Suspense And Supernatural Thriller Hovers Over March With BIG Pictures’ Two Films ‘Sikandar’ & ’13 B’

First look of both to be released on January 30th January, 2009 with ‘Luck By Chance’

Mumbai January 28, 2009: BIG Pictures, the motion pictures brand from Reliance Big Entertainment Ltd, brings two enthralling films back to back this March 2009. The suspense thriller ‘Sikandar’ starring Parzaan Dastur (of ‘Parzania’ fame) and Ayesha Kapoor (of ‘Black’ fame) and the supernatural thriller ’13B’ starring R. Madhavan and Neetu Chandra, the first look of which would be unveiled with ‘Luck By Chance’, the directorial debut of Zoya Akhtar asserted to be released worldwide on 30th January, 2009. BIG Pictures has a slate of 18 films for 2009 of which the three films above are planned for release in the first quarter.

Ecstatic about this New Year’s slate Rajesh Sawhney, President, Reliance Big Entertainment assured ¿”This year BIG Pictures is bringing a variety of cinematic flavors onto celluloid. Beginning with ‘Luck By Chance’ based about slice of life from Bollywood, followed by ‘Sikandar’ and ’13B’ to hit the theatres this March which will take suspense and thrillers to a whole new level. We have tried to bring in diverse directors, new actors and interesting mix of genres to entice all kinds of audiences in our slate.”

’13B’, a supernatural thriller is about a middle class youth Manohar and his family living on the 13th floor. The new television show is dissonantly similar to their family and as the show progresses all the happenings in the show takes place in the family too. The film is directed by National Award winning director Vikram K. Kumar. The film has R. Madhavan and Neetu Chandra in the lead roles and Sachin Khedekar, Murali Sharma and Poonam Dhillon as the supporting star cast.

Directed by Piyush Jha ‘Sikandar’ on the other hand is a suspense thriller. The story of a 14 year old schoolboy Sikander living in Kashmir with his uncle and aunt. One day, on his way home from a school football match, Sikandar finds a gun lying on the path which changes his life forever. ‘Sikandar’ is a story about friendship, power, loyalty and triumph. Parzaan Dastur takes on the role of Sikandar after his heart wrenching performance in ‘Parzania’ and IIFA award winner for her exceptional performance in the film ‘Black’, Ayesha Kapoor plays his conscience keeper. Also has R. Madhavan and Sanjay Suri playing pivotal characters in the film.

After the tremendous response for Ghajini and Rock ON in 2008, this year BIG has 18 films stocked up in seven different languages catering to all sorts of audiences, national and international. BIG Pictures is working with a mix bag of directorial talent range from mavericks like Vidhu Vinod Chopra, David Dhawan, Shyam Bengal, Sudhir Mishra and Madhur Bhandarkar to visionaries like Farhan Akhtar and Abhinay Deo along with a fresh pool of budding talent like Zoya Aktar, Piyush Jha, Vikram.

‘Luck By Chance’ All Set To Rule The Silver Screen Worldwide The Film To Be Released Over 900 Screens Worldwide In 27 Countries

Some slick marketing with Zapak.com, BIG Flicks has made many people lucky and more to follow.

Mumbai January 28, 2009: ‘Luck By Chance’, a film presented by BIG Pictures & Excel Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, has the wheel of fortune turning in all the right directions even before the film releases on the 30th January, 2009 worldwide. The film will open across 900 screens worldwide in 27 countries in first stage of release. Of this over 700 screens would be in India and the rest in the overseas market , key of which are USA, Canada, UK, UAE, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand.

Besides that the film is high on marketing facade as well. ‘Luck By Chance’ has taken over leading online gaming portal in India, Zapak.com. Zapak has created a special micro site www.lbc.zapak.com for the film which has already received over 1 million page views in a short span of 2 weeks. A exclusive game created on the movie called ‘Luck By Chance ¿ Lucky Break’ has received over half a million game plays in just 2 weeks.

BIGFlix.com, the movie rental portal by Reliance Big Entertainment Ltd which is a destination for all film buffs has partnered to promote the film across all 112 stores in 10 cities in the country as well as to the international audiences through its Video-on-Demand (VOD) site. The online promotions on the website have received overwhelming response not only from the Indian audiences but also from the NRI audiences across the globe. BIGFlix.com witnessed a 50% increase the last week for music videos, trailers and promotional contests of the film and the number seems to be getting bigger by the day. The movie is also making some noise over the top world music websites like itunes, Emusic, Napster and Amazon. The seven orchestrated songs from a mix flavour of soulful melodies to foot tapping dance numbers are top chartbusters.

For some Out of Home and innovative promotions – the film will run in Mumbai ‘Auto By Chance’, an activity that will take place on the release date of 30th January 2009. There will be 10 autos running across Mumbai and anyone lucky to hail these autos will get a free ride to their destination.

Produced by Ritesh Sidhwani & Farhan Ahktar the film is a narrative about the Bollywood film industry and how people from different walks of life come to the dream city Mumbai to make it big in an industry where luck clicks more than hard work. This film which marks the debut of Zoya Akhtar as the director stars Farhan Akhtar, Konkana Sen Sharma as leads and Hrithik Roshan in the special appearance.

Luck By Chance is not leaving any stone unturned to get lucky with the audiences and the responses are already heading in the positive directions.

Rock On!!! Rocks At The Star Screen Awards

Goes on to win six awards Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal, Shahana Goswami bag honours

January 15, 2009: Rock On, a film by Excel Entertainment’s & BIG Pictures is rocking once again. The cult film has not only won the hearts of the youth worldwide but has most recently bagged six Awards at the Star Screen awards including Best Debut actor, Best supporting actor , best supporting actress, best editor, best cinematographer and best art director this year.

Apart from Farhan who debuted as an actor, Shahana and Arjun Rampal who won awards for their rocking performances, Jason West grabbed the award for the Best Cinematography. The film also managed to garner awards for the Best Editing and Best Set Design.

On this celebrative occasion Rajesh Sawhney, President Reliance Big Entertainment Ltd said- “We always believed in ROCK ON as a concept and audience response has vindicated our belief. Rock on has proven the maturity of the Indian audience. It has also proved that good cinema can also be commercially viable. It’s overwhelming to see the film and music do so well. Even after six months of release the film’s music is rocking on top of the charts. The film winning six awards at Star Screen Awards pays up for the hard work that went behind making the film. I would like to congratulated Farhan and Ritesh and all members of Excel family on this superb achievement.”

Ritesh Sidhwani, ecstatically commented-“The response we have received is tremendous. The fact that it was loved by the audience was a huge reward for the entire team but winning awards on a prestigious platform like that of Star Screen put us on the seventh heaven. And there is more than one reason for us to celebrate as the film was recently also showcased at the Indian Visions Indian Film Festival of Washington, DC.”

Produced by Ritesh Sidhwani & Farhan Akhtar, directed by Abhishek Kapoor, the film and its music was like a youth anthem worldwide. The film which released on 29th August, 2009 starred Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal, Prachi Desai, Purab Kohli, Shahana Goswami and Luke Kenny.

About BIG Pictures:

Reliance Big Entertainment Ltd. (RBEL) (www.rbe.co.in ) is the flagship media and entertainment arm of Indian conglomerate, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (R-ADAG), (www.relianceada.com) with significant presence in film entertainment (film production, distribution, and exhibition), broadcasting and new media ventures.

With investments over USD 1 billion in its Filmed Entertainment business RBEL’s motion picture brand BIG Pictures has built a formidable film production slate in Hindi, English & other Indian languages, which it markets & distributes worldwide. The slate has projects with leading production houses and marquee Indian directors like Vidhu Vinod Chopra, David Dhawan, Indra Kumar, Ravi Chopra, Farhan Akhtar, Sudhir Mishra. Shaji N. Karun, Shyam Benegal, Rituparno Ghosh, Buddhadev Dasgupta, M.S Sathyu & Amol Palekar.

On the Hollywood slate, BIG Pictures has development silos with Nicolas Cage’s Saturn Productions, Jim Carrey’s JC 23 Entertainment, George Clooney’s Smokehouse Productions, Chris Columbus’ 1492 Pictures, Tom Hank’s Playstone Productions, Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment and Jay Roache’s Everyman Pictures.