Latest news with #Mukkabaaz
Hindustan Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Ahead of Aamir Khan's Sitaare Zameen Par release, must-watch influential sports drama movies on OTT
Underdog stories about overcoming immense odds and eventually emerging triumphant, tend to resonate with audiences almost always. Hindi superstar Aamir Khan's next, Sitaare Zameen Par, is one such, a film about a bunch of neurodivergent youngsters that he has to train for a basketball tournament. A remake of the Spanish film Campeones, Sitaare Zameen Par will be in theatres on June 20, 2025. Ahead of the film's release, here are some amazing sports dramas, across languages, that tell stories of triumph, struggle, and the human spirit pushing its limits, all of which are available to stream on OTTplay Premium. Catch more inspiring tales on sports and knowledgeable documentaries on OTTplay Premium Iqbal This enduring Hindi drama tells the story of Iqbal (Shreyas Talpade), a young man, with hearing and speech impairment, whose dream is to play for the Indian national cricket team. However, his condition makes it a significant challenge when he gets overlooked for selection. Determined to pursue his passion, Iqbal seeks out a retired coach to train him and overcome his physical obstacles. Ghoomer This Hindi movie made its World Premiere at the 12th Indian Film Festival in Melbourne in 2023. The story follows young cricket sensation Anina's (Saiyami Kher) promising career getting shattered when she loses her right hand just before her international debut. Soon, her life takes a new turn when a former cricketer (Abhishek Bachchan) decides to help her out. Together, they work on innovative training methods that can help Anina adapt to her new circumstances, Gran Turismo A working-class gamer, a former race driver, and a passionate motorsport executive, played by Archie Madekwe, David Harbour and Orlando Bloom, respectively, join hands to challenge the elite world of racing sports. Against all odds, the team put everything on the line to prove themselves, defying expectations. The biographical drama is based on the life story of Jann Mardenborough, a teenage Gran Turismo player. Mukkabaaz Written and directed by Anurag Kashyap, based on a story by Anudeep Singh, Mukkabaaz revolves around Shravan Singh (Vineet Kumar Singh), who's boxing dreams are shattered when he clashes with Bhagwan Das Mishra (Jimmy Sheirgill), the powerful head of the boxing federation. Things get even more complicated when Shravan falls in love with Bhagwan's niece, Sunaina. Jhund Amitabh Bachchan plays Vijay Barse, a retired sports teacher in this Hindi drama, who decides to make a difference in his community by forming a football team with a group of kids from a slum. His goal is to keep them away from the dangers of drugs and crime, and channel their energy into sports. He trains and mentors the team to participate in a prestigious national tournament. Big George Foreman This biographical drama delves into the life of boxing legend, George Foreman, and his rags-to-riches story. Khris Davis played Foreman, in the film, which follows his Olympic gold medal win as well as his stint as World Heavyweight champion. The movie also focuses on his post-retirement spiritual sojourn and subsequent financial struggles, which saw him make a comeback to the sport. Saala Khadoos Written and directed by Sudha Kongara, this Tamil/Hindi bilingual starred R Madhavan as Adi Tomar, a former boxer, who retired from the sport owing to personal issues, and then sets his sights on a new challenge by training a young girl from the local fishmonger community with a natural talent for boxing, played by Ritika Singh. Together, they work towards achieving Adi's dream, proving that with determination and skill, success can still be within reach, while also overcoming gender discrimination. The Iron Claw Zach Efron and Jeremy Allen White lead this English biographical drama about the lives of the famous Von Erich brothers, who made their mark in the merciless world of the 1980s professional wrestling era, while striving for legendary status despite facing heartbreaking tragedies. The film also stars Harris Dickinson, Maura Tierney, Holt McCallany and Lily James, among others.
News18
08-06-2025
- Entertainment
- News18
Netflix CEO Says Sacred Games Wasn't Right For India Debut: 'I Didn't Understand...'
Last Updated: Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos says launching Sacred Games early may have been a misstep. When Netflix launched Sacred Games as its first Indian original, it was seen as a bold and game-changing move. The gritty thriller, starring Saif Ali Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, quickly became one of the most critically acclaimed Indian shows on the platform. Directed by Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap, and based on Vikram Chandra's novel, the series opened the door to more daring content on Indian OTT. But looking back, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos thinks the platform may have gone too bold, too early. Speaking on Nikhil Kamath's podcast, Sarandos explained that India was a unique and complex market for Netflix. He said, 'It took us a couple of years to get the product-market fit right. Our very first Indian original show was Sacred Games. And I thought, 'This is going to be great. People in India love movies. This is a TV show that feels as big as a movie, it has movie stars.' What's interesting about it is that it was very, very novel, but what I didn't understand that we were introducing a brand new kind of entertainment in a country the size of India." He also reflected on the choice of content, suggesting that a more mainstream start might have helped Netflix connect faster with Indian audiences. 'For me, if I did it all over again, would I have done Sacred Games a couple of years later, and did things that were more populist (instead)? Maybe. But we knew that India was going to be a slower journey to get to where we wanted to get to. But it's a great prize, at the end of the day. The addressable market is growing in the next couple of years in India, so it's exciting." Despite its initial impact, Sacred Games was never renewed for a third season. Co-director Anurag Kashyap opened up about what happened in a chat with Mashable India. He said, 'Vikram Motwane was driving Sacred Games. Ten days before I was supposed to go shoot Mukkabaaz, he asked me to come on board. I told him I was always interested, but they had a problem with me. Some local people had told them that I didn't have a female audience. It was my zone, and they eventually came around… A season three was supposed to come out, but they shut it down, Netflix would know why." Kashyap later took a swipe at Netflix India in a social media post following the success of his indie film Adolescence. He criticised the platform's reluctance to back unconventional ideas, writing: 'Netflix India is a totally opposite sh**show. If they were pitched this, most probably they would have rejected it or turned it into a 90 minute film (that too seems like an impossibility because it doesn't have an ending that is black and white)." With Sacred Games, Netflix made a powerful creative statement, but the lessons learned from its rollout—and cancellation—continue to influence how the platform navigates India's rapidly evolving streaming space. First Published: June 08, 2025, 09:06 IST
Indian Express
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos unsure if launching in India with Sacred Game was ideal, says something ‘more populist' might have worked better: ‘If I did it all over again…'
Sacred Games was the first Indian original series that Netflix ever produced. Starring Saif Ali Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, the show was critically acclaimed, and largely seen as the conduit to a new era of bolder, more challenging programming. The series was based on the book of the same name by Vikram Chandra, and was co-directed by Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap. While it remains one of the most acclaimed series that the Indian streaming industry has produced, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said that it was perhaps not the ideal way to enter the Indian market. In an appearance on Nikhil Kamath's podcast, Sarandos admitted that the Indian market is a difficult one to crack, mainly because Indian consumers are inherently suspicious of subscription. Netflix has taken a more populist approach to programming in recent years, and has struck deals with the likes of TV mainstays Kapil Sharma and Ekta Kapoor. During the conversation, Sarandos spoke about Sacred Games, and suggested that it might have painted Netflix out to be too high-brow for the Indian consumer. Also read – Vikramaditya Motwane reacts to Saif Ali Khan trashing Sacred Games season 2, explains 'main reason' it didn't meet expectations Asked about India as a market, and the reality that Netflix doesn't have a significant share of it yet, Sarandos said, 'It took us a couple of years to get the product-market fit right. Our very first Indian original show was Sacred Games. And I thought, 'This is going to be great. People in India love movies. This is a TV show that feels as big as a movie, it has movie stars.' What's interesting about it is that it was very, very novel, but what I didn't understand that we were introducing a brand new kind of entertainment in a country the size of India.' He continued, 'For me, if I did it all over again, would I have done Sacred Games a couple of years later, and did things that were more populist (instead)? Maybe. But we knew that India was going to be a slower journey to get to where we wanted to get to. But it's a great prize, at the end of the day. The addressable market is growing in the next couple of years in India, so it's exciting.' Sacred Games was unofficially cancelled after two seasons. Kashyap said that plans for a third season were underway, but Netflix got cold feet after the controversy that erupted around Prime Video's Tandav. He told Mashable India, 'Vikram Motwane was driving Sacred Games. Ten days before I was supposed to go shoot Mukkabaaz, he asked me to come on board. I told him I was always interested, but they had a problem with me. Some local people had told them that I didn't have a female audience. It was my zone, and they eventually came around… A season three was supposed to come out, but they shut it down, Netflix would know why.' He also criticised Sarandos and Netflix in a social media post following the success of Adolescence, and said that the Indian branch of the streamer wouldn't dare greenlight something like it. 'Netflix India is a totally opposite sh**show. If they were pitched this, most probably they would have rejected it or turned it into a 90 minute film (that too seems like an impossibility because it doesn't have an ending that is black and white),' he wrote.
Mint
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Mint
‘Stolen' review: No good deed goes unpunished in this bleak, impressive thriller
Lynching is thought to have originated as a term sometime in the 1700s. The word conjures up an evil of the past, barbaric and unthinkable in a modern civilised society. It is, therefore, especially alarming that the term, and practice, has seen a resurgence in India over the past decade or so. This is tied to a related problem, the proliferation of fake news, willful and otherwise, through WhatsApp and other media. Just search for 'lynch mob' and 'WhatsApp'—most of the results are cases from India. Only a handful of Hindi films have addressed the modern face of lynching. In Mukkabaaz (2018) and Afwaah (2023), vigilante groups attack a Dalit and a Muslim character respectively, who are badly injured but survive. No film has replicated the chilling aesthetic of lynching videos: self-shot on phones, victims begging for their lives, attackers addressing the camera. Dibakar Banerjee came closest with the shocking murder in the first segment of Love Sex Aur Dhokha (2010), a film where all the action is mediated via screens of different kinds. Stolen doesn't imitate these videos, but it comes close to capturing their dread. In the opening scene of Karan Tejpal's film, a baby is stolen from its sleeping mother's side by an unseen figure on a railway platform. A few minutes later, we're told the film is inspired by 'real events'. In an interview to Scroll, Karan Tejpal said the inspiration was a lynching in Assam in 2018, where two people were killed by a mob on suspicion being child traffickers. This wasn't the only such incident around that time; there was a spate of lynchings in Jharkhand in 2017, when rumours spread on WhatsApp about child abductors resulted in the death of five people. Gautam (Abhishek Banerjee) has come to pick up his younger brother, Raman (Shubham Vardan), from the railway station. He finds his sibling surrounded by a small, agitated group. Jhumpa (Mia Maelzer), a tribal woman, is accusing Raman, who'd picked up the abducted infant's cap, of stealing her baby. Two cops arrive and gruffly ask questions. Raman clearly isn't the abductor, but the young man is moved by the woman's frantic appeals. He pushes the policemen to do their job; the righteous indignation in his voice tells us he's in trouble before even he knows it. Sure enough, the brothers are forced to tag along on their investigation in the dead of night. Unlike his brother, Gautam has no illusions. 'Bahut galat phase hain yaar (we're in real trouble),' he tells Raman. He immediately realises it's a situation they need to extricate themselves from, and tries to smooth-talk, then bribe the cops. If Raman is a bleeding heart liberal, Gautam stands for the practical, risk-averse upper-class Indian (he's introduced talking on the phone about afterparties). He shows no empathy for Jhumpa, not because he doesn't recognise her predicament but because she's of a class and caste whose problems he's either isolated from or can be made to vanish easily (when she asks for help, he offers her money). Stolen has the same basic trajectory as NH10 (2015), a momentary loss of reason that plunges an urban couple into a hinterland nightmare. But where that film had a clear, sadistic villain, Tejpal, working with writers Gaurav Dhingra, Swapnil Salkar and Vardhan, doesn't offer this neat a contrast. The antagonists are either shadowy figures or faceless mobs. No one's what they seem: one of the cops, Panditji (a wonderful Harish Khanna), reveals himself by degrees to be a man of conscience as well. Jhumpa's story keeps mutating—I won't reveal more except to say the way some of the revelations are deployed reminded me of the brilliant Sonchiriya (2019), the only Hindi film in recent times that can match this one for utter bleakness. The most interesting journey, though, is Gautam's, who proves more resourceful under pressure than one might think. The way his self-centredness evolves into a surge of human feeling doesn't feel contrived. This is in large part because of Banerjee's deftness. He's become, in short order, one of the most arresting performers in Hindi film. From the start, it's been difficult to pigeonhole him. His twin breakthroughs were as the slapstick Jana in Stree (2018) and the scary Langda Tyagi in the first season of Paatal Lok (2020). Last year, he reprised his role in Stree 2, and was also excellent as the smooth-talking, casteist politician who John Abraham goes up against in Vedaa (his gallery of villains also includes the grotesque child rapist in the 2017 indie Ajji). Stolen, for the first time, offers him a chance to do everything. He's caustically funny scolding his brother and Jhumpa, adrenaline-filled and panicked when they're being pursued (a handful of searing chases go a long way to enlivening the film's visual sameness), and stoically determined at the end, when he's been through too much to stand aside. Karan Tejpal's film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2023. The long wait for an India release must have been fraught—especially with Santosh (2024), another stark film about the tenuous hold of law and order in small towns, not making it past the censors this year. But Stolen is now streaming on Amazon Prime, having bypassed theatres. It's the kind of film that makes you feel some hope for Hindi cinema and none for the country.
Hindustan Times
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Chaava and Jaat actor Viineet Kumar Singh: Lucknow has been important for my career
Actor Viineet Kumar Singh has shot extensively in Lucknow and his home state Uttar Pradesh. Last seen in Chhaava and Jaat, the actor has a strong connection with the state capital. 'While Varanasi is my janmabhoomi and Mumbai is my karmabhoomi, Lucknow, too, has a been really important for my upbringing. 'My first memory of moving out of Varanasi was coming to Lucknow. I came here as a mini (under 12) to play basketball at the KD Singh Babu Stadium. Big cars, tall buildings, big showrooms were all novelty for me. Then, there used to be Nixon Market near the stadium, which sold foreign goods at economical prices, where I shopped. So, whenever I get time during shoots, I go to the stadium for a while, take a stroll in the erstwhile basketball court and relive my memories. Bachpan se hi lagaav raha hai Lucknow se,' he says. The actor recalls, 'Later, I came here for a 21-day camp. I remember buying a purse for mummy, a T-shirt for papa and things related to sports for my brother and sisters. I spent all my money buying gifts for them. These are very fond and strong memories.' 'Rangbaaz (2022), my most successful OTT show so far, was shot entirely in Lucknow and Sitapur. Besides Bareilly and Varanasi, a portion of Mukkabaaz (2018) was also shot here. I extensively shot for Sudhir Mishra's DaasDev (2018) here, Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl (2020), and Match Fixing, which released earlier this year,' he says. Viineet adds, 'If we move bit further, Gangs of Wasseypur was 90% shot in Varanasi. My next with Anurag (Kashyap, director) sir Nishanchi has been extensively shot here in two schedules (the movie is in two parts). Lucknow is a very shoot-friendly place. Since I am also a writer, I make sure that all my stories have my state in some way or another. Kaafi yogdaan raha hai iss shehar ka meri journey mein.'
