Film Production
K Sera Sera in talks with Jackie Chan on film project
MUMBAI: K Sera Sera has an ambitious plan of getting into a co-production movie venture with international superstar Jackie Chan.
In its business plan report (a copy of which is with indiantelevision.com), K Sera Sera has expressed intent to build a global audience play. Part of that drive will be to produce and distribute (in some territories) its first international project with Jackie Chan in the lead out of Hong Kong in early FY06.
K Sera Sera chief executive officer Kacon Sethi admits talks with Chan were initiated about four months back. “But that will take its own time. It is not our focus area of action now. We are right now committed to completing the movies for Sahara this year. We also want to pump up our television content business,” she says.
K Sera Sera’s second ambitious project is to produce a $20 million movie under the supervision of Ram Gopal Varma, stretching its funding sources. If turned into reality, it will be the costliest movie project in India.
“It is in the script development stage and will be in the thriller genre. We will have it in both English and Hindi languages,” says Sethi.
Where will the funding for such a huge budget movie come from? “The project development is in place. It is a big item movie and can take over a year,” says Sethi.
Sahara has already committed about Rs 300 million to K Sera Sera for producing 10 Hindi movies. The new venture will be outside the deal with Sahara.
For the ten movies, Sahara will have the satellite rights while K Sera Sera can exploit the theatrical business for a specified period. Varma will have a 50 per cent share of the profits with K Sera Sera.
Film Production
Disney to cut 1,000 jobs under new chief executive
The entertainment giant’s freshly installed boss inherits a restructuring already in motion, with marketing and corporate roles bearing the brunt
CALIFORNIA: Walt Disney is preparing to slash up to 1,000 jobs in the coming weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported, as the entertainment giant’s freshly installed chief executive moves swiftly to trim fat and tighten the ship.
The cuts, less than 1 per cent of Disney’s global workforce of 231,000, will fall hardest on marketing and corporate roles. The planning, notably, began before D’Amaro formally took the top job in March, suggesting the new boss inherited a restructuring already in motion rather than one of his own making.
Driving the push is Asad Ayaz, Disney’s newly appointed chief marketing officer, who in January assumed command of a unified, company-wide marketing operation spanning film, television and streaming. His consolidation drive has been given a suitably cinematic internal name: Project Imagine.
The move is modest by Disney’s recent standards. Between 2023 and 2025, under former chief executive Bob Iger, the company eliminated roughly 8,000 positions across several brutal rounds of cuts, saving $7.5 billion, comfortably exceeding its own targets. As recently as June 2025, several hundred more jobs were axed across Disney Entertainment, hitting film and television marketing, publicity, casting, development and corporate finance.
Disney’s structural headaches are well-documented: shrinking streaming margins, a weakened box office, and fierce competition from Amazon and YouTube gnawing at its flanks. The company is merging its Disney+ and Hulu teams into a single app, has brought in consultants from Bain & Co to guide its broader cost strategy, and is betting heavily on digital growth.
The wider entertainment industry offers little comfort. Sony Pictures, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery have all taken the knife to their workforces in recent years, and further cuts loom if Paramount’s acquisition of Warner goes through.
For D’Amaro, the message is clear: there will be no honeymoon period. The magic kingdom still has some cost-cutting spells left to cast.
