Movies
FoxStar India opens cuckoo to solid start
MUMBAI: FoxStar Studios’ Cuckoo has opened strong in its opening weekend making it the highest grossing opening for a Tamil film without a big star cast in the last five years. Co-produced with The Next Big Film, Cuckoo is the fourth hit for Fox Star in the Tamil market.
Previous hits include Raja Rani, Vathikuchi and Engaeyum Eppothum (US grosses waiting for Dmitry). Cuckoo is a heartwarming love story between a blind couple.
Director Raju Murugan said: “I am grateful to the fraternity and the audiences for such a warm reception to the film. I could have never imagined this love and affection and such a huge success at the box office, for a film that was being directed by a debutant and did not boast of any big star power. I am thankful to Fox Star Studios and Next Big Films for showing faith in me and in my two powerhouse performers – Dinesh and Malavika, for coming up one of with the most memorable performances of 2014!”
Cuckoo is also Fox Star Studios first film post its successful three film deal with A R Murugadoss. And Murugadoss will be directing a Hindi film – Holiday – for the studio next.
Fox Star Studios CEO Vijay Singh added: “With Cuckoo, we, along with our co producers, The Next Big Film, have been able to demonstrate that content really is the king at the box office. With Raja Rani and now Cuckoo, we have given the industry two new talented directors, Atlee and Raju. With four back to back hits under our belt, three of which were in joint production with one of the giants of Tamil cinema, A R Murugadoss, we are now looking forward to some exciting times ahead, as our next Mundasuppati, in partnership with Thirukumaran Entertainment, gets ready for a release soon.”
Next up for Fox Star is its Hindi release Hawaa Hawaai directed by Amole Gupte (post Stanley Ka Dabba’s criticial and commercial success) slated for a release on 9 May.
Having considerably scaled up in the Hindi film market, Fox Star recently announced a four film deal with Vishesh films (on the back of Raaz 3, Jannat 2 and Murder 3‘s success) and has forged alliances with Pooja Entertainment and Films, Phantom Films, Illuminati Films and Endemol India.
Fox International Productions president Sanford Panitch said: “Fox Star India continues to use its strength in choosing projects, distribution and marketing of both Hollywood and Indian films, and in sustaining lasting partnerships to great results.”
Hindi
Jio Studios unveils AI-powered Krishna teaser at NAB Show 2026
Global first look of Krishna uses Galleri5 AI pipeline on Azure, Historyverse slate as Jio’s Dhurandhar crosses Rs 3,000cr worldwide.
MUMBAI: Krishna has just dropped a divine teaser and this time the gods are powered by silicon, not just scripture. Jio Studios and Collective Studios’ Historyverse stole the spotlight at the NAB Show 2026 in Las Vegas with the world’s first teaser for their upcoming theatrical feature Krishna, directed by Manu Anand. The big reveal happened during Microsoft’s keynote “Powering Intelligent Media, From AI Experimentation to Real-World Impact,” where the film’s AI-native production pipeline took centre stage alongside Collective Artists Network’s in-house platform, Galleri5.
At the heart of this mythological spectacle lies a fresh cinematic workflow built by Galleri5 on Microsoft Azure’s advanced AI and cloud infrastructure. Forget bolting AI onto traditional VFX or animation, this is an end-to-end, production-grade system woven into every layer: world-building, character creation, shot design and final output. Yet the storytelling remains firmly director-led, emphasising emotional depth, stillness, music and performance rather than pure spectacle. The result? Large-format theatrical cinema rooted in Indian history and culture, but conceived in ways that were simply not possible before.
Collective Artists Network runs Galleri5 natively on Azure, leveraging Microsoft Foundry and cutting-edge AI tools to handle film, episodic and advertising workflows in a secure enterprise environment. Microsoft highlighted Collective as a “Frontier” organisation successfully moving AI from pilot projects to real production-scale deployment in cinema. The technology is also on display at Microsoft’s NAB booth in the West Hall (Booth W1731).
Jio Studios (Media & Content Business, Reliance Industries), president Jyoti Deshpande said the project advances the studio’s mission to take Indian stories global with scale, ambition and authenticity, “With Krishna, we are embracing cutting-edge AI-led filmmaking while democratising these tools to make them more accessible, intuitive and cost-effective for storytellers everywhere.”
Collective Artists Network founder & group CEO Vijay Subramaniam added, “We’re using technology developed in India to carry our culture and history to audiences worldwide at a scale never seen before.”
Microsoft, vice president for telco media & entertainment, gaming Silvia Candiani noted that the media industry has reached an inflection point, “AI is no longer about experimentation but delivering real impact at production scale… By building AI-native creative systems on Microsoft Azure, Collective exemplifies how storytellers can unlock new formats, move faster and realise a true return on intelligence while keeping human creativity at the centre.”
Krishna forms part of Historyverse, Collective Studios’ ambitious slate of history and culture-driven IPs. The slate draws from iconic figures and traditions that shaped the Indian subcontinent, including stories inspired by Kali, Karna and Durga. It builds on the already-released Mahabharat: Ek Dharmayudh series, showing how ancient narratives can be reimagined for modern screens.
Jio Studios, India’s leading content studio and the media and content arm of Reliance Industries, continues its blockbuster run. The studio’s Dhurandhar franchise led by Dhurandhar and Dhurandhar: The Revenge has become the first Indian film series to cross Rs 3,000 crore worldwide. It also delivered three consecutive years of India’s highest-grossing Hindi films: Stree 2 (2024), Dhurandhar (2025) and Dhurandhar: The Revenge (2026). In just eight years, Jio Studios has assembled a library of over 160 films and series, with more than 60 titles winning over 500 awards. Other notable successes include Laapataa Ladies (India’s official Oscar entry 2025), Stree, Article 370, Shaitaan and Mrs.
The NAB unveiling marks another step in Jio Studios and Collective’s push to blend Indian storytelling talent with frontier technology proving that the future of cinema may well be both ancient in spirit and thoroughly modern in execution. For audiences who love epic tales with a fresh twist, Krishna promises to deliver divine drama, this time with a little help from the cloud.
