Pyaar Ka Punchnama director is busy shooting his next titled Akashwani in Delhi

There is a long queue of filmmakers waiting to start their films with Ajay Devgn. These include his long-term friend and collaborator Kumar Mangat. Mangat has partnered and managed Devgn’s career since the actor started acting. Mangat turned producer with Prakash Jha’s Ajay Devgn-Kajol starrer 1999 starrer Dil Kya Kare and has since then produced a number of films featuring Devgn.

With Devgn’s fortunes skyrocketing in recent times, Kumar Mangat has no choice but to look at new talent. Last year he produced the sleeper hit Pyaar Ka Punchnama featuring six newcomers. One of the debutant actors Divyendu Sharma is now playing one of the leads in David Dhawan’s remake of Chashme Buddoor.

Kumar Mangat has instead assigned Luv Ranjan to write and direct a film with one of the three leads pairs of Pyaar Ka Punchnama. The film entitled Akashwani is currently being secretly shot in Delhi by Luv Ranjan. It features the pair Kartikeya Tiwari and Nushrat Bharucha who played Rajat and Neha in Pyaar Ka Punchnama.

Mangat and his director Luv Ranjan want to keep the shooting as quiet as possible. When contacted Luv Ranjan spilled the beans, “It’s a very intense love story about two young people who can’t think beyond their mutual love. It’s about the hardships in love. I’d call it a classic love story on the lines of Mansoor Khan’s Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak.”

On why he chose Kartikeya and Nushrat and not the other two pairs, Luv Ranjan explains, “I chose the pair which suited Akashwani the best. But I am committed to making the Pyaar Ka Punchnama sequel entitled Pyar Ka Punchaama Reloaded with all three pairs at the end of the year. Besides they are being looked after well. Kumar Mangat Saab is managing the careers of all the six newcomers from Pyaar Ka Punchnama. He’s also negotiating for the remake rights of a Hollywood film which would star Rayo Bakhirta (another actor from Pyaar Ka Punchnama).”

This came as a surprising piece of news, since so far Kumar Mangat was managing only Ajay Devgn’s career.

“The film industry urgently needs new talent, don’t you think? I’ve two films lined up with Ajay. But he is busy throughout 2012.I thought I’d take that opportunity to give talented newcomers a chance,” said Mangat who is also launching television star Pulkit Samrat with Mangat’s daughter Amita Pathak in Bittu Boss.

Pyaar Ka Punchnama director is busy shooting his next titled Akash Vani in Delhi

There is a long queue of filmmakers waiting to start their films with Ajay Devgn. These include his long-term friend and collaborator Kumar Mangat. Mangat has partnered and managed Devgn’s career since the actor started acting. Mangat turned producer with Prakash Jha’s Ajay Devgn-Kajol starrer 1999 starrer Dil Kya Kare and has since then produced a number of films featuring Devgn.

With Devgn’s fortunes skyrocketing in recent times, Kumar Mangat has no choice but to look at new talent. Last year he produced the sleeper hit Pyaar Ka Punchnama featuring six newcomers. One of the debutant actors Divyendu Sharma is now playing one of the leads in David Dhawan’s remake of Chashme Buddoor.

Kumar Mangat has instead assigned Luv Ranjan to write and direct a film with one of the three leads pairs of Pyaar Ka Punchnama. The film entitled Akash Vani is currently being secretly shot in Delhi by Luv Ranjan. It features the pair Kartikeya Tiwari and Nushrat Bharucha who played Rajat and Neha in Pyaar Ka Punchnama.

Mangat and his director Luv Ranjan want to keep the shooting as quiet as possible. When contacted Luv Ranjan spilled the beans, “It’s a very intense love story about two young people who can’t think beyond their mutual love. It’s about the hardships in love. I’d call it a classic love story on the lines of Mansoor Khan’s Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak.”

On why he chose Kartikeya and Nushrat and not the other two pairs, Luv Ranjan explains, “I chose the pair which suited Akash Vani the best. But I am committed to making the Pyaar Ka Punchnama sequel entitled Pyar Ka Punchaama Reloaded with all three pairs at the end of the year. Besides they are being looked after well. Kumar Mangat Saab is managing the careers of all the six newcomers from Pyaar Ka Punchnama. He’s also negotiating for the remake rights of a Hollywood film which would star Rayo Bakhirta (another actor from Pyaar Ka Punchnama).”

This came as a surprising piece of news, since so far Kumar Mangat was managing only Ajay Devgn’s career.

“The film industry urgently needs new talent, don’t you think? I’ve two films lined up with Ajay. But he is busy throughout 2012.I thought I’d take that opportunity to give talented newcomers a chance,” said Mangat who is also launching television star Pulkit Samrat with Mangat’s daughter Amita Pathak in Bittu Boss.

Shekhar Kapur to play Kamal Haasans uncle in Vishwaroopam

Well known filmmaker Shekhar Kapur is seldom seen in front of the camera. However, the director will soon be seen playing Kamal Haasan’s uncle in the film Vishwaroopam. The film, which also features Sonakshi Sinha as Haasan’s love interest, will have Shekhar Kapur (who is just 12 years older than Kamal) playing his uncle.

What’s interesting to know is that this will be the first time after Saatwan Aasman (released nearly two decades ago) that Shekhar will return to acting. This apparent return to acting has been credited to Shekhar’s inquisitiveness towards exploring Kamal Haasan as an artist.

Big B and Sanjay Dutt to star together again

After Department where the Big B and Dutt don’t have any scenes together, the two are expected to come together for an out-and-out action outing for director K. S. Ravi Kumar’s film.

Ravi Kumar has so far never done a Hindi film. The film has heavy duty action scenes for the Big B as well.

When contacted, producer T. P. Aggarwal confirmed, “Yes, Sanjay Dutt is doing an action film directed by K. S. Ravi Kumar. We’re also in talks with Mr. Bachchan for the film. It’s Ravi Kumar’s first film in Hindi. But it’s an original subject. It’s not a remake of one of his Tamil hits.”

What clinched the casting combination of the Dutt and the Big B was the director’s formidable reputation.

Says Aggarwal, “Ravi Kumar has done a number of films with Tamil cinema’s top most stars Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth. In fact he was directing Rajinikanth in Rana when the star fell ill. Almost all of Ravi Kumar’s films are big hits in Tamil. We’re hoping he would deliver a big hit in Hindi as well.”

SC calls off contempt proceedings against FIA chief Shah

TrendPK.com
ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court (SC) Friday brought to an end the contempt proceedings against Director General of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Tehseen Anwar Shah, who extended apology in Khurram Rasool case.

A three-strong bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry heard the contempt case against the FIA’s DG Shah, who told the court that Khurram asserted that he had bargain worth Rs.160 million between him and the petitioner.

The FIA has indentified Khurram’s property with an estimate worth of Rs.500 million, which will be confiscated.

Tehseen Shah apologized to the court over the contempt; on this, the proceedings regarding the contempt of court against him were abolished. TrendPK

$3.3m aid for frogs, others

 

The threatened species on the list would benefit from a $3.3 million (2.4 million euro) aid award, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said Thursday.

 

The conservation fund Save Our Species (SOS), set up by the IUCN, the World Bank and others, has announced it is to allocate the cash to more than 20 projects.

 

SOS is involved in the protection of the Cross River Gorilla and Black Rhino in Africa and the Snow Leopard in Pakistan.

 

Asia s Spoon-billed Sandpiper and Madagascar s Golden Mantella Frog are also on its list.

 

The body is meanwhile working to re-introduce the Philippine Cockatoo to its native land.

 

“By implementing on the ground conservation action, the projects (that) SOS select help protect entire habitats which both people and wildlife depend on,” said SOS director Jean-Christophe Vie.

 

The body was established in 2010 by IUCN, the World Bank and the GEF (Global Environment Facility) with more than $10 million funding to help protect threatened species.–AFP
 

Greek austerity talks stalled, minister heads to Brussels

 

Greek leaders failed on Thursday to agree on a reform and austerity program, the price of a financial bailout to avoid a messy default, forcing Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos to go to the country s financial backers with an incomplete deal.

 

Venizelos will travel to Brussels later on Thursday, where his fellow euro zone finance ministers had hoped he would present a commitment to make budget savings worth 3.3 billion euros ($4.4 billion) this year.

 

But after all-night talks with leaders of the three parties in the Greek coalition and with officials from the EU and IMF, Venizelos emerged shortly before dawn to say that one issue remained unresolved.

 

“I am leaving for Brussels in a short while with the hope that the Eurogroup meeting will be held, and a positive decision on the new program will be taken,” he told reporters.

 

“The financial survival of the country in the coming years depends on the new program … It is time of responsibility for everyone.”

 

Venizelos did not say what the problem was or why he was not certain the Brussels meeting on the 130 billion euro bailout would go ahead.

 

A spokesman for the socialist PASOK party said disagreement over pension reform had been the stumbling block.
A senior government official said the party chiefs had agreed on how to make about 90 percent of the promised savings, leaving a relatively small hole in the calculations.

 

Athens had to close this gap quickly, said the official. “Greece has another 15 days to specify fiscal savings worth 300 million euros,” he said on condition of anonymity.

 

PM HOPES

 

Earlier, Prime Minister Lucas Papademos said he hoped the party leaders could sort out their differences before the euro zone finance ministers meet at 1700 GMT.

 

Prospects for a long-awaited deal on Greece s second bailout since 2010 appeared to brighten when the finance ministers  chairman Jean-Claude Juncker called the Brussels meeting – which IMF managing director Christine Lagarde will also attend – to examine the bailout and accompanying bond swap.

 

On offer from the European Union and International Monetary Fund is a package involving the new rescue funds – which Greece needs to avoid a chaotic default when big debt repayments fall due on March 20 – and a bond swap with private creditors to ease the nation s huge debt burden.

 

In return, Athens must accept conditions requiring big cuts in many Greeks  living standards. The smallest member of the coalition, the far-right LAOS party, was particularly uncomfortable with the measures.

 

“The president of LAOS George Karatzaferis expressed serious reservations,” said Papademos, a former central banker brought in when a PASOK government collapsed last November.

 

Panos Beglitis, spokesman for PASOK which is in the coalition along with LAOS and the conservative New Democracy party, said they had disagreed over the level of cuts to supplementary pensions needed to safeguard the pension system.

 

However, Beglitis told reporters the leaders had agreed to cut the minimum wage by 22 percent as part of efforts to make the economy more competitive. Plans to scrap bonuses paid to private sector workers at Christmas, Easter and in the summer had been dropped.

 

Two sources close to the Athens talks said the government would promise spending cuts and tax rises totaling 13 billion euros from 2012 to 2015, almost double the seven billion it originally pledged.
 

DAR Motion Pictures Nikhil Advani join hands for Sudhir Mishras Mehrunissa

Putting to rest all the speculation behind the producers of Sudhir Mishra’s dream project Mehrunissa, Nikhil Advani’s Emmay Entertainment Private Limited (Emmay) and DAR Motion Pictures, today announced that they have joined hands, coming together to produce and present this project.

On producing Mehrunissa, Arun Rangachari, Chairman, DAR Capital Group, says, “Mehrunissa is today among one of the most anticipated movies within the industry being propelled and helmed by some of the best in the business. This apart, the movie perfectly matched our sensibilities of what we would define as good commercial cinema and we had absolutely no hesitation partnering in this project. It is an honour to be part of a project of this stature.”

Set in the beautiful locales of Lucknow, Mehrunissa is a romantic drama with light hearted moments that track the enmity of two bitter rivals and their past bromance. Alternating between the present and the past the story deals with their actions when the love of their life returns to their world.

Commenting on his association with DAR, Nikhil Advani says, “Mehrunissa is a project that is very close to all our hearts. Being one of the most interesting and challenging films coming out of our banner this year meant that it was essential that our partner’s sensibilities, vision, values, etc. were completely in sync with Sudhir and us. Our decision to partner with DAR was in this very spirit.”

Director Sudhir Mishra sharing the same sentiment said, “Mehrunissa has lived with us for a very long time, and having a partner like DAR on board is an added strength. A project of this stature needs a strong foundation; DAR & Emmay provide exactly that & more”.

US, Australian filmmakers killed in copter crash

LOS ANGELES: Cinematographer Mike deGruy and Australian television writer-producer Andrew Wight have died in a helicopter crash in eastern Australia, their employer National Geographic said Sunday.

Police said two people — an Australian pilot and an American passenger — died Saturday when their helicopter crashed soon after takeoff from an airstrip near Nowra, 97 miles north of Sydney, but they did not immediately release the victims’ identities.

National Geographic and “Titanic” director James Cameron confirmed the victims’ identities in a joint statement that said “the deep-sea community lost two of its finest” with the deaths of the two underwater documentary specialists.

David Bennett, president of Australia’s South Coast Recreational Flying Club, said the pair had set off to film a documentary when they crashed.

DeGruy, 60, of Santa Barbara, California, won multiple Emmy and British Academy of Film and Television Arts, or BAFTA, awards for cinematography.

Wight, 52, of Melbourne, was the writer-producer of the 3D movie “Sanctum,” which took in $100 million and was Australian cinema’s biggest box office hit of 2010.

The joint statement said deGruy spent 30 years producing and directing documentary films about the ocean. An accomplished diver and submersible pilot who spent many hours filming deep beneath the sea, he was the director of undersea photography for Cameron’s 2005 “Last Mysteries of the Titanic,” the statement said.

“Mike and Andrew were like family to me,” Cameron said. “They were my deep-sea brothers and both were true explorers who did extraordinary things and went places no human being has been.”

After spending three years at the University of Hawaii in a Marine Biology Ph.D. program, DeGruy moved to the Marshall Islands, according to his website. He spent three years there, working as the manager of the Mid-Pacific Marine Lab, with his knowledge of and fascination with the ocean growing rapidly.

DeGruy spent much of his early film career traveling the world, shooting films for clients including the BBC, PBS and National Geographic, his website says. He later began producing and hosting the films.

Operation launched to recover bodies of PNG ferry victims

 

More than 100 people are still missing from the MV Rabaul Queen, which went down about nine nautical miles off the coast early Thursday. Air and sea search efforts were ongoing despite rough weather.

 

“Four bodies were picked up from the water,” rescue coordinator Captain Nurur Rahman from PNG s National Maritime Safety Authority told AFP.

 

“The water at this time is still rough which is slowing down a little bit the search and rescue. We haven t found any survivors today.”

 

Rahman said the bodies were discovered, along with debris from the wreck, about 50 nautical miles southeast of where the vessel sank. The authority said the 246 people rescued in a joint rescue operation with neighbouring Australia were undergoing medical assessment at the Angau Memorial Hospital in Lae, a major coastal gateway and the doomed boat s destination.

 

As the search effort involving seven fixed wing aircraft, three helicopters and seven boats continued, some families in Lae were still hoping to find their loved ones among the survivors. “I am still… waiting for them to arrive,” one elderly woman told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “Maybe they are dead by now.”

 

PNG-based Rabaul Shipping, the owner of the vessel, said Saturday it appeared that the boat had been hit by a freak wave which then left it vulnerable as another large wave came rolling in.

 

In a statement, it said it had spoken with the Rabaul Queen captain who had indicated weather conditions during the voyage were no worse than on some other journeys on the route.

 

“There were however large swells, prompting the captain to shift from an auto-pilot function and take manual control,” it said.
“A freak wave hit the ferry, causing steering and positioning difficulties.

 

“A second large wave then hit the ferry as it was (in) a state of vulnerability, rolling it and causing it to sink in just minutes.”
A second captain who was in the wheel house of the Japanese-built single engine ferry at the time has not been found, the company said.

 

The boat, which was travelling between Kimbe and Lae when it went down, had 351 passengers and 12 crew onboard, the firm said. Rahman said the boat was licensed to carry 310.

 

Rahman said officials had been unable to obtain an official manifest for the voyage because the offices of the company involved had been in “lock down” since the accident as the relatives of those onboard gathered outside.

 

But Rabaul Shipping said it had handed the ferry manifest to local authorities within hours of the accident and was working to assist rescue efforts as best it could.

 

“We again express our deepest sorrow and condolences to the many people who are suffering because of this terrible tragedy,” managing director Peter Sharp said in the statement.

 

PNG Prime Minister Peter O Neill has ordered an immediate investigation into the tragedy while Queen Elizabeth II, the country s head of state, has sent a message of sympathy from Buckingham Palace.

 

Rahman said the accident was probably the worst sea tragedy to hit PNG.

 

“We do not know how many survivors we should be getting, but if we calculate it from today as it stands, then it is by far the worst one in history,” he told AFP.
 

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