EXCLUSIVE: The London Indian Film Festival is expanding.
15.09.2023 - 10:33 / variety.com
Naman Ramachandran Toronto Film Festival gala presentation “Thank You for Coming” is that rarity – a Bollywood sex comedy that also serves as a patriarch-bashing women empowerment tale. Bhumi Pednekar stars as Kanika Kapoor, a Delhi food blogger and serial monogamist, who has spent her adult life seeking a satisfying love match, both emotionally and physically, but has never had an orgasm.
The morning after her engagement to a dull suitor, she wakes up satisfied, but can’t remember who’s responsible. The film is written by two women, Radhika Anand (“Broken But Beautiful”) and stand up comic Prashasti Singh and directed by a man, Karan Boolani, making his feature directing debut.
Boolani previously directed series “24: India” for Viacom18’s Colors channel and Netflix’s “Selection Day.” “It’s a really fine line between sleaze and tease in this film, and to keep it in that tease and fun space is something that I think that we worked really hard on,” Boolani told Variety. “Bridget Jones” was an obvious reference point for the film Boolani said, as was “Moonlight.” “When we were developing the script, obviously, I pushed myself away from it as [far as] possible, because inherently, I knew that it is an experience that I will never understand – at least, the female pleasure part of it,” Boolani said.
EXCLUSIVE: The London Indian Film Festival is expanding.
While a fairly quiet frame overall, there were some significant milestones this international box office session. To wit: New Line/Warner Bros’ The Nun II topped the $200M mark worldwide and Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan became the highest-grossing Bollywood movie ever in India, overtaking the star’s earlier 2023 movie, Pathaan.
Naman Ramachandran A first clip has been unveiled for Tarsem Singh Dhandwar’s return to feature film direction, “Dear Jassi.” Dhandwar, the filmmaker previously known simply as Tarsem, returned to the big screen and to his roots with the film which had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, where it won the 2023 TIFF Platform Award in an unanimous decision. Written by Amit Rai (“OMG 2”) and based on the reporting of journalist Fabian Dawson, “Dear Jassi” is a modern-day tragedy inspired by the tragic true story of Jaswinder “Jassi” Kaur and Sukhwinder “Mithu” Singh Sidhu, told in a Punjabi folk style. In 1996 Punjab, India, Canadian-born Jassi (Pavia Sidhu) falls in love with Mithu (Yugam Sood), a rickshaw driver beneath her social status.
EXCLUSIVE: One of the leading actresses in the Hindi film industry, Kareena Kapoor Khan is making her streaming debut in Netflix original film Suspect X, an adaptation of Japanese author Keigo Higashino’s The Devotion Of Suspect X which launches worldwide on the streaming service today (September 21).
India Oxenberg is pulling back the curtain on her time in the NXIVM cult — and the very lasting effect it’s left on her. Three years after her initial interview with
Indian film star Anil Kapoor, better known in the West for his role in Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire” and “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”, made a splash at the recently concluded Toronto International Film Festival with “Thank You For Coming” – which he co-produces and stars in.
K.J. Yossman BBC Studios has merged three areas of its formats business to create a new global entertainment division led by Matt Forde.
Noel Gallagher has recorded a secret dance track with CamelPhat that is waiting to be finished.CamelPhat DJ and producer Dave Whelan confirmed to The Daily Star‘s ‘Wired’ column [via MusicNews] that the dance duo have teamed up again with the High Flying Birds bandleader for a song. They previously worked with the former Oasis star on their 2020 track ‘Not Over Yet’.“We also did a great track with Noel that sounds like when The Beatles went to India,” Whelan said.
EXCLUSIVE: Netflix closed a $20 million deal on Hit Man, making the biggest deal at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival and of the year for that matter. After the Richard Linklater-directed noir comic thriller debuted to raves at Venice, the film was expected to fetch the biggest deal of the fall festivals so far. Hit Man did not disappoint. Hit Man stars Top Gun Maverick’s Glen Powell and Adria Arjona (Andor) playing the most unlikely romantic partners, in performances that will boost each of their careers. Especially Powell, who co-wrote with Linklater what will be a major star turn for him. Netflix got US, UK, Australia/New Zealand, India, South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, and Iceland. There is also a theatrical component to the deal, I’ve heard.
Amid the onslaught of criminal sexual assault and abuse accusations against Russell Brand, a past interview from his ex-wife, Katy Perry, is now making rounds on social media.
Despite fears for the future of film in the new, seemingly disposable digital era, there are still many auteurs holding on out there in the modern movie landscape. For example, there’s Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan and even Michael Bay (for, as director Tarsem said of the latter’s work, “You may not like it, but you know who made it”). But few directors are as instantly recognizable as Wes Anderson. Nothing happens by accident in a Wes Anderson movie: the camera moves are perfectly choreographed — sideways tracking shots are a specialty — and the sets don’t even begin to aim for realism. Clothes are tailored, hair and makeup is scrutinized all the way down to lipstick and nail polish, and music is key, creating a subtle, sometimes melancholy and always wholly effective emotional backdrop.
A big question many people have right now in light of the horrific allegations against Russell Brand — What is the huge secret Katy Perry has kept all these years about her ex-husband?! By now you most likely heard that multiple wome
THANK YOU FOR COMING
Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Charades has closed multiple deals on “There’s Something in the Barn,” Magnus Martens’s (“Fear the Walking Dead”) comedy horror movie from “Dead Snow” producers at 74 Entertainment and XYZ Films. The English-language movie is headlined by Martin Starr (“Freaks and Geeks,” “Spider Man”), Amrita Acharia (“Game of Thrones”) and Jeppe Beck Laursen (“The Last Kingdom”).
Naman Ramachandran Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan is riding the wave of his second blockbuster of the year, “Jawan.” The film released on Sept. 7 and has grossed $79.4 million worldwide, according to producer Red Chillies Entertainment, making it the third highest Indian grosser of the year after Khan’s own “Pathaan” and Sunny Deol’s “Gadar 2.” Khan’s bald look in “Jawan” has been one of the talking points of the film. Speaking on the newly launched Indian iteration of the “Icons Only” segment of Amazon’s IMDb, Khan said: “I chose the bald look out of laziness because then I didn’t have to wear two hours of makeup.
Ladbible Execs Launch Digital Studio
Naman Ramachandran Anand Patwardhan, the doyen of Indian documentary filmmaking, will premiere his new film, “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” (“The World Is Family”) at the Toronto Film Festival. The film focuses on Patwardhan’s parents and close family members and juxtaposes Mahatma Gandhi and the history of India’s independence movement with contemporary times. “As my parents began to age, I began filming to preserve their memory for myself but had no intention to make a film as such.
Naman Ramachandran Tarsem Singh Dhandwar, the filmmaker previously known simply as Tarsem, is returning to the big screen and to his roots with “Dear Jassi,” which has its world premiere Toronto Film Festival Sept. 10. The new film is set in the 1990s and based on a real-life incident.
Shah Rukh Khan has outdone himself. After a record-breaking run with Pathaan in January, the Indian superstar has hit new milestones with his latest, Jawan, which scored the biggest ever opening day worldwide for a Hindi film on Thursday at 129.6 crore ($15.5M).
Naman Ramachandran Toronto Film Festival Midnight Madness world premiere “Kill” is a confluence of three stellar Indian talents. Producer Guneet Monga Kapoor is an Oscar winner for “The Elephant Whisperers”; fellow producer and filmmaker Karan Johar is a Bollywood A-lister who has just delivered massive hit “Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani”; and director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat is known for Netflix film “Long Live Brij Mohan” and Prime Video series “Rasbhari.” “Kill” belongs to the extreme action genre, a rarity in Indian cinema. Set entirely on an express train to New Delhi, the film follows Indian army commandos Amrit and Viresh, who are on a mission to rescue Amrit’s girlfriend Tulika.