Indian Hit Film ‘The Kashmir Files’ is Banned in Singapore

It’s been almost three years since “Stranger Things” season 3 aired, so Jimmy Fallon is helping fans catch up ahead of season 4.

Naman Ramachandran India’s Kamal Haasan is a true multi-hyphenate. Beginning as a child actor in 1960, he is one of the country’s most consummate actors with films like “Pathinaru Vayathinile” (1977) “Moondram Pirai” (1982) “Nayakan” (1987), “Thevar Magan” (1992) and “Vishwaroopam” (2013) behind him.He also produces via his Raajkamal Films International (RKFI), writes, directs, and runs the  Makkal Needhi Maiam political party.The upcoming “Vikram,” directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj (“Master”) and costarring Fahadh Fasil (“Maalik”) Vijay Sethupathi (“Kadaisi Vivasayi”), will be Haasan’s first release since 2018’s “Vishwaroopam 2.” It is produced by RKFI.Haasan was at the Cannes Market to launch NFTs based on “Vikram” from Fantico, a digital licensed platform of Singapore’s Vistas Media Capital.

Naman Ramachandran Rotem Shamir, whose credits include hit series “Fauda” and “Hostages” will make his Indian film debut as director of “Garud.”Inspired by real events, “Garud” will present a fictionalized depiction of the rescue mission in Afghanistan, based on the story of a police officer and his team of special forces.The film will be produced by Ajay Kapoor (“Attack”) for Ajay Kapoor Productions and Subhash Kale for Vikrant Studio. The cast is being finalized.Kapoor said: ” ‘Garud’ is a huge project for me, I’m emotionally driven to the film and want to give it the best treatment possible.

Naman Ramachandran The late Govindan Aravindan’s 1978 masterpiece “Thamp̄” (“The Circus Tent”) is one of two Indian films at this year’s Cannes Classics selection, alongside Satyajit Ray’s “Pratidwandi” (“The Adversary”) from 1970.“Thamp̄” was painstakingly restored by India’s Film Heritage Foundation (FHF), an organization founded by filmmaker Shivendra Singh Dungarpur (“Celluloid Man,” “CzechMate: In Search of Jirí Menzel”) in 2014. Dungarpur facilitated the restoration of Uday Shankar’s landmark film “Kalpana” (1948) by Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation, the restored version of which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012.

Naman Ramachandran Michel Fessler, co-writer of “Little Nicholas,” selected at Cannes this year as a special screening, has boarded Ravi K. Chandran’s “Tamara” as scriptwriter.Based on a story by Paris-based playwright and actor Vasanth Selvam (“Dheepan”), the film will follow 26-year-old Indian origin woman Tamara from Camargue in the south of France, who seeks her roots in the southern Indian territory Pondicherry, which was once a French colony.

Naman Ramachandran Indian actor Jackie Shroff (“Sooryavanshi”) will play the lead in Singapore-France-India co-production “Slow Joe,” it was revealed at the Cannes Film Market.Shroff will play the late Indian musician Joseph Manuel Da Rocha, known as Slow Joe, a former heroin addict and drug dealer who was born in Mumbai, was disowned by his family, heartbroken at 50 and who moved to Goa and cleaned up. On a trip to Goa in 2007, Lyon-based French musician Cédric de la Chapelle met Joe, now a frail 64-year-old who was making ends meet as a hotel room broker. Joe, also a poet and musician, sang for de la Chapelle, who was captivated by his voice and recorded some of his a cappella songs.Back in France, de la Chapelle played Joe’s songs for music producer Olivier Boccon-Gibod of Horizon Musiques, who was also entranced.

Naman Ramachandran Deaf Crocodile Films and Gratitude Films have acquired Indian films “Lalanna’s Song” and “Dhuin” for North American distribution. The deals were completed during the Cannes Market.“Dhuin” is one of six Indian titles selected by India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for a market screening.

Naman Ramachandran The cream of the current crop of young Indian documentary filmmakers were on fire during the annual Doc Day at the Cannes Film Market, discussing ways of expressing dissent within India’s current political dispensation.Since 2014, India has been ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. Shaunak Sen’s “All That Breathes” is showing as a special screening at the festival and previously won the documentary grand jury prize at Sundance. It follows Delhi-based Muslim brothers Mohammad Saud and Nadeem Shehzad, who, against the backdrop of the territory’s polluted atmosphere and escalating sectarian violence, devote their lives to saving the black kite bird species.“I was absolutely certain that this film was not a snapshot of the current political moment; this film’s main interests were ecological and the human-bird relationship,” Sen said.

Naman Ramachandran Indian documentary “From the Shadows,” by Miriam Chandy Menacherry (“Lyari Notes”), has been selected for the Breaking Through the Lens initiative at the Cannes Film Market.The initiative connects female and non-binary directors to finance at top-tier film markets.In the documentary, artist Leena Kejriwal relentlessly sprays silhouettes on public walls tagged #missing, activist Hasina Kharbhih accompanies girls rescued from child sex trafficking across international borders, and survivor Samina fights a long and arduous legal battle against her traffickers. Parallel narratives intersect to reveal a sliver of hope when women challenge a powerful trafficking nexus operating in a country where every eight minutes a child goes missing.

Naman Ramachandran Paris and Mumbai-based production service company La Fabrique Films is looking forward to a further surge in business in the wake of new Indian filming incentives that were announced in Cannes.International productions filming in India can be reimbursed up to 35% of qualifying production spend in the country.La Fabrique, which specializes in European films shooting in India, has been operational since 2013 and films they have provided production services for include “Les Cowboys,” “The Best Is Yet to Come” and “And Tomorrow We Will Be Dead.” La Fabrique has just wrapped work on Laetitia Colombani’s “The Braid” and company principals Déborah Benattar and Javed Wani are currently attending the Cannes Film Market. The initial reimbursement for international shoots in India is 30%, which can go up by an additional 5% for productions employing 15% or more manpower in India.“The incentives will be a great advantage for foreign producers who decide to come and shoot in India also, because there is this bonus of 5%, they may want to employ more Indian technicians, because, from our experience, we have amazing technicians in India.

EXCLUSIVE: Some of the West End and Broadway’s biggest productions are making their debuts on Indian TV.

A popular south Manchester eatery has teamed up with a bar in West Didsbury. Roti has joined forces with The Boiler Room to offer their famed Indian Scottish fusion food in a relaxed bar environment.

Priyanka Chopra Jonas grew up eyeing a career as an aeronautical engineer, but a detour to pageantry led to a Miss World crown in 2000 and a pivot to an acting career. She became a star in her native India and has gone on to conquer Hollywood. That may sound like the stuff of fairy tales, but there were certainly challenges along the way—from facing a patriarchal society at home to avoiding what Chopra Jonas calls “jack-in-the-box” typecasting in the studio system. Now, she’s determined to make things easier for women and South Asian talent following behind her, rewriting the rulebook and busting conventions.

The mere appearance of Jennifer Lopez at the 2021 inauguration of President Joe Biden affirmed her primacy in the interlocked realms of fashion, music, and cultural influence. Her proclamation a few moments later, “Una nación, bajo Dios, indivisible, con libertad y justicia para todos!” cemented her status as a beacon to a Latino community in America who had been subjected to demonization by the racially charged dogma of the previous administration.

Naman Ramachandran Australian film “The Laugh of Lakshmi,” by renowned theater director turned filmmaker S. Shakthidharan, will be one of the first films to make use of the newly announced Indian filming incentives.The film, a dance drama, is the story of a mother and a son separated by war.

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Indian TV star Chethana Raj has died at age 21 after getting surgery for fat removal.The actress was reportedly admitted to hospital in Bengaluru, Karnataka on Monday for fat removal surgery but later died from complications from the operation.The star is said to have suffered from a cardiac arrest after her lungs filled with fluid, according to local news outlets. Chethana is understood to have been moved from the cosmetic hospital to an ICU unit following the complications. However when she arrived, she was reportedly unresponsive and without a pulse.

Indian TV star Chethana Raj has died at the age of 21 after having fat removal surgery. The actress was reportedly admitted into a private plastic surgery hospital in Bengaluru, Karnataka, on Monday, but is said to have developed complications as fluid began to accumulated in her lungs. She later died of a cardiac arrest, after being rushed to another hospital where doctors were unsuccessful in reviving her through CPR.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentEight years after “Maps to the Stars,” David Cronenberg is coming back to the Cannes Film Festival with what looks to be a big bang. Weaving together equal parts body horror and dystopian panache, “Crimes of the Future” instantly became one of the most buzzed-about competition films after Neon dropped the trailer on April 14, the day of Cannes’ press conference. The lushly-lensed film, which reunites Cronenberg with his muse Viggo Mortensen (“A History of Violence,” “Eastern Promises”) along with Kristen Stewart and Lea Seydoux, could prove as divisive as the Canadian master’s 1996 cult film “Crash” which went on to scoop Cannes’ very first Special Jury Prize for “its audacity, daring and originality.” Ahead of the start of the festival, Cronenberg sat down with Variety in Paris to talk about the long-gestating “Crimes of the Future,” the making of the picture, its underlying themes, while speaking candidly about the difficulty of financing challenging films, as well as his stance on streamers and  U.S.