MUMBAI: Close on the heels of the success of ?101 Hits of Lata Mangeshkar?, ?101 Hits of Kishore Kumar? and ?101 Hits of Mohd. Rafi? that featured their solo songs, Shemaroo Entertainment has now released ?101 Duets of Asha Bhosle? in an exciting collectors 3 DVD pack. A welcome addition under its already popular 101 Series, this pack features Asha Bhosle?s duets across 5 decades, right from Shri 420 (1955) to Bewafaa (2005).

Unlike other 101 series, the pack has duets of Asha Bhole along with her all-time favourite singers like Mohd. Rafi and Kishore Kumar and few gems like Manna Dey and Mukesh.

Asha Bhosle is the reigning diva of the Bollywood industry and is still going strong. She experimented with every song she sung and took it as a new challenge. 101 Duets of Asha Bhosle brings to her fans her musical journey with Kishore Kumar & Mohd. Rafi; Mukesh and Manna Dey right upto Amit Kumar, Suresh Wadkar, Kumar Shanu, Sonu Nigam and many more.

The unique compilation not only features her duets with other female singers like Geeta Dutt, Shamshad Begum and her own elder singer Lata Mangeshkar. but also treats the music lovers with her duets sung with music composers like R.D.Burman, Laxmikant (of Laxmikant-Pyarelal fame) and Bappi Lahiri.

The pack encompasses a variety of moods and flavours and is sure to transport one to the world of Nostalgia, with its mix of Black & White and Colour songs and unforgettable song picturisations. The pure magic of audio-visuals is truly evident as you watch Shammi Kapoor dancing with Asha Parekh in ?Yaar Chulbula Hai" or Fardeen Khan sizzling with Urmila in "Kambhakt Ishq Hai Jo".

101 Duets of Asha Bhosle is a premium 3 DVD pack economically priced at Rs 299 each.

Mumbai:GroupM, the leading media planning and investment agency of the country was awarded the 2ND Best Employer Brand of India 2012, on Saturday, February 18, 2012, at the Employer Branding Awards. GroupM improved its last year ranking of 7th to rank 2nd this year! Backed with a string of people initiatives in talent management, attraction and retention, GroupM clinched this position beating several biggies of the corporate world!

GroupM bagged awards in most of the categories, making them one of the top contenders for the top 2 spots. GroupM was given Awards in Innovation in Recruitment, Talent Management, Excellence in Training, Best HR Strategy in line with Business, Innovative Retention Strategy, Excellence in HR through Technology, Continuous Innovation in HR Strategy at Work, Global HR Strategy and Innovation in Career Development.

?It has become a clich? to say that people are our strength. At GroupM we are proud to walk the talk on this truism. We have been investing steadfastly in talent development. It feels wonderful to move from 15th to 7th to the 2nd best employer brand over the past three years?, said Vikram Sakhuja, CEO, GroupM, South Asia.

?GroupM?s HR team has worked relentlessly over the last 3 years, working towards building a nurturing culture and innovation in Human Resources practices, walking alongside the business,? said Sonali Vaidya, Human Resource Head for GroupM India.

These wins reflect the way the agency?s business has been growing over the past few years, in India as well as globally. The expansion of the agency?s scope of services is the result of a conscious growth strategy put together by the global GroupM management.

MUMBAI: Max, the premium Hindi movies and special events channel brings to you an unforgettable night with the 10th Kamla Pasand MAX Stardust Awards 2012 on 26th February, 2012 at 8 pm. This award ceremony is a salute to the new talent of the film industry. This year the awards are even more special as Kamla Pasand MAX Stardust Award celebrates its 10th year and pays a tribute to Hindi Cinema.

The evening will witness many entertaining acts by hosts Vir Das, Kunal Roy Kapoor and Shreyas Talpade at their wittiest best followed by scintillating dance performances by the best in the industry.

While Shahid Kapoor will enthrall the audience with his captivating performance on a medley of hit songs including ‘Munni Badnam Hui‘, Bollywood beauties Kareena Kapoor, Bipasha Basu and Anushka Sharma will leave the audience wanting more. While Kareena Kapoor and Bipasha Basu dance to the songs of their latest movie releases, Anushka sharma will sway to the tunes of the evergreen Hindi songs.

Watch the ever ravishing Rekha bring the evening alive with her harmonious singing to the tunes of ‘Oo la la‘ as she receives a special MAX Stardust award -"Role model of the industry".

Viewers are sure to be enthralled with the lavish sets of the Kamla Pasand MAX Stardust awards. Infused with archaic and arty structures of Paris, including the iconic Eifel Tower and coupled with lasers, special effects, lighting and acoustics, it is sure to create a breathtaking audio and visual impact.

So don‘t miss this dazzling night of Kamla Pasand MAX STARDUST AWARDS 2012 on February 26th at 8pm, ONLY ON MAX!

MUMBAI: UTV World Movies, in association with Shemaroo World Cinema, will release Buenos Aires 1977 on home video.

The crime thriller, directed by Israel Adri?n Caetano, tells the true story of four men who narrowly escaped death at the hands of a military death squad during the Argentine Dirty War in the 1970s.

The film revolves around a ‘task force‘ working for the fascist Argentine military government that kidnaps, Claudio, the goalkeeper of a B-league soccer team, and takes him to a clandestine detention centre. Claudio enters a living hell of interrogations, beatings, humiliations & betrayals.

Alongside other young detainees, he battles to survive while awaiting his fate to be decided. After four months of imprisonment, with execution looking certain, Claudio and three other prisoners make their desperate move. Forcing open a window in the middle of a thunderstorm, completely naked, they jump into the void and their flight into the future begins.

Buenos Aires 1977 was Argentina‘s entry for 2007 Golden Globes Awards in the category of Best Foreign Language Film.

The DVD will be available on stands from 23rd February and will be priced at Rs.349.

Mumbai: After a successful series of ?Youth Debates with Arnab Goswami? in Mumbai and Bengaluru, TIMES NOW, India?s leading English News Channel, is all set to present the biggest and the much awaited 3rd edition of the Youth Debates in New Delhi.

The Youth Debates moderated by Arnab Goswami, Editor-in-Chief, TIMES NOW, encourages forthright opinions from young India and gives the country?s youth a chance to voice their opinions on issues ranging from politics and terrorism to business and social scenario amongst others, through an unparalleled vocal platform.

Slated for the second week of February 2012, the Delhi edition invites students and young professionals alike to come forward and participate in this lively debate along with renowned panelists. Through extensive on-ground auditions TIMES NOW will select the best candidates from college campuses and popular youth hangouts across the capital city.

The criteria for selecting top notch candidates by the editorial team of TIMES NOW will be based on the candidate?s debating abilities and knowledge on current affairs.

Aspiring participants can also upload their videos on the facebook page (facebook.com/Timesnow). Entries for submission of videos closes on February 21st 2012.

MUMBAI: Digital artists devoted days and years behind the scenes to help create the movie magic seen in many of this year‘s Academy Award-nominated films. In the categories for Best Visual Effects and Best Animated Film (Feature and Short) in particular, many artists relied on the same set of tools ? Digital Entertainment Creation (DEC) software from Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK).

"Great films depend on great storytelling and our technology is designed to enable artistic vision," said Marc Petit, senior vice president, Autodesk Media & Entertainment. "We congratulate the multitalented teams of artists from North America, New Zealand, Europe and Asia, and we are proud of Autodesk software‘s role in helping them create these extraordinary movies."

Best Visual Effects:
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" ? UK-based visual effects (VFX) studios Double Negative, MPC and Framestore each used Autodesk Maya 3D animation and rendering software to help create the visually extravagant effects for this final installment in the Harry Potter franchise. Double Negative VFX Supervisor David Vickery said, "Maya has been the lynchpin of our pipeline since ?Goblet of Fire.‘ For this film, Maya helped us build a fully computer-generated (CG) Hogwarts in a massive 3D environment, including a spectacular mountain range and an animated fire-breathing dragon digitally modeled with Autodesk Mudbox software." MPC VFX Supervisor Greg Butler added, "From the first film in the ?Potter‘ series through to this film‘s final shot, MPC has relied on Maya for modeling, rigging and lighting." Andy Kind, Framestore VFX supervisor said, "Autodesk‘s Maya once again was our go-to tool, enabling us to bring to life the magic of the Chamber of Secrets for Ron and Hermione‘s first kiss, as well as Harry‘s vision of Heaven. We couldn‘t have done any of the eight films without it!"

"Hugo" ? VFX studio Pixomondo managed a global production team across 10 of its 11 facilities in North America, Europe and Asia for this richly detailed reimagining of 1930s Paris. The worldwide team worked for over a year using a production pipeline comprised of Maya and Autodesk 3ds Max for animation, rendering, character rigging and modeling; as well as Autodesk MotionBuilder for motion capture and animation. VFX Supervisor Ben Grossmann said, "The interoperability of Autodesk tools helped us meet tight deadlines and bring Martin Scorsese‘s magical vision to the big screen."

"Real Steel" ? Visual effects powerhouse Digital Domain, motion-capture specialists Giant Studios and virtual production innovators Technoprops delivered "Real Steel" within an impressively efficient 71-day production schedule. The close collaboration between the three companies and an Autodesk toolset helped create this realistic and thrilling action movie with a believable and captivating robot and human relationship. VFX Supervisor Erik Nash said, "The on-set real-time interoperability of Maya and MotionBuilder enabled tremendous creative freedom for the entire production team."

"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" ? Caesar, the CG chimpanzee performed by Andy Serkis is a creative milestone for Weta Digital in New Zealand. Weta used Maya and MotionBuilder as the core of its creative production pipelines for its groundbreaking visual effects and performance capture. Sebastian Sylwan, chief technology officer at Weta said, "Creating a believable and realistic CG character like Caesar required providing our artists with the right tools and innovative technology that allowed them to iterate and express their creativity. We developed our own software to perfect performance capture, hair, eyes and muscles amongst others, using Maya and MotionBuilder as a backbone." Canada-based Image Engine contributed previsualization for the film and also took advantage of a Maya-based pipeline.

"Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon" ? The extraordinarily detailed Transformer robots contain up to 50,000 million polygons rendered in stereoscopic 3D by lead visual effects houses Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) with studios in San Francisco and Singapore and Digital Domain. ILM used the following Autodesk DEC software tools in its pipeline: 3ds Max for digital environment work; Autodesk Flame as part of its proprietary SABRE high-speed compositing system; and Maya as the core tool for animation, rigging and layout. Scott Farrar, visual effects supervisor on ?Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon‘ said, "As effects work continues to grow in complexity, it is more important than ever that our artists have access to best of breed tools and by using Autodesk‘s Digital Entertainment Creation software, ILM is able to continue to create groundbreaking visual effects."

Best Animated Feature Film

"Kung Fu Panda 2" and "Puss in Boots" ? Both movies earned not only Academy Award nominations for Animated Feature Film for Dreamworks Animation (DWA), but also were two of the top three grossing animated films of 2011.* DWA continues to creatively push technology to imbue animated characters with huge personalities, and both films used Maya. Phil McNally, stereoscopic supervisor on both movies said, "Either on our own or in concert with Autodesk, we can develop tools in Maya to specifically address the challenges of stereoscopic 3D. Maya gives us that intuitive flexibility, or the ability to see what we‘re doing ? while we‘re doing it ? in 3D."

"Rango"
"Rango," the story of a weird lizard‘s quest for identity, was ILM‘s first animated feature. The film presented some daunting creative and technical challenges: Rango‘s face alone required over 300 controllers to achieve the range of performance needed for the 1,100 shots he appears in. On top of which, Rango was just one of well over 100 characters that populated the film. "All of these characters had some combination of scales, feathers, or fur and all had clothing. We strove to create a very tactile world for Rango," said ILM‘s Hal Hickel, animator director on the film. "We wanted to create the illusion that if you could reach out and touch objects in the frame you‘d know exactly what they would feel like, so it was very important that our software enable us to show as much detail as possible at each phase of the process. This allowed us to make certain the performances would translate to the big screen. Maya was great at letting us do that."