Hindi
Releases in July and Sepember
MUMBAI: Two months of this year, July and September, would be unique in their own way. While July, termed as a lucrative month, will have releases of four big Bollywood films, the month will see releases of three big Hollywood films. September, on the other will release three big women centric films.
The Hollywood invasion in July starts with Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Amazing Spider-Man 3D, which releases on 3 July. Next in line is Fox Star Studios’s Ice Age 4: Continental Drift on 13 July and Warner Bros’s Dark Knight Rises on 20 July. All these Hollywood movies are likely to be released in 400-500 screens in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu languages, going by what was done when Titanic 3D released on 6 April.
Bollywood has lined up big releases that month. The list includes Golmaal remake Bol Bachchan on 3 July, UTV Motion Pictures’ Barfee and Deepika Padukone starrer Cocktail (both 13 July) and U, Me aur Mein on 27 July.
September, in contrast, will see three major releases of three top actresses. The process may have been triggered by successes of women centric films like Kahaani, The Dirty Picture and Ishqiya.
The first film to release would be UTV and Madhur Bhandarkar’s Heroine. The film revolves around female protagonist Kareena Kapoor, a struggler who wants to make it big in Bollywood. Her struggle and rise to stardom take the plot forward. The film looks set for box office as well as critical acclaim because of Bhandarkar’s prophecy in handling women centric scripts.
The film following next is Preity Zinta’s Ishk In Paris. The film features Zinta in a role of a strong headed lady who falls in love with a man but then how they handle complications of their lives and love in urban settings of Paris form the rest part of the story. The film seems to be an urban romantic drama that can work at box office.
And the last of the lot is Viacom18’s Rani Mukerji, Prithviraj-starrer Aiyya. The film is a quirky love story between a Marathi girl and a Tamil boy. The central theme of the film is about a woman who finds a man desirable because he smells good. The film is expected to do well at the box office.
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.
