ABU DHABI // Shooting for a Bollywood film started at Emirates Palace hotel yesterday after a US$22 million (Dh80m) movie deal was announced on the closing day of the Middle East International Film Festival.
Code Red, an Abu Dhabi-based production company, and Puja Films, an Indian film house, will work together to make three films being shot in the capital over the next 12 months.
The first, Do Not Disturb, will cost about US$10m, said Vashu Bhagnani, producer of Puja Films. The Emirati production company will not finance the films, instead providing support staff including line producers, said Michael Valentine, managing partner of Code Red.
The cast and crew were welcomed yesterday by Bassem Kudsi, director of communications for the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage.
"On behalf of the Abu Dhabi Government, we are honoured and pleased, and you will have our support," he said.
"We are a family-friendly city and we have a very special relationship with India. We truly want to bring our cultures together and build more commerce.
"The Bollywood journey started with the formation of our nation and we have a very special relationship. I remember Friday mornings or afternoons, watching Hindi movies.
"This is a move to make the relationship a more symbiotic one."
Do Not Disturb, a comedy featuring Govinda, Lara Dutta, Sushmita Sen, Sohail Khan and Ritesh Deshmukh, will be shot at the Emirates Palace hotel over the next month.
Govinda will star. He and the film's director David Dhawan, are known for their comedy partnerships, and have made a string of hits, including Hero No 1 and Partner, which also featured the Emirates Palace hotel.
Deskmukh, an architect turned actor, said he was struck by the immense scale and artistry of the hotel.
Khan, the brother of Salman Khan, the Bollywood actor, is appearing in and co-producing the film. Emirates Palce was previously used as a location for one of his films, Partner, which was a huge commerical success. It prompted the team to return to the city, said Khan. "I told Mr Dhawan, you have to see this palace to believe it and come just once to check out the location. It will be worth it.
"This has always been a cherished palce and it is very safe."
The managing director of Code Red, Saeel bin Rabbaa, and the film's director echoed Mr Kudsi's sentiments about the coming together of Bollywood and Abu Dhabi.
"With this, we are celebrating a long list of film-makers and artists who have understood Abu Dhabi and its importance," said Mr Rabbaa.
Mr Dhawan added: "It helps us in Mumbai that cities like Abu Dhabi and Dubai, with their lovely locations, have joined together to work with India to make great cinema."
sbhattacharya@thenational.ae
Oppenheimer
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2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Specs
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Lewis Hamilton in 2018
Australia 2nd; Bahrain 3rd; China 4th; Azerbaijan 1st; Spain 1st; Monaco 3rd; Canada 5th; France 1st; Austria DNF; Britain 2nd; Germany 1st; Hungary 1st; Belgium 2nd; Italy 1st; Singapore 1st; Russia 1st; Japan 1st; United States 3rd; Mexico 4th
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Europe’s rearming plan
- Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
- Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
- Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
- Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
- Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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Brief scores:
Day 2
England: 277 & 19-0
West Indies: 154
