City Mumbai Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Warner Bros Discovery‘s international restructuring has continued with James Gibbons setting out the shape of his Asia Pacific team, with Japanese Country Manager Masami Takahashi choosing to retire.

Paradise, directed by Sri Lankan filmmaker Prasanna Vithanage, is playing in the Icons: South Asia section of Mumbai Film Festival, fresh from its world premiere at Busan International Film Festival where it won the Jiseok Award.

Naman Ramachandran Warner Bros. Discovery has revealed several leadership roles across its Asia Pacific (APAC) business, following the appointment of James Gibbons as president, Asia Pacific, in October.

Naman Ramachandran Former Disney India head and leading producer Siddharth Roy Kapur has warned of some practices that could arise in making films for streamers. Delivering the keynote address at the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival‘s Industry Connect Symposium on Monday, Kapur, who is currently basking in the success of International Emmy nominated series “Rocket Boys” for streamer SonyLIV, lauded the positives brought to the industry by the platforms but also pointed out the pitfalls.

Leading Tamil filmmaker Mani Ratnam shared deep insights and filmmaking secrets from his illustrious 40-year career in a master class at Mumbai Film Festival, moderated by self-confessed fan and Hindi film director Imtiaz Ali. 

Naman Ramachandran Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla” will be the closing film of the ongoing Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival. The film will receive its South Asia Premiere on Nov. 3 at the festival.

Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival has announced that Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla will be the closing film of this year’s festival, where it will receive its South Asian premiere on November 3 at the PVR Maison in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC). 

Indian actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas talked about how she was warned away from doing female-centric films when working in Hindi cinema, as well as her ambitions to expand her portfolio in the U.S., in a  conversation with fellow Indian actress Bhumi Pednekar at Mumbai Film Festival today. 

Naman Ramachandran Italian auteur Luca Guadagnino and Indian filmmakers Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti‘s Tiger Baby will lay the ground for future collaborations at a Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival event. The event, designed as a celebration of Guadagnino, will honor his work. “Tiger Baby’s celebration of Luca Guadagnino’s contributions to world cinema marks a significant step toward fostering international collaboration and sharing diverse stories with a global audience.

Naman Ramachandran Bangladeshi auteur Mostofa Sarwar Farooki has wrapped his latest film “Last Defenders of Monogamy.” The cast is headlined by popular Bangladeshi actor Chanchal Chowdhury (“Karagar,” “Hawa”) and Xefer Rahman and the cast also includes Samina Hussain Prema and Shuddho Rai. The film follows Shafqat (Chowdhury), a father of two adolescents and a loving husband, who is a firm believer in the ideals of monogamy but the winds of change take a big test of his ideologies. “Working with Farooki is always special.

latest red-carpet look will make you want to do the “Monster Mash.”On October 27, the 41-year-old actor attended the opening night of the Jio MAMI Mumbai International Film Festival wearing a positively stunning Tony Ward Couture halter gown with a sheer front panel featuring white satin strips and gold sequins. Gorgeous! Stunning! Statuesque! And still, with Halloween just days away, I couldn't help but look at the dress by the famed bridal gown designer as an ultra-expensive, high-fashion bit of mummy cosplay.Chopra topped off the column dress with a billowing white satin robe, complementing the ethereal look with a classic smoky eye and bold lip.

Stars from both the Hindi and South Indian film industries turned out in force for the opening night of Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, including Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Sonam Kapoor and Bhumi Pednekar, along with Tamil star Kamal Haasan, who presented the Excellence in Cinema Award (South Asia) to director-producer Mani Ratnam. 

Naman Ramachandran “Zende,” a feature documentary about supercop Madhukar Zende, who arrested the notorious Charles Sobhraj twice, will have its world premiere at the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival. Produced by Dora Digs Studios and directed by debutant Akshay Shah, “Zende” is one of the first Indian feature documentaries to use artificial intelligence (AI) technology to recreate and regenerate some of Mumbai’s most iconic locations and moments in history.

Mumbai Film Fest To Honor Luca Guadagnino & Mani Ratnam

Naman Ramachandran Italy’s Luca Guadagnino and India’s Mani Ratnam will receive the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival‘s 2023 Excellence in Cinema awards. Ratnam will receive the Excellence in Cinema (South Asia) award and Guadagnino the Excellence in Cinema (International) award. The awards will be presented at the festival’s opening ceremony on Oct.

Naman Ramachandran Abramorama has acquired North American theatrical rights for Leslie Shampaine and Pip Gilmour‘s feature documentary “Call Me Dancer.” The deal was revealed on the sidelines of TIFFCOM, the film market attached to the Tokyo International Film Festival. The film follows Manish Chauhan, a young and talented street dancer from Mumbai who struggles against his parents’ insistence that he follow a traditional path.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Chinese film sales company Parallax Films is poised to make a splash this week in Tokyo. The outfit has two titles in the Tokyo International Film Festival official selection and a host of festival-travelled Chinese films in the TIFFCOM market. Appearing in main competition is “A Long Shot,” a crime drama by first time feature director Gao Peng.

Naman Ramachandran Global music icons Curtis ‘50 Cent‘ Jackson and Ed Sheeran have unveiled concert dates for India. 50 Cent will perform at Mumbai’s DY Patil Stadium on Nov. 25 as part of his “The Final Lap Tour” to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his blockbuster album “Get Rich or Die Tryin.” The opening line-up will consist of popular Indian acts including Divine, Prabh Deep, SVDP and Yung Raja.

The Buckingham Murders, directed by Hansal Mehta and starring Kareena Kapoor Khan, has been set as the opening film of the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Dynamic Singaporean producer Jeremy Chua is to receive the FIAPF Award for Outstanding Contribution to Asia Pacific Cinema, at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) on Nov. 3 on Australia’s Gold Coast.

Monsoon Wedding and A Suitable Boy filmmaker Mira Nair has been announced as the Head of Jury for the South Asia Competition at this year’s Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival (October 27-November 5). 

Naman Ramachandran Devashish Makhija’s survival thriller “Joram,” which is playing at the Busan International Film Festival, will be released theatrically worldwide by Zee Studios in December. The film, which premiered at Rotterdam earlier this year, is in Busan’s A Window on Asian Cinema strand. Eminent actor Manoj Bajpayee, who previously starred in Makhija’s 2016 short “Taandav” and played the title role in “Bhonsle,” plays Dasru, a tribal migrant worker in Mumbai whose past catches up with him and he must flee with his infant daughter Joram.

Naman Ramachandran After a three-year hiatus, the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival is returning with a larger lineup and an expanded focus on South Asian cinema. The festival will feature 250 films including 40 world premieres, 45 Asia premieres and 70 South Asia Premieres.

Mumbai Film Festival has announced a packed line-up of 250 films, including the 14 titles selected for its inaugural South Asia Competition, part of an expansion of the festival’s vision to become a hub for works from South Asia and South Asian diaspora talent. 

Naman Ramachandran After his fiction feature debut, the absurdist satire “Eeb Allay Ooo!,” Indian filmmaker Prateek Vats is readying political comedy “Chronicles of a Confession.” The film is a selection at the Busan International Film Festival‘s Asian Project Market. “Eeb Allay Ooo!” won big at the Mumbai Film Festival and went on to play at the Berlinale, Sao Paolo and Valladolid among many other festivals.

Dancing On Ice has confirmed the final two contestants for next year's line-up.

Naman Ramachandran After 2011’s “Nobel Thief,” 2012’s “Uncle Shyamal Turns off the Lights,” 2015’s “Peace Haven,” 2016’s “Mi Amor” and 2019’s “Aadhaar,” Indian filmmaker Suman Ghosh returns again to the Busan International Film Festival. “The Scavenger of Dreams” has its world premiere in the ‘A Window On Asian Cinema’ strand. A treatise on social inequality, the film follows Birju (Shardul Bhardwaj, 2019 Mumbai Film Festival winner “Eeb Allay Ooo!”) and Shona (Sudipta Chakraborty, Ghosh’s “Searching for Happiness…”), trash collectors who live in a Kolkata slum with their young daughter.

EXCLUSIVE: The London Indian Film Festival is expanding. 

Prime Video has big plans for the Southeast Asia region, including the introduction of channels and an expanded local-language content slate, the streamer’s Vice President, Asia Pacific, Gaurav Gandhi, told the APOS conference today. 

EXCLUSIVE: Mumbai-based Reliance Entertainment is joining forces with Indian media group Mid-Day Infomedia in a strategic collaboration to bring real-life stories to the screen.