For Dhirendra Mulkalwar, turning composer with Hanuman Ansh is nothing short of a divine experience. After composing nearly 500 jingles and working as a music producer on films, taking the leap into music direction with a film about spiritual guru Neeb Karori Baba — who Mulkalwar is a follower of — seemed fitting. Having created the film’s background score and composed Siyavar Ramchandra Ki Jai, he tells mid-day how surrendering to Neem Karoli Baba helped him find the movie’s melody. Excerpts from the interview.

Neem Karoli Baba is a [renowned] figure. People across the world, including Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, have spoken about his impact. So, as a music composer, the responsibility became huge because this film would not be limited to India; it would be seen all over the world. The good thing was that I surrendered myself to Babaji. It took me two-three months to crack the first theme. [Before that] I would try, reject, try again, but I was not happy [with the results]. Then, one day, I remembered Babaji. Within five to 10 minutes, the melody started floating. It was a divine experience for me. 

No. When Vishalji asked me if I would compose the score, he had no idea about my connection with Babaji. He had undertaken a 43-day ritual before the film started, and I went there to perform the Hanuman Chalisa. When he asked me to do the film, I said yes in a fraction of a second. I also told him that I had gone to Chitrakoot a few months earlier after trying to visit it unsuccessfully for four years. I went in April, and by July, he had offered me a film on Babaji.

On those movies, I worked as a music producer. With Hanuman Ansh, I am the music director and have done the background score, so the roles are different. Seeing my name on the big screen as a music director has been a special moment for me. The fact that it happened with Babaji’s film makes it even more special.

Hanuman Ansh was made on a limited budget. We did not even have the budget for marketing or recording. So, I converted my house into a studio and conducted all the recordings at home. On earlier films, we could afford to go to an orchestra in Vienna, but here that wasn’t possible. I knew the challenges the makers were facing, so it became like a family. I took my friends’ help. We didn’t want to compromise on quality. 

I don’t know of any official announcement. The first film is still running in theatres. Once that is complete, the team will discuss the sequel.

Mumbai: Several local language movies that scored financial success in the past two years, particularly those focused on their home audience and not the Hindi market, reflect a course correction in the way regional films are conceived.

After a series of failed attempts at creating pan-India films by relying on stardom, scale and Hindi dubbing, regional movies are increasingly focusing on their core audience, and if the content is strong, they travel across markets, said exhibitors, producers and distributors.

The rising focus of streaming platforms on box-office success as a key criterion in digital rights valuation, universal appeal of culturally rooted stories and reasonably good awareness of regional cinema have contributed to the notable successes of regional films across markets, they said.

Films such as Bethlehem Kudumba Unit (Malayalam), Irumudi (Telugu), Deool Band 2 (Marathi), Tourist Family (Tamil), Su From So (Kannada) and Laalo (Gujarati) recorded massive successes without Hindi dubbing. Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, made on a budget of less than Rs. 25 crore, collected Rs. 156 crore in India alone.

Increasingly, digital platforms are taking content-oriented films in any language into the spotlight. This has added to success stories of regional films across languages, said exhibitors.

"Today, good content in any language travels, thanks to the active global digital network of audiences. Well-made regional films have benefited from this. Even a small-budget film, Hanuman Ansh, has travelled and is doing well even in Australia, New Zealand and the US," said Devang Sampat, managing director at movie-theatre chain Cinepolis India.

These regional films have performed well without Hindi distribution. "The box-office performance of recent regional films has shown that Hindi distribution is an opportunity for expansion and not a prerequisite for success," said Suniel Wadhwa, cofounder and director at film production and distribution company Karmic Films.

Recently, Telugu film Irumudi, made with a budget range of Rs. 35-40 crore and was also released in Tamil, generated more than 95% of its total collection of Rs. 188 crore from Telugu markets alone.

In the past five years, streaming platforms solved the distribution problem for regional films. Faithful dubbing and subtitling have created a base of incremental audiences who are aware of regional films and their artists.

"I think this entire decade will be of regional cinema. Streamers have expanded regional cinema's audiences outside home territories. Today, a Malayalam film, Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, has six shows in theatres in Gujarat and Kolkata," said film producer Naveen Chandra.

Audiences have been rewarding culturally rooted stories across languages more often today than ever, producers said.

"Today, audiences only want rooted stories. No star power or add-ons will excite them. This is reflected in the underwhelming performance of the recent Kannada film Toxic: A Fairy Tale For Grown-ups," said producer Rajesh R Nair.

This increasing focus of makers of regional films on home territory first and then organically expanding to other markets through subtitling is a reaction to the correction in digital rights valuation, said distributors.

"There is uncertainty over recovery in investments due to correction in digital rights valuation. This has limited the scale of films in regional cinema," said Shaaminder Malik, a distributor and film business expert.

Rajkumar Hirani says he didn’t intend to make a series or to make a series about cybercrime. However, during the pandemic, he read about a lot of incidents and became fascinated by the world of cybercrime.

He spoke to cybercrime officials and hackers in Mumbai and Delhi. And he felt that this material couldn't be contained within the duration of a film. That realization led to Pritam And Pedro, his first series and his debut on streaming which he didn't direct. Months after its release, and now working on the second season, Rajkumar Hirani admits he’s still a little paranoid about opening his mails.

In a recent conversation, Rajkumar Hirani spoke about the world of cybercrime, and about what streaming taught him.

Rajkumar Hirani says that now he feels more equipped to work in OTT. He shares,“Cinema mein itna depth mein nahi ja sakte kisi character ke andar. Do ghante mein, 2.5 ghante mein kahani kehni hoti hai. We compress the story a lot. While writing as well, we compress a lot - this scene can’t go in, so many pages. Here, in a series, we have the opportunity to go in depth. Aap khol sakte ho characters ki life. Yeh ek alag world hai. Alag dhang se bolni parti hai kahani yahan. I also found that in every episode you have to create some dynamic thing to keep people hooked.”

He says the process changed how he thinks about writing. “Likhte-likhte samajh aaya. Ab likhne ke baad aur (response) dekhne ke baad samajh aaya - in a way I’m better equipped now to do something better on OTT. Ab samajh aaya ki alag hai, cinema jaisa nahi hai. Par hai mazedaar! Kai kahaniyaan jo hum wahan nahi keh sakte, definitely yahan keh sakte hain.”

He also got feedback that the series never derails, which usually happens in longform storytelling. He shares,“Woh hua kyunki hamari cinema ki training thi. Main koshish kar raha tha ki main usko tight rakhoon, aur sab mujhse keh rahe thay - khol dete hain tracks, lamba-lamba rakh sakte hain. Par hamari training cinema ki hai toh lagta hai kyun khol rahe hain usko? Details mein batao, lekin dramatic nahi hai toh mat kholo tracks. I really kept it very tight. Tha bhi lamba, par mujhe laga yahan bore ho jayenge toh main kaatta gaya. Bahut kaata. Bade pyaar mohabbat se ban gayi woh series. Maza aa gaya,” he says, laughing.

Hirani says every project of his begins with a fascination. “If it’s Three Idiots, then I am like - we should show college life, kahani bahut mazedaar hogi. For Munna Bhai, the concept was: what if an older guy goes to a medical school! So it’s a small trigger through which we jump into that world. PK was about religion, and in this series, the trigger was cybercrime. There is no clear-cut objective. And then you learn that world. Ab toh main mail bhi dar-dar ke kholta hoon,” he laughs.

He explains,“Finally, stories are of characters and their world. Like PK was of religion and God, and this was of cybercrime - but it is personal story of two characters. Humne educate karne ke hisaab se nahi banaya, par research strong hoti hai toh woh cheezein uske andar aa jati hain. Nahi toh surface pe hi reh jaati hai kahani.”

Hirani says the feedback for this show is unlike anything he experienced with films. “Whether film or show - one thing is numbers. In cinema you get to know via box office, and here you get to know by the number of views. Second is people’s reactions. If they don’t like something, aapka phone band ho chuka hota hai. Koi response nahi aata hai. Ya bahut courteous - nice, itna sa aa jayega ek message, ek smiley aa jayega. Kisi ko lagta hai isko bolna zaroori hai. You have to read between the lines and understand ye kaisa response raha.”

This time, the response surprised him. “Very strangely, none of my films got me these reactions. I got reactions from people I haven’t heard from in ages. Kahan kahan se gaon se hamare log message kar rahe hain. I think maybe it’s because it’s available immediately, everywhere, at the same time. I was totally shocked, ye ho kya raha hai. And that made me realise the power of OTT. Reach of OTT is - woh aapke ghar mein ghuss jata hai,” he says, laughing, “aur aapko ticket nahi lena padta.”

He adds,"Till now, the crimes we used to see were really hardcore - on-ground crime and on-ground investigation, like Sherlock Holmes. But cybercrime is a different world, where most crimes are committed by phones and solved by phones."

For the first time, Hirani didn’t direct his own script. Pritam And Pedro was helmed by Avinash Arun, known for Paatal Lok. “I had written it. I know Avinash’s work. Mujhe laga Avinash will do it well. Aisa nahi hai ki main pura disconnect ho gaya tha - likha tha maine, aur phir editing bhi maine khud ki thi. Maine kisi ko nahi diya. Editing is also like you write and rewrite - maine kaafi waqt bitaya hai ispe. But of course, unless you have a good actor and a good director, it can go anywhere. So you have to be on the same page. I think I got lucky with Avinash doing it.”

Who wins creative disagreements? He says there usually aren’t any. “It’s a unanimous call. Ya toh main usko convince kar leta hoon, ya woh mujhe convince kar leta hai. Nahi toh kar ke dekh lete hain — kuch logon ko dikha lo, unke reactions mil jaate hain. Aisa conflict nahi hota hai kabhi. You arrive at a decision.”

The six-episode series follows a tech-averse Goa police officer who teams up with a young hacker to solve cybercrimes. Hirani researched the roles by speaking not only to cybercrime officials but to hackers themselves. Arshad Warsi was cast first as the officer. “Arshad is such a fantastic actor. We were working together after so long, so it was good fun,” Hirani says.

Casting the hacker was less straightforward. Raj Kumar Hirani's son Vir Hirani plays the role of hacker. He shares, “Veer was not supposed to do the series at all. He always wanted to do films, and I also had this in mind that he will do a film. Mere paas bhi koi subject tha nahi jo uss age ka ho, toh maine kaha, tum dekho bahar - you read scripts, do auditions. And he was doing it.”

Vir heard the show was being made and approached the producer himself. He auditioned, and it was director Avinash Arun who suggested casting him. “We can take him because the age gap would be very interesting - a senior police officer and a young hacker,” Avinash Arun told Hirani.

Hirani says, “Earlier we were looking for people who were not as young. Luckily, now it has done extremely well and it is the most-watched show. He is also getting a lot of appreciation.”

At Mini Market on Mutton Street, 73-year-old Shahid Mansoori sorts through a pile of rare black-and-white photographs of Sharmila Tagore, Rajesh Khanna and Dharmendra. One of the area’s oldest establishments, the shop is part of Chor Bazaar, a neighbourhood where the past remains very much for sale. Old radio sets sit beside decades-old wooden statues, while antique furniture dates from a time when such craftsmanship was ordinary. Even the narrow lanes here retain their old-school character.

Christopher Nolan has visited the store, while his sons Magnus and Oliver followed his trail to Mansoori’s shop last month to examine his collection of vintage cameras and classic chess sets. Mansoori recalls Nolan visiting in search of old film magazines and rare posters.

Mini Market is one part of Mansoori’s family business. His sons run Bollywood Bazaar and Super Sale, while he manages Mini Market. The business dates back nearly 70 years to his grandfather, who worked on film sets in the 1930s.

“He was more like a clapper boy. He would bring tea and help around the set,” Mansoori recalls. His grandfather, Mansoori B A, worked at Krishna Movietone, one of India’s early film studios, and earned about Rs 30 a month. When an actor failed to turn up, he was sometimes asked to perform.

The family’s connection with cinema continued with Mansoori’s father, who supplied props to film productions. “Homi Wadia, known for Hunterwali and Arabian Nights, was among his clients,” says Mansoori. The practice continues today, with the family supplying props to films and television productions.

Their objects have appeared in films such as Devdas and more. Mansoori’s eldest son, Zahid, points to a pair of steel handcuffs in the shop. “Those were the same handcuffs that Shah Rukh Khan was wearing in the scene where he is arrested in Raees,” he says.

Mansoori’s own relationship with cinema began when he was four. His father took him to the last film shows after work, and he spent his pocket money on chocolates and photographs of film stars. He recalls memories when he watched men paste new film posters on Mumbai’s roads every Thursday.

At the time, few considered the posters valuable. His father would sometimes bring discarded ones home and use them to pack goods. Mansoori could not bear to see them treated as rubbish, so he began cutting and repairing them. Many are still wrapped in newspapers and preserved in his shop.

By the 1980s, his collection had attracted international buyers from countries such as Sweden and France. But Mansoori realised that selling everything would leave him with nothing to collect. He kept the originals and sold the extras. “That is how I built my collection,” he says.

Today, his archive spans Bollywood and Hollywood, with rare photographs, posters, Filmfare and Film India magazines, movie tickets, songbooks, postcards, letters and silent-era material. Among his treasures are photographs from Alam Ara, posters of Satyajit Ray films such as Pather Panchali and Charulata, and photographs of actors including Dara Singh, Suraiya and Kishore Kumar.

At every corner of the shop, there is a new object to discover. There are 1964 Beatles concert tickets that costed 5 dollars at the time, old milk pots from a Maharaja’s temple, and gulab-danis once used in Arab countries. An old inkwell is placed beside nibs and feathers, while vintage cameras and a film projector remind us of another era.

Mansoori points to a 1970s typewriter later used in the film, Coolie. Above hang African masks; nearby are Coca-Cola bottle openers, a telegram machine, taxi meters and folding military-style binoculars from London. “Everything here is a rare piece,” he says.

Much of the collection came from raddiwalas, auctions, garage sales and old homes. Mansoori now has a network of about 40 people across India who alert him when they find something unusual. “It was like a lucky draw. You never know what you will find,” he says.

His shop has also become a resource for filmmakers, writers and researchers. He contributed material to Angry Young Men, the documentary series on Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, and even did a voice over for the beginning sequence for the project. He has also worked with the Film Heritage Foundation, while his shop has been featured in Film Division’s In Search of a Fading Canvas.

Mansoori calls himself an archivist and historian of Bollywood, though he never formally studied film. “I just read a lot,” he says. For decades, magazines, newspapers and discarded photographs became his entry point into cinema.

In a shop where every object has a story, Mansoori’s take is simple: “Everything is rare, and nothing is rare.” According to him, an object’s value does not just end in what it is, but in the history it carries. In his shop, picking up almost anything feels like holding a piece of history in the palm of your hand.

New Delhi: A film on the Statue of Unity will receive a National Award in the shadow of the monument itself when the country’s top cinema honours make a rare journey out of Delhi this month.

The 72nd National Film Awards ceremony will be held at Ekta Nagar, formerly Kevadia, in Gujarat on September 22, with President Droupadi Murmu presenting the honours, officials said Monday.

The choice gives this year’s ceremony a distinctly symbolic setting. Ekta Nagar is home to the 597-foot Statue of Unity dedicated to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2018. Among those being honoured is filmmaker Aanand L Rai, who has won Best Direction in the non-feature category for Statue of Unity — Ekta ka Prateek.

The government has not yet publicly spelt out the reason for shifting the ceremony from Delhi or indicated whether taking the awards to different parts of the country will become a regular practice.

The move nevertheless breaks with a long-established pattern. Instituted in 1954, the National Film Awards have overwhelmingly been presented in Delhi, with Vigyan Bhawan hosting most ceremonies. They have, however, travelled outside the capital before. The 17th National Film Awards were presented at the University Centenary Auditorium in Madras, now Chennai, on November 21, 1970.

The winners of the 72nd edition, recognising films of 2024, were announced in July. Article 370 was named Best Feature Film, with Yami Gautam winning Best Actress for the same film. Mammootty and Kartik Aaryan will share the Best Actor award for Bramayugam and Chandu Champion, respectively.

Randeep Hooda won Best Debut Director for Swatantrya Veer Savarkar, while Rajkumar Periasamy was named Best Director for Amaran. Telugu science-fiction film Kalki 2898 AD won Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment, and Tamil film Captain Miller was named Best Feature Film Promoting National, Social and Environmental Values.

By taking the ceremony to Ekta Nagar, the Centre is also placing one of its premier cultural events at a location increasingly projected as a national destination built around Patel, unity and state-led tourism development.

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Mumbai: The MVA has criticized the Centre for holding this year’s National Film Awards ceremony in Gujarat instead of Delhi.

NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar alleged politicians from Gujarat were diverting national events to the state because they feared losing power. Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray accused the govt of promoting Gujarat and diminishing Mumbai’s stature.

UBT MP Sanjay Raut asked whether the awards were a “Vibrant Gujarat” event. NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule said the national capital alone should host such functions.

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This year, the National Film Awards ceremony will break with convention and move outside Delhi for the first time in decades. The last time this happened was in 1970, when the event was held in Chennai instead of at Delhi’s Vigyan Bhawan. The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting said the annual awards will now be held in different parts of the country: a move aimed at taking the ceremony beyond the national capital. And for the 72nd edition, the National Film Awards will be held in Ekta Nagar, Gujarat, on September 22.

Sources say arrangements are underway to take guests from Delhi to Kevadia for the event.

Before the announcement that the awards will have a new venue every year, some questioned the selection of Gujarat for the ceremony.

Filmmaker Rahul Dholakia wrote in a post on X, “I have no particular love lost for Delhi hosting the National Film Awards, but I question the shift to Gujarat. Why Gujarat? Why are you breaking the tradition of presenting the award in another city/ state – then why not give that honor to a state that has contributed to cinema? Like Maharashtra or Kerala or Tamil Nadu. Even a city like Hyderabad... why go to Gujarat?”

Later, in an official statement, the I&B Ministry specified that the event would be hosted in various cities. “In a major policy initiative, it has been decided by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting to hold National Film Awards in various parts of the country taking it beyond the National Capital,” the statement said.

For Rahul Roy, the spotlight is back, but not quite in the way he would have imagined. The ’90s hero, best known for the film Aashiqui, was in the news recently over a series of Instagram reels in which he was seen dancing at a wedding and performing to his old songs with a content creator. Netizens speculated that his financial circumstances had prompted him to take part in the reels.

In a chat with us, the actor spoke about the financial realities that led him to take up the work, rebuilding his career after a brain stroke and the challenges of starting over at 60.

The actor, who has been part of films such as Junoon and Phir Teri Kahaani Yaad Aayee, is now focused on rebuilding his career and life. He also has a legal case that he has been fighting for the past few years. “There is a court case that I want to settle. It’s a `30 lakh matter, and my brother and I are working on it.”

Rahul, who was married to model Rajlaxmi Khanvilkar from 2000 to 2014, adds, “Some years ago, I went through a divorce and transferred some of my assets to my wife’s name. So now I am trying to build everything from scratch. I am 60 and trying to set up my empire.”

Rahul says that he has no plans to retire. “The last five years have almost been like a break because I was recuperating. There was no work. If that wouldn’t have happened, I would have done much more. But now, I am getting some work and want to do a lot more,” he shares.

The actor, who was recently part of the micro-drama Super Badshah, adds, “I was happy to be back on the set and face the camera. I am really thankful to the people who are trusting me. In my 37-year journey in films, I believe I have done some good work, and now I am looking forward to doing more.”

Rahul is candid about why he took up the work. “I have expenses and I need the money. Getting work after my brain stroke in 2020 was difficult. It’s been five years since then, and I was doing whatever I could to keep things going. Sometimes, I earn Rs. 2 lakh or Rs. 4 lakh by dancing at weddings. People who troll me don’t know that this is hard work. I have to earn my bread and butter too,” he says.

Despite the criticism from netizens that has come his way, Rahul says that people from the industry have always stood by him. “People have been supportive, be it Karisma Kapoor, Raveena Tandon or Pooja Bhatt. I am in touch with my Aashiqui co-stars Anu Aggarwal, Deepak Tijori and Avatar Gill, and even Mahesh Bhatt. Deepak is doing well, and hopefully, we will reunite for work,” he says.

Rahul also counts Salman Khan among those who stood by him during his difficult phase. Salman had helped him with his medical expenses during his brain stroke recovery, while more recently Farah Khan and Archana Puran Singh came out in support of him after he spoke about the financial compulsions that led him to feature in the viral reels.

Ahmedabad: Calling a business jet “a toy plane” and “Lego plane” didn’t fly with an aviation company, which has now dragged Bollywood actress Nora Fatehi to court. In a suit filed in a Gandhinagar civil court, Dunes Aviation has sought Rs 3 crore from her in damages for her “reckless” and “derogatory” statements.

The company said that Fatehi and her team travelled in its Cessna Citation CJ2, bearing call sign VT-NDA, from Mumbai to Jaipur on Dec 14, 2025. She recorded multiple videos and posted them on her verified Instagram account in story format.

“She has made utterly derogatory and reckless statements regarding the aviation safety of the chartered plane of the plaintiff company,” the suit alleged.

The company has taken exception to three videos posted by Fatehi, in which she described the plane as some toy plane or Lego plane. According to the suit, in one of the videos posted to her account, she said, “It’s a toy; this is what we get when you order an airplane from Amazon”.

The company stated that the CJ2 is an industry-standard plane categorised as a business jet and is used for short- to medium-range travel. The actress made multiple statements questioning the safety of the chartered aeroplane without actual technical knowledge regarding aviation safety, it said.

It further stated that the aircraft completed the said flight from Mumbai to Jaipur safely, which irrefutably demonstrates the falsity and recklessness of Fatehi’s public insinuations.

The company said it offers premium services of customizable charter aeroplanes to high-end clients and operates in compliance with the provisions, regulations, circulars, manuals and safety directives issued by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and other competent authorities.

The statements published by the actress have tainted its reputation, the company said in the suit.

Fatehi, who has 46.6 million followers on Instagram, has considerable influence and reach. After the circulation of the videos, the company’s bookings dropped by 15-20% within 45-50 days.

“There are major cancellations too. This has directly impacted the business of the plaintiff company. The indirect loss to the extent of reputation and loss of goodwill is also resultant of such reckless allegations by the defendant,” reads the company’s suit.

The suit further mentions that a legal notice issued to Fatehi remained unanswered. The company has sought damages for reputational harm, loss of goodwill and commercial disparagement, as well as sought a court order for her to immediately take down the posts. The court has issued a notice to Fatehi. The matter is currently at the rejoinder stage, and a hearing has been scheduled for September 25.

For years, the question of women in commercial cinema was simply whether they were there. Today, women headline action films, lead spy missions and carry franchises. The change is visible. But visibility can be deceptive. A woman can be at the centre of the frame without being at the centre of the story. Alpha, the first female-led film in YRF’s spy universe, puts Alia Bhatt and Sharvari in a world historically dominated by male agents. Yet questions remain about whether the sexualisation of its female stars belongs to an older visual grammar. Toxic, directed by Geetu Mohandas and featuring five prominent actresses alongside Yash, was positioned as a film with a female gaze, but questions have also been raised about whether its female characters have stories independent of its male protagonist.

The female gaze is ultimately about point of view: whether a character has an interior life, and whether her choices carry narrative weight.

Data journalist Surbhi Bhatia’s analysis of Bollywood from 2000-2022 found that female-led films received less than a fifth of the capital and resources invested in the top films in any year. Yet these films can be highly profitable, often delivering returns comparable to, or better than, those of male-led films. Bhatia illustrates the disparity through the returns on investment of women-led films. Lipstick Under My Burkha, made for around Rs 6 crore, generated approximately Rs 25 crore, a return of more than four times its investment. Raazi, starring Alia Bhatt as a spy, was made for around Rs 40 crore and generated Rs 195 crore worldwide, returning 4.8 times its investment. By comparison, a male-led film made for Rs 250 crore and earning Rs 500 crore delivers a 2x return.

The issue, she argues, is “not that women-led films perform badly, but that producers are less willing to assume the risk of producing, distributing and promoting them at scale.”

Bhatia will discuss these findings during her talk Kuch Kuch Data Hai: Bollywood, Visualised today at Woodside Inn, Bandra, as part of a Pint of View Lecture. Her research also shows that roughly one-third of working characters in paid occupations in films are women. They are more likely to be doctors, teachers, journalists, dancers, actors and models, while police officers, military personnel, politicians and criminals remain more likely to be male. Characters associated with power, danger or institutional authority are still more often written as men.

Aditi Govitrikar, actor, sees a similar gap between discussions and opportunities. “The conversation is happening, but whether it will translate into work or not remains to be seen,” she says, pointing to Delhi Crime, The Great Indian Murder and Made in Heaven as rare examples of women-centred storytelling.

That gap becomes more complicated once a film moves from the idea on the page to the finished product. Sidharth Jain, founder and producer at The Story Ink, explains, “Commercial filmmaking is inherently a collaborative process. Writers, filmmakers, producers, actors, studios and marketing teams all enter the equation, along with the pressure of the box office.”

With larger budgets and more stakeholders, an original idea is not necessarily discarded, Jain explains, but can gradually become something different from what the filmmaker first set out to make. Creative control can therefore be as consequential as casting.

A female lead, or even a woman directing the film, does not automatically determine the perspective through which her character is understood. That point of view has to survive from script to screen.

Arati Kadav, director of Mrs., takes the argument back to the writing itself. “We don’t depict women as whole people,” she says. Creators need to “step in the shoes of their characters” and “live those stories with the fullness they deserve”. Even smaller female characters, she argues, should have “a strong point of view, a proper backstory and some duality, rather than becoming too one-tone”.

Jain adds, “My biggest problem is that we don’t have a large pool of good screenwriting.” A filmmaker may have the right intent, but without the craft to communicate it, the idea, he says, can get lost in execution.

Revati Mahurkar, who has worked across Indian and international music videos including Qatal, Mascara and Tevar, believes that sensuality and self-expression can coexist beautifully when women have a say in how they are presented—from performance and costumes to the images that make the final cut. “I think women having agency in how they are presented changes the entire perception of their presence on the screen,” she says.

“It’s what moves us away from objectification towards having an active role in picturising and presenting the content, whether a song or a film.” Mahurkar also feels that respect for women in the industry may be growing, but “entertainment only reflects what is happening in the real world around us.”

Jain, too, sees the industry moving beyond its traditionally male-star-driven model, in which “the heroine is just there for three songs”, towards a greater emphasis on story and content.

He sees it most clearly among younger writers, who are “more self-aware, more responsible” about how women are written. But he is wary of treating this as a complete transformation.

“It’s a generational shift,” he says, one that will happen slowly, as filmmakers and audiences continue to shape and respond to each other.

Films such as Kabir Singh and Animal are reminders that stories built around male desire and violence still have considerable commercial currency. But their success does not cancel the growth of female-led cinema; it only exposes the marketplace in which those films must compete. Counting more heroines, too, tells us little about how much narrative power women have acquired.

Representation cannot, after all, be measured by counting women on screen. A heroine may have substantial dialogue, fight scenes and even a plot of her own while the film continues to view her chiefly through male desire. The real measure is whether she has an inner life, consequential choices and ambitions that do not exist merely to advance a man’s story. Bollywood may be changing the stories it is willing to tell, but the more difficult shift lies in who gets to shape them, and whose perspective is allowed to endure from the first draft to the final frame.

Just when they thought it was a wrap, Sanjay Leela Bhansali flipped the script and returned to the set. Three weeks ago, Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, and Vicky Kaushal officially wrapped up Love & War as per schedule, but an insider informs mid-day that the perfectionist filmmaker was unhappy with the final product and decided to shoot additional portions of crucial war sequences.

Bhansali will “spend about a week” filming the battle portions at Welcome Maidaan in Goregaon. “He is extremely particular about how the war portions come together because they are integral to the film’s scale and emotional arc. Once he saw the material in the edit, he felt certain battle portions could be enhanced further,” shares a source close to the production.

The insider adds that they are not changing what has already been shot, but are simply “perfecting the sequence”.

The director had earlier shot extensively at Royal Palms in Goregaon during the final schedule of Love & War. Bhansali is personally overseeing the additional shoot, while simultaneously working on the edit.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali was also planning to shoot an additional song for ‘Love & War’, but that plan has been deferred indefinitely, informs a source

(From left) Manoj Joshi, Amit Rai, Milan Luthria, Onir and Raja Krishna Menon

The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), the body responsible for regulating the public exhibition of films, has now changed the certification guidelines for films. Notified by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on September 16 under the Cinematograph Act 1952, the new rules make anti-drug warnings mandatory in films depicting narcotics, while also reiterating restrictions on violence, sensitive subjects and content that could affect India’s relations with other countries. The changes come alongside the Centre’s reconstitution of the CBFC with a new 18-member board. Here's what a few filmmakers and directors have to say about these new guidelines.

While I am against any form of censorship, cinema has a significant influence on society, and to that end, it is important for filmmakers to be cognisant of their responsibility while telling a story. Portraying society as one sees it, with all its beauty and its ills, and using cinema to initiate conversations around subjects, especially those that are considered taboo, is just as important as being mindful not to celebrate or excuse certain behaviours or acts. Ultimately, it comes down to the intention of the storyteller.

Any medium which we can see – films, social media or anything – the visual impact has a lost longing impact that in Natya Shastra Maharishi Bharat Muni said thousands of years ago. So, there should be a balance between creative liberty and its impact on society. We have liberty to express and does not mean serving anything in the name of creativity. There should first be self censorship on parinam aur dushparinam. So, the balance is most important considering its impact on society.”

There are quite a few guidelines by the CBFC so I’ll address the main points. The audience is smart enough to decide whether violence in a film is within acceptable parameters or not. If the audience thinks violence is being shown just for the sake of it without maintaining a balance of other parameters in the film, that’s for them to discern. What is too much for you may be okay for me, so it’s difficult to say how much is too much, everybody has a different opinion on what is acceptable. Which is why these guidelines won’t be easy to implement. We have already dealt with warnings about smoking, alcohol, animals, children who act in our films, but ultimately filmmaking is an art form and a filmmaker should be allowed to express themselves.

It’s very worrisome because it takes away from the fact that films have always been not just entertainment. There is one section which is just entertainment, but films are also about asking questions, wanting change and not basically glorifying the status quo for society. When you have these big terms as to what exactly defines ‘anti-national’ — is questioning the government, a political leader or religion anti-national? How is any of this anti-national or wrong? Because how come we do not have any kind of curbing of dialogue when it comes to all these things, like religion?

If we start writing a story with a menu card in the picture of what we can or cannot do, it will impact the process. While writing a story, I never think of anything, otherwise I wouldn’t have written a film like OMG 2. Creativity requires a free-flowing process, but if the system wants to safeguard the national interest, they are right in their way, but we are right too. We can always come to a middle ground. It’s just pehle jo logon galti kari, uska khamiyaza hum log bhugtenge. Although, if the intention is pure, even the system will understand.”

- Films will have to be more responsible and sensitive to values and standards of society.

- Films to not promote communal, obscurantist, anti-scientific or anti-national attitude.

- Films to not promote content that could strain India’s friendly relations with foreign states

- Scenes involving consumption or trafficking of narcotics and psychotropic substances must carry a warning

Certification changes now states that movies can receive one of the six certificates: U, UA 7+, UA 13+, UA 16+, A and S