My Name Is Khan coming on DVD in the US

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Shah Rukh Khan-starrer My Name Is Khan is being launched in DVD format in the US after a sensational theatrical release that set a new record of the biggest opening weekend for a Bollywood film in North America.

The DVD, to be released on August 10, is timed to India's Independence Day and showcases the changing face of Bollywood, the enamoring on-screen partnership of the lead actors Shah Rukh and Kajol, behind-the-scenes features about the story, music from the film and more, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment said.

Special features of the DVD include Changing the Face of Bollywood, Working Together, The Music of My Name Is Khan, the Story of My Name Is Khan, Sajda Music Promo and Tere Naina Music Promo.

Two of Bollywood's biggest stars, Shah Rukh and Kajol, deliver powerful performances in this Karan Johar-directed film that proves true love knows no boundaries.

Rizwan Khan, an Indian man suffering from Asperger's syndrome, moves to San Francisco and meets a single mother named Mandira (Kajol). They fall in love against all odds, but fate and tragedy conspire to tear them apart.

Just when it appears as though all hope is lost, Rizwan embarks on a journey across America to win back the love of his life.

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Bollywood film gives Avatar a box office scare

A Bollywood film with no special effects has almost beaten James Cameron's worldwide blockbuster Avatar at the Indian box office.

The film, My Name is Khan, grossed $US23 million ($AU26 million) on the subcontinent, just behind the $26 million ($AU30 million) earned by Avatar in a lesson for U.S studios on how to compete in the world’s most prolific movie market.

My Name is Khan tells the story, in Hindi and English, of a Muslim in San Francisco at the time of the September 11 attacks. The production by Fox-Star Studios India Pvt. and two Indian companies is the highest-grossing domestic film this year in India.

News Corp.’s Twentieth Century Fox - which made Avatar - Walt Disney Co. and Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. are now using local talent to produce Indian-language films as they try to crack a market that sold more than 3.2 billion movie tickets last year - more than double the U.S and Canada combined.

Ticket sales are expected to grow to 130 billion rupees ($US3 billion) by 2013 from 87.8 billion rupees last year, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

‘‘Hollywood studios realize that if they want to increase their revenue, they are going to struggle to do that in America,’’ said Mike Ellis, Asia Pacific president for the Motion Picture Association.

‘‘Nearly every single studio is already in India. They are definitely here for the long haul.’’

Triple Hollywood’s output

India’s film industry generated an estimated 107 billion rupees in revenue in 2008, and that is expected to grow by an average of 11.5 percent annually to 2013, PricewaterhouseCoopers said. Distributors released 1,325 movies, in Hindi and regional languages, in 2008, more than triple Hollywood’s output of 463, according to Netscribes (India) Pvt. Ltd.Admissions in the U.S. and Canada fell to 1.41 billion in 2009 from 1.57 billion in 2002, according to the National Association of Theatre Owners.

Box-office receipts have risen by an average of about 2 percent annually since 2002 while ticket prices increased 3.7 percent.That’s prompting Hollywood to look to China and India, the world’s fastest-growing major economies.

China’s economy grew by 11.9 percent in the first quarter compared with a year earlier, yet the government allows only 20 imported films a year.

India’s economy is expected to expand by 7.2 percent in the year ending March 31, according to a government forecast.

Sixty foreign films were released in India last year, earning a combined 3.8 billion rupees, according to a report by consulting firm KPMG.

Rupert Murdoch’s Fox-Star Studios plans to make as many as six Indian language movies a year, said Vijay Singh, chief executive officer.

65 cent tickets

My Name is Khan, featuring Indian superstar Shah Rukh Khan, was produced with India’s Dharma Productions Pvt. and Red Chillies Entertainment.The average ticket price in India is 25 rupees (AU65 cents), the PricewaterhouseCoopers report said, while the average U.S. ticket price is $7.50, according to the theater owners association.

India’s middle class, with an annual disposable income of between $4,380 and $21,890, is expected to swell more than 10-fold to 583 million people by 2025, New York-based consulting firm McKinsey & Co. said in 2007.

Studios also will benefit from the growing number of screens in India. The first multiplex opened in New Delhi in 1997, and now there are more than 800 in India, the KPMG report said.

The dominant Hindi-language film industry is called Bollywood, a portmanteau word for Bombay and Hollywood. It released 242 movies last year, an increase from 229 the year before.

‘‘We all know the size and potential of Bollywood and the fact that it’s at the forefront of popular culture in India,’’ Singh said. ‘‘Our continuing focus will be to grow Hollywood in India.’’

Fox’s strategy starts with the perception that it is a filmmaker and not an investment banker paying for local productions, Singh said. The studio is involved from the beginning of the creative process through a film’s distribution.

‘‘Our plan in Bollywood is to get into co-production and not cut a big cheque,’’ Singh said. ‘‘We want to be actively involved.’’

Disney partnered with Yash Raj Films to release its first animated Hindi movie, Roadside Romeo, in 2008.

Disney said India is one of the largest markets it has invested in for local production.The company also is targeting audiences that speak regional languages such as Tamil and Telegu - a segment that generated box-office receipts of about 15.1 billion rupees, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

In March, Disney announced production of its first film in Telegu. The fantasy adventure, scheduled for release in January, also will be dubbed in Tamil.

‘‘Disney is committed toward building a family entertainment brand in India,’’ said Mahesh Samat, managing director of Walt Disney Co. India Pvt.

‘‘We will continue to tap into the local creative ecosystem to develop content which resonates with Indian kids and families.’’

Warner Bros. Pictures India signed deals in 2008 to make three movies with India’s People Tree Films and several regional-language movies with Ocher Studios. The company declined to comment, spokeswoman Deborah Lincoln said in an e- mail.

For decades, Hollywood tried to pry the market open with blockbusters dubbed in local languages, yet success was fleeting because Indians often don’t understand American culture, humor or slang, Thakkar said.

‘‘That experiment didn’t really work,’’ he said. ‘‘If they want to crack the Indian market, they had to become localized.’’

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Rains stop Khan

The downpour in the city yesterday forced Karan Johar to cancel the day's shoot of My Name Is Khan. The director has put up an elaborate set at Film City for the last schedule of the film.

KJO on a social networking site says, "Shooting held up because of sudden rain and thunder. Waiting for it to stop!"

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In Pics: My Name Is Khan On Sets

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Exclusive First Look: My Name Is Khan posters

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Fox STAR Studios to distribute Shah Rukh's 'My Name Is Khan'

Actor-producer Shah Rukh Khan and filmmaker Karan Johar have inked one of Bollywood's biggest deals with a Hollywood studio. Fox STAR Studios will finance and distribute their forthcoming film "My Name Is Khan", reportedly spending Rs.100 crore (Rs.1 billion / $20 million) in the process.

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In Pics: Fox Star Studios' Press Conference for 'My Name Is Khan'

Fox Star Studios' Press Conference for 'My Name Is Khan'

LATEST ON SHAH RUKH KHAN'S MY NAME IS KHAN

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Khan wars — A lot is made up: Karan

India’s most suave, most stylish and wittiest director-producer is in Mumbai after months of living out of a suitcase in London, New York and SFO.

But his travels (and travails) have only made that razor-tongue sharper than ever.

He talks here about postponing My Name Is Khan, his so-called problems with Kajol, comments on Salman, the Bachchans and SRK and how he intends to Wake Up Sid — his newest baby. Read on for the KJo challenge!

The big news is that you’ve delayed My Name Is Khan...
You know, it was beyond our control. Now the film is only releasing early next year. We couldn’t have made it in time, we were very keen to release it this December, but there’s a lot of work on this film. I just felt that rushing it would lead to many compromises on a creative level. So both SRK and I took a combined call to push it to next year.

There were reports that Kajol wasn’t all cooperation for your schedules?
Both Kajol and I have laughed at this absurdity. In December when we were shooting in LA, we read Tanu aunty was objecting to some lines that were cut, and that Kajol and I were having this cold war. It’s so ridiculous that it doesn’t even warrant a response.

My Name Is Khan is your first co-production with SRK. How did that happen?
It’s a powerful project, something we felt very strongly enough about to come together. At the end of day, this is one film that hopefully both of us should always own. Whether or not SRK and I share a film, we own them together in any case. Truly for me, I own OSO as much as SRK owns Dostana.

You’ve cast Konkana and Ranbir in your next film, Wake Up Sid. Most feel they’re mismatched...
I wouldn’t call it a mismatch. I’d call it an ‘unconventional’ casting. Konkana is established and associated with a certain kind of cinema and Ranbir is young, upcoming and attached to a certain demographic as an actor. When you see them, you know they have sparkling chemistry.

There was a report that the Bachchans were upset that you didn’t cast Abhishek in the remake of Agneepath.
Agneepath is not cast at all. It’s an idea Karan Malhotra — my AD on MNIK, who’s directing Agneepath for me, has. He’s still scripting it. We’ve not cast for it at all. Once the script is ready, we’ll think of casting. We had an internal conversation, which leaked out, I have no idea how. Everybody started conjecturing on their own about people in the film.

Salman recently said he’d never do a ‘John act’ in Dostana? Do you take it personally?
Never. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and their thoughts are their prerogative. I’ve had many other stars and directors comment on my cinema. I don’t ever take it to heart.

Your take on the Khan wars?
Let me tell you, a lot of this may be true, but a lot of it is not. Most is created to make it more dramatic. A lot of it is exaggerated and enhanced in print, and sometimes it becomes worse because things sound much worse on paper and people start taking the lie as the truth and that’s when things bother me. I don’t get involved and I don’t fight with people. Actually, I’m bored, I’m seriously waiting for a filmmaker or actor to pick on me, so that I can retort back!

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Karan Johar was lonesome in NY!

He’s bitten by the travel-bug.

Permanently. Yeah, Karan Johar is the man-on-move, and in the past few months he’s spent more time floating in mid-air than at home. From LA, to San Francisco to London...he’s globe-trotting. But he’s loving every minute of it, and while he says, “I like London, but London becomes like another city that I consider home,” it’s the amazing New York City that draws this filmmaker (and his movies, too). Of course, with Shah Rukh Khan owning a beautiful apartment in London, his best buddy Karan, obviously feels at home in that city.

On the other hand he can’t stop talking about his other hot-favourite city in the world, “I think NY is the one city that I absolutely love. I really like the irony of the city, really. I feel that it’s really fantastic and it’s buzzing with so much energy and yet there’s an inherent emptiness in there. So there’s this contradiction. It has all the energy and yet, it’s very empty and lonely. That’s the reason I find the city so intriguing.”

Now that sounds like a true-born New Yorker, Kjo? So we guess what he’s saying is that...London is where the home is and NY is where the heart is? Right, Kjo?

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Fox Studios picks up rights of ‘My Name is Khan’ for Rs 100 cr: Report

Mumbai: No one sells like Shah Rukh Khan in Bollywood. Even before the release of ‘My Name is Khan’, his film is being seen as a hit considering the hype surrounding every little detail of the film.

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Shahrukh Khan becomes a father

Shahrukh Khan is all set to play the role of a father and believe it or not he will play it in two movies My Name Is Khan and Anubhav Sinha's Ra 1. Although most actors shy away from playing such roles Shahrukh had qualms about playing a father on screen. Most stars are apprehensive of loosing their charm once they play an aged character on screen but not Shahrukh.

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My Name Is Khan set being constructed at Film City

The cast and crew of Karan Johar’s My Name is Khan is back from San Francisco and according to sources, the next schedule of the film is most likely to take place at Film City.

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Shah Rukh can be an outstanding director: Karan Johar

Their last outing together was a damp squib, but Karan Johar hasn’t lost his faith in Shah Rukh Khan. He has once again teamed up with him and Kajol for “My Name Is Khan” and says the superstar is not only good at emoting but is capable of directing a film too.

READ THE REST OF KARAN JOHAR'S INTERVIEW ON SRKTHEDON

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Karan Johar is stressed out!

After making candy floss romances, Karan Johar is dealing with serious issues in his My Name Is Khan, which brings Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol together on screen after a long time. Though he is excited about presenting a different side of Shah Rukh, making the film did turn unpleasant when actor Aamir Bashir was denied a visa to the US.

Karan’s latest directorial venture is “diametrically opposite” to his earlier films.

“You know, on the very first day of shooting my cameraman Ravi Chandran looked at me and said, ‘I don’t think you’ve ever shot something like this’. Shah Rukh plays a completely different human being … I’ve never directed that person before,” Karan Johar told IANS in an interview.

But he had his share of problems too.

“Yes, there were problems. We had certain legal issues. We had to make some changes to accommodate the developments. They were sorted out. I believe in completely going by the law of every land. That’s what we did in LA (Los Angeles) when troubles arose,” said Karan, who replaced Aamir with Jimmy Sheirgil in the movie.

Was he upset with Aamir for going to the press about the visa problem?

“I don’t see why the issue had to be reported so prominently in the Indian media. It complicated things for me. If creating hurdles for a filmmaker on a difficult foreign location makes news, so be it. It constantly kept creating stress for me,” he added.

Written by Shibani Bathija, My Name Is Khan is about a Muslim (Shah Rukh) who suffers from Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism that impacts social interaction abilities, and he is arrested as a suspected terrorist in post-9/11 Los Angeles after authorities mistake his disability for suspicious behaviour.

Excerpts from the interview:

Q: You could make a film on the things that happened during your Los Angeles schedule of My Name Is Khan.

A: Besides normal problems, there were unforeseen problems. Thank god for my fabulous technical team. Without them I could never make my film the way I want to. Yes, there was stress.

Q: There were visa problems for some Muslim members of your cast?

A: Yes, there were problems. We had certain legal issues. We had to make some changes to accommodate the developments. They were sorted out. I believe in completely going by the law of every land. That’s what we did in LA when troubles arose.

Q: Was Aamir replaced by Jimmy Sheirgil after a great deal of deliberation?

A: Yes, we did have to do some serious re-thinking. I spoke to my casting director Shanu Sharma for immediate release. I was very happy to have Jimmy Sheirgil on board. I had done his clothes for Aditya Chopra’s Mohabbatein. So I know him from his debut. It was unfortunate that things didn’t work out with Aamir Bashir. Like Jimmy, he was terrific in A Wednesday. I look forward to working with him some other time.

Q: Were you upset with Aamir Bashir for going to the press about the visa problem?

A: I don’t blame anyone for the situation. I don’t see why the issue had to be reported so prominently in the Indian media. It complicated things for me. If creating hurdles for a filmmaker on a difficult foreign location makes news, so be it. It constantly kept creating stress for me.

Q: Was it a painful experience to shoot in LA?

A: In all my 11 years as a filmmaker, I’ve never felt the experience to be so different. Content-wise, My Name Is Khan is diametrically opposite to whatever I’ve done in the past. You know, on the very first day of shooting my cameraman Ravi Chandran looked at me and said, ‘I don’t think you’ve ever shot something like this.’

It is for the first time I’m directing a screenplay I haven’t written myself. This gives me a level of detachment from the proceedings and yet a lot of attachment. It has released a plethora of unexplored emotions in my head.

This time I’m being creative in a different ways. And Shah Rukh plays a completely different human being … I’ve never directed that person before. It took a few days for all of us to get into the groove. How this exploration of a new territory will turn out, no one knows.

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Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy's office burgled, but MNIK is safe!

As is by now well know, earlier this month the recording studio of the composer trio of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy was broken into and computers and other items were burgled. In fact many of their unrecorded and also unused tunes (that were stored were on those computers) were also stolen/destroyed. READ FULL ARTICLE

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