Hindi
Two States, Three Stages
MUMBAI: Romance is between two individuals but marriage is between two families. For many, this is the moment of realisation and the word ‘adjustment’ replaces ‘romance’. This is true even when just about everything matches in the form of caste, community and status but harder when these matters differ and hardest when a romance is between North and South for that chasm is too deep rooted going back to the Aryan-Dravidian era.
In able hands, Chetan Bhagat stories provide good themes to work on to develop into a film script. And Two States, based on Bhagat’s novel, Two States: The Story Of My Marriage, aspires to the same feat earlier achieved by the 3 Idiots team. To some degree, it succeeds.
Arjun Kapoor is Krish Malhotra, a typical Punjabi young man from Delhi pursuing his management programme at IIM Ahmedabad where Alia Bhatt, playing one Ananya Swaminathan, a fellow student, seeks his help with her studies. Romance is inevitable, and it gets more intense by the day. Arjun dreads the day Alia will call hers a sisterly love and offer to tie a rakhi, which is quite a norm in schools and colleges. He wastes no time in confessing his love for her.
Arjun has a reason for his deep love; there is no love at home. The atmosphere there is negative with his father, Ronit Roy, being drunk and violent and easily raising his hand on his mother, Amrita Singh. Arjun avoids interacting with his father and makes sure he gives all his attention to Amrita which she does not get from Ronit. The romance of Arjun and Alia has survived the two years of IIM and grown only stronger but it is time to part as the course is over and they must find jobs. Alia finds one in her hometown, Chennai. Arjun too finds a Chennai posting but Amrita, his mother, wants him to be in Delhi with her. Her plans are to flaunt her IIM graduate son to the parents of all the suitable girls. She dreams of dowries better than all others. But, eventually she relents.
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Director: Abhishek Varman. Cast: Arjun Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Amrita Singh, Ronit Roy, Revathi, Shiv Subramaniam. |
Producers: Sajid Nadiadwala, Karan Johar.
Amrita and Alia’s parents, father Shiv Subramaniam and mother Revathi, are introduced at the convocation function and the chance was not worth taking looking at the outcome of that meeting. Now Two States has to go through three stages: Arjun has to win over Alia’s traditional Tamil Brahmin parents. Next, Alia has to come to Delhi and conquer the hearts of Arjun’s family. And, lastly, since marriages are between families, to work on bringing both the families together with positive vibes. Though Ronit is not a party to the events, the third stage, bringing Amrita to like Alia’s parents is the mission impossible because for Amrita there is no girl worthy of her son, least of all a ‘Madrasi’ girl.
The film breezes through while Arjun and Alia romance stage. It is all light moments and humour. Winning over of respective families is fun as both treat it as their respective challenges. The last part has an element of surprise and rounds up the film aptly. While the aversion of North and South parents for each other is amplified and nearly comes to insulting communities, it is justified in the script as both live in their own small worlds. The script provides a sense of feel-good, music is in measured levels, emotions without melodrama, and intense romance that makes other aspects acceptable.
The credit goes to director Abhishek Varman, who has also worked on adapting the Bhagat novel. Varman has done a marvellous job. Music is in keeping with the mood of situations as well as the film’s youth appeal with lyrics contributing in equal measure. Cinematography is pleasing. However, what makes Two States an endearing watch is the chemistry between Arjun and Alia who come up with amazing performances. Alia is suitably apt in all the shades of her character. Arjun gets his first chance to perform in a solo, more serious role and he does full justice. He has finally arrived. While the credit goes for perfect casting, the artistes, Amrita, Ronit, Revathi and Shiv (he should be seen on screen more often) live up to expectations.
Two States is a youth-oriented entertainer with all the necessary ingredients perfectly balanced to make it a success.
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.
