Hindi
‘Daawat-e-Ishq’ triumphs over ‘Khoobsurat’ at BO
MUMBAI: Daawat-e-Ishq opened to a lukewarm opening response and the collections remained on the lower side on Friday, improving marginally on Saturday and as well as on Sunday only to slide again today onwards.
A Muslim background love story with an anti-dowry message, its linear narration makes it a routine fare. The film managed to collect Rs 13.6 crore for its opening weekend.
Khoobsurat, having borrowed the basic plot from Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s 1980 hit of the same name, about a freewheeling woman entering and challenging the norms of the house laid down by the woman of the house, a royal one at that, comes a cropper. An insipid, poorly scripted and executed film, it started with below average opening with a little improvement on Saturday and Sunday as weekends normally do add to the collections. The film collected Rs 10.5 crore for its opening weekend.
Finding Fanny, a zany road movie about a senior citizen being helped by his village mates find his childhood love, has made a little impact at the box office. Despite some favourable reviews by critics, the film has been able to put together just about Rs 23.5 crore in its first week.
Creature 3-D, another Vikram Bhatt horror had to its credit a fully locally computer generated man-eating creature but the film lacked in substance, got monotonous as its stretched too long and failed to generate interest in the viewer. The film collected a poor Rs 16.8 crore in its first week.
Mary Kom sustained ably in its second week in the absence of any formidable opposition and added Rs 11.15 crore in its second week taking its two week total to Rs 53.35.
Raja Natwarlal added Rs 10 lakh in its third week taking its three week tally to Rs 23.85 crore. The movie will be a loser at the box office.
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.
