Hindi
Festival of National Film award-winners of 2013 commences in capital
NEW DELHI: A festival of films that won awards at the 61st National Film awards for 2013 has commenced in the capital with the screening of Marathi feature film Astu by Sumitra Bhave and Sunil Sukhtankar and short film Chidiya Udh by Pranjal Dua.
Organised by the Directorate of Film Festivals at the Sirifort Complex, it will feature all the National Award winning films for the public during the four-day festival.
Thus, it will screen 30 feature films and 23 non-feature films.
The inauguration was attended by filmmakers Sumitra Bhave and Sunil Sukthankar among others.
Entry to the screenings is free and on first come first serve basis.
Some of the other films to be screened at the festival are Ship of Theseus, Miss Lovely, Shahid, Crossing Bridges, Fandry, Liar’s Dice and The Coffin maker.
A total of 41 awards are to be given by the President in the non-feature film category while the number of awards in feature film category is 40.
Hindi films once again dominated the National Film Awards by getting as many as fifteen awards among feature films. Marathi came next with ten awards followed by Bengali with six and Tamil and Kannada with five each and Malayalam with four.
However, the highest number of awards went to the Bengali film ‘Jaatishwar’ which won awards for best female playback for Rupankar and the film ‘e tumi kemon tumi’, best costume for Sabarni Das, best make-up for Vilram Gaikwad (for hero Prosenjit) and Kabir Suman for best musical score.
‘Bhag Milkha Bhag’ by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra bagged the award for the most popular film providing wholesome entertainment. ‘Fandry’ got the Indira Gandhi Award fir best directorial debut by Nagraj Manjule, the Nargis Dutt award for national integration for Balu Mahendra’s tamil film ‘Thalaimuraigal’ and the social issues award went to the Marathi ‘Tuhya Dharma Koncha’ by Satish Manwar.
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.
