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Indian auteur Anurag Kashyap is returning to the children’s film genre with his latest production, “Little Thomas.”

The comedy-drama, which is the feature directing debut of Kaushal Oza, is slated for its world premiere at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (Iffm).

Starring Gulshan Devaiah and Rasika Duggal, alongside child actor Hridansh Parekh, “Little Thomas” marks Kashyap’s first foray into children’s cinema since his 2007 animated directorial venture “Return of Hanuman.”

Set in 1990s Goa, the film follows a seven-year-old boy’s attempts to reunite his quarreling parents in hopes of getting a baby brother. Kashyap, known for hard-hitting films like “Gangs of Wasseypur” and “Ugly,” was drawn to Oza’s vision of creating a genuine children’s film from a kid’s perspective.

“It’s a difficult genre actually, to make an authentic children’s film,” Kashyap said. “So one has to ensure that it’s a good script before making it.

TV Stars who couldn’t shine bright in Bollywood ( Photo Credit – Instagram ) 1. Ankita Lokhande: Pavitra Rishta to Bollywood Dreams

Remember the angelic Archana from Pavitra Rishta? Yes, we’re talking about Ankita Lokhande, who ruled our TV screens for years. Ankita’s journey to Bollywood began with a bang – landing a role in Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi alongside Kangna Ranaut. Despite her stellar performance, the magic of Archana didn’t translate into silver screen stardom. She later appeared in movies like Baaghi 3 and Swatantrya Veer Savarkar, but couldn’t quite replicate her TV success. Yet, Ankita remains our reigning queen of soap operas!

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A post shared by Ankita Lokhande Jain (@lokhandeankita)

2. Barun Sobti: The Heartthrob of TV with Bollywood Missteps

The charming Arnav Singh Raizada from Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon had hearts fluttering across the nation. Barun’s Bollywood innings started with Main Aur Mr.

I’ll admit to feeling a little – no, let’s be honest, a Lot – of trepidation about watching Kill. I’m very squeamish when it comes to violence and genre films are generally not my thing. But I was curious because the film comes from a partnership of production houses Dharma Productions and Sikhya Entertainment (headed up by Guneet Monga and Achin Jain). Guneet Monga as a producer didn’t surprise me, as her productions range from Oscar winning short films to grittier films like That Girl in Yellow Boots, Shaitan, and Peddlers. My curiousity got the better of me when I was offered a screener to watch Nikhil Nagesh Bhat’s latest film, Kill, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023, as part of their “Midnight Madness” programming, which specializes in (according to the TIFF website) “the best in action, horror, shock and fantasy cinema”.

And the...

Ajay Devgn’s leading ladies: that Southern twist. (Photo Credit – Instagram)

Is it due to the fact that his first-ever co-star was Madhoo, a South Indian but

Mumbai-based actress, in Phool Aur Kaante (they co-starred again in Diljale)? Whatever the reason, Ajay Devgn has a predilection for South Indian heroines! Let us also not forget Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, for whom Ajay, along with Salman Khan, was her breakthrough hero in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. They later also did Khakee and Raincoat together.

The past list also includes the North Indian actresses who started out down South —

Kajal Aggarwal (Singham), Ileana D’Cruz (Raid), who did 18 films down South before her Hindi debut, Tamannaah Bhatia (Himmatwala) and Rakul Preet Singh (De De Pyaar De). And of course we have had Rambha (Jung) and Asin(London Dreams, Bol Bachchan).

Photo Credit – IMDb Trending Ramayana: Yash Walks Out As Ravana & Is Associated...

Box Office Calendar 2024: Will Bollywood Match 2023’s 4500+ Crore ( Photo Credit – IMDb )

The year 2023 delivered a whopping 4500+ crore collection at the box office, and 2024 has locked the release dates of 34 films. Currently, these 34 films have occupied the major dates of the year, with all the festivals occupied by superstars and majorly by Akshay Kumar.

Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgn, in total, are ready with 8 releases in the year 2024, four films each. While Akshay Kumar will majorly play upon comedy and deshbhakti flavor, Ajay Devgn has a mixed bag.

Apart from Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgn, Alia Bhatt, Deepika Padukone, and Kartik Aaryan might also bring good numbers at the box office. Check out the entire calendar of 2024. Please note that this calendar is based on the films that have promised to be released on the said dates, but the release dates in Bollywood change in a jiffy.

Trending Box Office...

Raid 2: Box Office 2024 Expectations Roar High As Ajay Devgn & Akshay Kumar 2000+ Crore(Photo Credit –Facebook)

Another film for 2024 has been announced. In fact, another sequel promises another exciting Ajay Devgn thriller. Raid 2 has been announced, and the superstar will be back as IRS officer Amay Patnaik in the crime drama directed by Rajkumar Gupta. The film has been locked to release on November 15, 2024, two weeks after Diwali.

The film is a sequel to the 2018 film Raid, which was a hit at the box office. The film was made on a budget of 48 crore and collected a whopping 101 crore at the box office, registering huge profits.

As Raid 2 has been announced, Ajay Devgn has matched the highest number of releases in 2024 with Akshay Kumar, and both actors are ready with four releases each this year. All of these eight films might aim, in total, for a collection of 2000+ crores.

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There is no dearth of specials coming out of Disney+ Hotstar. Kerala Crime Files, Criminal Justice, Grahan, Shaitan, and Mathagam are just some of the dramas that revolve around police investigations in a big way. Aakhri Sach is yet another investigative drama from this Ott space, directed by Robbie Grewal and written by Saurav Dey, which takes us through a peculiar case of murder or suicide involving a family of eleven.

Spoilers Ahead

The Murders

Aakhri Sach Episode 1 titled ‘Breaking News: Ek Saaya,’ begins with a neighbor and a local milkman discovering the bodies of ten members (initially) of one family who have died by apparent suicide. It is understood from the first scene that the show is inspired by the Burari murders of 2018, which shook the nation. The entire scene is set up as per the description given by the media to the public. The most recent memory of...

Every streaming platform these days, especially the Indian ones, has one genre that has been milked to death: the crime thriller or murder investigation. It has been presented in a million different ways. A lot of them are similar to each other, and only a few manage to stand out. In the span of a few months, Disney+ Hotstar has released three regional shows in the same genre, and each of them has left a mark of their own. Be it Shaitan, a Telugu language crime thriller about an ex-Naxal, or Kerala Crime Files, a Malayalam language murder investigation, the platform is acing so far at bringing some original content in this gritty genre. Adding to this list is Pavan Sadineni directed Dayaa, a Telugu-language web series that was released on the platform on August 4th, 2023.

Dayaa is the story of the eponymous protagonist, a partially deaf man who is...

Mumbai, July 25 (Ians) Actor Gulshan Devaiah’s look from the upcoming streaming giant Netflix’s series ‘Guns and Gulaabs’ deeply inspired from Sanjay Dutt’s look in the 90s.

An insider from the production said: “The series is set in the 90s and the Sanjay Dutt craze was at its peak during that time and many people started adapting that.”

“The team thought about what better way to capture the 90s than that look. It was actually Gulshan who suggested this idea and was quite keen to carry that look too. He made it seem very natural.”

‘Guns and Gulaabs’ is a comedy crime thriller series which is created and directed by Raj and Dk. It is based on the 90s world of crime and violence. The series stars Rajkummar Rao, Dulquer Salmaan, Adarsh Gourav, Gulshan Devaiah and Tj Bhanu in lead roles.

Gulshan is currently in London shooting for...

We all must admit that well-made murder investigation stories will always blow your mind. If packaged and delivered properly, it is an ideal way to spend an afternoon understanding the nuances of a case and what goes on behind the scenes. Lately, there have been plenty of tales in this genre from various regions of the country, which helps the audience understand the local police and the native culture in depth. We have had Disney’s Kerala Crime Files and Shaitan, Amazon’s Suzhal: The Vortex, and Netflix’s Delhi Crime take the audience down roads that were seldom chosen by filmmakers in the past. The new Netflix original Kohrra, created by Gunjit Chopra and Diggi Sisodia and co-created by Sudip Sharma of Paatal Lok fame, brings you the story of a murder that shakes up a small town, putting the police under constant pressure ever since to catch the culprit.

Mumbai, July 1 (Ians) Mahi V. Raghav, the director of the streaming series ‘Shaitan’, has shared that although the show is about gangsters, he intended to present a human drama through the series.

The director told Ians that he didn’t want the series to look very gloomy like ‘Satya’ or ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ or any other regular gangster film.

He said: “This was not about the rise and fall of a gangster. I wanted to tell a human drama, filled with vibrant colours. If you go look around a slum or any undeveloped place you will see how they dress up richly and how colourful they are. Even if you look at their houses, it is lively. ‘Shaitan’ shows how vibrant lives are, keeping the rawness intact as such.”

He further spoke about the second part of the series with Ians: “In the second part, we will keep the theme and tone,...

Ever since various Ott platforms waltzed into our lives, the Indian cinema space has been booming, for it has given viewers a plethora of options to choose from. With access to foreign content, the demand for gritty storytelling coupled with drama suddenly increased. This led to Indian makers jumping into this genre, which gave us shows like Sacred Games, Delhi Crime, Mirzapur, and Paatal Lok, to name a few. Just last week, Disney+ Hotstar forayed into the Telugu language web series with Shaitan, and Prime Video in 2022 gave us Suzhal: The Vortex, a Tamil language murder investigation story. With regional cinema, especially from the south, being the talk of the town, Disney+ Hotstar’s brand new Malayalam language police investigation thriller Kerala Crime Files is here for you to understand how a murder case turns into a chase to catch the culprit.

The plot of Kerala Crime Files revolves around...

Actors Gulshan Devaiah and Rajkummar Rao have reunited, this time for a web series. The critically acclaimed actors will be working together for the third time with Raj and Dk’s streaming series ‘Guns & Gulaabs’. Gulshan has lauded his co-actor saying that Raj is a flag-bearer for the actors of his generation.

The two actors were first seen together in the 2011 film ‘Shaitan’, where Gulshan played one of the leads and Rajkummar portrayed the character of a corrupt cop.

Gulshan said: “His craft and career are benchmarks for us and he’s an inspiration for all. I have immense respect and admiration for Raj, he’s a flag bearer of sorts for a generation of actors. He blackmailed and assaulted me in ‘Shaitan’, we romanced in ‘Badhaai Do’ and let’s just leave it as a surprise as to what we’ll be up to on screen this time around.

Disney+ Hotstar’s new outing in the crime drama genre in Telugu has ventured into regional cinema. The Telugu-speaking audience, along with viewers across the country, are introduced to the crime saga set amidst Naxal conflicts in the state of Andhra Pradesh. With this, we get to understand the regional politics and power plays involved in controlling the Naxals and eradicating them. Apart from Shaitan, which is set in the rural heartlands of India, we have seen many shows in the past that showcase stories from different parts of the country centered around conflicts between criminal groups. Here is a list of shows you can watch in this genre:

Spoilers Ahead

Suzhal: The Vortex (2022)

Released in 2022, this Tamil-language Prime Video original investigative crime drama is set during a 10-day temple festival happening in a small hillside town in Tamil Nadu. Suzhal: The Vortex not only lets us understand the impact of sexual assault,...

Shaitan, the brand-new Disney+ Hotstar crime drama written and directed by Mahi V Raghav and K. Ravi Kumar, was all about blood, gore, and explicit scenes, and the underlying theme remains revenge. The show ended with the police catching up to ex-Naxal Baali and killing him in cold blood under the charges of multiple murders, which were inconsequential for them initially. Baali chose to eliminate one of their party favorites, a Naxal leader turned politician, Sambanna, and suddenly Baali became a thorn in their side.

Baali should have known there are no friends and foes in politics, but he tried to be idealistic in the hope of seeking justice for his sister. But unfortunately, nothing went as per his plan because he was betrayed by the people he chose to help. Before Baali, all of his family members were killed because, just like him, they were on the path to seeking revenge.