IMRAN Khan sports an all-new, bronzed and toned look in Soham Shah’s Luck. Imran who has trained rigorously in scuba diving and martial arts for the film with action director Allan Ameen, has also done weight-training to get a muscular look. Though refusing to divulge the story, director Soham Shah says that the film is a hard core action-adventure drama for which newbie Shruti Haasan, Imran’s romantic interest, has also trained in the martial arts. Sanjay Dutt who has a principal character in the film has just completed a sequence in Goa while the climax, a 17-18 days schedule will be conducted in South Africa later this year. In fact 80 percent of the film has been shot in South Africa. Luck is 85 per cent complete and is tentatively scheduled for a summer 2009 release.
Geety Sahgal

Scenes chopped for Shoot On Sight India release
The upcoming film Shoot On Sight, directed by Jagmohan Mundhra and produced by Aron Govil, just got less hot and controversial. Certain inflammatory and sexual scenes of the film from the Indian prints will have to be deleted, along with the language.

It is reported that in one of the scenes, Om Puri makes a speech with considerable inflammatory words that had to be trimmed for the Indian market. Another scene that was trimmed dealt with the portrayal of sexual behaviour of Naseeruddin Shah’s teenage daughter played by India Wadsworth, a British actress. The Indian Censor Board did not approve of this scene and felt that it bordered on an adult-rated film. Govil said, “Bollywood films regularly show extensive amounts of nudity in most films that are regularly approved by the Indian board.There is nothing controversial about Shoot On Sight.”

Films Division celebrates 60 years

In association with Nandan, the West Bengal Film Centre, Films Division presented Documentary Diamonds - a two- day film festival, on September 25 - 26, 2008 at Nandan II. This festival showcased select cinematic works released in the last 60 years by Films Division including two Oscar nominations and works of Ritwik Ghatak, Bimal Roy, Harisadhan Das Gupta, Fali Billimoria, Homi Sethna, Bhimsain, M.F. Hussain, Prakash Jha, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and others. Some of the archival films screened were - Harisadhan Dasgupta’s Konark, Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s An Encounter With Faces, Loksen Lalwani’s Stinking Story, Ritwick Ghatak’s Durbar Gati Padma, and Bhimsain’s famous Ek Anek Aur Ekta. These were a tribute on the 60th birth anniversary of Films Division. On September 24, 2008, at a function held at Gorky Sadan, Ex-Employees of Films Division were felicitated. Filmmaker Goutam Ghose was the chief guest.

More than 2500 films of Films Division have won prestigious awards at film festivals in the country and abroad. It believes in the ideology Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru stated during the formation of this organisation in December 1947 when he said, “Films would help build the nation, build a sense of citizenship and community.” At a press conference, Kuldeep Sinha, Director, FD, elaborated that a documentary film is like a textbook because you open its pages only to learn something new, to get educated and to try and get more information from other films.

Over the past six decades, Films Division has produced around 8000 films in every imaginable genre from glimpses from the freedom struggle to biographical documentaries, topics covering the arts, cultural topics, architecture, performing arts like dance, music, theatre and folk performances, painting, environment, health, adventure, agriculture, ethnographic films and news magazines. Sinha claims that this is a record for any official film producing organization in the world. During this diamond jubilee celebration, this film festival is travelling to all major cities in the country from Delhi to Hyderabad to Bangalore, to Bhopal, Kolkata, Chennai and finally in Mumbai.
Shoma A. Chatterji

Fashion’s strong branding exercise

UTV Motion Pictures and Madhur Bhandarkar’s upcoming film Fashion, will feature more than beautiful faces and hot bodies. The film based on the realities of the fashion world will have an ensemble of six brand associations ranging from clothing, electronics and FMCG to telecom. The brands will make an integral part of Fashion’s in-film placements and associative marketing activities.

The brands placed in the film include clothing brand Kimaya, laptop brand Lenovo, Reebok and shampoo brand Sunsilk, which is also endorsed by actress Priyanka Chopra, who plays the main lead in the film.

Mobility retail store RPG Telecom’s franchisee brand Cellucom, which promotes use of stylish gadgets such as mobiles and laptops too has been roped in for a campaign propagating ‘mobility is fashionable’. Electronics brand LG has come on board for an associative marketing campaign with the movie.

Sunsilk and Kimaya are slated to conduct various fashion shows to build the hype around the movie. The star cast of the movie comprising Priyanka Chopra, Kangana Ranaut and Mughda Godse will walk the ramp on October 20 for Sunsilk Fashion Week in Mumbai. On the other hand Kimaya will organize various event and fashion nights in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Pune. The film releases on October 29.

Mumbai Mantra and Puja Films collaborate for Onir’s Sorry Bhai
Mumbai Mantra, a company sponsored by the US $6.7 billion Mahindra Group, one of India’s top industrial houses, has entered into a joint venture with Puja Films for Onir’s new film Sorry Bhai. The film sketches the story of a family. The father and mother are inclined towards Indian values yet give way when they see their two sons being hurt by the same. They make peace with changing times and allow them to live happily ever after.

The film is a romantic comedy that features Sanjay Suri and Chitrangada Singh. Sorry Bhai also brings together Shabana Azmi and Boman Irani. Sharman Joshi plays the regretful younger brother to Sanjay Suri in the film.