MUMBAI: Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group’s movie arm BIG Pictures is gearing up to release as many as 10 movies in 2009. These comprise Hindi as well as regional language films.
The ball will set rolling with the Hindi film Luck By Chance, which is slated to release on 30 January. The film marks the directorial debut of Zoya Akhtar and stars Farhan Akhtar, Juhi Chawla, Konkana Sen Sharma, Rishi Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia and has Hrithik Roshan in a special appearance. The plot of the film deals in and around Bollywood and how people from different walks of life come to the dream city to make it big in an industry where luck clicks more than hard work.
Next in line will be a film titled Sikander, which deals with the loss of innocence in strife-torn Kashmir. It has been produced by Sudhir Mishra and directed by Piyush Jha. The movie stars R. Madhavan, Sanjay Suri, Ayesha Kapoor (Black) and Parzaan Dastur.
BIG Pictures will also be readying a supernatural thriller 13 B, which is directed by Vikram and stars Madhavan and Neetu Chandra. This movie will be released in Hindi as well as Tamil.
On the regional front, BIG Pictures will be releasing films in Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, Tamil and Kannada in 2009. The company has a slate of three Bengali films namely Shob Choritra Kalponik, Abohomann and Janala. Shob Choritra Kalponik has been directed by Rituparno Ghosh and stars Prosenjit Chatterjee, Bipasha Basu and Jishu Sengupta. The movie depicts a pensive expedition of a woman who finds her purpose in life through the literary of her dead husband which averts a possible divorce.
Abohomann has also been directed by Ghosh and finds inspiration from the affair of the legendary director with his young heroine in this film. Starring Dipankar De, Mamata Shankar, Ananya Chatterjee, Jishu Sengupta and Ria Sen, the film portrays a sensational relationship between the director and the actress, a wife who swears to ruin his husband’s life and career and a son who become a target between this extravagant drama.
Director Buddhadeb Dasgupta will be directing Janala, which stars Indranil Sengupta, Sahana Sen, Swastika Mukherjee, Shankar Chakraborty and Tapash Paul. The movie illustrates the voyage of a man who tries to find a purpose in life by doing something good for his old school. What follows though is a series of disappointments, a wrenched marriage and a lost purpose.
On the Malayalam front, BIG Pictures will be releasing Kutty Srank directed by Shaji N. Karun. The movie brings together three different personalities of a dead boatman from the perspective of three women who claim to be his wife. It stars Mamooty, Kamilini Mukherjee, Padmapriya and Meenakumari.
Kannada film Ijjodu is about a photo journalist who finds an interesting girl who has been exploited in the name of religion. He succeeds in breaking her blind belief but fails to accept her to give her an alternative life. This Kannada flick has been directed by M.S. Sathyu and stars Meera Jasmine and Anirudh.
Veteran actor Amol Palekar is directing a Marathi film for BIG Pictures titled Samaantar. The film is about a leading business man in his 60s, a loner who completely neglected his personal life for his responsibilities. However, his life takes a U-turn towards a forgotten and long lost love. Accompanying Palekar are Sharmila Tagore, Samir Dharmadhikari, Aishwarya Narkar, Radhika Apte, Kishor Kadam, Sandeep Mehta in this intense love story.
Punjabi flick Chak Jawana, directed by Simerjit Singh, highlights the problems faced by the youth of a village in Punjab. These young men become directionless after falling prey to the evil of drugs. The helpless elders worry about the future of their community. In this atmosphere of despair, Captain Gurjeet Singh (Gurdas Maan) arrives home on a month’s leave from the Indian Navy. Disappointed with the situation prevailing in his village, he pledges to reform the undisciplined young men.
