Hindi
Inkaar fizzles at box office
MUMBAI: Of the three movies released on Friday, the multiplexes had pegged their hopes on Inkaar. Sadly, the Sudhir Mishra-directed movie did not live up to the expectations. The film opened to weak response and failed to improve over the weekend and had Rs 52.5 million to show for its first three days.
The other two releases – Mumbai Mirror and Bandook failed to find audience.
Vishal Bhardwaj‘s Matru Ki Bijla Ka Mandola did not succeed in selling its hackneyed story which built a film around a character artiste leaving little for the lead pair to do. Having opened to a tepid response, it could not improve through its first week run and ended its first week with figures of Rs 313.5 million. The film showed a massive drop over its second weekend and will go down as the first notable flop of 2013.
Paresh Rawal and Rajeev Khandelwal starrer Table No 21 survived week two and added Rs 17.5 million for the week taking its total collection to Rs 112.7 million.
Salman Khan‘s Dabangg 2 collected Rs 27.5 million in its fourth week taking its total to Rs 1.45 billion. The number of screens and the opening week indicated a Rs 1.50 million business but the film may fall short of that mark by few million.
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.
