Hindi
Madras HC stays Aarakshan release
NEW MUMBAI: Even as the Madras High Court today directed an interim stay of Prakash Jha‘s Aarakshan for non-payment of dues, the film is to be screened before the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Commission Chairman P L Punia said this here today after meeting Central Board of Film Certification Chairperson Leela Samson.
In Chennai, the stay by Justice Periyakaruppiah was granted after a civil suit was filed by Madhu Gupta and CG Photo Ltd for recovery of Rs 37.5 million in unpaid dues.
The petitioners had accused the filmmaker of not paying their dues and sought a stay on the release of the movie slated to be released on 12 August. The producer has not paid the money despite promise and the cheques given by him were reportedly dishonoured.
The film stars megastar Amitabh Bachchan with Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, Manoj Bajpayee and Prateik Babbar.
In Delhi, Punia said the film would be screened for the Commission, based on the outcome of the case in the Bombay High Court tomorrow. The commission wants to examine whether the film violates the provisions of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act.
Samson said that the Board was discussing all the issues with the Commission, but refused to divulge more since the matter was sub judice.
“The Commission has every right to be concerned about a matter of importance in the country. It has never said it wanted to interfere,” Samson said, adding, “We do not have any issue in discussing issues with it.”
Samson added, “The director Jha is right in saying that he won‘t be able to screen the movie for all. He‘s shown it to the right people, that is the CBFC.”
The CBFC passed the film without cuts with a U/A certificate as it felt the film was thought provoking. The certificate was awarded after an examining committee, set up with representatives from the Dalit, OBC, SC and ST community, reviewed the movie.
Pro-reservationists are up in arms against the film, saying it is anti-Dalit. However, Jha has repeatedly said at press meets that the film is only dealing with the commercialisation of education by institutions taking advantage of reservation. He has not spoken against reservation, which he and Bachchan said is a fact of life since the Supreme Court had upheld it.
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.
