Showing posts with label Taiwan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Taiwan. Show all posts
Arjan Bajwa bags Indo-Taiwanese action-horror comedy Demon Hunters
8:31 AM
Arjan Bajwa stars in Demon Hunters, an Indo-Taiwanese action-horror comedy, learning Mandarin for the role
Letty Mariam Abraham (MID-DAY; June 1, 2025)
After testing the waters in Bollywood and south Indian films, Arjan Bajwa is heading for greener pastures. The actor is set to feature in his first international project — Demon Hunters, an Indo-Taiwanese co-production. Directed by Mei-Juin Chen, this action-horror comedy is currently in post-production and is slated to release later this year.
“The story and subject are both interesting, and offer a fresh take on two cultures coming together in one film,” shares the actor, who took it upon himself to learn the language before the shoot.
As the only Indian actor on set, Bajwa says the cast and crew made him feel at home, but he was determined to overcome the language barrier. “I went to Taiwan 15 days before the shoot started, as we had a lot of action rehearsals to do. At the same time, I took one hour of Mandarin lessons every day. Even though I spoke mostly in English in the film, it was important to get familiar with the language,” explained the actor. He hopes that being well-versed in the language will open more doors for him.
Heavy on action and VFX, Demon Hunters is produced by Lighthouse Productions (Taiwan) and Kleos Entertainment (India). Bajwa is confident that playing the lead in an Indo-Taiwanese film will make people sit up and take notice.
“Taiwanese films are high on emotions and action. Demon Hunters has a lot of elements that are new and different for the audience to watch and experience. It’s a VFX-heavy project, and includes more than 600 VFX shots,” says the actor. Bajwa will next be seen in the crime thriller Second Chance, directed by Sachin Karande.
India is a densely populated country, but that can’t be an excuse. We have to admit that we went wrong-Sonu Sood
8:28 AM
Amid news of an impending third wave, Sonu Sood joins hands with companies in China, France, and Taiwan to set up oxygen plants for country
Uma Ramasubramanian (MID-DAY; May 10, 2021)
A year after first taking charge of serving the people of India, Sonu Sood is leading from the front with the same passion, this time preparing for the next Coronavirus wave. Sood, who has been vocal about the need to provide timely help to people suffering from the disease, is now in talks with companies in France, Taiwan and China to acquire oxygen cylinders, and set up plants in India, should the third wave hit.
“We have a Zoom meeting with them after 20 days. We should get our first set [of oxygen plants]. We are working on the logistics, and will put things together. I am learning a lot of things as we go about dealing with the pandemic.”
The actor, who has been attending to requests from struggling citizens daily, has enabled them to source cylinders and concentrators. He also collaborated with hospitals and organisations to facilitate the same. Should he be able to procure the required oxygen plants from France, he hopes to provide them to states like Delhi, Punjab, Maharastra and Uttar Pradesh. Oxygen plants are large industrial systems capable of providing several cylinders’ worth of gas per day. The oxygen generated can be supplied straight to the site of use, either through a pipeline, or via cylinders.
“The idea is to be prepared for the third wave. We have upped the number of members on the team that is catering to rural areas so that we can reach out to everyone. A group of 400 people work on every call. We have realised that there are three major factors that people are struggling with — acquiring oxygen, hospital beds, and injections. I am sure that the government is doing its bit, but, it’s important to put things together in advance, this time around.”
The actor doesn’t mince words when establishing that the country “crashed” under the burden of the ongoing second wave. “Only one to two per cent of our GDP is spent on healthcare. So, we were never prepared for a pandemic. Yes, India is a densely populated country, but that can’t be an excuse. We have to admit that we went wrong.”
Fenil's Bollywood Talk # 628
9:46 AM
SOUTH KOREAN FILM ALIVE EMERGES AS A HIT; GIVES HOPE TO REST OF THE WORLD!
There has been no new release across the world since 3-4 months thanks to the Coronavirus induced lockdown. The Hollywood has been itching to get back to it’s feet and as reported last week, 4 films planned to release in the month of July – Unhinged on July 10, The Broken Hearts Gallery on July 17, Mulan on July 24 and Tenet on July 31. Unfortunately, due to the rising cases in USA, all these films were shifted ahead. As per the new schedule, Unhinged now arrives on July 31 followed by The Broken Hearts Gallery on August 7, Tenet on August 12 and Mulan on August 21.
However, there’s one place where the cases have dropped considerably and where many activities have resumed, including going to cinemas. This country is South Korea and it was a surprise to know that last week, on June 24, a film called Alive released in cinemas. It was very well received and surprisingly, managed to get 5 million footfalls in just five days! It has done a business of $5,475,383 (Rs. 4.13 crore approx) till now.
Many experts had predicted that moviegoers would not go to see a film till the time a vaccine is not found. Hence, it’s interesting and even heartening to see that despite the Coronavirus scare still looming large in the world, people have thronged to cinemas in Korea. Theatres in fact never got shut in South Korea ever! What also helps is that the country got very less Coronavirus cases. As of Wednesday July 1, it had just 12,850 cases and mere 282 deaths. On an average, it gets only 40-50 cases a day. The other major markets of the world like USA, UK, India etc still suffer from a large number of new cases daily. China is another major market but it hasn’t given go-ahead for theatres to resume operations.
On the other hand, there have been several other countries that have opened up cinemas like Japan (was also kept open like South Korea, but theatres had shut down for 2-3 weeks in April), Vietnam, Hong Kong, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, UAE, Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Czech Republic, Croatia, Slovakia, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Germany and Poland. In most of these regions, social distancing is heavily enforced and hence, a limited number of people are allowed per screen. And all of them are playing old films. Yet, it’s heartening to know that week by week, the footfalls are seeing a gradual increase. Hong Kong saw a 71% increase, Taiwan 35%, New Zealand 17%, Australia 17%, UAE 16% increase in footfalls as compared to last weekend. The box office income in these regions is meagre but it’s a good start. And once new films release in July end, it’s sure to earn more and also by then more markets would have opened.
Image: Sumeet Vyas is on a ‘delayed’ honeymoon with actor-wife Ekta Kaul in Taiwan
8:15 AM
The actor-couple had tied the knot in September last year
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 2, 2019)
Veere Di Wedding actor Sumeet Vyas and TV actress Ekta Kaul, who tied the knot in September 2018 after over a year-long courtship, flew to Taiwan last week for their honeymoon.
Admitting that the trip was delayed due to their individual work commitments, Sumeet informs, “I was visiting Taiwan for some work, and since it is not often that one would travel there, I decided to extend my stay and booked Ekta’s tickets too. To be honest, I didn’t have an itinerary as Ekta is better at that kind of stuff. She did all the planning. We started with Taitung and are now in Taipei. We have been here for a week and enjoyed every moment of it.”
In a week, the couple has indulged in local delicacies, been to the hot air balloon festival and the famous lantern festival. “We tried stinky tofu, while Taitung is famous for its rice, which they export. We also sampled some of that. Then, we went to the Sun Moon Lake, stayed at a spa-resort close by and cycled to the Wenwu Temple. Later, we drove all the way to the East Coast and the experience was just surreal with the sea on one side and the mountains on the other. Every location was so picturesque, we got tired of clicking photos after a while,” the actor shares, adding that he was in Thailand before this trip and is feeling homesick now. “I am missing all the masalas now. One day we came across an Indian restaurant in Taipei and eating dal fry, sabji was bliss.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)