Hindi
Next MAMI Fest in South Mumbai; NCPA and Inox are venues
MUMBAI: The Board of Trustees of the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) has revealed what transpired at a meeting yesterday. The trustees met and discussed the upcoming 14th Mumbai Film Festival, a Reliance Entertainment initiative.
Film dignitaries present at the meeting included MAMI chairman Shyam Benegal, trustees – Ramesh Sippy, Sudhir Mishra, Ashutosh Gowariker, Amol Palekar, Amit Khanna, Reliance Entertainment CEO Sanjeev Lamba and festival director Srinivasan Narayanan.
New additions to the board are filmmakers Anurag Kashyap and Sudhir Mishra.
After a growing demand from cinema enthusiasts to accommodate them in larger number, it was decided to move the festival to South Mumbai, with NCPA and Inox as the festival venues.
To celebrate 100 years of Indian Cinema, the Mumbai Film Festival has decided to introduce a ‘Competition‘ section for Indian films with a cumulative cash reward of Rs 1.5 million (USD 31,000 approx).
Other special events are also being chalked out to celebrate the 100 years of Indian Cinema during the course of the Festival.
Through a special selection of films in the Celebration of Italian Cinema, the Festival will pay tribute to Italian Cinema by way of a special selection of films. The package will include films from all major directors and also restored films like ‘Maciste‘ (1915) and ‘Inferno‘ (1911). The section is to be organised in collaboration with the Embassy of Italy in India and Mr. Italo Spinelli.
Following last year‘s roaring response for the French films, the new edition of “Rendezvous with French Cinema” will be hosted by the 14th Mumbai Film Festival in collaboration with the Embassy of France in India and Unifrance.
The Mumbai Film Festival will be held from 18 to 25 October.
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.
