India Takes Steps to Add Theatrical Screens After COVID Closures

A British tourist was allegedly raped in front of her partner while on holiday in India, local media reports.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe Universal Beijing Resort is poised to reopen next week after being closed due to the coronavirus outbreak in the Chinese capital.The resort – comprising the Universal Studios Beijing theme park, Citywalk retail and entertainment area and two hotels – is set to restart operations on June 15, it announced Tuesday via its Chinese social media accounts. It has been closed since May 1.The park will be allowed to operate at no more than 75% capacity.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefChina’s most prestigious film festival, the Shanghai International Film Festival has officially been canceled for this year. The festival is normally held in mid-June.The 25th edition of the festival will instead be held next year in 2023.The decision to cancel this year’s festival outright is an sign of the continuing difficulties under which the film industry is currently operating in China.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“My Blue Summer,” a local romance led the Chinese box office higher over the latest weekend with a modestly respectable $7.2 million (RMB48.2 million) opening session. But the trend is hard to discern due to continually changing COVID conditions in China and the country’s uncertain economic direction.The nationwide Friday to Sunday box office total was $26.7 million, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. The total was more than double the $11.5 million achieved the previous weekend.The performance was goosed by the Dragon Boat Holiday weekend, operating June 3-5.

Naman Ramachandran Paris and Mumbai-based production service company La Fabrique Films is looking forward to a further surge in business in the wake of new Indian filming incentives that were announced in Cannes.International productions filming in India can be reimbursed up to 35% of qualifying production spend in the country.La Fabrique, which specializes in European films shooting in India, has been operational since 2013 and films they have provided production services for include “Les Cowboys,” “The Best Is Yet to Come” and “And Tomorrow We Will Be Dead.” La Fabrique has just wrapped work on Laetitia Colombani’s “The Braid” and company principals Déborah Benattar and Javed Wani are currently attending the Cannes Film Market. The initial reimbursement for international shoots in India is 30%, which can go up by an additional 5% for productions employing 15% or more manpower in India.“The incentives will be a great advantage for foreign producers who decide to come and shoot in India also, because there is this bonus of 5%, they may want to employ more Indian technicians, because, from our experience, we have amazing technicians in India.

HBO Documentary Films has acquired worldwide television rights to the documentary feature “All That Breathes,” the company announced Friday. Directed by Shaunak Sen (“Cities of Sleep”), the film premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival and was selected as the Grand Jury Prize winner in the World Cinema Documentary Competition.

Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals in France. The French model, 27, wore a baby pink tiered mesh floor-length gown as she walked the red carpet on Thursday.

India is the country of honor at the Cannes Film Market and consequently a massive contingent from the country is descending upon the Croisette. Variety understands that some 400 attendees are winging their way from India, and that French embassies across the country were working at capacity to issue visas.That stands in contrast with the attendance from other parts of Asia, further East.

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Indian TV star Chethana Raj has died at age 21 after getting surgery for fat removal.The actress was reportedly admitted to hospital in Bengaluru, Karnataka on Monday for fat removal surgery but later died from complications from the operation.The star is said to have suffered from a cardiac arrest after her lungs filled with fluid, according to local news outlets. Chethana is understood to have been moved from the cosmetic hospital to an ICU unit following the complications. However when she arrived, she was reportedly unresponsive and without a pulse.

Indian TV star Chethana Raj has died at the age of 21 after having fat removal surgery. The actress was reportedly admitted into a private plastic surgery hospital in Bengaluru, Karnataka, on Monday, but is said to have developed complications as fluid began to accumulated in her lungs. She later died of a cardiac arrest, after being rushed to another hospital where doctors were unsuccessful in reviving her through CPR.

Naman Ramachandran Oscar, BAFTA and Grammy winning Indian composer A.R. Rahman (“Slumdog Millionaire”) has revealed his next directorial venture after “Le Musk,” his debut which premiered at the Cannes Film Market’s Cannes XR program.The project will be another film in the VR space, titled “Confessions.” “Now this [“Le Musk”] is finished and we’re happy about it, we just want to do something which is much more simpler, but more deeper in emotion,” Rahman told Variety.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe mainland China box office remained moribund over the latest weekend, lacking direction or new releases and achieving nationwide revenue of just $11.4 million.The country is continuing to suffer from clusters of COVID infections that have caused mass lockdowns in some cities and the temporary closure of many cinemas. Even as there is now talk of easing restrictions in Shanghai, which had been locked down for five weeks, there is the prospect of new restrictions in capital city Beijing. The government has also imposed a blanket ban on all but essential overseas travel.U.S.

Jason Momoa is apologizing after taking pictures and videos during a recent trip to the Sistine Chapel. Earlier this week, the "Aquaman" star took to Instagram to share pictures he took of himself admiring the artwork inside the Apostolic Palace.The only problem is photography is off-limits, due to the fact the flash can be harmful to the artwork.

EXCLUSIVE: Nat Geo is developing a new season of explorer format Lost Cities With Albert Lin, with production switching from UK producer Blakeway Productions to The Tinder Swindler indie Raw TV.

Naman Ramachandran India’s T-Series, Reliance Entertainment and Match Cut Productions have teamed on Srijit Mukherji’s Hindi-language satire “Sherdil: The Pilibhit Saga.”Inspired by true events, the film is about the adverse effects of urbanization, human-animal conflict and poverty, leading to a bizarre practice in a village located on the edge of a forest.It stars Pankaj Tripathi (“Sacred Games”), Neeraj Kabi (“Paatal Lok”) and Sayani Gupta “(Four More Shots Please”).Mukherji’s credits include Bengali-language films “Autograph” (2010), which was a Glasgow International Film Festival and Abu Dhabi International Film Festival selection, “Jaatishwar” (2014), “Chotushkone” (2015), “Rajkahini (2015) and “Ek Je Chilo Raja” (2019), which played at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. “Sherdil” will be his second Hindi film after the 2017’s “Begum Jaan,” the remake of “Rajkahini.” Mukherji said: “I got inspired by the real incident of tragic practises in villages bordering the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve and I knew I had to capture it in my next.