Agatha Christie’s ‘The Sittaford Mystery’ to Get Indian Adaptation by Vishal Bhardwaj for SonyLIV

Tom Hiddleston met his Night Manager counterpart Aditya Roy Kapur for the first time last night.

SonyLIV’s Rocket Boys, about Indian scientists Dr. Homi J. Bhabha and Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, was one of the most popular and critically acclaimed web series in India last year, winning multiple awards for its performances, writing and direction. 

Naman Ramachandran Series “Rocket Boys” was a hit for SonyLIV when it began streaming in 2022 and the streamer is expecting to replicate its success with season 2, which streams from March 16. The series is created by Nikkhil Advani and directed by Abhay Pannu, and produced by Siddharth Roy Kapur, Monisha Advani and Madhu Bhojwani for Roy Kapur Films and Emmay Entertainment. It is a fictionalized version of the story of Dr. Homi J. Bhabha (Jim Sarbh), who engineered India’s nuclear program and Dr. Vikram Sarabhai (Ishwak Singh), who established the Indian space program. Set during the 1940s-1970s, key players in the series also include Mrinalini Sarabhai (Regina Cassandra), a pillar in Dr. Sarabhai’s life, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (Arjun Radhakrishnan), who pioneered modern Indian aerospace and nuclear technology, and would go on to become the President of India, and the then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (Rajit Kapur) who supported the scientists.

Naman Ramachandran “White Snow,” the latest project from celebrated Indian filmmaker Praveen Morchhale, is his “artistic revolt” against political systems that repress artists. The project has been selected for the 21st Hong Kong — Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), the project market that operates concurrently with FilMart (March 13-16). Set in and around Kargil, a Muslim-dominated town in the Himalayas, where a war was fought between India and Pakistan in 1999, the film tells the story of Amir, whose short film gets banned due to a complaint from a religious leader, and his social media accounts gets blocked. His elderly mother Fatima sets out on an arduous journey in the Himalayan mountains to show the film in villages, which breaks her mentally and physically and brings her close to madness before she becomes a free soul.

Naman Ramachandran Indian production company Turning Point Productions is launching with a streaming series adaptation of Rob Sinclair’s bestselling thriller novel “Sleeper 13,” it was revealed on the sidelines of the 21st Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF). The novel, published by Orion in 2018, follows a protagonist who is smuggled to the Middle East as a child, trained as one of the most elite insurgents of his generation and forced to do things no one should for a cause he couldn’t believe in. But as his brothers were preparing to kill, he was looking for a way out. On the eve of the deadliest coordinated attacks the world has ever seen, he finally has his chance and looks to break free and hunt down those who made him a monster.

In Love and Warcraft, Madhuri Shekar was heralded as one of today’s fastest-rising and most prolific American playwrights.Since that 2014 debut and its focus on video games and gamer culture, Shekar has also earned praise for her mastery at tackling intricate and distinct genres, as varied as science and science fiction, and historical drama and horror.Shekar is at it again, this time with a contemporary American dramedy, or what Olney Theatre characterizes as “firmly in the mold of the great American kitchen sink dramas, leavened by a good dose of comedy.”A Nice Indian Boy is a story about Naveen Gavaskar, a Marathi-speaking Hindu boy, meeting the boy of his dreams — another Hindu boy, Keshav, who loves the same Bollywood films and can cook a mean dal makhani.It’s a match made in heaven that might even curry favor with his tradition-minded parents. Except, that is, for one small detail: Keshav was raised in an immersive and culturally rich Indian household by the Indian foster parents who adopted him, yet he himself is white.Still, the two are madly in love and ready to announce that to the world, starting with Naveen’s parents and the Gavaskar family.

Carlos Alcaraz just won his 100th professional match!

RRR‘s “Naatu Naatu” songwriter M. M. Keeravani celebrated his Oscar win for Best Original song, well in song.

Singer duo Kaala Bhairava and Rahul Sipligunj were among the early arrivals at the 95th Academy Awards.

Carlos Alcaraz is back with another win!

King Charles has snubbed Prince Andrew once more after reportedly refusing to pay out for his brother's Indian healing guru.The disgraced Prince allegedly submitted an expense claim to the Privy Purse for his live-in yoga instructor, expecting it to be signed off with no challenge. However, the King is said to have denied the Prince's request, instead telling Andrew he will have to pay for his instructor himself.The Duke of York has been using the instructor for several years and costs £32,000 a year, according to The Sun.The paper says that the guru comes to live with Andrew in the Royal Lodge for a month at a time, helping to "heal" him by using chanting, massages, and holistic therapy.

Naman Ramachandran International sales agency The Open Reel has boarded Indian film “Ek Jagah Apni” (“A Place of Our Own”). The film follows trans women Laila and Roshni who are looking for a house after they are evicted from their rental place. It soon becomes evident that their search for a home is also their ongoing search for a place in a society that wants to keep them away in a section away from the center. “A Place of Our Own” premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 2022 and will have its North American premiere at SXSW on March 11. It will then head to the BFI Flare LGBTQIA festival in London later this month.

Naman Ramachandran Janchivdorj Sengedorj’s “The Sales Girl” (Mongolia), Asif Rustamov’s “Cold As Marble” (Azerbaijan), Ken Kwek’s “#LookAtMe” (Singapore) and Nader Saeivar’s “No End” (Iran) were among the winners at the  Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema on Tuesday. “The Sales Girl,” which played at Busan and won awards at the New York and Osaka Asian film festivals, won the Golden Cyclo, the festival’s top honor awarded by the international jury. “Cold as Marble,” which has played at Talinn Black Nights and the Goa festivals, took home three awards, including the grand jury prize and the Marc Haaz and Netpac jury prizes.

World No. 1 tennis player Novak Djokovic’s vaccination status appears to again be causing him to miss a significant tournament, possibly two. Organizers of the ATP Indian Wells Masters event, which begins this week in California, confirmed his withdrawal late Sunday.

Naman Ramachandran “Pushpa” star Allu Arjun will headline an as-yet-untitled Indian film to be directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga (“Kabir Singh”). The film will be produced by Bhushan Kumar’s film studio and music label T-Series and Vanga’s Bhadrakali Pictures (“Arjun Reddy”). Kumar and Pranay Reddy Vanga will serve as producers, while Shiv Chanana will be a coproducer. The shoot will commence after the wrap of Prabhas starrer “Spirit,” also produced by T-Series and directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga. Bhadrakali Pictures and T-Series also have Vanga’s “Animal,” starring Ranbir Kapoor, Anil Kapoor and Rashmika Mandanna, in the works.

Naman Ramachandran Renowned theater practitioner Pravesh Kumar’s feature film directorial debut “Little English” will release in U.K. cinemas and go on a tour across the country from March 17. The film is set amidst a dysfunctional Punjabi family in the pressure cooker life of a terraced suburban home in Slough. Newly arrived from India, naive Simmy has come to marry the family’s eldest son Raj, who runs away, leaving Simmy locked in the house by her domineering mother-in-law. Simmy is smarter than she appears and enlists the support of the family’s disgruntled in-laws, including a sugar crazed, diabetic grandpa and a brother-in-law fresh out of jail.

Indian streamer SonyLIV has announced an adaptation of Agatha Christie detective novel The Sittaford Mystery, which marks director Vishal Bhardwaj’s debut on a streaming series. 

Welcome to Global Breakouts, Deadline’s fortnightly strand in which we shine a spotlight on the TV shows and films killing it in their local territories. The industry is as globalized as it’s ever been, but breakout hits are appearing in pockets of the world all the time and it can be hard to keep track. So we’re going to do the hard work for you.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema has unveiled its 85-title lineup for the edition that starts later this month (February 28 to March 7, 2023). Elements include a 10-film competition section, a 10-film documentary film section, a tribute to the Turkish director Semih Kaplanoglu; a thematic section “Asian Diaspora Cinema” offering a panorama of works by directors from Asian countries living in exile; and a Philippines cinema sidebar. Fiction films in competition include: Azerbaijan’s “Cold as Marble,” by Asif Rustamov; China’s “In Our Prime,” by Liu Yulin; Korea’s “A Letter from Kyoto,” by Kim Min-ju; India’s: “Behind Veils,” by Praveen Morshhale; Iran’s “No End,” by Nader Saievar; Mongolia’s “The Sales Girl,” by Sengedorj Janchivdorj; The Philippines’s “Feast,” by Brillante Mendoza; Singapore’s “#LookAtMe,” by Ken Kwek; and Vietnam’s “Memento Mori: Earth,” by Marcus Vu Manh Cuong. The president of the jury is Lee Yong-kwan, president of the Busan film festival.

Shalini Dore Features News Editor Smriti Mundhra, the creator of “Indian Matchmaking,” has launched a show called “The Romantics” on Netflix just in time for Valentine’s Day. The docuseries centers on a bastion of Hindi cinema, Yash Raj Films, which just released the smash hit “Pathaan.” Netflix releases the series day and date in India, the U.S. and around the world. And it is coming just as interest in films from the subcontinent are piquing international interest. “It was sort of on my bucket list to make something about Indian cinema, broadly,” she tells Variety. “The intention was to look at the formative, most iconic films in Indian cinema, or the filmmakers — something that gives a glimpse into our industry.”