Hindi
Macon Film Festival honours Road To Sangam
MUMBAI: Shethia Audio Video‘s Road To Sangam has won yet another award, this time at the Macon Film Festival, Geogia, in the narrative feature film category. The film, produced by Amit Chheda, has been written and directed by Amit Rai.
Commented Chheda, “I am happy that the film is being appreciated in all corners of the world. There are still a number of film festivals that we have sent the film to. We expect more such awards.”
With this win, Road To Sangam has totally won seven awards worldwide.
The film, besides starring Paresh Rawal and Om Puri, also has Javed Shaikh, Pawan Malhotra, Swati Chitnis, Masood Akhtar, G. P. Singh, Rajan Bhise, Sudhir Nema, Rakesh Srivastava, Yusuf Hussain, Vijay Mishra and others.
If the film was so good, why did it fail to garner eyeballs in India? “The strategy behind releasing the film was not right and may be the film was released at a wrong time,” quips Chheda.
Hindi
Jio Studios, Sanjay Dutt team up to revive Khal Nayak
Rights acquired for new version, format under wraps as remake plans take shape.
MUMBAI: The villain is back and this time, he’s rewriting his own script. Jio Studios has partnered with Three Dimension Motion Pictures and Aspect Entertainment to revive the 1993 cult classic Khal Nayak, marking a fresh chapter for one of Bollywood’s most iconic anti-hero stories. The original film, directed by Subhash Ghai under Mukta Arts, was a commercial and cultural milestone, with Sanjay Dutt’s portrayal of Ballu becoming one of Hindi cinema’s most memorable performances.
Dutt, along with Aksha Kamboj, has now acquired the rights from the original creators, bringing on board Jio Studios and its President Jyoti Deshpande to steer the project creatively.
While the exact format whether remake, sequel, prequel, or a completely new narrative remains undisclosed, the collaboration aims to reinterpret the story for contemporary audiences while retaining the essence that made the original a defining film of the 1990s.
The move taps into a broader industry trend of reviving legacy intellectual property, particularly characters with strong recall value. “Khal Nayak” was notable for pushing mainstream Hindi cinema into morally grey territory at a time when heroes were largely one-dimensional, making Ballu’s character a standout.
The project also marks the film production debut of Aspect Entertainment, signalling a push towards more technology-led storytelling frameworks. Meanwhile, Jio Studios continues to expand its slate, having built a library of over 200 films and series, with more than 60 titles collectively winning 500-plus awards.
For Dutt, the revival is as much personal as it is strategic, a return to a role that reshaped his career. For the industry, it is another sign that nostalgia, when paired with scale, remains a powerful box-office proposition.
Because in Bollywood, some villains never fade, they just wait for the perfect comeback.
