Cine News Digest – 18 Oct 2026

Rajinikanth’s Jailer 2 on its way to smash records

Jailer 2 is hurtling towards the 400-crore mark globally and could become Tamil cinema’s first 1000-crore hit. This is despite having a very low-key release in North India because of the short OTT window period.

The Pan-Indian cast sharing the screen with Rajinikanth include Mohanlal, Mithun Chakraborthy, Hrithik Roshan, Jackie Schroff, S.J. Surya, Vidya Balan and Ramya Krishnan.

40 Days of Shooting left for Rajinikanth’s next film

Rajinikanth’s next film, titled Dharman, will see him share the screen with Nayanthara, Simran, Raashi Khanna and Sree Leela, Rukmini Vasanth, Mysskin and Yogi Babu. The film will be directed by Ashwath Marimuthu (Oh My Kadavule and Dragon) and produced by Kamalhaasan’s Raajkamal Films International. If there are no hiccups, the film will release on Tamil New Year 2027. Anirudh Ravichander scores the music.

Anirudh’s wedding date confirmed

Anirudh Ravichander will marry businesswoman Kavya Maran at a private ceremony in Greece on 11 November. A grand reception will be held in Chennai on 21 November.

Anirudh burst onto the music scene at age 21 with the viral hit Why this Kolaveri di, a song from his first movie soundtrack, the 2012 film 3. He soon became the most sought after music composer and scored the music for major films like Kaththi, Master, Vikram, Leo, Jailer and the recently released Jailer 2.

Anirudh is the son of Latha Rajinikanth’s younger brother, Ravi.

Kavya is the daughter of Kalanithi Maran, the billionaire head of the Sun Group of Companies and one of the most powerful men in Tamil Nadu. He is the son of Murasoli Maran and the grandnephew of M. Karunanidhi.

Kavya (35) is an MBA graduate and the owner of the IPL Franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad. (SRH).

The official announcement was made yesterday (17 October) but the rumours, which began in 2025 were confirmed in June this year by his maternal uncle, actor-writer Y.G. Mahendran, on KPTV.

Thamizh Padam 3 to commence next week

Director C.S. Amudhan will begin filming Thamizh Padam 3 next week. The first franchise of a spoof in Tamil cinema will once again see Mirchi Shiva in the lead role.

Indian 3 to release soon

After the box-office disaster suffered by Kamalhaasan’s Indian 2, there was talk that the third part – filmed concurrently with Part 2 will remain shelved. However, this week, Shankar announced that post-production will soon commence on the already filmed Indian 3. The film is expected to release for Pongal 2027 although it is unclear at this stage whether the release will be theatrical or on OTT.