Hollywood films giving Bollywood a run for its money?

June 6, 2016

Mumbai, Jun 6: As Bollywood touches its half-way mark in 2016, the industry looks back at a rather slow box office while Hollywood movies stand tall after causing quite a stir in the domestic market during last six months.

junglebook The biggest example is "The Jungle Book", which created history of sorts at the Indian box office. The live action adaptation of the book of the same name, released on April 8, a week before its US premiere to avoid box office clash with Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's "Fan".

As anticipated, "Fan" took a massive opening, the highest this year, at nearly 19 crore, clocking a whopping 52.35 crore in the weekend and opposed to this, "The Jungle Book" opened at 10 crores and registered a Rs 40 crore weekend.

The box office for both the films, however, completely changed later, with the 50-year-old "Dilwale" actor's film struggling to reach even 90 crores while the Disney project zoomed past the 100 crore mark.

By the end of its run, "Fan" made nearly 85 crores while "The Jungle Book" shattered all the previous records held by any Hollywood film released in India, earning approximately 183 crores.

This is the highest earning film of the year so far, beating Akshay Kumar's "Airlift" which is the biggest Bollywood hit of 2016 so far with 127 crore.

The margin between Bollywood's highest grosser of the year and "The Junglebook", that of nearly 60 crores, is alarming.

"The Jungle Book" is not the only Hollywood film which scored better at the domestic box office.

The comedy-superhero film "Deadpool", released alongside Katrina Kaif-starrer "Fitoor" on February 12, fared better. The Ryan Reynolds-starrer collected approximately 29 crores at the domestic box office while "Fitoor", helmed by "Kai Po Che" director Abhishek Kapoor, managed to collect a total of nearly 19 crore.

One of the most awaited superhero movies of the year, "Batman v Superman" opened to mixed reviews but managed to put up a total of Rs 36 crore in one week.

The Zack Snyder directed film clashed with John Abraham' "Rocky Handsome", and easily beat the latter.

Animated film "Kung Fu Panda 3" also clocked impressive collections despite facing competition from Kareena Kapoor Khan's "Ki & Ka".

The American-Chinese film raked in Rs 32 crore at the Indian box-office, which was just nearly 20 crore short of "Ki & Ka", which made Rs 51 crores.

A more prominent example of Hollywood films doing much better business than their Bollywood counterparts can be seen with the collections of "Captain America: Civil War".

The mega-budget superhero action movie clocked Rs 27 crore in the first weekend.

The film, which starred Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr and Scarlett Johansson, was dubbed in Hindi where actor Varun Dhawan voiced the character of Captain America.

The movie registered a total collection of approximately 59 crore, which is more than Priyanka Chopra's "Jai Gangaajal", Emraan Hashmi's "Azhar" and even Amitabh Bachchan starrer "Wazir".

Not only this, the recently released "X-Men: Apocalypse" clashed with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan-starrer "Sarbjit" and had a better opening week than the biopic.The superhero film clocked Rs 26 crore in its first week while the Omung Kumar-directed movie made nearly Rs 22 crore.

The Friday of May 27 saw the release of three Bollywood films, "Phobia", "Veerappan" and "Waiting" and one Hollywood project, "The Angry Birds Movie".

The animated action-adventure comedy earned Rs 9.4 crore in the opening weekend, more than the combined weekend collection of the three Bollywood films.

Interestingly, almost all the Hollwyood films which did better business than Bollywood movies were either successful franchsie movies or big-budget superhero projects.

Hollywood movies, which did not boast massive CGI action pieces, managed to do decent business at the domestic market like Alejandro G Inarritu's "The Revenant".

Despite the Academy Award, the Leonardo DiCaprio-starrer earned a modest Rs 3.5 crore in its opening weekend in India.

There are still many Hollywood big-wigs releasing this year including "Conjuring 2: The Enfield Poltergeist", "Suicide Squad", "Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them" among others.

It remains to be seen how much will these films affect upcoming Bollywood movies.

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I came into movies to make money; books kept me grounded: Sonali Bendre

News Network

January 24,2020

Jaipur, Jan 24: Actor Sonali Bendre has said that she came into the movies to make money but fell in love with the profession where she discovered herself and found her family and friends. The 45-year-old actor said she owed a lot to Bollywood which is the most wonderful place to be, both mentally as well as creatively.

"I came into movies to make money and I fell in love with the profession. It was the most wonderful place to be, mentally and creatively," she said.

"I found myself there, found my friends and family over there. I owe a lot to Bollywood. It was one of the most wonderful things that happened to me," Sonali said here on Thursday.

The actor said her entry into movies by purely because she happened to be at the right place and at the right time.

Sonali added when acting offers came her way she knew that in no other field could she have made as much money, and as quickly, as she did in movies.

"Basically, I got into this because it was great money," she said.

The actor was speaking at the Jaipur Literature Festival and also talked about books and how her book club named ‘Sonali's Book Club' came into being.

Sonali, who has been convalescing after undergoing treatment for cancer in the US, said that books gave her strength and kept her afloat while she was going through one of the toughest phases of her life.

The actor was diagnosed with high grade cancer in July 2018 and underwent treatment for it in New York.

"Books were my friends other than my sisters while I was growing up. I'm nowhere remotely connected to movies. I have a very middle class Maharashtrian upbringing. When I got into movies, it was like being on another planet. Again in this world where it was easy to feel the peer pressure and do certain things or not do certain things, or look a certain way, books kept me grounded," she said.

"'A Gentleman in Moscow' (a 2016 novel by Amor Towles) was uplifting and I got so much strength from that book during my treatment in New York," Sonali said.

The actor, who often shares posts about books and authors on social media, said one should stop feeling guilty about not completing a book.

"Sometimes you start judging yourself by not completing a book, but I have reached a stage where I understand that I'm a book-lover, but that doesn't mean I will like all the books. It's okay if you don't like a book," she said.

Sonali also said that nobody wanted to know about the intellectual capacity of Bollywood stars as it was not "entertainment enough or gossipy enough".

Earlier before her session, Sonali launched author Ashwin Sanghi's latest book ‘The Vault of Vishnu', the sixth book in the Bharat series, at the 13th edition of the festival.

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Please read the religious books once in your life time specially the QURAN which tells lot about this life and its journey and to recognize the true ONE GOD who has no partners and the creator of all that Exists . God asks us to use our intellect and find logical answers for many of our life's query which is a guidance to HUMANITY. READ with a OPEN HEART without bias... Good LUCK

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'Son Rise', 'Moothon' win awards at virtual 20th New York Indian Film Festival

Agencies

August 4,2020

New York, Aug 4: National Award-winning documentary "Son Rise" and Geetu Mohandas-directed "Moothon" were among the films that took home the big honours at the 20th New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF), which switched to a virtual edition this year amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Over 45 feature-length narratives, shorts and documentaries from the Indian subcontinent were showcased at the festival’s virtual edition that ran for 10 days beginning July 24.

The films programmed were in various languages including Assamese, Bengali, Haryanvi, Hindi, English, Ladakhi, Maithili, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali and Tamil.

The award ceremony for the festival was held virtually Sunday, with the filmmakers, cast, award winners and festival officials joining from across India and the US.

The award for the Best Documentary (Short) went to Saurav Vishnu-directed "Tailing Pond", which highlights the "horrifying effects of uranium extraction on the health of the indigenous population" of Jadugoda, Jharkhand.

"Son Rise" by Vibha Bakshi won the award for Best Documentary (Feature).

The documentary had won the National Award for the Best non-feature film in 2019 and was among the two centrepieces hosted by the festival this year. NYIFF called "Son Rise" “a powerful documentary about patriarchy in Haryana and efforts by a few good men to bring meaningful change in the society.”

The award for Best Short (Narrative) went to Sanat Ganu's "Arabian Nights". The narrative focuses on a child, his imaginary friend and a family that attends a conference where the attendees believe the earth is flat.

Director and scriptwriter Sudhanshu Saria accepted the award for Best Screenplay for "Knock Knock Knock". Saria’s screenplay “explores the lonely life of a man, an unlikely friendship that may or may not be real.”

Sanjana Dipu won the award for Best Child Actor for "Moothon" for her performance of a teenager in search of a brother.

Garggi Ananthan won the Best Actress award for her role as Kalyani in the film "Run Kalyani" and the Best Actor award went to Malayalam star Nivin Pauly for "Moothon". The award for the Best Director went to 23-year old Achal Mishra for "Gamak Ghar".

"Moothon" won the award for Best Film and its director Mohandas accepted the award for the film, which is "about love and loss that travels from the quiet, lush beaches of Lakshadweep to the mad hustle-bustle of the streets of Mumbai."

Produced by award-winning Indian film director and writer Anurag Kashyap, "Moothon" had premiered at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

NYIFF festival director Aseem Chhabra said that the process of searching for films for the festival began last fall and they were ready to showcase them to audiences in New York in April but had to change plans for the festival due to the pandemic.

"I know the best way to enjoy films is in a theatre with the audience and have live interactions, conversations. But the virtual festival is the next best option and in the process, we have been able to reach out to a much larger audience in the US, North America as well in several other countries.”

NYIFF said that a virtual edition expanded the reach of the festival and audiences from 95 countries were able to access and view the films.

Dr Nirmal Mattoo, Chairman of the Indo-American Arts Council, co-founder and owner of Atlantic Dialysis Management services, the largest private dialysis provider in New York State, said NYIFF works with an independent jury - filmmakers, film professors, writers and critics.

Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC), the leading cultural organisation, presents the festival.

"The Covid-19 pandemic has forced the closure of theatres but we believe that in such trying times arts, including films are even more important for the community’s well-being. So, this year we have decided to bring the films directly into your living rooms.” IAAC Vice-Chairman Rakesh Kaul had said.

The New York Indian Film Festival is the oldest Indian film event in North America. Over the years, the festival has held New York premieres of a wide range of films, many of them critically acclaimed, including "Monsoon Wedding", "The Namesake", "Slumdog Millionaire", "Shahid", "Dum Laga Ke Haisha" and "Gangs of Wasseypur".

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Aamir Khan confirms some of his staff members tested COVID-19 positive

News Network

June 30,2020

Mumbai, Jun 30: Actor Aamir Khan on Tuesday issued a statement and confirmed that some of his staff members have tested positive for COVID-19, while the rest of his family members have tested negative.

Khan also announced that he was taking his mother for a COVID-19 test and urged his fans to pray for her test to come out as negative.

The '3 Idiots' star put out the statement on Instagram and said, "This is to inform you that some of my staff have tested positive. They were immediately quarantined, and BMC officials were very prompt and efficient in taking them to a medical facility."

Thanking the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for their precautionary steps, he added, "I would like to thank the BMC for taking such good care of them, and for fumigating and sterilising the entire society."

Informing about the health of his family members, the 'Thugs of Hindostan' actor added, "The rest of us have all been tested and found negative," and informed that, "Right now I am taking my mother to get her tested. She is the last person in the loop. Please pray that she is negative."

Thanking the BMC, and hospital authorities for their swift prompt, he added, "I would, once again, like to thank the BMC for the prompt, professional and caring manner in which they helped us. And a big thank you to Kokilaben Hospital and the doctors, nurses and staff there. They were very caring and professional with the testing process."

Aamir also urged his fans to be safe amid the coronavirus outbreak.

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