Ghajini in court over copyright violation

In an instant-replay version of what happened with Yashraj Films' Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic, the producers of Ghajini woke up on Monday morning to a court summon from the producers one KBC Pictures, claiming that they've the rights to remake the Tamil Ghajini and that Aamir's film is therefore an infringement of their (KBC's) copyright.

The film titled Kahani Ghajini Ki has an Amitabh Bachchan lookalike in the lead. Hassled and frazzled by the pre-release procedures, Ghajini's producer Madhu Mantena rushed to court on Monday morning where the honourable judge allowed him to go ahead with the release procedure, arguing why the allegedly aggrieved party waited till a few days before the release of Ghajini to express his grievance. But the producers of Ghajini have been asked to return to court on December 24, a day before the film's worldwide release.

Says Madhu, "This is such a blatant and crude method to stop our film's release. Obviously, the honourable judge saw through it and asked us to proceed, though we are supposed to present ourselves again in court on December 24. But it's a rather sad misuse of the judiciary by people who have nothing better to do than harass others. Where do they get the time to indulge in such transparently-fraudulent efforts? I mean, who had ever heard of Kahani Ghajini Ki until now? At least, I hadn't."

Iqbal, the producer of Kahani Ghajini Ki, claims that KBC Pictures made a film by the said name, which has the same story as Ghajini, and that it cost them Rs 10 crores. Says Madhu, "It seems to me that this is nothing but an effort to make money by putting out a false case." Fortunately, Ghajini's release is unlikely to get affected. "We're holding special previews on 24 December before the release, but no premiere. The only time Aamir Khan had a premiere was for Imran's Jaane Tu...Ya Jaane Na. He's a better producer than I am."

Aamir Khan doesn't approve of premieres. Madhu adds, "Even the mood at the moment is not conducive for celebrations. A premiere is too much of a hassle at the moment with so much happening around." All efforts to locate Iqbal of KBC Films failed.
Source: http://entertainment.oneindia.in/bollywood

Aamir Khan markets Ghajini, people get bald look

Ghajini is next week's big release and Aamir Khan is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the film releases with a bang. Among the innovative marketing drives for Ghajini was this attempt to get people to copy his now famous bald look from the film.

Over a 100 employees of a leading multiplex chain got themselves Aamir's bald look from Ghajini and Monday morning saw Aamir himself posing with his look alikes.

“I think that the staff and the chain are being a part and viewing this film as an event, I'm very happy,” says Aamir Khan.

And it is believed that the staff members were not forced to go under the barber's scissors.

“My girl friend was opposing this but I said I will do it,” says a staff member from the Big Cinemas.

But if you don’t get to meet Aamir, you can catch a full sized Aamir Khan statue with his 8pack intact at any mutliplex near you.

“The intention of the statue is just like that of a trailer for the movie,” adds Aamir Khan.

Hopefully the film delivers much more than the trailers promise.
Source: http://ibnlive.in.com/

Rab Ne Di Jodi sees heavy booking

Success is synonymous with Shahrukh Khan. He had two releases last year and both were big hits. Chak De India was a hit and Om Shanti Om also did very well at the box office. This year, he has only one release in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi but the situation is quite different this time around.

Many promising Bollywood films including Yuvvraaj and Dil Kabbadi have succumbed to the recent terror attacks in Mumbai. Many choose to avoid public places like theatres and malls after the barbaric incident. Moreover, the economic recession has hit the country hard. This has cast doubt in the minds of the people if Shahrukh's Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi would survive the test. It is in fact his biggest challenge ever.

This may not be the favorite time for film releases but the makers of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi are sure of their product. In the film, Shahrukh Khan plays a common man, who transforms himself in order to fulfill his lover's ambition. He makes his girl fall in love with him over and over again. Newcomer Anushka Sharma plays Shahrukh's love interest in the film.
Source: http://entertainment.oneindia.in/bollywood

Bollywood set to take on Hollywood

Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester in London's tony Park Lane is the kind of pricey restaurant dealmakers go to when they want to shake hands on a really big one.

That's where Fox Filmed Entertainment Co-Chairman Jim Gianopulos, Fox STAR Studios India CEO Vijay Singh, and producer-director Vipul Shah met earlier this month before announcing to the media Fox Star Studio's first of a series of co-production and acquisition partnerships in Bollywood.

At about $25 million for two films over the next 18 months, it's small change for a Hollywood studio whose parent company made $28.7 billion in revenue last year.

But a small step for Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is a giant leap in the ongoing love affair between an embattled Hollywood where revenues are plateauing and a cash-rich Bollywood with a growing domestic market.

Part of the increased interest from Hollywood is because despite efforts to dub their films in Hindi, running a blitzkrieg marketing them, and even going big with the release (for instance Sony is releasing over 600 prints of the new Bond film, Quantum of Solace), foreign movie revenues have not grown.

As Siddharth Roy Kapur, CEO of UTV Motion Pictures, puts it, "They've realised they need to be a long-term player here and build relationships." So though Murdoch may have been the prime mover in the West's chalo India strategy, having bought Star TV in 1993 from Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing, he is not the only media mogul to look east.

Akshay Kumar (left) and Deepika Padukone in Chandni Chowk To China

American majors are not new to Indian television but Hollywood is just waking up to Bollywood's potential, having put down $100 million in it cumulatively so far.

Walt Disney, after several false starts, including one bitter fallout with Indian Premier League's current hero, Lalit Modi, back in the days when he was chairman of Modi Entertainment Network, is a strategic investor in UTV with a 32 per cent stake bought for $200 million.

Apart from that, it has a three-animation movie deal with Yash Raj Films, the first of which, Roadside Romeo, releases this month. Viacom, apart from its interests in television, has a joint venture with TV18 in the Indian Film Company (IFC), which last year raised $112 million at London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market.

IFC is also in negotiations with CIT, a middle market lender that has done substantial deals in Hollywood, for a $150-million line of credit. That's not all. Warner Bros is waiting for the release of its first coproduction in India with Ramesh Sippy Entertainment and Orion Pictures, the extravagant Chandni Chowk to China, even as Sony Pictures Entertainment is recovering from the tanking of its first Hindi film, the $8-million Saawariya, and has announced a co-investment deal with Eros International.

Walt Disney has signed a three-animation movie deal with Yash Raj Films

And, oh yes, big shots from talent agencies such as the powerful CAA and the pedigreed William Morris have made several rounds of movie producer offices in Bandra and Andheri.

Add to that interest from a whole range of banks and hedge funds which are in the market for co-production deals, though less so after the global meltdown, and clearly everyone seems to want a piece of the India action.

Not because of Hollywood movie revenues in India certainly, which even in the best of times are not more than 3 per cent to 5 per cent of the total annual box-office revenue, compared to 88 per cent in a nation like Britain, but also because of the domestic market, which sells 3.7 billion tickets, compared to just 1.4 billion in the US.

The revenues currently from India may seem puny, but the studios and film funds are betting on an India of the future where ticket prices will be more than the current average of 20 cents (the US average is $6), where there will be more than 12,000 screens, and where there is huge potential of growth of the home video market (which currently contributes 8 per cent to the market, compared to over 40 per cent of the total revenue in the US).

As Sanford Panitch, president of the newly established Fox International Productions, puts it, "Hollywood studios will become the force for transparency in India." They will also, he believes, be able to raise the bar on scriptwriting and visual effects. Or as an agent at William Morris puts it, "Bollywood will make more westernised movies but in the Indian genre, culture and language."

Chris Rock (centre) in I Think I Love My Wife

Is it any wonder then that News Corp chairman Murdoch, Walt Disney chairman Bob Iger and Time Warner Chairman and CEO Richard Parsons have officially declared India to be the winner in the India vs China debate for Hollywood?

In 2005, Parsons, while speaking at a lunch with the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, called China "a very tough market for a media and entertainment company. It's hard to make long-term investments if you don't exactly know what the playing field is going to look like."

Globalisation is the order of the day in Hollywood. Disney, whose businesses range from movies to theme parks and resorts, made almost a quarter of its $35.5 billion revenues outside North America last year.

And only last month, Iger said, "the best way for Disney to grow in markets such as India, China and Russia is for those markets to have a sense of ownership". As for Murdoch, he has repeatedly pointed out the advantages of India's rule of law, despite it being an "imperfect democracy".

Source: http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in

'Knighthood' for Shah Rukh Khan

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan on Saturday became the first foreign actor to be conferred the title of Datuk, akin to a British knighthood, at a special ceremony in Malaysia.

Shah Rukh responded by announcing that he would shoot an entire film, tentatively titled 'Happy New Year', in Malaysia next year.

"There is a film I am planning some time in August and September and will send a team down to look around," The Star Online quoted him as saying.

He would also help develop the Malaysian movie industry that has had directors like Phani Mazumdar and Ritwik Ghatak making films.

On how he felt about his Datukship, the actor said that it was an honour not only for him but also for all actors from India.

"I am very happy that I have found a big space in the hearts of people here," he added.

Resplendent in a black baju Melayu, samping and songkok, the traditional Malaysian attire, he received the state award from Melaka Yang Dipertua Negeri Tun Mohd Khalil Yaakob, the royal constitutional head of the state.

The 43-year-old actor held the estimated 1,000 guests at the investiture spellbound as he received the Darjah Mulia Seri Melaka (DMSM), conferred on him in conjunction with the 70th birthday of the royal chief on October 11.

Shah Rukh was tied down by a busy work schedule and could not fly in from Mumbai to receive the award in October or on the later date, Nov 29.
Source: http://entertainment.in.msn.com/bollywood

Slumdog wins three awards at BIFAS

London (PTI): Slumdog Millionaire, an English movie based on the award-winning novel of Indian Diplomat Vikas Swarup, won three awards at the British Independent Film Awards (BIFAS) ceremony here.

The story of the Danny Boyle's film featuring Anil Kapoor revolves around a Mumbai teenage boy who astounds all by doing well on 'Kaun Banega Karorpati', Indian version of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire quiz show.

The film won the award in the category of best film, best director and best newcomer (for its British lead actor).

The former artistic director of the Royal Court theatre, Boyle, was talk of the night and is already on many pundits' Oscar prediction lists.

Earlier, he has directed films like Trainspotting showing Edinburgh heroin addicts and The Beach in which Leonardo DiCaprio played the main role.

The young lead actor of Slumdog Millionaire, Harrow-born Dev Patel, best known to British audiences as Anwar in E4's Skins, won the best newcomer award.

The film tells the story of a Mumbai street child. As he does well on the quiz show, flashbacks chronicle his life, the realities of which Danny Boyle does not flinch from showing.

Boyle's film, a third of which is spoken in Hindi opens in the UK on January 9 but has already down well on the festival circuit and opened to fantastic reviews in the US.
Source: http://www.hindu.com/

Music release of 'Chandni Chowk...' on Dec 9

In the aftermath of the recent terrorist attacks, a lot of filmmakers have shifted/postponed their film releases keeping in mind the grim situation in the city and across the nation. Last week's two new releases ‘Sorry Bhai’ and ‘Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!’ despite fetching decent reviews, failed to attract the footfalls at the cineplexes, as people just didn't seem to be in a mood to go and catch a film.

The first Friday of December (Dec 5) was initially supposed to see as many as seven new releases but two of them- ‘Khallballi- Fun Unlimited’ and ‘Kaashh...Mere Hote’ have now been shifted ahead for obvious reasons.

Producer-director Rohan Sippy's English language film, ‘The President Is Coming’, was supposed to hit the cinema halls last Friday (Nov 28) but owing to the grim situation in the city, he decided to postpone the release. Bollywood Hungama got in touch with Rohan's spokesperson to get the latest update on the release status of ‘The President Is Coming’, "The President Is Coming will now release in January of 2009. Rohan obviously thought this was not the right time for his film to release. Moreover, the promos have been getting a very encouraging feedback and hence he feels a later date will only benefit the film."

Not just his film release, Rohan has even shifted the music release of his forthcoming Akshay Kumar- Deepika Padukone starrer ‘Chandni Chowk To China’. The music launch was scheduled to take place today evening (Dec 2) but has now been pushed to Dec 9 owing to the situation in the city.
Source: http://www.screenindia.com/news

Salman-Katrina's super chemistry in YUVVRAAJ

Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif are back to sizzle the screen. Subhash Ghai's YUVVRAAJ have Salman and Katrina in a rare role that never happened on screen before.

"The Salman Katrina magic is all set to cast its spell on the audience," said a source close to the couple. David Dhawan was the first to pair Salman and Katrina together. MAINE PYAR KYUN KIYA rocked the boxand#150;office. Sallu and Kat's 'Just Chill' number turned a rage.

PARTNER created history even though Salman and Kats were not paired together in the film.

Subhash Ghai, whose YUVVRAAJ is expected to hit the theatres soon, felt that Salman and Katrina as a pair rock. "They are lucky for each other," the source said. "For Ghai it is the first time they are paired opposite each other and the chemistry between the two is super sizzling. They look so good together."
Source: http://in.movies.yahoo.com/

Karan Johar’s ‘Dostana’ lands into fresh trouble in Pakistan!

Spicezee Bureau

Mumbai, Nov 17: Looks like, Karan Johar’s ‘Dostana’ is running into fresh trouble in Pakistan. The movie that is fashioning tremendously well at the Box Office has apparently met rejection in Pakistan for its highly objectionable gay content.

The much entertaining multi-starrer flick has won praises primarily for it’s storyline and the entertainment box’ up for an assured fun filled experience.

The Lahore High Court has issued notices to the Chairman of the Film Censor Board of Pakistan to justify the screening of the Bollywood movie ‘Dostana’ in Pakistan due to the Gay content in the movie.

‘Homosexuality’ is till-date illegal in Pakistan and a seriously punishable offence. Well, that’s a good enough reason for rejection!
Source: http://www.zeenews.com/Entertainment/Movies-Theatre

I've worked very hard to acquire my well toned figure: Priyanka Chopra

Priyanka Chopra admits that she hasn't rested for more than a year now. 2008 especially has been crazy with five releases already to her name and sixth round the corner in the form of Dostana. However, she doesn't mind all the excitement coming her way as she hardly has got time to mourn over the failure of her movies or revel in the success of Fashion. Joginder Tuteja catches up with Priyanka Chopra hours before her Dostana gets ready to hit the screens. Love Story 2050, God Tussi Great Ho, Chamku, Drona, Fashion and now Dostana - Whew! (Laughs) Ya, these are indeed exciting times. I could use so many adjectives to describe what I feel but well, in the end it's all so scary. There are so many expectations that one attaches to a project. It is like sitting in Board examinations month after month. Dostana still sounds like a safe film after all. Promos give an impression that it is an out and out fun film. There are a little bit of emotions attached to the film as well. At the end of the day it is mainstream cinema and it has to be interesting. Dostana is not a random candy floss entertainer.