‘RRR’ Wins Big at India’s National Film Awards, Allu Arjun, Alia Bhatt, Kriti Sanon Acting Honors, Madhavan’s ‘Rocketry’ Best Film

Ellise Shafer Prime Video’s upcoming crime thriller “Bambai Meri Jaan” tells an action-packed tale of good vs. evil in post-independence India — but at its core, the show is a story about family. Premiering Sept.

When restaurateurs Devang and Pradip first visited Manchester, they fell in love with both the city and its people.

Naman Ramachandran Shah Rukh Khan-starring blockbuster “Jawan” scored a $62.7 million worldwide weekend, making it the second highest grossing film in the world after “The Nun II” ($85.3 million), according to provisional numbers released by ComScore. “The Equalizer 3,” starring Denzel Washington was third with $23.6 million, according to ComScore. “Jawan,” featuring Khan in a dual role as a father and son who set out to rectify corruption in Indian society, opened on Sept.

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.

Ben Croll Seated before a photo of filmmaker Sarah Moldoror, panelists at this year’s Women in Film roundtable shared strategies for greater industry parity, while reflecting on recent successes and standstills in that ongoing pursuit. Variety has been give access to the video of the panel discussion.

Shah Rukh Khan has outdone himself. After a record-breaking run with Pathaan in January, the Indian superstar has hit new milestones with his latest, Jawan, which scored the biggest ever opening day worldwide for a Hindi film on Thursday at 129.6 crore ($15.5M). 

Naman Ramachandran Toronto Film Festival Midnight Madness world premiere “Kill” is a confluence of three stellar Indian talents. Producer Guneet Monga Kapoor is an Oscar winner for “The Elephant Whisperers”; fellow producer and filmmaker Karan Johar is a Bollywood A-lister who has just delivered massive hit “Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani”; and director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat is known for Netflix film “Long Live Brij Mohan” and Prime Video series “Rasbhari.” “Kill” belongs to the extreme action genre, a rarity in Indian cinema. Set entirely on an express train to New Delhi, the film follows Indian army commandos Amrit and Viresh, who are on a mission to rescue Amrit’s girlfriend Tulika.

EXCLUSIVE: Radu Jude’s Do Not Expect Too Much From The End Of The World, which has just been submitted as Romania’s official entry into the International Oscar race, has been picked up by Mubi for multiple key territories. 

Pakistani actress Mahira Khan discusses depression and anxiety triggered by the backlash following her first Bollywood film “Raees” in 2016.

Naman Ramachandran Bollywood star Ayushmann Khurrana has scored the biggest opening of his career with comedy “Dream Girl 2” and the film is on its way to becoming a major hit. Khurrana stars as Karam, a young man in Mathura whom financial circumstances force to pose as a woman, Pooja, and the mayhem that ensues.

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.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The main competition section of the Busan International Film Festival is set to showcase two new features from Bangladeshi directors, the feature debut of Japanese documentary maker Mori Tatsuya and ruminations on Hong Kong by mainland Chinese director Choi Ji. The festival on Wednesday unveiled its New Currents competition section, reserved for films by directors making their first or second works of fiction, as well as its Jiseok section, a showcase for somewhat more established Asian auteurs. In addition to the Bangladesh duo, New Currents includes two films from Japan, two from Korea and one each from China, Thailand, Malaysia and India. From Bangladesh, Iqbal H. Chowdhury’s “The Wrestler” sees an old fisherman challenge a wrestling champion to combat, and in “The Stranger” Biplob Sarkar tells a coming-of-age, gender-identity tale. From Japan, Mori recounts the events of the Great Kanto earthquake in “September 1923,” while Yamamoto Akira delves into profound and shocking love in “After the Fever.” New Currents’ Korean contributions come from Lee Jong-su, whose “Heritage” tracks a man who opts out of military service and his supervisor, and Sohn Hyun-lok, whose “That Summer’s Lie” blurs truth and fiction in memories of a past romance. India’s Rajesh S.

New works by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Kitty Green, and Christos Nikou are among the titles that have been set to play in competition at the upcoming 67th edition of the British Film Institute’s (BFI) London Film Festival. Scroll down for the full list.

Naman Ramachandran The 67th BFI London Film Festival has unveiled the titles that will compete in its official, first feature, documentary and short film competitions. Festival director Kristy Matheson said: “The films represented in each of these competitive strands offer audiences an exciting array of U.K. and global filmmaking voices and cinematic forms.

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.

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 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.

Naman Ramachandran Sharvari Wagh will join Alia Bhatt in the cast of the first female-led film in leading Indian studio Yash Raj Films’ spy universe, Variety has learned. Wagh debuted as one of the leads in Prime Video series “The Forgotten Army – Azaadi ke liye” and made her film debut with “Bunty Aur Babli 2.” The spy universe film, where Bhatt is due to play a “super agent,” will commence production in 2024, Variety understands. Created by producer Aditya Chopra, the spy universe kicked off with the Tiger franchise, starring Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif, beginning with “Ek Tha Tiger” (2012) and “Tiger Zinda Hai” (2017), and continued with “War” (2019), starring Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff.

Werner Herzog And Peter Zeitlinger Set For Camerimage HonorsCamerimage’s special award for cinematographer-director duos will be handed to Werner Herzog and Peter Zeitlinger. Both filmmakers will receive the award in person at Camerimage’s upcoming 31st edition, where they will meet with the festival audience in Toruń, Poland, and present a retrospective review of their films, including both feature and documentary productions. Zeitlinger and Herzog have collaborated for 30 years. Alongside their first joint venture, Death for Five Voices (1995), their productions include the documentaries Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997), My Best Fiend (1999), Wheel of Time (2003), Grizzly Man (2005), Encounters at the End of the World (2007), Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010), Into the Abyss (2011), From One Second to the Next (2013), Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World (2016), Into the Inferno (2016), Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds (2020), Theatre of Thought (2022), and the feature films Invincible (2001), Rescue Dawn (2006), Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009), My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done? (2009), Queen of the Desert (2015), and Salt and Fire (2016). Camerimage runs Nov 11-18.

Naman Ramachandran The work of pioneering Black British filmmaker Horace Ové will be celebrated this fall with a BFI Southbank retrospective season titled Power to the People: Horace Ové’s Radical Vision. A 4K restored version of “Pressure” (1976), the first full-length Black British film, which is an exploration of the concerns faced by emerging second-generation West Indians in Britain, will receive a joint restoration world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival and the New York Film Festival on Oct. 11.