Hindi
Ranga Shankara Theater Fest to commence on 5 Nov
BANGALORE: Karnataka’s Ranga Shankara’s creative director Arundhati Nag today unveiled the Ranga Shankara Theatre Festival, 2009. Fest 2009, the sixth such for Ranga Shankara will be held between 5 November and 15 November, and “Laugh all the way home…” will be the theme.
Eight top-notch comedies from all over India have been invited to take part in this festival. Two of Kannada’s well-known directors, Prakash Belawadi and Mandya Ramesh, are directing a play each especially for the occasion.
“Comedy is an evergreen theme for theatre. For time immemorial, theatre has banked on comedy to create masterpieces and pull audiences in droves. At Ranga Shankara too, comedies have had a very special place. I am sure that the carefully chosen plays from across the country give Bangaloreans a flavour of the best of contemporary theatre,” said Nag.
S Surendranath (Suri), an alumnus of National School of Drama and a well-known playwright and director, is the festival’s curator.
Explains Suri, “Comedy is clearly the most misunderstood genre in theatre and it is certainly no laughing matter. We have taken very special care in choosing the plays that will perform in our festival. Many comedy genres will be showcased – commercial (“Olakh na Palakh” in Marathi), political (“Aatankavaadiya Akasmika Saavu” in Kannada), musical (“Aao Saathi Sapne Dekhen” in Hindi and a modern regional comedy in Tulu (“Madime”). Two rare “Kavi Sammelanas” and a serious session on non-sense poetry are also woven into the festival. On 9 November, Ajith Saldanha will do a special comedy piece too.”
On 9 November, a website on him will be launched. The website will provide his fans with special and authentic insights into his life and work.
For the first time, Ranga Shankara will play host to an Intercollegiate Competition. 10 colleges across the city will participate to win a chance to perform at Ranga Shankara on 9 November.
Eight young directors have been chosen to script and direct short pieces to be showcased just before the main show every day.
Ranga Shankara Festival ‘09 will also have the third edition of the immensely popular Theatre and Arts Appreciation Course. Spearheaded by the renowned culture critic Sadanand Menon, the course will be held over six days from 6-8 November and 13-15 November. The course will examine and discuss theatre, cinema, dance, photography and music through lectures, film screenings, plays, as well as interaction with directors and actors.
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.
