Hindi
Ketan Mehta’s film on the Mountain Man faces 1st hurdle
MUMBAI: Within hardly 15 days of its announcement, Ketan Mehta‘s biopic of Mountain Man Dashrath Manjhi, has reportedly hit a roadblock.
Bhagirath Dashrath Manjhi, son of Dashrath Manji, has now issued a public notice saying that he had exclusively assigned the making rights to filmmaker Neerraj Pathak.
According to the notice, no other person has the consent to make a film on his late father. The notice further states that he has the right to take legal action against anyone who attempts to infringe the personal rights of his family.
In his absence, Mehta‘s actress-turned-filmmaker wife Deepa Sahi said, “It is a true life story so anyone can make a film based on it. It is part of our history so no one can have a copyright to it.”
Earlier in July 2010, director Manish Jha had announced a film titled Manjhi based on the life of Dashrath Manjhi. The film was to be produced by Sanjay Singh, who had earlier announced to produce Udaan in which Manoj Bajpai was slated to play the lead. But the project never saw light of the day.
It may be interesting to note that Dashrath Manjhi, in his determination to cut a distance between Atri and Wazirganj blocks of Gaya district from 75 km to just one km, single-handedly carved a 360-foot-long, 25-foot-high and 30-foot-wide road by cutting a mountain of Gehlour hills for 22 years from 1960 to 1982.
Hindi
Jio Studios, Sanjay Dutt team up to revive Khal Nayak
Rights acquired for new version, format under wraps as remake plans take shape.
MUMBAI: The villain is back and this time, he’s rewriting his own script. Jio Studios has partnered with Three Dimension Motion Pictures and Aspect Entertainment to revive the 1993 cult classic Khal Nayak, marking a fresh chapter for one of Bollywood’s most iconic anti-hero stories. The original film, directed by Subhash Ghai under Mukta Arts, was a commercial and cultural milestone, with Sanjay Dutt’s portrayal of Ballu becoming one of Hindi cinema’s most memorable performances.
Dutt, along with Aksha Kamboj, has now acquired the rights from the original creators, bringing on board Jio Studios and its President Jyoti Deshpande to steer the project creatively.
While the exact format whether remake, sequel, prequel, or a completely new narrative remains undisclosed, the collaboration aims to reinterpret the story for contemporary audiences while retaining the essence that made the original a defining film of the 1990s.
The move taps into a broader industry trend of reviving legacy intellectual property, particularly characters with strong recall value. “Khal Nayak” was notable for pushing mainstream Hindi cinema into morally grey territory at a time when heroes were largely one-dimensional, making Ballu’s character a standout.
The project also marks the film production debut of Aspect Entertainment, signalling a push towards more technology-led storytelling frameworks. Meanwhile, Jio Studios continues to expand its slate, having built a library of over 200 films and series, with more than 60 titles collectively winning 500-plus awards.
For Dutt, the revival is as much personal as it is strategic, a return to a role that reshaped his career. For the industry, it is another sign that nostalgia, when paired with scale, remains a powerful box-office proposition.
Because in Bollywood, some villains never fade, they just wait for the perfect comeback.
