Vishal Pandya joins the race of young directors

Bollywood industry has now understanding the passion and talent of young directors who have proved their credibility in the film industry. Few years back the new talented directors only had a wish to work with Yash Chopra, Mani Ratnam, Prakash Jha or with Sudhir Mishra.




But in today's era young directors who are fresh on the field want to work with the best banners and biggest stars.

Let it be anybody in the whole industry is buzzing with young talent. And the latest to join the race is Vishal Pandya with his debut movie ‘THREE’. Vishal had been the former assistant director to Vikram Bhatt and with this movie, Vikram is so impressed that he ahs decided to give Vishal a break in the world of filmmaking.

Vishal Pandya’s technical and unusual style of making the movie has impressed Vikram, distributors and others a lot who have had an opportunity to watch it. Here's yet another director you just can’t ignore. Good luck Vishal....

Mehboob Khan-Pioneer of Hindi Cinema

The pioneer of Hindi cinema Mehboob Khan is best known for directing Mother India in 1957, which won him the Filmfare Awards for Best Film and Best Director and was a nominee for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.




Mehboob Khan was born in Gujurat. When he came to Bombay he played supporting characters before directing his first film, Judgement of Allah in 1935. Directorial features like Aurat followed, with the studios Sagar Movietone and National Studios. Mehboob Studio courtyard was set-up by him in 1954.

Throughout his career, Mehboob Khan produced and directed many blockbuster notable films like Andaz (1949), the swashbuckling Aan (1951), the dramatic Amar and the social epic Mother India (1957), the latter of which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1957.

He has directed 21 other films dating from the late 1930s. His last film as a director was the 1962 film Son of India. He died two years later at the age of 57. Mehboob Khan was so much influenced by Hollywood films that his films featured lavish sets in the style of the Hollywood era at that time.

Director Bhansali seek divine blessings

The directors are no less than the mothers and they cares for their films likewise. If the mothers worry and pray for the safety and welfare of their children, so do the directors for their actors and their film.




So every Bollywood movie has a muhurt ceremony.

This was evidently recently when Bollywood director Sanjay Leela Bhansali was seen at the Ajmer Dargah. Bhansali prayed at the holy shrine to pray for actors - Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

You need not be panicky as Bhansali sought divine blessings in relation to his movie 'Guzaarish', starring the two actors. Here we may remind you that Aishwarya Rai has just recently narrowly escaped when an elephant turned amok and killed its mahout during the shoot of Mani Ratnam's upcoming mega budget movie 'Ravana'.

Filmmakers cannot afford to keep away from religious faith and even rituals. After all, they spend a huge amount and put in all their effort for a long time in making a movie. Thus, their money and livelihood besides the fame is at stake. So, they observe all rituals depending on their faith. In any case, seeking blessings whether divine or earthly is always welcome.

Guzaarish will be Hrithik Aishwairya's third film together after Dhoom 2 and Jodha Akbar. Hrithik Roshan endorses Sony Ericsson mobile phones.

Shyam Benegal Complete Film-maker

Shyam Benegal born 14 December, 1934, in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh is a prolific Indian director and screenwriter. With his first four feature films Ankur (1973), Nishant (1975) Manthan (1976) and Bhumika (1977) he created a new genre, which has now come to be called the "middle cinema" in India.

He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1976 and the Padma Bhushan in 1991. On 8 August 2007, he was awarded the highest award in Indian cinema for lifetime achievement, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year 2005. He has won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in
Hindi seven times.



It was in Hyderabad at age of twelve that he made his first film, on a camera given to him by his photographer father Sridhar B. Benegal. He received an M.A. in Economics, from Nizam College, Osmania University, Hyderabad. It was here that he formed the Hyderabad Film Society.Benegal is related to the famous film director and actor Guru Dutt. Shyam Benegal is married to Neera Benegal. He is also involved with the Mumbai based film school Whistling Woods International as chairman of the academic council.


He started his career working in 1959, as an advertising copywriter, at a Bombay-based advertising agency, Lintas Advertising, where he steadily rose to become a creative head. Meanwhile, he made his first documentary in Gujarati, Gher Betha Ganga in 1962.In 1963 he started a brief stint with another advertising agency called ASP (Advertising, Sales and Promotion). During his advertising years, he directed over 900 sponsored documentaries and advertisingfilms.

Between 1966 and 1973, Shyam also taught at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, and twice served as the institute's chairman, (1980-83) and (1989-92). By this time he already started making documentaries. One of his early documentaries. In all he has made over 70 documentary and short films.


After returning to Bombay, he received independent financing for his film and Ankur (The Seedling) was finally made in 1973. It was a story of economic and sexual exploitation from his home state, Andhra Pradesh, and Benegal instantly shot to fame. The film also introduced actors, Shabana Azmi and Anant Nag and won Shyam Benegal the 1975 National Film Award for Second Best Feature Film. Shabana Azmi won the National Film Award for Best Actress.

The success that New India Cinema enjoyed in the 1970s and early 1980s could largely be attributed to Shyam Benegal's quartet: Ankur (1973), Nishant (1975), Manthan (1976) and Bhumika (1977). Benegal used a variety of new actors mainly from the FTII and NSD like Shabana Azmi,Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Amrish Puri.


Unlike most New Cinema filmmakers, Benegal has had private backers for many of his films, and institutional backing for a few, including Manthan (National Diary Development Board), Susman (1987)(Handloom Co-operatives) and Yatra (1996) (Indian Railways).This gave him an added advantage, as he managed to survive the collapse of the New Cinema movement in the late 80s due to paucity of funding, with which were lost many neo-realist filmmakers. Benegal continued making films throughout the next two decades. He also served as the Director of the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) from 1980 to 1986.

Following the success of these four films, Benegal was backed by film star Shashi Kapoor for whom he made Junoon (1978) and Kalyug (1981). The former is an interracial love story set amidst the turbulent period of the Indian Mutiny of 1857. Kalyug, was based on the Mahābhārata and was not a big hit although both of the films won Filmfare Best Movie Awards in 1980 and 1982 respectively.

Benegal's next film, Mandi (1983) was a satirical comedy about politics and prostitution, starring Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil. Later, working from his own story, based on the last days of Portuguese in Goa, in the early 1960s, Shyam explored human relationship in Trikaal (1985).

In the 1980s, however, with the collapse of the New Cinema movement, Benegal's films had not had proper releases. He turned to TV where he directed serials like Yatra (1986) for the Indian Railways, and one of the biggest projects undertaken on Indian Television, the 53-episode television serial based on Jawaharlal Nehru's book, Discovery of India (Bharat Ek Khoj) (1988).


The 90s saw Shyam Benegal making a trilogy on Indian Muslim women, starting with Mammo (1995), Sardari Begum (1996), and Zubeidaa (2001).With Zubeidaa, he entered the Bollywood mainstream for the first time, as it starred top Bollywood star Karishma Kapoor, and boasted music by A. R. Rahman.

In 1992, he made another film, Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda (Seventh Horse of the Sun) based on a novel by Dharmavir Bharati, which won the 1993 National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi. In 1996 he made another film based on a book, The Making of the Mahatma, based on Fatima Meer's, The Apprenticeship of a Mahatma. This turn to biographical material, resulted in Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero, his 2005 English language film. He criticized the Indian caste system in Samar (1999). The movie went on to win the National Film Award for Best Film.Shyam Benegal also owns a production company called Sahyadri Films.


His latest film, entitled Welcome to Sajjanpur, stars Shreyas Talpade and Amrita Rao.The story revolves around the eponymous Chamki, a beautiful gypsy girl with a fiery temper and is written by Shama Zaidi. The music is by A. R. Rahman and the lyrics are written by Javed Akhtar.One of Benegal's future projects is a film based on Noor Inayat Khan - a descendant of Tipu Sultan, who served as a British-Indian spy during World War II.

Mahesh Bhatt wants Bharat Ratna award for Dilip Kumar

Famous director and film producer Mahesh Bhatt and film fraternity comes out to vote for urging the President of India to give Bharat Ratna award for Dilip Kumar.




Mahesh Bhatt informs, "It's the entire industry’s effort. From every region, stalwarts have come out to appeal for him. I was just a foot soldier. It is the Indian film industry’s effort, not an individual’s effort".

The other Bollywood actors who support the cause are Rajeev Khandelwal, Shabbir Ahluwalia, Mukul Dev, Varun Badola, Urvashi Dholakia and Randeep Hooda.
The director has churned out stories and screenplays for over twenty films, many of which were box-office successes, like Dushman, Raaz, Murder (2004), Gangster (2006) and lastly Woh Lamhe (2006), etc.

"Onir" documentaries to hindi films

Onir was born in Samchi, a small town in Bhutan on the 30th April, 1969. After his schooling in Bhutan he came to Kolkata(India) and graduated as a student of Comparative Literature from Jadavpur University in 1989. He joined the Film studies course at Chitrabani, Kolkatta.




In 1991 he co-directed his first documentary film at a work shop organized by Max Muller Bhavan and Chitrabani in Kolkatta. The documentary film was called "Glimpses of College Street". In the same year he was offered scholarship to train at an advanced editing course with SFB/TTC Berlin.

Returning from Berlin he made his first independent documentary (it was also produced by him). 'Fallen hero' (1992) was a documentary, which was a portrait of an aging painter Bijon Chaudry and his dilemma with the changing political scenario in Bengal.

In 1999, he got his first experience with the filmmaking. He was the film editor, song designer, and song director of the film "Daman" directed by Kalpana Lajmi. This is where he met Sanjay Suri. Sanjay's encouragement made Onir start working on his scripts.



Finally in 2004, Sanjay and Onir decided to produce Onir's first film "My brother Nikhil" which was to become the first main stream film that addressed the issue of homosexuality apart from dealing with issues of Human rights and HIV AIDS. Yash Raj released this film on 25th March, 2005.

The film fetched many international awards.

In 2006, he came out with his second feature film 'Bas Ek Pal' that had the cast of Juhi Chawla, Urmila Matondkar, Jimmy Sheirgill, Rehaan Engineer and Sanjay Suri.

His most recent work was 2008 film, 'Sorry Bhai!' featuring Shabana Azmi, Boman Irani, Sanjay Suri, Chitrangda and Sharman Joshi under the home production Anticlock Films Pvt. Ltd.

Madhur Bhandarkar's Jail was shoot in real jail

Bollywood director Madhur Bhandarkar’s next film Jail has been shot at a real jail. Madhur Bhandarkar said that every uniform has been stitched by inmates from the jail. The whole cast of the film is being dressed in real jail clothes.




Each and every uniform was constantly counted . It was especially frightening on outdoors where one of the cast would lay out his uniform to wear and then look anxiously over his shoulder every five seconds to check if it was there.

Ishaan Trivedi's Radio is 80 pc complete

Himesh Reshammiya's latest film titled Radio, which is being directed by Isshaan Trivedi, is now 80 per cent complete.

Radio is being produced by Ravi Agarwal and stars Reshammiya along with Shenaz Treasurywala. Reshammiya plays a radio jockey in the movie. Radio has been shot at different locations in Mumbai.

Presently, the cast and crew of the movie are shooting a song at Filmistan Studios in Mumbai. The film deals with modern day relationships and compatibility issues.

Pooja Bhatt - Actress-cum-film director

Pooja Bhatt born on February 24, 1972, to Mahesh Bhatt and Kiran Bhatt (aka Loraine Bright) is a retired Indian film actress, currently devoting time to film production and direction. She is the step daughter of Soni Razdan, an actress. She has a brother, Rahul Bhatt and step sisters Shaheen and Alia. Her cousin Mohit Suri is a film screenwriter-director. Emraan Hashmi is another famous cousin who is a Bollywood actor.

Following her father's footsteps, she has now began her career's second lease as a film director and producer, though she has acted in many films which were produced and directed by her father.

Bhatt made her acting debut at the tender age of 17, in 1989 with Daddy, a TV film directed by her father Mahesh Bhatt. In the film she portrayed a soul-searching teenage girl in an estranged relationship with her alcoholic father, played by actor Anupam Kher.

Her biggest hit and her big screen debut came with a musical hit, Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin (1991) opposite Aamir Khan which was a remake of the Oscar-winning Hollywood classic "It Happened One Night." Pooja received the Filmfare Best Female Debut Award for the film.

Her most well-known films in the 1990s included, Sadak (1991), Junoon (1992), Tamanna (1996), a super-hit and multi-starrer Border(1997) and Zakhm (1998). Chaahat where she starred along side Shahrukh Khan, Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher released in 1996.

Her last film appearance was in Everybody Says I'm Fine! in 2001.She has since focused on producing and directing.She made her directorial debut with Paap in 2004, starring John Abraham and Udita Goswami, since then she has made two more directorial ventures, Holiday (2006) and Dhokha (2007).

On August 24, 2003, she married her long-time boyfriend and a former popular VJ of Indian music channel, Channel V, Munish Makhija aka Udham Singh.

Rakesh Mehra's Delhi6 to be screened at Venice film festival this year

Director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, whose Delhi-6 is going to be screened at the Venice film festival this year, has managed to do things his own way. The director has changed the climax of Delhi-6 for the international audience and decided to kill the character of Abhishek Bachchan in the end.

So for the time being, Junior B's fanswon't see the actor waking up from a dream instead, he would breathe his last after being attacked by the mob.

The new cut of the film has been created especially for a screening in Venice Film Festival where the film has been selected for the 'Out Of Competition' category. It is for the first time a film has to be reshot and re-edited post its release. The film, which released earlier this year did not get a good response in India. The film was also starred Sonam Kapoor and Rishi Kapoor.

Imran and Ranbir says no to Farah Khan

Choreographer-turned-director Farah Khan is ready to host a chat show, to be aired soon on national television. And she invited the dashing Jaane Tu Jaane Na fame Imran Khan and the Saawariya Ranbir Kapoor for an episode. But both the actors politely turned down the invitation.




There is no problem between these two young bright newcomers. Rather they are good friends. According to Imran Khan, who shares a great rapport with Ranbir Kapoor, they want to explore their chemistry in a special film they’ll do together.

And they don’t want to spoil the novelty by appearing on a show together. And ofcourse after their amazing camaraderie as the hosts of Filmfare Awards, Imran Khan and Ranbir Kapoor were flooded with offers from Bollywood producers.

But the awesome twosome are aware of their crackling chemistry and want to appear together only in a film that would be exceptional. Imran Khan also revealed that, both the stars are deliberately cutting down on our public appearances together now because they don't want to lose that novelty factor at any cost.