Vidya Balan, Shefali Shah Film ‘Jalsa’ Sets Amazon Prime Video Debut

Naman Ramachandran Vidya Balan (“Kahaani”) and Shefali Shah (“Delhi Crime”), two of India’s finest actors, worked together for the first time in Suresh Triveni’s Amazon Prime Video India original “Jalsa.” The result is an acting masterclass.The film is a tense social thriller where the lives of Balan’s Maya, a top journalist and her Shah’s Rukhsana, Maya’s housekeeper, become inextricably linked together after a horrific incident.Balan’s morally upright journalist wrestles with an ethical dilemma through the film. The actor initially turned down the film because she did not want to play someone who seemed morally ambiguous, but isn’t, and eventually the role’s challenges changed her decision.“Maya is successful and she’s in a position of power and there is a certain aloofness to her demeanor,” Balan tells Variety.

Vijay Subramaniam, the former Amazon India and Disney India executive, has launched an independent venture that will develop, produce and finance content for the Indian market.

BET has given a green light to College Hill: Celebrity Edition, a revival of its hit reality series College Hill, for premiere this summer.

an unfinished Jane Austen novel of the same name, “Sanditon,” is set in the early 1800s England. Season 1 follows Charlotte Heywood (Rose Williams), who travels to the seaside resort of Sanditon. There, she meets a slew of colorful characters including her surly love interest Sidney Parker (Theo James), his entrepreneur brother Tom (Kris Marshall), West Indian heiress and Jane Austen’s first black heroine, Georgiana Lambe (Crystal Clarke) and sassy Lady Denham (Anne Reid).

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Naman Ramachandran India’s Super Cassettes Industries, operating under the label T-Series, has revealed plans for a 100-film slate across various Indian languages.The company was founded by the late Gulshan Kumar in 1983 as a music business. He soon grew it into India’s biggest music label.

Megan Park, the director of the SXSW award winner “The Fallout,” has set her second feature film called “My Old Ass” that will be produced by Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap Entertainment and Indian Paintbrush. Park is writing and directing “My Old Ass,” which is described as a modern coming-of-age comedy, though any other plot details are being kept under wraps.

Dearest reader, “Bridgerton” season 2 is almost upon us and so, Netflix and Shondaland have dropped the official trailer and exclusive new images.

Naman Ramachandran “Bloody Brothers,” the Indian adaptation of BAFTA winning BBC series “Guilt,” is set to bow on South Asian focused streamer ZEE5.Directed by Shaad Ali (Netflix’s “Call My Agent Bollywood”), the show is produced by Applause Entertainment in association with BBC Studios India. Reset in the picturesque South Indian hill town of Ooty, “Bloody Brothers” follows two brothers, Jaggi and Daljeet, who, while driving home late one night, run over an old man.

BEST FEATURE (Award is given to the producer. Executive Producers are not awarded.)“A Chiara” (Jonas Carpignano, Paolo Carpignano, Jon Coplon, Ryan Zacarias)“C’mon C’mon” (Chelsea Barnard, Andrea Longacre-White, Lila Yacoub) “The Lost Daughter” (Charles Dorfman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Osnat Handelsman Keren, Talia Kleinhendler)“The Novice” (Ryan Hawkins, Kari Hollend, Steven Sims, Zack Zucker)“Zola” (Kara Baker, Dave Franco, Elizabeth Haggard, David Hinojosa, Vince Jolivette, Christine Vachon, Gia Walsh)BEST FIRST FEATURE (Award given to director and producer)“7 Days” (Director: Roshan Sethi; Producers: Liz Cardenas, Mel Eslyn)“Holler” (Director: Nicole Riegel; Producers: Adam Cobb, Rachel Gould, Katie Mcneill, Jamie Patricof, Christy Spitzer Thornton)“Queen of Glory” (Director: Nana Mensah; Producers: Baff Akoto, Anya Migdal, Kelley Robins Hicks, Jamund Washington)“Test Pattern” (Director/Producer: Shatara Michelle Ford; Producers: Pin-Chun Liu, Yu-Hao Su)“Wild Indian” (Director/Producer: Lyle Mitchell Corbine, Jr.; Producers: Thomas Mahoney, Eric Tavitian)JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD (Award given to the writer, director and producer of the best feature made for under $500,000.

Naman Ramachandran Principal photography has commenced on Netflix original drama-comedy film “Kathal” (Jackfruit) from Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms and Guneet Monga’s Sikhya Entertainment. The woman-led film starring Sanya Malhotra (“Dangal,” “Photograph”) and Anant Joshi (“Cobalt Blue”) is set in a small town and revolves around a local politician whose prized jackfruits go missing and a young police officer who is adamant to solve this bizarre case to prove herself.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorPalm Springs International Film Society announced today that the annual Palm Springs International ShortFest, one of the largest showcases of short-form cinema in North America, will return with in-person screenings June 21-27. For this year’s edition veteran programmer, Sudeep Sharma will act as interim 2022 ShortFest Director, with the planned maternity leave of PSIFF Artistic Director Lili Rodriguez.“Sudeep’s been an excellent collaborator, holding key roles at ShortFest for close to a decade,’” said Artistic Director Lili Rodriguez.

Naman Ramachandran BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC, has set a content deal with MX Player, India’s largest AVOD service, which also has a strong reach across Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Pakistan. The partnership kicks off with Simon Allen‘s “The Watch,” a series inspired by the characters in Terry Pratchett’s bestselling “Discworld” novels, which follows an unlikely group of misfits, The City Watch, who are forced to find the guts to save the world, surprising even themselves in the process; and “Line of Duty” creator Jed Mercurio‘s “Critical,” set in a major trauma center that only deals with the most serious cases, following an emergency medical team that battles through the vital first hour of care to save lives that hang in balance.

As Elizabeth Holmes awaits her fate, viewers will see how the disgraced founder of Theranos found herself possibly facing up to 20 years in prison in The Dropout. The Hulu miniseries, premiering on March 3, sees Amanda Seyfried star as Elizabeth, 37, while Naveen Andrews portrays Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, the man who helped co-found the controversial blood-testing tech startup. While Elizabeth has been the face of this scandal – her black turtleneck becoming as visibly recognizable as that of Steve Jobs‘ – Sunny has dodged the spotlight, for the most part. So, who is this man?

Richard Kuipers Folklore, feminism and film noir come together in Pushpendra Singh’s meticulously crafted fourth feature “The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs.” Set in the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region in Northwest India, this moody fable about an unhappy young bride plotting her escape from tradition and patriarchy is a gripping character study that stutters slightly in the latter stages before producing a magical finale that no-one will forget in a hurry. Singh’s beautifully shot film has traveled extensively on the festival circuit and picked up awards at Hong Kong and Jeonju since debuting at Berlin in 2020.

Naman Ramachandran Entrepreneur Karnesh Ssharma is launching Clean OTT, a streaming service focusing on female-oriented original content, in the first quarter of 2023.Female actors, directors and producers will be at the heart of the service, which aims to move away from the male gaze that plagues Indian content and to create a sustainable platform for female professionals to further their career in the entertainment industry, while also removing age barriers.The content will include originally curated and produced works by Clean and pre-selected projects that meet the Clean OTT messaging framework by other producers from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal.Ssharma is also a co-founder of Clean Slate Filmz (Netflix’s “Bulbbul,” Amazon’s “Paatal Lok”). The Clean OTT library will feature work from directors, scriptwriters, actors, and producers associated with Clean Slate Filmz, as well as providing opportunities to emerging talent.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Kanaa,” an Indian-produced film from 2018 which tells the story of an aspiring woman cricketer and delves into issues of race and gender equality, will get a theatrical release in mainland China on March 18, 2022, according to Chinese state media. It is only the second Tamil-language film to be released in China in recent years, after “2.0” in 2019.

A collective of filmmakers in India have banded together to protest the cancellation of this year’s Mumbai Film Festival (MAMI), addressing their concerns to chairperson Priyanka Chopra.

Naman Ramachandran Fifteen prominent Indian independent filmmakers have issued an open letter to the Mumbai Film Festival, appealing to festival chair Priyanka Chopra Jonas to lay on physical screenings at the canceled – but partially online – event.The letter is signed by several filmmakers whose films premiered at A-list festivals, including Aditya Vikram Sengupta (“Once Upon A Time In Calcutta,” Venice), Gurvinder Singh (“Adh Chanani Raat,” Rotterdam), Irfana Majumdar (“Shankar’s Fairies,” Locarno), Natesh Hegde (“Pedro,” Busan/London), Nithin Lukose (“Paka,” Toronto), Payal Kapadia and Ranabir Das (“A Night of Knowing Nothing,” Cannes) and Rahul Jain (“Invisible Demons,” Cannes).The physical edition of the festival was called off earlier this month, “due to a multitude of challenges brought upon by the continuing pandemic,” per a statement from the festival. “At this point, we do not know when, what form and shape the festival will take in the future,” the statement from the festival, run by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image popularly known as MAMI, added.