iWorld
Prime Video lifts the veil on Daldal at Iffi showcase
GOA: Prime Video set the stage for its upcoming Hindi original Daldal with an exclusive first look at the 56th International Film Festival of India, drawing audiences into a brooding crime world where Mumbai’s newest DCP Rita Ferreira hunts a cold-blooded killer while wrestling with her own buried wounds.
Adapted from Vish Dhamija’s bestselling novel Bhendi Bazaar, the psychological thriller is produced by Vikram Malhotra and Suresh Triveni for Abundantia Entertainment. Triveni has created the series and co written it with Sreekanth Agneeaswaran, Rohan D’Souza and Priya Saggi, while Amrit Raj Gupta directs. Bhumi Satish Pednekkar, Aditya Rawal and Samara Tijori lead the cast. The series will stream soon on Prime Video in India and more than 240 countries and territories.
After a closed door teaser reveal, a fireside chat titled Beyond the Stereotype explored how Daldal builds a fresh blueprint for powerful female characters. The panel featured Pednekkar, Triveni and the creative team alongside Nikhil Madhok, director and head of originals at Prime Video India.
Madhok said the platform’s push for female centred storytelling is a considered shift from decades of screen narratives shaped by the male gaze. He highlighted a wide slate ranging from Daldal to Dahaad and Made in Heaven, all driven by women with agency, complexity and emotional truth.
Pednekkar described the intensity of playing Rita Ferreira, a character who reveals more through silence than speech. She said the role demanded a physical language of guilt, rage and restraint, calling it one of the most demanding and rewarding performances of her career.
Malhotra said Abundantia has long championed nuanced portrayals of women through titles like Sherni, Jalsa and Hush Hush. He added that Daldal avoids boxing characters into good or bad, choosing instead to tell human stories with balance and honesty.
Triveni stressed that Daldal is not a simple whodunnit but an exploration of what drives people to the choices they make, while Gupta said the team worked to keep performances understated to let the audience sit with the characters’ contradictions.
Daldal will premiere exclusively on Prime Video soon, promising a crime drama that is as much about the shadows within as the dangers outside.
iWorld
X launches XChat messaging app on iOS with calls and encryption
Standalone app marks shift from “everything app” vision, adds E2E messaging.
MUMBAI: From one big app to many small chats, X seems to be splitting its ambitions. X has rolled out its standalone messaging app, XChat, to iOS users, opening up a new front in its evolving product strategy. The app allows users to connect with existing X contacts through private and group messages, file sharing, as well as audio and video calls. The launch follows a limited beta phase, where the platform tested the product with a smaller user base to refine the experience. Now available publicly, XChat marks a notable pivot from earlier ambitions championed by Elon Musk to turn X into a single “everything app” combining messaging, payments, commerce and more.
Instead, the company under xAI ownership and backed by SpaceX appears to be building a suite of standalone applications, each targeting specific use cases while expanding its broader ecosystem.
At launch, XChat includes end-to-end encrypted messaging, PIN-based access, disappearing messages, and features such as message editing, deletion for all participants, and screenshot blocking. The company has also said the app is free from advertisements and tracking mechanisms, positioning it as a privacy-first alternative in a crowded messaging space.
However, security claims around the platform are likely to face scrutiny. Earlier iterations of XChat drew criticism from experts who argued it fell short of established encrypted platforms like Signal. With the wider rollout, the app is expected to undergo fresh evaluation to assess whether those concerns have been addressed.
Beyond messaging, XChat will also house X’s Communities feature, which is being discontinued on the main platform due to low usage and spam concerns. Migrating these users could provide an early boost to adoption, effectively turning XChat into both a communication and community hub.
The move underscores a broader recalibration at X less about cramming everything into one app, and more about spreading bets across multiple touchpoints, one message at a time.
