Hindi
Darshan bail denial puts film producers under pressure
BANGALORE: The first additional chief metropolitan magistrate rejected Sandalwood actor Darshan’s bail application, putting in suspense the fate of a number of Kannada film projects in various stages of completion and frustrating the produces who have invested big bucks on the saleability of the star.
Also, in case the ‘Challenging Star’ (as Darshan is known in Sandalwaood) is put behind bars, the disgrace would tarnish his image and influence cine goers and, hence, the fate of the films.
The Sessions court judge R.B. Budihal rejected the bail plea of Darshan, arrested on September 9 for beating up his wife Vijayalakshmi and threatening to murder her and the couple‘s three-year-old son, on the public prosecuter’s contention that Darshan could bring pressure on the complainant, even on witnesses and tamper with evidence.
Darshan’s lawyers will have to move the court for bail under Section 439 of the Criminal Procedure Code, once they get certified copies from the court,In the meantime, the doctors attending on Darshan at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases announced that the actor was fit and ready for discharge by Wednesday afternoon.
Besides the four film projects mentioned earlier – ‘Kranthiveera Sangoli Rayanna’; ‘Virat’, ‘Chingari’ and ‘Sarathi’ – some of the other projects include ‘Bul Bul’ which is at the pre-production stage. Also, before his arrest a number of producers were in the queue, waiting to make films with Darshan, since he was one of the few bankable actors in Kannada with a tremendous fan support.
Earlier, the Kannada Film Producers Association (KFPA) had withdrawn the ban on Darshan’s co-star Nikitha Thukral, because of the pressure from the late Dr. Rajkumar’s family – his three sons who are also actors and Dr. Rajkuma’s wife. The Rajkumar family, known as the first family of Sandalwood, wields considerable power in Kannada filmdom as well as within the state.
The KFPA had banned Thukral for a period of three years from acting in Kannada films based on Darshan’s wife Vijaylakshmi’s complaint. Vijalakshmi held Thukral for the marital discord in her life as the ‘other woman’ in her husband’s life. Thukral has denied any relationship with Darshan other than a professional one as a co-star.
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.
