logo
From Heads Of State To Kaalidhar Laapata: 5 OTT Titles To Stream This Week

From Heads Of State To Kaalidhar Laapata: 5 OTT Titles To Stream This Week

News182 days ago
Last Updated:
Discover 5 new Hindi and English OTT releases to stream from June 30–July 4. Includes Companion, Heads of State, Kaalidhar Laapata, and more must-watch titles.
The first week of July is stacked with must-watch OTT releases across genres—from sci-fi and political thrillers to action-packed sequels and gripping Hindi dramas. Whether you're in the mood for high-stakes international comedy or intense real-life investigations, this list has something for everyone. Here are five Hindi and English titles dropping between June 30 and July 4 that deserve a spot on your watchlist:
1. Companion (English)
This taut sci-fi thriller stars Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid in a chilling tale of artificial intimacy turned rogue. When a rented humanoid girlfriend gains sentience, she sets off on a chilling quest for revenge. With early critical acclaim and a Rotten Tomatoes rating hovering around 94%, Companion blends dystopian drama with emotional tension, making it a must-watch for genre lovers.
2. Heads of State (English)
Streaming from July 2 on Amazon Prime Video
What happens when two world leaders—played by Idris Elba and John Cena—are thrown into a high-octane international crisis? Heads of State delivers a riotous blend of action and comedy with political satire, explosive sequences, and witty banter. Perfect for fans of The Hitman's Bodyguard or Red Notice.
3. The Old Guard 2 (English)
Streaming from July 2 on Netflix
Charlize Theron returns in the much-anticipated sequel to The Old Guard, continuing the saga of immortal warriors caught between modern warfare and ancient loyalty. Expect stylized action, emotional depth, and more mythological revelations as the story expands its universe.
4. Kaalidhar Laapata (Hindi)
Streaming from July 4 on Zee5
Abhishek Bachchan headlines this Hindi drama that explores identity, invisibility, and emotional survival. A remake of the Tamil film KD, Kaalidhar Laapata promises a deeply human story woven with wit, melancholy, and moments of unexpected warmth.
5. The Hunt: The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case (Hindi)
Streaming from July 4 on SonyLIV
Delving into one of the most pivotal and tragic events in Indian history, this true-crime docu-drama chronicles the covert operation to capture the perpetrators of Rajiv Gandhi's assassination. Combining archival footage with dramatic reconstruction, The Hunt offers a gripping account of justice pursued at any cost.
First Published:
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Credit, and contempt, for the paths to quick riches
Credit, and contempt, for the paths to quick riches

Hindustan Times

time26 minutes ago

  • Hindustan Times

Credit, and contempt, for the paths to quick riches

A screenshot on the internet screamed, '41 crores! That's the net worth of a 23-year-old content creator'. Many on the internet lost it. They beat their breasts, posting their marksheets and entrance exam ranks, and their current in-hand salary, and claimed life is unfair. I wonder. Young people getting rich quick isn't new. Almost every new IPL player has a similar rags to five-tattoos-on-arm story. Hindi newspapers have been forever converting Day-0 dollar salaries to rupees to scare parents into packing their offspring off to Kota. A girl having poha in the college canteen being spotted by Subhash Ghai is not unheard of. So, why the commotion over influencers becoming famous and, subsequently, rich? Maybe this new path to wealth — earning money on the internet — is not yet culturally acceptable, hence the distaste among people. Several acceptable ways to make money have become Bollywood tropes. Going to school is just a brief and annoying interruption before you hop onto a plane to New York to study film-making, eventually to return and manage your family's spare-parts business in Karol Bagh. 'Vicky baba aaj hi vilayat se apni padhaai poori karke wapas laute hai (Vicky baba has returned home, after finishing his studies abroad),' an old caretaker helpfully tells the guests seated in the large living space. Clearly, Vicky baba's vilayati degree couldn't ensure employment, which is why he had to return. But nobody treats Vicky baba like a loser, he is ripe to be married off by converting dosti (friendship) to rishtedaari (relationship). A moviegoer in Muzaffarpur then aspires for this life. Another acceptable and respected way to get rich young is to study very hard, sacrifice friends, cable TV, smartphones, and get an All India Rank that doesn't look like a phone number. The number of hours studied is akin to currency. News-channels will ask you about the number of hours studied every day; smartness doesn't count, they just want to promptly report the number of hours, and a parent hearing that the topper studied 12 hours a day will use that benchmark to make their kid's life miserable. Here again, several movies have glorified the academic path. A scene with a person studying under a street lamp moves to the same chap jostling with scores of youngsters like him, gathered around a list stuck outside the Union Public Service Commission office, to find his name on it. Then he breaks down, uplifting music playing in the background. The academic path to wealth is the most common — the one that generates the least wealth at a young age and yet expects 70 hours of work a week. And still another is for ones who won the genetic lottery, blessed with such good looks that a film director spots them even as they are having paani puri on the street. Most such multi-million dollar careers kick off when a car stops at the roadside, a window rolls down, and an offer is made. Within a year or two, the paani puri eater is stepping out of a Land Rover, wearing oversized glasses, and making patronising small-talk with the paparazzi, while suffering from success. Very few in India begrudge such meteoric rise. It is, as they say, very acceptable. So, why are content creators judged so harshly? There is a concept in differential calculus, called the 'Local Maxima'. It relates to the highest point of a mathematical function in the immediate neighbourhood. When the internet was not there, those good at academics (local maxima) got accolades from relatives and neighbours for cracking a tough exam. The comparisons were local. And the relative superiority gave happiness. With the internet, the world became one's neighbourhood, and suddenly all the local maxima realised they aren't the global maxima. People their age were earning much more, while doing really, really less, and not necessarily studying 12 hours a day. It disturbed the local maximas' mental equations. Rags to riches stories, propelled by genetics and a bit of luck, always existed, but they were distant. With the internet, they are at your doorstep. The rise is swift, and every bit is recorded. 'My first two-wheeler' to 'first foreign trip with parents' to 'my first BMW', it is live-streaming large-scale hay production while the sun is shining. Then, Bollywood is yet to validate this new path, glamourise it and make a serious actor of repute play the role of a content creator, making the general public root for an influencer. Perhaps till then, influencers won't be immune to day-to-day jealousy, like Bollywood stars are. Barely any layperson would be jealous of Aishwarya Rai. She and her kind are in the stratosphere already. Influencers, however, operate somewhere in the middle, within range for people on the ground to take potshots. People like me, however, who aren't genetically chiseled or have the content creation chops, would do better to focus on differential calculus. Abhishek Asthana is a tech and media entrepreneur, and tweets as @gabbbarsingh. The views expressed are personal.

Ramayana: Part I - Ranbir Kapoor And Yash's Film Posters Light Up Times Square
Ramayana: Part I - Ranbir Kapoor And Yash's Film Posters Light Up Times Square

NDTV

time30 minutes ago

  • NDTV

Ramayana: Part I - Ranbir Kapoor And Yash's Film Posters Light Up Times Square

New Delhi: Ramayana: Part I, featuring Ranbir Kapoor as Lord Ram, Yash as Ravana and Sai Pallavi as Sita, is making waves worldwide. On Thursday, July 3, the makers unveiled the film's first glimpse, offering a peek into the epic battle. Ramayana: Part I, directed by Nitesh Tiwari, witnessed a grand launch event across major Indian cities. Now, the movie's international rollout has reached North America. The iconic Times Square in New York City has been lit up with stunning visuals and posters of the film. Giant billboards featuring Ranbir Kapoor and Yash in their divine avatars adorn the bustling Times Square. Pictures of the same are currently going viral. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Spice (@spicesocial) Ramayana: Part I, produced by Namit Malhotra and co-produced by Yash, revolves around the timeless battle between two of the world's most iconic forces: Rama vs Ravana. It's a fight between good and evil. The film's first look was accompanied by a caption that read, 'Ten years of aspiration. Relentless conviction to bring the greatest epic of all time to the world. An outcome through a collaboration of some of the world's best to ensure that Ramayana is presented with the greatest amount of reverence and respect. Welcome to the beginning. Let's celebrate the IMMORTAL story of Rama v/s Ravana." View this post on Instagram A post shared by Namit Malhotra (@iamnamitmalhotra) Besides the titular cast, Sunny Deol will be seen as Lord Hanuman, whereas Ravie Dubey is set to play Ram's brother Lakshman in Ramayana: Part I. Adding to the grandeur, Oscar-winning musicians AR Rahman and Hans Zimmer crooned the movie's music. Previously, Namit Malhotra shared some details about Ramayana: Part I at the World Audio Visual Entertainment Summit. He said, 'The way we want to go about it is to make it feel local to people in the world. Again, with the use of some technology, we're trying to make sure that we'll be able to localise the film in languages with performance, which means that it should play in English with lip sync without subtitles or dubbed versions, because it should be in English. It should be in Spanish; it should be in Japanese."

Why Amitabh Bachchan and Rajesh Khanna never shared screen again after an iconic climactic death scene?
Why Amitabh Bachchan and Rajesh Khanna never shared screen again after an iconic climactic death scene?

Time of India

timean hour ago

  • Time of India

Why Amitabh Bachchan and Rajesh Khanna never shared screen again after an iconic climactic death scene?

From Anand to Adversaries A Death Scene and the Battle for Heroism — 4331Subhash (@4331Subhash) — IndiaHistorypic (@IndiaHistorypic) Accusations, Anger, and Distance You Might Also Like: Amitabh Bachchan was once declared 'clinically dead'. How he and Jaya Bachchan reacted to Puneet Issar after the Coolie accident In the world of Hindi cinema, rivalries are often cloaked in professionalism. But sometimes, a single moment — or a single scene — can fracture even the most promising collaborations. One such fracture occurred during the making of Namak Haraam (1973), and it changed the trajectory of the relationship between two of Bollywood's biggest icons — Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan In 1971, Anand marked a powerful collaboration between Rajesh Khanna, then the reigning superstar of Hindi cinema, and a rising actor named Amitabh Bachchan. The film was a massive success and earned both critical acclaim and audience adoration. But while Anand cemented Rajesh's position, it was just the beginning of Bachchan's meteoric rise. Two years later, Zanjeer turned the tide in Amitabh's favour, positioning him as the new face of stardom — intense, brooding, and unlike the romantic heroes Bollywood had previously changing dynamics of their respective careers cast a long shadow on Namak Haraam, the next project that brought the two together. Helmed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee and written by Gulzar , the film revolved around themes of friendship, class struggle, and betrayal. But behind the camera, another quiet betrayal was his book Rajesh Khanna: The Untold Story of India's First Superstar, author Yasser Usman quotes lyricist and screenwriter Gulzar, who recalled how the original climax of Namak Haraam was rewritten to suit Rajesh Khanna's wishes. The actor had already tasted the emotional impact of an on-screen death in Anand, where his character's tragic end left an unforgettable imprint on viewers. This time too, Khanna wanted the same — to be the one who dies.'Hrishikesh Mukherjee had promised Rajesh Khanna the death scene,' Gulzar recalled. And so, despite the narrative initially being tilted towards Amitabh's character, the climax was quietly shifted. When Amitabh finally found out — on the very day of the shoot — he was devastated. 'In Hindi films, the one who dies is considered a hero, so both were keen on being heroic,' Gulzar said. 'He was crestfallen. He was so hurt that he didn't speak to me for several days. He felt I had betrayed him.'The professional snub led to a personal fallout. According to Prashant Roy, Rajesh Khanna's secretary for two decades, the actor became increasingly suspicious of Amitabh's influence on their shared director. 'Kakaji used to be very angry with Amitabh Bachchan. He used to tell his close friends that Hrishikesh Mukherjee is his favourite director, but Amitabh has filled his ears,' Roy recounted in the same bitterness spilled beyond the sets. Roy claimed that during the entire shoot of Namak Haraam, Khanna believed Bachchan was playing 'dirty politics' with the director. After the film wrapped, neither actor worked with the other again. 'During my 20 years working with Kakaji, I never saw Amitabh coming to Aashirwaad,' Roy added, referring to Khanna's bungalow. 'Earlier, Hrishikesh Mukherjee used to come quite often, but after Namak Haraam, even his visits were rare.'Though Namak Haraam became a classic and was critically appreciated for its performances, it marked the end of the Rajesh-Amitabh cinematic pairing. The unspoken coldness endured for decades. When Rajesh Khanna passed away in 2012 at the age of 69, it closed a chapter of Hindi cinema marked by shifting stardom and silent estrangements.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store