Hindi
Bubble Gum: An 80s film released in 2011
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Producer: Sushma Kaul |
MUMBAI: Bubble Gum is about a troubled teenager, his perceived insecurities, infatuation, rivalry and, finally, his coming of age. With growing star prices, different genres are being tried along with some which don‘t easily fit a genre.
Bubble Gum is about a middle class housing society in 1980s Jamshedpur when there was no net or cell phone and life‘s aspirations were simpler and pace leisurely.
The society has its bunch of young boys and girls, one of whom is Delzad Hiwale, a 14-year-old lad. Delzad has a few issues but he has found a purpose in his lonely life in a 13-year-old girl, Apoorva Arora, who has shifted to the same complex. He has fallen in love. However, as at home, here too he has a hurdle to face.
At home Delzad feels neglected since his older brother, who is deaf and mute, is sent away to a hostel, for such students get more attention while he is just taken for granted for being normal. Similarly, in his pursuit of love too he has a competitor with all the traits of a ‘80s film villain in Suraj Kumar, a year older than him. The boy is Reggie Mantle to Delzad‘s Archie, only more sinister and devious.
Delzad‘s troubles mount when his deaf and mute older brother, Sohail Lakhani, comes home for Holi vacations and not only gets all the attention from the parents but is also responsible for Delzad having to stay at home all the time, forced to keep his brother company.
Delzad‘s so called social life comes to standstill as does his pursuit of love. His arch rival, meanwhile, uses all the ploys and plots to get ahead in the race. The centre of all the activities is the Holi festival while the favourite pass time of the girls as well as boys is playing kabbadi, something that may seem out of sync to today‘s generation. After all the enmities and family misgivings, the spirit of Holi prevails and each realises his/her own misplaced priorities.
The best part about this film is its casting, gathering raw, young talent from across India; all the actors give natural performances with the prototype villain, Suraj Kumar coming tops closely followed by Sohail Lakhani and Delzad Hiwale. Apporva Arora and Azeen, along with veterans Sachin Khedekar and Tanvi Azmi, are apt. The director has stuck to exploring the innocence of that era which today‘s parents may identify more with than the children. Music is situational.
Bubble Gum has its few cute moments but it is not the kind of venture to sustain at the box office.
The theme is limited to a region
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Producer: Sangita Sinha, Siddhant Sinha |
MUMBAI: Khap is the system of social administration by the local panchayats, still prevalent in parts of northern Indian states. It is in the news on and off, all for unfavourable reasons, mainly because of its opposition to same gotra marriages and its methods of meting out justice in such cases: honour killing of such couples.
The film tries to balance pro- and anti-Khap views through a love story about a couple who decide to defy one such panchayat. The theme itself being limited to a region holds no attraction for general public while such issues make for a very bad business sense as a film.
The film has some known names in the cast and that is about all.
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.
