Compiled
by Shalini Singh
SIREN BLAZING
Just before her recent New Year hullabaloo in Mumbai, Controversy Queen,
Mallika Sherawat was sizzling down South. Shooting
in Bangalore, the actor drew thousands, halting traffic, forcing cops
to lathi charge fans. Sherawat was in cyber town for Preethi Eke
Bhoomi Melide, her first item number for a Kannada film. The single
song cost its producers a bomb — Rs 75 lakh — but the bombshell
sure garnered the film huge publicity ahead of its release. As for Sherawat,
she was her usual self of the recent months — warding off the
media, but showering the crowds with flying kisses. She even threw a
tantrum when eager lensmen gatecrashed the shooting venue and stills
of her dancing were splashed in the dailies the next day. Not to mention
the hundreds of mobile-wielding onlookers who had a photo-fest, snapping
her up on their camera phones.
 |
From
left: Sherawat, Khan, Palat, Bond |
UNSHAKEN
AND UNSTIRRED
“How do you ban a film in a country where it has not even released?”
asks director Kabir Khan, whose debut feature Kabul
Express was recently banned in Afghanistan, with the authorities
claiming that certain passages of the film might be offensive to the
Hazaras, a minority community. “In our country, no one even knows
who the Hazaras are; people here think Afghanistan has banned the film
when it hasn’t even released there yet. I don’t want them
to get a warped picture of the Afghans. The ban has nothing to do with
us — all of this is just politics in Kabul,” says the director.
Khan, who had previously made films on the Taliban post-9/11, wrote
Kabul Express based loosely on his experiences while shooting
those documentaries.
CINEMA
SCOPE
A hundred-and-one films on 101 ngos in 101 hours. On in Mumbai earlier
this week, the Genesis Film Project (GFP), a filmmaking contest held
by mam movies and Peacock Projects, managed to rope in the likes of
Anupam Kher, Nagesh Kukunoor and Rati
Agnihotri for their panel of judges. “mam started last
year as a self-funded platform to encourage independent filmmakers,”
says Ajesh Shah, founder of Peacock Projects. “We collaborated
with mam and launched ourselves through GFP.” Theatreperson Divya
Palat, one of the contestants, says, “When I heard about
GFP, I decided to make a film rather than just present myself at the
premiere. The idea was to do something rather than just talk about it.”
All filmmakers were randomly allotted ngos to make films on and they
funded their own films. “We fund our luxuries; this was for a
good cause. We learnt about different ngos and shot in redlight areas
and slums,” adds Palat. Why the figure 101? “In India, whenever
we donate something, it’s always plus one,” explains Shah.
BOND
IS BACK
Good news for Ruskin Bond fans. All those who loved
his short stories for children (Ranji’s Wonderful Bat, The
Black Cat, Dust on The Mountain and others) can now watch
them on the small screen every Sunday evening on dd Bharati. The stories
chosen for the 10-part TV series, titled Dehra Kids, have been
rewoven and set in the splendour of Manali in Himachal, although the
essential story in each episode remains the same. Director Ajay
Shetty’s small screen adaptation promises to be a trip
down memory lane for all those who grew up devouring the Anglo-Indian
writer’s tales.
