Akshay Kumar, Prateik Babbar on Cover/Scans of Hi Blitz May 2012

Museum on Indian Cinema to be ready by May 2013

A museum on Indian cinema, being built in Mumbai, chronicling the history of the industry and its global impact, will be readied by May next year, said Information and Broadcasting minister Ambika Soni Thursday.
“There are a few interesting projects to commemorate the centenary (of Indian cinema). We are planning to open a museum of Indian cinema. The museum will be in Mumbai, in the heritage building of Gulshan Mahal. It will be be ready before May 2013,” Soni said here.
She spoke on the sidelines of the 59th National Film Awards ceremony at the Vigyan Bhawan here.
“In the last 100 years, we have witnessed the vibrancy of Indian cinema — from biographies, romantic films, commercial cinema to art,” she added.
The museum will serve as a window to film aficionados will be a storehouse of information, artefacts, equipments like cameras, editing and recording machines, projectors, costumes, photographs and other material.
The properties, dresses, sets, tapes, vintage equipment, posters, copies of important films, prints, promotional leaflets, developing equipment books, biographies, sound tracks, trailers, transparencies, cinema magazines and statistics covering film distribution are also expected to be displayed in a chronological manner, according to the official Films Division website.
Soni also announced that the National Film Awards ceremony will be held May 3 every year now onwards to commemorate the release date of the first Indian movie “Raja Harishchandra”.
The silent Dadasaheb Phalke-made movie was released May 3, 1913.

Bollywood Divas attend Shilpa’s baby shower

Bollywood beauties Malaika Arora Khan, Raveena Tandon and Amrita Rao were among the celebrities who came to bless pregnant actress Shilpa Shetty at her baby shower here Thursday.
Shilpa’s sister Shamita Shetty and friends Sameera Reddy, Manyata Dutt and Farah Khan were also present to shower their blessings on the prospective mother.
The baby shower was organised by Shilpa’s friend and business partner Kiran Bawa along with Shamita. It was held at Shilpa and her businessman husband Raj Kundra’s Mumbai residence in Juhu.
Shilpa, 36, married Kundra in 2009. She is due to give birth next month.

First Look: ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ movie a desi drama with fun: Anurag Kashyap

Always trying to say something different through his cinema, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap describes his upcoming film “Gangs of Wasseypur”, to be released in two parts, as a desi drama with loads of fun and songs.
“The film is based on true stories of Wasseypur and is a very ‘desi’ film. We did most of the shooting in a place near Wasseypur. We wanted to capture the shots naturally, so we hid the camera,” said Kashyap Thursday. He was speaking at theatrical trailor release of the crime thriller.
The film is about the coal mafia in Dhanbad and the star cast includes Manoj Bajpai, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Syed Zeeshan Quadri and Richa Chadda. The film will be screened at the Cannes Film Festival in the Directors’ Fortnight section.
“My film has 25 item songs. In fact, it is an item film,” Kashyap joked when he was asked if plans to include an item song in the film.
Talking about how the film’s idea was conceived, he said: “When Zeeshan Quadri started giving me the description, I was floored. I was sitting outside the Prithvi Theatre in Juhu, when he caught me and started telling me the story,” he said.
“I had decided at that time only that I would make the film. The story was such that I wanted to depict the full story. I did not want to leave it in the middle, no matter how long the film becomes. Finally, we have made a five hour 20 minutes movie. It is divided into two parts but both the parts have their individual story,” he added.
The movie promises to be a complete package.
“Our agenda was to make a full-fledged commercial film. It has music through out the movie. The movie is realistic and fun. Everyone will enjoy the film. We held a lot of private screenings and all kinds of people seemed to enjoy the film. In fact, people have sat and watched both the parts together,” said the filmmaker.
According to Kashyap, even the people of Wasseypur love Bollywood.
“Most of the people living there are criminals, but the way Bollywood and crime merge over there is incredible. I have never seen something like this before. Wasseypur has the true fans of Bollywood,” he said.