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Posts tagged Nikhil Ramsubramaniam
An open letter to Madhur Bhandarkar
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
By Nikhil Ramsubramaniam, May 27, 2011 – 15:38 IST
Respected Sir,
There has always been a strong element of reality in each of your films. While Chandni Bar took us deep into the shady dance bars thriving in the city of Mumbai, Page 3 exposed the lifestyle of the rich and famous. In Traffic Signal too, you once again portrayed a side of Mumbai never seen before depicting the community which exists at the numerous traffic signals while with Fashion, you took us behind the scenes of all that happens amidst the glitz and glamour of the fashion world. Now the whole world is waiting with bated breath for your next biggie Heroine starring the timeless beauty Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. We all know that Heroine is based on the life and times of a superstar heroine from the dream factory we call ‘Bollywood’.
Even as you and your creative team are busy working round the clock deciding on what to incorporate in this ambitious project, we as viewers would like to point out some things which we would like to see in Heroine….Bhandarkarsaab please make sure Heroine includes the following:
- Bagging the first break: In a land filled with thousands of hopeful aspirants, it’s only a handful who get lucky to bag that elusive break. Is it acting talent, just good looks, pure luck or having the right connections that help you get your first break is something we would like to see in Heroine…Needless to say it would also be interesting to see your take on the infamous casting couch which More >
B-town stars catch the IPL fever
02 years ago
By Nikhil Ramsubramaniam, April 25, 2011 – 16:42 IST
The IPL fever has caught on big time and a lot of our B-town stars too have been spotted at the various matches cheering for the favourite teams. The recently held match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata saw the presence of quite a few bigwigs. In this pic, one can see the owners of the two teams namely Dr. Vijay Mallya along with son Sidhartha and Shah Rukh Khan exchange some friendly banter before play kicks off.
Shah Rukh also had his children for company and the actor was even seen giving some fielding practice to son Aryan.
Meanwhile, Sidhartha Mallya had Deepika Padukone by his side and they surely seemed to be enjoying each other’s company.
In the end, as Mallya’s boys pulled of a sensational win over King Khan’s Knight Riders, Deepika couldn’t contain her joy and embraced her dear friend Mallya Jr.
Meanwhile at another match held in Delhi between Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab over the weekend, Lara Dutta was spotted along with her Chalo Dilli team cheering for the Delhi Daredevils. Lara had hubby Mahesh and co-actor Vinay Pathak for company and the cheering surely helped as Delhi ended up winning that game.
The Sen sisters – Raima and Riya Sen too have been spotted at the IPL matches with Riya being quite a regular at the matches of the Kochi Tuskers team.
Riya even managed to pose with King Khan during the match between Kochi More >
DMD will help Goa tourism-Rohan Sippy
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in Interviews
By Nikhil Ramsubramaniam, April 19, 2011 – 16:25 IST
Rohan Sippy’s directorial debut Kuch Naa Kaho didn’t quite set the Box Office on fire but his second film Bluffmaster surely did. Rohan is now back once again with his childhood buddy Abhishek Bachchan for his third directorial venture Dum Maaro Dum. In this exclusive interview with Bollywood Hungama‘s Nikhil Ramsubramaniam, Rohan talks about how the idea of the film first came up, the casting process, the zany music of the film and of course how he feels the film will in fact help Goan tourism industry even more. Read on…
Rohan, there was a gap of 3 years between your first film and second film and now a gap of 6 years between your second and third film. In a time and age where people seem to be working at break neck speed, you seem to be taking your own sweet time. Why so? No particular reason yaar…I’ve been busy producing a couple of films in the interim period and since the last 2 years have been working on Dum Maaro Dum.
How did the idea of Dum Maaro Dum first originate? It originated from Sridhar Raghavan (the writer of the film) and a bottle of Old Monk (his faithful writing companion). When he wrote the first draft, it was a 40-50 page novella and had me completely gripped from beginning to end. From there on we began working on subsequent drafts of the film and each time the characters got fleshed out more and more.
The idea of Dum Maaro Dum originated from Sridhar Raghavan (the writer of the More >Behind the Scenes – Thank You
02 years ago
By Nikhil Ramsubramaniam, April 13, 2011 – 13:06 IST
Last Friday saw the release of UTV Motion Pictures’ Thank You, a multi-starrer comedy directed by Anees Bazmee. The film has been shot at some beautiful locations of Canada. We bring you an exclusive look at all the action that happened behind the scenes of the film with the director Anees Bazmee himself giving a running commentary describing each scene. So over to you Anees bhai…
“This is Akshay’s introductory shot in the film where he escapes some goons by jumping off a building using an umbrella. The building where we shot was close to the sea and we used choppers to get a perfect aerial view of the whole scenery.”
“This is the scene in which Suniel Shetty sees Akshay and Sonam embracing each other. We shot it in Toronto.”
“This scene comes immediately after the ‘Razia‘ song where a drunk girl asks Bobby to kiss her…the famous ‘Kiss-na’ scene. We shot it at Filmistan studios in Mumbai where we had put up a big set for the whole song sequence.”
“This is the scene where Bobby feels that his wife Sonam is having an affair with ‘The King’ (played by Mukesh Tiwari). We were shooting in Vancouver and it was freezing cold.”
“In this shot taken during the filming of the ‘Razia‘ track, I am trying to explain Sonam how to get a particular emotion right.”
“The house you see in the picture is shown as Sonam’s house in the film. This is the shot in which Sonam’s mother (played by Smita Jaykar) tells Akshay that More >
Now an animated sequel to Andaz Apna Apna
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
By Nikhil Ramsubramaniam, March 25, 2011 – 08:47 IST
At the on-going FICCI-FRAMES 2011 convention in Mumbai, Sidhartha M Jain of iRock announced quite a few interesting films which his company would be making in the days to come. iRock is the name behind films such as the forthcoming flick Ragini MMS and Shaadi Of The Dead.
Speaking at FICCI-FRAMES 2011, Sidhartha said, “We are ready with Ragini MMS which is India’s first found footage reality horror film. The film is made in association with Balaji’s ALT Entertainment. Post that we have India’s first zombie comedy film Shaadi Of The Dead starring Abhay Deol and we are in the process of finalizing a few other actors. It’s a never before seen concept of zombies gate-crashing a big fat Punjabi wedding. We also have a film called Bloody Veer in the pipeline and also have plans to make India’s first space adventure film.”
However the last project which Sid announced took everyone by surprise. He said, “We would also be making an animation sequel to a very popular film – Andaz Apna Apna. We are pretty focused that we are creating content for the youth in the age group of 13-35 years.”
iRock, which received initial funding form Manmohan Shetty, also has Mr.Shekar Kapur on board as a Mentor. In fact, Shekhar is closely involved with iRock’s forthcoming project Shaadi Of The Dead.
BOLLYWOOD HUNGAMA.COM
Gut Feel or Market Research the way ahead for Indian cinema?
12 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
By Nikhil Ramsubramaniam, March 25, 2011 – 09:24 IST
A lot of filmmakers internationally are using Market Research, Focus Group Discussions and Test Screenings as a tool to gauge initial feedback about their films. However, many of the Indian filmmakers still show reluctance towards Market Research/ Target Group Testing/ Title Testing etc. prior to movie production/ release and rely on their gut feel and experience. Hence it was rather apt to have a panel discussion on ‘Market Research for Indian Cinema’ on Day 2 of FICCI- Frames 2011 currently being held in Mumbai.
The interesting session was moderated by Mr.Vivek Krishnani- Head- Distribution, Marketing and Syndication at Fox Star Studios and saw some eminent personalities such as Siddharth Roy Kapur (CEO- UTV Motion Pictures), Sidhartha M Jain (CEO, iRock), Jaideep Sahni (writer of films such as Chak De India & Khosla Ka Ghosla), filmmaker Sudhir Mishra, Mr. Ram Mirchandani (Chief Creative Officer- Eros International) and Mr. Farshad Family (MD of Nielsen Media, India).
When asked on what they thought about Market Research for Indian cinema, Siddharth Roy Kapur said, “The trend of research is not new. In fact many years ago Mr.Raj Kapoor used to show his films to his close family and friends pre-release and ask for their feedback. Aamir Khan still does that with his films. It’s just that we don’t use the term Research for that. The objective of conducting Focus Group Discussions, Test Screenings etc. More >
I play a sexy man-eating girl in One Life To Live-Shenaz Treasuryvala
12 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in Interviews
By Nikhil Ramsubramaniam, February 16, 2011 – 15:16 IST
A few weeks ago we had informed you about Shenaz Treasuryvala featuring in the popular American soap opera ‘One Life To Live’. We caught up with the chirpy actress who is busy shooting for the show in New York for a quick tête-à-tête. Read on…
First things first Shenaz, how did you bag this TV show One Life To Live? A few months ago, I came to the States for a wedding in San Diego, after which I flew to New York to visit friends. My co-star in Delhi Belly, Poorna (my darling super-talented, best friend and angel) introduced me to her agent who sent me to an audition for ‘One Life To Live’. It was my first audition in the U.S. and I went in for fun, not expecting anything, which is probably the best attitude to have. As luck would have it, I got shortlisted and called back the next day and then got called back the next week again to meet producers, after which I had to do another screen test. The audition process itself took a couple of months, so I extended my trip and subleased an apartment here. By this time, I really wanted to get this. I went through many rounds and out of 1000 odd girls in LA and NY, they chose 15 and then 9 and then finally 2. I was one of the two. I waited a few weeks with bated breath.
It was my first audition in the U.S. and I went in for fun, not expecting anythingAnd then you bagged the coveted role… Well not really…you won’t believe it but in the end, they called me More >
YRF to launch Parineeti Chopra in Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
By Nikhil Ramsubramaniam, February 15, 2011 – 12:21 IST
Yash Raj Films (YRF) has always believed in encouraging and launching new talent. Only recently it gave the industry one of the most talented newcomers in Ranveer Singh. Now YRF is all set to launch yet another new face- Parineeti Chopra- in its forthcoming film Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl directed by Maneesh Sharma.
Not many know but Parineeti happens to be actress Priyanka Chopra’s cousin. She has been working with YRF for over a year in the Marketing Department as an integral part of the Promotional and PR team. Given one-off chance to audition for the film, she impressed both Maneesh and Aditya Chopra and was immediately cast for a role as one of the “ladies” who fall prey to the smooth talking guile of Ricky Bahl.
“I think Parineeti was phenomenal in her video test. I had no doubts that I wanted her in my film. In fact, when I worked on the script, I had her at the back of my mind, having interacted with her while she was in office”, said director Maneesh Sharma.
Parineeti, like most YRF discoveries, has bagged a 3 film deal with the production house the first of which is Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl. The excited newcomer tweeted, “I am so so soooo excited to be signing 3 films with YRF, and hope all goes well with me Thank u to all those who have been wishing me well.”
Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl stars Ranveer Singh and Anushka Sharma who were last seen together in YRF’s Band Baaja Baaraat. Shooting of the More >
It’s ‘Love, Breakups, Zindagi’ for Zayed & Dia
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
By Nikhil Ramsubramaniam, February 10, 2011 – 12:50 IST
The trio of Zayed Khan, Dia Mirza and Sahil Sangha who are the brains behind Born Free Entertainment announced their company’s first venture Love, Breakups, Zindagi at a colourful and vibrant Press Conference in Mumbai yesterday.
Love, Breakups, Zindagi is an entertaining rom-com that takes a look at today’s relationships. The film is written and directed by Sahil Sangha himself and stars Zayed Khan, Dia Mirza, Cyrus Sahukar, Tisca Chopra, Satyadeep Misra, Pallavi, Vaibhav Talwar besides introducing newcomers Auritra Ghosh and Umang. The film is being produced by Sahara Motion Pictures in association with Born Free Entertainment.
Speaking about her new venture Dia Mirza said, “We sincerely believe that filmmaking is first and foremost about honesty. You need to be honest to your characters as actors, and you need to be honest to the story as a director. And we believe that we need to be honest to the audiences, delivering exactly what we promise.”
Zayed Khan who too is super-excited about his new outing said, “How often have you had a brilliant idea and thought there was no way you could translate that on to the screen? Well, Born Free Entertainment intends to give talented storytellers the opportunity to do exactly that, no matter what genre their story, no matter what background they come from.”
Meanwhile debutant director Sahil Sangha also seemed excited about his maiden production. The young More >