Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Regional films on the radar of Bollywood biggies

New Delhi reported in Gulf News Dubai: Realizing the huge potential of india's regional cinema, business-savvy Bollywood actors are extending their vistas and producing films in various local languages to great critical and commercial acclaim. Bollywood’s cream are shifting focus towards this direction. If Amitabh Bachchan’s AB Corp. produced Gujarati hit movie ‘Saptapadii’, Riteish Deshmukh debuted as producer with Marathi movie ‘Balak Palak’. Akshay Kumar and John Abraham are there too, looking at making films in Punjabi, Bengali and Malayalam.

AB Corp. also produced the well-made and appreciated Marathi movie ‘Vihir’ and the Hindi film ‘Paa’, which was unusual in its theme, yet successful. While ‘Saptapadii’ focuses on a couple whose life changes after a child who lost his parents in a terror attack enters their lives, ‘Vihir’ is the story of two cousins and their not-so-conventional views on life and family bonding. Big B, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, takes pride in saying that ‘Saptapadii’ is not only “running successfully” in Gujarat and Mumbai in its second week but also received the ‘Special Mention for the Green Rose at the Jaipur Film Festival’. Turning point “Everyone who has seen the film has enjoyed it much. Being talked of as the ‘turning point’ in Gujarati cinema,” the actor wrote in a post on Facebook. He urged movie buffs to appreciate regional cinema, saying: “Go and see it...!!

It will give a huge boost to the Gujarati film industry going from the cities to the deserts.” ‘Vihir’, directed by Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni and starring Mohan Agashe and Sulabha Deshpande, received a warm reception and ran to a full house at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2011. In 2010, it was also screened at the Rotterdam International Film Festival. “AB Corp. has been actively involved in producing and promoting regional cinema. Our film ‘Vihir’ in Marathi won several awards of recognition across the globe at various festivals,” Bachchan said. Another popular Bollywood actor, Deshmukh, is also supporting Marathi movies. When he decided to turn producer, his first offering was ‘Balak Palak’, a Marathi film said to be made at a shoestring budget of Rs15 million (Dh1.02 million).

It hit bull’s eye by grossing Rs80 million after its release in January this year. Directed by Ravi Jadhav, the film focuses on sex education and guides parents on how to communicate this to their children. Deshmukh’s wife and actress Genelia D’Souza is hoping the film opens the doors for Marathi cinema. “I sometimes wish that we could get all of them to a national audience.

I wish Marathi cinema grows and that’s one of the reasons why Riteish is doing a Marathi film next year and we hope to see a lot more Marathi films next year,” she said. New forays Akshay Kumar is promoting regional cinema too. He joined hands with Ashvini Yardi to launch a new production house, Grazing Goat, which not only focuses on content-oriented films but also aims to expand its reach in regional cinema.

Making Marathi, Punjabi and Bengali films is high on the company’s agenda. “Regional cinema is really growing. We have already made a Marathi film and it’s in the post-production stage,” Yardi said. “And we are looking at the Punjabi market as well because Akshay is essentially from Punjab. Since I am from a Maharashtrian background, I think I know that market well.

We are also looking to try Bengali films,” she added. John Abraham, whose unconventional debut production venture ‘Vicky Donor’ turned out to be a gold spinner, is in the field too. “I am producing a Marathi film. Definitely, I would love to produce a Malayalam film,” said Abraham, whose production house is called John Abraham Entertainment Limited.

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Actress Shakeela back, but to direct clean movies


Kochi: Shakeela, the famed star of B-grade super hit Malayalam movies, is back but says that she is here to direct and not to act in movies. She also clarified that her directorial venture would be a clean movie. In 1990s and early 2000, she was hugely popular among movie buffs for her sensuous roles in many blockbusters.

 Talking about her directorial venture ‘Neelakurinji’, Shakeela clarified: "Please don`t expect the film that I am going to direct same as the films that I acted in. This is about pain of a woman and it is not a glamorous film either." She was here to participate in the `muhurat` of her directorial debut ‘Neelakurinji’. The title is inspired by the flower neelakurinji that blooms once in 12 years. "My film would be one which could be seen by all," Shakeela, 40, told reporters. She acted in more than 50 films in all southern languages and filled the gap left by Silk Smitha for a few years. ‘Kinnarathumbikal’ was one of her all-time hits. She hopes to rope in her favourite actor Dileep to do a guest appearance in her directorial debut.

Trailer of Naseeruddin Shahs film Sona Spa


Naseeruddin Shah has introduced a futuristic unique concept film based on RELAXATION AND SLEEP. It is directed by Makrand Deshpande. ‘Sona Spa’, as the film has been titled, is a spa run by Baba Dayanand (Naseerddin Shah), where girls sleep for you, they are called sleep workers. Once the bonding between the client and the sleep worker is done, they will sleep for you and you can go ahead with your daily tasks feeling well-slept and relaxed. But the downside of this deal is that the sleeper will also have access to your dreams. And in your dreams, you commit various kinds of crimes, which mean that now your sleep worker is the eye witness. Baba Dayanand’s concept of the spa is based on the belief that it is necessary to commit crimes in your sleep or else you will commit them when awake. The film is adapted from a play and is produced under the Miraj Entertainment Ltd. Banner. Besides Naseeruddin Shah, the movie will have Aahana Kumrah, Shruti Vyas, Pooja Pradhan, Nivedita Bhattacharya, Vinit Sharma and Romi Jaispal in key roles

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Forbes Celebrity top 100 List

NumberCelebrity NameEarnings in CarorsMoney RankFame Rank
1Shah Rukh Khan202.8313
2Salman Khan144.231
3MS Dhoni135.1642
4Akshay Kumar179.85214
5Amitabh Bachchan116.358
6Sachin Tendulkar97.4667
7Kareena Kapoor73.47713
8Virender Sehwag27.73214
9Virat Kohli47.27136
10Katrina Kaif65.251016
11Ranbir Kapoor71.17819
12Aamir Khan42.51410
13Gautam Gambhir26.94225
14Priyanka Chopra39.671611
15Saif Ali Khan64.171126
16Hrithik Roshan68.67931
17Yuvraj Singh16.143512
18Rahul Dravid8.31629
19Ajay Devgn54.651238
20AR Rahman32.922024
21John Abraham34.61927
22Deepika Padukone25.652622
23Harbhajan Singh8.196615
24Rohit Sharma12.234818
25Bipasha Basu26.832325
26Zaheer Khan7.066717
27Vidya Balan12.324720
28Vijay38.461752
29Saina Nehwal13.174323
30Suresh Raina8.946121
31Mahesh Babu42.251579
32Sanjay Dutt15.73628
33Abhishek Bachchan19.43034
34Shahid Kapoor18.353339
35Emraan Hashmi26.122548
36Anushka Sharma212844
37Karan Johar105629
38Madhuri Dixit232747
39Farhan Akhtar16.63442
40Imran Khan14.853941
41Sonakshi Sinha10.75235
42Shreya Ghoshal10.55336
43Suriya35.751898
44Leander Paes4.417530
45Aishwarya Rai Bachchan13.84245
46Mary Kom3.328232
47Sonu Nigam15.563753
48Sonam Kapoor4.57333
49Pritam10.355443
50Ravi Teja15.53856
51Mahesh Bhupathi4.067837
52Arjun Rampal14.754058
53Pawan Kalyan26.332485
54Kajol18.93270
55Anurag Kashyap1.759440
56Nagarjuna11.795055
57Viswanathan Anand12.14961
58Shilpa Shetty12.64464
59Sania Mirza5.37046
60Riteish Deshmukh5.17151
61Ajith Kumar144177
62Genelia D'Souza Deshmukh9.555966
63Imtiaz Ali8.256363
64Gagan Narang2.78650
65Rohan Bopanna2.299049
66NT Rama Rao Jr193191
67Vikram20.452999
68Madhur Bhandarkar4.57457
69Rohit Shetty12.44678
70Jeev Milkha Singh12.454580
71Sunny Leone2.68854
72Sunidhi Chauhan9.815874
73Preity Zinta4.47662
74Boman Irani8.986072
75Chetan Bhagat3.298359
76Karisma Kapoor11.555181
77Kangana Ranaut8.26471
78Vijender Singh3.28460
79Sukhwinder Singh5.656967
80Malaika Arora Khan5.756869
81Mohit Chauhan4.937268
82Vir Das1.69565
83Vishal-Shekhar8.26582
84Mithun Chakraborty10.135588
85Amish Tripathi105793
86Kailash Kher2.239373
87Shaan3.088576
88Ravinder Singh0.4210075
89Ram Kapoor3.57984
90Terrence Lewis4.257790
91Remo D'Souza3.58087
92Esha Gupta0.949883
93Sakshi Tanwar3.458195
94Ronit Roy2.638789
95Kirron Kher1.559686
96Kapil Sharma2.259192
97Mona Singh2.259294
98Ashwin Sanghi0.989796
99Cyrus Broacha2.5589100
100Robin Sharma0.459997