Hindi
Abhay Deol in IFFLA jury
NEW DELHI: Actor-producer Abhay Deol has been included in the jury for the 13th annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles.
The Festival is being held from 8 to 12 April at the ArcLight Hollywood.
The other narrative jury members are filmmaker Sean Baker, HFPA member and frequent Board director Yoram Kahana, Warner Bros executive vice president (physical production) Ravi Mehta, and author and film curator Berenice Reynaud.
The shorts jury include actor Danny Pudi, Outfest Director of Programming Lucy Mukerjee-Brown, Sundance Shorts Programmer Lisa Ogdie, and Heather Morris Washington, Manager of the Emerging Writers Fellowship at Universal.
Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s debut feature Labour Of Love following one day in the life of a married couple has been added to the festival’s lineup. It screens on 10 April.
Other films include Jai Ho by Delhi-based filmmaker Umesh Aggarwal who had attended the premiere of the film in New York earlier this year.
The world premiere of British comedy One Crazy Thing is the centerpiece this year. The opening night film is Haraamkhor, helmer Shlok Sharma’s debut starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui, and the closing film is Dhanak by Nagesh Kukunoor.
Other highlights are Danis Tanovic’s Tigers, Cannes entry Titli by Kanu Behl and the Los Angeles premiere of Miss India America.
IFFLA will unspool 25 films, including four world premieres, seven North American bows, two American and 10 Los Angeles preems from not just India, but also the US, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Cuba, in 10 languages including English, Spanish and German.
Directed by Amit Gupta, One Crazy Thing stars Ray Panthaki and Daisy Bevan and centers on a man struggling to overcome the notoriety from his sex tape.
Tanovic’s Tigers stars Bollywood star Emraan Hashmi and is about the true-life tale of the salesman who took on a drug company that marketed a deadly baby formula.
Titli is a coming-of-age story starring Shashank Arora; while Miss India Americastars Tiya Sircar and Hannah Simone in the story of a woman who enters a beauty pageant after losing her boyfriend to a former Miss India America.
IFFLA Artistic Director Jasmine Jaisinghani said, “Many of the films at this year’s IFFLA look at contemporary youth from diverse backgrounds, united in their creative ways of overcoming life’s situations. The palpable energy of youth spirit runs throughout our film lineup, and these stories take you on an adventurous journey.”
Hindi
Jio Studios, Sanjay Dutt team up to revive Khal Nayak
Rights acquired for new version, format under wraps as remake plans take shape.
MUMBAI: The villain is back and this time, he’s rewriting his own script. Jio Studios has partnered with Three Dimension Motion Pictures and Aspect Entertainment to revive the 1993 cult classic Khal Nayak, marking a fresh chapter for one of Bollywood’s most iconic anti-hero stories. The original film, directed by Subhash Ghai under Mukta Arts, was a commercial and cultural milestone, with Sanjay Dutt’s portrayal of Ballu becoming one of Hindi cinema’s most memorable performances.
Dutt, along with Aksha Kamboj, has now acquired the rights from the original creators, bringing on board Jio Studios and its President Jyoti Deshpande to steer the project creatively.
While the exact format whether remake, sequel, prequel, or a completely new narrative remains undisclosed, the collaboration aims to reinterpret the story for contemporary audiences while retaining the essence that made the original a defining film of the 1990s.
The move taps into a broader industry trend of reviving legacy intellectual property, particularly characters with strong recall value. “Khal Nayak” was notable for pushing mainstream Hindi cinema into morally grey territory at a time when heroes were largely one-dimensional, making Ballu’s character a standout.
The project also marks the film production debut of Aspect Entertainment, signalling a push towards more technology-led storytelling frameworks. Meanwhile, Jio Studios continues to expand its slate, having built a library of over 200 films and series, with more than 60 titles collectively winning 500-plus awards.
For Dutt, the revival is as much personal as it is strategic, a return to a role that reshaped his career. For the industry, it is another sign that nostalgia, when paired with scale, remains a powerful box-office proposition.
Because in Bollywood, some villains never fade, they just wait for the perfect comeback.
