Early this month, Mollywood was hit by a sudden shock when multiplex giant PVR-INOX pulled out Malayalam films from screens across the country. Though a temporary truce has been reached, the issue may crop up again. TNIE Explainer looks at the stand-off in detail. What is the issue? A dispute over the virtual print fee (VPF) between the leading cinema chain PVR-INOX and the Kerala Film Producers Association over the high VPF hit the headlines when PVR suddenly decided to stop the screening of Ma

Director Shawn Levy, who is awaiting the release of his upcoming much-anticipated film Deadpool & Wolverine starring Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds in lead roles, said in a recent interview that fans of the characters don't need to do homework or have prior knowledge of the MCU to enjoy his latest film. I was a good student in school. Ill do my homework as an adult. But I am definitely not looking to do homework when I go to the movies, Levy told the Associated Press . Understanding that MCU has

Akshay Kumar, Taapsee Pannu, Vaani Kapoor and Fardeen Khan-starrer Khel Khel Mein is all set to hit theatres on September 06. The film is directed by Mudassar Aziz, who has previously helmed Happy Bhag Jayegi (2016) and Pati Patni Aur Woh (2019). Ammy Virk, Pragya Jaiswal and Aditya Seal also star in key roles in the upcoming film. Khel Khel Mein will see Akshay reunite with Taapsee after Mission Mangal (2019). He has previously worked with Vaani in Bell Bottom (2021). The film will also mark th

Prashanth Neel's latest venture, Salaar Part 1: Ceasefire, produced under the Hombale Films banner, enjoyed a successful run at the box office. Starring Prabhas and Prithviraj Sukumaran in lead roles, the film is now extensively streamed by audiences through OTT platforms. While Salaar Part 1 enjoyed critical and commercial acclaim alike, speculations have been rife about the fate of its sequel, Salaar Part 2: Shouryaanga Parva. Many reports have been suggesting that the project has been put on

The makers of Kalki 2898 AD, starring an ensemble cast including Prabhas, Deepika Padukone, Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan and Disha Patani, have officially set a release date for the film. The Nag Ashwin directorial is now scheduled to be released in theatres worldwide on June 27. Kalki 2898 AD is produced by Chalasani Aswini Dutt, Swapna Dutt and Priyanka Dutt under the Vyjayanthi Movies banner. The film is reportedly a science-fiction that blends the genres of mythology and time travel to cre

Rakshit Shetty, returning to the directors chair with his next film, Richard Anthony, after a hiatus, is set to fully shift base to Udupi from May 1. Reason, the director, who is making a spin-off from his own directorial debut, Ulidavaru Kandanthe (2014) has planned to shoot his upcoming film entirely in the western coastal belt. Speaking to the media during the elections and at the voting booth, Rakshit discussed the projects status and his reasons for choosing Udupi, where he will also have h

Kantara Chapter 1, the highly anticipated project spearheaded by actor and director Rishab Shetty, has officially commenced shooting. Backed by Vijay Kiragandur-led production house Hombale Films, along with Chaluve Gowda and their dedicated team, the project is all set to unfold on a big scale. While full-fledged shooting is scheduled to commence this week, with the first phase planned for 20 days, it has come to light that the production team will temporarily set up camp in Kundapura. Even tho

Director-actor Sundar C is a simple man. Despite being in the industry for almost 30 years, he still uses his letter pad to write scripts, prefers staying at home to heading out, and likes to stay in the present. On the contrary, his films have often been anything unlike him larger than life and commercially entertaining. Then came along the Aranmanai franchise. The horror-comedy films spanned over a decade and hold a special place in the filmmakers heart. I see this franchise as my careers fou

NEW DELHI: Actor Sonu Sood on Sunday said he had retrieved his account on the popular messaging app WhatsApp after 61 hours. The actor, who first flagged the issue on social media on Friday, shared the update on his official X page. Finally retrieved my WhatsApp. Just 9483 messages in 61 hours. Thanks, Sood wrote. He had also tagged the official page of WhatsApp on his Instagram Stories on Saturday. What's up. WhatsApp? Wake up!! Thousands of needy people must be desperately trying to reach out

NEW DELHI: Actor Samantha Ruth Prabhu on Sunday announced her new Telugu film titled Bangaram on the occasion of her 37th birthday. The update comes months after The Family Man 2 star said she will return to work after a seven-month hiatus following her myositis diagnosis in 2022. Bangaram also marks her production debut under her banner, Tralala Moving Pictures. Samantha shared the title announcement teaser of the upcoming film on her Instagram page. Not everything has to glitter to be golden.

NEW DELHI: The shooting of Identity, starring Tovino Thomas and Trisha Krishnan, is nearing completion. Akhil Paul is directing the Malayalam crime thriller with Anas Khan. The director duo previously collaborated on 2020's Forensic, which also featured Tovino. In an Instagram post on Saturday, Paul said the cast and crew had wrapped the second schedule of Identity in Erode, Tamil Nadu. Nailed down another schedule @Erode. Filmed some core sequences involving fire, dust and vehicles over a beaut

NEW DELHI: National Award-winning film 777 Charlie is set to be released in Japan on June 28, the makers have announced. Directed by Kiranraj K and starring Rakshit Shetty, 777 Charlie won the best National Film Award for the best Kannada film last year. Shetty has also backed the movie via his production house Paramvah Studios. According to the banner, the film will be distributed in Japan by Shochiku Studios, the outlet behind Seijiro Koyama's Hachiko Monogatari (1987), which inspired the 2009

The premise of Kevin Macdonalds High & Low-John Galliano lends itself well to the documentary format, given that it charts the zenith and nadir of the career of a famous fashion designer. The highs are insane, and the lows plummet to profound depths. The first half of the film captures Gallianos rise from the boutiques of London to the haute-couture scene in France. A few passages in the first half stand out, thanks to the nuggets of information Kevin presents. One is about how Galliano was insp

Her revolver fastened and punches in place, Prachi Desai is all geared up as she returns to the screen after two years. Interestingly, she has chosen to disrupt the quiet with Silence 2: The Night Owl Bar Shootout, the sequel to her 2021 film Silence Can You Hear It? As she reprises her role as Inspector Sanjana Bhatia, the actor reveals that the stakes in the new installment are higher with multiple murders posing complex problems for the team led by Manoj Bajpayees ACP Avinash. Everyone was ce

Nothing in Bollywood says larger-than-life quite like the films of Sanjay Leela Bhansali. They are grand, opulent and rich, both in colour and content. It is, therefore, not surprising for the director to announce his digital debut with equal, if not greater, splendour. The trailer of Heeramandi-The Diamond Bazaar, which releases on Netflix on May 1, is proof. Retelling the story of courtesans in pre-Independent India, and how they contributed to the countrys freedom struggle, the series brings

CHENNAI : While we almost appreciate debut director R Manivarman for not wasting time in an investigative thriller with a romantic track, he surprises us by doing just that towards the second half of the film. The romance involves an alleged murder accused, and this tangent pulls the focus away from the missing persons case that Oru Nodi opens with. This has been the most predominant shortcoming of the film. It rebelliously wishes to stand out, which it does in some parts, without realising that

CHENNAI : Indian mass masala is perhaps the only genre in the world that gets away with chilling violence and still gets labelled as a family entertainer. While we are mostly used to violence in such filmsand have even learned to enjoy them to an extentRathnam manages to out-gore even our most violent commercial film. Rathnam begins with a bandit trio who topple a bus and then steal money and jewels from their half-conscious victims. Devoid of patience and empathy, these criminals even slash the

Lily Gladstone and Bowen Yang will be seen sharing screen space in Bleecker Street and Shivhans Pictures remake of Ang Lees 1993 romantic comedy The Wedding Banquet from director Andrew Ahn. The project will also feature Kelly Marie Tran, Oscar-winner Yuh-jung Youn and Joan Chen. Kelly Marie Tran will play Gladstones romantic partner. The filming will begin in Vancouver in May and will follow the story of the original film. Two best friends set up a fake wedding so that one may get a Green Card

Bella Ramsay, Louis Partridge and Ruby Stokes are set to headline a new film titled Sunny Dancer. George Jaques directs his sophomore feature film, which is touted to be a coming-of-age drama. According to the logline, the film follows Ivy (Ramsey), a teenager in remission from cancer, whose gloriously outspoken mum and well-intentioned dad insist she attend Children Run Free Camp, a summer retreat for young adults affected by cancer. As she is reluctantly dragged through the camp experience, sh

Singer-actor Nick Jonas upcoming film The Good Half has been brought by Utopia Distribution and it will be releasing on July 25. The comedy-drama premiered on June 2023 at the Tribeca Festival seeking distribution. Nick Jonas plays Renn Wheeland, a writer who travels to Cleveland for his mothers funeral. The official logline of the film reads, Renn Wheeland returns home to Cleveland, Ohio, for his moms funeral. Once there, he forges new relationships while healing old ones, before confronting hi

Earlier, we reported about the animation film The King of Kings being in the works at Mofac Animation. Now, Kenneth Branagh and Uma Thurman have signed on to the film as the voice cast of Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine Dickens, respectively. The film takes inspiration from Charles Dickens short story The Life of Our Lord, published years following the authors demise. It revolves around Dickens and his youngest son Walters (Roman Griffin Davis) as they become engrossed in the tale of Jesu

Earlier, we reported that AR Murugadoss is directing the twenty third film of Sivakarthikeyan, with Rukmini Vasanth as its female lead. The latest development is that Malayalam actor Biju Menon is part of the film. The film, tentatively titled SK 23, reunites Maan Karate co-writer Murugadoss and star Sivakarthikeyan, and marks the first time the former is directing the latter. Production on the film is underway. It has been 14 years since Biju Menons last Tamil film, Porkkalam. His last Malayala

The makers of The Judgement: See You in Court, starring Crazy Star Ravichandran in a prominent role, wrapped up its production. Interestingly, they completed the last scene of the film on Dr. Rajkumars birth anniversary. Produced under the banner of G9 Communication Media and Entertainment, the films team spoke about it after its production got over. While the producers, speaking to a certain section of the media, expressed their gratitude to the team, director Gururaj Kulkarni talked about The

BENGALURU: The excitement surrounding the Rakshit Shetty starrer 777 Charlie goes up to another level with its director Kiranraj ks recent meeting with Bollywood stalwart John Abraham. The actor-producer, who has openly expressed his fondness for the film, produced by Paramvah Studios, extended an invitation to Kiranraj to Mumbai recently, leading to a meeting filled with discussions about the film and beyond. Kiranraj, equally enamoured by this interaction, now contemplates a potential collabor

Netflix announced on Thursday that Jonathan Bailey, Hayley Atwell and Eddie Marsan have been added to the cast of the third season of Heartstopper. They join the previously announced Darragh Hand. The series is headlined by Kit Connor and Joe Locke as Nick Nelson and Charlie Spring, respectively. Netflix also revealed that Atwell will essay Nick's aunt Diane who gives him some tough advice about his relationship with Charlie, on their Summer trip to Menorca. Geoff, Charlie's straightforward and

MUMBAI: A lookout circular (LOC) was issued on Friday against Anmol Bishnoi, the younger brother of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, in connection with the firing outside actor Salman Khan's house in Mumbai's Bandra on April 14, a police official said. The official also said police is likely to take custody of Lawrence Bishnoi, who is currently lodged in a jail in Sabarmati in Gujarat, and was also contemplating invoking the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in the ca

Vysakh Reetha, an aspiring filmmaker, has been omnipresent in all of director Krishands filmsincluding 'Aavasavyuham: The Arbit' Documentation of 'An Amphibian Hunt' (2022) and 'Purusha Pretham' (2023)as the chief associate director. Now, with the upcoming Malayalam web series set to be streamed on SonyLIV, 'Sambhava Vivaranam Naalara Sangham' (The Chronicles Of The 4.5 Gang), Vysakh has stepped into the role of an independent showrunner. Hailing from Trivandrum, Vysakhs journey into the world o

Actors Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ralph Fiennes have joined the cast of 28 Years Later, the sequel to the 2002 zombie hit '28 Days Later'. Filmmakers Danny Boyle and Alex Garland are reuniting for the franchise after 17 years. '28 Days Later' (2002) centered on a bicycle courier, played by Cillian Murphy, who wakes from a coma to discover the world had been overrun with zombies following the outbreak of a virus. The film was a box office success and led to a standalone sequel '28 Week

Prime Video announced the release date of its upcoming documentary 'Women of My Billion' (WOMB). The film, co-produced by Priyanka Chopra Jonas, is all set to stream on the platform on May 3. 'Women of My Billion', directed by Ajitesh Sharma, follows the journey of Srishti Bakshi, as she embarked on a walking pilgrimage from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. A journey spanning 3,800 kms over 240 days, with a mission to find and share stories about women, their struggles, dreams, rights, and their wins, ag