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Indian studio Applause Entertainment is gearing up for an ambitious slate of projects as it enters its eighth year of operations.

The company, led by managing director Sameer Nair, a pioneer of Indian television with previous stints at Star TV, Ndtv Imagine, Turner General Entertainment and Balaji Telefilms, has its sights set on expanding into new genres and formats while building on its established successes.

Leading the charge is “Nyaya,” a courtroom drama produced in association with Mangata Films. Directed by Nitya Mehra, Karan Kapadia and Heeraz Marfatia, the fictionalized series based on real events follows a 17-year-old girl seeking justice against a powerful ‘godman,’ or leader of a religious cult, who raped her. The project boasts a strong cast including Fatima Sana Sheikh, Aneet Padda, Arjun Mathur, Mohd. Zeeshan Ayyub and Raghubir Yadav.

“When this opportunity came up, we really pounced on it,” Nair told Variety. “They’ve shot it really well.

Kabir Khan garnered ample curiosity when he announced "The Forgotten Army: Azaadi Ke Liye", simply because he set out to narrate a saga that perhaps remains the most intriguing in India's military history.

Independent India has rarely ever discussed Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's Indian National Army (Ina), or Azad Hind Fauj. So, when one of Bollywood's most high-profile filmmakers sets out to narrate the story, you sit up to take notice.

Khan made a documentary on this subject two decades ago for Doordarshan, so it is fairly safe to assume he went into the effort with necessary knowledge and research. The fact that he chose to narrate the story as a limited series of just five episodes shows he preferred keeping things to the point.

Without maintaining unity of time, place or action in a bid to augment the drama, Khan divides his story into two tracks that move parallel to each other.

Indian actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui has joined the cast of The Confession Of Sultana Daku, produced by London-based Beautiful Bay Entertainment.

Adapted from Sujit Saraf’s best-selling novel, the film tells the true story of the 1920’s bandit who thumbed his nose at the British Raj in a crime spree across central India with a task force of a thousand police on his tail.

The film will be directed by Heeraz Marfatia (Birju) from a script by Shubra Swarup. “Nawaz has lived and dreamed the stories of Sultana Daku since he was a child. In a way, he has been preparing to play this character his entire life without even knowing it,” said Marfatia

Beautiful Bay, founded by Colin Burrows and Michael Ward, specialises in Indian-focussed stories and currently has Pia Sukanya’s Bombairiya in post-production.

After Akarsh Khurana made an exit due to creative differences, Bejoy Nambiar was on a hunt for a new director for his next production titled Focus. And finally he found a perfect filmmaker in Heeraz Marfatia. Excited about the new development, Bejoy revealed that he had shared his troubles after Akarsh's exit with Heeraz while working with him on another project and the filmmaker had immediately agreed to do the film. Heeraz has previously worked on some popular short films like Birju and Exit. Now with the director back in place, Focus is all set to roll by the end of this month. Starring Rajkummar Rao, Focus is a road film with elements of drama and comedy. The film will be shot in the beautiful locales of Kerala.

Mumbai, Jul 17: Film producer Siddharth Jain has denied any reports of casting Ranbir Kapoor for his film "Bloody Vampire". Earlier it was heard Ranbir would be playing the role of a vampire in the said film, but now the producer has stated that he did not decide on any hero as of yet. Jain told in a recent interview with press that Rk is not a part of the film, and the male lead of the film is not yet chosen.

The shooting will start from next year, and the movie is going to be directed by Heeraz Marfatia. Jain said that he is not getting any trouble.

Mumbai, July 9: There were reports that Ranbir Kapoor will play a vampire in "Bloody Veer", but the film's producer Siddharth Jain denies this saying they have not zeroed on anyone yet for the main lead.

" 'Bloody Veer' is a vampire film. The leading actor is not yet finalised. Ranbir Kapoor is not in the film, it was all media speculation," Jain told Ians.

"Bloody Veer" will be directed by Heeraz Marfatia and the shooting will.