Hindi
I always wanted to do Comedy: Vidya Balan
MUMBAI: Its Vidya all the way! With successive hits and boosting the girl power as the 100th year of the Indian Cinema unfolds, Vidya Balan has come a long way from her
‘Susheel‘ (sophisticated) avatar in Parineeta (2005) to her spell bounding performances in The Dirty Picture, Kahaaniand Ishqiya.
Her latest Ghanchakkar (Crazy) is a suspense comedy that hits the silver screens come 28 June and is much awaited as it‘s the first film post her marriage to the honcho Siddharth Roy Kapur.
Balan stars as the loud-mouthed wife of a bank robber (Emraan Hashmi) who loses his memory after a heist. As per her latest interview with Reuters on Ghanchakkar, Balan speaks about her breaking the stereotypes and gladly accepting her sexuality. On being asked about her role in the movie, Balan affirms her role being a loud middle-class housewife with a stereotype middle-class woman persona.
Commenting about Raj‘s direction, she reveals that, “He (director Raj Kumar Gupta) finds humour in situations that are so mundane and everyday. Thrillers are his genre but I knew he‘d do humour well too. When he came to me with this, I always wanted to do comedy and this was a breath of fresh air.”
The 35-year-old actress has paved her way up through taking on versatile roles over the years. The actress‘ strong presence was appreciated in her bold The Dirty Picture (2011), the thriller flick Kahaani (2012) and also her bad-ass role in Ishqiya (2010), all winning her numerous Best Actress Awards consecutively.
Apart from her movies‘ box office collections soaring high, her leads have been critically acclaimed as well. About her next screen bet Ghanchakkar (Crazy), which is a suspense comedy that opens in cinemas on 28 June.
Spreading her charm beyond the borders, Balan has elevated herself to a spot in an elite nine- member Cannes festival jury headed by filmmaker Steven Spielberg. The charming actress sure knows how to achieve milestones in her career.
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.
