Bollywood Activity

Farhan Akhtar, Yo Yo Honey Singh kick-start IIFA 2014 voting

The IIFA Voting weekend was held this past weekend in Mumbai from the 7th to the 9th of February seeing an outpour of industry support, where members of the film fraternity voted for their peers. Amongst the many that came in were Farhan Akthar, Shabhana Azmi, Randhir Kapoor, Mukesh Bhatt, Yo-Yo Honey Singh, Farah Khan, Nirmat Kaur and many others.

Every year, IIFA Academy members and the Film Industry are invited to cast their votes and shortlist nominations in the category of the Popular Awards. The Technical Award winners and the Popular Award nominations are derived from the voting weekend. The IIFA Voting Weekend is open to the individuals who form an integral part of the film industry and not to the public at large. The practice is adhered to in order to ensure that the nominations derived by the voting process is credible and by the industry.

The IIFA Voting process is a stringent and methodical procedure that is closely monitored by KPMG, the official auditors of the event. The popular category nominations will then be available for the global audience to participate in the voting process. The final winners of the IIFA Awards are revealed on the night of the Awards ceremony when the envelope is opened onstage, in front of the live audience. The results are surrounded by secrecy and the credibility of the voting process is one of the key parameters of this prestigious award.

Papa Mahesh Bhatt not involved in my professional decisions: Alia

Actor Alia Bhatt poses for photographers at the photo call for the film 'Highway' during the International Film Festival Berlinale in Berlin on Thursday


Mumbai:  Flimmaker Mahesh Bhatt's daughter Alia, who made her Bollywood debut with 'Student of the Year', considers director Karan Johar as her mentor and turns to him for professional advice than to her father.
"Karan is the first person I will call up and tell him about the offer that I have got because he is my mentor. I have a contract for three films with Dharma Productions and I am there for the next five years. So I feel he (Karan) is the person I can fall back on when I need any advice on films or anything", she told PTI.
Alia said compared to her father, Karan was more communicative overall.
"He (Mahesh Bhatt) is not involved in decisions I make in professional life but he talks to me. He knows what I am doing. He keeps a track of what I am doing because he is interested in it (films)," the 20-year-old actor said.
Alia recalled how her father used to be absorbed in work when she was studying, but she feels he is 'subtly protective'.
"When I was studying, he did not even know which standard I was in as that was not his area of interest. Now he knows where I am shooting, where I am doing promotions etc. He is protective in a subtle way," she added.
Alia said her father's advice to her is to understand professional success and failure objectively.
"He does advice me on certain things. He asks me to keep my head on my shoulders. He says nothing fails more than success. So when you get success then what is next, then you start feeling you have arrived and that's when you fail," Alia said.
Though her father has a production company - Vishesh Films - but Alia is yet to get any offer for films.
"No, I have not been asked about it (to act in Vishesh Films) yet. I feel there is a right moment, right time and a particular script. It will a big deal for me to work with my father's production so it should be something right. I will wait for him talk about it," Alia said.
Alia said she also turns to her sister Shaheen, an aspiring filmmaker, for advice.
"Shaheen is somebody I talk to about everything. If I have to take advice then I will take it from her as she does not get pleased easily. She is very particular... She is my toughest audience. Even my father feels convinced with her choice," the actor said.
Alia said her mother was a task-master and groomed her to be down-to-earth.
"I never bought designer clothes. The first designer clothes that I bought were from my own money. I was always on pocket money. My father did try to spoil me but he could not as my mother would never let him do that. We were protected and pampered. I was okay in school I was bad in science and maths," she added.


HP launches voice tabs, ropes in Deepika Padukone as ambassador



Actor Deepika Padukone during the launch of HP State6 voice tab and other products in New Delhi on Thursday -


New Delhi: Tech giant Hewlett-Packard on Thursday launched two voice-calling tablets and appointed actor Deepika Padukone as brand ambassador in a fresh bid to strengthen its position in the Indian market.
HP India launched its 'Slate6' and 'Slate7' VoiceTabs, along with four other new mobile devices, targetted at young Indians.
The Slate6 is priced at about Rs 23,700, while Slate7 is priced at about Rs 17,300.
"India is a unique market. There is a huge population of young people who are demanding and aware of the latest technology. They want fast performance, long battery life and multi-tasking, all of which are addressed by these new devices," HP India VP and GM (Printing and Personal Systems) Rajiv Srivastava told PTI.
The tablets are being launched only in India at the moment, he added. According to research firm CMR, about 12.04 lakh tablets were sold in the July-September 2013 quarter, a growth of nine per cent year-on-year. This was led by Samsung (15 per cent share), followed by Lenovo (13.3 per cent) and Datawind (12.4 per cent).
India is a big market for handheld smart devices. According to Gartner, smartphone sales in India grew 166.8 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2013, the highest growth among the countries it tracks.
Worldwide smartphone sales grew 36 per cent to 282 million units in the October-December quarter of 2013, accounting for 57.6 per cent of the overall phone sales.
The HP Slate VoiceTab series is powered by a quad-core processor running on Android 4.2.2 (Jellybean) operating system and offer 3G connectivity with dual SIM. HP six-inch phablet 'Slate6 VoiceTab' and seven-inch 'Slate7 VoiceTab' also feature dual front firing stereo speakers, front and rear HD cameras.
The VoiceTabs have 16GB built in storage expandable to 32GB via MicroSD card.
The company has also roped in Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone as its first brand ambassador in the country. HP also unveiled its Omni10, a 10-inch Windows 8.1 Full HD tablet. Its price will be announced soon.
Besides, it also launched its notebooks - HP Envy17 Leap Motion Special Edition (SE) (priced Rs 1.18 lakh), HP Pavilion 15 TouchSmart Notebook (Rs 51,825) and HP 15 Notebook (Rs 29,995).
"Our new line up represents the focus that we have on the Indian market. The requirements and aspirations of the young Indians is changing and our future lineup will also reflect that," he said.

Dubbing in Hindi fun for Nargis Fakhri

New Delhi, Feb 13: Model-turned-actress Nargis Fakhri, who is not so fluent in Hindi, got to dub for David Dhawan’s forthcoming Bollywood movie “Main Tera Hero” and she enjoyed doing it.
"I am through with the dubbing. I dubbed in Hindi for the first time. It was awesome and scary. I did enjoy and learned a lot," said the actress whose voice was dubbed by someone else in her debut Hindi movie "Rockstar". However, she had dubbed herself in English for John Abraham-starrer 2013 film "Madras Cafe". "I will start promoting the film in a bit. Comedy is difficult, but I had a great time working with everyone. It's releasing on April 4. After its release, I'll start shooting right away for 'Shaukeen'. It's remake of the old film. It will be a new modern take of that," she said. "Shaukeen" also stars Akshay Kumar, Anupam Kher, Paresh Rawal and Anil Kapoor


Always a singer

“Kahaan Hoo Main” is a song which can take “you into the realm of spirituality and lead to self-realisation”, says Jonita Gandhi, an Indo-Canadian singer who has sung this number in Imtiaz Ali’s upcoming “Highway”. She considers that her two songs in the film will help in her foray in playback singing. Her second song in the movie is “Implosive silence”, which she says is expressive without lyrics. Singing under the baton of A. R. Rahman in “Highway” Jonita thanks him and remarks that it was “easy to work with him”

Trained in Western classical music, this India-born singer says she has learned a lot on her own and by listening to various types of music and at present is undergoing training in Indian classical music.

She has had the privilege of singing for the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer “Chennai Express” — her debut film — along with the legendary S.P. Balasubramanyam in the title track. Recalling the experience, she says it felt “unreal”. A graduate in business administration, Jonita does not want to limit herself to Bollywood and recently has sung two Bengali songs. In a conversation, she shared some of her experiences with the team of “Highway” and also about her future ventures:

You have sung with music maestro A.R Rahman in “Highway”. He is in a class of his own so how did you prepare yourself?

I could not do much to prepare before I recorded for “Highway”, because I didn’t really even know what I was being called to sing. In a way, however, I’d like to think that I’ve been preparing for this my entire life — performing and recording since I was a child, I’ve been working on my voice and performance for several years. Fortunately Rahman sir was extremely down to earth and easy to work with, and he did not leave me much room to worry about being prepared.

Your track “Implosive Silence” in “Highway” seems to be very different. What type of song is itAlso what is the mood of “Kahaan hoon main”? Its lyrics seem philosophical. The song “Implosive silence” is hard to describe; it is a song that I think will come alive when people hear it in the film. It isn’t a song that requires lyrics — it is very expressive in itself, and portrays the emotions felt by the characters in the film. Even though the film is yet to be released, it has received a really great response, as people are able to feel the various emotions portrayed. I would say that “Kahaan hoon main” rather than being philosophical is very spiritual. It is about a girl who is facing new experiences which make her question aspects of her life and journey. It is a song about inner reflection and self-realisation, which are themes that everyone can relate to.

You have completed your degree in business administration and are pursuing a career in singing. What prompted you to do so?

I actually completed two undergraduate degrees concurrently (honours in business administration and a Bachelor’s degree in health sciences) before embarking on a career in music full time. I always knew I wanted to be a singer, but to establish a firm backup plan, it was important for me to first complete my education.

Your debut was with an established singer S.P. Balasubramanyam and in a SRK film. Did it make you nervous?

The experience was, of course, very exciting for me. Growing up in Canada, I always felt that the film industry was far away, and getting to sing a duet with the legendary SPB, and that too for an SRK film, it felt unreal. I’m thankful to Vishal-Shekhar for giving me this opportunity to be heard by the Indian masses. It was a great entry for me into the Bollywood playback world.

Do you write? Have you ever tried to write your own lyrics?

I have been writing lyrics for some time now. It’s new for me and thus I find it challenging.

I find it really hard to write something that I actually approve of, and so it is a slow process. I am working on original work now and will hopefully have something to share within the coming year.

Balu Mahendra - Indian cinema's influential filmmaker (Obituary)

Chennai, Feb 13: Prolific filmmaker Balu Mahendra was a craftsman who narrated emotional dramas with minimum characters and effective visuals for over three decades, won five National Awards and influenced a whole generation of filmmakers with his work.

"He had a knack of letting his visuals speak several emotions. His visuals could create more impact than any lines and words in a film," Veteran filmmaker K. Vishwanath, who roped in Balu as a cinematographer for "Sankarabharanam", told IANS.
Balu died following a heart attack at a private hospital here Thursday, leaving behind a visually rich filmography and an era of realistic cinema. He was 74. He is survived by his wife and son.
Born in a Sri Lankan Tamil Christian family as Balanathan Benjamin Mahendran, his passion for images started at a young age. He plunged into the world of films as a cinematographer and went on to become one of the finest filmmaker, screenwriter and editor known for his distinct style of visual storytelling.
After completing his schooling in Sri Lanka, Mahendra enrolled into a cinematography course at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. In 1974, he started his career as a cinematographer in award winning Malayalam film "Nellu".
His work as a cinematographer will also be remembered in films such as "Sankarabharanam", "Prayanam" and "Mullum Malarum".
In 1977, Balu called the shots for his directorial debut "Kokila" (Kannada), which featured Kamal Haasan and Mohan in the lead roles. A runaway success, the film cemented the auteur's career as a director.
But it was National Award winning Tamil film "Moondram Pirai", later remade as "Sadma" in Hindi, that catapulted Mahendra as one of the influential filmmakers of the country.
The film's story was inspired by Balu's own relationship with late actress Shoba, whom he married for a brief time before she committed suicide.
"Moondram Pirai" earned Kamal his first National Award.
Another path-breaking film in Balu's career was Tamil drama "Veedu", about the plight of a middle-class family trying to construct a house. Drawing inspiration from the life of his mother, the National Award winning film is still considered as one of his finest works.
In his over three-decade-long career, Mahendra directed 21 films across all southern languages. He won two National Awards for cinematography for "Kokila" and "Pirai".
As a director, he pocketed three National Awards for "Veedu", "Sandhya Raagam" and "Vanna Vanna Pookal". He also won three Filmfare awards for his work in "Moondram Pirai" and "Olangal".
Balu believed in having an emotional as well as intellectual connect with his audience.
"It's a misconception that art films have to be slow and unemotional. Most of my work has been labelled as art, but as a filmmaker I have always strived to entertain my audience with work that will appeal to them on an emotional as well as intellectual level," Balu Mahendra had told IANS.
While most of his work was labelled as art films, Balu will be remembered for one of the best Tamil comedies "Sathi Leelavathi", starring Kamal.
Another fascinating aspect of Balu's life is his association with music maestro Illayaraja, who has composed tunes for all his Tamil films since "Moondram Pirai".
Their collaboration resulted in several memorable chartbusters that will ring in the ears of his fans till eternity.
Balu's "Thalaimuraigal" incidentally had no songs, but it was lauded for Illayaraja's background score.
His legacy continues in Tamil cinema in the form of his pupils - most of his students such as Bala Pazhanisaamy, Vetrimaaran, and Ameer Sultan have won the National Awards.
"The first National award I won is on the wall of his office room. I had given it to him as 'gurudakshina'. Had it not been for Balu sir, I wouldn't be here making films. I owe my career to him. It's not just me, all his students would echo the same if you ask them," director Bala Pazhanisaamy, who won the National award for Tamil film "Naan Kadavul", told IANS.
Balu Mahendra's unfulfilled wish was the archiving of Tamil films.
In a casual interaction with IANS, he had said: "So many rare Tamil films couldn't be restored. You can't make such films again. I wish to see that we take up archiving seriously and restore as many films as possible."