Spotting talent
After art and cinema, India’s first professional art auction house is now foraying into the world of literary publishing. Osian’s chairman, Neville Tuli, is starting a literary agency for representing Indian authors at home and abroad in collaboration with former editor of Roli Books, Renuka Chatterjee. “It is something I’ve been wanting to do for some time, and I feel the time is right,” says Chatterjee. A formal announcement and details are expected after April 9, when she takes up her new role. She can expect a large slush pile — publishing jargon for unsolicited manuscripts — to build up quickly the moment word gets around.
One, two, three
You can’t put a TV man down. After the ho-hum response to UTV’s latest film, Hatrick, CEO Ronnie Screwvala is working on another hat trick. The production house has announced a three-in-one business venture, UTV Palador, comprising a television channel, a DVD label and a theatre presence. The TV channel will be launched in six to eight months. And UTV is reportedly investing $15 million for acquiring a thousand great films — showcasing the works of directors such as Akira Kurosawa. UTV, clearly, hopes to give movie channels a Ran for their money.
School ’em young
And there you were, thinking that Anupam Kher was another phrase for a ham? The actor has been busy doing something serious. After opening up acting centres in Mumbai and Chandigarh, Kher has just announced that he is soon going to start one in Ahmedabad. “It is wrong to say that actors are born and cannot be trained,” he says, pointing out that several leading Indian actors are graduates of reputed film or drama schools. How else will they know about the use of glycerine in weepy scenes?
Opera time
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The old man with the white beard continues to weave his magic. And that is why Bengali actress Rituparna Sengupta, despite a packed shooting schedule, is taking time out to pay homage to a poet called Tagore. Next month, on Tagore’s birth anniversary, Sengupta plans to stage one of his much-loved dance dramas. The actress, who is also a trained Odissi dancer, is not going to tell us yet which of Tagore’s musicals she has zeroed in on. But what’s interesting is that the man behind the music is percussionist Bickram Ghosh. And there will be, she promises, a few other surprises, too. Other than Sengupta herself, some other well-known actors and actresses will feature in the musical to be telecast by a Bengali channel. After all, it’s for the old man.
Comic carnival
Remember Jugal Hansraj, who first caught the nation’s attention as a green-eyed motherless boy in a film called Masoom? The child actor, who later had an eminently forgettable stint as an adult actor, is now going to be a director. If all goes well, Hansraj will direct an animation film for Yash Chopra. And since animation cinema is the new mantra for Bollywood, whiz kid Karan Johar is working on one as well, to be directed by Tarun Mansukhani. The formula is simple: animate cinema to animate audiences — and you’ll go laughing, literally, all the way to the bank.