Archive for the ‘cast & crew’ Category

Not sure why and how, but Freida Pinto is surely going places. As if Danny Boyle, Julian Schnabel, Woody Allen, Tarsem Singh and the Apes movie weren’t big enough for her CV, now she also has Michael Winterbottom.

The film is titled Trishna and will also star Riz Ahmed (Four Lions). It’s based on Thomas Hardy’s novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles. We haven’t read it but according to IMDB, it’s “The story of the tragic relationship between the son of a property developer and the daughter of an auto rickshaw owner”. And a friend described it as “hopelessly depressing”.

The film will be shot all over Rajasthan and it’s a start to finish schedule. The shooting starts by end of February. Last time when Winterbottom shot A Mighty Heart in India, it was in news for all the wrong reasons. So this time its been kept as a hush-hush affair.

And this is not the first time that Thomas Hardy’s novel is getting adapted for the screen. Tess of the D’Urbervillies was also adapated as a four part mini-series for BBC and had Gemma Arterton in the lead role.

Rajasthan, Frieda Pinto, property developer, rickshaw owner – well, something tells us that it will again be desi exotica for the West. What’s missing ? Bollywood and naach-gaana ? Bet it’s there. Someone will move to Mumbai and dhen tedan! We can’t spill all the beans at one go.

Click here to read the Deadline.com report.

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra is back after the debacle of Delhi – 6. But this time as a producer.

Teen Thai Bhai is produced by PVR Pictures and ROM. It stars Om Puri, Shreyas Talpade and Deepal Dobriyal. The film is directed by debutant Mrigdeep Singh Lamba. Lyrics are by Gulzar and music is Ranjit Barot and Sukhwinder Singh.

The film was earlier titled Mad, Madder, Maddest. The cast is interesting for sure but seems like the film is going to be slapstick.

 

 

First, a confession. We were wrong about the news of Delhi Belly. As the director was clueless about the edit and release plan, a crew member had informed us that the film was shelved. Plus, the IMDB page of the film, which had all the details about the actors and the characters, was also deleted. So, we had put out a post stating that the film has been shelved. Apologies for the wrong information. Hopefully will not happen again.

The first look of Delhi Belly is out. It’s a teaser. Check it out…

It’s directed by Abhinay Deo and stars Imran Khan, Vir Das, Kunal roy Kapoor and Shenaz Treasurywala. Though the director has moved on to his next film Game and doesn’t have say in the final edit of the film.

Now the big question is what are they selling ?

Aamir Khan Productions has done blah blah and blah films. And it is endorsed by  Amitabh Bachchan. So ? So Delhi Belly is next. Brand Aamir ? Where is Imran ? What is the film about ? Well, may be we have to wait for its theatrical trailer

Aha, quite a long header. Let’s tackle it one by one. And not sure if it deserves a SPOILER ALERT because its all in the official synopsis.

Synopsis – The romantic misadventures of Susanna Anna-Marie Johannes, a beautiful lass who over the course of thirty-five odd years, gets married seven times due to the untimely and mysterious deaths of half a dozen of her hapless husbands. The strange circumstances of their deaths, makes Susanna a prime accused. Did the husbands deserve to die? Were the murders out of necessity or pure blood-lust? Does Susanna ever find her one true love?

Key Word – Half a dozen.

And check out the six new character posters. And 7th one is again missing!

Character Details :

Susanna Anna-Marie Johannes (Priyanka Chopra) –  She is a beautiful lass who over the course of thirty-five odd years, gets married seven times due to the untimely and mysterious deaths of half a dozen of her hapless husbands. The strange circumstances of their deaths make Susanna a prime suspect. Enigmatic and irresistibly charming in equal measure – Susanna is the kind of woman any man would die for! Literally!

Key word – Half a dozen.

Neil Nitin Mukesh (Edwin Rodriques) – A young and beautiful Susanna falls in love with The Major, who’s oh-so-dashing in his uniform. Yes, he’s a bit too old for her, and he likes giving orders. But love is blind.

John Abraham ( Jimmy Stetson) – Soon thereafter – very soon – Susanna decides to marry Jimmy, whose good looks and musical talent sweep her off her feet. She invests in him, but she has no idea what lies in store.

Irrfan Khan (Wasiullah Khan) – As a romantic soul. Susanna is susceptible to beautiful poetry. Hence it is that she discovers and marries Wasiullah Khan A.k.a Musafir, by day a gentle poet and by night… something else.

Aleksandr Dyachenko (Nicolai Vronsky) – Growing older but no wiser. Susanna next marries a Mr. Vronsky from Moscow and almost re-enacts her very own Anna Karenina love story.

Anu Kapoor (Keemat Lal) – All these dead husbands! The police take an interest, especially Officer Keemat Lal, who is helpful to the extreme. He not only persuades Susanna to marry him, he makes it impossible for her to say no.

Naseruddin Shah( Modhusudhon Tarafdar) –  By now our Susanna is suffering from melancholy, not to mention indigestion. Along comes her savior, Dr. Modhusudhon Tarafdar with a healthy answer to both problems: a strict mushroom diet.

The 7th Husband – It turns out that Dr. Mushroom isn’t Susanna’s last savior. She marries yet again, and finally it’s for good.

Hmm. The 7th Husband is played by Naseeruddin Shah’s son Vivan Shah. So is it just 6KM ? And is there more to the 7th one ? If you have seen the theatrical trailer of the film, you must have also noticed that the last few seconds of the trailer has Vivaan Shah in a contemplative mood with Priyanka Chopra in the other corner. Your thoughts ?

Karan Johar announced his new film with full page ads in today’s newspapers. Its called Student Of The Year. Huh! The film is going to launch three new faces – Siddharth Malhotra (ahem..ahem! Hot topic these days), Alia Bhatt (Mahesh Bhatt’s daughter) and Varun Dhawan (David Dhawan’s son). The film will also star Shah Rukh Khan in a key role.

Woot! Darrrrling is the new Dhen Tedan!

The trailer of Vishal Bhardwaj’s new film 7 Khoon Maaf is out. Aha, the popular joke doing the rounds is that 7KM trailer is the only good reason to watch Tees Maar Khan. But now its online. So, here it is…

The film stars Naseeruddin Shah, Irrfan Khan, John Abraham, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Russian actor Alexander Dyachenko, Annu Kapoor and Vivaan Shah.

Click here and here to read our previous posts on 7 Khoon Maaf.

PS – Ruskin Bond also has a cameo in the film.

And Dear Vishal Bhardwaj,

After Bard and Bond, why do you want to go to Bhagat ? Please. Can you explain ?  Or are you seriously looking for the B-factor! You, Shah Rukh Khan, Chetan Bhagat and Sajid Nadiawala – where is the common ground ? Or are we completely blind ? Ok, you and Shah Rukh will be a great combo to look forward to but now in that Bhagu Chaat’s trash called 2 States.

Absolutely NOT looking forward to it

VB-hakts

The trailer of the malyalam film Makaramanju in which Santosh Sivan makes his debut as an actor, is out. It also stars Karthika and Nithya Menon and is based on the life of Raja Ravi Varma.  The film has been directed by Lenin Rajendran.

Delhi Belly was suppose to be his debut film. And now he is ready with his next one – Game. The trailer of Abhinay Deo’s debut feature Game is out. The film stars Abhishek Bachchan, Kangana Ranaut, Sarah Jane Dias, Jimmy Shergill, Shahana Goswami, Gauhar Khan, Boman Irani and Anupam Kher. Its pitched as a slick edge-of-the-seat whodunit thriller. It has been produced by Excel Entertainment.

Two news items from Vidhu Vinod Chopra Productions. First, his much ambitious Hollywood debut Broken Horses is NOT happening.

He set up an office in LA, did recce for the film and even put out a video of it on his official website. But now it has been shelved. The main reason seems to be the problem in getting the cast onboard. Because in Hollywood, the rules aren’t the same. Though there was some buzz about Mickey Rourke and Nicholas Cage doing the film but it seems it all just buzz.

But an official release from Vidhu Vinod Chopra Productions states that Broken Horses is very much alive, and presently in its pre-production stages.

And the second news – Sharman Joshi has finally bagged a big film. The next production of Vidhu Vinod Chopra – Ferrari Ki Sawaari in which Joshi will play the lead actor. The film will be directed by Rajesh Mapuskar, a long time associate of RajKumar Hirani. According to official release, its a heartwarming tale of how the pursuit of an Indian cricket legend’s Ferrari makes a young boy’s dreams of playing cricket at Lords a reality.

Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Rajesh Mapuskar have co-written the script and dialogues are by Rajkumar Hirani. The shooting will start in February and it will release next year.

Madhur Bhandarkar, known for, what else, but Bhandarkarism ( Or if you have a better word, do let us know) in cinema, is ready with his new film titled Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji. The film stars Ajay Devgn, Emraan Hashmi, Omi Vaidhya, Shruti Hassan, Shazahn Padamsee and Shraddha Das.  And if you are interested, here is the first trailer of the film.