Pankaja and O'Sey Balamma bring deeply personal yet universally resonant stories to Sundance. They represent a new wave of South Indian storytelling, blending cultural authenticity with cinematic innovation, and mark an important step in amplifying regional voices on the international stage.
'Winning awards, everything, I don't think you can plan all these things. You don't go out there wanting to make a film saying, 'this film will win an award'. You can't do art with that intent.'
This year's Golden Globes was a test to see if Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another is still riding on an unstoppable train, similar to one that Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer rode on in 2023, observes Aseem Chhabra.
Just who are the big winners of the 83rd edition of Golden Globes awards?
'I was just a little kid in a darkened theatre, and I remember that beam of light just cut across the room, and I remember looking up, and it seemed to just explode on the screen.'
'Vishal Bhardwaj gave me Hamlet in Haider, which is one of the most intimidating roles for any actor in the world.' 'I'm grateful that he called me again after seven or eight years of us not working together.'
Mardaani 3 star Rani Mukerji celebrates 30 years in the film industry with a heartfelt conversation with Karan Johar.
'Filmmaking is such a weird line of work, artistic expression and collaboration.' 'It is letting go, then holding on to something, being democratic and then being tyrannical.'
The 68th Grammy Awards began at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
Aseem Chhabra ranks the Best of 2025's films that released in theatres, or went directly to OTT platforms.
This year's Sundance Film Festival was rich with films and the theatres were warm, even as temperatures outside dipped to below freezing point. It snowed only once but the sidewalks remained slippery for a few days.
Over 25 years, societies evolve and tastes change. Cinema absorbs and reflects this transformation. Picking only 25 films from the first quarter of the century is tough.
'I won't do anything I don't believe in just for money.'
'On the set, he was this big personality, the great Om Puri. But at home, he was like a fluffy teddy bear.'
'I always say that if Mohanlal was not there, Priyadarshan would not have been there.'
'They are as layered and complicated as life itself.' 'There is love, but there is also pain and fire.'
'We have come to the point in civilisation where emotion seems to be something you hide or you have to be discreet about, or to be ashamed of.'
As the year draws to a close, Rediff's Senior Contributor Roshmila Bhattacharya takes a look at the hits and misses, the highs and lows, the newsmakers and the dealbreakers in alphabetical order.
The festival will start on December 15 and will go on till December 22.
Karan Johar had an extra special Friendship Day. His friends Shah Rukh Khan and Rani Mukerji won their first ever National Awards (Jawan and Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway respectively).
'When you are a pioneer and someone who's put on a pedestal, but then the pedestal gets dusty, people don't look at the statue anymore.' 'They would say, 'Yes, yes, of course I know Bimal Roy. He made Do Bigha Zamin.'.'
'It is daunting, for sure, because you're rowing upstream.'
'It is a beautiful balance between traditional old-world sanskaars, and new generations opening up to new worlds without renouncing respect,' observes Sandeep Goyal.
Dinesh Raheja salutes Sandhya, the acclaimed dancer who passed into the ages on October 4.
At Rs 2,000, you can gift yourself an awesome sensory experience for Diwali.
In 1973, several major leading ladies like Mumtaz, Raakhee, Jaya Bhaduri, Dimple Kapadia, Tanuja, had married and retired from films. Producers wanted a new heroine as a replacement. Many thought Sulakshana was a Mumtaz lookalike and was soon persuaded to sign on multiple films as a leading lady.
At 8,700 screens, India, the world's largest film producing country, has just six screens for every million of its people, compared to 125 in the US and 30 in China. With Sitaare Zameen Par, Aamir Khan hopes to expand the market for Indian cinema.
'October end, during a checkup for an autoimmune thing I got a shock diagnosis: a routine scan revealed a small malignant tumour in the kidney. Utter bolt from the blue.'
While Amitabh Bachchan's chemistry with his heroines -- from Jaya Bhaduri to Rekha to Hema Malini -- brought sizzle to his films, many of his biggest blockbusters have been powered by his combustible combination with male co-stars.
'Shah Rukh is such a generous person, such a giver, that I can only wish for life to give him all the love and happiness he deserves.'
The Mumbai-born film-maker is currently working on two films set in her city, which will form a trilogy along with All We Imagine As Light.
'When India opened its doors to the world, moving away from an agrarian to a market economy, everything, whether life or love, was commodified.'
'He was a tremendous artist of a very high order, gone too soon. He not only reshaped the visual language of Indian Cinema through his cinematography in Aravindan's films, Shaji sir gave us all a sense of direction through his mainstream work as a cameraman.'
'People ask me about my biggest action sequence; this is it, because it involved two giants of Indian cinema.'
No author in the Malayalam literary canon has influenced and profoundly changed the way normal people interact with each other than the ever-relevant, eclectic yet elusive body of work left behind by MT Vasudevan Nair, notes Arjun Menon.
'Even if I had the backing of a big corporate house, which I don't, in today's market, I wouldn't want the responsibility of making a Rs 300 crore-Rs 400 crore film.'
'The money crunch will be there for people who are used to having a certain kind of remuneration.' 'Work opportunities are less, even for technicians who work in the industry.'
Shivanand Kanavi remembers his father, the eminent Kannada poet Nadoja Chennaveera Kanavi.
'On this happy occasion, I wish Sonam more work and another National Award.'
'Panchamda created an exclusive theme music for Gabbar Singh, which is used throughout the film every time the dacoit makes an appearance, and in both concept and sound, is so eerie and evil.'
