Film Production
RTake Studios, Wunderbar Films team up for Dhanush-led D55
MUMBAI: RTake Studios is stepping firmly into the big league. The production house has partnered with Wunderbar Films on D55, a pan-Indian feature starring Dhanush and directed by Rajkumar Periasamy, marking a high-stakes collaboration built around scale, vision and star power.
Slated for release later this year, the film brings together RTake Studios and Wunderbar Films in a bid to tap India’s fast-expanding national cinema market, with a project positioned as both creatively driven and commercially ambitious.
RTake Studios was founded by Shraddha Agrawal, who produces the film alongside mediapreneur Azmat Jagmag and Wunderbar Films’ Sreyas Srinivasan. Vishwanathan Ramaswamy and Sandesh Agrawal serve as co-producers.
In a joint statement, Shraddha Agrawal and Azmat Jagmag said: “D55 is a project we deeply believe in, both creatively and ambitiously. Collaborating with Wunderbar Films, Dhanush and Rajkumar Periasamy gives us the opportunity to back a story that is bold in vision and rooted in strong storytelling. This film represents the kind of cinema we want to champion — meaningful, large-scale and resonant. We’re proud to bring it to audiences.”
D55 marks RTake Studios’ third feature film, reinforcing the banner’s growing presence in the Indian film industry. With several projects in development, RTake is no longer testing the waters — it is building a slate, making its bets clear and signalling it intends to play for scale.
Film Production
Disney to cut 1,000 jobs under new chief executive
The entertainment giant’s freshly installed boss inherits a restructuring already in motion, with marketing and corporate roles bearing the brunt
CALIFORNIA: Walt Disney is preparing to slash up to 1,000 jobs in the coming weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported, as the entertainment giant’s freshly installed chief executive moves swiftly to trim fat and tighten the ship.
The cuts, less than 1 per cent of Disney’s global workforce of 231,000, will fall hardest on marketing and corporate roles. The planning, notably, began before D’Amaro formally took the top job in March, suggesting the new boss inherited a restructuring already in motion rather than one of his own making.
Driving the push is Asad Ayaz, Disney’s newly appointed chief marketing officer, who in January assumed command of a unified, company-wide marketing operation spanning film, television and streaming. His consolidation drive has been given a suitably cinematic internal name: Project Imagine.
The move is modest by Disney’s recent standards. Between 2023 and 2025, under former chief executive Bob Iger, the company eliminated roughly 8,000 positions across several brutal rounds of cuts, saving $7.5 billion, comfortably exceeding its own targets. As recently as June 2025, several hundred more jobs were axed across Disney Entertainment, hitting film and television marketing, publicity, casting, development and corporate finance.
Disney’s structural headaches are well-documented: shrinking streaming margins, a weakened box office, and fierce competition from Amazon and YouTube gnawing at its flanks. The company is merging its Disney+ and Hulu teams into a single app, has brought in consultants from Bain & Co to guide its broader cost strategy, and is betting heavily on digital growth.
The wider entertainment industry offers little comfort. Sony Pictures, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery have all taken the knife to their workforces in recent years, and further cuts loom if Paramount’s acquisition of Warner goes through.
For D’Amaro, the message is clear: there will be no honeymoon period. The magic kingdom still has some cost-cutting spells left to cast.
