Hindi
Mission Istanbul to be screened in Eurasia fest in Turkey
ANTALYA: Hindi thriller Mission Istanbul will get a Gala Screening at the forthcoming Fourth International Eurasia Film Festival.
The festival, along with the 45th Golden Orange Film Festival and a film market, are to take place in this picturesque town from 10 to 19 October. The festival is organised by Tursak, the Turkish Foundation of Cinema and Audiovisual Culture.
Directed by Apoorva Lakhia, Mission Istanbul, released in August, stars Zayed Khan, Vivek Oberoi, Shriya Saran, Shabir Ahluwalia, and Nikitin Dheer.
Mission Istanbul is the only Asian film to be part of the 11 films that will have Gala Screenings. The films to be screened in the Gala Screenings include Laurent Cantet’s The Class, Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York and Guy Ritchie’s Rock’n Rolla.
British actor Michael will recieve the Honorary Award of the Festival, said Tursak International media co-ordinator Burcu Özgen.
The Festival will open with Italy-based Turkish filmmaker Ferzan Özpetek’s Un Giorno Perfetto.
The films in competition include Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz’ Shiva (Seven Days), Hirokazu Kore-edda’s Still Walking, Christian Petzold’s Jerichow, Bohdan Slama’s The Country Teacher, Rashid Masharawi’s Laila’s Birthday, among others.
The films in the Critics Jury category include Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir, Ole Christian Madsen’s Flame and Citron, Russian Helmer Vladimir Kott’s Mukha and Daniel Burman’s Empty Nest.
The festival will have a special screening of Destiny to pay homage to the Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine who passed away on 27 July this year.
The festival will also include a selection of films of historical importance restored by the World Cinema Foundation presided by filmmaker Martin Scorsese, championing the cause of preserving the cinema heritage of developing countries and rejuvenating films of historical prominence left to the mercy of time. The films include Ahmed El Mannouni’s Transes and Djibril Diop Mambety’s Touki Bouki, Metin Erksan’s Dry Summer and Turkish filmmaker Fatih Akin‘s Dry Summer.
The section devoted to documentary films will feature a selection of this year‘s sensational titles. Nathan Rissman‘s I am because We are, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige’s I want to see are some of the films that will be screened in this section.
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.
