INDIA FILM NEWS

Om Shanti Om on 2000 screens
Eros International announced the forthcoming worldwide release of one of the biggest anticipated blockbusters this year, Shah Rukh Khan’s Om Shanti Om, produced by Red Chillies Entertainment and directed by Farah Khan on 9th November 2007. Eros is expected to release the film across an unprecedented 2000 plus screens worldwide.

Om Shanti Om stars Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone in pivotal roles. The film's score and soundtrack has been composed by the musical duo, Vishal-Shekhar with lyrics by Javed Akhtar. Cinematography for the movie is by V. Manikandan whilst editing is handled by Shirish Kunder >>>

Banking on Bollywood is not easy
India's respected film weekly The Screen has published an article by Kumud Das that says despite a lot of excitement about  Bollywood, the banks it seems are dragging their feet. However, the paper says 'as the industry progresses inexorably towards corporatisation, you hear less and less of a director going bankrupt because his or her movie failed at the box office and the money-lenders could not be paid back. One of the reasons could be the neighbourhood banks have begun financing Bollywood, although not in a big way' >>>

'Sivaji' phenomenon
It's not Bollywood! 'Sivaji: The Boss', a Tamil film, has created a sensation in the country and abroad. It features in the UK top ten chart and is poised to break several records as film is running strong even after its release a few weeks ago. At a time when Indian super star Amitabh Bachchan failed to impress with his  release 'Jhoom Barabar', Rajnikant, the super hero of South India passed the litmus test with flying colours >>>

Joffe: Aishwarya Rai in $35 million film Singularity
India's actress Aishwarya Rai will play, pictured right in Provoked,  the lead role in British film director Roland Joffe's $35 million film Singularity, an epic about Indian Marathas. The Oscar winning Joffe (The Killing Fields, The Mission) announced his new much delayed project.  Originally, the film project was supposed to start several years ago >>>

Sharma vs NYPD and New York City
Filmmakers using hand-held equipment on the streets New York in the USA will no longer be required to obtain permits. The city also will create written rules governing the issuance of permits for filmmakers and photographers under a deal reached with the New York Civil Liberties Union to settle a lawsuit brought on behalf of Rakesh Sharma, an Indian documentary film maker who was detained for several hours by police officers in May 2005 for filming on a city sidewalk in midtown Manhattan with a handheld video camera >>>

Spider-Man 3 in India

This film creates several 'firsts' in the distribution of English films in India.

It was the first Hollywood film to be dubbed and released in Bhojpuri, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and English to coincide its global release. In 2006, about 74 foreign films were released in India, earning Rs 2.5 billion through box office collections >>> 

British Press on 'Bollywood Wedding'
The British press has covered the wedding of India's film stars, Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai quite extensively.

From Hello Magazine to The Times, the catch-phrase is 'Bollywood Wedding'. There are reports from various angles. Read excerpts from the British press >>>

Shyamalan seeks India for 'The Happening'
Mumbai based, UTV Motion Pictures and the Hollywood giant, 20th Century Fox, are teaming up for the co-production of M. Night Shyamalan's latest sci-fi thriller, 'The Happening'. With a $57 million budget, the film represents a historic beginning of India's arrival at the Hollywood scene >>>

Pak Cinema Owners demand Bollywood's entry
Pakistani cinema owners are demanding that India's Bollywood cinema be legally allowed to screen in the picture halls. The Pakistani govt. must stop cable operators from screening the pirated Bollywood films, they demand. Almost 300 cinema halls were shut down for a day in Pakistan. This is for the firm time in Pakistan that the film industry is openly asking for a right to release Indian films >>>