English Entertainment
Bollywood finds a new found fan in Kelly Rowland
MUMBAI: Indian music and Indian cinema has been receiving worldwide recognition lately with more and more Indian artists carving a niche for themselves on the international scene. Hence, it is no surprise that former Destiny’s Child and global singing sensation Kelly Rowland is all praises for Bollywood and Punjabi music in particular. The new judge of The X Factor USA, which currently airs on Big CBS Love, recently spoke about ‘Bhangra’ and ‘desi’ movies amongst other things.
On the topic of Bollywood movies, the singer-turned-actress surprisingly revealed, “I watch Bollywood films, I mean I love Bollywood films! They are some of the best films. How detailed they are, how much fun they are, how much colour there is and how there’s so much going on, it’s just really entertaining.” On plans of being a part of the Indian film industry in the near future? To this the Commando singer excitedly replied, “That would be very cool!”
Next up, she talked about her area of expertise – music – and revealed that Punjabi music has grown on her. Commenting on the Punjabi tracks she had recently heard she added, “Across the board it’s like jamming. If I hear this, I will start dancing, that’s fun! I don’t know what the lyrics say but whatever it is it has a nice little swing to it. I love the beats in between”, she said.
By the looks of it Indian fans might just catch a Honey Singh style chart topper from the Grammy- Award winning artist. Kelly will be the new judge on The X Factor USA season 3, every weekend exclusively on Big CBS Love premiering on 21 September every Saturday and Sunday at 10:00 pm.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
