Hindi
Third Eye Asian Film fest from 22 December
MUMBAI: The PL Deshpande Maharashtra Kala Academy has joined hands with Asian Film Foundation to host the 10th Third Eye Asian Film Festival in Mumbai from 22-29 December.
The Festival will open with the premiere of celebrated Chinese filmmaker Xiaoshuai Wang‘s 11 Flowers. The centerpiece of the festival will be Asghar Farahadi‘s A Separation while the closing film would be director Ketan Mehta‘s latest film Ranga Rasiya.
According to Festival director Sudhir Nandgaonkar, over 400 entries have been received from different Asian Countries including Iran, China, Japan, Israel, Philippines and Indonesia. Out of these, 100 feature films and 50 short films will be shown during the week-long festival.
Films will be screened under the sections-Spectrum Asia, First/Second Film Competition, Short Film Competition, Focus on one Asian country and Retrospective.
While Ravindra Natya Mandir, at Prabhadevi, will be the main venue for the festival, selected films would also be shown in Thane.
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.
