Hindi
‘Chalk N Duster:’ Insipid tale
MUMBAI: Chalk N Duster is an almost all-women game of politics taking place at a school, bearing a traditional old-fashioned name like Kantaben High School. There is a bunch of teachers, dedicated as they can be until an overly ambitious new principal steps in.
Divya Dutta manipulates her way to the position of the principal of Kantaben High School by ousting Zarina Wahab from the post. From there on, she wants to convert this traditional institution into a much-in-vogue “international school.” The overpriced school would automatically render it unaffordable for poor children making it a school only for the rich. The trustee of the school, Arya Babbar, supports her whims.
Now Dutta needs to get rid of the current lot of teachers. To achieve her goal, she starts harassing the teachers, changing the rules hoping this would force them to resign. While she harasses the teachers she wants to get rid of, she also rewards those who follow her line with better positions.
She starts with sacking teachers she does not want. As she sacks veteran teacher Shabana Azmi, there is a reaction but the others know they can’t do anything about it. However, a fellow teacher, Juhi Chawla, takes up the issue and also gets sacked in the bargain.
Babbar is delighted at the events at his school and also challenges the chairman of a rival school, Jackie Shroff, that his school will become more reputed than his. That boast proves costly for Babbar as Shroff does not take kindly to this dare. He decides to involve the media into the matters of Kantaben High School and soon a reporter, Richa Chadha, exposes the deeds of Babbar and Dutta on national television, no less.
Chalk N Duster has a horde of talented actors but this badly written and directed film fails to exploit their worth. It needed the duster right when the first draft for the film was penned.
Chalk N Duster is an insipid film unlikely to attract audience.
Producer: Amin Surani
Director: Jayant Gilatar
Cast: Shabana Azmi, Juhi Chawla, Divya Dutta, Upasna Singh, Girish Karnad, Zarina Wahab, Aarya Babbar, Samir Soni and Adi Irani with special appearances by Rishi Kapoor, Jackie Shroff and Richa Chaddha
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.
