Hindi
UK Film Council to bring independent British cinema to India
MUMBAI: In its drive to open up UK films to Indian markets and audiences, the UK Film Council (UKFC) will showcase a series of independent British films this February through its UK-India film distribution initiative, ‘From Blighty with Love‘.
As part of this initiative, the UKFC has partnered with Reliance Media Works, the Mumbai Film Festival, BookMyShow.com, Fame Cinemas and UK Trade and Investment to organise the festival in multiplexes across Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore from 26 February to 11 March next year.
The initiative is an offshoot of the hugely successful ‘Summer of British Films‘, by which the Council organised festivals across several locations in Britain in 2007 along with the BBC.
This will be the first time when independent specialised British films will be digitally screened for the English speaking audience in India and will feature simultaneous screening of each film on multiple screens in 2K digital across the three cities. The movies will be followed by a ‘virtual‘ in-conversations with key talent from each film via the Skype technology.
Says UK Film Council senior executive for Export Development Sarah McKenzie, “While Reliance Media Works will take care of processing of all the films into 2K, films of the festival will be shown at Big and Fame cinemas.”
‘From Blighty with Love‘, McKenzie notes, is an exciting example of the UK Film Council‘s drive to open up UK film to international markets and audiences.
“From classy literary adaptations such as Stephen Elliot‘s Easy Virtue and Julian Jarrold‘s Brideshead Revisited, to international hits such as James Marsh‘s Man On Wire and Armando Lannucci‘s satirical comedy In the Loop, we are confident that Indian audiences will be both entertained and enlightened by the diversity of British talent showcased throughout the season,” elaborates McKenzie.
The festival will also include films from renowned British filmmakers like Michael Winterbottom, Sally Potter and Danny Boyle.
Hindi
Dhurandhar the revenge storms past Rs 1,000 crore in a week, rewrites box office records
Aditya Dhar’s spy thriller sets fastest run to Rs 1,000 crore with record-breaking weekday hold
MUMBAI: The box office has a new juggernaut—and it is moving at breakneck speed. Dhurandhar the revenge has smashed past the Rs 1,000 crore mark worldwide in just a week, clocking a staggering Rs 1,088 crore and resetting the rules of the blockbuster game.
Backed by Jio Studios and B62 Studios, and directed by Aditya Dhar, the spy action sequel opened to the biggest weekend ever for an Indian film globally—and then refused to slow down. Unlike typical tentpole releases that taper off after Sunday, this one powered through the weekdays with rare muscle, posting Rs 64 crore on Monday, Rs 58 crore on Tuesday, Rs 49 crore on Wednesday and Rs 53 crore on Thursday.
The numbers stack up to a formidable first-week haul. India collections stand at Rs 690 crore nett and Rs 814 crore gross, while overseas markets have chipped in Rs 274 crore, taking the worldwide total to Rs 1,088 crore in just eight days.
The film’s opening weekend alone delivered Rs 466 crore, laying the foundation for what is now being billed as the fastest climb to the Rs 1,000 crore club in Indian cinema. Every single day of its first week has set fresh benchmarks, from the highest opening weekend to the strongest weekday hold—metrics that typically separate hits from phenomena.
A sequel to the earlier hit Dhurandhar, the film has not just built on its predecessor’s momentum but obliterated previous records, emerging as the biggest global blockbuster run by an Indian film to date.
At this pace, the film is not merely riding a wave—it is creating one.
