Malayalam

• I aim to explore life's realities, their effects on relationships, and highlight disparities in race, status, justice, and gender.
• "'PARADISE' is a fast-paced and thrilling cinematic experience that will entertain and astonish," enthused Anto Chittilappilly, Newton Cinema Producer and CEO.
• Madras Talkies, Producer Siva Ananth comments, "'PARADISE' is full of nuanced insights and subtle cinematic flourishes from a master filmmaker.
• The World Premiere of 'PARADISE' is set for October 7th, 2023, at Busan International Film Festival in South Korea.

• The word “India” is, after all, an exonym – a placename given by outsiders.
• Alongside English, Hindi is one of two languages used in the Indian Constitution, with versions written in each language.
• But the use of “Bharat” has elicited outcry from the political opposition, some Muslims, and Hindu conservatives in the south, reflecting ongoing tensions in India between language, religion and politics.

Two different language families

• My book with fellow linguist Julie Tetel Andresen, “Languages in the World: How History, Culture, and Politics Shape Language,” covers the language history and politics of India.
• Hindi is the most-spoken language in India, but its use is largely relegated to a part of the country that linguists refer to as “the Hindi belt,” a massive region in northern, central and eastern India where Hindi is the official or primary language.
• Around 1500 B.C.E., a group of outsiders from Central Asia – known now as the Indo-Aryans – began migrating and settling in what is now northern India.
• They spoke a language that would eventually become Sanskrit.

Dravidians spurn Hindi

• But after independence, opposition to Hindi grew in the Dravidian-speaking south, where English was the favored lingua franca.
• For Tamils and other Dravidian groups, Hindi was associated with the Brahmin caste, whom many felt marginalized Dravidian languages and culture.
• For many people in the south, Hindi came to be seen as a language as foreign as English.

Nationalists push for one official language

• In India, Hindus make up about 80% of the population, while Muslims make up about 14% – more than 200 million people.
• One such policy is the promotion of Hindi as the sole official language of India.
• Speaking in 2022 at a Parliamentary Official Language Committee meeting, BJP Home Minister Amit Shah said, “When citizens of states speak other languages, communicate with each other, it should be in the language of India.” To Shah, the “language of India” and Hindi were one and the same.

Suppressing Urdu

• Although Urdu and Hindi are remarkably similar, their differences take on outsized religious and national significance.
• Whereas Hindi draws on Sanskrit for new words, Urdu draws on Persian and Arabic, again emphasizing associations to Islam.
• And whereas Hindi predominates in India, Urdu is the official language of Pakistan, along with English.

• LOS ANGELES, Aug. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Newton Cinema announces its fourth film, 'PARADISE,' accompanied by the unveiling of its first-look poster.
• Celebrated Indian filmmaker Mani Ratnam will be presenting the film under the banner of Madras Talkies.
• Anto Chittilappilly, Producer and CEO of Newton Cinema, expressed his admiration for Prasanna Vithanage's masterful storytelling, noting that viewers will be captivated by this extraordinary thriller.
• With its premiere at IFFR, Rotterdam, 'FAMILY' won the Best Film accolade from HFF, Turkey, subsequently garnering nominations for Best Film and Best Director at IFFM, Melbourne.

• streaming platform for South Asian content, today unveiled a highly anticipated, blockbuster content slate with a line-up of 111+ titles spanning multiple languages.
• The lineup showcases ZEE5 Global's significant focus on Indian language content with titles in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bangla, Punjabi and Marathi.
• Ms. Nimisha Pandey, Chief Content Officer – Hindi Originals, ZEE5 said, "As ZEE5 reaches its 5-year milestone, we are creating ourselves, one story at a time.
• Users can download the ZEE5 Global app from Google Play Store / iOS App Store on Roku devices, Apple TVs, Android TVs, Amazon Fire Stick and Samsung Smart TVs.