 a thriller co-starring Kannada actor Daali Dhananjaya. The makers of the film made this announcement with a title animation video. 

"Presenting my next directorial '666 Operation Dream Theatre' with the incredible 

 Check out the title animation," Rao wrote on Twitter. The teaser was launched on June 18 to mark the 40th anniversary of Rajkumar's Kannada film 

Frequent collaborators Charan Raj and Advaitha Gurumurthy reunite with Rao for the film (their last work together was in the 

 films) on music and cinematography, respectively. Vishwas Kashyap, known for his work in 

(2023), is the art director. Without revealing too much, the title teaser creates intrigue with a razor-sharp 70s thriller aesthetic. 

 is produced by Dr Vaishak J Gowda under his Vaishak J Films banner.

Rao recently started a new production venture, Dakshayani Talkies, named after his mother, producing his first Kannada film, 

Fundamentally, I want to be in the pursuit of storytelling and tell stories of all kinds, small and big. If there’s a good story out there, we (Dakshayani Talkies) want to mount and lend a platform to it because storytelling is an important art form. Cinema also has economics attached to it, so it’s important to strike a balance between art and commerce—films often outlive their box-office performance, so we want to tell stories that help us sustain financially but also create a long-lasting impact," Rao told 

'666 Operation Dream Theatre': Shivarajkumar and Daali Dhananjaya To Star In Hemanth M Rao's Film

A couple of months ago, I went down a Himesh Reshammiya rabbit hole. The trigger? A video by Yashraj Mukhate — the YouTube creator known for viral music riffs — performing a 15-minute medley of Reshammiya’s songs most people didn’t even realise he’d composed. The video serves as a reminder of just how prolific the singer-composer-actor has been, and how many of his tunes have lodged themselves in our popular imagination. These aren’t tracks critics typically cite when discussing the best music of the 2000s. Yet when we hear them now, in 2025, they hit like dopamine shots we didn’t know we needed.

The frenzy around his CapMania tour this year confirms what’s been building quietly for a while: Reshammiya is having a full-blown resurgence. His social media currency has been steadily rising. He’s become a meme, the subject of affectionate online irony, with Instagram pages like “Himesh Doing Things” chronicling well, Himesh doing things. Earlier this year, he starred in 

 playing a spoofy version of his own persona — proof that he’s in on the joke and still very much in the game.

All of which makes this the perfect moment to talk about Reshammiya the composer — what he originally was, and what he excelled at. Because before the memes and the movies and the trademark caps, there was the music — and it was everywhere.

Listening to those songs again during my YouTube spiral, I found unexpected solace in the comments section, where strangers left notes on the pleasures of pop. Someone reminisced about the era of the music TV channel 9XM and Nokia phones. Another asked, “Who is listening in 2024?” Almost everyone agreed that “Lord Himesh supremacy is undisputed.” But it isn’t just nostalgia at work here. There’s something structurally satisfying about these songs — that heady mix of repetition, murkhiyas (those ornamental flourishes), and solid hooks. Reshammiya could build entire compositions around a single melodic line, then craft variations that made you anticipate the return. Basic compositional technique, perhaps, but executed with the kind of musical intuition that can’t be taught.

It’s useful to view Reshammiya’s career in two acts: before and after

 (2005), sweetly timed in the middle of the 2000s. That’s when he started singing his own compositions, and soon enough, transformed into a pop phenomenon. Until then, he’d enjoyed a pretty solid career — winning a Filmfare for “Tere Naam” (2003), his breakthrough album. That soundtrack exemplified the ’90s tabla-dholak influences he’d carried into the 2000s, even as he was simultaneously showing newer instincts in other films with bangers such as “Janabe Ali” and “Bardaasht Nahi Kar Sakta.”

Looking back, this period seems like the prelude to peak Reshammiya — between 2005 and 2008 — when he sang an insane number of songs and became a certified hit machine. He wasn’t a technically great singer — nasal, one-note, often loud — but the conviction was undeniable. When he sang his own songs, voice and melody fused in a way no playback singer could replicate.

 (2007), one of his “classier” outings, where Reshammiya’s tendency to stretch vowels gives the melody an unusual shape. Or consider the creative clipping of syllables in “A–a–aashiqui mein teri” from 

(2006). It’s almost as though Reshammiya the singer liberated Reshammiya the composer. Together, they were unstoppable.

Then came the downfall. The Himesh Reshammiya persona — the capped, stubbled crooner, holding his mic at that signature angle — had grown too large. The “trend” became tiring; there was simply too much of him. Worse, his ambitions of movie stardom took over, each film a bigger vanity project than the last. The composer started fading from the scene. In the 2010s, he’d occasionally resurface to prove he still had it — the addictive “Hookah Bar” from 2012’s 

 (2015) — but it seemed Reshammiya would never be culturally relevant again.

Until his CapMania tour was announced in April 2025. It was sold out within hours. In Mumbai and Delhi, where the concerts took place, the audience — millennials and Gen Z alike — went nuts. Reshammiya was back in his element.

“Naak se gaaon kya (should I sing through my nose)?” he asked the crowd at one concert, ready to make fun of himself. Except there isn’t much to mock anymore. Because when the beat drops and that melody line kicks in, it isn’t irony we feel — it’s muscle memory. It’s the recognition that these songs, dismissed for years as guilty pleasures, were never guilty at all. They were just pleasures, pure and simple.  

To read more exclusive stories from The Hollywood Reporter India's December 2025 print issue, pick up a copy of the magazine from your nearest book store or newspaper stand.

Himesh Reshammiya: Uncapping the Pop-Culture Icon's Full-Blown Resurgence in 2025

If one were to make the bold prediction that Aditya Dhar’s spy actioner 

, in its third weekend, would outperform James Cameron’s globally awaited 

in its debut weekend by a huge margin, it would have been met with ridicule. But that is exactly what happened at the Indian box-office. The Ranveer Singh–led film not only remained unstoppable but also scripted new records, leaving the Hollywood spectacle far behind.

minted ₹19 crore on Friday, half of what 

had earned in 2022. The film then recorded jumps the next two days, when it netted ₹22.5 crore and 25.75 crore on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. 

including all languages, stands at ₹67 crore as per trade estimates. The film faced stiff competition with 

which dominated even in its third weekend with historic collections. 

Between Friday and Sunday, the film netted ₹99 crore, setting a new record for the best third weekend of all time, overtaking the previous benchmark set by Vicky Kaushal-led 

has been on a rampage at the box-office, putting up ₹218 crore in week one, followed by ₹261 crore, according to the official figures. With the third weekend collections, the film has now put up a total of ₹579 crore and is going to go past the ₹700 crore mark as per the current trend.

The film will be on track to dominate even during the Christmas holidays. The only new film it will face will be romantic comedy 

opening on December 25. The film stars Kartik Aaryan and Ananya Panday and is directed by Sameer Vidwans, who had helmed the 2023 romantic drama 

'Dhurandhar' Box-Office: Ranveer Singh Actioner Overshadows 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' With ₹99 Crore Weekend 

Three years after he first went to court, actor Sivakarthikeyan has once again filed a case against Studio Green’s K. E. Gnanavel Raja for unpaid dues. He had acted in the production company film 

, which had become a box office failure. In a report in 

, it has been said that an amount of ₹4 crore remains unpaid on what was promised to be a sum of ₹15 crore. Of this, ₹1 crore was said to have been given to him before the release of the film, but even that payment was said to have been missed by the producer. In 2022, the actor had alleged that Studio Green had not remitted Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) to the Income Tax Department upon the agreed sum of ₹15 crore. 

 directed by Sudha Kongara, is slated for release on January 10, 2026.

Studio Green has already been in the news for constant delays in the release of their Karthi film 

, again owning to financial pressures. Last year they had produced both Vikram’s 

, both of which are said to have underperformed at the domestic box office. Just days before Karthi’s 

was set to release on December 5 and then on December 12, the makers have decided yet again to back out and push its release. 

The film is directed by Nalan Kumarasamy, whose last directorial feature 

released in 2016. Karthi’s last theatrical release was 2024’s 

 The posters of the film revealed Karthi in the attire of a police officer and the songs from the film have gone on to become popular. The music is by Santosh Narayanan. The film’s first single ‘Uyir Pathikaama’ was released over six months ago.

Sivakarthikeyan Approaches High Court Alleging Unpaid Dues Amounting To ₹15 Crore

After several delays faced during production, the makers have finally been in full swing promoting their new mega budget horror comedy starring Prabhas in multiple roles. According to recent reports, the film is on its way to get censored this week, almost three weeks before release. The team is doing this to avoid any further delays as there are many films eyeing the same Sankranthi release weekend of January 2026. 

Actor Nidhhi Agerwal was surrounded by a large crowd at Hyderabad’s Lulu Mall during the launch of a song from her upcoming film 

, prompting questions about crowd control and event safety. Videos of the incident, widely shared on social media, show the actor appearing visibly distressed as fans surged around her, attempting to take photographs and move closer.

The promotional event, which was attended by Agerwal and her co-star Prabhas, drew hundreds of people to the mall for the launch of the song 

. What was intended as a brief public appearance quickly escalated as the crowd swelled, leaving the actor hemmed in on all sides. In footage circulating online, Agerwal can be seen struggling to make her way through the gathering as fans pressed in, breaching her personal space.

was released on the evening of September 29, where fans of the actor got to witness the dual sides of their star. The film, which features Prabhas in two roles, showed us glimpses of his contrasting characters in the trailer. As the younger guy who has to navigate a house of horrors, Prabhas is suave and funny. "I must do something unforgettable. Everyone must be stunned thinking 'how this guy pulled it off, '" he says in the trailer. 

But in his secondary role, Prabhas appears with silver hair and a devilish grin plastered on his face. "I'm the demon," he says, smoking a cigar.  The film, directed by Maruthi, will be out in theatres on January 9, 2026. The trailer also features other prominent actors such as Sanjay Dutt, Boman Irani, and Zareena Wahab.

Prabhas' 'The Raja Saab' To Complete Censor Formalities Before Schedule 

, director Khalid Rahman will work once again with 

 for a film that will be produced by Shareef Mohammad of Cubes Entertainment. 

, which released in 2019, was about a team of ill-equipped police officers having to travel to Chhattisgarh during a crisis. Khalid Rahman’s most recent release was this year’s superhit 

. As for Mammootty, his serial killer drama 

is still running successfully in theatres.

 with Unni Mukundan and an upcoming high budget action film starring Anthony Pepe, now titled 

, is said to have modelled their third film around the fictionalised idea of an Indian Pablo Escobar. Cubes’ current under-production film, titled 

, is said to be made at a budget of ₹50 crore. Their first film 

had grossed more than ₹100 crore and it became the highest grossing Malayalam film in the Hindi speaking markets.

Mammootty had recently left for London to rejoin the shoot of Patriot and then followed that with a short cameo shoot for 

. The star had joined the same film’s sets on the first week of October— his first after a five-month break from acting in movies. He completed this leg on October 8. The London schedule is expected to begin on October 15.  The teaser of the film was released last week. The film promises to be an intense, politically-charged thriller, and a treat for fans of the superstars. Apart from stalwarts 

, the film’s cast also includes Fahadh Faasil, Nayanthara, Revathy and Kunchacko Boban. 

 is backed by Anto Joseph Productions and has music by composer Sushin Shyam.

collaboration between director Adoor Gopalakrishnan

, the master director has also confirmed that his next film will be with the star. He was speaking on the sidelines of a literary event organised in Kerala, and he confirmed this to 

. He went on to add that he kept thinking of Mammootty as he worked on this script and said he couldn’t picture anyone else in that role. He also said that Mammootty had not only agreed to act in the movie but that he would also produce their collaboration under his production company, Mammootty Kampany.

Khalid Rahman To Direct Mammootty Film With 'Marco' Producer

's upcoming film with director Vignesh Raja announced that they have wrapped up the film. "

 for us! Moments from the set with our Dear D and the entire team! 

," wrote Think Studios on X. In the pictures shared by the producers, Dhanush, Vignesh and Mamitha Baiju can be seen celebrating the occasion with the team with a cake.

The film will be written by Vignesh Raja and Alfred Prakash. Theni Eswar, Sreejith Sarang and Mayapandi will make up the remaining technical crew. Vignesh grew to fame for directing the investigative thriller 

, co-starring Ashok Selvan and Sarathkumar in 2023.

The film also marks Vels Films International's first association with actor 

Written by Himanshu Sharma and Neeraj Yadav, 

also stars Prakash Raj, Ravi Kishan and Priyanshu Painyulli. With music by AR Rahman and lyrics by Irshad Kamil, the film is produced by T-Series and Colour Yellow Productions. Headlined by 

, the film may have opened to negative reviews, but that had little impact on the ground as the film has been steadily netting collections.

is the first ₹100 crore Bollywood grosser for Dhanush, who has appeared in Hindi titles like 

, which was a direct-to-streaming release during the pandemic.

Mamitha Baiju, on the other hand, was last seen in Pradeep Ranganathan's 

, a Tamil comedy drama. Mamitha, who grew to fame for her role in 

, which is headed for a January release next year. The film also co-stars Pooja Hegde, Bobby Deol, and Prakash Raj.

'D54': Dhanush and Mamitha Baiju Movie Wraps Up Filming

Introducing Kiara Advani as NADIA in - A Toxic Fairy Tale For Grown-Ups 

," Yash wrote on X, along with a poster of the actress in the film. Advani, seen in an off-shoulder gown, gaping at a mystical 

Cirque du Soleil-like atmosphere, is seen with streaks of mascara tears on her face. 

The makers of Toxic: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups

kicked off the release countdown for the film earlier this month and revealed a new poster showcasing 'Rocking Star' Yash in an intense avatar, teasing his rugged look as he poses in a bloody bathtub, flexing his chiselled biceps. Though his face is not visible, Yash is seen gazing outside, his body adorned with tattoos.

Along with the poster, the team spotlighted the accomplished technicians shaping the film’s ambitious vision. National Award winner Rajeev Ravi leads the cinematography, while the music is composed by Ravi Basrur, known for his previous collaboration with Yash on 

. Ujwal Kulkarni oversees the editing, while TP Abid is heading the production design.

will release during a festive period, overlapping with Gudi Padwa, Ugadi, and Eid, which offers a strong four-day holiday box-office window. The upcoming action thriller will be the first film of Yash since he found nationwide popularity with the blockbuster 

has been filmed simultaneously in English and Kannada and will also be dubbed in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, and more. The film is being produced by Venkat K. Narayana and Yash under KVN Productions and Monster Mind Creations.

'Toxic': Kiara Advani Is Nadia In The Yash Film

Acclaimed Malayalam actor, writer and filmmaker Sreenivasan, who has been a stalwart of the industry for decades now, passed away in Kochi on Saturday (December 20, 2025) at the age of 69.

Sreenivasan had been suffering from cardiac ailments earlier, and he breathed his last on Saturday. His cremation will be held at 10 a.m on Sunday at his residence in Kandanadu near Thripunitura.

The icon had acted in over 220 films in five decades, and is survived by 

his wife, Vimala Sreenivasan, and sons, Vineeth Sreenivasan and Dhyan Sreenivasan, who are also part of the film industry. 

Sreenivasan often shared screen space with the likes of Mammootty and Mohanlal. Apart from his acting roles, his

 the National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues) 

were acclaimed critically and commercially. As a writer, his collaborations with notable directors like Priyadarshan, Kamal and Sathyan Anthikad changed the landscape of the Malayalam industry with films such as 

. His last film written for Anthikad was 

(2018) starring Fahadh Faasil in the lead role. 

Sreenivasan also won numerous awards, including a National Film Award and six Kerala State Film Awards. He was last seen as an actor in the Malayalam films 

His passing away prompted reactions from several members of the film fraternity. 

Singer K.S. Chithra took to X and wrote, “I am deeply saddened to hear about Sreenivas sir’s passing. I was fortunate enough to sing for so many of his movies. My thoughts and prayers are with his family during this difficult time.”

Actor-director Basil Joseph posted on Instagram, “Srini sir, thank you for all the laughter and warmth you gave us. You were a big part of our childhood and our happiest memories. You may be gone, but you will always live on through your work. Rest in peace, legend.”

ilmmaker Sathyan Anthikad, who was one of Sreenivasan's closest collaborators, reacted to the news and told reporters, “I’m in a situation where I can’t respond. We have had a strong bond with each other. I used to visit him once in two weeks (since he became ill). I never thought he would leave this soon."

Sreenivasan, Acclaimed Malayalam Actor-Writer, Passes Away

 can articulate what bothers him most about film discourse today. “This perception that a good film is the one that does good numbers at the box office, that perception is very hard to fight,” he says.

According to Ghaywan, even within the industry, the obsession with numbers has become inescapable. “We may all talk about it and feel good about it, but people out there are thinking only in terms of numbers,” he says. The fixation, he adds, isn’t casual or occasional. “Everybody I talk to is talking about numbers. They’re ferociously looking at them every day.”

What troubles him most is how that fixation has shifted influence. “I think our country is probably the only one where trade analysts are more famous than critics. Their word is taken more seriously than critics. That is the sad part,” Ghaywan says. 

The consequence, he believes, is a narrowing of the cultural conversation around cinema. Instead of discussing feeling or intent, the industry and its audience increasingly measure films by opening weekends and lifetime totals. “We’re constantly trying to find where we stand with numbers,” he says, questioning what those figures actually represent beyond scale.

Ghaywan argues that this constant score-keeping has changed behaviour as well as perception. “We should start a culture of not talking so much about numbers. Not obsessing about them. Not making big banners about 100 crores, 500 crores,” he adds.

Still, he is realistic about how entrenched this mindset has become. “There’s just no solution for it,” he admits. For the 

director, the real loss lies in what gets sidelined when figures take over the conversation. Films stop being talked about as films. They turn into tallies. And in that shift, the idea of what makes a film meaningful quietly slips out of focus.

Neeraj Ghaywan on India's Box-Office Obsession: ‘Only Country Where Trade Analysts are More Famous Than Critics’

doesn’t shy away from the word failure. Asked about the box-office fate of 

, the filmmaker speaks with a mix of candour and acceptance. “I think you can cook a blockbuster. You put in a few formulas,” she says. Making a good film, she believes, is harder. “That has to come from inside. You can’t reverse engineer a good film. Reverse engineered films sometimes work, but will those films last for 10, 15, 25 years? I don’t know,” she says.

For Kagti, the real lessons have come from the films that didn’t work commercially. “Failure has taught me more than any success. I think I’m the most successful failure,” she says with a laugh.  

 failed to find an audience in theatres, the disappointment was real. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed. I believe it was one of the lowest openers or enders,” she admits. At the same time, she points to the affection the film continues to receive. “I also got the most amount of love for it. So you kind of need to balance things out.”

That balance, she says, comes from knowing the kind of filmmaker she is. “I don’t see myself making a film that’s engineered just to do well. I’m just not that kind of writer or director,” she says. What she is willing to do is consistently make films she feels deeply connected to. “I’ll always do something I have a strong connection to and hope for the best.”

Kagti also stresses the importance of the process itself. “It’s really important to enjoy writing it, making it and putting it out there. Because sometimes that’s all you get,” she says. 

Moving on from failure is never instant. “You’re not okay the next day. It does take time,” she says. Experience helps, but the feeling never fully disappears. “It never goes,” she admits. What stays, though, are the moments of recognition. “If someone comes to you even after ten years and says that film of yours was very good, that really matters,” she says.

Reema Kagti on Box-Office Performance of 'Superboys of Malegaon: ‘I’m The Most Successful Failure'

 made a choice that runs counter to almost every instinct of Indian cinema. The film has no songs. It does not even have background music. And he never doubted it. “No. Not at all,” he says, when asked if the decision ever made him second-guess himself. “Because most of the decisions happen even before I write the script. After that, no. This is how I’ve written it,” he adds.

The resistance, however, began early. “We were about fifteen days into the shoot and one of the executive producers said, ‘I think we need a song in the film,’” he recalls. The suggestions only got more specific. “Someone even said we at least need a flute. I said no, nothing,” he says with a laugh.

For Kanawade, the absence of music was not an aesthetic experiment. It was baked into the writing and the way the film was shot. “Thinking that there’s not going to be any background music, you shoot it that way. You have those silences. You create those moments. You incorporate sound design. After that, you cannot have background music in it,” he explains.

Even the end credits were not spared. “People thought maybe at least there will be music there. Nothing happened there either,” he adds. The only concession came through sound design. Anirban Borthakur

and Naren Chandavarkar, who worked on the film’s sound, suggested leaning into what was already present. “They came up with the idea of using bird sounds and tree rustling. We already had it in the film. We just started using it slowly and gently,” Kanawade says.

That decision, too, came from an emotional place rather than a technical one. “I wanted to create a feeling of how it sounds when you’re really with your lover, just sitting and talking. Or when you’re talking to your mother on the veranda. How does the world sound then? Maybe they’ve lived a moment like this. With their mother, father, anyone,” he says.

“It was a difficult decision. Not to make, but to explain,” he admits. What made it possible, finally, was trust. “Thankfully, my producers were okay with it.”

Rohan Kanawade on Making a Love Story Without Music in ‘Sabar Bonda’: ‘It was a Difficult Decision — Not to Make, but to Explain’

, music has never been an add-on. It is not something sprinkled over a finished film. He does not use music as garnish, but as screenplay.

Suri traces this belief back to his very first film in 

, when he was still figuring out how to tell stories on screen. He recalls writing about a couple going through a rough phase in their relationship, travelling together while working on a case. “It was a simple crime film. But I couldn’t crack it in the script. I was so young, I didn’t know how the actors would carry it,” he says.

 “That one song over five minutes said so much more than how many scenes I could have written between them. So subtly, but so effectively. That was the eureka moment,” he says.

From then on, music became part of his writing process. “Wherever I get stuck, I realise, okay, this is a song. I actually work on my music while I’m writing the film.” Suri explains. He adds that he does not move ahead in the script until he has at least a scratch version of the song in place. “It’s literally like a scene. It’s part of the writing process. It’s a key thing.”

Ironically, he says, this approach now creates a different kind of problem. “People tell me, make it a little less like a scene and more like a song. But it’s a good problem to have,” he says. 

Suri is also clear about what he does not chase. “I’ve never put pressure on a music director saying, give me a super hit song. I’ve always asked for a song that works for the situation,” he says. He pushes back against the assumption that he goes hunting for chartbusters. “Everyone thinks I do that; I honestly don’t.”

 as an example. “People kept saying, why are you talking about a song where someone’s crying and dying? But it just worked for my film,” he recalls. 

. When he heard a rough version sung by Kashmiri musicians, he knew it belonged in the film, even if others were unsure. “I told the Yash Raj people, this is the song. They probably thought I was mad,” he smiles.

'Zeher,' 'Saiyaara' and More: Mohit Suri Explains How He Uses Music As A Storytelling Tool

If directing often looks like the hardest part of making a film, 

 is quick to disagree. “I think writing is the most difficult process while making a film. For me, writing was a big struggle,” he says.

That struggle stretched across years. Arun reveals that 

 went through nearly two dozen drafts before it reached the version that was finally shot. “We had written around 23 drafts before we shot the film. And that took at least three years of time,” he adds.

The long writing process, he explains, was about finding clarity. “It was just about getting everything right, at least what we believe is the film that we want to make,” he says. Having the right collaborators was crucial to surviving that phase. Arun credits Santhy Balachandran as a key creative partner during the screenplay stage. “I had a great collaborator in Santhy to help me with the screenplay of the film,” he says.

Once the writing was locked, the rest of the process felt lighter by comparison. “Directing is much more easier,” Arun admits. The reason, he says, was the team around him. “I had a great team, I think one of the best teams in our industry.” 

Writing, however, remained emotionally taxing till the very end. “There are days that you feel like this is something that you cannot do,” he says, describing the familiar paralysis that sets in during long development phases. The self-doubt, he adds, is relentless. “And then there are good days as well.”

That cycle of doubt and small breakthroughs is something Arun believes every writer experiences. 

 needed time because the story needed time to settle. It demanded patience and the willingness to stay with uncertainty for years before the answers became clear. Looking back, the 23 drafts do not feel excessive to him. For Arun, writing was not just one step before directing began; it was where the film truly took shape

Dominic Arun on 'Lokah': ‘We Wrote Around 23 Drafts Before We Shot the Film’

 says he knew would be difficult the moment he wrote it. “The toughest scene, which was pretty gut-wrenching for both Rashmika and me, was the door sequence. That was the seed of the film. It was something I had seen in my own life,” he says.

 character encounters abuse written across her dorm room door. For Ravindran, it wasn’t something that could be performed at a distance. During prep, he made a conscious choice. “For this one scene, I told her I’m not going to ask you to think like Bhooma, I’m going to ask you to think like Rashmika,” he recalls.

What followed was a conversation that went far beyond the script. “I asked her to remember every single time someone’s abused you, even random strangers coming and throwing abuses at you,” he says.

Ravindran speaks about Mandanna’s instinct to mask hurt with optimism. “I know you’re the kind of person who’ll take all of it in and it manifests somehow, miraculously, as a smile,” he had told her. For this moment, he asked her to put that aside. “I told her to set that aside, take all that in and let it come out.”

To preserve the rawness of the reaction, Mandanna wasn’t shown the door beforehand. “The first time she actually saw the door was on camera,” Ravindran says. They spoke for nearly half an hour before the take. When the shot ended, he immediately sensed something was wrong. “I didn’t even say ‘Take Okay’. I just went to the door and went inside,” he recalls.

Inside, Mandanna had collapsed. “She was a mess. She was broken. She was sobbing uncontrollably. For about 20 minutes, she just kept sobbing,” he says. What surfaced, he believes, was long-buried. “Something very deep seated came out because I asked her to let go. Something she’d been burying for years.”

Rahul Ravindran Recalls Scene in ‘The Girlfriend’ That Shook Rashmika Mandanna: ‘She was Broken, She was Sobbing Uncontrollably’

In this business, desire is a suspicious currency. We are professionally (and defensively) trained to keep it at arm’s length. To interrogate the screenplay, to question narrative worth, to ask whether the feeling is “earned.” What if the writing collapses? What if the character exists only as a mood board? What if the story itself is not something you’d publicly endorse?

Crushes are gloriously unbothered by logic. Desire sneaks in through the fissures. It ambushes even the most disciplined critic, settling somewhere near the collarbone, lighting up the parts of us that don’t usually get column inches.

We spend so much time celebrating excellence that we forget to make space for softness — irrational, persistent, deeply unserious softness. So at 

, we decided to suspend good behaviour. Briefly. Tenderness, after all, deserves a seat at the table.

Here are our screen crushes of 2025 (be still, my beating heart):

Dev arrived early in the year and refused to leave — a volatile cop with partial memory loss, a permanently clenched jaw, and tight, 

khaki pants doing far more narrative work than strictly required. Kapoor wears the uniform like a second skin, the fit precise enough to feel almost aggressive in its own right (stop. Focus). It is, regrettably, impossible not to notice how perfectly those trousers hold their shape, and his. Okay. I’ll stop. Kapoor plays him as a walking contradiction. He leans fully into the greys with such ease that you’re convinced you’ve met this man before, probably to your own detriment. Dev is very much a red flag, but one rendered with such tactile specificity that resistance feels pointless. After 

, there was a solemn vow to retire any affection for men with violent streaks. That vow did not survive 

. It may be the posture. It may be the haunted eyes. It may, frankly, still be the pants. Those perfect — okay, I said I’d stop. 

Motion capture has rarely carried this much charge. Oona Chaplin infuses Varang — the ferocious leader of the Ash People — with a magnetism so potent it cuts straight through pixels. Her sensuality is a threat, her power is dangerously alluring. She is ruthless, commanding, and unapologetically violent — okay, 

 I have a problem. But Varang is fluent in dark arts and she is spellbinding. The film is fully aware of the erotic undercurrent it’s playing with, letting Varang exist as a figure of dominance. You have to submit to her. Eyes locked. Brain off. Respectfully undone. 

A generational crush, ala Hrithik Roshan, aka Rajesh Khanna, Ahaan Panday and his green-flag boyfriend—who lets go of his career to nurse his girlfriend whom he doesn’t mind marrying, really, it is just a formality—in 

set a blueprint for desire at a time when masculinity was coming undone, with rage and restlessness becoming the image in which most men want to be made. Panday's yearning performance in that deep and confident voice, and his physicality —a small mouth and searching eyes, a body that isn’t shredded but one that tries—came together to etch a paw-licking character that made yearning and brooding sexy, but also, tender. No woman was harmed in the making of this man. 

He definitely isn't your standard definition of hot. On-screen, he looks anywhere between 35 and 65, which is honestly part of the appeal — mysterious and tax-bracket-fluid. The man can act, obviously. But damn, Jaideep Ahlawat can dance too? The better-forgotten 

on Netflix this year thrust him into the limelight as a gangster with smooth moves. The movie tanked harder than our annual New Year's resolutions, but Ahlawat definitely did some "Jaadu"— on us and our unsuspecting hearts. He closed out the year in 

, playing another gangster, this time with a ponytail. Which somehow made him hotter? We don't make the rules. There's just something about a man who can threaten someone's life and nail a complicated dance sequence in the same year. The confidence, the rhythm, the vague danger — we love it all. 

We fell in love with the father, and now we love the son. Nope, it isn't Saif Ali Khan and Ibrahim. It's Steve Irwin's son, Robert. He's a wildlife photographer, an actor, he loves animals, and literally has his own zoo. You know, normal guy stuff. He broke the internet back in April when he posed with spiders, snakes and lizards for underwear brand Bondi, proving that the real danger is how good he looked doing it. Oh, and he won the latest season of 

. So what if he's a little young? After all, what's not to love about a man from Down Under who loves being shirtless, wrestles crocodiles and has better hair than us? Crikey, indeed. 

There’s something timeless about Bhagyashri’s beauty. When you see her, you feel like her beauty can only be fully contained on CinemaScope. The vertical frames of Instagram, struggle to capture the essence of her smile and a set of eyes, backlighting seems to have been invented for. In monochrome, her allure feels like the result of subtlety rather than spectacle. You may search for newer words to describe this quality, but you keep falling back on one we seldom use to describe actors today: graceful. And as Kumari in 

, you understand why the country’s biggest superstar would lose it all for her and why her mentor puts everything at stake, trusting almost entirely her beauty. 

It takes a certain type of whimsy and security to make a character like Chaathan

work, and Tovino, in just a tight runtime, displays luscious possession of both. Chaathan isn’t just a harmless trickster; he's someone with the ability to take down half the world, buried within him. A blend of Quicksilver and 

’s Loki, his modus operandi might be bubble guns, smokescreens and a hall of mirrors, but he cautions us not to be fooled by the tomfoolery. His gold-toothed smile hides a wickedness we don’t know anything about (and will probably be familiar with in his standalone movie in the universe). The man has a god complex and courts the wrong woman. But he chivalrously backs off. Well, after a tight slap. — 

Ishaan Khatter has always had 'rizz', but 2025 is the year it finally developed teeth. Ever since he first showed up in

, he’s been filed under “cute, talented, will probably break out any minute.” This year, he did. Could anyone forget a shirtless Ishaan Khatter riding a horse in his opening shot in 

? He played the role of the brattish, young Price Aviraaj 'Fizzy' Singh with every bit the conviction he did Mohammed Shoib Ali in 

 — a heart-wrenching portrayal that had everyone reaching for tissues. The charm is effortless, the chemistry criminal, and the screen presence? Let’s just say that if 2025 needed a new heartthrob to destabilise the crowd, Khatter understood the assignment and turned it in early.— 

 might have been a damn squib overall, but Nagarjuna sashayed into everyone's hearts (again) with the same arrogance and ease he's been brandishing for five decades. Simon's characterisation was undeniably short-charged, but the 66-year-old's moves in the 

theme (Ani with another banger) had a new generation of fans swooning over him - and then some. If only some of that swag had rubbed off on Dahaa too. — 

Kannada film duology a couple of years ago, Rukmini endeared to Tamil audiences this year not just with her roles in 

, but also her witty, funny and charming press tour in which she was an absolute delight. Then came her regal turn as Kanakavathi in 

, and there was no looking back for the RADA-trained star. If you thought she couldn't get more captivating, she's turning Mani Ratnam heroine next… — 

Painfully self-aware, self-deprecating and self-indulgent, Rachel Sennott's new comedy 

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