For India’s film stars, the leap from screen fame to political power has been a journey of triumphs, reversals and occasional second acts. From Thalapathy on screen, Vijay has taken political centre stage as Tamil Nadu's current Chief Minister. For an Indian film star, politics can look deceptively familiar. Both trades depend on visibility, crowds and the ability to turn a personal following into collective enthusiasm. But the resemblance ends there as the actor works to a s

A still from Peter Brook's 'The Mahabharata' (1989) Every time Hollywood drops a blockbuster movie based on one of the foundational epics of the West, a collective groan seems to arise from a significant section of Indian cinephiles and the Indian audience at large: If they can do it, why can’t we? Yugo Sako’s brilliant Ramayana, the Legend of Prince Rama (1993) Be it Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy (2004), Uberto Pasolini’s The Return (2024), or Christopher Nolan’s latest Odyssey (