Hindi
Goa film fest to showcase 200 films from 50 countries
NEW DELHI: The Fortieth International Film Festival of India in Goa next month will feature 200 films from about 50 countries and will for the first time award the best director as well.
There will be about 65 films from 45 countries in the Cinema of the World. The continent focus is on Africa and Latin America, while the country focus is on the cinema of Italy, France, Poland, Croatia and Estonia.
Films made by Indians abroad on NRI issues will be part of the ‘Film India worldwide’ section. Retrospectives in the foreign films category will include Gurinder Chadha of the United Kingdom, Manuel De Olievera of Portugal and Nonzee Nimibutr of Thailand. In addition, five anti-war films will also be shown.
IFFI 2009 will commence on 23 November at the Kala Academy in Panaji and run for 10 days till 3 December.
According to Festival Director S M Khan, “The best film award will be jointly shared by both the director and the producer of the film‘‘ and the winner gets the prestigious Golden Peacock award and Rs 4 million as cash prize. The Best Director and the winner of the Special Jury Award will get silver peacock and cash prizes of Rs 1.5 million each.
The Indian Panorama will showcase 47 films – 26 feature and 21 non-feature films. In addition, the National Film Archives of India, Pune, will screen five vintage musical hits and three National Film Award winning movies – Do Ankhen Baara Haath (1957), Sagar Sangame (1958) and Apur Sansar (1959).
Tributes to Indian film personalities include Neelu Phule, Prakash Mehra, Shakti Samanta, Feroz Khan, Leela Naidu among others. The Films Division, Mumbai, will show documentaries on Indian music and musicians including Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Ustad Bismillah Khan, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Pandit Jasraj, Naushad, K L Saigal, Begum Akhtar and Mohammad Rafi.
The retrospectives in the Indian section will include films from Assam, as the Assamese Film Industry is celebrating the diamond jubilee. The films of Jahnu Barua, Bhabhendranath Saikia, Santwana Bardoloj and Sanjeev Hazarika will be showcased.
The retrospective will also feature films of those artistes who have completed 50 years in the film industry. Two movies each of Kamal Hassan, Asha Parekh and Saumitra Chatterjee will be screened.
Spoof Cinema, mocking popular cinema, is the new entrant in this edition of the festival. Films such as Malegaon ka Superman and Gabbarbhai MBBS are part of this package.
Among the parallel activities, Shiamak Davar will present a lecture demonstration on ‘Evolution of Dance in Hindi Cinema’ while Kishwar Desai will speak on ‘Hindi Films based on book adaptations.”
A total 1200 seats in Madgaon and another 100 in Kala Academy, Panaji, have been added for the Festival this year
Hindi
Dhurandhar the revenge storms past Rs 1,000 crore in a week, rewrites box office records
Aditya Dhar’s spy thriller sets fastest run to Rs 1,000 crore with record-breaking weekday hold
MUMBAI: The box office has a new juggernaut—and it is moving at breakneck speed. Dhurandhar the revenge has smashed past the Rs 1,000 crore mark worldwide in just a week, clocking a staggering Rs 1,088 crore and resetting the rules of the blockbuster game.
Backed by Jio Studios and B62 Studios, and directed by Aditya Dhar, the spy action sequel opened to the biggest weekend ever for an Indian film globally—and then refused to slow down. Unlike typical tentpole releases that taper off after Sunday, this one powered through the weekdays with rare muscle, posting Rs 64 crore on Monday, Rs 58 crore on Tuesday, Rs 49 crore on Wednesday and Rs 53 crore on Thursday.
The numbers stack up to a formidable first-week haul. India collections stand at Rs 690 crore nett and Rs 814 crore gross, while overseas markets have chipped in Rs 274 crore, taking the worldwide total to Rs 1,088 crore in just eight days.
The film’s opening weekend alone delivered Rs 466 crore, laying the foundation for what is now being billed as the fastest climb to the Rs 1,000 crore club in Indian cinema. Every single day of its first week has set fresh benchmarks, from the highest opening weekend to the strongest weekday hold—metrics that typically separate hits from phenomena.
A sequel to the earlier hit Dhurandhar, the film has not just built on its predecessor’s momentum but obliterated previous records, emerging as the biggest global blockbuster run by an Indian film to date.
At this pace, the film is not merely riding a wave—it is creating one.
