Hindi
Raaz3 3-D: Special effects save the day
MUMBAI: The Raaz legacy continues even after a decade. But when it comes to most Hindi films, sequels usually don‘t have anything to do with the predecessor except cashing in on the title of a successful film. Raaz3 3-D, like earlier films, is also a supernatural thriller. The story having little new to offer, the film‘s draw is the brand equity of the title, Emraan Hashmi and special effects in 3-D format.
It is a film awards ceremony and the one who has worshipped all the gods, kept all the mannats and tied all sorts of sacred threads, Bipasha Basu, rises to collect the award for the best actress even before any name is announced. When the name of the winner is announced, it is not her but a relative newcomer, Esha Gupta. Shattered Basu loses all her faith in God and takes to a totally anti-God route, that of the world of the dead, to help her dethrone Gupta and reclaim her top position in the film world.
Hashmi is a successful film director. He is the protégé of Basu, the number one heroine who has taken him from a spot boy and an assistant to the position of the topmost director. She has also been having an affair with him for some years away from the media glare. But while Hashmi is now on top, Basu is losing her ground gradually as Gupta takes over her place. Basu is fanatic about her status and at no cost would she let Gupta take it away. There is a reason beyond professional jealousy: Gupta is her half-sister, being the daughter of her father‘s paramour. Basu feels that Gupta has deprived her of all things that she could have got from her father, things that were rightfully hers. Her view is that Gupta not only took away her father and her benefits but is now also taking away her career.
Basu is advised that her gods have failed her and the only way she can get at Gupta is through the world of the dead. To execute her revenge with Gupta, she ropes in Hashmi as her accomplice. He is totally under her spell and madly in love with her. She wants Hashmi to cast Gupta in his next film and use the opportunity to serve her water from an evil soul. Every time Gupta is fed that water, she is subjected to bad dreams, hallucinations and other horrific experiences that drive her mad. This is Basu‘s ultimate objective: to convince the world that Gupta is insane so that her producers back out.
Gupta starts losing grip on her life and is driven to the point where, at one party, she imagines a horde of cockroaches attacking her while she is in the loo. Exasperated, she streaks across the floor, making a dash for the open arena full of invitees; a just case for everyone to brand her as mad. Hashmi sees her plight but he is guilty of being a party to this treatment of Gupta. The inevitable happens and he falls for the vulnerable Gupta, something that Basu had not counted on.
The story is predictable so it is for the 3-D and special effects to make the difference in this film. And, though Raaz 3 is not really scary, it does manage to give the viewer a jolt a few times thanks to its well-executed special effects. In fact, Raaz3 is a 3-D film with finesse thanks to Prasad and the supervision by the Weta experts. Photography is very good. While the background score by Raju Singh is effective, one can‘t say much about the songs, which have limited appeal. Vikram Bhatt has handled the film well despite having few characters to play with. The film offers the best role to Basu and she emerges tops despite playing a negative role. Hashmi is his usual self. Gupta does a satisfactory job.
Raaz3 3-D has opened to a very good response at multiplexes and should continue to hold its own to end the weekend on a happy note.
Hindi
Jio Studios unveils AI-powered Krishna teaser at NAB Show 2026
Global first look of Krishna uses Galleri5 AI pipeline on Azure, Historyverse slate as Jio’s Dhurandhar crosses Rs 3,000cr worldwide.
MUMBAI: Krishna has just dropped a divine teaser and this time the gods are powered by silicon, not just scripture. Jio Studios and Collective Studios’ Historyverse stole the spotlight at the NAB Show 2026 in Las Vegas with the world’s first teaser for their upcoming theatrical feature Krishna, directed by Manu Anand. The big reveal happened during Microsoft’s keynote “Powering Intelligent Media, From AI Experimentation to Real-World Impact,” where the film’s AI-native production pipeline took centre stage alongside Collective Artists Network’s in-house platform, Galleri5.
At the heart of this mythological spectacle lies a fresh cinematic workflow built by Galleri5 on Microsoft Azure’s advanced AI and cloud infrastructure. Forget bolting AI onto traditional VFX or animation, this is an end-to-end, production-grade system woven into every layer: world-building, character creation, shot design and final output. Yet the storytelling remains firmly director-led, emphasising emotional depth, stillness, music and performance rather than pure spectacle. The result? Large-format theatrical cinema rooted in Indian history and culture, but conceived in ways that were simply not possible before.
Collective Artists Network runs Galleri5 natively on Azure, leveraging Microsoft Foundry and cutting-edge AI tools to handle film, episodic and advertising workflows in a secure enterprise environment. Microsoft highlighted Collective as a “Frontier” organisation successfully moving AI from pilot projects to real production-scale deployment in cinema. The technology is also on display at Microsoft’s NAB booth in the West Hall (Booth W1731).
Jio Studios (Media & Content Business, Reliance Industries), president Jyoti Deshpande said the project advances the studio’s mission to take Indian stories global with scale, ambition and authenticity, “With Krishna, we are embracing cutting-edge AI-led filmmaking while democratising these tools to make them more accessible, intuitive and cost-effective for storytellers everywhere.”
Collective Artists Network founder & group CEO Vijay Subramaniam added, “We’re using technology developed in India to carry our culture and history to audiences worldwide at a scale never seen before.”
Microsoft, vice president for telco media & entertainment, gaming Silvia Candiani noted that the media industry has reached an inflection point, “AI is no longer about experimentation but delivering real impact at production scale… By building AI-native creative systems on Microsoft Azure, Collective exemplifies how storytellers can unlock new formats, move faster and realise a true return on intelligence while keeping human creativity at the centre.”
Krishna forms part of Historyverse, Collective Studios’ ambitious slate of history and culture-driven IPs. The slate draws from iconic figures and traditions that shaped the Indian subcontinent, including stories inspired by Kali, Karna and Durga. It builds on the already-released Mahabharat: Ek Dharmayudh series, showing how ancient narratives can be reimagined for modern screens.
Jio Studios, India’s leading content studio and the media and content arm of Reliance Industries, continues its blockbuster run. The studio’s Dhurandhar franchise led by Dhurandhar and Dhurandhar: The Revenge has become the first Indian film series to cross Rs 3,000 crore worldwide. It also delivered three consecutive years of India’s highest-grossing Hindi films: Stree 2 (2024), Dhurandhar (2025) and Dhurandhar: The Revenge (2026). In just eight years, Jio Studios has assembled a library of over 160 films and series, with more than 60 titles winning over 500 awards. Other notable successes include Laapataa Ladies (India’s official Oscar entry 2025), Stree, Article 370, Shaitaan and Mrs.
The NAB unveiling marks another step in Jio Studios and Collective’s push to blend Indian storytelling talent with frontier technology proving that the future of cinema may well be both ancient in spirit and thoroughly modern in execution. For audiences who love epic tales with a fresh twist, Krishna promises to deliver divine drama, this time with a little help from the cloud.
