Anil Ambani's Reliance Big Entertainment (RBE) sealed the funding of it's much-hyped 50:50 joint venture with Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks

Mumbai, July 15: Anil Dhirubhai Ambani looks all set to storm Hollywood in the company of Steven Spielberg, the three-time Oscar winner who directed movies such as Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan.

Ambani and Spielberg have been in talks for close to a year and even formed a new motion picture company last October. The new company is a continuation of DreamWorks Studios, which was formed in 1994 by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen.

On Wednesday, the two met in New York along with Stacey Snider, chief executive of DreamWorks SKG, and agreed to make five to six films every year. The initial investment will be $825 million.

Spielberg, who became an acclaimed director after he made Jaws in 1975, formed DreamWorks Studios after he and Snider severed ties with Paramount Pictures.

Sources at the Anil Ambani group said this was the first big foray into Hollywood by any Indian company. Several firms have worked on animation segments for Hollywood films but no one has formed a motion picture company with an Oscar-winning director.

Walt Disney Company will handle marketing and distribution of the studio’s films around the world except India where Anil Ambani’s Reliance Big Entertainment Ltd will retain distribution rights.

The initial phase of funding will include an equity investment from the Anil Ambani group, debt financing from a syndication of banks, as well as funding from Disney. Although the extent of funding from the Ambani group is not known, it is speculated to be $300-$400 million.

DreamWorks expects to start its first film for the new studio later this year.

The film company has also been acquiring properties and developing projects for release in 2010. The first film to be produced by the new company will be announced shortly.

“This venture with Reliance opens a new door to our future,” said Steven Spielberg.

Ambani said, “We are delighted to partner with such talented individuals as Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider. Ever since we looked at their business plan, I have never doubted that we would succeed in providing them with the financial muscle required to realise their dreams.”

Guardian Minister Dileep Deshmukh Wants Separate provisions for HIV+ kids

Latur: The Guardian Minister Dileep Deshmukh today said that the administration is thinking of making a separate provision for AIDS affected children studying in Hasegaon ZP School in Ausa tehsil, Latur district.

As reported earlier, 10 AIDS affected children are staying in the Ashram Sevalaya in the village, run by Amhi Sevak, an organization serving orphans and AIDS affected children. The AIDS affected children are admitted in the ZP school and after some speculations parents of 148 children out of 240 in the school of the village had refrained from sending their children to the school fearing that they might also get affected by the dreaded disease.

School Education Minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil on Friday ordered a probe into the matter and directed the Latur Collector Ekanth Dawale to submit report within two days.

Few teams of the associations working for AIDS awareness, medical officers and education officers have visited the village and tried to clear the misconceptions of the parents of the schoolchildren but the adamant parents are not yet sending their children to the ZP school.

Guardian Minister Dileep Deshmukh this evening visited the village. After discussion with the villagers he told reporter that it is not proper to take action against parents of the schoolchildren for not sending their children to the school.

Google Chrome in Indian languages

Google Chrome is now being offered in many Indian languages, with version 2 of the browser made available for download.

The stable version 2 comes in Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya (on Windows Vista alone), Tamil, and Telugu. A Hindi version was available earlier.

What this means is that PC users who have Windows Vista as their operating system should be able to easily select the browser’s interface language by using the language-setting options. It should also be possible to switch from one language to another by changing the language option and re-launching the browser. The users can then see the browser menus and other associated content in one of the Indian languages (or any of the other available language options).
Recent phenomenon

With Windows XP, the Indian language options are fewer, and font rendering might be an issue, if the user’s system is not primed for it. Asked about this, a Google spokesperson said: “Creation and consumption of Indian language content on the web is a relatively recent phenomenon. In some cases, the fonts get installed by default, and if not, Google tries to provide installation or downloading option through all our products.”

Chrome was launched only in September 2008, but it has garnered a small share of the browser market. In December last, a Google blog post claimed that in just 100 days, the initial (beta) version had built up a base of over 10 million active users worldwide.

Apart from its availability in several languages, speed was one feature on which there has been increased focus in the new version. Improvements had been made to get the browser to load up and render pages faster, Google claimed.

Stability is also another improvement being highlighted, with the fixing of “over 300 bugs that caused crashes since launch.” In the new release, Google also referred to the form autofill option, which enabled users to fill up form fields without having to input the same information in each instance.

However, this browser is not packed with as many features as some of the others are. And it might not fit your bill, if you are a heavy user of the kind of add-ons that are possible with Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer.
A modern platform

This has a lot to do with how Google has conceived the browser. It was “not just a browser but also a modern platform for web pages and applications.” The browser is based on open source software. It has been developed with Webkit, an open source browser engine, which was originally deployed for the Safari browser. The rendering of Javascript, a scripting language widely used in the Web environment, was also speeded up, Google said.

As for the release of the stable version 2 of the browser, Google itself said it did not give much weightage to version numbers, and these were “mainly a metric to help us keep track of changes internally.” For those already using older versions, the update ought to happen automatically.

Reliance BIG TV adds ten new channels - News Updates

Reliance BIG TV, the DTH service of Reliance ADA Group, is expanding its channel bouquet with the addition of ten new channels.

The ten channels would be available on the BIG TV platform from June 1, a company release here on Saturday said.

The ten new channels include Koreas KBS (international offering) and WB the latest, English entertainment channel from the broadcasting major, Turner International India Pvt.Ltd in association with their sister company Warner Bros.

The rest of the eight channels include leading regional channels in India; DD Podhigai (Tamil), NE TV (Telugu), India Vision (Malayalam), Star Jalsa (Bangla), Star Pravah (Marathi), Mahua (Bhojpuri), DD Kashmir (Urdu / Kashmiri), and TV99 (Rajasthani).

BIG TV would be offering these channels across various subscription packs. Customers wishing to avail of these channels can log their request at the call-centre by asking for the new subscription pack.

The customer can select the free regional pack as part of the new subscription and recharge. BIG TVs subscription packs are available from Rs 115 (plus taxes) onwards, the release added.
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I prefers Test, One Day over Twenty20 cricket - Lata Mangeshkar

Legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar has a passion for cricket, but prefers Test cricket and One Day International matches instead of the newly introduced Twenty20 format.

"I like watching cricket. I prefer to watch Test cricket or one day international matches. People who have grown watching them would like to do the same. I don't like the Twenty20 format and even my brother does not watch it. Though Mumbai Indians are our very own, I don't support any one team. I just want to enjoy the game," the singer said on the sidelines of the launch of a book based on her life.

Lata opposes to the 'singing-dancing' style which is followed by the contestants in TV reality shows on singing.

"I don't like it personally. I feel if they dance while singing then it will lead to breathlessness thus hampering their performance," she said.

London-based documentary filmmaker Nasreen Munni Kabir's book on Lata Mangeshkar, titled, 'Lata Mangeshkar... in her own voice' was launched on Friday.

The 268 pages book, published by Niyogi Books, is pegged at Rs 1,500. The book is in the form of an interview and has some rare photographs, details and insights about the legendary singer.

"The book flows in a conversational format, 'biographical conversations'. It follows no particular order, of chronology or otherwise," Kabir said.

Nasreen Munni Kabir, the author penned the book in English and has all the events that happened in the veteran singer's life from her childhood till the very recent times.

"One will know her (Lata) more closely after reading this book as she talks about her life. One needs to have good memory to remember all the events of their life, and she did have it," Kabir said.

"Though way back in 1991, I had made a documentary on her. But it wasn't an easy task as I had to do a lot of research. I know her for 20 years and yet there is no change in her behaviour or attitude the only thing is that she is getting older," she said.

"On her so called rivalry with her younger sister Asha Bhosale and also about why she did not sing under musician O P Nayyar have been answered very candidly by her," Kabir said.

The book also reveals that, Lata Mangeshkar regrets not being able to sing for actor Dilip Kumar.

"I cannot sing for any man but when I watch Dilip Kumar sing 'Madhuban mein Radhika naache re' in the movie 'Kohinoor'. It looks like he is actually singing and not Rafi Sahib. If I had the chance, I would have happily sung for him," Mangeshkar said.

The book also features interesting anecdotes from legends like Waheeda Rehman, Dilip Kumar, Javed Akhtar, Jaya Bachchan and her family members among others.

The book reveals about her early days as the daughter of well-known stage actor Master Dinanathher, her passion for photography, the time she bought her first radio, to the first few years of struggle, her battle with her peers and others in the film business, the book is a deep look at the life of the singer.

Mangeshkar started her career in 1942 which now spans over six and a half decades. She sang in over 980 Bollywood movies and has sung in over twenty regional Indian languages, but primarily in Hindi.

Lata has also received Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour, besides getting several awards and honors, including Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan Dada Saheb Phalke Award, National Film Awards and Filmfare Awards.

She was featured in the Guinness Book of World Records from 1974 to 1991 for having made the most recordings in the world.

Amitabh Bachchan remembering olden times magic with Prakash Mehra

Condoling the demise of legendary filmmaker Prakash Mehra, megastar Amitabh Bachchan has said that he had lost a friend and a colleague and an entire era of cinema has passed away with him.

"An entire era of cinema and my association with him passed away. He was recuperating well in hospital and was to be shifted from the ICU to a general ward. A sudden infection resulted in multiple organ failure and he breathed his last," Bachchan said on his blog.

Bachchan recalled their first meeting at RajKamal studio where the filmmaker had come to cast him in Zanjeer in 1971, and then right through to the mid 80s.

"Year after year of unbelievable successes - Zanjeer, Hera Pheri, Khoon Paseena, Laawaris, Muquaddar ka Sikander, Sharabi, Namak Halal. What a huge bank of amazing films, right down to his last with me, Jaadugar. The only one that did not work," Big B said.

Bachchan wrote that Mehra called him in Bangalore after the release of Jaadugar and said, "'Lalla', as he endearingly called me, gad bad ho gayee hai!(Things have gone wrong).

"Honest and straight. He (Mehra) had always maintained that the day I cannot make a successful film with you I shall stop working with you. He never did anything after 'Jaadugar'," Bachchan said.

The actor described Mehra as a simple man who had the capacity to narrate great stories through the medium of cinema in the most simple manner.

"No fuss, no calisthenics. Just very ordinary camera placements and extraordinary content. A writer, a lyricist, a musician, he added all these qualities to his creativity behind the camera and gave me some of my most challenging roles," the megastar said.

"Never rewarded by any institution. And never sought one either. His films have lived out longer than him. A true mark of excellence," Bachchan said.

"The music he gave to his films still ring in the hearts and ears of each generation that came after him. The performances he extracted from his artists were never ever considered for any recognition. It never bothered him," the actor said.

"Critics panned his films and the greater the criticism the longer became their duration, at the box office," Bachchan said.

"Unko likhne do woh, jo bhi likh rahe hain, aur jahan bhi likh rahe hain. Main jaanta hun main unhe kahan likh raha hoon!," he (Mehra) would often retort. A friend and a colleague, gone forever," Bachchan concluded.

Shahrukh Khan - 007 way for next film

Shah Rukh Khan is going the James Bond way for his next project, RA-1, directed by Anubhav Sinha.

A source reveals, "RA-1 is a superhero flick with special effects, gizmos and gadgets just like in 007's films."

The source adds, "SRK will be going a strict diet and wants to get into a killer shape before he begins shooting for RA-1." The film is slated to go on the floors in September. The project was pushed back due to the surgery SRK had to go through for his shoulder in February.

shahrukh khan.org

Veteran Filmmaker Prakash Mehra passes away

Prakash Mehta who passed away yesterday died a sad, lonely death. Though his name is synonymous with the rise of
Amitabh Bachchan as the angry young man, the producer-director had a life before Zanjeer that made us look at Indian cinema anew.

In 1968, when Hindi cinema showed the hero and heroine pecking through flowers, Mehra's Haseena Maan Jayega had Babita so confused by two Shashi Kapoors that she went to sleep with one thinking it was the other! He also had Kapoor in drag and spoof his song Pardesiyon Se Na Ankhiyan Milana in Jab Jab Phol Khile as Tatpunjiyon Se Na Aankiyan.

In Mela, real-life brothers Sanjay and Feroz Khan battled for Mumtaz. It was a dacoit drama with the anti-hero far more dynamic than the hero.

When Mehra made Zanjeer he had the sullen cop Amitabh Bachchan bring a street-smart chakku-churiwalli Jaya Bhaduri home a live-in relationship in those days.

Mehra's Muqaddar Ka Sikandar in 1978 was a clever reworking of the Devdas formula with the Big B as Devdas, Rakhee as Paro and Rekha as Chandramukhi.

While Lawaaris was about unwed motherhood and illegitimacy a theme that Mehra was obsessed with.
Who but this audacious filmmaker would have dared to put the Bachchan in drag? Mere Anganein Mein created quite a flutter and we aren't talking about just the Big B's false eyelashes.

Sharaabi , a clever and engaging reworking of the Hollywood film Arthur about a lonely drunken millionaire, made Bachchan look tipsy round-the-clock without actually making him drink even a peg. While Namak Halaal remains as one of Mehra's biggest hits.

Amitabh Bachchan's Blog

Why the future belongs to India, The facts of Indian journey

Article Published by Times of India 10 May 2009, 0128 hrs IST, by Gurcharan Das

In preparing for a much publicised debate in London on the motion 'The future belongs to India, not China', I was reminded of a conversation with my mother.

She had asked, what is the difference between China growing at a rate of 10% and India at 8%? I replied that the difference was, indeed, very significant. If we were to grow at 10% we could save twenty years. This is almost a generation. We could lift a whole generation into the middle class twenty years sooner. She thought for a while and then said gently, "We have waited 3,000 years for this moment. Why don't we wait another twenty and do it the Indian way?"

She had understood that the cost of democracy is the price the poor pay in the delay of their entry into the middle class. She did not elaborate the 'Indian way' but it must include taking a holiday on half a dozen New Year's Days! It is easy to get mesmerized by China's amazing progress and feel frustrated by India's chaotic democracy, but I think she had expressed the sentiments of most Indians who will not trade off democracy for two per cent higher growth.

In referring to the 'Indian way', my mother meant that a nation must be true to itself. Democracy comes easily to us because India has historically 'accumulated' its diverse groups who retain their distinctiveness while identifying themselves as Indian. China has 'assimilated' its people into a common, homogeneous Confucian society. China is a melting pot in which differences disappear while India is a salad bowl in which the constituents retain their identity. Hence, China has always been governed by a hierarchical, centralized state - a tradition that has carried into the present era of reform communism. China resembles a business corporation today. Each mayor and party secretary has objectives relating to investment, output and growth, which are aligned to national goals. Those who exceed their goals rise quickly. The main problem in running a country as a business is that many people get left out.

India, on the other hand, can only manage itself by accommodating vocal and varied interest groups in its salad bowl. This leads to a million negotiations daily and we call this system 'democracy'. It slows us down - we take five years to build a highway versus one in China. Those who are disgruntled go to court. But our politicians are forced to worry about abuses of human rights, whereas my search on Google on 'human rights abuses in China' yielded 47.8 million entries in 13 seconds! Democracies have a safety valve - it allows the disgruntled to let off steam before slowly co-opting them.

Both India and China have accepted the capitalist road to prosperity. But capitalism is more comfortable in a democracy, which fosters entrepreneurs naturally. A state enterprise can never be as innovative or nimble and this is why the Chinese envy some of our private companies. Democracy respects property rights. As both nations urbanize, peasants in India are able to sell or borrow against their land, but the Chinese peasants are at the mercy of local party bosses. Because India has the rule of law, entrepreneurs can enforce contracts. If someone takes away your property in China, you have no recourse. Hence, it is the party bosses who are accumulating wealth in China. The rule of law slows us down but it also protects us (and our environment, as the NGOs have discovered).

We take freedom for granted in India but it was not always so. When General Reginald Dyer opened fire in 1919 in Jallianwala Bagh, killing 379 people, Indians realised they could only have dignity when they were free from British rule. The massacre at Tiananmen Square in 1989, where 300 students were killed, was China's Jallianwala Bagh. China today may have become richer than India but the poorest Chinese yearns for the same freedom.

Because the Indian state is inefficient, millions of entrepreneurs have stepped into the vacuum. When government schools fail, people start private schools in the slums, and the result is millions of 'slumdog millionaires'. You cannot do this in China. Our free society forces us to solve our own problems, making us self-reliant. Hence, the Indian way is likely to be more enduring because the people have scripted India's success while China's state has crafted its success. This worries China's leaders who ask, if India can become the world's second fastest economy despite the state, what will happen when the Indian state begins to perform? India's path may be slower but it is surer, and the Indian way of life is also more likely to survive. This is why when I am reborn I would prefer it to be in India.

The writer is speaking in a debate in London on May 12, 2009, in support of the motion 'The future belongs to India, not China'

Case against Dhoni and Harbhajan

MUZAFFARPUR: A criminal case was filed in a court on Thursday accusing Indian
cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh with 'hurting'

fans by staying away from the Padma awards function.

Dhoni and Bhajji were to be honoured with the Padma Shree by President Pratibha Patil in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Senior advocate Sudhir Kumar Ojha filed the case in the court of the CJM Ramdarash seeking to book the cricketer under sections 499 (defamation), 500 (punishment for defamation), 503 (criminal intimidation) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace).

Ojha alleged that the two cricketers insulted fans and dishonoured the prestigious award by staying away from the function.

The petition is likely to come up for hearing on Friday, he said.

Colors beats Star Plus with highest viewership

Colors TV channel has emerged as the leader in viewership in the Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) segment in the week ending 11 April, breaking rival Star Plus’ reign of nine years.
The nine-month-old channel, owned by Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd, scored 292 gross rating points (GRP) across all time bands in that week, compared with 267 GRP pulled by Rupert Murdoch’s Star Plus, according to TAM Media Research Pvt. Ltd, the Mumbai-based television audience measurement firm.

Loyalty factor: Colors chief executive Rajesh Kamat says the channel will stabilize at around the 290 mark in TAM ratings. Madhu Kapparath / Mint
GRPs are a total of television rating points (TRP) over a period of time. TRP is a measure of the percentage of viewers watching a particular programme at a given time.

TAM data show Colors’ viewership share in the Hindi GEC space has risen consistently since late 2008, while Star Plus has lost some share. In the last four weeks of 2008, Colors’ share was 22% against Star Plus’ 26%. It rose to 24% in the first four weeks of 2009 while Star Plus remained at 26%. In the week ended 11 April, Colors went past Star Plus with 26% share against the latter’s 23%.

“It has been a close race for the top spot between Star (Plus) and Colors since the beginning of this year, especially in the past four weeks when we even surpassed them on reach and prime time GRPs... We knew that being No. 1 was around the corner but it will be a fierce weekly battle from there on,” said Rajesh Kamat, chief executive of Colors.

To be sure, top viewership for a week is not a clear sign of leadership because there have been instances where close rivals have gained top slot for a week only to lose it in the next.
“Leadership is a position that needs to be held week after week, consistently and steadily. We are confident that Star Plus will regain its leadership,” a spokesperson for Star Plus said.
Star Plus is the flagship channel of News Corp.’s Indian subsidiary Star India Pvt. Ltd. Viacom18 is a venture of US-based Viacom Inc. and India media group Network18 Media and Investments Ltd. (Mint has a content sharing arrangement with CNBC-TV18 news channel, which is owned by Network18.)
Significantly, Colors’ feat came close on the heels of it discarding the free-to-air (FTA) revenue model in favour of pay beginning 1 April. Pay channels charge a subscription fee, unlike a FTA channel, which can be accessed by viewers free of cost.

Typically, viewership falls when a channel is no longer FTA. Kamath said that Colors lost market share from 298 GRPs to 292 but overall with a sustained rise in its share, it managed to beat Star Plus in the week ended 11 April. Star Plus is also a pay channel.
“Going pay did impact our viewership...but the good news is that there is no sudden or drastic jerk... We know that we are stabilized around this 290-mark because we have made sure the loyalty factor in our content is strong enough for it not be affected by the channel going pay,” he said.

Colors declined to disclose its subscription price but a Delhi-based multiple system operator that provides cable TV services said Colors and Star Plus charge around Rs21 each, excluding 10% service tax.

“Apart from a solid content and distribution strategy, Colors also paid a hefty carriage fee of more than Rs90 crore to distributors when they launched... This got them a good placement and visibility,” said Vikki Choudhry, managing director, Home Cable Pvt. Ltd.

Colors’ steady rise in viewership has been attributed to its good programming strategy.

“Advertisers want to be on Colors because it has a good mix of programming. They reach out to all age groups such as youth through their reality shows, or families through their serials,” said a media buyer closely involved in deals with Hindi GECs. He declined to be identified.
Currently, the channel charges Rs75,000 to Rs1.10 lakh for a 10-second spot on prime time shows. In comparison, Star Plus charges Rs90,000 to Rs1.5 lakh for 10 seconds.

In the Hindi GEC segment, Colors and Star Plus were followed by Zee TV (236 GRPs), NDTV Imagine (90 GRPs) and Sony Entertainment (78 GRPs).

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