Rohit Shetty, Sidharth Malhotra Team up for ‘Indian Police Force’ Amazon Prime Video Series

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefAnurag Kashyap’s “Dobaaraa” has been set as the opening night film of the London Indian Film Festival. Despite its name, the festival will play at venues across the U.K., and will present 24 features and 18 shorts.“Dobaaraa” is a supernatural thriller that LIFF describes as involving a young woman trapped between two lives in different decades.

Naman Ramachandran Neil Gaiman’s bestselling graphic novel “The Sandman: Act I” has been adapted as a Hindi-language audio adaptation by Amazon’s Audible and DC, with a voice cast of acclaimed Bollywood actors.The books are also adapted as an ongoing English-language audio presentation by Gaiman and audiobook and audio movie pioneer Dirk Maggs, .Maggs previously had a distinguished career as a producer with BBC Radio where he elevated radio drama to the realm of what he describes as “a film in your ears.” One of his innovations was to introduce Dolby Surround sound into BBC Radio. He has adapted several superhero characters for the radio including Superman, Batman and Judge Dredd and his work also includes a seminal radio adaptation of Douglas Adams’ “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” The Hindi version features Tabu (“Andhadhun”) as the narrator, Vijay Varma (“A Suitable Boy”) in the lead role of Morpheus/Dream, Manoj Bajpayee (“The Family Man”) as Doctor Dee, Sushant Divgikar (“Evening Shadows”) as Desire, Adarsh Gaurav (“The White Tiger”) as Constantine, Neeraj Kabi (“Paatal Lok”) as Lucifer, Kubbra Sait (“Foundation”) as Death and Tillotama Shome (“Sir”) as Calliope.In the audio adaptation, The Sandman, also known as Lord Morpheus, the immortal king of dreams, stories and the imagination, is pulled from his realm and imprisoned on Earth by a nefarious cult and languishes for decades before finally escaping.

Naman Ramachandran ALTBalaji, the streaming service started by Ekta R. Kapoor, the undisputed queen of Indian television, turned five a few days ago. The streamer is part of Balaji Telefilms, which was started by her and her parents Jeetendra Kapoor and Shoba Kapoor in 1994 and is the single largest television content producer in South Asia.Recently, the hitherto SVOD-only ALTBalaji added an AVOD offering, which caters to 10 million monthly active users.

Two people are on immigration bail after Scots gathered to block a Home Office ‘raid’ in Edinburgh.

Carson Burton The 2022 Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) has announced the winners of its annual filmmaker awards, with Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s “Once Upon a Time in Calcutta” winning the grand jury prize for feature film. Anmol Sidhu’s “Jaggi” was the recipient of the Uma da Cunha Award for feature film debut, as well as the audience choice award for feature.“This year’s edition of the film festival was wonderful in so many ways,” said IFFLA executive director Christina Marouda.

Adam Thomas has spoken about the moment he tried to save his dad's life. Dougie James, a much-loved Manchester music promoter and lead singer of the 1970s band Dougie James and the Soul Train, died in November 2020, aged 72.

Naman Ramachandran Rohit Shetty, the filmmaker known for his Singham cop franchise, and Reliance Entertainment, will produce a biopic on one of Mumbai’s most revered top cops and former commissioner of police, Rakesh Maria.The biopic will be based on Maria’s 2020 memoir “Let Me Say it Now” and will be mentored by Shetty. A director and cast have yet to be finalized.As deputy commissioner of police (traffic) in 1993, Maria cracked the Bombay serial blasts case. He was later deputy commissioner of police (crime) and then joint commissioner of police (crime), of the Mumbai police.

Amazon’s top U.S. and international execs are banking on even bigger things in India after launching the streamer’s biggest ever slate in the country.

Naman Ramachandran Amazon Prime Video pulled out the heavy international artillery to launch a massive Indian slate on Thursday. They are bullish about the market.Kelly Day, VP of international, Amazon Prime Video, said at a round table during the event: “The future of global streaming services is really about global expansion, and moving much more ambitiously, to serving customers in our international markets all over the world.

Amazon is strengthening its ties in India by unveiling a 40-strong slate of original TV series and films and an on-demand rentals service.

Naman Ramachandran Amazon Prime Video India is betting big on India. At a marquee event in Mumbai the streamer announced that it will more than double its investment in Prime Video India over the next five years and revealed a 40-strong slate, its biggest to date in the country.The titles are in the Hindi, Tamil and Telugu languages, across new and returning scripted and unscripted original series and co-productions, streaming over the next 24 months.

Naman Ramachandran As India celebrates 75 years of independence, Netflix and the country’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, have partnered to honor real-life stories of extraordinary women through a series of short videos titled “Azadi Ki Amrit Kahaniyan.” The initiative was launched on Tuesday in the presence of Anurag Thakur, India’s Minister of Information and Broadcasting.Bela Bajaria, global head of TV, Netflix, who was also present at the event, said: “Great stories can come from anywhere and are ever so inspiring when they are about people who rise against the odds. In partnership with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, ‘Azadi Ki Amrit Kahaniyan’ focuses on celebrating remarkable individuals and their stories that can inspire people in India and around the world.” Narrated by acclaimed actor Neena Gupta (Badhaai Ho”), the short videos capture the journey of these individuals and how they broke the glass ceiling in their respective fields, ranging from science to sports.

Naman Ramachandran Prashanth Neel’s “K.G.F: Chapter 2,” starring Yash, is one of the biggest box office hits this spring, having grossed approximately $120 million worldwide since its April 14 release.Produced by Vijay Kiragandur for Hombale Films, “K.G.F: Chapter 2” was made on a budget of $13 million and is a sequel to 2018 film “K.G.F: Chapter 1.” Set during the 1970s and 1980s, the film followed the journey of gangster Rocky (Yash) and his bid to gain control of the Kolar Gold Fields. The sequel continues his journey and the stakes are higher with his opponents including the Prime Minister of India. The film is in the Kannada-language with dubbed versions in the Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam languages.

Naman Ramachandran Leading Indian producer Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Motion Pictures has signed a multi-film production deal with Armaan Zorace’s U.S. genre label Dark Hell and prolific Hollywood producer Steven Schneider.Under the terms of the deal, a slate of high-concept films in the thriller-horror genre will be produced in Hindi and other Indian languages jointly by the three entities.

Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra have shared the name of their baby girl! The couple welcomed their little one in January, with Joe, 29, and Priyanka, 39, sharing their joy at the news.They penned at the time: "We are overjoyed to confirm that we have welcomed a baby via surrogate,” a joint statement shared via Instagram read. “We respectfully ask for privacy during this special time as we focus on our family.Thank you so much.” Get exclusive celebrity stories and fabulous photoshoots straight to your inbox with OK!'s daily newsletter Now TMZ reports they've shared that the couple have named their daughter and, according to a birth certificate obtained by the outlet, they've chosen Malti Marie.The beautiful moniker has an equally as lovely meaning attached.

Boris Johnson has issued another apology over partygate, expressing regret over being fined for a breach of his own lockdown rules by attending an illegal gathering in Downing Street.

Refresh for latest…: It’s no secret that Warner Bros’ Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore had a less than magical opening domestically this weekend, coming after early overseas rollout began last frame. Still, offshore this weekend, the threequel was again the top movie and ranked No. 1 in 52 markets, including 41 of the 44 new openers. The overseas sophomore frame added $71.7M for a cume of $150.4M, bringing global just shy of $200M at $193.4M. In like-for-likes Dumbledore is running 38% behind the previous installment and 42% off the original.

Coming off the blockbuster success of S.S. Rajamouli’s RRR, star Ram Charan is hardly sitting on his laurels. Releasing April 29 is action drama Acharya which he’s producing and starring in with his father, the prolific actor Chiranjeevi. He’s also currently shooting RC15 (working title), a political drama from 2.0 director S. Shankar, and has more projects in the pipeline.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefAmazon’s Prime Video platform will broadcast the Australian Swimming Championships, in Adelaide next month, as part of a two-year deal with Swimming Australia. The company will use a roster of celebrity commentators to give a high profile to its continuing foray into the sports sector.The deal with Swimming Australia is the first partnership Amazon has had in Australia for sports, other than sports documentaries.The streaming giant has a patchwork of sportscasting in other territories – in India, for example it currently has a mixture women’s basketball and some cricket, having previously carried major tennis tournaments and English soccer.

Naman Ramachandran S.S. Rajamouli’s Indian blockbuster “RRR,” starring NTR Jr and Ram Charan, has grossed INR10 billion ($132 million) globally, according to numbers released by producer DVV Entertainment. An action-drama set in the 1920s, the historical fiction story by Vijayendra Prasad and Rajamouli imagines real-life Indian freedom fighters Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan) and Komaram Bheem (NTR Jr) meeting and becoming fast friends.