Small budget & lesser-known stories: India’...

After being delayed for months because of the ongoing pandemic, the Oscar nominations will finally be announced on Monday at the crack of dawn in Los Angeles. Actor-producer Priyanka Chopra Jonas and singer, songwriter and actor Nick Jonas will announce the 93rd Oscars nomination...

Prize unwise: Bollywood award shows

After a gap of over a year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Bollywood award season has begun again.  Dadasaheb Phalke Awards, considered one of the most prestigious awards in Indian cinema, concluded on February 26 and Bollywood actors Deepika Padukone and Akshay Kumar bagg...

Low budgets & no imagination: Lifeless Indian...

Much of the painstakingly detailed animation for the global-hit Disney film The Jungle Book (2016) was done in the Bengaluru offices of the Soho-headquartered Moving Picture Company. The film won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects in 2017. A lot of the advanced computer graphics...

Dubbing artists: Forgotten voices of Indian cinema

“Anthena? Inkem kavali? Veelaithe nalugu maatalu. Kudirithe cup coffee?” (in Tamil) means “That’s it? What else do you want? A small chat if possible? A cup of coffee if feasible?” This dialogue from Telugu film Bommarillu, director Bhaskar’s 2006 blockbuster, was an...

Writing with Fire: Dalit women’s fearless fight ...

Amid internet shutdown at the National Capital’s borders, where farmers are protesting against the farm bills, and concerns over freedom of speech, a documentary film by a Delhi-based duo on grassroots journalism has won two awards at the just-concluded prestigious Sundance Fil...

Sense & sensibilities in Bollywood’s poster...

Like the Indian cinema, its film posters have also gone through a radical transformation linked to new technology and the proliferation of visual culture in the 21st century. In India, like in most parts of the world, film posters have historically been integral to the distributi...

Films of tribal, by tribal & for all: Seral M...

Once a shepherd went to graze his cattle in the forest. The shepherd found that a Sal tree had fallen. He uprooted the tree and found some colourful stones beneath in the soil, which he carried back to his home. At night villagers heard the roar of a tiger. Worried, they wondered...

‘Tandav’ becomes first casualty of new OTT rul...

Amazon Prime India’s latest web series, Tandav, released on January 15, 2021, starring Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia and Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, is the latest in line to face backlash and outrage for allegedly ‘insulting Hindu gods and goddesses’ and ‘hurting religious se...

Artists’ day out at Tikri border in support of f...

Delhi’s iconic single-screen cinemas bite du...

Delhi’s iconic Regal Cinema at Connaught Place basked in the glory days of single-screen cinema halls in the capital city. Built in 1932, Regal premiered the classic Gone with the Wind in India. For the first show of his new releases that he attended in person, film mogul Raj K...