Sterling Global

Category: Ethnic

  • AKSHAY KUMAR’S AIRLIFT UNSTOPPABLE AT THE INTERNATIONAL BOX OFFICE

    AKSHAY KUMAR’S AIRLIFT UNSTOPPABLE AT THE INTERNATIONAL BOX OFFICE

    Indian cinema megastar Akshay Kumar has once again enthralled audiences with his latest film ‘Airlift’, a tense drama based on the true life events during the Gulf War of 1990 which witnessed the world’s largest human evacuation in history. Released just before India’s 67th Republic Day, the film captures the sheer brilliance of the unspoken heroic mission of India which has become an ‘AIRLIFT’ing experience.

    Airlift opened to phenomenal reviews, word of mouth and box office takings in India, and has continued its winning streak in all major international box offices over the weekend, opening to record breaking numbers.

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    Touted as as Akshay Kumar’s PERFORMANCE OF A LIFETIME, Airlift has become Akshay Kumar’s highest grossing first week ever, surpassing his previous hits such as Rowdy Rathore, Houseful 2, Gabbar, Special 26, Singh Is Bling, Baby and Brothers.

    The international box office for Indian cinema has historically been dominated by family dramas, rom-coms and romance genres, but despite Airlift’s thriller-esque screenplay, it has emerged a triumphant success as it entered its second weekend.

    Continuing to capture the hearts and minds of millions of fans internationally, the impressive stats for the film’s performance to date include USA and Canada where it took USD $ 844, 454 and CAD $ 219, 770 respectively; the UK, where it made £208, 627; the Middle East saw it rake in a record USD $1.5 million (AED 5,200,000 approx);  Australia saw it take $ 345, 250 AUD; New Zealand, where it broke it also broke previous records set by Akshay’s films, taking a very impressive $ 105, 863 NZD; the box office in Fiji Islands took  FJD 48368 and rest of the world USD $375,500, amounting to an aggregate and ever increasing sum of approximately USD $3.4 million.

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    Speaking about the success of the film internationally, Mr Sunil Shah, Head of Film Division at B4U, said, “We are very proud of the response we have received for ‘Airlift’ internationally and the box office figures are hugely remarkable for a film of this genre. The success of Airlift internationally clearly conveys a trajectory in the changes in film consumption – the international audience for cinema is expanding and becoming more accepting of other genres – and as a company we are delighted to be at the forefront of this emerging trend.

    The aim for us as distributors is to release a film, help widen its reach and appeal and ultimately to positively impact the box office. Despite distributing a film starring one of India’s greatest film actors, the strategy we adopted was qualitative over quantitative to reflect the concept of the film, selecting the most appropriate sites and markets.

    Since the narrative of Airlift is transient and can resonate with migrants and any individual who has been displaced in their country as refugees, it strikes an emotional chord with audiences, thus we reflected this nuance in our publicity and marketing campaign which helped us to captivate and engage audiences.”

    Airlift is an edge-of-the-seat entertaining thriller, directed by Raja Krishna Menon and stars Akshay Kumar and Nimrat Kaur (Homeland, The Lunchbox). The story, based on a true event, is set in 1990 in Kuwait, the time of the Gulf War when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. The film has Akshay Kumar, playing Ranjit Katyal, a wealthy and powerful Indian businessman, who initially considers himself a Kuwaiti rather than an Indian. But after finding himself and the lives of his family in danger, eventually becomes the man who helps evacuate 170,000 Indians from Kuwait and brings them back safely to India. Over 59 days, 488 Air India commercial airliners were flown into a war zone to evacuate 170,000 Indians and bring them back home safely making this the largest human evacuation in history, which has also found its way to the Guinness Book Of World Records.

    Here are just some of the outstanding reviews and comments the film has received:

    • Taran Adarsh tweeted: “#Airlift is a must must watch. One of the finest films to come out of the Hindi film industry. Just do not miss this one!”
    • Popular UK presenters Raj and Pablo from BBC Asian Network say: “Akshay is simply outstanding”
    • Top UK Asian website Punjab2000 said: So many positives can be taken from this dramatic film
    • Gulf News say: “Airlfit is Raw and Real”
    • First Post said: “Akshay Kumar nails the role of an unsung hero in this heart-stopping thriller”
    • Movie critics Shubha Shetty from Mid-day gave the film 4 stars, Saibal Chaterjee from NDTV 4 stars and Taran Adarsh 4.5 stars

    B-Town has also been sending a wave of positive comments to Akshay Kumar and those involved in the project:

    • Rishi Kapoor – Saw Airlift.Brave film by director.Bhushan/Nikhil tops.Akshay,Nimrat work effortlessly.That George was good. Film Instils patriotism.See it!
    • Prabhu Deva – @akshaykumar sir superb, team work superb, loved it! #Airlift
    • Varun Dhawan – Saw #airlift. Really loved the film. .@akshaykumar best.lovely to see @NimratOfficial on screen congrats@TSeries @nikkhiladvani @RajaMenon
    • Anupam Kher – Congrats to the cast & crew of AIRLIFT. @akshaykumar your performance is of International level. Your graph as an actor is Inspirational.:)
    • Karan Arjun – #airlift is a heartwarming film about the triumph of the human spirit!! @akshaykumar in his career best portrayal was the soul of the film.
    • Hrithik Roshan – Happy Republic day! #Airlift is so deserving of all d success. Congrats @akshaykumar @mrsfunnybones n team. My Republic Day well spent!

    Catch the video highlighting some of the brilliant reviews the film has garnered:
    https://www.facebook.com/akshaykumarofficial/videos/10153634561098283/?theater

    Airlift is released by B4U and is on general release internationally.

  • UN GLOBAL GOALS REACH ALMOST 3 BILLION PEOPLE IN JUST 7 DAYS AFTER 193 WORLD LEADERS UNITE IN NYC

    UN GLOBAL GOALS REACH ALMOST 3 BILLION PEOPLE IN JUST 7 DAYS AFTER 193 WORLD LEADERS UNITE IN NYC

    With the historic signing of the goals taking place in New York on 25th September, many extraordinary achievements have been made so far to make the goals famous, highlights availablehere*, with an estimated 40% reach of the global population – an average of 417 million people per day.

    • 500 million children reached with the World’s Largest Lesson thanks to commitments from Ministries of Education in 103 countries
    • 136 flags raised from the North Pole to North Korea, Moscow’s Red Square to 10 Downing Street, Larke Pass in Nepal to the Himalayas in India
    • Mobile operators text almost one billion people about the goals and spread the word to 5.2 billion customers
    • 60,000 people attended the Global Citizen Festival including; First Lady Michelle Obama, Leonardo DiCaprio, Arjun Kapoor, Bono, Bill and Melinda Gates and Malala Yousafzai. The concert was headlined by Beyoncé and Coldplay and watched on TV in 26 countries
    • 1.3 million mentions on social media with #globalgoals trending across the world thanks to the support of 20 of the world’s top websites, Prime Minister David Cameron, Hillary Clinton, Jennifer Lopez, Ashton Kutcher, 1D, David, Bollywood stars Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar and Victoria Beckham and many more
    • Countless people joined a star studded line-up in the crowdsourced film ‘We The People’ contributed to by Stephen Hawking, Daniel Craig, Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Winslet, Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Colin Firth, Stevie Wonder, Akshay Kumar, Jacqueline Fernandez, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan and many more.
    • The World’s First Global Cinema Ad produced by Aardman and voiced by Liam Neeson and Michelle Rodriguez premiered in 34 cinemas globally
    • Over 250 million people engaged via Radio Everyone in 75 countries with 600 radio partners
    • Famous faces including; Naomi Campbell, Nicole Scherzinger, Lily Cole, Sadie Frost, Jodie Kidd, Laura Bailey, Alice Temperley and Alek Wek pledged their support for the goals they are most passionate about in a series of striking photographs
    • ‘Invisible man’ artist Liu Bolin created a new piece of artwork by camouflaging himself in front of 193 UN countries’ flags
    • Action/2015 report that over 200,000 people took action across more than 100 countries
    • Corporates such as Tata group, Standard Chartered, eBay India, Reliance Group, Aviva and many more, all helped promote the global goals

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    The aims of the Global Goals are to achieve three extraordinary things in the next 15 years; end poverty, fight inequality & injustice and tackle climate change – for everyone.

    193 world leaders have now adopted these aims and committed to addressing 17 Goals.

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    Project Everyone, founded by Richard Curtis, aims to both make the goals famous and to push for their full implementation. If the goals are famous- if people care about what has been promised by the politicians, it greatly increases their chance of being implemented.

    Richard Curtis said: “In just 7 days we’re halfway towards achieving the ambitious goal of telling everyone in the world about the UN Global Goals. Knowledge is power and country by country people are starting to find out about the plan their politicians have made.

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    We all need to know what our rights are in order to claim them. This simple idea of ‘telling everyone’ about the goals means that we can now begin to hold our politicians to account in addressing the 17 core issues brought to the world’s attention at the Sustainable Development Summit on 25th September. Their final aim will be to make us the first generation to end extreme poverty, the most determined generation to end inequality and injustice and the last generation to be threatened by climate change.

    I hope we can now continue to spread the message of the goals to everyone to help make them a reality by 2030. And work towards an annual day where everyone will be encouraged to focus on the Goals, the progress made so far and what needs to be addressed in the years and years ahead to achieve their final goal.”

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    Stephen Hawking said: “2015 is the year world leaders sign up to the Global Goals. They are an ambitious to do list to eradicate poverty, save the environment, and make the world a fairer place for everyone. To save the world we need everyone to tell everyone.”

    Find out more about the Global Goals: www.globalgoals.org

  • DSC SOUTH ASIAN LITERATURE PRIZE

    DSC SOUTH ASIAN LITERATURE PRIZE

    16th January 2016; Sri Lanka: Anuradha Roy has been announced as the winner of the prestigious DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2016 for her novel, Sleeping on Jupiter at the Fairway Galle Literary Festival in Sri Lanka. In a glittering ceremony, the US $50,000 DSC Prize along with a unique trophy was awarded by Hon. Ranil Wickremesinghe, Prime Minister of Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka to the winner.

    The six shortlisted authors and novels in contention for the DSC Prize this year were Akhil Sharma: Family Life (Faber & Faber, UK), Anuradha Roy: Sleeping on Jupiter (Hachette, India), K.R. Meera: Hangwoman (Translated by J Devika; Penguin, India), Mirza Waheed: The Book of Gold Leaves (Viking/Penguin India), Neel Mukherjee: The Lives of Others (Vintage/Penguin Random House, UK) and Raj Kamal Jha: She Will Build Him A City (Bloomsbury, India).

    Now in its sixth edition, the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature is an established international literary prize that awards the best work in South Asian fiction writing each year. This year the DSC Prize had received 74 entries with participation from publishers from the South Asian region as well as from countries like the UK, US, Canada, Australia and South Africa amongst others. The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature which is specifically focused on South Asian writing is unique in the sense that it is not ethnicity driven in terms of the author’s origin and is open to any author belonging to any part of the globe as long as the work is based on the South Asian region and its people. The past winners have been from various countries and their work has reflected the importance of South Asian culture and literature.

    The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2016 was judged by a diverse and distinguished five member jury panel comprising eminent figures drawn from the international literary fraternity who have worked in or around South Asian literature and issues. The jury panel comprised of Mark Tully, Chair of the jury panel and renowned journalist who has commentated on a wide range of issues affecting the South Asian region for over four decades; Dennis Walder, Emeritus Professor of Literature at the Open University, UK, who has authored several articles and books on 19th and 20th century literature; Karen Allman, highly respected book seller and literary coordinator based out of Seattle, USA; Neloufer de Mel, Senior Professor of English at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, who has written extensively on society, culture and feminism; and Syed Manzoorul Islam, celebrated Bangladeshi writer, translator, critic and academic.

    Speaking on the occasion, Mark Tully on behalf of the jury said “We had a shortlist of six outstanding books. Their excellence made our task particularly difficult. We chose Sleeping on Jupiter by Anuradha Roy because of its elegance, flair and readability. It raises many issues succinctly and with commendable economy of words. The South Asian setting is described faithfully and evocatively. Among the issues raised are the power of memory and myth, religious hypocrisy, sexuality, abuse and other forms of violence. The novel contains powerful portraits of both major and minor characters. We believe this book will be a source of inspiration to other writers.

    Congratulating the winner, Surina Narula, MBE and co-founder of the DSC Prize said “My heartfelt congratulations to Anuradha Roy for winning the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2016. The winning novel highlights the changing dynamics in South Asian life and culture in a unique way. It must have been a tough task for the jury members to choose from the six exceptional contenders and arriving at the eventual winner as each one of the novels represents the very best in South Asian fiction writing. Completing six successful years, the DSC Prize remains focused on recognizing and showcasing the immense talent writing about the South Asian region and bringing it to the larger global audience.”

    Hon. Ranil Wickremesinghe, Prime Minister of Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka was the Chief Guest of the event. While presenting the trophy to the winner he commented on the importance of South Asian literature and the crucial role it can play to improve the lives of the people living in this region.

    The last five winners of the DSC Prize have been Jhumpa Lahiri (The Lowland: Vintage Books/Random House, India), Cyrus Mistry (Chronicle of a Corpse Bearer: Aleph Book Company, India), Jeet Thayil (Narcopolis: Faber & Faber, London), Shehan Karunatilaka (Chinaman: Random House, India) and HM Naqvi (Home Boy: Harper Collins, India). Each of these winners has gone on to be published internationally and their work has reached a larger global audience which has been one of the central visions of the DSC Prize.

    Over the years the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature has been deeply involved in supporting the cause of South Asian literature and is committed to widen the ambit of conversation on South Asian writing by reaching out to diverse audiences through its various events and initiatives.