Desi Wear Blog

The 2008 River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival will hold a retrospective on the great filmmaker Raj Kapoor, on the occasion of his 20th death anniversary, and screen a rich selection of the latest Indian films, as well as new special sections.

The eighth River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival, completely devoted to Indian cinema and directed by Selvaggia Velo, will take place in Florence, Italy, from December 5 to 11, 2008.

The festival will feature a retrospective on Raj Kapoor. “Awara” (1951), “Shree 420” (1955) and “Bobby” (1973), three of his masterpieces, will be screened, in collaboration with the Directorate of Film Festivals of New Delhi.

Via Aint It Cool News.

Danny Boyle’s SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, described by IMDB as “The story of how impoverished Indian teen Jamal Malik became a contestant on the Hindi version of Who Wants to be A Millionaire? - an endeavor made without prize money in mind, rather, an effort to prove his love for his friend Latika, who is an ardent fan of the show”, is now in limited release (has been for a few weeks now - see if it’s in your area yet via THE FILM’S OFFICIAL SITE).

Continue reading…

Paul Schrader is taking a taxi to Bollywood.

Saying he feels the U.S. film market has become “barren,” the writer of classics “Taxi Driver” and “Raging Bull” is packing his bags for Mumbai to write and direct the Bollywood action movie “Extreme City.”

“I’ve been getting indie movies made for 20 years,” he said. “But I take a good look around and what I see is a barren, barren place — in terms of the financial community, in terms of audiences, in terms of distribution. It’s cold out there.”

In India, on the other hand, he says there are ways to gain both creative freedom and audiences.

Continue reading via THR.

Forget Hollywood, Bollywood is the new red.  It is only a matter of time before we see the first Bollywood film cross over and connect with American audiences. And who knows, maybe the film will feature American stars, filmmakers and or writers. When I talked to Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle in September, he told me that Will Smith had visited India a couple times over the last year in hopes of starring in a Bollywood film. After seeing Slumdog, I have since become more and more interested in Bollywood. It now seems rather odd that we haven’t yet seen a big crossover or collaboration.

Continue reading via /film, (and get into the conversation).

Mallika Sherawat is a recipient of the US-based Multicultural Motion Picture Association’s Diversity Awards and is flying to attend a star-studded gala dinner this Sunday in California.
Mallika, who will be presented the 2008 Renaissance Artist Award — given to artists of diverse creative talents worldwide, will join other international celebs from the film and television industry at the Universal Studios’ Global Theatre for the presentation ceremony.
The citation behind the award states it is bestowed for the recipients’ “distinctive on-screen persona that is uniquely their own and allows their character depictions to bring audiences from laughter to tears”.

Continue reading via Bollywood Buzz.

Veteran Indian film star MN Nambiar has died at home in the southern city of Madras (Chennai) after a brief illness.
Nambiar, who was 89, was frequently cast as a villain during his career which spanned six decades.
He made his screen debut in 1935 and went on to act in more than 1,000 films in Tamil, Hindi and several other languages.
Nambiar was deeply religious and loved to keep fit. His discipline made him a role model for many Indian actors.
Correspondents say he was also free from the scandals and rumours which are common in the Indian film industry.

Her car has more baggage in it than a mini department store.

But that’s home on the go for Katrina Kaif, who occupies the topmost echelon in Bollywood today. She’s just back from Goa where she was up all night shooting. “The best part of my day is when I’m alone in the car and I switch on my iPod and just chill out,” she reveals.

“I don’t take any calls. If I really like a song, I’ll hear that and only that for a week. Then the next week, what I’ll listen to will be light years away. The music of Yuvvraaj is like that. When Subhashji came into my van and gave me the album, I heard a song and my instant reaction was to hear it again. Rahmansaab has that quality in his music; it has many layers to it.”

Continue reading via Bollywood Buzz.

2008 has been a great year for Arjun Rampal. He’s had two hits this year and he will be rubbing shoulders with Holly-wood stars, Robert Di Niro, Charlize Theron, Denzel Washington and Oprah Winfrey at the launch party of the Atlantis, The Palm hotel in Dubai on November 20. The cherry on the cake? He has snapped up the title of India’s Sexiest Dad by Ok! magazine, from right under the nose of Hrithik Roshan.

How does it feel to win the title of India’s Sexiest Dad?
It feels great! If people think I am that, then I would like to thank them.

Read the full interview via Bollywood Buzz.

She has played a supergirl, a supermodel, a superstar and is now back on the silver screen tickling the funny bone as a sassy desi girl.
Priyanka Chopra or Piggy Chops as she is fondly called may be seven years old in the Hindi film industry, but this year has been particularly busy and diverse for her. She is perhaps the only leading star who has had as many as six releases in one year. And most importantly she has played a central role in nearly all of them.
Beginning the year with a special appearance in a medium-budget “My Name Is Anthony Gonsalves”, she was then seen as uber stylish superstar in “Love Story 2050″. Touted as India’s first film set in the future, Priyanka looked the part as a red-head.

Continue reading via Bollywood Buzz.

Sushmita Sen has been recently offered the role of Pakistan’s former lady Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto by two prominent Pakistani producers Zaid Aziz and Henna Rai.This film would be a bilingual film made in both English and Urdu and would be shot lavishly in Pakistan and England.

Apparently, Sushmita is working hard for her character. She is reading up extensively on the life of Benzir Bhutto and also working on her Urdu diction.

Sushmita earlier declared her love for historical character and period films.