Hindi
Hong Kong HC orders forfeiture of film piracy tools worth HK$15 mn
MUMBAI: The Motion Picture Association (MPA) has announced that Hong Kong High Court judge J Wright has ordered the forfeiture of five VCD lines, each worth HK$3 million, used to produce pirated VCDs.
The forfeiture order was issued after the conclusion of criminal trial and appeal procedures in 2005 when three defendants, including the owners of the factories, were sentenced to imprisonment for periods ranging between 21 and 30 months.
The VCD production lines were seized in August 1998 by Hong Kong Customs and Excise in raids on two Hong Kong factories, Wah Lee Multi-Media and Maytronic Industrial. In addition to the VCD production lines, customs also seized 109,663 VCDs and 36 stampers. Five of the seized stampers were being used to replicate MPA member company titles and 71,115 of the seized VCDs were infringing 13 MPA titles. The total value of all seizures was HK$18.3 million.
The MPA provided seizure examination during the raids and maintained full litigation support throughout the nine year life of the case. The forfeiture order was proceeded with by customs only after the owners, Ho Hon-chung and Lam Kwok-wah, were released from jail.
International Federation Against Copyright Theft – Greater China executive director and GM Sam Ho says, “On behalf of all rightholders, I wholeheartedly commend the Hong Kong authorities for persevering with this case. More than nine years after the initial arrests, the High Court has ordered the seizure of some very expensive tools of piracy. This ensures the punishment fits the crime: the criminals have served jail sentences and are now being hit in the pocket to the tune of HK$15 million. Anyone contemplating similar involvement in piracy will now have to factor this into their assessment of the relative risks and rewards associated with the crime.”
MPA senior VP and regional director (Asia-Pacific) Mike Ellis says, “The forfeiture of these production lines not only sends a strong anti-piracy message but also has the practical effect of eliminating them from the production cycle. We congratulate the Hong Kong authorities on the successful closure of this case.”
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.
