Nearly a decade after the franchise that brought them together, Hollywood star couple Tom Holland and Zendaya will be seen in the fourth film Spider-Man: Brand New Day, on the heels of The Odyssey. During the London leg of promotions, the newlyweds spoke to us. Excerpts:

Zendaya: When we are all together, we start acting like kids again! We bring out a childish joy and youthful, reckless abandon in each other. Yes, we have all grown a lot, but we are still the same kids from the very beginning.

Tom: I agree.

Zendaya: Yes, it’s pretty much with these two (Tom and co-star Jacob Batalon). I never know what they will do when they get together, and then they start riffing off each other. I never know where or in which direction they could go. Most of it gets left on the cutting-room floor since it’s not usable. It’s about never knowing what fun things you’re going to find in a scene.

Tom: Yes, pretty much, and most of it is not usable. But there’s always that little bit of gold in there.

Tom: I think in exactly the same ways. We’re actors who really love to have fun on set, try new things, think outside the box, improvise and keep everyone on their toes.

Tom: Both of those things are true. In some circumstances, pressure is a privilege; we’re really lucky to be a part of these films. Understanding that there is great anticipation and excitement for these movies is a great motivator. And we have always taken the responsibility of representing these characters to heart.

Zendaya: I associate different movies with different foods. I’ll find a food and that’s all I will eat through the whole shoot. On No Way Home (2021), I had the same pasta every day for months. For Brand New Day, I had these potato things with a little dipping sauce every day. For Dune (2021), I ate so many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Early Euphoria (web series, 2019-2026) had so many Cool Ranch Doritos. It’s just funny that you get stuck on a food, and that represents the film for you.

Tom: I really don’t have a ritual, but I do carry a lot of Peter Parker with me.

Tom: Maybe I try to live my life a little bit like Peter, in the sense that he’s just super positive all the time. Being positive is something I really work towards and try to imbibe.

Zendaya: I like MJ’s weird, oddball energy.

Maidaan may have missed its June 3 release date, but Ajay Devgn and producer Boney Kapoor are far from worried. The duo are ensuring that the biopic on the late Indian football coach and manager, Syed Abdul Rahim, becomes the most authentic on-screen retelling. To this end, they have roped in Double Negative (DNEG), one of the world’s leading visual effects studios, to recreate the era in which the sports drama is set. The studio won the Best Visual Effects award for Dune (2021) at the 2022 Academy Awards.

The studio was brought on board mid-year, reveals a source. “A chunk of the film sees the Indian contingent playing international football matches through the ’50s and ’60s. It was under Rahim’s supervision that the Indian team won gold medals at the 1951 Asian Games in Delhi, and at its 1962 edition in Jakarta. The VFX team is hard at work to recreate those decades,” says the source.

After stints in Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, director Amit R Sharma and the unit headed for an international schedule earlier this year to can footage shots of the games.

The source adds, “While Ajay and the remaining cast filmed their portions on football grounds, the VFX team now has to recreate some of the old stadiums and their ambience. It will take two months to give the finishing touches. The makers hope to release the film by the year-end.”

Producer Kapoor says, “We aim to make Maidaan among the most authentic-looking and well-crafted sports films. We want to recreate the golden era of Indian football.”

The special auditorium at the BKC property

Cinemas are finally back in action today. Where the exhibitors are heaving a sigh of relief, it’s not lost on them either that content alone will no longer be able to lure people back to the movies. Two days before the reopening of theatres in Maharashtra, we paid a visit to PVR’s new luxury property in Bandra Kurla Complex. With this endeavour, Gautam Dutta, CEO, PVR, hopes to start a new concept in movie-viewing — one that he describes as “movie-cation”. What does that entail, you ask? Private screening rooms called The Loft, artisanal coffee, menus curated by chefs from five-star hotels, an elaborate sushi section, and vegan desserts handcrafted by Parisian patisseries.

Clearly, theatre owners are amping up their game to ensure they don’t lose out in the race against OTT platforms. But we’ll get to that later. When we begin our conversation with Dutta, the obvious question is: How did cinemas survive the past one-and-a-half years? “We knew we would bounce back. People had said movie halls will shut down when the Indian Premier League started, and when piracy [hit the industry]. Now they say the same because of the OTT [boom]. Over the past 18 months, we saw severe salary cuts, but we didn’t lay off people. We raised money through capital, equity and loans. Our leaders liquidated assets, but better days were bound to come,” states Dutta.

Many filmmakers expressed solidarity with exhibitors by holding off the release of their movies. The line-up ahead is impressive, with Akshay Kumar’s Sooryavanshi, Shahid Kapoor’s Jersey, Ayushmann Khurrana’s Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui, Ranveer Singh’s '83 and many more awaiting their turn at the marquee. On their part, the theatre owners are pulling out new tricks from their bags.  

“We’re no longer in the business of showing movies. We wanted this property to be like a seven-star hotel, where people can [come and rejuvenate].”

Pricing could be a matter of concern, at a time when the spending power of people is probably at an all-time low. He counters that, saying, “We will have schemes and introductory offers to lure people back. When we started gold class and recliners, people said nobody would pay for those. Even now, those are the first seats to go. Property investments essentially are for posterity. We have a long-term vision of expanding the experience.”

Four biggies are lined up for the first week — Daniel Craig’s No Time to Die, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Dune and Bellbottom. All eyes though are on Kumar’s cop caper that will hit the screens on Diwali. “The whole circuit will [hopefully] come alive, like the Punjab market did with Diljit Dosanjh’s Honsla Rakh. The market is registering better numbers than what it did pre-pandemic.”

The coming months will determine whether the measures will be enough to draw audiences, who are now accustomed to having movies only a click away. Surprisingly though, Dutta doesn’t view OTT entertainment as its competitor. “People who consume more OTT, consume more cinema. Data proves there is co-relation. We [function] as parallels, and not as one versus the other. That said, filmmakers want their movies to open on the big screen.”

Not long ago, some cinema chains were in conversation with Netflix and Amazon to bring OTT content to the big screen. “We felt we could host special screenings of pilots and finales. But to have 10-hour binge-athons felt too laborious. The length of the episodes is the roadblock. Hopefully, that will happen in the near future. Shershaah, after all, premiered at Chanakya in Delhi.”

Dutta is hopeful that the earlier routine of Fridays will return. Sharing an analogy, he says, “I put on weight every time I eat sweets. So I ask my wife not to bring sweets home. Movies are just like that box of sweets. Mithai ka dabba kholne ki deri hai.”