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Around Tinsel Town
>> Cannes 2023 line-up announced; Anurag Kashyap’s ‘Kennedy’ to be screened
The 76th annual Cannes Film Festival is set to take place in May this year, and the organisers have now announced the lineup for the festival. New films by Wes Anderson, Wim Wenders, Ken Loach, Martin Scorsese, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Todd Haynes and Hirokazu Kore-eda a part of the festival’s line-up
Director Anurag Kashyap’s gangster drama ‘Kennedy’ is the only Indian film in the lineup. The film will be showcased under the Midnight Screenings section of the prestigious film gala.
Bollywood
Salman Khan bashes goons, turns saviour for Venkatesh, Pooja Hegde in ‘Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan’ trailer
Preity Zinta claims being harassed in Mumbai, says ‘I’m a human being first, then a mom and then a celebrity’
Alia Bhatt to make Met Gala debut in May
Trailer of Hindi vampire thriller series ‘Tooth Pari: When Love Bites’ out
Varun Dhawan announces ‘Bhediya 2’, to release in 2025
Shahid Kapoor, Kriti Sanon’s untitled movie wraps filming, to release in October 2023
Shahid Kapoor’s ‘Bloody Daddy’ heads to OTT, teaser out
Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor’s horror comedy ‘Stree 2’ set to hit theatres in 2024
‘Saas Bahu aur Flamingo’, starring Dimple Kapadia and Radhika Madan, gets release date
Hollywood
New ‘Harry Potter’ series, another ‘Game of Thrones’ prequel coming to Max streaming service
HBO Max announces new slate including ‘The Big Bang Theory’ spin-off and ‘The Conjuring’ series
Captain Marvel, Monica Rambeau, Kamala Khan team up for otherworldly action in the trailer of ‘The Marvels’
Millie Bobby Brown gets engaged to Jake Bongiovi
‘Stranger Things’ animated series coming to Netflix
Pedro Almodovar’s ‘Strange Way of Life,’ featuring Pedro Pascal, Ethan Hawke, to premiere at Cannes
Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington to headline Netflix film ‘The Piano Lesson’
Trailer of ‘STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie’ shows the veteran take a trip down memory lane
Actor Jamie Foxx recovering after ‘medical complications’
Netflix axes ‘Sex/Life’ after two seasons
Daisy Ridley to return for new ‘Star Wars’ film
Morena Baccarin, Stefan Kapicic to return as Vanessa, Colossus in ‘Deadpool 3’
Kim Kardashian boards ‘American Horror Story’ season 12
Glen Powell joins Daisy Edgar-Jones in ‘Twister’ sequel
Damson Idris joins Brad Pitt in Apple’s Formula One movie
Mia Goth joins Mahershala Ali in Marvel Studios’ ‘Blade’
Timothee Chalamet will sing for Bob Dylan biopic, says director James Mangold
Eric Dane joins ‘Bad Boys 4’
Taika Waititi’s ‘Next Goal Wins’ to release in November
‘Mayor of Kingstown’, ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ and other Paramount titles to stream on Prime Video India
Regional Cinema
First look and glimpse video of Allu Arjun’s ‘Pushpa: The Rule’ out
Dhanush, Mari Selvaraj team up once again after ‘Karnan’
Prithviraj Sukumaran’s ‘Aadujeevitham’ trailer promises a hard-hitting survival drama
Hombale Films give hints about Yash’s ‘KGF: Chapter 3’ on one-year anniversary of ‘KGF: Chapter 2’
First look of Mohanlal from Lijo Jose Pellissery’s ‘Malaikottai Vaaliban’ out
Mammootty’s next titled ‘Bazooka’
Kamal Haasan goes globe-trotting for ‘Indian 2’
MS Dhoni appreciates the first look of his first productional venture ‘LGM’
Nayanthara, Madhavan and Siddharth team up for Sashikanth’s directorial debut ‘The Test’
Joju George’s next with filmmaker Joshiy titled ‘Antony’
Santhanam’s next is a horror-comedy titled ‘DD Returns’
Urvashi-starrer ‘Charles Enterprises’ gets a release date
New in streaming
Coming to Netflix in April: Hindi vampire thriller series Tooth Pari: When Love Bites, Season 3 of reality series Indian Matchmaking, Saudi thriller series The Matchmaker, and more
K-Dramas coming to Netflix in 2023: Part 2 of the revenge drama The Glory, the time-slip romance A Time Called You, romance drama Doona!, and more
New on Amazon Prime Video: Season 5 of comedy-drama Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Kannada gangster drama Kabzaa, Vikramaditya Motwane Jubilee, and more
New on Disney+ Hotstar in April: Fantasy adventure Peter Pan & Wendy, first season of sports drama The Crossover, docuseries Dear Mama, and more
Essential reading
1) Samantha Ruth Prabhu: We have come a long way to find our place in the film industry
>> Samantha opens up on being all grace and poise for ‘Shaakuntalam’ to being covered in bruises while filming ‘Citadel’
2) Jennifer Garner on playing a stepmother and learning to turn wood for ‘The Last Thing He Told Me’
>> The actor reveals why she became an executive producer for the series, and why she is a fan of the Laura Dave book
3) Toni Collette and John Leguizamo on feminist gaze in the sci-fi genre, and more
>> The two star in ‘The Power,’ which tells the tale of teenage girls who develop the power to electrocute people at will
4) Karisma Kapoor on her upcoming series ‘Brown’: ‘It resonated with my personal experiences’
>> The actor plays a damaged but driven cop in Abhinay Deo’s crime drama, which is based on Abheek Barua’s novel
5) An ode to driving heroes: The many ‘taxi drivers’ of Hindi cinema
>> The taxi driver reference in movies celebrates a long strain, now fast diminishing, of cabbie movies in Hindi cinema
6) Rituparna Sengupta: Films have a universal language
>> The actor, while attending Bengaluru Fashion Week, speaks about the Bengali film industry and her upcoming films
7) Singer KS Chithra interview: Music helped me come out of troubled times
>> The singer speaks about her musical journey, working with AR Rahman and Ilaiyaraaja, music therapy and more
8) ‘Viduthalai Part 1’ cinematographer Velraj: Vetri Maaran expects his technicians to understand the film’s politics
>> The DOP talks about the much-spoken-about opening sequence and the creative choices the film required
9) How Vasan’s ‘Chandralekha,’ released 75 years ago, set a pan-Indian trend
>> The Tamil film was not only a mega success across the country but also made Madras a filmmaking hub
10) Vikas Badiger on his latest documentary ‘Thou shall not Steel’
>> The documentary on citizen activism captures the comman man’s fight against a steel flyover in Bengaluru
11) Kiss Nuka gives ownership rights of her latest song to fans via SongBits
>> Kiss Nuka (or Anushka Manchanda), a member of the erstwhile all-girl band Viva, has released ‘Fight’ on Song Bits
What to watch
1) Samantha’s mythological experiment ‘Shaakuntalam’ is a misfire
2) Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult struggle to save ‘Renfield,’ a toothless ‘Dracula’ comedy
3) Raghava Lawrence, Sarathkumar’s ‘Rudhran’ is an assault on our senses
4) Radhika Apte’s spy movie ‘Mrs. Undercover’ is too schematic
5) Three women pack a punch in ‘Soppana Sundari,’ a simple and neat entertainer
6) Arulnithi’s action flick ‘Thiruvin Kural’ is about patients in a hospital, but isn’t serious enough
7) A wafer-thin plot upends masculine ideas of revenge in Shine Tom Chacko, Ahaana Krishna’s ‘Adi’
8) ‘Burqa’ is an intriguing conversation drama on religion and repression
9) A brilliant Jennifer Garner is stuck in an uninteresting thriller, ‘The Last Thing He Told Me’
10) ‘Hunger’ is a well-done exploration of the politics of fine dining served with stellar performances
11) Ali Wong and Steven Yeun throw an irresistible petty party in ‘Beef’
12) ‘Pookkaalam’ is a feel-good family entertainer with a novel theme
