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Crime Thriller Steals Best Pic at Bollywood Awards in UAE

Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez was one of many stars on the green carpet. Giuseppe CACACE / AFP
Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez was one of many stars on the green carpet. Giuseppe CACACE / AFP
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Crime Thriller Steals Best Pic at Bollywood Awards in UAE

Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez was one of many stars on the green carpet. Giuseppe CACACE / AFP
Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez was one of many stars on the green carpet. Giuseppe CACACE / AFP

Crime thriller "Drishyam 2" was crowned best picture as Bollywood glossed over its recent struggles with a high-octane International Indian Film Academy Awards show in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.

Director Abhishek Pathak's gritty remake of a Malayalam film took the top honor at the end of a four-hour ceremony of pumping dance routines that showcased the Hindi-language movie industry, AFP said.

Best director went to Ranganathan Madhavan for "Rocketry: The Nambi Effect". Hrithik Roshan won best actor for his role in "Vikram Vedha" and Alia Bhatt took best actress for "Gangubai Kathiawadi".

"Brahmastra: Part One - Shiva" picked up a number of prizes including best supporting actress for Mouni Roy and best female playback singer for star vocalist Shreya Ghoshal.

The IIFA awards, intended to reach an international audience, were held for the second year running in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates where more than a third of the 10 million population is Indian.

The Hindi-language film industry was worth $2.5 billion in 2019. India also releases hundreds of films in its 21 other official languages, churning out about 1,600 each year total.

But Mumbai-based Bollywood, the world's most prolific producer of movies, has been mired in crisis since the pandemic with ticket sales remaining low since cinemas reopened.

The rise in streaming services, competition from other parts of India and demand for meatier fare than Bollywood's trademark song-and-dance routines have all contributed to the slump, experts say.

However, superstar Shah Rukh Khan's "Pathaan" smashed Indian box office records in January, in a positive sign for the industry.

Shiny gold shirt

Indian cinema also received a boost in March when viral dance hit "Naatu Naatu" won an Oscar for best song, a first for a film from the country.

"What does IIFA mean for (Indian) cinema? I think opening up to the global stage and also bringing us to the global stage as well, so it's exciting both ways," said actress Jacqueline Fernandez, wearing an Arab-inspired head covering.

Among the highlights, heart-throb Varun Dhawan, wearing a shiny gold shirt, rode onto the stage on a mini-dune buggy, and ceremony host Vicky Kaushal drew screams from the audience when he launched into a dance number.

Actor and eco-activist Dia Mirza reminded the crowd about pressing environmental concerns months before the UAE, one of the world's biggest oil producers, hosts the COP28 United Nations climate talks in November and December.

Veteran actor Kamal Haasan was awarded for his outstanding achievement in Indian cinema and Anil Kapoor won best supporting actor for his role in "Jugjugg Jeeyo".

"Darlings" took best original story, and best female debut was Khushali Kumar in "Dhokha: Round D Corner".

The IIFA show, one of a number of Indian awards ceremonies, has been held in several countries since its debut in London in 2000. Voting is done online by fans.

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Entertainment

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt Reach Divorce Settlement after 8 Years

(FILES) Writer-director-producer-actress Angelina Jolie Pitt (L) and actor-producer Brad Pitt arrive for the opening night gala premiere of Universal Pictures' "By the Sea" during AFI FEST 2015 presented by Audi at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood, California, on November 5, 2015. (Photo by MARK RALSTON / AFP)
(FILES) Writer-director-producer-actress Angelina Jolie Pitt (L) and actor-producer Brad Pitt arrive for the opening night gala premiere of Universal Pictures' "By the Sea" during AFI FEST 2015 presented by Audi at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood, California, on November 5, 2015. (Photo by MARK RALSTON / AFP)
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Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt Reach Divorce Settlement after 8 Years

(FILES) Writer-director-producer-actress Angelina Jolie Pitt (L) and actor-producer Brad Pitt arrive for the opening night gala premiere of Universal Pictures' "By the Sea" during AFI FEST 2015 presented by Audi at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood, California, on November 5, 2015. (Photo by MARK RALSTON / AFP)
(FILES) Writer-director-producer-actress Angelina Jolie Pitt (L) and actor-producer Brad Pitt arrive for the opening night gala premiere of Universal Pictures' "By the Sea" during AFI FEST 2015 presented by Audi at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood, California, on November 5, 2015. (Photo by MARK RALSTON / AFP)

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have reached a divorce settlement, her lawyer said Monday, bringing an apparent end to one of the longest and most contentious divorces in Hollywood history.
Jolie's attorney James Simon confirmed to The Associated Press that the couple had come to a deal. News of the settlement was first reported by People magazine.
“More than eight years ago, Angelina filed for divorce from Mr. Pitt,” Simon said in a statement. “She and the children left all of the properties they had shared with Mr. Pitt, and since that time she has focused on finding peace and healing for their family. This is just one part of a long ongoing process that started eight years ago. Frankly, Angelina is exhausted, but she is relieved this one part is over.”
No court documents have been filed yet, and a judge will need to sign off on the agreement. An email late Monday night to Pitt's attorney seeking comment was not immediately answered.
Jolie, 49, and Pitt, 61, were among Hollywood’s most prominent pairings for 12 years, two of them as a married couple. The Oscar winners have six children together.
Jolie filed for divorce in 2016, after a private jet flight from Europe during which she said Pitt was abusive toward her and their children. The FBI and the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services investigated Pitt's actions on the flight and deemed no action needed to be taken against him.
A judge in 2019 declared them divorced and single, but the splitting of assets and child custody needed to be separately settled.
Soon after, a private judge that the two had hired to handle the case reached a decision that included equal custody of their children, but Jolie filed to have him removed from the case over an unreported conflict of interest. An appeals court agreed, the judge was removed, and the couple had to start the process over.
During the long divorce fight, four of the couple's six children became adults, negating the need for a custody agreement for them. The only two that remain minors are 16-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne. In June, one of their daughters, then known as Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, successfully petitioned to remove Pitt's name from hers.
Their other children are 23-year-old Maddox, 21-year-old Pax and 19-year-old Zahara.
No details of the agreement were immediately revealed, and the couple's use of the private judge — an increasingly common move among splitting celebrities in recent years — has kept the proceedings largely under wraps. There have been no official court actions in the case in nearly a year, and no indication that the two had been nearing an agreement.
Some details on their disputes, however, have been revealed through a separate lawsuit filed by Pitt in which he alleged Jolie reneged on an agreement that she would sell him her half of a French winery the two owned together. Jolie instead sold her part of the winery, Chateau Miraval, to the Tenute del Mondo wine group, a subsidiary of the Stoli Group., which Pitt said was a “vindictive” move that ruined a private space that had been a second home.
Jolie's attorneys said the winery sale agreement broke down over Pitt's demand that as part of the deal she sign a wide-ranging non-disclosure agreement about him. In court documents, she called that an attempt to cover up his physical abuse of her, which she said turned toward the children on the 2016 flight.
Along with the federal and L.A. County officials, the initial judge in the case heard testimony on the allegations before deciding to give Pitt equal custody of the children.
It's not clear how the divorce agreement will affect the winery lawsuit.
Publicly, both Pitt and Jolie have been extremely tight-lipped on everything surrounding their split, despite robust promotional tours and many media appearances for various projects.
Pitt said in a 2017 interview with GQ that he had had a drinking problem at the time of the plane incident and the split, but had since become sober and was going to therapy. He has not defended his behavior on the family flight.
Jolie has also declined to make any public statements about the family issues or the divorce, though she has sought a broader examination and airing of his behavior by the courts in both the divorce and winery cases.