Posts tagged special effects

I love doing action-Darsheel Safari

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2 years ago
by Fenil Seta in

BOMBAY TIMES (March 29, 2011)

Child actor Darsheel Safari, who made his debut with his mentor Aamir and went on to win the Filmfare Critics Award for best actor will soon be seen in Walt Disney’s first Hindi local production — Zokkomon. This summer release is an action packed family extravaganza that showcases a unique adventure of a brave ordinary boy who meets unexpected challenges and rises as a super hero. With a backdrop of bravery and courage, the film is packed with exciting action sequences and strong family values to take home. Directed by Satyajit Batkal, Darsheel is the main lead along with veteran stalwart Anupam Kher and actress Manjari Fadnis.

Darsheel, who turned 15 last month, is particularly excited about his role as he gets to play a super hero in the film. He says, “I am thrilled to see myself as Zokkomon, all the special effects and action sequences are something I haven’t done before. I can’t wait to watch the movie with my friends and family.” Bhatkal calls Darsheel one of India’s best actors. He says, “Darsheel has performed brilliantly. He has done incredible stunts with the utmost finesse and ease. Darsheel trained for months to perfect his moves with international stunt director William Ong, who has worked with the legendary Jackie Chan.”

Turbulence hits Bollywood

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2 years ago
by Fenil Seta in

Ace ad filmmaker Ravi Udyawar to adapt Samit Basu’s bestselling urban fantasy fiction

Chandrima Pal (MUMBAI MIRROR; February 12, 2011)

This could well be one of the most ambitious Bollywood projects in a while. Author Samit Basu’s best-selling fantasy fiction Turbulence is set to be adapted for the big screen in a mega-budget production.

The racey page-turner which has superhumans battling evil forces right from the mangroves of Versova to the streets of London and is liberally sprinkled with allusions and tributes to several super hero franchises was being eyed by several production houses keen to buy the film rights.

An ad film directed by Ravi Udyawar Ravi Udyawar and Samit Basu

“I turned down several people while others backed out when they figured that it involves high-budget special effects,” says Basu. “The hunt for the director with the right kind of vision and expertise ended with Ravi Udyawar,” he says.

Udyawar, an accomplished and award winning ad filmmaker has made cutting edge films for some of the top-brands and has worked with Aamir Khan, AR Rahman and Akshay Kumar.

He has also directed several music videos with Strings and Kailash Kher among others.

“I was blown away with his work,” says Basu, adding, “With Ravi directing Turbulence, everything else is bound to fall into place, including the production houses and actors I have on my wish list.”

A fan of comics and graphic novels, Udyawar, had been looking for a More >

Ra.One & Toonpur’s plot almost identical?

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2 years ago
by Fenil Seta in ,

The plot of Toonpur Ka Superrhero is almost identical to that of RA.One. SRK is livid and has ordered for topnotch special effects to combat this

Subhash K Jha (MUMBAI MIRROR; December 15, 2010)

The effervescent Kajol may be the only binding factor between the two warring superstars Shah Rukh Khan and Ajay Devgn. But even the never-say-die Kajol would find it hard to deal with the latest bone of contention between SRK and Devgn.

It now turns out that Ajay Devgn’s prestigious home production Toonpur Ka Superrhero featuring Devgn with Kajol has a near-identical plotline to RA.One.

In Toonpur Devgn and Kajol have a young son who wants his seemingly ordinary dad to be a superhero. To prove himself a hero in his son’s eyes Devgn vanishes into the boy’s favourite cartoon world.

In RA.One Shah Rukh and Kareena Kapoor play a married couple with a son (same age as the boy in Toonpur…)who thinks his dad is too wimpy to be a true hero. To prove himself a hero Shah Rukh vanishes into a video game named RA.One.

In both the films the hero enters a gaming world, gets involved with characters in the virtual world and doesn’t know how to get back into the real world. How did the two superstars so distanced in their attitude to career and life, end up producing and starring in two films not only of the same genre but nearly identical in theme and characters?

Says a source very close to one of the projects, “I think the working-class dad wanting More >

Ra.One pushed to Diwali 2011?

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2 years ago
by Fenil Seta in ,

SRK’s next, already in the shadow of Robot’s astounding success, has been postponed to next Diwali, so that King Khan can buy the best SFX money can buy

Kunal M Shah (MUMBAI MIRROR; November 15, 2010)

Fans of King Khan, who are eagerly awaiting the release of his next film, might have to wait even more as RA.One has now been pushed to a Diwali 2011 release.

The film was scheduled to be released in June next year. However it seems that the SFX won’t be complete by then.

Our source said, “RA.One is Shah Rukh’s most ambitious film till date. He is leaving no stone unturned for the production values of the film.

Already there are strong rumours that Rajni’s Robot is similar to RA.One; it is a known fact that SRK was the one who was scheduled to star in Robot before he had differences with Shankar and Shankar went on to make the film with Rajnikanth.

Now people are saying that both the films have lots of similarities. That apart, Robot is already a huge hit and the SFX of the film are being talked about. Keeping all this in mind, SRK wants the film to be nothing less than the best.

He will not settle for anything but the best and he wants the special effects of the film to be of the top order, making it a technical feat in Bollywood.

SRK himself had tweeted that the film will release on June 3 sometime ago but he now knows that it is not going to be possible. The SFX will take time.”

A still from RA.One

The source further said, “The next More >

Movie Review: HISSS by FENIL SETA

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2 years ago
by Fenil Seta in

How bad can a film get? How low can it stoop? When it comes to pathetic cinema, I thought I had seen it all. But Hisss arrived and changed all my beliefs. Here’s a film where anything happens anytime. Moreover, that anything happens long after it should have happened! When a list of ten worst films of Bollywood will be prepared, Hisss would definitely be on numero uno position!

The story of the movie: George (Jeff Doucette) suffers from brain cancer and has only 6 months to live. He has heard about the legendary naagmani of icchadhaari naagain and wants to acquire it in order to become immortal. He penetrates deep within the jungles of India and captures the mate of the naagin. In other words, he kidnaps the mate and will release him when the naagin gives him the naagmani. The naagin transforms into a stunning woman (Mallika Sherawat) and enters the city of Naichi where George has kept her mate hostage. She fails to find him and hence starts killing rapists, wife-beaters et al. Her ways of killing people are most extraordinary, which baffles inspector Vikram (Irrfan) and his sidekick Navin (Raman Trikha). To find out how the naagin finds her partner and the kidnapper, watch Hisss!

What could have been told in precise 30 minutes is stretched into a 100 minutes affair. The direction is the worst I have ever seen (not to forget, the director is from Hollywood). Even the introduction of characters which should have been simple is done in an extremely weird More >

Sequence in Ra.One copied from Robot?

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2 years ago
by Fenil Seta in
Subhash K Jha (MUMBAI MIRROR; October 14, 2010)

An action sequence on a speeding train in Shah Rukh Khan’s superhero flick RA.One is said to be identical to the one in the Rajnikanth blockbuster, Robot.

A source says, “The two sequences have many special effects and boast of the hero’s never-before-seen stunts on top of a train.”

But the question is how did two films made in different cities by two separate teams of technicians end up with such striking similarities?

Says a source close to the project, “Shah Rukh has always been a big fan of celebrated chase sequences on top of speeding trains in films, like the one in Sholay. He wanted to mix that sense of thrill with special effects and stunts in RA.One. How was he to know that director Shankar had the same thing in mind for Rajnikanth?”

Efforts are on to re-edit the train sequence in RA.One so that not a single frame resembles the chase in Robot.

Resul Pookutty doesn’t deny the similarities either and says, “There are lavish train-top action sequences in both films. We are looking at how to keep it (RA.One) completely different from the earlier one (Robot).”

The buzz is that Shah Rukh doesn’t want his RA.One audience to call the scene a direct copy of the one in Robot.

Neither does he want to do away with the sequence. By the way, the scene cost him close to Rs 3 crore!

Robot’s success pushes SRK’s panic buttons

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2 years ago
by Fenil Seta in ,

In the wake of Rajni’s blockbuster, King Khan called for a day-long meeting with the RA.One team, deciding to make it the first-ever interactive gaming flick

Subhash K Jha (MUMBAI MIRROR; October 05, 2010)

The spectacular success of Rajnikanth’s Robot has made Shah Rukh Khan and his team of RA.One sit up and become doubly alert about their pet project.

An SOS meeting was summoned at Mannat on Sunday. Those present at the meeting included director Anubhav Sinha, sound recordist Resul Pookutty and producer Shah Rukh.

After viewing the rushes, a number of vital strategic ideas were devised, following a heated debate, after which everyone let their hair down at a Bandra bar. The most startling resolution during the day-long meeting was to convert RA.One into a full-fledged gaming movie. Sound designer Resul Pookutty says, “The challenge with RA.One is to create a balance between the two distinctly different worlds of gaming and movies.

We met at Shah Rukh’s home on Sunday and watched the film. And yes, we’ve come up with a number of strategies to make RA.One different from all other super-hero films.”

Says a source, “The climax of the film will actually allow audiences to play the RA.One game in theatres as they watch the film. This kind of participative cinema has never been done before in any part of the world.” We can’t wait to push the right buttons.

It has also been decided that a super-hero film without the drama and emotions won’t More >

Demystifying India’s highest paid filmmaker: the elusive S Shankar

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2 years ago
by Fenil Seta in

Meena Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; October 03, 2010)

If you join the dots from S Shankar’s first film Gentleman (1993) to his latest Robot (2010) you’ll notice a common thread. For one, he has the finger on the pulse of the mainstream cinegoer. Plus, he knows how to embellish his work with gloss and grandeur at a scale still unimaginable by most filmmakers.

Real Indian palaces, heritage sights, Machu-Pichu, seven wonders of the world…he’s exploited them all long before Bollywood found their address.

But to grant the devil his due - his movies are not just special-effects ridden; there is a definite plot with a message. Also, the budgets get more phenomenal each time.

His first blockbuster Gentleman (1993) (with its iconic Chik paku raile number that introduced the world to Prabhu Deva’s dancing skills) brought a new style of filmmaking but his 90s protagonist is just a different avatar of Bollywood 70s phenomenon - Salim-Javed’s ‘angry young man’.

Quite like Amitabh Bachchan, Shankar’s hero has invariably been taking on the system, film after film.  But where he leaves his contemporaries way behind is his technical wizardry. A fact just reiterated by his latest Robot (Endhiran, Tamil).

Comparisons to West

Two days after the release of the Rs 150 crore film, Kollywood’s Shankar is drawing comparisons to none other than James Cameron.

Both are August born; both spare no expense when it comes to their budgets and cinematic vision. And quite like More >

Hrithik’s Krrish 2 for the price of 1?

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2 years ago
by Fenil Seta in ,

Insider buzz is that the star is likely to play both hero and anti-hero in the film

Vickey Lalwani (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 21, 2010)

All you Krrish fans, listen up. The buzz is that Rakesh Roshan’s sequel to the superhit film will have his son Hrithik play both the bad and the good guy. So, even fans of Hrithik, who loved his negative character in Dhoom 2 and were disappointed to hear that he won’t play one in Dhoom 3, can also look forward to Krrish 2.

According to a source, Hrithik will portray a positive and a negative character in the sequel. Both these characters will have equal powers. Says the source, “Both may be clones of each other. This would give the film a very interesting dimension and will take it to the next level.”

Earlier, the buzz was that Shah Rukh Khan would play the villain. The source adds, “Frankly, Krrish 2 is in the early stages now. Moreover, Rakesh is currently holidaying in Europe. He will meet Hrithik there, who has just finished shooting for Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara.

The script of Krrish 2 will get locked only next month after Rakesh returns to India. The final call on the negative role will be taken only then.”

It seems papa Roshan is leaving no stone unturned in refurbishing his son’s career after Kites came soaring down with a thud. But even while casting Hrithik in a negative role, Rakesh has added a different hue to his character. The source explains, “Krrish 2 requires a villain who has the heart of a More >

Murugadoss signs Shruti Haasan opp Surya

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2 years ago
by Fenil Seta in

By Subhash K. Jha, August 16, 2010 – 12:00 IST

First it was mom Sarika whose good offices were used to launch daughter Shruti Haasan’s career in Hindi cinema. Now, apparently dad Kamal Haasan has taken over the responsibility.

Shruti’s Hindi launch Luck starred Imran Khan, a close family friend of Sarika (Sarika and her two daughters used to stay with Imran’s mom during her earlier visits to Mumbai). Now Ghajini director Murugadoss has been asked to create an impressive re-launch film for the pretty Shruti Haasan.

Her first attempt at stardom in Luck was a big fiasco. But now Shruti is all set to make another attempt to make an impression in Hindi cinema, this time with a film being made on her illustrious dad Kamal Haasan’s home-ground Tamil Nadu.

The story goes that director A .R Murugadoss had gone to Kamal Haasan to collaborate on a project. Instead, Kamal Haasan suggested that Murugadoss work with Shruti whose experience in Mumbai was far from satisfying

That’s how Murugadoss ended up signing Shruti Haasan opposite Suriya in the Tamil Ezham Arivu (The Seventh Sense).

Originally, the film was meant to be in Tamil and Telugu. But now a Hindi version is also being made.

Murugadoss admits that The Seventh Sense is planned as a re-launch for Shruti Haasan in Bollywood.

Says the director, “It is a medical thriller with some of the most costly special effects ever done in Southern cinema. We want to take the sci-fi to a new level in the South. Shruti has More >

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