‘Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefire’ Review: An Inside-Out Indian Epic of Violent Delights

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor LAS VEGAS – The Walt Disney Co. showcased its investments in cutting-edge advertising technology on Wednesday at the Consumer Electronics Show, with top executives talking up the company’s enhanced ablity to serve marketers across linear and streaming platforms around the world. “2023 was Disney’s biggest year in our history for investments in ad technology, including theglobal expansion of Disney+ with ads,” said Rita Ferro, Disney’s president of global advertising, told the crowd at the Cosmpolitan hotel.

EXCLUSIVE: After breaking out with her lead role in the second season of Netflix’s smash hit series Bridgerton, Simone Ashley has moved on to star in This Tempting Madness, a new indie directed by Jennifer E. Montgomery, from her script written with husband Andrew M. Davis, which just wrapped production in Los Angeles.

Naman Ramachandran Indian streamer SonyLIV has unveiled a slate of more than 20 new and returning shows for 2024 and is expanding its content focus. 2023 saw several hits bow on the service including “Scam 2003,” “Chamak,” Agatha Christie adaptation “Charlie Chopra & The Mystery Of Solang Valley” and “Fauda” remake “Tanaav,” which has been renewed for a second season, besides Season 2 of Emmy-nominated series “Rocket Boys.” 2024 will see shows in the Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, Punjabi and Marathi languages, in addition to Hindi.

A Perth restaurant has shown outstanding generosity by inviting 600 people to enjoy its food on Christmas Day for free.

Melbourne City want to take flop Celtic star Marco Tilio back to their club on loan when the Australian transfer window reopens. Celtic reportedly paid £1.5million to land the winger from Melbourne City this summer, where he won three A-League titles in a row.

Siddhant Adlakha The rare documentary that opens not just with a content warning, but with a request not to share identifying images of its child subject, To Kill a Tiger is a heavy but necessary work about the legalese and cultural attitudes surrounding sexual violence in rural India. The Oscar-shortlisted doc from New Delhi-born director Nisha Pahuja is a powerful and risky example of the vitality of modern nonfiction filmed in South Asia.

Naman Ramachandran Bollywood A-list actor Ayushmann Khurrana scored another major hit in 2023 with comedy sequel “Dream Girl 2.” But he is still happy to have achieved what he describes as “validation.” The film was one of several medium budget Hindi-language films that became box office successes, including “OMG 2,” “Mrs. Chatterjee vs Norway,” “Zara Hatke Zara Bachke,” “Satyaprem Ki Katha” and “12th Fail.” These effectively debunked the notion that only big budget spectacles like “Pathaan” or “Jawan” would work at the post-pandemic Bollywood box office, which had a poor 2022. “There was a conspiracy theory, maybe a year back, that Indian audiences [were] only looking for spectacles or larger-than-life films, but this year, a lot of films, which not really big budget but mid budget, did really well,” Khurrana told Variety.

Naman Ramachandran Indian actor and politician Narayanan Vijayaraj Alagarswami, known popularly by his screen name Vijayakanth, died in Chennai on Thursday, following complications related to pneumonia. He was 71. Vijayakanth, who had been ailing for some time, was admitted to Chennai’s MIOT (Madras Institute of Orthopaedics and Traumatology) International Hospital in November.

Narayanan Vijayaraj Alagarswami, best known by his screen name Vijayakanth, has died at the age of 71.

A popular Indian restaurant and takeaway has shared its sadness after 30 customers failed to show for pre-booked meals on Christmas Day, leaving the business out of pocket and with a huge amount of food waste.

EXCLUSIVE: Prabhas, one of the biggest stars of Indian cinema, is back in action again this weekend in Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefire. Already, the film is proving a hit with audiences at home and abroad, grossing an estimated 144 crore ($17.3M) worldwide on opening day.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “Slow,” Marija Kavtaradze’s delicate romance, won the Crystal Arrow at the 15th edition of Les Arcs Film Festival from a jury presided over by Oscar-nominated Iranian director Asghar Farhadi (“A Separation”). Kavtaradze’s sophomore outing, “Slow” world premiered at the Sundance Film Festival where it won best director.

James Nesbitt is often cast as murder-solving detectives in TV dramas, but this December he’s playing a criminal with a festive twist in Sky’s film The Heist Before Christmas. The Bloodlands star is donning a Santa suit and robbing a bank in this Northern Ireland comedy - and admits that the role is a welcome break from his steady diet of dramas.

Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefire saw $2.5 million in Thursday previews as the Telugu action thriller opens in about 800 locations in North America. Bollywood Superstar Shah Ruhk Kan toplines drama Dunki, his third film of the year after Pathaan and Jawan, both in the top ten of India’s highest-grossing films.

Prime Video India has unveiled Wedding.con, a true-crime docu-series about women who are deceived and betrayed in pursuit of love. Scroll down for a trailer for the show that launches next week.

Naman Ramachandran Leading Indian studio Yash Raj Films (YRF) has had a phenomenal 2023 with successes across theatrical films and streaming and is looking to build on it going forward. After an indifferent 2022 where the Hindi-language Bollywood film industry was shaded by the mighty south Indian business, the box office roared back in January 2023 with YRF’s “Pathaan,” starring Shah Rukh Khan. The success of “Pathaan” began a stellar box office year for Bollywood and the film was surpassed only by “Jawan,” also starring Khan and distributed internationally by YRF.

Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the year’s most talked-about scripts continues with the ambitious Ava DuVernay-directed drama Origin, with the script also written by DuVernay inspired by Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson’s groundbreaking book Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents.

Elsa Pataky and Chris Hemsworth are one of the strongest couples in Hollywood, sharing daughter India Rose, 11, and nine-year-old twin boys Sasha and Tristan. They are known for going on epic trips together, and they closed out 2023 with one last trip to Fiji.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor M. Raihan Halim’s “La Luna” will close the 53rd edition of International Film Festival Rotterdam, which has also revealed the lineup of its Tiger competition section, a platform for up-and-coming filmmakers, and Big Screen Competition, a program for more established talent. “La Luna,” which has its European premiere at the festival, is a comedy about a conservative Malaysian village shaken by the arrival of a lingerie store.

Marc Anthony, who enchanted Peruvians with his Viviendo Tour. Marc was accompanied by his inseparable wife, Nadia Ferreira, as he stopped by the South American country. While Marc finalized the details of his concert, Nadia toured some of the most touristy spots in Lima, such as the Indian Handicraft Market, one of the most beautiful places in the area.The model shared a glimpse of her visit to the market through her Instagram stories.