Cinema
‘Illegal immigrants’ stealing jobs in India's Bollywood?
From makeup artistes and hair stylists to dancers and junior actors, the Indian film industry seems to be increasingly banking on foreign talent -- a trend common in sectors like telecom and information technology.
But film artiste unions claim that the trend is depriving eligible Indian nationals of job opportunities in the domestic film industry and that too at a time when Bollywood is struggling to make a comeback following two years of the pandemic.
Moreover, nearly 90% of the foreigners employed in the Indian film industry do not have valid work permits and the country's police usually choose to turn a blind eye to such illegal immigrants, according to the film artiste unions.
Read: Shah Rukh Khan completes 30 years in Bollywood
Indian cinema is made up of numerous regional language film businesses -- from Tollywood in Bengal to Kollywood in Tamil Nadu -- that employ a number of people. The Indian film industry generates USD 2.7 billion in revenue annually.
"But the Indian film industry is now facing a major issue with the foreign crew replacing their Indian counterparts," a union member told an Indian media outlet. "Many of these foreigners are working illegally in India in violation of visa norms."
Bollywood is also going through a bad patch -- 15 of the 20 big Hindi films released so far in 2022 have performed horribly at the box office, including Kangana Ranaut's Dhaakad, Akshay Kumar's Rakshabandhan and Aamir Khan-acted Lal Singh Chaddha.
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“Many thought my decision to quit job for acting was a mistake”
When the dream is big, age or time can’t contain it. The career graph of actor Nasir Uddin Khan is a testament to this.
Although Nasir became popular with the web series ‘Mohanagar’, he has been acting for more than two decades.
Nasir started acting in 1995, through joining the Chattogram-based drama group Teerjok. Soon, acting became his main focus instead of studies or jobs.
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Meanwhile, Nasir started a family and was soon blessed with two children. However, passion ruled over practicality and Nasir took the bold decision of quitting his job and focus solely on acting.
Read: Distributors claim “Hawa” among top 30 US box office hits
His massive success justifies that decision.
While talking to UNB, Nasir said that when he first came to Dhaka in 2016, he had no idea what would happen next.
“People close to me used to say that I should get a job for the sake of paying my bills. But I came to Dhaka to be an actor, nothing else. Most people who knew me thought I was making a big mistake. But I was confident and now I know that my decision was right,” said Nasir.
Although the showbiz industry had to go through a tough time during the Covid-19 pandemic, the OTT platforms started to gain popularity at the same time. Bangladesh was no exception.
Read When Bollywood actor Padmini Kolhapure kissed King Charles
A wind of change has taken over the local entertainment industry since the start of web series production. While these web series have offered the audience the expertise of multiple directors, they have also turned many actors into stars overnight.
“The OTT platforms met the needs of the audience at a time when the showbiz industry was going through a crisis. My career also took a turn after acting in a web series, thanks to the OTT platforms,” said Nasir.
Nasir has recently become the talk of the town after the release of the film ‘Hawa’. Many are saying that the film is the turning point of Nasir’s acting career. But the actor thinks otherwise.
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“Life doesn’t follow a straight line. We have to live with both the good and bad. I view my career this way. There will be many highs and many lows in my acting career. Hawa will definitely help my career grow, but I don’t think this will be the turning point,” added Nasir.
Currently, Nasir Uddin Khan is busy with Hawa’s publicity and shooting for some new films. The actor is working on two new films and some new web series.
‘The Fabelmans': Steven Spielberg debuts autobiographical film at Toronto Film Festival
Steven Spielberg premiered his much-anticipated “The Fabelmans" to thunderous applause at the Toronto International Film Festival, debuting his most autobiographical film and one the 75-year-old filmmaker said he's been building toward his whole life.
“The Fabelmans,” which Spielberg wrote with Tony Kushner, draws extensively from the director's own childhood — from his parents, played by Michelle Williams and Paul Dano in the film, and from his early formation as a filmmaker. The film opens with a timid young boy outside a cinema going to see his first movie ("The Greatest Show on Earth"). His mother encourages him: “Movies are dreams, doll."
“It's something obviously I've been thinking about for a long time,” Spielberg said on stage after the screening late Saturday. "I didn't really know when I was going to get around to this. It is not because I decided to retire and this is my swan song. Don't believe any of that."
Spielberg said he first talked about what would become “The Fabelmans” with Kushner during the making of “Lincoln.” The playwright, Spielberg said, played the role of therapist as Spielberg unloaded his memories. But it wasn't until the pandemic that the director resolved to tell, for the first time, his own story.
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“As things got worse and worse, I felt if I was going to leave anything behind, what was the thing that I really need to resolve and unpack?” said Spielberg.
Spielberg, whose three sisters were in the audience, later added: “This film is for me a way of bringing my mom and dad back. And it also brought my sisters — Annie and Sue and Nancy — closer to me than I ever thought possible. And that was worth making the film for.”
Universal Pictures will release “The Fabelmans” on Nov. 11 in New York and Los Angeles before expanding it nationwide Nov. 23. Its world premiere at Toronto — which happened to immediately follow Rian Johnson's “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” at the Princess of Wales Theatre — was a major event, and an unusual one. It was Spielberg's first film at TIFF, and he said while introducing the film that it was his first time ever in a film festival's official lineup.
The two-and-a-half hour film was immediately received as a grand and personal opus for Spielberg, all but certain to play a staring role at the Academy Awards. Aside from Williams, who is pregnant with her third child, and Dano, the cast includes Seth Rogen as a close family friend, a brief standout performance from Judd Hirsch, Jeannie Berlin and newcomer Gabriel LaBelle who plays Sammy Fabelman, the fictionalized young Spielberg.
“Steven was generous about letting us into his life,” said Dano, who said he had access to Spielberg's old photographs, home movies and lengthy conversations over Zoom with the director. “The goal was to capture a life lived.”
Also read: Playing Marilyn Monroe was life-changing for Ana de Armas
While there are vividly drawn moments of movies transporting Sammy, “Fabelmans” may surprise some for how complexly it weaves filmmaking and family life. Cinema in Spielberg's film is both a transformative power and something dangerous; a way to express genuine emotion and to hide from it. Kushner, a frequently collaborator with Spielberg, said the film demonstrates how “film is an unreliable friend.”
“It will take you to into a place of safety and right through safety is something unexpected and scary," said Kushner. “It happens over and over again in the movie.”
“The Fabelmans” is populated by early experiments with 8-millimeter cameras, little movies made with family members and increasingly ambitious short films. All mirror Spielberg's own first forays into filmmaking, though there are some differences.
“I made all the behind-the-scenes stuff in this movie much better than the actual films I made when I was Sammy's age," Spielberg said with a smile. "It was a great do-over."
Playing Marilyn Monroe was life-changing for Ana de Armas
Andrew Dominik had been trying to make a movie about Marilyn Monroe for over a decade.
The film wouldn’t be a biopic, but an experiential portrait delving into the psyche of Marilyn Monroe and Norma Jeane. It kept falling apart, but the New Zealand native couldn’t let it go. Then he found Ana de Armas, and, he said, the movie came alive.
“It was like love at first sight,” Dominik said Thursday, before the world premiere of the film at the Venice International Film Festival. “When the right person walks through the door, you know it.”
The nearly three-hour epic is based on a work of biographical fiction by Joyce Carol Oates and examines the public and private life of the Hollywood icon from her troubled childhood as Norma Jeane to her global stardom as Marilyn Monroe and various relationships along the way, from her mother (Julianne Nicholson) to her marriages to Joe DiMaggio (Bobby Cannavale) and Arthur Miller (Adrien Brody).
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“I wasn’t very aware of Marilyn. I was familiar with some of her movies, but for me it was a huge discovery and learning process,” de Armas said. “We wanted to honor her in the recreations where she was Marilyn, but I also had a lot of room to create the real woman underneath that character. It was about understanding and empathizing and connecting with her and her pain and her trauma.”
She added: “If you put aside the movie star she is, she’s just a woman, just like me. Same age. It was a project I knew I had to let myself open and go to places I knew were going to be uncomfortable and dark and vulnerable.”
Filming began on Aug. 4, the day Monroe died in 1962 at her home in Los Angeles at age 36. It was an accident and just the result of some delays. But it also was one of many times the filmmaker and his cast felt a somewhat mystical connection to the subject of their film. Though the story takes many liberties with the facts of her life with the intent of getting to the truth of her life, the production did use real locations like the apartment she and her mother lived in when she was a child and the house she died in.
“It took on elements of being like a séance,” Dominik said.
De Armas agreed that “there was something in the air” being in the same places Monroe had lived.
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“I wasn’t in character all the time. But I felt that. I was living that. I felt that heaviness and that weight in my shoulders. And I felt that sadness,” de Armas said. “She was all I thought about. She was all I dreamed about. She was all I talked about... It was beautiful. “
“Blonde” has been hotly anticipated for some time: For taking on a figure like Monroe in an experimental way, for its rating, the first ever NC-17 movie that Netflix has made, a designation set by the Motion Picture Association that forbids those younger than 17 from watching the film in the theater. There’s also curiosity around de Armas’s performance. The Cuba-born actor worked with a dialect coach for a year to prepare.
“Storytelling that is as brave as this is essential,” her co-star Brody said.
And for him, de Armas did more than just play the role. She channeled the person.
“The first day of filming, I went home with this sense of awe that I had the privilege of actually working with Marilyn Monroe,” Brody said. “It’s very rare that I can say that someone transported me to another time and place.”
For de Armas, it was about the challenge.
“I did this movie to push myself... to make other people change their opinion about me,” she said, through some tears. “This movie changed my life.”
“Blonde” opens in select theaters starting Sept. 16 before becoming available on Netflix on Sept. 23. It’s one of many Oscar hopefuls launching in Venice, where it is also among the films up for the festival’s awards on Saturday.
Distributors claim “Hawa” among top 30 US box office hits
After conquering hearts in Bangladesh, Mejbaur Rahman Sumon’s film “Hawa” is now thriving in the United States, placing among top 30 films in US box office, the film’s distributors say.
On September 2, the film premiered in 73 theaters in US and 13 in Canada.
This is the first time a Bangladeshi movie has ranked in the top 30 in US box office, according to Md Waliullah Sajib, President of Swapna Scarecrow Bangladesh, which is the distributor of the film in North America.
Read: ‘Aat Ta Baje Deri Korish Na’: hidden gem of ‘Hawa’ soundtrack released
According to Swapna Scarecrow Bangladesh, the gross box office collection of "Hawa" is $213,461 till now, a combined collection in Canada and USA. A total of 25,444 people (9,930 in Canada and 15,514 in US) have seen “Hawa”, a record for a Bangladeshi film.
“Hawa” is the second Chanchal Chowdhury-starring movie that has been commercially successful in North America. The 2018 film “Debi”, starring Chanchal and Jaya Ahsan, secured a lifetime box office collection of $125,414.
With its collection of $127,149 in the US market and $86,312 in Canada, “Hawa” broke the record in just three days.
Read:Wind of 'Hawa' blows full
“We observed a whirlwind by 'Hawa' in the US box office, thanks to the enthusiasm of the Bangladeshi audience in Canada and the United States. We had no idea the response would be as intense as it was,” according to Sajib.
Following a “bede” (gypsy) woman who is rescued and sheltered on a fishing boat that has become stranded in the middle of the sea while narrating a story in the style of magic realism, the film features an ensemble cast including Chanchal Chowdhury, Nazifa Tushi, Sariful Islam Raaz, Sumon Anwar, Nasir Uddin Khan, and Sohel Mondal in the lead roles.
The screenplay was written by Sukarna Sahed Dhiman, Zahin Faruq Amin, and Sumon, while Sumon wrote the story and dialogue for the movie.
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“Hawa” has been produced by Sun Music and Motion Pictures. Jazz Multimedia is the distributor of the film in Bangladesh.
'Adim' scores two awards at 44th Moscow International Film Festival
Young filmmaker Juboraj Shamim's debut film "Adim" (The Instinct) has won two awards at the 44th Moscow International Film Festival.
The film bagged Silver Saint George (Special Jury Award) and Netpack Jury awards on the last day of the film festival that ran from August 26 to September 2, Juboraj told the media Saturday.
Adim won the Silver Saint George award for "realism and humanity," according to the organisers.
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The 84-minute Bangladesh-Netherlands co-production has no star cast. The cast members are the inhabitants of a Tongi slum where Juboraj shot the film.
The cast of the film includes Badshah, Dulal, Shohagi, and Sadek.
The crowd-funded film was produced under the banner of Juboraj's production house Roshayon. It was co-produced by Lotus Film.
"Juboraj Shamim is the perfect example of how to chase and fulfil one's dreams. I am so happy for you, man," Mostofa Sarwar Farooki wrote on Facebook.
Iranian filmmaker Behruz Shoaib's "Without Prior Agreement" won the Golden Saint George award for the best film in the main competition category of the 44th Moscow International Film Festival.
10 Most-Hyped South Indian Films Releasing in September 2022
Over the past decades, South Indian cinemas have gone through changes in the plots and filming methods. Meanwhile, the popularity of such cinemas has increased tremendously among the viewers. Like other months, in September, a list of South Indian movies are waiting to be released. Now the cinema enthusiasts around the world wait for the Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada movies. Stay with us, to decide which South Indian movies to include in your watchlist.
Top 10 South Indian Movies Set to Release in September 2022
Ranga Ranga Vaibhavanga, Telugu Romantic-Comedy
In Theater on September 2, 2022
Gireeshaaya directed the movie featuring Vaishnav Tej and Ketika Sharma as the main characters. A young man and woman are constantly at loggerheads with each other in the prologue. From childhood, every one of them expects others to always apologize first. Along with fun entertainment, the movie will also have a drama of family sentiments.
Devi Sri Prasad took care of the music composition of the film. Shamdat Sainuddin was in charge of shooting and cinematography of the film. The entire production was made by BVSN Prasad under the banner of Sri Venkateswara Cine Pictures.
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Gold, Malayalam Comedy
In Theater on September 2, 2022
Alphonse Puthren played a major role in the making of this entire drama film. Not just writing, editing, and directing; He also worked on stunt choreography, color grading, visual effects, and animation for the film.
The film, produced by Listyn Stephen and Supriya Menon, stars Prithviraj Sukumaran and Nayanthara in the main roles. This film is a love story of Jaya and MGR with a complex plot behind fun activities. Rajesh Murugesan worked as the music director in the film. The cinematography was handled by Biswajit Odukathil and Anind C Chandran.
Padavettu, Malayalam Action-Thriller
In Theater on September 2, 2022
Newcomer filmmaker Liju Krishna's writing and directing work can be witnessed through this movie. The story of the film revolves around the lives of a group of oppressed people in North Kerala. The movie stars Nivin Pauly, Aditi Balan, Manju Warrier, Shammi Thilakan, Shine Tom Chacko, Indrans, and Vijayaraghavan.
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The cinematography of the film was done by Deepak D Menon. Shafiq Mohammad Ali made the edits, and Govinda Basant took care of the music composition. Sunny Wayne has done the overall production of the cinema.
Banaras, Kannada Romance
In Theater on September 2, 2022
Jayathirtha wrote and directed the film based on the beauty, rich heritage, and culture of Banaras, a city in Uttar Pradesh. In the mysterious love story, Siddharth and Dani fall in love with each other while exploring Banaras.
Produced by Tilakraj Ballal, the movie will release simultaneously in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and even Hindi languages. The film stars Sonal Montero and Zayed Khan in lead roles. B. Ajaneesh Loknath composed the songs for the film and Advaita Gurumurthy did the visual shoots.
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Aa Ammayi Gurinchi Meeku Cheppali, Telugu Romantic Drama
In Theater on September 16, 2022
Mohana Krishna Indraganti has written and directed the movie with a beautiful love tale. The story has Sudhir Babu and Kriti Shetty in the major roles. This is the third time Sudheer Babu and Mohana Krishna Indraganti worked together in a film.
The cinematography of the film was completed by P.G. Binda. Marthand K Venkatesh did the editing and Vivek Sagar made the music composition. The production houses of the cinema are Benchmark Studios and Mythri Movie Makers.
Badhon’s first glimpse in Vishal Bhardwaj’s Khufiya teaser
After much speculation about Azmeri Haque Badhon’s debut in Bollywood, fans got to see her first look for Vishal Bhardwaj’s spy thriller ‘Khufiya’ in a teaser released today.
The teaser was released by Netflix on Monday in the form of a blurred image where the mystery is maintained, even if Badhon's character can be made out to be in saree.
Besides Badhon, fans got similarly stealing glimpses of her Indian co-actors in the film, the extremely highly regarded Tabu and relative newcomer Ali Fazal, on the day without unveiling much about the story itself.
Also read: Azmeri Haque Badhon: Starring the Title Role of 'Rehana Maryam Noor' Film Premiered in 74th Cannes
The spy thriller’s screenplay is based on writer Amar Bhushan’s ‘Escape to Nowhere’ which was inspired by true events.
Badhon's acting was rarely talked about till her formidable turn as the title character in Rehana Maryam Noor, which was selected in the 'Un Certain Regard' section at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.
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Soon after that she was seen in an episode of the thriller web series, Rabindranath Ekhane Kawkhono Khete Aashenni (English: Rabindranath never came here to eat), directed by Srijit Mukherji.
'The Invitation' tops tepid weekend at box office
The horror film “The Invitation” needed just $7 million to finish at the top of the weakest weekend of the summer at the North American box office, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Directed and co-written by Jessica M. Thompson and starring “Game of Thrones” actor Nathalie Emmanuel, “The Invitation” tells the story of a young woman who after her mother's death discovers dark secrets at her family home in the English countryside.
It debuted on 3,141 screens for Sony and cost just $10 million to make.
Sony also had the No. 2 movie with the Brad Pitt vehicle “Bullet Train,” which brought in an estimated $5.6 million from 3,513 screens in its fourth week, bringing its domestic total to $78.2 million.
Universal’s “Beast,” starring Idris Elba, finished third with $4.9 million in its second week, after making $11.6 million and ranking second in its first.
Elba was also the star of the week’s other major debut, “Three Thousand Years of Longing,” the fantasy epic from “Mad Max” director George Miller, which brought in just $2.9 million on 2,436 screens and finished a distant and disappointing seventh.
The lagging results were no great surprise for this time of year.
“We’re in that what is often the typical August slowdown heading into Labor Day weekend,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “This was to be expected given the lineup of films this weekend.”
Paramount’s “Top Gun: Maverick” remained in fourth in its 14th weekend in theaters with an additional $4.8 million. It has made over $691 million in North America to date, making it the sixth-highest grossing domestic release of all time.
Last week's No. 1, “Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero” plunged to fifth in its second weekend with $4.6 million after bringing in $20.1 million in its debut.
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The weekend overall saw about $52.7 million in North American ticket sales — the slowest in months. A strong summer has meant that the year-to-date box office is still up significantly from a tepid 2021, but a long drought lies ahead until another surge of expected big earners such as “Halloween Ends” and “Black Adam," which will both be released in October.
Amid the quiet spell at the box office, movie tickets will be just $3 in the vast majority of American theaters as part of a newly launched “ National Cinema Day ” on Saturday. Major chains, including AMC and Regal Cinemas, are participating, as are all major film studios.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. “The Invitation," $7 million.
2. “Bullet Train,” $5.6 million.
3. “Beast,” $4.9 million.
4. “Top Gun: Maverick,” $4.8 million.
5. “Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero,” $4.6 million.
6. “DC League of Super-Pets,” $4.2 million.
7. “Three Thousand Years of Longing,” $2.9 million
8. “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” $2.74 million.
9. “Thor: Love and Thunder,” $2.7 million.
10. “Where the Crawdads Sing,” $2.3 million
Environment Ministry to withdraw case against Hawa upon 'agreement'
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change will take the initiative to withdraw a case filed against the movie 'Hawa’ for allegedly violating Wildlife Conservation and Security Act of 2012.
Steps will be taken to withdraw the case filed by the Wildlife Crime Prevention Unit under the ministry, upon the appeal made by the Hawa team confessing they were unaware of the provisions of the act, it said in a press release on Sunday.
The Director of Hawa Mejbaur Rahman Sumon applied to the Wildlife Crime Control Unit. The wildlife crime control unit submitted it to Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court to withdraw the case on Sunday.
Also read: Legal notice seeks complete ban on screening Hawa
As the case is compoundable according to section 43 of Wildlife Conservation and Security Act, 2012, and section 248 of CrpC, the appeal was submitted.
The court has heard the appeal and fixed the next hearing to pronounce a verdict in this regard.
On August 17, four officers of the Wildlife Crime Prevention Unit filed a case after seeing the movie released on July 29.
Also read: Wind of 'Hawa' blows full
On August 22, a legal notice was served to ban screenings of the film Hawa, for violating the Wildlife Conservation and Security Act.
The notice demanded the license of the film be revoked, and to ban its screening worldwide, not just locally.
Besides, it said the Censor Board should be reconstituted to include members of the Wildlife Crime Prevention Unit, lawyers and environmentalists.
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In addition, before giving the Censor Board's clearance to any movie in the future, it must be ensured that a film does not violate any section of the Wildlife Conservation and Safety Act-2012.
According to the notice, in the movie, a bird named Shalik is seen kept captive inside a cage on a trawler. At one point the bird is killed and eaten.
Besides, there are several scenes in the movie which are clear violations of the Wildlife Conservation and Protection Act, 2012.
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As a result, people will be encouraged to hunt, cage and kill birds.
No permission was taken from the Forest Department to promote this scene, added the notice.
The entire episode however drew ridicule from some quarters, and artists in particular.
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