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Even as Balki puts finishing touches to the script for his third film featuring the Big B in the lead, the twosome who gave us the two extremely unconventional hits Cheeni Kum and Paa will now be getting together for a 15-minute film celebrating 100 years of Indian cinema. While details for the project are yet to be finalized, it is understood that PVR Cinemas has commissioned 8 leading filmmakers to make 15-minute films which would all be released as one feature film in 2013 when Indian cinema celebrates a 100 years of existence. The first director to start his film would be Balki. Says the director, "Doing a short film with Amitji would be a special challenge for me because I've never done a film in that format before, and neither has he. We've done numerous ads and two feature films together. Now let's see what I can do with Amitji in the 15 minutes that we'll be provided." Balki says another film with the Big B, no matter what its

Banner A SEARCH Film's Production Status Under Production Color C Release Date October 2010 Language Hindi Genre Comedy / Romance Producer Ashok Chauhan Malvee S. Executive Producer / Co-Producer Kumar Dharmendra Director Rahat Kazmi Star Cast Vivek Sudarshan Sayali Bhagat Singers Hariharan Vivek Sudarshan Dominique Cerejo Rahul Seth Rahat Kazmi Lyricist Nusrat Badr Sanjay Mishra (1) Neeraj Shrivastava Binish Khan Raja Ali Music Director Shahdaab Bhartiya Neeraj Shrivastava Raja Ali Aanamik Background Music Bony P. John Cinematography Seetharam Art Vishal Power Editor Jalindar Thorat Sound Subhash Sahu Costume Kamaal H. Khan Publicity Designs Ranjeet Kumar Story / Writer Rahat Kazmi

There are two shortlists for India in the Promo Lions category. Under Event and Field Marketing, Ogilvy & Mather, Kolkata has a shortlist for AICMED for Meltdown. Under the category, Business products and services, Bates141 Mumbai has a shortlist for India Anti-Virus’ Stolen Signature for the Net Protector 2010-Internet Security Suite.   There are four shortlists in Direct Lions for India. Bates141 Mumbai has a shortlist for India Anti-Virus’ Stolen Signature for the Net Protector 2010-Internet Security Suite.  McCann Worldgroup Mumbai has two shortlists. One is for Bachpan bachao Andolan- Enslaved Children – Wooden Frame for the Anti- Child Labour Initiative. Another is for Friends for Education – A Legend Abused.   Grey Worldwide India, Mumbai has a shortlist in Direct under Ambient Media and Print collateral, non mail (small scale) for Ojus Medical Institute’s AIDS Mask.     India has one shortlist in the PR Lions category. Interestingly, the sho

Mumbai For those who are not impressed with the level of football at the World Cup or just aren't football fans and want to step out, here are a list of things you could catch this weekend. Music   Hard Rock Cafe India will bring in Bob Sinclar to India. Get to Hard Rock Cafe and groove to his famous tunes like 'World Hold On', 'What a wonderful beat', 'Love Generation' and his new decidedly fun and eclectic album just begging to be danced to. The event starts at 8:30 pm on Saturday.   Jalebee Cartel, a DJ set, Composed of four members, Arjun Vagale (laptop, mixing and scratching), Ashvin Mani Sharma (laptop and synths), Ash Roy (vocals and percussion) and G-force Arjun (backing vocals and bass), the band has been taking India and the international arena by storm for over three years.   Catch them play at Bluefrog in Mumbai on Friday and Saturday from 10:30 pm onwards.   On Sunday, Bluefrog plays host to the Ro

Mumbai Conn Iggulden takes on the story of Genghis Khan in the Conqueror series. The first book, Wolf of The Plain s, introduces the reader to Temujin, the ambitious second son of the khan of the Wolves tribe, who survives against all odds, along with his family, when his father is killed in an ambush. The second, Lords of the Bow , follows Genghis and his brothers along the trail they blaze across Chin, the enemy land. Bones of The Hills sees the further expansion of his empire, at the cost of a few sacrifices the leader is willing to make. The books have been lauded by readers on sites like Amazon, and the fourth in the series is supposed to be out in September according to the author’s website.

Mumbai Whether you always look forward to Mani Ratnam’s experiments in cinema, or are merely intrigued by the various Raavan expressions of Abhishek Bachchan as seen on hoardings and in TV promos, the  movie opens in theatres today. Initial reviews on the Internet contradict each other: “That this film adapts from one of India’s favourite mythologies, The Ramayan, we know. That it would be so subtly subversive in challenging that mythology, even adding a surprise development, was the unexpected dessert after the hearty meal.” -  Sonia Chopra, Sify.com “Mani Ratnam’s modern adaptation of Hindu mythological epic Ramayana with a twist, is a film made with good intention, beautiful music and mind blowing cinematography but unfortunately lacking everything else!” -  Renuka Vyavahare, Indiatimes.com WATCH the trailer here The other movie you can catch is the Ashton Kutcher-starrer Spread, whose IMDB description is “a sex comedy centered on a serial womanizer

Mumbai If you're a football fan reading this, I'm sure you've heard about the infamous hand of God by Diego Maradona. If you've heard of it but actually never seen it, WATCH it here. Also, see his brilliance as a footballer, as he charges into the box, dribbling with the ball at his feet.   Enjoy the controversial moment here.   

Mumbai The weekend is upon us once again and brings with it some great sporting action. The FIFA World Cup enters its second round of group fixtures. Hope for loads of goals as the teams look used to the playing conditions now and will enter matches with more confidence.   The action kicks off on Friday at 17:00 hours with the in-form Germans taking on Serbia. At 19:30, USA will fancy their chances against Slovenia. In the third game of the night, England, in a must-win situation take on Algeria.    On Saturday, the early game pits the Dutch against the Japanese. Ghana, will take on Australia in the second game of the night which kicks off at 19:30 hours. The midnight kickoff features Cameroon, as they take on Denmark.   Sunday, features the big game of the weekend as Brazil take on the Ivory Coast at midnight. Slovakia take on Paraguay in the early kick off (17:00 hours). World Champions Italy lock horns with New Zealand at 19:30. All th

Mumbai I was in Delhi on Wednesday; a full day with only a couple of meetings and some free time in between. I put that to good use, catching up with my daughter and meeting Dhrubajyoti Gayan, a former colleague who now runs a PR consultancy, Candour. We planned to meet at his office at Safdarjang Enclave. He gave me the address and asked me to look out for a Café Coffee Day and a restaurant called ‘It’s Greek to me”. Very original name for a Greek restaurant I thought. Not. Later that day, thanks to the rain Gods, I was drinking a beer or three waiting for my delayed flight and I received a press release on my BB on the Mint/BloombergUTV ‘plagiarism’ dispute. And I looked at the attachments that were kindly provided and I thought, where in heaven is the plagiarism? Both campaigns draw inspiration from an old, old idiom, ‘That’s Greek to me’ or ‘It’s all Greek to me.” I heard the phrase the first time when I studied Julius Caes

Mumbai When the brief for a new TVC for MAK 4T Plus lubricant came in to the Euro RSCG office two months ago, the team on the job decided to revisit a proposition the brand had used a few years years ago and then abandoned. “We felt that ‘Keeps your engine young’ is a very strong plank for a lubricant to take, and believed it was worth going back to,” said Nilesh Vaidya, executive creative director. The agency also chose to avoid highlighting any functional attribute of the product for this particular campaign. “We thought we should do something about the spirit of the youth, instead of how good your engine will be and how smoothly it will perform,” he explained. The jingle that runs through the commercial found favour with K Ravi, who was brand manager on MAK at Bharat Petroleum at that time, and has since moved on to becoming the Mumbai territory manager for lubricants. He said, “Instead of coming up with a vanilla ad, we wanted a song tha

Mumbai As part of its FIFA World Cup association, Emirates Airlines has joined hands with Twitter to launch the Twexican Wave. Through the Twexican Wave, Twitter users have a chance to watch the 2010 FIFA World Cup final free of cost. The idea is inspired by the Mexican Wave phenomenon that originated in US college football games. The aim is to reproduce the Mexican Wave, not in a stadium, but on Twexicanwave.com. An individual has to change their Twitter profile picture to the one with their arms in the air. To win, one needs to be a part of the longest #TwexicanWave. A new wave starts the second someone with an arms-in-the-air profile picture tweets #TwexicanWave. The wave is broken when someone tweets #twexicanwave without a new profile picture.  The participating markets include UK, Australia, Germany, France, India, Japan, UAE.   Commenting on the new initiative, Clare Vaughan-Davies, manager internet communications, Emirates Airlin

Mumbai At this year’s Cannes Lions advertising festival, Piyush Pandey and Agnello Dias will be taking to the stage as speakers. Adland has often bemoaned the lack of Indian speakers at the global advertising festival so the news would be welcomed in advertising circles. Piyush Pandey, executive chairman and creative director, South Asia, Ogilvy & Mather will talk at the session titled ‘Lessons From When Soho’s Mad Men Ruled The World’, organised by Campaign UK. The session will be moderated by Caroline Marshall, executive editor, Haymarket Brand Media and will also feature Clear Channel’s William Eccleshare, BBDO Guerrero/ Proximity Philippines’ David Guerrero and Publicis London’s Adam Kean.   Agnello Dias, chairman and chief creative officer, TapRoot India will be talking at the Independent Agency Showcase 2010 organised by thenetworkone. The session will be moderated by thenetworkone’s Julian Boulding and will feature award-winnin

Mumbai Close on the heels of Rajesh Kochhar being elevated to vice president in charge of its Delhi operation, TBWA India has hired two senior creative talents. Tarvinderjit Singh comes on board as group creative director and Rishi Chanana as creative director. Tarvinderjit and Rishi would form the management team of TBWA Delhi along with Rajesh Kochhar and head of strategy, Kumud Ghoshal.    Talking about the new hires, Rahul Sengupta, national creative director, TBWA India said, “Rishi and Tarvinderjit bring kilowatts of energy into TBWA. Their approach to advertising is infectiously positive and their work will stop many a consumer in their tracks. We trust their young blood to stir advertising out of its stupor.”    Tarvinderjit moves from McCann Erickson where he was creative team leader. He brings with him over 10 years of experience in the advertising business, with previous stints in Leo Burnett, O&M and Grey Worldwide. He has

Mumbai Clea Public Relations (Clea PR), has bagged the PR mandate for IMN News, the soon to be launched English news channel which is currently known as News X. Clea PR will design the channel’s new communication strategy, conceptualising communication and viewer engagement initiatives and handling corporate communications.   Commenting on this, Jehangir S. Pocha, co-promoter, IMN News said, “The impending launch IMN News makes it imperative for us to pursue an effective communication strategy. We chose Clea because they have the right mix of people, passion and enthusiasm to drive our strategy.”   Vinod G. Nair, managing director, Clea PR, said, “We are very excited to work with IMN News. The news channel space is by far the most dynamic and competitive genre in the broadcast media space, requiring relentless thinking, 24/7 innovation and out-of-the-box ideation. Such challenges are rare, and we at Clea PR are raring to change the rules a

Kolkata The Honourable High Court of Kolkata today has granted an interim injunction restraining UTV News Ltd and UTV Global Broadcasting Ltd from continuing with an advertising campaign they started running recently. The injunction was granted on a petition filed by HT Media Ltd against infringement of Intellectual Property Rights. The advertisements released by BloombergUTV bore a striking resemblance to the advertisements released by Mint, HT Media's business daily, for its launch campaign in Kolkata and Chennai in 2009. Both set of ads have a mix of English and Greek words symbolising the complicated way in which business news is often delivered. The interim injunction restricts the "printing, publishing, circulating any advertisement containing Greek symbols or words with use of English words and clarity in business news in the manner as done by the petitioner". HT Media had served a legal notice on BloombergUTV pri

Mumbai Grey Advertising has bagged the creative duties for Bharti AXA General Insurance. Prior to this, Contract Advertising handled the duties. Grey's Bengaluru office will handle the account, with the mandate to provide strategic and creative direction to Bharti AXA General Insurance. Commenting on the win, Vijay Jacob, VP and head of South, (pictured) said, "Our strong creative offering and in-depth understanding of the category and consumer, helped us win this mandate. Bharti AXA is looking to address a wide cross-section of consumers. Our strategic approach resonated with the client." Kimsoon Chua, chief operating officer, Bharti AXA General Insurance, said, “We are happy to sign Grey on as our advertising agency and we look forward to some path-breaking creative and strategic inputs from their team. At Bharti AXA, we are focused on innovation in both products and services and we are looking to enrich our marketing an

Mudra Group has recently announced the promotion of Arijit Ray (pictured) to the post of president at Mudra West. Arijit was earlier the executive vice president and head of Mudra west.    Commenting on his elevation, Arijit Ray, president- Mudra west said, “The challenge was to move a fairly stable operation to the next level and it really has been a very stimulating journey so far at Mudra West. We’ve been successful in capturing many good business wins during the last year, along with several ABBYs, EFFIEs and even the INMA in New York. Our credo is simple- work in line with the Mudra Group philosophy, constantly redefine our benchmark for creative work and get some great people to work together in an environment that champions the meeting of individual aspirations and collective ambition.”   Jude Fernandes, CEO- Mudra India said, “Mudra West has made some remarkable strides last year. They’ve continued producing quality campaigns for their range of est

Malika Sherawat Looking Gorgeous in Her  Sexy Dresses