Hindi
Unique Tent theatre gives feel of early silent cinema halls
NEW DELHI: A unique aspect of the Centenary of Indian cinema held in the capital was a make-shift mini-theatre named ‘Thambu Cinema‘ and housed in a tent-shaped Gulshan Mahal in the lobby of the Siri Fort Auditorium. The Thambu Cinema saw houseful screenings everyday even though the films screened were all from the silent era. Gulshan Mahal is the name of the building in Mumbai in which the Museum of Cinematic Arts is coming up.
Film Division Zone‘s Picture Palace called Gulshan Mahal had a seating capacity of twenty five (on durries and benches) in a specially erected tent within the ambiance of the larger exhibition evoking an experience of the silent cinema. When the first moving pictures arrived, the world was not ready with cinema houses to show them, so tents were erected in open areas for the public at large. The tents were grandly called Picture Palaces, according to film historian Amrit Gangar who curated this section.
Jamshetji Framji Madan, a Parsi entrepreneur was fascinated by the new invention and he ordered projectors from Pathe. With the projectors he set up regular ‘bioscope‘ shows in tents at key points in Calcutta, including the Maidan. In Bombay‘s Azad Maidan also such tents were set up. While tents, cinemas in the cities were becoming fairly common, small towns and villages where most of Indian population lived, were untouched by the ‘new wonder‘. But soon tents reached there with travelling theatre companies. And so did the moving picture, the cinema.
One of the earliest itinerant showmen was Abdulally Essoofally, who in 1901, travelled from one Asian country to another. His travelling outfit included a projector, some cans of films, a folding screen and a tent. Sometime his tent was large enough to accommodate1000 people. Between 1908 and 1914, Abdulally‘s touring cinemas had covered most parts of India.
Some of the films shown were Shri Krishna Janma (1918), Lanka Dahan (1917), Kaliya Mardan; and Raja Harishchandra by the father of Indian cinema, D G Phalke; Gulami nu Patan (Fall of Slavery) (1931) by Shyam Sundar Agarwal; Banga Darshan, Diler Jigar (Gallant Hearts) (1931) by G P Pawar; The Light of Asia (1925) by Franz Osten; and two quickies Watan ki Abru and Hum Ek Hain.
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.
