City Mumbai Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Netflix’s Co-CEO Ted Sarandos has told an audience of Indian filmmakers that they “ain’t seen nothing yet” in terms of the streamer’s ambitions in the country.

Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) has confirmed that the Mumbai Film Festival is returning as a physical event, set to run over ten days starting in late October. 

Shalini Dore Features News Editor Smriti Mundhra, the creator of “Indian Matchmaking,” has launched a show called “The Romantics” on Netflix just in time for Valentine’s Day. The docuseries centers on a bastion of Hindi cinema, Yash Raj Films, which just released the smash hit “Pathaan.” Netflix releases the series day and date in India, the U.S. and around the world. And it is coming just as interest in films from the subcontinent are piquing international interest. “It was sort of on my bucket list to make something about Indian cinema, broadly,” she tells Variety. “The intention was to look at the formative, most iconic films in Indian cinema, or the filmmakers — something that gives a glimpse into our industry.”

The BBC’s offices in Mumbai and New Delhi have been raided by income tax authorities.

Naman Ramachandran India’s income tax department is conducting searches of the BBC’s offices in the country’s capital New Delhi, according to the Associated Press. Three BBC staffers informed AP about the searches, the agency said. Meanwhile, a team from the tax department also surveyed the BBC’s Mumbai offices, per the Press Trust of India quoting unnamed sources. Variety has reached out to the BBC for comment. The searches come in the wake of the Indian government blocking the controversial two-part BBC documentary “India: The Modi Question.” The documentary was described on the BBC website as: “Narendra Modi’s premiership has been dogged by persistent allegations about the attitude of his government towards India’s Muslim population. This series investigates the truth behind these allegations and examines Modi’s backstory to explore other questions about his politics when it comes to India’s largest religious minority.”

Ashim Ahluwalia, known as a director of edgy films such as John & Jane and Miss Lovely that have premiered at Toronto and Cannes film festivals, is not an obvious choice to direct a young adult drama series for Netflix. But when local production house Bodhitree Multimedia approached him with a proposal for a Hindi remake of Spanish show Elite, he jumped at the chance. 

EXCLUSIVE: U.S. marketing giant Trailer Park has promoted Co-Presidents Kelly Adelman and Jen Kline to oversee the AV division across Europe and South America.

Disney+ Hotstar is leading the pack in Hindi-speaking India.

Fast growing, London-based VFX and animation studio group Cinesite said today it’s clinched a $235 million funding package as it continues to expand.

Amazon Studios is saying goodbye to another exec in the UK.

While much of the global entertainment industry is witnessing a full-throttled return to in-person events, India’s festival circuit is experiencing a chequered re-emergence from Covid, in part due to political and funding challenges.

EXCLUSIVE: Award-winning actor Dev Patel (The Green Knight) has signed with CAA for representation.

EXCLUSIVE: Mumbai-based Impact Films is planning theatrical releases in India for Brendan Fraser starrer The Whale, Cannes Palme d’Or winner Triangle Of Sadness and Cannes best actor winner Broker, emboldened by its recent success with indie global breakout hit Everything Everywhere All At Once. 

Ranveer Singh took to the stage at the Marrakech International Film Festival on Saturday to discuss his 12-year trajectory from an unknown Mumbai outsider to one of Bollywood’s most famous and best-paid actors.

A team of painters were at work this week restoring the mega-photographed Hollywood sign, a mission that carries a perverse irony.

Naman Ramachandran Bollywood action star Vidyut Jammwal (“Sanak”) is teaming with Arjun Rampal (“The Rapist”) and Jacqueline Fernandez (“Attack”) on extreme sports action film “Crakk – Jeethegaa Toh Jiyegaa!” The film, the journey of a man from the slums of Mumbai to the world of underground extreme sports, reunites Jammwal with his “Commando 3” director Aditya Datt. “Crakk” has started shooting in Poland and is scheduled to release in 2023. “Crakk” is presented by Reliance Entertainment and produced by Action Hero Films and PZ Pictures, with Jammwal and Parag Sanghvi serving as producers. It is co-produced by Adi Sharmaa and Aditya Chowksey.

Indian film actress Alia Bhatt, 29, found herself trending Wednesday after completing 10 years in the film industry. The TIME100 Impact Awardee wrote in an Instagram post: “10 years today and I am so, so grateful. EVERY SINGLE DAY!!! I promise to be better – dream deeper – work harder! Thank you for the magic, love, love and only love.”

Meet any high-profile Indian director or producer these days, and the talk is all about bibles, writers rooms and showrunners, rather than making films. Driving down Mumbai’s main artery, the Western Express Highway, most of the billboards are promoting new premium drama series from Prime Video, Netflix and Disney+ Hotstar, rather than the latest Bollywood release.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic “Bombay felt exhilaratingly free, a place where everyone started new.” That’s Lin Ford, played by Charlie Hunnam, speaking to us in voice-over about the city where he hopes to begin again. Today known as Mumbai, the Indian metropolis is many things; on “Shantaram,” it’s the staging ground for a white fugitive to lose and find himself. It’s that dynamic that tends to frustrate over the course of a long season. Based on the novel by Gregory David Roberts and executive produced by Steve Lightfoot, “Shantaram” is set in the 1980s, in the wake of Lin’s prison break. Making his way out of an Australian penal institution in the pilot episode, Lin, a recovering heroin addict, seeks to disappear into a city of millions before, potentially, moving on, but is perpetually drawn toward an intriguing, possibly amoral woman named Karla (Antonia Desplat). Rooted in place by this sense of nascent romance and by a growing affection for the place and its people, Lin begins establishing a life, even while repeatedly telling us that he’s aware that his past — his identity as a wanted man and his knowledge that he’s being urgently sought by the authorities — makes all of this a holiday from reality.

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. 

Naman Ramachandran Arvind Pratap’s “Mariam,” which has post production support from the Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Cinema Fund, tackles a range of social issues in India. Millions of families from rural India move to the big cities in search of employment and “Mariam” follows one such migrant worker family. The breadwinner is Mariam, who has to look after her three daughters and also takes on an illegal surrogate pregnancy to earn for her family in Mumbai. Pratap, who previously directed the acclaimed “The Reluctant Crime,” got the idea for the film from a newspaper article detailing changes in the Surrogacy Regulation Bill by the Indian Supreme Court, where single parents were excluded from surrogacy.

Naman Ramachandran “Adipurush,” one of the most anticipated Indian films of 2023, unites the talents of Prabhas (the Baahubali franchise) and Om Raut, who directed Ajay Devgn-starring “Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior,” the biggest Indian box office hit of 2020 with a $50 million gross. “Adipurush” is Raut’s take on Indian mythological epic “Ramayana,” by Valmiki, where Rama, the king of Ayodhya, travels to Lanka to rescue his wife Sita, who has been abducted by the king Ravana. “Adipurush” is set 7,000 years ago and in the film, Prabhas’ character is not called Rama, he is Raghav, another name for Rama. Sita, played by Kriti Sanon, is called Janaki, while Saif Ali Khan’s Ravana is Lankesh, also derivatives of their “Ramayana” names. Adipurush literally means “first man,” but here the interpretation is that of “best man.”

EXCLUSIVE: VFX outfit Outpost has bolstered UK operations with a new London studio now open for business.

Fighting With My Family and The Night Manager producer Ink Factory has promoted Michele Wolkoff to Creative Director out of LA, leading teams in London, Mumbai and Seoul.

Kajol, one of India’s best-loved actors, stars in Disney+ Hotstar series “The Good Wife – Pyaar, Kanoon, Dhoka,” an adaptation of the CBS series of the same name. Disney unveiled a first look image for the show that is now in production. With the Indian title translating as ‘The Good Wife – Love, Law, Deception,’ Kajol plays a housewife who is forced to return to work as a lawyer after her husband’s public scandal puts him behind bars. The series is directed by Suparn Verma (Amazon Studios series “The Family Man”) and produced by Mumbai-based Banijay Asia. Kajol has credits that include romance “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai,” melodrama “Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham…,” romantic thriller “Fanaa,” drama “My Name Is Khan,” and hit the action comedy “Dilwale,” in 2015. She hails from the Mukherjee family which is studded with actors, directors and producers, and has been married to Ajay Devgn for more than twenty years.

Hold on to the memories, they will hold on to you!

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Travis Fimmel (“Vikings,” “Warcraft”), Simon Baker (“The Mentalist,” “Breath”) and Phoebe Tonkin head the adult cast of “Boy Swallows Universe,” an Australia-set fantasy-drama series. Production has now begun in Brisbane, Queensland. The eight-part limited series is an adaptation of Trent Dalton’s international best-selling novel “Boy Swallows Universe” and is being produced by Brouhaha Entertainment, together with Anonymous Content and Chapter One, for streaming platform Netflix. “Boy Swallows Universe” follows working-class Brisbane teenager Eli Bell in a whirlwind story about drug addiction, ex-cons, poverty, violence and the discovery of hope through the power of love. Dalton has pitched the story as involving “a boy who receives a message on a red rotary dial phone in a secret underground room that tells him he must bust into Brisbane’s notorious Boggo Road Prison to save his mum’s life on Christmas Day.”

EXCLUSIVE: Arjun Rampal is on his way to a shoot in Poland after a week’s work in London and a short stop in his home country India when he sits down for a chat with Deadline.

EXCLUSIVE: Criminal Minds showrunner Simon Mirren and his production partner Benjamin Anderson are currently in Mumbai working on a procedural drama series with Indian firms Applause Entertainment and Locomotive Global, Deadline can reveal.

Naman Ramachandran Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan has revealed a direct link between “The Lord of the Rings” and his sci-fi franchise “Krrish.”Roshan was one of the guests at Amazon Prime Video’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” Asia-Pacific premiere in Mumbai on Thursday. The actor revealed that his father Rakesh Roshan, who directed “Koi… Mil Gaya” binge-watched Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy in 2004.

By The British-Indian actor Alia Bhatt is . The 29-year-old comes from a family of filmmakers (her dad, the Hindi film director Mahesh Bhatt, gave her her first acting job at just 5 years old), and has starred in more than 25 films during her two decade-long career.But Bhatt is just getting started.Despite her extraordinary achievements, she’s still a bit lesser known in America.

EXCLUSIVE: Applause Entertainment is readying a sketch comedy show billed as ‘Saturday Night Live meets The Kumars at No. 42,’ as the company turns five. Also on the slate is a travelog tracing the journey made by legendary prince Lord Ram and a documentary on the climate crisis in India, Deadline can reveal. An access doc on Hindi movie megastar Salman Khan is also nearing completion.

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith were spotted for the first time in public together following the actor’s infamous Oscars slap.

Indian Matchmaking host Sima Taparia doesn’t believe the Netflix series lives up to the reality of the system, as she returns to matchmake clients around the world for series two. ‘Aunty Sima from Mumbai’ is back and this time around, she’s reuniting with a few old faces like Pradhyuman Maloo and Nadia Jagessar as well as new ones as she matches biodatas and sets up some dates. Along the way, there’s dating fails, meeting-the-families on a first date, and wish-lists that cover everything under the sun from Taco Bell lovers to man-buns.

India has always been a popular destination for international productions, hosting everything from European independent films and British series, most recently ITV’s Beecham House and Netflix/BBC’s A Suitable Boy, to studio movies like Christopher Nolan’s Tenet and Netflix’s Chris Hemsworth-starrer Extraction.

Naman Ramachandran Acclaimed filmmaker Mahesh Narayanan and popular actor-producer Kunchacko Boban are re-teaming for “Ariyippu” (“Declaration”), the first Indian film in Locarno’s international competition in 17 years.The Malayalam-language film follows Hareesh (Boban) and Reshmi (Divya Prabha), an immigrant couple from Kerala working in a medical gloves factory near Delhi, who aspire to go abroad for a better life. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, when an old video resurfaces among the factory workers, it opens up a Pandora’s box that threatens the couple’s jobs and marriage.Narayanan got the germ of the film’s idea from a newspaper article about a female bank employee who had approached the Mumbai high court demanding a “declaration” clarifying that a video which had been circulated in her bank was a look alike and not her.