Hindi
‘Baahubali’ & ‘Ennu Ninte Moideen’ win big at IIFA Utsavam Awards 2016
MUMBAI: The IIFA Utsavam Awards 2016, which celebrates South Indian cinema, saw the coming together of the stars from the Tamil and Malayalam Film Industries on 24 January.
The first day saw the Tamil and Malayalam film industries being felicitated. In the Tamil Film Awards, Baahubali-The Beginning took home the highest number of accolades with a total tally of six awards including Best Picture, Direction, Supporting Role (Male), Supporting Role (Female), Playback Singer (Male) and Playback Singer (Female).
For the Malyalam Film Awards, Ennu Ninte Moideen also took home the highest number of awards with a total tally of six awards including Best Picture, Leading Role (Male), Leading Role (Female), Supporting Role (Female) and Playback Singer (Female).
Jayam Ravi won the award for Leading Role (Male) for his performance in Thani Oruvan (Tamil), while Nayanthara walked away with the award for Leading Role (Female) for May (Tamil). Prithviraj Sukumaran and Parvathi Menon won Best Actor and Best Actress for their film Ennu Ninte Moideen.
The evening also saw performances by Kavya Madhavan, Shriya Saran, Adah Sharma, Tapsee Pannu, Mamta Mohandas, Nikki Galrani and Bharath.
The awards will be telecast on Sun TV.
Sun TV Network network programming head S.J. Clement said, “Sun TV Network is proud to be associated with the premiere edition of IIFA Utsavam 2015, a pioneering event that will present the finest among the South Indian film fraternity. Sun TV Network reaches around 58 million households in the country. Increasingly, our programming is being accessed by the South Indian diaspora across the globe. We believe in delivering consistently high quality entertainment through our unrelenting focus on premium content. Our collaboration with IIFA reiterates our commitment to be at the leading edge of broadcast media industry.”
Wizcraft International Entertainment director Andre Timmins said, “We are thrilled at the phenomenal success of the very first edition of IIFA Utsavam. There have been a lot of challenged we have had to overcome including the tragedy in Chennai. We are honoured to be able to help the city of Chennai get back on its feet through IIFA Utsavam. It is an honour to felicitate so many deserving individuals on their talent and hard work in the year gone by and we wish all the winners tonight the very best.”
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.
