Director Karan Johar, who teams up with TV tycoon

Ekta Kapoor in her next home production “C Kkompany”, says he

cannot refuse any offer from her.

“Ekta is a sweetheart. I can never say no to her. I don’t want to divulge

any details about the film. Ekta will tell you what I’ve to do,” Karan

told IANS.

Added Ekta: “‘C Kkompany’ will have Karan and also Mahesh Bhatt

making appearances. I’m also there. The awards committees are going

to have a tough time next year.”

Ekta ventured into filmmaking with “Kucch To Hai” and “Krishna

Cottage”. Last year she co-produced the box office hit “Shootout At

Lokhandwala” with Sanjay Gupta.

This won’t be Karan’s first acting assignment. He started as a child

actor in Anand Mahendroo’s Doordarshan serial “Indradhanush”, and

then played Shah Rukh Khan’s nerdy friend in “Dilwale Dulhania Le

Jayenge”. More recently he had a cameo in Sujoy Ghosh’s “Home

Delivery” and a voice-on-telephone part in Nikhil Advani’s

“Salaam-e-Ishq”.

However, Karan refutes recent reports that he is acting in Madhur

Bhandarkar’s “Fashion”.

Karan, whose last film “Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna” was panned, has an

extremely busy year ahead. Not only is he neck-deep researching for his

next directorial venture titled “Khan”, he’s also heavily into chatting up

celebrities thanks to his reputation of a glorious gabber from STAR

TV’s “Koffee With Karan”.

Making his love interest clear, “Saawariya” star

Ranbir Kapoor blew a kiss straight from the ramp to actress Deepika

Padukone.

Attired in a black and beige “sherwani” or Indian-style coat with

intricate ethnic motifs at the hemline and sequin work at the collars,

the star walked the Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) ramp for designer

Arjun Khanna here late Saturday.

The sherwani was tastefully teamed with beige churidar and red scarf

to give a dramatic effect, the actor’s face and hair were painted golden.

“Before I came here I didn’t know that my face would be painted

golden. Only when I reached the venue and sat on a chair (backstage) to

get the make-up done, I got to know about it. But I enjoyed the whole

experience,” Ranbir told IANS after the show.

He refused to comment on his romantic link-up with Deepika. Starting

with his signature dance step from the title song of “Saawariya”,

Ranbir descended on the runway.

And then he spotted Deepika sitting next to his mother Neetu Singh.

Cutting short his catwalk, he blew a flying kiss towards her. Deepika

blushed and hid her face behind her cascade of hair.

While Deepika sported a light grey tube top with abstract prints

matched with slim fit dark blue jeans, yesteryear actress Neetu Singh

was decked in white trousers and a kurta top with white, red and blue

geometric prints and Swarovski work at the neckline.

“There couldn’t have a better confession of love than this. Ranbir made

it clear at the LFW that Deepika is his love interest,” said Rashmi

Singh, who attended the show.

Unlike his contemporaries, Ranbir did not take expert advice from his

ladylove, who was a model by profession. “No I did not take any tips

from Deepika before walking the ramp. I had never walked the ramp

before. It was the first time for me but I was quite confident. It proved

to be an excellent experience,” Ranbir said.

“Moreover, the Indian fashion industry is growing very fast and if I can

contribute a little to it, it would be great,” he added.

When asked how fashion conscious he is, Ranbir said: “I am not

fashionable at all. My knowledge about fashion is only through Arjun.

Fashion for me is being comfortable.”

After the show, Deepika left the venue with Neetu in the same car.

The five-day fashion extravaganza at the National Centre for

Performing Arts (NCPA) would end on April 2. Fifty-seven designers,

established and new, including the likes of Narendra Kumar, Kiran

Uttam Ghosh, Neeta Lulla, Sabyasachi Mukherjee and Wendell

Rodricks will show their collections.

The Indian entertainment industry may be worth

Rs.500 billion, but the movie segment loses Rs.160 billion annually to

piracy.

This startling revelation was made by Ron Summers, president of

US-India Business Council (USIBC), at the recent Ficci-Frames global

convention on media and entertainment in Mumbai.

He said the global revenue share of the Indian film industry was only

two percent of the total annual gross income of Hollywood, primarily

because pirates usurped a good chunk of the Indian movie revenue

earned from the domestic and international markets.

“Apart from adopting effective legal measures to pre-empt piracy,

efforts should also be made to extract maximum value proposition

from the entertainment content. The best way to do it is by cashing in

on the technological advancement witnessed globally in electronics,”

the USIBC president said.

Noted Bollywood filmmaker Yash Chopra admitted that it would not

be possible to root out the external market force of piracy, which has

entrenched itself too deeply over the years.

“But we can’t afford to resign ourselves to this fact. We must identify

measures to mitigate the hold of this force over the market. We must

understand the enormous potential of the digital media and try to get

value out of it.

“We have to beat pirates in their own game. But to be able to do this,

we need the help of the regulatory bodies,” Chopra said.

According to the secretary in the Information and Broadcasting

ministry, Asha Swarup, the only way to tackle piracy was to ensure

tight security in the supply chain.

“Simultaneous or quick release of movies on the Internet or home

video could be an alternative to curb piracy,” she said, citing how

distributors of “Jab We Met” benefited from this strategy recently.

Chief executive officer of Sony Entertainment, Kunal Dasgupta, also

touched upon this paradigm shift in movie distribution.

“By releasing ‘Jab We Met’ in the home video circuit soon after its

release in theatres, Moser Baer not only managed to reduce piracy, but

also earned more revenue,” he said.

Dasgupta believed that a large number of people would want to watch

a movie in the theatres even if CDs and DVDs were available in the

market.

A city court Wednesday dismissed the violation of election code case against actress-turned-Samajwadi Party MP Jayaprada and Telugu Desam Party leader P. Venugopalachary.

They were charged with violating the model code of conduct by addressing an election meeting beyond the stipulated time during 2002 municipal polls here. She was then a leader of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). A case in this regard was registered at Musheerabad police station.

Both Jayaprada and Venugopalachary appeared in Nampally criminal court here as the magistrate dismissed the case against them.

The actress-turned-politician welcomed the judgement and said it was a politically motivated case.

“Some people with vested interests had filed this case. We had to suffer a lot during the last six years. I am really happy and relieved over this judgement,” she told reporters.

“I obey the law whether I am in Uttar Pradesh or Andhra Pradesh,” she added.

The court had issued non-bailable warrants against them in 2005 for not appearing in the court. The magistrate later recalled the warrants.

Reliance Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. (REPL) is all set to start its cinema chain in the US under the brand name Big from next month. More than 200 theatres will screen Hindi as well as regional films from India.
Confirming the schedule, a company official said: “We are still renovating and refitting the cinemas we have acquired in some cities there. A formal announcement about their opening will be made later.”

Over the last one year, Reliance Entertainment has acquired over 200 cinema halls in 28 North American cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit and Washington.

Taken on a long-term lease, these theatres will bear the company’s entertainment brand name Big, and not Adlabs, as REPL’s cinemas in India are called.

It is learnt that REPL has also bought over an American theatre management firm to oversee the operations of its Big cinema chain.

REPL may also distribute movies overseas. Since it is already into producing movies in Hindi and other Indian regional languages under the Big Pictures banner, its exhibition outlets abroad will help it firm up its distribution venture.

In order to expand its overseas exhibition network, the company is now scouting for more cinema halls in other countries as well.

The Big cinema chain in the US will not only screen Bollywood movies, but will also run Indian regional language movies, particularly the productions from the south, and movies from other Asian countries to cater to large expatriate populations.

These 200-odd cinema halls are located in cities where there are large concentrations of people from the Indian subcontinent and other parts of Asia.

The chain will be marketed as any other American cinema chain. Mainstream Hollywood movies, art house productions and movies made by the independent producers will also adorn the marques of the Big cinemas.

REPL’s cinema operations in the US, spread across different cities, will go a long way in making the presence of the Bollywood movies, in particular, more prominent there and help them reap good harvest from the US box-office.

Already, some recent Bollywood movies have made it to the top of the US box-office chart. UTV-distributed Tip Films’ “Race,” for example, has secured 18th position in the US box-office in the first week of its release on 96 screens.