NGE team asks Sajid Nadiadwala for a big celebration

With four back to back hits by his production house - Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.  (NGE) in 2014, the year has been super successful for Bollywood filmmaker Sajid Nadiadwala.

 As a producer, Sajid scored a hat-trick with his films `Highway`, `2 States` and `Heropanti` doing extremely well at the box office..

His directoral debut ‘ Kick’ striked gold at the box office and broke numerous records.  Sajid Nadiawala was bestowed with a special honor for the film at the recent Stardust awards.

He received the Stardust Special award for Biggest Grosser of 2014 for his film ' Kick'.

Sajid’s team has been asking him to throw a big success bash as 2014 has been a fabulous year for the director-producer.

With NGE sweeping away all the possible awards, the production house is riding high on success.

Berlinale Shorts: International Jury Confirmed and the New Audi Short Film Award

Berlinale Shorts International Jury (left to right): Madhusree Dutta, Wahyuni A. Hadi, Halil Altındere 

 The short film has a long tradition as an art form at the Berlinale and is an important component in the festival’s artistic profile. Since 1956 the Berlin International Film Festival has awarded a Golden and a Silver Bear to the best short films. Now in the 60^th year of their presentation, they will be joined by still another award whose winner will also be selected by the Berlinale Shorts International Jury:

The Audi Short Film Award will go to a director who has an extraordinary artistic signature. The winner will take home 20,000 euros. This makes the Audi Short Film Award one of the most generously endowed short film prizes in the world. With this award, Audi is considerably expanding its partnership with the Berlin International Film Festival.

“The award sponsored by Audi ideally augments our commitment to the short film and underscores its importance. We are delighted that Audi has launched this initiative to promote new and gifted directors further,” states Dieter Kosslick, Director of the Berlinale.“The Audi Short Film Award is yet another step in our cooperation with the Berlinale. As a progressive brand, we want to enable people to fully experience the connection between Audi and filmmaking in the future, and in many different ways. And to us that also includes an award that shines the spotlight on the creative talents of short film directors,” said Wayne Griffiths, Head of Sales Germany at AUDI AG.

The nominees for the Audi Short Film Award are all those directors participating with their films in the competition for best short film in the Berlinale Shorts programme. Appointed by the Berlinale, a three-member International Jury will decide who gets the award, which will be presented to the winner on February 14, 2015 during the Berlinale Awards Ceremony.
Jury 2015
This year’s International Short Film Jury will award the Golden and the Silver Bear, and the Audi Short Film Award. It will also nominate a short film for the European Film Awards in the category Best Short Film. The prize-winners of 2015 will be chosen by Wahyuni A. Hadi (curator, author and executive director of the Singapore International Film Festival), Halil Altındere (artist, curator and publisher of art-ist Magazine) and Madhusree Dutta (filmmaker, curator and pedagogue).
Wahyuni A. Hadi, Singapore

Curator and author Wahyuni A. Hadi is the executive director of the Singapore International Film Festival. In 2013 she co-produced Ilo Ilo, which won many awards, including the Caméra d’Or at the Festival de Cannes. She is a partner in Objectifs – Centre for Photography and Film, and founding member of the independent short film distributor Objectifs Films. As leading expert and advocate of Singaporean cinema, she initiated in 2009 the Singapore Short Film Awards with filmmaker Chai Yeewei and The Substation, Singapore’s first independent contemporary art centre.
Halil Altındere, Turkey

The Istanbul-based artist Halil Altındere explores political, social and cultural codes, and focuses largely on depicting marginalisation and resistance to oppressive systems. Altındere has been a central figure in the Turkish contemporary art world since the mid-1990s, not only as an artist but also as the publisher of art-ist Magazine and as a prominent curator. His works have been included in exhibitions at the Documenta, the Manifesta, and the biennials in Istanbul, Gwangju, Sharjah and São Paulo, as well as at MoMA/PS1, New York. In 2015, the Kunstpalais Erlangen will present a large solo exhibition of his work.
Madhusree Dutta, India

Since the 1990s, filmmaker, curator and pedagogue Madhusree Dutta’s inter-disciplinary engagement revolves around urbanology, migration, gender and identity. Madhusree’s films have been screened at film festivals and art events all around the world. Her latest multi-disciplinary, multi-scalar curatorial project Cinema City (2009 - 2014) was shown at Berlinale Forum Expanded in 2010. She is the executive director of Majlis, a centre for rights discourse and multi-cultural art initiatives in Mumbai.

Amitabh Bachchan and Sachin are the most Influential and Prolific Tweeple

Twitter Reveals the Most Influential Tweets from Prolific Tweeple

in India and Worldwide for #YearOnTwitter 2014

~Amongst the highlighted global news makers, two Fluence celebrities make it to this list~

Mumbai, December ’14: The year 2014 has undoubtedly belonged to social media and the digital platform. Right from the Pope to Presidents and celebrities, everyone has made a substantial impact through social media. The digital medium products such as selfies, retweets, posts on the most influential books thread, video bytes, challenges like the Ice Bucket and several other me too challenges, announcing breakups and marriages, open letters, celebrity fall outs and unisons with publications etc.; have ensured that the narrative is always chronicled on social media.

As the social soundtrack to life in India, Twitter has revealed the four most influential Tweeple in India for its #YearOnTwitter 2014 campaign, namely Amitabh Bachchan (12M), Shah Rukh Khan (10.4M), Priyanka Chopra (8.05M) and Sachin Tendulkar(4.85M). The portfolios of two of these biggies - Amitabh Bachchan (@srbachchan) and Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) are handled by Fluence, the leading celebrity digital network that has made news throughout the year with its disruptive activities and signings.

Starting 16^th December ’14 till 31^st Dec, the top 5 Tweets that created maximum impact from this set of Indian Tweeples will be showcased under the Perspectives section on 2014.twitter.com, along with other global movers and shakers such as Lady Gaga, Robert Downey Jr. and Neymar Jr. These influencers were chosen for their reach in the country and the news they made during the year on Twitter. Sachin’s picture of him posing with his mother holding his autobiography for the first time, him receiving the Bharat Ratna, Amitabh Bachchan’s thank you message for fans wishing him on his birthday and him sweeping the streets for Swach Bharat Abhiyaan were amongst the most talked about Tweets in the year.

Speaking about their influential clients, Ashish Joshi, VP Digital & Business Head Fluence says, “I would like to congratulate Mr Bachchan and Sachin, two prolific personalities who the people love and who have the power to influence the country with their statements. While it is an honour for Fluence to be associated with personalities of this calibre this association comes with the responsibility of constantly innovating and coming up with ideas that are true to their personalities and are also loved by their fans.  We hope continue to succeed in our efforts while handling these incredibly charismatic and influential people and set new benchmarks for ourselves in the years to come.”

Rishi Jaitly, Market Director for Twitter India and South East Asia added, “No doubt that 2014 was a breakthrough year for Indians using Twitter to connect to their world and heroes such as Amitabh Bachchan and Sachin Tendulkar with 12 million and nearly 5 million followers, respectively. We’re honored to feature them on our global #YearOnTwitter site which showcases the best of the world’s Twitter celebrities and how they connect with their followers in a more personal, authentic way. We look forward to enabling many more millions of Indians to stay engaged with their favourite idols through our platform for live, public conversations on their mobile devices.”

Established in 2013 by CA Media, Fluence has created waves in the nascent sector by signing on some of the biggest names in the industry such as Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Ranveer Singh, Sonu Nigam, Lata Mangeskhar, etc.