ENTERTAINMENT
Hansal Mehta: ‘Bollywood’s UTV moment needs to arrive; Art needs disruption, politics needs cleansing’
Cinévesture International Film Festival, Chandigarh: ‘Scam’ creator Hansal Mehta on how ‘Shahid’ was made as a result of the Shiv Sena attack on him 25 years ago, why risk is smaller in investing in newer talents & his new production company True Story Films’ slate.
OTT
CIFF 2025 | Black Warrant team on creating a banger series & the showrunner model
At the second edition of the Cinevesture International Film Festival, showrunner Vikramaditya Motwane, producer and Applause Entertainment CEO Sameer Nair and actors Rahul Bhat and Zahan Kapoor talk about their popular series.
ENTERTAINMENT
Abhishek Chaubey: ‘Directors should directly control film budgets & keep a lawyer handy’
Cinévesture International Film Festival 2025, Chandigarh: Filmmaker Abhishek Chaubey on why he turned producer, challenges of making biopics, on fighting legal cases for each of his films, and navigating streamers.
ENTERTAINMENT
CIFF 2025 | ‘Know your audience’: Max Marketing CEO Varun Gupta on how to market films effectively
At Cinévesture International Film Festival 2025, Chandigarh, Varun Gupta, founder-director of Max Marketing & Innovations, talks business of entertainment in Bollywood and the do’s and don’ts of film marketing.
MOVIES
CIFF 2025 | Little Thomas: Kaushal Oza debuts with a children’s feature, starring Gulshan Devaiah & Rasika Dugal
Cinévesture International Film Festival 2025, Chandigarh: The National Award-winning maker of Naseeruddin Shah-starrer short 'The Miniaturist of Junagadh', FTII alum Kaushal Oza’s debut feature 'Little Thomas' has been co-produced by Anurag Kashyap's Good Bad Films.
MOVIES
CIFF 2025 | Kaansya: Shakespeare meets Haryana’s akhadas in Aditya Watts’ debut feature
Cinevesture International Film Festival 2025: Aditya Watts's debut Haryanvi feature film 'Kaansya' would not exist if Vishal Bhardwaj's 'Omkara' and 'Maqbool' didn't exist.
LIFESTYLE
Himmat Shah (1933-2025) — Moulder of earth, Indus Valley-born artist leaves man from Moon at Delhi’s newest gallery
In the last show before Himmat Shah died on March 2, the inaugural 'Vocabulary of Vision' at the newly opened Black Cube Gallery, in Delhi's Hauz Khas, till March 23, brings together nine modern masters — including Gujarat's Lothal-born Shah — and 16 contemporary voices of Indian art.
BUSINESS
Nina Lath Gupta: ‘Films are startups & Cinévesture aims to build an investor-creator network’
2nd Cinévesture International Film Festival, Chandigarh: Founder-CEO & former NFDC MD Nina Lath Gupta says ‘ProofPoint short-to-feature segment will be a game-changer & CinéV markets will give investors a macro vision of the film industry, to help it grow by bringing in investors in a structured format’
ENTERTAINMENT
When Supermen of Malegaon exists, why Superboys of Malegaon was made
EXCLUSIVE: After Gulabi Gang vs Gulaab Gang, Mehsampur vs Amar Singh Chamkila, why despite Faiza Ahmad Khan’s popular 2008 docu-fiction on Nasir Shaikh’s Malegaon film industry, Reema Kagti’s film was needed? Is Bollywood predatory?
MOVIES
The post-PSBT story: Why two PSBT showrunners went indie to produce feminist & queer documentaries
EXCLUSIVE: Delhi-based Tulika Srivastava & Ridhima Mehra, who made the Public Service Broadcasting Trust story happen for two decades, on why they chose to go it alone post-COVID, with their independent outfit Rough Edges Arts and Media
ENTERTAINMENT
Why Manju Warrier & Saiju Sreedharan are releasing Footage, their Malayalam found footage film in Hindi
Ahead of the Hindi theatrical release of 'Footage', presented by Anurag Kashyap, on March 7, actor-producer Manju Warrier & film editor-turned-director Saiju Sreedharan talk about how one of the first found-footage films in Malayalam came to be made.
MOVIES
Chaar Phool Hain Aur Duniya Hai review: Achal Mishra films Vinod Kumar Shukla & Manav Kaul in a cosy chat
In his balmy documentary on the pathbreaking Hindi poet-writer Vinod Kumar Shukla, that is streaming on MUBI, independent filmmaker Achal Mishra has frozen, for posterity, the cultural fragrance and the in-between moments in the flowering of an intellectual life on film.
MUSIC-ENTERTAINMENT
Mansa Jimmy: ‘I got replaced in 12 songs, it’s very common in Bollywood that you get replaced’
EXCLUSIVE: Youth singing sensation Mansa Jimmy, aka Mansa Pandey, who performed in Delhi recently and will release her first music album next month, talks to Moneycontrol about making her kind of music, writing for Kannada and other regional film music, meeting Gulzar & wanting to work with AR Rahman.
MOVIES
Sridhar Rangayan: ‘The film industry & civil society have grown to be a bit more inclusive of LGBTQ voices’
Queer filmmakers Sridhar Rangayan and Saagar Gupta on their new film Kuch Sapney Apne, which released in theatres on February 21; emerging filmmakers on positively shifting focus from coming-out stories to exploring other facets of queer life; on being trained by Kalpana Lajmi & Sai Paranjpye, and more.
MOVIES
Berlinale ‘Shadowbox (Baksho Bondi)’ review: Tillotama Shome pulls punches to power this Bengali drama on mothers & Others
75th Berlinale: Shome, in cinematographer Saumyananda Sahi & film editor Tanushree Das’s directorial debut Baksho Bondi (Shadowbox), competing in the new Perspectives segment, eternalises the lower-middle-class working woman, invisibilised mothers & mental health on screen as Chandan Bisht puts on a devastating show.
MUSIC-ENTERTAINMENT
Mansa Jimmy, Roysten Abel & Ranjit Barot to herald spring in Delhi with KNMA in the Park
Curated by Bharatanatyam dancer Aditi Jaitly, the second edition of KNMA in the Park, a recent addition to Delhi's cultural calendar & Kiran Nadar Museum of Art's growing performing-arts repertoire, at Sunder Nursery, will feature singer Mansa Jimmy & the Delhi premiere of BeatRoute, a music-theatre production by Roysten Abel & Ranjit Barot.
MOVIES
Natesh Hegde on Vagachipani, first Kannada film at Berlinale: ‘Let me make my films; that’s the power I want’
75th Berlin Film Festival: Karnataka filmmaker Natesh Hegde, of Pedro fame, is at Forum competition of Berlinale with Tiger's Pond (Vagachipani). His co-producer Ranjan Singh & Hegde talk about the Dileesh Pothan-starrer film, why Hegde is an outcast in the Kannada film industry & for whom he makes films.
BOOKS
What Dalits Eat: Why Shahu Patole wrote India’s first-ever book on Dalit food history
Marathi writer Shahu Patole & translator Bhaskar Korgaonkar talk about 'Dalit Kitchens of Marathwada', the English translation of the original 'Anna He Apoorna Brahma' & the little-known food practices of Maharashtra’s Dalit subcastes Mahar & Mang.
ENTERTAINMENT
Lijo Jose Pellissery, Vetrimaaran, Vikramaditya Motwane, Konkona Sen Sharma to mentor four MAMI Select — Filmed on iPhone Next-Gen Storytellers
The four finalists of the 2025 MAMI Select — Filmed on iPhone Next Generation Storytellers are Amrita Bagchi, Chanakya Vyas, Shalini Vijayakumar and Rohin Raveendran Nair. Last edition, the mentors were Rohan Sippy, Vikramaditya Motwane, Vishal Bhardwaj and the filmmakers were Saurav Rai, Archana Phadke, Faraz Ali, Saumyananda Sahi & Prateek Vats.
ENTERTAINMENT
What’s the ‘Brahmin’ controversy & misogyny around IFFR 2025 NETPAC Award winner Varsha Bharath’s Tamil film ‘Bad Girl’: Explained
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2025: Varsha Bharath’s ‘Bad Girl’, which marks music composer Amit Trivedi's Tamil film-music debut, has won NETPAC Award in IFFR 2025 Tiger Competition, previously won by Arun Karthick, Mani Kaul & Adoor Gopalakrishnan. But trolls hit out at the film's producer Vetrimaaran & presenter Anurag Kashyap. Why?
MOVIES
IFFR 2025 | Lipika Singh Darai on ‘B and S’: ‘In times of crises & war, people forget to talk about tenderness’
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2025: Four National Award-winning indie filmmaker Lipika Singh Darai on the making of her latest epistolary film ‘B and S’, Hubert Bals Fund for her first feature ‘Birdwoman’ & choosing Odia over her mother-tongue Ho.
MOVIES
IFFR 2025 | Suman Mukhopadhyay: ‘Never have my films been in circulation; I’m an in-between in Bengali film industry’
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2025: Suman Mukhopadhyay, whose film Putulnacher Itikatha (The Puppet's Tale) is in Big Screen Competition at IFFR, and whose brilliant debut 'Herbert' completes 20 years, talks about what ails & fails Bengali cinema, literary adaptations, censorship, Anurag Kashyap & Payal Kapadia.
MOVIES
Amit Dutta, the little-known most famous Indian auteur: ‘The kind of films I make should be sought out, not thrust upon people’
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2025: In this final instalment of a two-part interview, the unparalleled Amit Dutta talks about his practice & influences, David Lynch, artist’s anxieties and trade-offs & why film bodies are irreplaceable.
MOVIES
‘Kumar Gandharva was not just a musical genius but also a profound scholar & thinker’: Amit Dutta & Kuldeep Barve
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2025: In this first instalment of a two-part interview, indie filmmaker Amit Dutta & music composer Kuldeep Barve talk about their latest animation film 'Phool ka Chhand (Rhythm of a Flower)', on singing legend Pandit Kumar Gandharva, whose birth centenary was last year.
