umbai: Eros International has announced its grand line up for 2016. The company will release an unparalleled 65 plus films across multiple languages again this year, making it the biggest slate by any Indian studio. *A list of key films with tentative release dates is attached with this release.
Following 2015’s critically acclaimed and commercial successes like NH10, Badlapur, Tanu Weds Manu Returns and the top grosser of the year, Bajrangi Bhaijaan along with Telugu and Bengali super hits Srimanthudu and Bela Seshe respectively, Eros is all set to announce another impressive pipeline of releases.
The company ended a highly successful year with the maximum hits by a studio with the release of one of its most ambitious projects, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Bajirao Mastani that opened in cinemas globally to fabulous reviews and collections. The film still continues to run successfully in cinemas worldwide and Eros plans to release it in China and many other international markets in 2016. Eros remains the box office market leader with 3 out of the top 5 grossing Bollywood films in 2015, namely Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Bajirao Mastani and Tanu Weds Manu Returns. The company has taken the film awards season by storm bagging a total of 46 awards so far for their films at the prestigious Stardust, Sony Guild, Screen and Filmfare awards with appreciation and awards continuing to pour in.
The company declared its film slate of 2016 comprising a repertoire of high-profile and content led films in Hindi and other regional languages including Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Punjabi.
2016 will see the release of exciting big ticket entertainers like R. Balki’s Ki & Ka, a fun love story between two people with contrasting ideologies starring Arjun Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor; the hit franchise comedy Housefull 3 and Rohit Dhawan’s Dishoom starring John Abraham and Varun Dhawan continuing Eros’ successful association with producer Sajid Nadiadwala.
Eros’ new slate boasts of other marquee films including its association with Dharma Production and Excel Entertainment for Baar Baar Dekho, a love story starring Katrina Kaif and Siddharth Malhotra and the highly anticipated rock musical franchise Rock On 2 featuring Farhan Akhtar and Shraddha Kapoor.
Post the phenomenal success of Tanu Weds Manu Returns and previously Raanjhanaa, Eros continues its association with talented producer-director, Aanand L Rai and their joint production company Colour Yellow Production to produce and release a slate of projects – Nil Battey Sannata that has received outstanding response at various festivals including the 20th Busan International Film Festival, 59th BFI London Film Festival with Swara Bhaskar wining the Best Actress at the Silk Road Film Festival of China, Happy Bhaag Jayegi, a comedy that will present the first-time pair of Abhay Deol and Diana Penty and Manmarziyan, a romantic drama, which will once again bring together the successful pairing of Bhumi Pednekar and Ayushmann Khurrana. Aanand Rai is also currently working on his own directorial film which will go into production this summer. Watch this space for more details on that film!
Diwali 2016 will see the release of Ajay Devgn’s high-octane action drama, Shivaay. After the back-to-back glorious successes of Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram-Leela and the latest epic blockbuster Bajirao Mastani, Eros and Bhansali Productions will take their association forward with more co-productions, details of which will be announced soon. Also scheduled to go on floor this year will be Eros and Phantom’s socio-drama superhero film Bhavesh Joshi starring Harshvardhan Kapoor to be directed by Vikramaditya Motwane.
The year is further packed with a roster of content backed cinema which includes Hansal Mehta’s critically-acclaimed Aligarh that wowed audiences recently as the opening film at the MAMI film festival after winning accolades across various international festivals such as the 20th Busan International Film Festival, 59th BFI London Film Festival. Acclaimed Marathi director and National award winner, Ravi Jadhav’s Hindi debut Banjo starring Riteish Deshmukh and Nargis Fakri is slated for release this year along with director Mohit Jha’s sports drama Saat Kadam featuring Amit Sadh and Pawan Kripalani’s psychological thriller, Phobia starring Raadhika Apte.
Eros will also release Vinay Sapru and Radhika Rao’s musical love story Sanam Teri Kasam starring newcomers Harshvardhan Rane and Pakistani actress Mawra Hocane as the romantic leads; Do Lafzon Ki Kahani by Deepak Tijori with Randeep Hooda and Kajal Agarwal as the lead pair along with Saif Ali Khan starrer Chef, a remake of 2014’s Hollywood hit Chef.
Eros remains focussed on expanding its regional presence too with this year seeing a range of promising regional releases like Sanjay Jadhav’s Guru and National award winning director Sujay Dahake’s Phuntroo and Prakash Kunte’s & Jara Hatke in Marathi, Telugu super stars Balakrishna’s Dictator which released on January 14 and is running successfully in cinemas and Pawan Kalyan’s Sardar Gabbar Singh; Malayalam cinema’s leading talent Mammootty’s White and Fahad Fazil’s Nale along with 2 Penkuttikal featuring Tovino Thomas, Amala Paul, Anju Kurian and Anna Fathima.
Following recent Bengali hit, Sandip Ray’s Monchora with Abir Chatterjee and Raima Sen in January, Eros will release Prakton directed by Shiboprasad Mukherjee of Bela Seshe fame that will see super stars Prosenjit Chatterjee and Rituparna Sengupta paired together after a decade. The company has a strong Tamil pipeline too with the successful Sivakarthikeyan starrer Rajini Murugan that released earlier this month; Suriya’s 24 directed by Vikram, Enkitta Mothathe, well-known cinematographer Natarajan Subramaniam’s (Nutty) debut as an actor with Sanchita Shetty directed by Ramu Chellapa, actor Jaya Prada’s first Tamil production Uyire Uyire, super star Suriya’s Singam 3, Kai Neelam directed by Nalan Kumarsamy, Oru Kidayin Karunai Mamu directed by Suresh Sangiah and an untitled film starring mega star Karthi.
The company is also collaborating with Harry Baweja to co-produce the sequel to the super hit 3D animation film, Chaar Sahibzade, titled Chaar Sahibzaade 2 (Rise of Banda Singh Bahadur) followed by another 3D animation film Guru Tegh Bahadur.
Commenting on the company’s line-up, Sunil Lulla, Managing Director, Eros International Media Ltd said, “We have seen an excellent 2015 with the resounding success of Tanu Weds Manu Returns, peaking with the multiple-record breaking Bajrangi Bhaijaan and ending the year with our crowning glory Bajirao Mastani. We are at a very exciting phase in Eros and have an equally promising slate coming up next year that will reinforce and further strengthen our leadership position in the Indian Media and Entertainment industry. As a strategy, we will continue to diversify our presence across difference film genres, budgets and languages with a mix of popular and content driven cinema. In a few weeks, we will showcase to the world the first set of films under our Trinity franchise banner. Also scheduled to go on floor this year are some exciting directorial ventures by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Kabir Khan, Aanand L Rai, Homi Ajadania, Sujoy Ghosh, Nishikant Kamat and Siddharth Anand. We hope and believe that 2016 will be just as magical as 2015 has been”.
