SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 2014

South Korean girl group Girl’s Day members pose for the media and fans during an event for their new album “Everyday III” in Seoul, South Korea, yesterday. —AP

lmost 40 years after one of longest ever run in India at the time. there were holes, digitise the film, strip the he producers of “Lone Survivor” Remington Chase and Stefan Bollywood’s most famous films broke Producers Shaan Uttam Singh and Sascha sound, keep the dialogue, re-record all the Martirosian are convicted cocaine dealers and have ties to Abox office records, “Sholay” (Embers) Sippy said they wanted to restore the original sound and music and also convert the film TRussian oil and an alleged contract murder, according to an has been restored for release Friday in 3D to a film for new generations of movie watchers, into 3D,” Sippy added. investigation by the L.A. Weekly. new generation of moviegoers. while also giving it a 3D boost. Singh said the Sholay opens across Indian and United Hollywood financiers Remington Chase and Stefan Martirosian The iconic Indian film, which stars technical process took three years to com- Arab Emirates cinemas on Friday in 2D and carry separate convictions for cocaine trafficking from 1993 and Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Amjad plete, and was estimated to have cost more 3D. The classic, which, like all Bollywood that’s hardly the most colorful - not to say sinister - part of their Khan and other Bollywood greats, is an action than $3 million. movies, includes a love story, will be released backgrounds, according to the article by L.A. Weekly’s Gene adventure about two petty thieves hired by a “First we scanned and digitised the origi- in other countries later this year. Maddaus. This includes Chase’s history as an FBI informant, and police officer to exact revenge on a ruthless nal negative and then it was restored,” Singh Martirosian’s alleged involvement in a contract killing in Russia. But bandit. told AFP. The background score was also Legal wrangling they really want to make movies. The two burst onto the The movie, which borrowed heavily from modernised, while leaving the dialogue But torturous legal action had threatened Hollywood scene in September 2011. the Westerns of the time, proved so popular untouched. “We pepped up the music a bit to to overshadow the release, with the original They had set up a company, Envision Entertainment, along with after its release in 1975 that it screened for make it sound modern,” said Sippy. Sholay’s director, Ramesh Sippy, fighting with a $250 million fund to produce films in partnership with two low- five years at a landmark Mumbai theatre, the “We first had to fill in the negative where family members over who owned rights to the budget action producers, Randall Emmett and George Furla. In film. 2012, another announcement boosted the fund to $525 million. Ramesh Sippy lodged court action against The announcements were not exactly true. There was no “fund,” his nephew, producer Sascha Sippy, and other and the numbers were chosen for effect more than accuracy, family members who run several companies according to Grant Cramer, an executive VP at Envision. But the pair that own the titles to Sholay as well as other was pumping serious money into production. Soon they were get- Bollywood films. ting executive producer credits on big-budget films. Those films include some made by Ramesh The producers admit to having lost more than $50 million on Sippy’s father, G.P Sippy, who was also the pro- the dozen movies they have backed so far, including “2 Guns,” with ducer for the original Sholay and who died in Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington, and “Escape Plan,” star- 2007. ring Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Among their Earlier this year, a Mumbai court denied projects now in development are movies based on two Hasbro Ramesh Sippy’s request for a stay on the new board games: Monopoly and Hungry Hungry Hippos. “We have Sholay’s release until his rights to the film were invested over $50 million that we don’t expect a return on,” Chase restored. Sippy, who has had no involvement said in the interview. And Martirosian says they’ve learned from in restoring the film, lost an appeal against the early mistakes: “If we’re going to do a film, we have to control it, A court decision earlier this month. Film critic and to Z. We cannot be passive investors. That’s out of the question.” In this photograph taken on November 7, 2013, Indian Bollywood author Khalid Mohamed said the original In Hollywood, there is no shortage of colorful money men writ- movie was considered one of Bollywood’s ing the checks for big movies (“Fight Club” producer Arnon Milchan scriptwriters Javed Akhtar (L) and Salim Khan (R) speak to media at a finest because of the performances of Amjad promotional event for the film ‘Sholay’, which is scheduled to be re- recently admitted to being an Israeli spy, for instance), but they Khan, who died in 1992, and others under don’t get much more Day-Glo than this. —Reuters released in 3D, in Mumbai. —AFP Ramesh Sippy’s stellar direction. —AFP