Hindi
Mrinal Sen’s Kandahar to show at Cannes Film Fest
MUMBAI: As a tribute to Mrinal Sen, the Cannes International Film Festival will screen Kandahar (The Ruins), the filmmaker’s newly restored masterpiece, at the Cannes Film Festival that goes underway from 12 Mayto 23 May.
The film will be screened in the ‘Cannes Classic‘ section. The section, which was introduced in Cannes in 2004, will screen 12 films by various filmmakers the world over including late Jean Renoir and Alfred Hitchcock.
Sen‘s Kharij got the Cannes jury prize in 1983 and ‘Kandahar‘ got the special jury prize at the Montreal film fest in 1984.
Most of Sen‘s film negatives, including the Kolkata trilogy namely Interview, Calcutta 71 and Padatik, were found to be in poor shape last year. As a result, a mini-retrospective of his films at 2009 Cannes could not take place.
Following reports in the media about the poor condition of Sen‘s films last March, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had asked the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to restore the classics. Seventeen of the films are now being restored at the Pune archives.
The restoration of Kandahar starring Shabana Azmi has been completed by Reliance Mediaworks that had won the bid for restoration of hundreds of Indian classics from the National Film Archive.
“They had undertaken a pristine restoration process removing dust, dirt and scratches frame by frame making it fit for screening at the section,” Sen said. Restoration work of Sen‘s 16 other films was also underway but in patches.
Hindi
Dhurandhar 2 hit by YouTube leak amid record box office run
Cam-rip surfaces online but blockbuster streak continues at record pace
MUMBAI: It has been a dramatic week for Dhurandhar: The Revenge. Even as the espionage thriller smashes box office records, a piracy scare briefly threatened to steal its thunder after a full-length version surfaced on YouTube.
The leak emerged on March 30 via a channel titled “A2z movie”, which uploaded what appeared to be a cam-recorded print of the film. Clocking in at nearly three hours and 49 minutes, the footage was reportedly blurry but complete enough to spark spoilers and fan outrage online.
Soon after, users on X began flagging the issue, explicitly naming the “A2z movie” channel in their posts while tagging the film’s makers and urging swift legal action. Fans of director Aditya Dhar and lead star Ranveer Singh were particularly vocal, helping the issue gain rapid traction.
Within hours, the video was taken down, likely through a mix of platform detection systems and intervention by producers Jio Studios and B62 Studios.
Despite the leak, the film’s theatrical run remains virtually unshaken. As of March 31, the sequel has raked in an estimated Rs 872.17 crore net in India, with worldwide collections soaring to Rs 1,392.23 crore. Its Hindi opening day alone brought in Rs 102.55 crore, setting a new benchmark.
In a notable milestone, the film has matched Pushpa 2 as the fastest Indian release to cross the Rs 1,000 crore mark globally, achieving the feat in just seven days.
Interestingly, the version leaked online is believed to be an earlier cut. Midway through its theatrical run, the makers issued revised prints after eagle-eyed viewers spotted a fleeting editing error involving a cameraman’s reflection. The corrected version now plays across cinemas, adding an unusual twist to the film’s release journey.
Directed by Aditya Dhar, the high-stakes sequel stars Ranveer Singh alongside Sanjay Dutt, R. Madhavan, Arjun Rampal and Sara Arjun. The film has drawn praise for its scale and action sequences, though some critics have pointed to its intense violence and layered political themes.
For now, piracy may have made noise, but it has not slowed the juggernaut. If anything, the episode underlines the film’s cultural grip, proving that even a leak cannot derail a box office storm already in full force.
