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Around Tinsel Town
Akshay Kumar, A R Rahman, Pooja Hegde to walk red carpet at Cannes Film Festival opening day
The trailer of James Cameron’s Avatar 2 has finally been released. Titled Avatar: The Way of Water, the sequel is set more than a decade after the events of the first film.
Streaming platform ZEE5 announces slate of over 80 titles for 2022
Bollywood
Farhan Akhtar to appear in Marvel Studios series ‘Ms. Marvel’
Sonali Bendre to make OTT debut with ZEE5 series ‘The Broken News’
Kiara Advani on ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’: ‘There were no apprehensions stepping into this world’
Aditya Roy Kapur, Mrunal Thakur’s crime thriller titled ‘Gumraah’
Kareena Kapoor Khan begins shoot for Sujoy Ghosh’s film
Anurag Kashyap’s ‘Dobaaraa’ to open London Indian Film Festival
Akshay Kumar said his upcoming historical film “Prithviraj” should be mandatory viewing for children in schools
‘The Kashmir Files’, on the exodus of Hindus from the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley, will be banned in Singapore
Hollywood
Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively to return for ‘A Simple Favor’ sequel
Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel cast in Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Megapolis’
Richard Linklater, Glen Powell collaborating for action comedy ‘Hitman’
Rosamund Pike to star in Emerald Fennell’s next project
Daisy Ridley to lead noir thriller ‘Magpie’
Jodie Comer to star in feminist survival drama ‘The End We Start From’
‘Sex Education’ star Ncuti Gatwa named next Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’
Regional cinema
Mahesh Babu: ‘Dookudu’ was the last film I watched with my fans
Ravi Kiran Kola: The characters in ‘Ashoka Vanamlo Arjuna Kalyanam’ are flawed, realistic
Director Anil Ravipudi promises a laughter riot with ‘F3’ starring Venkatesh, Varun Tej, Tamannaah and Mehreen
Actor Sundeep Kishan straddles diverse genres in ‘Michael’ and ‘Ooru Peru Bhairavakona’
Disha Patani joins cast of Prabhas-Deepika’s ‘Project K’
Malayalam film ‘Meri Awas Suno’ has a message of hope, says director Prajesh Sen
Ratheena PT on ‘Puzhu’: ‘A movie to be experienced and not explained’
Scenarist Abhilash Pillai on writing the scripts for Malayalam films ‘Night Drive’ and ‘Patham Valavu’
New in streaming
New on Netflix: The new season of Stranger Things, volume 3 of Love Death And Robots, legal drama series The Lincoln Lawyer, and more
New on Disney+ Hotstar in May: Ewan McGregor returns in the iconic role of Jedi Master in Obi Wan Kenobi, an exploration of the street-sneaker subculture of New York City with Sneakerella, social thriller Escaype Live, and more
New on Amazon Prime in May: Anthology series Modern Love Mumbai, Tamil revenge action-drama Saani Kaayidham, digital premiere of Matrix 4, etc.
Essential reading
1) Filmmaker Joachim Trier: ‘Rom-coms are an existential form’
>> The director of the Oscar-nominated ‘The Worst Person in the World’ dissects the genre
2) Why ‘The Bad Guys’ was one of the most exhilarating experiences for the makers
>> The makers talk about the responsibility of adapting much-loved book series ‘The Bad Guys’ into a film
3) Documenting Roe on-screen
>> How debates around abortion have been portrayed in cinema and beyond
4) Is there a platform to watch classics?
>> A lot of new content is being created for OTT platforms, but space for iconic old films is shrinking
5) Shweta Tripathi Sharma on voicing Barbara Gordon in Spotify’s ‘Batman: Ek Chakravyuh’
>> Actor also talks about how she gets into a character, why its important to have her own experiences, and more
6) Where does India stands with original content for kids?
>> Producer-director Kiran Rao discusses why she feels children gravitate towards western content today
>> Filmmakers Vinod Kamble and Samit Kakkad on children’s content in the country
7) Shivkumar Sharma’s melodious contribution to Bollywood
>> The late musician was one part of Shiv-Hari, who tuned out several Hindi melodies despite working only in eight films
8) Richa Chadha on playing a sex worker, the world of audio shows, and more
>> The ‘Masaan’ actor on voice-starring as a sex worker in a new thriller podcast ‘Baby Doll’
9) Why ‘15 Seconds: A Lifetime’, a documentary on an Indian TikToker is relevant today
>> The documentary about a TikToker brings the focus back to India’s aspiring influencers and small-town creators
What to watch
1) In Puzhu, Mammootty’s menacing presence anchors this important debut film
2) Modern Love: Mumbai is a slam-dunk of an anthology if ever there was one
3) Sivakarthikeyan stars in an ordinary comedy-drama Don, that is unsure of its purpose
4) My Liberation Notes is a mature, empathetic K-Drama that keeps you wanting more
5) Mahesh Babu’s Sarkaru Vaari Paata gets weighed down by an overdrawn later half
6) Undone Season 2 is time-bending animation of the best kind
7) Anil Kapoor shines in Thar, but Netflix slow-burn thriller offers little else
8) Koogle Kuttappa sees KS Ravikumar shine in a faithful remake
