The entertainment world is witnessing the end of a distinct era as several major icons from cinema and music step away from the limelight in 2026.

Hollywood screen legend Julie Andrews has confirmed her retirement from live-action and on-screen acting at the age of 90. The Oscar-winning star addressed speculation surrounding upcoming projects, including The Princess Diaries 3, and revealed that she has turned down invitations to return to live-action roles. Andrews is expected to remain active through voice work, writing and podcasts.

In India, playback singer Arijit Singh has announced his retirement from commercial playback singing. The 38-year-old singer, whose soulful romantic songs became a defining part of modern Indian cinema, said he would no longer take on new film assignments. He plans to focus more on personal compositions, independent projects and Indian classical music.

Julie Andrews, Arijit Singh And Vijay Exit Entertainment Industry In 2026

'RRR'&nbsp;star Jr NTR will start filming his 30th movie next month. On Sunday,&nbsp;the makers of the tentatively titled 'NTR30' announced that the Telugu film will see the actor reuniting&nbsp;with his 'Janatha Garage' director Koratala Siva. The project is expected to release worldwide on April 5, 2024.

NTR Arts, one of the banners behind the film, posted the announcement on its official Twitter page. "A man’s fury is the cure for a disease called courage. #NTR30 in cinemas on April 5th, 2024. Shoot begins next month. Happy New Year," the production house said in the tweet.

Take a look!

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NTR30?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NTR30</a> Shoot begins February 2023 and Grand Release on April 5th, 2024 in Telugu, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada &amp; Malayalam 🔥 
 
More Updates coming very soon 💥<a href="https://twitter.com/tarak9999?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@tarak9999</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KoratalaSiva?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KoratalaSiva</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/NANDAMURIKALYAN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NANDAMURIKALYAN</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/anirudhofficial?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@anirudhofficial</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/RathnaveluDop?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RathnaveluDop</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/sreekar_prasad?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@sreekar_prasad</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/sabucyril?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@sabucyril</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/YuvasudhaArts?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@YuvasudhaArts</a> <a href="https://t.co/W7HSva8Rjc">pic.twitter.com/W7HSva8Rjc</a>
— NTR Arts (@NTRArtsOfficial) <a href="https://twitter.com/NTRArtsOfficial/status/1609556084989259778?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 1, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The is bankrolled by Hari Krishna K of NTR Arts and Sudhakar Mikkilineni under Yuvasudha Arts.

R Ratnavelu has joined the team as director of photography while Sabu Cyril has taken over the duty of production designer. Sreekar Prasad will serve as editor on the project and Anirudh Ravichander will compose the music for the movie.

Jr NTR will also be working with 'KGF'&nbsp;films director Prashanth Neel on a movie, which will be his 31st project in showbiz.&nbsp;Touted to be a pan-India release, this film will reportedly be announced after Prashanth wraps ‘Salaar’ with Prabhas.

'RRR' star Jr NTR will start filming his 30th movie next month. On Sunday, the makers of the tentatively titled 'NTR30' announced that the Telugu film will see the actor reuniting with his 'Janatha Garage' director Koratala Siva.

'RRR' star Jr NTR will start filming his 30th movie next month. On Sunday, the makers of the tentatively titled 'NTR30' announced that the Telugu film will see the actor reuniting with his 'Janatha Garage' director Koratala Siva. The project is expected to release worldwide on April 5, 2024. NTR Arts, one of the banners behind the film, posted the announcement on its official Twitter page. "A man’s fury is the cure for a disease called courage. #NTR30 in cinemas on April 5th, 2024. Shoot begins next month. Happy New Year," the production house said in the tweet. Take a look! #NTR30 Shoot begins February 2023 and Grand Release on April 5th, 2024 in Telugu, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada & Malayalam 🔥 More Updates coming very soon 💥@tarak9999 #KoratalaSiva @NANDAMURIKALYAN @anirudhofficial @RathnaveluDop @sreekar_prasad @sabucyril @YuvasudhaArts pic.twitter.com/W7HSva8Rjc — NTR Arts (@NTRArtsOfficial) January 1, 2023 The is bankrolled by Hari Krishna K of NTR Arts and Sudhakar Mikkilineni under Yuvasudha Arts. R Ratnavelu has joined the team as director of photography while Sabu Cyril has taken over the duty of production designer. Sreekar Prasad will serve as editor on the project and Anirudh Ravichander will compose the music for the movie. Jr NTR will also be working with 'KGF' films director Prashanth Neel on a movie, which will be his 31st project in showbiz. Touted to be a pan-India release, this film will reportedly be announced after Prashanth wraps ‘Salaar’ with Prabhas.

'RRR' star Jr NTR to begin shooting for his 30th film next month; here're more deets

India's Bollywood film industry, long part of the cultural fabric of the movie-mad country of 1.4 billion people, is facing its biggest-ever crisis as streaming services and non-Hindi language rivals steal its sparkle.

The South Asian giant churns out on average around 1,600 films each year, more than any other country, traditionally headlined by glitzy Bollywood, with fans worshipping movie stars like gods and crowds thronging premieres.

But now cinemas have fallen quiet, even in Bollywood's nerve centre of Mumbai, with box-office receipts plunging since Covid curbs were lifted.

"This is the worst crisis ever faced," veteran Mumbai theatre owner Manoj Desai told AFP. Some screenings were cancelled as the "public was not there".

The usually bankable megastar Akshay Kumar had three back-to-back films tank. Fellow A-lister Aamir Khan, the face of some of India's most successful films, failed to entice audiences with the 'Forrest Gump' remake 'Laal Singh Chaddha'.

Of the more than 50 Bollywood films released in the past year -- fewer than normal because of the pandemic -- just one-fifth have met or surpassed revenue targets, said media analyst Karan Taurani of Elara Capital. Pre-pandemic it was 50 per cent.

In contrast, several Telugu-language aka Tollywood movies -- a south Indian competitor to Hindi-language Bollywood -- have soared to the top.

Embarrassingly, around half the box-office takings for Hindi-language films from January 2021 to August this year were dubbed southern offerings, said State Bank of India's chief economic adviser Soumya Kanti Ghosh in a recent report.

"Bollywood, after decades of storytelling... seems to be at an inflection point unlike any other disruption it has faced before," Ghosh wrote.

- 'Out-of-touch' -

Bollywood, like other movie industries, has been hurt by streaming's rise, which started before the pandemic but took off when millions of Indians were forced indoors.&nbsp;

Around half of India's population has access to the internet and streaming services, including international players such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+ Hotstar have 96 million subscriptions, according to a government estimate.

Some films released during the Covid shutdown went straight to these platforms, while others hit small screens just weeks after debuting in theatres.

With streaming monthly subscriptions lower or comparable to the cost of one ticket -- 100-200 rupees ($1.20-$2.50) at single-screen cinemas and higher at multiplexes -- price-sensitive audiences were avoiding theatres, analysts said.

Times have been so hard that INOX and PVR, two of India's biggest multiplex operators, announced their merger in March to "create scale".

Subscribers were meanwhile exposed to local and global streaming content, including southern Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada-language films that already had legions of devoted local fans.

"Regional cinema was not travelling beyond its borders. But now suddenly everyone was watching Malayalam cinema or Maharashtrian cinema and then you realise that... there are filmmakers who are telling more interesting stories," film critic Raja Sen said.

"Then they see a Hindi blockbuster coming out with a star which is just like a rethread of a story they've heard a million times, then they're not so impressed anymore."

Critics also accused Bollywood of making niche or elitist films that do not resonate in a country where 70 per cent of the population lives outside cities.

Aamir Khan admitted during media interviews for 'Laal Singh Chaddha'&nbsp;that Hindi filmmakers' "choice of what is relevant to them is perhaps not so relevant to a larger audience".

At the same time, Tollywood mega-smash hits 'Pushpa: The Rise' and 'RRR'&nbsp;highlighted the heroics of common people while treating audiences to larger-than-life visual spectacles with catchy song-and-dance routines.

Such formulas have long been a Bollywood mainstay but film critics say the southern challengers were doing it bigger and better.

"To get people to cinemas we need to create an experience for storytelling that cannot be replicated at home," multi-theatre operator and trade analyst Akshaye Rathi said.

"What we need to do is respect their time, money and effort. And whenever we do that, for a particular movie, they come out in big numbers."

- Wake-up call -

Ensuring box-office success by having a star as your protagonist was now no longer guaranteed, said Taurani, who described Bollywood's recent struggles as "alarming".

"I think audiences obviously want the star, but the audience wants the star to feature in a film which has got compelling content," he added.

Kumar -- nicknamed a "one-man industry" for being so prolific -- said he was going back to the drawing board.

"If my films are not working, it is our fault, it is my fault. I have to make the changes, I have to understand what the audience wants," the Indian Express reported Kumar as saying in August.

- Boycott -

Adding to Bollywood's woes have been repeated social media campaigns against certain films by Hindu right-wingers, including the 'Forrest Gump'&nbsp;remake.

Most recently, there were calls for the new release 'Brahmastra'&nbsp;to be boycotted over star Ranbir Kapoor's beef-eating comments some years ago. Cows are considered sacred by Hindus.

But while creating unwelcome noise, analysts say there appeared to be no material impact on box-office returns. 'Brahmastra'&nbsp;has in fact done well.

The real issue, movie-goers told AFP outside one cinema in Mumbai, was that many Bollywood films were simply not good enough.

"The story should be good (and) the content should be good, so that people want to watch," said student Preeti Sawant, 22.

"So that's why people are not coming to watch movies."

India's Bollywood film industry, long part of the cultural fabric of the movie-mad country of 1.4 billion people, is facing its biggest-ever crisis as streaming services and non-Hindi language rivals steal its sparkle.

India's Bollywood film industry, long part of the cultural fabric of the movie-mad country of 1.4 billion people, is facing its biggest-ever crisis as streaming services and non-Hindi language rivals steal its sparkle. The South Asian giant churns out on average around 1,600 films each year, more than any other country, traditionally headlined by glitzy Bollywood, with fans worshipping movie stars like gods and crowds thronging premieres. But now cinemas have fallen quiet, even in Bollywood's nerve centre of Mumbai, with box-office receipts plunging since Covid curbs were lifted. "This is the worst crisis ever faced," veteran Mumbai theatre owner Manoj Desai told AFP. Some screenings were cancelled as the "public was not there". The usually bankable megastar Akshay Kumar had three back-to-back films tank. Fellow A-lister Aamir Khan, the face of some of India's most successful films, failed to entice audiences with the 'Forrest Gump' remake 'Laal Singh Chaddha'. Of the more than 50 Bollywood films released in the past year -- fewer than normal because of the pandemic -- just one-fifth have met or surpassed revenue targets, said media analyst Karan Taurani of Elara Capital. Pre-pandemic it was 50 per cent. In contrast, several Telugu-language aka Tollywood movies -- a south Indian competitor to Hindi-language Bollywood -- have soared to the top. Embarrassingly, around half the box-office takings for Hindi-language films from January 2021 to August this year were dubbed southern offerings, said State Bank of India's chief economic adviser Soumya Kanti Ghosh in a recent report. "Bollywood, after decades of storytelling... seems to be at an inflection point unlike any other disruption it has faced before," Ghosh wrote. - 'Out-of-touch' - Bollywood, like other movie industries, has been hurt by streaming's rise, which started before the pandemic but took off when millions of Indians were forced indoors. Around half of India's population has access to the internet and streaming services, including international players such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+ Hotstar have 96 million subscriptions, according to a government estimate. Some films released during the Covid shutdown went straight to these platforms, while others hit small screens just weeks after debuting in theatres. With streaming monthly subscriptions lower or comparable to the cost of one ticket -- 100-200 rupees ($1.20-$2.50) at single-screen cinemas and higher at multiplexes -- price-sensitive audiences were avoiding theatres, analysts said. Times have been so hard that INOX and PVR, two of India's biggest multiplex operators, announced their merger in March to "create scale". Subscribers were meanwhile exposed to local and global streaming content, including southern Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada-language films that already had legions of devoted local fans. "Regional cinema was not travelling beyond its borders. But now suddenly everyone was watching Malayalam cinema or Maharashtrian cinema and then you realise that... there are filmmakers who are telling more interesting stories," film critic Raja Sen said. "Then they see a Hindi blockbuster coming out with a star which is just like a rethread of a story they've heard a million times, then they're not so impressed anymore." Critics also accused Bollywood of making niche or elitist films that do not resonate in a country where 70 per cent of the population lives outside cities. Aamir Khan admitted during media interviews for 'Laal Singh Chaddha' that Hindi filmmakers' "choice of what is relevant to them is perhaps not so relevant to a larger audience". At the same time, Tollywood mega-smash hits 'Pushpa: The Rise' and 'RRR' highlighted the heroics of common people while treating audiences to larger-than-life visual spectacles with catchy song-and-dance routines. Such formulas have long been a Bollywood mainstay but film critics say the southern challengers were doing it bigger and better. "To get people to cinemas we need to create an experience for storytelling that cannot be replicated at home," multi-theatre operator and trade analyst Akshaye Rathi said. "What we need to do is respect their time, money and effort. And whenever we do that, for a particular movie, they come out in big numbers." - Wake-up call - Ensuring box-office success by having a star as your protagonist was now no longer guaranteed, said Taurani, who described Bollywood's recent struggles as "alarming". "I think audiences obviously want the star, but the audience wants the star to feature in a film which has got compelling content," he added. Kumar -- nicknamed a "one-man industry" for being so prolific -- said he was going back to the drawing board. "If my films are not working, it is our fault, it is my fault. I have to make the changes, I have to understand what the audience wants," the Indian Express reported Kumar as saying in August. - Boycott - Adding to Bollywood's woes have been repeated social media campaigns against certain films by Hindu right-wingers, including the 'Forrest Gump' remake. Most recently, there were calls for the new release 'Brahmastra' to be boycotted over star Ranbir Kapoor's beef-eating comments some years ago. Cows are considered sacred by Hindus. But while creating unwelcome noise, analysts say there appeared to be no material impact on box-office returns. 'Brahmastra' has in fact done well. The real issue, movie-goers told AFP outside one cinema in Mumbai, was that many Bollywood films were simply not good enough. "The story should be good (and) the content should be good, so that people want to watch," said student Preeti Sawant, 22. "So that's why people are not coming to watch movies."

Block 'busted': India's Bollywood faces horror show at box office