IBLOG SPACE

Mira Nair is no stranger to the Oscars. It therefore comes as no surprise to know that she and the producers of The Namesake are heading to Los Angeles to campaign for the film in several categories. "What can I say?" Mira could barely contain her joy. "My entire Namesake paltan (clan) is already in LA, and I'm also heading there. I'm just so ecstatic that our producers Fox-Searchlight are doing an Academy campaign. This can only mean that The Namesake is very much in people's minds and hearts months after it was released." The highly -lauded film is expected to get at least a nomination each for Mira and her leading lady Tabu in the best-director and best-actress categories. Mira has her fingers crossed. "Let's see what happens. The reality is that it's too early to say anything right now. We can only keep our fingers crossed."

Anupam Kher, Shreya Saran, Tara Sharma are all geared up to share a silver screen with Hollywood stars Jesse Metcalfe of ‘Desperate Housewives’, Larry Miller of ‘Nutty Professor’ and Sara Foster of ‘Big Bounce’ fame. The film titled The Other End of the Line , will be made under Ashok Amritraj productions will be directed by James Dodson writer and director of Behind Enemies Lines 2 . Ashok Amritraj, Chairman and CEO of Hyde Park entertainment has produced Box Office smashes Premonition, Dreamer, Shopgirl, Bringing Down the House, Raising Helen and Moonlight Mile . With 25 years of career as producer and executive producer of 90 films, he is the winner of lifetime achievement award by International film academy in 2005 and producer of vision award by Hollywood community in 2004. The Other End of the Line , is a love story featuring an Indian girl working in a call center in Mumbai who travels all the way to San Francisco to be with her American love-interest (Jesse Matcalfe). Shrey

Film Distributors’ Association [F.D.A.], the trade body for U.K. theatrical distributors, announced that Adlabs Films [U.K.] Ltd. has become a member of the association with immediate effect. Adlabs is the second Indian film distributor to join F.D.A., which now has 21 member companies. Pranab Kapadia is the Business Head at Northolt-based Adlabs Films [U.K.] Ltd.

Beam Global Spirits and Wine, the fourth largest spirits company in the world, announced the much-awaited nominations for the Seventh Annual Teacher's Achievement Awards. The panel of judges for the entertainment category includes Ramesh Sippy, Shyam Benegal, and Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. Along with KPMG, an esteemed advisory panel consisting of Devendra Raj Ankur, Jagjit Singh, Kris Srikkanth, Milkha Singh, OS Kanwar, Prahlad Kakkar, Pritish Nandy and SM Datta has been instrumental in guiding and suggesting the for nominations this year. Nominees of 7th Annual Teacher's Achievement Awards 2007 in the Entertainment section are Irrfan Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma, Rajkumar Hirani, Shaan, and Vishal Bhardwaj. Feroz Khan, the internationally acclaimed theatre director, producer and actor - was the recipient of Teacher's Achievement Awards 2002. Nagesh Kukunoor, the young chemical engineer turned film director who redefined Indian cinema with small budget blockbusters like Rockford, H

Rosa Catalano is all geared up to invent her career in acting. Rosa was always keen to act in films. She will be sharing the screen space with Rahul Bose, Minisha Lamba, and Kay Kay Menon in Shourya , directed by Samar Khan. Rosa will also be seen sizzling to a catchy item number. Without revealing many details about Rosa’s character, Samar Khan said that she definitely is an important part of the film. Rosa currently is shooting with him for a club song. The item song has been composed by Adnan Sami and choreographed by Sharon. Samar also added that Rosa had been a natural choice for the role since she is a kind of persona with the international looks; he was looking for the role. She perfectly fitted the bill. Shourya is been produced by Moser Baer.

Lycra MTV style awards announced a tie up with the most eagerly awaited movie of the year- Om Shanti Om . King Khan, director Farah Khan, gorgeous Deepika Padukone, versatile Shreyas Talpade and the debonair Arjun Rampal will show their distinctive style statements on the October 25 at LYCRA, MTV Style Awards 2007. Designer Manish Malhotra will be showcasing his retro theme, inspired by his Om Shanti Om . Farah Khan excited about the whole event says, “Lycra MTV Style Awards is a fantastic platform to give our audience the first taste of style in Om Shanti Om . For me style is one of the most critical elements in the film and I am proud to display some of the style at this year’s Lycra MTV Style awards.” The lucky invites at Lycra, MTV Style Awards will get to watch Shah Rukh Khan, Arjun Rampal and Deepika Padukone in their stylish splendor in action LIVE on a stage- a bit of dekko before you watch them on celluloid. To which Ashish Patil, General Manager, MTV India and Vice President-

According to the verdict passed on August 20, Sanjay Dutt would be arrested as soon as he got a copy of the judgment. With respect to the same, Sanjay was given the copy of the TADA court judgment yesterday and was arrested soon after. Sanjay had lunch with his family and Manayata; and bid them farewell. After which he arrested. He was detained in Arthur Jail and then was taken to Pune. Sanjay Dutt has two alternatives for future, to either appeal to the Supreme Court against the TADA court judgment, or appeal to the apex court for interim bail. The lawyers have decided to appeal to the Supreme Court. However, Sanjay is likely to serve six years in jail. He had been talking to his US based daughter Trishala since Sunday. During his bail period, he has been completing as many movies as he could. However, there are a couple of projects for which Sanjay Dutt is yet to shoot

Yes, the showman who has been making films for the last 29 years (he founded his company, Mukta Arts on October 24, 1978) is planning to leave the field as a director. He said in so many words to this writer just 2 days before his company celebrates its 29th anniversary tomorrow. But admirers and fans of the showman need not panic. He will quit as a director, that’s for sure but he is not going to quit so easily or so fast. He has planned out the walking out phase for himself. He has just completed the shooting of what he calls the first “un-Subhash Ghai like film” called Black & White starring Anil Kapoor, one of his favorite heroes down the years and “a brilliant new actor who is in the class of Amitabh Bachchan or any good actor in the world,” Anurag Sinha, a student from the FTII from the batch which has passed out after a gap of 28 years during which the acting course was scrapped there. Ghai is also busy shooting Yuvraaj with Anil Kapoor, Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif all o

Eros International, the leading integrated company within the Indian media and entertainment sector announced the global release of Dus Kahaniyaan , which will happen on November 23, 2007. Eros International’s and White Feather Films’ first project together Dus Kahaniyaan , is a sensational film with a huge lead cast. An unusual concept, Dus Kahaniyaan produced by Sanjay Dutt and Sanjay Gupta has ten spectacular stories directed by six different directors including Apoorva Lakhia, Hansal Mehta, Jasmeet Dhodi, Meghna Gulzar, Rohit Roy and Sanjay Gupta himself. Sunil Lulla, President, Eros International, India said, “We are glad to join hands with White Feather to release Dus Kahaniyaan . Audiences expect the unusual and out of the box from Sanjay Gupta and he has lived up to expectations once again to present some remarkable cinema to film lovers”. Dus Kahaniyaan is releasing in cinemas worldwide on November 23, 2007.

The pile-up of cast members in the neo- Karz continues. The latest to join the film's simmering cast is Danny Denzongpa who plays Pran's role. So far Urmila Matondkar has been cast in Simi Garewal's part, while Feroz Khan will play Premnath's role. Says Satish, "It'd true Danny has been approached for Pran Saab's role. But why are these nuggets about the casting being leaked out piecemeal? The only one who has actually signed on the dotted line is Urmila. Right now I want to focus on my next release Tera Sang which is almost ready. It's one of my rare films that aren’t a remake. And it tackles the very sensitive and contemporary issue of teen pregnancy. The challenge is to get audiences to understand that pre-marital consensual sex is not about age. We need to let youngsters know that they can go wrong in so many ways and that falling in love and having sex are inevitable processes that need to be kept apart." Satish says creating a Tere San

The Board of Directors of INOX Leisure Ltd. announced its results for the second quarter of the financial year 2007-2008, following its meeting on 22nd October in Noida. Maintaining its rapid growth resulting from its aggressive national roll out, INOX reported a 45% YOY growth in revenues for Q2 2007-08 at Rs. 58.02 crores versus Rs. 39.96 crores in the same quarter of the previous year. Q2 profits grew by 19% to Rs. 8.30 crores from Rs. 6.96 crores in 2006-2007. During the quarter, INOX opened 3 new properties, comprising of 8 screens and 2728 seats, at Bharuch, Raipur and Mumbai. The amalgamation of Calcutta Cine Private Limited with INOX was also completed during the quarter and hence, the above results for the quarter and half year ended 30th September 2007 include the figures of the erstwhile Calcutta Cine Pvt. Ltd. With these, INOX’s total tally of properties under operation as of 30th September 2007 has gone up to 20, with 69 screens and 21,323 seats, across 16 cities in India

For the first time, legendary music director and singer A.R. Rahman, the United Nations and Endemol have partnered with the soon-to-be-launched Hindi general entertainment channel, 9X, for a unique and entertaining show. Titled MISSION USTAAD, the show will feature Rahman and some of the best singers and entertainers, who will provide engrossing musical entertainment for a cause.

Sunny Deol is raring to go! Post APNE, Sunny has decided to start his innings afresh and also revitalize his film production company, Vijayta Films. To start with, Sunny has announced a batch of four films in the first phase. Kabeer Kaushik [SEHAR] will direct CHAMKU, which will star Bobby Deol, Priyanka Chopra, Ritesh Deshmukh, Irfaan Khan and Rajpal Yadav. Monty Sharma [SAAWARIYA] will score the music of this film. Vijayta Films will be producing three other films in 2008. MAN, directed by Sunny Deol [yes, he gets into direction again, after DILLAGI] and Neeraj Pathak jointly, will star Sunny Deol and Shilpa Shetty in the lead. Deols’ favorite Anil Sharma will direct MASTERS, which will bring the Deol parivaar -- Dharmendra, Sunny and Bobby -- together again. Plus, there’s CHUMANTAR, directed by Rumi Jafferi, who’s currently directing GOD TUSSI GREAT HO. CHUMANTAR will star the two brothers -- Sunny and Bobby -- in principal roles..

There’s reason to catch BHOOL BHULAIYAA once again. Right from its distributors to viewers to several reviewers [including this writer] were upset that the popular track from the film, ‘Hare Krishna Hare Ram’, hadn’t been included in the narrative, but was placed as a video during the end credits. Keeping in mind the unanimous feedback [to include the song in the narrative] and also requests from distributors, the producers, T-Series, finally gave the green signal to include the song in the film. The hugely popular song has now been placed before the interval. Earlier, Akki’s introduction happened to be a scene, but the song now precedes that scene. In fact, the song marks Akshay’s introduction in the film now. The chartbusting track was added from Saturday, 20th October by the all-India distributors. Exactly 8 days after the release of the film. While on Akshay Kumar and T-Series, there’s talk that Akshay has opted out of the Nagesh Kukunoor-directed film, being produced by Percept a

The two are long-standing friends and their films are being released this Friday. There are similarities between them. While Anurag Kashyap has made films earlier, No Smoking which opens this Friday would be his second released film after Black Friday. Jab We Met is Imtiaz Ali's second film. So close are the two directors that they mutually agreed not to release their respective films on the same Friday, if there were similarities between them. "I saw No Smoking a few days ago and loved it. Fortunately, Jab We Met and No Smoking are two totally different creations targeted at different audiences," explains Imtiaz. "Anurag is a very dear friend of mine. I've known him for years. If we had seen any resemblance between our films we'd have asked our producers to hold the release. But the focus of Anurag's film is completely different from mine." Another similarity between the two filmmakers. They're both working with commercially established sta

Imtiaz Ali made his appearance as an actor in Black Friday, and exhibited his direction skills with Socha Na Tha and now will make a hat-trick with his latest release Jab We Met starring Shahid and Kareena. His simple yet unusual style of direction makes him an extraordinary and different director. But how far is he going to be successful in his attempt will soon unveil in Jab We Met Imtiaz was live on IndiaFM chatting with his fans; here are some excerpts from the chat. abbass : What are your expectations from the film? Imtiaz Ali : Expectation - for people to come out of the theatre with a smile abbass : What are your expectations from the film? Imtiaz Ali : Expectation - for people to come out of the theatre with a smile poornimajha : what is Jab We Met all about? Imtiaz Ali : A meeting of two people in the train. About how the meeting leads to incidents and accidents across North Indian landscapes and how the lives of these people change forever as the jour

‘ Rail Gaadi, Rail Gaadi, chuk chuk chuk chuk ….’ It is now Shahid’s turn to sing this song. Traveling in ‘aamchi local gaadi’ on Monday night, Shahid chatted up with fellow passengers whilst endorsing his upcoming flick, Jab We Met. In the film, the characters, ‘Aditya’ (Shahid) and ‘Geet’ (Kareena) set out on a journey, after they miss their train. No, wonder then that the promotions of the film are done using the local train. The producers of Jab We Met had painted two full local trains in Mumbai from the Western and Central lines with Jab We Met imagery. Reliving every moment on the sets of the film, Shahid sure had a ball to be closer to his fans. We are sure Shahid had a journey of a lifetime. The reel journey however, releases on October 26 worldwide.

There was no red carpet, a few media people and hardly any one around in the busiest place in Central London's Leicester Square where the screening of The Last Lear was about to take place as a part of the 51st London Film Festival. But it took less than a minute for the area outside Odeon cinema to be mobbed by his fans screaming for his one look. The dull and dreary afternoon suddenly turned out to be an exciting one as the one and only, Bollywood's biggest super-star Amitabh Bachchan graced the occasion. Wearing his suede black over coat with a pink shirt and a tie, he came... (in Odeon cinema)...he saw (the film)... and he conquered (the hearts of his innumerable fans). I spoke to the living legend for a brief five minutes before the curtains lifted. What fresh new outlook has The Last Lear brought in your film career as of now? The fact that it gave me an opportunity to work in English, an opportunity to recite Shakespeare on screen, something that we all have grown up

The weekend was a somber one - Laaga Chunari Mein Daag and Bhool Bhulaiyaa are no comic capers, so entertainment came from unexpected quarters - Shah Rukh Khan's witticism at HT' s leadership summit. There was no dearth of quotable quotes, politically correct or otherwise, from SRK. Ruling out a move to politics, he said, “I'm too materialistic, too selfish, and too capitalistic. Besides, I'm too good looking.” He also enlisted for the media's support by playing patriotic “I use the media when I have a film coming up-like now. Om Shanti Om will be competing against a Sony Columbia - Tri-star film, so I have told the media that I don't have 30 or 40 crores to spend on the publicity like Sony and I have asked them, “Will you help me?” The timing is significant-the two films Om Shanti Om and Saawariya are slated for Diwali release and SRK, always ahead of the pack, has learnt his lessons in media relations well. It could be that playing Kabir Khan in Chak

It's been the same nearly a decade since Laxmikant's demise in 1998, with the 'LP tag' once again being the only brief with which director-choreographer Farah Khan convinced the veteran music director to come off his self-imposed exile from the current film music scene to compose a song for Shah Rukh Khan's Om Shanti Om. "She wanted the typical LP style of music from the 'Seventies to go with the flashback track in the film that revolves around the theme of reincarnation," he says. “Farah wanted me to do three songs, but I said I will do just one, but a good song," he says, adding, "I had initially refused her, as I have gone a bit low on doing films after Deewana Mastana (1997), but my daughter convinced me to take up the project." And in LP style the song's recording happened with a 150-plus orchestra, a rarity in today's age of digitally-arranged music making. "Nobody works with an orchestra these days, but Farah was ver

"Saawariya" is a timeless story of two young star-crossed lovers whose passions almost consume their will to the brink of self-destruction. In this eternal tale of an ode to romance, stand two lonely souls whose childlike innocence and candour only obscures their inner turmoil, anger, anxiety and desperate wait for love. An artist, a free spirit, an idealist and dreamer, Raj, is certain that he has found his ultimate dream when he arrives at a quaint picturesque town. A place surrounded by mountains, shrouded in mist and enveloped in beauty, mythical enough to be a painter’s vision or a poet’s memory. However, destiny paints a different picture for Raj… One silent bright and starry night, he spots a mysterious girl draped in black, standing alone at a bridge. This chance encounter introduces him to Sakina, a shy and quiet, melancholic and enigmatic girl who continues to intrigue him. Thus follows the beginning of a new friendship, where Raj with his most charmin

Mumbai Salsa is a funny look at the fast emerging dysfunctional relationships that exists within the young corporate India. There was a time when an average Indian was laidback, content and with plenty of time for love, life & relationships. But the economic liberalization, foreign investments, BPOs etc changed all that. An average Indian does not have time for love life or relationships and romances do not blossom in parks anymore. In fact an average Indian spends more time in pubs and night clubs apart from offices and home. Mumbai Salsa is one such pub in Mumbai, where the lives of our principal characters change forever. Virdas plays Rajeev Sharma. An advertising executive, Rajeev is a hopeless romantic but none of his relationships last. He is come about being really confused about women. Now, finally it seems that he has met the woman of his dreams…. But will the dream shatter? Indraneil SenGupta plays Karan. A merchant banker Karan is the epitome of devio