‘Marching in the Dark,’ About Growing Number of Farmer Suicides in India, Picked Up by Lightdox, Trailer Launches (EXCLUSIVE)

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is huge!

Naman Ramachandran One of the highlights at India’s Cinevesture International Film Festival and market was a frank, philosophical on-stage chat between veteran filmmaker Shekhar Kapur and his singer-songwriter-composer daughter Kaveri. Shekhar Kapur is known for his eclectic oeuvre that spans Indian films “Masoom” and “Mr. India,” hard-hitting biopic “Bandit Queen,” the Oscar-winning “Elizabeth,” starring Cate Blanchett, “The Four Feathers,” starring Heath Ledger, and recent romcom “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” When asked to reveal something unknown about himself, Shekhar Kapur spoke about his hidden fears, saying that people who think he is cool don’t “see the panic in my head every morning.” “Fear drives me.

The Goat Life (previously titled Goat Days) will release in theaters across the UK, India, Australia and France today.

Netflix on Tuesday morning unveiled the cast set for Fear Street: Prom Queen, the latest film in its Fear Street horror franchise, based on the book series from R.L. Stine.

Naman Ramachandran The first edition of India’s Cinevesture International Film Festival and market (Chandigarh, March 27-31) will feature a range of masterclasses and panels headlined by a range of luminaries including filmmakers Shekhar Kapur (“What’s Love Got to Do with It?”) and Karan Johar (“Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani”). The lineup also includes actors Jaideep Ahlawat (“Paatal Lok”), Roshan Mathew (“Paradise”), Suvinder Vicky (“Kohrra”), Rajshri Deshpande (“Trial by Fire”), Boman Irani (“Dunki”), Rasika Dugal (“Mirzapur”), Abhay Deol (“Trial by Fire”), actor-producers Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal (“Girls Will be Girls”), filmmakers Tahira Kashyap (“Sharmajee Ki Beti”), Sudhir Mishra (“Tanaav”), Ajitpal Singh (“Tabbar”), Anurag Singh (“Kesri”) and Saugata Mukherjee, head of content at streamer SonyLiv.

Naman Ramachandran Indian rapper, singer-songwriter and music producer Badshah has just released his new album “Ek Tha Raja” (literally, there was a king). It is the third studio album for the musician who was born Aditya Prateek Singh Sisodia and is known as Badshah, after “ONE (Original Never Ends)” (2018) and “The Power of Dreams of a Kid” (2020).

As David Newlyn Gale reached his mid-80s, he lived in his own home, but not in the most resplendent conditions. He cohabitated with an untold number of mice in a hoarder’s horror of detritus, a place chocked with tins of food that probably fell off store shelves around World War II.

Freed serial killer Charles Sobhraj, who allegedly murdered 20 backpackers in Asia, has been spotted amongst tourists in London.The 79-year-old French man was released from a Nepalese prison in 2022 after spending nearly two decades behind bars. Sobhraj, who inspired the hit BBC drama The Serpent in 2021, is suspected of killing at least 20 Western tourists who were travelling through Asia's "hippy trail" in the 1970s and 1980s. Now pictures show him visiting the UK wearing a false beard and wig, while he his being filmed for a documentary.

Naman Ramachandran Onir, one of a handful of out and proud Indian filmmakers, is speaking out about the current scenario for LGBTQ filmmakers in the country. “There are a lot of non-Indian queer films and series available on streaming and also a lot of queer short films and reel videos being made across the country. Having said that, I feel the mainstream industry and streaming platforms when it comes to queer content are mostly still taking baby steps, and also looking at our stories from a very heteronormative gaze,” Onir told Variety.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Paramount Global has sold its 13% ownership stake in TV and streaming company Viacom18 to Reliance Industries for $517 million. Reliance was already the majority owner of Viacom18. The pact comes two weeks after Disney and Reliance Industries announced a blockbuster $8.5 billion deal merging their massive Indian TV and streaming businesses.

Paramount Global has sold its 13% equity interest in Viacom18 Media to Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries for the equivalent $517 million.

Selome Hailu At a festival known for raucous audiences, Dev Patel‘s “Monkey Man” made for the rowdiest screening yet. During the SXSW premiere of the actor’s directorial debut, Austin’s Paramount Theater was filled with cries of “We love you, Dev!” and “India!” that can only be described as guttural. The crowd’s love for Patel only grew more fervent as the film went on, revealing not only a new cinematic voice, but a surprisingly political action thriller that saw Patel’s character take on the Hindu caste system with teeth, knives and blood.Dev Patel receives a standing ovation after a #SXSW screening of his feature directorial debut "Monkey Man." pic.twitter.com/OcpjhByVSu “The action genre has been abused by the system,” Patel said while introducing the film.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Lily Gladstone is in good spirits following the 2024 Oscars, where many awards pundits predicted she would take home the Oscar for best actress thanks to her acclaimed performance as Mollie Kyle in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Gladstone won prizes at the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards prior to the Oscars, but Academy voters bestowed the best actress Oscar to Emma Stone from “Poor Things” instead. “Feeling the love big time today, especially from Indian Country.

Naman Ramachandran India’s B62 Studios has an early 2024 hit with February release “Article 370,” and also has an ambitious slate lined up with plans for expanding into eastern Asia. B62 was launched by the brothers Dhar — Lokesh and Aditya — and is named after their address in Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar neighborhood, where they grew up watching the best of Bollywood alongside arthouse cinema. Lokesh Dhar went on to a flourishing career in film marketing, distribution and syndication before turning to producing, while Aditya Dhar directed military action film “Uri: The Surgical Strike,” one of the biggest Indian box office hits of 2019.

Renowned for his passion for food and appetite for outrageous eating feats, Man v Food star Adam Richman has embarked on a culinary journey across the British Isles "as a love letter" to British cuisine. Armed with a map of the UK, the Brooklyn-based food expert and chef is attempting to shed light on the "globally misunderstood" and "unfairly maligned" realm of British cuisine for a new Food Network UK show, Adam Richman Eats Britain.

Naman Ramachandran India premieres of France’s “The Taste of Things” and Korea’s “Exhuma” will open and close respectively the first edition of India’s Cinevesture International Film Festival. Tran Anh Hung won best director at Cannes 2023 for “The Taste of Things,” which was subsequently submitted as France’s official entry to the Oscars’ international feature category.

Naman Ramachandran Upamanyu Bhattacharya‘s animated feature “Heirloom” has the emerged from the crucible of Annecy, one of the world’s top animation festivals. The Indian work-in progress film has been selected for the 22nd Hong Kong — Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), the project market that operates concurrently with FilMart. In the film, Sonal, a teacher, grapples with a hereditary disease, mirroring her mother’s untimely demise.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic How distraught is Annette, the severely troubled British mother of two played by Daisy Ridley in “Magpie?” She has gotten a short angular haircut, one that might, in another context, be the height of chic (very Isabella Rossellini). Except that the movie uses it as a symbolic expression of her trauma, like Mia Farrow’s iconic Vidal Sassoon cut in “Rosemary’s Baby.” Annette, who’s on some serious medication, looks at a mirror until it breaks. Does she have telekinetic powers? No, she broke it with her hand (which bleeds into the sink), but the force of her repressed rage is palpable.

Naman Ramachandran Indian sales outfit Indywood Distribution Network has sold Rupesh Paul’s “Kamasutra – The Revenge” wide ahead of Hong Kong’s film rights market FilMart. Starring Sherlyn Chopra, Milind Gunaji and Gajendra Chauhan, and produced by San2Creations, the film follows two princesses – one who is robbed of her dreams when forced to accept a middle-aged king as her husband, and another thirsty for revenge. Indywood has sold the film to Twin (Japan, all rights); A2 Filmes (Latin America TV/VOD); Filmbridge (Mongolia, all rights); Pioneer Film (Philippines, all rights) and RFT Films (U.K./Ireland, theatrical).

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The 44th edition of genre film festival Fantasporto, which runs in Portugal’s second city Porto from March 1-10, has bestowed its best film award on Japanese sci-fi fantasy pic “From the End of the World,” directed by Kaz I Kiriya. The movie follows 10-year-old Hana, whose dreams transport her across various eras in Japanese history, and have the ability to save humanity. The jury’s special award went to “The Complex Forms,” Italian director Fabio D’Orta’s debut feature.