High Production Quotient

Slow and steady is the production mantra for the world’s most prolific film industry

Bollywood corporate houses and traditional banners are shooting films steadfastly. Never mind the global recession and never mind the multiplex - producers’ stand-off, production houses haven’t let adversities dampen their spirits. There have been certain delays and some putting on the backburner instances, but as we checked out the production muster and analysed the release slate, we discovered that it’s life ‘almost’ as usual in the filmdom.

While established banners Yash Raj Films and Dharma Productions stick to their high-gloss, star-studded projects like New York and My Name Is Khan, Mukta Arts is experimenting with character-led comedies like Paying Guests and Hello Darling. Orthodox Rajshri Productions ,that championed the cause of Indian cultrure and values, is now thinking afresh by launching an Indo-Japanese romance based in the UK to be directed by debutante director Aarti Bagdi!

Winds of change are blowing in Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Production as the king of romance is all set to make a sci-fi Ra-One which is the tale of a robot.Aamir Khan Productions has three unusual films on the floors being directed by three debutant directors - Kiran Rao (Dhobi Ghat), Abhinav Deo (Delhi Belly) and yet -untitled venture by Anusha Rizvi.

The Bhatt brothers and Vishesh Films stick by their resolve of making films based on real-life incidents, like their upcoming feature Jashn is inspired by the telly talent hunt contests and Tum Mile is based on Mumbai floods.

Corporate biggie UTV is ready to release Ram Gopal Verma’s horror film Agyaat, a comedy - Aage Se Right in addition to Hook Ya Crook, Season’s Greetings and Filmcity that are in various stages of production.

BIG pictures is all set to release the first big offering this summer - the campus romance Kal Kissne Dekha in addition to the scorcher Kites proposed to be a Diwali release. Eros is gearing up to redeem box office favours with home productions Aladin, De Dhana Dhan and Veer to be released over 2009, in addition to distributing the season’s most awaited films - Kareena - Akshay starrer Kambakkth Ishq and Saif Ali Khan’s debut production Love Aaj Kal.

Indian Films (Studio 18) is waiting to screen Anil Kapoor co-production, Shortkut - The Con Is On and Abbas-Mustan co-production Life Partner. Their ambitious projects include Sanjay Gadhvi’s 7 Days In Paris and Abbas-Mustan’s official remake of The Italian Job. They also sold the rights of Dev Benegal’s Road Movie to a global distribution giant, Fortissimo Films.

Individual banners

Aamir Khan Productions
Three productions on the floors -
Dhobi Ghat directed by Kiran Rao starring Aamir Khan and Prateik Babbar .
Delhi Belly- directed by Abhinav Deo with Imran Khan and Shernaz Treasuryvala.
Untitled film directed by Anusha Rizvi.

Ashutosh Gowariker Productions
The shoot of the Priyanka - Harman starrrer What’s Your Rashee? is complete.
Another film being planned is inspired by a book on the Chittagong Rising, which took place in the 1930s, and was part of India’s struggle for freedom from the British. .

BASE Industries (Firoz Nadiadwala)
Hera Pheri 3 is on the anvil.
Hollywood director Rob Cohen of Fast And The Furious fame is set to direct Jewel Of India starring Amitabh Bachchan with Al Pacino and Monica Belluci.

Blockbuster Movies (Vipul Shah’s production house)
London Dreams, directed by Vipul Shah, stars Salman Khan,Ajay Devgan and Asin is in post-production stages.
Vipul is currently shooting Action Replayy starring Akshay Kumar and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Zara Jee Ke Dikha- starring Rahul Bose and Shefali Shah directed by debutant director Barnali Shukla is also on floors.
The production house has inked a deal with Fox Star Studios.

BR Films
Banda Yeh Bindaas Hai directed by Ravi Chopra and starring Tabu, Govinda and Lara Dutta is ready for release
Abhay Chopra’s Kohinoor and Ravi Chopra’s Pocketmaar will go on floors this year.

Dharma Productions
The Stepmom remake will take off in September, while My Name Is Khan is 50 percent complete. Wake Up Sid is in the post-production stages.
Rensil D’Silva’s Qurbaan is still shooting, while the animation feature Kootchie Kootchie Hota Hai is in post-production stages.

Excel Entertainment
Karthik Calling Karthik starring Farhan Akhtar and Deepika Padukone is presently shooting.
The Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan film titled Crooked is announced and is to be directed by Abhinay Deo. The Kareena Kapoor-Farhan Akhtar film Dhruv directed by Sudhir Mishra will go on the floors in September.

Filmkraft Productions
The English-Hindi bi-lingual Kites is slated for Diwali release.

Mukta Arts
Three films are ready for release:
Paritosh Painter’s comic caper Paying Guests with an ensemble cast. Hello Darling directed by Manoj Tiwari stars Celina Jaitley, Gul Panag and Javed Jaaferi . Right Ya Wrong is directed by Neeraj Pathak with Sunny Deol and Konkona Sen Sharma.

Nadiadwala Grandsons (Sajid Nadiadwala)
The Kareena Kapoor- Akshay Kumar film with Hollywood stars Sylvester Stallone, Brandon Routh and Denise Richards is Kambakkth Ishq.
Housefull starring Arjun Rampal, Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone and Lara Dutta to be directed by Sajid Khan will go on the floors in July. In the pipeline is the Siddharth Raj Anand-directed Priyanka Chopra- Ranbir Kapoor film.

Pritish Nandy Communications
Three films are ready for release:
Ek Tho Chance by veteran maker Saeed Akhtar Mirza.
Fatso directed by Rajat Kapoor stars Gul Panag and Ranvir Shorey.
Raat Gayi Baat Gayi starring Vinay Pathak and Rajat Kapoor.
The Accident starring Shiney Ahuja and -Soha Ali Khan is still being shot.
Kushan Nandy’s The Actor with Amitabh Bachchan is in the pre-production stage.

Rajkamal Films
Kamal Haasan will direct, produce and act in two films to go on the floors this year, a English -Tamil -Japanese trilingual co-starring Asin and a Tamil-Hindi project.

Rajshri Productions
Debutante director Aarti Bagdi’s Indo-Japanese love story based in UK is the next project starring newcomers Tamanna Bhatia and Yusuka Fukuchi.

Red Chillies Entertainment
The sci-fi film Ra One to be directed by Anubhav Sinha and the Farah Khan-directed Happy New Year will go on the floors later this year.

RS Entertainment
The Abhishek Bachchan film directed by Rohan Sippy will go on floors by December.

T Series
Himesh Reshammiya’s Kajraare and A New Love Isshtory are coming up.

Tips (Kumar Taurani)
Prince starring Vivek Oberoi and three new heroines is ready to be released.
Ramesh Taurani’s comedy Toh Baat Pakki starring Tabu is ready for release while Rajkumar Santoshi’s Ajab Prem Ki Gazab Kahani is in the dubbing stages.

Venus Records
Priyadarshan’s Katrina Kaif-Akshay Kumar’s De Dhana Dhan is nearly complete.

Vinod Chopra Productions
3 Idiots directed by Rajkumar Hirani’s, starring Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor will have its last schedule in Ladakh.
Broken Horses has been announced, while Ferrari Ki Sawari is in pre-production stage and Munnabhai Chale Amrika is in scripting stage.

Vishesh Films
The Mohit Suri-directed Jashn is ready for release in the first week of July.
Kunal Deshmukh’s Tum Mile is also complete, and an untitled film to be directed by Mohit Suri is on the anvil.

White Feather Films
Sanjay Gupta’s Pankh and The Great Indian Butterfly are ready for release, while Alibaug and Acid Factory are in final production stages.

Yash Raj Films
YRF’s first film of 2009, New York, directed by Kabir Khan, is ready for release. The untitled film directed by Anurag Singh, starring Rani Mukerji and Shahid Kapoor, is in the post-production stage. Pyaar Impossible, directed by Jugal Hansraj and starring Priyanka Chopra and Uday Chopra along with Rocket Singh - Salesman Of The Year directed by Shimit Amin with Ranbir Kapoor in the lead, went on floors recently. Lastly, the Parmeet Sethi-directed untitled film with Shahid Kapoor and Anushka Sharma will be going into production shortly.
YRF’s deal with Disney is very much on and future projects are still in the discussion stage.

Corporate houses
Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision
Run Bhola Run is a comedy with Govinda and Tusshar Kapoor awaiting release.
Soham Shah’s Shruti Haasan-Imran Khan film Luck will release in July-August. Blue - touted to be India’s first under- water adventure starring Sanjay Dutt, Akshay Kumar, Lara Dutta and Zayed Khan is 95 per cent complete.

Big Pictures
Produced by Sudhir Mishra and directed by Piyush Jha, Sikander starring Parzaan Dastur in the title-role is ready to hit theatres.
Vashu Bhagnani’s and BIG Pictures co-production Kal Kissne Dekha, the launch vehicle of Jackky Bhagani will mostly be the first big release of this summer.
Do Knot Disturb directed by David Dhawan is up for September release.
The English- Hindi bi-lingual opus Kites starring Hrithik Roshan and Barbara Mori and directed by Anurag Basu is being touted to be BIG’s tent -pole film for 2009.
Shyam Benegal’s Well Done Abba is under production.
Director Vinay Shukla’s Mirchi starring Konkana Sen Sharma, Raima Sen, Shahana Goswami and Shreyas Talpade is ready for release and Vinod Pande’s Chaloo Movie Inc is in shooting stages.
Co-produced with A B Corp, Balki’s Paa starring Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan with Vidya Balan is still shooting.

Eros Entertainment
Home productions Aladin and Veer will be released this year. Aladin is ready and Veer and the Venus co-production De Dhana Dhan are in the final stages of shooting. Eros is also distributing Kambakkth Ishq and Love Aaj Kal.

Fox Star Studios
Quickgun Murugan, Shah Rukh Khan’s take-off on Tamil legend Rajnikant through his “Yenna Rascala” South Indian act in Om Shanti Om has inspired a full -ength feature film called Quickgun Murugan. Rajendra Prasad, a veteran Telugu actor, will be playing this quirky character in an English film that is being made by Fox Star Studios.

Indian Films (Studio 18)
Anil Kapoor Films Company co-production, Shortkut - The Con is On starring Akshaye Khanna, Arshad Warsi, Chunky Pandey and Amrita Rao is ready. Sonam Kapoor’s Ayesha has also taken off. So is Abbas-Mustan co-production Life Partner directed by Rumi Jaffery starring Govinda, Fardeen Khan, Tushar Kapoor, Genelia D’Souza and Prachi Desai.
Sanjay Gadhvi’s 7 Days In Paris starring Imran Khan and Katrina Kaif will go on floors next month, so will Abbas-Mustan’s official remake of The Italian Job.
A co-production with Gurinder Chadha, It’s A wonderful Afterlife starring Shabana Azmi is on.
At Cannes, they sold the rights of their film Road Movie starring Abhay Deol and directed by Dev Benegal to a global distribution giant Fortissimo Films.

Percept Picture Company
Three releases - 24x7 Raftaar starring Emraan Hashmi, Neha Dhupia and Sagarika Ghatge , directed by Shamin Desai in August, Jail starring Neil Nitin Mukesh, Manoj Bajpai , Mugdha Godse, directed by Madhur Bhandarkar in September and Bum Bum Bole starring Darsheel Safary and Ziyah and directed by Priyadarshan in October 2009. Aashayein, Yeh Honsla and Carry On Pandu are in post-production stages.

UTV Motion Pictures
Ready for release are the Varma-directed Agyaat and Indrajit Nattoji’s Aage Se Right.
David Dhawan’s Hook Ya Crook starring John Abraham, Kay Kay Menon and Genelia D’Souza is still shooting.
Season’s Greetings directed by Vicky Chopra and starring Tabu, Shreyas Talpade and Sohail Khan is in the making.
Filmcity, directed by Deven Khote and John Abraham, will soon on the floors.

Zee Motion Pictures
Deepak Tijori’s Fox starring Sunny Deol is still shooting.