Khan has been in the crosshairs of an armed gang since 1998 for shooting two blackbucks on a recreational hunting trip.
Two members of a notorious criminal gang have been arrested for firing at the home of Bollywood actor Salman Khan in apparent retaliation for the superstar’s killing of two antelopes decades ago.
The Bishnoi gang, accused of several murders and extortion rackets, hails from a wider desert-based religious sect that considers the species to be the reincarnation of their guru.
Khan, 58, has been in the crosshairs of the group since 1998 for shooting two blackbucks on a recreational hunting trip.
The gang’s jailed leader Lawrence Bishnoi has threatened Khan with assassination in the past.
Two men on a motorbike shot at Khan’s first-floor apartment during the early hours of Sunday in the upscale Mumbai neighbourhood of Bandra, also firing several rounds in the air before fleeing.
Khan, who is always guarded by armed policemen owing to threats to his life, was home when the gunshots were fired.
The two men aged 24 and 21 were arrested on Tuesday in the western state of Gujarat, police said.
“We were able to locate the two accused near a temple,” Kutch district police officer Mahendra Bagaria said. “One of our teams reached the temple and nabbed the accused.”
Members of the Bishnoi community pursued a criminal case against Khan for the blackbuck shooting for 20 years.
Khan was sentenced to five years in jail by a local court for violating the Wildlife Protection Act in 2018.
But the penalty was suspended on appeal just days after Khan was sent to prison, prompting Lawrence Bishnoi to warn soon afterwards that his gang would take the law into their own hands.
The gang leader has been accused of orchestrating several murders, including the killing of popular Indian rapper Sidhu Moose Wala in 2022.
Khan has starred in nearly 150 films and television shows since his first hit in the 1980s, and remains one of Bollywood’s most bankable figures.
Mumbai, India – A grimacing police official, staring into the camera, declares her intent to publicly shoot dead “leftists” while attacking “left-liberal, pseudo-intellectuals” as well as students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), a left-leaning university space in the cross-hairs of the Modi government.
Men in skull caps, the visuals intercut with bloody violence, declare that Rohingya Muslims will soon displace Hindus and make for half of India’s population, while a harrowed Hindu woman fighting against these men says she wants to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
A biopic on the early 20th century Hindu nationalist ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar has a voiceover that insists that India would have freed itself of British colonial rule over three decades before it did, if not for Mahatma Gandhi.
These are scenes from upcoming Hindi films slated for release over the next few weeks.
As India’s nearly one billion voters get ready to pick their national government in general elections between March and May, Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are receiving campaign support from an atypical ally: cinema.
A slew of new films, timed with the elections and often helmed by major production houses, are relying on storylines that overtly either promote Modi and his government’s policies or target rival politicians. Not even national icons like Gandhi or top universities like JNU are spared – the institution has long been a left-leaning bastion of liberal education, often antagonistic to the BJP’s Hindu majoritarianism.
Many of these stories peddle Islamophobic conspiracies commonly circulated among Hindu right-wing networks that are aligned with the BJP’s political agenda. At least 10 such films have either been released recently or are poised to hit theatres and television in this election season
“This is part of a larger attempt to ‘take over’ the Hindi film industry, just as other forms of popular culture have been infiltrated,” said Ira Bhaskar, a retired professor of cinema studies at JNU who also served as a member of the country’s censor board until 2015. Bhaskar was referring to the growing Hindu nationalist narratives found in pop culture forms like music, poetry and books.
The latest films include biopics that glorify the controversial legacies of Hindu majoritarian heroes and BJP leaders. Savarkar, a controversial anti-colonial Hindu nationalist, advocated rape against Muslim women as a form of retribution for historical wrongs.
Two of the upcoming films, Accident or Conspiracy: Godhra, and The Sabarmati Report, claim to “reveal” the “real story” behind the Godhra train burning of 2002 where 59 Hindu pilgrims died in a fire that was the spark for anti-Muslim riots orchestrated by Hindu right-wing groups that claimed over 1,000 lives, mostly Muslims. The riots happened when Modi was the state’s chief minister.
Another film, Aakhir Palaayan Kab Tak? (Until when will we need to flee?), shows a Hindu “exodus” purportedly due to Muslims. Then there’s Razakar, a multilingual release on what it calls the “silent genocide” of Hindus in Hyderabad by Razakars, a paramilitary volunteer force that inflicted mass violence before and after India’s independence in 1947. The film has been produced by a BJP leader.
In late February, Modi himself praised Article 370, a newly released film that lauds his government’s contentious decision to strip Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir of its special status and statehood while placing hundreds under house arrests and imposing lockdowns in the region. Film reviewers have called the movie a “puff piece” and a “thinly veiled propaganda film” in favour of the Modi government while treating its critics and opposition leaders with “derision”.
Bhaskar said the new films were “clear propaganda, no doubt about it”.
A growing trend
The surge in such movies builds on a pattern also seen before the 2019 elections when Modi returned to power for a second time. On the eve of that vote, a clutch of films tried to bolster the BJP’s popularity.
Some tried to take down the ruling party’s critics, like the Accidental Prime Minister (PM), a searing take on Modi’s predecessor, Manmohan Singh. Others stoked jingoism, like Uri: The Surgical Strike, which recreated the military strikes that Indian forces made inside Pakistan-controlled Kashmir in retaliation against a terror attack on an Indian military camp in Kashmir’s Uri region in September 2016. The film ended with a scene of a pleased-looking Modi-resembling prime minister. Both films were released in the same week, days before the elections.
But Bhaskar said that while the trend isn’t new, it has grown since 2014, when Modi came to power, starting off with the changed way that the Indian film industry dealt with historical representations.
“Over the last few years, we have seen a shift in the representation of Muslim rulers who are all, now, portrayed as barbarians and temple-destroyers,” Bhaskar said. “This was also propaganda, though in a not-so-direct way, where the message was: Muslims don’t belong to India, they were invaders.”
These positions align with the Hindu right-wing ecosystem’s publicly-stated aims of purging Mughal history from public consciousness.
Such films, in the past, have faced allegations of amplifying social divisions and hate speech. Screenings of films like The Kashmir Files, depicting the Kashmiri Pandit exodus of the 1990s, often saw audiences, at the end of the film, rising up and calling for violence against Muslims and advocating their boycott.
Another film, The Kerala Story, panned widely for inaccuracies in depicting an alleged ISIL/ISIS conspiracy to lure Christian and Hindu girls to join the group, played a part in igniting societal tensions among communities, leading to violence in the western Indian region of Akola in Maharashtra.
Fear and opportunism
Film industry insiders attribute this new genre of films to a mix of unease, opportunism and a helpful nudge from the establishment.
A number of industry insiders this writer contacted refused to speak on record, for fear of retribution.
Bollywood, in the recent few years, has frequently been a victim of high-decibel campaigns, often endorsed by BJP leaders – from boycotting films to calling for bans on them. Hindu right-wing groups have often targeted films and shows for broadcasting “anti-Hindu” content.
In 2021, BJP leaders had called for the arrest of the director and officials of the Amazon Prime streaming service over a web show Tandav because it had scenes that protesters allege were defamatory towards Hindu gods. Police complaints, calling for their arrest, were filed in six different cities before the country’s top court stayed them.
Many insiders said these instances had produced a “chilling effect” on other creators. “Often, ideas get nixed or get altered at the pre-production stage itself, because makers are now constantly censoring themselves and anticipating the trouble that the content might court in the current political climate,” said a film producer, requesting anonymity.
Others, however, believe that these films are not just a result of such fear but also a tinge of opportunism. A Mumbai-based director, who had been approached to make a film that aligned with a pro-Hindu majoritarian agenda, said makers often get enticed to “cash in” on the current political atmosphere. “With the success of a few such films in the past, many filmmakers are now tempted to try and appease the ruling ideology in the hope that they also find commercial success,” the director said.
Others echoed this sentiment. Speaking to Al Jazeera, a popular Hindi film actor revealed how a streaming service drastically altered a show he was part of, based on the life of a historical character, to portray the character to be a Hindu legend taking on Muslim invaders. “The streaming service thought that such ‘repositioning’ of the character would make it a good sell,” the actor said. The show, the actor said, did “decently well” among rural audiences.
And when movies pander to the ruling party’s ideology, they often receive a leg up from the government. In the past, contentious films like The Kashmir Files and The Kerala Story have been rewarded by BJP governments – taxes were waived off. BJP units also organised free screenings of these films, helping them get wider audiences. Modi has publicly praised both these films, thereby granting them greater legitimacy and insisted that films should be made on the state of emergency imposed by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975 – during which several fundamental rights were suspended – as well as on the Partition of India in 1947.
Al Jazeera sought comments from Sudipto Sen, the director of The Kerala Story. Sen said he would respond but had not done so by the time of publication.
Others, like National Award-winning filmmaker R Balakrishnan, however, believe that the rise of such films reflects a demand for such content from the audience. “Suddenly, people are interested in incidents that they don’t know about. There is an interest in political films and historical films based on incidents,” he said.
The danger, he added, was that this curiosity was being “subverted” since filmmakers were not researching their subjects adequately. “When you make a political film on an event or incident, the onus lies on the filmmaker to do the research and make it accurate. If you use films to subvert the truth and use it for other purposes, then you are depriving people of knowledge of what really happened there,” he said.
Here to stay?
Balakrishnan, the director, said that such “weak films” would stay limited to a few filmmakers. “Some are trying to ride a wave, but this won’t become a mainstream phenomenon. After all, the audience does not want to watch political films every day.”
Others, however, point to a newer trend – that of mainstream films, starring A-listers, also serving propaganda purposes. Fighter, a film released in January, with top actors Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone starring in it, had a character playing PM Modi mouthing bombastic lines, insisting that it was time to show Pakistan who the “boss” was, before deciding to launch air strikes against the neighbour in 2019.
Bhaskar, the retired JNU professor, said this was a sign that the trend was only going to deepen. “This is no longer episodic, or tied to any events like the polls any more,” Bhaskar said. If anything, she added, the scale of such films is now going to grow. “You will now see big-banner, big-budget films being made to serve propaganda purposes.”
Sudhir Kothari, 36, a financial analyst and adviser based in the southern Indian city of Chennai, has ordered a special five-kilogramme (11-pound) choco-truffle cake, garlands and booked dhol (drum) players. The T-shirts, badges and wristbands that he had ordered arrived in time and Rohini Silver Screens theatre has allowed him to erect a 7.4-metre (25-foot) cutout of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan for the special 9am “First Day, First Show” of Dunki, Khan’s new film that releases worldwide on Thursday.
A diehard “SKRian”, as Khan’s fans call themselves, Kothari told Al Jazeera that in 2013, three to four days after “SRK sir started following me, I turned my personal Twitter account into a fan club.” Today his handle, SRKChennaiFC, has 167,600 followers.
Kothari, who prefers the appellation “The Only Fan SRK Follows” to his own name, and has written a book of the same title, was busy until late Wednesday evening overseeing the arrangements at the theatre, booked for SRK fans after submitting a support letter from SRK’s production team. After garlanding and pouring milk over Khan’s cutout, they will light fireworks and dance.
Inside the 550-seater theatre, too, they will dance, cut the cake and post videos on their handles with rapturous adjectives and hashtags like #DunkiReview, meant to tickle the interest of prospective ticket buyers.
In all likelihood, Khan, who has 43.9 million followers on X and follows 74 people, of whom five are fan accounts, will acknowledge the celebration videos with a sweet thanks and #Dunki.
Yash Paryani, the admin of SRK Universe, Khan’s biggest fan club which has 3.2 million followers on Facebook, tweeted that for December 21, fans are organising “1,000+ first day, first shows in 65 countries”.
Rishil Jogani, who said he is part of “a small group of admins of Khan’s fan clubs that takes some big decisions”, told Al Jazeera that “these numbers are not 100 percent accurate,” but fans and fan clubs post them because “euphoria is very contagious. There is FOMO [fear of missing out] and it motivates people to book tickets.”
All the fans Al Jazeera spoke with said that they “don’t get a penny” or any free tickets, and they do all this out of their love for Khan, hoping for one end result: “For SRK films to do wonders and for him to be happy”.
Dunki, unlike Khan’s two multi-star, action-packed hits released earlier this year, is riding mostly on Khan’s shoulders and will test his box-office clout. To prepare for that, he has spent months marketing it in a way that resembles the election campaign style of India’s governing right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, the very party he has had several run-ins with in the past. But it is not clear if all this effort will pay off this time.
Hopes for a hat-trick
Khan and his fans are hoping Dunki will beat his previous blockbusters [Still from Dunki courtesy: Spice PR]
This year has been a very happy one for Khan, 58, who returned to theatre screens after a four-year hiatus, a string of flops and a massive personal setback.
His two films — Pathaan, which was released in January this year, and, Jawan [Soldier], in September — were blockbuster hits, and have made it to the top 10 highest-grossing Indian films ever. With Dunki, industry insiders said, Khan is hoping to score a hat-trick.
The year of Khan’s last box-office hit, 2015, was also the year when he called out rising religious intolerance in the country, ruffling the feathers of the governing right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). A concerted backlash followed, his films were trolled and threatened with calls for boycott, and it seemed that he had lost his box-office mojo after three flops and two that did middling business.
In 2021, during the pandemic, his then-24-year-old son Aryan Khan was arrested, along with seven others, in an alleged drug bust on board a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast. The young Khan was charged with possession, consumption and sale of illegal substances and had to spend about three weeks in jail. Seven months later, all the charges were dropped.
Khan has always been outspoken and does not scare easily. He once reportedly told off a Mumbai mafia boss who was pressuring him to act in a film, “Shoot me if you want to, but I won’t work for you. I am a Pathaan,” referring to the proud, warrior clan that he is a descendent of.
His public appearances always sparkled with his signature repartee. Well-read and sharp, he gave candid interviews and would appear regularly on reality and comedy TV shows, especially while promoting his films.
But after his son was arrested and attempts were allegedly made to extort money from Khan, he went quiet and retreated from public view. He made no statement on his son’s arrest and the allegations against him, and stopped meeting the press or making appearances on TV shows.
The only connection he continued to maintain was with his fans, online and offline and today it is one of the biggest and most active fan communities of a Bollywood star.
Khan’s son Aryan, centre, was arrested in an alleged drug bust [File: Rajanish Kakade/AP Photo]
When Pathaan was released in January, Khan’s fans across the world bought 50,000 tickets for the first day, first show, said Paryani. For Jawan, they beat their own record and bought 85,000 tickets.
With a total gross earning of 21 billion rupees ($253m) at the box office, Khan is now being credited for reviving Bollywood, which had been struggling for a hit for the last few years.
“There’s a well thought out strategy behind what we have seen — Shah Rukh Khan as a phenomenon in 2023,” Girish Johar, producer and film business expert, told Al Jazeera. “The films were positioned, marketed and released in such a manner that his fan base, box-office numbers and his craze increases day by day, with every film,” he said.
Pathaan, a multi-star film with big Bollywood stars like Deepika Padukone, John Abraham and Salman Khan, was released on India’s Republic Day weekend in three languages on a large number of screens domestically and overseas.
Jawan, by Atlee, a leading Tamil director, had some big southern Indian stars who have a massive fan following in India and abroad.
“Hindi films used to clock [250 million to 300 million rupees; $3m-3.6m] in the south. Jawan was the first Bollywood film which has done [700 million to 800 million rupees; $8.4m-9.6m] business in the south,” Johar said.
Khan’s fans are upbeat about Dunki, whose title refers to the “donkey route” used to smuggle people from the subcontinent to Europe. “The film’s content will speak for itself,” they say and are focused on ensuring that the film, made on less than one-third of Jawan’s budget, beats it at the box office.
Industry insiders are sceptical that will happen because, unlike Khan’s two action films this year, Dunki is an emotional drama about illegal migration from Punjab to the United Kingdom, and in India these days, action scores over emotion.
2023: Shah Rukh Khan’s reinvention
Shah Rukh Khan celebrating his birthday with his fans in Mumbai last month [Courtesy: Red Chillies]
In 2016, Khan, often called the “King of Bollywood”, ranked number-one with a brand value of $131.2m in Duff & Phelps’s celebrity valuation report. By 2022, he had dropped to the number-10 position with a value of $55.7m in 2022.
“2023 can be defined as the year of Shah Rukh Khan’s reinvention,” PR veteran and image guru Dilip Cherian said, explaining how Khan took charge of his “reinvention” by doing three things.
For one, Khan, known for playing romantic leads, focused on aligning his films with the mood of the nation by opting to play characters that were all about “heroism, machismo and nationalism”.
“Take any of the big marquee films in the last one year — all of the films have featured men with guns on posters,” said Rohini Ramnathan, a radio jockey who anchored Khan’s birthday celebrations on November 2 with fans.
The second thing that Khan did was to retain control of his brand, image and the narrative about him by “totally abandoning the mainstream media”, Cherian said. That ensured he did not have to answer any questions or lose his cool with journalists as had happened in the past and that it was all a one-way messaging push.
And third “is the surround sound that is created by his visits to religious shrines, to matches at the recently concluded Cricket World Cup, appearance at the premiere of his daughter’s film — this gives you [Khan] content to play with in the media” as videos of these outings have gone viral, and been covered by the mainstream media.
To promote Dunki, Khan, who is the brand ambassador of UAE’s Burjeel Hospital, toured Dubai recently, but has not done any event in India.
He has been regularly posting promotional material on social media, including on X where he interacts regularly with his fans through “Ask Me Anything” sessions. He mostly avoids critical questions, picking fawning or funny tweets to which he responds with jokes, compliments and virtual hugs. Occasionally, he will call out abusive ones with tongue-in-cheek responses. A lot of this banter ends up as stories on news sites.
“Replying to people one-on-one takes courage and a lot of thinking … That ownership is magical. And he’s doing this with regular frequency. That starts changing the vibe,” said Neeraj Joshi, head of marketing at Zee Studios, which produces, distributes and markets films and TV shows. “It is strategic and part of a larger game, but it is also real to a great extent,” he added.
Behind this echo chamber chatter, the on-ground and online promotion of his films that is seemingly entrusted to fans, is shrewd business planning backed by data, insight into consumer behaviour, a solid film distribution and exhibition plan by a team that includes his wife, Gauri Khan. She and Khan are directors of Red Chillies Entertainment, a production house.
Delhi-based Narrative Research Lab, which uses AI to study the impact of social media conversations, analysed 310 tweets by Khan from September 16 to November 12 at Al Jazeera’s request and found that the tweet with the highest number of likes was the one in which Khan posted a photo of Lord Ganesha with greetings on the occasion of a Hindu festival.
Last week, Khan visited two Hindu shrines and videos of both went viral on social media.
The tweet that had the second-highest engagement was when Khan thanked his fans for gathering outside his house to wish him on his birthday.
“In many ways,” said Sundeep Narwani, co-founder of Narrative Research Lab, “Shah Rukh Khan’s rebranding and film campaigns are similar to an election campaign…. They have learnt that they have to fight back.”
Clips of outings of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan have gone viral, ensuring the news media also reports on them even as he has stopped giving interviews to journalists [File: Aijaz Rahi/AP Photo]
Khan has plotted his blockbuster return with the intensity, prudence and calculation usually seen in political comebacks. And there are several uncanny similarities between what he is doing and how the BJP conducts its election campaigns, from relying on loyalists on the ground, controlling the narrative by bypassing the mainstream media to building a personality-focused cult following.
‘Milk’ his fandom
In the last few months, there has been a surge in the number of clips of Khan on social media, especially Instagram. Together, they create a very specific image of Khan as a funny, intelligent and humble man, but with rockstar swagger.
There are clips of him being respectful to women, being a caring father and husband, regaling audiences with self-deprecating humour, sharing life lessons with university students and smiling as fans shower him with compliments and love.
What’s conspicuously missing from this curated gallery of videos are Khan’s political statements, bouts of anger at reckless selfie-seeking fans, fights with co-stars, and alleged affairs.
“It’s a very deliberate attempt to churn out content that makes him look very cult-like,” said Narwani.
Last month, to celebrate Khan’s birthday, his team booked an auditorium in Bandra, home to many top Bollywood stars in Mumbai, and invited about 300-400 members of his various fan clubs after vetting them.
The event was organised like any Bollywood entertainment gala, with an anchor, a script, and background dancers to accompany Khan on stage. He spent three to four hours entertaining them, talking to them and clicking photos. There was also cake, food and gifts.
“This time they gave backpacks,” Paryani said. Last year was smartwatches.
The backpack, with #SRKDay embossed on it, had a quote from Khan printed on it: “Never stop dreaming.”
“Shah Rukh Khan speaks to the aspirational essence that is inside every Indian,” said Kenneth Hopkins, the founder of BollyCon, a pop culture convention in Mumbai.
“Khan’s appeal lies in the story he tells — I came to Mumbai with nothing and look at me today, I own the industry … If his fans are buying into his brand and brand sentiment of aspiration, then you also have to express hubris … hubris against injustice, the system,” said Hopkins and added, “At the end of the day, Shah Rukh Khan is a baniya [an Indian trading community] … I don’t mean to be offensive, but he will see how to milk that … [for] conversion into ticket sales.”
While Pathaan was an overly patriotic film, Jawan was political and personal, with Khan playing a double role of a father and son.
When the film’s trailer was released, all attention was on one dialogue that was akin to the emotion famously expressed by Liam Neeson in the 2008 film, Taken: “Bete pe jane se pehle baap se baat kar [Talk to me before you touch my son].”
“What happened to his family was so, so brutal. And all of us just wanted him to win … His winning was like a personal triumph for everybody. It felt like the world is alright,” Ramnathan said.
If Dunki breaks box-office records, it’ll be a happy end to a good year for Bollywood, courtesy Khan. It it doesn’t, it won’t matter much because for Khan a battle had been fought and won.
From disapproval to admiration
In Dunki Khan plays the lead character who takes his four friends to London through the illegal and treacherous ‘donkey route’ [Still from Dunki courtesy: Spice PR]
Dunki is set in the north Indian state of Punjab where many homes have overhead water tanks shaped like planes, American milk trucks, or even the Statue of Liberty. They signify where a family member has migrated to.
In the film, made by Rajkumar Hirani, one of India’s leading directors, Khan plays the lead character, Hardy, who takes his four friends to London through the illegal and treacherous “donkey route”. Indians make up the world’s biggest diaspora population of about 17.9 million and the film’s theme appeals to Indians at home and abroad.
Hirani is considered infallible at the box office and has his own fan following. But Dunki’s advantage and disadvantage is Hirani.
In 2014, Hirani directed PK, starring Aamir Khan as an alien who lands in India and begins to question the blind faith and devotion to religious gurus. The film has remained one of the highest-grossing films, but is dredged up again and again by right-wing trolls to label him as anti-national and call for a boycott of his films.
In 2019, Hirani was accused by a woman who had worked with him of sexual assault and abuse over a six-month period. Hirani denied the allegations, but the woman stands by her account. Dunki is his first film since then.
The sexual harassment case against Hirani has not interested the right wing because several BJP leaders have been accused of similar abuse. But every few days there’s a call on X to boycott Hirani and Dunki over PK.
According to Narrative Lab’s analysis, on November 2, when Khan tweeted the first promotional video of Dunki, he tagged Hirani. About 7 percent of the comments the tweet received were negative.
Khan tweeted four more promotional videos over 10 days, but did not tag or mention Hirani.
“The disapproval that we had seen in comments around the November 2 tweet disappeared by the fifth tweet,” Narwani said.
Al Jazeera reached out to Red Chillies to ask if online interaction between Khan and Hirani was being avoided to minimise any negative chatter. They declined to answer.
“The right wing needs some rationale, some story for a boycott call to stick. And Shah Rukh Khan, by not talking, is not giving them anything,” Narwani said.
Blind, the new suspense thriller starring Sonam Kapoor in the lead, is now available to stream on JioCinema. Originally slated for a theatrical release, the film was surprisingly listed among Jio Studios’ 2023 content slate, after presumably being shopped around for a while since wrapping production in early 2021. Marking Kapoor’s digital debut, the film’s overarching theme is aimed at shedding light on the life of a visually impaired individual, giving marginalised voices a platform. Shome Makhija, best known for his work on the Amitabh Bachchan-led Badla, has written and directed Blind — essentially setting his directorial debut.
Ahn Sang-hoon’s 2011 Korean thriller Blind has seen numerous regional reinterpretations, ranging from a Chinese (The Witness), a Japanese (Mienai Mokugeki-sha), and even a Tamil-language Indian remake (Netrikann). Makhija’s version is therefore the second Indian remake, which while being coincidentally produced around the same time period as the Tamil version, succumbed to numerous delays before settling for a digital release. The setting remains the same across all versions of Blind, which wraps around the mysterious disappearance and killings of numerous young women — presumably the works of a serial killer.
Blind puts you into the shoes of Giah (Kapoor), a former police officer whose career ended when she lost her eyesight in a tragic car accident. Years later, still unable to land a job in the force, she’s forced to accept a lift from a stranger in the middle of the night, only for the ride to get weirder when she hears an odd bump and a yelp from the car’s boot. Fearing that it must be one of the abducted victims she’d heard about on the news, she creates a ruckus to no avail, with the suspected killer letting her go because she’s blind. On a mission to help solve the case, Giah turns to the law, only to get ridiculed and rejected by the lead officer Prithvi Khanna (Vinay Pathak) due to her disability, which doesn’t make her a solid witness or ensure that her testament will hold up in court.
Regardless, through her years in the academy and an even acutely developed sense of smell and perception, Giah impresses him by accurately judging his height and build — in turn, forming an alliance to track down the killer. Amidst all this, she’s got a mysterious stalker (Purab Kohli) with a peculiar smell, whom she recognises as the serial killing driver, kickstarting a cat-and-mouse game where he isn’t afraid to call and challenge her to put an end to his crimes. Blind was largely shot in Glasgow, Scotland and also stars Shubham Saraf (Shantaram), Lillete Dubey (Kal Ho Naa Ho), Lucy Aarden (Ten Percent), and Javed Khan (A Murder at the End of the World).
As with most other Jio Studios releases, Blind is available to watch for free on JioCinema — no login or subscription required — with additional dubs in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Bengali. The film is part of Viacom18’s 62-title-long extensive content slate, which includes major theatrical releases such as Shah Rukh Khan-led Dunki, Amitabh Bachchan’s Section 84, and in June, played host to Shahid Kapoor starrer Bloody Daddy.
Any Bollywood theatrical release from Jio Studios should eventually make its way onto JioCinema as well. The streamer also comes with a Premium plan — costing Rs. 999 yearly — which grants access to a chunk of HBO and Warner Bros. content, alongside a collection of content from Peacock.
Blind is now available to watch for free on JioCinema.
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One of Bollywood’s most prominent actors, Alia Bhatt is currently on top of her game. Be it off-screen or on-screen, she is ruling everywhere. And, true to her exploits and status in the film industry, Alia took home the Best Actor award at the Filmfare Awards with her performance in Gangubai Kathiawadi. While she won Best Actor in a Leading Role (Female) at the 68th edition of the prestigious awards ceremony on Thursday night, Gangubai Kathiawadi literally swept the awards show. It was also adjudged Best Film at this year’s awards show. The award for Best Director went to Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who helmed the film.
Alia attended the special occasion in a black strapless gown. For the glam, she opted for minimal makeup and pulled her hair back. Gangubai Kathiawadi was released in theatres on February 25, 2022. It revolves around a maiden sold by a suitor into prostitution and how she becomes a prominent and celebrated figure in the underworld and Kamathipura red-light district.
The 68th Filmfare Awards 2023 was hosted by Salman Khan and Maniesh Paul. The award night was attended by Alia Bhatt, Rekha, Kajol, Ayushmann, Nora Fatehi, Janhvi Kapoor, Vicky Kaushal and many others.
Speaking of the other winners besides Alia, Rajkummar Rao took home black lady for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Male) for his role in Badhaai Do. His film also registered a win under the category of Best Film (Critics). It was also a special day for Rajkummar’s Badhaai Do co-star Bhumi Pednekar as she won the Best Actress (Critics) award. She shared the award with Tabu. Tabu won it for Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2.
Directed by Harshvardhan Kulkarni, Badhaai Do is a sequel to the National Award-winning film Badhaai Ho, which starred Ayushmann Khurrana, Neena Gupta and Sanya Malhotra in the lead roles.
In the film, Bhumi played the role of Suman Singh, a 31-year-old physical education teacher, who is interested in women. She marries a cop named Shardul Thakur (Rajkummar) to escape the pressure of their families. The real twist in the story comes when Rajkummar’s character reveals that he is also a homosexual.
Filmfare Awards 2023 Winners — the full list
Best Film:Gangubai Kathiawadi
Best Film (Critics’): Badhaai Do
Best Actor in a Leading Role (Male): Rajkummar Rao for Badhaai Do
Best Actor in a Leading Role (Female): Alia Bhatt for Gangubai Kathiawadi
When I meet Priyanka Chopra Jonas, she is days away from the premiere of the spy drama Citadel, one of the most ambitious and expensive projects in Amazon Studio’s streaming history. The actress anchors the series and does her own stunts as a spy of James Bond-caliber skill and charisma, while simultaneously earning top billing in a new romantic comedy with Sam Heughan. Before all of this, Chopra Jonas was a supernova of Indian cinema, who, in addition to her acting and musical career, founded a production company; scored a multimillion-dollar TV development deal; helped launch the buzzy New York City restaurant Sona and the hair-care company Anomaly; served as a brand ambassador for Bulgari; invested in Bumble; wrote a bestselling memoir; tirelessly advocated for the education of girls around the world; and became mother to a 15-month daughter of her own, who is trying at the moment to go down for a nap. Still, she’s worried that she needs a hobby.
“It’s something I’ve been thinking about lately,” Chopra Jonas says from London, midway through a busy day of press for her new series, which streams on Prime Video starting April 28. “How many women out there who balance work and life forget about doing something that is just for themselves, because they’re so consumed by having that work-life balance? I realized my husband plays golf and sports and has all of these hobbies. Why don’t I want more for myself?”
Dress, Dior. Ring, Bulgari, $5,450.
Greg Williams
On the set of Citadel—an intense year-and-a-half long shoot executive produced by Anthony and Joe Russo, the directors of Avengers: Endgame—she thought she might use her downtime to knit a sweater for said husband, singer/actor Nick Jonas. But the resulting effort was, “I swear to God, like seven times his size,” she says, laughing. “I have no concept of sizing. He was so sweet. He tried it on and was like, ‘Oh, it’s lovely.’ And it’s falling off of him.” So maybe knitting is not the answer, the actress concedes, but still, she wants more from her me time than a binge-watch and a glass of wine. “My life is complex and I understand that, so I end up doing something banal and simple,” she says. “But I want to be able to rise above just banal and be able to find something that contributes to me as well.”
The fact that a woman as fully optimized as Chopra Jonas would demand more of herself is humbling. But it’s also firmly in line with the intentional person her friends and colleagues say she is. You know the adage, “don’t meet your heroes”? Anthony Russo, who has met most of them, calls his leading lady the rare exception: “Priyanka is exactly who you hope she would be like. She’s super nice, super kind, thoughtful, considerate, quirky, fun. She’s an incredible presence on set. Hours can get long, it can get repetitive, and it can be a grind like any other job, but she has this energy that always keeps it buoyant and focused and fun.”
The actress is at the height of her powers in Citadel, a propulsive, high-concept series in which she plays Nadia Sinh, top agent of the namesake global spy network. Her partner, Mason Kane (Richard Madden), has had his memory wiped (just go with it), which makes Nadia the alpha of the pairing—not a Bond girl, but a Bond. The Russo brothers “were very clear that the inspiration for Nadia was Bond, and that she would do the heavy lifting,” Chopra Jonas says. She welcomes the gender swap, especially given how male-dominated the genre has historically been. “It’s fun to be doing the asskicking and the cool lines and walking away from an explosion,” she says with some delight. “I always wanted to walk away from an explosion!”
The actress threw herself headfirst into her stunts, FaceTiming her manager at the end of shooting days to proudly report a singed eyebrow or bruised elbow. “I started dubbing her ‘the female Tom Cruise,’” jokes Joe Russo. “There’s a bit in one of the episodes where her character gets slammed on tables in a dining room of a restaurant, and she was like, ‘I’m all for it. I want to do it.’ I was gravely concerned that this was going to shut down the production, but she popped up right after and was ready to go right into the next portion of the sequence. It’s rare that you find an actor with (1) that physical capability, and (2) that dedication, because it translates. [The action feels] very visceral and very emotional because it’s her.”
Slip dress, Rodarte, $1,595. Earrings, Bulgari.
Greg Williams
The role was the highest degree of difficulty, but that is how Chopra Jonas likes it. “At this point in my career, ’I’m looking for heavy lifts,” she says. “I’m looking for challenges. I’ve learned enough about the craft and about the job that I want to flex my muscles and I want to find thoughts that I can sink my teeth into. Citadel was definitely that.”
To call Chopra Jonas a testament to the merits of hard work is perhaps underselling her story, given that she is the only woman to cross over from South Asia and achieve her level of success in Hollywood. In some ways, she was raised for the role. As physicians in the Indian Army, her parents moved often and gave her more independence than many other girls her age. Three years studying in the United States as a teen gave her a taste of Western sensibilities. In her memoir Unfinished, she recounts how, after returning from America, her younger brother plotted with her mother to enroll her in the Miss India pageant in hopes she would win and vacate their apartment’s larger bedroom. Suffice it to say, the plan worked.
Dress, Erdem. Earrings, Bulgari.
Greg Williams
The former Miss World’s Bollywood career encompasses more than 50 films and music videos over the course of 15 years, in which she played everything from a sexy bombshell in the musical Dostana to an autistic teenager in the drama Barfi. Her manager and friend Anjula Acharia, a California tech entrepreneur and angel investor, first encountered Chopra Jonas on her Indian mother’s TV. “I had nothing to do with the entertainment industry, but I asked my mom who she was, and she said she was basically the Beyoncé of Bollywood,” Acharia says. “I remember making this mental note: If anyone could take on America from India, it would be this woman.”
Five years later, the two were pounding the pavement in L.A. “I’m sure it was daunting and scary, but she knew how to drop her ego and give it her all and show up to work as a professional. She is a warrior, and she will always go in and give her best, even if the circumstances around her aren’t playing to her best,” Acharia says. “As her career has grown, she has unfolded and become an icon for so many different communities—immigrants, women of color, working women. I did not think that America’s sweetheart would be South Asian, but I think she’s really become that.”
Earrings, ring, $5,450, bracelet, Bulgari.
Greg Williams
Her international crossover appeal made Chopra Jonas uniquely suited to Citadel, which will include local versions, starting with India and Italy; each show will stand alone, but the characters are interconnected. The Indian version, which is currently mid-production, will explore Nadia’s backstory. “It is the most ambitious undertaking in terms of creating a global universe with original IP, which connects writers and filmmakers and casts from different parts of the world,” Chopra Jonas says. “I’ve always envisioned that the entertainment industry was one. Even though we create movies from different parts of the world, and we speak different languages, we’re all doing the same thing. And especially now, it’s such a great time, because people are consuming entertainment from all parts of the world. My mom watches Korean dramas all day and I just watched a Turkish show recently. I’ve always wanted to have Indian cinema be a lot more mainstream, but we were told people didn’t watch subtitled movies in the theaters. But now it’s streaming, and subtitled movies can win the Oscar, too.”
Jennifer Salke, the head of Amazon Studios, began conversations with Chopra Jonas about the project several years ago. She also signed the actress to a first-look deal to develop her own shows for Amazon and helped her obtain equal pay with her male costar. She says it was “abundantly clear to us that Priyanka’s body of work (in addition to her demanding role as a costar in this series) completely warranted pay parity.”
“In my 23-year career, it’s the first time I got parity, and that happened, I think, because the head executive of Amazon Studios is a female,” says Chopra Jonas, whose own Purple Pebble Studios produces projects from emerging Indian talent. “When we have females in positions of power and positions of decision-making, they make space for other females. You see female actors banding together and producing stuff together and saying, ‘If the studios are not going to do it, we’re going to do it for ourselves.’ I’ve done it for myself, and I’ve worked with females behind the camera and in front of the camera, and it’s wonderful that we’re not being pitted against each other. Or at least we’ve realized that that’s what was happening to us.”
Slip dress, Rodarte, $1,595. Earrings, Bulgari.
Greg Williams
As for her Citadel dance partner, Chopra Jonas says she binged The Bodyguard and Game of Thrones like the rest of us and was a fan. In Madden, she was relieved to find a kindred personality. “I’m a very frenetic, neurotic prep person,” she says. “I need to think about my character. I need to ask the questions. I need to sit with the writers. I need to figure her out, so when I come to set, I just kind of play. And Richard is also incredibly prep-oriented. We had a sense of trust with each other because we knew that we cared.”
Madden, for his part, credits his co-star with keeping him out of the weeds. “I can overthink things and get hung up on the timelines and details, and Priyanka is there to go, ‘Okay, now let’s be present,’” he says. “She has a brilliant skill at bringing out the best of me on the day because she’s so there right with you. And it is beautifully disarming.”
Lately, Chopra Jonas has set up base in London, moving for the summer with “dog, baby, and mom” in tow. Her husband is there, on and off, prepping for the release of a new album and tour dates with the Jonas Brothers. It’s a familiar city, as she lived there through most of the pandemic, filming both Citadel and Love Again, a sweet ’90s throwback romantic comedy co-starring Outlander’s Sam Heughan (and, charmingly, Céline Dion) that hits theaters May 5. That same month, she’ll begin filming the action-comedy Heads of State alongside Idris Elba and John Cena.
May also marks her second Mother’s Day since welcoming her daughter, Malti Marie, though she prefers to keep the focus on her own mother figures—not just her mom, but also the grandmother who looked after her while her mother earned a master’s degree and the aunties who took her in during her formative years in the U.S. “I’ve had incredible influences of moms in my life, and now with my mother-in-law [Denise Miller-Jonas] who’s this epic, amazing woman,” she says. “I’ve not been a mom long enough to be able to take the celebration, but I love to celebrate the moms in my life on Mother’s Day.”
Last Mother’s Day was a quiet one, given that Malti had just come home from 100 days in the NICU. One year later, Chopra Jonas says, “She’s got me wrapped around her finger. I don’t even know how I’ll ever discipline her because I just don’t have it in me. I was so close to losing her so many times that she can get away with anything and I just want to see her happy. I want her to be the happiest. She’s a super smiley, happy baby, and that’s all my goal is—to see her joyous. Every time she smiles, it lights up my world, and that’s all I want to do.”
Has anything surprised her about being a mother? “Just how much you can love something and how viciously you’ll protect it,” she says. “I’ve seen my mom rip people when I’ve been hurt and I just never understood it. I was like, ‘Mom, chill out. What are you doing?’ Now I get it. I would take someone out.” Which isn’t to say she wants to shield her daughter from the world. “I was never left at home with a nanny; I was always with family and friends. I think I had a sense of confidence because I was always around people who loved me, so we’ve really tried to emulate that. Malti is always with her family and she can go anywhere with us. It was very important to us to be able to expose her to just life and its beautiful gifts.”
As Chopra Jonas talks to me, her husband is home with the baby. Splitting the domestic load is something the couple has done naturally, she says. “We just feel a sense of contribution when it comes to the not-fun stuff,” she says. “I don’t remember having a conversation where I’m like, ‘I need you to do more of this.’ We both have careers that are important to us, so we split our time in a way where one of us is able to do the house things or be with the baby.” Whether it is a relationship with a partner, family, or a friend, she says, acts of service are her love language. “When you really care about someone, you try to alleviate whatever pressure is on them by doing some of the chores or by taking on something that they always do. It’s simple things: I love coffee in bed, and my husband realized that, and now I always have coffee in bed. That support is tremendously important, but it’s a two-way street. You have to be able to give that love and support to the people that also give you that kind of support. If you see your partner doing something every day that seems boring for them, just surprise them by doing it. It’s the sweetest thing in a marriage.”
Maybe it’s because she has a dozen things going at once, but Chopra Jonas says she isn’t often asked how she is doing herself. But she would like you to know that she is in a great place right now. “I just turned 40 this year. It was a momentous turn of events for me,” she says. She remembers staying up for the party when her own mother turned 40, the military families dressed in their best, the smell of perfume, the sparkle of jewelry, and the sound of Kenny G playing in the background. “It’s crazy just thinking about how little I was and what my ambitions and dreams were then. And here’s me turning 40,” she reflects. “I’m at the precipice of figuring out what my career in America looks like. I’ve enjoyed being able to play a variety of roles, [and I’ve] worked in different genres with the best filmmakers in India. I’d like to be able to explore that on the other side of the pond as well. I’m curious to see as an actor how I will unfold in this next decade. I’m curious to see what kind of mom I end up becoming. I’m curious to see how as a woman I change.”
Hair by Sam McKnight; makeup by Georgina Graham using Max Factor; manicure by Michelle Class at LMC Worldwide; produced by Diana Eastman; special thanks to the Bulgari Hotel London.
Jio Studios has unveiled its expansive lineup of new movies and web series, marking the single largest slate ever produced by an Indian studio. While the production company notes over 100 fresh projects in its lineup, it has only teased 62 for now, spanning several languages and genres, and starring the likes of Shah Rukh Khan, Shahid Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, R Madhavan, Kriti Sanon, Shraddha Kapoor, Randeep Hooda, and more. None of them has any release details for now, but they will be spread evenly across theatres and direct-to-app (OTT). Jio Studios also dropped a sizzle reel for its upcoming movies and shows, with all content expected to eventually land on the JioCinema app.
“We are in the most exciting and eventful phase of Indian entertainment, with storytelling taking centre stage in an era of explosive digital disruption,” Jyoti Deshpande, President, RIL Media and Content Business said in a prepared statement. “We have actively partnered with some of the best names in the business and newcomers alike to reach this day, when a staggering and exciting 100 content assets have been produced, ready to be showcased to the world. Our vision is to power stories that are from, by and for India and Bharat, tell stories that not only entertain but also have a purpose, partner with storytellers in every Indian language and take these stories mainstream.”
Leading the lineup is Rajkumar Hirani’s (3 Idiots) Dunki, which is reportedly based on the concept of donkey flights — a method used by Indian immigrants to illegally move to foreign countries. The film is slated to release this year and stars Shah Rukh Khan and Taapsee Pannu in the lead roles. It also marks the first collaboration between Khan and Hirani, the latter of whom is known to incorporate dark comedy in his films. Meanwhile, Shahid Kapoor (Farzi) has two films lined up from Jio Studios.
Up first is Bloody Daddy, an Indian adaptation of the 2011 French film Nuit Blanche — or Sleepless Night — where a police detective gets off on the wrong foot with a drug dealer, causing his son to get held as a hostage. The film will reportedly release on Jio Cinema. Then there’s an untitled romance film with Kriti Sanon, brief glimpses of which can be seen in the sizzle reel.
Dinesh Vijan’s absurd horror-comedy universe is being expanded with sequels for both Stree and Bhediya, bringing back the original cast members. 2022’s Bhediya saw Varun Dhawan as a werewolf looking to navigate his newfound powers while trying not to devour his close friends. The film’s mid-credits scene tied into 2018’s Stree, which followed Shraddha Kapoor as a witch who hunts unsuspecting men at night. We’ve also got the Amitabh Bachchan starrer Section 84, Vicky Kaushal and Sara Ali Khan-led Zara Bachke, and Hisaab Barabar, in which R Madhavan appears to be playing a lawyer.
Randeep Hooda in a still from Inspector Avinash Photo Credit: Jio Studios
Nana Patekar makes his OTT debut with Laal Batti, a political thriller helmed by Prakash Jha (Gangaajal), whereas Randeep Hooda appears in Inspector Avinash, which charts the real-life super cop Avinash Mishra’s struggles against the rise of crime in 1997 Uttar Pradesh. Even Indian rapper Raftaar is making his debut in a streaming series with Bajao, which seems to be a unique blend of hip-hop culture and street crime, set against the backdrop of disco lights at a club.
Jio Studios is set to dominate in the regional space as well, offering movies and TV series in multiple languages including Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Bhojpuri, and what the press release calls ‘South’. It also announced a multi-year collaboration with SVF Entertainment to create a ‘new era of blockbusters’ in Bengali cinema.
Jio Studios upcoming movies
Dunki — from Rajkumar Hirani, starring Shah Rukh Khan and Taapsee Pannu Bloody Daddy — starring Shahid Kapoor Untitled Shahid Kapoor and Kriti Sanon film Bhediya 2 — starring Varun Dhawan Stree 2 — starring Shraddha Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao Section 84 — from Ribhu Dasgupta, starring Amitabh Bachchan Hisaab Barabar — starring R Madhavan and Kirti Kulhari Zara Hatke Zara Bachke — Vicky Kaushal and Sara Ali Khan BlackOut — starring Vikrant Massey Mumbaikar — starring Vijay Sethupathi The Storyteller — starring Paresh Rawal & Adil Hussain Dhoom Dhaam — starring Yami Gautam and Pratik Gandhi Empire — from Vijay Lalwani, starring Taapsee Pannu Trial Period — starring Genelia D’Souza Bhagwat: Chapter One: Raakshas — starring Arshad Warsi One Friday Night — from Manish Gupta, starring Milind Soman and Raveena Tandon Blind Baramulla Mrs. Sumo Didi — starring Shriyam Bhagnani Happily Ever After Rumi Ki Sharafat The Film That Never Was I Love You Sarvgunn Sampann — from Dinesh Vijan, starring Vaani Kapoor Kacchey Limbu — from Shubham Yogi, starring Radhika Madan Khwaabon ka Jhamela Pooja Meri Jaan — from Navjot Gulati, starring Mrunal Thakur and Huma Qureshi Sector 36 — from Dinesh Vijan, starring Vikrant Massey and Deepak Dobriyal Ghamasaan — starring Arshad Warsi Boo — starring Manjima Mohan and Nivetha Pethuaraj Kun Faya Kun — from Kushan Nandy, starring Harshvardhan Rane and Sanjeeda Shaikh Aachari Baa Amar Prem Ki Prem Kahani Ikroop — from Ali Abbas Zafar Jo Tera Hai Woh Mera Hai Ishq-e-Nadaan Four Blind Men (Marathi) 1234 (Marathi) Kharvas (Marathi) Kaata Kirrr (Marathi) Khashaba (Marathi) Baipan Bhari Deva (Marathi) Bachubhai (Gujarati) Chaandlo (Gujarati) Ghulam Chor (Gujarati)
Jio Studios 16 upcoming series
Laal Batti — from Prakash Jha, starring Nana Patekar and Sanjay Kapoor Union: The Making of India — starring Kay Kay Menon and Ashutosh Rana Inspector Avinash — starring Randeep Hooda and Urvashi Rautela Rafuchakkar — starring Maniesh Paul Bajao — starring Indian rapper Raftaar The Magic of Shiri — starring Divyanka Tripathi Doctors — starring Sharad Kelkar A Legal Affair — starring Barkha Singh and Angad Bedi Ishq Next Door — starring Abhay Mahajan and Natasha Bharadwaj Do Gubbare — starring Mohan Agashe and Siddharth Shaw Hajamat — Sanjay Mishra and Anshumaan Pushka Moonwalk UP65 — starring Rishabh Jaiswal and Satyam Tiwari Kaalsutra (Marathi) Eka Kaleche Mani (Marathi) Aga Aai Aho Aai (Marathi)
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Vikramaditya Motwane’s upcoming Web series Jubilee just got a trailer. Ahead of its debut on April 7, Amazon Prime Video has dropped a trailer for the show, a love letter to the Golden Age of Bollywood, chronicling the lives of a rising star, studio heads, a nautch girl, and more, as they chase dreams and struggle to make it in the film business. Although the premise sounds a bit like Damien Chazelle’s Babylon, the tone of the Jubilee trailer is nowhere as boisterous or loud — or drug-fuelled, for that matter. Motwane — best known for Netflix’s Sacred Games — directs the 10-episode series, from a script written by Atul Sabharwal (Aurangzeb). Jubilee’s episodes 1–5 will be out on April 7, while the remaining 6–10 release the following week on April 14.
Set in a newly independent India, the Jubilee trailer opens with a voiceover from an unseen woman: “What’s great about some people? When they are not given their piece of land, they conquer it.” Cut to Bombay in 1947, we’re introduced to an up-and-coming actor named Madan Kumar, who is desperately demanded by production house Roy Talkies’ head Srikant Roy (Prosenjit Chatterjee), for a role in one of his films. Enter Binod Das (Aparshakti Khurana), who is depicted as Roy’s “loyal soldier,” who is sent on a mission to escort Madan Kumar from Lucknow to Bombay. However, things go awry on the journey back, when their car ends up crashing and catches fire, leaving Kumar stuck inside the car. Binod, who has always wanted to be a star decides to grab that opportunity, leaving Kumar for dead and returning empty-handed.
While not explicitly mentioned in the Jubilee trailer, it is implied that the incident was covered up and Binod took on the identity of Madan Kumar. (Not sure what they did about his facial appearance?) He is seen gradually rising the ranks — attending lavish parties, signing autographs, and enjoying the sights of the audience repeating his dialogues. Of course, whenever things get out of line, the studio executives are present to remind the star of his true self. “I’ve mortgaged the studio to finance this film, and to make you ‘Madan Kumar,’ Binod,” Roy says, as we’re shown visuals of our fake star meeting up with two other key characters of Jubilee.
Up first is Jay Khanna (Sidhant Gupta), an aspiring newbie director who intends to make a film with Madan Kumar. “If you’re this fond of wasting money, go gamble at a casino,” a stone-faced Madan/ Binod warns him, though it doesn’t even faze the ambitious filmmaker. Then there’s Nilofer (Wamiqa Gabbi), a singer-dancer, who makes her living by performing before live audiences, holding onto the belief that one must surrender their body or their soul to make it in the industry. We also meet another star Sumitra Kumari (Aditi Rao Hydari), who is on a mission to expose the fake Madan Kumar and her husband Roy’s involvement in the cover-up — she was romantically involved with the real one and seeks justice.
“Jubilee for me as an actor was a complete no-brainer. When I heard the story, and especially Binod’s journey, I knew I had to do this. It is one of the most challenging characters I have played to date, but also the most rewarding,” lead Khurana said in a prepared statement. “Vikramaditya Motwane is a maverick, he has been able to bring out the best in not just me, but the entire cast and crew.” Jubilee also stars Nandish Sandhu (Super 30) and Ram Kapoor (Thappad), and features a vintage soundtrack composed by Amit Trivedi.
The first five episodes of Jubilee stream April 7 on Amazon Prime Video.
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Shah Rukh Khan-led Pathaan will soon be available to stream online. In a tweet, Amazon Prime Video confirmed that the action-packed Bollywood blockbuster will be available to stream on the platform, starting Wednesday, March 22, in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu. The film arrives on digital home media 56 days after its theatrical premiere on January 25, and the version might feature some deleted scenes. Pathaan marks Khan’s return to mainstream Bollywood in four years and is the highest-grossing movie of his career.
Pathaan has reportedly collected $112.3 million (about Rs. 928 crore) at the global box office, crossing the Rs. 100 crore mark on opening day. It then added additional Rs. 100 crore each day to generate over Rs. 400 crore within the four days since release, becoming the fastest Hindi language film to manage the feat. As reported by Bollywood Hungama, director Siddharth Anand recently revealed in an interview that the upcoming OTT version of Pathaan might include a deleted scene, which serves as an origin story for the character — more specifically, a question about his religion. Director Anand noted that Pathaan’s love for his country is the core theme here, with writers Abbas Tyrewala and Shridhar Raghavan, alongside producer Aditya Chopra sharing the same sentiment.
“The four of us have the same belief system, and the same films we’ve adorned, grown up on, and believed in and the cinema that we believe in. We share that, we share the same sentiment,” director Anand said in the interview. “So, the fact that he doesn’t have a name, and he’s found in a theatre that was actually called Navrang, which got edited out, which you might see in the OTT version.”
Pathaan follows the titular RAW agent Feroz Pathaan (Khan), who is summoned back into the force to prevent a terrorist attack on India. John Abraham (Attack) plays his nemesis Jim, the leader of a mercenary group Outfit X, who once used to work as a RAW agent before turning rogue. Deepika Padukone (Chennai Express) who has worked with Khan many times in the past also appears as ISI agent Rubina Mohsin in the film, while Dimple Kapadia (Tenet) plays Nandini Grewal, head of a security unit that recruits former RAW agents who were forced to retire. It was also the first Indian film to be released in the ICE (Immersive Cinema Experience) format, in addition to IMAX showings.
Pathaan is now playing in theatres across the country and will be available on Amazon Prime Video on March 22. In India, the movie will be up for streaming in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu languages.
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The Polygon blockchain has bagged another significant partnership in India and this time, it is for the benefit of cinema buffs in the country. Shemaroo Entertainment has partnered with Polygon to launch an NFT marketplace, themed on India’s Bollywood film industry. Shemaroo announced the development on Thursday, February 9. The entertainment and media company has decided to name its upcoming NFT marketplace ‘Virtasy.io’, and it will be launched in the coming days.
Polygon is a green and energy efficient blockchain, created by a team of Indian developers including Sandeep Nailwal and Anurag Arjun. Since NFT marketplaces seem to see constant engagement and transactional processes, basing them on green blockchains tends to reduce the overall running and maintenance costs associated with buying and selling NFTs.
“By leveraging Polygon’s next-gen scaling platform, Shemaroo will be able to offer its users access to cost-efficient and lightning-fast transactions while retaining Ethereum’s robust inherent security and decentralisation. Further, the Polygon network is also highly sustainable thanks to its carbon-neutral status — with plans to go fully carbon-negative in the near future,” the entertainment firm said in a statement.
The company, that was founded in 1962, aims to connect Bollywood enthusiasts with digital collectibles inspired by celebrities and movie characters.
“Pre-empting how Web3 is going to impact the entertainment industry, and to be future-ready, Shemaroo has chalked out its roadmap in this space, and the launch of Virtasy is a major step in that direction,” Hiren Gada, CEO of Shemaroo Entertainment said in a statement.
Previously, Bollywood has expressed interest in the NFT arena after actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, and Sunny Leone released their collections of digital collectibles.
Shemaroo itself, has dabbled in the Web3 arena in recent times. For instance, last year it launched a metaverse cinema experience in Decentraland.
Meanwhile, Polygon, in recent times has emerged as a popular choice in the NFT space alongside Ethereum and Solana.
“Polygon Labs remains committed to transforming the NFT space and making it easily accessible to the thriving entertainment and art sector in India. We are delighted to now be associated with Shemaroo, a name synonymous with Bollywood,” Kelly DiGregorio, Vice President and Global Head of Entertainment at Polygon Studios.
Samsung’s Galaxy S23 series of smartphones was launched earlier this week and the South Korean firm’s high-end handsets have seen a few upgrades across all three models. What about the increase in pricing? 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.
Cryptocurrency is an unregulated digital currency, not a legal tender and subject to market risks. The information provided in the article is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, trading advice or any other advice or recommendation of any sort offered or endorsed by NDTV. NDTV shall not be responsible for any loss arising from any investment based on any perceived recommendation, forecast or any other information contained in the article.
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cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional
11 months
The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
