City Bangalore Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Naman Ramachandran The birth centenary of Indian cinema icon Dev Anand will be celebrated with restored versions of some of his classics receiving a theatrical release across the country. Known as one of the triumvirate of superstars who ruled Hindi-language cinema in the 1950s and ’60s (along with the late Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar) Anand made such hits as “Guide,” “Hare Rama Hare Krishna” and “Prem Pujari.” The birth centenary of Anand, who died in 2011, is on Sept. 26.

EXCLUSIVE: Dune and Oppenheimer VFX firm DNEG is making dozens of layoffs in its London HQ.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Women Talking,” which won Sarah Polley an Oscar for best adapted screenplay, was this weekend named best narrative feature at the Bali International Film Festival (aka the Balinale).Ashen Nadeem’s “Crows Are White” won the feature documentary prize and “The Tone Wheels,” by Yuda Kurniawan, was named winner of the Gary L Hayes Award for Indonesian Filmmaker. The festival jury called “The Tone Wheels” “an outstanding endeavor that transported us into the backstreets of Jakarta on a captivating musical journey.” The film depicts a busking village where dreams flourish, despite the scarcity of resources and equipment.

Naman Ramachandran Real life husband and wife couple, celebrity cricketer Virat Kohli and Bollywood star Anushka Sharma, are merging their respective foundations – Anushka Sharma Foundation and Virat Kohli Foundation – to launch SeVVA, a joint non-profit initiative aimed at helping those in need. Sharma and Kohli said in a joint statement: “In the words of Kahlil Gibran ‘for in truth it is life that gives unto life – while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.’ With this sentiment in mind, we have decided to work together through SeVVA aiming to reach out to as many people as possible. SeVVA’s work won’t be confined to a particular issue as it will continue to strive for social good by championing humanity which is the need of the hour today.”

EXCLUSIVE: India’s Hombale Films, the studio behind mega-hits Kantara and the K.G.F. franchise, has confirmed that Kantara 2 will be a prequel that delves into the backstory of the folklore that features in the first film. 

EXCLUSIVE: Indian Two Time Grammy Award composer and environmentalist Ricky Kej has signed to compose the original music for American-Bangladeshi writer-director Asif Akbar’s spy action-thriller MR-9 featuring Frank Grillo as a villain.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) has announced its plans to expand global operations. The former head of studio at DNEG Bangalore and Chennai, Kiran ‘KP’ Prasad will head a full pipeline studio which will be based in Mumbai.  The visual effects division of Lucasfilm Ltd. is headquartered in San Francisco and has studios in Vancouver, London, Singapore and Sydney. It will open a new full pipeline studio, operating full visual effects and animation services for film and television in Mumbai to gain access to the talent base in the region.  Prasad will lead operations and report to ILM SVP and General Manager, Janet Lewin. 

Christopher Small For the tenth time in 11 years, the Locarno Film Festival is hosting 10 international film critics from various stages of development during the 10 days of the A-list Swiss festival.Coming from places as far from the Swiss resort town as Bangalore, Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro and Jakarta, and from an even more varied matrix of backgrounds, disciplines, writing styles, and interests, participants in the anniversary edition of the Critics Academy will have the chance to interact face-to-face with a wealth of major critics, programmers, and filmmakers in attendance at Locarno.Returning after one aborted edition in the first year of the pandemic and another for which there was no public call for applications, Locarno’s incubator for aspiring professional critics takes place once again in the midst of an extraordinarily trying moment both for the art and commerce of cinema but also, perhaps even more acutely, for writing about it.

Apex Legends‘ thirteenth season will be kicking off soon, and Respawn Entertainment has revealed the battle royale’s latest hero, Newcastle.The next major update coming to Apex Legends, called Saviors, will be launching on May 10, bringing with it the “heroic defender” Newcastle, who has a very important connection to Bangalore. Story-wise, Bangalore has been looking for her long-missing brother Jackson Williams, who is revealed to be Newcastle at the end of his reveal trailer.Newcastle is getting a proper reveal later this week (April 28), but it’s pretty clear from the trailer that he’ll take something of a tank role.

Vijay Subramaniam, the former Amazon India and Disney India executive, has launched an independent venture that will develop, produce and finance content for the Indian market.

DNEG, the visual effects and animation company behind Dune and many other high-profile productions, is merging with a SPAC called Sports Ventures Acquisition Corp. in a deal that aims to take the group public with a stock listing on the Nasdaq (symbol DNEG).

Puneeth Rajkumar has died suddenly after having a heart attack while at the gym. He starred in more than 29 films and won the national award for "the best child artist" earlier in his career.

Also Read: Paradigm CEO Sam Gores' Brother Tom Gores Takes Ownership Stake in AgencyDeluxe, founded as a film processing lab in 1915 as part of the Fox Film Corporation, today provides a full suite of solutions to some of the world’s leading content production studios and distributors.