Kerala girl wins Miss World crown

Mumbai,(IANS) Parvathy Omanakuttam, a 20-year-old from Kerala, was crowned as the Pantaloon Femina Miss World 2008 at a glittering ceremony here Saturday evening.

At the grand finale, Simran Kaur, a 22-year-old from Mumbai who has won the Miss India Universe 2008 title, was named the first runner-up. Harshita Saxena, 20, from Goa, was the second runner-up.

Film industry loses Rs.160 billion to pirates annually

Mumbai(IANS) The Indian entertainment industry may be worth Rs.500 billion, but the movie segment loses Rs.160 billion annually to piracy.

This startling revelation was made by Ron Summers, president of US-India Business Council (USIBC), at the recent Ficci-Frames global convention on media and entertainment in Mumbai.

He said the global revenue share of the Indian film industry was only two percent of the total annual gross income of Hollywood, primarily because pirates usurped a good chunk of the Indian movie revenue earned from the domestic and international markets.

'Apart from adopting effective legal measures to pre-empt piracy, efforts should also be made to extract maximum value proposition from the entertainment content. The best way to do it is by cashing in on the technological advancement witnessed globally in electronics,' the USIBC president said.

Noted Bollywood filmmaker Yash Chopra admitted that it would not be possible to root out the external market force of piracy, which has entrenched itself too deeply over the years.

'But we can't afford to resign ourselves to this fact. We must identify measures to mitigate the hold of this force over the market. We must understand the enormous potential of the digital media and try to get value out of it.

'We have to beat pirates in their own game. But to be able to do this, we need the help of the regulatory bodies,' Chopra said.

According to the secretary in the Information and Broadcasting ministry, Asha Swarup, the only way to tackle piracy was to ensure tight security in the supply chain.

'Simultaneous or quick release of movies on the Internet or home video could be an alternative to curb piracy,' she said, citing how distributors of 'Jab We Met' benefited from this strategy recently.

Chief executive officer of Sony Entertainment, Kunal Dasgupta, also touched upon this paradigm shift in movie distribution.

'By releasing 'Jab We Met' in the home video circuit soon after its release in theatres, Moser Baer not only managed to reduce piracy, but also earned more revenue,' he said.

Dasgupta believed that a large number of people would want to watch a movie in the theatres even if CDs and DVDs were available in the market.

Race is doing crazy business

Last week's release Race is doing crazy business with the film continuing to be on the top of the box-office charts. The film's fast cars, handsome hunks, hot babes and rocking soundtrack are the current topic of discussion among the young and the old. So, it comes as no wonder that Amul has decided to use the film poster in its new hoarding.

For those who came in late, Amul is known for covering the most topical events through its hoardings for years now. So, all you folks who enjoyed Race, take a dekko at this cute image which shows caricatures of Anil Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Bipasha Basu and Katrina Kaif, all munching on their favorite bread butter. It does bring a smile to your face and makes you long for a bite of bread-butter too.

Courtesy:IndiaGlitz

Box office Report

Months after the release of OM SHANTI OM and WELCOME, a film has managed to take a stupendous opening at the box office. RACE, the film which Bollywood was looking forward to after a relative lean 2008 (that only had JODHAA AKBAR making a mark), has got audience back into the theaters.

The film has worked all over, whether A, B or C centers, and is drawing all segments of audience with family crowds as well as student community thronging the theaters. In addition, RACE has turned out to be one of those few films which has broken single screens v/s multiplex audience and taken an exceptional opening all over.

The way things stand today, this Abbas Mustan directed film is all set to break the 35 crore barrier when it comes to first week's collections. If it does so (which looks quite positive as of now), RACE would only be the fourth film to do so after OM SHANTI OM (40 crores), WELCOME (35 crores) and DHOOM 2 (35 crores)! Abbas Mustan are certainly back in the 'race'!

Courtesy:IndiaGlitz