A multi-million dollar Indo-UK feature about maths genius Srinivasa Aiyangar Ramanujan and his friendship with Cambridge don GH Hardy has been soft-launched in India. The biopic, scheduled for rolling in early 2007, has been developed by British actor-director Stephen Fry and Indian filmmaker Dev Benegal, who independently had wanted to bring Ramanujan's life to the screen.

Media finance company Ingenious Media is investing in the creation of a new talent agency, to be chaired by former Sky chief Tony Ball, that it hopes will be a major power broker in the British film and television businesses.

The filmmakers behind best live-action short nominee Cashback may have left left the Oscar ceremony empty-handed, but their film is poised to grow bigger. Writer-director Sean Ellis and producer Lene Bausager have turned the sexy, 19-minute supermarket drama ("think a UK-style Clerkswith lots of nudity" - Variety) into a feature-length film, reuniting the short's ensemble cast.

A teenage novel by Harrogate writer Julia Clarke is to go into production with Bavaria Films, one of Germany's biggest film producers.

Acclaimed industry professional, one of India's top 10 and most acclaimed filmmakers Buddhadeb Dasgupta stopped off in Manchester on the Northern leg of his whistlestop tour of the UK. The trip was a familiarisation visit to give Mr Dasgupta a feel of the range of locations on offer in the UK, with the possibility of a feature film to be set in Britain in the future.

Film London, with backing from the BBC, has launched a project to develop ten micro-budget film projects in the capital. Microwave challenges film-makers to shoot a feature with budget of up to UKP75,000 with the option of raising additional "in-kind" support taking the budget to a maximum of UKP100,000.

The Hebridean island of Barra looks set to miss out on the remake of the Ealing film classic Whisky Galore! shot there 60 years ago.