Ayushmann Khurrana on Diwali Holiday Release for Horror-Comedy ‘Thama' (EXCLUSIVE)
The Maddock Films production, produced by Dinesh Vijan and directed by Aditya Sarpotdar, represents a significant career escalation for Khurrana, who has built his reputation as one of Hindi-language cinema's most bankable stars through unconventional script choices and socially conscious comedies.
More from Variety
Vicky Kaushal's 'Chhaava' Crosses $90 Million Globally, Second Maddock Title to Hit Milestone After 'Stree 2'
'Walking With Dinosaurs': BBC Unveils First Look at Epic Prehistoric Revival - Global Bulletin
Vicky Kaushal's First Look as Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj in Indian Historical Epic 'Chhaava' Unveiled (EXCLUSIVE)
'Thama' represents an expansion of Maddock's horror-comedy universe. The studio, known for releasing films like 'Stree 2,' 'Munjya,' and 'Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya' in a blockbuster 2024, unveiled a slate of eight interconnected films set to release over the next four years, earlier this year.
The lineup begins with 'Thama,' followed by 'Shakti Shalini' on Dec. 31. In 2026, audiences can expect 'Bhediya 2' on Aug. 14 and 'Chamunda' on Dec. 4. The following year includes 'Stree 3' on Aug. 13 and 'Mahamunjya' on Dec. 24. The universe will culminate in 2028 with 'Pehla Mahayudh' on Aug. 11 and 'Doossra Mahayudh' on Diwali, Oct. 18.'It feels amazing to have a big Diwali release with 'Thama.' It is the biggest release of my career and I'm really eager to spread joy, happiness and laughter with the entire country with 'Thama,'' Khurrana said. 'The fact that my film could be one of the reasons for people to have a great festive period feels really surreal.'
The Diwali slot has traditionally been reserved for Bollywood's biggest stars and tentpole releases, making Khurrana's booking a testament to his box office evolution from indie darling to commercial heavyweight. 'Thama' is currently the only Bollywood film releasing during the Diwali holiday frame, which falls on Oct. 20 this year.
'For me, Diwali is about togetherness, it is about family and it is about having the best community experience by spending time with your friends,' the 'Vicky Donor' star said. 'I'm a big movie buff and every year, I have a ritual to go to the theatres with my family and watch a film on Diwali. We have so much fun together and it makes me so happy to see scores of people thronging to the theatres to watch these big releases.'
'Thama' brings together an ensemble cast including Rashmika Mandanna, Paresh Rawal, and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Aditya Sarpotdar directs from a screenplay by Niren Bhatt, Suresh Mathew, and Arun Fulara, with Dinesh Vijan and Amar Kaushik producing.
'I'm giving my everything for 'Thama' and I can see my producers Dinesh Vijan and Amar Kaushik, my director Aditya Sarpotdar and the entire team of 'Thama' put in every drop of their energy to make this film a truly incredible big screen experience that will be memorable for everyone,' Khurrana said.
Maddock Films gained prominence in the horror-comedy space in 2018 with 'Stree,' which popularized the genre in Bollywood. The film's blend of humor, supernatural elements and folklore struck a chord with audiences, paving the way for further exploration of the genre. This new cinematic universe is a natural evolution for the studio, bringing together characters and storylines into an interconnected narrative.
The company's epic historical saga 'Chhaava,' starring Vicky Kaushal, is the biggest Indian box office success of 2025 so far.
Best of Variety
New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week
Emmy Predictions: Talk/Scripted Variety Series - The Variety Categories Are Still a Mess; Netflix, Dropout, and 'Hot Ones' Stir Up Buzz
Oscars Predictions 2026: 'Sinners' Becomes Early Contender Ahead of Cannes Film Festival
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Magic Moments maker ties up with Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan to launch premium tequila
By Chandini Monnappa and Hritam Mukherjee (Reuters) -Radico Khaitan, the maker of "Magic Moments" vodka, will invest up to $4.56 million and team up with Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan and Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath to launch a premium tequila brand, marking its foray into the category. The Indian liquor maker, known for premium offerings such as Rampur Indian Single Malt and Jaisalmer Indian Craft Gin, will roll out the brand D'YAVOL Añejo — a premium spirit made from agave and aged about two years in wine casks. D'YAVOL, a luxury brand founded in 2022 by Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan, along with Leti Blagoeva and Bunty Singh, is headquartered in Amsterdam and offers vodka, blended malt Scotch whisky and premium streetwear. D'YAVOL Añejo is set to launch by December and depending on state excise duty, will be priced between 20,000 rupees ($228.21) and 30,000 rupees, Radico Khaitan Managing Director Abhishek Khaitan told Reuters on Tuesday. The launch comes as affluent Indians increasingly splurge on everything from luxury dining to premium alcohol, housing and cars. Alcohol sales in the country, according to data from analytics firm Crisil, are projected to grow as much as 10% to $61.35 billion in fiscal 2026. Tequila is one of the fastest growing segments globally and India is catching on very fast. The market size in the country is about 300,000 cases, out of which 15% is the Añejo (Spanish word meaning 'aged') category, Khaitan said. "We believe that in the next five years, tequila can reach a volume of about a million cases in India plus global market, so I think it was a great opportunity," he said. Under the partnership, Radico Khaitan and Shah Rukh Khan's family will each hold a 47.5% stake in the venture, while Kamath will own 5%. The deal also underscores the fierce competition in mass and premium liquor segments. Just three weeks ago, peer Tilaknagar Industries bought the "Imperial Blue" whisky brand from Pernod Ricard for $486 million. ($1 = 87.6370 Indian rupees) Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
TechCrunch
3 hours ago
- TechCrunch
Pocket FM gives its writers an AI tool to transform narratives, write cliffhangers, and more
India-based audio series platform maker Pocket FM aims to be the Netflix of audio. That is, the company intends to match its audio series with hundreds of episodes to its users' tastes. For that to work, it needs to release content rapidly — something it's now turning to AI to help with. The Lightspeed-backed startup is giving its writers an AI tool set that can do things like suggest better endings to an episode or make the narrative more engaging. The hope is that the tools will speed up the storywriting process. Pocket FM already uses some AI tools like ElevenLabs to generate voices for audio series. It also tested AI tools for writing and adaptation assistance internally. Rohan Nayak, Pocket FM's founder, said it's rolling out the AI tools to all writers, so it will take them less time to finish their episodes. Image Credits: Pocket FM The writing tool, dubbed CoPilot, can be used to help any writer create a story. CoPilot can transform narrative-based writing into dialog-based writing for a specific segment. It can also do 'beat analysis' to shape the writing in a way to makes it more engaging for an audio series of a particular genre. The tool additionally has basic chatbot-style writing features such as 'shorten,' 'expand,' and the ability to generate text via a prompt. To build CoPilot, the company examined thousands of hours of data points to understand what makes users engage more with a particular storyline in a specific genre. Based on that, it added writing suggestion features designed to increase conflict between characters and recommend endings for an episode to make it more exciting. AI can also suggest tags for background effects that can be used while producing the audio. The tool can automatically generate bios of characters, their relationships, and summarize plot points of different episodes, allowing creators to refer back to these details while writing. CoPilot also has a review tool, which checks for plot points, grammar, and leaves qualitative feedback through comments on an episode. Under the hood, Pocket FM is training smaller models to maintain context for a story for character arcs and relations, along with narrative consistency. Plus, utilizing signals from users, the startup is nudging AI to add more drama to the story. International expansion and localization plans Alongside the arrival of the AI tools, Pocket FM launched adaptation tools for various markets that not only translate the text from one language to another but also change names and phrases that are more suited to that region's culture. The company first debuted this tool as a part of the CoPilot suite in Germany earlier this year to convert stories from other regions after reportedly struggling to engage users in the European country last year. Nayak said the company saw great results from this trial, with a constant increase in monthly in-app revenue, which crossed $700,000 in June. Image Credits: Pocket FM 'When we started expanding into new regions, it used to take us 12-18 months to meaningfully exist in that market. You have to have at least 1,000 hours of content to start acquiring users and scaling the market. Now we can do this in less than three months,' Nayak said. The tool increased writer productivity by up to 50% for the German market in terms of show output. Plus, the tool helped the company create more error-free drafts of the shows that resulted in higher user retention for audio series. In the U.S, series created with the help of these new AI tools are now contributing 10% of playtime. Plus, these shows have generated $7 million in revenue in the last 12 months while reducing the cost of production by 2-3 times. Building tech to scale content generation As a result of adopting different AI features internally, Pocket FM has been able to scale the content quickly. The startup said it launches close to 1,000 pilots per month. And just the sheer volume of content results in a few of them becoming hits. But the audio show is just one part. The company is already working on tools to convert stories into comic strips with its Pocket Toons platform. Plus, Nayak said video is a possible format the company could explore, too. The startup, which has raised over $196 million in funding across rounds, is experimenting with a micro drama app as well. Image Credits: Screenshot by TechCrunch By next year, Pocket FM wants to release its own singular large language model (LLM), which will be based on data collected from its shows and incorporate different tools like writing assistance, adoption, dramatization, and story context retention. The company said that when it switches to its own LLM, it won't need to train a ton of small models for separate features. AI's potential downsides Adopting AI has had its side effects. Pocket FM has already laid off people who were employees or contractors across multiple rounds in the last 12 months. There have also been reports of writers seeing diminished returns over time. And the company is facing lawsuits in California over employment and wage issues. 'Like most content-led industries, we work with a diverse network of writers, voice artists, and production partners on a project basis, tailoring resources to each market. AI has had minimal impact on our core creative community; instead, it has opened new avenues to expand reach and output,' a company rep said, in response to these layoffs. There are questions around quality, as well. The company measures quality by the retention numbers of a show. The base argument is that the new AI tools act as a writers' room even for solo creators, so they will be able to produce more content at a rapid rate. Plus, based on the numbers, writers can quickly edit the story with the help of AI. However, these tools can very well induce 'AI slop' — or low-quality, AI-generated content — into the platform and could impact a user's recommendations, making it difficult for them to discover good stories. Pocket FM argues that stories that have a solid structure will gain popularity, despite AI helping them. The company noted that every piece of content is reviewed by its AI-powered moderation framework to ensure quality and originality. It also claims its AI moderation checks for things like duplication, copyright issues, content health, and other quality measures before approving audio to go live. Each show receives and equal push, and user engagement ultimately determines a show's ranking. Another concern is that writers could become overly dependent on AI over time. In Germany, AI is writing more content than humans per show for select titles. With Pocket FM's plans to roll out more AI tools, the amount of AI-written content could increase. And with that, the expectation of churning out more shows could rise, too. Unless user adoption also rises rapidly, average returns could drop. The company didn't directly address TechCrunch's questions about returns, but said that its AI tools can speed up a writer's work and help them edit an episode based on numbers and audience feedback. That is they could make targeted improvements, instead of doing a full rewrite. 'This way, faster content creation doesn't necessarily dilute quality or relevance; it just shifts the writer's role towards editing, refining, and steering more productive output,' a spokesperson said in a statement.
Axios
9 hours ago
- Axios
IndyFringe returns for year 20
The IndyFringe Festival returns this week to celebrate 20 years of daring to be different. Why it matters: The homegrown theater fest that has helped bring niche art forms and marginalized creators to a wider audience since the mid-aughts is flipping the script in 2025 with fresh efforts focused on sustainability and equity. This summer's festival is also the first since a fall rebrand to IF Theatre. Driving the news: IndyFringe 2025 begins Thursday with 69 unique acts and 245 performances across six stages. 515 artists are contributing to the event, with 61% from Indiana, 36% national artists and 3% international acts. The 10-day festival features performance genres like puppetry, ballet, immersive theatre, stand-up comedy, Bollywood dance, clowning, magic and more. What they're saying:"As the state's largest performing arts event, the festival can feel daunting for new audience members, but the heart of the experience is all about shrugging off expectations and daring to try something new," IF Theatre executive director Paul Daily said. "Our staff, volunteers, and artists are all dedicated to making sure that everyone who comes to the festival has an excellent time, no matter what shows they see." Fun fact: Support from Everwise Credit Union allows IndyFringe to return 70% of all box office revenue to the creators. Since the first festival in 2005, IndyFringe has brought more than 217,000 guests to the Mass Ave Cultural Arts Distrct and returned more than $2.5 million to over 7,200 participating artists. By the numbers: Daily said presenting a festival that better represents the Indy community was a priority this year. 48% of the acts at IndyFringe 2025 are produced by women, compared to a local population that is 51% women. 18% are produced by artists 30 and younger. Indy's percentage of people aged 20-29 is 15%. 37% are produced by artists who are Black, Indigenous Americans or people of color. The latest census data puts the nonwhite population in Marion County at about 39%. Between the lines: This is also the greenest festival in IndyFringe history. Working with the city's Office of Sustainability, organizers have made a number of changes to reduce waste and increase energy efficiency. The festival will serve as a case study for ecologically responsible festival practices in Indy. Upgrades include recycling bins at all venues, free coolers to refill water bottles and reusing programs or marketing materials to cut down on paper waste. LED stage lighting donated from the Phoenix Cultural Center will also replace energy-hungry incandescent lighting fixtures. If you go: IndyFringe 2025 runs through Aug. 24.
