Mega Merger Of Sony & Zee In India Given Greenlight

Naman Ramachandran Indian content queen Ektaa R. Kapoor will receive the 2023 International Emmy Directorate Award. Balaji Telefilms, which was started by Kapoor and her parents Jeetendra Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor in 1994, is the single largest television content producer in South Asia.

Naman Ramachandran Indian cinema A-lister Allu Arjun is delighting in his best actor win at India’s National Film Awards for “Pushpa: The Rise – Part 1.” Directed by Sukumar and produced by Mythri Movie Makers and Muttamsetty Media, the film traces the rise of Molleti Pushpa Raj (Arjun), a labourer who rises through the ranks of a sandalwood smuggling syndicate and faces off against an egotistic police officer. The Telugu-language film was also dubbed into other Indian languages and went on to become the biggest box office hit of 2021 in the country. It is the first time an actor from the Telugu-language film industry has won the best actor accolade at the National Film Awards in India.

Disney is planning to offer free cricket on smartphones and tablets in India as it fights back against subscriber loss at its Indian streaming service Disney+ Hotstar. 

Naman Ramachandran The sheer popularity of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) is leading to its expansion this year, while sister event Film Bazaar, South Asia’s largest content market, will have a focus on new technology, one of the country’s top film officials has revealed. The Indian government-backed events run in parallel in Goa in November each year in close geographic proximity. In 2022, demand for tickets at the public-facing IFFI was so strong that reservations had to be paused on the second day of the festival.

Naman Ramachandran As South Asians increasingly make their mark on the world film and TV stage, an initiative to find emerging talent from the region and propel them globally is being launched. Alongside talent from the region who are already entrenched in Hollywood, including Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Freida Pinto, in recent years several South Asian actors have appeared in international projects.

Indian web series “Made In Heaven” returned to Prime Video after a four-year gap with solid and resonating stories. Canceled thrice due to COVID, filmmaker Zoya Akhtar is happy to finally share her spectacular series with the world, and the audience globally has accepted it with open arms.

Naman Ramachandran S.S. Rajamouli’s “RRR” was the big winner at India’s annual National Film Awards with six honors, while actor R. Madhavan’s directorial debut “Rocketry” won best film.

Netflix has renewed Indian cop drama Khakee: The Bihar Chapter for a second season and struck a wider creative partnership deal with the show’s creator, Friday Storytellers.

Naman Ramachandran Zee Studios blockbuster “Gadar 2,” headlined by Sunny Deol, could get a third part and a spinoff, provided the story is right. The film is already amongst the highest Indian grossers of the year with $45 million globally in just seven days of release. Written by Shaktimaan Singh and directed by Anil Sharma, “Gadar 2” is a sequel to 2001 smash hit “Gadar,” which was set in the period after the partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan in the 1947-54.

Sony’s Craig Gillespie-directed comedy, Dumb Money, about the GameStop meme investors isn’t going wide anymore on Sept. 22. Rather, the Culver City lot has opted to go exclusive with the ensemble movie on Sept. 15 in LA and NYC, then a limited break on Sept. 22, followed by a moderate release on Sept. 29 and a final wide on Oct. 6. You’ll remember, Sony moved Kraven the Hunter off of that first weekend of October to Labor Day weekend 2024.

Bigg Boss OTT,” the Indian adaptation of the “Big Brother” format hosted by Bollywood star Salman Khan, has broken records for streamer JioCinema. The show was available as a free 24-hour live stream. On Aug.

When Prince Harry first began dating Meghan Markle, they were keen to keep their romance behind closed doors.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL) MD-CEO Punit Goenka will not be able to hold any office in the merged Sony-Zee entity for now, market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has said. In June, SEBI had barred Goenka and ZEEL chair emeritus Subhash Chandra from holding any managerial or directorial positions in listed companies while it carried out investigations into allegations of insider trading.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises and Sony’s Indian TV businesses has been nearly two years in the making, but finally cleared a key regulatory hurdle on Thursday. The combined companies have the potential to create a giant in broadcast TV — a sector that is still paramount in India — and are valued at $10 billion. Last week’s other tremblor was news from Burbank that Disney+ Hotstar, India’s streaming market leader, had lost 12.5 million subscribers, following the loss of key sports rights to a competitor.

Led by Rajinikanth-starrer Jailer and Anil Sharma’s Gadar 2, box office in India reached record-breaking numbers this weekend. According to the Producers Guild of India and Multiplex Association of India, the August 11-13 frame was the busiest single weekend since the beginning of the pandemic. What’s more, across three days, ticket sales hit more than 390 crore ($47M), a new all-time theatrical gross record for the biggest combined weekend in history. 

As a nail biting kidnapping plot continued to unfold on Thursday night’s instalment of Emmerdale, Laurel Thomas continued to suffer at the hands of Colin Hamston, who had been holding her hostage in the hopes that she would contact his estranged son Marshall for him. The newly married Laurel, who tied the knot with Jai Sharma last month, was seen strapped to a bed, wrapped in duct tape and gagged as Colin ordered her to contact Marshall, who had distanced himself from his father after Colin failed to accept his sexuality.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited and Sony’s TV operations in India has finally been given a green light – nearly two years after the deal was first announced. The merged entity’s estimated value is some $10 billion.

Naman Ramachandran Eminent filmmaker Ananth Narayan Mahadevan is in post-production on “Phule,” about the pioneers of women’s education in India. Jyotirao Govindrao Phule and his wife Savitribai were social reformers known for their efforts against India’s endemic caste system. Phule’s first school for girls was founded in Pune, western India, in 1848.

Naman Ramachandran Indian filmmaker Dominic Sangma’s “Rapture” (“Rimdogittanga”) is the second in a trilogy of films based on his memories of village life that began with his debut feature “Ma’ama” (2018). The Garo-language film, which revolves around a 10-year-old boy who suffers from night blindness and for whom every night is terrifying when his village is gripped by the fear of child-kidnappers, originated from another memory of Sangma, who hails from Meghalaya in northeastern India.

Naman Ramachandran Former Disney India head and producer of Sony LIV hit “Rocket Boys,” Siddharth Roy Kapur has hailed the reinvigorated Indian box office and robust streaming space. Nevertheless, he sees challenges ahead.