Hindi
Satyadev Dubey’s friends complete his dream Marathi film
MUMBAI: Before he could expire, Satyadev Dubey was helming a Marathi film about landsharks and an old-age home inspired by Chandrashekhar Phansalkar’s play Ram Naam Satya Hai.
But he couldn’t complete the project. After his demise on 25 December, his friends from the industry have come together to complete the film.
“The film is ready. Dubey wanted to start dubbing. But one fine day, he decided to make radical changes. We had some conversations about the changes, but he never made notes of his ideas,” said Dubey’s close associate Sunil Shanbag in a statement.
The film is a story about builders who are threatening to take over an old- age home.
Practically, everybody who Dubey was close to like Sonali Kulkarni, Makrand Deshpande, Akash Khurana, Shishir Sharma, Suhas Joshi, Ashish Mehta and even some of his friends from the MIG club have contributed to the making of the project.
Apart from the actors, various people from the theatre and film fraternity pitched in to support his film.
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.
