The story begins with Manohar (R. Madhavan), a emodiment of the typical middle class urban male who moves to new apart ment along with his family - wife Priya (Neetu Chandra), his mother (Poonam Dhillon), college going sister Divya, his elder brother Manoj and his sister-in-law along with their two kids. The flat ironically is on the 13th floor and the flat number is 13-B.

Manohar begins to experience some strange happenings in his new home. Milk getting curled, the elevator which does not work when he is alone, his distorted picture when clicked from mobile and a neighbours dog refusing to enter the flat. To add on to it the women folk in the house are glued with a new TV soap named “Sab Khairiyat” from the very first day of moving to the new home. This soap airs on channel 13 at 13.00 hours. Incidentally one day Manohar happens to be at home and the TV turns on and serial starts depicting the incidents that have been happening to Manohar and his family. Manohar is the only person in the family who is aware of the fact that the serial connect to his real life, to an extent of Manohar himself becoming the TV soap addict, just to know what next. The joyous moments on the show take a turn for the shocking incidents which could spell an end for Manohar and his family.

Will these incidents play a tryant and will Manohar have to see it happening to his family? Will Monohar with his practical and rational approach be able to solve the mystery to save his family?

13B is a new approach to story telling whilst maintaining the spooky momentum and unfolding the suspense. The debutant director Vikram K Kumar has kept it simple, redefining the genre of horror. The cinematography and editing is something to watch out for. R.Mahadevan performance as the lead is brilliant. Rest of the cast has jelled as a unit supporting cause with their individual performances.

Fear has a new address 13B, do go and check it for yourself!

Reviewed by Jaish Desouza - Editor of MovieJini.

13B Movie Synopsis : http://www.bigisbig.com/13b

JD: Something on your journey into feature film making?
Piyush Jha: I started with advertising making ad films and then graduating into feature film making, simultaneously doing the interim ads and corporate filiming. I do not really have any certification in film making, I am a MBA. Was more into advertising strategy making, account management. Done strategy for the likes of Procter & Gamble and many such acoounts. I was with Grey International but longer stint was at Mudra.

JD: What comes to you easily direction or scriptwriting?
Piyush Jha: You know both things are story telling. Writing is one way of telling the story and shooting it is yet another way.

JD: Your thought on scripts in Bollywood currently?
Piyush Jha: Some of them are very good. Recently there have been a spate of good scripts in Bollywood and that is quite encouraging. Well…… to name a few on the script level are LBC, Wednesday, Khosla ka Ghosla and also Dev D .

JD: Whos your favourite director in Bollywood/Hollywood?
Piyush Jha: There are quite a few  of them like Mani Ratnam, Vishal Bhardwaj, Sudhir Mishra, Kundan Shah in Bollywood. Woody  Allen, Cohen Brothers in Hollywood. Kim Ki Book , Mark Chen Wook from Korea. Iranian Majid Majidi, Tom Fernando Meriales, Danny Boyles and many more

JD: Whats your take on SlumDog Millionaire?
Piyush Jha: Unfortunately I have been very busy finishing final makes of Sikander, looking after promos and the marketing. I have not been not able to, but I would surely catch up with this one for sure.

JD: Can you tell us something about your movie Sikandar? The inception, how it occur to you?
Piyush Jha: I read the story of boy Mehrajuddin a footballer started playing for mohun bagan, now east bengol i assume. The first sports person from Kashmir to do so. At the age of 14 -15 he used to hang out with a goup of guys typically the rock element types. His father then took him to his cousin who also a coach makes his energies focussed on the game. There he learns to channelise himself into improving and giving a thought to in life.
Secondly the story of Qazi Tauqeer, the aspirations of anyone in Kashmir is just like those of anyone in any part of India be it Ranchi, Delhi, Chennai or any other.
This is what made me think of making a movie.

JD: How differently is Sikandar going to highlight the issues in Kashmir?
Piyush Jha: Sikander is based in Kashmir and on Kashmir, it does not venture into politics, nor is it a message oriented film. Sikander has been structured like suspense thriller, issues confronting are held at the backdrop. This  type of story can happen in nagapada, hyderabad or america and elsewhere. The issue here is what happens to him when he picks up the gun in milieu of Kashmir

JD: How was it directing Parzaan Dastur and Ayesha Kapur?
Piyush Jha: Parzaan is instinctive. He has already done 5-6 films done and over 60 plus ads. Ayesha has done Black, both have been away for sometime now.  But they have inherent sort of knowledge of how to emote. However they have been presented in a different shade in Sikander.

JD: What was your experience with Chalo America ?
Piyush Jha: Very good. It was working with unknown actors at that time. Debut film for Ashish Chowdhury. Then there was Deven Bhojani known for his television shows and Mandar Shinde. All in all it was working with the telvision and theatre guys. Another journey all together.

JD: How was it working with Om Puri in King Of Bollywood?
Piyush Jha: Om Puri is one of the finest actors in India. He is so much of giving nature and you dont  feel you are at work with a thespian. He has worked with best of people and directors. He makes you  feel so comfortable and agrees to any view point a director has to convey. Infact he calmly listens to all nuance of the director.

JD: Your experience with King Of Bollywood?
Piyush Jha: Amazing. It was really amazing, we shot at 65 different locations in flat 32 days. The experience was exhilarating and intense.

JD: Which movie as a director you feel has let you explore urself?
Piyush Jha: I would say sikander without hestitation because after finaishing King of Bollywood I went on travelling spree across the country. I wanted to think what I wanted to say and get my own point of view. To understand that i spent around 8 months travelling places in Indian and abroad contemplating what is the kind of story I have to tell. After undertstanding I wrote the scripts. This script springs from within me. My opportunity, My story as I AM.

Sikandar is me.

JD: Are you currently scripting on any topic?
Piyush Jha: Yes, i have done the one more script. I am just finalising and adding the finishing touches with respect to the casting.

JD: Would you ever make a typical Bollywood masala movie?
Piyush Jha: I love typical bollywood masala movies. I would like to make one but take a path of being more realistic. Definitely my second film will be entertaining enough to grip, to keep you engaged and utlimately leaving you with a thought.

JD: Who would you cast for a typical Bollywood flick?
Piyush Jha: I would cast Aamir Khan. But he doesnt do typical Bollywood masala flicks, to be factual no one really does.

JD: How importantly do you forsee internet as a medium for promotions and how could fans connect to you online?
Piyush Jha: I am totally into internet. I am active in FaceBook.  People are receptive to new ideas and thoughts, its a low cost medium and quite effective. Fans can connect to me on FaceBook and my FB id is PiyushJha

The initial seven deals, with Nicolas Cage’s Saturn Productions, Jim Carrey’s JC 23 Entertainment, George Clooney’s Smokehouse Productions, Chris Columbus’ 1492 Pictures, Tom Hanks’ Playtone Productions, Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment, and Jay Roach’s Everyman Pictures were announced during the Cannes Film Festival 2008 by Reliance Big Entertainment’s Chairman Amit Khanna and President Rajesh Sawhney.

All nine deals provide for the creation of a development silo for each of the production entities and the possibility of Reliance co-financing projects that emanate from these development deals.  For any green lit projects utilizing Reliance co-financing, the filmmakers will enjoy full creative and fiscal freedom.

Eight of the partnerships have had development projects approved and there is already a handpicked slate in excess of twenty projects and it is anticipated that most will generate content during 2009.

In announcing the new partnerships, Amit Khanna commented, ‘Our innovative foray into Hollywood has proven very productive on the development front and we are now looking forward to moving into the filmmaking stage over the coming months.  We were immediately impressed by both Julia’s and Brett’s enthusiasm for our creative partnership plan’

Added Rajesh Sawhney, President of Reliance Big Entertainment, ‘These creative partnerships will lead to Reliance co-financing with the majority of the major US Studios as we are totally respectful of the existing first-look deals that each of our partners enjoys.  From the conversations to date, we know that the respective studios will welcome our development silos and our subsequent co-financing ability.  We have broken completely new ground by empowering some of the best talent in the global industry’.

For the U.S. studios, the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group provides a partner with expertise in India, which has one of the most successful domestic filmed entertainment businesses in the world but which remains a challenge for non indigenous product.

Reliance BIG Picture, the division of Reliance Big Entertainment that will focus on media investments outside of India, sees the development deals as the first major building block in the creation of a virtual studio, or new-generation media company.  They are part of Reliance Big Entertainment’s long-term strategy for media investments in Hollywood, as it continues to build a fully integrated movie company with substantial holdings in production, distribution and exhibition.

The deals also secure Indian rights for the films which Reliance co-finances.  Additionally, Reliance expects to attract suitable productions, with appropriate incentives, to India, where Reliance Entertainment is the largest film producer and owns physical studios and facility companies.

Reliance Big Entertainment continues to launch Indian and international initiatives across different media and entertainment verticals.

Creative Artists Agency (CAA) was instrumental in brokering the deals and is advising Reliance Big Entertainment on its Hollywood strategy.

Ecstatic about this New Year’s slate Rajesh Sawhney, President, Reliance Big Entertainment assured this year BIG Pictures is bringing a variety of cinematic flavors onto celluloid. Beginning with “Luck By Chance” based about slice of life from Bollywood, followed by “Sikandar” and “13B” to hit the theatres this March which will take suspense and thrillers to a whole new level. We have tried to bring in diverse directors, new actors and interesting mix of genres to entice all kinds of audiences in our slate.

“13B”, a supernatural thriller is about a middle class youth Manohar and his family living on the 13th floor. The new television show is dissonantly similar to their family and as the show progresses all the happenings in the show takes place in the family too. The film is directed by National Award winning director Vikram K. Kumar. The film has R. Madhavan and Neetu Chandra in the lead roles and Sachin Khedekar, Murali Sharma and Poonam Dhillonas the supporting star cast.

Directed by Piyush Jha “Sikandar” on the other hand is a suspense thriller. The story of a 14 year old schoolboy Sikander living in Kashmir with his uncle and aunt. One day, on his way home from a school football match, Sikandar finds a gun lying on the path which changes his life forever. ‘Sikandar’ is a story about friendship, power, loyalty and triumph. Parzaan Dastur takes on the role of Sikandar after his heart wrenching performance in “Parzania” and IIFA award winner for her exceptional performance in the film “Black”, Ayesha Kapoor plays his conscience keeper. Also has R. Madhavan and Sanjay Suri playing pivotal characters in the film.

After the tremendous response for Ghajiniand Rock ON in 2008, this year BIG has 18 films stocked up in seven different languages catering to all sorts of audiences, national and international. BIG Pictures is working with a mix bag of directorial talent range from mavericks like Vidhu Vinod Chopra, David Dhawan, Shyam Bengal, Sudhir Mishra and Madhur Bhandarkar to visionaries like Farhan Akhtar and Abhinay Deo along with a fresh pool of budding talent like Zoya Aktar, Piyush Jha, Vikram.

The first film promotion on the portal began with the Music of the Month contest that commence this week. The contest is a simple two step process towards your fate of wining autographed Luck…By Chance music CDs by Farhan Akhtar and Konkana Sen Sharma. Logging on to www.broadband.bigflix.comand answering two simple questions about the music of the film Luck By Chance is all it takes to put you in the line of destiny. 25 lucky people stand to win from the pool of lucky draws. The winners would be chosen by a lucky dip.

Speaking on this occasion, Mr. Kamal Gianchandani, COO, BIGFlix.com, said, “Luck by Chance’ is one of the most awaited movies this year with a very powerful star cast attached to the film. BIGFlix.com which is a destination for all film buffs shall be partnering to promote the film, which will include various initiatives on our acclaimed site and state-of-the-art stores. This film would mark the beginning of some brilliant new careers and it is very exciting for us to be able to be part of that”

A BIG Picture’s representative stated that -”We decided to go ahead with a music contest as the music of the film is already ruling the hearts of the people. Apart from this there will be more of such pre-release online marketing and publicity of the film’s music videos, trailers, downloads, movie previews, preview shows and contests. The activities will follow through the post release of the film with meet-n-greet events with the star cast at select cities.”

BIGFlix.com will promote Luck by Chance across all 112 stores in 10 cities in the country as well to the international audiences through its Video-on-Demand (VOD) site. The pre-release promotional activities will include online marketing and publicity of the film’s music videos, trailers, downloads, movie previews, preview shows, contests and continue with other promotional activities post the movie release like meet-n-greet events with the star cast at select cities.

The film which is set to release on the 30th of January is already ruling the music charts with ‘Sapnon Se Bhare Naina’ and ‘Baawre’, songs composed by Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy. Produced by BIG Pictures & Excel Productions, the film portrays different characters who come to the city with startling dreams in their eyes to make it big in Bollywood. Directed by Zoya Akhtar, the film stars Farhan Akhtar Juhi Chawla, Konkana Sen, Isha Shervani, Rishi Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia & has Hrithik Roshan in a special appearance.

So the next time you see a shooting star it’s either your luck is heading your way or you just won a CD autographed by Farhan and Konkona Sen Sharma!

Apart from Farhan who debuted as an actor, Shahana and Arjun Rampal who won awards for their rocking performances, Jason West grabbed the award for the Best Cinematography. The film also managed to garner awards for the Best Editing and Best Set Design.

On this celebrative occasion Rajesh Sawhney, President Reliance BIG Entertainment Ltd said- “We always believed in ROCK ON as a concept and audience response has vindicated our belief. Rock on has proven the maturity of the Indian audience. It has also proved that good cinema can also be commercially viable. It’s overwhelming to see the film and music do so well. Even after six months of release the film’s music is rocking on top of the charts. The film winning six awards at Star Screen Awards pays up for the hard work that went behind making the film. I would like to congratulated Farhan and Ritesh and all members of Excel family on this superb achievement.”

Ritesh Sidhwani, ecstatically commented-”The response we have received is tremendous. The fact that it was loved by the audience was a huge reward for the entire team but winning awards on a prestigious platform like that of Star Screens put us on the seventh heaven. And there is more than one reason for us to celebrate as the film was recently also showcased at the Indian Visions Indian Film Festival of Washington, DC.”

Produced by Ritesh Sidhwani & Farhan Akhtar, directed by Abhishek Kapoor, the film and its music was like a youth anthem worldwide. The film which released on 29th August, 2009 starred Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal, Prachi Desai, Purab Kohli, Shahana Goswami and Luke Kenny.

A Christmas release, “Ghajini” has collected revenues totalling $4 million (nearly Rs.200 million) till Sunday, taking its total worldwide collections to nearly Rs.900 million in just five days since its release.

According to BIG Pictures, Reliance BIG Entertainment Ltd (RBEL), which released “Ghajini” in 22 countries, opened with $0.92 million in the Middle East, followed by North America with $1.4 million and Australia with $254,000.

“Ghajini” is also faring well in Britain. The movie will also open in four additional countries - Myanmar, Uganda, Malaysia and Morocco in the coming weeks,” said Jawahar Sharma, COO International Film Business, BIG Pictures.

“We are extremely pleased with the film’s overseas opening, which has created benchmarks in various international markets, like North America, Australia and the Middle East.”

Bollywood trade circles, meanwhile, believe that the pace at which “Ghajini” is collecting revenues all over the world, it may end up grossing Rs.1.40 billion by the end of second week of its run, outranking all the Bollywood hits of 2008.

“Ghajini” got $1.4 million in North America and it was second highest opener of Hindi movie in the region in the year 2008 and in Australia the movie opened with $ 254,000.Ghajini that was sold for Rs 90 crores opened simultaneously in many countries like Ireland, South Africa, Norway, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, New Zealand, Fiji, Denmark, Mauritius, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.

In U.S. “Ghajini” was one of the top 15 rated film and it was even released in additional countries like Myanmar, Uganda, Malaysia and Morocco. The film is a remake of a Tamil movie “Ghajini” that is directed by A R Murugadoss and the lead actress of the Hindi version of the film Asin Thottumkal, bagged best actress ward for the doing the same role in the Tamil film.

“Ghajini” is expected to gross Rs 100 crores in less than a week’s time and it is said that it will break records of “Sinng Is Kinng” that ran for eight weeks and then it made a total collections of Rs147 crores. Many production companies are taking inspiration from ‘Ghajini’ to market a high budget movie project

The film will open in 4 additional countries that include Myanmar, Uganda, Malaysia & Morocco in the coming weeks. In an unprecedented manner for a Bollywood title, the film opened in the Middle East & North America setting new records, while in the UK it the had the biggest opening for a 15 rated film. GHAJINI also opened simultaneously in Ireland, Norway, Germany, Denmark, Holland, Netherlands, Belgium, South Africa, New Zealand, Fiji, Mauritius, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia where it’s broken all previous Bollywood and records including any previous Aamir Khan starrer.

‘GHAJINI’S performance demonstrates that the overseas audiences are equally accepting, of quality action films, which are still a rarity, coming out of India. We are extremely pleased with the films opening, which has created bench marks in various international markets like North America, Australia, The Middle East’, says Jawahar Sharma, COO – International Film Business, BIG Pictures.

A Geetha Arts production, GHAJINI is a remake of the critically acclaimed South Indian (Tamil language) film with the same title, also directed by A R Murugadoss and garnering the Best Actress Award for Asin Thottumkal at the South India Filmfare Awards, who also stars in the remake. The film stars Aamir Khan, Asin Thottumkal, Jiah Khan, Mohit Ahlawat, Pradeep Rawat and Riyaz Khan. Cinematography is by Ravi K Chandran. Madhu Mantena and Tagore Madhu produced the film.

GHAJINI features amazing new music from Golden Globe(R) nominee (Best Original Score – SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE) and Andrew Lloyd Webber collaborator A R Rahman, with lyrics by Prasoon Joshi.