Netflix India Renews ‘Khakee’ For Season 2 & Forges Partnership With Producer Friday Storytellers

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.

Naman Ramachandran Tarsem Singh Dhandwar, the filmmaker previously known simply as Tarsem, is returning to the big screen and to his roots with “Dear Jassi,” which has its world premiere Toronto Film Festival Sept. 10. The new film is set in the 1990s and based on a real-life incident.

Fauda, the breakout Israeli thriller drama, is unexpectedly returning for a fifth season, Deadline has confirmed with sources.

Naman Ramachandran Prolific Indian studio Applause Entertainment and Zindagi, the Indian subcontinent-focused programming block on streamer ZEE5 Global, have set a wide-ranging content partnership. The partnership will create South Asian-themed content from across the subcontinent. The initial burst of productions will be in the Hindustani (combining Hindi and Urdu) language that is understood across the subcontinent.

Selome Hailu “Quantum Leap” will come back for Season 2 at NBC with two new series regulars: Peter Gadiot and Eliza Taylor. One of the few scripted projects returning to broadcast TV this fall amid the Hollywood strikes, “Quantum Leap” is a sequel to the 1989 to 1993 NBC drama of the same name and set 30 years later after Dr. Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished.

Naman Ramachandran Netflix has unveiled the first trailer for “Jaane Jaan,” “Kahaani” filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh‘s Indian adaptation of Japanese author Higashino Keigo’s bestselling 2005 novel “The Devotion of Suspect X.” The cast is led by Bollywood royalty Kareena Kapoor Khan and also includes Jaideep Ahlawat (“Paatal Lok”) and Vijay Varma (“Dahaad”). The film follows a single mother and her daughter who commit a crime and a neighbor who helps them cover it up amidst a police investigation. The novel has been adapted numerous times including in Japan as “Suspect X” (2008), in Korea as “Perfect Number” (2012) and in China as “The Devotion of Suspect X” (2017).

Naman Ramachandran Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Viacom18 media conglomerate has won both digital and TV rights for India’s domestic cricket matches for five years from Sept. 2023 to March 2028. The rights do not include the Cricket World Cup later this year, which are held by Disney Star.

Netflix on Tuesday unveiled its full fall slate of films, touting the release dates of awards contenders like Pain Hustlers and The Killer, among other titles. 

Naman Ramachandran Filmmakers Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti (Berlin title “Gully Boy”) are basking in the success of their Prime Video series “Dahaad” and season 2 of “Made in Heaven.” “Made in Heaven” revolves around the lives of two wedding planners in Delhi. Each episode sees traditional and modern values clashing with secrets being exposed. The first season bowed in 2019 and earned an International Emmy best actor nomination for Arjun Mathur for playing out and proud wedding planner Karan Mehra.

Naman Ramachandran Indian content queen Ektaa R. Kapoor will receive the 2023 International Emmy Directorate Award. Balaji Telefilms, which was started by Kapoor and her parents Jeetendra Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor in 1994, is the single largest television content producer in South Asia.

Naman Ramachandran Indian cinema A-lister Allu Arjun is delighting in his best actor win at India’s National Film Awards for “Pushpa: The Rise – Part 1.” Directed by Sukumar and produced by Mythri Movie Makers and Muttamsetty Media, the film traces the rise of Molleti Pushpa Raj (Arjun), a labourer who rises through the ranks of a sandalwood smuggling syndicate and faces off against an egotistic police officer. The Telugu-language film was also dubbed into other Indian languages and went on to become the biggest box office hit of 2021 in the country. It is the first time an actor from the Telugu-language film industry has won the best actor accolade at the National Film Awards in India.

Disney is planning to offer free cricket on smartphones and tablets in India as it fights back against subscriber loss at its Indian streaming service Disney+ Hotstar. 

Naman Ramachandran The sheer popularity of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) is leading to its expansion this year, while sister event Film Bazaar, South Asia’s largest content market, will have a focus on new technology, one of the country’s top film officials has revealed. The Indian government-backed events run in parallel in Goa in November each year in close geographic proximity. In 2022, demand for tickets at the public-facing IFFI was so strong that reservations had to be paused on the second day of the festival.

Naman Ramachandran As South Asians increasingly make their mark on the world film and TV stage, an initiative to find emerging talent from the region and propel them globally is being launched. Alongside talent from the region who are already entrenched in Hollywood, including Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Freida Pinto, in recent years several South Asian actors have appeared in international projects.

Naman Ramachandran The popular Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival is returning after a three-year COVID and logistics-related absence with a hub, a refreshed executive team and a host of plans. Hollywood and Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra Jonas continues as festival chair, while media veteran and former Variety contributor Anupama Chopra remains festival director and independent producer Anu Rangachar (Locarno title “Rapture”) heads up the international program.

Indian web series “Made In Heaven” returned to Prime Video after a four-year gap with solid and resonating stories. Canceled thrice due to COVID, filmmaker Zoya Akhtar is happy to finally share her spectacular series with the world, and the audience globally has accepted it with open arms.

Priyanka Chopra is distancing herself from Sona, the New York City restaurant she helpedto  launch.

Bigg Boss OTT,” the Indian adaptation of the “Big Brother” format hosted by Bollywood star Salman Khan, has broken records for streamer JioCinema. The show was available as a free 24-hour live stream. On Aug.

When Prince Harry first began dating Meghan Markle, they were keen to keep their romance behind closed doors.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises and Sony’s Indian TV businesses has been nearly two years in the making, but finally cleared a key regulatory hurdle on Thursday. The combined companies have the potential to create a giant in broadcast TV — a sector that is still paramount in India — and are valued at $10 billion. Last week’s other tremblor was news from Burbank that Disney+ Hotstar, India’s streaming market leader, had lost 12.5 million subscribers, following the loss of key sports rights to a competitor.