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More news →THE NAMESAKE, Irrfan Khan get international nominations
Mira Nair's 2007 art house hit co-produced by UTV Motion Pictures & Fox Searchlight, The Namesake, starring Irrfan Khan, Tabu, Kal Penn, and Jacinda Barrett was nominated for Best Feature at the 2007 IFP Gotham Awards, New York. Also, star Irrfan Khan is the first Indian actor to ever be nominated for a Film Independent's Spirit Award. Khan has been recognized in the Best Supporting Actor category for his portrayal of Ashoke Ganguli, a father who anchors his family as they grow through loneliness, adolescence, and bitter loss. An inspirational tale about the ties that bind us all, The Namesake is "marvelous, moving...funny and sexy" (Entertainment Weekly). The Namesake DVD comes out in the USA on November 28, 2007 and is already available in India. It includes special features like: Commentary by Director Mira Nair, Deleted scenes, The Anatomy of The Namesake: A Class at Columbia University's Graduate Film School, Fox Movie Channel Presents: In Character with Kal Penn, Kolkata Love Poem, and Photography as Inspiration. Nair, who calls The Namesake her "most personal film yet," is being honored by the Independent Feature Project with a retrospective of her body of work. This past weekend, the Independent Film Center in New York City hosted packed screenings of Hysterical Blindness (2002, starring Uma Thurman, Juliette Lewis, and Gena Rowlands), Monsoon Wedding (2001, starring Naseeruddin Shah, Lillette Dubey, and Vijay Raaz). The celebration culminated with a screening of Nair's new short film, Migration (2007, starring Shiney Ahuja, Raima Sen, Irrfan Khan, and Sameera Reddy) and her Oscar-nominated debut, Salaam Bombay! followed by a Q&A moderated by renowned director Bennett Miller (Capote). Uma Thurman and Tabu presented Nair with her tribute award to celebrate her contribution to independent cinema at Gotham Awards ceremony held on Nov 28.
UTVs distribution strategy makes THE NAMESAKE a huge crossover success
UTV's distribution strategy has acted as a catalyst to help 'The Namesake' break box office records in India! After giving us 'Mississippi Masala' and 'Monsoon Wedding', Mira Nair has once again struck the right chords and created reverberations that will be heard across the globe at various award ceremonies in 2007-08. Mira Nair's THE NAMESAKE a co-production between UTV Motion Pictures & Fox Searchlight heralds the commercial acceptance of a new kind of English cinema in India. Boasting of superb performances from Irrfan Khan, Tabu and Kal Penn, the film has emerged a stunning box office success in the Indian market. An intimate family saga that spans continents and generations yet stays close to the heart; The Namesake has set a benchmark for Indian crossover films at the box office. The first Indian crossover film to be co-produced by an Indian company, 'The Namesake' has achieved the milestone of logging in one of the highest per print average collections for an Indian crossover film. It has left other critically and commercially acclaimed films such as Water, Monsoon Wedding, Bend It Like Beckham, Bollywood Hollywood and The Guru far behind on this parameter. The film has generated a cumulative per print average gross box office (GBO) of Rs. 10,51,570 in only 4 weeks of release, with a Gross India Box Office of 6.62 crs for week ended Apr 27 Apart from the unparalleled content, the innovative distribution strategy adopted by UTV for the movie has acted as a catalyst to achieve this success at the box office. Rather than going by the conventional distribution wisdom of maximum revenues with maximum prints, the film opened with a phase-wise release across the country, with just 48 prints in the top 10 cities in the first 7 days. Siddharth Roy Kapur, EVP ' Marketing, Distribution & Syndication, UTV says, 'We were confident of the product and banked on positive reviews and word of mouth to drive demand for the film. The strategy worked. Buoyed by the tremendous response of the audience, in the second week we added 12 prints along with new territories and did the same print and territory expansion in Week 3. This enabled word of mouth to build and occupancy levels to be maximized. This also kept print costs low and optimized the realization per print, while ensuring that supply of tickets always matched demand and did not exceed it by too high a margin.' This breakthrough strategy has helped the film sustain presence across markets for more than 4 weeks and it is still successfully running in theatres across the country.
Irrfan & Tabu lip lock in THE NAMESAKE
Mira Nair directed THE NAMESAKE releases today in India and unlike many films in the recent past that have made a big deal about a peck or two, this one hasn't quite resorted to such tricks. In spite of the film being abound in kisses and smooches, which is led all the way by the lead pair Irrfan Khan and Tabu, the PR machinery has thankfully refrained from using it a film's selling point. In fact not just Irrfan and Tabu but even Kal Penn and his American girlfriend and later Indian wife are shown sharing innumerous intimate moments together but neither the promotion nor the film's trailers have highlighted that to give the film an unwanted angle. Having said that, it has to be added that none of these look vulgar or titillating by any means and to Mira Nair's credits, she has shot them in an utmost classy manner
Big B, Rakeysh Mehra, Ashutosh for red carpet premier of The Namesake
While the whole world has shifted its base to the West coast for the World Cup, some one from the West has finally landed in India. It's none other than, one of the most awaited movies for 2007, UTV and Mira Nair's 'The Namesake' that releases in India today. Based on Pulitzer award winning writer Jhumpa Lahiri's novel, the film has got some exceptional reviews in US after its release. One of which described it as must watch for every one who comes to America and tries to hold on to their heritage. The Mumbai premiere was attended by Bollywood's first family Amitabh, Jaya, Abhishek Bachchan along with Aishwarya Rai. Also present were Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Ashutosh & Sunita Gowariker, Rahul Bose, Akshay Khanna in attendance at the premier who were all set to relish the masterpiece. 'The Namesake' team was present in full force at the premiere graced by vivacious Tabu who plays 'Ashima'. She walked the red carpet with her co-star and gifted actor Irfan Khan followed by the chief navigator of the movie, the star director Mira Nai. Sooni Taraporewala, the scriptwriter of the film too came along with her team. Also present at the premier was UTV's head honcho Ronnie Screwvala along with other celebrities from the film fraternity. 'The Namesake' is the tale of the Ganguli family whose move from Kolkata to New York evokes a lifelong balancing act to meld to a new-fangled world without forgetting the old. Though parents Ashoke and Ashima long for the family and mores that enveloped them in India, they take pride in the opportunities their sacrifices have afforded their children. Paradoxically their son Gogol is frayed between finding his own unique individuality without losing his heritage.
"The Last Monk" being screened at MAMI
Plexus Films and Access Entertainment's maiden feature film in English, "The Last Monk", which was acclaimed at the Rotterdam film festival recently, is now being screened at the forthcoming MAMI film festival in Mumbai on 24th March. "The Last Monk" has been directed by Sudipto Sen, assistant to legendary filmmaker G.Aravindan. He has made many documentaries including "The Other Wealth", which won National Award for Best Environmental Film in 1995. It was also screened at all the major international film festivals. "The Last Monk" is a maiden venture marking his debut as a feature film director. This unique venture in the midst of contemporary Indian cinema scenario is slated to be the beginning of a new genre. As an Indian feature film in English, "The Last Monk" ventures into the hitherto uncharted territories of cultural Buddhism through breath-taking landscape of Ladakh on Indo-Tibetan plateau and a radical understanding of male-female relationship, sexuality and beyond. "The Last Monk" is the story of Swapna. Swapna's role is enacted by Rachna Shah, who has already worked in many prestigious films including Sonu Sisupal's "Kaalachakram" (Tamil), Susant Mishra's "Dharini" (Hindi), Santosh Sivan's ""Navrasa" (Tamil) and Ashok Vishwanathan's Andhkaroor Shabd - Sounds of Darkness (Bengali). Well known theatre actor and model Jimeesh Gandhi plays Pushkar, the material strength of Swapna. Sonam Stobgias Gorky, from NSD, plays Sonik, the main protagonist of the film.
The real star of '36 China Town'?
Yes, '36 China Town' is indeed special for number of reasons. On one side there is the director duo of Abbas Mustan returning with what they are best at - thrills and chills, while on the other hand real life couple of Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor aim at erasing the forgettable 'Fida' behind them. To add to the fun here is Upen Patel igniting the screens while Himesh Reshammiya's music too is much talked about. To top it all, production values are bound to be great since the film comes from Subash Ghai's Mukta Arts. But guess who is the real star of the movie that makes it a must watch? None other than Akshaye Khanna who plays an investigating cop in the film with an attire that suits his personality to the T. Enacting the role of an intelligent no-nonsense cop, he adds on the intrigue in the film and is believed to have come up with an extremely convincing performance. No doubt, the film becomes extra special due to the presence of this versatile actor!