Syeda Irtizaali, Netflix’s recently appointed U.K. director of unscripted, told an audience at SXSW London on Tuesday she doesn’t want to use AI in unscripted television.
Describing Netflix as a “tech-forward company,” she said that she was “very relaxed about people using AI as a tool to bring ideas in,” describing AI as a “really brilliant tool,” adding “we should be using it.”
However, she sounded a note of caution. “I think where we have to be careful is where we use it on camera and in show. I’ll never say never, but I don’t really want to use AI in unscripted television.”
She continued, “There’s one particularly interesting thing I think about the landscape now as AI becomes a bigger and bigger deal, which is it’s hard now to tell what is fake and what is real, and it will become harder. I therefore think that unscripted television, which is all about real people in real situations going through real journeys, suddenly becomes even more important, because this is content that you can trust is real, and these are real people going through these real reactions, or whatever the journeys are. I think that makes us more potent in an AI world than less.
“I think being real has always been our watchword, and those real people in your stories become really, really interesting when you’re in a sort of a mishmash of a multimedia world where you can’t tell what’s going on, and perhaps there is less rigor in other platforms, where things are happening and you don’t know what is real and what isn’t.”
Irtizaali, who was speaking at Deadline’s Reality TV Summit U.K., said she’s been “very busy” since she joined the streamer three months ago, having previously worked at the BBC as interim director of unscripted, where she shepherded the British version of “The Traitors.”
“I can’t talk about the stuff that’s coming, but there is some really big, exciting, audacious stuff coming, and I’m genuinely excited for you to go there, but I want more,” she said.
Speaking about her priorities, she said, “I think that the important thing is to ensure that you are continuing to surprise and delight series by series.”
Acknowledging the achievements of Netflix scripted shows like “Adolescence” and “Baby Reindeer,” she said, “I think my job is to make unscripted that feels as compelling as scripted.” She added, “When I look at what’s working on Netflix and look at how well scripted and documentary is working, it’s all about people and stories.
“If you think about what scripted is, in scripted you create a world, you realize a world, you pack it full of actors who are characters who are going through some sort of obstacles or transformation, or some sort of storyline. There’s a big, irresistible [plot] that pulls you in. You’re implicated in the narrative. You’re following the story beats, and you watch that and get emotionally fulfilled by it.
“That’s what scripted is. What’s unscripted for me is exactly the same, but instead of actors trying to be real, you have real people, and I think that is our big creative magic lever in unscripted. So I want prestige reality formats that feel like scripted drama. So you build the world, you really realize that world. The world requires a lot of producing, the structure of that world requires a lot of producing, you put real people at the heart of it, you ensure that you’ve got a really good, hooky sort of starting point, you let the narrative evolve, and you let the vagaries and varieties of human nature take you to places that you didn’t know you wanted to go. That’s what I’m looking for.”
Lawrence is best known for directing five films in the “Hunger Games” franchise, as well as “The Long Walk,” an adaptation of a Stephen King novel that was a hit when it opened last fall. His credits also include “I Am Legend,” “Water for Elephants,” “Red Sparrow” and “Constantine.” Lawrence’s next film is “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping,” which opens in theaters on Nov. 20.
The 2026 MPA Awards will also recognize U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers (R) with 2026 MPA Industry Champion Awards for their “policy efforts to promote and protect the creative community.” The 2026 MPA Creative Protector Award will be presented to the Egyptian Ministry of Interior for their partnership with the MPA on theshutdown of the piracy network, Streameast.
Last month, the MPA presented filmmaker Steven Spielberg with the MPA America250 Award, a one-time honor recognizing his impact on American storytelling at CinemaCon.
“Our industry is strongest when stories catch fire, policies spur growth, and creators and audiences can make, produce, and watch content free from piracy — and all of our honorees play a starring role in bringing that message to life,” said Charles Rivkin, chairman and CEO of the MPA. “The MPA Awards showcase the leadership and contributions of brilliant artists, determined lawmakers, and key law enforcement partners who understand the impact of our creative community on and off screen. I can’t wait to congratulate these leaders in person on their stunning achievements.”
The MPA said it is recognizing Lawrence for “his ability to blend raw emotion with surreal action on-screen.” It also credits him with making films that combine “polished craftsmanship with a strong sense of character and scale.”
“It’s truly a privilege to build worlds that visually inspire and emotionally resonate with audiences around the world,” Lawrence said in a statement. “Every time I step on set, I’m joined by remarkable casts and crews who allow my early concepts to become lasting impressions. I am deeply grateful to the MPA for this award and their work to support voices industry-wide.”
Sen. Warnock is receiving a 2026 MPA Industry Champion Award for his efforts to boost U.S. film and TV production. The senator has championed legislation, like the CREATE Act, designed to stimulate more film production in the U.S.
“I’m incredibly honored and deeply grateful to the MPA for this award,” Warnock said in a statement. “Georgia is the Hollywood of the South and has become a national leader in the arts and entertainment industry through our commitment to investments in domestic production. That’s why so many film and TV productions call Georgia home. Georgia’s film industry not only fuels job creation but has helped set the bar high for storytelling. I am proud to champion the bipartisan CREATE Act to support domestic entertainment productions in Georgia and across the country, and to ensure good-paying jobs and opportunities are available for our nation’s creative workforce.”
Sen. Stivers is receiving a 2026 MPA Industry Champion Award in recognition of his impact on Kentucky’s entertainment sector. His leadership in the General Assembly has included an effort to attract larger-scale productions to his state, including his recently enacted legislation to overhaul Kentucky’s film incentive program.
“It’s an honor to receive a 2026 MPA Industry Champion Award,” Stivers said. “During my tenure as Senate President, our creative economy has made immense strides and put Kentucky on the map as a destination for production. We are eager to keep building a welcoming ecosystem for filmmakers whose projects benefit our talented crews, small business owners, and overall economic development.”
The Ministry of Interior of the Arab Republic of Egypt is receiving the 2026 MPA Creative Protector Award, which honors an individual or organization whose work has been critical in the global fight to combat digital piracy. The Ministry’s partnership with the MPA’s anti-piracy coalition, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), led to the takedown last year of Streameast, live-sports piracy ring. Working with global partners and law enforcement authorities, ACE places a leading role in identifying and disrupting live sports piracy networks.
“I am proud to accept this MPA Award, which recognizes the great appreciation for all authorities in charge of fighting digital piracy,” said Brigadier General Hany Saleh. “Digital piracy is often a profit-driven criminal enterprise that consumers, rights holders, distributors, and broadcasters rely on. The threat is particularly acute for live content, where illegal streams erode the value of rights in real time. Our collaboration with the MPA and ACE to dismantle Streameast shows that even the most sophisticated piracy networks can be identified and shut down through coordinated enforcement. It also represents a model for international cooperation at both the bilateral and multinational levels in the protection of intellectual property rights.”
All 2026 honorees will attend the MPA Awards Ceremony later this year at the MPA’s headquarters in Washington.
Mindy Kaling is moving through the stages of life. With Netflix’s “Never Have I Ever,” the comedy mogul took on high school; with HBO Max’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” she (literally) graduated to college. Hulu’s “Not Suitable for Work” — Kaling’s first show with sole creator credit since “The Mindy Project,” showrun by her longtime collaborator Charlie Grandy — continues this progression into the uncertain time after the diploma, with characters struggling to establish both careers and adult relationships. But while college shows are notoriously difficult to nail, making the three-season run of “Sex Lives” a notable achievement, and “Never Have I Ever” painted a specific portrait of an Indian American family in Los Angeles as narrated by John McEnroe, “Not Suitable for Work” is a bland take on a well-trodden setup. The glimmers of a more biting, memorable take on young people juggling jobs and love in New York City throughout the nine-episode season end up being just that: glimmers.
The series was originally titled “Murray Hill” after the notoriously basic (sorry, residents, you know it’s true!) neighborhood just south of midtown Manhattan. “I’m not cool enough for Brooklyn — they’d eat me alive!” says AJ (Ella Hunt), one of five ambitious singles split between two apartments across the hall from each other. AJ works long hours at an investment bank as a first-year associate with her neighbor Davis (Will Angus) and lives with aspiring celebrity stylist Abby (the mononymous Avantika). Davis rooms with his childhood friends Kel (Nicholas Duvernay), who quits medical school in the premiere to pursue his dream of acting, and Josh (Jack Martin), a journalist whose idealism and sense of ethics do not extend to using his media CEO dad to land a gig as a PA on a news show.
The friend group quickly forms a complex web of crushes that expand the love triangle to new frontiers of geometry. Davis, a bro-y romantic who tends to come on too strong, fixates on Abby, who once hooked up with Josh on a Model UN trip, but he doesn’t even recognize her — except that might not even matter, because she has a spark with her and Davis’s shark of a boss Bill (Jay Ellis, a Kaling-verse veteran who also appears in the Netflix basketball series “Running Point,” which she co-created). Kel has eyes for Abby, who’s busy trying to convince her client Austin Blanchett (Harry Richardson) — nephew of Cate, of course — to take fashion seriously, leaving Kel free to hit up his ex-hookup Kate (Ego Nwodim) for a subsequent teaching job. Chemistry does not necessarily abound, apart from Hunt and Ellis, but permutations certainly do.
In addition to the dating lives of its protagonists, “Not Suitable for Work” has to develop four separate professional environments, which is entirely too much for one breezy half-hour to do with much success. Placing AJ and Davis in the same infamously grueling rat race makes the bank the most fleshed-out of the secondary settings, though “Not Suitable for Work” sands the edges off the cutthroat world of finance with cutesy subplots like winning over a client who makes undergarments by having the entire deal team reveal their matching girdles. But while Josh is a magnet for easy jabs about NPR tote bags and Sierra Club memberships, there’s almost nothing in his storylines to suggest an aptitude for or even interest in the work of actual journalism. Instead, he spends his days placating vain anchor Wes (Victor Garber) and grouchy producer Paula (Judy Gold), a potential comment on the real work of television news that still feels lacking in substance.
Not all the work in a show with “work” in the title is without value. The banter between Kel and the bratty private school girls who know more about Jane Austen than he ever will is adorable, and Constance Wu is the best she’s been in years as Abby’s tyrannical, capricious boss Vanessa — a role that channels some of the prickly candor of her breakout role as an immigrant mom in “Fresh Off the Boat,” but with a chilly sheen of urban hauteur. Wu’s performance is a highlight that points to an underutilized tool in the arsenal of “Not Suitable for Work”: the show is at its most distinctive when it embraces how unappealing its characters can be.
No viewer will ever mistake the glossy “Not Suitable for Work” for the anti-glamour of “Girls,” though the former contains echoes of the latter in plot points like one sheltered character getting abruptly cut off from their parents’ financial support. But in its glimpses of the core quintet at their arrogant, entitled worst, “Not Suitable for Work” shows some grit it would be wise to double down on, the way Lena Dunham’s landmark series pierced the zeitgeist by lampooning millennial narcissism and self-pity. My ears perked up when Davis, whose full name is Davis Beau Bradley III, scoffs to a female friend: “Don’t be a bitch — you know I treat women well!”
The line is not quite an isolated incident. AJ cruelly tells her visiting mother that she can’t understand her child’s work stress “because you don’t have a career, you have a job”; Abby blames Kel for her own stupid blunder when she leaves an expensive item she doesn’t own on the train; Jack meets his dad for squash dates while he cosplays poverty. (Davis also gets another banger when Kel asks him to impersonate his nonexistent agent: “I”m an investment banker. You think I don’t know how to be unethical?”)
But such interludes add up to small specks of stormclouds in the show’s otherwise sunny skies. “Not Suitable for Work” never skewers its protagonists; it raises the salience of their less admirable qualities just enough that we chafe at being asked to spend time with them, yet not enough to make self-awareness a load-bearing part of its disposition. It’s too bad. The world hardly needs another “Friends” photocopy, and a little acidity can go a long way.
The first three episodes of “Not Suitable for Work” are now streaming on Hulu, with remaining episodes airing weekly on Tuesdays.
Jim Barne and Kit Buchan were terrified of being outed as frauds. After all, they were two very British writers creating a very New York musical. And they’d only ever been to the Big Apple as tourists.
Turns out, they needn’t worry about appearing as outsiders. Their deep admiration of and fascination with the city and all its idiosyncrasies — “We live in London, but we’re New York obsessives,” Buchan admits — radiates through “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York).” A charming two-hander, the musical rom-com follows a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Brit named Dougal (Sam Tutty) who travels to New York City for his estranged father’s wedding after a lifetime of fantasizing about visiting the big city. He ends up tagging along with the sister of the bride, a jaded native New Yorker named Robin (Christiani Pitts), as she runs last-minute errands — including picking up an expensive wedding cake all the way in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
“All along, we were afraid we would be received in a hostile way. Like, ‘Who are these Londoners who think they can write a show about New York? They’re not one of us,’” says Buchan. “We thought everyone on Broadway would know each other, and we’d be transported back to that childhood playground feeling of, ‘Those are the cool kids, and we’re massive losers.’ Actually, it’s not been like that at all.”
In fact, “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)” has been embraced by critics and audiences, and the production is nominated in eight categories at the Tony Awards, including best musical, book and original score. First produced around England in 2019, the show had lauded runs on the West End and Cambridge’s American Repertory Theater before transferring to Broadway’s Longacre Theatre last November. Given the (mouthful of a) moniker, the New York stage was naturally the final frontier.
“Whenever we hear a New Yorker say they liked it, it’s like sunshine in our veins,” Buchan says.
Barne and Buchan are longtime friends who share a sense of humor (the extremely tall men like to joke they have a combined height of 12’6”) and love of pop culture. They met in grade school at age 9 and spent decades writing pop songs and jamming on the guitar for fun before trying their hand at crafting a musical.
British writers Jim Barne and Kit Buchan have been friends since age 9
Barne doesn’t overthink the secret sauce of their creative partnership. “We just have a nice time,” he cracks.
As Brits, they might be prone to modesty. Tim Jackson, the director of “Two Strangers,” refers to the synergy of Barne and Buchan as “next level.”
“Their minds are so full of yummy brilliance,” Jackson says via email. “And the amount of care they put into every line, lyric and musical note they write is staggering.”
Though Barne and Buchan have lived across the pond all their lives, they were raised on American comedies like “Friends.” With “Two Strangers,” they pay homage to New York-set and Christmas-centric movies like “When Harry Met Sally,” “Moonstruck,” “Home Alone” and “Miracle on 34th Street.”
“We wanted to write a show that’s a pastiche of those stories but also has a lovely attitude,” Buchan says. “We wanted to have our cake and eat it too.”
On a recent afternoon, the pair met at a bustling coffee shop to talk about making their Broadway debut, their love of New York City and their ambitions to make a “plotless” musical.
How have you been enjoying New York City? Now that you’ve spent more time here, is the city what you’d imagined?
Barne: The first time we came out last fall, we didn’t have any free time. We had all these things we were desperate to do. We went boating in Central Park and went to Coney Island. We were having a wonderful time, but we were just in the theater all the time.
Buchan: We were living in Hell’s Kitchen on 10th Avenue. I was in a fifth-floor walk-up above a gay club called It’s Him, and the staircase was fumigated every Wednesday. It was just wonderful. It was exactly what I wanted. The producers were like, “You want to live here?”
What was your relationship to New York City before you wrote the show?
Buchan: It was rather like our lead actor. In his case, he’s never been here. In our case, we had a very intense cultural curiosity about New York, to the point of having a sort of aspirational familiarity. A lot of that came from movies and musical theater. Dougal has a kind of delusion that he is already part of it, and we had a bit of that delusion in a way. By virtue of writing this play, we’ve made our own fantasy become a reality, which is the loveliest side effect imaginable.
Where did you get the idea for “Two Strangers”?
Buchan: When we were younger, we were a bit lost. Not just in terms of musical theater, but a lot of art forms; we felt a little bit alienated from the general narrative. It was quite rare to encounter a musical that spoke to the way that we perceived ourselves, because I think musicals do quite naturally lend themselves to stories about big, aspirational, ambitious characters. We hoped it might be possible to dramatize this fluctuation in people’s lives, but for the stakes to feel high enough, even though it was the familiar lives of two not-rich, not-famous, not-ambitious, not-infamous, not-world-changing people.
How did the specific elements, like carrying a cake across New York, come together?
Barne: Some of them were by necessity. We had a workshop early, probably in 2018, and the whole first act was spent on the subway, coming in from the airport. One of the writers at this workshop was like, “It would be more fun if they weren’t on the subway for all of Act One. New York is an amazing place. Maybe they should be out in the city.” We’d done a show before where we had far too much plot.
Buchan:Far too much plot.
Barne: We decided we don’t want any plot. We’re going to do a plotless musical. Just two characters chatting.
Buchan: Our first musical had a cast of 16, and we did it with a company of 34 kids between the ages of 10 and 23. It was so complex. We didn’t choose to do a two-hander for commercial reasons. We chose to do it because we thought we could streamline the process of writing a musical. But it causes more trouble than it solves, because then you have this problem of “How do you move them around?” Act One is basically one long scene. There are no breaks in the action, so how do you negotiate this trajectory and keep it interesting for an audience so they don’t get tired of looking at the same two people chatting to each other and singing?
Barne: On different modes of public transportation. Sometimes you hear authors talking about stories just, like, dropping into their heads. It definitely wasn’t like that.
Buchan: Where did the cake come from? Once we knew we were setting it at a wedding, there are certain things that present themselves to you.
I love hearing about how projects are named, because it’s usually a more involved process than people realize. How did you land on this very long title?
Barne: We can show you a list of 200 names we were choosing between.
Buchan: It was the fifth name the musical had. It went on professionally under a different title before coming to Broadway. It was called “The Season.” There was a focus group, and our producers were like, “We don’t think the title is working. “We think we need a new one.” We wrote this huge document of titles being —
Barne: — more and more strange.
Buchan: “Two Strangers” was down at the bottom of the list. We had a brilliant producer named Tim Johansen, who said, “Good musicals describe.” Almost as a joke, at the very bottom of the list, we wrote “Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York.” He was like, “I think that’s it.” And we were like, “Really?”
Did you get any helpful feedback from New Yorkers?
Barne: We have a very dear [mentor], David James. He runs this workshop we did, and he helped with Robin’s order in the Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. He said, “You need to put cold sesame noodles.” It’s not a thing in the U.K.
Buchan: The kind of restaurant we had in mind to go to in Chinatown was an older kind of ’70s, slightly Americanized Chinese thing. He was the first person to be like, “This is not your order, and a New Yorker will know. That’s not something you’d order.”
Was there a moment you knew it was going to work on Broadway?
Barne: It wasn’t until we saw it with a live audience. It was terrifying. So just the relief that people were laughing… You always forget, but this happens every time: You go into the rehearsal period, and no one laughs at the entire rehearsal period, because everyone knows the show and they’ve heard the joke a million times. You sort of forget that it’s funny. Then you go into the auditorium, and people laugh, and you’re like, [gasps].
Buchan: And there were jokes that no one ever laughed at in London. For example, when Dougal says to Robin, “Well, you’re from New York, so you probably go to the Statue of Liberty all the time.”
Barne: Because they were like, “Probably she does, right?”
Buchan: You have to have faith in the writing that it might ultimately pay off. At an opening night party for us, Tye Blue, the director and writer of “Titanique,” who I’d never met, bounded up to me and was like, “You’re a Critics’ Pick in the New York Times!” I was like, “I don’t know what that means, but it sounds good.” I mean, I did know what it meant, but I didn’t realize what an important moment that would be for the show. Then we could breathe a sigh of relief that at least we hadn’t humiliated ourselves.
The show is laugh-out-loud funny. Do you have one line or joke in the show you’re really proud of?
Buchan: I am the book writer, but Jim did come up with a lot of the funniest jokes.
Barne: That’s not true. Don’t put that in the interview.
Buchan: You can put that in the interview.
Barne: Often the bits you enjoy the most are the bits you didn’t fully foresee.
Buchan: When Robin says “I’m cold,” and Dougal says “You’re not as cold as you think.” People laugh, and I always think, “That’s worked so well. I could never have possibly hoped that moment would work well as it does.”
Have you had any experiences of famous people coming to see the show?
Buchan: We live in London, so that has happened a couple of times when we weren’t able to meet them, but it was nevertheless mind-blowingly exciting. We’ve had a couple of heart-stopping meeting your heroes days, particularly with musical theater writers. It feels really strange because you’re so nervous about them seeing the work. When we were in London, Lin-Manuel Miranda came to see the show. And so did Susan Sarandon. I adore her.
Barne: Pasek and Paul came to see the show. We met Benj Pasek after, and he was so kind. We met [“Frozen” songwriters] Bobby and Kristen Lopez. They are so down-to-earth and funny.
Buchan: It made the actors feel wonderful. In fact, I watched the way they spoke to us and thought, “If we’re ever in a position of going to see somebody’s show, I would like to be able to do it like that.” It was so honest. We were trying to be cool, and then they left the room and we [freaked out].
How does the theater scene in New York compare to the West End?
Barne: Central London kind of dies off after 10:30 p.m. It’s so lovely to be able to just stroll into a bar after the theater and have a drink and something sweet. I mean, it’s a bit dangerous.
Buchan: There was a pub near the theater in London where we would always go, and it would sort of immediately close. Or it would be last call. Whereas, The Longacre is next to an Irish pub called Hurley’s. It’s been there since the late 19th century. It’s run by a man named Paul. He’s really lovely. We met him in our first week, and he was like, “We’ve got our fingers crossed for you. We really need a hit.” The Longacre hasn’t had a show run for very long for a while because of COVID. That sense of interconnectedness of the Broadway community, I suddenly felt like, “I really want to do it for Paul.”
Have you had any glamorous nights out in the city like Robin and Dougal do in the show? Have you visited the Plaza?
Barne: My sister came to New York for her 40th birthday. It was the night before our opening on Broadway. She brought some friends, and we tried to arrange to go to the Plaza for drinks before her birthday meal. We got there, and they were like, “You can’t drink now, but you can come back at 6 p.m., but you’ll need a reservation.” We were like, “OK, well, can we reserve a table? They were like, “No.” So I haven’t been yet. But the Tonys afterparty is at the Plaza, so maybe we finally get in.
Hosted by Ryan Seacrest, the event will also include performances from Goo Goo Dolls, Kenny Chesney, Lainey Wilson, Major Lazer, Muse, Snoop Dogg, Weezer and Zara Larsson. Additional performers are set to be announced ahead of the festival.
The 2026 iHeartRadio Music Festival will be broadcast on iHeartMedia radio stations across the country in more than 150 markets. For those who can’t attend, the performances will be broadcast live on Disney+ and Hulu for subscribers.
General tickets go on sale June 12 at 11 a.m. PT. Capital One cardholders have priority pre-sale starting on June 10 at 10 a.m. PT, and can add a Capital One Access Pass to their purchase for a pre-show party with Weezer on September 18.
“The iHeartRadio Music Festival is all about bringing together the biggest artists across every genre for two unforgettable nights, and this year’s lineup truly reflects the incredible diversity of music today,” said Tom Poleman, chief programming officer, and John Sykes, president of entertainment enterprises, of iHeartMedia. “From global superstars to fan-favorite icons, we’re excited to once again deliver an unmatched live and streaming experience that reaches millions of fans everywhere—whether they’re in the arena, listening across our stations nationwide or watching on Disney+ and Hulu.”
“Through our partnership with iHeartMedia, Capital One is dedicated to giving music fans unparalleled access to some of the industry’s most unforgettable live performances,” added Amit Desai, senior director of brand partnerships at Capital One. “By pairing early ticket access with unique on-site perks like the Capital One Access Pass, we give cardholders premium options to experience the iHeartRadio Music Festival from the very center of the action.”
When top actor Ranveer Singh walked away from “Don 3” in December 2025, he triggered what has become one of Bollywood’s most closely watched industry disputes in years – a conflict that has drawn in around 25 of the film business’s most senior figures, produced a Big Four audit, wound through the Producers Guild of India and landed, ultimately, with a non-cooperation directive from the Federation of Western India Cine Employees. Now, for the first time, people with direct knowledge of the private mediation proceedings are giving a detailed account of what was said in those rooms.
The dispute between Singh and Excel Entertainment – the production company of filmmaker Farhan Akhtar and producer Ritesh Sidhwani – centers on a damages claim of approximately INR45 crore ($4.7 million) and competing accounts of why a collaboration announced with considerable fanfare in August 2023 collapsed three weeks before cameras were due to roll. The timeline, as described by people with direct knowledge of the proceedings, offers a more detailed picture than either side’s public account. Excel shot a first look at its own expense on April 19, 2023, and released the footage publicly on Aug. 9, 2023, with Singh sharing it on his own social media. Yet the formal term sheet recording the principal terms of his engagement was not signed until Aug. 7, 2024, more than a year after he had been publicly presented as the new Don, with the long-form agreement still being negotiated between the two parties thereafter.
Created by Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, “Don” (1978), directed by Chandra Barot, starred Amitabh Bachchan in dual roles – that of a ruthless mafia don and his lookalike Vijay, a slum-dweller who is brought in by the police to masquerade as the gang leader after his death. The film was one of the biggest hits of the year. In 2006, Farhan Akhtar, Javed Akhtar’s son, rebooted the franchise with Shah Rukh Khan in the lead playing the dual roles of Don and Vijay in “Don: The Chase Begins Again.” The film was a smash hit and a 2011 sequel “Don 2” followed, which was showcased at the Berlin Film Festival and featured Hrithik Roshan, another top Bollywood star, in a special appearance.
The sequence of events in the lead-up to Singh’s exit matters because it frames what followed. On March 25, 2025, Excel sent Singh’s manager the latest draft of the script. On August 25, 2025, the production shared a schedule covering action training, costume trials and a principal photography window running from Jan. 9 to the end of July 2026. Singh completed a round of action training between Nov. 3 and 12, 2025, the costs for which Excel covered. Action rehearsal dates on Nov. 17, 18, 23 and 24 were subsequently canceled by Singh’s side; he attended a costume trial on Nov. 27. On Dec. 2 – the day “Dhurandhar” opened in cinemas — his team notified the production he would be unavailable for rehearsals on Dec. 11 and 12. The spy thriller, directed by Aditya Dhar and starring Singh in the lead role, would go on to become the fifth highest-grossing Indian film of all time; its sequel, “Dhurandhar: The Revenge,” released in March 2026, surpassed that to rank second all-time.
On Dec. 15 and 16, Singh participated in script readings with Akhtar and the key cast; multiple sources say a behind-the-scenes video exists of him expressing strong enthusiasm for the project. A look test scheduled for December 17 was cancelled at the last minute. On Dec. 20, Singh communicated to the producers by phone that he was exiting the film. By that date, “Dhurandhar” had crossed INR500 crore (around $52.5 million) at the domestic box office.
The mediation process that followed unfolded across multiple rounds. Earlier sessions, which Singh did not attend, brought together around 25 senior industry figures including Salman Khan, one of India’s biggest stars, at the first meeting, and Hrithik Roshan, the “War” and “Krrish” franchise star, filmmaker-producer Karan Johar, and actor Alia Bhatt at subsequent gatherings, all convened after Excel filed a formal complaint with the Producers Guild of India – the film industry’s primary trade body for producers. A later joint session, at which both Singh and Excel’s representatives were present, was attended by a smaller group including Aamir Khan, one of Bollywood’s most prominent actor-producers; actor Anil Kapoor; filmmakers Rohit Shetty, Rajkumar Hirani and Ashutosh Gowariker; producer Sidharth Roy Kapur; and Viacom18 studio head Ajit Andhare. The sessions were deliberately kept outside the guild’s formal process so that all parties could speak without committing to official positions.
Singh attended the joint session. He came, sources say, with several pages of handwritten notes and spoke for roughly 90 minutes. His account centered on four grievances: that the script had never reached a standard he was comfortable with; that Akhtar had been unavailable for sustained creative collaboration over the preceding years, citing cancelled meetings and the director’s commitments to concert touring and an acting project; that his fee had been renegotiated downward during the process; and that the film’s budget had been reduced significantly from an originally discussed figure of around INR300–350 crore (around $31.5–$36.7 million) to approximately INR150 crore (around $15.7 million) – a scale he felt was inadequate for the franchise. According to people present at the meeting, Singh also said he had not received any signing advance. Separately, people close to Singh have alleged publicly that Excel explored replacing him with Hrithik Roshan before returning to him in the wake of “Dhurandhar”‘s performance. Roshan subsequently issued a public statement saying he had never been approached for the role at any stage.
When Akhtar and Sidhwani were called in to respond, they arrived with printed records of their WhatsApp correspondence with Singh spanning several years. Those records, reviewed by the assembled group, showed Singh reacting positively – sources describe the messages as enthusiastic – to successive drafts of the script as they were shared. The documented exchange undercut his claim, according to multiple people in the room, that the script had never met his expectations. On the fee renegotiation allegation, Sidhwani’s position, as relayed by sources, was that no one from Excel had formally reopened or reduced the contracted terms — that earlier discussions had formed part of pre-contract negotiations, not alterations after the term sheet was signed. The budget reduction and director availability claims were similarly contested. Sources say the room’s assessment after the full session was that the documentary evidence had largely answered Singh’s allegations.
At one point during those proceedings, sources say, Sidhwani asked Singh directly whether he would have exited the project had “Dhurandhar” not been a hit. Singh, according to people present, said he would not have.
On the financial question, a Big Four accounting firm – described by sources as having no existing relationship with either party – was engaged to audit Excel’s pre-production expenditure. That audit returned a figure of approximately INR45 crore ($4.7 million), covering four overseas recce trips, writing costs including changes requested by or agreed with Singh, adjustments to cast and crew, and contractual obligations to more than 200 workers whose arrangements had been locked ahead of the January shoot. Variety was unable to independently verify the figure. Sidhwani has reportedly made his full accounts available for review from the outset of the dispute.
Following those meetings, Singh put forward a settlement proposal: INR10 crore ($1 million) in immediate compensation and a discount of 25% on his fee for any future Excel project. Sources say the producers rejected the offer, their position being that a discount on a future collaboration they no longer wished to pursue held no value, and that they were seeking straightforward cash compensation for the losses incurred.
Communication then effectively ceased. Sources say Singh traveled to the U.S. after discussions broke down, and that Excel’s subsequent attempts to reach his team went unanswered. The story of his exit leaked before the two sides could agree on a joint statement. The complaint was then escalated from the Indian Film & Television Directors’ Association (IFTDA) – under whose umbrella the matter first formally landed – to FWICE, which on May 25 issued a non-cooperation directive after Singh’s team did not respond to three separate notices. FWICE chief advisor Ashoke Pandit has clarified that the action is not a legal ban – the federation, as a trade body rather than a judicial authority, cannot enforce such a restriction – but constitutes a directive to its members across 30 affiliated crafts instructing them not to work on productions involving Singh until the dispute is resolved.
The legal dimension of the dispute sharpened further on June 1 this year, when veteran producer T.P. Aggarwal – a former president of the Indian Motion Picture Producers’ Association (IMPPA) and four-time president of the Film Federation of India – filed a petition in the Bombay Civil Court against FWICE and IMPPA. Aggarwal contended that neither body has the authority to issue a non-cooperation directive against any individual in the industry, citing a 2017 Competition Commission ruling to that effect. “Whatever FWICE has done is completely wrong and it’s not within their jurisdiction,” Aggarwal said. “It’s not something they can do.”
The directive also drew a public response from the Cine and TV Artistes’ Association (CINTAA), of which Singh is a member. “CINTAA is proud to have Ranveer Singh as our member,” CINTAA VP Padmini Kolhapure said. “We stand by him and for him whenever he needs us. We are here for him, with him.” CINTAA president Poonam Dhillon, speaking to Variety India, said the association had not been approached by any of the parties and expressed regret that it had not been given the opportunity to mediate. “It’s a very strange situation to be in because it’s one of our members, but neither the artist nor the producer or the Federation informed us or took us into confidence,” she said. “We could have tried to resolve the issue. That is what our association is there for.”
Singh has not commented publicly on the substance of the dispute. His spokesperson issued a statement saying the actor had “consciously chosen to maintain silence, believing that professional discussions and personal equations are best handled with dignity, maturity and mutual respect,” and that his focus remained on his work and upcoming commitments. Variety reached out to Singh’s representatives at William Morris Endeavor and had not received a response by the time of going to press. Variety also contacted Excel Entertainment, who said: “At this time we reserve our right to comment as we remain committed to following due process and observing necessary protocols.”
Sources who spoke to Variety were careful to frame the dispute as symptomatic of a wider industry problem rather than an indictment of any individual. A producer who attended multiple sessions noted that Singh himself had raised the issue of stars being wronged by producers – citing cases where directors had committed to projects and then walked away, leaving actors without compensation for blocked schedules. The Producers Guild is understood to be working on broader guidelines around star commitment and producer accountability, with the “Don 3” case as a catalyst.
“A clear message has gone out to anyone intending to back out of a project after investment has been made that it’s not something that anyone is going to take lightly,” one senior producer who attended the sessions told Variety. “These are not decisions that should be taken lightly.” The same producer noted that ultimately no industry body has legal jurisdiction over the two parties. “This can only be a negotiated settlement or something that has to finally get decided in a court,” he said.
“I think at a larger level, we all want an ecosystem to flourish without any bans, limitations, regulations of the world,” another senior producer who attended the mediation sessions told Variety. “That’s not the path we want to choose. There should be a free business and free opportunity for everyone. But … we will have to join hands with each other and try to rectify that.”
As of press time, no resolution between Singh and Excel Entertainment had been reached and the dispute remained at a stalemate.
Michelle Obama and her brother Craig Robinson brought a live recording of their “IMO” podcast to SXSW London on Tuesday, discussing their career journeys and entering the podcasting space — and revealing one of their favorite guests so far.
The former First Lady said that though she never expected to become a podcast host, the other challenges she’s faced in life unknowingly prepared her for it.
“It’s that courageous thing, right? The feeling that, OK, I guess we can do this because we did all these other things. The bravery makes you brave to try anything at any age,” she said. “I mean, I lived in the White House. I was the First Lady. That wasn’t my plan, I had no training for that. Wasn’t my idea! But we figured it out.”
Obama added: “I figured, if I can be First Lady, I can do a podcast with my brother!”
Obama and Robinson launched the “IMO” podcast in March 2025 through her and Barack Obama’s Higher Ground productions, dedicated to “conversations about life, leadership and the challenges we all face,” according to its synopsis. Over the past year or so, they have interviewed guests including Jimmy Kimmel, Dave Chappelle, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ayesha and Steph Curry, Halle Bailey, Conan O’Brien and more.
During the SXSW London conversation, Obama revealed that Chappelle has been “one of our favorite guests” while speaking on the topic of financial freedom. She and Robinson traveled to Yellow Springs, Ohio — the small town where Chappelle grew up and still lives — to record the episode, which premiered last month.
“Dave Chappelle is one of the smartest people on the planet, the funniest, all get out,” she said. “Once he became himself, he moved back, bought a farm and has raised his family on this farm. One of the questions was, ‘Why here?’ And he said, ‘I wanted to have the financial freedom to be courageous.’ And I was like, ‘Bars,’ you know? And that’s the truth, and what I would say to young people and to my girls: Live smaller than you need to.”
The comedian has been a controversial figure over the last few years due to his jokes about transgender people. When Obama and Robinson asked him about the subject on “IMO,” Chappelle said that the media has gotten his comedy “wrong.”
“People would think it’s me vs. the gay community. I never looked at it like that,” Chappelle said. “I always thought it was corporate interest and culture negotiating itself. So, you know, most of those people who were critical of what I was doing didn’t seem like they were of it. It’s like they had their faces pressed against the glass, commenting on what we were doing in there, but they weren’t in there doing it.”
He added: “Nothing makes a comedian madder than reading his joke wrong in the paper. You know, and reading a joke is nothing like hearing one or being one, and the intention of a comedy show is a very unique intention. We are playing with whatever the culture is made of, and we break it down and we get it right or we get it wrong. But in all art, if it’s going to be good or even hopefully great, you gotta have a margin of error.”
Obama’s dive into podcasting comes after the release of her memoir, “Becoming,” which sold over 11.5 million copies. In addition to podcasts like “IMO,” Higher Ground has also been behind the doc “Crip Camp,” the biographical film “Rustin” and more.
Rosamund Pike has called out a member of the audience for texting during the climatic scene of “Inter Alia,” for which the actress won an Olivier award in April.
The play follows Jessica Parks, a crown court judge dedicated to challenging the legal system’s approach to sexual violence, who is forced to contend with her own son being accused of rape.
“Inter Alia” was written by the Australian playwright Suzie Miller, who also wrote one-woman-play “Prima Facie,” starring Jodie Comer.
After a performance of “Inter Alia” on Saturday at Wyndham’s theater in London, according to the Guardian, Pike returned to the stage after the final bows. “I just wanted to say for anyone going to the theater, it’s a huge thing that we’re trying to give you. I am trying to tell you a story, and I’m feeling you, and I hope you’re feeling me too,” she said to the audience.
“Somebody was texting in this part,” she said, indicating a section of the theater. “You know who you are and I’m not going to single you out.
“Maybe it was very important, and maybe you’re a doctor, and you’re saving someone’s life, and I hope you are, but we do see these, we do feel them. I’ve got you. I feel like I’ve got to hold you all, so when I feel that and see it, it’s hard.”
Pike received a round of applause for her speech, The Times reported.
It was assumed by one audience member the actor was returning to the stage for a solo ovation, only to watch her gesture for people to sit down and listen.
“She suggested that spotting someone texting in the climax of this devastatingly emotional play broke this bond,” they said, “She seemed genuinely upset.”
A growing number of actors have criticized audience etiquette during theater performances. Last month, Lesley Manville told BBC Radio 4 that audiences should not take photos and videos during curtain calls. “Clap or don’t clap, but don’t just stick up your phone in our faces,” she said. “I find it insulting.”
In April, Cynthia Erivo stopped her performance of “Dracula” after spotting an audience member filming the show. Andrew Scott halted a performance of “Hamlet” in 2024 during the “to be or not to be” soliloquy when he saw an audience member had taken out a laptop to send emails.
Paradigm will collaborate with Bell’s long-term U.K representative Mark Jermin Management.
Bell landed the coveted role of Lou Lou in Lionsgate’s upcoming franchise instalment, which serves as both a sequel to 2023’s “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” and a prequel to 2012’s original “The Hunger Games.” Set for release on Nov. 20 and from director Francis Lawrence, the film’s all-star ensemble cast also includes Joseph Zada, Jesse Plemons, Elle Fanning, Kieran Culkin, Mckenna Grace, Whitney Peak, Maya Hawke, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Ralph Fiennes and Glenn Close.
Bell will then be seen opposite Chris Pine in the Netflix survival thriller “Yeti” from Michael Chaves, the filmmaker behind last summer’s New Line smash “The Conjuring: Last Rites.”
Earlier this year, Bell appeared alongside Taika Waititi and Mia Wasikowska in Jeffrey Walker’s family fantasy film “Fing!,” which premiered at Sundance.
Bell has appeared on the television project “Mandrake” and has roles in the forthcoming features “Savage Flowers” and “Frayed.”
Meanwhile Bell’s twin brother, Cameron Bell, has also inked with Paradigm. He’ll be soon seen in the British independent slasher film “Pinocchio Unstrung” based on the Carlo Collodi’s 1883 novel “The Adventures of Pinocchio” and from the makers of micro-budget slasher smash “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey”. The film will be released theatrically this summer via Viva Pictures.
And then there was… one? Going into this past weekend, there were two out of nine artists booked for the “Freedom 250” concerts in Washington, D.C. that were still proclaiming an eagerness to do the gig: Vanilla Ice and Milli Vanilli‘s Fab Morvan. Now that number has been halved, as Morvan, who said he was still into it on Friday, went on CNN Monday night to declare he’s now decided to follow most of the other artists out the exit door.
“This is not what I signed up for,” Morvan said on the news network. “When I saw Young MC pulled out, I was like, ‘Well, that’s weird… What does he know that I don’t know?’ So I was a little worried there, and then one after the next, people started to leave. But I was told by my team, who was told by another team, ‘There’s nothing, there’s no political alignment.’ … I was there to unite the people, to have them walk down memory lane, celebrate life. It was a way to say, ‘Hey, I’m still here, you’re still here. Let’s have a good time together.’ But throughout the week it turned into a circus. I’m not into politics, so you hear it first here: I’m not attending the June 26th celebration.”
It may be a moot point now, anyway, after President Donald J. Trump posted over the weekend that would like to just “cancel it,” apparently referring to the entire concert series. Whether Trump’s Truth Social comment means all the music has been officially canceled or it might still be up to a Freedom 250 commission is unclear. But if the series is indeed toast, Morvan saying he wants to opt out now could be a case of saying “You can’t fire me, because I quit.”
On Thursday of last week, as other artists dropped out, Morvan was insistent he was sticking with it. “I am here to entertain and unite people, not divide them,” he said then. “Let’s celebrate life & music and take a trip down memory lane. I feel honored to be a part of the Great American State Fair as it will celebrate the 250 Year Anniversary of America with so many other accomplished artists. Looking forward to reconnecting with you across the USA this summer and to finally sing Milli Vanilli songs live in person!”
The death watch for the series began when Morris Day insisted that his appearance was only a “rumor,” only hours after the concerts were first announced Wednesday, in response to immediate backlash he got for seeming to have signed up for a Trump-related event. Young MC soon followed, then Martina McBride, then the Commodores, then Bret Michaels. C&C Music Factory’s Freedom Williams posted an infamous video from his commode in which he waffled about whether to still do the show. Flo Rida just refused to say anything about it. That left Vanilla Ice and and Morvan as the two openly enthusiastic participants, until the surviving Milli Vanilli frontman changed his tune Monday night.
It probably didn’t help that over the weekend Trump appeared to be referring to all of the acts booked for the concerts as “overpriced singers who nobody wants to hear, whose music is boring,” seemingly not carving out any exceptions for the couple who were sticking with the program.
Said Morvan Monday night, “I don’t even try to enter into this arena. You know, I deal with everyday people… I have a very special story. I fell, I stood back up, I reinvented myself, and I’ve moved forward, and for many, I am an example,” he added, referring to the Milli Vanilli lip-synch scandal he and Rob Pilatus got caught up in in the ’90s, before trying to prove themselves as actual singers. “So when you fall into a, a storm like this one, all I can do is say, ‘I don’t want none of that.’… I know what it’s like to have a narrative being changed over and over until you don’t even recognize this narrative, and that’s what happened to me.”
There was confusion from the start about Milli Vanilli’s involvement, as the initial announcement was quickly followed by a woman who sang on the original Milli Vanilli albums, Jodie Rocco, issuing a statement that she and others who sang the real vocals on those albums would not be taking part. But she was not speaking for Morvan, who said he bought the rights to the name and has continued to tour under the Milli banner.
As for Vanilla Ice, he was on CNN earlier Monday, still sticking up for his participation. “All we’re doing is celebrating the birthday of our country. What’s the big deal here? … I’d play for anybody. I’d go play for Biden’s family or anybody. It doesn’t matter.” In an earlier interview, Ice declared that he’d “never voted in my life” and said he would perform for “Putin, whoever you want — I’d go to Iran. Don’t matter.”
The main gripe cited by several artists who pulled out earlier was that the concerts, the Great American State Fair and Freedom 250 were officially billed as “nonpartisan” but weren’t really turning out that way. Now that Trump has proposed replacing the concerts with one of his MAGA rallies (claiming that, as a speaker, he has a bigger audience than any musician, even Elvis), that would seem to negate any ongoing argument that the events are meant to be nonpartisan.
Trump has taken criticism from the right as well as from the center and left over how the Freedom 250 fracas ended up.
MAGA commentator Matt Walsh has been especially critical of this as a black eye for the president, and in a video posted Monday, he mocked the idea that the president replacing music with one of his customary speeches was a good idea.
“It’s not the kind of main event that’s going to draw in huge audiences,” Walsh said. “And more importantly, it’s not the best way to highlight the achievements of this country going back hundreds of years. America 250 should be a party, a celebration, not something that is about Donald Trump, or where Donald Trump is the main act. And the fact is that nobody in the entire history of parties has ever wanted to sit and listen to a 90-minute speech from a politician. You’ve never showed up to a party and said ‘Hey, this is great, when do the speeches start?’ A political rally is not a party.
“And what’s more,” Walsh continued, “several of the acts that pulled out claimed they were doing so because the event was more political than they had been told. Well, turning the event into a literal political rally would seem to legitimize their concerns, so Trump is handing them a PR victory on top of everything else.”
