News

Stolen actor, Abhishek Banerjee speaks To Subhash K Jha about his career so far and what is coming up next.

Abhishek, one after another lauded performances, how do you manage it?

Ha ha. I don’t do it. Someone up there does it. But yes, it has been a time of terrific reviews for a slew of performances. I enjoy acting and I really I don’t have any favourite genre.For me acting is like life. It’s my therapy, it’s my oxygen so every time I get to act no matter whether it’s comedy or drama or action… hero or villain… whatever… I think I’m just very happy every time I’m on set.

Which is your favourite genre of acting?

It’s very difficult to choose a particular genre. But yes , I have to say that when I when I make people happy, when...

In a convergence of indie talent, acclaimed writer-editor Sumit Purohit is stepping into the director’s chair for his feature film debut “Baaghi Bechare,” bringing together some of India’s most distinctive voices.

The satire stars Pratik Gandhi, whose breakout performance in SonyLIV’s “Scam 1992 – The Harshad Mehta Story” catapulted him into the spotlight, alongside Abhishek Banerjee, the versatile actor known for scene-stealing turns in Prime Video’s “Paatal Lok” and last year’s blockbuster “Stree 2.”

Adding literary firepower to the project, Prime Video’s “Mirzapur” creator Puneet Krishna joins as co-writer. The ensemble cast includes Prime Video’s “Panchayat” standout Faisal Malik, who succinctly describes the project as part of “this transformative phase of Indian cinema.”

For Purohit, a 2020/2021 BAFTA Breakthrough India participant whose writing credits include Prime Video’s Emmy-nominated “Inside Edge” and recent biopic “Srikanth,” satire provides essential cultural commentary.

“Satire, for me, is a form of catharsis.

Payal Sethi’s “Kurinji” (aka “The Disappearing Flower”) was Sunday named as the first prize winner of the projects at the Film Bazaar in Goa, India. It earned a $10,000 cash prize.

Produced by Thanikachalam Sa, the project explores the theme of “Gulf Wife” syndrome and follows a Kerala housewife whose migrant worker husband in the Gulf region suddenly stops calling home after years of separation. When a money-lender appears demanding repayment of an unknown debt, she embarks on a search for answers with help from an unexpected quarter.

The Work-in-Progress section crowned Ridham Janve’s “Hunter’s Moon” (aka “Kaatti Ri Raatti”) and “The Shape of Momo” as joint winners. The films win various in-kind support from Prasad Labs. “The Shape of Momo” also receives Di (Digital Intermediate) support from Nube Studio.

Set high in the mountains, the ambitiously artistic “Hunter’s Moon” depicts man at his crudest state in nature. Directed by Tribeny Rai,...

India’s Film Bazaar market has revealed the 21 feature projects selected for this year’s Co-Production Market.

The invited titles span seven countries including India, UK, Australia and Germany. The projects will be pitched to producers, distributors, festival programmers, financiers and sales agents at Goa’s Marriott Resort from November 20-24.

Titles include The Song Of Flowers from UK-based producer Neeraj Churi whose previous projects include SXSW 2024 audience award winner A Place Of Our Own. The film is directed by Shubham Negi and Sourav Yadav.

Also selected is Payal Sethi’s India-Germany co-production The Disappearing Flower, produced by Thanikachalam Sa...

National Film Development Corporation (Nfdc) Indian project market Film Bazaar has unveiled an ambitious slate for its 18th edition co-production market, with “Baahubali” producer Shobu Yarlagadda among the selection. The market, set for Nov. 20-24 at Goa’s Marriott Resort, showcases 29 projects spanning India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Australia, the U.K., Germany, and Hong Kong.

The market runs concurrently with the International Film Festival of India, which unspools Nov. 20-28 across Goa.

From a pool of 180 feature submissions spanning 23 countries, 21 features made the cut. The projects represent a linguistic mosaic, including Hindi, English, Assamese, Tamil, Marwari, Bengali, Malayalam, Punjabi, Nepali, Marathi, Pahadi, and Cantonese, demonstrating the market’s growing international appeal.

High-profile industry veterans dominate the features section. Abhishek Chaubey teams with Honey Trehan for “Absent,” a psychological drama about two schoolboys whose friendship takes a dark turn. Producer Alan McAlex, who had two films at Cannes this year – “Santosh” and...

Srikanth

Starring Rajkummar Rao,

Directed by Tushar Hiranandani

Normally, biopics in Hindi cinema struggle to cram in as much eulogy as possible. Tushar Hiranandani’s Srikanth is different. It is a warm and affectionate look at a truelife hero. But it avoids being a visual hagiography.

Rajkummar Rao in a performance that he can show to his unborn children humanizes the blind entrepreneur Srikanth Bolla without denuding the character of any of his blemishes.

Into the rarest-of-rare category falls the visually impaired visionary Srikanth Bolla whose lifestory is so inspiring, it would take a devastatingly doltish director to destroy the dream. Happily, Tushar Hiranandani is not an inept filmmaker, though he could have taken Srikant Bolla’s story much further than it actually goes in this heartfelt love story: the love of a insurmountably disadvantaged man for life.

This existential ebullience comes shining through in Rajkumar Rao’s buoyant performance.

Srikanth Movie Review Rating:

Star Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Jyotika, Alaya F, Sharad Kelkar, Jameel Khan

Director: Tushar Hiranandani

Srikanth Movie Review Out ( Photo Credit – Instagram )

What’s Good: Rajkummar Rao & Jyothika’s performances, the storytelling

What’s Bad: The second half gets a bit lost

Loo Break: Can take it during the romantic song in the first half

Watch or Not?: If you want more such feel-good and inspiring stories, yes!

Language: Hindi

Available On: Theatrical release

Runtime: 2 hours

User Rating:

In the heart of Andhra Pradesh’s Machilipatnam, a visually impaired boy was born, and his father named him ‘Srikanth’, after the renowned Indian cricketer. Initially, his parents struggled with the news of their son’s disability. But Srikanth never allows his condition to break his spirit. Tushar Hiranandani’s film portrays Srikanth’s journey from a small village boy to a symbol of strength and achievement, based...

After the impressive success of the BAFTA Breakthrough India programme in 2021 and 2022, BAFTA is once again launching the scheme for a third year. Applications open today until 5 July, and the programme is open to creatives from across the film, games and television industries nationally, as well as those working in the UK and the US.

This year also marks Netflix’s third year supporting BAFTA Breakthrough in India and its fourth year in the UK and US.

BAFTA Breakthrough aims to identify and nurture emerging talent from around the world and equip them with the resources they need to develop their skills and progress in their chosen field. First launched in the UK ten years ago, BAFTA Breakthrough is one of the arts charity’s flagship talent schemes, with over 200 careers developed and accelerated to-date.

Through this initiative, BAFTA Breakthrough India will once again identify and celebrate Indian talent by...

Bollywood actor Rajkummar Rao’s upcoming biopic titled ‘Sri’ has booked its theatrical release. The film will land in cinemas on September 15, 2023. The film, which also stars Alaya F, Jyotika and Sharad Kelkar, is based on the story of visually-impaired industrialist Srikanth Bolla and presents an inspiring story of a man who didn’t let the visual impairment stop him from achieving what he set out for.

Born into a family of farmers in Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh, Bolla took the state government to court when, citing his disability, he was not allowed to pursue the Science stream after he cleared his Class X exams.

He not only won the case, but also topped his school in Class Xii. He was also involved with the Lead India 2020 campaign launched by the late President A P J Abdul Kalam, he set up organisations for the rehabilitation of disabled people and to pursue Sustainable Development Goals,...

T-Series Films & Chalk N Cheese Films gears up to inspire you with the moving story of Indian visionary Srikanth Bolla with ‘Sri’ directed by Tushar Hiranandani. Starring Rajkummar Rao, Alaya F, Jyotika and Sharad Kelkar the film will have a nationwide release on 15th September 2023.

Written by Jagdeep Sidhu and Sumit Purohit, pictured by Pratham Mehta, Sri is a biopic of an industrialist Srikanth Bolla who didn’t let his visual impairment come in the way of his vision and founded Bollant Industries.

Gulshan Kumar and T-Series Presents a T-Series Films & Chalk N Cheese Films Production Llp, Sri is directed by Tushar Hiranandani, is produced by Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar & Nidhi Parmar Hiranandani. The film releases nationwide on the 15th September 2023.

Actress Kritika Kamra, who was seen in the streaming series ‘Hush Hush’, will celebrate a working birthday on Tuesday as she is occupied with the shooting of her upcoming project, ‘For Your Eyes Only.’

Post the success of her last project ‘Hush Hush’, she has now taken off into the thriller world with ‘For Your Eyes Only’.

Kritika Kamra will be seen in a never seen before avatar in the espionage thriller, which also stars ‘Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story’ actor Pratik Gandhi. The project is being directed by ‘Scam 1992’ writer Sumit Purohit and will be shot in three countries.

Having begun her journey with television, Kritika has played different characters on Ott as well with ‘Tandav’, ‘Kaun Banegi Shikharwati’ and ‘Hush Hush’.

‘For Your Eyes Only’ will be soon available to stream on Netflix.

Theater

London’s West End is rallying to keep its audiences amid the surge of the Omicron variant. A new campaign entitled “Don’t Stop Me Now” is offering reduced tickets in the range of £10-£50 ($13-$67) for performances throughout January and February. The sale can be accessed through the Official London Theatre website. (Link: https://officiallondontheatre.com/new-year-sale/)

The West End was hard hit by the new Covid-19 variant in the thick of the holiday season. New shows such as “Cabaret,” starring Jessie Buckley and Eddie Redmayne, had to cancel blocks of performances, while productions like Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cinderella” were pulled just before Christmas until February.

The “Don’t Stop Me Now” campaign has involved collaborations with the Mayor of London, Westminster City Council and various business improvement districts. Illustrating the faces of the theater workforce is a new exhibit by photographer Rankin that’s featured on...

EntertainmentThe list of 10 participants includes ‘A Suitable Boy’ star Tanya Maniktala and ‘Typewriter’ actor Palomi Ghosh among others.Tnm StaffInstagramThe British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) which announced its first Breakthrough Initiative for India last year, announced the list of participants on June 10. The selected 10 artists – who are from film, television and gaming – will receive mentoring from experts and global networking opportunities. Supported by Ott platform Netflix, the initiative aims to identify artists working in films, games or TV and provide support and mentorship. Although the number of participants were limited to five earlier, it was reportedly doubled due to the overwhelming number of applications. Academy award-winning musician Ar Rahman, who was announced as the jury chair for the initiative last year, took to Twitter on Thursday to unveil the list of selected participants. A Suitable Boy star Tanya Maniktala, Gully Boy cinematographer Jay Pinak Oza and Scam...

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has revealed the 10 participants chosen for its inaugural Breakthrough India initiative.

A jury of industry experts including actor Anupam Kher, Netflix India chief Monika Shergill, filmmaker Mira Nair and producer Siddharth Roy Kapur selected 10 of the most promising talent from the film, games and television industries in India, double the number previously announced, due to the sheer number of quality applicants.

The participants include writer/producer Akshay Singh (“The Gold-Laden Sheep and The Sacred Mountainâ€.); writer/director Arun Karthick (“Nasirâ€.); cinematographer Jay Pinak Oza (“Gully Boyâ€.); composer Karthikeya Murthy (“Kd (A) Karuppuduraiâ€.); actor Palomi Ghosh (“Nachom-ia Kumpasarâ€.); writer/director Renu Savant (“The Ebb Tideâ€.); game developer and art director shruti Ghosh (“Raji- An Ancient Epicâ€.); writer/director/editor Sumit Purohit (“Scam 1992â€.); actor Tanya Maniktala (“A Suitable Boyâ€.); and director Vikram Singh (“Elephants In My Backyardâ€.).

The participants will receive one-to-one mentoring,...

The Critics’ Choice Awards recently announced the list of nominations for its third edition. After the success of two editions of Critics’ Choice Awards, Film Critics Guild and Motion Content Group in collaboration with Vistas Media Capital join forces again for the third edition of the highly acclaimed awards, to honour talent, artists and technicians in feature films, web series and short films across all Indian languages. The unique bit is that the award is determined to honour all mediums of storytelling.

Sharing her views on the nominations, Anupama Chopra, Chairperson, Film Critics Guild says, “It’s been a watershed year for entertainment but despite the gargantuan odds of 2020, great stories have survived and thrived. The upcoming awards ceremony is a celebration of these stories that have sustained us!”

Sudip Sanyal, Business Head- Motion Content Group India shared, “In such a period of unprecedented unpredictability, the one thing which has...

FootFairy movie review is here. The &pictures original is a one of its kind direct to TV release on 24th October at 9 pm. The dark de noir psychological thriller directed by Kanishk Varma stars Gulshan Devaiah, Sagarika Ghatge and Kunaal Roy Kapur in pivotal roles.

FootFairy Story

A determined Cbi officer Vivaan Deshmukh (Gulshan Devaiah), sets off, in pursuit of a mysterious serial killer, that strikes and kills women for his absurd feet obsession. The nail-biting cat and mouse chase unravel the maddening dark world of obsession and to what extent it can take you.

FootFairy movie review

There is a famous Japanese saying about the three faces every human has. The first face, you show to the world. The second face, you show to your close friends, and your family. The third face, you never show anyone. Debutant director Kanishk Varma’s dark psychological irony FootFairy probes that ‘unseen...

Scam 1992 - The Harshad Mehta Story review is here. The Indian Hindi-language drama web-series directed by Hansal Mehta is based on 1992 Indian stock market scam committed by stockbroker Harshad Mehta in 1992, the series is adapted from journalist Sucheta Dalal and Debashish Basu's book The Scam: Who Won, who Lost, who Got Away.

Scam 1992 - The Harshad Mehta Story stars Pratik Gandhi, Shreya Dhanwanthary, Hemant Kher and Nikhil Dwivedi in pivotal roles. The series premiered on SonyLIV on 9th October, 2020.

Scam 1992 - The Harshad Mehta Story review

Will come straight to the point. Scam 1992 - The Harshad Mehta Story is a modern-day classic in Indian web series genre. It’s based on Harshad Mehta (was called The Lord of Bank Frauds), the man whose meteoric rise in the stock exchange and the terrible downfall is a classic case of how our ‘system’ worships greed over and over again.

There is a basic challenge that Hansal Mehta throws, while narrating the story of Big Bull Harshad Mehta. Instead of letting his story unfold through the mind games of his protagonist, which would have made the series lucid and enjoyable for all, he often tends to immerse the narrative in a mire of heavy stock market lingo and logistics.

Watch Scam 1992 – The Harshad Mehta Story official trailer

https://youtu.be/ISORfez27og

Perhaps Hansal Mehta was deliberately being uncompromising, to underline the fact that his 10-part web series is a rare Bollywood effort that truly tick-marks all criteria of the genre that Hollywood defines as the financial thriller. Yet, from Wall Street to Margin Call to Equity to The Wolf Of Wall Street -- you could even include Money Monster by a stretch -- we have seen enough instances where crime drama woven around money does not necessarily let money...

ReviewDirected by Hansal Mehta, the 10-part web series now streaming on Sony Liv stars Pratik Gandhi, a relatively unknown Gujarati actor, as Harshad Mehta.Saraswati DatarScreenshot: Sony LivIt wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Harshad Mehta’s story is one of a man who indulged an addiction and then fell prey to it. It proves that perhaps the greatest addiction of all, more dangerous than drugs or alcohol, is the addiction to wealth. As Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story, now streaming on Sony Liv, tells us, you can never have enough money or the materialism it facilitates. Yet unlike any other addiction, this compulsive need to make money can create much larger ramifications on a nation where poverty and disparity keep birthing a restless child, ambition. Ambition, aspiration, greed – call it what you will, but when Harshad Shantilal Mehta (Pratik Gandhi), who shares a one-bedroom home with four family members,...

In 1992, a storm descended on India?s financial circle, when the biggest securities scam was exposed by financial journalist Sucheta Dalal. ?Scam 1992 ? The Harshad Mehta Story? is the tale of a seminal moment in a seminal decade in Indian history.

Applause Entertainment, the content studio from the Aditya Birla group is creating this white-collar-crime financial thriller, based on Debashis Basu and Sucheta Dalal?s best-selling book ?The Scam?. The series is being directed by National Award-winning director Hansal Mehta and is produced by Studio Next for Applause Entertainment.

Celebrated theatre and movie actor Pratik Gandhi, who is known for his work in Gujarati theatre and cinema, portrays the role of one of the most controversial stockbrokers of all times - Harshad Mehta. Shreya Dhanwanthary, who has been in the news for her performance in recent shows like The Family Man and The Reunion, will be seen playing the role of...