Decks cleared for release Chori Chori Chupke Chupke
Mumbai : Decks were cleared for the release of Chori Chori Chupke
Chupke with special judge A P Bhangale appointing film distributor
Santosh Singh Jain as the court receiver to realise its sale proceeds.
The order was passed on a plea by the film's financier Bharat Shah to
release the film's negatives and allow its 11 distributors to exhibit
it. The negatives were seized after the arrest of its producer Nazim
Rizvi for his alleged nexus with the underworld. The state had
objected to the film's release until the conclusion of trial while
Rizvi had put up a counter claim on the movie saying it was his
production. The judge said that the funds realised from the release of
this movie shall be at the disposal of the state until the trial is
concluded. At the end of the trial the money shall be handed over to a
person legally entitled to receive it, Bhangale ruled and directed the
receiver to deposit it in fixed deposits with a nationalised bank.
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Waheeda Rehman retrospective begins in Bombay
Noted actress of yesteryears Waheeda Rehman portrayed her characters with
depth and sincerity and put her heart and soul into the roles she performed,
actor-turned-MP Sunil Dutt said.
She emoted roles, whether emotional or comic ones, with great conviction and
blended herself with the characters, Dutt said inaugurating the
retrospective of Waheeda Rehman's films, organised by the Bimal Roy Memorial
Trust (BRMT) and the Prabhat Chitra Mandal at the Y B Chavan auditorium in
south Bombay, Wednesday evening.
Reminiscing about his association with the doyen of cinema Bimal Roy, Sunil
Dutt said the dedication, the technique exemplified by Bimalda has made a
deep impact on my life.
Walking down memory lane, Dutt, who was accompanied by Nirupa Roy, regaled
the audience with anecdotes, during the making of Mujhe Jeene Do. Eminent
singer Mubarak Begum was also present on the occasion.
Waheeda, along with Manna Dey, Mubarak Begum, B K Karanjia and Rituparna
Ghosh would be felicitated for their extraordinary contribution to Indian
cinema by the BRMT on March 10 at the Smriti Sandhya 2001.
As part of the retrospective section, BRMT would screen four of Waheeda's
films. While, Mujhe Jeene Do, co-starring Sunil Dutt was screened
immediately after the programme, Bees Saal Baad, Kagaz Ke Phool and Reshma
Aur Shera are slated to be screened on March 8, 9 and 10 respectively at the
auditorium.
Waheeda is currently in Japan, representing India at a retrospective of Guru
Dutt films.
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Chupke crores for Chori Chori
Mumbai, March 6: Chori Chori Chupke Chupke may have landed Bharat Shah in jail, but certainly not in penury.
As the Bollywood financier cools his heels in a dark, dank prison cell awaiting trial on charges of links with the underworld, his film — or rather the film he claims to have financed — has turned out to be a sellout.
The blockbuster, starring Salman Khan, Rani Mukherjee and Preity Zinta, scheduled for release on Friday, has netted over Rs 16 crore, with all 325 prints sold out, 90 of them overseas. This is against the production cost of an estimated Rs 13 crore.
Bollywood watchers expect the film, riding on a wave of controversy, not just to live up to the high expectation of its producer Nazim Rizvi — also in jail — but to his mentor, gangster Chhota Shakeel, a Dawood Ibrahim confidant, who, police said, was the real financier.
The D Company will not benefit from the court-supervised release because the entire proceeds will go to the state treasury. But Shah will, though for a different reason.
In a curious turn of events, Shah’s company, VIP Movies, bought a few days ago the right of the film’s distribution to the financial capital and a few other areas that traditionally generate much revenue for Bollywood.
Mumbai alone gives distributors 20 per cent of the country’s entire revenue.
Santosh Singh Jain, a Bollywood distributor, appointed by the court to sell the film to distributo-rs in the country and abroad, said he sold Shah’s company the film’s distribution right for Mumbai, Gujarat and parts of Karnataka.
“Bharatbhai’s company paid me Rs 2 crore, the amount I had asked for. So, I sold it to him. What’s wrong with that? No other buyer had come up with a better offer,” Jain told The Telegraph.
Jain said he did not have “legal problems” because the court did “not bar me from selling the film to any company or individual”.
He said Shah, a diamond merchant, had the “world rights” of the film. “He would have distributed it in India and abroad had he not been arrested.” Jain said the film has generated “a lot of interest” because of the controversy. “All 325 prints are gone.” In Mumbai alone, the biggest market for Hindi movies, 50 prints were sold, followed by 48 in Delhi.
Jain, who is designated as the court receiver, said he had so far collected Rs 12 crore from the sale of the film. Before his arrest, Shah had collected another Rs 4 crore as advance to sell the film to distributors, which he handed over to the court trying him and Rizvi under the harsh Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act.
Jain said the proceeds would be deposited in the state treasury pending the outcome of the case. “But those buying the film from us for distribution have nothing to do with the case and can function independently.”
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Bombay film fest to showcase women's stories
Films by women from 23 countries will be screened at a Bombay festival of
short documentaries starting on International Women's Day on Thursday.
"All the films have true-life stories."
"All the films have true-life stories. They focus on a wide range of issues
pertaining to women themselves belonging to different countries,"
documentary filmmaker Vinta Nanda said.The festival's films are the outcome
of a seminar organised for UNESCO where women filmmakers from Europe, North
and South America were commissioned to make short documentaries.
Nanda's 15-minute film Vaastav-The Reality documents stories of women she
met during a 17-day trip through northern India last year. It will be the
festival's closing film on Saturday. Nanda, chosen from India, attempted to
expose "how religion plays a determining role in the status of women in
Indian society".
She travelled extensively in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan,
Punjab and Gujarat filming women's real-life stories. "When I started I
didn't know where I was going.
But one story led to another", she said. She met a woman ostracised for
marrying outside her caste and women praying at the Sati temple in Rajasthan
expressing belief in the banned ancient custom of "sati" in which widows
climbed on their husband's funeral pyres and burned to death.
Other stories of women's experiences documented by filmmakers from Germany,
Spain, Ireland and New Zealand will be screened at the festival.
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Delhi HC orders security at halls screening Shah film
The High Court on Thursday directed the
Delhi government and police commissioner to provide
adequate security to the Capital's cinema halls where the
controversial film 'Chori Chori, Chupke Chupke' will be
released on Friday.
Justice Manmohan Sarin gave the direction on a petition
by a distributor of the film, apprehending disturbance
during the screening of the movie, financed by Bharat
Shah and produced by Nazim Hassan Rizvi who have been
accused of having links with the underwold.
Issuing show cause notices to the Delhi government and
city police commissioner on the petition by Manpreet
Singh Chadha, proprietor of Ginni Arts, the court said
"the Delhi government and police commissioner will take
steps to ensure that law and order is maintained and no
obstruction is caused for screening the film unless there
is a legal provision for the same."
Chadha's counsel Rajiv Bansal claimed that his client had
received threats from certain religious, political and
fundamentalist organisations asking him not to exhibit
the film in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.
Bansal said Chadha had purchased the film's distribution
rights for Delhi and U.P. for Rs 1.75 crore of which Rs
50 lakh had already been paid to Rizvi's company M R
Films.
The controversial film has already fetched Rs 15 crore
from the sale of distribution and audio-video rights, a
day before its world-wide release, a report from Mumbai
said.
The negatives of the film were seized by police after the
arrest of its producer Rizvi. The film is being released
the world over in keeping the directives of the court.
Both Rizvi and Shah are lodged in judicial custody.
Altogether 89 prints have been procured by overseas
distributor for the film's release in Gulf countries and
Europe, including the USA and the UK, court receiver,
Santosh Singh Jain, told PTI.
In Mumbai, 54 prints had been distributed while in Delhi
51 prints had been handed over to the distributors, Jain,
who had been appointed by the court to release and
distribute the film all over the globe, disclosed.
Jain said Shah had collected Rs 4.5 crore when the film
was under production. After his appointment as the court
receiver on February 12, he had collected Rs 10.5 crore.
Another Rs four crore is yet to come from the satellite
television channels, he said.
Both Shah and Rizvi had staked their claim on the movie
saying they alone had the right to release the film. The
court, however, appointed Jain to release the film. After
the trial the court will decide who is the real claimant
and give him the film's collections.
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The train Big B didn't Miss!
Gasps of disbelief rend the air as Amitabh Bachchan appears on the platform of Mahalaxmi railway station, Bombay.
The scene outside the station Thursday, March 1, is, needless to say, chaotic. The hysterical crowds are not willing to yield an inch to anyone wanting to have a better glimpse of one of the most popular stars ever of Indian cinema.
He is shooting a sequence for producer Gaurang Doshi's All The Best.
The cops are having a tough time keeping the crowd's frenzy under control. As many as 75 policemen are needed to keep the fans at bay. Rarely does one hear of an assistant commissioner of police being posted to supervise security at a film shoot in the metropolis. But then, this is no ordinary shooting.
Producer Gaurang Doshi is in an exuberant mood -- he has reason to be supremely confident about the film he is making. "The presence of Amitabh Bachchan in my film is, in itself, a big satisfaction," he exclaims.
He has taken care to bolster the film's cast further by adding a galaxy of stars including Akshay Kumar, Sushmita Sen, Arjun Rampal, Aditya Pancholi and Paresh Rawal. What's more, the recently-crowned Mrs World, Aditi Govitrikar, also makes a cameo appearance in the film.
Gaurang is the son of producer Vinod Doshi, who made Sachha Jhutha (starring Rajesh Khanna), Blackmail (starring Vinod Khanna) and Nastik (the Amitabh-Hema starrer).
The story of All The Best is adapted by writer Aatish Kapadia from his own Gujarati play, Andhla Pato (the Gujarati equivalent of the children's game, Blind Man's Buff), staged in 1992.
Aatish, however, is more known as the writer of the popular Gujarati serial, Sapnana Vavetar, and its Hindi version, Ek Mahal Ho Sapnon Ka. He also wrote Indra Kumar's Mann.
"All The Best is a thriller with lots of twists and turns," says he, not wanting to reveal much about the story.
Amitabh is all praise for today's breed of young directors. Vipul Shah being one of them. Not only has he successfully directed several TV serials (Sapnana Vavetar, Ek Mahal Ho Sapnon Ka and others), he has also called the shots for a Gujarati film, Dariya Chhoru.
An interesting aside: While shooting the Gujarati film, he fell in love with its star, Shefali Chhaya, and only recently married her.
Affirms Amitabh Bachchan, "Vipul is extremely cooperative, and very strong in the execution of shots."
On his current approach to films, Amitabh Bachchan says, "In Suneel Darshan's Ek Rishtaa -- The Bond Of Love and Karan Johar's Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, I play my age, which is what I am content doing now.
"The script and the narration of each of the three films are so refreshingly different that I am enjoying working to the fullest at the moment." It is this freshness in filmmaking that makes Amitabh a self-confessed fan of the young directors.
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Zee launches India's first-ever reality TV show
This week Zee TV announced the commissioning of India's first ever reality
television
show.
Announcing the launch of POW (Prisoner of War), Indian
television's pioneering effort in the realm of reality
TV, Partha Pratim Sinha, Senior Vice-President, Zee TV
said: "The reality TV concept has caught imagination of
viewers across the world. We are, today, presenting the
future of Indian TV."
POW is a show based on testing the endurance and
ingenuity of individual contestants as well as the
ability to work collectively as a group.
Explaining the concept, Singh said nine contestants would
be chosen from across India on the basis of national
search and would be placed together for a stipulated
period of time in a POW camp.
The contestants would be given daily tasks to complete
simulating life at a real-life POW camp. Their aim would
be to escape from the POW camp and doing so would result
in handsome rewards, he said in a release here.
According to Madhavi Mutatkar, President of Zee TV, "POW
has been conceived as India's first reality television
show and builds upon the success of the genre of reality
television worldwide. Apart from being an entertaining
concept, it will also have tremendous appeal to the great
sense of patriotism among Indians."
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Akshay Khanna ..par sunoh to
Well, we heard a lot about Akshaye's arrogance and his tempers. Which may have cost him a few projects. But, now he's lost out on a big one, folks! Slated to star in Sanjay Gupta's 'Kaante,' which was to be shot entirely in the USA, featuring the likes of AB, Sanjay Dutt and Sunil Shetty, this one is an out-an-out action film based on 'Reservoir Dogs.' And well, well, Akshaye has been replaced by singer Lucky Ali. This is Lucky's second big film, first being Tanuja Chandra's 'Sur.' This sounds a little well…weird. Not that Lucky is not expected to perform, just that he appears to be hot property these days. Meanwhile, we'll keep you posted on the controversy, if any! (Wink!)
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