BBC News Divides In India As Ex-Staffers Launch Collective Newsroom To Comply With Regulations

Naman Ramachandran “Joyguru,” a fictionalized account of the life of Indian mystic artist and music icon Parvathy Baul, will launch sales at the upcoming Cannes Film Market. Parvathy Baul is a leading exponent of the syncretic Baul minstrel music tradition that is hugely popular and culturally influential across eastern India and Bangladesh. Written and directed by actor-turned-filmmaker Soumyajit Majumdar (“#Homecoming”), the film will follow folk music icon Radhika Das Baul and popular Bollywood film music director Ritwik during their unlikely collaboration for a pioneering music album of Baul songs transcreated in Hindi, where they form a unique bond, a few days before her sudden and mysterious disappearance from her ashram near Shantiniketan, India.

The BBC has been making some decisions about their original TV show content, with 2 renewals to share!

Naman Ramachandran Eminent Indian documentarian Nishtha Jain’s latest effort is an account of the epic, year-long farmers’ protest that took place in India in 2020-21. “Farming the Revolution,” which world premieres at Hot Docs, follows the millions of Indian farmers who gathered during the height of COVID-19 lockdown at the borders of the country’s capital, Delhi, to protest against newly enacted farm laws. The farmers believed that if implemented, these laws would negatively impact the government-protected farmers’ markets, leaving them to the vagaries of the free market.

EXCLUSIVE: New York Times best-selling author Neil Gaiman is teaming with Graphic India for the English-language animated movie, Cinnamon.

The delayed release of Indian feature film The Sabarmati Report has placed new scrutiny on Bollywood’s relationship with the country’s political machine, as elections in the world’s largest democracy enter their second week.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Women of My Billion (WOMB),” a documentary produced by Priyanka Chopra Jonas, will play on Prime Video from May 3. Directed by Ajitesh Sharma, “WOMB” follows the journey of Srishti Bakshi, as she embarked on a walking pilgrimage from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, India, spanning 3,800 kms (2,360 miles) over 240 days, with a mission to find and share stories about women, their struggles, dreams, rights, and their wins, against all odds. “Women have borne the brunt of gender bias for far too long, enduring a silent struggle against entrenched social injustices that seek to suppress their voices.

Priyanka Chopra-Produced Doc Debuting On Prime Video India

Naman Ramachandran Billionaire Mukesh Ambani‘s streamer JioCinema is making a play to become India’s top streaming service by introducing cheap premium tier plans. From April 25, the service’s existing INR999 ($12) annual plan for international premium content is being replaced by a monthly plan of INR29 (35 cents) for a single device or INR89 ($1.05) monthly for a family plan that covers four devices. The new plans are branded JioCinema Premium and will be up to 4K streaming quality.

EXCLUSIVE: Indian actress Sayani Gupta has signed with Crimson Media and The SB Initiative for worldwide representation.

Rana Daggubati‘s Spirit Media has teamed with Tinkle Comics to launch a graphic novel featuring Indian superhero Minnal Murali at the Mumbai Comic-Con. “Minnal Murali” is a 2021 Malayalam-language film directed by Basil Joseph, produced by Sophia Paul’s Weekend Blockbusters and starring Tovino Thomas as the eponymous superhero. Set in a village in Kerala, the film follows a tailor with dreams of emigrating to the U.S.

EXCLUSIVE: Metrograph Pictures announced on Wednesday that Good One — the first feature from writer-director India Donaldson, which premiered to rave reviews at this year’s Sundance Film Festival — will open in theaters nationwide on August 9.

Swiss Films Previews, the only spread of national movies at Switzerland’s Visions du Réel, the country’s leading doc festival. Presented via excerpts at a two-hour showcase on Wednesday, three further titles – “Kalari – the Martial Art of Female Power,” “The Boy from the River Drina” and “Spheres” – underscored the strength in depth of documentary filmmaking in Switzerland and at least in this year’s Previews, a leitmotif.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd., the disappointed bride in the failed engagement between Zee and Sony India, has formally ended its quest for a merger. On Tuesday, it withdrew its application before the industry regulator National Company Law Tribunal and said that it will focus instead on internal growth.

Cannes parallel section Directors’ Fortnight has unveiled the line-up for its 56th edition running from May 15 to 23, at a press conference in Paris’s Forum des Images cultural center.

As Barry Hulse walked into the number eight barracks at the maximum security Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai his mind reeled. Awaiting trial for drugs smuggling offences, he'd been locked up with hardcore addicts, terrorists and some of India's most ruthless gangsters.

Naman Ramachandran The BBC‘s news operations in India have been effectively divided from Wednesday with the launch of Collective Newsroom. Collective Newsroom was formed in December 2023 in order to comply with India’s strict foreign direct investment (FDI) in media rules. The Indian government’s cap on FDI in digital news outfits is 26%.

Lexi Carson ‘80s nostalgia is heading back to Netflix’s theaters with Milestone Movies: The Anniversary Collection – 1984. The Milestone Movies collection will screen across three theaters: New York’s Paris Theater, The Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood and The Bay Theater in Pacific Palisades, Calif. Selected films turning 40 this year will play in Netflix’s theaters and the 1984 collection is also available to stream.

Annika Pham On the heels of its successful world launch at IDFA, the critically-acclaimed anti-colonial pic “Our Land, Our Freedom,” sold by First Hand Films, has landed a deal with BBC Africa Eye. “Our Land, Our Freedom,” a Kenyan/U.S./Portuguese co-production, and the upcoming India-set “Kalari,” to be pitched in Visions du Réel docu festival’s Swiss Preview showcase, epitomize what First Hand Films stands for.

India’s Zee Entertainment Enterprises is planning to cut its workforce by 15%. At the same time, MD and CEO Punit Goenka is proposing a “lean and streamlined” board structure.

Naman Ramachandran Punit Goenka, MD and CEO of Indian media conglomerate Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited, is trimming the organization’s workforce by 15%. “In line with his overall strategic approach, the MD and CEO has initiated the process of rationalization of the workforce by 15%, that will prune the staff strength across the company to arrive at a streamlined team that is sharply focused on the set goals for the future,” Zee said in a statement on Friday.