Enlighten Film Society
Enlighten Film Society, has 10,000 members across the country and has recently been certified as India’s largest film society by Federation of Film Societies of India.
They charge the members a fixed annual amount (currently Rs. 2,000, inclusive of service tax, up from Rs. 1,500 three years ago) to be a member of our film society. In return, members get a card that entitles them to gain entrance to any of their weekly film screenings, at which they showcase a carefully chosen eclectic blend of the finest in world cinema. The screenings are announced in advance via newspaper ads, SMS, email, and the Enlighten website. Members can come as often as they wish, up to the maximum possible of 50 screenings per year.
Additionally, they also organize exclusive events and talks with leading talents of Indian cinema like Anurag Kashyap, Amitabh Bachchan, and Shabana Azmi. They regularly organize, film festivals occasionally focusing on a particular country in a bid to increase the understanding about different cultures. Retrospective of great film makers is another constant practice at Enlighten.
Prominent film personalities who have spoken at Enlighten screenings include Anurag Kashyap, Saif Ali Khan, Imtiaz Ali, Javed Akhtar, Sudhir Mishra, Ketan Mehta, Waheeda Rehman, Sriram Raghavan, Amitabh Bachchan, Siddiq Barmak, Sujoy Ghosh, Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha, Shabana Azmi, Vivek Agnihotri, and Farhan Akhtar. They have also hosted various award-winning filmmakers from countries like Italy, France, Germany, Russia, Iran, China, Indonesia, the US, Turkey, and Argentina.
Another first by Enlighten Film Society, was establishing the World Cinema Day, celebrated on 13 April every year. Today, Taj Enlighten Film Society operates in 5 theatre screens across 4 Indian cities: Mumbai (2 screens), Delhi (1 screen), Bangalore (1 screen), and Surat (1 screen). They will soon be expanding to other major cities like Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad, and Chennai. They also manage programming for numerous smaller film societies across India, many of whom are more niche in nature or at smaller venues. Currently they manage programming for 37 such film societies across India and by the end of the calendar year they plan to help and collaborate with 150 film societies, possibly re-branding some of these under the "Enlighten" name.
Hindi cinema, often known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is the Indian Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai. The term is a portmanteau of "Bombay" and "Hollywood". The industry is related to Cinema of South India and other Indian film industries, making up Indian cinema—the world's largest by number of feature films produced.
Shabana Azmi is an Indian actress of film, television and theatre. The daughter of poet Kaifi Azmi and stage actress Shaukat Azmi, she is an alumna of Film and Television Institute of India of Pune. Azmi made her film debut in 1974 and soon became one of the leading actresses of Parallel cinema, a new-wave movement known for its serious content and neorealism and received government patronage during the times. Regarded as one of the finest actresses in India, Azmi's performances in films in a variety of genres have generally earned her praise and awards, which include a record of five wins of the National Film Award for Best Actress and several international honours. She has also received five Filmfare Awards, and was honoured among "women in cinema" at the 30th International Film Festival of India. In 1988, the Government of India awarded her with Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian honour of the country.
Deewaar is a 1975 Indian action crime drama film written by Salim–Javed, directed by Yash Chopra, and starring Shashi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Nirupa Roy, Neetu Singh and Parveen Babi. The film tells the story of a pair of impoverished brothers who, after their family is betrayed by the misplaced idealism of their father, struggle to survive in the slums of Bombay, and eventually find themselves on opposing sides of the law. The Deewaar ("wall") of the title is the wall that has sprung up between the two brothers, drawn apart by fate and circumstances in a time of socio-political turmoil.
Javed Akhtar is an Indian political activist, poet, lyricist and screenwriter. He is originally from the Gwalior area. He is a recipient of the Padma Shri (1999), Padma Bhushan (2007), the Sahitya Akademi Award as well as five National Film Awards. In the early part of his career, he was a screenplay writer, creating films such as Deewar, Zanjeer and Sholay. Later, he left screenplay-writing and became a lyricist and social-political activist. He also remained a member of Rajya Sabha. In 2020, he received the Richard Dawkins Award for his contribution to secularism, free thinking, for critical thinking, holding religious dogma up to scrutiny, advancing human progress and humanist values. Javed Akhtar was chosen as a recipient for the Richard Dawkins Award for being "the bright light for reason, freethought, and atheism in a dark time".
Zanjeer (transl. Shackles) is a 1973 Indian Hindi-language crime action drama film written by Salim–Javed, directed and produced by Prakash Mehra, and starring Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Pran, Ajit Khan and Bindu.
Salim Abdul Rashid Khan is an Indian film actor, producer and screenwriter. As a screenwriter, he wrote the screenplays, stories and scripts for numerous Bollywood films. Khan is one half of the prolific screenwriting duo of Salim–Javed, along with Javed Akhtar. The duo were the first Indian screenwriters to achieve star status in Hindi cinema, and became the most successful Indian screenwriters of all time. They are regarded as "Hindi cinema's greatest screenwriters". While working together, Salim Khan was largely responsible for developing the stories and characters, while Javed Akhtar was largely responsible for developing the dialogues.
Baghban (transl. Gardener) is a 2003 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed by Ravi Chopra, starring Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini, and Salman Khan in a guest appearance. Aman Verma, Samir Soni, Saahil Chadha and Nasir Khan portray Bachchan and Malini's four sons. Mahima Chaudhry, Paresh Rawal, Rimi Sen and Lilette Dubey are featured in important supporting roles.
Zoya Akhtar is an Indian film director and screenwriter. After completing a diploma in filmmaking from NYU, she assisted directors such as Mira Nair, Tony Gerber and Dev Benegal, before becoming a writer and director herself. Akhtar is the recipient of several accolades, including 6 Filmfare Awards.
Salim–Javed were an Indian screenwriting duo, composed of Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, working in Bollywood. They are noted for being the first Indian screenwriters to achieve star status, becoming the most successful Indian screenwriters of all time. They are regarded as "Hindi cinema's greatest screenwriters". They worked together on 24 films during 1971–1987, of which twenty were commercially and critically successful films. They worked together on 22 Bollywood films, as well as two Kannada films.
Trishul (transl. Trident) is a 1978 Indian revenge drama film, written by Salim–Javed, directed by Yash Chopra, and produced by Gulshan Rai. It features music by Mohammed Zahur Khayyam, with lyrics by Sahir Ludhianvi. The film focuses on the intertwined stories of three main characters, portrayed by Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjeev Kumar and Shashi Kapoor.
The Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) is a public trust that organizes the annual international film festival in Mumbai known as the Mumbai Film Festival (MFF). Actress Deepika Padukone was the former chairperson of the trust.
Luck by Chance is a 2009 Indian Hindi-language drama film written and directed by Zoya Akhtar in her directorial debut. Produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani, it stars Farhan Akhtar and Konkana Sen Sharma in lead roles. Rishi Kapoor, Alyy Khan, Juhi Chawla, Dimple Kapadia, Hrithik Roshan, Saif Ali Khan, Isha Sharvani, and Sanjay Kapoor feature in the supporting roles. Guest stars and industry folk starring as themselves included Abhishek Bachchan, Akshaye Khanna, Ajay Devgn, Sunny Deol, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Karan Johar, Manish Malhotra, Ranbir Kapoor, John Abraham, Vivek Oberoi, Rajkumar Hirani, Boman Irani and Anurag Kashyap in cameos.
Main Azaad Hoon is a 1989 Indian Hindi-language vigilante film adapted from the 1941 Frank Capra film, Meet John Doe, by Javed Akhtar, about an opportunistic journalist who concocts a fictitious man in a fictitious article to boost newspaper sales, but when the article gets a huge response, she finds an unemployed man to sit in as Azaad, "man of the masses". The film was directed by Tinnu Anand, and starred Amitabh Bachchan and Shabana Azmi.
The 31st Filmfare Awards were held in 1984, with the Indian New Wave Cinema at its peak.
The 32nd Filmfare Awards were held in 1985.
The 2005 IIFA Awards, officially known as the 6th International Indian Film Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the International Indian Film Academy honoured the best films of 2004 and took place between 9–11 June 2005.
Bombay Talkies is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language anthology film consisting of four short films, directed by Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar and Anurag Kashyap. The film released on 3 May 2013, coinciding with and celebrating the 100th year of Indian cinema and the beginning of a new era in modern cinema. It screened at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival on 17 May 2013.
The 11th Chennai International Film Festival took place in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India from 12 to 19 December 2013. The event was organised by the Indo Cine Appreciation Foundation (ICAF) with support from the Government of Tamil Nadu. The festival was curated by actress-director Suhasini Maniratnam and inaugurated by Kamal Haasan and Aamir Khan. The Japanese drama Like Father, Like Son marked the beginning of the fest.
Akash Thosar is an Indian actor who appears in Marathi cinema and Bollywood. He is known for his role as Parshya in the 2016 Marathi film Sairat.
I For India: The Concert for our Times, or simply I for India, was a fundraiser concert created by filmmakers Karan Johar and Zoya Akhtar to help raise funds for the India COVID Response Fund (ICRF) managed by GiveIndia. The concert featured some of the biggest actors, musicians, singers, sportspeople and industrialists in India and around the world, coming together to support COVID-19 relief work in India. Produced by Fountainhead MKTG, the concert was live-streamed on Facebook on 3 May 2020 at 7.30pm IST.
