Applause Entertainment, headed by Sameer Nair, has roped in director Nagesh Kukunoor for a powerful political drama. Titled City Of Dreams, it will be based on the story of a family feud that erupts after an assassination attempt on a polarising political figure. It will be set in Mumbai. Marking the first collaboration between Nair and Kukunoor, City Of Dreams will showcase the dark underbelly of the political world. The shoot is scheduled to begin on February 9 and it will be shot extensively across locations in Mumbai. The series is expected to release in the latter half of 2018.

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Jio has a user base of over 160 million, which will help the OTT platform of ALTBalaji, which already has over 11 million mobile app downloads and over 2 million viewers on the web, across 90 countries.

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The first season showed the corporate world from the perspective of the intern, Spandan Chukya. This season, we will look at the show through the eyes of the corporate firm’s elusive CEO played by Sumeet Vyas. Along with Vyas, we will see the show retain its cast from Season 1 with Sunny Kaushal, Aahana Kumra, Gopal Dutt and Anand Tiwari. The new faces that will be joining this team in Season 2 will be Eisha Chopra and Pranay Manchanda.

Jaideep Singh will direct Season 2 too and Amritpal Singh Bindra, Anand Tiwari along with Still Moving Pictures will be back as the show’s producers.

The post OC Returns As OC appeared first on Box Office India : India’s premier film trade magazine.

Faisal is known for his direction in movies like Ishaqzaade and Do Dooni Chaar. He has also written the screenplay and dialogues of films like Fan, Ladies v/s Ricky Bahl and Band Baaja Baaraat. This is Faisal’s first foray into the digital entertainment space and his ALTBalaji web show HOME will be inspired by the events of the Campa Cola Compound Case.

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The first season of Kapoor and Tanwar’s web series Karrle Tu Bhi Mohabbat took us through the journey of two middle-aged individuals who reinforce our belief in the phrase ‘opposites attract’. Their endearing love story unfolded beautifully over 15 episodes in Season 1, ending with Kapoor’s character Karan Khanna professing his feelings and proposing to Dr Tripurasundari Nagrajan aka Tipsy played by Tanwar.

The trailer of Season 2 released this week and it definitely meets the expectations of the audience. We see Karan and Tipsy’s relationship on a different level since they have admitted their feelings to each other. With their crackling on-screen chemistry, this romance promises to touch your heart. But just like any other family drama, especially being a Balaji production, this web series has its share of interesting conflicts.

We see the couple going through some rough patches, where Tipsy’s mother interferes in their love story or Tipsy’s doubts about her relationship with Karan due to his strong connection to his ex-wife. The twist in the tale is Tipsy’s former lover, Palash who finally appears on the show this season, and the friction it causes between Karan and her.

Amid this mess, how Karan and Tipsy hold on to their love, build their relationship which is filled with doubts and insecurities, and whether or not they finally overcome these obstacles will be wonderful to see when Season 2 releases. Watch out!

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Prasanth Varma, who makes his debut as a feature film director with Awe, talks to Padma Iyer about the making of this interesting movie

Telugu cinema is about to get a ‘genre bender’. Helmed by Prasanth Varma, who makes his feature film directorial debut with Awe, the movie is visually intriguing with its story woven around shifting genres and heavy symbolism.

Produced by one of Telugu cinema’s established actors Nani, Awe’s amazing ensemble cast boasts of Kajal Aggarwal, Nithya Menen, Regina Cassandra, Rohini, Murali Sharma and Srinivas Avasarala, and features the voices of Ravi Teja and Nani. Varma has made documentaries and short films before but with Awe, he enters the realm of commercial cinema.

On the concept of Awe and how he set about writing this movie, Varma says, “Whatever I write is experimental. And with Awe, I knew from the beginning that I wanted to make this movie. I had always wanted to work with newcomers because I felt that mainstream commercial actors would not be interested in a script like this. I had a limited budget and so I could only make an experimental movie,” he says.

Getting several actors on board is always a challenge and more so when the script is an experimental one. But Varma found it relatively easy to get the people he wanted.

“Although I pitched this idea to Nani and Kajal Aggarwal, I was apprehensive of getting big names for this movie. But to my surprise, every actor I approached also wanted to produce the movie. Still, I had my doubts as I felt that the moment big names were involved, I might have to make compromises on the script. Thankfully Nani’s sensibilities matched mine. He sat me down and convinced me that we could make a cult film and that as producer he would be able to give this movie the platform it deserves.”

Even though Awe started as an experimental movie, Varma says it went well beyond that but he has difficulty categorising it. Another challenge for a movie of this kind was its budget. “When we decide to make a romantic or an action movie, we generally look at previously made films in that genre and estimate the scale of the movie and the costs involved. But with Awe, there was no benchmark so we didn’t know how much to spend on this film and what the market would be like,” he recalls.

He adds, “But all credit goes to Nani. Even when we went over-budget, he stood by us and by the movie because he believed in the project. Also, every single expense we have made can be seen on screen. I would also like to mention that we have not deleted a single scene that we shot. The movie is 1 hour, 55 minutes long and we shot 1 hour 55 minutes.”

Varma credits his team of writers who achieved this feat. “We spent a lot of time on the writing. Even after I finished the first draft, the writers continued to work on the script even during the shooting so that the tiniest error in the narrative could be fixed,” he recalls.

The debutant filmmaker says one could call his film a ‘genre bender’. “The movie changes visually every 10-15 minutes, including the cinematography and music. The characters, the production design, everything changes. But on screen, these changes do not hinder the narrative. As a director, it was a challenge to make these transitions seem natural and seamless.”

Varma says that even though an experimental movie like his runs the risk of drawing only a select audience, he was determined not to dumb it down only to widen its appeal. “The quality of a film goes down when you try to make a movie that everyone will understand. For example, movies like Inception or Interstellar gave me a high and that is what I want my movie to do. But even if you do not understand everything about this movie, there will be something for everyone, they will see something that they have not seen before. The movie may seem like a thriller or a fantasy but there is 50 per cent comedy and entertainment.”

The director hopes that Awe will open doors for other filmmakers to tell the stories they want to and for mainstream actors be part of them. He also hopes that it will inspire producers to make movies like his, especially in regional languages. “Nani was the one who insisted on making the movie in Telugu. Kajal wanted to make it in Hindi. But I am happy that Awe is paving the way for different subjects in regional cinema,” concludes Varma.

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