BHOOTH BANGLA scored a strong third weekend with collections of almost 14 crore nett as the holiday on Friday gave the collections a boost and there was a good jump on Sunday as well. The film remained pretty much unaffected in Mumbai circuit despite the release of the Marathi film RAJA SHIVAJI. The competition elsewhere was pretty much limited and it remained on a strong trajectory.

The film is a HIT now as is pretty much certain get close to 150 crore nett and it actually might get there especially as it seems that the buy one get one free offer will be there on weekdays. It is the third HIT film of the year after BORDER 2 and DHURANDHAR THE REVENGE. So, that's a good result in four months there were also supporting films like THE KERALA STORY 2: GOES BEYOND and MARDAANI 3. BHOOTH BANGLA is the only non franchise success so far this year.

The collections of the film will be better than JOLLY LLB 3 everywhere apart from Delhi/UP and East Punjab while Mumbai circuit it could even go past a far bigger film like HOUSEFULL 5.

The collections of BHOOTH BANGLA till date are as follows.

Friday - 5,00,00,000 apprx

Saturday - 9,75,00,000 apprx

Sunday - 11,25,00,000 apprx

Monday - 3,00,00,000 apprx

Tuesday - 3,50,00,000 apprx

Wednesday - 3,00,00,000 apprx

Thursday - 3,75,00,000 apprx

Friday - 4,35,00,000 apprx

Saturday - 4,25,00,000 apprx

Sunday - 5,25,00,000 apprx

One of the most unexpected team-ups in the Indian comedy scene happened recently on The Great Indian Kapil Show when comedians Samay Raina and Sunil Pal came face-to-face. The episode sparked online buzz with many feeling that the veteran comic was called in to be humiliated. However, Sunil does not feel so.

“Main usko humiliation nahin maanta hoon kyunki woh comedy show hain. Koi mann mutaav nahin hai. People will make jokes at each other. I made punchlines at him, and he did the same. Even Shah Rukh Khan (actor) becomes the butt of jokes on such a show, so mujhe koi shikayat nahin hain.”

Sunil, who has earlier publicly criticised the young stand-up comic over his style of “abusive” comedy, shares that he had been informed beforehand about Samay’s presence in the show.

He says, “I don’t have a personal beef with anyone. It’s just a difference in opinion with not just Samay but all Gen-Z comedians who use abuses.”

He adds, “Audience tak acchi cheezein pahuchni chahiye kyunki woh unka haq hai, par ghum firkar, wahi gaali galauch jata hain aur usse mera dil dukhta hai. It’s only my request to all young comics to utilise the access that they have well.” 

YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia, in the behind-the-scenes vlog of the same episode of the show, hinted at a documentary on India’s Got Latent controversy: “We are releasing a very detailed Latent documentary next month. Everything that happened day by day has been recorded.”

Actor Mehreen Pirzada, who married businessman Arsh Aulakh on April 26 in an intimate ceremony, says their first meeting came with little expectation. The two met through a common friend, and Mehreen admits she had almost made up her mind.

“We both thought the meeting would last 30 minutes. For him, it was like, ‘She’s an actor, let’s just meet,’ and for me, I didn’t think it would work. I told myself that if anything felt off, I’d just leave,” she tells us. But the meeting stretched to six hours. “By the end of it, there was a silent yes. We didn’t say it, but we both felt it,” she says with a smile.

The relationship, which began in July last year, was kept private. “I always believed in love first, but family ideologies matter a lot,” she shares, adding that her brother, actor Gurfateh Pirzada, also played a key role.

“For most girls, it’s their father they look up to. For me, it’s my brother,” she says, adding, “He did a lot of background checks (on Arsh), hoping he’d find something. But when they met, they became like brothers. Now they share their own bond.”

Her bridal outfit also mirrored her intimate style, as she adorned a refurbished version of her mother’s wedding ensemble. “I always knew I wanted to do this... My kaliras had motifs and messages from my mother and brother, family pictures, and even symbols of my grandparents,” she reveals, adding, “Marriage is very personal, and mine never felt like a formal event.”

It has been a strong few years for Abhishek Banerjee, who is celebrating his 41st birthday in Goa. The actor is building a home in the beach state and ringing in his birthday there. Known for delivering impactful performances regardless of screen time, Banerjee admits he is as surprised as anyone by the range of characters he continues to juggle across projects.

He believes that while people differ, emotions remain universal. “We all have the same agony, angst, pain, love, empathy, and sympathy, just the degree varies from character to character. I bring that in my performance, but also keep it close to [my real personality]. Gautam, my character from Stolen [2025] is very close to how I would react to a situation. I feel that putting yourself in different situations helps with the process,” he says.

He adds that directors, along with the make-up and costume teams, play a key role in shaping a character.

For Jana from the Stree franchise and Bhediya (2022), he tapped into his childhood. “I was a bondu bachcha when I was a child. I tapped into that to play Jana.” 

For Compounder in Mirzapur, he leaned on real-life bonds. “Divyenndu and I have been good friends since college. I played his friend like in real life, with the only difference that this friend can kill,” he smiles. Banerjee confirms both Munna and Compounder return in Mirzapur: The Movie, but stays tight-lipped on details. “Their friendship and sacrifices are back… we ate and drank together, and bullied each other on set [for fun].”

Despite advice against revisiting a small role, he remains unfazed. “If I’m getting an opportunity to earn more money from one tiny role and go back to the audience, and share their love for the character, then why not?”

Rahul Roy isn’t having the narrative written for him. After a wave of viral reels and chatter questioning his finances, the Aashiqui (1990) star took to Instagram to set the record straight, pushing back against claims that he’s struggling or has been left on his own.

“I’m safe and I’m well taken care by my sister and brother-in-law. I live at my sister’s place. We have a lovely house in Madh… I’m deeply loved by her, which makes me the luckiest brother in the world,” he wrote.

“I have clothes, I have shoes, I have food, I have car, I’m not a abandoned person on road… the way fake videos are coming out is not true,” Roy added that his lifestyle choices – whether it’s keeping things simple or skipping a bodyguard – are his own.

“I always think work is work… I waited for good work enough for long but it doesn’t come, I cannot sit and waste myself. I did those reels with simplicity not with clever thoughts (sic),” he said.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has allowed filmmaker Aanand L. Rai’s application to refer a dispute between him and a listed movie production house Eros International Media Ltd (EIML) to arbitration.

The division bench of judicial member Sushil Mahadeorao Kochey and technical member, Prabhat Kumar, while allowing the filmmaker’s application, observed that the petition filed by Eros is a ‘dressed-up petition’ instituted with the sole intent of ‘circumventing the arbitration’ contractually agreed upon by the parties and is therefore vexatious in nature.

“Although the petitioner (Eros) has claimed certain reliefs by way of declaration and injunction under the garb of alleged oppression and mismanagement, a holistic reading of the petition, its pleadings and the reliefs sought points to it being a dressed-up petition,” said the tribunal in its April 28 order.

The genesis of the dispute lies in the term sheet signed by the parties in 2014, under which Eros International had acquired a 50% stake in Colour Yellow Productions Pvt Ltd, a company founded by Rai and his wife. The agreement split the responsibilities between parties, allowing Rai creative control while vesting Eros with authority over financing, budgeting and other production decisions.

Under the term sheet, it was agreed that Colour Yellow Productions could collaborate with third parties only if Eros International declined to fund the project.

However, the dispute between the parties began in 2019-20, with Eros International alleging mismanagement at the company, diversion of funds, and Rai's non-disclosure of financial information to the company. The company also claimed it was excluded from key management decisions despite being an equal shareholder.

Countering this, Nausher Kohli and Prachi Wazalwar, advocates appearing for Rai, argued that the 2014 term sheet and a subsequent 2023 agreement both contain arbitration clauses. Therefore, as per the arbitration clause in the term sheet, the dispute ought to be referred to arbitration.

Rai’s lawyers also argued that the entire petition under Sections 241-242 of the Companies Act, 2013, is dressed up to avoid the agreed-upon forum of arbitration between the parties.

When contacted, Pradeep Dwivedi, group chief executive of EIML said Eros remains committed to protecting its rights and is actively evaluating all legal options available to it, including appropriate appellate remedies.

“Our position has consistently been that the matters in question involve serious issues of oppression and mismanagement, including concerns around financial governance and related-party transactions at Colour Yellow Productions which we believe merit full and proper adjudication,” said Dwivedi.

“We are confident that the appropriate forum will allow the complete facts to be brought on record, and we will continue to pursue all necessary steps to safeguard the interests of the Company and its stakeholders,” he added.

The tribunal, while allowing an application filed by Rai and disposing of Eros International’s petition, observed that the petition is nothing but an attempt to circumvent the agreed arbitration clause under the term sheet and may also amount to an effort to oust the respondents (Rai and Colour Yellow Productions), who are the original promoters of the company.

The moviemaker Rai and Eros have been at loggerheads at multiple judicial forums. In January, Eros International approached the Bombay High Court, accusing Rai and his production house Colour Yellow Media Entertainment of allegedly illegally riding on the goodwill of its 2013 blockbuster ‘Raanjhanaa’ while promoting and releasing the 2025 film ‘Tere Ishq Mein’.

In the past two years, Bollywood production houses are increasingly diversifying into film distribution space. Though not unprecedented, a notable aspect of this shift is that today diversification into film distribution space has become a structural and survival imperative for production houses to deal with rising costs of filmmaking and grab larger share of revenues available across the value chain of filmmaking, producers, exhibitors and film marketing experts said.

Dharma Productions, and most recently Jio Studios, are the two prominent production houses that diversified into film distribution space in noteworthy manner in the last two years.

"Cost of making films has gone up due to the huge talent cost. Then, distributors are doing away with minimum guarantees (upfront cash) to producers. A combined effect of these is production houses venturing into distribution,” explained Suniel Wadhwa, co-founder & director, Karmic Films.

A key rationale behind production houses diversifying into distribution is to retain a larger share of revenues that a film can generate, noted established producers.

A key rationale behind production houses diversifying into distribution is to retain a larger share of revenues that a film can generate, noted established producers.

Functioning as distributors helps production houses reduce their dependence on sub-distributors, explained independent exhibitors.

"Production houses are going full throttle. They have set up offices in Bihar and West Bengal," said independent exhibitor Vishek Chauhan. “They are not dependent on sub-distributors. So, a distributor’s commission is their savings,” he explained.

Independent distributors earn 5-10% of revenues as commission income. “For instance, consider Dhurandhar. The film collected Rs. 1000 crore. And if a sub-distributor’s billing is Rs 450 crore, then 10% of it is Rs 45 crore. This is a huge number,” explained Chauhan.

Unfavourable experiences with studios have also contributed to this trend, noted producers. “There are studios who offer promotion, marketing and distribution to production houses for a fixed fee. These studios take a huge share of revenues earned through a film for the money they invest. This is in the range of 10-50% of box office revenues. This is a reason why production houses have diversified into distribution,” explained producer Rajesh R Nair.

Digitalization is another enabler for production houses to venture into distribution, explained distributors.

“Today, distribution is centralized, thanks to digitalization. One can keep a tab of everything sitting in Mumbai. Due to nuanced data, production houses have been able to negotiate with exhibitors on programming and revenue-sharing,” explained Shaaminder Malik, distributor and film trade analyst.

At present, apart from production houses, players such as AA Films, Pen Marudhar, YRF and PVR Inox distribute films.

In the long run, power dynamics in the distribution ecosystem is likely to shift in favour of multiplexes, said industry veterans.

“Today, multiplexes generate 70-75% of box office revenues. This shows their power in the entire distribution ecosystem. In the long run, the power dynamics will shift in favour of multiplexes,” said Neeraj Joshi, a film marketing and strategy consultant.

Actor Huma Qureshi and her beau, actor and acting coach Rachit Singh, who’ve largely kept their relationship private, are now gearing up for the next step. After details of their US engagement, we have exclusively learnt that the couple is reportedly planning a wedding later this year.

A source reveals, “They are planning an intimate October end wedding as of now and the preparations have already begun,” adding, “The wedding will be followed by a big reception for the (film) industry (people). As of now, it’s most probably looking like (it will take place in) Mumbai.”

The couple sparked engagement buzz after appearing together at actor Sonakshi Sinha’s wedding festivities in 2024 and later the screening of Thamma (2025). Back in September 2025, a source had shared, “He (Rachit) proposed to her in an intimate setting in the US and she said yes… they are yet to decide when to make it official.”

Their recent joint appearance at the Mumbai airport has only added to the excitement around what’s coming next.