Mayank Shekhar

Ram Kapoor to play Harvey Weinstein, producer accused of sexual harassment?

Oct 182017

With as many as 43 women accusing Hollywood heavyweight Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment, the scandal has put the spotlight on the murky side of showbiz, highlighting once again how the industry is riddled with misogyny and sexism.

Ram Kapoor

As more skeletons come tumbling out of Weinstein’s closet, closer home, it has served as an inspiration for producer-director Shailendra Singh’s web film, titled Casting Couch Ouch. Singh has approached Ram Kapoor to play the central character that is modelled on the disgraced producer.

Alsoread: Shocking! Harvey Weinstein wanted to spend a night with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

Harvey Weinstein

Singh reveals that he had devised a script based on the casting couch prevalent in the industry. However, once the scandal broke out, he amended the story to make it more relevant. “We reworked the character of the producer and based him on Harvey Weinstein. We are in talks with Ram Kapoor for the role, as he has a similar build to that of Harvey. We will be shooting the film over the next 10 days,” he says.

Also read: Meryl Streep and other Hollywood actresses slam Harvey Weinstein over sexual harassment claims

Shailendra Singh

Much like Hollywood, Singh says that its desi counterpart too has umpteen cases of powerful men preying on actors. His web film will bring to light such unspoken truths of Bollywood. “I felt that if we address the issue in our film, it will send shivers down the spines of many in Bollywood. We hope to create awareness at large. The Weinstein episode is just as relevant here. I think the casting couch still exists in Bollywood. The young generation of actresses may be sharp, but as an insider in the film circuit, I know that they still have uncomfortable experiences during their auditions today.”

Also read: Mayank Shekhar column: The Harvey Weinsteins of Bollywood

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Kangana Ranaut talks to Mayank Shekhar at Jagran Film Festival in Mumbai

Celebrities

Sep 162017

Renowned filmmakers, marketers and distributors all gathered today sharing their insights on the future of cinema at the first ever Jagran Cinema Summit held at JW Marriott, Juhu. The event kick started with the opening ceremony where *Shekhar Kapur, Kangana Ranaut, Vinod Srivastava, Sr. General Manager – Strategy and Brand Development – Jagran Prakashan Ltd. and Ajay Brahmatmaj* inaugurated with light lamping ceremony followed by key note speech from director *Shekhar Kapur* where he addressed to the new-age filmmakers to be storytellers utilizing digital platforms available today.

“ I am not a Man Hater” , speaking on her image of a feminist, Kangana Ranaut expressed that she feels sorry for the state of the society due to the inequality that persists and this is the reason why feminism finds its way. She spoke that a person’s opinion has nothing to do with their

profession, and so as an individual she before an actress is a woman and citizen of the country with a freedom of expression.

In an another interesting panel discussion headed by Mini Mathur were joined by Madhu Mantena (Founder, Phantom Films), Ajay Chacko (Founder, Arré), Sameer Nair (Former CEO, Balaji Telefilms), Shrishti Behl (Vice President of the Film and Television Producers Guild of India & Producer, Rose Movies) and Actor Vivek Oberoi where Does size matter? (of the screen) was the focal point of getting the panel’s perspectives owning to their profiles. Each of the panelists regarded that the size of the screen is irrelevant as long as content is enabling enough room for personal themes to resonate be it through mobiles, television or big screen theaters.

A presentation “*Looking back as we look ahead” *by *Shivendra Singh Dungarpur (Founder, Film Heritage Foundation)* gave a wonderful insight on the heritage of Cinema and restoration of old Indian films. Shivendra shared intriguing images from his experiences of films being stripped for extraction of silver in Pathanwadi. Tragic fire at FTII that lost over 150 film negatives to how the Indian railways carried 1000s of unclaimed film prints were shared in an full excerpt.

The second panel discussion at the summit took a light on “changes in the economics of film making” setting Bahubali as the benchmark of achieving gross hits. Mukesh Bhatt expressed the drama of Bahubali as an ‘event experience’ similar to how he had witnessed the charisma of Mughal-E-Azam which was a success product of good cinematic vision. Sajid Khan believes that the actual big numbers only come in when the people who usually would not come to cinemas, make it to the cinemas like in case of Bahubali that was wide-spread like fire.

Towards the end of the summit, Varun Dhawan joined in a conversation with Mayank Shekhar on the ‘Future of Stardom’ where he shared the dilemmas he had while auditioning and the failures with no intentions of his father launching him before he made it. Fans bring stardom and Content has become the star of the films is what Varun iterated to embracing Stardom.

Concluding the event, Mayank Shekhar said, “Future of cinema as the theme of the summit has been very well tackled with top filmmakers, producers, actors and distributors in each of its segment, we definitely look forward to the next year’s installment.”

Jagran Cinema Summit has been curated to know the perspective of films produced and the future of cinema. For the consumers perspective, the
Jagran Film Festival will be held in Mumbai between 18-24th September’17.

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Stalwarts come together to discuss future of films at Jagran Cinema Summit

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Sep 122017

Kangana Ranaut and Varun Dhawan

As the world of cinema is at a cusp of a revolution, industry stalwarts come together to discuss its future at the first Jagran Cinema Summit, to be held at JW Marriott, Juhu on Friday, 15th September’17. This conference would bring together community partners from across creative industries and examine the most pressing issues facing the industry today.

The swift shift from single screen theatres to multiplexes to laptops and more recently on mobile phones, calls for changes at all levels of a film including production, revenue and distribution models. The day-long series of events would focus on this change through conversations, panel discussions and presentation talks.

The afternoon will begin with the opening ceremony followed by a talk on Future of Heroine with actor Kangana Ranaut in conversation with Mayank Shekhar.

Next would be an hour-long panel discussion on Does size (of the screen) matter? with Madhu Mantena (Founder, Phantom Films), Ajay Chacko (Founder, Arré), Sameer Nair (Former CEO, Balaji Telefilms), Shrishti Behl (Vice President of the Film and Television Producers Guild of India & Producer, Rose Movies) and Actor Vivek Oberoi. These thinking heads would closely look at the changing consumption patterns of on-screen entertainment, and its effect on not just filmmaking, but allied industries like television, Internet, smartphones, and OTT platforms – how at the intersection of it all, filmmaking has transformed heavily with respect to distribution and production model and how top production houses and actors aren’t shying away to shift to smaller screens. The competition to grasp audience attention now that viewership has moved to handheld devices is even more strategic and fierce.

This would be followed panel discussion and conversations hosted by Mayank Shekhar, followed by a presentation Looking back as we look ahead on the heritage of Cinema and restoration of films to preserve our rich legacy by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur (Founder, Film Heritage Foundation). Subsequently, the Changes in the economics of filmmaking would take up intense topics like variation in film budget, stars turning into producers, production houses cutting down on costs, and the impact of theatrical footfall. On the panel will be Siddharth Roy Kapoor (Producer and President of the Film and Television Producers Guild of India), Mukesh Bhatt (Founder, Vishesh Films), Sajid Khan (Director and Box Office Guru), Amrita Pandey (VP, Studios, Disney India), Alok Tandon (CEO, Inox Leisure Ltd) and Guneet Monga (CEO, Sikhya Entertainment).

The session will conclude with a Conversation on the Future of Stardom with actor Varun Dhawan and Mayank Shekhar.

With high profile filmmakers, marketers and distributors sharing their insights on the imminent future of cinema, this exclusive summit will explore new trends and opportunities across all areas of the Indian film industry.

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