A popular star of Hindi films for a decade with over 80 million Instagram followers, Alia Bhatt, best known internationally for her 2022 double Gangubai Kathiawadi and RRR, has fast become one of India’s hottest exports.
23.11.2023 - 05:23 / variety.com
Naman Ramachandran Actor-writer Vishnu Manchu has grand plans for big-budget Indian epic “Kannappa.” The film revisits the folk tale of Kannappa, an atheist hunter who became a devotee of Hindu god Shiva and plucked out his eyes in an act of extreme devotion. The story was previously filmed in the Kannada and Telugu languages as “Bedara Kannappa” and “Kalahasti Mahatyam” in 1954, both starring Rajkumar; in the Hindi language as “Shiv Bhakta” (1955), starring Shahu Modak; in Telugu again as “Bhakta Kannappa” (1976), starring Krishnam Raju; and in Kannada again as “Shiva Mecchida Kannappa” (1988), starring Rajkumar, Shiva Rajkumar and Puneeth Rajkumar.
Manchu plays the title role in the latest interpretation of the story, written by him and directed by Mukesh Kumar Singh, best known for his television adaptations of Indian epics “Ramayana” and “Mahabharata.” Telugu film industry stalwarts Prabhas (the Baahubali franchise) and Mohan Babu (“Shaakuntalam”), who also produces, Kannada industry megastar Shiva Rajkumar (“Ghost”) and Malayalam-language industry superstar Mohanlal (“Jailer”) play significant roles in the film, but Manchu is currently not at liberty to divulge what they are. Manchu says that the basic story of Kannappa is a one-pager at best and South Indian audiences are well familiar with the story.
“They all know this legend and they all know what happens in the end – when you’re coming into a theater to see a movie, the biggest surprise element should be the climax, but for us, when the audience is coming into the theater, they already know what the end is going to be. So, it opened up a whole new canvas for me to paint and fill up the first half,” Manchu told Variety.
A popular star of Hindi films for a decade with over 80 million Instagram followers, Alia Bhatt, best known internationally for her 2022 double Gangubai Kathiawadi and RRR, has fast become one of India’s hottest exports.
The third annual Red Sea Film Festival handed out its Yusr Awards on Thursday night, with Zarrar Kahn’s In Flames taking Best Feature and Farah Nabulsi’s The Teacher scoring a pair of wins including Best Actor for Saleh Bakri. See the full list below.
Naman Ramachandran The first image that the word ‘Bollywood’ conjures up is one of song and dance. And Netflix’s “The Archies” promises to be a prime example of that. “The Archies” is a 1960s-set feature film adaptation of the Archie comics, which are hugely popular on the Indian subcontinent.
Naman Ramachandran Canadian conglomerate, Blue Ant Media has scored sales of some 550 hours of programming to Asia Pacific broadcasters, it was revealed at Singapore’s Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF). Content was sourced from across Blue Ant’s portfolio companies.
There were SO many celebs on the red carpet at the 2023 The Fashion Awards and we have a recap of everyone who attended!
As Democrats look to regain control of the U.S. House of Representatives next year, one of the candidates that may help them do that is a gay former federal prosecutor. That candidate, 38-year-old Will Rollins, is again running against Republican incumbent Ken Calvert in California’s 41st Congressional District in Riverside County. Rollins narrowly lost to Calvert in 2022. Photo: Will Rollins for Congress
Refresh for latest…: New global entry Queen Bey’s concert movie/documentary Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé put a ring on a $27.4M global debut this weekend. Included in that is $6.4M from 2,621 overseas cinemas.
Three very different movies, original, with arthouse cred and in theaters for weeks, are drawing audiences showing welcome depth and breadth in the specialty market as awards season kicks off. Nicolas Cage’s nerdy character sees his life collapse when he randomly starts appearing in people’s dreamsas Dream Scenario has a solid expansion, Saltburn is attracting young crowds on the coasts, The Holdovers drawing elusive older demos to theaters.
Dennis Harvey Film Critic A movie directed by the berserk “Muppet Show” character known as Animal couldn’t be any more unruly than Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s new film of that title. This sporadically fun but exhausting hot mess provides 202 minutes of hyperventilating overkill for star Ranbir Kapoor as a tycoon’s favorite son whose anger-management (as well as daddy) issues are off the charts.
Animal, with Thursday previews of just over $1.25 million, looks set for the biggest North American Bollywood opening day since Brahmastra Part 1: Shiva last year. Both star Ranbir Kapoor.
It's December, which means the festive season is officially upon us. If you're on the hunt for some new Christmas films to watch, then Netflix has you sorted.
Tubi Hires Endeavor Exec For International Expansion
Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor With a few weeks to go until the original song for Oscars shortlist is released, Aotearoa, New Zealand-based Māori Artist Stan Walker (Tūhoe, Ngāi TeRangi, Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāti Pūkenga, Tūhourangi Ngāti Wāhiao, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Whakaue and Ngai Tahu) has released the video for the haunting original song created for Ava DuVernay‘s searing drama “Origin,” “This summer, I was talking with my producing partner Paul Garnes about wanting something unexpected for an original song to end our film, ‘Origin.’ The next day, he showed me Stan’s ‘Ultralight Beam’ interpretation and I watched it four times, back to back. I jumped online and blessedly, we had a producer pal of mine, Chelsea Winstanley in common.
A Disneyland park guest in Anaheim, California was arrested and escorted off the property by local authorities after stripping off their clothes during the It’s A Small World attraction.
David Blaine, naturally, does not have vacation photos like the rest of us.Sitting at a table in his lower Manhattan magic lab — a secret lair on the edge of Chinatown where the 50-year-old develops his tricks and stunts — Blaine showed The Post footage from a trip to Southeast AsiaVideo reveals him breaking bottles over his head, getting buried in scorpions and eating red hot coals. Then it cuts to Blaine making a move to kiss a king cobra: a snake with venom so deadly that a single bite could kill him in just 15 minutes. “The venom is potent enough to kill an elephant,” Blaine told The Post.
Naman Ramachandran Khatija Rahman is making her international film composing debut with Kajri Babbar’s “Lioness,” the first official Indo-U.K. co-production being made under the 2008 bilateral treaty. In 2020, Rahman released her first single, “Farishton,” composed and produced by her father, Oscar winner A.R.
Naman Ramachandran Bollywood star Ranbir Kapoor is gearing for the global release of action-crime-drama “Animal.” The film is directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga, known for his portraits of tough yet vulnerable men in Telugu-language hit “Arjun Reddy” (2017) and its Hindi-language remake “Kabir Singh” (2019). “Animal” revolves around the relationship of Kapoor’s character with his father, played by Anil Kapoor (“Slumdog Millionaire”) and the cast also includes Rashmika Mandanna (“Varisu”) and Bobby Deol (“Aashram”).
EXCLUSIVE: Bombay Berlin Film Productions (BBFP) has revealed that August Diehl has been cast to play the role of German Olympic athlete Otto Peltzer in upcoming biopic The Distant Near.
Disney original animation is looking at a comeback this Thanksgiving. The princess pic Wish is looking at as much as $45M-$50M over five days after the studio suffering a setback over last year’s holiday with Strange World, which did $18.8M.
EXCLUSIVE: Adivi Sesh‘s action pic G2 is shaping up, and now it’s found its female lead.