Hindi
India’s creative future gets a cinematic campus
MUMBAI: Mumbai just got its own Hogwarts for creative tech. Union I&B minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis rolled out the red carpet today for the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT), a new-age media and entertainment education hub set inside the iconic NFDC Films Division Complex on Pedder Road.
Joined by Sanjay Jaju, secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, and Maharashtra’s cultural affairs minister Ashish Shelar, the top brass didn’t just cut a ribbon, they launched a vision. The duo unveiled IICT’s official logo and announced that the institute’s first academic batch will kick off from September 2025. Built with global standards in mind, the spanking new campus is loaded with future-forward infrastructure: think high-spec media labs, post-production suites, XR zones, and full-throttle animation and VFX bays.
Speaking at the inauguration, Vaishnaw said, “In this creative world, technology has become an integral part and it is important that we empower people who want to be part of the creator economy. I am glad that in such a short span we have inaugurated the first NFDC IICT campus in Mumbai. I have personally gone through the architectural presentations in detail for the campus in Film city, Goregaon, and I assure you it is going to be one of the finest campuses.”
The inaugural batch will admit 300 students, with the promise of a second campus already in the works at Filmcity, Goregaon — expected to open within the next two years.
Shri Devendra Fadnavis added, “This is not just an event; it is a moment — a moment that is now transforming into a movement. As part of this movement and its legacy, the announcement of IICT was made, and the campus was inaugurated in a remarkably short time. In the coming years, under the excellent guidance of Ashwini Vaishnaw, IICT will emerge not only as an institution of world-class education but also as an architectural and cultural landmark that attracts people from across the globe. Just as WAVES revolutionised the entire creator economy, IICT stands as a testament to all that hard work.”
India’s media-tech dreams have found their newest stage and the lights just came on.
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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.
