MUMBAI: UTV World Movies, in association with Shemaroo World Cinema, will release Buenos Aires 1977 on home video.

The crime thriller, directed by Israel Adri?n Caetano, tells the true story of four men who narrowly escaped death at the hands of a military death squad during the Argentine Dirty War in the 1970s.

The film revolves around a ‘task force‘ working for the fascist Argentine military government that kidnaps, Claudio, the goalkeeper of a B-league soccer team, and takes him to a clandestine detention centre. Claudio enters a living hell of interrogations, beatings, humiliations & betrayals.

Alongside other young detainees, he battles to survive while awaiting his fate to be decided. After four months of imprisonment, with execution looking certain, Claudio and three other prisoners make their desperate move. Forcing open a window in the middle of a thunderstorm, completely naked, they jump into the void and their flight into the future begins.

Buenos Aires 1977 was Argentina‘s entry for 2007 Golden Globes Awards in the category of Best Foreign Language Film.

The DVD will be available on stands from 23rd February and will be priced at Rs.349.

Mumbai: After a successful series of ?Youth Debates with Arnab Goswami? in Mumbai and Bengaluru, TIMES NOW, India?s leading English News Channel, is all set to present the biggest and the much awaited 3rd edition of the Youth Debates in New Delhi.

The Youth Debates moderated by Arnab Goswami, Editor-in-Chief, TIMES NOW, encourages forthright opinions from young India and gives the country?s youth a chance to voice their opinions on issues ranging from politics and terrorism to business and social scenario amongst others, through an unparalleled vocal platform.

Slated for the second week of February 2012, the Delhi edition invites students and young professionals alike to come forward and participate in this lively debate along with renowned panelists. Through extensive on-ground auditions TIMES NOW will select the best candidates from college campuses and popular youth hangouts across the capital city.

The criteria for selecting top notch candidates by the editorial team of TIMES NOW will be based on the candidate?s debating abilities and knowledge on current affairs.

Aspiring participants can also upload their videos on the facebook page (facebook.com/Timesnow). Entries for submission of videos closes on February 21st 2012.

MUMBAI: Digital artists devoted days and years behind the scenes to help create the movie magic seen in many of this year‘s Academy Award-nominated films. In the categories for Best Visual Effects and Best Animated Film (Feature and Short) in particular, many artists relied on the same set of tools ? Digital Entertainment Creation (DEC) software from Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK).

"Great films depend on great storytelling and our technology is designed to enable artistic vision," said Marc Petit, senior vice president, Autodesk Media & Entertainment. "We congratulate the multitalented teams of artists from North America, New Zealand, Europe and Asia, and we are proud of Autodesk software‘s role in helping them create these extraordinary movies."

Best Visual Effects:
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" ? UK-based visual effects (VFX) studios Double Negative, MPC and Framestore each used Autodesk Maya 3D animation and rendering software to help create the visually extravagant effects for this final installment in the Harry Potter franchise. Double Negative VFX Supervisor David Vickery said, "Maya has been the lynchpin of our pipeline since ?Goblet of Fire.‘ For this film, Maya helped us build a fully computer-generated (CG) Hogwarts in a massive 3D environment, including a spectacular mountain range and an animated fire-breathing dragon digitally modeled with Autodesk Mudbox software." MPC VFX Supervisor Greg Butler added, "From the first film in the ?Potter‘ series through to this film‘s final shot, MPC has relied on Maya for modeling, rigging and lighting." Andy Kind, Framestore VFX supervisor said, "Autodesk‘s Maya once again was our go-to tool, enabling us to bring to life the magic of the Chamber of Secrets for Ron and Hermione‘s first kiss, as well as Harry‘s vision of Heaven. We couldn‘t have done any of the eight films without it!"

"Hugo" ? VFX studio Pixomondo managed a global production team across 10 of its 11 facilities in North America, Europe and Asia for this richly detailed reimagining of 1930s Paris. The worldwide team worked for over a year using a production pipeline comprised of Maya and Autodesk 3ds Max for animation, rendering, character rigging and modeling; as well as Autodesk MotionBuilder for motion capture and animation. VFX Supervisor Ben Grossmann said, "The interoperability of Autodesk tools helped us meet tight deadlines and bring Martin Scorsese‘s magical vision to the big screen."

"Real Steel" ? Visual effects powerhouse Digital Domain, motion-capture specialists Giant Studios and virtual production innovators Technoprops delivered "Real Steel" within an impressively efficient 71-day production schedule. The close collaboration between the three companies and an Autodesk toolset helped create this realistic and thrilling action movie with a believable and captivating robot and human relationship. VFX Supervisor Erik Nash said, "The on-set real-time interoperability of Maya and MotionBuilder enabled tremendous creative freedom for the entire production team."

"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" ? Caesar, the CG chimpanzee performed by Andy Serkis is a creative milestone for Weta Digital in New Zealand. Weta used Maya and MotionBuilder as the core of its creative production pipelines for its groundbreaking visual effects and performance capture. Sebastian Sylwan, chief technology officer at Weta said, "Creating a believable and realistic CG character like Caesar required providing our artists with the right tools and innovative technology that allowed them to iterate and express their creativity. We developed our own software to perfect performance capture, hair, eyes and muscles amongst others, using Maya and MotionBuilder as a backbone." Canada-based Image Engine contributed previsualization for the film and also took advantage of a Maya-based pipeline.

"Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon" ? The extraordinarily detailed Transformer robots contain up to 50,000 million polygons rendered in stereoscopic 3D by lead visual effects houses Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) with studios in San Francisco and Singapore and Digital Domain. ILM used the following Autodesk DEC software tools in its pipeline: 3ds Max for digital environment work; Autodesk Flame as part of its proprietary SABRE high-speed compositing system; and Maya as the core tool for animation, rigging and layout. Scott Farrar, visual effects supervisor on ?Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon‘ said, "As effects work continues to grow in complexity, it is more important than ever that our artists have access to best of breed tools and by using Autodesk‘s Digital Entertainment Creation software, ILM is able to continue to create groundbreaking visual effects."

Best Animated Feature Film

"Kung Fu Panda 2" and "Puss in Boots" ? Both movies earned not only Academy Award nominations for Animated Feature Film for Dreamworks Animation (DWA), but also were two of the top three grossing animated films of 2011.* DWA continues to creatively push technology to imbue animated characters with huge personalities, and both films used Maya. Phil McNally, stereoscopic supervisor on both movies said, "Either on our own or in concert with Autodesk, we can develop tools in Maya to specifically address the challenges of stereoscopic 3D. Maya gives us that intuitive flexibility, or the ability to see what we‘re doing ? while we‘re doing it ? in 3D."

"Rango"
"Rango," the story of a weird lizard‘s quest for identity, was ILM‘s first animated feature. The film presented some daunting creative and technical challenges: Rango‘s face alone required over 300 controllers to achieve the range of performance needed for the 1,100 shots he appears in. On top of which, Rango was just one of well over 100 characters that populated the film. "All of these characters had some combination of scales, feathers, or fur and all had clothing. We strove to create a very tactile world for Rango," said ILM‘s Hal Hickel, animator director on the film. "We wanted to create the illusion that if you could reach out and touch objects in the frame you‘d know exactly what they would feel like, so it was very important that our software enable us to show as much detail as possible at each phase of the process. This allowed us to make certain the performances would translate to the big screen. Maya was great at letting us do that."

MUMBAI: We all have hopes. It?s what equips us to deal with life?s trials and tribulations. We live in the hope that the world will become a better place sans inflation. We hope that we will have a government who?ll build a better future for our Nation. Each one of us has endless hopes....It?s this "Umeed" that keeps us going and propels us to stay ahead. On Zee TV?s dance reality show, Maruti Suzuki presents Dance India Dance, it?s time for us to put a smile on the faces of the contestants and help them achieve their dreams.. Yes, it?s that time of the season when DID is on the verge of announcing its BEHTAREEN TERAH (13) contestants. But who all should continue to remain in the show??? That key decision has been thrown open to the junta. Voting is our fundamental right. If we vote for free to choose our government, then why should we spend money to vote for our favourite reality show contestants? Taking this thought forward, Zee TV has taken an initiative which will directly impact the lives of its coveted viewers by making the entire voting process in reality shows free of cost. DID urges its viewers to pick up the phone and give a MISSED CALL to all their favourite contestants who deserve to stay in the show. Being the pioneer in Hindi General Entertainment space, Zee TV has had many firsts to its credit. And now through Dance India Dance Season 3, the channel has brought a ray of hope - ?Umeed? - into the lives of many of its viewers by making voting for the contestants absolutely devoid of any cost.

The thought of giving audiences an opportunity to choose the winner of a reality show through a public voting system as a concept was initiated by Zee TV for the very first time in 2003 for the show, Zee Cine Stars Ki Khoj. After that, the concept of ?one mobile- one vote? was introduced during the time of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Singing Superstar in the year 2010, to avoid duplication while counting of votes made from the same number. Taking a step further, the channel has devised a method which nullifies the entire debate about voting being a money making mechanism between the channel and the telecom companies! This unique MISSED CALL voting system devised by Zee TV in Dance India Dance Season 3 will ensure that there?s no fallacy in choosing a winner and will also erase all doubts about the existence of any benefits to the channel in the voting process. The channel will incorporate the same in its future reality shows as well.

Said Mr. Akash Chawla, Head Marketing, National Channels, ZEEL, "With DID Season 3 - Voting Free, we are aiming for never before achieved viewer?s participation in the show. With this Missed Call voting system, every unique missed call will be counted as one unique vote thus making junta janardan the true adjudicator in deciding the fate of our show. Technology is helping us value the viewer?s point of view even further. I?m sure that with India being a price sensitive country, the decision of free voting is a welcome change to those who have hitherto refrained from participating owing to extra charges for an SMS to special numbers! There can be nothing more transparent than this mechanism in the decision of choosing the final winner of any reality show on ZEE TV!"

Here?s how the mechanism works - Every contestant in the Behterein Terah (Terrific 13) has been designated with an unique number. All a viewer has to do is dial that number and after one ring, the call gets disconnected automatically. The viewer gets an acknowledgement message that his vote for the particular contestant has been registered. In one week, a viewer can vote for a particular contestant only once. However he can vote for multiple contestants in the same week. The best part is you can call to vote your favorite contestant even if you have zero balance in your prepaid account. The mechanism has been already implemented effectively from 12th of February and has assisted in choosing the WILD CARD entrants of the show.

Dance India Dance has always believed in exploring unique initiatives on a large scale to build its brand equity. Be it the grand Carnival that was conducted on the streets of Mumbai during DID Season 2 or the unique ?Dance Mobs? that were conducted in malls, multiplexes, railway stations and streets of Mumbai and Delhi during the launch of DID season 3 or the very recent Licensing & Merchandizing deal that the show has done with apparel giant Reebok to further build the brand with the new and exclusive DID clothing line available at Reebok stores across India ?hence proving that there is no bigger brand for Dance in India than Dance India Dance!

MUMBAI: What is common between Ritesh, Genelia, Dharmendra, Ali Zafar, Aditi Rao, Tusshar Kapoor, Kulraj Randhawa, Anupam Kher, Prem Chopra, Anita Raj and Kulbhushan Kharbanda? That they all will share the stage during the LIVE Telecast of Second Annual PTC Punjabi Film Awards 2012 on February 18, 2012 on PTC Punjabi, 7 pm onwards.

USA & Canada Audiences will witness the awards on the same day in their primetime on PTC Punjabi.

Sukbir and Master Saleem will croon to popular Punjabi & Bollywood Songs. Punjabi Actresses Neeru Bajwa and Surveen Chawla will dazzle on a scintillating Numbers.

PTC Punjabi Film Awards, now in the second year of its execution, will be anchored by the Bollywood Badman Gulshan Grover, along with the Punjabi Heartthrob Diljit Dosanjh.

Other celebrities who will be attending include Goldie Behl, Manmohan Singh, Arya Babbar, Babu Singh Maan, Jaidev, Jaspinder Narula, Deep Dhillon, Avtar Gill, Tulip Joshi, Jimmy Shergill, Gippy Grewal, Satinder Sartaj, Neeru Bajwa,Jasbir Jassi, Tisca Chopra, Kimi Verma, Guggu Gill, Rana Ranbir, Jaspal Bhatti, Jaswinder Bhalla, Yograj Singh, Dheeraj Kumar, Satti etc. Needless to say, the entire Punjabi Film & Music Industry will congregate to felicitate the Cinematic Excellence achieved in Year 2011, by the Punjabi Film Industry. Both Technique as well as Talent will be awarded. Achievements of a Lifetime will be recognised immortalising the legends of yesteryears and inspiring the young talent of today.

"For Punjabis, PTC is a brand synonymous with Faith, Pride, Respect and Punjabiyat. It is clear that Punjabi viewers share a deep emotional bond with PTC. With each passing year, the expectation of a viewer from Brand PTC is increasing and it is this expectation that propels us towards excellence. We have huge regard for the Music and Film Industry of Punjab which has turned up in great numbers to each of our Award Functions. Without their whole hearted support, executing events of such scale would have been impossible." said Mr. Rabindra Narayan, President ? PTC Network.

"With the success of Punjabi Films at the Box Office in Punjab and internationally in the past couple of years, it is evident that Films are gaining prominence in the scheme of things. The Music Industry of Punjab is practically doubling up as the Film Industry itself. The Singing stars of Punjab are now acting in lead roles of Punjabi Films and really drawing audiences to theatres. We see tremendous growth in scope and financials of Punjabi Films in the coming years. PTC Punjabi Film Awards are a humble initiative by PTC Punjabi to promote and support the surging Punjabi Film Industry", said Ms. Rajiee M. Shinde, COO- PTC Network.

Last year, the award ceremony saw stunning performances by Akshay Kumar, Anushka Sharma, Gurdas Maan, Harbhajan Maan , Jimmy Shergill, Hard Kaur, Neha Dhupia, Kimi Verma, Diljit, Gaurav Kakkar, Gavie Chahal, Manpreet Singh and Mohit Bhardwaj. Some of the veterans of Punjabi Film and Music Industry graced the Award Ceremony with their presence. These include revered names in the Industry like Om Puri, Raza Muraad, Satish Kaul, Deep Dhillon, Gugu Gill, Manmohan Singh, Jaidev, Prem Chopra, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Kailash Kher, Preeti Sapru, Puneet Issar, Rama Vij, Malkit Singh, Satinder Sartaj, Jaspinder Narula, Sarabjeet Cheema, Jasbir Jassi, Akriti Kakkar, Shamsher Sandhu, Arya Babbar, Harish Verma, Shavinder Mahal, Gulzar Chahal, Rakesh Bedi, Sudhanshu Pandey and many more.

Gurpreet Ghuggi and Divya Dutta had anchored the ceremony.

MUMBAI: Udayamritham, Amrita TV?s standard bearing morning show will ink its way to a historic 2500 continuous episodes on February 18th ,en route to drafting more momentous milestones in future. Amrita TV?s curtain raiser to the day that appears at sun-up Monday through Sunday at 6.30 am every morning, has been telecast non-stop from the day of the channel?s launch and is the longest running TV programme in Malayalam today.

Covering each State in turn, Udayamritham travels over the entire sweep of the sub-continent, halting at sites that bear the footprints of history or are the embodiment of our culture. It braids together the legends, myths and folklore surrounding the palaces where the whispers of the past still echo, forts that have withstood the siege of challengers, tombs that are memorials to men who controlled the destinies of nations and regional monuments which are the archetype of architectural trends, to present a picture of our cultural heritage and ancestral legacy in its totality.

Each of the 2500 episodes portrays a fresh slice of history, covering a new memorial or location; Udayamritham has never gone over the same ground twice.

The programme has achieved many distinctions during its 6 year long odyssey: it is the first programme in Malayalam to transport viewers to the holiest pilgrimage centres of Haridwar and Rishikesh; an exclusive Gandhi Jayanthi episode shot in the Mahatma?s ashram became the first Malayalam show to cover the Sabarmathi Ashram and Porbunder. It found a permanent place of honour in the Limca Book of Records twice in a row for the longest recorded single shot in television history, a 55 minute uninterrupted take in 2006 ,which was bettered the next year with a 155 minute marathon effort.

The Government recognized the show?s undisputed merit by bestowing accolades in the Annual State Awards, for compeering, videography and production.

Udayamritham, which millions of Malayalees wake up to, at cockcrow everyday of the year, continues with its quest to connect us with our cultural roots, probing into destinations located far and near to unearth the unrecorded pages of previous history.