The Asian News Blog

The largest portal for South Asian film and entertainment content, www.bollywood.tv, will celebrate its launch this weekend among the crème of the Indian film industry at the forthcoming Max Stardust Awards 2008 on this weekend in Mumbai.

As it makes its welcomed debut, www.bollywood.tv is proud to take the Max Stardust Awards 2008 global by becoming its official and exclusive online voting site, a ‘first’ in the history of the event.
The Max Stardust Awards 2008 will acknowledge www.bollywood.tv’s influential role in promoting the Stardust brand name internationally, by drawing global visitors to the site to place their nominations for the awards.
This year, the awards will have a tri-party voting system to collect India votes from members of the jury and via Magna Mag readers and international votes through the www.bollywood.tv website.
Voting for www.bollywood.tv will close on Saturday 26th January 12.00GMT and will be delivered immediately to the other parties.
Nigel Glynn-Davies, CEO, www.bollywood.tv sais: “www.bollywood.tv is proud to be associated with this prestigious event encouraging up and coming talent whilst honouring the established stars of today. We hope that by being the Max Stardust Awards 2008 online voting partner that we will bring the ability to vote onto a global footing and in turn boost the recognition of the awards and the nominees themselves.
www.bollywood.tv is one of the largest online libraries to deliver an exclusive output of Bollywood and South Asian movies, film clips, television dramas, stage plays and music. It aims to provide 10 million plus viewers with choice, affordability, control and convenience through ‘on-demand’ access, while offering a new and lucrative distribution channel to content producers and owners as well as a social networking platform for a global South Asian community with a passion for high calibre entertainment.
It is also the only online destination that can claim to be genuinely South Asian with content that spans Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Marathi and Bengali movies, as well as hosting an exclusive range of Pakistani television shows and music encapsulating the best of the Bollywood, pop, classical and Sufi musical genres.

The Aneez Bazmee-directed comic caper, WELCOME, has recorded pathbreaking collections internationally, emerging as the No.1 film of Christmas 2007. The magnum opus was promoted, marketed and distributed overseas by the international arm of Indian Films – Studio 18.

WELCOME has grossed more than $ 4.5 million (INR 18 cr) at the international box-office in just two weeks and is going strong in its third week as well. With no comparable tent-pole release in the weeks to come, WELCOME is poised to create even bigger milestones in film history.
Of the total international two-week gross, $ 3.5 million has been mopped up from the three key markets alone – US, UK/Ireland & UAE, and the remaining from other European and Asia-Pacific markets.
In the US, WELCOME crossed $ 1 million on 63 prints at the end of its second week, much the same as the Gulf, where collections touched $ 1 million on 29 prints at the end of the second week and have held strong over the weekdays as well. WELCOME is reported to have beaten some of the biggest blockbusters in the UAE, including Namaste London, Heyy Babyy and Bhool Bhulaiyaa, making it the highest grossing film ever for Akshay Kumar in this territory.
In the UK/Ireland, WELCOME mopped up $ 1.5 million on 51 prints at the end of its second week, making it the highest fortnight gross for an Akshay Kumar title in this market. It was alongisde Hollywood biggies at No.8 in the coveted UK TOP 10 in its opening weekend having bagged the second highest opening in 2007 after Om Shanti Om. The box-office of WELCOME in two weeks in the UK/Ireland has overtaken that of films like Guru, Chak Dey India, Ta Ra Rum Pum, Heyy Babyy and Bhool Bhulaiyaa, and in the days to come, it is set to oust the likes of Rang De Basanti, Partner, Namaste London and Lagey Raho Munnabhai in this region.

With a historic opening, not only has the Indian Films-Studio 18 mega release, Welcome outstripped competition and emerged the final winner at the box-office, but the numbers in the overseas have also surpassed those of all erstwhile solo Akshay Kumar titles, creating a new record for the superstar!
In the UK, the preview and opening weekend gross was a smashing £370,000 (approx) from 40 locations.
In the UAE, just the 5-day business of Welcome was nearly as much as the lifetime gross of Kumar’s earlier hits. The business to date is AED 1.8 million from 29 locations.
In the US, the first two days grossed $100,000 only from the mainstream theatres (independents excluded), extremely impressive considering the biggest grosses will start from December 26. In almost every mainstream location, Welcome out-grossed even the major Hollywood openers like Charlie Wilson’s War, P.S. I Love You and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.
Remarks Akshay Kumar of breaking his record, “Three previous hits and now Welcome creating records, 2007 has been a year of box-office fortune! I’m glad that I’m ending 2007 on a high (literally) with Welcome, my highest overseas opener.”

Nominations for Max Stardust Awards 2008 has now been revealed. The nominees are;
SUPERSTAR OF TOMMOROW – MALE
Himesh Reshammiya (Aap Ka Suroor)
Neil Nitin Mukesh (Johnny Gaddaar)
Kunal Khemu (Traffic Signal)
Ruslan Mumtaz (Mera Pehla Pehla Pyaar)
Ranbir Kapoor (Saawariya)
Muzzamil Ibrahim (Dhokha)
SUPERSTAR OF TOMMOROW – FEMALE
Sagarika Ghatge (Chak De India)
Hansikaa Motwani (Aap Ka Suroor)
Jiah Khan (Nishabd)
Deepika Padukone (Om Shanti Om)
Sonam Kapoor (Saawariya)
BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE – MALE
Shreyas Talpade (Om Shanti Om)
Imaaduddin Shah (Dil Dosti Etc)
Kal Penn (The Namesake)
Vikram Chatwal (Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd)
BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE – FEMALE
Chitrashi Rawat (Chak De India)
Anjana Sukhani (Salaam–E-Ishq)
Kangana Ranaut (Life… In a Metro)
Shreya Saran (Awaarapan)
Swini Khera (Cheeni Kum)
Ashwini Kalsekar (Johnny Gaddaar)
Sunita Rajwar (Ek Chalis Ki Last Local)
THE NEW MENACE
Shilpa Shukla (Chak De India)
Zakir Hussain (Johnny Gaddaar)
Shabbir Ahluwalia (Shootout At Lokhandwala)
Ashok Samarth (Ek Chalis Ki Last Local)
Sudhir Mishra (Traffic Signal)
HOTTEST FILM – PRODUCERS
Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd (Ritesh Sidhwani / Farhan Akhtar)
Ek Chalis Ki Last Local (Quartet Films)
Gandhi My Father (Anil Kapoor)
Bheja Fry (Sunil Doshi)
Loins of Punjab (Horn Ok Please Entertainment)
Manorama Six Feet Under (Shemaroo)
HOTTEST YOUNG FILM MAKER
Shimit Amin (Chak De India)
Sriram Raghavan (Johnny Gaddaar)
Navdeep Singh (Manorama Six Feet Under)
Sagar Bellary (Bheja Fry)
Sajid Khan (Heyy Babyy)
Feroze Abbas Khan (Gandhi My Father)
Imtiaz Ali (Jab We Met)
R. Balki (Cheeni Kum)
STANDOUT PERFORMANCE BY LYRICIST
Amar Maqsood – Shootout At Lokhandwala (‘Unke Nashe Mein’)
Sandeep Srivastava – Life… In A Metro (‘Baatein Kucch Ankahi Si’)
Sandeep Nath – Saawariya (‘Yoon Shabnami Pehle Nahi Thi Chandni’)
Shabbir Ahmed – Partner (‘Soni Ke Nakhre’)
Sanjay Chhel– Partner (‘Do You Want A Partner’)
Mika – Shootout At Lokhandwala (‘Aye Ganpat’)
NEW MUSICAL SENSATION – FEMALE
Hard Kaur – Johnny Gaddaar (Move Your Body)
Maryem Toller – Guru (Mayya Mayya)
Anoushka Manchanda – Cash (Aye Chori)
Akriti Kakkar – Johnny Gaddaar (Johnny Gaddaar)
Suzanne – Aawarapan (Mahiya)
Aanchal – Dus Kahaniyaan (Dus)
NEW MUSICAL SENSATION – MALE
Krishna & Salim Merchant – Chak De India (Maula Mere)
Neeraj Sridhar – Jhoom Barabar Jhoom / Bhool Bhulaiyaa (Ticket To Hollywood / Bhool Bhulaiyaa)
Soham – Life… In A Metro (Inn Dino)
Suhail Kaul – Life… In A Metro (Baatein Kucch Ankahi Si)
Mika – Shootout At Lokhandwala
Jab We Met (Aye Ganpat / Mauja Hi Mauja)
Shail Hada – Saawariya (‘Saawariya’)
STANDOUT PERFORMANCE BY A MUSIC DIRECTOR
Monty Sharma (Saawariya)
Sanjay Leela Bhansali — Thode Se Badmaash (Saawariya)
Mika — Aye Ganpat (Shootout At Lokhandwala)
Mithoon (Anwar / The Train)
Gaurav Dasgupta — Dus (Dus Kahaniyaan)