Hindi
Scrabble mulls digitisation of single screens
MUMBAI: Mumbai-based Scrabble Entertainment, which installs digital cinema initiative (DCI) 2K and 4K systems, plans to bring all the single screens in the country to the DCI platform.
The company wants to have 100 screens in the South. Out of this, it is targeting 50 screens in Andhra Pradesh due to the increasing demand for the DCI systems in this state by the exhibitors there.
Talking about his company’s initiative to penetrate into Tier II and Tier III cities of India and bringing the 2K, 4K and 3D revolution to the masses of the country, Scrabble Entertainment CEO Ranjit Thakur said, “We have received a great response from the Southern market and especially in Andhra Pradesh wherein the exhibitors have been proactively showing interest in this DCI technology.”
According to Thakur, there are as many as 12000–18000 screens in India and only 35-45 per cent of these screens have adapted to digital platforms till date. The global market is also noticing a great change in the industry wherein it is expected that Hollywood physical print will not be available to the theatres by 2013 and Bollywood physical print will be obsolete by 2015 – 2016.
In another move to focus more and more on the Southern market, Scrabble has partnered with Shree Padmanabha Theatre in Kerala and is in the process of closing deals with some of the known exhibitors in this region by the end of this year.
The company intends to convert all the multiplex screens to DCI compliant digital screens which will enable exhibitors to showcase alternate and 3D content, enabling them to maximise their revenues with flexible advertisement models.
There is substantial growth potential for this DCI platform being adopted by the exhibitors this year because there is an increase in the release of 3D Hollywood and Bollywood movies this year. Spider-Man 4, Titanic 2, Iron Man 3, Raaz 3 and Dangerous Ishq are some of the films that are set for release in the year.
Hindi
Jio Studios unveils AI-powered Krishna teaser at NAB Show 2026
Global first look of Krishna uses Galleri5 AI pipeline on Azure, Historyverse slate as Jio’s Dhurandhar crosses Rs 3,000cr worldwide.
MUMBAI: Krishna has just dropped a divine teaser and this time the gods are powered by silicon, not just scripture. Jio Studios and Collective Studios’ Historyverse stole the spotlight at the NAB Show 2026 in Las Vegas with the world’s first teaser for their upcoming theatrical feature Krishna, directed by Manu Anand. The big reveal happened during Microsoft’s keynote “Powering Intelligent Media, From AI Experimentation to Real-World Impact,” where the film’s AI-native production pipeline took centre stage alongside Collective Artists Network’s in-house platform, Galleri5.
At the heart of this mythological spectacle lies a fresh cinematic workflow built by Galleri5 on Microsoft Azure’s advanced AI and cloud infrastructure. Forget bolting AI onto traditional VFX or animation, this is an end-to-end, production-grade system woven into every layer: world-building, character creation, shot design and final output. Yet the storytelling remains firmly director-led, emphasising emotional depth, stillness, music and performance rather than pure spectacle. The result? Large-format theatrical cinema rooted in Indian history and culture, but conceived in ways that were simply not possible before.
Collective Artists Network runs Galleri5 natively on Azure, leveraging Microsoft Foundry and cutting-edge AI tools to handle film, episodic and advertising workflows in a secure enterprise environment. Microsoft highlighted Collective as a “Frontier” organisation successfully moving AI from pilot projects to real production-scale deployment in cinema. The technology is also on display at Microsoft’s NAB booth in the West Hall (Booth W1731).
Jio Studios (Media & Content Business, Reliance Industries), president Jyoti Deshpande said the project advances the studio’s mission to take Indian stories global with scale, ambition and authenticity, “With Krishna, we are embracing cutting-edge AI-led filmmaking while democratising these tools to make them more accessible, intuitive and cost-effective for storytellers everywhere.”
Collective Artists Network founder & group CEO Vijay Subramaniam added, “We’re using technology developed in India to carry our culture and history to audiences worldwide at a scale never seen before.”
Microsoft, vice president for telco media & entertainment, gaming Silvia Candiani noted that the media industry has reached an inflection point, “AI is no longer about experimentation but delivering real impact at production scale… By building AI-native creative systems on Microsoft Azure, Collective exemplifies how storytellers can unlock new formats, move faster and realise a true return on intelligence while keeping human creativity at the centre.”
Krishna forms part of Historyverse, Collective Studios’ ambitious slate of history and culture-driven IPs. The slate draws from iconic figures and traditions that shaped the Indian subcontinent, including stories inspired by Kali, Karna and Durga. It builds on the already-released Mahabharat: Ek Dharmayudh series, showing how ancient narratives can be reimagined for modern screens.
Jio Studios, India’s leading content studio and the media and content arm of Reliance Industries, continues its blockbuster run. The studio’s Dhurandhar franchise led by Dhurandhar and Dhurandhar: The Revenge has become the first Indian film series to cross Rs 3,000 crore worldwide. It also delivered three consecutive years of India’s highest-grossing Hindi films: Stree 2 (2024), Dhurandhar (2025) and Dhurandhar: The Revenge (2026). In just eight years, Jio Studios has assembled a library of over 160 films and series, with more than 60 titles winning over 500 awards. Other notable successes include Laapataa Ladies (India’s official Oscar entry 2025), Stree, Article 370, Shaitaan and Mrs.
The NAB unveiling marks another step in Jio Studios and Collective’s push to blend Indian storytelling talent with frontier technology proving that the future of cinema may well be both ancient in spirit and thoroughly modern in execution. For audiences who love epic tales with a fresh twist, Krishna promises to deliver divine drama, this time with a little help from the cloud.
