BY SACNILK

Mumbai, September 15 - One of the leading Bollywood production houses, Yash Raj Films has had a super successful 2023 year, be it at the box office or the streamer. The studio is now gearing up for its next phase of theatrical tentpole as well as streaming titles.## It is known to everyone that YRF is working on a four-part thriller web series, titled "The Railway Men". It is about a tribute to the unsung heroes of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, during which, a cloud of toxic gas escaped from an American pesticide plant, in 1984, in the central Indian city of Bhopal. It killed and injured thousands of people. ## YRF has now partnered with the leading streaming platform Netflix to bring the series to the screens. The studio has joined hands with the OTT giant to set up a multi-year creative partnership. "The Railway Men", starring R. Madhavan, Kay Kay Menon, Divyenndu Sharma, and emerging talent Babil Khan, is the first production from YRF Entertainment, the studio's streaming production arm.## Apart from "The Railway Men", YRF has also partnered with Netflix for its feature film "Maharaj", starring Junaid Khan, the son of Aamir Khan, and also stars Jaideep Ahlawat, Sharvari Wagh, and Shalini Pandey. "Maharaj" will be the first direct-to-digital feature film of Aditya Chopra-headed YRF.## Set in the 1800s, the film "Maharaj" is a David vs. Goliath story about how a regular man, a journalist by profession, takes on a powerful role model of society, hailed by many as a messiah for the masses. The fearless reporter uncovers a series of incidents that shake the very foundation of society.## The release dates of both the aforementioned titled will be revealed soon.## Stay tuned...

BY SACNILK

Mumbai, September 12 - One of the leading streaming platforms, Disney+Hostar hit the jackpot during the high-profile cricket match between India and Pakistan on September 11. India thrashed Pakistan by 228 runs after the match went into reserve day due to rain. ## Disney Plus Hotstar, which is streaming the Asia Cup 2023 cricket tournament for free on mobile phones, hit the all-time highest peak concurrency of 28 million (2.8 crores) viewers when batting legend Virat Kohli and KL Rahul were nearing their respective hundreds against Pakistan.## The previous highest record viewership for Disney+Hotstar was recorded during India vs. New Zealand Semi Final match in the ODI World Cup 2023 when peak concurrency hit 25.3 million (2.53 crores). The OTT giant will also stream the ODI World Cup 2023 in India on these devices for free.## Disney+Hotstar has been in stiff competition with Reliance-owned Viacom18 of which, Jio Cinema has IPL rights and it streams the tournament free for all users. Viacom18's Jio Cinema also recently won media rights for all Indian cricket teams' (men and women) home matches.## Stay tuned...

BY SACNILK

Chennai, September 2 - Superstar Rajinikanth's "Jailer" has turned out to be one of the all-time biggest blockbusters in Indian cinema with the worldwide gross collection nearing 600 crores. It has already become the second highest-grossing Tamil movie of all-time, behind Rajinikant and Akshay Kumar's "2.0".## Directed by Nelson Dilipkumar, "Jailer" has been playing in theaters for three weeks, and despite still going strong at the box office, the makers have set the film's digital release date via Amazon Prime Video from September 7, 2023.## The action drama film will stream on Prime Video in Tamil, Telugu, Malayala, Kannada, and Hindi languages on September 7, only after 28 days from its theatrical debut. Interestingly, the HD format of the movie was recently leaked online which could be the reason for the film's early OTT release.## Produced by Kalanithi Maran of Sun Pictures, the movie revolves around a retired jailer seeking to thwart an eccentric idol smuggler. The film stars Rajinikanth in the lead role, alongside Vinayakan, Ramya Krishnan, Vasanth Ravi, Tamannaah, Sunil, Mirnaa Menon, and Yogi Babu in supporting roles while Mohanlal, Jackie Shroff, Shivarajkumar, and Tamannah Bhatia feature in cameo roles.## Jailer's in town, it's time to activate vigilant mode! 🔒🚨#JailerOnPrime, Sept 7 pic.twitter.com/2zwoYR6MqV— prime video IN (@PrimeVideoIN) September 2, 2023 ## Stay tuned...

BY SACNILK

Mumbai, August 30 - Director duo Raj&DK's latest web series Guns and Gulaabs has crossed 20 million viewing hours on Netflix in the first 10 days. The black comedy crime thriller stars Rajkummar Rao, Dulquer Salmaan, Adarsh Gourav, Goutam Sharma, Gourav Sharma, Sanchay Goswami, Gulshan Devaiah, Pooja Gor, and Shreya Dhanwanthary, among other in prominent roles.## "Guns and Gulaabs" debuted August 18 on Netflix and scored 8.1 million viewing hours from 1.3 million views in the opening weekend (August 18-20), and was the 8th most-watched non-English show globally. During the week of August 21-27, the series generated 13.3 million viewing hours from 2.2 million views and was the 7th most-watched title globally.## The total viewing hours of the series are 21.4 million from just 3.5 million views. The reviews from the critics are mixed while audience score is 78% on IMDb which can be seen as decent. Set in the 90s world of crime and violence, it depicts the story of love and innocence blending with humour and romance.## Meanwhile, Prabhas-fronted Adipurush (Hindi) has crossed 15 million views in the first 17 days of its release on Netflix. The movie scored 12.7 million viewing hours from 4.3 million views in the first 10 days (August 11-20). During the week of August 21-27, it scored 2.6 million viewing hours from 900K views, which takes the total watch time of the movie to 15.3 million from 5.2 million views.## Directed by Om Raut, the film is based on the epic Ramayana. It was originally released theatrically on June 16 and met with horrible reviews from critics while audience reception was also negative. The movie grossed around 400 crores worldwide against the budget of over 500 crores.## Stay tuned...

BY SACNILK

Mumbai, August 17 - The second season of Bigg Boss OTT, hosted by Bollywood superstar Salman Khan, has turned out to be a massive success for Jio Cinema which stream the reality show 24x7 for free. The first season was hosted by Karan Johar.## The show has broken records for Jio Cinema and becomes the most-watched non-sporting event for the streamer. On August 14, some 23 million viewers streamed the season finale live, per data provided by JioCinema (via Variety), hitting a peak concurrency of 7.2 million. ## Overall, the second season attracted more than 100 million viewers, with a total watch time of 30 billion minutes. These numbers are said to be the highest viewership for a live-streamed event in India, excluding sports.## Apart from the record viewership, around 250 million people voted when voting opened for 15 minutes for the top two finalists, Elvish Yadav and Abhishek Malhan. In all, there were 5.4 billion votes during the season and 55 million users engaged with the show's interactive features.## Earlier, Jio Cinema created an all-time viewership record during Indian Premiere League 2023. The cricket event attracted some 17 billion viewers and a peak concurrency of 32.1 million. Just like "Bigg Boss OTT", Jio also streamed IPL for free.## Stay tuned...

BY SACNILK

Mumbai, July 28 - Well-known Bollywood filmmaker Nitesh Tiwari's romantic drama "Bawaal" starring Varun Dhawan and Janhvi Kapoor was supposed to be an experimental love story in the backdrop of World War II but it is turning into a major controversial attempt on this historical chapter.## The film has been accused of trivializing and demeaning the deaths of millions of Jews killed during the Holocaust by using Auschwitz as a metaphor for relationship problems. Many critics in India and internationally have slammed the film for drawing parallels to Jews suffering in Auschwitz camp and dying. ## Produced by Nadiadwala Entertainment, "Bawaal" tells the story of a history teacher who is embarrassed by his new wife's epilepsy. As they travel together to Europe to visit historic second world war sites, they fall in love with each other.## The movie receives a strong rebuke from the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), an NGO dedicated to the well-being of Jews as well as the Holocaust victims. The NGO has issued a statement demanding the removal of the film from Amazon Prime Video which is the exclusive streaming partner of the film. ## "Auschwitz is not a metaphor. It is the quintessential example of Man's capacity for Evil. By having the protagonist in this movie declare that 'Every relationship goes through their Auschwitz', Nitesh Tiwari, trivializes and demeans the memory of 6 million murdered Jews and millions of others who suffered at the hands of Hitler's genocidal regime", SWC said in a statement.## The NGO called on Amazon to remove the movie from its platform and to stop "monetizing" the Holocaust. "If the filmmaker's goal was to gain PR for their movie by reportedly filming a fantasy sequence at the Nazi death camp, he has succeeded. Amazon Prime should stop monetizing Bawaal by immediately removing this banal trivialization of the suffering and systematic murder of millions of victims of the Nazi Holocaust", the statement further read. Prime Video has not responded yet.## "Bawaal" was meant for theatrical release before makers changed their minds and send the movie directly to Amazon Prime Video. It was released on July 21 and despite the criticism, the movie is turning out to be a successful venture for the streamer. ## Stay tuned...

BY SACNILK

Los Angeles, July 27 - Marvel Studios' latest Disney Plus series "Secret Invasion" is turning out to be a nightmare for the studio and streamer as far as the critics' reviews are concerned. There has been a lot of discussion about how audiences have started feeling disconnected from superhero titles due to the excessiveness of the streaming shows but now, they are even started failing on technical aspects.## The sixth and final episode of "Secret Invasion" has been released and it is getting smashed left right and center by critics. The episode currently has just an 8% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the lowest-rated MCU episode ever. Even the first five episodes' ratings are not that much to celebrate.## Rotten Tomatoes scores for Secret Invasion episodes (so far) -## E1 — 52% ## E2 — 50%## E3 — 38% ## E4 — 38% ## E5 — 50%## E6 — 8%## The overall audience score of "Secret Invasion" is also on the average side with 63% so far. Marvel has been making more Disney+ shows for the last few years, which is also affecting its theatrical titles, according to Disney CEO Bob Iger who admitted saying recently that Marvel making a number of Disney+ series is diluting the audiences' focus and attention from theatrical tentpole and he stated that this is one of the main reasons for the underwhelming box office performance of recent Marvel and Disney movies. ## Stay tuned...

BY SACNILK

Mumbai, July 24 - Bollywood actor Varun Dhawan and Janhvi Kapoor-led romantic drama film "Bawaal" was the 3rd most-watched Hindi streaming title last week. Nitesh Tiwari's directorial, which was originally hyped as a theatrical release, debuted directly on Amazon Prime Video on July 21. ## Produced by Sajid Nadiadwala, "Bawaal" opened to mixed reviews from critics and mixed to positive responses from digital audiences. Amazon Prime Video made it available to stream in over 200 countries, making it one of the widest digital releases ever for Indian movies. ## According to Ormax Media, a media consulting firm, "Bawaal" scored 6.9 million views in its first three days, and was the 3rd most-watched Hindi title in India across OTT platforms in the week of July 17 - July 24. The 6.9 million views are estimates based only within India as Ormax doesn't track international streaming data. ## Meanwhile, as per a recent report, "Bawaal" was sold to Amazon Prime Video for 120 crores while the budget of the film is believed to be 80 crores. However, the decision to send the movie directly on streaming attracted criticism within the industry as many felt it could have emerged as one of the biggest box office hits of the year. ## Stay tuned...

BY SACNILK

Mumbai, July 20 - One of the rising streaming platforms in India, ZEE5 has had some success this year so far with its original movies and web series. The streamer released some critically acclaimed films such as "Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai" and "Lost", and web shows like "Taj: Divided By Blood", among others.## One of the biggest films ZEE5 has released so far is SS Rajamouli's "RRR" which was streamed last year post its theatrical release. Meanwhile, the streamer has released the five most-liked films of the first half of 2023 on ZEE5. Check out the list - ## 1. Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai## Directed by Apoorv Singh Karki, "Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai" has not only been the most-liked ZEE5 movie of the year, but it also emerged as one of the most-watched films across OTT platforms. The legal drama, starring Manoj Bajpayee is inspired by the true events of a five-year-long standalone fight of a regular session court lawyer Adv. PC Solanki (Manoj Bajpayee) who stands for the truth, and his struggle to bring justice to the girl(s) who were wronged by an influential godman Asaram Bapu.## 2. Lost## Actress Yami Gautam has been receiving appreciation for picking quality content and "Lost" proved another solid film in her career. The Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury-directed movie is inspired by true events. It charts the story of a young woman crime reporter who is working on a story of the sudden disappearance of a young theatre activist. The layered story aims to represent the idea of lost values and integrity. ## 3. U-Turn## The supernatural thriller flick, which is an official remake of the 2016 Kannada film of the same name, has been one of the films which received appreciation for the performance by Alaya F. Directed by Arif Khan, "U-Turn" revolves around motorists who move concrete blocks from the divider to take a U-turn, which causes several accidents. ## 4. Chhatriwali ## A social comedy about the important societal taboo of educating the youth about Sex Education, "Chhatriwali" got an appreciation for the unique subject. "Chhatriwali" is considered one of the best films of Rakul Preet Singh who played the lead role alongside Sumit Vyas. It marked the last film of Satish Kaushik before his death on 9 March 2023. ## 5. Mrs Undercover ## Fronted by Radhika Apte with Sumeet Vyas, and Rajesh Sharma in key roles, "Mrs Undercover" is a spy comedy that got mixed responses from critics. It is directed by Anushree Mehta and remains one of the most-watched films on ZEE5 this year so far.## Stay tuned...

BY SACNILK

Mumbai, July 19 - The National-award-winning filmmaker shook the nation by bringing a film on the exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits in the form of "The Kashmir Files" last year. The movie not only struck the chord of the audiences but also emerged as one of the biggest box office blockbusters of all time. ## The filmmaker has now announced the follow-up to "The Kashmir Files", titled "Kashmir Files Unreported". However, this time, the focus shifts to real-life victims as their personal accounts will be detailed in the docu-series which will premiere on ZEE5. ## On Wednesday (July 19), Agnihotri shared the trailer which also includes scenes from The Kashmir Files. The docu-series aims to shed light on the untold stories and experiences of the Kashmiri Hindu community during the tumultuous time when they were forced to leave Kashmir valley in the 90s by radicals.## Sharing the trailer, the filmmaker wrote, "A lot of Genocide Deniers, terror supporters & enemies of Bharat questioned The Kashmir Files. Now bringing to you the VULGAR truth of the Kashmir Genocide of Hindus which only a devil can question".## One of the victims says in the trailer, "India has a duty to give us back, at least, justice to this".## PRESENTING:A lot of Genocide Deniers, terror supporters & enemies of Bharat questioned The Kashmir Files. Now bringing to you the VULGAR truth of Kashmir Genocide of Hindus which only a devil can question.Coming soon #KashmirUNREPORTED. Be ready to cry.Only on @ZEE5India… pic.twitter.com/DgGlnzSKwA— Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) July 19, 2023 ## In an interview with Republic Media, the director mentioned that "Kashmir Files Unreported" will be even more disturbing than the movie and has the potential to rattle many. It will premiere on ZEE5 and the date will be announced soon.## Stay tuned...

BY SACNILK

Mumbai, July 13 - The first half of 2023 has been good for the Indian entertainment industry which delivered some hugely successful movies and web shows. IMDb, an online database of information related to the entertainment industry, released a list of the most popular Indian movies of the year (so far) earlier in the day which saw the dominance of the Bollywood titles. ## IMDb has now revealed the list of the top 10 most popular Indian web series of the first half of 2023 and it is also dominated by the Hindi streaming titles. Shahid Kapoor, Vijay Sethupathi, and Raashii Khanna's black comedy crime thriller Farzi, which is the most-watched web series of all time in India, also topped IMDb's most popular list, in terms of page views. ## Aditya Roy Kapur and Anil Kapoor's crime thriller The Night Manager, which serves as a remake of the British television series "The Night Manager" (2016) based on John Le Carre's novel of the same name, is the second most popular Indian web title of the year so far. ## Rana Naidu, which stars Venkatesh Daggubati, and Rana Daggubati, takes the third spot among the most popular titles on IMDb this year. It is the official adaptation of the 2013 crime TV series, "Ray Donovan". Jubilee, a period drama show set around the Independence of India and the Partition, is the 4th most popular series, followed by Asur 2: Rise of The Dark Side as 5th in the list. ## IMDb top 10 most popular Indian web series of 2023 (so far) - ## 1. "Farzi" (Amazon Prime Video)## 2. "The Night Manager" (Disney+Hotstar)## 3. "Rana Naidu" (Netflix)## 4. "Jubilee" (Amazon Prime Video)## 5. "Asur 2" (Jio Cinema)## 6. "Dahaad" (Amazon Prime Video)## 7. "Saas, Bahu Aur Flamingo" (Disney Plus Hotstar)## 8. "Taaza Khabar" (Disney+Hotstar)## 9. "Taj: Divided By Blood" (ZEE5)## 10. "Rockey Boys Season 2" (SonyLiv)## Note - Of all the movies and web series released in India between January 1 to July 3, 2023, and have an average IMDb user rating of 5 or higher with at least 5,000 votes, these titles were consistently the most popular with IMDb users, as determined by the actual page views of the more than 200 million monthly visitors to IMDb worldwide. This definitive data is derived from IMDb exclusive rankings, updated weekly throughout the year.## Stay tuned...

BY SACNILK

Mumbai, July 6 - The second installment of the anthology film "Lust Stories" has opened in the top 10 most-watched non-English films on Netflix. "Lust Stories 2" is consisting of four short film segments directed by R. Balki, Konkona Sen Sharma, Amit Ravindernath Sharma, and Sujoy Ghosh. ## The film premiered on June 29 and debuted at number 4 with 4.2 million views. The film, which is 2 hours and 13 minutes long, scored 9.3 million viewing hours in its opening weekend. The anthology received a mixed response from critics and digital audiences. ## "Lust Stories 2" is trending at the number in India as well as in Mauritius, Bangladesh, Maldives, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and UAE while also trending in the top 10 in Qatar, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, Hong Kong, Bahrain, and Singapore on Netflix.## The first segment - "Made For Each Other" of the anthology is directed by R. Balki and stars Mrunal Thakur, Neena Gupta, and Angad Bedi in key roles, followed by Konkona Sen Sharma's segment - "The Mirror" features Tillotama Shome, Amruta Subhash, and Shrikant Yadav. ## Sujoy Ghosh directs "Sex With Ex" featuring Tamannaah Bhatia, Vijay Varma, Mukti Mohan, and Jugal Hansraj in the lead while the last segment - "Tilchatta", helmed by Amit Sharma, stars Kajol, and Kumud Mishra in the prominent roles. ## Apart from "Lust Stories 2", director Sudhir Mishra's "Afwaah" also featured in the Netflix top 10 list last weekend with the 9th spot. It scored 1.1 million views and 2.3 million viewing hours. Starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui, and Bhumi Pednekar, "Afwaah" was originally released in theaters on May 5 but was bombed at the box office with almost nothing collection.## Stay tuned...