Viu set to launch musical drama Spotlight 2 on 26th January

~Presented by Viu and Vikram Bhatt, Spotlight 2 will be a fitting addition to the                         popular Spotlight franchise by Viu~    

               ~Presented by Viu and Vikram Bhatt, Spotlight 2 will feature   

                              Karan V.Grover and Aditi Arya~ 

Viu, the premium video-on-demand platform by Vuclip, a PCCW media company announced the launch of Spotlight 2 making this a franchise of the successful Viu Originals series Spotlight. Presented in association with known writer and director Vikram Bhatt, the theme of the franchise is a running series that captures the rise, fall and resurrection of a music superstar. An intense and stormy romance between two headstrong people on the opposite ends of the spectrum - Spotlight 2 explores the exasperating reality of being a music celebrity. The series is being directed by Siddhant Sachdeva and will feature popular television actor Karan V Grover along with two dazzling former Miss India’s , Aditi Arya and Ruhi Singh. Focusing on compelling content offered in a contemporary setting, the series will feature more than 7 originally composed tracks brought to life by soulful musicians Harish Sanganay, Ankit Shah and other popular artists. The show goes live on Viu (Both App and The Web) from 26th January 2018.Based on the buzzing music industry in Mumbai, Spotlight 2 is a story of a talented but flamboyant musician, Vicky, who is on the verge of career-suicide. His hard work and melodious voice helped him climb the ladder of success in the music industry in a very short span of time. But his arrogance, drug addiction and utter disregard for the industry and his fans brings him crashing down. The story is the journey of this lost character with a heart of gold trying to connect back with his music with the help of his ex-girlfriend and how he rises back from the fall.

Speaking on the launch of Spotlight franchise, Manasi Sapre, Head of Programming, Viu India said, “At Viu, we focus on creating compelling content and a viewing experience that captivates our audience and is relatable at the same time. We are able to provide this content because we associate with extremely capable and talented people from all walks of life. With Spotlight 2, we celebrate the great journey we have taken on with Vikram Bhatt. We are excited to launch the Spotlight franchise and in the upcoming months, you will see a lot more original shows from Viu that will surely going to excite the audience.” 

Speaking on the release of Spotlight 2, Vikram Bhatt says, “When Spotlight 1 was a success, I was confident I will make another one. Spotlight 2 chronicles a musician’s journey as he falls to fame, and then, strives to make a comeback. A story that encapsulates the loneliness that stardom brings along with the glitz and glamour in the life of a superstar. And the story is very apt for the digital platform. Today, the first screen of preference is the cell phone so it was only natural that I present this franchise to the audience on the web.” 

The 13 episode series which can be binged watched on 26th January 2018, will mark the launch of the twelfth original series by Viu. With shows like Gehraiyaan, PillA, Pelli Gola and Social, Viu is ceaselessly introducing refreshing concepts combined with gripping scripts and revered talent to ensure an exhilarating viewing experience for their viewers. Since its successful launch in India last year, Viu has witnessed exponential growth in terms of the audience base and engagement.

Link to teaser promo:

TV frat stands divided on whether national anthem should be sung in theatres

Our TV actors give us their take on whether the national anthem should be played in theatres.Ankush Bali: I don’t think the National Athem should not be played in halls. There is no point to show or prove patriotism just before watching a movie.

Rohan Gandotra: In our busy life, I feel that's the only place where we get to listen to our national anthem and we actually stand and give respect to it. I don't think in our day to day life or even on  Republic Day and Independence day for that matter, one actually stands up for the national anthem. Compulsion or no compulsion, I feel it's a right decision to play the national anthem in cinemas. It hardly takes two minutes of your free time.

Sehban Azim: There's nothing wrong in making the national anthem compulsory in theaters, right before a movie. It's just a two-minute thing and I guess we all as Indian citizens should have no problem standing up for it. It would make a difference because in our school days, we all have stood up every day for it and it reminds us of our country. It surely induces love and praise towards our motherland. Now we hardly get to hear it or sing it. As almost everyone goes to the theatre, so it seems the legit place to make it happen, to invoke that same emotion which we experienced when we were growing up.

Himmanshoo Malhotra: I think it should be played since it keeps you in touch with the beautiful lyrics of the anthem and their in-depth meaning. As it is life is running at such a faster pace, standing up for the anthem and taking a respite for 2 mins is actually necessary. Also, we must take care of the fact that all these things should be done not imposingly but voluntarily.

Saurabh Pandey: I think the main idea of playing the national anthem in cinema halls is to make you remember the national anthem, as we hardly ever singh it otherwise. Secondly, we should remember that we are Indians and the love that we have for our country should always be in our hearts. I am sure that many of us don't even remember the lyrics  of our national anthem. So I think it's a good way to give two minutes to our country before we get ready to get entertained. I also feel that it should be compulsorily in every factory, office, workplace in India, to sing that national anthem before the work day begins. I totally think it's a good thing. Also, the meaning of national anthem is beautiful. It's a beautiful description of India.

Sanjay Gagnani: I’m a patriotic and so I wouldn’t mind dedicating two minutes of my time in singing the national anthem before a watching a film. But whether it should be played or not in cinema halls, I wouldn’t like to comment on that instead I would leave that to our constitution and supreme courts to decide. Because I have full faith in the decisions of the constitution and the Supreme Court of my country.

Sneha Wagh: Nationality should be in heart more than in cinema halls. I don’t understand what good it will do to play the national anthem before a film, if people don’t know how to respect it.

Gurpreet Singh: Yes, I agree that the  national anthem should be played in cinema halls. I don't know why people can't stand for even 52 seconds, it's our motherland after all. We have the time to watch the movie for 3 hours, but we don’t have the time to stand for the national anthem. It is our duty to show respect to our national anthem. Our Indian army fights every day and night and stands for us. Our freedom fighters have struggled a lot of things to get us independence, then why can't people respect that? Whenever there is a terrorist attack, so many people say we are with our army. All their patriotism comes out at that time. We should stand and show respect to our national anthem.

Gavie Chahal: Our national anthem is our pride. Standing in respect of it is equal to respecting and touching the feet of your parents and take their blessings every morning. Do you know that in countries like Australia, every day at 6 PM at all community centers, pubs or wherever, they play a 1-minute anthem in respect of their soldiers and martyr! And here people find it difficult to stand before a film.

Sshrey Pareek: To be very honest, it's a good gesture to remind us in theatres at least. I don't think any countryman sing or remember national anthem in daily life. I get goosebumps every time I listen to it in theatres and I have not seen in so many years that anyone is not standing and disrespecting it.

Ssharad Malhotraa People go to the cinema halls to watch a film. They go there for entertainment. At that time many of them are not serious and don’t sing the national anthem seriously. We often see people moving or even laughing when the national anthem is going on. This is why I feel that it should not be played in theaters.

Arjun Bijlani Our country has given us so much and we should be grateful. The national anthem should invoke a sense of pride in us. If this happens, then it won’t matter where we are signing it. I am ok with the idea of national anthems being played in cinema halls.

Ultra Media & Entertainment Group participates in Global Content Bazaar 2018 with exclusive titles & new offerings

Ultra will be offering an array of Bollywood, International, Regional, Animation & Children Films at the Bazaar

“Ultra Cookery”: A series of video podcast featuring healthy, delicious and easy to cook modern, traditional & multi-cuisine recipes will be one of the major highlight of the offering

From the regional stable there will be films in Marathi, Bhojpuri, Bengali, Gujarati & Punjabi  including the much acclaimed Bengali family TV drama “Chayaritu Sath Rang”

There will be 85 well known films from the “Children Films Society of India (CFSI)” also showcased 

Ultra is participating in Global Content Bazaar 2018 which is scheduled from 19th – 20th January 2018 at World Trade Centre, Mumbai. Along with its exhaustive slate of 1500 titles spread across Indian & International, Films, Television, Regional & Animation films, this year it had added a newer & wider spectrum for the bazaar. 

Feature Films

Ultra’s extensive Hindi films database will be offering more than 300 films in this bazaar including  films like Andaz Apna Apna, Singh is King, I am Kalam, Waqt & many more.. In Marathi there will be “Gondya Martai Tangda”, “Mukkam Post London” and others. In Bhojpuri there is “Ganga Ke Teere Teere”, “Driver Babu” etc. Bengali, films like “Teen Patti” ; Gujarati films like “Baap Dhamal Dikra Kamal”, “Unchi Medi Na Uncha Mol” and others and Punjabi films like “Ucha Dar Babe Nanak Da” & more. 

Ultra Cookery 

This series of cookery videos features healthy, delicious and easy to cook multi-cuisine recipes.  It also features modern and traditional cuisines for all the food lovers globally. This video podcast is presented by well known I-tunes podcaster “Geetanjali Advani”. This show is mostly targeted towards the Young Audience, who eagerly craves for the new unexplored taste. 

Children Films from CFSI

85 Films across various genres and languages will be showcased at the bazaar. Including some of the prominent titles like The Goal, Karamati Coat, Chhota Sipahi, Bal Shivaji, Dhoomketu ,Dak Ghar, Lukka Chuppi, Rikki Tikki Tavi and others.

Animation Films

Ultra also got an set of films for the animation movie lovers. Movies such as Jabooz Jungle, Farm Animals & many more will also be showcased in the market.

Ultra Media & Entertainment Private Ltd (Est. 1982) is a professionally managed Entertainment Conglomerate from India providing end to end solutions for the Television & Film Industry globally. The company pioneers in Content Acquisition & Distribution of various media rights of Indian & International Television Drama, Films, Animation & other content in various genres & languages from different production companies worldwide. Ultra currently has an extensive and diversified library consisting of over 1500 titles comprising of blockbuster Indian Television Dramas, Films, Animation, Lifestyle and Variety content. We specialize in distributing these programs in various existing Physical, Non Physical and emerging formats in several territories. 

Ultra also has a fully integrated, multi-faceted studio engaged in multiple aspects of entertainment, including full-scale television & film production and distribution and post production services like 3D Conversion, VFX, DI, Editing, Dubbing & Sound designing. It is also engaged into Film preservation and thus provides Restoration, Scanning & Up-scaling

Sony Pictures Entertainment India leads Top 5 Biggest Hollywood releases of 2017

‘Spiderman: Homecoming’ and ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’ in the top five grossing movies of the year!  

Sony Pictures Entertainment India, one of the leading production and distribution studios in India has had a very successful 2017 with two of its blockbusters films ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’, ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’, making it to the top 5 of the Biggest Hollywood Grossers of 2017.

Ever since its release ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’ is leading the charge at the India Box Office. The film has grossed over Rs.62.6 crores at the box office making it the biggest opener. Jumanji’s India Box Office was also ahead among the Asia markets that opened day and date with India. 

In July 2017, 'Spider-man: Homecoming' hit the Indian theatres with a mighty score garnering a total business of Rs.70 crores. The film achieved the highest ever opening of all the Spidey movies released in India.

Not just that, SPE India’s first release of 2018, the horror thriller Insidious: The Last Key has also received a great deal of appreciation from the audience for its intriguing storyline and narrative.  The film has grossed Rs.14.5 Crores so far and is still counting.

Vivek Krishnani, Managing Director, Sony Pictures Entertainment, India says, “We are glad that Sony has demonstrated its market leadership by delivering two of the biggest Hollywood hits of 2017 in India.  Our aim has been to bring highly content driven and entertaining films to the audiences, that are backed by localized and focused marketing strategy and aggressive distribution. Up next is our Hindi co-production, R Balki’s Pad Man that stars Akshay Kumar, Sonam Kapoor and Radhika Apte. It’s one of the most powerful and unbelievable real- life stories to come out of Indian cinema in a long time and we can’t wait to bring the film to the audiences globally”.

The studio's diverse Hollywood line up of 2018 includes animation biggies Peter Rabbit, Hotel Transylvania 3, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, Tom Hardy starrer 'Venom', crime thriller 'The Girl in the Spider's Web' to Live Action horror comedy 'Goosebumps 2' and many more. On the Bollywood front there is the much awaited and in the news Pad Man.

​ “Pareshaan Parinda is a love story with gangster involvement in many shades”- Dr. Rachel Singh

The upcoming Hindi movie Pareshaan Parinda-Ek bechara had its trailer launch on 18th January, 2018 at suburban preview theatre, Mumbai. Under the banner of Dreamz Production, the film is starring Meeraj Shah, Sakshi Singh, Pankaj Kumar, Avtar Singh Bhullar, King B Chouhan, KP Sandhu, Pallavi Sharma, Sadia Nabila, Ricky Sapuran Singh, Dave Sidhu, Sahil Sood, Sammy Gill and Naz Gill. 

The cast and crew present at the event was the director Devesh Pratap Singh along with Producer and writer Dr. Rachel Singh. The writer Altaf Hussain along with film distributor Manoj Nandwana was also present at the event. The singer Tapeshwar Kalia was also making his presence with much excitement. The actors Pankaj Kumar and Avtar Singh Bhullar were present at the event, making the event very splendid. 

The film is about two strangers who unknowingly ran into each other one night and when they got up next day, they were quite shocked. Neither of them can remember the previous night events and cannot recollect how they got there in the first place. The boy (Neel) is an average middle class IT professional and working in Sydney and the girl (Mini) belongs to a gangster family of Sydney. She is the daughter of a crime boss. Little did he know this was a fatal mistake getting involved with the underworld? Neel has a girlfriend and she was very upset with the scenario and asks Neel to solve the mess but Mini’s gangster uncles create confusion. He takes some decision and with that some consequences come and in one night his life changes. 

The director Devesh Pratap Singh quoted “Pareshaan Parinda is a youth centric film, as they are the driving force of this generation. The audience will connect to the story and will get glued to their seat.Pareshan Parinda is an engaging but fresh concept of youth, how they deal with their day to day situations, circumstances and how they sort it out in their own way. By this film, the perspective towards youth will definitely change. He further goes on to say that the film has the potential of starting discussions, including giving good share of funny moments sending one to fits of laughter and in the same breadth the audience will take home a message. Pareshaan Parinda’s cast has come up to his expectations and hoping it will also impress the audience. When he got the concept it was a big challenge but at the same time very exciting to convey the message through today’s youth. 

The producer, editor, writer and art director Dr. Rachel Singh quoted “Pareshaan Parinda is a clean family film, with the message for youth and it’s a today’s generation story. The film is a love story which comes along with a gangster involvement in many layers and shades. She also says the film has been most beautifully shot in Sydney and Singapore and is a sheer treat to the eyes. The cinematography is great and the songs are of different genre of foot-tapping and melodious songs which enhances the beauty of the film. As they are working with international actors who have bare connections in Bollywood is their biggest challenge and they hope they will overcome the challenge and will prove themselves.  The film will surely be loved by the cinema goers and I am extremely excited bringing this story that is truly inspirational.” 

The film is entirely shot at various locations of Sydney and Singapore. The film is set to release on 16th February, 2018.