Category Archives: Company News

The Times of India: Radhika and Ajai Rao romance in Sweden

Posted by innowizard on

Endendigu“When choreographer Imran Sardhariya set out to make his first film as a director, there was one thing he was very clear about — he wanted his film to have wow moments that would remain with audiences.

Armed with a script for a love story and a cast including Krishna Ajai Rao and Radhika Pandit, his task was cut out — find awesome locations and capture them well. “I have been shooting abroad in my capacity as choreographer for over a decade, and while Europe is not new as a location, most film crews shoot during summer, as the season offers really long days — sometimes with up to 15 hours of sunlight.

The other option, of course, is to capture snow, which has been done so many times before. Hence, we decided to capture autumn-winter, a time when the most prominent colours you see in nature are orange and aqua green,” says Imran, who shot his film in Sweden, a first for Kannada cinema.”

Read the full story here

Richa Chadda and Kalki Koechlin will shoot in Sweden in October

Posted by innowizard on

Richa Chadda

Actress Richa Chadda, who will be seen sharing screen with Kalki Koechlin in Jia aur Jia, will have to learn Tamil language for the girl bonding movie, in which the two actresses will be swapping cultural identities.

Dehli girl Richa, who tip-toed into Bollywood as Dolly in Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! and made it big as fiery Nagma in the crime thriller series Gangs of Wasseypur, will be seen as a Tamilian, while Kalki, who is from Puducherry, will play a Punjabi girl in Jia aur Jia.

“I will be taking Tamil lessons before we start shooting. It is difficult for me, who is a North Indian, to speak in Tamil, but itäs going to be fun, ” Richa said.

“I will undergo a training in Tamil language to get the right diction and to justify my character, ” added the actress.

Directed by Howard Rosemeyer, Jia aur Jia will be shot in Sweden and Richa will start shooting for the film in October.

“I’m looking forward to the film as Kalki is a wonderful person and it will be fun to work with her,” added the 24-year-old who was recently seen in Fukrey.

The Times of India: Upendra’s new movie, Basavanna, to be shot in Sweden

Posted by innowizard on

Upendra

Just as Dr Ramanidu’s Suresh Prouctions are leaving Sweden after a successful shooting, a new team is announcing its arrival. This time with the great actor and director Upendra in the leading role:

“Upendra’s new film, Basavanna, will have the unique distinction of starting its shoot on foreign shores. The puja for the film was done last week in the Dodda Ganapati temple in Bangalore. But the muharat clap and shoot will start in Sweden in July.”

The Connecting Bollywood team look forward to having them with us!

Read the full Times of India article here

Lunch with Film i Skåne

Posted by mbjorkenstam on

Yesterday we had Lena Hansson Varhegyi from Film i Skåne over for lunch (spicy Indian of course) at the office. Film i Skåne, the regional film institute, has as its main mission to support and cultivate the film industry in the region. They do this by providing funds, expertise, connections and all sorts of help to both aspiring film makers and established production houses. They are part of a wider public initiative to promote industry as a whole locally.

What we are trying to do is to convince Lena and her organisation that when it comes to supporting the local film industry, there is probably nothing more promising and worthwhile than helping us get our Bollywood projects off the ground. However, as certain as we are of the prospects of success and the benefits this will bring to the region we are nonetheless aware that this is not as clear to the less initiated – Bollywood is still a distant and exotic phenomenon to most Scandinavians and it is going to take some effort to make the films and the industry more familiar in this part of Europe.

All in all we can only say that it was a very pleasant meeting that we hope and think will develop into a fruitful relationship in the coming months and years!

 

PS. By the way, the premiere of 1920 – Evil Returns has once again been postponed, probably due to an overflow of horror films at the planned date.  New release date is set to 2 November however so we still don’t have to wait for long!

An end-of-summer update

Posted by mbjorkenstam on

As the closing days of August are drawing us ever closer to the definite end of summer in Sweden we take a moment to reflect on what the month has brought us.

As many know, one should in general not have too great expectations on any of the summer months in Sweden – the country slows down to close to a standstill as half of the population goes on holiday abroad and the other half acquires a more laid-back approach to their daily tasks.

This notwithstanding , it has actually been quite a good time for Connecting Bollywood – several projects are moving forward, slowly but surely, and we have also made some new acquaintances! Arguably the most important of these, at least in the long run, is Kunnie (Kunzang) Topden who we teamed up with recently and who, among many other things, runs the non-profit organisation SIFA (the Swedish-Indian Film Association). Kunnie and her SIFA managed to have parts of an Indian movie, Dil Jo Bhi Kahe (“Follow your heart”), shot in Stockholm already back in 2004, years before we got our first project here. She has experience in the industry, has many friends in both India and Sweden and she loves movies just as much as we do – we expect there to be much to gain from this new-found relationship!

In additional news the company plans to make a trip to India in September to entertain contacts with our friends there and also to be present at the premiere screening of our first project “1920 – Evil Returns”.  Details on exact dates and itinerary is coming up shortly – if you are in India during later September and early October and want to meet up, just let us know and we will make it happen!