English Entertainment
Indian girl Devika Mathur in ‘Canadian Idol’ race
MUMBAI: Indian curry on Canadian Idol? That’s exactly what it is as a former Mumbaiite has made it to the final 32 as the third season of Canadian Idol leads towards its climax.
Even as the excitement builds, Canada’s south Asian population have one of their own to root for in 27-year-old Devika Mathur.
Mathur, who featured on the third episode of the show televised on 8 June, represents Canada’s diverse ethnic population.
Out of the 32 finalists, four contenders were born outside of Canada (Cuba, Colombia, India and England).
The judges Farley Flex, Jake Gold, Sass Jordan and Zack Werner greatly appreciated Devika`s performance and acknowledged her talent.
The 32 finalist comprises of 19 females and 13 males. The contestants are divided into four groups of eight. Each group will perform over four consecutive Tuesday nights (14, 21, 28 J
une and 5 July) on CTV. The Top Two from each group will go directly into the Top 10 round.
Thus far, two teenagers Daryl Brunt and Ashley Leitao have come through as Canadian Idol’s first two hopefuls in the Top 10.
As for Mathur, she will be performing in the third group round on 28 June.
Married to an Indo-Canadian, Mathur was a RJ on the now off-air Mumbai FM radio station Win 94.6. Apart from her radio prowess, she was also known for her singing in Mumbai — being a member of local bands.
She had won the Corporate Karaoke Competition for Win 94.6. After moving to Toronto, Mathur has been hosting a two-hour show on a multi-cultural radio station in Toronto, CMR 101.3 FM.
She had given a performance at Devis and Divas at the largest South Asian arts and entertainment festival in North America and Canada. She even showcased her talent again at the Royal Ontario Museum, informs the media reports.
Canadian Idol witnessed an average audience of 2.1 million viewers, when the season kicked off on 14 June.
Canada has crowned Ryan Malcolm, from the first season of the show, while Kalan Porter was the Idol from the second season. Could Mathur become the next Canadian Idol? Canada’s south Asians would certainly praying for her!
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
