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BBC Films head David Thompson calls it quits
MUMBAI: UK pubcaster the BBC has announced that BBC Films head David Thompson will be leaving to set up a new independent production company.
His new company will focus on film and television drama and will launch in 2008 with a first look deal with BBC Fiction. Thompson will also continue to executive produce for BBC Films, a slate of existing projects from development through to completion over the coming years.
Thompson leaves his current role in four weeks. BBC Fiction controller Jane Tranter says, “After an amazing 32 years at the BBC, ten years of those as head of films, David Thompson leaves BBC Films with an impressive slate of international and domestic successes and a truly awesome contribution to the film and drama creative community in the UK.
“However, despite leaving the corporation to set up his new venture I am delighted the BBC will continue to benefit not only from his unrivalled years of expertise and experience, but from his infamous tenacity, impeccable taste and sharp wit,” she said.
BBC creative director Alan Yentob says, “Under David Thompson, BBC Films has been responsible for some remarkable British movies and television drama and has consolidated his position at the forefront of British independent filmmaking working in partnership with all the major studios – with BBC Films gathering acclaim internationally.”
Thompson said, “I feel really privileged to have had the chance to work for BBC Films for many years and the opportunity to work with such an amazing array of talent both new and established. I am delighted that my new arrangement with the BBC will enable me to build on these relationships in the years to come. I have also been lucky enough to work with a brilliant team at BBC Films to whom I am greatly indebted. I am particularly proud of the current slate of films in development and production which is our strongest to date. The experience of running BBC Films for a long time – both the creative and the commercial side – gives me confidence in this new venture!”
Thompson has executive produced films like Iris, Billy Elliot, Dirty Pretty Things and Notes On A Scandal. The current film slate – the majority developed by BBC films – includes Revolutionary Road starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet; The Other Boleyn Girl starring Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson and Eric Bana; and The Edge Of Love starring Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, Cillian Murphy and Matthew Rhys.
The slate also includes the recently released Eastern Promises starring Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts directed by David Cronenberg. It looks at the Russian mafia.
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TOISA 2026 shortlists unveiled ahead of Lucknow ceremony
Eighth edition on March 21 honours standout performers from 2025.
MUMBAI: TOISA 2026 just dropped a shortlist so stacked, even the trophy is wondering if it needs a bigger shelf. The Times of India Sports Awards (TOISA) has revealed its 2026 shortlists, setting the stage for the eighth edition on 21 March at The Centrum Hotel in Lucknow. Celebrating achievements from 1 January to 31 December 2025 across more than 45 sports categories, this year’s nominees capture a golden 12 months of Indian sport from ODI and T20 World Cup triumphs to double golds at the Asian Athletics Championships and podium finishes at the World Para Athletics Championships.
For the first time, TOISA opens its doors to the public. Passes are available at timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toisa2025.
Standout shortlists include:
- Badminton (Male): Lakshya Sen, Ayush Shetty, Kiran George, Chirag Shetty, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy
- Badminton (Female): Tanvi Sharma, Unnati Hooda, Tressa Jolly, Gayatri Gopichand
- Cricket (Male): Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Varun Chakaravarthy, KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav
- Cricket (Female): Smriti Mandhana, Pratika Rawal, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Shafali Verma
- Athletics (Male): Neeraj Chopra, Animesh Kujur, Gulveer Singh, Sachin Yadav
- Athletics (Female): Parul Chaudhary, Rupal Chaudhary, Jyothi Yarraji, Pooja Singh
- Shooting (Female): Suruchi Inder Singh, Simranpreet Kaur, Esha Singh, Elavenil Valarivan, Sift Kaur Samra, Manu Bhaker
- Emerging Sportsperson: Tanvi Sharma (badminton), Divya Deshmukh (chess), Shree Charani (cricket), Vaibhav Suryavanshi (cricket)
- Team of the Year: India Women’s Cricket Team, India Men’s Cricket Team, India Men’s Hockey Team, India Men’s & Women’s Kabaddi Teams, India National Shooting Team, India Women’s Cricket Team for the Blind, India Squash Team, India Women’s Ice Hockey Team
Category |
Shortlist 1 |
Shortlist 2 |
Shortlist 3 |
Shortlist 4 |
Shortlist 5 |
Shortlist 6 |
Column 1 |
Column 2 |
Badminton male |
Lakshya Sen |
Ayush Shetty |
Kiran George |
Chirag Shetty |
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy |
|||
Badminton female |
Tanvi Sharma |
Unnati Hooda |
Tressa Jolly |
Gayatri Gopichand |
||||
Cricket male |
Shubman Gill |
Abhishek Sharma |
Ravindra Jadeja |
Varun Chakaravarthy |
KL Rahul |
Kuldeep Yadav |
||
Cricket female |
Smriti Mandhana |
Pratika Rawal |
Jemimah Rodrigues |
Deepti Sharma |
Shafali Verma |
|||
Athletics (Track and field) male |
Neeraj Chopra |
Animesh Kujur |
Gulveer Singh |
Sachin Yadav |
||||
Athletics (Track and field) female |
Parul Chaudhary |
Rupal Chaudhary |
Jyothi Yarraji |
Pooja Singh |
||||
Sportsperson of the year (combined of all sports) |
Divya Deshmukh |
Suruchi Inder Singh |
Smriti Mandhana |
Samrat Rana |
||||
Equestrian |
Ashish Limaye |
Shruti Vora |
Divyakriti Singh |
|||||
Hockey male |
Abhishek Nain |
Harmanpreet Singh |
Jugraj Singh |
Amit Rohidas |
||||
Hockey female |
Udita Duhan |
Navneet Kaur |
Mumtaz Khan |
Rutuja Pisal |
||||
Shooting male |
Samrat Rana |
Ravinder Singh |
Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar |
Anish |
Varun Tomar |
Rudrankksh Patil |
||
Shooting female |
Suruchi Inder Singh |
Simranpreet Kaur |
Esha Singh |
Elavenil Valarivan |
Sift Kaur Samra |
Manu Bhaker |
||
Emerging sportsperson (combined) |
Tanvi Sharma (badminton) |
Divya Deshmukh (chess) |
Shree Charani (cricket) |
Vaibhav Suryavanshi (cricket) |
||||
Coach of the year (male, female combined) |
Amol Majumdar (Cricket) |
Suresh Singh (Shooting) |
Ashok Kumar Rana (Shooting) |
|||||
Chess male |
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa |
Aravindh Chithambaram |
Panneerselvam Iniyan |
Nihal Sarin |
Arjun Erigaisi |
|||
Chess female |
Divya Deshmukh |
Koneru Humpy |
Vaishali Rameshbabu |
Nandhidhaa PV |
||||
Archery male |
Dhiraj Bommadevara |
Abhishek Verma |
Atanu Das |
Prathamesh Fuge |
Rishabh Yadav |
|||
Archery female |
Ankita Bhakat |
Jyothi Surekha |
Deepika Kumari |
Prithika Pradeep |
||||
Billiards/Snooker |
Pankaj Advani |
Aditya Mehta |
Brijesh Damani |
|||||
Weightlifting male |
Rishikanta Singh |
Muthupandi Raja |
Dilbag Singh |
Lovepreet Singh |
||||
Weightlifting female |
Mirabai Chanu |
Mehak Sharma |
Bindyarani Devi |
|||||
Wrestling male |
Sunil Kumar |
Nitesh |
Aman Sehrawat |
Sujeet Kalkal |
||||
Wrestling female |
Antim Panghal |
Manisha |
Nisha Dahiya |
|||||
Squash male |
Abhay Singh |
Saurav Ghosal |
Velavan Senthilkumar |
Mahesh Mangaonkar |
||||
Squash female |
Anahat Singh |
Joshna Chinappa |
Dipika Pallikal Karthik |
Tanvi Khanna |
||||
Table Tennis male |
Manav Thakkar |
Sathiyan Gnanasekaran |
Harmeet Desai |
Payas Jain |
||||
Table Tennis female |
Manika Batra |
Sreeja Akula |
Diya Chitale |
Ayhika Mukherjee |
||||
Team of the Year (combined from all sports) |
India Women’s Cricket Team |
India Men’s Cricket Team |
India Men’s Hockey Team |
India Men’s & Women’s Kabaddi Teams |
India National Shooting Team |
India Women’s Cricket Team for the Blind |
India Squash Team |
India Women’s Ice Hockey Team |
Tennis Male |
Rohan Bopanna |
Yuki Bhambri |
Sumit Nagal |
|||||
Tennis Female |
Ankita Raina |
Vaishnavi Adkar |
Sahaja Yamalapalli |
|||||
Football male |
Subhasish Bose |
Sunil Chhetri |
Vishal Kaith |
Brison Fernandes |
Gurpreet Singh Sandhu |
|||
Football female |
Soumya Guguloth |
Grace Dangmei |
Elangbam Panthoi Chanu |
Manisha Kalyan |
Pyari Xaxa |
|||
Kabaddi |
Sanju Devi |
Pawan Sehrawat |
Ritu Negi |
Arjun Deshwal |
||||
Boxing male |
Sachin Siwach |
Hitesh Gulia |
Pawan Bartwal |
Ankush Panghal |
||||
Boxing female |
Minakshi Hooda |
Jaismine Lamboria |
Nikhat Zareen |
Pooja Rani |
||||
Sailing |
Vishnu Saravanan |
Zahaan Hemrajani |
Abhimanyu Panwar |
Ghashiayah A |
||||
Para Archery male |
Harvinder Singh |
Vivek Chikara |
Rakesh Kumar |
Shyam Sunder Swami |
||||
Para Archery female |
Sheetal Devi |
Payal Nag |
Jyoti Baliyan |
|||||
Para Athlete (Track & Field) male |
Sumit Antil |
Shailesh Kumar |
Sandeep Kumar |
Nishad Kumar |
||||
Para Athlete (Track & Field) female |
Simran Sharma |
Preethi Pal |
Ekta Bhyan |
Deepthi Jeevanji |
||||
Para Badminton male |
Pramod Bhagat |
Sukant Kadam |
Krishna Nagar |
|||||
Para badminton female |
Mandeep Kaur |
Manasi Joshi |
Nithya Sre |
|||||
Para chess |
Vaibhav Gautam |
Samarth J Rao |
Venkata Krishna Karthik K |
|||||
Para judo |
Kapil Parmar |
Avidha Sharma |
Rahul Rajora |
Kokila |
||||
Para shooting male |
Bhat Amir Ahmad |
Nihal Singh |
Sandeep Kumar |
Rudransh Khandelwal |
||||
Para shooting female |
Mona Agarwal |
Avani Lekhara |
Rubi Kumari |
|||||
Para Sportsperson of the year |
Sheetal Devi (Para Archery) |
Praveen Kumar (Para Athletics – High Jump) |
Preethi Pal (Para Athletics – Sprint) |
Sumit Antil (Para Athletics – Javelin) |
||||
Para Coach of the year |
Dr. Satyapal Singh (Para Athletics) |
Subhash Rana (Para Shooting) |
Gaurav Khanna (Para Badminton) |
Sandhya Bharti (Para Taekwondo) |
The jury comprises six of India’s most decorated athletes, Leander Paes, Mithali Raj, Abhinav Bindra, Devendra Jhajharia, Sharath Kamal and PR Sreejesh.
TOISA remains the one night on the Indian sporting calendar judged purely on merit, not popularity. This year’s edition in Lucknow, a state that has steadily become a powerhouse of grassroots talent reflects how excellence now runs deep across every region.
In a year when Indian sport refused to stay in one lane, TOISA isn’t just handing out trophies, it’s framing a portrait of a nation that’s finally sprinting, swinging and shooting its way onto the world stage, one unforgettable moment at a time.
