The success of Mirzapur The Movie at the box office has given rise to a new way of filmmaking with projects looking at making a transition from OTT to the big screen, and director Gurmmeet Singh acknowledges that impact.

“We did not seek this pressure going into the film that this is almost like one of a kind feat. It was good to be slightly ignorant that OTT to movie transitions haven’t done well before, even abroad. But all kudos to the fans they came in large numbers to theatres, and them liking the film is sone pe suhaga,” he says, feeling grateful for the love coming their way from the audience.

However, the success came with certain backlash too, including the slamming of Rasika Dugal’s character online for her choices in the film.

Addressing that, Gurmmeet Singh says, “Social chatter becomes so much of our truth, and hate tends to travel faster. There is that lineage of patriarchy all through the system for so many years. So that will take its own time to die away and get balanced.”

The film also ran into legal trouble for the use of Shoorveer song during a violent scene. While Singh says the producers are better equipped to respond to the future course of action, he insists, “Nobody wants to hurt anybody's sentiment, the film actually wanted to entertain. The intent behind the song was to give a banging track with a lot of energy and aggression. We never wanted to make this into anything controversial or hurt anyone’s sentiment. So, we were also taken aback that there was this sort of uproar in a certain section.”

Mirzapur The Movie brought all the cast members from the series back except actor Vikrant Massey. Actor Jitendra Kumar stepped into his shoes as Bablu bhaiya for the film.

Ask Singh if it was because of failed negotiations or Massey opting to exit, and he says, “It’s a creative world, so everybody should have the choice to do what they want, go where they want, express what they want. Every time an actor or an artiste wants to go in a direction in his career, they should have the choice to do it. Even in the future, if someone wants to walk away, nobody should feel compelled that they are tied down to something due to past associations. We’ve moved on now to a different world perhaps.”

Director Priyadarshan says the poor box-office performance of his latest film, Haiwaan, starring Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan, may have been disappointing, but it has not left him disillusioned. The thriller, which released on September 11, had an underwhelming theatrical run.

“I have seen enough hits and flops in a career of 48 years and 98 films. I still survived, it’s part of the game,” he tells us.

The filmmaker, however, says the setback has only reinforced his belief that Hindi audiences largely associate him with comedy, especially after Hera Pheri (2000). “I have made so many serious films such as Kaalapani (1996), Kanchivaram (2008) and Marakkar: Lion Of The Arabian Sea (2021). I have also made political films in the South, and they were huge hits,” he says.

Priyadarshan points out that his Hindi filmography, too, began far away from comedy. “I started with Gardish (1993) and Virasat (1997), which were hits, but after Hera Pheri people expect me to make humour-oriented films,” he says. For him, that expectation has now become a practical consideration: “If that’s the demand, why should I experiment with other kinds of films? I will play for the gallery and try meaningful movies in the South.”

Veteran actor Mushtaq Khan, known for films such as Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke (1993), Hera Pheri (2000), Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001) and Welcome (2007), died on September 24 at the age of 75 after battling cancer. A day after his funeral in Mumbai, actor Raza Murad called out Bollywood’s biggest stars for not turning up to pay their last respects.

In a video shared on Instagram, Murad said several of Khan’s friends and colleagues attended the funeral, but “no big face” from the industry was present. “Unfortunately, no one we consider a star paid their last respects. His friends, colleagues and actors were there. But there were no big faces,” he said.

Questioning the industry’s priorities, Murad added, “If this were the wedding of an industrialist’s son, they would not only attend, but also serve the wedding guests like they were waiters. Or if there’s a political party that requires their presence, they would definitely be there. But they did not pay last respects to a man who gave 50 years of his life to the film industry. He has given his whole life. And yet, you can’t give 50 minutes to him.”

Murad also said Khan had built his career entirely on the strength of his work. “There’s no star that Mushtaq Khan hasn’t worked with, and yet nobody came to meet him one last time,” he said.

Actors Rajpal Yadav, Sanjay Mishra, Manish Wadhwa and Shehzad Khan, comedian Sunil Pal and filmmaker Anees Bazmee were among those who attended Khan’s funeral in Mumbai on Friday.

Actor Ajay Devgn and filmmaker Rohit Shetty recently announced the release date of their return with the comedy franchise Golmaal’s fifth instalment next year. Arshad Warsi, who has been a constant in the series in each film, remembers working with the team fondly.

The actor recalls a joke he made during one of the parts, sharing, “During one of the Golmaal, we were all standing in a line and it just came out of my mouth that I want every actor's film to do well, because whoever's film doesn't do well, they come and join this line,” he quips.

Family entertainers and comedies have made a comeback this year and Warsi was part of two such films with Welcome To The Jungle and Dhamaal 4. Ask him about it and he says, "I like comedies and I enjoy them. I like when comedies do well as it's very difficult to write comedies, very few can. I just have an issue with sex comedies. I can't get myself to do that."

But not every actor feels comfortable being part of ensembles that such comedies feature. “Welcome To The Jungle took ensembles to another level. Half of the industry was there. Everybody who didn't have a job was there,” Arshad quips.

However, the actor insists, "A secure actor is a secure actor, be it in a solo film or an ensemble. An insecure actor will always be insecure, that is the nature of an actor."

He adds that the OTT medoum has made more actors feel more comfortable being part of multi-starrers: "I am not a part of the industry, I am not a nepo kid, so it is tough for people like me to make it. If there was no OTT, I would probably have been jobless and so do a lot of people."

In 2026, Arshad Warsi also completed 30 years in the industry, and he marks it with the most releases in a year throughout his career. Apart from the two comedies, he did the web series Pritam And Pedro, was recently seen in Ghamasaan and will close the year with Shah Rukh Khan-starrer King.

“I am enjoying it because the films are doing well. It would have been the worst landmark if none of them did well. But so far, we are doing well. I never expected this. None of it is in my control. I am just riding on the high wave, but I am not worried,” he says.

If action is Akshay Kumar’s bread and butter, comedy is his jam. After Priyadarshan-directed Haiwaan failed to make an impact at the box office, the actor is keen to let loose with comedy, and who better to team up with than his close friend and collaborator Sajid Khan? Nearly 14 years after Housefull 2 (2012), the duo is reuniting for an untitled comedy produced by Ektaa R Kapoor.

After playing each other’s rival in Kesari Chapter 2: The Untold Story of Jallianwala Bagh (2025), Kumar and R Madhavan will now share the screen in this comedy, with Shriya Saran and Disha Patani also joining the cast.

“Madhavan is excellent at comedy but he has not done this kind of role before. Last year, Akshay and he were seen in the courtroom drama. This is the first time they are paired together in an out-and-out Sajid Khan comedy,” shares a source.

Once Kumar wraps up Samuk, Kanishk Varma’s alien survival thriller, “he will shoot in a start-to-finish schedule”. “The film is a hilarious comedy of errors, revolving around middle-aged men and mounted on a grand scale, with Disha and Shriya playing the romantic leads,” adds the source. 

The film will go on floors in London “by the end of year or early 2027”, after Khan wraps up Hero Ki Horrorine, starring Yashvardhan Ahuja and Nitanshi Goel.

Sajid Khan was set to direct ‘Housefull 4’, but was dropped following multiple sexual harassment allegations against him.

Almost every character in Drishyam’s universe operates in the grey, from Ajay Devgn’s Vijay Salgaonkar to Tabu’s Meera Deshmukh. That’s something director Abhishek Pathak knew as he sat down to write Drishyam The Conclusion. His objective was to ensure that Tabu’s character — a mother seeking answers to her son’s murder for years — did not tilt towards all-black in the final chapter of the suspense thriller.

According to him, her character’s journey of closure and revenge is the spine of Drishyam: The Conclusion. “She tried to go by the book in part one and even two, but now she wants to go a different way. [Going by the book] is not how she believes justice will be served. It will be interesting to watch how the Deshmukhs will change their way in this film,” said Pathak.

Writing the third instalment had another challenge — the need to be a step ahead of the audience that has spent years discussing how Devgn’s character, who has covered up a murder, will elude the police this time. While the team read fan theories posted on social media, they consciously chose not to use them. 

The director shared, “We had to be smarter than anyone in the theatre. It’s a film where people are making their own theories. We were trying to [steer] away from that because we wanted to do something that people are not expecting. We had to think what could be the one thing that people couldn’t guess or had overlooked. It took time to crack that.”

Box office throws up surprises from time to time. Like it did with The Vvaan. The Sidharth Malhotra and Tamannaah Bhatia-starrer has reportedly raked in over Rs 65 crore in its run so far. Perhaps the success tastes sweeter to the leading lady, who had a tough time filming an underwater sequence in the movie. “I cannot swim. I was required to almost drown, and I know how to do that very well,” laughed the actor, during her chat with mid-day.

In the song Chhathi Maiya, her character is seen having a near-drowning experience. Being a non-swimmer, Bhatia was initially apprehensive of performing the crucial sequence. She elaborated, “I was terrified when I had to do the underwater scene. I had to take swimming and deep-sea diving classes before I began shooting. I have to give credit to Sidharth; he is a deep-sea diver and supported me a lot.”

Shooting for The Vvaan otherwise was a deeply satisfying experience for Bhatia. There may be rumours of a rift between the director and Malhotra, but she shut them down, saying, “I have heard the rumours, but I don’t think there is any truth to them. The Vvaan was made with the purest of intentions, with the best resources that we had. Filmmaking is about unity in diversity.”

In the past few years, Bhatia was mostly seen in cameos in Hindi films, concentrating more on her OTT projects. Does she feel that she has finally got her due with this film’s success? 

“I have got more than my due from The Vvaan. Acting is my love. The journey can have its own struggles — physically, mentally, and emotionally — but I act because it makes me happy. That’s maybe the reason why I have never been bitter about my struggle or [questioned] whether I have got my due or not.”

After ‘Hunkkaar: The Roar’ and the upcoming ‘Teen Kauwe’, we’ll see Fatima Sana Shaikh in a crime action drama. mid-day has learnt that the actor has shot for a special appearance in Ram Gopal Varma’s ‘Police Company’.

With Harshvardhan Rane playing Mumbai encounter specialist Daya Nayak, the film is being mounted as a gritty account of the Mumbai Police Detection Unit in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and its battle with the underworld.

While ‘Police Company’ rolled in August, a source close to the production revealed that Shaikh shot her portions in September. “Fatima’s appearance in the film is brief, but crucial to the plot. It’s not a token cameo. There were only a few people on set the days she shot, including her body double,” said the source.

Varma has envisioned ‘Police Company’ as a two-part offering. We’ve heard that Shaikh may have a meaty role in the second part. The source added, “Her track reveals an important aspect in the story. That’s why her casting hasn’t been announced.”

mid-day reached out to Varma, who didn’t respond till press time.

Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub is winning praise for his portrayal of a lawyer fighting to get justice for a sexual assault survivor in Hunkkaar - The Roar. Being a woman’s ally comes to the actor even off script. A case in point being his objection to the way women are depicted in songs that are shot to cater to the male gaze.

“It’s important for all of us to raise our voice against it because this idea of male gaze and how female body is being shown is problematic. It’s not an individualistic fight,” he said.

But change is hard to come in a society that is steeped in patriarchy. Ayyub shared one aspect of patriarchy that irks him is men’s self-appointed role as protectors of women — an idea that the JioHotstar series subverts as it shows Aneet Padda’s protagonist going up against her perpetrator.

“They say it’s a man’s duty to protect a woman. It’s important to note why a man does that — so that he doesn’t lose his authority over her. I feel men should be barred from stepping out post 7 pm. But they won’t do that. Instead, it’s said that girls shouldn’t step out at night,” he told us when we met him mid-September, unknowing that his words would turn prophetic in the aftermath of the recent Delhi rape cases.

The actor also emphasised his dislike for the phrase ‘Not All Men’, used as a defence whenever women talk about gender oppression. He added, “I say this that if someone [a woman] doesn’t know me, please beware [of me]. Be suspicious of me and of every man because it’s a cruel world.”

‘Hunkkaar - The Roar’ revolves around Aneet Padda’s character, a minor girl, who accuses a godman, played by Raghubir Yadav, of sexual assault.