India’s T-Series Reveals Plans For 100-Film Slate, Expanded Music Growth (EXCLUSIVE)

Wilson Chapman editorThe Indian Film Festival Los Angeles has announced the programming lineup for its 2022 edition, which includes Pan Nalin’s “Last Film Show” as a gala presentation.The festival, which spotlights films made about the Indian diaspora from filmmakers of Indian heritage, will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year with a return to in-person screenings for the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the course of the festival, 10 feature films and 16 short films will be screened, including a world premiere and two North American premieres.“Reflecting on IFFLA’s 20 years, we find ourselves overjoyed by the range of incredible talent we have discovered and celebrated, introducing numerous emerging and established voices to Los Angeles,” IFFA executive director and founder Christina Marouda said in a statement.

The highly anticipated and Covid-delayed release of Indian action film RRR opened with a bang as distributor Sarigami Cinemas said it’s grossed $4.5 million including late night and early morning shows and anticipated a $12-$15 million weekend.

Marta Balaga Advertising revenue makes up 60% of all online video revenue, with the online video market reaching $236 billion last year, while free platforms continue to dominate the video market, Maria Rua Aguete, senior research director at Omdia, said Thursday at a discussion about AVOD at Series Mania TV festival in Lille, France.“Something consistent is that people love YouTube. I know that many broadcasters and studios don’t want to call it AVOD, but the reality is that they offer video and people watch it, also on the big screen,” she said, kickstarting the discussion titled “Advertising Strikes Back: Are AVOD Platforms the New Big Thing?”In many countries, Netflix comes as the second favorite service (in the U.K., it’s public broadcaster BBC, for example), but Roku Channel (pictured, Roku comedy “Reno 911!”) and Samsung TV Plus also emerge as contenders, the latter in countries like Brazil and India.

Rishi Sunak's wife has a £490 million stake in a company which is still operating in Moscow and has links to a major Russian bank.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorThe new documentary “Women of the White Buffalo,” captures the lives of the modern day Native women as we listen to their stories of loss, suicide, murder and epidemic meth addiction among their community, mirrored by their deep ancestral roots, traditional ceremony, prayer and hope.“Women of the White Buffalo” features testimonials by nine women from the Lakota nation, ranging in age from 10 to 98, living on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Indian Reservations. The documentary spotlights a matriarchal society upended by centuries of genocide and colonialism, which has disenfranchised the women and simultaneously reinforced their roles as the backbones of their communities and the keepers of their people’s ancient wisdom.

Naman Ramachandran Revered Indian actor Shabana Azmi, who plays the pivotal role of Admiral Margaret Parangosky in hugely anticipated mega-budget Paramount Plus series “Halo,” describes her experience on the show as “completely different.”The series is based on Microsoft’s iconic video game “Halo,” a sprawling science fiction epic that involves multiple warring factions and far-flung alien species. Pablo Schreiber plays the central character Master Chief.

Simone Ashley is getting fans ready for “Bridgerton” season 2.

Manori Ravindran International EditorHBO is developing a long-awaited adaptation of Rohinton Mistry’s critically acclaimed, award-winning novel “A Fine Balance,” Variety can reveal.The seven-part series is being produced by “A Very British Scandal” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” producer Blueprint Pictures and “Anne With an E” outfit Northwood Entertainment. Ritesh Batra, who directed the late Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur in “The Lunchbox,” is attached to both write and direct.The show would look to shoot in India from early June through November.First published by Canada’s McLelland and Stewart in 1995, “A Fine Balance” went on to win the 1995 Giller Prize and was shortlisted for the 1996 Booker Prize.

Naman Ramachandran Vidya Balan (“Kahaani”) and Shefali Shah (“Delhi Crime”), two of India’s finest actors, worked together for the first time in Suresh Triveni’s Amazon Prime Video India original “Jalsa.” The result is an acting masterclass.The film is a tense social thriller where the lives of Balan’s Maya, a top journalist and her Shah’s Rukhsana, Maya’s housekeeper, become inextricably linked together after a horrific incident.Balan’s morally upright journalist wrestles with an ethical dilemma through the film. The actor initially turned down the film because she did not want to play someone who seemed morally ambiguous, but isn’t, and eventually the role’s challenges changed her decision.“Maya is successful and she’s in a position of power and there is a certain aloofness to her demeanor,” Balan tells Variety.

Naman Ramachandran Popular Indian actor and singer-songwriter Diljit Dosanjh has signed a deal with Warner Music to amplify his global music career. Coming up are singles with Canadian rapper Tory Lanez and Tanzanian star Diamond Platnumz, who revealed a partnership with Warner Music last year. As an actor, Dosanjh’s hit Punjabi-language films include “Honsla Rakh,” “Jatt & Juliet,” “Jatt & Juliet 2,” “Punjab 1984,” “Sardaar Ji,” “Super Singh,” “Sajjan Singh Rangroot” and “Shadaa.” He debuted in the Hindi-language Bollywood film industry with the critical and commercial success “Udta Punjab” and went on to co-star in “Good Newwz,” alongside Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor and Kiara Advani.

BET has given a green light to College Hill: Celebrity Edition, a revival of its hit reality series College Hill, for premiere this summer.

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EXCLUSIVE: Campfire Studios, the company behind HBO Max docuseries The Way Down and Hulu’s WeWork doc, is expanding its scripted division and has hired former Marc Platt Productions exec Ryan Christians to oversee a new push.

Megan Park, the director of the SXSW award winner “The Fallout,” has set her second feature film called “My Old Ass” that will be produced by Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap Entertainment and Indian Paintbrush. Park is writing and directing “My Old Ass,” which is described as a modern coming-of-age comedy, though any other plot details are being kept under wraps.

Naman Ramachandran The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has named ten emerging talents from across the Indian film, gaming and television industries that will participate in the 2022 edition of its BAFTA Breakthrough India initiative supported by Netflix.The 2022 contingent includes writer-director Ajitpal Singh (“Tabbar,” “Fire in the Mountain”); composer Alokananda Dasgupta (“Sacred Games”), writer-director Arati Kadav (“Cargo”), producer Mathivanan Rajendran (“Nirvana Inn”), writer-director Leena Manimekalai (“Maadathy, an Unfairy Tale”), game director Nakul Verma (“In My Shadow”), writer-director Prateek Vats (“Eeb Allay Ooo!”), cinematographer Saumyananda Sahi (“Eeb Allay Ooo!”), writer Shubham (“Eeb Allay Ooo!”) and performer Sumukhi Suresh (“Pushpavalli”). The talents were selected by a jury consisting of BAFTA-winning composer A.R.

Naman Ramachandran Madhuri Dixit, one of the brightest and most enduring Bollywood stars, is basking in the success of her streaming acting debut, Netflix’s “The Fame Game.”The series bowed Feb. 25 and is among the top 10 Netflix shows in Mauritius, Bahrain, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Sri Lanka and the U.A.E.In the series created by Sri Rao, and directed by Bejoy Nambiar and Karishma Kohli, Dixit plays top Bollywood star Anamika Anand, who at the height of her fame, disappears without a trace.

It was an afternoon to honor the best in independent film at the 2022 Film Independent Spirit Awards!

Naman Ramachandran Principal photography has commenced on Netflix original drama-comedy film “Kathal” (Jackfruit) from Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms and Guneet Monga’s Sikhya Entertainment. The woman-led film starring Sanya Malhotra (“Dangal,” “Photograph”) and Anant Joshi (“Cobalt Blue”) is set in a small town and revolves around a local politician whose prized jackfruits go missing and a young police officer who is adamant to solve this bizarre case to prove herself.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorPalm Springs International Film Society announced today that the annual Palm Springs International ShortFest, one of the largest showcases of short-form cinema in North America, will return with in-person screenings June 21-27. For this year’s edition veteran programmer, Sudeep Sharma will act as interim 2022 ShortFest Director, with the planned maternity leave of PSIFF Artistic Director Lili Rodriguez.“Sudeep’s been an excellent collaborator, holding key roles at ShortFest for close to a decade,’” said Artistic Director Lili Rodriguez.