Hindi
Shorgul……About nothing….
MUMBAI: Providing entertainment to the high priced admission rates paying audience seems to be no more the reason why many producers/ directors make films. That too in a country where each state charges entertainment tax at whim, and, which consists of a major portion of the admission rates.
Shorgul is another film that decides to coincide its content with the incidents that happened in a particular state, UP in this case, driven by communal politics. So the content is the routine say, a piece of local news from any vernacular media like a Hindu- Muslim boy girl romance, statue of a deity found in Muslim’s farm, just about anything that can tilt the balance of harmony between communities. In the process, the film also touches some of the more controversial events of the state.
A Hindu boy Anirudh Dave and a Muslim girl, SuhaGezen, are neighbours growing together. As they mature, Anirudh has fallen in love with Suha but it is one-sided and Suha treats this just as a friendship and she is soon to be engaged to be married to a Muslim boy, HitenTejwani.
The town has a gallery of politicians named so as to bear close resemblance to real life active politicians of UP. Jimmy Sherrill is a Hindu politician (modelled after SangeetSom) and member of the assembly. He is the kind armed with fuel and always on a lookout for fire to add to it. On the other side is Narendra Jha (representing Azam Khan). While, there is also a caricature of Amar Singh, Sanjay Suri plays the UP CM MIthilesh Yadav kind of role. While Jimmy and Jha ferment trouble using community card, there is also a saner, balancing factor in town in Ashutosh Rana, father of the lovelorn Hindu boy, Anirudh, who is respected by both the communities.
This is about as original as the makers get for rest of the events loosely woven together in the name of a political drama.The end is, as is the norm in such a film, about sermonizing, blaming mainly the politicians for muddying up the peace between the two communities. The film has a horde of talented actors in the cast and even as all of them do well, Ashutosh and Hiten stand out.
As for the commercial for Shorgul, the film promises none.
Producers: Swatantra Vijay Singh, Vyas Verma.
Directors: Pranav Kumar Singh, Jitentra Tiwari.
Cast: Jimmy Shergill, Ashutosh Rana, Narendra Jha, Anirudh Dave, HitenTejwani, Sanjay Suri, Eijaz Khan, SuhaGezen, Neetu Pandey, Hrishitaa Bhatt, Jay Shanker Pandey.
Hindi
Jio Studios, Sanjay Dutt team up to revive Khal Nayak
Rights acquired for new version, format under wraps as remake plans take shape.
MUMBAI: The villain is back and this time, he’s rewriting his own script. Jio Studios has partnered with Three Dimension Motion Pictures and Aspect Entertainment to revive the 1993 cult classic Khal Nayak, marking a fresh chapter for one of Bollywood’s most iconic anti-hero stories. The original film, directed by Subhash Ghai under Mukta Arts, was a commercial and cultural milestone, with Sanjay Dutt’s portrayal of Ballu becoming one of Hindi cinema’s most memorable performances.
Dutt, along with Aksha Kamboj, has now acquired the rights from the original creators, bringing on board Jio Studios and its President Jyoti Deshpande to steer the project creatively.
While the exact format whether remake, sequel, prequel, or a completely new narrative remains undisclosed, the collaboration aims to reinterpret the story for contemporary audiences while retaining the essence that made the original a defining film of the 1990s.
The move taps into a broader industry trend of reviving legacy intellectual property, particularly characters with strong recall value. “Khal Nayak” was notable for pushing mainstream Hindi cinema into morally grey territory at a time when heroes were largely one-dimensional, making Ballu’s character a standout.
The project also marks the film production debut of Aspect Entertainment, signalling a push towards more technology-led storytelling frameworks. Meanwhile, Jio Studios continues to expand its slate, having built a library of over 200 films and series, with more than 60 titles collectively winning 500-plus awards.
For Dutt, the revival is as much personal as it is strategic, a return to a role that reshaped his career. For the industry, it is another sign that nostalgia, when paired with scale, remains a powerful box-office proposition.
Because in Bollywood, some villains never fade, they just wait for the perfect comeback.
