Tag: amazon prime video

Ahsoka to Aakhri Sach: Top Movies and Web Series to Watch This Week

As we approach the end of August, OTT platforms have ramped up their content output, offering ample options for people to binge-watch shows and movies throughout the weekend. No one wants to waste time scrolling through streaming apps for hours, and so, we’ve come back with a list of films and shows that’ll keep you entertained. The new Star Wars live-action series Ahsoka is easily the standout, with Rosario Dawson returning to investigate an emerging threat in the galaxy far, far away. It’s already out on Disney+ Hotstar. Meanwhile, on the Indian content front, we’ve got Guns & Gulaabs, the retro-style crime-comedy from Raj & DK that blends romance, action, and nostalgia into a fine paste.

For Indian hip-hop fans, we’ve got Bajao, which navigates the Punjabi pop music industry via the eyes of three young filmmakers who’ve found themselves in big trouble. The series marks rapper Raftaar’s acting debut, and is now streaming on JioCinema. On the movie side, the Gal Gadot and Alia Bhatt-led Heart of Stone is a major one, continuing its #1 global rank, as per Netflix’s charts.

With that, here’s a guide on what to watch this weekend:

Ahsoka

When: Now streaming
Where: Disney+ Hotstar

Former Jedi Knight Ahsoka Tano makes her long-awaited live-action debut in the latest series from Dave Filoni, as she embarks on a new adventure to take on General Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen), who is poised to return as the heir to the Galactic Empire. Her effort is compounded by having to deal with her strained past — specifically, her former student Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) — an expert on explosives — who was abandoned mid-training and therefore has a bone to pick with her master. Completing the trio of returning Star Wars Rebels characters is the Twi’lek ace pilot Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), navigating the stars via her starship ‘Ghost.’

The series will also pit Ahsoka against her former master Anakin Skywalker, who we know will eventually turn to the dark side and be known as the Sith Lord Darth Vader. Hayden Christensen will be reprising that role, presumably touching on his reasons for abandoning Ahsoka many years prior. Meanwhile, the dark force honing Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson) and his student Shin (Ivanna Sakho) serve as other major hurdles in Ahsoka’s path to saving the fragile New Republic.

The first two episodes of Ahsoka are now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar. The remaining six will drop on a weekly basis, every Tuesday, until October 3.

Best Star Wars TV Series to Watch Before Ahsoka

Bajao

When: Now streaming
Where: JioCinema

A trio of young aspiring filmmakers — Ved (Tanuj Virwani), Dhaari (Sahil Khattar), and Cookie (Sahil Vaid) — strike a deal with a problematic hip-hop icon Babbar (Raftaar) to make a music video that would herald his comeback to the rap scene. Their lives soon take a disastrous turn when a night of celebration turns to chaos, causing them to lose a bag of Rs. 2 crore in cash, and the rapper missing. With no recollection of their memory and a 48-hour countdown, Bajao swells into a twisted search and rescue mission, navigating hip-hop culture and street crime, all the while dealing with a local gangster, whom the filmmakers appear to have wronged.

Yes, that last part is quite reminiscent of Todd Phillips’ The Hangover, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the missing rapper had been right under their noses the entire time.

Jio Studios Unveils Content Slate With 62 Titles: Raftaar-led Bajao, Shah Rukh Khan’s Dunki, More

Satyaprem Ki Katha

When: Now streaming
Where: Amazon Prime Video

Kartik Aaryan stars in this musical love story as Satyaprem aka Sattu, a good-for-nothing law school dropout, who always dreams — literally — about getting married to a beautiful woman, but gets rejected for being jobless. However, the realisation doesn’t strike him hard until much later, when he encounters a mesmerising dancer Katha (Kiara Advani), who is way out of his league and is looking to marry the ideal husband — something Satyaprem isn’t.

That said, fate has different plans for him and the pair end up getting married, much to Katha’s dismay, forcing Sattu to improve his ways and become a worthy husband, while being understanding of her dark secret. Marking director Sameer Vidwans’ first Hindi-language film, Satyaprem Ki Katha also stars Gajraj Rao (Maja Ma), Supriya Pathak (Rashmi Rocket), and Rajpal Yadav (Phir Hera Pheri).

Heart of Stone

When: Now streaming
Where: Netflix

After partaking in a sleek heist in Netflix’s Red Notice, Gal Gadot is now slipping into the role of Rachel Stone, an international spy working for the Charter, an elusive group with no political leanings that relies on a mysterious asset called ‘The Heart’ for its day-to-day tasks. It’s basically a powerful AI that keeps track of a person’s digital footprint to create data that helps predict potential global threats and deliver odds of success in thwarting them. That prize soon gets stolen by the mysterious hacker Keya Dhawan (Alia Bhatt), kickstarting a globetrotting hunt across the snowy mountaintops to even some risky airborne manoeuvres.

Heart of Stone also stars Jamie Dornan (Belfast) as the MI6 agent Parker, Matthias Schweighöfer (Army of the Dead) as the Charter’s tech specialist ‘Jack of Hearts,’ and Sophie Okenedo (Hotel Rwanda) as its leader Nomad.

Guns & Gulaabs

When: Now streaming
Where: Netflix

Guns & Gulaabs serves as an ode to Bollywood in the mid-90s, focusing its sights on a fictional cartel-run town called Gulaabganj, where a group of outlandish characters try making a name for themselves. Among them, we’ve got Rajkummar Rao’s (Monica, O My Darling) Paana Tipu, a lovesick mechanic distraught by his father’s death, who murders a couple of thugs by shoving a spanner down their throats. Hence the first name: Paana.

Then there’s Chhotu Ganchi (Adarsh Gourav), the reluctant heir to a drug empire, who struggles with transporting a large amount of opium and is hell-bent on making his father proud. Adding some spice to this interconnecting drama is a local goofy assassin named ‘4 Cut Aatmaram’ (Gulshan Devaiah), notorious for killing his victims with four stabs of a switchblade. He never breaks his rule.

Adding some normalcy to the otherwise cartoonish characters is the honest narcotics Officer Arjun Varma (Dulquer Salmaan), who turns into a chaos agent when asked to turn corrupt and help out with smuggling opium. It’s an all-around quirky story that jumps between its characters and focuses on worldbuilding in the first half before things fall into place to unfold a revenge arc, heartbreak, and the taste of sweet innocence through the eyes of three schoolmates. Adding to its aura are the vintage titles, pop-culture references, and some classical music suited to the time period to best immerse you in Raj & DK’s newly-crafted world.

Aakhri Sach

When: August 25 (Now streaming)
Where: Disney+ Hotstar

Hard-nosed investigative officer Anya (Tamannaah Bhatia) is summoned to solve a bizarre case, in which the 11 members of a ‘regular’ family were found dead — 10 of them were found hanging in the courtyard of their residence. Yep, this new Hotstar Specials show is based on the infamous real-life Burari deaths from 2018, where it was concluded that the family had committed mass suicide. While going about her investigation, Anya discovers an odd connection between the house’s layout with the family member count — there are 11 windows, 11 doors, and 11 odd pipes peeking out of a wall, making for a rather perplexing case. The only solid account she has is a set of diaries maintained by the family members.

Robbie Grewal — best known for Romeo Akbar Walter — directs all episodes of Aakhri Sach, which also stars Abhishek Banerjee (Paatal Lok) as Anya’s junior officer, and Shivin Narang as a key suspect.

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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Is Now Available to Watch On-Demand on YouTube, Apple TV, Zee5, More

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is now available to stream as video-on-demand. The second chapter in fledgling Miles Morales’ multiversal escapades is now available for renting and purchase across Apple TV, Youtube Movies, Amazon Prime Video, and Zee5. Out of these, only Apple TV offers the premium Ultra HD version with Dolby Atmos audio, albeit there’s only the option for purchase at Rs. 490. An SD (standard definition) version is also available at Rs. 390, and both of them come with subtitles in several languages. On YouTube Movies, the film starts at Rs. 590 for the SD version and Rs. 820 for the 1080p full-HD print — neither platform has options to rent.

Renting Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is only possible on Amazon Prime Video and Zee5, though pricing on the former is a bit strange. Both SD and HD versions are listed for Rs. 399, which doesn’t make too much sense, as the customer would rather opt for higher quality — provided they have the internet bandwidth to support it, that is. Meanwhile, the version on Zee5 doesn’t mention what version you’ll get, but seeing the Rs. 349 price tag and its targeted audience being Indians (regional pricing), I’m inclined to believe that it will be HD quality. The platform also offers audio in 10 regional languages — same as theatrical — ranging between English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Malayalam, Bengali, Kannada, Punjabi, and Gujarati.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse dominated the box office, collecting $683.8 million (about Rs. 56,62 crore) globally and setting a milestone as the highest-grossing Sony Pictures Animation film. If the numbers and reviews aren’t convincing enough, IGN has exclusively dropped the first 10 minutes of the film, which should give you a general vibe of the film. In it, Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), now reunited with Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld), is catapulted across the multiverse and trapped amongst an interdimensional web of Spider-People to solve a major conspiracy. When leader Miguel O’Hara/ Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac) comes up with a dangerous choice to save the multiverse, Miles rejects it, spawning an all-out war in which he leaps across dimensions, getting mauled by a Spider-Cat and more.

The Spot (Jason Schwartzman) appears to be the mysterious force behind the multiverse’s doom, thanks to his special abilities that let him open and travel across portals. Other key players include Daniel Kaluuya as Spider-Punk, Issa Rae as Jessica Drew/ Spider-Woman, and Jake Johnson as the original Spider-Man/ Peter Parker. Meanwhile, Karan Soni voices Pavitr Prabhakar/ Spider-Man India, whose universe Mumbattan is presented through a watercolour style mimicking old Indian comic books. There’s a total of six main art styles in the film, in addition to the wacky doodle sketches that add a ton more personality.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is now available as VOD on YouTube Movies, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, and Zee5. It’s also still playing in select theatres across the country.

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‘Made in Heaven’ Season 2 Will Focus on Women, LGBTQ Community: Zoya Akhtar

Filmmaker Zoya Akhtar on Tuesday said that Made In Heaven season two will continue to train its lens on issues revolving around women and LGBTQ community through its two protagonists, who run a wedding planning agency for big-budget weddings in India. Set against the backdrop of quintessential Indian weddings, the first chapter revolved around two wedding planners — Arjun Mathur’s Karan Mehra and Sobhita Dhulipala’s Tara Khanna — navigating the big fat and often complicated Indian weddings, while simultaneously balancing conflicts in their own lives.

The second season of Made in Heaven, according to Akhtar – who has created the series with Reema Kagti – will see Dhulipala and Mathur’s characters with a strong moral compass. “The central two characters of the season are Tara and Karan, they are non- conformists and quite grey. They come with a sense of protectiveness, in a sense, about someone that comes to their lives, they have a strong moral compass. We also lens this show through women, through LGBTQ community, so it’s an expansion of that, thematically. It’s been about fitting into a society,” Akhtar told reporters here at the trailer launch of the Prime Video series.

Kagti said they are ‘obsessed’ with exploring different experiences of women in society. “We are trying to explore different aspects of female experience in a society like us, which is rooted in culture and is changing and modernising. I think we are obsessed with exploring different female angles,” she added.

The seven-episode second season is directed by Kagti and Akhtar along with Alankrita Shrivastava, Neeraj Ghaywan, and Nitya Mehra. Shrivastava said that although they carry forward the core theme of Made in Heaven in season two, the scale is bigger. “We carry forward the things and core of the show but our endeavour with season two was to be more grand with the wedding and deeper with the characters. So, it is a more nuanced and layered look at the themes that we did in season one. It’s more of what you saw and is more poignant and more fun,” she said.

“There is love, family, togetherness and romance that one holds dear but there is also much to change, (like) actualisation of how women are changing and (we) explore how tradition meets modernity,” she added. The first season of Made in Heaven was released in 2019 and received critical-acclaim for its storytelling and performances by the lead cast. The show earned Mathur an International Emmy nomination for best actor for his portrayal of a closeted gay man grappling with a troubled childhood, depleting finances, and social stigma around his orientation.

Akhtar said that the team didn’t expect the first season to be widely loved by audiences and thanked people for patiently waiting for its second chapter. “Nobody knew how it will land. We were extremely nervous when it came out. But it picked up, and picked up. It has got a loyal fandom, no matter what I post, I am asked about ‘Made in Heaven’. Now, it’s been so long, I’m being trolled, so I wanted to drop because they were getting irritated. I’m thankful to them that they have held on to it and haven’t forgotten it.” For, Mathur, who is also known for Luck By Chance, Bara Aana, My Name is Khan, Ankur Arora Murder Case, the show turned out to be his big breakthrough.

He said he didn’t expect his character to make an impact on the lives of people but it did. He credited the writers for giving him a well-defined role. “When you start doing something, it is never with expectations of how much the audience will really connect with it or not. I am grateful for that but a lot of credit goes to writers. I didn’t expect it to connect the way it did. I was quite overwhelmed. All the personal stories that came to me and how it enabled so many people and gave them strength to kind of accept themselves or members of their families,” he said.

Dhulipala said it has been a privilege and honour to play a woman like Tara, an ambitious go-getter struggling to navigate her marriage and a fledgling business. “In the second season, while she continues to fulfil her role as a daughter, daughter-in-law, business partner to the best of her capacity, I do think she is up for a major identity transformation and charting that journey is what we will see in season two. It’s her coming-of-age, coming into her own in a new capacity, and that’s very thrilling.” Besides Dhulipala and Mathur, the series also features Jim Sarbh, Kalki Koechlin, Shashank Arora, Shivani Raghuvanshi, and Vijay Raaz. The newcomers include Mona Singh, Ishwak Singh and Trinetra Haldar.

Made In Heaven season two will premiere on August 10 on Amazon Prime Video. It is produced by Excel Media & Entertainment and Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti’s Tiger Baby.

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Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan, Shahid Kapoor-Led Farzi Lead IMDb’s Most Popular Indian Movies and Web Series Rankings

Halfway into the year, IMDb has revealed a list of the 10 most popular Indian movies and TV series — so far — both of which are led by the biggest stars in Bollywood. On the film side, we’ve got the Shah Rukh Khan-led espionage thriller Pathaan, which marked the actor’s return to mainstream filming after four years. Bear in mind, this list is created using page views on IMDb as a metric and is, therefore, not an indicator of its quality. IMDb does, of course, also maintain a crowd-sourced rating system which puts a score on the quality of films, but this can quite easily be gamed by audiences.

Raj and DK’s Farzi, which leads the pack among the most popular TV series of 2023 in India, is a good example of this. Earlier this week, its lead Shahid Kapoor tweeted out an infographic, where [Farzi(https://www.gadgets360.com/tags/farzi) ranked second among the ‘Top-rated TV Series of 2023′ (worldwide) — right below HBO’s The Last of Us — adding that such a high ranking indicates a demand for a second season. What he didn’t take into consideration is the number of voters, which Farzi significantly lacks. The show earned an 8.4-star rating from a mere 35,000 voters/ viewers, while The Last of Us emerged on top with a score of 8.8/10, collected from 434,000 voters. It can, therefore, be assumed that titles with more votes have more reliable ratings.

Still, it does make sense for Farzi to be ranked as the most popular show in India (based on page views as a metric), which followed a rags-to-riches story of a small-time con artist who learns to make counterfeit money. What follows next is a thrilling cat-and-mouse chase between him and a fiery, unorthodox task force officer Michael Vedanayagam (Vijay Sethupathi), as the story veers into bigger threats involving a local gangster and some greedy accomplices who are willing to bend over at the sight of money. Its creators Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. responded to Kapoor’s tweet, expressing their desire for a second chapter as well.

“It’s extremely heartening to learn that Pathaan is first on the list by IMDb. To see the amount of love that Pathaan has received is amazing, and whenever any work gets placed first, then the thing to do is to work twice as hard on the next one to thank everyone for this recognition,” Pathaan’s lead Khan said in a prepared statement. “Most importantly, I would like to thank the team of Pathaan and the audiences across the globe for making this happen!” The film was followed closely by Salman Khan’s Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan and The Kerala Story, which was bound to get some attention due to the political sentiment surrounding it. What’s interesting is that there wasn’t much distinction in IMDb traffic, regardless of whether a film was released in theatres or digitally.

Streaming originals such as Bloody Daddy (JioCinema) and Netflix’s Chor Nikal Ke Bhaga and Mission Majnu managed to secure spots among the top 10. Not all of them are from Bollywood, however; two Tamil films Varisu and Ponniyin Selvan: Part Two complete the list in positions 9 and 10, respectively.

IMDb’s press release notes that Indian audiences gravitated toward crime drama series during the first half of the year, with the sub-genre taking up eight spots out of the total 10. Standouts include Rana Naidu, Asur 2: Rise of the Dark Side, and Saas, Bahu Aur Flamingo. The exceptions are the period drama Taj: Divided by Blood and Rocket Boys, the latter of which saw two visionaries Dr. Vikram Sarabhai (Ishwak Singh) and Dr. Homi J. Bhabha (Jim Sarbh) competing to launch their projects during India’s formative years in the field of science.

IMDb’s Most Popular Indian Movies of 2023 (so far)

Pathaan — streaming on Amazon Prime Video

Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan — streaming on Zee5

The Kerala Story

Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar — streaming on Netflix

Mission Majnu — streaming on Netflix

Chor Nikal Ke Bhaga — streaming on Netflix

Bloody Daddy — streaming on JioCinema

Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai — streaming on Zee5

Varisu — streaming on Amazon Prime Video and YouTube (for free)

Ponniyin Selvan: Part Two — streaming on Amazon Prime Video

IMDb’s Most Popular Indian Web Series of 2023 (so far)

Farzi — streaming on Amazon Prime Video

The Night Manager — streaming on Disney+ Hotstar

Rana Naidu — streaming on Netflix

Jubilee — streaming on Amazon Prime Video

Asur: Welcome To Your Dark Side — streaming on JioCinema

Dahaad — streaming on Amazon Prime Video

Saas, Bahu Aur Flamingo — streaming on Disney+ Hotstar

Taaza Khabar — streaming on Disney+ Hotstar

Taj: Divided By Blood — streaming on Zee5

Rocket Boys — streaming on Sony Liv

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Amazon Prime Video Announces Business Reality Series ‘Mission Start Ab’ in Partnership With Government of India

Streaming service Prime Video on Wednesday announced ‘Mission Start Ab’, a business reality series in partnership with the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA). The seven-episode series will show promising entrepreneurs, focused on scaling made-for-India innovations with the potential to impact socio-economic change, undertake a series of challenges in pursuit of scaling their business and securing funding for their ventures, as per the platform. “With India as one of the world’s largest and most vibrant start-up ecosystems, this wholly Made-In-India series also brings together three renowned investors who will search for India’s next Unicorn, by putting these 10 early-stage founders through a series of intense exercises and simulations that will test their entrepreneurial, management, communication and crises management skills,” the streaming platform stated in a press release.

‘Mission Start Ab’, which is currently in production, is slated to premiere soon on Prime Video. “Lauding the remarkable spirit of India’s grassroot innovators, I am delighted to announce Prime Video’s reality series Mission Start Ab. This captivating series will serve as a powerful platform, showcasing the inspiring stories of those driving social change through innovation,” said Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India.

“I am optimistic that it will offer immense learning opportunities to grassroot innovators in India, providing valuable insights into sustainable start-up practices and attracting the right investors. Furthermore, the series promises to entertain viewers while promoting the growth of our nation’s grassroots innovation ecosystem,” he added.

Sushant Sreeram, Country Director, Prime Video, India, said the streamer has always been an enabler of India’s economy – directly and indirectly. “This collaboration between the Office of the PSA, Government of India and Prime Video is another milestone on the journey that started earlier this year with Amazon India signing the Letter of Engagement (LoE) with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) with an objective of contributing to the growth of India’s creative economy,” Sareen said.

Actor Alia Bhatt was also present at the event and said that ‘Mission Start Ab’ has the potential to have a ‘far-reaching impact on the country’s growing start-up ecosystem’. “While there are many great ideas and ambitious young founders around us, it takes a special kind of determination to turn that idea into reality, build the right team, find the right mentors, raise funding, and create something out of nothing,” she said.

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Amazon Plans to Introduce Ad Tier for Prime Video Streaming Service: Report

Amazon.com is planning to launch an advertising-supported tier of its Prime Video streaming service, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Discussions around the ad tier have been going on for several weeks, according to the report, and follow the launch of similar plans by rivals Netflix and Walt Disney.

The streaming industry has been facing a slowdown in new sign-ups as subscribers struggling with high inflation and interest rates dial back entertainment spending and other discretionary expenses.

The WSJ report also said Amazon was holding discussions with Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global about adding the ad-based tiers of their streaming services through Prime Video Channels.

Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment, while Amazon declined to comment.

Shares of Amazon were lower more than 3 percent on Wednesday, in line with a weak broader market.

“In recent years, Prime Video has gotten more aggressive about running promos prior to its shows and including ad-filled sports broadcasts,” said Ross Benes, Insider Intelligence principal analyst.

Sports coverage on Prime Video already comes with ads.

“Officially putting ads into Prime Video allows Amazon to centralize its audience and be more consistent with branding,” Benes added.

It was previously reported that Amazon Prime Video subscribers will reportedly start seeing Amazon miniTV content on the platform as well. This is said to broaden its reach beyond the default Amazon shopping app. The integration is currently being beta tested on select paid accounts, with a full rollout expected ‘soon’, as per the report.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

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Australian Version of ‘The Office’ Starring Felicity Ward in Development at Prime Video

An Australian version of the classic sitcom ‘The Office‘ is in the works at Prime Video but with a gender-flipped lead character. Comedian and actor Felicity Ward will headline the Australian show, a joint production between Prime Video, BBC Studios Australia and New Zealand, and Bunya Entertainment. ‘The Office’ first started in the United Kingdom with actor Ricky Gervais playing David Brent, the head of the Slough branch of the fictional Wernham Hogg paper company. It ran for two seasons from 2001 to 2003.

The sitcom’s American version, which saw actor Steve Carrell as Michael Scott, became much more popular during its run on NBC from 2005 to 2013. In the Australian take, Ward will essay the role of Hannah Howard, the managing director of the packaging company Flinley Craddick.

“When she gets news from Head Office that they will be shutting down her branch and making everyone work from home, she goes into survival mode, making promises she can’t keep in order to keep her ‘work family’ together. The staff of Flinley Craddick indulge her and must endure Hannah’s outlandish plots as they work toward the impossible targets that have been set for them,” the official plotline reads.

Gervais, co-creator, co-writer and star of ‘The Office’, said that he is excited about Australia remaking the sitcom. “Office politics have changed a bit in 20 years, so can’t wait to see how they navigate a modern-day David Brent,” he added.

The Australian version will be the 13th adaptation of the series after similar shows in France, Canada, Chile, Israel, India, the Middle East, and Poland. Production on the eight-part Australian Amazon Original series will start in Sydney later this month with filming to take place over eight weeks. The show will also feature Edith Poor, Steen Raskopoulos, Shari Sebbens, Josh Thomson, Jonny Brugh, Pallavi Sharda, Susan Ling Young, Raj Labade, Lucy Schmit, and Firass Dirani.

Samsung Galaxy A34 5G was recently launched by the company in India alongside the more expensive Galaxy A54 5G smartphone. How does this phone fare against the Nothing Phone 1 and the iQoo Neo 7? We discuss this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Citadel Season 2 Confirmed With Joe Russo Serving as Solo Director

Citadel, the high-stakes sci-fi thriller starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden, has been renewed for a second season. In a tweet, Amazon Prime Video confirmed that Joe Russo — one-half of the show’s executive producing duo, the Russo Brothers — will solely direct the entire second season. David Weil will resume showrunning duties on the series, which according to Amazon is its fourth most-watched show worldwide. Clearly, the $300 million (about Rs. 2,482) crore budget for six episodes has paid off in viewership numbers, making it the second-most expensive series in television history, after The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power from the same studio.

“Citadel is a truly global phenomenon,” Jennifer Salke, Head of Amazon Studios said in a prepared statement (via Variety). “Our goal was always to create a new franchise rooted in original IP that would grow Prime Video’s international audience. This show has drawn an outsized number of new international customers to Prime Video.” In addition to greenlighting season 2, she also confirmed that Citadel’s premiere episode is now available to watch for free globally, without a Prime membership. Of course, users will still be required to sign in to their Amazon accounts.

The interconnect global series comes from the Russo Brothers’ AGBO banner, through which the Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame directors have been experimenting with dramas and action-packed affairs such as Netflix’s The Gray Man. The first season of Citadel was primarily directed by Newton Thomas Sigel and Jessica Yu, though the Russos took upon some duties on unspecified episodes.

Citadel is best described as ‘an expansive and groundbreaking global event series’, with regional spin-offs set in India, Italy, Brazil, France, and Mexico. The aforementioned US version follows Chopra Jonas and Madden as former elite agents, who after having their memories wiped out, rebuild their lives under new identities. That is, until a former Citadel colleague tracks and summons them back into the force to help take down the Manticore, a powerful crime syndicate.

The Indian spin-off version of the Citadel franchise was greenlit in December, with Varun Dhawan and Samantha Ruth Prabhu leading — presumably as a pair of spies. Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. (Raj and DK) — best known for The Family Man — serve as showrunners, writers, and directors on the show. Sita R. Menon (Go Goa Gone) has co-written Citadel India. An Italian-language production headlined by Matilda De Angelis (The Undoing) is also in the works at Amazon Studios.

Currently, there is no release window for Citadel season 2. All six episodes of the first season are now available to stream on Prime Video.

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Modern Love Chennai to Stream May 18 on Amazon Prime Video

Streaming service Prime Video on Monday announced that the Tamil version of its Modern Love anthology series will premiere on May 18. This is the third Indian adaptation of Modern Love, the internationally acclaimed Original anthology helmed by John Carney, following Modern Love Mumbai (Hindi) and Modern Love Hyderabad (Telugu).

Modern Love Chennai brings together six brilliant creators of Indian cinema Bharathiraja, Balaji Sakthivel, Rajumurugan, Krishnakumar Ramakumar, Akshay Sundher, and Thiagarajan Kumararaja.

According to the makers, the upcoming six-episode anthology presents “a bouquet of compelling and unique love stories set in the city of Chennai that explore relationships, push boundaries, and open minds”.

After the successful launch of Modern Love Mumbai and Modern Love Hyderabad, Aparna Purohit, head of India Originals, Prime Video, said the streamer is excited to bring the third Indian edition of the well-acclaimed international franchise, Modern Love, to the service.

“At Prime Video, we are constantly working towards bringing locally rooted stories that have a universal appeal. Modern Love Chennai celebrates and explores love in all its beauty, joy, and glory, hand-in-hand with the intricacies and complexities that go with the emotion. It has been wonderful collaborating with Thiagarajan Kumararaja and all the other wonderful directors to tell these heart-warming stories that explore the city’s culture and nuances,” Purohit said in a statement.

Kumararaja, the creator of the series and writer-director of one of the episodes ‘Ninaivo Oru Paravai’, said Modern Love Chennai was an interesting challenge since love stories were never his cup of tea.

“It has been a pleasure to partner with Prime Video to bring the latest Indian edition to the viewers. With these stories, we have explored and celebrated the old-world charm of the city, which remains rooted in a distinct blend of tradition and modernity. All the stories in this anthology take us through the journey of exploring the very complicated, and yet very simple, emotion — love — in all its eclectic forms,” he added.

‘Ninaivo Oru Paravai’, directed by Kumararaja, features Wamiqa and PB, and has music composed by veteran director Ilaiyaraaja. Ilaiyaraaja has also scored for ‘Margazhi’, directed by Akshay Sundher, and Bharathiraja’s “Paravai Kootil Vaazhum Maangal”.

Rajumurugan has directed ‘Lalagunda Bommaigal’, an episode that has music composed by Sean Roldan, and features Sri Gouri Priya, Vasudevan Murali, and Vasundhara.

Director Balaji Sakthivel’s chapter is titled ‘Imaigal’, starring Ashok Selvan and T.J. Bhanu, with music composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja.

‘Kaadhal Enbadhu Kannula Heart Irukkura Emoji’ is directed by Krishnakumar Ramakumar and has a score composed by G.V. Prakash Kumar. It features Ritu Varma, Samyuktha Viswanathan, Pawan Alex, and Aniiruth Kanakarajan.

‘Margazhi’ features Sanjula Sarathi, Chu Khoy Sheng, and Srikrishna Dayal, and ‘Paravai Kootil Vaazhum Maangal’ stars Kishore, Ramya Nambessan, and Vijayalakshmi.

Modern Love Chennai is produced under the banner of Tyler Durden and Kino Fist.

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