News – Filmi Files

Pahalaj Nihlani Chopped Out, Prasoon Joshi Is New CBFC Chief

Filmi Fanatic

It has finally happened…

Pahlaj Nihalani has been removed from his post as that of the chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and Filmmaker Prasoon Joshi will reportedly replace Mr Nihalani as the new chairman of the censor board by next week.
Although Pahlaj Nihalani had taken over the office as the chairperson of the CBFC in January 2015, he has been embroiled into several controversies and his blatant comments ever since.
The controversies started as soon in 2015 when he chopped intimate scenes in the James Bond film SPECTRE. Next in line was Udta Punjab where objection was put on various scenes.Next Mr Pahlaj blocked Lipstick Under My Burkha on grounds of the film being ‘lady-oriented.’ He also objected to the word ‘intercourse’ which was used in one of the mini trails of Shah Rukh Khan’s film Jab Harry Met Sejal. The latest controversy involved in Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s Babumoshai Bandookbaaz as the board had demanded 48 cuts for his film.
Hope the new CBFC chairman would take some lessons from the past and the Censor Board would act like a mature board and take decisions in accordance to what’s right and wrong.
All the best Mr Prasoon Joshi

Gimmickry Thy Name Is Film Promotions

Filmi Fanatic

Rewind yourself to the olden times when if a new film was released, one would only get to know it through the show timings in the newspaper or through the big colourful hand painted posters in front of the cinema halls. That was the only promotion any film would get and still they went on to complete 25 weeks or 50 weeks at the box office.

Now, fast forward to the present times where film promotions have become more like a marketing thing in the film making aspect. Now you have directors announcing on social medias about their films going on floors in year 2035…and then during the shooting of the movies, we get to see the snippets of it on either the actor’s insta stories or some small peek which goes viral on the social media within few minutes.

And once the film is completed, oh God the line of promotions is so big that it goes on even when the film is released. So, you have like the actors promoting the film on all sorts of reality shows or the soap operas on the small screen. And if all this is seemingly less, they rope in their industry friends and make a dubsmash video or the industrywallahs start tweeting on their twitter handles showing their so called ‘excitement ‘for the upcoming movie. The teaser of the film first is unveiled, then the poster, then one or 2 songs and finally the trailer of the movie is released in some big way in some lavish auditorium or stadium and mind you it’s just the trailer!!!

But even all this excitement built up and promotional gimmicks, why do these films only run a week or so? Why do they get erased so quickly from the minds of the audience unlike the earlier movies? Are we overdoing the promotions, or are the story lines so weak that all these marketing gimmicks are needed? Can there be any movie which can run without these promotions and just on their story and still do well… time to introspect…

Eros Looking For Buyers of Its Film Portfolio

Filmi Files Bureau

Well, Indian movie industry is surely going places whether it’s our films, our actors or even the way we market our films, we are all over the globe and day by day, we are growing. The latest addition to this growing bandwagon is the movie production and distribution giant EROS INTERNATIONAL who boasts of having films like Bajrangi Bhaijaan, BajiRao Mastani and Dabang in their kitty.

News is that Eros International is in discussion with Apple, Netflix and Amazon to sell the rights of their 3000 plus film and music library. The deal could worth be around $1 billion as quoted by The Economic Times. Earlier Eros had attempted to buy the film and music library from Sony, Star India, Viacom and Zee.

Although neither Eros or the other 3 have declined to comment on the news, however the shares of Eros International shot up more than 16% Monday on the reports of the talks. Let’s see what the future holds.

Parmanu Is An Interesting Film Based On True Incident: John Abraham

Actor-producer John Abraham, who is coming up with a film Parmanu – The Story Of Pokhran, says that it’s entertaining but based on a true story. Parmanu – The Story Of Pokhran is based on the nuclear test conducted at Pokhran in 1998 when BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister.

Asked if this film is somewhere a tribute to the leader, John said, “I think it is an interesting film. Atal Ji was one of the greatest Prime Ministers we had, but this is film and it has to be entertaining. Neither we are political nor are we showing anything in the film which is overtly political. We have just tried to make an entertaining film.” He added, Parmanu – The Story Of Pokhran is a very entertaining film but a true story which happened in India.

How did subject came to him? “This subject had come to Prerna and Arjun (Of KriArj Entertainment). When they came to me with this subject I liked it and then we developed it in-house. We were very fortunate as the script finally shaped up really well,” said John. The 44-year-old actor said “we are very careful in selecting only good script, because audience in today’s date looks for only good content.”
Asked to comment on the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, John said, “He was a visionary, he had the great vision and if we can talk about India shining, it’s only because of him. We want to give credit to our army personals and scientists who are responsible for the super power that India is today.”

The film also features Diana Penty and Boman Irani in lead roles. (IANS)

‘Sanskari Censor’ Does It Again, Sex Scene Axed

By Filmi Fanatic

Is the CBFC the new villian for the directors and their films?

Well it seems so and that is why they are called the ‘Censor Board’ where they are censoring everything left right and centre and more so after Mr Phalaj Nihalani has taken over. The directors are getting cautious day by day of the scenes in their movies if they want it to pass smoothly through the board.
The latest example of it being the Ajay Devgn starrer Baadshao where director Milan Luthria has decided to trim the 10 minute long love making scene before sending out the film to CBFC for certification, Milan decided to self censor the film as he doesn’t want to get in trouble with the board.
Although the scene has “aesthetically shot”,he apparently cut some portions of the scene which included kissing and bareback and now has sent it to the ‘Sanskaari CBFC’ to get a U/A certificate which was not possibe if the scenes were kept. But in all this where are we heading to? The primitive films were a kiss was shown by two flowers touching each other…
Hope this action by the director impresses the board and the film releases without hiccups.

Shraddha Kapoor Steals The Show In ‘Haseena Parkar’ Trailer

Filmi Files Bureau

Shraddha Kapoor has stolen the show with the Haseena Parkar trailer and she is definitely giving everyone serious acting goals. Playing the fierce queen of underworld god mother Haseena she is successful in showing how shrewd and big a mastermind she was and the film shows her journey from a young bubbly girl to a fierce and scary woman.

Her grey avatar followed by the gritty and non-emotive modulated heavy voice and straight face is far from the roles that Shraddha has portrayed earlier. She has done complete justice to the character and the hard-hitting dialogues leave a mark on the audience too. The film stars Shraddha as the infamous sister of Dawood Ibrahim, Haseena. Shraddha’s own brother Siddhanth Kapoor will be seen playing the don. The film is slated to release on August 18th and we just can’t wait for it now.

Opinion: When Creativity Is Held Hostage By Politics

Filmi Fanatic

It’s the season of controversies and the latest to join the bandwagon is Madhur Bhandarkar ‘Indu Sarkar’. Based on the 21-month Emergency between 1975 and 1977 imposed by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the film has run into opposition from the Congress, which is demanding that the film be screened first to them before it is sent to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). The Congress have in a way taken up the job of the Censor Board upon themselves and want to judge whether scenes or words should be deleted. Or indeed, whether the whole subject is unsuitable.

But according to Bhandarkar, he asserts that the movie is not a documentary, but a work of fiction. The movie is based on the story of a husband and a wife, who have contradictory opinion about the Emergency. It’s about the clash of points of view and the backdrop of the movie is the Emergency. Also, the film is also facing a backlash from the Congress regarding the depiction of their leaders in the film, and thus the disruption of the film’s press conferences which was cancelled a few days ago.

Thereafter, Bhandarkar tweeted and shared the news citing the team of the movie was left stranded “like hostages in the hotel room.”

“Congress workers have barged in the Hotel lobby & created ruckus; me & team are stranded like hostages in hotel room. #pune activity cancelled,” he tweeted.

So much for us being a democratic country, where freedom of expression is a fundamental right but where a creative person cannot show his creativity in a work of fiction. The film is slated for a release on 28th July if all goes well, fingers crossed.