Hindi
‘Dabba’ to be distributed by Sony in North America
NEW DELHI: The Lunchbox (Dabba), which made its debut at the Cannes Film Festival‘s Critics‘ Week section, has been acquired by Sony Pictures Classics for North America.
Directed by Ritesh Batra and starring Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, The Lunchbox claimed the audience award in Critics Week.
International sales are handled by Germany‘s The Match Factory GmbH, which also licensed the film to Happiness Distribution for France.
The film has already been sold in 20 territories across the globe. It was already pre-sold to five countries. Major international sales include Artificial Eye (UK) and Happiness (France).
The film has been sold to North America, France, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Spain, Poland, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Baltic, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Mexico, Central America, Brazil and Ex-Yugoslavia (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia).
The film had been pre-sold to Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg.
The film was produced by India‘s Sikhya Entertainment and D?r Motion Pictures with the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), Germany‘s Rohfilm GmbH, France‘s ASAP Films and the US‘s Cine Mosaic.
The story follows the connection between a widower nearing retirement and a frustrated housewife that is established when Mumbai‘s famously reliable system of lunchbox deliveries goes wrong.
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.
