Hindi
Drishyam to join Sundance Screenwriters lab in Goa
NEW DELHI: The Sundance Institute is to join Indian film production company Drishyam for the Sundance Institute Screenwriters lab that will be held in Goa from 12 to 16 April.
Drishyam is a recent entrant to the Indian independent film production scene, having produced Umrika that won the audience award in the world cinema dramatic category at Sundance this year. Its Dhanak won the Grand Prix in the Generation KPlus segment at Berlin.
Former Mumbai Film Festival director S Narayanan is heading the Sundance-Drishyam lab.
“The lab will be very beneficial for Indian Cinema in the long run. It goes well with our idea of promoting content driven cinema. Films like Margarita with A Straw, Umrika and Masaan have come out of Sundance Screenwriters Lab,” said Drishyam chairman Manish Mundra.
Sundance had a three year partnership with the Mahindra group to conduct Indian screenwriting labs that came to an end last year.
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.
