Posts tagged jury
Anupama Chopra talks about her new book
0Anupama Chopra walks the tightrope as she continues her love affair with the film industry even as she gives it the objective eye
Namrata Bhawnani (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 08, 2011)
Pre-1993, when Bollywood was being bankrolled by the underworld, the industry was almost blasé about its murky associations, says author Anupama Chopra.
In her new book, First Day First Show, she quotes a producer-director, “What is the problem if people are taking money from these people? Their money is not contaminated. It doesn’t matter as long as you make the film and repay them.”
Anupama laughs, “Back then, I was naïve enough to ask producers ‘Are you the mafia?’ People visited Dubai to pay homage to Dawood.
The money was generous, paid on time and there were bankrolled shopping sprees. When the industry became a target with the shootings, it was a dark, weird time. Now I don’t hear of them funding the industry.”
The petite writer is chatty even though she is in a rush to prepare for her trip to Cannes. Three years ago, when she was on the jury, she nearly collapsed while chasing Hollywood stars for interviews and trying to catch all the films. “I had to shoot in a wheelchair,” she says, bursting into peals of laughter.
Her book chronicles the evolution of what was essentially a chaotic cottage industry into its current more sanitized avatar.
Twenty years ago, Anupama returned with a master’s degree from a top journalism school in the US, to become a film journalist when More >
IIFA Technical Awards announced
0By Bollywood Hungama News Network, April 27, 2011 – 15:39 IST
The International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) today announced the winners of the technical awards categories for the IIFA Awards 2011. The trophies will be presented to the winners during the Videocon IIFA Weekend in Toronto, Canada. Band Baaja Baaraat, Dabangg and Robot led the technical winners tally with three awards each.
Maneesh Sharma’s Band Baaja Baaraat won the awards for Editing by Namrata Rao, Song Recording for Vijay Dayal’s ‘Ainvayi Ainvayi‘ and Costume Designing by Niharika Khan. The Rajinikanth starrer Robot walked away with Best Art Director for Sabu Cyril who incidentally won the same award at IIFA 2010 as well. Robot also won the awards for Special Effects by Indian Artists and Make-up by Banu.
The Salman Khan starrer, Dabangg won an award for Choreography for the hit song, ‘Munni Badnaam Hui‘ choreographed by Farah Khan, and Leslie Fernandes who won for Best song recording. The film also won the award for Best Action by S. Vijayan.
The award for Best Cinematographer went to Sudeep Chatterjee for Guzaarish and Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy won the award for the best background score for My Name Is Khan while Pritam Das won for Best Sound Recording for Love, Sex Aur Dhokha.
The IIFA Awards Voting process is a stringent and methodical procedure that is closely monitored by PriceWaterHouse Coopers (PwC), the official auditors for the event. The popular category nominations will then be available for More >
John to make TV debut?
0Actor approached for desi version of Survivor
Roshni K Olivera (BOMBAY TIMES; March 24, 2011) John Abraham might just be the next Bollywood star to make his TV debut. The actor has been approached to host the desi version of the popular reality show, Survivor. The show is likely to go on air in a couple of months and many TV actors have already been tapped to participate in it. While the talks with John are still on, there are two more names doing the rounds — Ajay Devgn and Arjun Rampal. “The channel’s considering these two stars as well, to host the show. It’s after all the biggest show for them,” says a source. Both Ajay and Arjun have made their foray into television, but only as judges (Ajay judged the show Rock and Roll Family with wife Kajol and mother-in-law Tanuja and Arjun was a judge on Nach Baliye 4). So who will eventually host Survivor among the three? Well, with their ‘fit and fab’ image, all of them seem perfect for the job.
ABOUT SURVIVOR In this show, a group of people are marooned on an island. Apart from being voted out, often contestants get eliminated owing to medical conditions such as injury or infection as the show is physically very challenging. The last two or three survivors face a jury composed of the last seven, eight, or nine players voted out. That jury interrogates the final few and then votes for the winner of the game. The American version has been very successful. It’s considered the mother of More >
Dhobi Ghat to release in Germany
0By Bollywood Hungama News Network, February 18, 2011 – 15:09 IST
We all know that Bollywood films have a huge market in the overseas and this has proved to be beneficial to debutante director Kiran Rao whose film Dhobi Ghat was picked up by German distributors Rapid Eye Movies. They will be releasing the film in German theatres later this year.
Dhobi Ghat tells the story of four people from different backgrounds, whose worlds intersect and leave them forever altered. As they find themselves drawn into compelling relationships, the city finds its way into the crevices of their lives, separating them even as it brings them closer. The film which was screened last year at the Toronto International Film Festival met with critical acclaim and also garnered rave reviews back home.
The deal is said to include theatrical distribution rights, home video rights and free TV rights. What’s more is that the producer of the film Aamir Khan, is currently on the jury at the Berlin Film Festival.
BOLLYWOOD HUNGAMA.COM
Minissha Lamba: Gyaani MAMI
0We threw a surprise quiz to Minissha Lamba to test her knowledge of international cinema, since she is hosting the MAMI opening
Sonal Chawla (MUMBAI MIRROR; October 20, 2010)
While the jury had its specific eligibility criteria for choosing Minissha, we decided to list some of ours in the form of a rapid-fire quiz to her on Indian and International cinema.
Who directed Brokeback Mountain ? (Effortlessly) Ang Lee
Who directed Bad Education? There are so many films on Bad Education. (Er, Minissha, it’s the name of a film! We gave her a hint: this filmmaker has also directed Volver and Women On The Verge of A Nervous Breakdown)
I give up. (The correct answer is Pedro Almodovar)
Who directed Psycho ? Alfred Hitchcock
Name the director of Chungking Express? (After thinking for a while) Wong Kar Wai
Who directed Pather Panchali? (Confidently) Satyajit Ray
Four on five. Nice job Minissha. Mumbai Mirror deems you quite eligible for hosting the MAMI opening.
New flavour of MAMI
0This year, Shyam Benegal boasts of a competition between aspiring filmmakers
Mauli Singh (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 09, 2010)
Come October, MAMI, 12th Mumbai Film Festival, will kick-start on a brand new note. The week-long festival starting from October 21, will see MAMI chairperson Shyam Benegal inviting aspiring directors for a competition called ‘Dimensions Mumbai’.
Aspiring directors from Mumbai, below the age of 25 years, will submit short film entries. The duration of each film should not exceed five minutes and they will have to be based on the theme of ‘Mumbai, The Metropolis’.
A panel of experts will select top 20 films from the entries received. These will then be screened at the Festival. Apart from short fiction, the competition is also open to documentaries and animated films.
The Jury will honour the winning films with special prizes too. This includes the Silver Gateway trophy and a cash prize of Rs One Lakh for the winners and another one of Rs 50 thousand for the runners up entries.
And the jury, which is an all-women one, has an exciting line-up too. It includes renowned filmmakers like Tanya Seghatchian, Yoon Jeon Hee and Suhasini Mani Ratnam and is headed by Jane Campion, the Academy award-winning director of The Piano.
Shyam Benegal confirms, “Yes we have an all-women jury. They are excellent filmmakers and the best jury to have.” Talking about the new competition, Benegal adds, “This time we plan to make the More >
Suhasini Mani Ratnam to join MAMI jury
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Suhasini Mani RatnamMani Ratnam’s wife, Suhasini will be one of the jury members at the 12th MAMI Mumbai film festival this year. For the first time ever, the film festival will have an all-women jury. Suhasini joins the panel of five jury members, which will be headed by Academy Award winner Jane Champion.
Our source said, “For the first time, it’ll be an all-women jury at the 12th annual Mami film festival.
The Mami film festival is organised by Reliance Big Pictures this time and since they were the producers of Mani’s film Raavan, they approached her to be a jury member and she agreed.”
Suhasini Mani Ratnam also runs the production company, Madras Talkies along with her husband.
She made her debut in 1980 with the Tamil film Nenjathai Killathe. Since then, Suhasini worked in many South Indian films.
She won the National Award for Best Actress for her role in the Tamil film Sindhu Bhairavi in ‘85. In 1996, she wrote the screenplay and directed the film Indira and produced Iruvar in ‘97. Incidentally she is also the only Indian to be part of the jury panel of this international film festival.
SRK and KJo to host first ever IPL Awards
0By Nikhil Ramsubramaniam, April 15, 2010 – 12:09 IST
Best buddies Shah Rukh Khan and Karan Johar have co-hosted many Bollywood award functions in the past and now for the first time ever the duo will be seen hosting the grand IPL Awards scheduled to take place on April 23rd in Mumbai this year. The announcement was made by IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi at a function in Mumbai yesterday.
With the whole nation being gripped by the IPL frenzy, the organizers have decided to come up with the first ever IPL Awards which will recognize the best performances and honour the best players of the IPL. Some of the categories are Best Batsman, Best Bowler, Best Fielder, Best IPL Debutante, Most Consistent Performer, Most Dramatic Performance and Breakthrough Performance. The winners in these categories will be selected by an esteemed jury comprising of Lalit Modi, Sunil Gavaskar, Brian Lara, Harsha Bhogle, Javagal Srinath and umpire Simon Taufel. Apart from the jury awards there is also a separate section for the Viewers’ Choice Awards where cricket fans will get to vote for their favorite performers from the IPL.
In true IPL style, the evening will be a fusion of cricketing and entertainment excellence, with some of India’s biggest names, including AR Rahman, Shilpa Shetty, Katrina Kaif, Priyanka Chopra and Hrithik Roshan, set to deliver their trademark energy and style. Besides, the event will also feature performances by some leading cricketers, who will show they More >
Katrina loves Priyanka and Vidya
0For once, diplomacy saw its defeat. Katrina Kaif surprised one and all when she chose Priyanka Chopra and Vidya Balan as the two actresses who deserved to get the Filmfare Best Actress award for 2009.
“If I had to choose, apart from myself, I would choose Priyanka or Vidya. ‘Kaminey’ is one of my favourite films. And I loved Vidya in ‘Paa’,” said the current toast of B-Town while announcing the 55th Idea Filmfare Awards 2009. “But why can’t I choose myself?” she added with a mischievous grin.
Besides Katrina, who has been nominated for ‘New York’, the other nominees include Deepika Padukone (‘Love Aaj Kal’) and Kareena Kapoor (’3 Idiots’ and ‘Kurbaan’). India’s oldest cinema awards which is often compared to the Oscars, is scheduled to be held on the 27th of February at the Yash Raj Studios, Mumbai.
Dressed in a figure-hugging brown knee-length dress, Katrina further said that she would be happier if her movies win the award. “Everybody wants to win. But I would want my movies to win,” she said. However, she added, “I am happy being nominated. I don’t want to go through that nail-biting experience of whether I am winning the award or not. As long as I am nominated, it is fine. And I am more than happy to be part of the event than winning any award. This is my second year at the Filmfare awards More >