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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Ritwik Pareek’s film opens with the image of a temple on a hill after dusk, prayer bells on the soundtrack. This gives way seconds later to shots of distant highway traffic and a great reverberating spaghetti western guitar chord. A man stumbles out of a dive bar, slurs a farewell “Jai siya Ram” and rides off into the night.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Despite betting on VFX-driven, high-budget spectacles to lure audiences in droves to cinemas, Bollywood has largely been unable to crack the visual effects game.This was particularly evident in the recent criticism of the trailer for the first instalment of the mega-budget, two-part Ramayana franchise. The major criticism was that despite a reported ₹4,000 crore production budget, the visual effects seemed artificial and video game-like, and that they appeared ‘too digital’ and lacked soul.Experts said not only are Indian movie budgets much lower than in Hollywood, but Indian studios and producers also often handle visual effects in a rushed manner during post-production.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.It seems like the script of a horror film. Three confirmed cases of hantavirus and five suspected ones among 150 people aboard a cruise ship that left Argentina last month have sent global health authorities into a tizzy. Three of the eight are dead, as reported, and efforts are on to identify possible carriers among other passengers and those with whom the infected may have come in contact before showing symptoms.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.As part of a substantive change in rules, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has emphasized that only acting “demonstrably performed by humans” and “human-authored” writings will qualify for Oscar awards. The rules have been updated to address cases like that of an AI-generated version of the deceased actor Val Kilmer vying for an award.Note that AI usage in Oscar-nominated movies in 2024 and 2025 focused on augmentation—including voice cloning and enhancement and visual effects—rather than creation. For example, in The Brutalist, AI had enhanced actors’ Hungarian accents.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Unlike the traditional Bollywood template of flashy acting debuts, celebrity relatives are increasingly building loyal audiences on social media first and monetizing their personal brands before stepping into films, shows or mainstream entertainment projects.Figures such as Riddhima Kapoor, who is set to appear in a film soon, and Krishna Shroff, recently seen in multiple reality shows, have leveraged the low barriers to digital content creation to build personal brands and attract collaborations with companies before taking the mainstream entertainment route.Industry experts say the strategy is straightforward: a ready-made audience reduces marketing costs and lowers the risk attached to launching fresh faces in films and television. Instead of building visibility from scratch, producers and brands now rely on measurable engagement and documented fan bases.“These are individuals who may not have broken into mainstream acting or production, but they carry significant advantages: access, wealth, network, and a powerful surname.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Representatives of the Association of NSE Members of India (ANMI) met with central bank officials on Wednesday, seeking a relaxation of an imminent regulatory restriction on lenders funding capital market proprietary traders, arguing that not all such trades are speculative, according to a person aware of the discussions.While Reserve Bank of India (RBI) officials heard out the ANMI delegation, they offered no commitment , he said, requesting anonymity.While confirming the meeting, an ANMI official said, "A lot of things get discussed. It's unfair to be point-wise and specific about what is discussed or not." "With due respect, everything discussed in a closed room is not open to transmission everywhere," the official added.The meeting, requested for by the brokers' body, came after the central bank on 30 March deferred its 13 February circular on banks' capital markets exposure for three months through 1 July.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Music labels, grappling with slow growth in paid subscriptions and advertising revenue in the Indian market, are increasingly eyeing regional music catalogues to bolster libraries and returns. Times Music, Warner Music and Saregama have acquired regional catalogues recently. Such consolidation benefits both established players and smaller regional companies.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Representatives of the Association of NSE Members of India (Anmi) are scheduled to meet Reserve Bank of India officials on Wednesday to seek a relaxation on recent measures which effectively bar banks from funding proprietary traders for capital markets trades, two people aware of the matter said.The meeting, requested for by ANMI, comes after the central bank on 30 March deferred its 13 February circular on banks' capital markets exposure for three months through 1 July. Prop traders are brokers who trade for themselves."There will be a meeting between three to four members of Anmi and relevant RBI officials," the first person said.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.After years of building large subscriber bases through aggressive pricing and bundled offerings, video streaming platforms are recalibrating their strategies to align revenue growth with rising content and acquisition costs. In many cases, this means charging users more for the same content — but in subtler ways.Late last month, JioHotstar and Warner Bros.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.East India has shown a dramatic shift to the right, with West Bengal voting decisively for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the country’s latest round of assembly elections.The Trinamool Congress, which was ousted from power in polls held under the shadow of a controversy over an electoral-roll revision, had for 15 years looked like a stable inheritor of the Marxist regime that ruled the state for the previous 34 years. Unable to differentiate itself from the leftist formation it had replaced, it could not withstand a robust BJP campaign. That Assam would go the BJP way was expected all along.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.When a film star enters politics, the first question is usually whether charisma can translate into votes. In Tamil Nadu, where cinema and politics have long shared a porous border, that question has been asked for decades. But the more consequential question—what happens after the victory—has often been the harder one.As a journalist and a commentator of many elections, I tend to believe that Vijay’s entry into the chief minister’s office marks a new phase in the state’s political evolution, and it arrives with a complex mix of expectations, vulnerabilities, and structural tests.The most immediate challenge is administrative.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Moviegoers couldn’t resist the chance to see Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway reprise their roles as fashion magazine diva Miranda Priestly and her former assistant in Walt Disney’s The Devil Wears Prada 2.The 20th Century Studios’ remake of the 2006 hit film cat walked to the top of the domestic box office with an estimated $77 million take through Sunday, according to Comscore.AMC Entertainment, the nation’s largest movie theater chain, offered luxury-inspired popcorn handbags in select theaters on opening day, perhaps contributing to its $32.5 million in ticket sales on Friday.Comscore’s head of marketplace trends Paul Dergarabedian said The Devil Wears Prada 2 overperformed in international markets, where it raked in $156.6 million—more than twice what it sold in the U.S. and Canada—for an estimated $233.6 million global opening.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Nostalgia is paying off for Hollywood.“The Devil Wears Prada 2” opened to an estimated $233.6 million worldwide this weekend, driven largely by women eager to rejoin Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway in the world of fashion journalism 20 years after the original movie. It grossed $77 million in the U.S.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Mahesh Narayanan’s Patriot begins with a curious disclaimer: “This film is not against digitalization of India”. For any piece of popular entertainment in India today, it helps to be as vanilla and nonconfrontational as possible, and at least in southern India few things are more popular than a Malayalam film starring Mammootty and Mohanlal, and directed by Mahesh Narayanan.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.“Do you think you’re Superman?” Meera (Sai Pallavi) scolds her colleague Dino (Junaid Khan) after he nearly gets run over saving a child who wanders into traffic. He protests, and he’s right to. Dino is uncoordinated, underconfident, uncertain.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The original 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada, adapted from the novel by Lauren Weisberger, was a glossy workplace comedy that quickly became much bigger than its premise of a stressed assistant navigating fashion’s most terrifying boss. Inspired by Weisberger’s own experiences in magazine publishing, the David Frankel-directed film presented a sharp, endlessly quotable pop culture favourite with influence that stretched beyond cinema into fashion, and internet meme history, with Miranda lines like “That’s all” and “By all means, move at a glacial pace.”Over time, the film developed full cult status as both comfort viewing and a story about ambition, identity, and the personal cost of success.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.In 1984, Siddharth Kak landed a ringside view into an expedition to Mount Everest as part of a film crew—at the heart of all the action, yet at a safe distance from it. Or so he thought.India was looking to put the first woman on the summit. The newspaper advert that Kak, then 36, stumbled upon seemed too good to be true.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Two major films – Salman Khan’s Maatrubhumi and Vijay’s Jana Nayagan have been delayed indefinitely over the past few months as political pressures hold off certification and theatrical showcasing, adding to the inventory of unreleased films in India.The former film, previously titled Battle of Galwan, was to have been released in April, and is fighting a China angle as the government softens its stand towards the neighbouring country. Lead actor-turned-politician Vijay’s film was to have been released in January but has faced intense scrutiny and certification issues ahead of assembly elections in Tamil Nadu.Such delays for films have been seen earlier, adding to costs and expenses, disrupting OTT showcasing, and even having to be majorly re-edited or not released at all.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.In 1604, James I of England anonymously published a small book titled A Counterblaste to Tobacco. He called smoking “a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.” Within a year, he had raised the import duty on tobacco by 4,000%. The duty did not work.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.After recovering nearly 7.5% between the March and April derivatives series amid the Iran war, options traders are baking in a near 900-point range for Nifty from Tuesday's closing of 23,995.70 over the next one week, per exchange data.Traders expect the Nifty to trade in a 23,558–24,442 range until next Tuesday, based on the volume weighted average price per share (65 shares make one contract) of the 24,000 call and put options expiring on 5 May."The price of the 24,000 straddle (call and put) indicates a rangebound market after the smart rally from the March to April derivatives expiry," said Kruti Shah, quant analyst at Equirus.Shah expects upside pressure to set in around 24,550–24,600, which coincides with the market high of 21 April — 24,601.7 — after which the index corrected 2.5% to Tuesday's close of 23,995.7.A Nifty derivatives series expires on the last Tuesday of every month. During the course of an expiry month, the NSE offers a weekly index options expiry every Tuesday.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.With Dhurandhar: The Revenge crossing the ₹1,000 crore mark at the domestic box office—becoming the first Hindi film to do so—industry watchers believe India’s theatrical potential could stretch to ₹1,200–1,500 crore for the right film.But unlocking that ceiling is far from easy.Films remain constrained by limited and uneven screen penetration across smaller towns, high ticket pricing that curbs footfalls, and intense competition that shortens exclusive theatrical runs. Add to that the shortage of consistently mass-appealing commercial entertainers, and record-breaking numbers become rare events rather than the norm.“The success of the Dhurandhar franchise clearly highlights the headroom in India’s theatrical market and demonstrates how scale-driven content can unlock exceptional outcomes,” said said Bhuvanesh Mendiratta, managing director, Miraj Entertainment Ltd.The opportunity is significant, but structural challenges persist.Screen penetration remains the biggest constraint.