South Asian focused streamer ZEE5 Global has ambitious growth plans for the U.S., where it has just completed a year of operations. It envisages local commissions, English- and Spanish-language dubbing and subtitling and reaching deep into the South Asian diaspora through grassroots promotions.

“We want to be the one that is at the forefront of creating the crossover for South Asian content — the one that makes South Asian content go mainstream,” Archana Anand, chief business officer, ZEE5 Global, told Variety. “We want for the global audiences sitting in the U.S. to now start watching ZEE5 Global, including the Spanish audiences. So when we dub or when we subtitle we want to start subtitling in English and Spanish, and have those stories cross over.”

To achieve this, Anand is planning a two-pronged approach — to identify the ZEE5 content that has the ability to crossover, and commission local productions, something...

ZEE5 Global, the world’s largest platform for South Asian content has been continually bringing a wide variety of content in various formats in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali and other languages for its global audiences. This much-loved platform is now all set to exclusively premiere Rrr in its original language, Telugu, and also in Tamil, Malayalam, and Kannada with English subtitles.

A glorious homecoming for many fans, Rrr is a roaring, rearing, rousing mix of genres that center around two Indian revolutionaries and their fight against the British rule in 1920. Headlined by Ram Charan, N.T. Rama Rao Jr., in lead roles, the film is produced by D. V. V. Danayya of Dvv Entertainment, and features Ajay Devgn, Alia Bhatt, Shriya Saran, Samuthirakani, Ray Stevenson, Alison Doody, and Olivia Morris in pivotal roles.

Viewers across the world can now watch the blockbuster film in the best 4K...

Traffic The actor had to pay Rs 700 fine to the traffic police. Tnm StaffActor Naga Chaitanya recently got into a bit of trouble with the traffic police in Hyderabad. On Tuesday, April 12, Chaitanya was stopped by the Hyderabad traffic police and had to pay a fine for using tinted windows on his car. The actor was travelling in a Toyota Vellfire when the Jubilee Hills traffic police stopped him.  Chaitanya was informed that he would have to pay the fine for using tinted windows, which is against the law. He immediately paid a fine of Rs 700, the police said. A picture of the actor photographed with the police has been doing the rounds on social media.  Last week, actor Allu Arjun was also fined for using tinted windows on his car. Allu Arjun was fined Rs 700 and a challan was issued to the actor for using tinted window shields on his Range Rover SUV.

Naga Chaitanya, who scored back-to-back superhits with ‘Majili,’ ‘Venky Mama’, ‘Love Story’ and ‘Bangarraju’, has a fantastic line-up ahead. Now that he is on board for a bilingual movie with director Venkat Prabhu, this upcoming movie marks his 22nd film. Venkat Prabhu, who delivered a blockbuster with his last directorial ‘Maanaadu’, has readied a good […]...

Exclusive: ZEE5, the subscription service specializing in South Asian film and TV, has revealed the content that has performed best on its platform in the U.S. since its launch stateside in June 2021.

The three top languages have been Hindi, Telugu and Bengali. Across those languages, the best-performing titles are:

Hindi: Abhishek Bachchan crime thriller film Bob Biswas, and Salman Khan action pic Antim – The Final Truth.

Telugu: supernatural drama Bangarraju and romantic comedy Varudu Kavaanelu.

Bengali: family drama Tonic and romantic comedy Jodi Kintu Tobuo.

The U.S. has been the key international territory for the service since the launch last year, driving more than 40% of total international subscriptions. ZEE5 said it had continued to grow 15% month-on-month in both viewers and subscriptions in the territory.

As of December 21, it had 101.9 million global monthly active users, and 9.6 million daily active users.

In the U.S., the service is subscription-only, with...

As announced earlier, Akkineni Nagarjuna laid the foundation for the 1,080 acre- urban forest park, on Friday. Last year, Akkineni Nagarjuna announced that he would be adopting 1,080 acres of forest land. As he promised, the ‘Bangarraju’ actor laid the foundation stone for a park in Hyderabad today. The park is named after his father: […]...

Tollywood‘Bangarraju’, which released in theatres in January, starred ‘Shyam Singha Roy’ fame Krithi Shetty as the female lead.Tnm StaffTwitter/ Annapurna StudiosFather-son duo Nagarjuna Akkineni and Naga Chaitanya’s recently released Telugu family drama Bangarraju will be streaming on Over-the-Top (Ott) platform Zee 5 after it was released in theatres on January 14. The film stars Shyam Singha Roy fame Krithi Shetty as the female lead, while Ramya Krishnan was also roped in for a pivotal role. Helmed by director Kalyan Krishna, Bangarraju marks the second collaboration of the father-son duo and it was released in theatres on February 18. Annapurna Studios, the production banner that bankrolled the film, took to social media on Tuesday, February 10, to announce the news. Bangarraju has music by composer Anup Rubens. The technical team includes J Yuvaraj as the Director of Photography (Dop), has screenplay by Satyanand, Brahma Kadali as the art director and Vijay Vardhan as the editor.

Naga Chaitanya, who has reasons to celebrate, thanks to the success of ‘Love Story’ and ‘Bangarraju’, is currently shooting for his upcoming movie titled ‘Thank You’. The latest picture from the sets of ‘Thank You’ show the actor’s stunning transformation. Naga Chaitanya took to Instagram and posted a story featuring his most recent picture from […]...

Akkineni Nagarjuna, who has been basking in the success of his latest Sankranthi movie ‘Bangarraju’, is all set to join the sets of his upcoming movie ‘The Ghost’ in Dubai. A crucial schedule, which is supposed to begin in the first week of February, will see Nagarjuna shoot for a fascinating series of action-oriented scenes. […]...

TollywoodIn an interview with Tnm, actor Krithi Shetty talks about her journey from ads to films, how Bollywood actor Aamir Khan has inspired her and about her dream roles.Rajeswari ParasaWhen the song ‘Ishq Shifaya’ from the Telugu film Uppena was released on YouTube last year, audiences were mesmerised by Krithi Shetty who was in it, and once the movie was out they were impressed with her acting skills. Over the last year, this actor from Bengaluru has been busy with back-to-back projects in Tollywood. She has acted in Uppena, Shyam Singha Roy and Bangarraju. She has three Telugu films coming out as well – Aa Ammayi Gurinchi Meeku Cheppali, Warrior and Macherla Niyojakavargam. And while busy with her film career, Krithi is also simultaneously doing her graduation in psychology. Amidst Krithi’s packed schedule, Tnm caught up with her to talk about her journey from ads to films, how Bollywood...

Akkineni Naga Chaitanya, who is high on success after ‘Lovestory’ and ‘Bangarraju’, is likely to begin shooting for a web series, produced by Amazon Prime Video. Touted to be a thriller, the web series will have ’24’ fame Vikram Kumar as the director. It is being reported that Naga Chaitanya is prepping to play a […]...

TollywoodThe teaser was unveiled by Tollywood actor Nagarjuna Akkineni on November 23, marking his son actor Naga Chaitanya’s birthday. Tnm StaffScreengrab/YouTubeMarking the occasion of actor Akkineni Naga Chaitanya’s birthday, the makers of his upcoming film Bangarraju unveiled the teaser of the film. It was released by his father, Tollywood star Nagarjuna Akkineni on Monday, November 23. Sharing the teaser, he wrote: “Presenting our చిన బంగార్రాజ (young Bangarraju) on his birthday. Love you ra!” The father-son duo will be sharing the screen after five years. They were last seen together in the 2016 film Premam. Nagarjuna did a cameo as the father of Chaitanya’s character in the film. The teaser indicates that Chaitanya will be seen in a vibrant role and that the story is set in a rural backdrop. Bangarraju is the sequel to the 2016 hit film Soggade Chinni Nayana and is helmed by director Kalyan Krishna.

Hyderabad, Nov 17 (Ians) Nagarjuna Akkineni and his son Naga Chaitanya Akkineni are all set to share the screen together again in the upcoming movie ‘Bangarraju’. Billed as the sequel to Nagarjuna’s blockbuster movie ‘Soggade Chinni Nayana’, the movie is directed by Kalyan Krishna. Senior actress Ramya Krishna is to appear in the female lead […]...