Hindi
Judwaa 2….Rides on long weekend
Ideas are in short-supply. Shortcuts are the norm. And, as a producer of repute, if you are getting a package deal to make some quick money, why not?
Producer Sajid Nadiadwala digs into his own archives and comes up with a remake of his own film ‘Judwaa.’ Since remakes are an accepted norm, David Dhawan, the director of the original Judwaa, comes as a package deal with his son, Varun, in the lead.
Judwaa, Sajid and David’s 1997 film was a comic laugh riot. Salman Khan was in his element playing a dual role and David was known to be an economical director who, trained at FTII as an editor, was known to pre-edit his films.
Judwaa 2 continues the age-old formula where twins are separated at birth for whatever reason. The character of Sachin Khedekar and his wife, Prachi Shah, have twin boys, Varun Dhawan in dual role. One of them is kidnapped. The upbringing of the two is poles apart.
Prem grows up in London in the lap of luxury in a protected life. Raja is raised by a fisherwoman in Mumbai. Raja grows up to become an extrovert and confident one, Prem is a softy who takes to music.
How the two brothers eventually come together and the pieces fall into their respective slots and the villains tackled is the obvious plot.
Romantic angles have to be drawn. Prem has been paired with the character Taapsee Pannu while Raja meets his match, played by Jacqueline Fernandez, on a flight.
The best part of the film, which makes it tick, is that these are reflexive twins in that whatever one does, other follows or, whatever one undergoes, the other sufferers it too. So, even while both are away from each other unaware of their existence, this provides for some fun.
Since this is the remake of the 1997 Judwaa starring Salman Khan, the comparisons are inevitable, especially since the film is still fresh in mind of the moviegoer. While lacking in originality, Judwaa 2 also can’t find new or contemporary gags.
Varun Dhawan tries his best and comes across convincingly as the ‘tapori’ while, as the simpleton, he finds the going tough. Fernandez and Pannu have nothing much to do except during songs and to add glamour.
As for direction, Dhawan adheres mostly to the original, also his own work. The length here, 150 minutes, looks stretched, especially in the second half and needs some trimming. Music benefits with the use of two songs from the original Judwaa, composed by Anu Malik.
Judwaa 2 is a light entertainer which is what the moviegoer prefers. The film gets a long weekend as Saturday is a Dussehra holiday followed by Sunday, and Gandhi Jayanti holiday on Monday.
Producer: Sajid Nadiadwala.
Director: David Dhawan.
Cast: Varun Dhawan, Jacqueline Fernandez, Taapsee Pannu, Anupam Kher, Pavan Malhotra, Rajpal Yadav, Sachin Khedekar and Prachi Shah.
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.
