Hindi
Indian cinema has become a global enterprise: Patil
NEW DELHI: President Pratibha Devisingh Patil today said even as cinema was a very powerful medium for conveying messages, this imposed a great responsibility on everyone associated with the film industry to look at how the power of cinema can be used to do good for society through the portrayal of attitudes that help in building tolerant and harmonious societies.
“It is important that the entertainment sector includes value-based ideals and points of view, which can motivate viewers to aspire for higher and nobler goals in their lives,” Patil said.
Speaking after presenting the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 2007 for lifetime contribution in cinema to legendary singer Manna Dey and the 55th National Film Awards for 2007, Patil said: “Cinema should not only be a source of popular entertainment for families and individuals, but also a vehicle for social change. It has a deep impact on people as they watch how social evils like child marriage, dowry and drug addiction can destroy a life or how a good deed can bring out the gentler side of a human being or how we can help the disadvantaged and differently-abled to live a life of dignity.”
She said films can fulfill a very important role in making individuals compassionate and acting as emotional integrators in society, and expressed confidence that the film fraternity will continue to understand this responsibility in its fullest sense.
Paying a laudable tribute to Manna Dey who received a standing ovation as he went up to receive his award, she said: “With the passage of time, change is inevitable. In our times change is rapid and likely to become faster in coming times. However, even in the midst of change there are talents that have a quality of touching the very core of a human being. Such works carry in them the essence of eternality and are appreciated across generations. Manna Dey is a singer par excellence, popular for his rendition of film music over more than four decades.”
She said not only did Dey‘s discography of more than 3500 songs include those which he sang for films, but also a formidable non-film repertoire. The magic of Dey was also the consummate ease with which he could bridge Hindustani classical music and popular music. “Generations of Indians perhaps shall never forget the songs sung by him,” she added.
She said Indian cinema had become a global enterprise in the “rapidly improving technology has helped the industry to upgrade itself as also to radically alter the manner in which cinema reaches the audience.”
Indian cinema had found a market in a large number of countries. Increasingly, Indian filmmakers were entering international film festivals and are being recognized through awards. “This is a good example of how India‘s soft power can help project the nation around the world. We have a rich and varied cultural heritage that has been and continues to be a very significant base for telling the world the story of India – a nation whose history goes back many millennia, a nation that occupies an important place in the contemporary world and a nation whose future holds great promise,” she said.
She noted that facilities for film production in the country have also been improving and some of them are even of the highest quality in the world. Prominent Indian enterprises are also participating in producing and distributing films around the world. Music in Indian cinema is popular in many countries and helps in generating goodwill for India, she added.
In her speech, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni announced that a panel was being formed to make the National Film Awards more contemporary and focused.
She said cinema was a vibrant medium which transcended linguistic borders. She said Indian cinema was now moving in new areas.
Earlier, filmmakers Sai Paranjpye and Ashoke Viswanathan, and writer Namita Gokhale presented their reports as chairpersons of the Feature, Non-Feature and Book juries.
Paranjpye noted that masses had grown up and did not accept simplistic cinema full of clichés, and noted that even meaningful cinema could be popular. Viswanathan said it was important that the short film format had survived the onslaught of the ‘bombardment of a Niagara of visuals from the Internet.’ Gokhale supported the interaction between literature and cinema.
Renowned singers Shankar Mahadevan and Shreya Ghoshal rendered the songs for which they won awards today – the ‘Meri Ma’ song from ‘Taare Zameen Par’ and ‘Yeh Ishq Haaye Jannat Dikhaye’ from ‘Jab we met’.
Manna Dey was accompanied by his wife. Other important dignitaries who received awards included Yash Chopra on behalf of his son Aditya, Sonam on behalf of her father Anil Kapoor, Prasoon Joshi, Dr Jabbar Patel and Feroze Abbas Khan.
Films from the South have romped in major awards at the 55th National Awards, but Hindi cinema dominated the 55th National Film Awards with as many as 17 honours.
While Priyadarshan‘s offbeat Tamil film Kanchivaram walked away with the best feature film, director Adoor Gopalakrishnan was adjudged the best director for Malayalam film Naalu Pennungal.
Malayalam films, in fact, won six awards, Tamil films five awards, and Kannada, English, Marathi and Bengali films bagged two honours each.
Shah Rukh Khan starrer Chak De! India got the award for Best Popular film providing wholesome entertainment.
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.
