Hindi
Bhardwaj ready to release film on adultery on 25 June
NEW DELHI: The experimental ‘Mr Singh Mrs Mehta’, written and directed by Pravesh Bhardwaj, is to be strategically released on 25 June at just around 20 screens and will later be taken to other parts of the country.
Based in London, the film stars Prashant Narayanan with British-Indian stars Aruna Shields, Lucy Hassan and Naved Aslam. It is produced by Tutu Sharma and Manu S Kumaran.
The film is a mature story of adultery, attempting to show how circumstances are often responsible for what married couples do. When Ashwin Mehta and Neera Singh find that their spouses are having an affair, they find comfort in their growing friendship even as they resolve not to be like their unfaithful mates.
Bhardwaj said he was inspired by agony aunt columns in newspapers to conceive this story. While the film had only four main characters, painting assumes an important role in the second half.
Bhardwaj, who had earlier made the ‘Shaheen’ serial for television, denied that the film had been made with non-resident Indians in mind and stressed that the choice of London was not for this reason.
He denied any problems with the Central Board of Film Certification which had cleared the film with an ‘Adults only’ certificate. However, he admitted that the process of censorship had taken a long time, primarily because of some steamy scenes between Narayanan and Shields.
Narayanan in an interview later denied any titillating scenes and said that kissing scenes were very normal in films today.
Stating that the film was shot in Wales, he said he was a director’s actor and it was the heroines who had made him feel comfortable on the sets.
Asked why he had acted in a very small number of films, he said an actor has to be meticulous. He had recently acted in an international production ‘Shadows of Time’ and had also acted in films like ‘White Elephant’, and ‘Waisa bhi hota hai’.
He also said he was a writer and was presently writing the scripts for some films including one related to badminton – for which he had attained national championship status – and had his own band of musicians. In fact, he often made suggestions to music directors in all his films.
Hindi
Dhurandhar 2 hit by YouTube leak amid record box office run
Cam-rip surfaces online but blockbuster streak continues at record pace
MUMBAI: It has been a dramatic week for Dhurandhar: The Revenge. Even as the espionage thriller smashes box office records, a piracy scare briefly threatened to steal its thunder after a full-length version surfaced on YouTube.
The leak emerged on March 30 via a channel titled “A2z movie”, which uploaded what appeared to be a cam-recorded print of the film. Clocking in at nearly three hours and 49 minutes, the footage was reportedly blurry but complete enough to spark spoilers and fan outrage online.
Soon after, users on X began flagging the issue, explicitly naming the “A2z movie” channel in their posts while tagging the film’s makers and urging swift legal action. Fans of director Aditya Dhar and lead star Ranveer Singh were particularly vocal, helping the issue gain rapid traction.
Within hours, the video was taken down, likely through a mix of platform detection systems and intervention by producers Jio Studios and B62 Studios.
Despite the leak, the film’s theatrical run remains virtually unshaken. As of March 31, the sequel has raked in an estimated Rs 872.17 crore net in India, with worldwide collections soaring to Rs 1,392.23 crore. Its Hindi opening day alone brought in Rs 102.55 crore, setting a new benchmark.
In a notable milestone, the film has matched Pushpa 2 as the fastest Indian release to cross the Rs 1,000 crore mark globally, achieving the feat in just seven days.
Interestingly, the version leaked online is believed to be an earlier cut. Midway through its theatrical run, the makers issued revised prints after eagle-eyed viewers spotted a fleeting editing error involving a cameraman’s reflection. The corrected version now plays across cinemas, adding an unusual twist to the film’s release journey.
Directed by Aditya Dhar, the high-stakes sequel stars Ranveer Singh alongside Sanjay Dutt, R. Madhavan, Arjun Rampal and Sara Arjun. The film has drawn praise for its scale and action sequences, though some critics have pointed to its intense violence and layered political themes.
For now, piracy may have made noise, but it has not slowed the juggernaut. If anything, the episode underlines the film’s cultural grip, proving that even a leak cannot derail a box office storm already in full force.
