City Mumbai Showbiz Latest News and Updates

MPA chief Charlie Rivkin celebrated a rebounding box office across genre and geographies in his annual speech today, telling exhibitors that his group’s major push is to get more films on more screens by encouraging production, tax breaks and “the freedom and agency” globally “for this great industry to do what it does best.”

Naman Ramachandran Gaurav Banerjee, head of content at Disney+ Hotstar, India, has revealed the streamer’s growth strategy in the country. Banerjee was speaking at Indiantelevision.com’s annual industry event, The Content Hub, in Mumbai on Tuesday, in conversation with the organization’s founder, CEO and editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari. The thrust is to expand original programming in languages beyond Hindi, Banerjee said. “We recognized early on that massive growth in India is going to come by thinking about our content strategy and multiple languages, and not just in Hindi,” Banerjee said. The streamer currently commissions in the Hindi, Tamil and Telugu languages and also programs in the Malayalam language.

Spanish Screenings Goes to Cannes,  a selection of five pix in post which underscores the ever broadening compass – in genre, setting, protagonists, production bases and models – of film production in Spain. “Sima’s Song,” for example, is set in 1979 Kabul, “Jumping the Fence” on the Morocco-Spain border in Africa.  Many titles, though still in post production, come laden with prizes as projects, prestige deals or rich talent. “Sima’s Song,” from Afghan director Roya Sadat, whose “A Letter to the President” was shortlisted for an Oscar, won the Taicca Award at Busan’s Asian Project Market and the IFI-Pas Award at Mumbai’s Film Bazaar. Its producer, Alba Sotorra, was nominated for an International Emmy as a director for “The Return: Life After ISIS.”

, Priyanka Chopra Jonas is a talented superspy who travels the globe. In real life, much of Priyanka's globetrotting seems to revolve around bringing her daughter to amazing locales.Priyanka recently sat down with ET's Ash Crossan while promoting their new Prime Video series, and the actress opened up about some of her international adventures with her 1-year-old daughter, Malti.«She's a little traveler,» Priyanka said with a smile.

Nick Jonas gave his daughter, Malti, a cool new experience. The 30-year-old dad, along with his brothers, Joe Jonas and Kevin Jonas, performed at the renowned Royal Albert Hall in London over the weekend and the  singer brought his daughter to soundcheck. This was the first time that Nick and Priyanka Chopra Jonas' daughter attended one of the Jonas Brothers' concerts. Nick shared a black-and-white photo on Instagram, writing, «Her first soundcheck,» with a red heart emoji. In the adorable photo, Nick is holding a mic and his daughter, who wears noise-canceling headphones. A post shared by Nick Jonas (@nickjonas)As soon as Nick posted the photo online, friends and fans of the singer flocked to the comment section to praise the cute father-daughter duo, including actress Huma Qureshi, who wrote, «Aww.»Earlier this month, Priyanka, 40, shared a look inside her daughter's first trip to her home country of India.The colorful photos showed the 1-year-old receiving blessings while being held by her mom at Siddhivinayak Temple in Mumbai.

Reliance Industries’ Indian content arm Jio Studios has unveiled a huge slate of films and streaming shows at a star-studded event in Mumbai. It also struck a production deal with Bengali film powerhouse SVF Entertainment.

Zendaya and Tom Holland just had a royally adorable date.

Priyanka Chopra is sharing a rare new photo of daughter Malti!

Priyanka Chopra Jonas shared a look inside her daughter's first trip to her home country.The colorful photos show the 1-year-old receiving blessings while being held by mom at Siddhivinayak Temple in Mumbai.

Malti takes Mumbai! Priyanka Chopra Jonas and husband Nick Jonas took their daughter, Malti Marie, to visit her mother’s homeland for the first time.

Matchmaker Sima is back to help singles find their soulmates.

Priyanka Chopra is opening up about the truth behind the acting industry.

Naman Ramachandran Leads Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden kicked off the global tour of Prime Video series “Citadel” with its Asia Pacific premiere in Mumbai on Monday. The series, created by Amazon Studios and the Russo Brothers’ AGBO, with David Weil serving as showrunner and executive producer, revolves around independent global spy agency Citadel, which has been destroyed by syndicate Manticore. With Citadel’s fall, elite agents Mason Kane (Richard Madden) and Nadia Sinh (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) had their memories wiped as they narrowly escaped with their lives and have remained hidden ever since, building new lives under new identities, unaware of their pasts. Until one night, when Mason is tracked down by his former Citadel colleague, Bernard Orlick (Stanley Tucci), who desperately needs his help to prevent Manticore from establishing a new world order. The six episode series also features Lesley Manville in a pivotal role.

Priyanka Chopra glittered in India.

Looking marvelous in Mumbai! Zendaya and Tom Holland were among the many stars who traveled to India for the opening of the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre — but the couple didn’t walk the red carpet together.

Zendaya and Tom Holland are enjoying a getaway in India.

Naman Ramachandran Leading Indian studio Yash Raj Films’ streaming production arm YRF Entertainment has revealed its second show. Titled “Mandala Murders,” the multi-season series is billed as a gritty crime thriller. It is created and will be directed by Gopi Puthran (“Mardaani 2”). Manan Rawat, who has worked on several films as an associate director for the studio, will serve as co-director. Vaani Kapoor, who won critical acclaim playing a transgender character in film “Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui,” will lead the series, her debut in the streaming space, alongside Vaibhav Raj Gupta (SonyLIV series “Gullak”). Surveen Chawla (Netflix series “Decoupled”) and Jameel Khan (“Gullak”) have also been cast in prominent roles in “Mandala Murders.”

EXCLUSIVE: The UK Asian Film Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, and today, Deadline can share the official lineup for the jubilee edition, running at venues across the UK from May 4 — 14.

Sophia Scorziello editor “Indian Matchmaking” Season 3 will premiere April 21 on Netflix, the streamer announced Tuesday. Mumbai’s matchmaker Sima Taparia returns to help single millennials around the world find love, employing decades-worth of experience and traditional methods. This season, Sima’s matchmaking touch will reach from New York to New Delhi, Miami to London, as well as clients both old and new.  “Indian Matchmaking” premiered its first season in July 2020. The show is executive produced by Aaron Saidman, Eli Holzman, Smriti Mundhra and J.C. Begley. Check out some first looks of season three below.  Also in today’s TV news:

One of Netflix’s most popular reality shows is gearing up for a third go-round and to mark the occasion the streamer is unveiling some first-look photos from the upcoming new season of “Indian Matchmaking”.

Naman Ramachandran Indian streamer SonyLIV has revealed a robust 35-strong series slate, including some returning hits, with a further expansion into South Indian languages in addition to its Hindi-language slate. Headquartered in Mumbai, the streamer now has three content offices in South India, in Kochi, Hyderabad and Chennai. SonyLIV also now has 24 million paid subscribers, SonyLIV head of content Saugata Mukherjee told Variety. In the Tamil language, after the success of “Tamil Rockerz” in 2022 and “The Story of Things” earlier this year, SonyLIV has saga “Journey,” headlined by R. Sarathkumar with Cheran Pandian (“Autograph”) serving as showrunner; and “The Madras Murder,” set against the backdrop of the Tamil film industry in the 1950s and 1960s, with A.L. Vijay (“Kireedam”) as showrunner.

Naman Ramachandran The match fixing scandal that shook the world of cricket in the late 1990s is the subject of Supriya Sobti Gupta’s Netflix documentary “Caught Out: Crime. Corruption. Cricket.” The film is produced by Passion Pictures, which has credits including Oscar winners “One Day in September,” “Searching for Sugar Man” and “The Lost Thing,” and Gupta’s MOW Productions. Gupta, a broadcast journalist by training, has worked for the BBC, Al Jazeera and Channel News Asia. She is no stranger to hard-hitting Indian subjects, having worked on “Mumbai Mafia: Police vs The Underworld” and “Bad Boy Billionaires: India.” “Caught Out” is her directorial debut.

Michelle Yeoh made history as the first Asian woman to win Best Actress at the Academy Awards. It’s a triumphant and moving moment for the thesp who killed in her role as a time-traveling Chinese-American laundromat owner navigating an IRS audit and complex relationships with her husband and daughter in Everything Everywhere All At Once. It was her first Oscar nomination.

Naman Ramachandran Saurav Rai’s 2019 film ”Invitation” featured a child protagonist and once again the filmmaker centers a film on a young person. Rai’s “Guras,” a Nepali and Hindi-language film, is a work-in-progress selection at the Hong Kong — Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF). It follows 9-year-old Guras, who lives in a mountain village in India’s Darjeeling district. Her pet dog goes missing and she embarks on a journey that soon turns mystical as she meets otherworldly beings along the way. “I always had this fascination with my grandma’s real-life incident during her childhood when she stole someone’s vegetables from their garden. She ended up having chest pain after that and when her mother figured it out, she took her to the owner of the farmland. The owner immediately knew what had happened, so she smiled and prayed to her ancestors and relieved my grandma of the pain,” Rai says.

Amazon Prime Video may be rethinking its relationship with Jeremy Clarkson, but it has doubled down on James May.

EXCLUSIVE: For Banijay Asia’s Deepak Dhar, 2023 is shaping up to be one of the busiest in a three-decade career in Indian media. Not only has he just launched The Night Manager India on Disney+ Hotstar and is delivering several scripted and unscripted shows, he is also working to position India has Banijay’s Asian production hub.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Martial arts veteran Sammo Hung is to be presented with a lifetime achievement honor at the upcoming Asian Film Awards. The ceremony is back as an in-person event after a two-year absence and shifts back to Hong Kong after previously being held in Hong Kong, Macau and Busan. Hung is expected to accept the award on Sunday March 12 at the Hong Kong Palace Museum. “I’m so happy and surprised that I can still win awards these days, especially an award that affirms my entire performing career,” said Hung in a forwarded statement. He has a career as actor, action choreographer, director and producer that stretches some 60 years.

Shalini Dore Features News Editor Before there was “RRR,” director S.S. Rajamouli had box-office smashes like the two-part “Baahubali,” which proved how adept he is at making hits. But among Indian audiences, there is a deep divide between those who applaud that the rest of the world is waking up to his brilliance and those who are horrified that a “dubba” — or hollow film — is being lauded. I’ve heard it from my own Indian friends and relatives who have been reaching out to ask: what are they missing? Reports of viewers dancing at Hollywood’s iconic Chinese Theater to the Oscar-nominated song “Naatu Naatu” horrify these purists. But if you embrace what Rajamouli is doing, “Naatu Naatu” — which is not really the best song in Indian or Telegu films, or even in “RRR” — has somehow captured the zeitgeist, just as the film itself has. 

Naman Ramachandran Singapore and India-based Mumba Devi Motion Pictures is screening two films at Berlin’s European Film Market (EFM) and has unveiled a slate of future titles. The company, headed by producer Sweta Chhabria and producer-director Aditya Kripalani, makes issue-based films focusing on stories that are mostly to do with gender and burning topics like suicide prevention and mental health. The outfit makes it a point to minimize the male gaze by bringing on board heads of department who are all women. Kripalani and Chhabria’s just-completed Singapore-set film “Grand Sugar Daddy,” which has its market premiere at EFM on Feb. 18, follows a 70-year-old widower who is introduced to the world of Sugar Daddies and Sugar Babies. The film traces his conversations with a Singaporean Chinese woman, an Indian woman and a transgender Malay.

Naman Ramachandran Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos revealed a continued investment push in the Indian market on Saturday. In a freewheeling chat with Indian filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali in Mumbai to promote the latter’s upcoming Netflix series “Heeramandi,” Sarandos was bullish about India, repeating what he said on Friday to local media about the market’s growth. “India is the fastest growing Netflix market in the world this year and because of that, we’re able to continue to invest in great storytelling. And I think when you see ‘Heeramandi,’ you’re gonna see why it has been such the honor of a lifetime to work with Sanjay and to be able to bring this to screen. And you ain’t seen nothing yet,” Sarandos said.