Hindi
Lions Gate in a five-year deal with Redbox
MUMBAI: Leading independent filmed entertainment studio Lions Gate has, through a five-year deal, agreed to supply rental kiosk company Redbox with movie discs on the same day they are offered for retail sale.
The deal, running from 1 September to 31 August 2014, will help Lions Gate‘s business by getting its DVDs into the market early without hurting its traditional DVD sales. Lions Gate, however, has the option of exiting the deal after two years.
Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. now becomes the latest film studio to agree to supply DVDs at $1-per-night to Redbox. With the deal in place, Redbox, which rents DVDs from more than 17,000 bright-red automated kiosks at grocery stores and other storefronts across the United States, should gross about $200-300 million in revenue over its lifetime, according to Lions Gate President Steve Beeks.
It is estimated that Redbox will pay Lions Gate $158 million over the period of the deal.
Hoping to preserve demand for higher-priced DVD purchases, other Hollywood studios including News Corp‘s 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures have asked Lions Gate to desist supplying DVDs to the kiosk unless it agrees to delay rentals for more than a month after DVDs are put up on the shelves for sale.
Hindi
Kuku enters theatrical cinema with Indian Institute of Zombies
Audio and micro-drama giant launches first Hindi feature film on 8 May.
MUMBAI: Kuku just added brains to its bite because when an audio and micro-drama powerhouse decides to make a zombie comedy, even the undead had better watch their step. Kuku, one of India’s largest digital entertainment companies and the force behind Kuku FM and Kuku TV, has announced its foray into theatrical cinema with its debut Hindi feature film, Indian Institute of Zombies (IIZ). Billed as India’s first campus zombie comedy, the film is set to release in cinemas on 8 May 2026.
Set inside an elite engineering campus, IIZ blends zombie horror, youth comedy and sharp social satire, promising a high-energy big-screen experience. The film stars an ensemble cast including Jessie Lever, Anupriya Goenka, Mohan Kapur, Ranjan Raj, Shivani Paliwal, Shantanu Anam, Rose Sardana, Sachin Kavetham and Tanishq Chaudhary. It has been developed in-house at Kuku, scripted by Hussain Dalal and Abbas Dalal (known for Brahmāstra and Farzi), and directed by Gaganjeet Singh and Alok Dwivedi of Low Gravity Productions.
Kuku, CEO Lal Chand Bisu said, “Kuku has always been obsessed with how India consumes stories. We built scale in personal consumption through Kuku FM and created a new micro-drama category with Kuku TV. Theatres represent the next frontier, and Indian Institute of Zombies marks the first of many, rooted in youth culture, genre innovation and mass Indian tastes.”
Kuku senior vice president Kunj Sanghvi added, “IIZ is a film for everyone who has ever been on a college campus. We observed the success of horror comedies at the box office, the lack of a breakout Indian zombie film, and the insatiable appetite for campus stories across age groups.”
The project also showcases Kuku’s AI-native approach to filmmaking. Artificial intelligence has been deeply integrated into concept structuring, story architecture, scheduling, budgeting and creative iteration not as a gimmick, but as an amplifier to enable faster development cycles and sharper decisions.
With this move, Kuku is evolving from a leader in audio and vertical storytelling into a multi-format entertainment powerhouse, leveraging its deep audience insights and technological edge to create culturally resonant theatrical experiences.
In a content universe where stories are getting shorter and screens smaller, Kuku is boldly going big proving that even in the age of two-minute episodes, there’s still plenty of room for zombies, campus chaos and full-blown cinematic laughter. Indian Institute of Zombies hits theatres on 8 May 2026.
