INDIAN THEATRE ROMANCING FRANCE

 

The Hindi Cinema Blog saw its first days in France, created by blogger Aline Cinehindi, and made a special point to cover Indian events taking place in that country. In honor of this, we are pleased to announce that Amitosh Nagpal's and Atul Kumar's Piya Behrupiya will be shown in the South of France this February, most precisely in the coastal city of Nice.

Piya Behrupiya is a musical adaptation in Hindi of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. It will feature a talented cast including: Gitanjali Kulkarni, Mansi Multani, Neha Saraf, Sagar Deshmukh, Trupti Khamkar, Gagan Riar, Mantra Mugdha and Saurabh Nayyar.

If you happen to be in France, do not miss this wonderful opportunity to attend a one of a kind adaptation of a Shakespearian classic. 

TWELFTH NIGHT (PIYA BEHRUPIYA)

In Hindi with French subtitles

Venue: Salle Pierre Brasseur, Nice, France

Date: February 11-14, 2015

PRIYANKA CHOPRA: Diversity in the USA

Indian film star Priyanka Chopra has signed a one year talent development contract with USA nationwide television network ABC.

This comes as a welcome step forward for the singer-actress, who has more than 45 films to her credit in India, 3 international singles and has recently lent her voice to the animated film Planes.
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AJAY DEVGN Supports Altruistic Endeavor

Image: Saharasamay.com

 

This week, Mumbai Police joined hands with Ajay Devgn at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan for a noble cause. The actor made an appearance at the Mumbai Police's celebration of Daan Utsav to provide his support to the long term project aiming to protect begging families and children in South Mumbai, thereby starting to create a beggar-free zone. The first people to benefit from this project will be women and children beggars originating from the Faase Pardhi and the Waghri tribes. Parents/families of these children will receive the assistance of the Kherwadi Social Welfare Association and Pipal Tree Foundation, who will help rehabilitate them to find employment, which will in turn decrease the rate of children unschooling. Children will be provided with education and various opportunities thanks to several NGOs, as well as Salaam Bank Trust  and Sahaara Charitable Society.

Apart from Devgn's other charitable commitments in the past and his praise of Salman Khan's Being Human, the actor is also married to Kajol, who is highly involved as the international goodwill ambassador and patron of The Loomba Trust (who works towards the welfare of widows and their children) and brand ambassador of Pratham (a charity organization for children).

SATYAMEV JAYATE New Autumn Season 2014

It's that time of the year again and Aamir Khan fans will be happy to know Satyamev Jayate is up for a new season starting this 5th October 2014. Check this post for updates and share your feedback for the show on their website, Facebook, Twitter or email!

MANGALYAAN MARS FEAT CELEBRATED

Image: outerspaceuniverse.org

 As Mangalyaan, the spacecraft of the Mars Orbiter Mission encountered the Red Planet on 24 September 2014 at 7:17 am, online accolades from various movie and music stars started flowing in through the web, celebrating the Indian Space Research Organization's grand success. Among them Amitabh Bachchan, Sridevi, Lata Mangeshkar, Shahid Kapoor, Akshay Kumar, Sunidhi Chauhan and Abhishek Kapoor who contributed to make hashtags #ISRO, #ProudIndian and #Mangalyaan a trend on social network Twitter.

Amitabh Bachchan rightly pointed out that the cost of the mission was less costly than that of a Hollywood film budget. India is indeed not only the first Asian country to have sent a successful mission to Mars, but its mission has been the most economical of all. Alike other Indian celebrities, NASA joyfully tweeted: "We congratulate @ISRO for its Mars arrival! @MarsOrbiter joins the missions studying the Red Planet".

BOLLYWOOD SINGERS for Women Internet Literacy

After a very long hiatus, here we are happy to bring you some fresh and useful news.

MARD (Men Against Rape and Discrimination), Farhan Akhtar's social campaign which had started in 2012, has joined hands this week with search engine giant Google to help increase internet literacy among women in India. The campaign is called "Reach For the Sky" and is quickly gathering visibility on Youtube and social media through a song video titled “Chulein Aasman” is a song about female emancipation and about freeing women from the roles that they have been coerced into playing for centuries. The music and video feature Salim-Sulaiman and Farhan Akhtar.

>>READ MORE

Search giant Google on Tuesday launched a new social campaign in association with Bollywood actor-director Farhan Akhtar’s initiative MARD, to increase internet literacy among women in the country. Google India had first time launched a ‘digital literacy’ initiative campaign called ‘Helping Women Get Online’ (HWGO) in collaboration with Intel, HUL and Axis Bank late last year. “The first phase has been very successful. In the last 12 months, the number of women using the internet has grown 35 per cent as against 31 per cent by men. This for the first time that women have surpassed men in using internet. This is just the start of the programme as it’s only 10 months when we  launched it (the first phase),” Google India vice president and managing director Rajan Anandan said here. As the company ramps up its activities and takes many of them to the next level, it expects further acceleration in the campaign, Anandan said. The jointly-promoted campaign called ‘ReachForTheSky’ will look to generate awareness about the need to get women online. It will also encourage existing users to help get more  women online and spread awareness of gender equality and women empowerment. Despite India inching closer to become the second  largest internet users’ country, the number of women using internet is lower than most of the countries, he said adding, “empowering the young women population with information and internet related tools could transform India’s future.” We need to build on this start and join the campaign with MARD to encourage women to come online, he added. Google India head for marketing Sandeep Menon said the company’s aim is to help bring 50 million women online in the country. - See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/google-india-launches-new-campaign-with-farhan-akhtar-to-help-women-get-online/#sthash.JVPl646b.dpuf

Search giant Google on Tuesday launched a new social campaign in association with Bollywood actor-director Farhan Akhtar’s initiative MARD, to increase internet literacy among women in the country. Google India had first time launched a ‘digital literacy’ initiative campaign called ‘Helping Women Get Online’ (HWGO) in collaboration with Intel, HUL and Axis Bank late last year. “The first phase has been very successful. In the last 12 months, the number of women using the internet has grown 35 per cent as against 31 per cent by men. This for the first time that women have surpassed men in using internet. This is just the start of the programme as it’s only 10 months when we  launched it (the first phase),” Google India vice president and managing director Rajan Anandan said here. As the company ramps up its activities and takes many of them to the next level, it expects further acceleration in the campaign, Anandan said. The jointly-promoted campaign called ‘ReachForTheSky’ will look to generate awareness about the need to get women online. It will also encourage existing users to help get more  women online and spread awareness of gender equality and women empowerment. Despite India inching closer to become the second  largest internet users’ country, the number of women using internet is lower than most of the countries, he said adding, “empowering the young women population with information and internet related tools could transform India’s future.” We need to build on this start and join the campaign with MARD to encourage women to come online, he added. Google India head for marketing Sandeep Menon said the company’s aim is to help bring 50 million women online in the country. - See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/google-india-launches-new-campaign-with-farhan-akhtar-to-help-women-get-online/#sthash.JVPl646b.dpuf

Search giant Google on Tuesday launched a new social campaign in association with Bollywood actor-director Farhan Akhtar’s initiative MARD, to increase internet literacy among women in the country. Google India had first time launched a ‘digital literacy’ initiative campaign called ‘Helping Women Get Online’ (HWGO) in collaboration with Intel, HUL and Axis Bank late last year. “The first phase has been very successful. In the last 12 months, the number of women using the internet has grown 35 per cent as against 31 per cent by men. This for the first time that women have surpassed men in using internet. This is just the start of the programme as it’s only 10 months when we  launched it (the first phase),” Google India vice president and managing director Rajan Anandan said here. As the company ramps up its activities and takes many of them to the next level, it expects further acceleration in the campaign, Anandan said. The jointly-promoted campaign called ‘ReachForTheSky’ will look to generate awareness about the need to get women online. It will also encourage existing users to help get more  women online and spread awareness of gender equality and women empowerment. Despite India inching closer to become the second  largest internet users’ country, the number of women using internet is lower than most of the countries, he said adding, “empowering the young women population with information and internet related tools could transform India’s future.” We need to build on this start and join the campaign with MARD to encourage women to come online, he added. Google India head for marketing Sandeep Menon said the company’s aim is to help bring 50 million women online in the country. - See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/google-india-launches-new-campaign-with-farhan-akhtar-to-help-women-get-online/#sthash.JVPl646b.dpuf

IRRFAN and KANGNA's FRENCH CONNECTION

Image: indiaexpress:com

In a new venture after his success, Revolver Rani, Sai Kabir will continue to develop his creative relationship with French Film Commission's Franck Priot, with whom he worked to create his Kangna Ranaut hit.  It is this French partner who has also paired Kabir with Leonard Glowinski (co-producer of Oliver Stone's Alexander as well as 2011 release Unknown, starring Liam Neeson and Diane Kruger).

>>READ MORE

SHAH RUKH KHAN: #1 on FORBES Leadership List

“Forbes Middle-East made me feel special with their special edition cover story on my work in entertainment. Off to Dubai for the launch. Thank you all,” Shahrukh Khan recently tweeted, following the decision of Forbes Magazine to declare Shah Rukh Khan the top Indian leader in the Arab World after having topped Forbes' India Celebrity 100 List in 2013.

>>READ MORE

PINTEREST Reaches Out to HINDI Speakers

 

The esthetic and highly successful social bookmarking site Pinterest has recently reached out to Hindi speakers by launching a Hindi version of the service, following in the steps of Twitter, Google and of course Chrome. Hindi Pinterest is now available for computers and  Android devices alike, setting Hindi as one of the 26 languages and also as the first and only Indian language to be supported by the website. Current Pinterest users may change their language settings to Hindi in the Pinterest settings section.

>>READ MORE

BRAZIL GOES BOLLYWOOD with FANAA

Fanaa is being taken to Brazilian cinemas to woo audiences on the 100th anniversary of Indian cinema.The Kajol-Aamir Khan starrer is the first film to open in 25 different mainstream cinema halls throughout the large Brazilian territory in hopes that the audience will become acquainted with Bollywood cinema and develop a taste for it. If the film does well in its first week, it will continue to run for a second week and possibly increase its screenings to 40 cinemas. The project of its release has been led by Dinesh Sinha and Andre Nascimento, who are at the head of Bollywood Filmes, the new and very first distributor of Indian films in Latin America. They are being supported by the Sao Paulo Center for Indian Culture, Yash Raj, Bollywood Brazil, Mistika and Social Media i9. The Brazilian trailer for the 6 year old film has been created to attract the Brazilian audience.

Read more>>

NICOLE KIDMAN's "GRACE OF MONACO" co-financed by YRF

Talk about the South of France and Cannes may be a hot topic at the moment due to the worldwide known Cannes festival 2012 but our attention was recently diverted by the news that the South of France will also be the "point of departure" for Nicole Kidman's Grace of Monaco. What does this have to do with Hindi cinema, a reader may ask. YRF Entertainment, a subsidiary of  Yash Raj Films studios in India is a company that focuses on the production of English language films abroad. The company will be participating in Kidman's endeavour in the executive production, script writing and financing/production departments. YRF Entertainment's CEO, Uday Chopra, has met with producer Pierre-Ange Le Pogam (ex co-founder of Europacorp and known for global films such as Colombiana) to organize the financial production of Grace of Monaco, which will be directed by Olivier Dahan (well known in France for La Vie En Rose starring Marion Cotillard). Films having a mix of Indian and foreign crew and cast include Oscar nominated movies by Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth and sequel Elizabeth : The Golden Age) or films such as Karma: Crime, Passion, Reincarnation. We are looking forward to see the successful collaboration of entertainment professionals from France, India and the USA in Dahan's film, which retraces the political life of Grace Kelly.

Keep updated about Grace of Monaco at IMDb

Aamir Khan’s SATYAMEV JAYATE: A Show with a Heart

This Sunday, the Hindi Cinema Blog enjoyed an hour and a half in excellent company. The actor turned TV show-host, Aamir Khan and his guests, graced the household with Khan’s “most ambitious project to date”, television show Satyamev Jayate.

Expectation at Star Plus TV was at its highest as the first episode countdown began since last evening. A permanent announcement being made at the top left-hand corner of their broadcast let India know how many hours, minutes and seconds were left for the final take off. 

Let us imagine… Do you recall Deejay (Rang de Basanti), the rebel who increasingly became aware of his country and wished he could become its voice and touch its people enough to create change from within? How about Ram Shankar Nikumbh (Taare Zameen Par), who wanted each child’s voice to be heard and nurtured? The picture would not be complete without the immensely popular and endearing Rancho (3 Idiots), the inspiring intelligent innocence who moves lives and whom we can all relate to because that is what we each aspire to become. Our imagination can see that all of these characters had a common denominator apart from their will to make the world, or at least India, a better place. That common denominator is Aamir Khan. Things seem to come full circle with Satyamev Jayate.

After many questions from the media and the audience related to what his show’s content would be, the result is an eclectic, pacy, touching and profoundly Indian talk show. A few elements of Satyamev Jayate may have been perceived in USA based talk shows, especially those catering to minorities (early 90s “Cristina” shows, for example) in terms of creating awareness regarding a certain issue or the emotional degree of the content being presented. Aamir Khan’s show however is innovative and deeply different in the sense that its topic, mindset, audience on the set, specialists and even its entertainment style (oh what wonderful music!) are Indian at the very core. Those readers who relate to India or are Indian will understand that this signifies that the show is unique in itself, given India’s inherent singularity.

Read more>>

INDIA REPUBLIC DAY Clip Directed by PURAB KOHLI

Multi-talented Purab Kohli has recently directed a touching clip for India's Republic Day with a heartwarming message inviting all Indians to be sensitive to their youngsters, who are the future of the nation.

The moving clip was filmed in a peaceful emblematic beach in Goa and features the Indian national anthem in the background, performed by the golden and subtle guitar fingers of Dhruv Ghanekar. 

Happy Republic Day, India!

Directed by: Purab H Kohli Visuals: Pushan Kripalani Editing: Onir. Read our exclusive interview with Purab Kohli (2010)

CINEMA THOSE DAYS

Collage of Bollywood posters from http://8ate.blogspot.com/

 Guest post

Fellow blogger Shri Ram Ayyangar is from Bangalore and has an insightful blog called VYANGYAM in which he shares his satirical, social and political views on events around him with his readers. In 2008, he traveled through Madhya Pradesh to visit those places in which he had spent his childhood. This resulted in musings about the cinema halls he used to go back to, time and time again, while growing up. His description of those days is a little gem for lovers of Indian cinema and its history.
It is therefore with great pleasure that the Hindi Cinema Blog welcomes Shri Ram Ayyangar as our guest blogger. 

My father was a movie buff when we were young. Because of his interest, our entire family used to go to movies. Those were the days of 50s to 60s when he often used to get transferred from one place to other during his service days in Madhya Pradesh. This gave us a chance to see the cinema theatres of many towns and even small villages in M.P. We all brothers and sisters used to eagerly wait for Sunday when my father used to call me to announce that we are all going to a particular movie that day.

Read more

'PEEPLI LIVE': FIRST TIME'S A CHARM

Anusha Rizvi's maiden directorial venture has been selected to participate in one of the prestigious meccas of independent and world cinema, the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, USA.

'Peepli Live' is the first Indian feature film to participate in the festival's World Cinema Dramatic competition and also coincidentally the first film that Aamir Khan has produced with the deliberate purpose of entertaining an international audience. The series of seemingly auspicious first experiences linked to the film lead us to think that "first" may indeed rhyme with "outstanding".

Additionally, 'Peepli Live' stars newcomers  Omkar Das and Shalini Vatsa alongside some of India's most notable actors, Raghuvir Yadav and Naseeruddin Shah.

Much speculative talk about the film in past months had reduced its plot to a serious and almost documentary approach on the issue of farmer suicides in India. Rizvi seems however to have taken the challenge further by scripting a film on such a delicate subject with black humour, concentrating on rural life, politics and the media's thirst for "scoops".

Tickets for the first show (January 24) are sold out but viewers able to attend the festival may buy tickets for subsequent screenings from January 26-29 here.

Watch video below of Aamir Khan in Sundance, speaking about 'Peepli Live':

For more promos, image downloads and information on 'Peepli Live' visit the Official 'Peepli Live' website

Director

Anusha Rizvi

Screenwriter

Anusha Rizvi
Cast

Omkar Das, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Raghuvir Yadav, Shalini Vatsa

Produced by

Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao

Coproducer

Ronnie Screwvala

Composer

Mathias Duplessy