Baahubali's National Award: Bollywood Supports Film's Win Amid Criticism

March 30, 2016

Mumbai, Mar 30: Filmmakers including Hansal Mehta, Remo D'Souza and Ronnie Lahiri have supported the jury's decision of honouring Baahubali with the Best Feature Film National Award after Chauthi Koot director Gurvinder Singh questioned its win.

BaahubaliS S Rajamouli's multilingual magnum opus Baahubali was the only film to win in the top category as Bollywood dominated the list of awards announced on Monday.

Mr Singh, whose film won the Best Punjabi film National Award, had said, "Not only me, everybody is saying the decisions are not correct. Baahubali is perhaps the worst film ever to have got a National Award. And that too the Best Feature Film."

But not everybody shares the opinion.

When contacted Hansal Mehta told PTI: "Awards are decided by jury. People who are not part of it are bound to have their own opinions but I think the jury has given its best. My personal opinion does not matter but I think the jury has been fair."

The Aligarh director also feels that Bollywood has not been given any preference at the 63rd National Award.

"I find this argument that National Awards have been Bollywoodised lop-sided. Last year, Bengali films were big winners but no one questioned that. But this time, people are saying regional cinema was ignored," he said.

ABCD 2 director Remo D'Souza, who won his debut National Award for Best Choreography in Bajirao Mastani, said, "It's a brilliant film. I have watched it. It completely deserves the best feature film honour. We should not question jury's decision as they are eminent."

Ronnie Lahiri, whose film Piku gave Amaitabh Bachchan his fourth best actor National Award, said that Baahubali won mainly due to its hype.

"As a producer, Piku did not win in the Best Feature Film category as we were expecting. But I can't question the jury as it has given awards to Mr Bachchan and our writer Juhi Chaturvedi. There was a lot of buzz around Baahubali before its release, so may be that helped."

Baahubali: The Beginning, starring Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Tamannaah Bhatia and Anushka Shetty, released on July 10.

The film also won the National Award for Best Special Effects.

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News Network
June 19,2020

Mumbai, Jun 19: Actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s memories will continue to be celebrated as Instagram has memorialised his account, adding “remembering” to his bio.

Rajput, 34, known for films like "Kai Po Che!", "MS Dhoni: The Untold Story", "Chhichhore", was found dead in his Bandra apartment on Sunday, sending shockwaves in the film industry and elsewhere.

Days after his untimely demise, Instagram added “remembering” to his account bio and memorialised it as a place to remember the actor’s life.

According to the photo-video sharing website, no one can log into a memorialised account. The posts the deceased person shared, including photos and videos, stay on their page and are visible to the users they were shared with.

Also, once the account is memorialised, no one will be able to make changes to any of the existing posts or information.

The actor’s last post on the social media platform was a tribute to his late mother on June 3.

Rajput’s death is being investigated by the Mumbai Police and so far statements of over 13 people, including actor’s family members and close friends, including actor Rhea Chakraborty and casting director Mukesh Chhabra, have been recorded.

The police have also sent a letter to Yash Raj Films seeking details of the contracts it had signed with him.

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Agencies
July 25,2020

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.

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Agencies
August 2,2020

Mumbai, Aug 2: Oscar-winning director Alfonso Cuaron has come aboard as an executive producer on filmmaker Chaitanya Tamhane's movie The Disciple. The Marathi feature is set to represent India at the 77th edition of the Venice Film Festival. It will be screened in the Competition section of the prestigious film gala.

The movie, which is Tamhane's follow-up to his National Award-winning feature Court, has also been selected for 2020 Toronto International Film Festival's official line-up.

"I met Chaitanya through a mentorship program where I had the opportunity to watch his very superb debut film, Court  I was immediately impressed by his sense of cinema and fearless confidence to tell stories.

"He was part of most of Roma's process and I jumped to the opportunity to be part of the process of his second film The Disciple. I believe Chaitanya is one of the most important new voices of contemporary cinema," Cuaron said in a statement.

Tamhane said he is honoured to have Cuaron aboard the film.

"It’s a bit surreal and an incredible honour for me to have one of the most recognised and acclaimed filmmakers in the world be part of 'The Disciple'. In some ways, this validation from Alfonso Cuaron is even more," he added.

The Disciple, a 127-minute long feature, stars Aditya Modak, Arun Dravid, Sumitra Bhave, and Kiran Yadnyopavit. It has been produced by “Sir” actor Vivek Gomber through his Zoo Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.

The Disciple marks Tamhane’s return to Venice after he won the Best Film - Orizzonti and Lion of the Future award for Court in 2014.

Court, a poignant commentary on India's judicial system, also won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in 2015 and was India's official entry for the Best Foreign Film at the 2016 Oscars.

Endeavor Content will sell North American rights and New Europe Film Sales boards the film as an international sales agent.

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