Banijay Takes Full Control Of Endemol Shine India

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer has reached the $500M global milestone, on its way to an estimated $551M through Sunday. This would make it the filmmaker’s fifth-highest-grossing film of all time, ahead of Dunkirk. The worldwide total through Friday is $499.3M, meaning that it has already topped the five-century mark today.

Naman Ramachandran Former Disney India head and producer of Sony LIV hit “Rocket Boys,” Siddharth Roy Kapur has hailed the reinvigorated Indian box office and robust streaming space. Nevertheless, he sees challenges ahead.

Naman Ramachandran The Indian parliament has passed the Cinematograph (Amendment) Bill, which aims to curb piracy that causes losses of INR200 billion ($2.4 billion) to the film industry, according to government estimates. Those found guilty of film piracy by way of camcording in theaters or unauthorized copying and online transmission and exhibition of a pirated copy of any film will now face punishment of minimum three months imprisonment and a fine of $3,650, which can be extended up to three years imprisonment and fine up to 5% of the audited gross production cost.

Mark Owen - singing star and member of chart-topping boyband Take That - is understood to have been left in grief this week following the loss of one of his beloved family members. His wife of 23 years, energy coach Emma Owen, took to Instagram on Friday to share the news that their much-loved pet kitten has passed away and later revealed that the death has caused her to suffer an "existential crisis".

Christopher Nolan’s latest epic is being censored in some parts of the world.

“Oppenheimer” is director Christopher Nolan’s first R-rated film in over 20 years due to its sexual content, nudity and explicit language. And one scene featuring a topless Florence Pugh has offended religious and government officials alike in India and the Middle East, who have taken action to censor the shot since the film’s global release.Pugh, 27, plays Jean Tatlock, a brilliant psychiatrist and communist who falls for physicist J.

Oppenheimer in which Cillian Murphy and Florence Pugh’s characters read a sacred Hindu text in bed has sparked controversy and reports of censorship in India.The scene in question sees J. Robert Oppenheimer (Murphy) recite a verse from Hindu scripture The Bhagavad Gita to lover Jean Tatlock (Pugh) during intercourse.In a letter addressed to director Christopher Nolan shared on Twitter, India’s Information Commissioner and Save Culture Save India Foundation founder Uday Mahurkar described the scene as a “scathing attack on Hinduism”.Posted to Twitter on Saturday (July 22), the letter reads: “As per social media reports, a scene in the movie shows a woman makes a man read Bhagwad Geeta aloud while getting over him and doing sexual intercourse.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter An intimate moment in Christopher Nolan’s dark historical drama “Oppenheimer” has been censored in several countries outside the U.S., including India. The altered scene takes place as Cillian Murphy’s J. Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist who led the development of the atomic bomb, sits naked across from Florence Pugh’s Jean Tatlock, a Communist Party member with whom he had a torrid affair. In the unedited version of the film, Pugh is topless as she converses with Murphy’s character in a hotel room. But in the sequence that plays in Indian and Middle Eastern movie theaters, her body is covered with a computer-generated black dress.

Naman Ramachandran Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” are attracting a record number of punters back to the cinemas in the U.K. and India. In the U.K. the Vue cinema chain said that it witnessed its biggest weekend in four years and second biggest weekend in history by admissions, with “Barbie” on track to become the biggest film of 2023, ahead of “Super Mario Bros.” Vue saw more than a fifth of its customers booking tickets to see both films. Over 2,000 sessions sold out for “Barbie,” delivering the largest ever opening weekend for an original, non-franchise film for the U.K. and Ireland market box office.

THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE FILM “OPPENHEIMER.”A sex scene in the highly anticipated drama “Oppenheimer” is being slammed by Indian officials who claim the scene is “a scathing attack on Hinduism.” The biographical drama tells the story of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer as he and a group of scientists rush to complete the infamous Manhattan Project, which culminated with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan on August 6, 1945.In the film, Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy, 47) and Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh, 27) are engaged in sexual intercourse until Jean walks over to a bookshelf and grabs a copy of “Bhagavad Gita” and asks Murphy to read from it.“Oppy” then reads the line, “I am become Death, destroyer of worlds,” as the duo resumes sexual intercourse.

Naman Ramachandran A sex scene in Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” featuring a line from Hindu holy scripture “Bhagavad Gita” has led to protests even as the film rakes it in at the box office. The film was passed with a U/A certificate by India’s Central Board of Film Certification. SPOILER ALERT: The sex scene features Cillian Murphy as Robert Oppenheimer and Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock. Pugh stops during intercourse, gets up and goes over to the bookshelf, picks out a copy of the “Bhagavad Gita” and asks Murphy to read from it. Murphy reads the line “I am become Death, destroyer of worlds,” the quote from the “Bhagavad Gita” that Oppenheimer famously thought of when the first nuclear bomb was detonated.

Naman Ramachandran Indian actor Arshad Warsi stars in JioCinema series “Asur,” the second season of which is one of the most-watched Indian shows of the year. Set in the holy northern Indian city of Varanasi, the psychological thriller series with mythological elements stars Warsi and Barun Sobti as forensic expert investigators engaged in a cat-and-mouse-game with a serial killer. “Asur: Welcome to Your Dark Side” streamed on Voot in 2020. “Asur 2: The Rise of the Dark Side” moved over to sister streamer JioCinema and began streaming in June. Within three weeks of release, Season 2 amassed 30 million viewers and 3 billion minutes of watch time, per JioCinema data. The series also made it to IMDb’s top 50 shows worldwide.

Naman Ramachandran Prime Video and BBC Studios have launched BBC Player and BBC Kids on Prime Video Channels in India. The subscription-based service will provide Indian viewers a curated line-up of popular British content spanning dramas, comedy, documentaries, factual shows, entertainment, lifestyle programming and children’s shows. Prime members can purchase an annual add-on subscription to BBC Player for INR 599 ($7.30) that includes full access to BBC Kids. Alternatively, members can also subscribe to BBC Kids only for INR 199 ($2.42) annually. Title available at launch on BBC Player include “Six Four,” “The Diplomat,” “Chivalry,” “Citizen Khan,” “Sherlock,” “Unforgotten,” “Happy Valley,” “Top Gear,” “The Great British Bake Off,” “This is Going to Hurt,” “Small Axe” and “Strictly Come Dancing.” BBC Kids will feature “Hey Duggee,” “Go Jetters,” “JoJo & Gran Gran,” “Sarah & Duck” and “Junior Bake Off.”

EXCLUSIVE: Freestyle Digital Media has picked up North American rights to the sports documentary Big Crow from director Kris Kaczor, slating it for release on VOD platforms on August 1. 

Indian singer Harrdy Sandhu prophesizes that Punjabi music will take over the world (if it hasn’t already).

Naman Ramachandran After the success of the Indian version of “The Night Manager,” The Ink Factory is planning further Indian adaptations of John le Carré novels. Produced by The Ink Factory and Banijay Asia, the Hindi-language series created and directed by Sandeep Modi and headlined by Anil Kapoor and Aditya Roy Kapur, emerged as the most watched series ever across all Hotstar specials on Indian streamer Disney+ Hotstar. One of the most renowned writers in the espionage genre, le Carré, who died in 2020, left behind a legacy of 25 novels, managed by The Ink Factory. They have spawned numerous adaptations, including an English-language “The Night Manager” from BBC/AMC in 2016.

Naman Ramachandran India’s media and entertainment industry is expected to reach $73.6 billion by 2027 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.48%, says consultancy firm PwC’s “Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2023-2027” report. In terms of growth percentage, streaming leads the way with revenue surging 25% in 2022 to reach $1.8 billion. The market will continue to grow at 14% CAGR to produce revenue of $3.5 billion in 2027. This will be driven by the competitive SVOD sector, which accounted for 78% of sector revenue in 2022, the report says, adding that while subscription service revenues will expand at 13% CAGR to reach $2.6 billion, ad-supported services (AVOD) will grow at a higher rate, albeit from a lower base.

Naman Ramachandran BBC Studios will produce adaptations of All3Media scripted dramas “Shameless” and “Strangers” for the Indian market. Comedy drama “Shameless,” created originally by Paul Abbot and Company Pictures for Channel 4, is set in a dilapidated housing estate and revolves around an unemployed and perpetually drunken father who is consistently expanding his lineage amidst the challenges of adolescence and the allure of first love. Two Brothers Pictures’ crime drama “Strangers” AKA “White Dragon,” originally created for ITV in the U.K. and written by Mark Denton, Jonny Stockwood, Marston Bloom and Harry & Jack Williams, follows professor Jonah Mulray, whose wife dies in a car accident in Hong Kong, where she frequently visited for work. He decides to visit the city, where he stumbles upon a startling revelation about his wife, plunging him into a labyrinth of conspiracy.

Naman Ramachandran Curator, programmer and producer Jitin Hingorani has joined India’s National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) in the newly created position of head of programming for Film Bazaar, South Asia’s largest content market. Hingorani reports into Prithul Kumar, joint secretary of films at India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Leena Khobragade, formerly Film Bazaar director, now serves as artistic director of the market. “All my life’s work as an Indian American serial entrepreneur over the past 25 years has been leading up to this monumental role,” Hingorani told Variety. “As a former entertainment reporter, movie publicist, and film festival curator and director in Texas and New York City, my PR/marketing, media relations, and programming skills will be cumulatively utilized as our team organizes the most relevant, comprehensive, and accessible co-production/distribution market and film bazaar in all of Asia. We are ramping up our efforts to invite the biggest and brightest film buyers, sellers, distributors and programmers from around the international film fraternity to Goa this November. The 17th edition of the NFDC Film Bazaar will be forward-thinking in its approach and trendsetting in its delivery, as we shine a global spotlight on the most promising independent cinema from all over incredible India.”

EXCLUSIVE: Lacking big South Indian releases on the scale of RRR and the K.G.F. franchise, India’s box office was down by 15% in the first half of 2023, compared to the same period last year, pulling in $592.68M (Rs48.68BN), according to figures from India’s Ormax Media.