Director Mani Ratnam’s Hindi-Tamil bilingual film Raavan will be released in only 24 theatres in one of the three distribution areas of Karnataka, the state’s film chamber said.

Vasant Kumar Patil, president of Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC), said that Raavan, titled Raavanan in Tamil, will have a restricted release.

"A decision has been taken to follow the existing policy of allowing non-Kannada films in a stipulated number of theatres," Patil said.

The decision will be implemented in old Mysore distribution area, which is primarily the southern part of the state. The decision will not be binding in the other two distribution areas.

The release of both the versions is scheduled June 18 by Big Cinemas.

Big Cinemas had contended that since Raavan and its Tamil version have been made at a huge cost and with different artists in the lead, the chamber should treat it as two different films and allow the release in 48 theatres or more.

"Raavan is a hugely mounted film and we would like to seek some relief from the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce to liberalise its policy of restricting the release in a fixed number of theatres in Karnataka," a letter from Big Cinemas to KFCC had requested.

The KFCC does not allow non-Kannada films to screen in more than 24 theatres to protect the Kannada film industry.

The film stars Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai and Tamil actor Vikram.(IANS)

Read more »

Acclaimed Indian director Mani Ratnam will be honoured with Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award at the Venice Film Festival to be held in September.

Announcing this at Cannes, just before the launch of Mani Ratnam`s film `Raavan`, Venice Film Festival director Marco Muller said: "Mani Ratnam is one of the greatest innovators in contemporary Indian cinema. He helped introduce the auteur concept to contemporary Bollywood. We are very proud to honour the work of the great Indian director Mani Ratnam."

The festival premiere of "Raavan" was attended by the director, Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan, Vikram and A.R. Rahman.

Both the Hindi and Tamil versions will be screened at Venice Film Festival.

"Mani Ratnam used to make movies only in his native tongue Tamil, but has been one of the handful of filmmakers to successfully reach out to the all-India market," Muller said.

In recent years the award has been given to filmmakers Takeshi Kitano, Abbas Kiarostami, Agnes Warda and Sylvester Stallone.

`Raavan` tells the story of a bandit leader who kidnaps the wife of a policeman who killed his sister. The film stars Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai and Vikram. The music has been composed by AR Rahman.

Read more »