Hindi
Shanghai to now release on 8 June
MUMBAI: PVR Pictures has rescheduled the release date of Dibakar Banerjee‘s thriller, Shanghai.
The movie will now hit the screens on 8 June. The political thriller was earlier set to release on 26 January. But the producers, not wanting to have a clash with Karan Johar’s Agneepath, changed the release date.
Adapted from a Greek novel, the movie is based on the life of politicians and their greed and has been inspired by the Costa Gavras- directed film Z, released in 1969. It talks about the present roller coaster expose of big money politics and how the common man gets his revenge back.
Talking of the adaptation, Banerjee said, “Adapting a book into a film is not easier as many think. Whether adapted or original, a filmmaker faces the same problems and the same amount of blood and toil goes into it.”
Talking of how the film has shaped up, the director added: “Frankly I was floored by the performances of our stars and character artistes. With Shanghai, viewers should look forward to taking some revenge…revenge of the common Indian man against the people who have money and who are sucking us dry with their vested interests.”
The film stars Emraan Hashmi, Abhay Deol, Kalki Koechlin, and Prosenjit Chatterjee. While Deol plays a bureaucrat, Hashmi plays a roadside photographer and Koechlin plays an expat – a half-British caught in a corrupt society.
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.
