Wang Lee-hom (王力宏), 33, accused Indian filmmakers of plagiarizing his music and is seeking US$320,000 in damages, his agent said on Wednesday.
The US-born singer, popular throughout Southeast Asia, is seeking damages from Tips Films, distributor of the Hindi film Race, which was released in March, Sony BMG Music Entertainment Ltd said.
Sony BMG said it reserves the right to take legal action against Race's distributor for plagiarism.
"The lead song in Race, Zara Zara Touch Me, resembles Wang's song Deep in the Bamboo Grove (竹林深處), Sony BMG said in a statement. "Its rhythm and tempo are similar to that of Deep in the Bamboo Grove. The similarity is nearly 100 percent."
Race has been shown in India, the US, Britain, Australia and Malaysia, and its sound track has been released in those countries.
Deep in the Bamboo Grove is part of Wang's CD The Sun and Moon in My Heart (心中的日月), a collection of 12 Chinese-language songs released in December 2004. The song mixes a Tibetan woman's singing with hip-hop and Chinese drums and flutes.
Meanwhile, Batman has proven unstoppable, taking out all his rivals, but this time at the box office.
The Dark Knight, the sixth movie featuring the superhero, has become the fastest moneymaker in Hollywood history, exceeding US$400 million in ticket sales in the US and Canada in 18 days, the Hollywood Reporter, a newspaper covering the entertainment industry, said on Tuesday.
The previous record holder was 2004's Shrek 2, which took 43 days to reach the same mark.
The Dark Knight's ticket sales in the rest of the world has pushed its total income up to US$602.5 million as of Monday, according to the Web site Box Office Mojo.
Film industry observers said they expected the movie to exceed US$500 million in domestic sales, but surpassing the top grosser of all time, Titanic at US$600.8 million, was seen as unlikely, even for a superhero.
But The Dark Knight has set other records. It took in US$67.2 million on its opening day July 18 in the US and Canada, eclipsing the previous record set by Spider-Man 3 at nearly US$60 million.
It also had the biggest opening weekend with US$158.4 million and has gone on to be the top grosser for three straight weekends.
In Taiwan, financial incentives to draw film and TV producers to Kaohsiung City to shoot movies and programs have proven effective, with a number of production teams taking up the offer to film there in the past few months, the city government said Monday.
Since Kaohsiung's Department of Information passed a measure earlier this year to pay subsidies to film or TV producers of US$9.83 per day for each production team worker, at least 10 films and TV programs have been shot in the city, a municipal official said.
Among them was noted director Wu Nien-jen's (吳念真) new film Take Me to the Faraway Place (帶我去遠方).
Under the incentive's provisions, film or TV drama production teams are eligible to received subsidies of up to NT$600,000, he said.
The official said that the department has already budgeted NT$1.5 million in subsidies for producers to help pay for their crews' accommodation and signed a long-term contract with a hotel which provides rooms to film or TV crews at a reasonable price.
Another incentive drawn up to encourage film producers to use Kaohsiung as a backdrop for their stories is an NT$10 million cash award for any picture where shots of the city account for at least a quarter of its length and that wins an award at any one of six major international film festivals, such as the Berlin International Film Festival.
Filmmakers in Moscow said on Sunday that Hollywood star Leonardo di Caprio, 33, would be ideal to play Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.
"We have compared Di Caprio's photos with those of the younger Lenin and the similarity is striking: he could play the role without make-up," renowned screenwriter Alexander Borojanski told Interfax news agency.
The actor had the same expression as Lenin, he said.
It was uncertain whether the producers would manage to get Di Caprio to play the role. They said Sunday they wanted to discuss it with Di Caprio's agents first.
The film's working title was Lenin's Brain and it was a comedy with a US$20 million budget, said Borojanski, who has just starting writing the script.
Russian scientists manage to clone Lenin in the science-fiction comedy and he then sparks a socialist revolution in the US in the year 2004.
Lenin led the Russian communist uprising in 1917.
"It is common knowledge that Di Caprio has Slavic roots. His ancestors on his mother's side emigrated from Russia to Germany," said Natalya Semina, director of the Moscow International Film Festival.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
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