Hindi
PVR acquires rights of Ashvin Kumar’s ‘The Forest’
MUMBAI: PVR Cinemas has acquired the rights of director Ashvin Kumar’s 86-minute film, The Forest.
A tale of a man-eating leopard set in the jungles of north India, The Forest was earlier premiered at Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose in February 2009 and was also show at the Cannes Market in 2009.
The writer-director won an Oscar nomination in 2004 for Little Terrorist. The film has been part of official selections to over 130 film festivals including the British Academy of Film and Television (BAFTA) Los Angeles.
His documentary Inshallah Football is about a Kashmiri boy’s dreams to play football and how his father’s past jeopardises his dreams. With the film, he also became the first Indian to be nominated at the European Film Academy for the 15-minute short film that traces the journey of a young Pakistani boy who accidentally crosses the border between India and Pakistan in pursuit of his cricket ball and is instantly branded a terrorist by security forces.
Kumar, son of well-known designer Ritu Kumar, started his filmmaking journey with Road to Ladakh and followed it up with films like Dazed in Doon and Inshallah Kashmir: Living Terror.
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.
