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Tanushree Das and Saumyananda Sahi’s “Shadowbox” struggles to overcome its plain aesthetic. The tale of a family of three strained by a father’s odd behavior — owing to what appears to be Ptsd — the neorealist Bengali- and Hindi-language drama hints at numerous ideas in the realm of gender, administrative power and the woes of the Indian working class. These themes end up distinctly malformed, but the film is not without its strengths. Its central drama is usually interesting enough, thanks to the impeccable depth of its performances.

Tillotama Shome — known to Western audiences from “Monsoon Wedding” and the French-Indian drama “Sir” — is a sure bet to lead any work in the visual medium, owing to how effortlessly she creates entire worlds through silent struggle. She plays the overqualified housemaid Maya, an educated woman doing her best to make ends meet by serving tea and performing other household odd jobs...

Beloved Hollywood icon Keanu Reeves’ dog-loving hitman John Wick may be no more, but it looks like another action movie will arrive this year and leave the bullet-shaped hole that Baba Yaga left behind. Aside from the John Wick spin-off, Ballerina, that is. Hailing from India, a new trailer for the Hindi-language action thriller Fateh teases all manner of gripping fist fights, explosive shoot-outs, and brutal violence that fans of the genre could ever want, with the movie telling another classic tale of a mysterious man with a dark past who must once again call on his particular set of skills.

Bollywood star and renowned humanitarian Sonu Sood makes his directorial debut with Fateh. And what a debut it is. Boasting bloody violence amid a simple story of revenge, Fateh sees Sonu Sood play the lead role as well as helm the project, with the rest of the cast comprised...

Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Lucy Walker began a Saturday panel discussion on stories that travel by describing her own wanderlust backstory.

“As a girl growing up in London, I didn’t have enough money to travel. And I didn’t think being on vacation was the most interesting way to see the world. And yet I really wanted to travel and work and understand people, so I’ve designed myself a job making documentary films where I get to travel the world,” said Walker, who arrived at the International Film Festival of India in Goa having earlier this week won another award, in New York, for her Nepal-set tale “Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lakhpa Sherpa.”

“When I make a film, I always have a question, one that I’ll drop everything to find out about: what’s going to happen? Will they be able to climb the mountain? Will they be okay?...

Fresh off his Cannes 2024 success with “In Retreat,” producer Thanikachalam S.A. is backing “Kurinji (The Disappearing Flower)” from debut feature director Payal Sethi at India’s Film Bazaar co-production market.

Sethi’s previous work includes the award-winning shorts “Leeches” (2016), which won the Grand Prix Internationale at Brussels Short Film Festival, and “Grant St. Shaving Co.” (2010). She studied at Vassar College and Tisch School of the Arts, and worked with Mira Nair on films including “Monsoon Wedding” and “The Namesake.”

The film follows Laly, 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 – her lover who happens to be her husband’s brother-in-law.

“It feels like a very fun film to do, about a serious topic, and with an as-yet-untold story,...

Partners Sideshow Pictures and Janus Films open All We Imagine As Light on Friday and will follow the playbook for Drive My Car, the indie distributor’s first film that began a slow rollout about this time in 2021, collecting awards, nice grosses and finishing with an International Picture Oscar win amid a flurry of nominations. Payal Kapadia’s film, among the best reviewed of the year, was snubbed by India for an Oscar selection. Its distributor has something to say about that and is campaigning for other key categories.

Also this weekend, comedy A Real Pain with Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin from Searchlight Pictures hits 900-plus screens in a major expansion. Sony Pictures Classics’ Saorsie Ronan starrer The Outrun, which opened in early October and was down to 19 screens, is jumping back to 200 by popular demand, which is nice to hear.

Gkids debuts Ghost Cat Anzu on 300-plus screens.

Maybe because it’s one of the most immediate art forms, it can be hard to talk about music. But on Friday at the Middleburg Film Festival, composers and songwriters Lesley Barber, Kris Bowers, Charles Fox, Mychael Danna, Clement Ducol & Camille, Taura Stinson, and Diane Warren were able to get at some key insights into how scores and songs can support great film storytelling. As it does with most things, the time musicians have to grapple with a story matters.

The danger of too little time is that you won’t be able to get the work done, of course, but there is such a thing as too much time too. Danna told the panel and the crowd at Middleburg that it’s possible to over-rotate and second-guess yourself into losing sight of what the music needs to accomplish. “No one can procrastinate as well as me. My favorite way...

It’s been 30 years since a film from India has been selected in the main competition at Cannes, but that finally changed this year.

Recent editions of Sundance, Tribeca, and Toronto have included riveting and even Oscar-nominated documentaries and features. In fact, Mira Nair’s “Monsoon Wedding” won the Golden Lion at Venice more than two decades ago. Granted, Cannes has recently programmed South Asian gems in other sections, such as the Queer Palm-winning “Joyland” from Pakistan in Un Certain Regard in 2022, or Anurag Kashyap’s “Kennedy” in Midnight last year. But would the South Asian drought in the main competition ever end?

Many were ecstatic last month when “All We Imagine as Light”, Mumbai-based Payal Kapadia’s narrative directorial debut, was announced in the competition lineup alongside legendary Cannes regulars: European heavyweights such as Jacques Audiard and Yorgos Lanthimos, American auteurs David Cronenberg and Paul Schrader, and Asian visionary Jia Zhangke.

Randeep Hooda shared that he won’t confine himself to one theme and will explore various genres. The actor also hinted at his next project as a filmmaker, possibly an action film.

When asked about the topics he plans to explore in his next project, Randeep told Ians: “Even as an actor, I have jumped genres and I have jumped roles and characters. So similarly, as a filmmaker, I’ll be jumping genres, and topics. Maybe the next one I will be making an action film.

Randeep made his Bollywood debut in 2001 with ‘Monsoon Wedding’.

Over his two-decade-long journey in Hindi cinema, the actor has delivered some iconic characters and films, including ‘Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster’, ‘Murder 3’, ‘Highway’, and ‘Sarbjit’.

Does he feel there’s an oligarchy that keeps natural talents at bay?

“The industry is not one person or a group of people. It’s different islands trying to do their own thing.

Singer-songwriter Palash Sen of Euphoria, who shaped the indie pop soundscape in the 1990s with songs like ‘Maeri’ and ‘Aana Meri Gully’, has released his musical short film ’Guzel Kiz’.

The film stars his son Kinshuk Sen.

Kinshuk Sen has appeared in the Broadway adaptations of ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaayenge’ and ‘Monsoon Wedding’ directed by Aditya Chopra and Mira Nair.

The Turkish title translates to ‘A Beautiful Girl’.

The film follows the story of a supernatural and the complexities of a narcissist. It harps on the narrative of a heartbreaker, who unknowingly falls in love with a mysterious guide. As they embark on a transformative journey, the guy gets to redefine his perspective on life, love and happiness.

Talking about the film, Palash shared: “Directing ‘Guzel Kiz’ has been an incredibly rewarding experience for me. It allowed me to explore storytelling in a new light, blending elements of the supernatural...

Films by innovative directors offer fresh perspectives and challenge social norms, despite lack of mainstream recognition. Auteurs like Nair, Kieslowski, and Oshima have made significant contributions, each with a unique take on storytelling. Lesser-known directors like Martin, Hui, and Misumi offer enriching experiences, broadening viewers' understanding of global cinema.

Many of the most innovative and talented film directors of all time have also somehow evaded mainstream recognition today. These directors often work outside of Hollywood, producing films with distinctive artistic visions, and offeringing fresh perspectives and innovative approaches to storytelling. Their works may explore unconventional cinematic techniques, delve into niche subjects, or challenge social norms. Despite their lack of widespread fame, these directors have garnered critical acclaim within the film industry and among cinephiles for their creativity, craftsmanship, and ability to evoke powerful emotions.

Though they're not often counted among the best directors of all time, many of these filmmakers...

For better or worse, there’s a tradition of precocious teens on film.

From “Heathers” to “Mean Girls” to “Euphoria” to “Mean Girls” again, teenagers — especially American ones — are perceptive, manipulative, sexualized, and adventurous… eminently watchable even when they’re not relatable.

But elsewhere in the world of filmmaking and adolescence, there are so many other ways to grow up. There are teenagers who still feel like children, others who can’t act on their changing minds and bodies, others still who don’t share their peers’ new interests and feel alienated as a result. Shuchi Talati’s striking Sundance debut “Girls Will Be Girls” is about one such teenager, the quiet, obedient, and book-smart Mira (Preeti Panigrahi).

Mira is the first female head prefect to be appointed at her boarding school in North India, a responsibility she does not take lightly as she is tasked with keeping classmates and friends in check.

To mark the festival’s fortieth anniversary all 16 of this year’s jurors are festival alumni.

Lena Waithe, Mira Nair and Shaunak Sen are among the 16 jurors who will choose award winners in six competitive sections at this month’s Sundance Film Festival.

To mark the fortieth edition of the US festival, which runs January 18-28 in Park City and Salt Lake City, all 16 jurors are festival alumni. In addition to serving on juries they will participate in talks, panels and other events to mark the festival milestone.

Awards for feature films in five competition sections of the festival will...

Mira Nair has boarded Indian filmmaker Sarvnik Kaur’s Sundance-winning documentary “Against the Tide” as an executive producer.

The film follows Mumbai-based fishermen Rakesh and Ganesh who are inheritors of the great Koli fishing knowledge system — a way to harvest the sea by following the moon and the tides. Rakesh has kept faith in the traditional fishing methods while Ganesh has strayed away from them, embracing technology. The film tells a tale of friendship and rising conflict between the two men against the backdrop of the Arabian Sea, which is increasingly turning hostile because of climate change.

Nair presided over the jury at the recently concluded Jio Mami Mumbai Film Festival, which awarded “Against the Tide” the Golden Gateway Award, the festival’s top prize. Previously, the film won a special jury award for vérité filmmaking at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and won awards at Sydney and Seattle and best...

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Mira Nair (“Salaam Bombay!”) has come on board to executive produce “Our Land, Our Freedom,” from directors Meena Nanji and Zippy Kimundu, ahead of the film’s world premiere at IDFA, which takes places in Amsterdam Nov. 8 – 19. The documentary feature will screen as part of the festival’s Frontlight strand.

“Our Land, Our Freedom” follows Wanjugu Kimathi, daughter of the legendary leader of the Kenyan Land and Freedom Army, or Mau Mau Rebellion, Dedan Kimathi. When the resistance figure was hanged by the British authorities in 1957 for possession of firearms, his body was dumped at an unknown location. Now, Wanjugu follows in her mother’s footsteps to look for her father’s remains.

Over the course of the film, Wanjugu’s search becomes an investigation into British colonial atrocities including concentration camps and land theft that left hundreds of thousands of Kenyans destitute. Along the way she meets Mau Mau veterans,...

Following four long years of pandemic shutdown, India’s Jio Mami Mumbai Film Festival made a triumphant return Friday night with a glitzy opening ceremony packed with stars from the Hindi and South Indian film industries, including Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Kareena Kapoor, Jim Sarbh, Sonam Kapoor and Bhumi Pednekar, along with Tamil cinema legends Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam, among many others. Held inside Mumbai’s shimmering new Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, which opened just in March, the ceremony featured two hours of impassioned speeches and the dolling out of awards, all of it presided over by Chopra Jonas, this year’s festival chairwoman.

In her opening remarks declaring the festival officially open, Chopra Jonas emphasized the role of women in the Indian industry, saying: “We’d like to acknowledge the pivotal role of women in front of the camera and behind – we have some of the most amazing women,...

Indian-American filmmaker Mira Nair, who is known for ‘Salaam Bombay!’, ‘The Namesake’, ‘Monsoon Wedding’ and several others, will serve as the Head of Jury for the South Asia Competition at the soon-to-be-held Jio Mami Mumbai Film Festival.

Mira is an Academy-Award nominated filmmaker, her international hit ‘Monsoon Wedding’ which brought her huge international acclaim, made her the first woman to win Venice Film Festival’s prestigious Golden Lion.

Her next film will be ‘Amri’, an experimental portrait of Amrita Sher-Gil. In 2012, she was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian honour.

Commenting on her new role as Head of Jury for South Asia Competition, Mira said: “If we don’t tell our own stories, no one else will. My mantra for a long time, which is why I am honoured to preside over the Mami jury for the South Asia competition this year. I look forward to being inspired...

Indian-American filmmaker Mira Nair, who is known for ‘Salaam Bombay!’, ‘The Namesake’, ‘Monsoon Wedding’ and several others, will serve as the Head of Jury for the South Asia Competition at the soon-to-be-held Jio Mami Mumbai Film Festival.

Mira is an Academy-Award nominated filmmaker, her international hit ‘Monsoon Wedding’ which brought her huge international acclaim, made her the first woman to win Venice Film Festival’s prestigious Golden Lion.

Her next film will be ‘Amri’, an experimental portrait of Amrita Sher-Gil. In 2012, she was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian honour.

Commenting on her new role as Head of Jury for South Asia Competition, Mira said: “If we don’t tell our own stories, no one else will. My mantra for a long time, which is why I am honoured to preside over the Mami jury for the South Asia competition this year. I look forward to being inspired...

Tom And Jerry Singapore

The first ever localized “Tom and Jerry” series, featuring the cartoon cat and mouse in Singapore, will premiere in Southeast and South Asia, Australia and New Zealand on Cartoon Network on Oct. 21. It will also stream on HBO Go in Southeast Asia. Episodes will be globally available via the Cartoon Network Asia YouTube channel.

In the seven-part series, the cartoon frenemies weave through colorful neighborhoods, modern skyscrapers and city-in-nature experiences. New episodes will air weekly.

“It was important for us to create stories and environments that feel authentically Singapore – and at the same time honor the distinct animation style and sense of humor that has made Tom and Jerry so well loved for generations,” said Christopher Ho, head of kids at Southeast Asia, Warner Bros. Discovery.

“Tom and Jerry” has run to more than 500 episodes and 15 movies in an 83-year history, securing seven Academy Awards along the way.

South Asia Competition jury also includes David Michod, Isabel Sandoval and Marianne Khoury.

Acclaimed India-born filmmaker Mira Nair is to preside over the main South Asia Competition of the upcoming Jio Mami Mumbai Film Festival (October 27-November 5).

She will be joined by Australian writer/director David Michod, Filipina filmmaker and actress Isabel Sandoval and Egyptian producer and director Marianne Khoury, who was named artistic director of the El Gouna Film Festival in June.

Jio Mami revealed its full lineup yesterday, confirming that it had dropped its international and India Gold competitive sections in favour of a South Asia Competition, to...

Monsoon Wedding and A Suitable Boy filmmaker Mira Nair has been announced as the Head of Jury for the South Asia Competition at this year’s Jio Mami Mumbai Film Festival (October 27-November 5).

The 14 titles selected for the festival’s new competition section, which showcases debut and second-time filmmakers from South Asia and the South Asian Diaspora Cinema, were revealed yesterday, along with the rest of the Jio Mami line-up.

Nair won the Venice film festival’s Golden Lion for Monsoon Wedding (2001) and her more recent credits include The Namesake (2006), The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012), Vanity Fair (2004), A Suitable Boy (2020) and Queen Of Katwe (2016).

Her next film will be Amri, an experimental portrait of Hungarian-Indian painter Amrita Sher-Gil. She also recently directed ‘Monsoon Wedding the Musical’, which opened in New York City in May 2023 and is next headed for Broadway.

Anupama Chopra, Festival Director at Jio Mami, said: “We are thrilled to...

Producer Savita Raj Hiremath’s 2006 Bollywood cult classic “Khosla Ka Ghosla!” is being remade in the Telugu, Marathi and Kannada languages, it was revealed on the sidelines of the Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Contents and Film Market.

Directed by Dibakar Banerjee and written by Jaideep Sahni, the Hindi-language film followed Khosla, a Delhi-based retired middle-class man who tries to get his land back from a swindling property dealer with the help of his sons and their friends.

The Kannada version will be directed by Adarsh Eshwarappa (“Shuddhi”), the Telugu version by Vinod Anantoju (“Middle Class Melodies”) and the Marathi one by Kedar Shinde (“Baipan Bhari Deva”).

“To most Indians building a home in a lifetime is like a dream come true. It is relatable to a pan-Indian audience as property fraud is paramount and witnessed in large measure. Thus the remakes of ‘Khosla Ka Ghosla!’ will be apt...

“Mississippi Masala” director Mira Nair says she was nervous to ask Denzel Washington to be more vulnerable in his scenes with Sarita Choudhury in the swooningly romantic 1991 drama.

“I fell in love during the making of this film during the writing of the screenplay of this film,” Nair recalled at a Women in Film screening Thursday night at Vidiots. “I experienced what I call the stupor of love. I was really weak-kneed,” she said in a post-screening Q&a. “And that was what I wanted from Denzel and Sarita. Sarita got it, but Denzel… no one talks to him like that,” she said with a smile.

She had hired because of his turn in 1988’s “For Queen and Country,” and said he was nailing every other aspect of the role. “He’s a consummate actor. He is just extraordinary. But when it came to the love stuff, I was wanting more.

1497 has selected three finalist for their Features Lab.

The Lab’s first year was held virtually, and the second year was hybrid, held virtually and in-person. For its third year, 1497 is conducting the Lab as an in-person, immersive, artistic retreat in Malibu, California, during which each Mentee will be paired with a pod of four Mentors from whom they will receive script feedback and career guidance. Mentees will also work with filmmaker and veteran script consultant Adrienne Weiss to further develop their scripts, with a particular emphasis on the emotional journey of their stories.

“We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: we started the 1497 Features Lab to empower writers in the South Asian diaspora to tell whatever stories they want to tell, regardless of the societal, industry, or stereotypical expectations that so often confine writers in our community to certain genres and cultural storylines,” Ahmed, Khan,...

Indian filmmaker Kiran Rao’s sophomore effort, “Laapataa Ladies” (“Lost Ladies”), bows as a Centrepiece selection at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Set in 2001 in rural India, the film follows two young brides wearing identical crimson veils who get swapped during a train ride to their husbands’ villages after their weddings. It is based on “Two Brides” by Biplab Goswami, one of the winning scripts at the Cinestaan India Storytellers Contest, where Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan, one of the producers of “Lost Ladies,” was on the jury. The script was subsequently worked on by Sneha Desai and Divyanidhi Sharma, keeping Goswami’s vision intact.

“The script talks about women and opportunities and ideas that I’m very attracted to, especially freedoms for women,” Rao tells Variety. “The idea of these two girls on an adventure, trying to find their way, trying to figure out what they want to do with their lives,...

Mumbai, Aug 15 (Ians) Actor Dibyendu Bhattacharya, who has carved a niche in the industry with the type of roles he has performed, has said he has never taken himself seriously. If there will be no acting work for him, he has many other things to do in his life.

Dibyendu started his career with a small role in the film ‘Monsoon Wedding’ and since then has given many memorable characters. The actor who has been entertaining the audience for 23 years now in an exclusive interview spoke about his struggle, his favourite role and much more.

When asked what keeps him going ahead in his life and his work, he said: “I never take myself seriously. I feel people who take them seriously feel the fear of no work. If tomorrow I don’t have any work, I have other things to do in life. I have my family to spend time with,...

Grand Indian weddings are always something every other nationality around the world wants to know about. The colors, songs, clothes, and grandeur are very much a part of it, and the family and friends that come together make the memory worth remembering. But how many are aware of the dark truths and the dramas about families who are planning to be in each other’s lives for eternity? There are certain films in the Hindi cinema space that have explored this area of grand celebrations. Monsoon Wedding, Veere Di Wedding, Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, Tanu Weds Manu, and the very recent Rocky Aur Rani ki Prem Kahani. All these films and many others were crucial in showcasing that weddings reveal what families are inherently about and how people are either willing or unwilling to make lifetime compromises.

Spoilers Ahead

Creators Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti bring together an assortment of directors...

Actress Tilotama Shome, who is a renowned Indian face on the global map, feels that it took a few filmmakers to take that risk and imagine her in roles which were different from representing a poorer section of our society.

Tilotama Shome is a fine talent and the audience has been witness to that since her debut film ‘The Monsoon Wedding’. The actress was present at the special press conference held for the season 2 of ‘The Night Manager’ recently in Mumbai.

The actress has performed varied roles in her career and her performances can not be boxed in any single genre. When asked if that has always been her criteria of choosing the roles that one should be different from the other, she said: “The thing is that I get bored very easily. It’s a childhood thing. My father was in the Air Force so every four years we used to change locations,...

On Friday night, 40,000 fans poured into Citi Field, eager to hear Romeo Santos’ silky falsetto. The sold-out stadium was calm as fans grabbed drinks and made their way to their seats until DJ Mad lit the stage up at about 9 p.m. He opened the night with a medley of classic reggaeton and merengue hits — and even pleasantly surprised the crowd with some Central American cumbia, no doubt inspired by the travels that he’s carefully documented on Instagram while touring with Santos. As DJ Mad finished his set, he...

A raucous Indian wedding brass band draws the audience to their seats at St. Ann’s Warehouse, heralding the start of Monsoon Wedding. As you might expect, despite some last-minute detours and the spilling of unexpected secrets, all’s well that ends well in a swirl of marigold and crimson, exuberant dance, and the cathartic deluge promised by the title.

The stage musical is the new incarnation of Mira Nair’s 2001 movie of the same name. Nair, who also directs this eye-catching production, rose to fame in 1988 with Salaam Bombay!, an unflinching look at street kid life in Bombay. Since then, She’s enjoyed a distinguished filmmaking career with such works as Mississippi Masala, The Namesake, and Vanity Fair.

I recently spoke with Nair about the importance of bringing her most popular movie to the stage, its unique marriage of styles, and more.

It’s been more than two decades...

Mumbai, May 16 (Ians) Actor Randeep Hooda, who is known for films like ‘Laal Rang’, ‘Jannat 2’, ‘Monsoon Wedding’, ‘Sarbjit’ and several others, has shared that for his webseries ‘Inspector Avinash’, he spent time with real life cop Avinash Mishra.

The cop drama is inspired by Avinash Mishra and his fight against crime. Set in Uttar Pradesh of the 1990s, it shows Avinash Mishra battling with his team to curb the growing mafia dominance and illegal arms trade.

Talking about the series, Randeep Hooda said: “As an actor, I am always drawn towards real-life stories of unsung heroes. It is important to tell stories rooted in India, stories that depict the struggles and triumphs of our people. Mishra’s story is nothing short of a real-life modern day Robinhood, fighting against crime and standing up for what’s right and I am truly honoured to be a part of this heroic story.

TheLifetimeAchievement Award of the twentiethSoundTrack_Cologne 2023goes to Mychael Danna.

Danna is an Academy Award and Emmy Award-winning film composer who has composed over 80 film scores and is recognized for his blending of non-western traditions with orchestral and electronic music. He composed the transculturally inspired, 2013 Oscar and Golden Globe winning film score for Ang Lee’s Life of Pi. Danna also composed the scores for Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm and Ride With the Devil.

Other well-known films Danna has composed music for include Academy Award-winning and Oscar-nominated films such as The Sweet Hereafter, Exotica and Ararat from his longtime collaboration with director Atom Egoyan; also Moneyball and Capote with director Bennett Miller, Monsoon Wedding, Little Miss Sunshine, Being Julia, Stillwater, The Addams Family 1 and 2, Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur and The Song of the Crayfish.

Danna won an Emmy Award for outstanding music composition for the mini-series World Without End.

Disney+ Hotstar production “Gulmohar” marks the comeback film of veteran Indian actor Sharmila Tagore and the feature debut of Rahul V. Chittella.

Tagore, who debuted with Satyajit Ray’s “The World of Apu” (1959) was last seen in “Break Ke Baad” (2010). Chittella has directed a few shorts and previously worked with “Monsoon Wedding” filmmaker Mira Nair.

The cast also includes Manoj Baypayee (Rotterdam competition film “Joram”), Suraj Sharma (“Life of Pi”), Amol Palekar (“Farzi”) and Simran (“Petta”).

Set in Delhi, “Gulmohar” follows the final four days of the Batra family living in their 34-year-old family home as they move to a new city.

The film, co-written by Arpita Mukherjee and Chittella, was born out of the latter’s experiences of having lived and worked in Nair’s house in Delhi, which was subsequently sold.

“I was in Delhi for some meetings in early 2019 and visited the house as it was getting packed up.

On Jan. 24, India had three reasons to celebrate: an original song Oscar nomination for “Naatu Naatu,” the showstopping tune featured in the film Rrr; a documentary feature nom for All That Breathes; and a documentary short nom for The Elephant Whisperers — a respectable showing for a country that takes great pride in its cinematic output. But if leaders of the nation’s film industry had played their cards differently a few months earlier when deciding which film should represent India in the best international feature Oscar competition, there could have been even more cause for celebration.

For that Oscar category, a country can submit only one title. There are no exceptions for countries with vibrant film industries that produce multiple worthy candidates each year because, as it is, Academy members who volunteer to evaluate the submissions barely have time to consider that many. Indeed, 92 countries and regions entered a title this season.

“This holds a treasure of utmost importance. I thought about destroying it a billion times to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.” So begins the official trailer for National Treasure: Edge of History, the upcoming Disney+ series based on the hit film franchise. The trailer was unveiled Saturday by series star Catherine Zeta-Jones and her fellow cast members during Disney Branded Television’s presentation at the D23 Expo in Anaheim, CA. The series premieres Wednesday, Dec. 14 with the first two episodes.

Disney D23 Expo 2022 Photo Gallery: Marvel, Star Wars, and More

Lisette Olivera, Zuri Reed, Antonio Cipriano, Jordan Rodrigues, Jake Austin Walker and Lyndon Smith star in the series executive produced by the films’ producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Jon Turteltaub and writers Marianne and Cormac Wibberley. Harvey Keitel, who played Peter Sadusky in the National Treasure film franchise, guest stars in the same role.

The series is an...

Now famous among her rising number of fans because of her ‘Delhi Crime’ character, Dcp Vartika Chaturvedi, actress-restaurateur-hostess with the mostest Shefali Shah has established herself as the new queen of the web after her powerful performances in ‘Delhi Crime’, ‘Human’, ‘Jalsa’ and ‘Darlings’.

From Gujarati theatre, which has produced a phalanx of Hindi film stars, starting with A.K. Hangal and Sanjeev Kumar, to superhit TV soaps such as ‘Banegi Apni Baat’ and ‘Tara’, when she was known as Shefali Chhaya, to ‘Satya’ and ‘Monsoon Wedding’, to her web successes, Shah has appeared in many avatars in an acting career that spans more than three decades, and in each one of them she has been a winner.

And she capped her super-busy acting calendar by opening a vegetarian restaurant named Jalsa in Ahmedabad last year, which was when the world outside her circle of friends learnt that she is an...

Shefali Shah, Rajesh Tailang and Rasika Dugal shared their fondest memories of Delhi during a promotion of the acclaimed Netflix series ‘Delhi Crime’ here on Monday.

Shefali said Delhi was the scene of her three most important professional achievements. “For me, three of my most important professional achievements are related to Delhi. I did ‘Monsoon Wedding’, I did ‘Delhi Crime’ and I got my National Award here, so it is very, very special for me.”

In Mira Nair’s ‘Monsoon Wedding’, Shefali played Ria Verma, the target of unseemly advances by the oily Nri, Tej Puri, played by Rajat Kapoor.

It’s home for Rajesh, who essays the role of police officer and close aide Bhupinder to Shefali’s Dcp Vartika Chaturvedi. “I live in Delhi. Delhi is home and shooting here is always good,” he said.

Rasika will be seen playing Acp Neeti (promoted from the nervous trainee Ips...

"We're just friends." "Did I say any different?" Janus Films has revealed an official trailer for Mississippi Masala, an early 90s romantic drama from filmmaker Mira Nair - her second film at the time. She later went on to make Monsoon Wedding and The Namesake, but before those she made this starring Denzel Washinton and Sarita Choudhury. The film first premiered in 1991, and opened in US theaters in early 1992. This 4K digital restoration was commissioned by the Criterion Collection and supervised by director Mira Nair and cinematographer Edward Lachman. The film is about an ethnic Indian family that's expelled from Idi Amin's Uganda in 1972 and now lives in Mississippi 17 years later. The dad sues Uganda to get his property back, while the grown daughter falls in love with a Black man - played by Denzel. It also stars Roshan Seth, Sharmila Tagore, Charles S. Dutton, Joe Seneca, & Ranjit Chowdhry.

Paradise Square makes quite the reach. A musical about the build-up to New York’s horrific Draft Riots of 1863 reaches to the past to tell us about the present. It reaches across cultures to tell us about assimilation and appropriation. It reaches across styles of music and dance to celebrate diversity and commonality. It reaches to contain both epic realism and mythical nostalgia. And somewhere along the line it reaches a point of no return, when all that reaching just wears itself out.

The musical, opening tonight at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, is big in a way that calls back to the Cameron Mackintosh productions of the 1980s and their ’90s Broadway offspring like Ragtime and Kiss of the Spider Woman – those latter two courtesy of Garth Drabinsky, the producer attempting a comeback with Paradise Square after some financial flim-flam landed him in a Canadian prison; he was paroled in 2013 after serving 17 months.

The Indie Meme Film Festival, Austin’s leading cinema event curating South Asian independent cinema, returns to movie theaters for the first time in two years. The festival, which was presented virtually in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, comes back in a hybrid format.

The festival will showcase nearly three dozen films from South Asian filmmakers, covering a variety of poignant topics. Each film tells a unique and diverse story of South Asian lives: a child’s struggle in remote India, an Iranian family seeking asylum in Europe, domestic abuse, alcoholism, mental health, patriarchy and colonialism.

Many of the films in this year’s festival focus on issues important to women, including sexuality, education and the family unit.

Through it all, this year’s lineup is a testament to the importance of accepting people for who they are, and each story is told so that audiences of all backgrounds can relate.

Indian filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali, renowned for his epic cinematic vision, now trains his sights on women’s empowerment tale “Gangubai Kathiawadi,” playing as a Berlinale Special Gala on Feb. 16.

Starring Alia Bhatt (2019 Berlinale selection “Gully Boy”) in the titular role, the film is based on the book, “Mafia Queens of Mumbai,” written by S. Hussain Zaidi and Jane Borges. It follows the true story of young Ganga, who runs away from her small town of Kathiawad to pursue her dreams of becoming a movie star, but is betrayed and sold to a brothel in Bombay’s infamous red-light district, Kamathipura. She gradually transforms into Gangubai, the matriarch of the district. She becomes the voice of the suppressed and makes it her mission to try and legitimize a tainted profession that dates back to ancient times.

Bhansali lived a street away from Kamathipura for 30 years of his life and the...

Director Mira Nair doesn’t dwell on anniversaries of her work. But when Ava DuVernay called to invite her to 20th and 30th anniversary screenings of Nair’s “Monsoon Wedding” and “Mississippi Masala,” respectively, Nair couldn’t resist. The October 31 tribute, taking place at DuVernay’s Array Creative Campus in Los Angeles, honored both Nair’s films and the strides she made to open the door for other women of color in the directing world, including DuVernay herself.

Nair was especially excited to present a newly restored print of “Mississippi Masala.” She told IndieWire that the feature, about the relationship between a Black man (Denzel Washington) and an Indian woman (Sarita Choudhury), was “a radical film 30 years ago that continues to be as radical today.”

“It’s a very nice moment…[to see] both how far we’ve come but how little we’ve come,” Nair added. “It’s an epitome of something,...

Array is opening up its Los Angeles campus on Oct. 31 to host filmmaker Mira Nair as part of a double feature screening event that will showcase her films Mississippi Masala and Monsoon Wedding. The latter film will screen first and be followed by a special conversation between Nair and Array founder Ava DuVernay.

The event comes during a year with milestone anniversaries for Nair’s pics. Mississippi Masala — starring Denzel Washington opposite Sarita Choudhury in the story of a couple that falls in love in the state where her family settles after being expelled from Uganda — celebrates a 30th anniversary with a ...

Array is opening up its Los Angeles campus on Oct. 31 to host filmmaker Mira Nair as part of a double feature screening event that will showcase her films Mississippi Masala and Monsoon Wedding. The latter film will screen first and be followed by a special conversation between Nair and Array founder Ava DuVernay.

The event comes during a year with milestone anniversaries for Nair’s pics. Mississippi Masala — starring Denzel Washington opposite Sarita Choudhury in the story of a couple that falls in love in the state where her family settles after being expelled from Uganda — celebrates a 30th anniversary with a ...

The route that took Oscar-winning “Life of Pi” composer Mychael Danna from the basement of a Toronto church to an office on Hollywood and Vine and all the way to the stage of Zurich Film Festival, where he will receive a career achievement tribute on Sept. 30, kicked off – as such things often do – with an offhand comment.

It was the mid-1980s and Danna was a student of electronic music at the University of Toronto, paying his way through college by playing organ in local churches and by composing ambient pieces for the nearby planetarium. He’d also score plays on campus, mostly for kicks. Sitting in the sound booth one afternoon, and idly chatting with the neighboring lighting technician, Danna stumbled onto a new path. “My friend told me about another guy from campus who wanted to make a film and was looking for a composer,” Danna says. “That is literally how it happened.

Piers Handling had spent most of his career at the Toronto International Film Festival, but nothing could prepare him for the shock of 9/11. As the news of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon made their way up north, the festival’s CEO and director was forced to contend with immediate questions about whether or not the show could go on. Those decisions reverberated across the city of Toronto and throughout the film community.

On the 20th anniversary of that tragic time, Handling — who left TIFF in 2018 and is currently writing a book about the history of film festivals — spoke to IndieWire about the tumultuous experience and what lessons could be extrapolated from it for the pandemic era.

The morning news cycle on 9/11 was chaotic. At what point did you realize the severity of the situation?

The reality didn’t really set in until right after the towers fell.

While Netflix is far from being a haven for admirers of classic cinema, they thankfully are backing strong repertory programming in New York City. After acquiring The Paris Theater, located on 58th Street in Manhattan, and briefly reopening with some runs of Netflix features and other specialty programming, they are now officially opening their doors again on August 6 with a more substantial slate of classic cinema.

Featuring two programs, one curated by Radha Blank and another by the theater’s programmer David Schwartz, the reopening lineup features work by John Cassavetes, Kathleen Collins, Luis Buñuel, Mira Nair, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Ingmar Bergman, Terence Davies, and much more––with many on film prints.

One can also enter to win a pass for Schwartz’s series “The Paris is For Lovers,” with a newly-unveiled scavenger hunt tied to Ira Deutchman’s new documentary Searching for Mr. Rugoff, which opens on August 13 and is part of the lineup.

The Paris Theater, a beloved arthouse cinema in New York City, is reopening its doors next month.

To celebrate its return on Aug. 6, filmmaker Radha Blank is curating a slate of repertory titles to screen alongside her directorial debut “The Forty-Year-Old Version.” Her movie, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival, is playing through Aug. 12.

The Paris opened in 1948 and is the only single-screen movie theater in Manhattan. Netflix acquired the 545-seat venue in 2019 and, prior to Covid-19, held premieres, special events and screenings of its films in the storied institution, which is just south of Central Park.

“I made ‘Forty-Year-Old Version’ in 35mm Black & White in the spirit of the many great films that informed my love of cinema,” says Blank. “I’m excited to show the film in 35mm as intended and alongside potent films by fearless filmmakers who inspired my development as a storyteller and expanded my vision...

Bohemia Media Boards ‘Highway One’

Exclusive: Phil Hunt and Lucy Fenton’s Bohemia Media has picked up UK distribution rights to Highway One out of this year’s Cannes market. Written and directed by Jaclyn Bethany, the movie stars Aisha Fabienne Ross, Greta Bellamacina and Stella Baker in the story of a New Year’s Eve party in rural California, where a group of millennials reunite – love between two women is sparked and mayhem unfolds. Pic debuted at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in April. It was produced by Rebecca Morandi and Executive Produced by Neon Heart Productions. Bohemia will release on November 8, 2021 on digital platforms; prior to then the movie will play an exclusive engagement at Genesis Cinema in London.

WarnerMedia Names Gas Theatrical Production Head

WarnerMedia has appointed Hannes Heyelmann to lead theatrical production in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, adding to his current remit as EVP Programming,...

Exclusive: We’ll be seeing more of surgical intern Dr. Devi on the upcoming season of The Resident. Anuja Joshi, who recurred as the character in Season 4, has been promoted to series regular for Season 5 of the Fox medical drama.

Joshi’s Dr. Leela Devi is a surgical intern at Chastain Park Memorial Hospital. Despite her struggles with dyslexia, she continues to prove herself a rock star. Season 5 also promises more romance between Leela and Dr. Devon Pravesh (Manish Dayal), we hear, after their anticipated kiss in the Season 4 finale.

Created by Amy Holden Jones, Hayley Schore and Roshan Sethi, The Resident follows a group of doctors at Chastain Park Memorial Hospital as they face personal and professional challenges on a daily basis. Matt Czuchry, Emily VanCamp, Bruce Greenwood, Dayal, Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Jane Leeves also star. Morris Chestnut will recur in Season 5.

The Resident is produced by 20th Television.

Disney+ has greenlit a series based on the National Treasure movie franchise.

The show, from writers Cormac and Marianne Wibberley — who wrote the screenplays to the two Nicolas Cage movies (along with Jim Kouf on the first film) — and producer Jerry Bruckheimer will follow a new set of characters and reimagine the franchise through the eyes of its lead character, a 20-year-old DREAMer named Jess Morales.

Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding, A Suitable Boy) is attached to direct. The series will explore the ideas of identity, community, patriotism and who gets to write history as Jess and a diverse ...