Hindi
Kerala festival head steps down in protest
NEW DELHI: Bina Paul, who heads the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) as the artistic director for 12 years, has resigned as she feels the festival now concentrates more on individual personalities.
Her last assignment has been the recent International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK).
She said the festival is less about team work and her work, which she had done with passion, had become “more like an event management job, and I am not an event manager.” She added in a statement that “a festival needs to be reinvented with time. We needed to re-think the festival through but that was not happening which I found very upsetting.”
Paul, a national-award winning film editor and alumnus of the Film and TV Institute of India (FTII), is reportedly joining the newly set up Trivandrum campus of LV Prasad Film & TV Academy as the director.
The 19th International Film Festival of Kerala is scheduled to take place from 12 to 19 December.
Hindi
Dhurandhar the revenge storms past Rs 1,000 crore in a week, rewrites box office records
Aditya Dhar’s spy thriller sets fastest run to Rs 1,000 crore with record-breaking weekday hold
MUMBAI: The box office has a new juggernaut—and it is moving at breakneck speed. Dhurandhar the revenge has smashed past the Rs 1,000 crore mark worldwide in just a week, clocking a staggering Rs 1,088 crore and resetting the rules of the blockbuster game.
Backed by Jio Studios and B62 Studios, and directed by Aditya Dhar, the spy action sequel opened to the biggest weekend ever for an Indian film globally—and then refused to slow down. Unlike typical tentpole releases that taper off after Sunday, this one powered through the weekdays with rare muscle, posting Rs 64 crore on Monday, Rs 58 crore on Tuesday, Rs 49 crore on Wednesday and Rs 53 crore on Thursday.
The numbers stack up to a formidable first-week haul. India collections stand at Rs 690 crore nett and Rs 814 crore gross, while overseas markets have chipped in Rs 274 crore, taking the worldwide total to Rs 1,088 crore in just eight days.
The film’s opening weekend alone delivered Rs 466 crore, laying the foundation for what is now being billed as the fastest climb to the Rs 1,000 crore club in Indian cinema. Every single day of its first week has set fresh benchmarks, from the highest opening weekend to the strongest weekday hold—metrics that typically separate hits from phenomena.
A sequel to the earlier hit Dhurandhar, the film has not just built on its predecessor’s momentum but obliterated previous records, emerging as the biggest global blockbuster run by an Indian film to date.
At this pace, the film is not merely riding a wave—it is creating one.
