Dilip Kumar honoured with Living Legend Lifetime award

Mumbai, Jul 25: Movie theatres have been shuttered for months due to the coronavirus pandemic in the country, but the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has now recommended that the Union Home Ministry allow cinema halls to reopen in August. 

I&B Secretary Amit Khare indicated this at a close-door industry interaction with the CII Media Committee on Friday. He said Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla at the Home Ministry would take the final call.

Khare said that he has recommended that cinema halls may be allowed to reopen all over India as early as August 1, or at the latest, around August 31.

The formula suggested is that alternate seats in the first row and then the next row be kept vacant, and proceeding in this fashion throughout.

Khare said that his ministry's recommendation takes into consideration the two metre social distancing norm, but tweaks it gently to two yards instead. The Home Ministry, however, still has to revert on the recommendation.

Cinema owners, present in the interaction, however, pushed back and said this formula is unwise and merely running films at 25% auditorium capacity is worse than keeping the cinemas shut.

The attendees at the meet included media CEOs like N.P. Singh of Sony, Sam Balsara (Madison), Megha Tata, (Discovery), Gaurav Gandhi (Amazon Prime), Manish Maheshwari (Twitter), S. Sivakumar (Bennett Coleman and Co Ltd), and K Madhavan, Star & Disney, and also Chairman, CII Media Committee.

The OTT platforms present, including Gandhi of Amazon Prime, did not push back. Some Bollywood producers, notably those of Amitabh Bachchan's Gulabo Sitabo, have posted their movies on OTT, rather than live out the lockdown uncertainty.

Los Angeles, May 24: Filmmaker Frank Marshall, one of the producers behind Jurassic World: Dominion, says the forthcoming film is not a conclusion of the franchise.

Colin Trevorrow, who rebooted Steven Spielberg's blockbuster Jurassic Park franchise with 2015's Jurassic World, is back on the director's chair after sitting out on second movie Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018).

Asked about the upcoming movie, Marshall told Collider: "It's the start of a new era."

Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard are coming back for the third film, which will also feature original stars of 1993's Jurassic Park -- Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Sam Neill.

The producer also revealed how he sees the film franchise extending into the future.

"The dinosaurs are now on the mainland amongst us, and they will be for quite some time, I hope," Marshall said.

The film was three weeks into production when it was shut down over coronavirus concerns, but the producer said the team has the sets built in London and will be "back in business" once they have guidelines from the British government.

Dominion is still slated to be released on its scheduled date of June 11, 2021.

Thiruvananthapuram, Jun 15: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has condoled the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput and recalled his support to the state during the floods in 2018.

The 34-year old Bollywood actor was found hanging at his apartment in Mumbai on Sunday.

"We are deeply saddened to hear of the death of Sushant Singh Rajput. His early demise is a great loss to the Indian Film industry. Our heartfelt condolences to his family, friends and supporters," Vijayan said in a tweet.

"We take a moment to remember his support during the time of Kerala floods

During the deluge in August, 2018, a fan had tagged him in a comment on his Instagram post and said, he don't have the money, but wanted to donate some food.

The actor, who spotted the comment, replied that he will donate Rs one crore in his fan's name.

Rajput donated Rs one crore to CMDRF in the name of his fan and uploaded the screenshot saying, My Kerala.