:::The Desi Flavor:::

Bollywood only theatre in Spain

Maldakistan becomes the first theater in Spain to show only Bollywood movies. Barcelona plays host to a cosmopolitan population, including 3,500 folk of Hindi and 13,000 of Pakistani extraction. Most live in El Raval, the neighborhood, where the Maldakistan is located. But owner Kishnani has his sights set on a wider audience than that.

"We are counting on (attracting) not only Hindi and Pakistani audiences but also Catalan and African people, who are very fond of this type of cinema," he told Daily Variety.

All movies will have Spanish subtitles.

Bollywood News

: From Observer – “India's glossy and glamorous movie industry wants to capture the mass audiences of Europe and the US - and is seeking investors”

 

: Bollywood gets sensitive to disability

 

: Bollywood bringing India and Australia together

 

: Deepa Mehta interview on her latest film – Water. The movie won the best film award at the Bangkok International Film Festival last month and portrays the trials and tribulations of widows in the 1930s.

 

: Catholic Church goes Bollywood with new film on AIDS in India

 

: South African Tourism (SAT) appoints Anil Kapoor as the global brand ambassador for South Africa.

 

: Outsourcing Hollywood animation to India with recent blockbusters including Shrek 2, Spiderman 2 and The Chronicles of Narnia benefiting from Indian based animators and visual effects specialists

 

: Bollywood crazy Poles heading to India – “There is an increasing craze among Polish youngsters for Indian films and songs, which can be seen and heard on television and radio. A growing number of Indian companies too are investing in the Polish economy or scouting for opportunities.”

 

: Indian designers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla designed hand-embroidered aquamarine sherwani, a long formal coat dress, for Judi Dench. This is the fourth time she wore one of their creations on the Oscars red carpet.

 

: 'Bollywood Reservoir Dogs' to be filmed in Harrow

 

: Portugal’s biggest film festival kicks off with Bollywood in focus featuring films like Devdas, Deewar and others.

Bollywood News

: Film Festival of India in Israel (FFII) kicks off this week in Haifa, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The festival organized by the Indian Embassy and the cinematheques, runs from January 5-18 and will present eight recent Indian films, three of which have just been released. This will be a treat for Israeli’s since Indian films are a rarity for them.

: The Hindustan Times on nudity in Bollywood and India

: Bollywood music targeting India’s Generation X

: Black in Time’s Top 10 Films of 2005

: Bollywood set to embrace digital cinema – “About five local film distribution companies are in the process of converting about 1,000 movie halls or screens throughout the country say industry sources, and in the next "three to four years close to 4,000 movie halls would be converted for screening through the computer-based projection system" involving an investment of nearly $2 billion.”

: Book on “The Kapoors” of Bollywood – “The book is a comprehensive compilation of the life of legendary actor Prithviraj Kapoor and his family. It begins with Prithviraj and his unyielding passion for cinema that brought him all the way from Peshawar to Mumbai in 1928 with just 100 Rs. in his pocket.”

: Promoting Bollywood film with McDonalds – “Mahesh Manjrekar has tied up with McDonalds to create a retail partnership for his forthcoming entertainer ‘Vaah! Life Ho To Aisi’. This is the first time that the world renowned food chain McDonalds has tied up with Hindi cinema in India. The tie-up lends itself naturally to the target audience of kids of all ages and their family. We are planning to have promos of the film being played out in every television sets in the McDonald outlets. Besides the film merchandise like CDs, Music Cassettes, T-shirts, Labels, School Books and paper bags will be distributed with the film branding. Additionally a Mcdelivery contest will be held with the contest form branding the film too”

: Bollywood Goes Global

: Lenovo to piggyback on Bollywood by sponsoring movies to create awareness about its brand and logo – “The company has tied up with director Madhur Bhandarkar to sponsor his forthcoming movie Corporate, where actress Bipasha Basu will be seen endorsing Lenovo's product portfolio, said Mr Rahul Agarwal, General Manager, Marketing, Lenovo (India) Pvt Ltd.”

Bollywood related news

: From BoingBoing – Bollywood film posters as t-shirts. Also check out this piece on Custom-painted Bollywood posters

: Bollywood fashion goes global with actor Sunil Shetty and producer Prakash Khubchandani launching a chain of Bollywood inspired designer wear.

: Pakistan Culture Minister not keen on screening Bollywood films. However despite the ban, Bollywood movies are crazy in Pakistan

: Metrosexual Indian stars are rocking ad world, with Shah Rukh Khan shedding his macho image to endorse a women’s beauty shop. I wonder if Jose Mourinho with his aggressive brand image, endorse female products. Bollywood stars are promoting more brands as the brand image of Indian cricketers diminish.

: Bollywood, Mr. Bean battle in Afghanistan – “In the city that spawned Afghanistan's Taliban, music and TV were crimes punishable by beatings and jail just a few years ago. Now, India's Bollywood and its raunchy song and dance numbers and wet saris compete with Mr. Bean and women's wrestling in the Sadat music and film market, a chaotic cacophony of sound where it's always night inside and it's always packed.”

: BBC on the real Shah Rukh Khan

: Asha Bhosle teams up with Grammy Award winning Kronos Quartet to produce a valentine to the music of Bollywood, You've Stolen My Heart: Songs from R. D. Burman's Bollywood by Kronos Quartet and Asha Bhosle

: Austrian Airlines woos Bollywood - European airline major Austrian Airlines group is negotiating with Bollywood production houses for transporting film crew at international shooting locations and launched direct services from Mumbai to Vienna

: Indian & American film makers fighting piracy, with Bollywood pressing authorities to create a separate police and judicial system to enforce existing copyright laws, because even though some offenders are caught, India's judicial system moves too slowly to be effective.

: Bollywood is being used to create fitness classes in a bid to entice more Asian women into the gym. The hour-long sessions are similar to traditional aerobics but use music and moves from Indian films. Trained dancer Aanika Chopra, from New Delhi, will take beginners through their paces at classes in Birmingham, Coventry and Leamington Spa.

Vancouver Goes Bollywood

Vancouver Goes Bollywood - British Columbia has been luring Hollywood films to shoot in the province for years. Now the Canadians are going after Bollywood movies. The attraction? Same as for Hollywood. Great tax breaks and beautiful scenery. One of the first films is directed at Indian audiences, and probably not suited to the tastes of mainstream Western moviegoers.

This is not really a satire of Indians living abroad. I wanted there to be a certain reality to the film, which will set it apart from many Bollywood films. But I didn't want it to be an ethnic comedy in the same way that 'Bend It Like Beckham' or 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' are.

Lollywood Film Festival in UK

UK will host Europe's first ever-Pakistani film, media and Arts festival, titled “Pehlee Dharkan” (First Hear Beat) in the second and third week of September. The focus will be on educating the British
public about Lollywood – the Pakistan film industry and what it has to offer.

 

From September 16 to 18, “Pehlee Dharkan” will be holding a film festival at the Glasgow Film Theatre. It will screen contemporary cutting edge films from the budding independent cinema movement, a retrospective selection of classic Pakistani films, short films and documentaries on political, environmental and health issues in Pakistan and films made by the British Asian Diaspora.

Two exhibitions will also be held at the Tramway Theatre between September 13 and 25. They are titled “Billboards Art of Lollywood”' showcasing the hand-painted film posters (oil on canvas) which are such an intrinsic part of the film industry in Pakistan and “Art on Wheels”, a photography exhibition by Peter Grant of Pakistan’s lavishly decorated trucks.

Related:

: Introduction to Lollywood

: Downloading Lollywood movies from DesiTorrents

(tags: Lollywood)

 

Update - Asians in Media has more on the festival.

 

Developing the Sri Lankan Film Industry

A look at the Sri Lankan Film Industry, which has been neglected for sometime now. Bollywood movies are far popular in Lanka than their own movies:

"President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga has pledged increased Governmental assistance towards building the cinema industry while hailing the efforts of the cinema artistes who recently brought fame and glory to Sri Lanka by their unique cinematic creations.

This will certainly be music to the ears of those in the movie industry, especially directors and producers aspiring to make artistic films with different subject material. The very fact that the Presidential Film Awards ceremony was held after a lapse of four years highlights the Government's firm commitment to uplift the film industry.         

Indeed, State assistance is essential for the healthy development of the film industry. In this context, President Kumaratunga's pledge to  increase budgetary allocations for the further development of the local  film industry will be a boon to cinema artists."

Related:

: Asian Film Centre - Sri Lankan Film - Mission is 'to enhance and enrich film culture in Sri Lanka'. Includes a brief history of Sri Lankan cinema, details and credits of directors, actors and actresses, recent films and film publications in English

: BBC on the Sri Lankan Film industry - "Sri Lankan cinema is highly acclaimed abroad - its films have won dozens of awards at international festivals. Film makers tackle gritty subjects, including family relationships, abortion and the years of conflict between the military and Tamil Tiger rebels in the north. But if you visit a cinema in the capital, Colombo, you will be hard-pushed to find a local film on show."

Online DVD Rental service in Canada

Pyasa launches online Bollywood DVD rental service in Canada. Now a similar legal service should be introduced in the States. About time really!

 

 

Abbdendum - NetFlix has a good collection of Bollywood DVD's having more than 600 which is twice the size of their French film inventory. That's even more than the Bollywood specialists online.

Related:

: Legit Bollywood movies through KaZaa

: Bollywood pushes tough anti-piracy measures in Malaysia

: Digital piracy is the biggest single threat faced by the film industry and some $600M was lost in 2002 from pirating of DVDs in Asia. So what are film studios in the US and India doing to combat movie piracy? Back in March 2003.

The Hollywood-based Motion Picture Association (MPA) and the Indian Motion Pictures Producers' Association (IMPPA) are launching a joint initiative in the Asia-Pacific region.

MPA vice-president Michael C Ellis, in Bombay to talk to his Bollywood counterparts at a trade fair, said 6.1 million pirated DVDs were seized in the region last year - representing a loss to the industry of $600m (£373m).

"The losses are just enormous considering it takes $89.4m (£55.7m) to make one movie in Hollywood and only one out of 10 movies to makes a profit," Mr. Ellis said.

He added that the Indian movie industry, which makes 800 films a year, loses nearly 17 billion rupees ($356m/ £222m) annually due to piracy.

"What were are talking about is a huge economic and social problem."

An anti-piracy drive which has already been launched in Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the Philippines will now be introduced to India.

: Bollywood-KaZaa deal

: Bollygrounds is another channel where people can watch Bollywood movies on the Internet. The pricing model includes watching as many movies as you want for $15/month. Currently they are streaming over 200 Hindi movies.

: Bollywood Pay-Per view Channel

: Canadian Desis can download Bollywood, bhangra ringtones and screen images on their mobile phones from Bollyvista. The technology is provided by m-Qube, a Canadian mobile application provider. More

: Indian Americans can now download Bollywood polyphonic ringtones from MastTones

Update: Seattle based iTalkies is another online Bollywood rental service. Good collection, but what lacks is a section on Indian documentaries and cricket. Hat-tip: feather.

The Next Fashion - Bollywood themed restaurants

Planet Hollywood plans to introduce Bollywood theme restaurants, slated for next year.

A Bollywood theme restaurant was started by director Satish Kaushik, here recently, a ship stands atop a shopping mall in Gurgaon, providing all the luxuries of a cruise liner while another one has created the ambience of a solar system.

"Eating out is fast catching up here and to break the monotony of an eating joint, people are going in for various concepts... themes are important, they also create the whole impact about a place," says Rahul Makkar, who runs Mercuries, which has solar system as its theme.

… "This combination of food, drink and entertainment has become known as eatertainment and Planet Hollywood offers the very best of each element," says Robert Earl, Founder of Planet Hollywood.

Imitation or no imitation, theme restaurants are making good business, owners say. Some have even gone to the extent of changing themes every month or every season.

Chopra and Ghai launch music companies

Famous Indian filmmakers Yash Chopra and Subhash Ghai have launched their own music companies.  Both the companies will be promoting music of their films, by passing the channels established by various Indian music companies. Don't be surprised when they this companies start selling their own branded ringtones.

Other:

: There is a strong demand of ringback tone services in India with AirTel's Hello Tune service reaching 1M subscribers and that within 5 months of service launch.

: Canadian desis can download bollywood, bhangra ringtones and screen images on their mobile phones from Bollyvista. The technology is provided by m-Qube, a Canadian mobile application provider. More

: Indian Americans can now download Bollywood polyphonic ringtones from MastTones

Famous Indian filmmakers Yash Chopra and Subhash Ghai have launched their own music companies.  Both the companies will be promoting music of their films, by passing the channels established by various Indian music companies. Don't be surprised when they this companies start selling their own branded ringtones.

Other:

: There is a strong demand of ringback tone services in India with AirTel's Hello Tune service reaching 1M subscribers and that within 5 months of service launch.

: Canadian desis can download bollywood, bhangra ringtones and screen images on their mobile phones from Bollyvista. The technology is provided by m-Qube, a Canadian mobile application provider. More

: Indian Americans can now download Bollywood polyphonic ringtones from MastTones