20062026-LSTL-01.qxd 6/19/2026 7:54 PM Page 1 c m y b TEASER OF EETHA OUT With Cocktail 2 hitting theatres, the makers have attached the teaser of their upcoming Shraddha Kapoorstarrer Eetha to the film’s theatrical screenings. A glimpse of Eetha has leaked online after several fans posted phone-recorded footage of the teaser on social media. TRIBUNE Spotted! Life Nimrit Kaur Ahluwalia attended the screening of the crime thriller web series Ab Hoga Hisaab in Mumbai. The series premiered on June 18 and is now streaming exclusively on Amazon MX Player. LUDHIANA | SATURDAY | 20 JUNE 2026 Streaming services are mining bookshelves for their next big hit... & they are binge worthy! CHAT UP JIM CARREY, RON HOWARD RETURN A sequel to the 2000 holiday blockbuster How the Grinch Stole Christmas is in development, with actor Jim Carrey and filmmaker Ron Howard expected to return to the beloved Dr Seuss adaptation. Carrey, who famously portrayed the Grinch in the original film, is in talks to reprise his role, while Howard is expected to return as director. DILJIT TOUCHES NASEER’S FEET As Main Vaapas Aaunga continues to receive a strong response from audiences, a behind-the-scenes video featuring Diljit Dosanjh and veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah has been winning hearts online. Shared by Team Diljit on Instagram, the video captures an adorable moment from the film’s set, where Diljit is seen greeting Naseeruddin Shah by touching his feet before the two exchange smiles and interact warmly. MADONNA’S DATING RULES Madonna has revealed an unusual factor that influenced her dating choices during her early years in New York City. “I would date guys based on whether they had bathtubs and showers I could use,” Madonna said. “I’d be like, ‘So where do you live?’ And they’re like, ‘I live on the Upper West Side.’ And I’m like, ‘Do you have a bathtub?’ That was a big plus for me.” LEILA, BRIDGERTON & A SUITABLE BOY Ravleen Kaur T HERE’s a new kind of weekend ritual taking over. It starts with a show you promised yourself you’d only try one episode of. Then suddenly you’re three episodes in, texting friends about fictional characters, pausing scenes to soak in and somewhere in between, adding a book to your cart. Welcome to the golden age of book adaptations, where streaming platforms aren’t just competing for attention—they’re quietly reopening entire libraries. The latest entries into the ever-growing adaptation universe couldn’t be more different. On one hand, there’s Off Campus, adapted from Elle Kennedy’s bestselling hockey-romance series, which has fans collectively losing their minds over Briar University athletes. On the other is Karisma Kapoor’s Brown, adapted from Abheek Barua’s City of Death, a dark neonoir thriller set against the moody backdrop of Kolkata. Different genres. Different audiences. Same strategy. From page platform For Indian audiences, the adaptation era didn’t begin with Netflix. It began with Byomkesh Bakshi. Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay’s detective stories were already popular in print, but television changed their rhythm. For many viewers, Byomkesh stopped being a character you read and became someone you knew. Years later, Sacred Games redefined what Indian streaming could aspire to. Drawn from Vikram Chandra’s sprawling novel, it turned On global platform And then, there are the global blockbusters. Bridgerton, based on Julia Quinn’s novels, transformed Regency-era romance into a modern pop culture machine. What began as historical fiction quickly became a visual language of its own—corsets, gossip, orchestrated pop songs, and a fandom that treats every season like an event. The Summer I Turned Pretty, adapted from Jenny Han’s trilogy, turned a coming-of-age story into a seasonal emotional calendar. Its appeal lies less in plot twists and more in familiarity—the return to the same beach, the same love triangle, the same ache of growing up. Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander stands as one of the most durable examples of literary adaptation. What began as historical romance fiction expanded into a long-running television universe. Why adaptations keep winning BROWN India’s adaptation blueprint to tion narratives can carry the same binge potential as fictional thrillers. SCOOP literary crime fiction into a global conversation, placing Indian storytelling on an international map with a scale previously unseen. A Suitable Boy, adapted from Vikram Seth’s literary classic, attempted something even rarer: patience. It carried the weight of a 1,000-page world onto screen, choosing detail over speed and emotional accumulation over plot shortcuts. Leila, born from Prayaag Akbar’s dystopian fiction, built a visually stark, unsettling future Subhash K Jha Adah Sharma divides her time between Hindi and Telugu films. She is best known for being the main lead of The Kerala Story, which made ~375 crore at the box office making it India’s highestgrossing female-led film of all time. Currently Adah is seen as an investigative journalist in Governor. GRAHAN that felt uncomfortably close to reality. It showed how speculative Indian writing could translate into serious screen language. Grahan, inspired by Satya Vyas’s Chaurasi, moved between 1984 and the present, using romance as a lens to revisit political trauma without flattening its complexity. Scoop, drawn from journalist Jigna Vora’s memoir, turned lived experience into tightly wound newsroom drama, proving that non-fic- At the centre of this wave is not just popularity— it is predictability in an unpredictable market. Books arrive with something studios are constantly searching for: loyal audiences, fully developed world and characters people are already emotionally invested in. For viewers, adaptations offer stories that feel richer, more lived-in than most original productions. For readers, they offer the thrill of seeing imagined worlds take physical shape. For authors, they offer something rarer still: a second life for stories that may have first been published years ago. Confessions of a serial trespasser house, do actual detective work. No social media, no “sources say” WhatsApp forwards. I enjoy doing research for all parts and I get a little obsessive. I remember during The Kerala Story, I used to sit up all night watching terrorist-confession videos and footage of ISIS camps. During Sunflower, I visited dance bars in disguise. Do you see yourself as more of Telugu or Hindi actress? Shahid Kapoor on Cocktail 2 chemistry with Rashmika, Kriti Sanon Shahid Kapoor said he is glad that people are praising his chemistry with Cocktail 2 costars Kriti Sanon and Rashmika Mandanna. Speaking at the film’s press conference in Mumbai, Kapoor said he was pleased that audiences were finding it difficult to choose between his on-screen pairings with Sanon and Mandanna. “What is very nice about this film is that everybody is saying that they love seeing me with Rashmika and Kriti. I believe it is always a huge compliment to all of us that they are not able to decide who they prefer,” the People are enjoying seeing us three together actor said. Kapoor said strong chemistry between co-stars is crucial for a romantic drama and he was happy that viewers were responding positively to all the relationships depicted in the film. “All these things are very nice because you want to have the best chemistry with your co-stars,” he added. The actor also expressed surprise over the audience’s reaction to the bond between Sanon and Mandanna, which has become a talking point since the trailer’s release. “People are talking about their chemistry also, which was obviously not expected. So thank you guys, any chemistry works, we are happy to take it,” Kapoor said. “I just love the fact that people are enjoying seeing us three together. This film belongs to everyone, not a single person,” he added. Directed by Homi Adajania and produced by Dinesh Vijan’s Maddock Films, Cocktail 2 is a follow-up to the 2012 hit Cocktail, which starred Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone and Diana Penty. The film explores friendship, romance and emotional complexities through a new set of characters. — PTI c m y b If I answer that question, half the internet will be upset with me and the other half will be upset that I’m not upsetting enough people. I’ve been fortunate to work in different industries and very fortunate to get accepted everywhere even though my choice of roles has not been conventional. I debuted in Hindi cinema with 1920. The first time the audience saw me, I had black teeth and they still accepted me. In Telugu industry, I’m most known for Heart Attack and Kshanam. The roles I play in both are unusual but the audience gave me so much love. I think of myself as a serial trespasser, who keeps entering different film industries and now I’m doing a film in another language. So, I’m very excited. Governor gives you an opportunity to play a journalist in the 1990s. How much research did you do to get it right? I have a cameo part in the film but for me whether it’s the title part or just few days shoot I like to doing my This is your fifth film with the same banner. How high is your comfort level with the team? I’m almost on my way to breaking Akshay kumar and Vidyut Jammwal’s record number of films with the banner! Two or three films more and I should get there. It’s now more like going to a family function that to a movie set. Adah Sharma, who plays a hardnosed journalist in Governor, says she likes exploring new territories research. I watched interviews of journalists from the 1990s and realised the biggest difference was that What was it like to have Manoj Bajpayee as your co-star? It felt like being in an acting workshop where I also happened to be getting paid. He’s so effortless and just seamlessly gets into every role he plays. Your forthcoming projects? they couldn’t just Google everything in three seconds. If they wanted information, they actually had to leave the On social media my comments section is full of ‘When is your next horror film….pls do horror’. For all 1920 fans, there is horror coming up. There is also an actioner, there’s a bilingual film too and a biopic.