Big B – Hema – Salman in ‘Babul’
Ravi Chopra’s much-talked-about MITTI, starring Amitabh Bachchan and Salman Khan, has been put on hold. “We wanted to shoot in Rajasthan. But it’s not possible at this time of the year. Besides, Aamir Khan’s film, based on the 1857 uprising [THE RISING], also looks at the same period. It doesn’t make sense to start shooting MITTI now. We will delay it for some time at least,” he reveals.

Instead, Chopra is getting ready to make yet another family saga, post-BAGHBAN. Titled BABUL,

the film will feature heavyweights like Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan and Hema Malini. One more actor and actress are yet to be finalised. The scripting will be over by the end of January and the shooting will commence from February-end or early March. Chopra is hoping for a Diwali release.

“The story deals with the rehabilitation of a daughter-in-law by her father-in-law, after she becomes a widow. We are trying to put across the message that one should not expect a woman to die along with her husband,” he remarks. However, Chopra clarifies that the film will not be a social comment on the Sati system; it will be more contemporary in nature.

Exclusive info on ‘Borivali’
There is tremendous speculation about JHANKAAR BEATS director Sujoy Ghosh’s new film, titled BORIVALI. Reportedly, Ghosh has had meetings with Amitabh Bachchan and Naseeruddin Shah – two of the finest talents of Indian screen – to star in the film.Ghosh has been tight-lipped about the star cast ever since he had discussions with the two actors.As for who’d produce it, Ghosh isn’t telling yet.

‘Money Mooney Money’
After a hiatus, Sudhakar Bokade is all set to bounce back with a new project. Titled MONEY MOONEY MONEY [an extra ‘o’ has been added in the second ‘Money’ for numerological reasons!], the film will be directed by Lawrence D’Souza, who has directed a string of films for the producer, the most successful of them being SAAJAN.

As of now, the cast finalised is Jackie Shroff and Tabu with two youngsters, Vikas Kalantri and Aslam Khan. If you recall, the two youngsters were cast in Nitin Manmohan’s NAYEE PADOSAN [released in 2003]. Bokade and D’Souza are introducing a new girl in this project – Shrestha. The makers have already recorded six songs under the baton of singer turned music composer Bali Brahmbhatt. “We hope to begin filming this month and wrap up the entire shooting in one schedule itself, by April this year,” Bokade enlightens me.“It’s a thriller with light moments aplenty. The script [penned by Sanjeev Duggal] is one of the USPs of the film.”

Madhuri in Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s film
Madhuri Dixit has agreed to do popular Bengali director Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s Hindi film. Buddhadeb, who is currently in Mumbai to attend Mumbai International Film Festival, confirmed the news. He said, “Madhuri has agreed to do the film in principle. The film will hit the floors in October.” The film will be produced by Jhamu Sughand. Dasgupta further informed, “I have another commitment with Sughand. It will be a Bengali film titled Sparshev Baaye starring Raima Sen, Rimi Sen and Prosenjit. I will complete that film first before beginning the Hindi venture.” It may be noted that Karisma Kapur was approached for Rimi’s role. But Buddhadas Gupta wanted someone who could speak shudh Bengali and thus opted for Rimi.

‘Tum...’ Manisha’s ek aur hot love story!
In ‘Tum...’, Manisha has stepped into the skin of her character. After exposing to the hilt in Shashilal Nair’s ‘Ek Chhotisi Love Story’ (and later crying foul) Manisha strips once again in producer Ratan Jain’s ‘TUM...’ directed by Aruna Raje, renowned as she is for her gutsy themes.

The film has three lengthy love-making scenes featuring Manisha Koirala, the first with Karan Nath who plays a fashion photographer and later with Rajat Kapoor who plays Manisha’s husband in the movie. One passionate sequence in bed accompanied by a song lasts for about four minutes, though the movie also boasts of other bold and sexy scenes.

In fact, some time back ‘Tum...’ ran into serious trouble when it was shown to censor board members. They refused to give the movie a censor certificate and asked for 16 major cuts before submitting it again! They also demanded the producer to shorten the length of each love-making scene by 50 percent.

But director Aruna Raje put her foot down. She insisted that since the censors were awarding an adult certificate to ‘Tum...’, the cuts were unreasonable as they were very crucial to film’s narrative. Finally after a

month long battle, Aruna Raje emerged victorious as they relented and passed the film without any cut.

Producer Ratan Jain admits that the film does have a lot of exposure and long, steamy scenes. “But they are necessary for the film. The story is such that we cannot do without these bold scenes.”

“It is the story of a married woman who gets carried away and gets intimate with a young man. But she soon realizes her mistake. The story is about the repercussions of her one mistake, which turns her life topsy-turvy. Manisha has done some bold scenes in the film, but they are the demand of the story. ‘Tum...’ is not a soft porn film meant to tantalize audiences. In fact, it is the story of a woman gone astray. It deals with her turmoil and about how she tackles the situation. It’s Manisha’s finest performance till date”, declares Aruna Raje.

Suraiya’s death, a big loss
In the death of singing- star Suraiya who ruled the silver screen in the 1940s and 1950s, film industry has suffered a big loss. She began her singing career with All India Radio, Mumbai, as a child artiste and her film career under the benign gaze of Naushad, Sohrab Modi and A.R. Kardar. Before long she formed, along with K.L. Saigal, Surendra and Noor Jehan the powerful singer-actor quartet of post-World War II Hindi cinema. Her lilting songs from many films, including those wherein she worked with Dev Anand, (who paas rahein ya door rahein (Badi Bahen), Man more hua matwala (Afsar), Tere Nainon ne chori kiya (pyar ki jeet), Dil-e-nadaan tujhe hua kya hain (Mirza Galib ) , swayed millions over the years. Dev and Suraiya fell headlong in love. It is another matter that they could not get married. Suraiya was a great fan of Hollywood star Gregory Peck who gave her the biggest surprise of her life by knocking at her door one evening during his visit to India.

Tie-up with Sahara
Director-producer Ram Gopal Verma and its Partners, K Sera Sera Productions, have tied up with the Sahara Group for a mega core venture that will release 10 films in a year.

Amitabh and Sharmila Tagore to work tether again
Amitabh Bachchan and Sharmila Tagore had worked together in “Farar”, “Desh Premee” and “Besharam”.If none of the three films turned out to be a hit, that’s another matter. Now Mahesh Manjrekar is bringing them together again in “Virudh” a Hindi-English bilingual. It is anybody’s guess if Mahesh has been inspired by the big box office success of B.R. Chopra’s “Baghban”.

PNC wins Golden Peacock
Pritish Nandy Communications won the golden peacock award for innovative product on January 24 in Banglore. It won the award for creating a new genre of films, often described in media as “ Multiplex Movies” films like Bollywood Calling, Sur, Kaante, Jhankar Beats, Mumbai Matinee and the recently released Chameli.

Indian talent tapped by UK film industry
A delegation of key UK film industry players conducted a week-long intensive series of workshops in Mumbai to identify Indian scriptwriting talent and match it with UK industry skills. Those participating in the workshop from the UK included writer Jeremy Brock (Charlotte Gray, Mrs Brown) film director Marcs Evans (My little Eye), Jenny Borgars, head of the UK film council’s Develpoment Fund, and litery agent Nick Marston from Curtis Brown.

Selected for Cannes
Actor –director- writer Markand Deshpande’s film Danav(Demon) had been selected for the directors fortnight section in the Cannes festival 2004 to be held in May.

First World Spiritual Film Festival
First World Spiritual Film Festival concluded on January 27 in Goa. 21 films from 12 countries were showcased on six nights. It concluded with Mahakumbh, a 30 – minute film directed by Devevndra Kandelwal. Other notable films screened included Zorba Buddha by Lakshen Scamelli (Italy), Shooting God by Scot Snyder (USA), A Love Supreme by Nilesh Patel (UK), The Peanut Net by Charady Case (Belgium) along with films from Kazakhistan, Japan, Korea and Israel.

IFDA ON WORLD MAP
Opender Chanana, honorary General Secretary of Indian Film Directors’ Association has been elected to the World Executive Committee of UNI-MEI that is among the 14 sectors that form the Union Network International. It has a global spread of professional organizations of writers, technicians and film craftsmen in 140 countries. It has members from 16 countries including the US, France, Italy, Egypt and Germany.

Subhash Ghai gets Golden Pyramid at Cairo
Subhash Ghai was awarded the prestigious Golden Pyramid Award at the 27th International Cairo Film Festival for his 25 years of achievement in Indian cinema. A Subhash Ghai film festival was also organized on the occasion with the screening of his films like “Hero”, “Karma” and “Taal”.
Ghai’s “Joggers’ Park” got critical acclaim after its premiere screening in the Bollywood section.

Guild approached by a delegation from China
The Film Producers Guild of India has been approached by a delegation from China to explore the possibility of shooting Indian films in their country. The delegation assured Amit Khanna, the president of the Guild, that every possible facility would be provided to any filmmaking unit from India. A delegation from the Guild may visit China in the near future.

Indo-Pak venture to be co-produced by Mahesh Bhatt
Mahesh Bhatt has teamed up with London-based producer Sevy Ali of Asian Pictures International to produce a Hindi film starring a Pakistani heroine. The film will be written and co-produced by Mahesh Bhatt. Shooting is likely to start in April this year.

Stuttgart Meets Mumbai - A Memorable Three-day Event
The three-day event titled “Stuttgart Meets Mumbai” held at Hotel Grand Maratha from 4th to 6th January 2004 turned out to be a memorable event sponsord by the Lapp Group, thanks to impressive presentations, a wide variety of food (including Swabian food), excellent liquor and wines accompanied by good music.

The day this correspondent attended the event, the Mayor of the City of Stuttgart, Mr. Jurgen Beck touched upon the attractions of Stuttgart and Ms Marrianne Gasner of the Film Commission Region Stuttgart and Dr. Hans Joachim Peters of Landeshauptstadt enumerated the distinct plus points of Stuttgart – lush locales, lakes and castles which can be ideal locations for all sorts of sequences from a filmmaker’s point of view. They also mentioned that two units – including one from Padmalaya of Hyderabad and “Tere Bin” had earlier shot in Stuttgart. A first-class service and high-tech industrial location, Stuttgart is the ideal base for film and media production. Whether epic film or documentary, children’s serial or docusoap, all film genres have a home in Stuttgart, as do video clips, commercials and music productions. The regional film funding MFG Filmforderung Baden-wurttemberg as well as the film academy Baden-Wurttemberg are located in Stuttgart. Miss Gasner and Dr. Peterson called upon the Foundation for Promotion of Film Arts and Crafts to bring producers from Bollywood to Stuttgart and utilize locations.

A short film titled “Bombay Chicken” which included songs such as Nimboorada Ri Nimboorada and Mumbai Se aaya mera dost was also screened on the occasion. This typical Bollywood touch enthralled all those present.

A new laurel for Mira Nair
Mira Nair has recently made a distinct niche for herself in international cinema. She is doing the same in the field of writing. She has won a literary award for her book Video:Stories which narrates the immigrant experience. The book has been chosen from amongst 60 books written by Asian American writers. Earlier, the Washington Post had named it as one of the best books of 2002. The book is a collection of ten stories, nine of which are based in India.

MANMOHAN SHETTY NEW CHAIRMAN OF NFDC
As per an announcement made by the Union Information and Broadcasting Minister, Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad, Manmohan Shetty will be the next chairman of National Film Development Corporation (NFDC).

KALASHIKHAR AND KALAKIRAN AWARDS PRESENTED
Kalashikhar and Kalakiran awards instituted in the memory of Aditya Vikram Birla were distributed on 23rd November 2003 at Shanmukhananda Hall for the 8th year in succession at a function marked by discipline, dignity and decorum at the hands of the Governor of Maharashtra, Mr. Mohd. Fazal and the Guest of Honour, filmstar Shah Rukh Khan.

Mrs Rajashree Birla, President, Sangit Kala Kendra, started the proceedings on a solemn note in the presence of Dr. Sarla Birla and Kumarmanglam Birla by saying a few words about the aims and objectives of the institution.

Speaking on the occasion, the Governor described Aditya Vikram Birla as a man of the 21st century who was ‘far ahead of his time in thinking’ and always believed in safeguarding and enriching the folk arts of India. In his brief and flawless address, Shah Rukh said he considered it a privilege and, indeed, an honour to be a part of the Birla legacy.

Dr. Smt. Teejanbai and Mr. Jeeva Soma Mashe were awarded Kalashikhar awards – the former for excellence in performing arts and the latter in visual arts. The award carried a cash prize of Rs. one and a half lakh, a scroll and a certificate. Teejanbai also gave a glimpse of her performance which was very much appreciated. Mr. Om Prakash Chavan, Mr. Bundu Khan Langa, Mr.Kalam Patua and Mr. Kapurchand Dingur Netam were awarded Kalakiran awards. The awards presentation ceremony was followed by an unusual musical programme titled “Raag Roop Aur Rang” featuring Pt. Ajoy Chakraborty, Shreya Ghosal and Javed Ali. It was received very well. Sarita Sethi’s compering of the function was almost impeccable.