Aishwarya Rai’s Comeback Film ‘Jazbaa’ will be co-producing by Sachiin Joshi but he will not act in the movie

 

INDIA – Actor Sachiin Joshi will now don an independent hat – that of a producer. The film in question is the much in the news comeback of the former beauty queen Aishwarya Rai.

Rai makes a return to cinema after a three and a half year hiatus, in the film “Jazbaa” which also features other Indian stars in the International arena – Irrfan, Shabana Azmi and Anupam Kher. The film also stars Siddhant Kapoor and is directed by Sanjay Gupta.

Joshi says that he is pleased to be associated with the film as the content of the film was what excited him the most.

Sachiin Joshi, actor and producer has joined hands with Sanjay Gupta and will be co-producing Jazbaa, the comeback vehicle of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. But contrary to popular rumours, the Jackpot actor will not acting in it.

Sachiin says, ''I liked the script and planned to get onboard as I really admire Sanjay Gupta. I have been a fan of his films since the times of Aatish and I am looking forward to work with him as a producer.''

Starring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in the lead roles, Jazbaa will finish the shooting by April and is scheduled to release this year.

 

 

Even Ant-Man isn't sure about "Ant-Man" in the first full-length trailer

It’s been a grand day for Ant-Man as Marvel rolls out the marketing machine for its next C-List superhero. By now, the folks at Marvel are old hats at polishing underdog franchises until they shine their way to the box office success.

First up, the official “Ant-Man” trailer. Yeah, a guy who shrinks down to the size of an ant and rides around on bugs is silly. So is a talking raccoon and a sentient tree. The key is to admit it.

Anyone else look for clues to the time period in the trailer? I'm coming up blank. Sure, Hank Pym has technology in his lab, but there were no cellphones or other hallmarks of 21st century living. Not even a television in Scott Lang's living room. So is this happening concurrent to "Avengers" or before? Ughhh, July is too far away.

Also, today Entertainment Weekly snagged the exclusive first look at Paul Rudd in the Ant-Man costume. I'm beginning to sense a theme with the marketing strategy.

 

 

'PK' becomes Bollywood's biggest success

 

 Comedy drama "PK" is now the highest grossing Bollywood film ever, breaking records not just in India but abroad as well.

With A-list movie star Aamir Khan in the leading role as an extraterrestrial attempting to integrate into Indian society, "PK" has accumulated $65.2m of Indian box office returns since its December 19 release.

The title has also taken $9.15m to date in North America, making it the biggest Bollywood movie there too, while Australian totals stand at $1.9m so far.

One major milestone remains for "PK," which has overtaken Khan's 2013 blockbuster "Dhoom 3" in almost every other regard: the earlier hit's total worldwide tally is set at $89m, with "PK" not far behind on $86.2m.

But the picture has not been without controversy, its setup allowing director Rajkumar Hirani and co-writer Abhijat Joshi to question some of India's established social mores, according to Deadline.

Aamir Khan achieved international recognition for his role as lead actor and producer of 2002 Academy Award foreign language nominee "Lagaan," and is well known for his parts in "3 Idiots," "Rang De Basanti" and "Ghajini" in addition to "Dhoom 3" and "PK," while Hirani has received numerous accolades for national and global hits "3 Idiots" and the first two "Munna Bhai" comedies.

Netflix is starting to wound the movie industry where it hurts most

Streaming video services, mainly Netflix, have been undermining broadcast television and cable channels for years — but we are now getting some signs that movie theaters may be coming under the gun as well.

Movie attendance dropped by a surprisingly sharp 5.1% in 2014 according to new data. This is unlikely to be just a normal part of industry ebb and flow since admittances plunged to lowest level since 1995, even though the U.S. population has grown robustly in the past two decades.

One explanation is simply the lack of certain mega-franchises, such as Batman or James Bond. But the emergence of likely strong new franchises like Guardians of the Galaxy and LEGO would seem to undercut that point. The most worrisome data nugget concerns Americans aged 14-24 — people in this age bracket delivered a stunning 15% decline in movie-going. This comes right after a reported 17% decline in the previous year.

Back-to-back double-digit attendance declines among young consumers seem to point to something deeper than which selection of superheroes hit the theaters in 2014. The worst fear of Hollywood is that the youth demographic is simply drifting away from old entertainment consumption patterns, seduced by video streaming on a variety of platforms and particularly the explosion of content on smartphones.

The time that adult American smartphone users spend on their devices has mushroomed in recent years, hitting 2 hours or even more on a daily basis, depending on research sources. That 120 or 150 minutes a day clearly must be hurting a variety of other entertainment options.

Probably the worst threat to traditional movie business is the streaming cornucopia offered by Netflix. It’s bad enough that Netflix is offering a relatively broad range of TV series and movies produced by a variety of studios. But now, the company is ramping up its own content production — and much of it is aimed directly at young people between the ages of 12 and 24.

The new group of interlocking Marvel series revolving around characters familiar from the Daredevil franchise is aiming directly at teens who were sucked into Marvel universe in movie theaters over the past decade. The expensive new Marco Polo series flirts with the Game of Thrones fan base. Sense8 by the Wachowski siblings appeals to fans of extravagant science fiction spectacles.

Of course, nothing can compete with a brand new Avengers movie and its top-dollar special effects viewed on a giant screen. But a Netflix version of a summer blockbuster may well be competitive with a lackluster Spider Man sequel since it costs nothing and ticket prices are creeping inexorably north of $15.

Hollywood has recently been buoyed by a series of young adult and superhero franchises that have bloomed into massive money spinners. But as Hunger Games draws to conclusion and Spider Man as well as Superman franchises show signs of weakness, there is suddenly a sense that the Marvel machine is now underpinning the entire industry performance. The industry better hope that teens won’t get even a bit bored with the current Avengers/Iron Man/Thor template in coming years.