News

Veteran actor-filmmaker Vishal Anand has passed away in the city after prolonged illness. He was 82.

Anand died on Sunday, and the news of his demise was confirmed on Monday by trade analyst Girish Johar.

"Another Sad News... #VishalAnand ji is no more Rip. Sad News. #ChalteChalte #DilSeMileDil... both have memorable music," tweeted Johar.

Nephew of legendary actor Dev Anand, Bhishm Kohli was known by his stage name Vishal Anand. He was seen in films such as "Chalte Chalte" (1976), "Taxi Driver" (1973) and "Dil Se Mile Dil" (1978). Veejay-actor Purab Kohli is his nephew.

Vishal Anand is best recalled as the actor on whom the Kishore Kumar classics "Chalte chalte mere yeh geet yaad rakhna" ("Chalte Chalte") and "Yeh naina yeh kaajal" ("Dil Se Mile Dil") were picturuised. Both these immortal songs were composed by Bappi Lahiri and written by Amit Khanna.

Besides acting in "Chalte Chalte" and "Dil Se Mile Dil", Vishal Anand had produced these films.

In the series Carbon Copy, we give you trivia on the connecting dots between many countries’ music. This week, we look at how composer Rajesh Roshan helped himself to the songs, used in the same contexts in the film, and how producer Amit Khanna lifted the original's lyrics

The post How 2 Songs In Dev Anand’s Man Pasand Were Lifted From The 1964 Hollywood Musical My Fair Lady appeared first on Film Companion.

Suzanna Mukherjee was one of the contestants on the MTV's reality show Roadies in the season 6. But, Suzanna Mukherjee could not go all the way until the end and was eliminated in the sixth week of the show. However, the participant forayed into Indian TV, movies and modelling after her stint on the show. Recently, Suzanna Mukherjee got featured in a digital calendar and she looks drop dead gorgeous. Turning muse for photographer Amit Khanna, Suzanna is sizzling in a bikini in a swimming pool. She looks amazing in a shimmery bikini top with slick hair and accessories.

The post Hotness: Ex- Roadies contestant Suzanna Mukherjee flaunts her sexy avatar in a sizzling swimsuit appeared first on Bollywood Hungama.

Model Sony Kaur is clearly winning in her social media game. The model-turned- actress has time and again shared sensuous pictures and her latest photoshoot is a proof of it.

Recently, photographer Amit Khanna launched the first ever digital streaming calendar powered by thedigitalhash which showcased sizzling hot Indian actresses in their boldest avatars. Soni Kaur is turning up the heat in a topless shoot. The bare it all photoshoot is pretty bold and sensuous as she is playing peek-a-boo with a bouquet of flowers.

The digital calendar list features girls like Karishma Sharma, Tina Dutta, Diandra Soares, Suzanna Mukherjee, Iris Maity, Sony Kaur & Quetee Nagpal among others. Produced by Anuya Chauhan Kudecha and Ritesh Kudecha, the theme of the calendar is raw sensuality set in languid scenarios.

The post Hot: Sony Kaur turns up the heat in this bare it all Topless photoshoot appeared first on Bollywood Hungama.

Goan Model Scarlett Rose rose to fame during her stint on the reality show, Splitsvilla. The model managed to stay until the end of the season on the show and eventually became a social media star. Scarlett Rose, since, has been doing her modelling gigs and raising the temperatures with her sensuous photoshoots. Scarlett, often called as Sexy Scarlett, is making jaws drop in a calendar photo shoot by photographer Amit Khanna. She is definitely raising the temperatures as she has gone topless in the shoot. Just wearing a bikini with a hat, the actress is gazing at the lens. She looks absolutely stunning in this latest bold and sexy shoot.

The post Hot! Former Splitsvilla contestant Scarlett Rose goes Topless in this sensuous photoshoot appeared first on Bollywood Hungama.

The Mumbai Film Festival (October 18 – 25, 2012) is the largest film festival in India with over 100,000 attending. The Festival is 14 years old itself but Reliance Big Entertainment, the company that backs both Dreamworks and Im Global, one of U.S.’s foremost international sales agents, has backed this festival for the last 4 years and the result is a scaled up festival. It is part of the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image, a not for profit trust founded in 1997 by Indian Film Industry personalities led by renowned filmmaker late Hrishikesh Mukherji. Its 220 films are all free.

Parenthetically, though not part of the festival itself, Mumbai is "'in the news" with the Tiff's City-to-City program focusing on Mumbai. This was organized by Cameron Bailey directly with filmmakers in Mumbai and is not a Mumbai Film Festival program…Also of interest is that Mumbai also hosts India's largest international Queer Film Festival For Everyone which was held in May of this year with the Alliance Francaise de Bombay.

The Mumbai Film Festival also works with Unifance and French Rendez-Vous.

Sections include Discovery, Retrospective - this year to feature 50 years of the Cannes Critics Week, International Competition which awards $200,000 to a first feature.

Three new developments are taking place this year.

1. To celebrate 100 years of Indian cinema, the festival is launching a new competition for Indian films (called 'India Gold') with cumulative cash rewards of around $30,000 Us. The winners will be selected by an international jury to be announced.

2. The festival is moving to historic South Bombay. The festival, previously held mostly in the Juhu and Andheri districts of Mumbai – where Bollywood is located - will now take place in the south of the city, the historic center of old colonial Bombay with amazing Victorian landmarks – train station, court house, with the National Centre for the Performing Arts (Ncpa) and Inox Theatre as the main venues. The retrospective of restored films will be screened in a third theater - a historic art deco theater named the Liberty Cinema – so named because it was built in 1949, the year of India's independence from Britain. For more information on the Liberty see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Cinema

3. The Spotlight on Film Restoration and Preservation. For the first time, a section of the festival (programmed by Ian Birnie, U.S. Representative for the Mumbai Film Festival) will be devoted to screenings of restored classic films with a particular focus on Twentieth Century Fox. Screenings will be introduced by various archivists all of whom are leading experts in the field. A panel will bring together Western archivists and their Indian counterparts and the discussion will focus on the economic challenges and new technologies that are changing the future of film preservation.

The American participants are:

Schawn Belston, Senior VP, Library and Technical Services, Twentieth Century Fox

Margaret Bodde, Executive Director, The Film Foundation

Mike Pogorzelski, Director, The Academy Film Archive

Douglas Laible, Managing Director, World Cinema Foundation

TheTwentieth Century Fox Archive will present 8 films spanning 40 years in the 'Fox Classics' series. Note: all were restored in-house at Fox, and by Fox in association with the Academy Film Archive (Afa) and with The Film Foundation (Ff)

Sunrise (1928/b&w/94 min.) dir: F.W. Murnau; w /George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston.(Fox/Afa)

How Green Was My Valley(1941/b&w/118 min.) dir: John Ford; w/ Walter Pigeon, Maureen O'Hara. (Fox/Afa)

Laura (1944/b&w/88 min.) dir: Otto Preminger; w/ Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb. (Fox in-house)

Leave Her to Heaven(1945/color/110 min.) dir: John Stahl; w/ Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain. (Fox/Afa/Ff)

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953/color/91 min.) dir: Howard Hawks; w/ Marilyn Monroe, Jane Russell.(Fox in-house)

Wild River(1960/color/110 min./CinemaScope) dir: Elia Kazan; w/ Montgomery Clift, Lee Remick, Jo Van Fleet. (Fox/Afa/Ff)

The Leopard (1963/color/187 min.) dir: Luchino Visconti; w/ Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale.(Fox/Ff/Cineteca di Bologna)

Two for the Road(1967/color/110 min./Panavision) dir: Stanley Donen; w/ Audey Hepburn, Albert Finney. (Fox/Afa)

In addition to the Fox titles, 7 additional restored films will be screened.

The Academy Film Archive will present two recent restorations from their ongoing project to restore all the films by the great Indian director Satyajit Ray:

Charulata(1964/b&w/117 min.) w/ Soumitra Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee, Shailen Mukherjee.

The Chess Players (1977/color/129 min.) w/ Sanjeev Kumar, Saeed Jaffrey, Shabana Azmi

The Film Foundation will present two recent restorations:

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1945/color/163 min.) dir: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger; w/ Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr, Anton Walbrook.

Once Upon a Time in America (1984/color/ ??? min.) dir: Sergio Leone; w/ Robert DeNiro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern.

The World Cinema Foundation will present its new restoration of a classic Indian film:

Kalpana (1948/b&w/155 min.)

The Cineteca Bologna will present two restored Italian silent classics as part of an Italian Cinema retrospective.

Sections of the Festival

Dimensions Mumbai, a short film competition of films dealing with any aspect of life in Mumbai and targeted to the Mumbai Youth below 25 years was introduced in 2008.

An International Competition for the First Feature Film of directors with the award money of Us $ 150,000 (Us $ 100,000 for the Best Film and Us $ 50,000 for the Jury Grand Prize) was introduced in 2009. The UK Film 'White Lightn'in won the 2011 Best Film Award and Austria-Italy co-production La Pivillina won the Jury Grand Prize.

The Audience Choice Award carrying U.S. $ 20,000 for any film participating in the Festival, (excepting the Retrospectives and Tribute sections) was introduced in 09 as well. The Indian Film 'Road to Sangam' won this award.

International Lifetime Achievement Award was conferred on the Greek filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos.

A new initiative Mumbai Young Critics was introduced in '09 as well. 24 college students selected from more than 80 aspirants recommended by the colleges in Mumbai went through a workshop conducted by the German writer and film critic Daniel Kothenschulte for three days before the Festival. This group watched the films in the festival, wrote about them in Festival publications and newspapers and also selected a film for the Mumbai Young Critics Award.

Last year the festival showcased over 200 films from 60 countries across various sections at its three venues- Cinemax Versova, Cinemax Sion and Metro Big Cinemas.

The festival hosts a special section ‘4me Rendez-Vous’, in collaboration with Unifrance, Embassy of France in India and Consulate General of France in Mumbai. The section screens the best of New French Cinema, which last year included ‘The Snows of Kilimanjaro’, ‘The Conquest’ and ‘Declaration of War’ amongst others.

Last year's highlight was the special presentation by Lee Yong Kwan, Director, Busan International Film Festival, who presented a selection of the latest Asian Films from Busan.

Lifetime Achievement Award was conferred on the legendary actor Morgan Freeman. Olivia Harrison widow of George Harrison presented the documentary film “George Harrison: Living in the material World”.

The Festival strengthened and consolidated its academic activities with an Indo-German Script Development Workshop scheduled from 11th to the 13th of October just ahead of the festival opening. Speakers at the workshop included the renowned directors Dani Levy, Thorsten Schulz, Screenwriters Anjum Rajabali and Sooni Taraporevala amongst others.

This year's Festival continues to facilitate cinema business with the Mumbai Film Mart, created 'by' the industry, 'for' the industry, 'in' the industry hub - Mumbai, the Film Capital of India. The Mumbai Film Mart saw participation from the biggest Entertainment Industry players, both from India and abroad. In the three days, over 2,000 meeting requests were received, 400 meetings were carried out face to face, while an equal number took place among the senior decision makers from leading film production houses, buyers, sellers, festival programmers and independent filmmakers as they milled around and networked with each other.

Among the many firsts, the Mart attracted all the forthcoming big ticket films such as ‘Ra One’, ‘Don 2’, ‘Rockstar’, ‘Ricky Behl v/s Ladies’, ‘The Dirty Picture’, ‘DesiBoyz’ , tabled for acquisition and distribution in the non-traditional markets for Indian Cinema in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, Germany, France and Latin America. The focus on these countries attracted leading buyers that included Huayi Brothers Media Corp. (China), NikkatsuCorp.(Japan), Happinet Corp.(Japan), Showbox (Korea), Apex Entertainment (Korea), Cj Entertainment (Korea), Top Films (Ukraine), Novo films (France), Rapid Eye (Germany), Im Global (USA), amongst many others.

The International Jury will be responsible choosing the winners out of 14 films, all first features of debut filmmakers around the world, awarding them with a huge cash prize. This way we would like to recognize and encourage the first time filmmakers, going in line with the festival theme of discovery.

Apart from the main international section, there are many other sections including the world cinema, Indian Frame, New Faces in Indian Cinema, Documentaries etc. Please do check out their website www.mumbaifilmfest.com for more information. Last year, it screened about 220 films from 60 countries.

Composition of Mami:

Shyam Benegal, Eminent Filmmaker – Chairman

Amit Khanna, producer, lyricist and Chairman of Reliance Entertainment

Amol Palekar, acclaimed actor-director

Ashutosh Gowarikar (Oscar Nominee - Best Foreign Language Film for Lagaan)

Farhan Akhtar, one of the youngest directors and actor

Jaya Bachchan, acclaimed and award winning actress

Karan Johar, director-producer of some of the most successful films at the box office

Ramesh Sippy, well known filmmaker of Sholay fame

Shabana Azmi, renowned actress who has won acclaim and awards Internationally

Yash Chopra, producer-director, doyen of the Hindi film industry.

Narayan is the Director and head programmer, Anu is second in command.

And there is a selection committee that screens all the competition films – industry people and critics in Mumbai.

About Reliance Big Entertainment

Reliance Big Entertainment Ltd. (Rbel) is the flagship media and entertainment arm of India's Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, with a significant presence in film entertainment (film production, distribution, and exhibition), broadcasting and new media ventures.

Rbel's motion picture brand, Reliance Big Pictures ( www.reliancebigpictures.com ) has built a impressive film production slate in Hindi, English & other Indian languages, which it markets and distributes worldwide. Following Reliance Big Picturess association with Im Global, the company now benefits from an international sales team with an excellent reputation and global presence dedicated to selling its Bollywood and regional language slate. Going into production in November is the $45 million ðDreddð, which Reliance Big Entertainment is co-financing with Im Global.

In Hollywood, Reliance Big Pictures has partnered with Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider on the formation of DreamWorks Studios and hasdevelopment deals with Nicolas Cage's Saturn Films, Jim Carrey's Jc 23 Entertainment, George Clooney's Smokehouse Productions, Chris Columbus'1492 Pictures, Tom Hanksð Playtone Productions, Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment, Jay Roach's Everyman Pictures, Brett Ratnerðs Rat Entertainment,Julia Robertsð Red Om Films and Brian Grazer and Ron Howardðs Imagine Entertainment.

Also worth noting: the competition section of the festival is for first features and carries a Grand prize of Us$100,000 and a Jury prize of Us$50,000.00, with a percentage of the money of allocated to the sales agent who submitted the film. With 14 features, the odds are better than most lotteries… This was last year's lineup http://www.mumbaifilmfest.com/Mami/films_list.php The Salesman, one of the films their U.S. Representative Programmer, Ian Bernie (former longtime Lacma programmer) selected, won the Jury Award and Best Actor.

The 13th Mumbai Film Festival, a Reliance Entertainment initiative, organized by Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (Mami) kick started with the much anticipated film Moneyball starring Brad Pitt and directed Bennett Miller. The film was screened on all the screens at the festival’s main venue – Cinemax Versova.

Marking the auspicious commencement of the 13th Mumbai Film Festival director – producer Yash Chopra lit the lamp along with actress Dia Mirza, President of Film & TV Producers Guild Ramesh Sippy and trustee of Mami Amit Khanna in attendance. Joining them were the International Competition jury members Hugh Hudson (Jury President), Jerzy Skolimowski, Na Hong- Jin, Roger Spottiswoode and Sarika. The jury members of all the sections- International Competition, Dimensions Mumbai and Harmony Celebrate Age were introduced to the guests present at the function.

Commenting on this occasion, Srinivasan Narayanan, Festival Director, 13th Mumbai Film Festival, said, “The 13th Mumbai Film Festival has...

The Mami committee led by Chairman Mr. Shyam Benegal and trustees Mr. Yash Chopra, Mr. Ashutosh Gowarikar, Mr. Amit Khanna, unveiled the line-up for the 12th annual Mumbai Film Festival (Mff), which consists of 200 films from 58 countries. This forms the largest number of films at any Film Festival ever. All the international films to be screened in the main sections of this year's festival will be Indian, Asian or world premieres. Mumbai Film Festival is a Reliance Big Entertainment initiative and has the distinction of being the only international film festival in India to be organized by an independent body of practicing film professionals. This year the festival films will be screened at Chandan Cinema (Juhu) and the adjacent five screens of PVR Juhu which will function as the Main Festival Complex, two screens in Metro Big Cinemas (Marine Lines) & one screen in Big Cinemas R City (Ghatkopar). The films...

The Mami committee led by Chairman Mr. Shyam Benegal and trustees Mr. Yash Chopra, Mr. Ashutosh Gowarikar, Mr. Amit Khanna, unveiled the line-up for the 12th annual Mumbai Film Festival (Mff), which consists of 200 films from 58 countries. This forms the largest number of films at any Film Festival ever. All the international films to be screened in the main sections of this year's festival will be Indian, Asian or world premieres. Mumbai Film Festival is a Reliance Big Entertainment initiative and has the distinction of being the only international film festival in India to be organized by an independent body of practicing film professionals. This year the festival films will be screened at Chandan Cinema (Juhu) and the adjacent five screens of PVR Juhu which will function as the Main Festival Complex, two screens in Metro Big Cinemas (Marine Lines) & one screen in Big Cinemas R City (Ghatkopar). The films...

The Mumbai Film Festival, organized by Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image (Mami) in collaboration with Reliance Big Entertainment, will hold a world premiere of an international film, the first time ever in an Indian film festival, an official said Monday..For the first time in an Indian film festival we are having a world premier. This never happened in the last 60 years of film festivals here. The Danish film called .Abobe the Street Below the Water. directed by Charlotte Sieling will be premiered,. Amit Khanna, chairman Reliance Big Entertainment, told reporters at a press conference at the Sun-n-Sand Hotel Monday.This year 200 films from 58 countries would be screened during the Oct 21-28 festival. The venues are Chandan Cinema (Juhu) and the adjacent five screens of PVR Juhu, which will function as the Main Festival Complex along with two screens of Metro Big Cinemas (Marine Lines) and one screen of...

June 19, 2010: Hollywood actor and producer Brad Pitt has joined hands with Reliance Big Entertainment to get the screen rights to Tom Rachman’s bestseller ‘The Imperfectionists’. The novel was published this spring by Dial Press.

Pitt’s company Plan B Entertainment will make a commercial and extremely relevant film on this novel with its partnership company, stated Amit Khanna, Chairman of Reliance Big Entertainment.

The novel is based on the experience of Rachman at the Associated Press bureau in Rome as a wire service reporter. The story revolves around the maddening, quirky.

Last year, Anil Ambani’s Reliance Big Entertainment (Rbe), and Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment, acquired the rights to turn Capcom’s video game Dark Void into a film. Now they have bought the rights to Tom Rachman’s best-seller, The Imperfectionists. Published this year, the novel is about quirky characters working for a newspaper in Rome. There’s the obit reporter who hates to work, a freelancer being manipulated by a war correspondent and a dog-obsessed publisher. Rachman himself was a reporter with the Associated Press’s (AP) Rome bureau. Says Amit Khanna, chairman, Rbe, “The Imperfectionists will make for ...

Hollywood superstar Brad Pitt’s production company Plan B Entertainment along with Reliance Big Entertainment have acquired the screen rights to Tom Rachman’s bestseller The Imperfectionists. The Imperfectionists is a compliment to our slate with Plan B Entertainment. It will make a commercial and extremely relevant film which will play well to an international audience," Reliance Big Entertainment Chairman Amit Khanna said in a statement. Published this spring by Dial Press, the novel is based on Rachman's experience as a wire service reporter at the Associated Press bureau in Rome. It centres around the quirky, maddening, endearing people who write and read an international ...

Brad Pitt's production company Plan B Entertainment, under its Creative Partnership with Reliance Big Entertainment, have acquired the screen rights to Tom Rachman's novel, The Imperfectionists, which was published this spring by Dial Press. The Imperfectionists centres on the quirky, maddening, endearing people who write and read an international newspaper based in Rome: from the obituary reporter who will do anything to avoid work, to the young freelancer who is manipulated by an egocentric war correspondent, to the dog-obsessed publisher who seems less interested in his struggling newspaper than in his magnificent basset hound. Rachman drew from his experience as a former wire service reporter at the Associated Press (AP) office in Rome to set the stage for The Imperfectionists. Reliance Big Entertainment, the flagship media and entertainment arm of Indian conglomerate, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (R-adag), first introduced its innovative development/ production financing deal, termed a Creative Partnership,...

Los Angeles, June 16 – Reliance Big Entertainment and Hollywood superstar Brad Pitt’s production company Plan B Entertainment, under their Creative Partnership deal, have acquired the screen rights to Tom Rachman’s bestseller ‘The Imperfectionists’, it was announced here Wednesday.

”The Imperfectionists’ is a compliment to our slate with Plan B Entertainment. It will make a commercial and extremely relevant film which will play well to an international audience,’ said Reliance Big Entertainment Chairman Amit Khanna, in a statement.

<p.

Reliance Big Pictures which released .3 Idiot.s in 2126 screens worldwide including 366 screens overseas-the widest release for any Indian  film so far - has reported unprecedented box-office response from all over. The film has set new records in ticket sales in towns and cities across the world. In just 4 days the film has grossed over an astounding Rs 100 crores worldwide. The film continues to draw record crowds and is setting new benchmarks for Bollywood films.Inspired from Chetan Bhagat's novel, &quot;Five Point Someone&quot; the film chronicles the tale of three friends together in an engineering college. What seems to have touched the right chord in people's heart is the witty writing and terrific acting and the incisive look which the film takes at the education system in India. Shot on location the film has caught the audience's imagination like never before. From a small town like Wardha to a city like Chandigarh,...

Director Prakash Jha claims the trailer of his political drama Rajneeti was removed from the prints of 3 Idiots as Vidhu Vinod Chopra - producer of the just released Aamir Khan starrer - felt threatened by it. But Amit Khanna, chairman of Reliance Big Entertainment, which is the distributor of 3 Idiots, says they had never committed to Jha to show the trailer. "Who in our company has Prakash Jha spoken to about the Rajneeti trailer going into the prints of 3 Idiots? He hasn't spoken to me. And I am not aware of anyone at Reliance whom ...

Mumbai, Dec 25 (Ians) Director Prakash Jha claims the trailer of his political drama ‘Rajneeti’ was removed from the prints of ‘3 Idiots’ as Vidhu Vinod Chopra - producer of the just released Aamir Khan starrer - felt threatened by it.

But Amit Khanna, chairman of Reliance Big Entertainment, which is the distributor of ‘3 Idiots’, says they had never committed to Jha to show the trailer.

<p.

Reliance Big Entertainment will be further expanding their home entertainment business by acquiring new content and strengthening their distribution network. The company has long term associations with Hollywood studios Warner Home Video, Paramount Home Ent Global and Dreamworks Animation and Universal Pictures International Ent. Currently the company has hits such as Harry Potter and the Half blood Prince, The Hangover, Transformers - Revenge of the fallen, Public Enemies, Star Trek and Barbie and The 3 Musketeers in its library. Next year, Big Home Video plans to acquire home video rights in various domestic languages and release six of the biggest Bollywood films on its label. They recently acquired the home video rights for Wake Up Sid and more such announcements are to follow. In the International home video segment, Inglorious Basterds, GI Joe- Rise of Cobra, Shutter Island, Sherlock Homes, Sex And The City 2 and Inception will also be released...

Reliance Big Entertainment will be further expanding their home entertainment business by acquiring new content and strengthening their distribution network. The company has long term associations with Hollywood studios Warner Home Video, Paramount Home Ent Global and Dreamworks Animation and Universal Pictures International Ent. Currently the company has hits such as Harry Potter and the Half blood Prince, The Hangover, Transformers - Revenge of the fallen, Public Enemies, Star Trek and Barbie and The 3 Musketeers in its library. Next year, Big Home Video plans to acquire home video rights in various domestic languages and release six of the biggest Bollywood films on its label. They recently acquired the home video rights for Wake Up Sid and more such announcements are to follow. In the International home video segment, Inglorious Basterds, GI Joe- Rise of Cobra, Shutter Island, Sherlock Homes, Sex And The City 2 and Inception will also be released...

Reliance Big Entertainment entered into a strategic alliance with music company T-Series and Hungama Digital Media Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. (Hungama Mobile) wherein all three companies will co-own the current and future music catalogue of Big Entertainment and the same shall be exclusively distributed by T-Series on all platforms in all formats including the current titles in the Big Music catalogue and all future titles in Reliance Big Entertainment including all physical formats, Radio & Television, Mobile and digital formats, across the globe. This development will also be instrumental in establishing a whole new trend of collaboration in the music industry, and will give a boost to the industry that is otherwise experiencing near-flat growth. Commenting on this association, Amit Khanna, Chairman, Reliance Big Entertainment said, "The environment of the Indian music industry is opening to opportunities for dynamic distribution models. This is setting the stage for players, from different spheres, to...

Brad Pitt's production company Plan B Entertainment, under its Creative Partnership with Reliance Big Entertainment, and Capcom (a leading worldwide developer and publisher of video games) have come to terms on the film rights relating to Dark Void, a new property from Capcom. The theatrical version of the Dark Void game is being developed as a sci-fi action franchise and potential starring vehicle for Pitt. Capcom will release Dark Void on the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, Playstation 3 computer entertainment system and PC in North America on January 19, 2010 and across Europe on January 22, 2010. Dark Void is an adrenaline-fuelled blend of aerial and ground-pounding combat which centers on Will, a pilot who crash lands in the Bermuda Triangle following a routine mission. Will wakes up to find himself in 'The Void', an alternate world resembling a primitive earth where aliens with superior technology are planning to take over civilization.

Click above for event stills The curtain closed on the 11th edition of Mumbai Film Festival organized by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (Mami) at Mumbai amidst the who's who of the of Indian and World cinema gracing the closure of the event with their presence. A glittering closing ceremony herald the closure of the 7 day Festival that laid out some real sumptuous fare for film-buffs in Mumbai. Mff is a Reliance Big Entertainment initiative and has the distinction of being the only international film festival in India to be organized by an independent body of practicing film professionals. Mami committee led by Chairman Mr. Shyam Benegal and trustees Mr. Yash Chopra, Mrs. Jaya Bachchan, Mr. Amit Khanna, Mr. Amol Palekar along with the festival jury Members including: renowned Hollywood screenwriter and director Mr. Paul Schrader, Sri Lankan filmmaker Mr. Vimukthi Jayasundara, Philippine filmmaker Mr. Brillante Mendoza, Indian filmmaker Mr.

Click above for event stills The curtain closed on the 11th edition of Mumbai Film Festival organized by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (Mami) at Mumbai amidst the who's who of the of Indian and World cinema gracing the closure of the event with their presence. A glittering closing ceremony herald the closure of the 7 day Festival that laid out some real sumptuous fare for film-buffs in Mumbai. Mff is a Reliance Big Entertainment initiative and has the distinction of being the only international film festival in India to be organized by an independent body of practicing film professionals. Mami committee led by Chairman Mr. Shyam Benegal and trustees Mr. Yash Chopra, Mrs. Jaya Bachchan, Mr. Amit Khanna, Mr. Amol Palekar along with the festival jury Members including: renowned Hollywood screenwriter and director Mr. Paul Schrader, Sri Lankan filmmaker Mr. Vimukthi Jayasundara, Philippine filmmaker Mr. Brillante Mendoza, Indian filmmaker Mr.

The Mami committee led by chairman Shyam Benegal and trustees Yash Chopra, Jaya Bachchan, Amit Khanna, Shabana Azmi and Amol Palekar unveiled the line-up for the 11th annual Mumbai Film Festival (Mff), which consists of 200 films from 56 countries. All the trustees except Bachchan and the chairman Benegal were present at the unveiling. All of the international films to be screened in the main sections of this year's festival will be Indian, Asian or world premieres. Mff is a Reliance Big Entertainment initiative and has the distinction of being the only international film ...

The Mami committee led by Chairman Shyam Benegal and trustees Yash Chopra, Jaya Bachchan, Amit Khanna, Shabana Azmi and Amol Palekar unveiled the line-up for the 11th annual Mumbai Film Festival (Mff), which consists of 200 films from 56 countries. All of the international films to be screened in the main sections of this year's festival will be Indian, Asian or world premieres. Mff is a Reliance Big Entertainment initiative and has the distinction of being the only international film festival in India to be organized by an independent body of practicing film professionals. Information and Broadcasting Minister of India Ambika Soni will be the chief guest at the opening ceremony, to be held at the Fun Cinema, Andheri on October 29. Shashi Kapoor will be honoured with the Indian Lifetime achievement award along with legendary Indian director-producer Yash Chopra who will be felicitated by Fiapf, the international federation of film producers association.

The Mami committee led by Chairman Shyam Benegal and trustees Yash Chopra, Jaya Bachchan, Amit Khanna, Shabana Azmi and Amol Palekar unveiled the line-up for the 11th annual Mumbai Film Festival (Mff), which consists of 200 films from 56 countries. All of the international films to be screened in the main sections of this year's festival will be Indian, Asian or world premieres. Mff is a Reliance Big Entertainment initiative and has the distinction of being the only international film festival in India to be organized by an independent body of practicing film professionals. Information and Broadcasting Minister of India Ambika Soni will be the chief guest at the opening ceremony, to be held at the Fun Cinema, Andheri on October 29. Shashi Kapoor will be honoured with the Indian Lifetime achievement award along with legendary Indian director-producer Yash Chopra who will be felicitated by Fiapf, the international federation of film producers association.

The Mami committee led by Chairman Mr. Shyam Benegal and trustees Mr. Yash Chopra, Ms. Jaya Bachchan, Mr. Amit Khanna, Ms. Shabana Azmi and Mr. Amol Palekar today unveiled the line-up for the 11th annual Mumbai Film Festival (Mff), which consists of 200 films from 56 countries. All of the international films to be screened in the main sections of this year's festival will be Indian, Asian or world premieres. Mff is a Reliance Big Entertainment initiative and has the distinction of...

Reliance Big Entertainment has appointed Sanjeev Lamba as Reliance Big Pictures CEO. This is a new position that has been created in the company. Prior to this Sunir Khetrapal and Mahesh Ramanathan were heading Big Pictures as chief creative officers (COO).However, after a stint of almost three and a half years, Khetrapal recently resigned from his post as COO. Lamba will report to Reliance Big Entertainment chairman Amit Khanna.Khanna said, "We welcome an accomplished professional like Sanjeev to our team.  I am sure; he will help build Reliance Big ...

In the wake of the success of Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, the American movie industry, also known as Hollywood, has begun to really wake up to the large movie watching public in India. Not only has 20th Century Fox won a copyright infringement lawsuit against Br Film's Govinda-starrer Banda Yeh Bindas Hai, which was allegedly inspired by My Cousin Vinny but both Warner Brothers and Sony have both financed major films - Chandni Chowk to China and Sawaariya. Both of those films may have flopped but Hollywood isn’t giving up yet. Reliance Big Entertainment is hoping Kites will be the perfect synthesis of Hollywood money and Bollywood film making.

The Wall Street Journal recently published a profile of Amit Khanna, the chairman of Reliance Big Entertainment that unintentionally highlighted some of the attitude problems that the American film industry has toward its Hindi language counterpart. When explaining how Bollywood operates,...

In the 12 months since Reliance Big Entertainment, the flagship media and entertainment arm of Indian conglomerate, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (R-adag), first introduced its innovative development/production financing deals, called Creative Partnerships, more than twenty individual projects have been approved. The initial seven deals, with Nicolas Cage's Saturn Films, Jim Carrey's Jc 23 Entertainment, George Clooney's Smokehouse Productions, Chris Columbus' 1492 Pictures, Tom Hanks' Playtone Productions, Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment, and Jay Roach's Everyman Pictures, were announced during the Cannes Film Festival 2008 by Reliance Big Entertainment Chairman Amit Khanna and P...

Click above for more stills Bollywood doyen and Ficci Entertainment Committee Chairman Yash Chopra has appealed to the Indian audience to stop protesting against films, leading to state specific film bans. He also appealed the Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting Anand Sharma to make sure that films certified by the Indian Censor Board, the apex film certification body, were not banned by Central or State governments. Addressing the inaugural session of Ficci Frames '09, Chopra said, "If a group has problem with a movie, it should go to the censor board for their objection. People need to understand that a lot of hard work and money goes in making a movie," said Chopra. Chopra also added that the Indian entertainment industry is not immune to the current recessionary trend and that it is time for the industry to come together. "This is a very bad year for the entertainment...

In the last few years, Reliance Big Entertainment, the Media and Entertainment Company of the Reliance Ada Group, has grown from strength to strength. Expanding its media investments in Hollywood, Reliance Big Entertainment has signed two separate development deals with Julia Roberts' Red Om Films and Brett Ratner's Rat Entertainment. With these two deals, Reliance Big Entertainment has established creative partnerships with nine leading Hollywood production entities. The initial seven deals with Nicholas Cage's Saturn Productions, Jim Carrey's Jc 23 Entertainment, George Clooney's Smokehouse Productions, Chris Columbus' 1492 Pictures, Tom Hanks' Playtone Productions, Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment, and Jay Roach's Everyman Pictures were announced during the Cannes Film Festival 2008 by Reliance Big Entertainment's Chairman Amit Khanna and President Rajesh Sawhney. All nine deals provide for the creation of a development silo for each of the production entities and the possibility...

NEW DELHI -- Government plans to introduce a content code and a bill that would introduce a new regulatory authority here were the subject of heated debate Monday at a seminar organized by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Although the seminar was titled "Regulation in the Entertainment Sector," the issues debated largely pertained to the broadcasting sector, which fielded representatives from such news networks such as New Delhi-based TV Today and Mumbai-based Times Global Broadcasting among others.

Government representatives included senior officials from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry headed by I&B secretary Asha Swarup.

In recent months, industry and government have been hotly debating two primary issues -- a content code and broadcast bill that includes the establishment of an autonomous regulatory authority, the Broadcast Regulatory Authority of India. India does not have a regulatory body equivalent to the U.K.'s Ofcom or the FCC in the U.S.

As expected, the industry strongly criticized the government on such issues as content regulation, restrictions on cross-media holdings and caps on foreign investment, which Mumbai-based diversified media group Reliance Entertainment chairman Amit Khanna called "absurd."

"If the government has allowed 100% foreign direct investment in the film industry, then why is there a 20% cap in news broadcasting, 49% in other broadcasting, with radio capped at 26%?" Khanna asked.

NEW DELHI -- A high-profile delegation of Indian film industry professionals headed to the U.S. on Monday for a series of meetings with senior figures in the American industry, with the nine-day trip set to kick off Wednesday at the opening of the American Film Market in Santa Monica. "This is the next and logical step in taking Indian films mainstream in the U.S., which is the world's largest media and entertainment market," said Amit Khanna, president of the Film and Television Producers Guild of India. On the delegation's schedule is a breakfast meeting Saturday in Los Angeles hosted by the Producers Guild of America in honor of the delegation.