Hindi
NFDC to trim staff in move to turn profitable
NEW DELHI: The National Film Development Corporation, which expects to turn into a profit-making body by 2012-13, hopes to reduce its manpower by 30 employees in the near future in a move to cut costs.
The Corporation had in December 2008 reduced its manpower to 139, after offering Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) to 70 employees by paying them Rs 70 million. This has resulted in an annual saving of Rs 20 million.
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has given the NFDC a grant-in-aid of Rs 120 million for VRS.
Launched in May 1975 with a corpus of Rs 30 million in 300,000 equity shares of Rs 100 each, NFDC got an additional share capital of Rs 35 million when the Film Finance Corporation and the Indian Motion Pictures Export Corporation were merged into it in 1980.
NFDC presently has an authorised capital of Rs 140 million and a paid-up capital of Rs 139.9 million. It has recently been given a fresh equity of Rs 212.3 million and has been allowed conversion of its working capital into equity.
Ministry sources also told indiantelevision.com that the interest on Rs 57.4 million on working capital loan has been waived. It has also been given Rs 200 million as preferential equity for restoration and digitisation of NFDC films, and a sum of Rs 300 million has been set aside in the Eleventh Plan for production of films in various regional languages.
The government released Rs 65 million in 2008-09 and a provision of Rs 65 million has been made for 2009-10 for financing films in regional languages.
The NFDC had in 1992 also launched a trust in the name of Cine Artistes Welfare Fund of India with a corpus of Rs 48.9 million, which presently stands at Rs 63.6 million. Just under 1000 cine artistes have availed pension and other benefits and around 450 are doing so at present.
NFDC has so far produced or financed over 300 films which include 17 international co-productions, the most prominent being ‘Gandhi’ which won eight Oscars including one for Indian costume designer Bhanu Athaiya.
The NFDC showed a loss of Rs 92.549 million in 2003-04, which came down to Rs 38.674 million a year later. The Corporation showed profit of Rs 24.815 million in 2005-06 but again ran into a loss at Rs 50.56 million and Rs 22.76 million in 2006-07 and 2007-08 respectively.
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.
