Film Production
Filmlance acquires TV rights to Karin Smirnoff’s Jana Kippo trilogy
MUMBAI: Banijay has announced that scripted label Filmlance will adapt for television the critically-acclaimed Jana Kippo trilogy, penned by Swedish author Karin Smirnoff.
The series of best-selling novels is set to be developed into a new Swedish drama with international potential.
The producer is Anna Wallmark at Filmlance, who was behind the company’s most recent hit Top Dog, together with Teresa Alldén and Olof Spaak.
The Jana Kippo trilogy has sold more than half a million copies in Sweden and has been translated in multiple European languages, including English.
The story begins with Jana Kippo returning to her family village of Smalånger, moving into her childhood home to get Bror, her alcoholic twin brother’s life in order. The pair have a common childhood trauma and a death in the village takes a heavy toll. Maria was found dead in a forest glade and no one knows what happened, did she commit suicide or was she murdered? The longer Jana stays in her home village, the more she gets to know about both Maria and herself.
Filmlance MD Hanne Palmquist said, “Karin Smirnoff is one of the most interesting Swedish authors around and we are incredibly proud to be working on what is sure to be a powerful, world-class television production. This unique story of love, betrayal, revenge and lust contains everything needed to create a gripping, exciting and constantly surprising drama.”
Karin Smirnoff lives in Piteå, Sweden, and worked as a journalist before buying a wood factory. After a few years, she longed to return to writing and applied to Lund University’s writing school with what would become her debut novel I Went Down to My Brother, which was nominated for the August Prize 2018 for Fiction. The second book was published in the spring of 2019, and the third book in the spring of 2020.
Film Production
Arka Mediaworks onboards 88 Pictures as animation studio partner on ‘The Eternal War – Part 1’
Arka Mediaworks announces that 88 Pictures, the acclaimed animation and visual storytelling studio known for its cutting-edge CGI and cinematic artistry, is on board as the animation partner for the highly anticipated Baahubali: The Eternal War, a groundbreaking two-part 3D animated feature film set in the globally beloved Baahubali universe.
Baahubali: The Eternal War represents a bold new chapter in the Baahubali saga envisioned for national and international audiences and crafted with the ambition of delivering one of India’s most ambitious and globally benchmarked animation projects to date.
88 Pictures will execute the animation production, bringing to life the film’s richly detailed worlds, epic battle sequences, and larger-than-life characters with its signature blend of artistic vision, performance-driven animation, and advanced production pipelines. Working closely with the film’s creative leadership and technical partners, the studio aims to set new benchmarks in animation quality, cinematic storytelling, and global scalability.
This animated epic follows the successful re-release of Baahubali: The Epic (the combined theatrical version of the original live-action films) on 31 October 2025 across India and the USA. During the film’s interval, legendary creator and director S.S. Rajamouli (Baahubali 1 & 2, RRR) stunned audiences with a surprise teaser for The Eternal War – Part 1. The video immediately went viral, garnering widespread national and international acclaim across LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube for its ambitious visual style and scale.
Produced by Arka Mediaworks and led by co-founder and CEO Shobu Yarlagadda – producer of the iconic Baahubali duology, The Eternal War brings together fantastic storytelling and cutting-edge animation.. The film is directed and written by acclaimed animation filmmaker Ishan Shukla (Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust, Star Wars: Visions – “The Bandits of Golak”) and screenplay by Scott Mosier (The Grinch). Mihira Visual Labs, the studio co-founded by Yarlagadda anchors the film’s animation, visual development, and execution.
The partnership with 88 Pictures brings significant pedigree to the project; the studio is well-regarded for its work on high-profile international titles including DreamWorks’ series Trollhunters, the HBO Max original series Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, Disney’s animated short An Almost Christmas Story to name a few.
Yarlagadda shared, “We are happy to onboard 88 Pictures as the animation studio partner for our prestigious and most expensive animated film from India. We believe that their expertise and capabilities will allow us to produce a first-of-its-kind, world-class animated feature film from India.”
88 Pictures founder & CEO Milind D. Shinde said, “Baahubali changed the way cinema is perceived and became a defining milestone that turned the tide for Indian live-action filmmaking. Expanding the franchise into an entirely new universe—at a never-seen, never-done scale—through an animated feature created in India for a global audience is set to redefine how the world views Indian animation. We are truly thrilled to be part of this landmark project and to bring it to life under the visionary direction of Ishan Shukla, guided by the experience and leadership of acclaimed producer Shobu Yarlagadda.”
Shukla expressed, “Eternal War requires a level of visual and emotional precision that can only come from teams who truly understand both craft and intent. Working with 88 Pictures, alongside Mihira Visual Labs, has been a deeply collaborative experience. This association brings together technical excellence and creative sensitivity, enabling us to translate an ambitious vision into a compelling cinematic reality.”
Baahubali: The Eternal War – Part 1 is scheduled for release in 2027
