Hindi
Festival of films on Indian art by Benoy Behl this week
NEW DELHI: A total of 13 films on Indian art and culture by renowned art historian and filmmaker Benoy K Behl, a majority of them made for Doordarshan, are being screened in a two-day festival in the capital.
The festival will be inaugurated by Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni later this week.
A Journey Within is being presented by the India International Centre on 29 and 30 August. The films include some rarely seen pieces of art in India and some rarely documented monuments.
The films include ‘5,000 years of sculpture’ in two parts, ‘Pan-Asian Art (The tradition of classic paintings in China, Japan, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand and Indonesia), ‘The Confluence of Cultures’ (The art of the Mughal court (Akbar period), ‘Development of the Modern Idiom’ in two parts, ‘2,000 years of paintings’ ‘The art of India’, and ‘The Dance of Shiva’ (Chola Temples). The films will be followed by discussions.
Behl is a film-maker, art-historian and photographer who is known for his tireless and prolific output of work over the past 25 years. He has made a 100 documentaries on art history, taken over 34,000 photographs of Asian monuments and art heritage, his exhibitions have been warmly received in 24 countries around the world and he holds the Limca Book Record for having traveled to all corners of India.
His films, including 26 documentaries on ‘The Paintings of India’ and 26 documentaries on ‘The Sculpture of India,’ have been nationally telecast on prime time in India, as well as repeat telecasts. The vastness of Behl’s documentation presents a wide and new perspective in understanding the art of India and Asia.
The festival presents a selection from Behl’s renowned series of films on Indian art history.
Hindi
Kuku enters theatrical cinema with Indian Institute of Zombies
Audio and micro-drama giant launches first Hindi feature film on 8 May.
MUMBAI: Kuku just added brains to its bite because when an audio and micro-drama powerhouse decides to make a zombie comedy, even the undead had better watch their step. Kuku, one of India’s largest digital entertainment companies and the force behind Kuku FM and Kuku TV, has announced its foray into theatrical cinema with its debut Hindi feature film, Indian Institute of Zombies (IIZ). Billed as India’s first campus zombie comedy, the film is set to release in cinemas on 8 May 2026.
Set inside an elite engineering campus, IIZ blends zombie horror, youth comedy and sharp social satire, promising a high-energy big-screen experience. The film stars an ensemble cast including Jessie Lever, Anupriya Goenka, Mohan Kapur, Ranjan Raj, Shivani Paliwal, Shantanu Anam, Rose Sardana, Sachin Kavetham and Tanishq Chaudhary. It has been developed in-house at Kuku, scripted by Hussain Dalal and Abbas Dalal (known for Brahmāstra and Farzi), and directed by Gaganjeet Singh and Alok Dwivedi of Low Gravity Productions.
Kuku, CEO Lal Chand Bisu said, “Kuku has always been obsessed with how India consumes stories. We built scale in personal consumption through Kuku FM and created a new micro-drama category with Kuku TV. Theatres represent the next frontier, and Indian Institute of Zombies marks the first of many, rooted in youth culture, genre innovation and mass Indian tastes.”
Kuku senior vice president Kunj Sanghvi added, “IIZ is a film for everyone who has ever been on a college campus. We observed the success of horror comedies at the box office, the lack of a breakout Indian zombie film, and the insatiable appetite for campus stories across age groups.”
The project also showcases Kuku’s AI-native approach to filmmaking. Artificial intelligence has been deeply integrated into concept structuring, story architecture, scheduling, budgeting and creative iteration not as a gimmick, but as an amplifier to enable faster development cycles and sharper decisions.
With this move, Kuku is evolving from a leader in audio and vertical storytelling into a multi-format entertainment powerhouse, leveraging its deep audience insights and technological edge to create culturally resonant theatrical experiences.
In a content universe where stories are getting shorter and screens smaller, Kuku is boldly going big proving that even in the age of two-minute episodes, there’s still plenty of room for zombies, campus chaos and full-blown cinematic laughter. Indian Institute of Zombies hits theatres on 8 May 2026.
