Golden Globes to have 'Best Bollywood Film' category

The Indo-Americans asked Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) to introduce a new award category in Golden Globe Awards which will start in 2011 of "Best Bollywood Film" for films made in India.

India has the largest film industry in the world and thus the country deserves at least one category in Golden Globes where it's films could compete among themselves. This kind of gesture would bring more credibility to Golden Globes in the international arena too.

Rajan Zed, the Chairman of Indo-American Leadership Confederation, while talking about this move by Golden Globes said that cinema in India, based in Mumbai and various other regional centers, produced much more movies and drew much larger audience globally than Hollywood. Rajan Zed also accepted that the Best Foreign Language Film Award at Golden Globes didn't do any justice to such a large industry.

The Golden Globes recognize achievements in 25 categories. There will be 14 in motion pictures and 11 in television. The 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards will be organized at Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills California, USA on January 17, 2010.

Tamanna was nominated for V Shantaram Awards

Film actress Tamanna has been nominated for the Best Actress for the prestigious V Shantaram Awards 2009 for the Telugu film "Koncham Ishtam Koncham Kashtam". This award enables the entire Indian cinema with a cross-section of languages to compete on a single platform.

The Rajkamal Academy of Cinematic Excellence (RACE), which has been annually presenting the awards for the last fifteen years after legendary filmmaker V. Shantaram who made movies like like Duniya Na Mane (1937), Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani (1946), Amar Bhoopali (1951), Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje (1955), Do Aankhen Barah Haath (1957) Navrang (1959) and many more.

V Shantatram won the Filmfare Best Director Award for Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje and National Film Award for Best Film for Do Aankhen Barah Haath. Shantatram was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1985, the Indian film industry’s highest award and the GoI’s Padma Vibhushan in 1992.

Indian Music Awards

In the first quarter of 2010 there will be a lot of excitement for the Indian music industry as three music awards will be scheduled in Mumbai. The 'Mirchi Music Awards', 'Indian Music Academy Awards' and 'Indian Music Awards' have all announced they will honour talent in various genres of Indian music.

The Indian Music Awards that were started by a group of four media professionals have received positive feedback for their step after they announced the awards at the Goa Film Festival.

Pranayy J Anthwal, Indian Music Awards director feels for any initiative step such as Indian Music Awards there is a genuine and important need for strong partnerships with both brand sponsors as well as other stakeholders of the music industry.

Stars felicitated with V Shantaram awards

At the 50th Anniversary of V Shantaram's classic Navrang, several stars were felicitated with the V Shantaram annual film awards. Shahrukh Khan for Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Saif Ali Khan for Love Aaj Kal, John Abraham for New York, Mohanlal for Bhramaram, Prakash Raj for Kanchivaram and Upendra Limaye for Jogva, Marathi were nominated for best actor category. Whereas, Rani Mukherjee won the Best Actress V Shantaram award for her film Dil Bole Haddipa.

The V Shantaram Awards are basically instituted in honor of the legendary "Dr. V. Shantaram" to award cinematic excellence by V Shantaram Foundation.
Sandhya, the legendary actress who acted as the lead heroine of V Shantaram's classics including Navrang, Do Ankhen Barah Hath and Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje, was also honoured at the function.

Bollywood producer and director Yash Chopra alongwith Kiran Shantaram graced the V Shantaram Awards 2009 ceremony here in Mumbai. Kanchivaram that depicted the story of a silk weaver, received the best film Gold award and Priyadarshan bagged the Best director Gold prize for the same flick. Altogether it was a great eve to be remebered!!! Know more about Rani Mukherjee's horoscope.

PETA awards

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It was PETA's 10th anniversary bash where the celebrities from the tinsel town had gathered to be honoured with humanitarian awards. It was held at the Trident Hotel at Bandra kurla Complex, in Mumbai.

It was a great time for Shahid Kapoor as he was honoured with the PETA Asia Sexiest Vegetarian Award. Receiving the award, actress Celine Jaitley said, "Animals are my first love, getting PETA's award motivates me to do more work for animals."

Raveena Tandon feels great after being honoured. She says, "Animals need us to speak for them. Let's stop the cruelty and let us make a difference."

John Abraham hosted the event. He was the one who had campaigned for PETA for caged birds. He however could not be contacted for comment.

'Best Bollywood Film' category at Golden Globes

News is that a 'Best Bollywood Film' category needs to be introduced at the International awards ceremony the Golden Globes. Through the Hollywood Foreign Press Association hundreds of Indo-Americans have called on to instate the new category for the 2011 awards.

According to Rajan Zed, chairperson of the Indo-American Leadership Confederation, India has the largest film industry in the world. Therefore he believes that there should be at least one category where Indian movies could compete among themselves.

Currently the Golden Globes recognizes achievements in 25 categories, 14 in motion pictures and 11 in television. On television it is one of the three most watched awards shows.

Indian Music awards

Very soon India too will have its own music awards which will be on the lines of the Grammys. The news is that Hub Entertainment has been formed to host the Indian Music Awards, as initiated by four men-Pranay Anthwal ,Jatish Varma, Sameer Dixit and UK-based Shokat Babul.

Apart from bollywood film music, the awards will recognize several categories and all genres. It will range from Sufi, Carnatic, folk music to Rabindra Sangeet.

"Music is only a part of any film award - say a category among many others." Also Anthwal said, "We have met several organizations who have been working in a particular genre for years together and with their help we will set up the categories and nominations."

Pravasi Film Festival 2010 to kick off in New Delhi

New Delhi, the capital will be hosting the Pravasi Film Festival 2010, which is decided to kick off on January 3, 2010. For the first time movies, which have been produced by Indians living outside India, would be showcased in this respective fest.

Mauritius President Anerood Jugnauth would unveil the awards. This award fest had being organised by the international bi-lingual monthly Pravasi Today in collaboration with the India Habitat Centre (IHC) with the support of the Mauritius High Commission in India.

Some of the movies which would be showcased at the event include ‘Monsoon Wedding’, ‘New York’, ‘99’, ‘The President Is Coming’ and ’Inner World of Shah Rukh Khan’. Flicks made by Yash Chopra and Sippy Productions were also salted for screening during the fest at IHC.

Cinema personalities like Saeed Jaffrey, Manoj Bajpai, Rahul Rawail, Prakash Jha, Karan Razdan and Satish Kaushik are expected to attend the four-day event.

The curtains for the film festival will fall on January 6, 2010.

IIFA 2011 will be held in Canada

The 12th Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFA) will be held in Ontario, Canada, in 2011. The organisers will be announcing the venue for the this awards in 2010.

Earlier IIFA has earlier travelled to Britain, South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore, Dubai and Thailand. Toronto would be the first North American city to host the IIFA Awards. Bollywood megastar the legend of Indian cinema Amitabh Bachchan, who is the brand ambassador of IIFA, could not attend the event as he had to be present at the Dubai International Film Festival to receive an honour.

Amitabh Bachchan stated that "IIFA has moved forward and has over the time brought people from different cultures and races together on a global stage. It bridges countries, nations, businesses, communities and cinemas and this is our wish too for IIFA, Toronto 2011. As the IIFA brand ambassador, I pledge my complete support to the IIFA celebration and do look for a greener IIFA 2011."

Asian Film Cultural award for Big B

Opens up 8th Third Eye Asian Film Festival which will begin from December 4, and at the festival megastar Amitabh Bachchan will be felicitated with the Asian Film Cultural award for successful completion of 40 years in the entertainment industry.

The aim of this seven day festival in Mumbai is to promote Asian cinema and the coming together of Asian film fraternities. Around 100 feature and short films from 24 countries will be screened at the festival. Also there will be a Debut Film Directors competition section with 15 films from first-time Asian film makers. In the Short Films sections 44 films will be competing with each other.

The festival will begin with the Oscar-nominated film Harishchandrachi Factory.

AR Rahman nominated for 2 Grammy awards

Music king AR Rahman has been nominated for two Grammy awards for the film "Slumdog Millionaire". AR Rahman who is also called as the 'Mozart Of Madras', has been nominated in the best soundtrack for motion pictures, TV or other visual media category for the film, and in the best song for motion picture, television and other visual media category for "Jai ho".

The song 'Jai ho...' written by lyricist Gulzar has been sung by none other than singers like Sukhvinder Singh, Tanvi Shah, Mahalaxmi Iyer, Vijay Prakash and Rahman himself.

Being nominated for the first time at the Grammy's, AR Rahman won two Oscars for Slumdog Millionaire and was also honoured with the best original score award at the 2009 Golden Globe Award. The 52th edition of the Annual Grammy Awards will be held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on 31 January next year.

IFFK opens at 11 December

International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) is all set to open on December 11. At the event, filmmaker Mrinal Sen will be the first recipient of the lifetime achievement award.



According to Culture Minister M.A.Baby, "The award carries a cash prize of Rs.3 lakh and Mrinal Sen was selected for the award by a jury chaired by Malayalam actor Madhu." Around 164 films from various countries would be exhibited in 11 categories. It would be an eight day event organized by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy.

As added by Baby, "There would be 14 films in competition, including two Malayalam films. The best film award will have a prize of Rs.10 lakh (Rs.1 million)."

Apsara awards in December

Apsara Film and Television Producers Guild Awards have been scheduled this December, 2009 in the city of Mumbai. This year both the fourth and the fifth edition will be held. The awards are meant to honour excellence in cinema and television.

Last year the fourth edition was postponed to mark respect for the victims of the 26/11 tragedy. The awards are distributed by Producers' Guild of India. Guild Jury which chooses the winners includes Ravi Chopra, Ketan Desai, and Vashu Bhagnani.

According to Manmohan Shetty, President of the Guild, the awards honour achievers within the fraternity and it is an initiative from the fraternity itself. The event is promoted by Wizcraft Entertainment.