News From Abroad

By Sara Stokoe

Indian Documentarians Protest Censorship

Courtesy of Usask.ca

The Indian Information and Broadcasting Ministry has recently attempted to stifle freedom of expression by stating that all locally produced films to be screened in India at the Mumbai International Film Festival must be submitted to the censors to obtain a certificate in order to enter the film fest.

Angered and frustrated by what they call "an attempt to gag them," Indian documentarians have threatened to boycott the festival by holding their own. The filmmakers argue that this rule never before has applied to documentaries and that foreign entries are not subject to the same restrictions. The documentarians claim that this is a desperate attempt to censor many of the documentaries this year that have focused on the rioting of 2002 in the Gujarat state, where more than 2000 people were killed (mostly Muslims) in a three month long violent fight between Hindus and Muslims.

Taj Mahal Flicks Reign Bollywood
Contributed by Shirley Hsu

Akbar Khan's "Taj Mahal." Courtesy of Nowrunning.com

It seems that Bollywood has found its latest breakout star, the three hundred and fifty-year-old mausoleum and world heritage site called the Taj Mahal.

Three new Indian films will explore the story behind the legendary architectural treasure. Filmmakers Akbar Khan, Bharat Bala, and Robin Khosla have all independently seized upon the story as inspiration for their films.

While the story behind the building of the Taj Mahal has long captivated Indian audiences, no films about the legendary site have been made since the 1963 film, self-titled "Taj Mahal." The tomb, located in Agra, was built by the Moghul emperor Shahjahan as a symbol of his love after his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, died and is fabled to have taken 10,000 artisans and two decades to finish.

Robin Khosla's "Taj Mahal: A Monument of Love," will be the first to be released, hitting screens in October. Produced by Canadian production company Eastern Visions, the film tells the story of an American girl, played by Hollywood actress Sabrina Avilla, who journeys to the Taj Mahal to find the meaning of true love. The 60 million rupee (U.S. 1.3 million) film, will be bilingual, in Hindi and English, and is hoped to capture international as well as local audiences.

The other two films are expected to be released towards the end of this year or early next year. Akbar Khan's bigger budget film "Taj-Mahal: The Eternal Story," is set for a December release, and Bharat Bala's film, currently titled "Taj Mahal," is slated to hit theaters early next year and will cast popular actress and former Miss World Aishwariya Rai.

Bad Boy, Bad Boys

A scene from "Infernal Affairs." Courtesy of Infernalaffairs.com

Cop thrillers have dominated the box office in Hong Kong this year, so it comes as no surprise that the HK film industry has nominated three for competition abroad.

Cop-thriller "Infernal Affairs." Courtesy of Infernalaffairs.com

"Infernal Affairs," directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak was nominated by the Federation of Motion Film Producers of Hong Kong for the coveted foreign language Oscar. For the Asia Pacific Film Festival in Iran this October, the Federation once again nominated "Infernal Affairs" along with Johnnie To's "PTU" starring Simon Yam and "Heroic Duo" by Benny Chan.

Heroic Duo - The Latest in the Favored Cop Action Genre

July 31, 2003 Cantonese pop-star Leon Lai made his action- hero debut in Director Benny Chan's "Heroic Duo," which was nominated by the Federation of Motion Film Producers of Hong Kong for the Asia Pacific Film Festival in Iran this October.

Leon Lai and Ekin Cheng in Benny Chan's "Heroic Duo." Courtesy of TIME Asia

In the film Lai plays a police hypnotist (if those actually exist, I don't know) who is hired to stop the evil Francis Ng, who is attempting to steal some precious gems. Ekin Cheng of "Twins Effect" is Lai's partner, and the most elite member of the Hong Kong police force, who is having relationship troubles with his girlfriend due to his macho, egocentric personality. This is the first time that pop-star Lai and HK idol Cheng have teamed up to do a movie together.

This film is also noteworthy for the absence of kung-fu acrobatics that is characteristic of Chan's films. Chan first gained notoriety with his kung fu fantasy "Magic Crane," but now he seems to want to stray as far away from that as possible, and many think that may be for the better. Arclight, a U.S. film distributor down under has actually already bought the film's international and U.S. distribution and licensing rights for a whopping seven figure sum. There is no word yet on when the film will be released in the U.S. but keep your eyes peeled.

What's Hitting the Big Screen Abroad?

"Finding Nemo" Courtesy of Movies.yahoo.com

Between August 8th and August 10th, a few high profile American films were released in the Asia Pacific region. "American Wedding" made its way into Australia, "Finding Nemo" finally found Taiwan and "Pirates of the Caribbean" made their way across the globe to anchor in Thailand. But how are all these summer blockbusters faring in the box offices abroad?

"Pirates of the Caribbean" raked in an awesome $6.7 million in four days in Japan, making it BVI's third highest live-action opening, following "Armageddon" and "Pearl Harbor." But the multi-million dollar Disney production still trailed behind the local cop action comedy (the genre comparable to the popularity of reality TV here in the U.S.) "Bayside Shakedown 2."

Scene from "Bayside Shakedown 2" Courtesy of TIME Asia

"The Hulk" sulked in Japan after its second major failure following its release in Germany while "Bad Boys II" doubled the original versions entry into Taiwan. In the Philippines, it actually tripled the original, proving even further that the Asia Pacific is hooked on cop-action films this year regardless of where they are produced. Although the film did amazingly well abroad, the profits were capped by a 21 and over ratings and 18 and over ratings in some countries.

"Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life" fared excellently in South Korea and actually was Paramounts biggest opening of the year in Hong Kong.

MTV ASIA is using Cell Phone Technology to Bring in the Bucks

In the U.S.'s hit show "American Idol" audience members actively participate in the program, affecting its outcome by using their cellular phones to text message in votes for their favorite performer. While to Americans this may seem cutting edge, Asian broadcasters such as MTV and ESPN Star Sports have been experimenting with this for a couple of years and the U.S. is just now catching up!

VJ Hunt Thailand of MTV Asia proved once again that this interactive form of TV can be quite profitable when MTV India ran him fourteen hours a day for six days. During this week over 200,000 text messages were received at $.30 per message. This enabled audience members to chat live with people on the show and vote for their favorite VJ.

Colin Miles, director of Cross-Media Company i-Pop stated in Daily Variety, "The mobile phone has changed broadcasting forever. The broadcaster's future could now truly be said to be firmly in the viewer's hands."

Remembering Bollywood Star Leela Chitnis

Leela Chitnis, an Indian popular film star, passed away last month at the age of 91. Born in Karnataka, she was a mother of four in 1935 when her film career first began to blossom. Richard Corliss of Time Asia described her as bringing "a natural dignity and a naturalist acting style to love stories with Master Vinayak and Ashok Kumar."

Leela played a wife wrongly accused of adultery in Kapoor's "Awaara." Then she went on to play the mother of many of the top male stars of Bombay's Golden Age including Dilip Kumar in "Ganga Jumna," Dev Anand in "Guide," and Dharmendra in "Aap Ki Parchhaiyan."

In the 1980's Chitnis retired and moved to the States where in July 2003 she died alone in a Danbury, Connecticut nursing home.

August 15, 2003