EXCLUSIVE: After hitting top spot in 17 territories last month, a second season of Prime Video India’s gambling crime drama Matka King was odds-on, and the Amazon streamer has now played its hand.

The Vijay Varma-starring series has been commissioned for Season 2 after the first run became the service’s most-watched new Indian scripted show of the past two years.

Set against the fast-changing backdrop of 1960s Bombay (now Mumbai), the series follows Varma as humble cotton trader Brij Bhatti, who transforms into an illegal gambling kingpin after starting a ‘Matka’ game that takes the city by storm and democratizes a terrain previously reserved for the rich and elite. As the game grows, Brij begins to change his morals as power, money and ambition take a hold.

No word on the second run’s plot, but Prime Video said in a statement: “The game of Matka is far from over, and neither is Brij Bhatti’s reign. Matka King Season 2 is where the real stake begins.”

Season 1 trended in the Prime Video Top 10 across 37 countries and ranked first in 17 countries within its opening week. The show launched globally on April 17.

Matka King is created and written by Abhay Koranne and Nagraj Popatrao Manjule, the latter of whom also directs. Season 1 was produced by Siddharth Roy Kapur, Popatrao Manjule, Gargi Kulkarni, Ashwini Sidwani and Ashish Aryan under the banners of Roy Kapur Films, Aatpat, and SMR Entertainment.

The eight-episode series was led by Varma, who starred alongside Kritika Kamra, Sai Tamhankar, Siddharth Jadhav, Bhupendra Jadawat, and Gulshan Grover. The ensemble cast also included Bharat Jadhav, Girish Kulkarni, Jamie Lever, Kishor Kadam, Cyrus Sahukar, Arpita Sethiya, Sambhaji Tangade, Ishtiyak Khan, Sanjivv Jotangia, and Simran Ashwini.

Prime Video’s Indian service has become a huge driver for Amazon, with senior execs often citing the country as one of the biggest drivers of new subscribers. While Prime Video doesn’t reveal its subscriber numbers, estimates put paying customers at more than 20 million paying customers, making it a significant rival to Indian market leader JioHotstar. Earlier this year, Prime Video unveiled a 69-title originals slate, where Matka King was first revealed.

Yesterday, we were first with the news Prime Video had set a May 22 global release date for Indian courtroom thriller System.

The news comes on the same morning it was announced Prime Video is merging with its Amazon streaming sibling Amazon MX Player in India to form a huge new player on the market.

Singapore-based Mokster Films and Lester Hsi’s Taiwan-based D-Day Pictures are jointly producing Taiwanese horror film Revive, a project exploring the intersection between grief, technology and the unknown. 

Mokster Films is also handling international sales on the project, directed by emerging filmmaker Danny Tseng, and will introduce it to buyers in Cannes. 

The project marks the second collaboration between Mokster Films and D-Day following Phantom, an invisible man horror announced at last year’s Cannes and now in post-production, with producers Lester Hsi, Fiona Hu and Nelson Mok reuniting on the film. Hsi is a leading director-producer in Taiwan, whose debut feature The Bridge Curse became a breakout box office hit in 2020. 

Revive will be the live action feature debut of award-winning short filmmaker Tseng, who is known for his distinctive visual language and innovative approach to storytelling. His short film Torii won Second Place at The Dor Awards, while his other shorts, including Dear Grandma, Graveyard and Water, received multiple accolades across international competitions including Project Odyssey and Curious Refuge. 

Blending horror with Eastern spiritual beliefs, Revive follows a struggling artist who returns home after her estranged mother’s death and turns to ‘REVIVE’, an advanced funerary service that restores the deceased. 

As her life is reshaped under its influence – reviving her stalled career while quietly eroding her sense of self – the bereaved artist is confronted by a series of unexplained tragedies that force her to question whether the presence guiding her life is truly her mother at all.

The project has already won awards at Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF) and Golden Horse Film Project Promotion (FPP) and is scheduled to start production in Taiwan at the end of the year.

“With Revive, we wanted to explore how technology reshapes our relationship with memory and loss – and how dependence on it can delay acceptance, distorting reality and allowing something far more dangerous to take hold,” said producer Fiona Hu. 

Tseng added: “I began my journey making short films and new technologies opened doors for my work to be seen and recognized at international competitions. Now, as I move into theatrical feature filmmaking, I’m driven by the desire to bring my stories to the big screen and connect with audiences in cinemas.”

When her grandmother dies, Shana inherits a ring that is supposed to protect her from bad luck. And wow, does she need it! After all, Shana must not only navigate the trials and tribulations of everyday life with the support of her group of friends. Her toxic partner is also being released from prison. So, all sorts of misfortunes are piling up…

This is the set-up for Shana, a French comedy-drama directed by Lila Pinell, which world premieres in the Directors’ Fortnight (Quinzaine des cinéastes) program during the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. The filmmaker’s second feature and her first as a solo director is an adaptation the short film Le Roi David, which she wrote and directed.

Produced by Ecce Films and CG Cinema, international sales are handled by Les Films du Losange.

Starring Eva Huault, who was also the lead in Le Roi David, and Noémie Lvovsky, the movie takes audiences through the environment around the protagonist. “Her character moves around, like the ring, from one story, world or situation to the next,” highlights Pinell in a director’s statement. “In that respect, she is a wonderful narrative engine. Shana gets everything around her moving and stops those worlds from closing in on themselves. She sticks her foot in the door, she knocks down fences. She is in her own right a principle of motion.”

About Shana, she says: “There is, in her, the desire for emancipation but she is not really able to put her finger on it. It leads her into confrontational situations and conflicts that seem to resolve nothing.”

A trailer for Shana, which THR can now exclusively debut, we meet the protagonist, her friends and a whole lot of her headaches. It also showcases her energy and outspokenness, including at a cemetery.

Watch the trailer for Shana here.