Hindi
Ashok Kheny to develop entertainment city near Bangalore
BANGALORE: Newly turned producer and infrastructure czar Ashok Kheny today announced that he plans to develop an entertainment city with 20 studios with an investment of Rs 10 billion on a 300 acre land in Sompura near Bangalore.
“There are plans to set up eight studios dedicated for cinema, eight for producing television content, two blue-screens or special effects studios, and two for producing advertisements. The entertainment city will have modern processing labs, animation studio, sound studio, computerized lighting and special effects studio,” said Kheny.
Kheny was speaking during the launch of Prem Kaa Game, a debut Bollywood film by his entertainment company AKK Entertainment. The film stars Arbaaz Khan in the lead male role and introduces Bangalore girl Madhuri Bhattacharya as his co-star. Others among the cast of include Malaika Arora Khan, Tara Sharma, Johny Lever and Rubi Chakravarty.
Kheny who has plans to feature the film across 500-plus screens in India starting this Friday, revealed, “Prem Kaa Game is the second venture of AKK Entertainment, after the successful launch of Sonu Nigaam’s first Kannada solo album last year.”
Bangalore already has a film city project, the first phase of which was launched by The Innovative Group (Innovative), Innovative Film City (IFC), about 2 years ago. The IFC complex is spread over 54 acres of land. The first phase has cost Innovative a shade less than Rs 1 billion. The overall project would entail investments of about Rs 5 billion.
Hindi
Jio Studios, Sanjay Dutt team up to revive Khal Nayak
Rights acquired for new version, format under wraps as remake plans take shape.
MUMBAI: The villain is back and this time, he’s rewriting his own script. Jio Studios has partnered with Three Dimension Motion Pictures and Aspect Entertainment to revive the 1993 cult classic Khal Nayak, marking a fresh chapter for one of Bollywood’s most iconic anti-hero stories. The original film, directed by Subhash Ghai under Mukta Arts, was a commercial and cultural milestone, with Sanjay Dutt’s portrayal of Ballu becoming one of Hindi cinema’s most memorable performances.
Dutt, along with Aksha Kamboj, has now acquired the rights from the original creators, bringing on board Jio Studios and its President Jyoti Deshpande to steer the project creatively.
While the exact format whether remake, sequel, prequel, or a completely new narrative remains undisclosed, the collaboration aims to reinterpret the story for contemporary audiences while retaining the essence that made the original a defining film of the 1990s.
The move taps into a broader industry trend of reviving legacy intellectual property, particularly characters with strong recall value. “Khal Nayak” was notable for pushing mainstream Hindi cinema into morally grey territory at a time when heroes were largely one-dimensional, making Ballu’s character a standout.
The project also marks the film production debut of Aspect Entertainment, signalling a push towards more technology-led storytelling frameworks. Meanwhile, Jio Studios continues to expand its slate, having built a library of over 200 films and series, with more than 60 titles collectively winning 500-plus awards.
For Dutt, the revival is as much personal as it is strategic, a return to a role that reshaped his career. For the industry, it is another sign that nostalgia, when paired with scale, remains a powerful box-office proposition.
Because in Bollywood, some villains never fade, they just wait for the perfect comeback.
