“We are in talks with 3 studios in Hollywood and one company in Italy for the remake of 3 Idiots,” Vidhu Vinod Chopra told on the sidelines of the ongoing International film festival of India (IFFI).And that’s not it. The film, which released in India in December 2009, is all set to explore other markets. It is releasing in Mainland China with a whopping 900 prints next week.”Its a first for any Hindi film to release with so many prints in China. It is also being adapted into a stage musical in Taiwan. The film has already made 2-3 million dollars in Hong Kong,” said Chopra.

The film is also getting a Chinese remake.”The director of Kung Fu Hustle Stephen Chow is also remaking it in Chinese. My films are made with universal values so they connect with audience all over the world. I am hoping my next Ferrari Ki Sawari also tastes the same success.”

Ferrari… starring Sharman Joshi is a film about a father-son relationship and will release in April next year.

“Currently the trailer is being made and will be released alongwith Don 2,” said Chopra.

Talking about Bollywood participation in a festival like IFFI, Chopra said, “Stars get paid to attend most of the events. In a festival like Cannes, even bad movies are premiered so that stars come and walk the red carpet. This festival has to be taken to that level that the stars willingly participate.”

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The feature films were chosen by a 10-member jury headed by filmmaker N Chandra after previewing 140 movies.

The festival will be held from November 22 to December 2. The inauguration of Indian Panorama will be on November 23.

The other Hindi films in the features section are “I Am Kalam” and “Wake Up Sid”. The list also has four Malayalam films — “Mummy & Me”, “Makaramanju”, “Kaal Chilambu” and “Elektra” — four Bengali movies — “Achin Paakhi”, “Abohomaan”, “Moner Manush”, “Ami Aadu” — and four Marathi films — “Pail Te Sumbaran”, “Jhing Chik Jhing”, “Vihir”, “Mee Sindhutai Sapkal”.

English film “Just Another Love Story”, Kannada films “Kanasemba Kudureyaneri”, “Aidu Ondola Aidu” and “Shabari”, Tamil movies “Athma Kadha”, “Angadi Theru” and “Raavanan”, Telugu film “Prasthanam” and Oriya movie “Swayamsiddha” complete the line-up.

Besides these, a five-member jury headed by Siddharth Kak selected the 19 films in the non-feature films category.

The films are “Incurable India”, “Leaving Home”, “Motorbike”, “My Daddy Strongest”, “Surang”, “Going The Distance”, “Mr India”, “Kal”, “Dhruva Natchathira”, “Seshasha”, “Numit Tadri”, “Rupban”, “Journey to Nagaland”, “Germ”, “Achtung Baby”, “Courtroom Nautanki”, “The Victims”, “Aval” and “Shyam Raat Seher”.

National Award-winning best non-feature Films of 2008 and 2009 — “AFSPA 1958″ and “The Postman” ¿ are the other two movies which have gained direct entry into the non-feature films list of Indian Panorama, an Information and Broadcasting Ministry release said.

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To promote the movie, the makers have come up with some unusual marketing ploys.

To begin with, each promo of the movie was unveiled in an event attended by three people associated with the movie, including the star cast comprising Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, R Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Boman Irani and director Rajkumar Hirani. Also, press conferences were beamed in seven countries.

The music launch of the movie was broadcast on idiotsacademy.com, marked by the absence of media. Users visiting the site on the day of the launch had the option of chatting with the stars present there.

Future Group’s Pantaloons India has collaborated with Vinod Chopra Films to launch the 3 Idiots apparel and accessories collection. In his spare time during the shooting of the film, Khan was in the habit of scribbling. The designers at Pantaloons were handed over the pages on which Khan scribbled and the designs were executed on T-shirts. Starting at Rs 399, the T shirts are available in 45 Pantaloons stores across the country.

Besides, the collection also includes replicas of T-shirts, garments and jewellery worn by Khan, Madhavan, Joshi and Kapoor in the film.

Zahid Shaikh, head, marketing, Pantaloons shares that the retail company has been selling movie merchandise for a long time, including recent movies such as Tashan, Bachna Ae Haseeno and Dostana. “The range will cut across age groups and the best part is that it is reasonably priced,” he says.

Reliance Life Insurance has entered into a tie up with the movie and is using the thought ‘All is well’, which is one of the mainstay themes in the communication of the film. The campaign, spanning television, radio and outdoor, talks about Reliance Life Insurance’s assurance of taking care of its consumer’s financial worries and enabling them to live life to the fullest.

Outdoor for the campaign includes innovations on hoardings, bus shelters, bus backs, platform signages and mobile vans. Primesite has executed the outdoor campaign by creating cut-outs of the star cast, which have been put up across Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad and 500 towns across India.

As part of another innovation, stickers reading Capacity: 3 Idiots were pasted on the back of 10,000 auto rickshaws that moved in cities such as Mumbai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kota, Lucknow, Kanpur, Patna, Kolkata, Bhopal, Indore, Bengaluru, Chennai and some cities of Gujarat. Speaking on the efficacy of auto rickshaw branding, producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra tells afaqs!, “Auto rickshaw is the most popular mode for commuting and works as a wonderful reminder medium. We have used this sticker in all the cities where rickshaw is one of the common modes for commuting.”

Besides, activation in multiplexes included messages on the walls of washrooms, saying ‘You are the fourth idiot’. Also, chairs shaped like hips placed in the lounge area of multiplexes caught many eyeballs and users. Chairs of the same design appear in the film and have been used in posters of the film, with Khan, Madhavan and Joshi sitting on them.

In early December, Zapak, the online gaming portal, created an alternate reality game on idiotsacademy.com. As part of this, Khan said (through a video message) that he will travel through India, leaving clues about his whereabouts and participants of the game got two weeks to track him down. Varanasi was the first place Khan visited, disguised as an old man locating the house where his mother grew up.

Next, accompanied by Kapoor, he visited the weavers of the famous Chanderi sarees in Chanderi, Madhya Pradesh. Both actors shared meals with the weavers, bought saris and discussed problems of the weavers. Later, Kareena attended a press conference clad in a Chanderi sari gifted by Khan and spoke about her experience with the weavers. After this, Khan landed up outside cricketer Saurav Ganguly’s house in Kolkata, again in disguise.

Other places he visited included a school in Gujarat, where he spoke to kids on what they want to do in life, before heading to his final destination, Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu.

The idea for Khan’s nationwide journey came from the story of the film, where his friends go in search of him. The difference here was that media and fans were trying to spot Khan. Obviously, this journey was captured by many news and entertainment channels and became free publicity for the film.

On Facebook, a profile called Pucca Idiot has been created that has more than one lakh fans. The profile has videos and pictures of Khan’s journey.

While it gets full marks for promotional tactics, it remains to be seen whether the movie lives up to the hype created around it.

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Producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra has said that his latest film ’3 Idiots’ will later be available on internet.

“This is the first film ever that can be downloaded and viewed on YouTube. But, we are yet to take a decision as to when it should be allowed for downloading legally after 8-12 weeks or later,” Chopra said.

Responding to questions on reports that multiplexes had hiked the ticket prices of ’3 Idiots’ steeply, Chopra said ticket pricing was the prerogative of the multiplex owners. “But, I will still check on the prices. I want audiences from all sections of the society to watch my film,” he said. He said the decision to allow legal downloading was taken to discourage pirated prints.

“If there is a facility to watch movies on mobile phones, the film will be available there but at an appropriate time. We can’t harm our theatrical business by releasing it on DTH,” he said.

Chopra also denied that he had sold the distribution rights of the film to Big Pictures. “My company is releasing the film in collaboration with Big Pictures,” he said. Directed by Rajkumar Hirani, the film stars Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Sharman Joshi and Madhavan.

’3 Idiots’ is releasing tomorrow in 1,766 screens world wide out of which 366 are in 32 countries. This is the largest international release for a Hindi film.

The premiere will be held at IMAX Wadala tonight and is expected to be a glittering affair. Among the host of

prominent film personalities, Chopra said he has invited Salman and Shah Rukh Khan. “They have confirmed. I would love to have them at the premiere,” he said.

Salman’s ‘Veer’ is slated for release in January while SRK’s ‘My Name is Khan’ in February.

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Kareena Kapoor seems to be getting increasingly generous with her kisses these days! After locking lips with her ex-flame Shahid in ‘Jab We Met’, beau Saif in ‘Tashan’ and Akshay in ‘Kambhakt Ishq’, the Kapoor belle will now be seen playing tongue tonsils with ace actor Aamir Khan in ‘3 Idiots’.Being on a kissing spree ever since she trimmed down to the much-envied size zero, Kareena this time left the fabled actor much impressed.

Buzz has it that director Raju Hirani wanted to reveal the intimacy between Kareena and Aamir, just days before the film was set to release. Nevertheless, our sources reveal that the two hotties share a total of 3 hot kisses.

And as per the insiders, the kissing scenes have been aesthetically shot and were done after a series of retakes. For a scene where Kareena blows Aamir a kiss, the duo had to give 14 retakes and that was kiss No 1.

Taking over the reigns from Kareena, who was visibly nervous, Aamir improvised and got Bebo to kiss him on the cheek next.

But it was the third kiss that left the crew awe-struck. Locking lips in the climax of the film the kiss is said to more intense that Aamir and Karishma’s ‘Raja Hindustani’ act.

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