http://www.gg2.net Entertainment | GG2.Net 2013-05-22 http://www.gg2.net en http://www.gg2.net/images/logo.png http://www.gg2.net
INDIA’S prominence at the ongoing 66th Cannes Film Festival could be gauged not just by the star turn outs but also from the rave reviews its films got from major trade publications. Dabba, Bombay Talkies, Monsoon Shootout and Ugly are some of the films that tried to make the global audience realise that contemporary Indian films have much more to offer than song-and-dance-sequences. Director Amit Kumar’s Monsoon Shootout had a midnight screening a]]>
INDIAN movie actors and a new wave of directors are on a mission at the Cannes film festival - to show that their industry, which turns 100 this year, is more than just Bollywood.   The largest Indian contingent to date is on the French Riviera at the world’s leading cinema showcase to promote the world’s biggest film industry that makes over 1,000 films a year, compared with about 600 in Hollywood.   Movies from Bollywood’s Mumbai studios and other]]>
A DECADES-OLD rivalry between a Bollywood wannabe and a brutal police chief shines a light on Mumbai’s dark side, in Indian director Anurag Kashyap’s fast-moving psychological thriller ‘Ugly’ about the kidnapping of a young girl.   Enthusiastically received at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday (May 17), the aptly titled film was inspired by real events in a city blighted by child trafficking and prostitution.   A suicidal woman sets the scene]]>
WHETHER it’s the mega-star cast, the sexy item numbers, the fact that it is based on a real-life incident or the intensity of John Abraham, the movie everyone is talking about is Shootout At Wadala. The second instalment in a successful franchise, the multi-layered movie features plenty of action, romance, drama and details from a key moment in Mumbai’s gangland history. Lead star John Abraham plays dreaded gangster Manya Surve in the recently released movie which has alre]]>
  INDIA is the ‘guest country’ at this year’s Cannes Film Festival which runs from May 15-26, as the country marks 100 years of feature film production. Interestingly, it was the French, who introduced moving picture to India, when the frères Lumiere made an appearance at the Watsons Hotel, Bombay on July 7, 1896 and displayed their ‘marvel of the century’ to the local elite. The Indians took to this invention like a duck to water, and hav]]>
  CANNES was setting up for Wednesday’s (May 15) big opening film, The Great Gatsby, with Amitabh Bachchan due to put in an appearance both at a press conference and later at the red carpet gala screening. In the Cannes market, the posters were projecting the Indian films that will be shown in the next few days, from Satyajit Ray’s Charulata to Amit Kumar’s Monsoon Shootout, Ritesh Batra’s The Lunch Box, Anurag Kashyap’s Ugly and Bombay Talkies. ]]>
AS THE Cannes film festival prepares to join in the celebrations for Indian cinema’s 100th birthday, one of the biggest names in modern-day Bollywood says the industry is enjoying a new golden age.   Vidya Balan, the star of Bollywood hits such The Dirty Picture,  will be among the jurors deciding this year’s feature film award in Cannes as the traditional movie industry doffs its hat to its younger Indian cousins.   The 35-year-old Balan is herself ]]>
INDIAN director Dibakar Banerjee has marked 100 years of Indian cinema with a short film inspired by a story written by Oscar-winning filmmaker Satyajit Ray.   Banerjee has adapted the story “Patol Babu, Film Star”, about a middle-aged man getting his moment of fame playing a bit role in a movie, as part of a Bollywood project by four Indian directors to show what the movies have meant to them.   “Bombay Talkies” opens in cinemas on Friday (Ma]]>
THREE decades after Midnight’s Children catapulted Salman Rushdie to literary glory, a film of the novel feels like “closing the circle” after his dark years in hiding, he says.   But while fatwa-free life is now “pretty good”, he admitted there are occasional “slippages” - including during a trip last year to India, the land of his birth, while promoting the movie.   The movie tells the story of two boys born on the stroke o]]>
ACTOR Emraan Hashmi says he is happy to get his due in Bollywood after having created ‘a new genre of mainstream films’ in the industry.     “As an actor, I was not accepted for the longest time. But it did not deter me as the audience had accepted me.   “I never compared myself with any other actor. I never had a game plan and took whatever came my way,” Emraan, who has carved a niche for himself in his ten-year Bollywood caree]]>
ACTOR and filmmaker Aamir Khan said he was keen on making a film to mark the centenary of Indian cinema.    “I was looking forward to making a film on 100 years of cinema...I wanted to do something, but couldn’t do it. “I am happy that Indian cinema has completed 100 years and happy to be a part of this industry. “My completion of 25 years in the industry coincides with 100 years of cinema. This makes me feel all th]]>
  AS INDIAN cinema turns 100 years old, one powerful Bollywood dynasty can trace the roots of their stardom almost right back to the birth of the national film industry. “We have been there throughout. All the milestones of cinema, there has been some Kapoor or the other,” says 60-year-old Rishi Kapoor, who has notched up nearly 150 Hindi film credits over a four-decade acting career. It started with grandfather Prithviraj, a silver screen pioneer from the 1920s. ]]>
  TENT cinema has returned to India’s capital thanks to the ongoing Indian cinema centenary festival. The audience is enjoying the escapades of the legendary Hunterwali in a 1940s talkie and rare silent films such as Diler Jiger or Gallant Hearts (1931). Amidst old tent paraphernalia - wooden benches and floor mats - the audience aged from five to 75 are having a great time ‘living’ the olden days of the beginning of cinema in India. Famous as Indian silver ]]>
  A SIX-DAY-LONG film festival, marking the 100 years of Indian cinema, commenced on Thursday (April 25) with  the screening of silent movie Throw The Dice accompanied by Ustad Nishat Khan’s live musical orchestra.   The festival and an exhibition on legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray were inaugurated by Union Information &  Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari. “The challenge was - how do you commemorate 100 years of]]>
  BOMBAY TALKIES, the anthology tribute to 100 years of Indian cinema by four top filmmakers, will be screened at the 66th Cannes Film Festival this year.   The film, directed by Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar and Karan Johar, weaves together four stories and stars actors Rani Mukerji, Randeep Hooda, Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan have put in special appearances in the film.. ]]>
  INDIAN singing legend Shamshad Begum, who was the voice behind some of the most famous songs in Bollywood musicals, has died in hospital in Mumbai, her family said on Wednesday (April 24). She was 94. Begum made her singing debut in 1947 when she began working on national radio and later became one of the most in-demand playback singers who supply the pre-recorded vocals that are then mimed by Bollywood’s leading ladies. One of her most famous performances came in the]]>
INDO-CANADIAN porn star Sunny Leone has happily reinvented herself as a Bollywood actress. While her past pursuits have been no barrier, being linked to India’s rape crisis represents a new challenge.   The 31-year-old became one of the most searched names on the Internet in India when she arrived in 2011 to appear in a reality TV series and has since taken several raunchy roles in mainstream movies.   As India casts around for reasons to explain a series of ho]]>
THE best of Britain’s Asian enterprise was celebrated at the Asian Business Awards (ABAs) in London last month - but if you missed being at the glittering gala, here’s your chance to catch up.         Zee TV will broadcast highlights from the annual event, held in central London on March 22, on Saturday (April 27) at 5.30 pm on its Out and About programme, followed by a repeat the next day (April 28) at 10.30 am.     &n]]>
  IN A bylane next to Mumbai’s biggest mall, in a suburb teeming with people even at midnight, is a building that at first glance looks like an abandoned warehouse. The decrepit exterior hides the set of what may be one of India’s most ambitious TV shows yet - the domestic version of the US television hit action series 24, which its makers hope will revolutionize Indian TV. The Indian 24 is a novel concept in an industry where daily soaps reign. It will be the fir]]>
Impatient: Lara Dutta   MODEL-ACTRESS Lara Dutta is keen to return on the sets of the No Entry sequel.       No Entry Mein Entry, a sequel to the hit 2005 comedy, will be directed by Anees Bazmee and produced by Boney Kapoor. It is expected to go on the floors by the end of this year.       “I have been waiting to go to the sets of No Entry for the last four years,” said Dutta, who was in New Delhi to walk ]]>
HAVING tied the knot several times onscreen, actress Neha Dhupia wants to have a simple wedding in real life.       “I am not quite sure if I want to have a grand wedding. In the film industry we are getting married every two months, be it in the media, in films or on the ramp.       “I feel that the day when I actually get married, I will be too bored and end up in a very simple and plain outfit,” Dhupia said. ]]>
ONE thing that most A-list heroes in India have always had in common is their desire to remain in their Bollywood comfort zone.   Stepping away from the security of safe projects, familiar faces and a ready-made fan base has enabled Anil Kapoor to break new ground for Hindi film stars and connect with a whole new audience.   Starring in Slumdog Millionaire, Mission Impossible 4 and hit TV series 24 alongside appearances at high-profile international events has enable]]>
INDIA’S most elaborate theme park opens this week with special-effect Hindu gods and Bollywood-themed rides, aiming to tap a thirst for family entertainment among the country’s rising middle-class.   Adlabs Imagica, which cost about $294m (£163.13m) to create, opens its doors to the public on Thursday (April 18) between Mumbai and Pune, with capacity for 10,000 to 15,000 visitors a day.   In the style of a Disney or Universal Studios park, the new t]]>
AN INDIAN film loosely based on last year’s Costa Concordia shipwreck is to start shooting this year in the same region of Italy where the disaster happened, the Toscana Film Commission said on Friday (April 12).   Shooting of the Tamil-language film was due to start next month but will have to be delayed because local sensitivities on the island of Giglio where the wreck still lies mean it will have to be filmed on a different island.   The luxury liner crashe]]>
ONE OF Bollywood’s most famous villains, Pran, will receive the highest award in Indian cinema to honour the actor whose career has spanned about 350 films over nearly 60 years, the government said on Friday (April 12).   Actor Pran Krishan Sikand, 93, who is known just by his first name, will be awarded the 2012 Dadasaheb Phalke award that was set up in the name of the man who made India’s first feature film a century ago to reward a lifetime of contribution to film.]]>
BOLLYWOOD is branching out from its traditional song-and-dance dramas and slapstick comedies with its first zombie films which filmmakers hope will entice younger crowds back to Indian films from Hollywood’s living dead.    Few horror films are made in Bollywood and those that do make it to the big screen tend to focus on ghosts and the after-life, which are common themes in Hindu mythology.   But this year, as Indian cinema celebrates 100 years, three zom]]>
ACTOR Manoj Bajpai is a busy man these days. After the success of Gangs of Wasseypur and Special 26, the versatile actor has two major films lined up this year.     The 43-year-old’s Shootout At Wadala is ready for release while shooting for Prakash Jha’s Satyagraha is currently in progress.     “When I got recognition for Satya, I used to do one film a year. There were not many new ideas and new directors.     ]]>
HE IS on the wish-list of some of the top directors in Bollywood, thanks to his performance in Rockstar and Barfi, but Ranbir Kapoor says he is not satisfied with his work in the industry so far.   “Now, there is a constant search inside me to find my characters, find the right emotions and do my job honestly and truly.   “I am not even two per cent happy with what I have done so far. This thought of “miles to go before I sleep” stays with me,]]>
BOLLYWOOD actor Sanjay Dutt, ordered by the Indian Supreme Court to complete his five years sentence for complicity in the 1993 Mumbai blasts, is mulling filing a review petition against the judgement, sources close to him said.   The Supreme Court had on March 21 upheld Dutt’s conviction under Arms Act and sentenced him to five years in jail of which he has already served 18 months. In keeping with the order to surrender within four weeks, Dutt has to give himself up befor]]>
AWARD-WINNING novelist and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, author of Heat and Dust and many other books set in India, died on Wednesday (April 4) at the age of 85, her Los Angeles agent said.   Jhabvala died at her home in New York City, a spokesman for Hollywood agency Paradigm told reporters. The spokesman did not give the cause of her death but said she had been sick for some time.   Jhabvala also worked on several movie adaptations with filmmakers James Ivory ]]>
  ACTRESS Mahi Gill, who is stepping into Bindu’s iconic ‘Mona Darling’ act in Apoorva Lakhia’s remake of Zanjeer, says the glamorous role pushed her out of her comfort zone. Gill, 37, made her debut in Bollywood with Sudhir Mishra’s Khoya Khoya Chand, but became famous with her role of Paro in Dev D. The actress says she had never given importance to her looks until now. “This role is quite difficult for me ]]>
INDIAN actress Freida Pinto, of Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire fame, said on Friday (March 15) she would have become a wedding planner if she had not succeeded in show business.   Pinto, a former model, said “my only passion was acting” but she had told her sister that if she hadn’t become successful by the age of 25, she would switch profession.   “But fortunately when I was 23, Slumdog Millionaire happened and so I didn’t become a w]]>
    WITH HER last few films tanking at the box office, Sonam Kapoor says she has learnt her lesson  and will select only those projects that satisfy her as a performer. The 27-year-old actress says she is not in a hurry to be at the top. Sonam's recent films Thank You, Mausam and Players did not fare well, but the actress believes they helped her understand the kind of roles she wants to do. “Two years ago, I did a couple of ]]>
ACTOR Ajay Devgn, who has made a mark in commercial as well as critically acclaimed movies, counts his survival in Bollywood, where competition has intensified over the years, for over two decades as his biggest achievement. "I think six to seven actors including me have survived here since 20 years and this is a big achievement. It speaks about our place and position in the industry and in the hearts of the audience," Devgn said. &nb]]>
  A NEW feature film that recently debuted in US theatres explores the link between improving education for girls in poor countries around the globe and the battle against poverty. Girl Rising blends documentary and narrative filmmaking to focus on the impact of education on the lives of nine girls from India, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Peru, Sierra Leone, Nepal and Haiti. “In the film you have real girls essentially playing themselves in some fictionalized]]>
US DIRECTOR Steven Spielberg is planning to produce a film set partly on the de facto border between India and Pakistan in the disputed Kashmir region, a report said on Tuesday (March 12).   Spielberg, who is currently in India’s entertainment capital Mumbai, told The Times of India that the film would be produced by his DreamWorks Studios and its Indian partner Reliance Entertainment, which is headed by tycoon Anil Ambani.   “We have finalised a script f]]>
US DIRECTOR Steven Spielberg was in Mumbai on Monday (March 11) to meet Bollywood filmmakers and stars of the country’s film industry.   Spielberg and various Indian directors were seen by a photographer arriving at the Taj Lands End Hotel in Mumbai’s fashionable Bandra suburb on Monday evening.   Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan wrote on Twitter on Sunday (March 10) that he would be moderating a talk with the Hollywood veteran at an event for showbus]]>
AUSTRALIAN director Baz Luhrmann’s ‘The Great Gatsby’ will open the 2013 Cannes film festival, the world’s most important cinema showcase, organisers said on Tuesday (March 12).   The adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald’s account of ‘Roaring Twenties’ America combines serious literary heritage and A-list star power, with Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role.   DiCaprio will make an appearance at the festival on the famous Croisett]]>
OPENING with her current popular number ‘Happy Pills’ and signing off with the global hit ‘Come away with me’, Norah Jones fulfilled the Delhi audience’s  every wish belting out a mix of old and new songs at her  maiden performance in the city.   “I’m very excited to be here. This is only my second performance in India. Thanks for having us,” she said to the audience at the Siri Fort auditorium on Tuesday (March 5) night. ]]>
A DRAMATISED Bollywood account of the Mumbai attacks of 2008, when 166 people died in a three-day rampage, opened in Indian cinemas on Friday (March 1) to present an unusually emotive tale told from the perspective of a police officer. The Attacks of 26/11 chronicles the events that began on November 26 2008, when 10 gunmen went on a killing spree throughout the coastal city, attacking two luxury hotels, a train station and a Jewish centre, among other places. It is the latest in a re]]>
US first lady Michelle Obama made a surprise and unprecedented appearance on Sunday (February 24)’s Oscars telecast when she presented the award for Best Picture, the first time a president or first lady has ever presented an Academy Award.   Appearing live on screen from the White House in Washington, almost 4,800 km from the Oscars ceremony in Hollywood, Obama praised the work of the movie industry before announcing the Iran hostage drama Argo the Best Picture winner. ]]>
  ACTOR Boman Irani, who plays an unscrupulous lawyer in upcoming courtroom drama Jolly LLB, says the film shows the bizarre reality of the country’s judiciary. “What you see is so bizarre and inherently satirical, that it is funny. It’s a very real film, but the reality makes you laugh. The film is a serious subject, but when you see how a courtroom is conducted, you wonder how any justice can emanate from that. You’ll b]]>
  BOLLYWOOD star Amitabh Bachchan has given Anurag Kashyap a go-ahead to shoot in his home ‘Pratiksha’ for the director’s segment in the film Bombay Talkies. A collection of four stories, the film has four different directors -- Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar, Dibarkar Bannerji and Karan Johar. The 70-year-old actor agreed to open the doors to his house for the first time for a film, after Kashyap approached him. Kashyap’s story revo]]>
BOLLYWOOD star and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has called for “immediate” action to protect women in India following the fatal gang-rape of a student that horrified the country.   The vicious attack by a group of drunken men on a 23-year-old medical student in New Delhi two months ago in which she was raped and assaulted with an iron bar sparked outrage in India.   The appeal by the star of dozens of movies comes as Indian lawmakers are due t]]>
A LEADING Indian poet who won an Oscar for writing song lyrics for the smash hit movie Slumdog Millionaire has pulled out of Pakistan’s top literary festival at the last minute, organisers said on Wednesday (February 13).   The move follows weeks of tension between the nuclear-armed neighbours sparked by the killings of five soldiers along the de facto border in the disputed region of Kashmir.   Syed Ahmed Shah, one of the organisers of the Karachi Literature F]]>
KAI PO CHE, an Indian film about cricket, love and politics set against a tumultuous backdrop of brutal sectarian violence and an earthquake, bowled over the crowd at the Berlin film festival on Thursday (February 14).   In a year in which the main Berlinale competition has failed to inspire much passion, Kai Po Che (Brothers For Life) sparked cheers and tears from a packed cinema as it screened ahead of its global general release next week.   Based on the best-selli]]>
INDIAN sitar player Ravi Shankar’s daughter Anoushka accepted a Grammy on behalf of her late father on Sunday (February 10) - in a category in which she had also been nominated.   “It’s OK to lose to your father,” the 31-year-old, who is also a sitar player and composer, said as she received the best world music album Grammy for her father.   RaviShankar - who was also to be given a posthumous lifetime achievement Grammy at the show - won for ]]>
OVERCOMING a fortnight-long suspense and drama, actor Kamal Haasan’s Tamil movie Vishwaroopam finallyv hit the screens across Tamil Nadu to packed houses,  amid celebrations by delirious fans.   It was a jamboree of sorts as elated fans danced to drum beat and burst crackers as they thronged the cinema-houses since early Thursday ((February 7) morning, some pouring milk over the cutouts of the 58-year-old actor.   “We are very happy with the response]]>
A COURT in Mumbai has ruled that Bollywood star Salman Khan will be tried for culpable homicide over a 2002 hit-and-run case which could land him behind bars for 10 years, his lawyer said on Friday (February 1).     Khan is alleged to have rammed his Toyota Land Cruiser vehicle onto a pavement and over five sleeping homeless people in suburban Mumbai, killing one and injuring four others.     Dipesh Mehta, who represents Khan, said a sessions court ]]>
MODEL Naomi Campbell won damages from a British newspaper on Thursday (January 30) over a report claiming she was planning to organise an elephant polo tournament for her partner’s birthday in India, her lawyer said.   The Daily Telegraph formally apologised in court for the story published in November and agreed to pay a “substantial sum” in damages and legal costs, the model’s lawyers, Michael Simkins Solicitors, said in a statement.   They ]]>