Posts Tagged ‘Cast’

Q and Umesh Kulkarni – two daring film-making voices from two different corners of the country, and whose films we always look forward to. And this time both of them seem to be trying something new which they haven’t done before. Q’s film is called Ludo and Umesh’s film is Highway Ek Selfir Aarpaar.

Q has directed the film with Nikon.

LUDO

Trailer :

Official Synopsis :

Four desperate teenagers. A night of sexy mayhem. The big city. Or so the plan goes, until a series of misadventures later, Babai, Pele, Ria and Payal end up in a locked shopping mall in the dead of the night. Alone at last… until an old couple appears out of nowhere with a piece of folded leather and a glass container with two dice made of bone. A game. Simple, but deadly. They call it Ludo. A game defiled by a young couple centuries ago. An unbreakable curse, a living board, eons of bloodbath spanning the subcontinent. A game that has reached this city. Not just monsters, but prisoners of fate. Immortal lovers existing under a curse that will not die. They live within the game. Blood must spill. Bone must shatter. Beware the rattle of the Ludo dice.

Cast & Crew

Rii, Tillotama Shome, Kamalika Banerjee, Joyraj Bhattacharya, Ananya Biswas, Murari Mukherjee, Ronodeep Bose, Soumendra Bhattacharya, Subholina Sen.

Directed By: Nikon, Q (Qaushiq Mukherjee)
Produced By: Celine Loop, Nandini Mansinghka, Q (Qaushiq Mukherjee), Tilak Sarkar
Screenplay : Nikon, Surojit Sen
Story Writer :Nikon, Q (Qaushiq Mukherjee)
Production Company(S) : Overdose Joint, Idyabooster, Starfire Movies

HIGHWAY

Trailer :

Official Synopsis

Highway is a film of that escape which all of us yearn for. It is an attempt to see our own reflections in today’s time.

Cast :
Girish Kulkarni, Huma Qureshi, Tisca Chopra, Renuka Shahane Rana, Vidyadhar Joshi, Mukta Barve, Sunil Barve, Mayur Khandge, Shrikant Yadav, Kishore Chaugule, Kishor Kadam, Vrishali Kulkarni, Purva Pawar

Titli

Finally, Kanu Behl’s much acclaimed directorial debut, Titli has a release date – October 16th, 2015. Produced by Aditya Chopra and Dibakar Banerjee, the film had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival’s Un certain regard section in 2014. Since then, the film has been doing the fest rounds.

Cast and Crew

Cast – Ranveer Shorey, Amit Sial and introducing Shashank Arora

Directed by: Kanu Behl
Produced by: Dibakar Banerjee and Yashraj Films
Music by: Karan Gour
Written by: Sharat Katariya & Kanu Behl

Official Synopsis

In the badlands of Delhi’s dystopic underbelly, Titli, the youngest member of a violent car-jacking brotherhood plots a desperate bid to escape the ‘family’ business. His struggle to do so is countered at each stage by his indignant brothers, who finally try marrying him off to ‘settle’ him. Titli, finds an unlikely ally in his new wife, caught though she is in her own web of warped reality and dysfunctional dreams. They form a strange, beneficial partnership, only to confront their inability to escape the bindings of their family roots. But is escape, the same as freedom?

For more details about the film, click here.

Fandry

Initially it was the title of the film that made us curious. And strangely, nobody knew the meaning because though it seems like a Marathi word, it isn’t. And then we saw the film at Mumbai Film Festival and loved it. It even featured in our best scenes of the year list.

The film has been written and directed by Nagraj Manjule. The makers have just released the official first trailer of the film. It perfectly captures the mood and the essence of the film. Have a look. And thankfully, it’s with English subtitles.

Official Synopsis

A mesmeric force pulls Jabya onto the other side. The rarest of rare Black Sparrow, he is told, is the cure to his problem. The hypnotic spell of the sparrow makes him wander relentlessly. Completely away from the magical world of Jabya, exists the callous reality of his parents who are working at the most oppressed level of the Indian Class Structure and assume him to do the same work which they have done all their life. The protagonist Jabya has to now struggle between his quest to find the magical sparrow and his parents’ expectations. Will Jabya be successful in his pursuit of the Black Sparrow? Will the magnetic power surpass the class differences between Jabya and Shalu created by centuries of customs.? Will Jabya break the fences and pass onto the other side?

Cast & Crew

Studio – Navalakha Arts and Holy Basil Combine

Director – Nagraj Manjule

Writer – Nagraj Manjule

Screenplay – Nagraj Manjule

Music – Alokananda Dasgupta

Producer – Nilesh Navalakha and Vivek Kajaria

Cast – Kishor Kadam, Chhaya Kadam, Somnath Avghade, Suraj Pawar, Rajshree Kharat,
Sakshi Vyavhare, Aishvarya Shinde, Pravin Tarde, Bhushan Manjule, Nagraj Manjule

– Click here to read our review note from MFF.

– Click here to read Varun Grover and Kushan Nandy’s take on their favourite scenes of the year, both from Fandry.

– Click here to visit film’s official FB page.

And do watch it. It’s releasing on 14h Feb.

Chor Chor Super Chor

Deepak Dobriyal has been missing in action for sometime. So it’s good to see him back, and that too in a leading role. Watch the trailer.

Official Synopsis

In the crowded bylanes of Old Delhi, Shukhla ji runs a photo studio that is a front for small time crime. Satbir, who is a part of this gang now wants to give up a life of vice and make a new beginning with his love interest – Neena. Is Neena’s keen interest in Satbir’s past only curiosity or is there a secret intent? Will Satbir finally win Neena? What happens to wannabe crooks Amol and Ronnie? Will Satbir be able to give up his life of crime?

Cast & Crew
Produced by: Ved Kataria & Renu Kataria
Directed by: K.Rajesh
Story: K.Rajesh
Screenplay: Ani Thomas & Radhakrishnan Cherpu
Dialogues: Alok Chaturvedi

Cast
Deepak Dobriyal, Priya Bhatija, Anshul Kataria, Paru Uma, Alok Chaturvedi, Brahma Mishra, Nitin Goel, Jagat Rawat, Chandrahas Tiwari, Anurag Arora, Shrikant Verma, Megh Pant, Avtar Sahani, Jatin Sarna, Gaurav Das

Production company: Katson Motion Pictures
Music by: Mangesh Dhakde
Cinematography by: Rakesh Haridas
Editing by: James.J. Valiakulathil
Sound Design: Niraj Gera
Art Direction: Suman Roy Mahapatra
Casting: Alok Chaturvedi
Lyrics & Choreography: Vibhu Puri
Executive Producer: Tushar Radhakisan Tupe

For those who have been curious about Ritesh Batra’s Dabba, we have got the first look of the film. Here are some of the stills from the film which look really impressive. We do also have all the cast, credit and official synopsis details.

The film will have its international premiere at Cannes Festival in International Critics Week section.

(Click on any image to start the slide show in hi-res)

Though Nawaz was also in Paan Singh Tomar, but it looks like this film finally brings together two of the finest actors of our generation in full fledged roles. And is Irrfan Khan in Namesake avatar again? Bring it on!

Official Synopsis

A mistaken delivery in Mumbai’s famously efficient lunchbox delivery system connects a young housewife to an old man in the dusk of his life as they build a fantasy world together through notes in the lunchbox. Gradually, this fantasy threatens to overwhelm their reality.

Mumbai, a city of miracles.

One of Mumbai’s miracles is Mumbai’s Dabbawallahs – a community of 5000 dabba (lunchbox) deliverymen. It is a hereditary profession. Every morning the Dabbawallahs deliver hot meals from the kitchens of housewives to the offices of their husbands, and then return the empty lunchboxes back to the homes in the afternoon. For 120 years they have provided Mumbaikars with a taste of home in the office. They navigate through the overcrowded local trains and chaotic streets – that often have a namesake or more than one name. The Dabbahwallahs are illiterate, and instead rely on a complex coding system of colors and symbols to deliver dabbas in the labyrinth that is Mumbai. Harvard University analyzed their delivery system, concluding that just 1 in 8 million lunchboxes is ever delivered to the wrong address. Dabba is the story of that one lunchbox.

A mistakenly delivered lunchbox connects a housewife, Ila Singh, to Saajan Thomas, a lonely man in the dusk of his life. Ila lives in Dadar, the conservative middle class Hindu enclave. And Saajan lives in Ranwar village, Bandra, an old Christian neighborhood that is threatened by the new high rises in Mumbai. Very soon Saajan will retire and bid goodbye to a Mumbai that has crushed his dreams, took away his loved ones one by one, and turned his hair white. Just then Ila comes into his life. In the big city, that crushes dreams and recycles them every day, both find a dream to hold on to. Ila begins a fantastical affair with a mystery suitor, pouring her heart into cooking meals for him. And Saajan looks forward to lunch box deliveries from a mystery woman every day. They exchange notes via the lunchbox and create a fantasy life. As the lunchbox goes back and forth, this fantasy becomes so elaborate that it threatens to overwhelm their reality. The characters of The Lunchbox exist on the line between the Mumbai of reality and the Mumbai of fantasy.

The Lunchbox is the story of the life we dream of versus the life we live in, and of the courage it takes to turn out fantasies into reality.

Credits

director: Ritesh Batra
screenplay: Ritesh Batra
cinematography: Michael Simmonds
editing: John Lyons
sound: Michael Kaczmarek
production design: Shruti Gupte
music: Max Richter

Cast:
Irrfan Khan
Nimrat Kaur
Nawazuddin Siddiqui
Denzil Smith
Bharati Achrekar
Nakul Vaid
Yashvi Puneet Nagar
Lillete Dubey
Sada (Dabbawala)

The film is produced by Sikhya Entertainment (India), Dar Motion Pictures (India), and co-produced by National Film Development Corporation (India), ASAP Films (France) and Roh Films (Germany).

Btw, Michael Simmonds? The DoP of Ramin Bahrani’s films? Chop Shop, Man Push Cart, Goodbye Solo and Plastic Bag. That’s a great talent to have on board.

To know more about the film and the filmmaker, click here to read his interview on DearCinema.

Director

Ritesh Batra is a writer/director based in Mumbai and New York. In 2009, Batra was selected for the Sundance Writers and Directors labs for his feature project “The Story of Ram”. He was also named the Sundance Time Warner Storytelling Fellow and an Annenburg Fellow. He was part of the Graduate Film Program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, from which he dropped out in 2010. His short films have been presented in many international film festivals and fine arts venues. His recent short “Café Regular, Cairo” was featured in the 2012 Inter- national Film Festival of Rotterdam and 2012 Tribeca Film Festival. His upcoming short ‘The State of Siege’ is currently in post-production.

His feature screenplay THE LUNCHBOX was part of the 2011 Binger-NFDC Screenwriting Lab, it won an Honorable Mention from the Jury at the 2012 edition of the Cinemart at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam and was part of the Berlinale Talent Project Market.

(Cast/credit/synopsis/Director’s bio taken from various co-producers’ site)

Disney-UTV has announced its slate for 2013. While most of us knew about their releases, what’s most interesting for me is the official synopsis of all the films. For example we have been hearing about Chennai Express’ pitch in hush-hush tone for a long time. This one just makes it official.  Do check it out. Wish they had given out writers name with all the films too. And i hope other studios could also do something on similar lines.

chennaiexpress

RACE 2

Realease Date : 25th January

Producers : UTV Motion Pictures and TIPS Industries

Director : Abbas Mustan

Music : Pritam

Cast : Saif Ali Khan, Anil Kapoor, John Abraham, Deepika Padukone, Jacqueline Fernandez, Ameesha Patel

Synopsis : The story of Race 2 is set in the lush locales of exotic Europe, with a backdrop of gambling and Casinos. A fast paced thriller that takes the legacy of “Race1”forward, with high octane action, combined with thrills and twists that have a roller coaster effect, and edge of the seat excitement.

ABCD – ANYBODY CAN DANCE

Release Date : 8th February

Producer : UTV Spotboy

Director : Remo D’Souza

Music Director : Sachin-Jigar

Cast : Prabhudheva, Ganesh Acharya, Dance India Dance winners like Salman Khan, Dharmesh, Prince, Mayuresh and Vrushali and Lauren Gottlieb, the finalist of the popular international television dance talent show So You Think You Can Dance

Synopsis : For Vishnu (Prabhudheva), widely regarded as India’s best dancer, dance is more than a passion – it’s the reason he lives! So when he finds himself thrown out from the swish dance academy he himself set up, by his manipulative business partner, it feels like the oxygen has been sucked out from the air he breathes. Heart-broken, Vishnu decides to give up dance and leave Mumbai forever. However the night before his departure he witnesses a most amazing sight – a group of dancers preparing for the upcoming Ganpati Dance Battle – an annual festival that pits Mumbai’s best dance groups against each other. Watching the raw talent of these amazing dancers helps Vishnu arrive at a decision – he will take this disparate group under his wing, help them overcome their personal rivalries and past demons and turn them into India’s best dance squad!. From India’s biggest film studio, UTV Motion Pictures, and renowned choreographer & director, Remo D’souza comes India’s first dance film in 3D– a spectacular entertainer that proves yet again that if you dare to dream, impossible is nothing!

KAI PO CHE!

Release Date : 22nd February

Producer : UTV Spotboy

Director : Abhishek Kapoor

Music Director : Amit Trivedi

Cast : Sushant Singh Rajput, RajKumar Yadav, Amit Sadh, Amrita Puri

Synopsis : Best friends Ishaan, Omi and Govind – young, ambitious and restless – are trying to make a mark in the India of the early 2000’s. These are exciting times – a new millennium has just dawned, India is a nuclear power and ostensibly shining – a perfect place for the 3 Ahmedabad boys to start a business that could be their ticket to fame and riches. In a country where cricket is religion, they hit upon a brilliant plan – to start a training academy that could produce India’s next sporting superstars! What follows is without doubt the greatest adventure of their lives, as they attempt to navigate the big hurdles in the path of fulfilling their dreams. Based on Chetan Bhagat’s bestselling novel “The Three Mistakes of My Life”, Kai Po Che (meaning a triumphant yell in Gujarati) is an unforgettable ode to friendship and the magical moments one shares with one’s closest pals – celebrating festivals, drunken dancing, watching cricket matches together, strategizing on how to catch the attention of the cute neighborhood girl, being there to watch each other’s back in troubled times and to celebrate one’s successes by screaming “Kai Po Che”!

HIMMATWALA

Release Date : 29th March

Producer : UTV Motion Pictures and Puja Entertainment

Director : Sajid Khan

Music Director : Sajid Wajid

Cast : Ajay Devgan, Tammannah

Synopsis : The biggest remake of the 80s Bollywood cult classic “Himmatwala” is a story of a poor and wronged mothers son who comes to the village to avenge his father.

GHANCHAKKAR

Release Date : 21st June

Producer : UTV Motion Pictures

Director : RajKumar Gupta

Music Director : Amit Trivedi

Cast : Emraan Hashmi and Vidya Balan

Synopsis : When Sanju (Emraan Hashmi), a suave, master safe cracker wants to retire from a career in crime, he decides to team up with two dangerous criminals to commit one last heist. A bank robbery that will ensure that he never has to worry about money again! Everything goes according to plan. Sanju is given the task of hiding the money till things cool down and the booty can be split. Two months later the associates return to collect their share of the loot, but Sanju refuses to even recognize them! What dangerous game is Sanju playing? Ghanchakkar is a crazy, quirky rollercoaster suspense ride that will surprise, shock and entertain the audience at every turn.

SATYAGRAHA

Release Date : 15th August

Producer : UTV Motion Pictures and Prakash Jha Productions

Director: Prakash Jha

Cast : Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Manoj Bajpayee

Synopsis : The film deals with the movement of the middle-class to re-negotiate democracy. It’s the story of a man who is a firm believer of Gandhian principles, an ambitious entrepreneur who represents the modern India shining philosophy, a social activist who aims to be a politician, a fearless political journalist and a wily politician who uses every means to break the system.

CHENNAI EXPRESS

Producer : UTV Motion Pictures and Red Chillies Entertainment

Release Date : To be announced

Director : Rohit Shetty

Music Director : Vishal Shekhar

Cast : Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone

Synopsis : The story is about a man’s journey from Mumbai to Rameshwaram and what happens during the journey.

TAMIL

SETTAI

Producer : UTV Motion Pictures

Release date : February, 2012

Director : R. Kannan

Music Director : S. Thaman

Cast : Arya, Anjali, Santhanam, Premji Amaren and Hansika Motwani

Synopsis : Settai is a remake of the 2011 Bollywood comedy, Delhi Belly.

IVAN VERAMADHIRI (He is different)

Producer : UTV Motion Pictures & N. Lingusamy of Thirrupathi Brothers

Release Date : June, 2013

Director : M. Saravanan

Music Director : Sathya

Cast : Vikram Prabhu and others

Synopsis : It is about a common man’s anger on the criminals and demonstrating the commitment of youth to reform the society

SIGARAM THODU (Scale the peak) December

Producer : UTV Motion Pictures

Release Date : December, 2013

Director : Gaurav

Music director: D. Imman

Cast : Vikram Prabhu, Sathyaraj, Yamini Gautam and others

Synopsis : It is about father & son’s relationship. A son’s desire to fulfill the desire of his father.

After a superb debut with Manorama Six Feet Under (though inspired/copied..whatever suits your sanity), Navdeep Singh is all set to roll his new film titled Basra. Earlier Akshaye Khanna and R Madhavan were supposed to star in it and Nikhil Advani was producing it. But now the film has a new cast and  a new producer too.

Abhay Deol is not only starring in it but is also producing the film under his banner Forbidden Films. Chitrangada Singh, Shahana Goswami, Nikhil Dwivedi and Soniya Mehra (Vinod Mehra’s daughter. Debut with Anant Mahadevan’s Victoria No 203) are also part of it. TOI has confirmed the cast and got the plot details of the film. You can click here or scroll down.

It is an out-and-out action film based on the drug racket and human trafficking. Basra is an edgy and dark film. Soniya will play a teenage hippie who is involved in drugs and eventually becomes a victim of human trafficking after being kidnapped. Shahana plays a journalist, while Nikhil is a cop. It is an ensemble cast and script.

The film is an action thriller. Abhay’s role is that of a secret agent. You can call him an undercover cop who exposes the entire racket. The movie has its base in Basra, a city in Iraq, notorious for its involvement in drugs. It will be shot in Dubai, Kuwait, Delhi and Mumbai.

The title Basra was chosen as it is a city in Iraq which is apt to the subject of the film. Probably the film will also be shot in one of the cities in Iraq. The movie will go on the floors in January and most probably release by the end of next year.

With that school boy looks and kiddie way of dialogue delivery, its bit difficult to imagine Abhay Deol as a secret agent in an action thriller. Or is he also going for those six-eight-dozen packs ? The rugged look with the moustache and disheveled hair did the trick in Manorama Six Feet Under. Hopefully we will be proved wrong. We trust Singhsaab! 

The complete list of actors/characters of Vishal Bhardwaj’s Kaminey is out. And a new pic from the film. Scroll down for all the actors/charcters’ names & traits.

kaminey cast

Shahid Kapoor ( in blue) – Guddu – Works as a trainee in an NGO. Middle class aspirations.

Shahid Kapoor ( in T-shirt) – Charlie – Life is all about betting at race course. Give me more!

Priyanka Chopra ( Sweety Shekhar Bhopu ) – Guddu’s love life. Bhope’s lil sister.

Amole Gupte ( Next to Priyanka ) – Bhope Bhau  – Small time gangster turned politician. Want to be messiah of the slums.

Tenzing Nima ( Next to Amole ) – Tashi – Drug Lord. High style and cold kills.

Shiv Subrahmanyam (Between Amole & Tenzing ) – Inspector Lobo –  Narcotics department officer. Crooked and brutal.

Hrishikesh Joshi (extreme right ) – Inspector Lele – Narcotics department officer. Lobo’s partner in crime.

Carlos Paca ( behind Amole ) – Cajetan – Has the gun. will kill. Don’t mess.

Rajtava Dutta ( next to Shahid in blue ) – Shumon – Bookie on racing circuit. Mony, gun & women.

Deb Mukherjee ( behind Rajtava ) – Mujeeb – Powerful bookie on racing circuit. More power.

Chandan Roy Sanyal ( behind Shahid in blue ) – Mikhail – Charlie’s best friend. Acts before he thinks.

Writers – Supratik Sen, Abhishek Chaubey, Sabrina Dhawan and Vishal Bhardwaj. Music – Vishal Bhardwaj. Lyrics – Gulzar.

Woohooo! All these characters meet on a rainy night. Add drugs, guns and money. We are waiting and how!

aage se right cut

If its about the big idea, then UTV surely deserves a pat on their back. Check out the website of their new film Aage Se Right and you will understand what we are saying. The address is www.gunontherun.com. Putting a bullet in a gun chamber was never so much fun!

Cast : The film stars Shreyas Talpade( Cop), Kay Kay (terroist) , Shiv Pandit(tapori), Mahie Gill (journalist) and Shenaz Treasurywala (aspiring actress).

Produced by UTV Spotboy and directed by debutant Indrajit Nattoji, Aage Se Right is a comic caper.

Synopsis : Set in Mumbai, Aage Se Right is all about chance and coincidence. Its five days of chaos, panic and mayhem. It revolves around a cop and terrorist. The cop ( Shreyas) loses his gun and the terrorist (Kay Kay) loses his heart. The two worlds meet and it leads to hilarious situations. A satire of our chaotic times.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     raavanWhat we know : Mani Ratnam’s Raavan is modern day adaptation of the epic Ramayana.  Like Shakespeare’s Othello became Omkara, Raavan is set somewhere in the north and has a rural backdrop. Abhishek Bachchan plays the lead character ( Raavan) who kidnaps Aishwarys Rai ( Sita) and eventually Sita falls for him. Tamil star Vikram plays the role of Ram. Govinda’s role is inspired by Hanuman, Ravi Kissan plays Abhishek’s aide and Nikhil Dwivedi plays a cop.

raavan21What we just got to know : Priyamani, the national award winning actress from film Paruthiveeran plays the role of Shoorpanakha.

And actor Ashish Vidhyarthi plays the role of Abhishek Bachchan’s dad in the film.