Rushes

Pran turns 80
Veteran actor Pran who gave the image of the bad man in Hindi films a new respectability in more than 350 films in a span of half a century and then changed over to playing the good man will turn 80 on February 3. He is still active in films, and last shot for Dosh.

S Africa woos filmfolk
A South African delegation under the leadership of Lucas Leola, (director, Mpumalanga Investment Initiative), Paresh Pandya, manager investment promotion, and Zaidah Goosein, advisor, and Sushant Mehta, South African Consul General, visited the Indian Motion Picture Producers’ Association on February 3 to meet filmfolk. Lucas Leola said the purpose of the visit was to discuss the benefits and viability of using South Africa as film screening destination and to attract Indian film producers to shoot in the province of Mpumalanga.

National awards on Feb 15
The 46th National Film Festival awards are to be presented on February 15 by the President of India at a special ceremony in the capital. The award function comes after months of delay due to parliamentary elections and the President’s prior commitments last year.

The award winning films for the year 1998 were screened last summer in Delhi. Shyam Benegal’s Hindi film Samar gets the Swarna Kamal for the best feature film, and Karan Johar’s Kuch Kuch Hota Hai gets the top honours for the best popular film. Mahesh Bhatt’s Zakhm takes the Nargis Dutt award for the best feature film on National Integration.

Govinda in Censor
Govinda is the latest star added to the team of Dev Anand’s Censor. He took part in a song and dance picturised on him at RK Studios. He also took part in some scenes. He is the 26th star to work in the film which has been completed in exactly a year (February 1999 to February 2000).

Jeetendra launches film
Shree Siddhivinayak Films’ Production No 1 was launched with a recording of a song at Sahara Recording Studio on February 1. The song written by Sameer was tuned by Anu Malik. Jeetendra presents the film jointly produced by his wife Shobha Kapoor and daughter Ekta Kapoor and directed by David Dhawan. Govinda heads the cas, and Yunus Sajawal and Imtiaz Patel contribute the story and screenplay.

Indra to direct Aashiq
Indra Kumar will direct Shweta International’s Aashiq which will go on the floors in Hyderabad on February 11 with a 25 day shoot. The film produced by Anil Sharma stars Bobby Deol, Karisma Kapoor and Anupam Kher and has music by Sanjeev-Darshan, lyrics by Sameer and sound by Jeetendra Chowdhury.

20-day shoot for Har Dil...
Producer Sajid Nadiadwala has begun a 20-day shoot for Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment’s Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega at Filmistan Studios, Mumbai. The film directed by Raj Kanwar stars Salman Khan, Rani Mukerji and Preity Zinta has music by Anu Malik.

Dreamers for Valleyfest
Khodus Wadia’s Dreamers (35mm, duration 32 minutes) has been invited for the prestigious Valleyfest Film Festival in Knoxville in the USA which is being held from March 9 to 12 this year. The festival highlights films that have a mature or controversial subject matter. l