Junior Digest

Goa,Oct 08,2026: Veteran Actor Nana Patekar passed away at his Goa residence during the early hours of Thursday.
Actor Nana Patekar was known for his versatility and powerful screen presence. Mr. Patekar’s contribution to Marathi and Hindi cinema and theatre were immense. He was 75 years old.

Patekar was known for his roles in several Hindi and Marathi films. His notable Hindi movies include “Parinda”, “Prahaar: The Final Act”, “Tirangaa”, “Krantiveer” and “Khamoshi: The Musical”.

Patekar was a recipient of three National Film Awards, several Filmfare Awards, the Maharashtra State Film Award and Filmfare Awards Marathi. He had also received Padma Shri, the country’s fourth-highest civilian honour.
President offers condolences

President Droupadi Murmu said in a post on X, “The passing of veteran actor Nana Patekar is a great loss to Indian cinema and offered her heartfelt condolences to his family and admirers.”
Patekar to be cremated with full State honours

Maharashtra Cultural Affairs Minister Ashish Shelar said that the mortal remains of Nana Patekar will be cremated with full State honours.
The actor passed away during the early hours on October 8, 2026. He was brought to a private hospital after he was found unconscious at his apartment in Dona Paula, near Goa’s Panaji region.
The body has been sent to Goa Medical College and Hospital, Bambolim, where the postmortem would be conducted to ascertain the exact cause of death.

Sept 16,2026: Veteran actor Anant Nag has been named the recipient of the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award 2024 for his contribution to Indian cinema.
The award will be presented to Anant Nag at the 72nd National Film Awards ceremony, which will be held in Kevadia, Gujarat, on September 22, 2026.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Anant Nag.

Born Anant Nagarkatte on September 4, 1948, Anant Nag is one of the most respected names in Kannada cinema. Over the course of his career, he has acted in more than 300 films, including over 250 Kannada films. His body of work also includes films in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam and English.

Apart from his work in films, Anant Nag is also known for his television appearances and as a drama actor. He featured in the popular Doordarshan series Malgudi Days, based on the stories of celebrated author RK Narayan.

The veteran actor has received five Karnataka State Film Awards during his illustrious career.

In 2025, Anant Nag was conferred the Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian award, by the Government of India.

The Dadasaheb Phalke Award is regarded as India’s highest honour in cinema and is presented to an individual for their outstanding contribution to the growth and development of Indian cinema.

Mysuru,July 12,2026: Veteran playback singer S. Janaki, who sang thousands of songs across films in South Indian languages, died at the age of 88 in Mysuru in Karnataka on Saturday (July 11, 2026). Her mortal remains are placed at Maharaja’s College Grounds in Mysuru city for the public to pay their last respects. The last rites would take place later on Sunday evening (July 12, 2026).
With a versatile voice, Janaki crossed boundaries of ages and time and sang for almost every music director in South India — from S. Rajeswara Rao, K.V. Mahadevan, M.S. Vishwanathan, P. Dakshina Murthy, Ilayaraja to A.R. Rahman.
In the 1980s, when there was a massive influx of South Indian production houses into Bollywood, remaking South Indian hits into Hindi, Janaki emerged as a pan-Indian voice.
S. Janaki, was a playback vocalist who recorded over 48,000 songs in 17+ languages, winning four National Awards.

New Delhi, Sep 20,2025: Malayalam movie superstar Mohanlal will be awarded the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award 2023 on September 23 at the 71st National Film Awards ceremony.
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting posted on X, “On the recommendation of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award Selection Committee, the Government of India is pleased to announce that Shri Mohanlal will be conferred the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award 2023.”
“Mohanlal’s remarkable cinematic journey inspires generations. The legendary actor, director, and producer is being honoured for his iconic contribution to Indian Cinema. His unmatched talent, versatility and relentless hard work have set a golden standard in Indian film history.”
The Dadasaheb Phalke Award is the highest honor in Indian cinema, recognizing an individual’s outstanding lifetime contribution to the growth and development of Indian cinema.

New Delhi, Sep 30,2024: Actor Mithun Chakraborty will receive the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced on Monday.

The announcement was made by Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of Railways, Information Technology and Information Broadcasting, in his post on X.

He wrote, “Mithun Da’s remarkable cinematic journey continues to inspire generations! Honoured to announce that the Dadasaheb Phalke Selection Jury has decided to confer this award on legendary actor Shri Mithun Chakraborty Ji for his distinguished contribution to Indian cinema.

He further added that the award will be presented to Mithun Da by the hands of President Droupadi Murmu at the 70th National Film Awards ceremony on October 8, 2024.

Mithun has also made a significant impact in politics. He joined the Rajya Sabha in 2014 as a Trinamool Congress nominee but resigned two years later. In 2021, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the West Bengal assembly polls.

Sept 13,2022:French-Swiss film director Jean-Luc Godard, the godfather of France’s New Wave cinema, passed away at the age of 91, on Tuesday. News of his death was confirmed by French media on Tuesday morning. According to Fox News, Godard is regarded as a pivotal figure in the French New Wave movement. The movement, which differed from previous film styles, emphasised realism in storytelling while incorporating experimentation with editing techniques.

Godard’s debut film, ‘A bout de souffle (Breathless)’ established him as one of the world’s most vital and provocative directors, both in Europe and beyond.

Ace filmmakers pay tribute to Jean-Paul Belmondo
French President Emmanuel Macron said, “Godard had the vision of a genius. He was like an apparition in French cinema. Then he became a master of it. Jean-Luc Godard, the most iconoclastic of New Wave filmmakers, invented a resolutely modern, intensely free art. We have lost a national treasure, a man who had the vision of a genius.”
In 1963, Godard collaborated with iconic French actress Brigitte Bardot on the film Le Mepris (Contempt). According to Variety, Godard’s most ambitious project was his multipart video project “Histoire(s) du Cinema” (1988-1998), an iconoclastic and highly personal examination of the concept of cinema and its relationship to the twentieth century. His most recent films, “In Praise of Love” (2001) and “Notre musique” (2004), were critically acclaimed at the Cannes Film Festival. When his “Film Socialisme” screened in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2010, it elicited a more amused reaction; the highly experimental work ended with a title card reading “No Comment,” a statement reflected in Godard’s conspicuous absence from the festival.

Godard, however, experienced a significant career resurgence at Cannes in 2014 with “Goodbye to Language,” in which he experimented with the 3D format while providing “a characteristically vigorous, playful, mordant commentary on everything from the state of movies to the state of the world,” as described by Variety’s Scott Foundas. It won the festival’s jury prize (shared with Xavier Dolan’s “Mommy”) and later won the award for best film of the Godard and his partner, Swiss director Anne-Marie Mieville, collaborated closely for at least the last 30 years of his life.

Godard married Anna Karina, an actor who appeared in several of his films, in 1961. He married Anne Wiazemensky in 1965, following the divorce of the couple.

July 16,2023:Highly respected veteran British film critic Derek Malcolm died of heart and lung failure at his home in Deal, south-eastern England, his wife Sarah Gristwood announced on Sunday.

Malcolm served as the chief movie critic for The Guardian newspaper for more than 25 years, and was a familiar face at film festivals around the world throughout that time.

Before he settled down at the movies, he tried his hand at being a National Hunt jockey and then working as an actor. He joined The Guardian in the early 1970s and stayed there as its chief movie critic until 1999, moving to the London Evening Standard paper in the same role.

He also published a personal memoir in 2003, ‘Family Secrets,’ in which he recounted his dysfuctional family background, including the fact that his father shot dead his mother’s lover, an incident for which he was acquitted, and Malcolm’s parents stayed together afterwards.

At one time, he added to his work the artistic directorship of the London Film Festival. His 90th birthday was marked last year with a big celebration at the British Film Institute.

Nov 15,2022:Veteran Tollywood actor Krishna passed away at a hospital in Hyderabad early Tuesday while undergoing treatment after he suffered cardiac arrest. He was 79.

Superstar Krishna, one of the last legends of Telugu film industry, breathed his last at Continental Hospital, where he was admitted late Sunday night after he suffered cardiac arrest.
Ghattamaneni Siva Rama Krishna Murthy or Krishna, as he was popularly known, acted in more than 350 films in a career spanning five decades. He also produced and directed a few films.

Born on May 31, 1942 at Burripalem in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, Krishna entered the film industry in early 1960s with small roles. He debuted as the lead actor with the 1965 movie aThene Manasulu’, which became a hit.

‘Gudacchari 116’ (1966), a spy film, proved to be a superhit, making Krishna one of the most sought after actors. With this success, he got offers for 20 films. He subsequently acted in at least six James Bond like movies.

‘Sakshi’ (1967) won critical acclaim at the Tashkent film festival. His 1972 movie ‘Pandanti Kapuram’ bagged the national film award for best feature film in Telugu for that year.

Krishna is known for many landmark movies like ‘Alluri Seetharama Raju’ (1974), which was the first cinemascope movie in Tollywood, ‘Eenadu’ (1982), first Eastman color film and ‘Simhasanam’ (1986), the first 70 mm film.

Sept 21,2022:Comedian Raju Srivastava, a popular face in the entertainment industry, has passed away. Srivastava has been on a ventilator since August 10 after he collapsed while running on a treadmill.
Srivastava’s health condition remained unchanged since that day despite having an angioplasty procedure.
Immensely popular as Gajodhar, Srivastava, had an illustrious career in the industry. Apart from the entertainment industry he also had a political career. He had contested from Kanpur in the 2014 Lok Sabha Election as a Samajwadi party candidate. However, citing reasons he left the party and joined BJP later.

Mumbai, February 26,2024:: Globally renowned Ghazal maestro and Padma Shri recipient Pankaj Udhas passed away on Monday at the age of 72.
Taking to Instagram, Pankaj Udhas’ daughter Nayaab shared a statement on Instagram which read, “With a very heavy heart, we are saddened to inform you of the sad demise of Padmashri Pankaj Udhas on 26th February 2024 due to a prolonged illness.”
The legendary singer passed away after a prolonged illness.
Soon after Nayaab shared the news of the singer’s demise, his fans swamped the comment section and posted their condolences.
Among the evergreen ghazals that Pankaj Udhas lent his vocals to were ‘Chitthi Aayi Hai’, ‘Chandani Raat Mein’, ‘Na Kajre Ki Dhaar’, ‘Aur Ahista Kijiye Baatein’, ‘Ek Taraf Uska Ghar’ and ‘Thodi Thodi Piya Karo’.
Udhas and his elder brother Manhar Udhas were both known for their soulful singing. While the younger brother made his singing debut in 1970s with several Bollywood projects, Pankaj Udhaas was best known for ‘chhitthi aayi hai‘ from 1986 blockbuster ‘Naam’.
The song made Pankaj Udhas a household name in 80s. Indian cinema’s ultimate showman Raj Kapoor once told Udhas that this song had immortalised him – ‘tu amar ho gaya.’ During a media interaction, Udhas had said that this song was recorded in a single take.
Born on April 17, 1951, in Gujarat’s Savarkundla, Pankaj Udhas belonged to a family deeply rooted in music. His elder brother, Manhar Udhas, had established himself as a prominent Hindi playback singer in Bollywood. Pankaj Udhas later relocated to Mumbai and pursued his education at St. Xavier’s College.

Apart from ‘chitthi aayi hai‘ from the 1986 hit Naam, other memorable Bollywood number by Pankaj Udhas include 1994 chart-topper ‘na kajre ki dhar‘ from the film Mohra. Not only Bollywood, Udhas made a mark with his non-film songs such as ‘chandi jaisa rang hai tera,’ ‘chupke chupke sakhiyon se‘ and ‘ahista‘.

New Delhi, Mar 13,2023: Producer Guneet Monga’s ‘The Elephant Whisperers’, directed by Kartiki Gonsalves bagged the ‘Best Documentary Short Subject’ at the 95th Academy Awards on Monday.

The movie competed against Haulout, The Martha Mitchell Effect, Stranger At The Gate, and ‘How Do You Measure A Year?’.

Guneet took to social media and wrote, “We just win the first ever Oscar for an Indian Production! Two women did this! I am still shivering”.

‘The Elephant Whisperers’ is an Indian-American short documentary film, which tells the story of an indigenous couple named Bomman and Belli who are entrusted with an orphaned baby elephant named Raghu. They take great pains to ensure that the fragile, injured infant survives and grows to be a healthy juvenile.

A strong bond develops between the couple and the elephant. Set in the Mudumalai National Park in Tamil Nadu, the documentary also highlights the natural beauty of the location. It explores the life of the tribal people in harmony with nature.

Produced by Sikhya Entertainment, the film had its world premiere on November 9, 2022 at DOC NYC Film Festival, a film festival for documentaries in the United States.

It was released by Netflix on December 8, 2022.

SS Rajamouli directed film RRR’s song ‘Naatu Naatu’ won the ‘Best Original Song’ at the 95th Academy Awards on Monday.

The song is composed by MM Keeravaani and sung by Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava.

The song competed against ‘Applause’ from ‘Tell It like a Woman’, ‘Hold My Hand’ from Top Gun: Maverick, ‘Lift Me Up’ from ‘Black Panther Wakanda Forever’, and ‘This Is a Life’ from ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’.

‘RRR’ is a Telugu action drama, starring NTR Jr, Ram Charan, Alia Bhatt, Ajay Devgn and Shriya Saran, among others.

Panaji (Goa), November 20,2021: The 52nd International Film Festival of India (IFFI) received 624 films from 95 countries to open the platform Goa’s Panaji on Saturday.
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the IFFI is the first international event to be held in Goa.
IFFI is being conducted jointly by the state government of Goa and the Directorate of Film Festivals that works under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
In view of the current COVID-19 situation and to ensure compliance with all the protocols, the film festival will be held in a hybrid format.
The Indian panorama segment will be opened by featuring Semkhor, a Dimasa dialect and directed by Aimee Baruah.
Four sports films are also to be filmed at IFFI.
IFFI will also pay homage to veteran actor Dilip Kumar, and filmmakers Buddhadeb Dasgupta and Sumitra Bhave.
Founded in 1952 IFFI is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia that provides a genuine platform for exchanging ideas between young minds and established figures in film industries from around the world.
As per the schedule, the film festival will conclude on November 28 after screening Asghar Farhadi’s ‘A Hero’, which won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival.
IFFI jury comprises renowned Iranian filmmaker Rakhshan Banietemad, Sri Lankan filmmaker Vimukthi Jayasundara, British film producer Stephen Woolley, Indian producer-director Nila Madhab Panda and Colombian filmmaker Ciro Guerra.

Oct 06,2022:A court in military-ruled Myanmar has jailed a Japanese documentary filmmaker for 10 years for violating sedition and communications laws, a Japanese foreign ministry official said on Thursday.

Toru Kubota, 26, was arrested in July at a protest in Myanmar’s main city of Yangon. At the time, it was reported he faced charges of breaking an immigration law and encouraging dissent against the ruling military.

Kubota was on Wednesday sentenced to three years in prison for sedition and seven years for violating a law on telecommunications, the ministry official said, citing the filmmaker’s lawyer.
A court hearing on his alleged violation of the immigration control law is scheduled for Oct. 12, the official said.
“We have been asking Myanmar authorities for Mr Kubota’s early release, and we intend to keep on doing so,” he said.

Calls to a Myanmar military spokesperson seeking comment were not answered. The junta says Myanmar’s courts are independent and those arrested are receiving due process.

Myanmar has been trapped in a spiral of violence since the military overthrew an elected government last year. The junta has arrested thousands including politicians, bureaucrats, students, journalists, and foreigners as it attempts to smother dissent.

Mar 11,2024:The following is a complete list of Oscar winners at the 96th Academy Awards on Sunday, presented at a live, televised ceremony from Hollywood.

Best picture
Oppenheimer

Best actor in a leading role
Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer

Best actress in a leading role
Emma Stone, Poor Things

Best director
Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer

Best supporting actor
Robert Downey Jr, Oppenheimer

Best supporting actress
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers

Best adapted screenplay
American Fiction

Best original screenplay
Anatomy of a Fall

Best animated featured film
The Boy and the Heron
Best animated short
War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko

Best international feature
The Zone of Interest, United Kingdom

Best documentary feature
20 Days in Mariupol

Best documentary short
The Last Repair Shop

Best original score
Oppenheimer

Best original song
What Was I Made For?, Barbie

Best sound
The Zone of Interest

Best production design
Poor Things

Best live action short
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

Best cinematography
Oppenheimer

Best makeup and hairstyling
Poor Things

Best costume design
Poor Things

Best visual effects
Godzilla Minus One

Best film editing
Oppenheimer

Feb 16,2022:Veteran musician Bappi Lahiri breathed his last on Wednesday morning at a Mumbai hospital. The composer was admitted to Criticare Hospital for over a month owing to multiple health issues.

According to reports, the 69-year-old was discharged on Monday. However, his health deteriorated on Tuesday.

The singer and music composer, fondly known as Bappi da, was known for his work in several films of the late 1970s-80s like ‘Chalte Chalte’, ‘Disco Dancer’, and ‘Sharaabi’.
Born on November 27, 1952, Lahiri was widely known for embedding disco music into Indian cinema. Besides Hindi cinema, Lahiri was a prominent figure in Bengali cinema. His noted Bengali films include ‘Amar Sangee’, ‘Asha O Bhalobasha’, ‘Aamar Tumi’, ‘Amar Prem’, ‘Raktelekha’, ‘Priya’ and more.

Bappi Lahiri was the son of noted Bengali musicians Aparesh Lahiri and Bansuri Lahiri. Late singer Kishore Kumar was his maternal uncle. He reportedly learned to play Tabla at the age of 3.
Bappi Lahiri is survived by two children, a son Bappa Lahiri and a daughter Rema Lahiri.

Feb 25,2024: Kumar Shahani, the pole star of the parallel cinema movement in India, passed away in Kolkata on Sunday at 83 due to age-related illness. He was always a critic’s choice. He captured the truth in every frame and his distinct portrayal of the changing human condition in Maya Darpan (1972), Tarang (1984) and Kasba (1990) has withstood the test of time.

Having resisted the temptations of popular taste, he would build half the bridge, offer his hand, and then expect his audience to embrace his unique point of view. For him, it was not just the individuality of a person that had to be respected and reflected but also that of the objects that surrounded him and the events that he was part of. He would often say self-realisation didn’t come from taking a selfie.

Born in Larkana in the Sindh region of undivided India, Shahani’s family shifted to Mumbai after Partition via Karachi. He found his voice at the Poona Film Institute under the guidance of the maverick Ritwik Ghatak and Marxist historian D.D. Kosambi, who helped shape his worldview. A strong critic of the manipulative power of capitalism, his works echoed the concerns and compromises of the working class, without being didactic.
Shahani went to Paris on a French government scholarship and assisted Robert Bresson on Une Femme Douce (1969). He experienced the student unrest of May 1968 against capitalism, consumerism, and American imperialism. Strictly against the commodification of emotions, he was inspired by the minimalism of European masters but did not shun decorative metaphors that defined the Indian tradition altogether. Having studied the epic tradition in Hindu and Buddhist mythology and iconography as part of the Homi Bhaba scholarship, the amalgam of European formalism and Indian mythology and music resulted in a unique visual signature where no ism screamed for attention. Against putting cinema into brackets of parallel and commercial, Shahani often praised the contribution of Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar but maintained that popular cinema should make an effort to look beyond the image.

The connoisseurs of cinema loved to engage with his contemplative imagery, brought to life by his friend and trusted cinematographer K.K. Mahajan, that was not bound by geographical boundaries. When he emerged on the scene with Maya Darpan, his distinct voice was recognised as a breakthrough in cinematic language in the European and American circuits. Though the film that dealt with a woman’s desire caught in a feudal society won him the National Film Award, he found resistance on his home turf and it took him 12 years to mount his next film, Tarang, where he astutely examined the class struggle in a capitalist society functioning under the garb of democratic socialism.
In love with literary sources, for Maya Darpan, Shahani drew from Nirmal Verma’s short story but gave it his interpretation, which the author took time to come to terms with. In Tarang, Janaki’s character recalls the mythical Urvashi analysed by Kosambi in Myth And Reality. In Kasba, he reimagined Chekov’s In the Ravine in the Indian milieu to tell the tale of a local businessman who indulges in malpractices, and Char Adhyay was based on Rabindranath Tagore’s novel. However, the availability of funds proved to be a lifelong hurdle, as many of his ambitious ideas, including an adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, could not fructify.

Another remarkable feature of his work is the seamless integration of Indian classical music, dance, and visual arts in his storytelling. In Khayal Gatha, he traces the history of the Khayal genre of Indian classical music. His seminal documentary Bhavanatarana, on the legendary Odissi exponent Kelucharan Mohapatra, continues to inspire, and so does The Bamboo Flute, his tribute to the Indian flute.

Shahani introduced talents like Rajat Kapoor and Mita Vashisht, and worked with mainstream actors Amol Palekar, Girish Karnad, Smita Patil, and Shatrughan Sinha without pandering to their star image.

When cinema is reduced to just a utilitarian device, Shahani will be missed but then his ideas will live on through his students, including Rajat Kapoor, Fareeda Mehta, Paresh Kamdar, and Gurvinder Singh.(courtesy: The Hindu)

Feb 03,2023: Dadasaheb Phalke awardee and renowned director Kasinadhuni Viswanath died on late Thursday at a private hospital in Hyderabad.Viswanath, popularly known as ‘Kalatapasvi’, was born in February 1930 in Andhra Pradesh.He was 92. Several celebs expressed their grief over his death.He was 92. The five-time national award winner was suffering from age-related ailments.
A prominent name not just in Telugu cinema but also in Tamil and Hindi films, he became the 48th recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke award, the highest recognition in Indian cinema.
Viswanath, who started his journey as a sound artiste, directed award-winning films such as “Sankarabharanam”, “Sagara Sangamam”, “Swati Mutyam”, “Saptapadi”, “Kaamchor”, “Sanjog” and “Jaag Utha Insaan” in his long career that included an equally successful stint in front of the camera.
K. Viswanath made his Bollywood debut with 1979 film Sargam, which was a remake of his own movie Siri Siri Muvva. Some of his other popular Hindi films include Kaamchor, Shubh Kaamna, Jaag Utha Insan, Sanjog, Eeshwar and Dhanwaan.
His other honours include Padma Shri in 1992, five National Awards, 20 Nandi Awards (given by the Andhra Pradesh government) and 10 Filmfare trophies including the Lifetime Achievement award.
Viswanath, who made 50 movies since 1965. He was a celebrated filmmaker in the Telugu film industry and had also been active in Tamil and Hindi cinema.