Anshuman Jha’s Lakadbaggha 2: The Monkey Business, the sequel to the 2023 action thriller Lakadbaggha, is set for an exclusive market screening at the Marché du Film as it gears up for international distribution ahead of its official world premiere later this year. Set against the backdrop of Indonesia, the India-Indonesia co-production combines martial arts action with an environmental message centred around wildlife trafficking.

The film also shines a light on the critically endangered Yaki monkey, whose population has reportedly declined from nearly 50,000 in the 1990s to fewer than 5,000 in 2025 due to habitat destruction and illegal wildlife trade.

Speaking about the vision behind the sequel, Anshuman says, “Lakadbaggha 1 was rooted in my love for dogs, while Lakadbaggha 2: The Monkey Business widens that lens to all animals. Animals are going extinct because humanity is going extinct. We wanted to elevate the action, not just in intensity but also in meaning, because beyond the fights lies the question of what you stand for. Marché du Film gives us the platform to take this story to global audiences who value cinema that engages both the heart and the mind.”

Opening up about how the sequel expands the world of the franchise, he says, “The Lakadbaggha franchise has always been my love letter to animals and a homage to Bruce Lee. With Lakadbaggha 2: The Monkey Business, we’ve gone bigger, darker and more international. The story moves into the brutal underworld of illegal wildlife trafficking in Southeast Asia, centred around the critically endangered Yaki monkey. The action is larger, but the emotional and environmental stakes are even more real.”

For Anshuman, the screening at Marché du Film marks a significant milestone for an independent Indian action franchise.

He shares, “Marché du Film Cannes is the biggest film market in the world, so showcasing Lakadbaggha 2 there before its world premiere is a massive opportunity. We’re hoping to take an Indian martial arts franchise to global players like Toho, Well Go USA and Kino, who have backed internationally recognised action franchises such as Ip Man, Train to Busan and Godzilla Minus One. For an independent Indian action franchise, this is rare territory, and I’m deeply grateful to the Creative Europe MEDIA Programme and Webfilmland Germany for believing in the film and supporting it at Cannes.”

Sharing how the Indo-Indonesian collaboration came together, he says, “It began with the script. Writer Sourav Ghosh had set the story in Indonesia, and in 2023, I watched the Indonesian film Sara. I reached out to the team behind it, which led to Matta Cinema coming on board. From there, the collaboration grew organically with support from Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Creative Economy. We were especially excited to showcase West Java, a stunning part of Indonesia that global audiences haven’t really seen on screen in this way before.”

As the 79th Cannes Film Festival, approaches, several Indian stars are preparing for their red carpet appearances. Among them is actor-filmmaker Anshuman Jha, who will make his debut at the festival with a slate announcement unveiling six films under his production house. The lineup includes titles such as Lakadbaggha 2, The Burning, Hari Om and Bajrangi.

For Anshuman, known for films such as Lakadbaggha (2023) and Love Sex Aur Dhokha (2010), all six projects, he says, are rooted in what he “deeply believes” in: “They all carry a social commentary. That’s very important to me as a filmmaker. And there’s no better platform than Cannes to announce ambition. Each film truly has its own journey.”

The 41-year-old stresses that authenticity remains central to his storytelling. “Every story you tell has to be rooted in the culture you come from; only then will it feel truthful and resonate with audiences,” he shares. While the films are “deeply Indian in nature”, he adds, “They carry universal emotions. That’s what connects them to a global audience.”

Through his production house, First Ray Films, Jha is focused on backing independent voices. “We want to give writers and directors the freedom to tell the stories they want to tell. That’s why we don’t do sanctioned stuff, we develop everything ourselves,” he says, adding that he is selective in how he approaches the market.

“When I meet a distributor, I’m not going with all six films. I go with the ones that have a genuine possibility in that territory,” he says.

Despite the scale of the announcement, his expectations remain measured. “You can’t take your film to international film festivals if it’s not good, you either win or you learn.”

Anshuman Jha-starrer 2023 action-thriller Lakadbaggha is gearing up for the release of its sequel, Lakadbaggha 2: The Monkey Business in mid-2026. Now, we have learnt that actor Adil Hussain has joined the film’s cast replacing actor Milind Soman in the role of the sensei in the sequel.

The role has been significantly expanded in the sequel and will see the sensei character play a pivotal role in the protagonist’s journey. Confirming his casting, Adil says, he was inspired by the first film of the series. “It felt like someone was finally making a film that stood up for the rights of animals—something we haven’t seen in decades, perhaps since Haathi Mere Saathi (1971) in the seventies,” he says, crediting Anshuman for his support during the action training and sequences:

“The martial arts training and action sequences were challenging, but Anshuman was incredibly supportive and generous throughout the process.”

The film features martial arts legends Sunny Pang, known for Headshot (2016), Havoc (2025) and Dan Chupong from OngBak series. The Indian cast includes Sarah Jane Dias, Vikram Kochar, and Anshuman, who reprises his role from the first film. The sequel’s shoot wrapped up in June 2025, and Anshuman also takes on the director’s chair for this film.

For aspiring actor Vinayak Vasudeva, the biggest loss from AI isn’t employment, but individuality. Pic/Nimesh Dave

When Mahabharat: Ek Dharmayudh recently rolled its credits, there weren’t 300 names listed as is typical for a mainstream epic in India, but just 15 to 20.

On one hand, this is a mythic story retold; on the other, it is a new business model. This was a series made via artificial-intelligence-driven workflows, where massive crews are replaced by algorithms and lean teams.

Morgan Stanley Research projects that GenAI can trim overall media-production expenses by about 10 per cent and cut costs in television and film by as much as 30 per cent when the technology will be fully integrated into scripting, pre-visualization and post-production workflows. The question at the heart of this transformation is, is AI poised to become Bollywood’s biggest cost-cutting tool? For some filmmakers, it promises creative liberation, enabling stories without giant budgets. For others, it signals an industrial shake-up of seismic proportions.

This AI-reimagined series has opened the floodgates of a new era, but the real disruption is already unfolding in the backrooms of production studios. Across the globe, AI tools are quietly trimming timelines and budgets. Indian studios, too, are adopting these systems; a 2025 Broadcast and Film industry report estimates that AI could reduce overall production costs by 20–30 per cent by 2026, especially in post-production and set design.

For filmmaker Shakun Batra, who founded the experimental studio Jouska, AI is an invitation to rethink access apart from being a technical shortcut. “For Indian cinema, I think AI opens up a space for risk. We’ve always had incredible storytellers, but access — financial, logistical, or geographic — has been a real barrier. It creates a space where experimenting at scale becomes possible,” he says. His own experiments began out of curiosity but soon evolved into a hybrid workflow model where human storytelling meets algorithmic precision.

In traditional filmmaking, hundreds of people handle lighting, costume, and continuity. With AI-assisted systems, Batra envisions small, agile teams capable of producing near-studio-quality films for a fraction of the cost. The technology, he argues, may finally give independent filmmakers a seat at the table, giving access to what was once an exclusive, capital-heavy industry. Globally, studios are calling it a “business reboot.” In India, it’s beginning to look like a creative revamp.

Pre-visualization that used to take three to four weeks will now be completed in less than five days. Crowd simulations were once considered a logistical nightmare requiring hundreds of extras. Now they will be generated by neural renderers that create lifelike digital bodies, moving, emoting, and even reacting to camera angles. Lighting grids that took an entire crew half a day to set up will now be mapped virtually through AI-led scene design tools like Wonder Dynamics and Runway.

The result is staggering time compression. Where a traditional shoot could span 90 days, AI-assisted workflows are reducing production schedules by up to 40 per cent according to the Broadcast & Film industry report. India’s AI-in-entertainment market is projected to grow at 22 per cent annually through 2030, with potential savings of '70–80 crore on large-scale productions as stated in Pwc’s 2024 Entertainment and Media Outlook.

Batra describes it as “a meeting point between art and algorithm.” His teams run like creative start-ups where AI handles the grunt work, freeing humans to focus on taste, pacing, and emotion. A Rs. 100-crore fantasy once requiring multiple studios and financiers could now be visualized for Rs.. 30 crore or less. And that doesn’t just save money. It redistributes power. The question is no longer who can afford to tell a story, but who dares to.

For all the speed and savings that AI promises, a debate runs beneath the surface about what is lost when technology begins to stand in for the human touch. Actor and director Anshuman Jha, who has spent nearly two decades in cinema, calls AI “a music box pretending to be a violinist.”

“Artificial intelligence may perfect imitations,” he says, “but it can never capture the tremor of a human heartbeat. Breath is at the base of acting where every emotion has a rhythm, every performer a pulse. Replace that with code and the notes may still play, but the soul that wavers between them disappears.”

Jha sees the value in AI-assisted VFX and animation. But to use it to make a film from scratch — devoid of a set, tangible costumes and human faces — is simply a shortcut. “It’s laziness if used 100 per cent to create,” he says. “AI can function off information, but filmmaking is built on knowledge which you earn through experience, not through prompts. In today’s age, you can shoot a film using a mobile phone. Filmmaking is hard work. You can’t find a short cut way out of that.”

Addressing the loss of imagination and sensitivity of a human, Batra comments, “Yes, people will use AI to outsource creativity. But honestly? That’s the laziest way to use these tools. AI can speed things up, yes but that doesn’t mean it brings meaning. That still has to come from the filmmaker. For me, the human touch isn’t just about emotion—it’s about decisions. Why does a scene pause? Why does the silence matter? These are questions AI can’t answer unless we feed it something real to begin with.”

Jha’s critique points to a cultural crossroads. AI filmmaking is undeniably cheaper and faster, but the danger lies in what those efficiencies normalize. A creative process where irregularities like the slight tremor in a voice, the unplanned shadow in a frame, all get edited out in pursuit of polish. As the industry leans toward automation, Jha reiterates that, “at best it is a tool to make the process easier, but it can’t replace the human connect in traditional filmmaking.” In this new cinematic economy, the question is whether the stories will still breathe.

Similarly, the bustle of a set with its tailors stitching, brushes sweeping, fabrics rustling may be replaced by keyboards and prompts. For costume designer Rick Roy, this efficiency carries a cost. “Art has always been a human creative expression of emotions,” he says. “With AI, it’s visual, algorithmic, and devoid of humanness.”

Roy’s concern is anatomical. The way silk moves under studio lights or the quick fix of a safety pin before a take can’t be coded. Yet he’s pragmatic about what comes next. “If AI takes over, we’ll have to adapt. Designers will move from stitching to guiding — learning to teach AI what to create.” The craft, he believes, will survive as long as physical filmmaking does; the designer may just evolve into an AI stylist, a curator of digital texture and silhouette rather than cloth and thread.

Makeup artist Anuradha Raman, a decade into her career, sees a similar fault line. “AI can replicate faces with eerie precision,” she says, “but it loses the rawness that imperfections bring.” For her, makeup brings about emotional scaffolding. “When an actor wears a scar I’ve created, it changes how they perform. AI symmetry doesn’t bring the rawness to one’s character.”

The first revolution in Indian cinema was perhaps the arrival of colour, and the second might just be code. Author Amish Tripathi, who has watched AI transform video game development through his upcoming title Age Of Bhaarat, calls it “the next leap in storytelling logistics.” He’s not talking about automation as replacement, but augmentation. “AI won’t replace creatives,” he says, “but creatives with AI will replace those without it.”

While labour in the film industry may continue to have jobs, each stint will get shorter. For Tripathi, the promise lies in scale. What took game developers two years can now be done in five months. “Your biggest cost is time,” he explains. “If you’re paying people monthly, cutting that timeline changes the entire business.”

In film, that means a writer in Bhopal or a regional director in Kochi could now build an AI-rendered world and walk into a studio meeting with a 20 minute proof-of-concept — a tool once reserved for those with millions in pre-production funds. 

Every technological leap in cinema carries its shadow. AI’s efficiency is rewriting the economics of labour. Actor Vinayak Vasudeva sees the shift as more existential than financial. “Already our mainstream cinema is made for reels. Visuals that are flashy, fast, and give you an easy dopamine,” he says.

“We’re AI’s ideal customers because what actors hesitate to do can now be generated. An item song without paying anyone for it — that’s hard to think about.” For him, the biggest loss from AI isn’t employment, but individuality. “AI can’t bring emotion or human complexity. Acting is built on individuality, which is everything that AI lacks.”

Tripathi compares this to the transition from practical effects to CGI. “There was panic then too. However, with computer graphics coming in, people’s imagination became even bigger. Stories that weren’t even attempted started being made possible.” The same may hold true here. As AI lowers costs, it could multiply the number of films being made. The industry may lose some roles but gain entirely new kinds of creators.

When Shakun Batra looks ahead, he sees not machines replacing artistes, but a new industrial chain forming around them. “We’re already experimenting with hybrid workflows that bring traditional filmmaking and AI together, not as opposites, but as collaborators,” he says. “The hope is to find a balance that’s not just efficient but creatively honest.”

Globally, that vision is already taking shape. Netflix is using AI to forecast content success and tailor thumbnails to viewer emotion; Disney’s virtual production units like StageCraft cut shooting costs by up to a third. India has always been at a disadvantage globally in terms of graphics, and perhaps this will even out the playing field. Indian studios are watching closely. The Broadcast and Film report estimates that AI-driven production could add nearly Rs, 5000 crore to the media economy by 2030, spawning an entire ecosystem of AI designers, creative engineers, and virtual production specialists.

Yet, the irony is picturesque. Mahabharat, a 5,000-year-old tale of gods and men, has become the country’s first AI-made epic. The technology that claims to simulate emotion has retold the story that once defined it.

Spot boy Pinto, who fortunately did not realize that the advent of AI may cost him his job, said, “If there is no work here, we’ll simply go back to our hometown and take up farming.” 

Perhaps the question for India’s film industry isn’t whether AI can make better movies, but whether it can still make us feel. If cinema is the art of human reflection, how much of that humanity are we willing to trade for cost-effectiveness?

Actor Anshuman Jha, who recently made his directorial debut with Lord Curzon Ki Haveli, believes the film’s biggest strength lies in its casting featuring Arjun Mathur, Rasika Dugal, Paresh Pahuja and Zoha Rahman. “Even an average film with the right cast can do better numbers because people relate to the characters,” he says.

Recounting how this belief has guided his career choices, Jha reveals he once turned down a role in Half Girlfriend (2017), the movie based on Chetan Bhagat’s novel of the same name, starring Arjun Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor.

He says, “I was offered the part that Vikrant Massey eventually did [he played Madhav’s (Arjun Kapoor’s) friend Shailesh] but I said no. Vikrant and I even spoke about it. I told him that he should have been the lead in that film, then I would have done that role.”

Jha goes on to defend his stance with conviction. “12th Fail (2023) wouldn’t have been the success it is if it had the same lead as Half Girlfriend. Vikrant brought an honesty that made 12th Fail what it is. Vidhu Vinod Chopra sir’s conviction to take it to theatres helped it reach people because it had the right actor in the right role.”

Ad filmmaker Sanjay Shetty was to helm Lakadbaggha 2 — The Monkey Business, an actioner led by Anshuman Jha. But it looks like the film, which revolves around an animal-lover vigilante, has had a change in leadership. Three days after Shetty kicked off the shoot in Mumbai last month, Jha stepped in to direct the film. 

A source close to the production said, “Sanjay and Anshuman weren’t seeing the same film; there was a mismatch of vision. As someone who has been part of the franchise since its inception, Anshuman understands the world. So, he felt like the right person to take charge of the project.”

Shetty has remained on the film as a creative consultant.

The transition in the leadership has been smooth, reveals assistant director Aura Chandel, saying, “Anshuman has been involved from day one — from casting international martial artists like Sunny Pang and Dan Chupong, to shaping the narrative. Sanjay sir has been Anshuman’s mentor. There’s no bad blood. The initial bits have been reshot.”

Actor and filmmaker Anshuman Jha has mixed feelings about his directorial debut Lord Curzon Ki Haveli being cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). While he is “relieved, grateful and ready”, he is also a tad unhappy that the censor board has granted the film an A certification with three mandated changes.

Anshuman shares, “It’s a relief that we finally have the certification. The journey hasn’t been easy. Despite an A certification, we had to mute and cut scenes. Many films with worse expletives/violence get away with a U/A certificate. While I am okay to make the changes, having a standard yardstick is what will make it a level playing field. Also, what irks me is the fact that it has been certified as an ‘English - Partly Hindi film’, while it is 50-50 vis-à-vis both languages. It is set in England, so for it to feel and flow naturally, writer Bikas Mishra and I kept a balance between both languages. Calling it English and partly Hindi is unfair. ‘Hindi partly English’ would have been a fairer assessment since it’s an Indian film about Asians in the West and their identity crisis.”

Starring Arjun Mathur, Rasika Dugal, Paresh Pahuja, and Tanmay Dhanania, the film is a black comedy thriller. It has been screened at various film festivals and also earned Anshuman the Best Director honour at the UK Asian Film Festival 2024.

Though “irked”, Anshuman adds, “I believe comfort is the enemy, so these challenges have only strengthened my resolve. Our audiences are evolving rapidly and it is our responsibility to give them original cinema. They may accept or reject it, but we owe it to them. Lord Curzon Ki Haveli is one such attempt. Alfred Hitchcock is one of my favourite filmmakers and this is my homage to him. I am hoping that it sees the light of the day soon now that we are ‘censored’ (pun intended).”

The new year will bring a new love into actor Anshuman Jha’s life, albeit for the screens. Come January, the actor will begin shooting for Welcome To Agra, which is set in 2000 and explores the unusual love story between a cycle-rickshaw driver and a British tourist in Agra. Debutant director Ashish Dubey’s film sees Jha as the cycle-rickshaw driver, while Australian-British actor Sarah Hopkins has been roped in as the female lead.

For Jha, Welcome to Agra was an easy yes as he feels that love stories have almost disappeared from Hindi cinema in the recent past. “As an audience, we haven’t had a quintessential love story like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge [1995] or Jab We Met [2007] in the past decade. This film has a rare story [set] before the times of social media and mobile phones. A rickshaw-wala and a British tourist falling in love is a novel concept. It’s a cross-cultural love story,” says the actor.

While Jha is currently shooting for Lakadbaggha 2, he will begin prepping for Welcome To Agra in the first week of January 2025. He is looking forward to working with Hopkins, who previously featured in The Proper Etiquette For Being Alone (2019).

He says, “Sarah has lived and trained as an actor in Perth. It’s a great opportunity to work with an artiste from another land.”

For Anshuman Jha, injuries on set are evidence of doing an action film. During the shoot of the sequel to the animal-loving vigilante action franchise, Lakadbaggha, the actor had a “freak” injury. While training for an action set piece, Jha’s right thumb snapped when he dodged a kick from a fellow fighter.

“It was a freak accident. No one is at fault really,” said Jha, whose right thumb had severe swelling and a ligament tear. The team delayed the film’s schedule by two weeks. Doctors advised the actor not to risk aggravating the injury.

“These little injuries are a testament that we are doing a proper action film. On set, I sustained an injury to my right shoulder during the first part. In the sequel, I injured my right thumb. I hope this is where it ends. We have a long schedule filled with action ahead of us. I am just grateful that my thumb didn’t break; otherwise, we would have had to take eight weeks off,” said Jha.

The film, directed by ad-man Sanjay Shetty, has roped in Asian martial arts legends Dan Chupong (Ong-Bak, 2003) and Sunny Pang (Headshot, 2016) for the action.

Anshuman Jha and wife Sierra Winters became parents to baby girl Tara Jha Winters this March. And the actor is excited about his first Father’s Day. He says, “It’s a surreal feeling! When I am with Tara, it feels that my heart is beating inside another body. I am enjoying changing her diapers and feeding her. I love kids and I’m like a child myself; for me, it’s kids and animals over adult humans, any day.”

Hailing from a matriarchal family has influenced his ideology when it comes to raising children, Jha shares, reasoning, “A mother carries a child inside her for nine months, so I feel fathers must play a bigger role when a child arrives in the world. This is what my mother has taught me.”

Jha admits he’s on a righteous path in order to set a “high benchmark” for his daughter, Tara. “I don’t drink or smoke. I want to be the best example of what a man should be for Tara, so that when she sees red flags in someone, she will know that is not worth paying heed to,” he shares.

The 39-year-old insists that he’s not just striving to be a good father, but also a good husband. “The best thing I can do for my daughter is show how much I love her mother. Sierra and I make sure that we don’t let our relationship slide. We keep going on dates and have our romantic moments,” he exclaims.

Being a father also makes Jha miss his own dad, who passed away in 2020. He reveals, “My father and I didn’t spend much time together as he was mostly out for work, but I still had the most open conversations with him about life. We also had a mutual love for food, and I miss sharing meals with him the most.”

Jha’s next film Hari Ka Om, tells a father-son story, emphasizing on the need to say ‘I Love You’ in that relationship. It will be screened at Indisches Film Festival in Stuttgart, Germany. Jha rues, “Unfortunately, I didn’t have such a relationship with my father and that’s why this film is special. In a patriarchal society, men don’t express their emotions to each other much. I wish my father was around because I want to say much more to him than I was able to.”

Lord Curzon Ki Haveli, the film actor Anshuman Jha turned director with, is making waves across film festivals over the world. The 39-year-old has already bagged the Best Director award at the UK Asian Film Festival, and he couldn’t be more pumped.

“I had a great time directing this black comedy thriller. And this award was very unexpected,” says Jha, adding that the next time he directs a film will depend on whether a story attracts him organically.

“I will only direct a film when it calls out to me the way Lord Curzon’s script did. It’s ‘cine-ma’ for me. The script is sacrosanct to me and once it’s fully ready and I’m convinced, I’ll take it up. There’s a rom-com in the pipeline, but at this moment, I can’t say when will I direct it,” says the actor-director, promising that his next directorial will not be a niche film and that he hasn’t “stopped loving acting”.

Jha, who made his acting debut with Love Sex Aur Dhokha (2010), has assisted several directors in the past, and so, helming a film came naturally to him. Taking the big leap with Lord Curzon Ki Haveli, a desi homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s The Rope (1948), also helped Jha build a strong bond with actors Arjun Mathur and Rasika Dugal.

On the actor-director relationship, he elaborates: “I think actors are very emotional beings. We face more rejection than in any other line of work. That is what makes it such an insecure profession. So, the actor-director relationship has to be one of love. You need to be in love with your actors, respect them.”

Jha illustrates his point with his own perspective as an actor, and how it goes both ways. “I hand myself over to the director, totally trusting them. And for me as director, Arjun, Rasika and the other cast members to love me and make me feel secure, in addition to knowing their job, is also important,” says Jha, who will be seen next in Hari Om and Lakadbaggha 2.

Anshuman Jha; Dan Chupong and Tony Jaa

Tony Jaa’s massive hit Ong Bak (2003) not only spawned a successful franchise, but also, over the years, took the Thai action star to Hollywood with Furious 7 (2015), XXX: Return of Xander Cage (2017) and more. Now, Bollywood has come calling. Jaa and his Ong Bak co-star Dan Chupong are set to make their Hindi film debut with Anshuman Jha’s next, Lakadbaggha 2—The Monkey Business.

Like Lakadbaggha (2023), which revolved around a martial arts trainer and animal lover who becomes a vigilante after his dog goes missing, the sequel too will be an action flick.

The film’s executive producer Anubhab Chitlangia tells us, “We intend to make the wildest hand-to-hand combat action film from India. We are talking to many international action stars, including Tony and Dan.”

Ad filmmaker Sanjay Shetty will helm the sequel that will be largely shot across Southeast Asia. For Jha, pulling off stunts along with Jaa and Chupong will be a source of both excitement and nervousness. 

“We are excited to have begun training for Lakadbaggha 2. Tony Jaa, Dan Chupong and Sunny Pang are some of the biggest Asian stars and I am a huge fan of them. It will be a dream come true as well as a huge responsibility to be in an action film with them.”

Anshuman Jha is on cloud nine as he welcomed his baby girl, Tara, with his wife Sierra Winters on March 10. Talking to us exclusively from the US, the actor says, “The last 48 hours have been a blur; it was a long labour. It’s a surreal experience, none like I’ve ever had before.”

While it’s legal in America, the 38-year-old and his better half opted against taking a sex determination test as they “wanted the baby’s gender to be a surprise”. His wife went into labour on Mahashivratri night (March 8), however, “the due date was March 14 (celebrated as Pi Day), so we had started calling our baby ‘Pi’. I truly believe women are the smartest people on the planet. I’m grateful we had a daughter,” shares the Lakadbaggha (2023) actor.

As Sierra and her family are from the USA, the couple decided to give birth to their first child with her parents close by. “I believe having grandparents can make a big difference. I lost my parents in 2020. Having an elderly presence in the first two to three months, who has experience raising children, is important. Sierra’s mum had three kids, so it’s nice to have family around,” he wraps up.

Asha Bhosle is set to turn 90 on September 8. Ahead of her birthday, the veteran singer has a gift for her legion of fans —after a four-year break, she has gone behind the mic for Zindagi Tu Chhupi Hai Kahaan for director Hitesh Vyas’s next, tentatively titled Hari Om. In the dramedy, the track plays in the backdrop as the father-son duo, essayed by Raghubir Yadav and Anshuman Jha, journey through Varanasi.

The director says that the singing legend was his first choice for the track as it needed a mature voice. “The song talks about the journey of life, and I thought we needed a mature voice. So, I suggested Asha ji’s name to our music composer, Rajeev Surang. He asked me whether she can still sing at 90. I replied, ‘Asha ji will sing even at 100,’” shares Vyas.

The last time Bhosle recorded a song for a Hindi movie was Aasma from Saand Ki Aankh (2019). Vyas recounts that when he approached the singer, he showed her rushes of the film. “Asha tai liked the rushes, and agreed to lend her magical voice to the song.”

Jha, who leads the slice-of-life movie, describes his meeting with the songstress as a “surreal” moment. The actor adds, “We are so grateful that she has sung Zindagi Tu Chhupi Hai Kahaan in her inimitable style.”

Anshuman Jha’s film Lakadbaggha might have not hit the commercial bull’s eye upon its release in cinemas in January this year. But on OTT and abroad, it seems that the film has found its connect.

The actor, who also produced the vigilante drama, tells us, “It didn’t get its due in theatres for sure. It is just a very strange time, many bigger films are not doing well either. I am so glad Pathaan did well. The audience is slowly coming up. We definitely got more than our due on OTT and crossed 50 million views in under a month.”

Now, the Ridhi Dogra-starrer is being honoured with the German Star of India - Director’s Vision award at the 20th Indian Film Festival Stuttgart 2023.

“It’ll release in Germany on OTT, too. We are starting work on the second part in November this year. It will be bigger and better. I am really keen to see what kind of numbers we will get — though, when you make a movie, you make the best one possible. So, when the audience laps it up on OTT, it’s gratifying,” adds Jha.

All the same, he laments that back home, smaller films are treated unfairly. “We, as an industry, tend to not add up the parts for the impact a film has in total. Though comparatively, we were a medium-sized film, the crew was on a par with any other in the world. We got a great director of photography from France. The stunt team of Ong Bak (the Thai martial arts franchise) designed our stunts. This is where the art of producing a film lies,” he signs off.

Almost 12 years after he made his acting debut, Love Sex Aur Dhokha actor Anshuman Jha is set to foray into direction. An ensemble cast including Arjun Mathur, Rasika Dugal, Zoha Rahman, Paresh Pahuja, Tanmay Dhanania, and Garrick Hagon (of Star Wars fame) join him for his directorial debut, Lord Curzon Ki Haveli.

Interestingly, Jha adopted the rarely-employed technology of shooting the movie on a single lens of 35mm, a technique that was used by legendary filmmakers Alfred Hitchcock and Akira Kurosawa for classics like Psycho and Rashomon, respectively.

Writer Bikas Mishra, who has penned the script of Lord Curzon Ki Haveli, reveals, “Anshuman had made the choice on the writing table to shoot the film on a single lens.” French DoP Jean Marc Selva and Indian cinematographer Ramanuj Dutta believe the move is a “brave and ballsy one” by the first-time filmmaker.

Selva says, “Anshuman had a clear vision and is not afraid to take risks as an artiste.”

As he oversees the post-production of the film, Jha says, “While I had lens options at my disposal, using this technique implied that the viewers would be able to watch the film with a vision that was as close to how we normally perceive things. A single lens film has a subconscious viewing effect, and I wanted the film to look and feel like a cohesive one.”

Jha shares that Lord Curzon Ki Haveli is a contemporary homage to his favourite filmmaker, Hitchcock, and his cult classic, The Rope. The black comedy thriller, which revolves around four South Asians who meet in London over an unplanned dinner, is being readied for a release later this year.

Four months after their white wedding in the US, actor Anshuman Jha and American triathlete, vegan chef and yoga instructor Sierra Winters got hitched once again in India, following the traditions of a Maithil wedding. “Vedic wedding was always on the cards for us, but Covid and visa issues restricted the celebrations last year,” says Jha, who believes in keeping the traditions alive because “there is deeper meaning in all our Vedic customs”.

“Sierra is actually more Indian than most people that I know. She went through every custom in totality. We both even did the no-salt fast for four days after our wedding to culminate the ceremony. She loves and respects India and its traditions immensely; she had a blast at the haldi, mehendi and sangeet,” Jha elaborates on all the rituals that the couple followed during the ceremonies and how his wife, Winters, liked them.

Not just Winters, but her family was equally curious and loved everything about the Indian wedding, reveals Jha. “They understood some of the traditions by themselves. For the rest, we had a parallel translation of the mantras being recited into English, as we wanted everyone to understand what was being said so that we lived up to the sacred vows we took. After the wedding, the two of us went and fed jaggery to the cows at the Govardhan Eco Village (Maharashtra). And that was an incredible experience,” the Lakadbaggha actor tells us.

Before exchanging rings last year, Jha and Winters were in a “long-distance relationship for more than three years”.

After a long wait, punctuated with delays due to the Coronavirus pandemic, actor Anshuman Jha got married to athlete Sierra Winters on October 29. The private wedding ceremony took place in North Carolina, USA.

The couple got engaged two years ago and were waiting for the pandemic to subside before getting hitched. Fulfilling her father’s dream, Winters was rowed across the lake by her dad and Jha was waiting for her on the other side. The couple took their vows under the sky, with the fall leaves and a select audience. Jha’s friend, fellow actor Paresh Pahuja, was his best man.

Talking about the ceremony, Jha shares, “Sierra always dreamt of a fall wedding, Sam (her Dad) always dreamt of rowing her across the lake, my mum’s dream was to see me married. I always wanted to find a partner who inspires me. A lot of dreams came true that day, and I’m sure Ma was watching.”

Jha met Sierra in Dharamshala in 2019 when he was there to get Tibetan medication for his mother, who was then ailing from cancer. Winters is a Triathlon athlete and a food major at the Duke University (USA). She was by the actor’s side when he lost his mother.

The 37-year-old adds, “It was a perfect day and we only have gratitude for the universe. Marriage isn’t a noun, it’s a verb, and we feel blessed to be entering this phase together.”

The couple plans to fly to Alaska for their honeymoon. After this, the actor will start promotions for his upcoming release Lakadbaggha, while Winters will fly to Israel in mid-November to participate in the Iron Man championship on 25 November. The Indian leg of the wedding will happen in March.