From around the web
The Reading Room
The writing, podcasts and video essays worth your time about Indian cinema — chosen by hand, one line on why to read each, featured pieces marked. Grouped by week once the weekly article pass runs. Our own writing is in The Frame.
Worth your timeReads Drishyam's reluctant liar as a mirror of the state — his lies run on the same machinery as authoritarian power.
Drishyam The Conclusion: Ajay Devgn’s Bollywood-sized allegory of a post-truth world
The Hindu · Shreyas Pande · 3 Oct 2026 · 800 words
Worth your timeBen Rekhi on the decade it took to adapt Adiga's novel, why he cut a limited series down to a film, and Bajpayee playing an unlikeable Masterji
‘Last Man in Tower’: How Ben Rekhi’s ‘outsider’ gaze places Manoj Bajpayee at the heart of Mumbai’s redevelopment horror
The Hindu · Shreyas Pande · 15 Sep 2026 · 1,300 words
Worth your timeReporting from a packed Rajasthan theatre on why an older, faith-driven audience Bollywood forgot came back for this film.
What Hanuman Ansh gets right: Faith, simplicity and its appeal to an entire generation Bollywood forgot
Hindustan Times · Vibha Maru · 4 Sep 2026 · 900 words
Worth your timeToxic's backlash, traced back to a 2017 Kasaba row, exposes what women filmmakers still aren't allowed to make.
Toxic and the uneasy question of what women are allowed to make
The News Minute · Sukanya Shaji · 3 Sep 2026 · 1,300 words
Worth your timeRam explains why he built the whole train on a green screen, wrote a symbolic rat into the plot, and reads the ending as an attack on the state.
Interview With Ram: I Want to Do Something Different Each Time Because Otherwise I Get Bored
Asian Movie Pulse · Panos Kotzathanasis · 7 Feb 2024 · 2,200 words
Director Abhishek Pathak on turning down a peek at Drishyam 3's script and writing Hindi's own ending as a post-truth allegory.
‘Drishyam The Conclusion’ director Abhishek Pathak on crafting the Hindi original and its memetic afterlife
The Hindu · Shreyas Pande · 14 Oct 2026 · 1,300 words
Jailer 2's action director breaks down Nelson's static, single-shot approach to staging Rajinikanth's stunts.
Jailer 2: Chethan D’ Souza on Rajinikanth’s style, humility and instinct for action
The Hindu · Vivek M.V. · 13 Oct 2026 · 800 words
Premada Oorali's cast and composer on learning to farm for a role and building the viral title track behind a ₹2-crore hit.
Team ‘Premada Oorali’ on striking god at the box office
The Hindu · Vivek M.V. · 9 Oct 2026 · 600 words
How a no-star, ₹2-crore Kannada film's TV-serial feel is reviving single screens across small-town Karnataka.
‘Premada Oorali’: This little film has taken the Kannada film industry by storm
The Hindu · Vivek M.V. · 8 Oct 2026 · 600 words
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The writer on running Drishyam 3's set like a Vijay Salgaonkar cover-up — need-to-know info, bribe attempts, and a sealed climax.
Drishyam 3 writer Aamil Keeyan Khan reveals how makers protected the film’s biggest twist from the crew
Hindustan Times · Monica Yadav · 5 Oct 2026 · 800 words
Parvathy on the secret backstory PDF behind her cop role, and why the villain wants to win, not win justice.
‘Took me 7 years to manifest a thriller’: Parvathy Thiruvothu on Pradhama Drishtya Kuttakkar
The News Minute · Vishal Menon · 2 Oct 2026 · 1,400 words
Balaji Tharaneetharan on the eight-year gap, his Triplicane childhood, and why Baththa isn't a gangster actioner but a character study.
Balaji Tharaneetharan on Vijay Sethupathi’s ‘Baththa’ and recreating '80s North Madras
The Hindu · Bhuvanesh Chandar · 29 Sep 2026 · 1,000 words
How Drishyam shed its remake stigma and turned a morally grey cable operator into Hindi cinema's favourite underdog.
Decoding how Drishyam became part of desi pop culture and Vijay Salgaonkar an unlikely underdog icon
Hindustan Times · Abhimanyu Mathur · 27 Sep 2026 · 1,000 words
Director Abhishek Pathak on recasting Akshaye Khanna with Jaideep Ahlawat and rewriting Drishyam 3 in six days, a week before the shoot.
'Ye kya tareeka hua': Abhishek Pathak recalls Drishyam 3's race against time as Akshaye Khanna quit 7 days before shoot
Hindustan Times · Abhimanyu Mathur · 21 Sep 2026 · 1,100 words
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Nani makes the case that 'pan-India' is a label only ever pinned on South films, never Hindi ones.
Nani does not like the pan-India tag, asks why it is only used for south films: 'Nobody calls Jawan or Pathaan that' | Hindustan Times
Hindustan Times · Abhimanyu Mathur · 18 Sep 2026 · 800 words
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Nivin Pauly on how Bethlehem Kudumba Unit's pre-interval scene skips the rain-soaked proposal cliché.
Interview | Nivin Pauly on the success of Bethlehem Kudumba Unit: ‘Audience has been able to connect to the story’ | Hindustan Times
Hindustan Times · Santanu Das · 18 Sep 2026 · 1,100 words
Director PS Mithran on how Nolan, Mad Max and a CIA memoir shaped Sardar 2's spy-thriller craft.
Director PS Mithran interview on Karthi’s ‘Sardar 2’ and what makes a good sequel
The Hindu · Bhuvanesh Chandar · 7 Sep 2026 · 1,100 words
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A sharp reading of how patriarchy in Babita Singh Reporting hides as love and 'concern' — with quotes from Sajayan and director Pandit.
Babita Singh Reporting shows how the most dangerous form of patriarchy exists disguised as 'concern'
Hindustan Times · Abhimanyu Mathur · 7 Sep 2026 · 900 words
Toxic's makers used a Bengaluru court injunction to send legal notices over bad reviews and vanished BookMyShow ratings.
Twitter user claims to have received legal notice from team Toxic over pointing out ratings of Yash-starrer | Hindustan Times
Hindustan Times · Santanu Das · 2 Sep 2026 · 600 words
Director Vishnu Edavan on reviving the 90s Tamil entertainer and flipping Prabhu and Bhagyaraj's usual roles on purpose.
How ‘Hi’ director Vishnu Edavan brought the old-school Tamil cinema entertainer back
The Hindu · Bhuvanesh Chandar · 2 Sep 2026 · 700 words
Meghna Gulzar explains why Daayra fuses several real cases rather than one, and drew the line at 'tadka'-ing the truth.
'What May Be Justice For You May Be Injustice For Me'
Rediff · Komal Panchamatia · 2 Sep 2026 · 1,000 words
Priyadarshan on researching blindness at a school, and why he thinks a film's first ten minutes decide everything.
'People who stop creators from making good cinema are the real haiwaans' | Priyadarshan and Boman Irani Interview
Hindustan Times · Abhimanyu Mathur · 1 Sep 2026 · 900 words
Argues Toxic's backlash falls hardest on its women, not on Yash's toxic hero, and asks why that double standard holds.
Toxic, misogyny, and why we are still more forgiving of toxic men
The News Minute · Sunayana Suresh · 27 Aug 2026 · 1,000 words
Directors and critics trace Yash's range from Drama's comedy to Raja Huli's fevered climax, complicating the one-note-star tag.
‘Toxic’: How Yash built his reputation as an actor
The Hindu · Vivek M.V. · 23 Aug 2026 · 800 words
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Writer Bilal Siddiqi on why Awarapan 2 trades the original's slow burn for urgency, and how he's reading the harsh reviews.
Awarapan 2 writer Bilal Siddiqi finds learnings in criticism of Emraan Hashmi-starrer: 'No one has an invalid opinion'
Hindustan Times · Abhimanyu Mathur · 21 Aug 2026 · 800 words
Producer Vishesh Bhatt on why he chased Awarapan over Jannat, and how re-release-market data talked Emraan into it.
'Why not Jannat': Emraan Hashmi was not sold on Awarapan 2, reveals Vishesh Bhatt, softened after re-releases worked
Hindustan Times · Abhimanyu Mathur · 20 Aug 2026 · 900 words
Flips Vishwanath & Sons' stalker-plot by gender and asks why we forgive the obsession when a woman does the chasing.
Vishwanath and Sons: Suriya delivers an RRR — Reverse-Raanjhanaa Ragebait | Hindustan Times
Hindustan Times · Vibha Maru · 17 Aug 2026 · 900 words
The director on 20 years researching Neem Karoli Baba, and the assistant director who became Hanuman Ansh's lead overnight.
Hanuman Ansh director shares how he brought Neem Karoli Baba's story to screen
India Today · Shweta Keshri · 11 Aug 2026 · 1,000 words
The paper trail behind 'Satluj': three titles, a CBFC cut order, a TIFF withdrawal, then ZEE5 pulling it in two days.
Diljit Dosanjh's 'Satluj' Pulled From India by ZEE5
Variety · Naman Ramachandran · 7 Jul 2026 · 900 words
Director, lead actor and a journalist-turned-actor on why a death-penalty two-hander was cast with actors, not stars.
Rangaraj Pandey: The real success of Lakshmikanthan Kolai Vazhakku will be the post-release discussion about it
Cinema Express · Jayabhuvaneshwari B · 28 Jun 2026 · 1,000 words
How Vikram Bhatt turned a jail term, a fraud case, and a shoestring budget into an opening-weekend horror hit.
'Haunted 3D: Echoes Of The Past' shows why Vikram Bhatt is Bollywood's horror king
India Today · Vinayak Chakravorty · 16 Jun 2026 · 900 words
How a 94-year-old director shot an all-sung musical partly by headset from his sickbed, 40 years after the idea was born.
‘No reference point’: Nag Ashwin reveals hardships behind Rs 22 cr film Sing Geetham
The Indian Express · Yashaswini Sri · 11 Jun 2026 · 1,000 words
Nag Ashwin on why he backed a 94-year-old legend's 40-year dream: a musical where every line is sung by curse, not choice.
Exclusive | Nag Ashwin on Producing Singeetam Srinivasa Rao's Musical: 'Nobody Better For Me To Back'
The Hollywood Reporter India · Sruthi Ganapathy Raman · 8 Jun 2026 · 1,200 words
The director explains, with specifics, why Mrunal Thakur's finished film has sat unreleased for four years.
Director Navjot Gulati slams Maddock Films for delaying Pooja Meri Jaan release: ‘They don’t care about small films’
Hindustan Times · Riya Sharma · 19 Feb 2026 · 700 words
Suhas on his nervous Tamil debut in Mandaadi: a translator, a sea shoot, and Soori's off-set kindness.
Suhas: I attribute my failures to some reckless decisions
Cinema Express · Suresh Kavirayani · 17 Feb 2026 · 900 words
Sivaji Ganesan's grandson on skipping the city-romance debut, studying real constables for the role, and family stories Gangai Amaren told him.
I didn’t want to take the usual route for my launch: Dhaarshan
Times of India · Roopa Radhakrishnan · 4 Nov 2025 · 700 words
Bokshi's director on the 80-day Himalayan winter shoot, near-shelving the film, and inventing a language for its witch cult.
Indian Folk Horror 'Bokshi' Lands at Alief Ahead of Rotterdam Premiere
Variety · Naman Ramachandran · 30 Jan 2025 · 600 words
The director explains why Doosra shoots a 2002 cricket win on celluloid, braided with a fictional coming-of-age story.
In ‘Doosra’, dreams take off as Sourav Ganguly waves his shirt in historic NatWest series final
Scroll.in · Soumya Rao · 3 Jul 2019 · 800 words