iWorld
Director of ‘Boyka: Undisputed’ opens up about his next action stunner ‘Black Lotus’
Mumbai: Can you truly get rid of your past guilt? Lionsgate Play’s Black Lotus takes you on the journey of now-retired Special Ops soldier Matteo Donner and the trauma that made him quit. After five long years, Matteo finally finds his sense of belonging after reconnecting with the family of his dead best friend and partner. But forces intervene and try to hurt John’s family. Can Matteo save his newfound family? Get set for a gripping action-thriller directed by the one and only Todor Chapkanov, the action extraordinaire that has directed the American-Bulgarian fight movie Boyka: Undisputed. So if you love action, guns, and cars, watch Black Lotus on Lionsgate Play on 21 July to see Rico Verhoeven go up against Frank Grillo in a showdown like no other.
Action director Todor Chapkanov talks about the preparations for the film. “For me, it was crucial to spend plenty of time in prep to discuss relationships and scenes with the main actors, so when the actual filming started, everyone knew each other and knew what I wanted. I deliberately asked for the stunt sequences (fights, car chases, etc.) to be choreographed and designed so that the cast could do their own stunts. It took a lot of training and rehearsing, but the result has made it all worthwhile. We could never have achieved the same level of intensity with ’stunt doubles.”
Further adding on about shooting in Amsterdam, Chapkanov said, “One of my goals with Black Lotus was to make the city of Amsterdam part of the story. Writer Tad Daggerhart and I biked to all the places I had in mind and I specifically asked him to re-write and add scenes in order to achieve this goal. I tried to tie the protagonist’s relationships and action scenes to specific locations in order to create a visually striking film.”
iWorld
WhatsApp may soon let users to pick who sees their status updates
The messaging giant is borrowing a page from Instagram’s playbook as it pushes to give users finer control over their social circles.
CALIFORNIA: WhatsApp is quietly working on a feature that could make its Status function considerably smarter and considerably more private.
According to reports from beta tracking platforms, the app is testing a tool called Status lists, which would allow users to create named groups such as close friends, family and colleagues, and control precisely which group sees each update. It is a meaningful step up from the platform’s current blunt instruments, which offer only three options: share with all contacts, exclude specific people, or manually select individuals each time.
The new feature draws an obvious comparison with Instagram’s Close Friends function, and the resemblance is unlikely to be accidental. Both platforms sit within Meta’s family, and the company has been nudging them toward a common logic of audience segmentation for some time.
The move also fits neatly into WhatsApp’s broader privacy push. The platform has been rolling out enhanced chat protections and is exploring the introduction of usernames, which would allow users to connect without exchanging phone numbers. Status lists extend that philosophy from messaging into broadcasting.
Meanwhile, Status itself has been evolving well beyond its origins as a simple photo-and-text slideshow. The feature now supports music stickers, collages, longer videos and interactive elements, pushing it closer to the social-media-style story format pioneered by Snapchat and refined by Instagram. In that context, finer audience controls are not merely a privacy feature. They are a precondition for people sharing more.
The feature remains in development and has not been confirmed for release. WhatsApp routinely tests tools that are later modified or quietly shelved. But the direction of travel is clear: the app wants Status to be a destination, not an afterthought. Letting users decide exactly who is in the audience is how it gets there.
