The musician and actor Babul Supriyo has ventured into clothing design and has created uniforms for India's famed Mohun Bagan football club. "The legendary Dutch footballer Ruud Gullit unveiled the new jersey design with me while the entire team, including the foreign players and the officials, danced to a song that I wrote and composed for them," said Supriyo, 41. Originally from Kolkata, Supriyo moved to Mumbai in 1991 to launch a singing career. Since then he has performed tracks for more than 60 Bollywood films. * IANS
Peddlers heads to Toronto film festival
After its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, the filmmaker Vasan Bala's debut film Peddlers has been tapped to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival next month. The director is elated. "It's great that the film has been selected," Bala said in a statement. "Since the French press cited a very American independent cinema influence on the film, I am quite curious how it will be received in Toronto." Co-produced by Eros International and the Gangs of Wasseypur director Anurag Kashyap, the thriller is scheduled to screen in the festival's City to City section, whose focus during this edition is Mumbai. "TIFF is among the world's top movie events, and is a gateway for international films into the North American region," said Eros International's Guneet Monga. "We saw the potential in the film the moment we watched it and decided to back it up." Peddlers stars Gulshan Devaiah, Kriti Malhotra and Nimrat Kaur. * IANS
Lebanon and Egypt shorts go to Venice
The video-sharing platform YouTube has announced the finalists of its inaugural Your Film Festival, the 10 short films that it will send to the Venice Film Festival. The finalists hail from around the globe, including Lebanon's Niam Itani and her film Super.Full. and Egypt's Ramy El Gabry and her short This Time. The contest was overseen by the filmmaker Ridley Scott, who helped winnow the 15,000 submissions from more than 160 countries down to 10. All 10 films will be screened in Venice on September 2. A winner will then be chosen by a jury, including Scott and the actor Michael Fassbender, and awarded a film production grant of US$500,000 (Dh1.8m). Watch the finalists on YouTube.com/YourFilmFestival. * AP
Johar talks launching actors in new film
The filmmaker Karan Johar is launching three new actors in his forthcoming comedy Student of the Year. "The film feels different from any other film that I have directed as I have worked with movie stars who don't need hand-holding. With these three newcomers, it was a journey like nurturing and parenting them," Johar said on Thursday at a press conference, where the film's trailer was premiered. The director has selected the newcomers Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan and Siddharth Malhotra to headline his latest film. "I am sure their parents are going through the same emotions that I am going through right now. It's a very special feeling. This is something that I felt I needed to do. It's a very satisfying emotion," he said. "After My Name is Khan, I personally felt I needed to do something where I could have fun. I like dance, song, glamour and that's exactly what I did here." Student of the Year is scheduled for an October 19 release in India. * IANS
Shahid Kapoor talks about his forthcoming roles
Shahid Kapoor denied reports he has already signed on to Rajkumar Santoshi's new film Phata Poster Nikla Hero. "I haven't finalised anything yet," said the 31-year-old actor. "But there are three other films which I have signed. One is with Maneesh Sharma which I start filming this month. There's a film with Prabhu Deva, which we'll shoot around February. And there is a film with Bejoy Nambiar which will also start next year." Kapoor was last seen on the big screen in June, in the romantic drama Teri Meri Kahaani. * IANS
