Michael O’Connor, The Duchess Art: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Animated Short Film: La Maison en Petits Cubes Live Action Short Film: Spielzeugland (Toyland) Visual Effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The actress Frieda Pinto, who shot into international fame with her role in Slumdog Millionaire, is reported in the media as having dumped her Goan boy friend.
The first thing Sushmita Sen did after winning her Miss Universe crown was dumping her boyfriend.
Hereunder is a list of the Dump Gamers:
Bipasha Basu dumped Dino Morea for John Abraham
Abhishek dumped Dippanita for Ashwarya Rai
Aishwarya dumped Vivek Oberoi for Abhishek
Deepika Padukone dumped Nihaar Pandya for Ranbir Kapoor
Ranbir Kapoor dumped Sonam Kapoor for Deepika Padukone
Kareena Kapoor dumped Shahid Kapur for Saif Ali Khan
Leander Paes dumped Mahima for Rhea Pillai
Himesh Reshammiya’s Kajra Re is said to have been stalled. According to sources, the film was not stuck because of some financial problems, but owing to the absence of some members of the cast.
Pakistani actress Monalizza acts in this film. She plays the role of a girl who disappears from Morocco and is found again in a red light area in Lahore. Himesh plays the lawyer who falls in love with her before her disappearance and he later traces her to Lahore.
Monalizza completed some parts of the film’s shooting and went back to Pakistan. After the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai, the stars from Pakistan who were working in films in India, including Mona, have not been granted visas.
Kajra Re will not be able to complete shooting until the return of Monalizza.
Akshay Kumar is slowly reaching the top rung in his career. Though his film Chandini Chowk to China flopped, his Kambhakt Ishq is expected to be big hit.
Akshay’s TV reality show Fear Factor Khatron Ke Khiladi was hugely popular getting high rating points. The total deal amount received by him for the show was Rs 120 crore.
Recently, Akshay agreed for the second edition of the reality show and he is charging Rs 150 crore. Since the channel knows that Akshay is the USP of the show, his contract has now been reworked. Akshay has also managed to get some equity in the channel.
Nominations to different categories for the 54th Filmfare awards for Hindi films have been announced. South Indian A.R. Murugadoss has been nominated for the Best Director category for the film Ghajini. Aamir Khan and Asin also get nominations for Best actor and actress categories for the same film as also AR Rahman for music.
Hereunder are the nominations for the categories of Best Film, Actor, Actress, Director and Music Director.
Best Film
Dostana
Ghajini
Jodhaa Akbar
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na
Rock On!!
Best Director
A.R. Murugadoss – Ghajini
Abhishek Kapoor – Rock On!!
Aditya Chopra – Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
Ashutosh Gowariker – Jodhaa Akbar
Madhur Bhandarkar – Fashion
Neeraj Pandey – A Wednesday!
Best Actor
Aamir Khan – Ghajini
Abhishek Bachchan – Dostana
Hrithik Roshan – Jodhaa Akbar
Akshay Kumar – Sinng Is Kinng
Shah Rukh Khan – Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
Naseeruddin Shah – A Wednesday!
Best Actress
Aishwarya Rai – Jodhaa Akbar
Anushka Sharma – Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
Asin Thottumkal – Ghajini
Kajol – U Me Aur Hum
Priyanka Chopra – Fashion
Best Music Director
A R Rahman – Ghajini
A R Rahman – Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na
A R Rahman – Jodhaa Kabar
Pritam – Race
Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy – Rock On!!
Vishal-Shekhar – Dostana
Bollywood actress Vidya Balan appeared in a glamourised western look in films like Heyy Baby and Kismat Connection. Now she is putting on a deglam look for her next venture with Vishal Bhardwaj. She plays the role of a poor woman in a remote village in this film.
The star cast of the film includes Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi. The film goes on floors soon.
Vishal had been a music director and composed music for Gulzar’s Maachis among others. After donning the role of a director he made films like Omkara and Maqbool . He is presently shooting Kaminay with Shahid Kapur.
Sushmita Sen starrer Karma Aur Holi, earlier known as Karma Confessions and Holi, an international film venture has been co-produced by Drena DeNiro, daughter of Oscar winning Hollywood actor-director-producer Robert DeNiro.
This film is written and directed by Manish Gupta, who earlier wrote Sarkar and directed The Stoneman Murders.
This film’s star cast includes Randeep Hooda, Rati Agnihotri, Suresh Oberoi, Deepal Shaw, super model Naomi Campbell, rapper Sticky Fingaz, Vincent Pannetta and others.
Madhur Bhandarkar has denied the rumours that his next movie Jail has been inspired by actor Sanjay Dutt’s real life incidents.
However, known for always maintaining authenticity in his films like Chandni Bar, Page 3, Corporate and Fashion, the director is trying to get permission to shoot the film in real prisons.
The film is about a middle-class family boy working in the corporate sector and how after one sudden incident, he goes to jail and how copes with that situation.
The multiple National Award-winning director Madhur Bhandarkar signed up Neil Nitin Mukesh and Mugdha Godse to play the lead roles in his film Jail.
Firoz Nadiadwala, known for films like Welcome and Hera Pheri, is now planning an international film titled Jewel of India with a budget of Rs 300 crore. This film will be directed by Hollywood’s Rob Cohen who made films like The Fast and The Furious, Dragon Heart, Stealth and XXX
Jewel of India will star Amitabh Bachchan and Katrina Kaif. The star cast may include the producer’s favourite stars Akshay Kumar and Suniel Shetty.
Firoz is the son of veteran producer A.G Nadiadwala and related to producers A.A. Nadiadwala, A.K. Nadiadwala and Sajid Nadiadwala. All of them have been in film production since the last four decades.
Sajid Nadiadwala is making Kambhakt Ishq with Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor, Brandon Routh, Denise Richards, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.
Ram Gopal Varma announced his next project Rann a study of the contemporary media scenario. Amitabh Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh, Sudeep, Paresh Rawal and Suchitra Krishnamoorthy among many others are part of the cast.
Intially, Amitabh’s AB Corp and Reliance ADAG’s Big Pictures were to produce this film. There were talks also with other big production houses.
Finally, D Suresh Babu, son of D Rama Naidu and the chief of Suresh Productions, a Guinness record holding production house, has decided to produce RGV’s Rann.
Suresh says that he has been waiting for an appropriate film to make his entry into Bollywood and he has chosen RGV’s Rann. Surely, the success of Geetha Arts Ghajini is having its influence on Tollywood’s production houses.
Two motorcycle-borne miscreants hurled a bottle of kerosene at actor Shah Rukh Khan’s Bandra residence, Mannat, at around 2.30 am on Friday. Nobody was injured.
Security personnel at Khan’s bungalow were unable to note the registration number of the bike in the darkness. A complaint was lodged at the Bandra police station.
According to reports, a fundamentalist group was upset with the use of certain words in the song, Marjaani, marjaani, featuring Khan and Kareena Kapoor in the film Billu.
On Friday morning a group of protesters gathered outside Bandra’s G-7 cinema complex, where Billu was being screened, and broke glass panes and tore away posters.
Washington, Feb 11 (ANI): Walt Disney and Dream Works have joined forces for a long-term distribution deal, which aims at bringing Bollywood movies to the States.
Though the deal has not been fully disclosed, the terms of the deal state that Disney will distribute and market six DreamWorks films a year under its existing partnership with India’s Reliance Big Entertainment.
Disney chairman Dick Cook has revealed that he is “thrilled and honored” to be working with DreamWorks’ founder Steven Spielberg and chief executive Stacey Snider.
The first flick to be produced as a result of the tie-up is expected to be released in 2010.
“Steven has made some of the biggest and most loved films of all time, and continues to be one of the great icons of our industry, Stacey has an impeccable reputation and a phenomenal track record for making a wide variety of quality films,” Contactmusic Dick Cook, as saying.
Meanwhile, Spielberg was full of admiration for Disney.
“Disney is the birthplace of imagination and has always been as close to the worldwide audience as any company ever has,” Spielberg said. (ANI)
It rarely happens that Hollywood stars are keen to meet Bollywood stars, however recently pop king Michael Jackson specially came to meet our very own Bollywood hottie Hrithik Roshan.
Apparently Hrithik was shooting for his home movie Kites, in LA when he was busy preparing for a shot and suddenly spotted Jackson at the set.
A source reveals, “Michael introduced himself to Hrithik. It was a funny scene to see someone like him, who the whole world knows introducing himself. The two spoke for a short time and then Michael left.”
Michael was in the same area for his filming commitments and decided to meet Hrithik when he heard that he was nearby.
Common man is certainly in, especially if one looks at the way ROCK ON, WELCOME TO SAJJANPUR and A WEDNESDAY have worked at the box office. Now add another film to the ever growing list with the release of OYE LUCKY LUCKY OYE round the corner where Abhay Deol and Neetu Chandra play one of the many common people who we see around us.
“Dibakar Banerjee, director of the film, is very clear about what he wants”, says Neetu Chandra, “His narration too is about common man and hence the world shown in OLLO is the kind that you can relate to. When you watch the film, you would end up saying – ‘Aisa mere ghar mein bhi hota hai’, ‘Aisa maine uske yahan dekha hai’, ‘Mera friend aise hi karta hai’, ‘School mein saare ladke aise hi behave karte hain’!”
Seems like quite a real film in the offering?
“Exactly”, reaffirms Neetu, “OLLO is sheer reality. The film itself is based on a real story and since Dibakar himself has seen Delhi’s Punjabi culture so closely, it reflects in his work. The whole film has a Punjabi ambience to it where smallest nuances have been captured so well. Even the name of the film is quite unique which speaks so well about how the director must have gone into the details of how people are addressed up North. Dibakar is indeed quite creative and intelligent.”
How did she go about playing a Punjabi character?
”I won’t bluff that it was the hardest thing to do”, says Neetu honestly, ”It was easy in fact since I didn’t have to change my way of talking much. Moreover, I have lot of Punjabi friends from school time and hence I could put a finer touch or two at certain points and make my character work.”
Priyadarshan, the director who experiments with different genres of films, is now planning to make film titled Grrr. He says that this film will have the swamps and jungles of Sunderbans and deals with man-eaters.
