Shamita dances to kids tune

You did a song for Hari Puttar... It is a fun song?
Yes, but let me clarify that it was a promotional video and not part of the movie. The producers came to me after the film was shot. I liked the concept and took it on.

How was the experience shooting with little kids?
I enjoyed every moment. The idea was very cute. And I had to dance with kids. I found it interesting and so took it up. I think it is a fun song.

The media has been terming it an item number.
It is a masti number where I play myself. The song is peppy and Punjabi -- a fun song. To term it an item number is not fine. It is a kids film.

What motivated you to do a kids film?
I have never done a kids film. I wanted to do the song as like I said, the cuteness appealed to me.

How was it working with Zain?
Zain is a good actor. It was fun working with him.

We don't see you much on the silver screen. What is reason for being selective?
I am running my production house now. And it takes up a lot of my time. I do not get much time to do films and besides, I need something that I enjoy to take it up.

It is said that Shilpa Shetty is making a film with you and AkshayKumar in the lead roles?
I wish I get these newsbreaks before you do. No, Shilpa was never making a film with me and Akshay Kumar. These stories are made up by media.

Television. No, I haven't thought about it. I live one day a time. I don't know what the future holds for me. I would like to do a great job at what I have taken on right now. And if in the future, I get
interested then well, it is a matter of that moment.

What do you feel is the USP of Hari Puttar – A Comedy of Terrors?
Why does anyone go to the theatre after buying a ticket? To be entertained. Hari Puttar – A Comedy of Terrors has that entertainment value. It is a fun film and I am sure that is one reason why everyone must see it.

Talking of kids films, one parting question. How does it feel to see
Taare Zameen Par being chosen for the Oscars?
Taare Zameen Par is a film that everybody loved. It is a brilliantly made film. I am very happy it has been chosen for the Oscars. And I am sure it will win.

Tahaan is going global

Since its grand debut at Cannes, ‘Tahaan’ has been invited to participate in a number of esteemed film festivals across the globe. Tahaan has been selected in competition at the prestigious Rome International Film Festival (Oct 22, 2008) in Italy, CineKid International Film Festival (Oct 23,2008) in Amsterdam, Amazonas Film Festival (Nov 11-15, 2008) in Brazil, Dubai International Film Festival (Dec, 2008) in U.A.E, and Stockholm International Film Festival (Mar 2009) in Stockholm.

Tahaan has been invited for official selections at the Pusan International Film Festival (Oct 8, 2008) in South Korea, BFI London International Film Festival (Oct 15-30,2008) in the U.K, and Palm Springs International Film Festival (2009) in the US.

IDream Production’s ‘Tahaan’ directed by internationally acclaimed, award winning director and ace cinematographer Santosh Sivan made it’s global debut at the Cannes Film Market in 2008 to packed houses. Tahaan started its journey at Pusan in 2007 when the script was awarded a coveted place in the prestigious Pusan Promotional Plan, a dynamic project market focused in Asian cinema that provides financers and producers an opportunity to discover top quality projects.

Starring the enthralling, talented and versatile child actor Purav Bhandare, ‘Tahaan’ is a fable-like journey which revolves around an 8 year-old boy’s pursuit of purpose in his little world. Besides a truly spell-binding performance by Purav, the film also boasts of a strong ensemble cast consisting of some of the greatest veterans of Indian cinema such as Anupam Kher, Sarika, Rahul Bose, Victor Banerjee and Rahul Khanna.

Rafoo Chakkar (Comedy)

This one's a comedy that never takes off. Unless you find fine actors like Mita Vashisht and Archana Puran Singh playing 45-year-old brides to twenty-something chokras in order to hang on to their father's fortune. The chopsucky girls are simply in a marriage of convenience and try their best to hold onto their truant dulhas by using their fists, chops and kicks.

Doesn't work, because the aunties deserve better. Maybe, if they had a few funny lines, it might have helped. Or maybe, if the boys did not look as if they had lost their way and landed on the sets, the film would have had a story. But right now, it's time for a Rafoo Chakkar on the part of the viewer.

Welcome to Sajjanpur (comedy)

SHYAM Benegal's been to the Indian village, long years ago. Then, at the helm of the parallel film movement, he had given us films like Ankur , Nishant , showcasing the seamier side of rural India. The films still remain milestones in celluloid history. Benegal goes back to the village once again, this time with a breezy outlook and a buoyant tone. Of course, you do miss the stark realism and the social concerns of his earlier films. But hey, hasn't the national mood changed too? Isn't India several notches higher on the global happiness index. So smile. Sajjanpur's sweet, simple, sylvan bliss, where widows still aren't allowed to be remarried...but that's just a fleeting reference; where superstition, ritualism still rule...but that's funny, not sad; where politics and governance is a messy business...but that's comic business. So what if India's foremost filmmaker who pioneered hard-hitting realism in films is now somewhat soft and flossy; at least he's still around, unlike most of his contemporaries.

Hence, the importance of Welcome to Sajjanpur , a light-hearted sojourn into an archetypal gaon that's on the fringe of modernity. The leader of this pastoral pack is Shreyas Talpade, the educated postman who dreams of being a writer and writes letters instead. And as he pens postcards for the bunch of illiterate villagers, he gives us a peep into their lives. Like a master craftsmen, Benegal not only introduces you to the sundry characters -- the child widow, the abandoned wife, the harried mother, the corrupt neta, the romantic compounder -- he also helps you connect with them. You almost wish the postmaster's love story reaches a happy end, even as you hope the seductive widow finds her soulmate.

It's simple, uncomplicated storytelling that leaves a smile on your face.

Hari Puttar: A Comedy of Terrors (Comedy)

In an industry starved of children's films, any attempt to create a full blown entertainer aimed at the tween audience needs to be lauded. Unlike Hollywood, which treats its young audience very seriously, Bollywood really doesn't have much to boast about in this department. Hence the importance of a film like Hari Puttar which doesn't try to talk to adults through a tween protagonist. It talks to all. The film focuses on the heroics of a ten-year-old hero and is sure to have everyone -- under 10s and over 10s -- chuckling with glee with its generous splattering of slapstick masala and message. For behind all the bluster and pranks, there is the sweet little homily on the great Indian family. A happy family is the antidote to all evils. Amen!

Hari Puttar is a cute Punjabi munda who, like all pre-pubescent kids, feels awkward, out of place and almost neglected in his kingsize family. In a fretful moment, he just wishes they would disappear. And they do. The puttar is left alone with his young cousin, Tuk Tuk (Swini Khara) and hopes to do everything he's not allowed to do. Like, rummaging through his elder brother's possessions, exploring his dad's study, shaving like a man....Until, the intruders arrive. Then, it's a full blown war to save a microchip, that has national importance, from the goons (Saurabh Shukla, Vijay Raaz).

It's here, in the second half, that the film really picks up and evokes peals of laughter, as the bumbling baddies end up bruised, battered and Hari weary. The fulcrum of the zany show is young Zain Khan who manages to create a winsome picture of a strong, yet vulnerable kid, longing for his mom in the midst of the mayhem. Cute.

Name Game: A Tale of Acknowledgment for ‘Despereaux’

As Universal readies “The Tale of Despereaux” for release in December, Sylvain Chomet, the acclaimed director of the Oscar-nominated animated feature “The Triplets of Belleville,” is raising a plaint about its handling of the last issue, if not all four.

In both an e-mail message and a telephone interview this week, Mr. Chomet — who was fired as the director of “Despereaux” more than two years ago — accused both the studio and the film’s producers, Gary Ross and his wife, Allison Thomas, of using his designs and concepts in the movie without acknowledging his contribution. It is a claim the filmmakers strenuously dispute.

Mr. Chomet’s unusually open challenge may simply point to a gulf between European practices, which grant artists enduring “moral rights” in their work, and an American approach that says, in effect, a deal is a deal.

That hard-nosed attitude is especially so in Hollywood, where battles over authorship can be particularly ferocious. Still, it is an unwanted embarrassment for Universal, which is ramping up its efforts in animated features, a genre it has recently left to others. And it offers a glimpse at the tensions that sometimes afflict the business of creating family fun.

The French-born Mr. Chomet, who is working at his studio in Scotland, stopped short of contending that anyone had violated his contractual rights; he acknowledges having been fully paid for his work.

But he expressed outrage at seeing promotional materials for the movie, based on a hugely popular children’s book by Kate DiCamillo, that omitted any mention of him. “I feel utterly disgusted that someone else is going to take credit for all my visuals and concepts on this film,” he said in an e-mail message.

“We’re making a film for kids, a film that has a moral,” Mr. Chomet added in a telephone interview on Friday, “and behind it is such aggressive action about lawyers and legal things — there are no human relationships. I felt like a lemon; they got the juice out of me and threw me away.”

Shakira's 'Barefoot' to focus on poverty worldwide

Shakira said Barefoot, known as Pies Descalzos in her native Colombia, will start focusing on children worldwide later this year.

"We have a model that works. Under less than $2 a day, we can provide a kid with top quality education and the nutrition that they need to be able to function and be able to learn because a kid with an empty stomach cannot learn," said the singer, a multiplatinum superstar known for hits like "Hips Don't Lie."

"So this model that has been so successful in my country, now I want to bring it to other countries in my small way."

Shakira made the comments Wednesday after appearing at Columbia University with Spanish singing sensation Alejandro Sanz and the presidents of Mexico, Argentina, Paraguay, El Salvador and Panama. The event focused on the importance of education, nutrition and health intervention for Latin American children. The singers asked the presidents to adopt an agreement on combating child poverty during the upcoming Iberoamerican Summit in late October.

"The presidents seem very committed and that's what we need. We need all the leaders of Latin America to have a definite commitment toward our children (because) the children of Latin America are waiting for opportunities," said Shakira in an interview after conference.

"Where I come from every child who is born poor will die poor and we have to change this, and this is the moment to do it. We are at the threshold of a new wave of awareness and sensibility toward our children's issues. But early childhood development should be at the top of our priorities and at the top of every president's agenda."

In attendance were Mexican President Felipe Calderon; Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez; the president of Paraguay, Fernado Lugo; El Salvador's president, Tony Saca; and Panamanian President Martin Torrijos. Also on hand was Dominican-born baseball star Sammy Sosa, Panamanian musician Ruben Blades and English rocker Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame, along with Nobel Prize-winning economist James J. Heckman and Luis Alberto Moreno, president of the Inter-American Development Bank.

The event was sponsored by the Earth Institute at Columbia, led by economist Jeffrey Sachs.

Shakira and Sanz are members of Latin America in Solidarity Action (the Spanish acronym is ALAS, or "wings"), a nonprofit coalition founded by Latin American artists, intellectuals and business leaders to promote social communities and early childhood development programs in Latin America.

Earlier this year, ALAS held all-star fundraising concerts in Mexico and Argentina that helped secure $200 million in donations.

"I belong to a generation that is learning new ways to get involved in these issues. We are not a passive generation, we're very proactive," Shakira said. "We want to see all those brutal contrasts in our world disappear, we want to see poverty eliminated because we believe it is possible."

She also talked about the upcoming U.S. presidential election, and urged Latino voters to use their voice and vote.

"I'd like to invite the Latino community to come out and make themselves present during this election because they can really make a difference," she said. "I care deeply about this country and I think everyone does because America's economy is so crucial for the rest of the world. The rest of the world's economy depends on the economy of this country and world peace depends on the policies of this country."