Hindi
Akira promises but fails in execution
MUMBAI: Akira ventures into the woman-oriented action genre where few have dared to tread. There have only been a few films where a woman lawperson takes on the underworld, with Dimple Kapadia, Vijayashanti, Rani Mukerjee et al. The trend has been more popular with the southern filmmakers.
In Akira, the remake of a Tamil film, Mouna Guru, there is a sort of role reversal in that, Sonakshi Sinha, playing the protagonist, Akira, gets into a situation where she is pitted against a bunch of corrupt, unscrupulous policemen led by Anurag Kashyap.
Kashyap is corrupt to the core and does all the unlawful things he is actually supposed to stop. He drinks while on duty, smokes weed and randomly kills footpath dwellers with his rash driving. He is the typical South brand of evil film baddie. Kashyap is smart enough not to dirty his own hands and makes the three stooges under his command in the force pull the trigger when needed.
Sonakshi is introduced in the film with the meaning of her name, Akira is derived from Sanskrit and mostly used as a girl’s name in Indian languages. The word denotes Graceful Strength. And, to live up to her given name, she is enrolled into a martial art institution by her deaf and mute schoolteacher father, Atul Kulkarni.
A mentally tough Sonakshi moves to Mumbai where her brother works. Seeing that her bhabhi is not comfortable with her presence, Akira decides to stay at the school hostel. Here, as happens in all schools in films, she meets with a hostile group which likes to torment and rag freshers. Having had enough of the bunch, Akira takes them on. This part consumes unnecessary footage in the film just to demonstrate Sonakshi’s prowess with martial arts and toughness.. And that she won’t take injustice.
Kashyap and his cronies come across a big cache of money from the car of an accident victim. Their greed takes over and instead of taking the dazed accident victim to a hospital, Kashyap speeds up his demise by hitting him with a jack. So far so good since Kashyap is adept at wiping his footprints. But, unknown to him, his paramour shoots a video of Kashyap discussing the crime with his stooges.
The handycam is stolen and finally ends up at the door of the hostel room of Sonakshi. The typical south brand scheming and plotting start from here as Sonakshi goes through all sorts of torture and deterrents to keep her from leaking the content of the video. She is consigned to a mental asylum while her family as well as friends are convinced that she has lost her sanity. So much so that Sonakshi is totally isolated, with just about everybody believing in her traits and ailment.
As the film deals with all this drama, it loses its main purpose of showing a strong woman protagonist. It borrows heavily from old films when it comes to props and ploys as per the convenience of the next scene. Even her martial arts background becomes secondary and gets very limited exposure in the climax.
Akira has a grossly depressing story. It is a crime story the likes of which you watch on crime-based TV serials on a regular basis, but stretched beyond comfort with not an iota of relief from the negativity. Direction has an all-South touch and is predictable, the director AR Murugadoss’ record of Hindi hits, Ghajini and Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty besides over a dozen South films, notwithstanding. Songs have no place in the film and, thankfully, they are avoided. Dialogue is routine. Editing is weak.
Sonakshi Sinha does better than her previous films; this being an author backed role. Anurag Kashyap does not have to do much to look evil, otherwise, he does okay. Konkona Sen Sharma is good in a small role. Rest just fill the bill.
Akira has had a poor opening and the word of mouth is not expected to help it pick up either.
Producer: AR Murugadoss.
Director: AR Murugadoss.
Cast: Sonakshi Sinha, Anurag Kashyap, Konkona Sen Sharma, Amit Sadh, Atul Kulkarni.
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.
