Hindi
Mumbai Film Festival to kick off on 29 October
MUMBAI: The 11th Mumbai Film Festival (MFF), organised by Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI), is scheduled to take place from 29 October to 5 November in Mumbai.
A Reliance Big Entertainment initiative, MMF has the distinction of being the only international film festival in India to be organised by an independent body of practicing film professionals.
A five-member international jury will include celebrated Hollywood scriptwriter, director and Martin Scorsese‘s long term collaborator Paul Schrader, scriptwriter of Taxi Driver and co-writer of Raging Bull amongst others, and eminent Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, a Golden Lion awardee at the Venice Film Festival and the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.
This year MFF will honour two talented filmmakers from India and abroad. Shashi Kapoor will receive the Indian lifetime achievement award at the inaugural function of the Festival on 29 October while Greek filmmaker Angelopoulos will be presented the international lifetime achievement award in the closing ceremony of the Festival on 5 November.
A retrospective of Angelopoulos‘ films will be organised to salute the maestro. Considered one of the greatest living directors, Angelopoulos has won awards at all major International film festivals.
Divided into five sections (International Competition for the First Feature Films of Directors, World Cinema, Indian Showcase, Dimensions Mumbai and Retrospectives), the Festival offers something to every film buff.
“The festival will showcase the best in contemporary Indian cinema even while it takes a look back at cinema down the ages,” notes renowned film-maker Shyam Benegal, the chair-person of MAMI.
“We also want to encourage young film talent and have a forum for that. Further, our audience will be treated to the works of Shashi Kapoor and Angeloupolous, two film-makers to be honoured with life-time achievement awards. Both have traversed a long path and made a distinctive niche for themselves in world cinema,” he adds.
The 11th MFF will also organise a exhibition to commemorate and celebrate 60 years of Dev Anand‘s Navketan Films. A retrospective from Navketan will be screened to mark the occasion.
Fun Republic, the four-screen multiplex, will be the central venue of the 11th MFF while films taking part in the festival will also be screened at Metro BIG Cinema and other theatres.
Hindi
Dhurandhar 2 hit by YouTube leak amid record box office run
Cam-rip surfaces online but blockbuster streak continues at record pace
MUMBAI: It has been a dramatic week for Dhurandhar: The Revenge. Even as the espionage thriller smashes box office records, a piracy scare briefly threatened to steal its thunder after a full-length version surfaced on YouTube.
The leak emerged on March 30 via a channel titled “A2z movie”, which uploaded what appeared to be a cam-recorded print of the film. Clocking in at nearly three hours and 49 minutes, the footage was reportedly blurry but complete enough to spark spoilers and fan outrage online.
Soon after, users on X began flagging the issue, explicitly naming the “A2z movie” channel in their posts while tagging the film’s makers and urging swift legal action. Fans of director Aditya Dhar and lead star Ranveer Singh were particularly vocal, helping the issue gain rapid traction.
Within hours, the video was taken down, likely through a mix of platform detection systems and intervention by producers Jio Studios and B62 Studios.
Despite the leak, the film’s theatrical run remains virtually unshaken. As of March 31, the sequel has raked in an estimated Rs 872.17 crore net in India, with worldwide collections soaring to Rs 1,392.23 crore. Its Hindi opening day alone brought in Rs 102.55 crore, setting a new benchmark.
In a notable milestone, the film has matched Pushpa 2 as the fastest Indian release to cross the Rs 1,000 crore mark globally, achieving the feat in just seven days.
Interestingly, the version leaked online is believed to be an earlier cut. Midway through its theatrical run, the makers issued revised prints after eagle-eyed viewers spotted a fleeting editing error involving a cameraman’s reflection. The corrected version now plays across cinemas, adding an unusual twist to the film’s release journey.
Directed by Aditya Dhar, the high-stakes sequel stars Ranveer Singh alongside Sanjay Dutt, R. Madhavan, Arjun Rampal and Sara Arjun. The film has drawn praise for its scale and action sequences, though some critics have pointed to its intense violence and layered political themes.
For now, piracy may have made noise, but it has not slowed the juggernaut. If anything, the episode underlines the film’s cultural grip, proving that even a leak cannot derail a box office storm already in full force.
