The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz
The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz |
| India woos foreign filmmakers with faster approvals Posted: 15 Jan 2014 03:46 AM PST The ministry of information and broadcasting said it was "inviting" foreign filmmakers to make their movies in India – "a country with locations of untold beauty". "We have simplified the procedure for shooting of films by foreigners in India," the ministry of information and broadcasting said on its website. "Your permission to shoot should not take more than three weeks to process," an undated notice on the website said today. The move comes after global business consultancy Ernst and Young in a report last year called India's lack of simplified clearance for filming a "primary obstacle" to attracting foreign moviemakers. Under the old rules, foreign filmmakers needed 70 approvals and licences from different Indian government authorities to shoot movies in the country, the Ernst and Young report said. The new rules tell applicants to send a letter with proposed dates and sites for shooting the movie as well as cast member names and a $225 (RM739.46) cheque, the website said. Bureaucratic red-tape was blamed for India losing at least 18 big-budget foreign movies over four years to 2012, the report by Ernst and Young said. Special approval, in consultation with India's home ministry, is still needed to shoot movies in the picturesque, revolt-hit regions of Indian Kashmir and the northeast as well as in sensitive border belts. Despite the simplification, it was not clear whether the new rules would change India's sensitivity to scenes that it feels show the country in an unfavourable light. In 2012, India hit the headlines when it asked makers of the recent James Bond hit "Skyfall" to change a stunt showing people travelling on train rooftops, saying it would depict the state-run railway in a poor light. The film in the end was not made in India due to various problems including bureaucratic delays, according to media reports, and was shot in Turkey, Japan and Scotland among other locations, reports said. Broadcasting minister Manish Tewari flagged plans last October to change the rules in a bid to attract more foreigners, saying "any lost opportunity is a revenue loss for the country". Even under the old system, a number of recent Hollywood box office hits were filmed in India including "Eat, Pray and Love, and "Life of Pi". India also plans to update its 1952 Cinematographic Act which governs censorship and assigns classifications to films that critics say is outdated. India is seeking to compete with other countries which are offering incentives to attract movie producers to shoot films there. - AFP, January 15, 2014. |
| Philippines celebrates as caregiver wins Israel’s X-Factor Posted: 15 Jan 2014 02:19 AM PST Rose Fostanes (pic), one the millions of Filipino overseas workers who are lionised back home and form a crucial pillar of the country's economy, won the competition late yesterday with a rendition of Frank Sinatra's "My Way" that delighted fans in both countries. Local television, news websites, and social media were filled with praise for the unmarried 47-year-old caregiver, who relatives said had worked abroad for more than two decades to support her family. "We know the situation she was in and we are very proud that she has again given the Philippines pride in the showcase of her talent," President Benigno Aquino's spokesman Edwin Lacierda told reporters today. "The Filipino has an innate advantage when it comes to the arts... It clearly shows that the excellence of the Filipino can be expressed anywhere, everywhere, when they are given the opportunity to show their talent." Some reports likened Fostanes to Susan Boyle, the middle-aged Scottish singer whose humble looks and shy demeanour belied a scintillating voice that captivated millions on the television talent show "Britain's Got Talent" in 2009. Before she entered the competition, Fostanes's day job had been to care for an elderly employer in Tel Aviv – one of some 10 million Filipinos, about a tenth of the population, who have gone to work abroad to escape poverty and joblessness back home. "Not all workers and cleaners from the Philippines are in a position like this: It's like Cinderella, you know," she told the show in an earlier interview uploaded on YouTube. But she fretted whether Israel's television audience would vote her out of the contest in favour of her much-younger, slimmer rivals. "This is what I'm afraid of, because I don't have the whole package," she said. But fans were won over. In a live performance watched on television by many of her impoverished countrymen before dawn today, Fostanes won the judges' nod with her performance. She had blitzed through the earlier rounds with impressive renditions of songs by Tina Turner, Lady Gaga, Prince and Christina Aguilera among others. Clips of her "X-Factor Israel" performances have been drawing tens of thousands of hits since they were uploaded on YouTube this month. Prior to Fostanes, Filipinos threw their support behind Jessica Sanchez, an American teenager with a mother born in the Philippines, who came close to winning the "American Idol" singing competition in 2012. - AFP, January 15, 2014. |
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