Avatar, New Moon and the Indian Connection

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Posted by Liju Philip | Posted in India, Movies, bollywood, cinema, entertainment, hollywood | Posted on 14-01-2010

Prime Focus, the Mumbai based post production company has worked on significant portions of the recent blockbusters, Avatar and The New Moon.

Prime Focus played an essential behind-the-scenes role in two of the biggest Hollywood blockbusters of 2009 — Chris Weitz’s “New Moon” and James Cameron’s “Avatar.” The company established itself as one of the cutting-edge firms in the visual effects business by producing about 10 percent of James Cameron’s path-breaking 3D superhit and a whopping 80 percent of the shots for the second installment of the Twilight franchise.

“’Avatar’ obviously is the biggest of all,” Malhotra said. “We’ve done some exemplary work in ‘GI Joe’ and ‘New Moon’ as well. But when you’re working on ‘Avatar’ as one of the top five vendors you have got to a lot more credible space than working on just any movie.”

The London Stock Exchange-listed company’s portfolio of work runs the gambit from “Avatar” to top Bollywood hits like the Amir Khan starrer “3 Idiots” to Splinter Films’ DVD release of a live performance by Beyonce. The company already owns the lion’s share of the Indian post-production and visual effects market, and the international business is expanding rapidly.

Full article here

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Miss World 2008 is Russian

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Posted by Liju Philip | Posted in India, World, miss world, russia, south africa, trinidad and tobago | Posted on 14-12-2008

missworld_sa_5_630

From left Parvathy Omanakuttan of India (1st runner up), Kseniya Sukhinova of Russia (Miss World 2008), Gabrielle Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago (2nd runner up).

Above picture courtesy: IBNLive

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Dev.D – Promo

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Posted by Liju Philip | Posted in India, Movies, Music, World, bollywood, cinema, films | Posted on 06-11-2008

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRLjycn11Rw]

Woohoo…. Anurag Kashyap is back, after No Smoking and Black Friday. Dev D is the story of Devdas set in the current age.

The only Deol that i like, Abhay Deol.  Am very much impressed by his selection of movies – Socha Na Tha, Manorama 6 feet under, Ek Chalis ki Last Local.

Aankhon ka hai dhoka, Paisa tera pyaar,

Tera emotional atyachaar

Produced by UTV Spotboy and a rocking soundtrack, this is one movie am waiting for.

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Ghajini Promo

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Posted by Liju Philip | Posted in India, Movies, Music, World, bollywood, cinema, films, hindi | Posted on 29-10-2008

Aamir Khan is back… and how.  The trailer of the much anticipated Murugadoss directed, Aamir Khan starrer Ghajini is out. And by the looks of it, looks like a super violent movie.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_VLLlLR7dU]

Is it a 6 pack or the very elusive 8 pack? Lets wait for the verdit to happen, but boy am sooooper excited.  Cant wait for the music to release. The tamil version had some terrific foot tapping music by Harris Jayaraj and a muscular Surya to boot. Honestly, i was not impressed by the Tamil version. Especially the climax which i though was a letdown.  But with Mr Perfectionist, Aamir in the lead, am waiting with bated breath.

Above picture courtesy: Aamirkhan.com

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Movies watched over the past week

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Posted by Liju Philip | Posted in Movies, Music, Personal, World, bollywood, cinema, films, hollywood | Posted on 06-10-2008

Death at a funeral - 3/5


Cloverfield – 2/5


Casino Royale – 4/5


Before Sunset – 3/5


Outsourced – 3/5


Disaster Movie – 0/5


Original Sin – 2/5 (for the steamy scenes of Angelina Jolie and Antonio Banderas)


Taare Zameen Par – 3/5


Matchstick Men – 3/5 (The hindi movie Bluffmaster starring Abhishek Bachchan was a ripoff of this movie)

All pictures courtesy: IMDB

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Dreamworks, Reliance ADAG in $1.5 billion marriage

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Posted by Liju Philip | Posted in Business, India, Investing, Movies, Music, World, bollywood, cinema, dreamworks, films, hollywood | Posted on 21-09-2008

It’s the biggest marriage of Bollywood and Hollywood in the history of cinema. Anil Ambani’s Reliance Big Entertainment and Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks SKG have inked a $1.5 billion deal to set up the new DreamWorks.

“The new age studio will be based in Los Angeles and produce six films per year for the next six years. The rights for all these films across platforms — theatres, DTH, television, DVDs — will remain with Reliance for the territory of India,” a top official in the Reliance ADA Group said.

“Serious negotiations began a few months ago but the deal was finally signed in Los Angeles on Friday. The deal is in part equity and part debt. The debt will be syndicated by JP Morgan Chase. But we can’t talk about the exact debt-equity ratio now,” he said.

According to the deal, DreamWorks will become a 50:50 joint venture of Spielberg, current DreamWorks chief executive Stacey Snider and Anil Ambani’s Reliance Big Entertainment. Snider has also worked as chairman of Universal Pictures.

David Geffen, one of the co-founders of DreamWorks and its current principal, will exit. Spielberg retains the rights to the name DreamWorks and is expected to affix it to the new entity, a news agency report said.

Spielberg is Hollywood’s most successful director of all times. Some of his well-known films are Raiders of the Lost Ark , ET and Jurassic Park . In May at the Cannes Film Festival, Reliance Big Entertainment had announced production deals with some of the biggest names in Hollywood such as Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Tom Hanks, Jim Carrey and Nicholas Cage.

Earlier this year, the company bought over 230 cinemas in USA and another 50 in Malaysia. Some theatres were also taken over in Mauritius and Nepal.

“The company is looking for other opportunities in the movie exhibition sector around the world,” the company official said. At present, Reliance Big Entertainment is producing about 70 films in nine languages across India.

“The deal gives DreamWorks co-founder Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks Chief Executive Stacey Snider the financial support they need to leave Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures and start a new venture. Dreamworks was sold to Viacom in 2006,” the Wall Street Journal website reported on Friday.

“The marriage between some of Hollywood’s biggest names and an Indian conglomerate is less surprising than it seems. The new deal comes in the wake of a financial drought in Hollywood, with the industry looking to foreign investors to replace some of billions of dollars that Wall Street poured into film financing in recent years but has since evaporated with the crumbling credit markets,” the newspaper said.

Above news courtesy: TimesofIndia

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Weekend Music

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Posted by Liju Philip | Posted in Music, Personal, World, entertainment, weekend | Posted on 20-09-2008

Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQHrspjw4aA]

Joan Jett – I love rock n roll

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3T_xeoGES8]

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Movie marathon and ratings

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Posted by Liju Philip | Posted in Movies, Personal, World, bollywood, cinema, english, entertainment, films, hindi, hollywood | Posted on 15-09-2008

Watching movies endlessly these past few weeks.  But iam unable to find any time to write a detailed review of them. If and when i find time, i will write something detailed about the ones i liked.  As of now, a list of the movies and my ratings.

Basic Instinct -1 (4/5)
Taken  (4/5)
A Wednesday (4/5)
21 (3/5)
Mumbai Meri Jaan (3/5)
Charlie Wilson’s War (3/5)
Rock On (3/5)
Chamku (2/5)
Hijack (1/5)
Mukhbir (1/5)
Maan Gaye Mughal-e-Azam (0/5)
C Kompany (0/5)
Meet the Spartans (0/5)
Aeon Flux (0/5)
Basic Instinct -2 (0/5)

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