Comedian and actor Kapil Sharma’s popular talk show, 

 report, the maiden season garnered 4.6 million views, and managed to find a place in the top 10 per cent of Netflix’s series titles. 

The first episode of the new second season saw celebrity guests 

, Vasan Bala and Vedang Raina promoting their upcoming film 

 favourite standout moments from the episode.

Kicking off the episode with his signature stand-up routine, Sharma made his first set about the diversity and dichotomy of India — filled with praise and satire. This season brings some snazzy post-production magic. The addition of VFX has elevated Sharma’s stand-up routine, including a hilarious moment, where two versions of Sharma engage in a witty back-and-forth. The show is constantly evolving while staying true to its roots.

Johar candidly shared an anecdote about Bhatt, whom he considers his "first daughter." When Bhatt was auditioning for 

 (2012), she was put on a restrictive diet before a look test. Johar had brought her a cupcake to celebrate her casting — and the first thing Bhatt asked when he broke the news was, “Can I eat this?” The anecdote brought a smile to everyone’s face.

‘The Great Indian Kapil Show’ Season Two Doubles the Laughs

The Hollywood Reporter India’s Creator A-List 2025, in collaboration with Ormax Media, ranks India’s 50 most influential digital creators who have redefined and expanded the meaning of entertainment not just in the country, but globally..

India’s creator economy is no longer a fringe curiosity; it is a vast, expanding universe of voices, images, and ideas. As of 2025, between 2 and 2.5 million active creators — each with more than a thousand followers — shape what India watches, wears, eats, and aspires to. Together, they already influence $350 billion to $400 billion in consumer spending, a figure expected to surge beyond $1 trillion by 2030. Within the narrower lens of creator revenues, platforms, and supporting tools, the market itself is valued at $1.46 billion in 2025, and is forecast to grow to $5.93 billion by 2032, riding a compound annual growth rate of 22.2 per cent.

Yet, the true story lies in its uniqueness. Only around 8 to 10 per cent of these millions earn meaningful income today, signalling immense untapped potential. The ecosystem’s vitality also comes from its depth: not just metropolitan stars but tier-2 and tier-3 voices, shaping content in dozens of languages. These forces transform India’s creator economy into both a cultural movement and a trillion-dollar opportunity.

Therefore, what makes this list necessary is not just the scale of the industry, but its transformation of entertainment itself. Creators today are not side acts to celebrity culture; they are its new architects, driving trends that ripple from regional towns to global fashion weeks, from vernacular stand-up clips to K-drama reaction channels with cross-continental appeal. They have become arbiters of taste, curators of aspiration, and entrepreneurs in their own right.

By anchoring the ranking in robust methodology and independent data, THR India ensures the conversation moves beyond hype. The list captures who are shaping discourse, where brands are placing their bets, and how audiences are reimagining their relationship with entertainment. In a moment when influence is currency, the list becomes both record and roadmap for India’s cultural future.

It is designed with a rigorous framework that distinguishes it from simple popularity charts, while deliberately limiting eligibility to those who primarily produce video content for digital platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. By doing so, it excludes established figures like film actors, sportspersons, television and OTT celebrities, politicians, and business leaders. Brand-led accounts are also disregarded, while creator duos are considered as a single unit. News-based creators qualify only if their material is made exclusively for online audiences rather than for television or print.

Five weighted parameters form the backbone of the evaluation process. The follower count, worth 25 per cent of the total score, is taken from whichever platform yields the creator’s highest following. Engagement rate, also worth 25 per cent, is derived from the interaction-to-follower ratio across a creator’s top 10 videos within the previous six months. Audience popularity, which contributes 20 per cent, is measured using Ormax Influencers India Loves, a monthly survey of more than 2,000 people across the country, resulting in 24,000 responses annually. Brand footprint, also weighted at 20 per cent, reflects both the volume and the perceived quality of collaborations undertaken in the last half-year. Finally, industry impact, which accounts for the remaining 10 per cent, assesses wider cultural relevance — such as influence on film, streaming, news, politics, or society — using trends in search activity, social conversations, and sentiment analysis.

The methodology begins with a pool of 200 names, drawn initially from follower count. Each of these is then evaluated against the five criteria. For follower count and engagement rate, the leader in each category receives the full 25 points, and all others are assigned proportionate values. To illustrate: if the highest-followed creator has 100 million followers, one with 40 million earns 10 points. The same proportional approach applies to audience popularity, with the top performer given 20 points and the rest scaled down accordingly. Brand footprint is assessed on two separate sub-parameters — quantity and quality of partnerships — each scored out of 10, for a maximum of 20. Industry impact is judged out of 10 points, based on online trends and sentiment.

Scores across all parameters are combined into a maximum possible total of 100 points. These cumulative scores determine the final ranking of the 50 creators.

Three aspects make the list distinctive. First, it adopts a genuinely holistic approach, factoring in not just numerical strength on social media but also resonance with audiences, partnerships with brands, and influence extending into wider cultural or industry domains. Second, it is the only such ranking in India to integrate primary audience research, thereby capturing a dimension often ignored in digital analysis. Third, the collaboration between THR India and Ormax Media ensures neutrality: neither party has a vested interest in the creator economy, which enhances the credibility and objectivity of the list.

Top 50 Most Influential Creators: Presenting THR India's Creator A-List 2025

A shiver of anticipation always descends on the Croisette this time of year — the sense that cinema, that most resilient of art forms, might yet find new ways to provoke, surprise, and even devastate. After 

 at the Cannes Film Festival last year, she returns this year not with a film, but 

, by brothers Tarzan Nasser, Arab Nasser, excavating trauma with the precision of lived memory.

, the directorial debut of internet heartthrob Harris Dickinson. And 

by the indefatigable Jafar Panahi — who once smuggled a movie out of Iran on a USB stick hidden in a cake. Amid the new, Cannes 2025 finds room for the old: a restored screening of Satyajit Ray’s 1970 classic 

 will finally grace the festival for the first time, as a reminder that cinema’s past still casts its sharpest shadows forward.

Here are the 10 films we’re most looking forward to at this year’s festival:

Neeraj Ghaywan returns to Cannes nearly a decade after 

(2015), armed with a decade’s worth of emotional maturity and a Martin Scorsese executive producer credit. 

 — starring Janhvi Kapoor, Ishaan Khatter, and Vishal Jethwa — promises the kind of layered familial drama that Ghaywan excels at: tender but unsparing. That it’s the most talked-about Indian entry this year is no surprise. 

Wes Anderson, at this point, is less a director than a genre unto himself. His latest confection stars Benicio Del Toro as a tycoon and Mia Threapleton as his convent-curious daughter in search of one last deal. There are assassins. There is Bryan Cranston. There is Bill Murray as God. 

A child comes home with a tattoo. In most homes, that would spark a fight. In a Julia Ducournau film, it may very well spark a metaphysical rebirth. After 

(2021), the French provocateur continues her visceral quest, this time through the coming-of-age story of a 13-year-old girl. Don’t expect subtlety. Expect something stranger, sadder, and far more alive.

Oliver Hermanus has a gift for the fragile. In 

, he adapts Ben Shattuck’s elegiac short story about two men (Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor, already giving off the chemistry of a bygone heartbreak) travelling across 1919 New England, preserving the voices of a country healing from war.

Spike Lee remakes Akira Kurosawa's 1963 Japanese film 

 and casts Denzel Washington. That’s a headline. But 

, which relocates Kurosawa’s moral pressure cooker to the glitz of the modern music industry, might be something wilder. Jeffrey Wright, A$AP Rocky, and Ice Spice also lend their wattage. 

Kristen Stewart steps behind the camera with this adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch’s unclassifiable memoir. Imogen Poots stars as a woman who writes and swims, and rages her way toward freedom.

 follows the scrappy, chaotic, half-rehearsed making of Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 classic, 

, as a messy portrait of youthful revolution. With Zoey Deutch as Jean Seberg and newcomer Guillaume Marbeck as the maestro himself.

There’s something subversive about Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut: a modest film about grief, intergenerational friendship, and the ways lives crisscross in New York City. June Squibb stars opposite Erin Kellyman. It’s an actor’s film, through and through.

 (2021) was a film about fleeting love and fumbling selfhood, 

 is its haunted sibling — still shot through with aching humanity. Renate Reinsve returns, alongside Stellan Skarsgård and Elle Fanning, in a story about a family, a house, and the emotional clutter we like to call home.

Ari Aster, who built horror films around grief and breakups, heads West. 

, set in New Mexico and starring Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal, is a contemporary Western. Sheriff vs. Mayor.

Cannes 2025: 10 Films We’re Looking Forward To

Meet-cutes are the beating heart of a love story. That first moment of intrigue, the push and pull of fate, the hint of something that could be—before reality, family, and social conventions get in the way. 

Meet-cutes are interesting because they lack the finality or gravity of ‘love at first sight.’ There’s potential without pressure; it’s the Goldilocks of romantic situations. 

They range from grand gestures to fleeting glances, from mistaken identities to outright hostility. But when done right, they linger, reminding us that sometimes, love doesn’t begin with a declaration—it begins with a look, a clash, or a stolen moment.

Why just the last 25 years? Because I’m a Y2K baby. The meet-cutes before my time are inherited, ones I heard about before I ever saw them. I knew Raj and Simran before I knew 

. And the meet-cutes of the future? They’ll probably arrive through an algorithm that tells me what to feel before I even process it myself. But the ones in between—these are mine.

ten movie meet-cutes that made us believe in the magic of first meetings.

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This might just be one of Bollywood’s most unforgettable introductions of all time. Anjali (Kajol) believes she is meeting a refined Urdu poet, Ashfaq Miya. Instead, she meets Rahul (Shah Rukh Khan), a suited, confused visitor caught in the mix-up.  A simple case of mistaken identity. A comedy of errors. Everyone remembers, 

 Rahul and Anjali are chaotic, comedic, and full of life.

Tara has too much baggage—emotional, physical—to carry alone. Sid steps in to help. She’s wary; he’s persistent in the gentlest way. The bag is too heavy, the handle breaks—her resolve cracks just a little. She turns, and Sid is there, smiling, ready to help. It’s a moment of vulnerability. This is not love at first sight, this is something deeper. They get on either side of an unusually large bag and share the weight.

If meet-cutes are about first impressions, this one is for the ages. A train. A girl (Supriya) standing at the door. A boy (Aditya) watching, mesmerised. He follows her, loses her, and then finds her again. The city is their playground, and their romance is built on spontaneity. Simple, dreamy, and full of possibility.

Sometimes, destiny arrives with a guitar riff. Ram (Shah Rukh Khan) loses a bet and must serenade the first woman he sees. Enter Chandni, the new chemistry teacher (Farah Khan surely enjoyed that pun). The second he sees her, music swells, wind blows, and he belts out 

. Her saree’s pallu floats across his face; he stumbles, quite literally falling for her. In that one instant, the audience knows—he’s a goner.

Sometimes love simmers slowly like a perfect Hyderabadi Zafrani Pulao. A grumpy, arrogant 64-year-old chef (Amitabh Bachchan) and a sharp, unbothered 34-year-old woman (Tabu) argue over the quality of said Pulao. He’s smug, dismissive. She’s unimpressed, unwavering. He badgers her with questions, barely letting her speak. The next day, she sends him pulao so divine that his arrogance crumbles. Their meet-cute is spread across two encounters—less cute, more crackling. The battle lines are drawn, and attraction is served with a side of wit.

A train, a chatterbox, and a man on the verge of fading away. Aditya, brooding and broken, wants to disappear into the night. Enter Geet—loud, relentless, and completely oblivious to his misery. She talks, he listens (because he has no choice), and in that maddening, mismatched energy, something shifts. Their journey—both literal and emotional—has begun. One drags the other back to life.

Also Read | The 10 Best Performances of Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranked

A romance in gestures, not words. A car stops in the hills, a family asks for directions. Barfi, deaf and mute but brimming with mischief, uses this moment to fix his hair, pluck a stray nose hair, and flash an impish grin. Shruti laughs. He has her attention. Over time, their encounters multiply—he eats a child’s chocolate, clings to a tram to evade the police, always skating on the thin line between charming and incorrigible. Love doesn’t always need words; sometimes, it just needs impeccable timing.

Ram and Leela don’t just meet, they collide. It's a gaze that stops time. Leela locks eyes with Ram. He’s pointing a gun at her, but the real standoff is between their eyes. His is a water gun; she pulls out a real one. He squirts; she smirks. He surrenders; she shoots. No words are exchanged, yet a universe is built in seconds. And then, 

 begins, and love erupts in a burst of colour, longing, and reckless passion.

On an island far from home, two strangers decide to be anyone but themselves. He chooses Don, she picks Mona Darling. They speak in riddles, they flirt without consequence. It should be a crime to be this free and this charming, to exist in a world where love isn’t weighed down by the past or the future. But even in this fantasy, something real takes root.

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A himbo with a heart of gold. A journalist with a sharp tongue. Rocky needs Rani’s help to reunite his grandfather with his lost love—who just happens to be Rani’s grandmother. What follows is an explosion of verbal sparring, cultural clashes, and undeniable chemistry. Karan Johar reminds us why opposites attract is a cinematic tradition worth preserving.

From 'Main Hoon Na' to 'Dil Chahta Hai': 10 Memorable Bollywood Meet-Cutes From the Last 25 Years

A new Bong Joon-ho film after six years. An Oscar-nominated musical biopic starring Timothee Chalamet. A Norwegian body horror take on the classic 

It’s an exciting time to be at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival.

Here are the 10 films we’re most looking forward to.

You might recognise Saumyananda Sahi’s work from the cinematographer’s stunning frames in streaming series 

 (2023), the Oscar-nominated documentary 

(2019), edited by Tanushree Das. Their debut feature, 

, follows a woman (Tillotama Shome) who discovers that her husband — a former soldier struggling with PTSD — is the prime suspect in a murder investigation. 

It’s been six long years since Bong Joon-ho’s last film, 

the South Korean black comedy that became the first non-English-language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Now, the director returns with 

another black comedy about the kinds of people society is conditioned to see as ‘less-than’. The film, adapted from Edward Ashton’s sci-fi novel 

 finds an ‘expendable’ (Robert Pattinson) on an expedition to colonise the ice planet Niflheim. Only his designation means that he’s sent on all the most dangerous missions, to be killed and then resurrected. Over and over and over again. 

Oscars 2025: The Real Problem With 'Emilia Pérez' Is Its Form — The Musical

Legendary lyricist Lorenz Hart grapples with his former creative partner Richard Rodge’s newfound solo success in this drama. 

Set largely in New York’s Sardi’s Restaurant on March 31, 1943 

the opening night of the hit Broadway musical 

the film sees director Richard Linklater reunite with frequent collaborator Ethan Hawke (the 

), while also rounding out his cast with Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale and Andrew Scott. 

, told the story of a man gradually, pitifully turned into an outcast by his community. Another outcast forms the subject of his new film, 

, only this time, the villager’s wiles prove to be an obstacle to a cutthroat businessman’s plot to manipulate a local election. The film stars Dileesh Pothan, Achyut Kumar and Gopal Hegde.

Emilie Blichfeldt’s bleak, gory take on the 

fairytale swaps out the story’s traditional protagonist to focus on her unsightly step-sister instead. A victim of her greedy mother’s schemes, the girl is forced to undergo 19th-century surgical transformations and worse in this body horror film that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

Megan Suri on ‘Companion,’ Horror’s Powerful Women, and Finding Strength in Authenticity

Having recently secured eight nominations at the 97th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for James Mangold and Best Actor for Timothee Chalamet, the 2024 Bob Dylan musical biopic now travels to Berlin. Adapted from Elijah Wald’s 2015 book 

the film traces the singer-songwriter’s meteoric rise, from the 19-year-old who had just arrived in New York City to his controversial 1965 Newport Folk Festival performance.

Playwright Rebecca Lenkiewicz, who co-wrote Paweł Pawlikowski’s Oscar-winning 2013 drama 

, makes her directorial debut with this adaptation of Deborah Levy’s 2016 novel of the same name. Fiona Shaw plays Rose, a woman travelling to a Spanish seaside town with her daughter (Emma Mackey) to meet an enigmatic healer.

(2023) director Michel Franco in this drama about a young Mexican ballet dancer (Isaac Hernández) who moves to San Francisco to pursue his dreams, but must confront the harsh reality that his partner isn’t as supportive as he thought.

After her beloved brother is accused of rape, a young woman is asked to testify in the investigation into him. Sarah Miro Fischer’s drama stars Marie Bloching, Anton Weil, Proschat Madani, Laura Balzer and Jane Chirwa.

The Long Journey Of 'Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama': How The Indo-Japanese Co-Production Is Getting A 4K Release Now

Benedict Cumberbatch plays a grieving man whose hold on reality crumbles in the wake of his wife’s death, and after a shadowy figure begins to stalk him and his two young sons. Dylan Southern’s horror movie also stars Richard Boxall, Henry Boxall, Sam Spruell and Vinette Robinson.

This year, the Berlinale runs from February 13 to 23.

Our coverage of the Berlinale is made possible with the support of the Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai.

Berlinale 2025: The 10 Most Anticipated Films at This Year’s Festival

To say 2024 was an underwhelming year for Hindi streaming shows would be an understatement.

Regardless of the choppiness of Hindi cinema on the big screen in recent years, we could always depend on streaming series to plug the gap, deliver the goods and push boundaries. This is why I’ve repeatedly, and proudly, proclaimed that over the last few years, the finest Hindi language storytelling, writing and performances have all been on streaming.

But 2024 came close to challenging that achievement.

While there was no lack of memorable storytelling and promising elements and ideas, there were very few game-changing or bar-raising titles. I don’t think it’s ever been this much of a struggle to find five undeniable series worth celebrating.  That said, here are my picks for the best shows of 2024:

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In Netflix’s delicious dark comedy from director Abhishek Chaubey, characters backstab casually, drop dead frequently, fumble hilariously and plot, plan and scheme furiously. 

A delirious cocktail of the outrageous, unhinged and unlikely, 

 follows a tremendous Konkona Sen Sharma and 

 as opportunistic lovers, trying to frantically cover up a murder and stay one step ahead of the investigation.

The result is a masterclass in actors playing characters who are forever performing. 

Konkona Sen Sharma’s Swati is the overlooked, underestimated housewife who is suddenly thrown into a murderous mess and finds herself oddly thriving. And Manoj Bajpayee is equally excellent as the hilariously bewildered chump, disguised as another man, struggling to hold onto his own identity, whilst flung into a world of crime and deceit. 

’s greatest triumph is cooking up a delicate tone that’s absurd, tense and dramatic, but also sprinkled with surprising moments of humanity.

Read more | The 10 Best Hindi Performances of 2024, Ranked

Find someone who loves you as much as writer-director Sidharth Sengupta loves putting his lead character Vikrant, played by 

, in increasingly hot water. Sidharth delivers a crackling, outrageously entertaining, thoughtfully-plotted second season which continues to see Vikrant’s plans backfire.

Our crooked, depraved joy comes from the constantly escalating stakes and watching the smart everyman scrambling to put band-aids on bullet wounds and building an unsteady Jenga tower of lies to plug one hole after another. I love that you can’t easily put this show in a box. It is part gender-flipped obsessive love story and part relentlessly tense undercover ‘behind enemy lines' drama, with Vikrant forever plotting and scheming to kill his captors — his wife and her family — and outmanoeuvre them to survive.

has quickly become one of the most enjoyable thrillers on streaming and, with the show now renewed for a third season, I’m all in for wherever this deliciously twisted ride takes us.

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The second season of Amazon Prime Video’s 

quietly swooping in and making me feel love like few shows and movies in 2024 was a year-ending twist I didn’t see coming.

Like the musicians it follows, with its second season, 

 has come into its own. This tremendously well-plotted second chapter does a glorious job of mining the world of music for human drama and rooting an affecting tale of art and artists in love and connection.

Radhe (Ritwik Bhowmik) and Tamanah (Shreya Chaudhry) are one of the most thoughtful, interesting and deeply felt romances I’ve come across on screen this year. I loved how the series explores their delicate, inextinguishable connection. It’s not easy to craft a show-defining romance that’s rarely heavy-handed or silly, and keep it from veering into shallow, irritating will-they-won’t-they territory. Instead, the makers marvellously keep us on that heart-tugging line between hopeful and tragic; between what if and if only.

Equally remarkable is that the big twists, character pivots and redemption arcs this season never feel forced or convenient, but organic to the characters. Plot and character come together beautifully as a single soulful voice.

Read more | 'Bandish Bandits' Season 2 Series Review: Ritwik Bhowmik, Shreya Chaudhry Light Up This Deeply-Felt Fusion Of Love And Music

 creator Richie Mehta once again set his sights on dramatising true events with his Amazon Prime Video series, which takes us into the dangerous, thrilling world of wildlife crime fighting.

While technically not a Hindi series per se (considering the show flits between Malayalam, Hindi and English) if there’s a series that demands an exception to make it to this list, it’s this one. One of 2024’s most unputdownable shows, with 

, Richie once again offers us tremendously self-assured storytelling with his keenly observed dedication to authenticity in examining true events but also coating them in arresting drama, layered characters and a high-pressure race-against-time investigative narrative.

Not to mention that glorious cast firing on all cylinders with the likes of Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Roshan Mathew and of course 2024’s MVP Kani Kusruti. But it’s a fierce Nimisha Sajayan who supercharges the narrative with one of the year’s finest performances as Mala — a ruthless, relentless forest officer with the spirit of a vigilante.

is, in many ways, filmmaking at its purest: a storyteller using fiction and narrative to make us feel for a thing as much as they do. I’ll remember the series for its pulsating fury and the idea that, amidst the horrors of humanity, there are still heroes. That there is still… hope.

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We’ve seen countless coming-of-age stories before. Of young adults and young love. Of road trips, heartbreaks and self-discovery. Of looking outward to see within. But rarely have we seen a coming-of-age story about parenting, the seismic shift and forever change that comes with having your first child and crossing that holy threshold to become truly and entirely responsible for someone else. Personhood evaporates in favour of parenthood.

It took me mere minutes into the first episode to fall unapologetically and absolutely in love with SonyLIV’s unassuming, charming, and utterly delightful 

, about three childhood friends navigating the ebbs and flows of marriage and parenting.

Writer-creator Khyati Anand Puthran and director Sumeet Vyas give us a gentle, reassuring, warm hug disguised as a series. Over eight wholesome, life-affirming episodes 

uses the deceptive packaging of charm and chemistry to offer an examination of intimacy and provide a gentle, reassuring perspective on the everyday scuffles, tiffs and trials that come with being a young parent. I walked away feeling possible and hopeful and reminded that there is good and love in this world. It is for us to merely relish the ride, and recognise the extraordinary within the ordinary.

is a show that’s at its best when it’s not about much of anything at all. One that recognises that this life is merely an ongoing series of small joys, near misses and almost wins.

Above all, it gave us three new friends that I won’t soon forget. 

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The industrial-sized sincerity and ambition of SonyLIV’s 

. The crowd-pleasing laughs of Netflix’s 

as the rare streaming series that remembers the comedy genre still exists. Prime Video’s 

as the rare vanity docu-series that has something worthwhile to say about screenwriting and the lives of writers. Prime Video’s 

for its devastating examination of grief. And finally Disney+Hotstar’s 

for its distinctive, clutter-breaking narrative and ambitious setting.

The Best Hindi Shows Of 2024, Ranked: 'Raat Jawaan Hai,' 'Killer Soup' And More  

Telugu cinema bustled with activity in 2024. From ultra-big releases that set the box office on fire, to understated niche narratives that tugged at the heartstrings—along with everything in between—the industry churned out a superb succession of films by banking on its wide spectrum of storytelling talent, paving the stage for actors to put on performances that were as vibrant and diverse as the films.

So, as we draw curtains on a rather eventful year, here’s a light on all the acting performances that made a mark. The list, in no particular order, includes film titles only—even though the web-series space sprung many good surprises of its own too.

Actors often tend to overreach when tasked with playing characters deemed mature for their age. Nivetha Thomas, though, takes on the challenge with elan and delivers a delightful, measured performance in Nanda Kishore Emani's comedy-drama.

Thomas plays a mother who has gladly accepted that her job — for many years to come — is to look after her two young boys and her affable, supportive husband (played by a superb Vishwadev). But when an opportunity to pursue a goal of her own knocks on the door, the beaming face of that mother makes way for an unyielding demeanour, and Nivetha Thomas sees through this arc with minimum fuss and maximum effect.

 unflinchingly dials up the theatrics, and at no point seems worried about going overboard. He struts through his performance in a self-aware manner that allows all the vagaries—the raised shoulder, the mumbling speech, the flashy wardrobe, etc—to be inherently part of the character's personality, all the while simultaneously imbuing it with his trademark ease.

Beyond all this, what makes the portrayal strike a chord is his deep understanding of the emotional journey of the character in the story.

 in a role that the actor has already played a version of: a charming gentleman from a period setting, whose earthy-toned formal attires speak a lot about his simplicity. Yet, in 

, Dulquer manages to lend a playful, slightly caustic edge to that congenial personality, and makes him a larger-than-life hero who pulls off daring cons, yet gets away in a whisker every single time.

What makes this performance tick is the actor’s commendable awareness that he must always remain likeable, even if the scenario paints him in a bad light.

As the cursed immortal warrior Ashwatthama in Nag Ashwin's epic, Amitabh Bachchan wades through a whole lot of on-screen maquillage to put on a show that oscillates between fiery and reflective. The 82-year-old actor holds his own amidst a spectacle of visual effects and star power, while simultaneously defying his age and giving everyone around him—including Prabhas—a proper run for their money with his stoic, emotionally stirring performance.

(2022), Naresh portrayed a father who has put his life on hold to focus on trivial matters. In contrast, in Anurag Palutla’s

, he plays a middle-aged man who is constantly on the move, trying to escape the inner pain he’s struggling with. There is very little that separates these two characters in terms of their archetypes, but Naresh masterfully makes two distinct individuals out of them.

He might not be the only pivotal character in Palutla’s film, but the magic lies in how he makes the essence of his character linger.

It goes without saying that NTR Jr. gives everything he’s got for a performance—even if the film around him isn’t entirely working. In Koratala Siva’s first of his two-part magnum opus, the 41-year-old superstar fires from all cylinders and renders a dual role of starkly contrasting personalities with all heart and signature intensity. NTR has played the angst-filled leading man countless times in the past, but he looks like a seasoned beast in 

—having evolved immensely through his stint under S.S. Rajamouli in 

From playing a nurturing sister to an empathetic friend to a goofy, wise-cracking partner-in-crime, Sharanya Pradeep has proven over the years that she is one of the most reliable actors around. However, a role worth her range and talent eluded her for many years until Dushyanth Katikaneni’s 

came around. As Padma, Suhas’ on-screen twin sister, Sharanya Pradeep takes on a challenging role that stands tall as a symbol of resilience and autonomy in the face of patriarchy. 

Even when the character is tokenistic, and the writing feels heavy-handed in parts, Sharanya commits to the task with great conviction and renders Padma as a person you recognise and empathise with.

Vivek Athreya’s inventive attempt at a mass film comprises not one, but two exciting central performances.

While Nani leads the way with his assured rendition of a boy-next-door with an anger problem, SJ Suryah almost steals the show with his trademark unchecked charisma on the screen. Yet, it is the Natural Star who makes a compelling case for himself by incorporating relatability into his violent, intense character, delivering a performance that is both raw and refined.

is a rare, audacious experiment in Telugu cinema that was likely to have slid under the radar, had it not been for Vishwak Sen headlining it.

That isn’t to say that the actor gets the credit for the film, but his desire to participate in such an outlier effort speaks volumes about his willingness to learn and grow as an actor. In 

, he tests himself both physically and mentally to deliver an emotionally charged anchor role that binds the adventurous story together.

Not to forget, he is ably supported by the rest of the cast including Mohammad Samad, Abhinaya and Chandni Chowdary—along with a superb technical team.

Comedic actors in Telugu cinema are no longer the ancillary ingredients, and actor Satya proves this with a lot of verve in 

.  He returns as the bumbling charlatan Yesudas in Ritesh Rana’s sequel, and runs quite the riot in a plot brimming with schemes, twists and characters. Satya’s comic timing is at its best here, and helped by Rana’s script which gives him ample time to shine and sizzle—not just as the comic-routine guy, but also as one of the central characters.

The 10 Best Telugu Film Performances of 2024: Dulquer Salmaan, Amitabh Bachchan, And More

Modern Hindi cinema has had its share of ups, downs and more downs, but there has rarely been a bad year for performances. If there's one department that isn't hard to compile a year-ending list for, it's the craft of acting. Thanks to the advent of streaming and the casting revolution, there's no longer a dearth or an underutilisation of talent. The Hindi space has been blessed with a wider diversity of acting, but it's only now that the democratisation of genres is evident. An action-hero or superstar performance is afforded the same scrutiny and scale as a “serious” long-form or muted turn. Different skill-sets and ranges are allowed to find different brands of appreciation.

. More often than not, the actors have been stronger than the movies and shows they've featured in. But the best examples have been the ones that are inextricable from the stories they define. From a dying dad who doesn't die and the sexual awakening of a teenage student to the trials of a Somalian-Indian hustler, a flesh-eating Noida psychopath and a protective sister, the year has been a cultural buffet of Indian notions, motions and emotions. 

On that note, here's a list of my ten favourite performances across mediums: feature-length movies and shows, streaming and theatrical. It's never easy, it's always controversial, it can get violent (especially if there are two number ones!), but I can't think of a better catalyst of debate:

Bachchan’s second innings has been punctuated by high-pitched human-condition roles: 

 (abusive cricket coach). You can tell he’s been trying — too hard. So it’s sort of poetic that his most striking performance emerges from a story that requires his cancer-afflicted character to normalise the effort to live; he plays a man shorn of the very embellishments of trying. 

 harnesses Abhishek Bachchan’s burdened voice and awkward physicality in unprecedented ways. As someone who goes through multiple surgeries without much fuss — as a distant dad whose low-key courage is revealed to his daughter rather than advertised to her — Bachchan moves like a human at odds with his makeshift body and beating heart. He looks like he’s constantly renegotiating his relationship with who — and what — he becomes. He personifies a rare Hindi film that thrives on the stillness of suffering, not the volume of pain. At some point, you stop recognising the surname and start seeing the embattled reconstruction of an identity.  

Abhishek Chaubey’s Macbethian broth is an acquired taste — a morbid portrait of chaos, cheating, familyhood, patriarchy, revenge and above all, mediocrity. A fictional Tamil Nadu hill station crackles with excessive plotting, magic realism (and mushrooms), and memorable characters. The cast transcends the choppy narrative, and it’s the inevitable Konkona Sen Sharma who slays as Swathi Shetty, a terrible home chef who bumps off her abusive husband and passes off his subservient doppelganger — who is also her lover — as the husband. Sen Sharma’s intuitive performance turns Swathi into more than just a ‘desperate housewife’. At some point, it feels like the story starts to mock and conspire against her, denying her the slick agency of a woman turning the tables on a sexist environment. She makes for an oddly heartbreaking victim of her own desires — a feminist tragedy that’s reduced to the constraints of her gender and social stature. No matter how hard she tries, she cannot escape her identity as the “better half” of a doomed love story. Sen Sharma’s turn isn’t as crowd-pleasing, feeding Swathi’s hidden audacity to humble — rather than escape — a culture that’s rigged against her. Even as she’s pulling the strings, the puppet is often revealed to be her; she is consigned to the fate of being an incompetent villain and a toxic lover. I can’t think of any other actor whose shapeless presence alone rewrites the subtext that the film-making struggles to convey. 

Vivek Gomber has had a very Sohum-Shah-like career, in that he’s an independent producer who also happens to be a decent actor. His campier roles are an acquired taste (the colonial accent of 

), but he locates the right balance of camp and hyperactive Indianism in 

, Jay Mehta’s ambitious ship-hijack series. As the shady Somalia-based Indian businessman Vikrant Gandhi, Gomber is a human tension ball. Vikrant’s consignment plays a key role in the plot, and Gomber’s Harshad-Mehta-wired arc is all hailstorm and fire: chain-smoking, cussing, reptilian, and triggered by the hostility he faces as the “outsider” in a corrupt system. It’s an adrenaline-fuelled action-villain performance; Vikrant behaves like an impressionable man who’s struggling to escape his own fondness for gangster movies. Everything about him feels inspired, not least Gomber’s terrific transition from mentality monster to morality monster. He bleeds into the sepia-tinged setting, a chaotic ‘family man’ mutating into a sweaty tragicomedy.

Mukul Chadda has been around for a while; he channels a career’s worth of hunger and anxiety into a role that blurs the boundaries between real and reel, in a film that blurs the lines between truth and fantasy. Karan Gour’s 

 is a daringly meta marital drama disguised as a quirky sci-fi indie. It stars real-life couple Chadda and Rasika Dugal as Mohit and Ritika, a jaded Mumbai couple who find a genderless fairy that morphs into a manifestation of their repressed desires. It looks better than it sounds. While Ritika receives a younger ‘husband,’ Mohit gets the short end of the straw when his version of Ritika emerges in the form of Hansa, a woman in a man’s body. Chadda plays it so straight that plausibility is never a problem — you can tell that Mohit’s good-guy image is infected with a crumbling sense of masculinity and guilt. He’s not as successful as his wife; he thinks he’s the bigger person; he puts physical attraction over emotional fertility; his mind is always racing; he assumes this experiment will benefit the marriage. It’s a complicated and self-aware performance, one that openly mines the insecurities of the human within the actor and the partner within the man.

 — suitably shot on 16mm film — pits the fading celluloid of tradition against the digital transience of living. It tells the story of Sooraj, a death photographer struggling to keep his profession alive in modern-day Varanasi. Tripathi’s performance as Sooraj — a name that translates to “sun” — is racked with darkness, self-doubt and repressed individualism. He plays a tricky protagonist, one who isn’t sure about the nature of his own despair. Sooraj is stranded by the inert austerity of his father, an old man whose presence is holding his adult son back from entering a future. Yet he is also propelled by his wife and sister, characters who are too busy evolving with the times to fret about the gentrification of a holy city. He drinks and smokes like a person grieving his inability to move on. Tripathi’s Sooraj unfolds like a composition of two Indias, neither of which is a fully realised picture. He’s looked for business in death for so long that only now is he rediscovering the art of surviving. Tripathi has been a supporting actor for so long that he reframes Sooraj as someone who is learning to be the protagonist of his own picture.

, Sumeet Vyas’ friendship-meets-parenthood drama transcends easy labels like “breezy” and “feel-good”. Watching three childhood friends bound by their differences and challenged by the pressure of syncing lives is like watching 

 reluctantly grow up. Anjali Anand’s performance as the ‘loud’ one is the Bombay-studded heart of the show. Her Radhika is an unpretentious and emotionally intelligent woman who — despite circumstances that reduce her to a type — seldom makes it seem like she’s shackled by motherhood. She is prone to bullying her friends and husband, but she’s also the sort of person whose go-for-broke theatricality and frankness seduces her people into craving her attention. When she’s with them, she makes them feel like nobody else exists. Anand nails that balance between toxic and tender. There’s a sense of ownership about a character that’s often restricted to the sidelines of slice-of-life stories. There are times when Radhika realises how difficult and insensitive she can be. But instead of flaunting her flaws or forcing them to fit the unapologetic contours of feminism, she sounds conflicted — and human — in a way that suggests her personality is a subconscious reaction to gender prejudice. Not to mention the moment she expresses her admiration for a friend with male-marked eloquence: “Tu Suman hai, 

The Punjabi superstar-actor-singer is everywhere today, yet it’s his lyrical nowhere-ness as slain musician Amar Singh Chamkila that grounds Imtiaz Ali’s genre-defying biopic. Dosanjh plays a man whose provocative legacy is shaped by his social standing — a real-world 

 shackled by the hypocrisies of his setting. As a lower-caste artist who observes to create, he interprets the joy of being heard as the privilege of feeling seen. At times, the quizzical look on his face emerges from a sense of deep-rooted servitude; he strives to ‘cater’ to his fans, but he actually wants to belong and be accepted. It’s an intuitive and non-linear performance in a daring and non-linear film. The film’s best scenes feature Dosanjh’s Chamkila shifting from story to storyteller — especially the twilight-tinged moments in which he’s humming to himself, playing with words and sounds, oblivious to a world that’s primed to shoot the messenger. Dosanjh’s talent is most visible on stage: his character is so consumed by the act of making music for others that he almost pushes the film into making music for him.

Out beyond the ideas of nepotism, toxic fandoms and controversial film discourse, there is a field. Alia Bhatt often meets us there. 

, Bhatt silently reframes the relationship between Bollywood heroism, masculinity and morality. She plays Satya (“truth”), a seemingly regular woman who stops at nothing to free her younger brother from prison in a Singapore-coded country. Satya’s oversized shirts, diminutive stature and soft face subvert the little-girl-in-a-big-bad-world template. Bhatt performs Satya as a simmering protector who doesn’t have the time for narrative tropes, humanity, politics and attachments. She simply does what she needs to. The ‘numb’ face boils with anticipation of both triumph and tragedy. Her physicality is steeped in the kind of inertia that makes Satya’s strength look incidental; at no point does director Vasan Bala’s ode to the angry-young-man prototype distract from the primal desperation of an orphan. Bhatt’s act makes you relieved that the character’s restrained and no-nonsense rage is summoned for a personal rescue mission — and not something sinister. In a parallel universe, she would have easily been a deranged terrorist, an obsessive ex-partner or a vengeful serial killer.

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