IBLOG SPACE

Prime focus, global post production and vfx house has delivered yet another visual treat for Mukesh Bhatt's Tum Mile with the VFX team led under the creative guidance of Merzin Tavaria, Chief Creative Director and the Digital Intermediate team led by Rohan Desai, DI head and Chief Colorist , Prime Focus. The VFX team of 79 creative professionals was led by VFX Supervisor Ritesh (Ricky) Aggarwal and the look and mood of the film was set by ace Colorist, Aashirwad Hadkar. What we have created in Tum Mile is exceptional, said Merzin Tavaria. "Depicting events from the past with a see-it believability factor was a challenge for Prime Focus but we've successfully recreated the scenario and realistically projected it with effective live-action effects, complete CG shots, Compositing, matte painting etc", adds Merzin. Talking about the DI, Rohan Desai said, "Since the movie is set in the backdrop of a real incident, the client wanted the scenes to look as real as pos

Closer on the heels of the Wake Up Sid - MNS row over the 'Bombay-Mumbai' do, comes yet another controversy. This time, it's over the backless posters of Kareena Kapoor, from the forthcoming flick Kurbaan , which stars her beau Saif Ali Khan. This issue paved the way to more than 100 Shiv Sainiks as they came out on the streets and tore apart the posters of the said film, in the areas of Juhu, Marol and other parts of Andheri. Speaking to Bollywood Hungama , Sena activist Jitendra Janawale from Juhu said that "The scene in question is totally against Maharashtra's Hindu culture. No sooner the posters were put up all over the city, we got lots of complaints from people, esp. from the concerned parents of school children, stating that the said posters were in bad taste. We have anyways issued a strong warning to the filmmakers through the media. We want all the backless posters that have been put all over the city to be removed as soon as possible. Failing which, w

Since a the last few days, the legendary actor Om Puri was in the news, courtesy, the explosive revelations about his past, which has now taken the shape of a book (the biographical 'Unlikely Hero: The Story Of Om Puri'), and that was penned by none other than his own wife Nandita Puri. Om Puri was so visibly upset with the revelations, that he spared no word to blast Nandita through a couple of leading tabloids. The controversy started when his wife Nandita, who has written biography on Om Puri's life, revealed his private moments and sexual encounters of the past in her book. Details like Om had sex with his maid Shanti at the age of 14 and that he had a longstanding liaison with a woman named Laxmi with whom Om was sexually and emotionally involved, were given out to media which fumed Om. In vengeance, he blasted off his wife in media for her decision to reveal these details. He said that his wife had reduced a very important and sacred part of his life to cheap and lur

A Paa music event planned for Children's Day in Mumbai with Vidya Balan, Abhishek Bachchan, director Balki and composer Ilaiyaaraja, has been cancelled, thanks to the work-obsessed composer who says he cannot tear himself away from his current work in Chennai to attend the function Confirming this development Balki says, "We had planned a formal music launch on Children's Day in Mumbai. But Raja Sir is busy doing the background score for Paa . In fact, I'm with him right now. He says there's no way he would break his creative process to attend the function. We all respect his wishes. We've cancelled the formal music release." Now the music soundtrack of Paa simply hits outlets from tomorrow without a formal release. For Children's Day, Balki will release a number of messages from the Big B in the voice of the child Auro for kids all over the world. Interestingly, Mr. Bachchan won't appear in person for any of the promotional activities of P

When Abbas Tyrewala wrote the catchphrase ' Pappu Can't Dance Saala ' for his debut film, little did he know it would grow into a youth chant at pubs, college campuses and bowling alleys. So the first thing he was advised to do was to register the title for future use. Abbas was in no mood to use Pappu Can't Dance Saala as a title for any of his future films. He gladly handed the words of his lyrics to writer-actor-director Saurabh Shukla. Says Abbas, "Saurabh is most welcome to it. Pappu Can't Dance Saala could never have been the title of any of my films. I gladly gave away the phrase. Pappu Can't Dance Saala or Jiggy Wiggy (for Blue) are catch-phrases I wrote off-the-cuff to appeal to youngsters. There's no away I'll re-title my new film Pappu Can't Dance Saala. That phrase is done with. I'll never use it again." Last heard, Abbas was being pressurized by potential distributors to change the title. "I just might have to change

Madhavan may be totally immersed in the promotion of his upcoming release 3 Idiots . However, in the midst of his hectic schedule, he is making sure that his commitment to social causes aren't impacted. Yesterday, he flew off to Bangkok for a couple of days to participate in a program where he would be building homes for the needy people in Thailand. This would be for an organization called 'Habitat for Humanity'. Says a source from the organization, "Maddy (as he is lovingly called) has shown great passion in this cause. As a part of this program, we construct houses from scratch for the needy people and hence provide them safe, decent and affordable shelter." An organization that began operations more than 20 years back, it has already built close to 30000 houses across the globe, including India. Madhavan would be stationed in a place near Bangkok for 2 days (16th/17th November) and would be back in the country to resume promotion for 3 Idiots . During his st

After editing, Rensil D'Silva's debut film Kurbaan has turned out to be exactly 2 hours 37 minutes long. And that's about 37 minutes longer than the show-timing which multiplex theatres approve of. Lengthy films on grim themes are at the moment not quite the flavour of the season. The poor response to Madhur Bhandarkar's Jail proves it. Rensil however, is unfazed. "My film is not grim. It's about a serious global issue. But it isn't a documentary on terrorism. It's designed as a fast-paced thriller." Nor has the release been timed to coincide with the ghastly terror attack on Mumbai last year on November 27. "We're coming on Friday, November 20, not 27. The date was chosen according to availability of space," says Rensil. Tensed but happy director Rensil D'Silva has just about wrapped up the post-production work of Kurbaan and is ready to take a long break before moving into his next film which would be a marked departure from

We are sure that the week gone by must have been extremely busy for some, while fussy for others, happy for some and crappy for others. Fret no further, because, brings to you 'Guess Who', the game that is by now synonymous with 'World's envy, India's pride'! This week's celebrity is someone who shares his name with a famous mythological character. With due respects to him, one can simply say that despite being on the slightly 'healthy' side, he is not the one to throw his weight around! He is someone who, despite having opened the 'Eyes' of cinegoers to Bollywood in his typical 'Style', made all the men go around asking 'Why did I fall in Love?' He is also the catalyst behind the 'Numero Uno' series of films that had hit the silver screen few years ago. Even though he is known for his peaceful nature and 'Friendship', we would sincerely advice you not to 'Disturb' him when he is busy shooting. Friends

A great philosopher once told his beloved, 'I love you not because you are beautiful. You are beautiful, because I love you.' That seems to be most likely the case in the 150th issue of Elle. The magazine and Lara Dutta complement each other so very well, that it's totally impossible to say that who is mirroring whose grace and poise. Needless to say, the 150th issue is really something to treasure about. In cliche words, one can call it as the 'Collector's Item'. This issue has Lara Dutta, 'The Mistress Of the Universe' (as the magazine calls her), who is shuffling her time between writing, meditating, horse riding, fashion... and yes...Bollywood, the place which will look like a vacuum without her presence! This issue has the gorgeous Lara getting into a nostalgic mode as she says, "As a child, my dream was to wear beautiful clothes with lots of make up and get photographed, which is more of a model thing than an actress". She also goes on t

The Mahesh Bhatt formula of live-in relationships, splintered alliances, disastrous adventures in the Big Bad City and corruption in hyped places, has completely run out of steam with Tum Mile . A pointless saga of two soggy souls caught in Mumbai's rains who know one another long enough to know they are incompatible. Arth with no worth. Tum Mile is a dreadfully long pointless repetitive and rambling look at a ruptured relationship between a working woman and a loser self-styled artiste who's ceaselessly sullen about God knows what. If we go back to the Bhatts' last celluloid sojourn Jashn the struggling musician-hero in that film was no different from the grappling artiste in Tum Mile . They both hate the world for being more successful than them. Emraan Hashmi attempts to infuse his trite and jaded character with a fair amount of conviction. And Soha playing his trying-hard-to-cope live-in mate comes out with a few moments which transcend the banal script. Too ba

Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani is busy finding an entry in the record books and for Ramesh Taurani of Tips Music Films, it's the third major success in a row after Race and Kismat Konnection . With Ajab Prem ... seemingly all set to cross the collections of Race and turn out to be the biggest success ever for the production house, the filmmaker obviously has good reasons to celebrate. As the film passes the test of the dreaded Monday (by not registering a major fall and staying on comfortably at the box office), Joginder Tuteja catches up with the Ramesh Taurani who now be beginning work on Race 2 . At the least, Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani should turn out to be a hit with expectations of a better box office tag in weeks to come. Were you always expecting such a huge opening or you too have been surprised? Frankly, I am not surprised at all. In fact I would have been disappointed had the collections been any lesser. I was always super confident of the product in hand and this is

Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani is busy finding an entry in the record books and for Ramesh Taurani of Tips Music Films, it's the third major success in a row after Race and Kismat Konnection . With Ajab Prem ... seemingly all set to cross the collections of Race and turn out to be the biggest success ever for the production house, the filmmaker obviously has good reasons to celebrate. As the film passes the test of the dreaded Monday (by not registering a major fall and staying on comfortably at the box office), Joginder Tuteja catches up with the Ramesh Taurani who now be beginning work on Race 2 . At the least, Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani should turn out to be a hit with expectations of a better box office tag in weeks to come. Were you always expecting such a huge opening or you too have been surprised? Frankly, I am not surprised at all. In fact I would have been disappointed had the collections been any lesser. I was always super confident of the product in hand and this is

Profit for all, loss for none This time around, Himesh Reshammiya 's strategy is quite clear. Unlike Karzzzz where high price of the film resulted in a flop tag being associated with inside the opening weekend itself, Radio comes with one line vision of 'Profit for all and loss for none. "We don't want to get into a situation where just a single person earns", says Himesh who, along with the makers of Radio , has formulated a model where everyone in the value chain earns well, "In case of Karzzzz , only Bhushan Kumar earned but BIG Pictures lost. I want a different scenario for Radio . This is why the film has been sold at the kind of price which would be easy to recover and also result in profits to be earned." Table profit for Radio By means of satellite, music and video rights, the makers of Radio have already earned a neat table profit of Rs.1 crore. From this point on, it's the distributors who should be raking in moolah, hence going by

Weekend collections of Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani are out and it is crystal clear that Raj Kumar Santoshi is all set to have the biggest ever money spinner of his two decade long career. Not just that, even Ranbir Kapoor is enjoying the biggest opening ever of his career with the movie continuing its record journey. In the concluding segment of this 2-part interview with Joginder Tuteja, a relieved Raj Kumar Santoshi reacts to the digs taken on him by other filmmakers, delay in completion of his films, failure of Family and Halla Bol and how he is quite sure that Ranbir and Katrina are sure shot superstars just round the corner. Even though you are sticking by your ethics and passion and are one of the select senior film makers who are still around, doesn't it hurt that there are digs being taken on the pace at which you complete your films? At times it appears to be harmless fun but sometimes, it is also a little below the belt. Don't you feel like retaliating? I am glad

She is known as 'Size Zero' of the Indian Film Industry. So we decided, let's just call her 'Half a Bagel'. She is slim, sleek and sexy. Kareena Kapoor is taking Bollywood by storm since a year, and taking the paparazzi by frenzy whenever she is spotted with boyfriend and actor Saif Ali Khan. Off screen, Kareena, popularly known as Bebo in Bollywood, exudes a smaller-than-life, self deprecating persona. She always looks hopeful about her future, whether it's family, films or Saif Ali Khan. She is unique. She has the sort of untouchable star quality about her. In person, she is quite remarkably beautiful and lean. So lean that she seems almost to be a trick of perspective. The directors she's worked with routinely comment on her flexibility. The actors comment on her dedication and passion for films and her boyfriend comments, ''She is very adaptable to the different worlds our directors create for her.'' Such is the respect this actress gets

Neil Nitin Mukesh's love interest is no longer kept out of view. That the girl in question, Priyanka Bhatia, is very much part of the Mukesh parivar which became evident on the night of November 2 when at the Fame Adlabs at a private screening of Jail. Priyanka was prominently present alongside Neil's parents and brother Naman. Neil's mother and girlfriend sobbed uncontrollably throughout. "Priyanka and my mom were hysterical with grief. They weren't looking at just a character being put through a traumatic time. To them it was someone who they both love in pain in front of their eyes," said Neil. Neil admits Priyanka is an integral part of his family. "My parents and her parents don't only know and like one another, we also visit each another's homes constantly. More than lovers we're friends first. There's a comfort level in our interaction that makes us very relaxed with one another. We don't have to hide anything. We meet openly