This Week in Entertainment: What’s Actually Happening Across Bollywood and Hollywood

Between new streaming premieres, a historic honor for an Indian actress, and a courtroom battle finally heading to trial, it’s been a genuinely busy stretch for entertainment news on both sides of the industry. Here’s a fast rundown of what’s actually happening right now — not what’s rumored, what’s confirmed.

Bollywood: a packed OTT and theatrical week

Ali Baba Aur 40 Bhoot premiered on JioHotstar on September 11, 2026 — a Hindi horror-comedy adventure series drawing on Central Indian folklore. The show follows Alisha “Ali” Nigam, a neuropsychologist played by Asha Negi who leans on science while searching for her missing father, and Babarao “Baba” Deshmukh, a police officer played by Vishal Vashisht who firmly believes in ghosts and the supernatural. The science-versus-superstition pairing is doing a lot of the show’s comedic and dramatic heavy lifting, based on early descriptions.

Alongside the music and film highlights mentioned, this week also sees several theater movies hitting our screens. Dhamaal 4 and Gandhari are among the films debuting right now in September, which has already packed a heavy release schedule of movies. For those who want to get all the info:

Dhamaal 4 features a reunion of two beloved stars, Ajay Devgn and Arshad Warsi, in the franchise that brought them together for the previous film, with its usual wild comedy setting.

The comic duo has already been one of Bollywood’s dependable grossers in the four preceding movies of the Dhamaal series.

Elsewhere on streaming, Clean Up Company — an 8-episode Hindi crime comedy-drama set in the fictional border town of Saribgunj — premiered on August 21, 2026, with all episodes dropping at once. The show, starring Vishal Jethwa, Amey Wagh, Ajitesh Gupta, and Ravi Kishan, follows three friends whose accidental crime-scene cleanup job spirals into a genuinely risky business of disposing of bodies — and, predictably, draws the attention of both local gangsters and a determined IPS officer.

Looking further ahead on the theatrical calendar, some of 2026’s most anticipated remaining Bollywood titles include Gandhari, Mirzapur: The Movie, Immortal, Jeevan Bheema Yojana, and Sardar 2 — a lineup that mixes mythology, franchise extensions, and big-budget originals, reflecting just how varied this year’s slate has been compared to previous years’ heavier reliance on formula sequels.

A historic moment: Deepika Padukone’s Walk of Fame honor

One of the year’s more significant Bollywood-meets-Hollywood stories: Deepika Padukone was named among the 2026 inductees for the Hollywood Walk of Fame, making her the first Indian actress to receive the honor. The announcement came via a livestream from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, with Padukone named in the Motion Pictures category as part of a 2026 class of 35 names spanning film, television, music, live theatre, and sports entertainment — a class that also includes Emily Blunt, Timothée Chalamet, Rachel McAdams, Rami Malek, and Gordon Ramsay.

Padukone’s first appearance on a Hollywood big screen was in 2017 at the side of Vin Diesel in xXx: Return of Xander Cage, and she has lately appeared in the sci-fi blockbuster Kalki 2898 AD alongside Prabhas and Amitabh Bachchan, and a sequel to that film is reportedly to be made. Being on the list of the Walk of Fame is an actual milestone representing a crossover success; such recognition is usually only given to entertainers having a significant and ongoing presence in Hollywood, and that is quite a sign of how extensive her international fame has been over the past years.

Hollywood: a mixed week of premieres and personal news

On the personal-news side, actress Aubrey Plaza is expecting a baby with Christopher Abbott, with the couple reportedly set to welcome their child in fall 2026.

On the legal front, Blake Lively’s lawsuit against Justin Baldoni is now heading to trial, continuing one of the more closely watched legal disputes in the industry this year. Coverage of the case has continued to draw significant attention given both stars’ profiles.

Zendaya’s newest film, referred to in recent coverage simply as “The Drama,” is reportedly already dividing audiences ahead of its full theatrical release — an early sign that reactions to the film may end up split once it reaches a wider audience.

On the family-friendly side, the Super Mario Galaxy movie — sending Mario into space for a visually ambitious sequel — is now playing in cinemas, continuing the momentum built by the franchise’s earlier animated outing.

The Avengers: Doomsday promotional machine keeps rolling

There is also no harm mentioning this briefly because it affects both audiences.

Marvel’s Avengers: Doomsday has been promoting their movie at a very unremarkable rate, revealing a second trailer at Disney’s D23 event in August, just after an initial trailer revealed at San Diego Comic-Con in July.

As this movie comes to the cinema on December 18, the production has enlisted one of the biggest ensemble casts of the entire MCU era, bringing the original Avengers team, the Fantastic Four cast, Thunderbolts and an unexpected X-Men legacy reunion with Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen!

In light of the magnitude of the promotional work that’s happened till now, it’s highly likely that this one movie will keep being in the focus of the entertainment news until the end of this year.

The bottom line for this week

If there’s a theme connecting all of this, it’s scale and crossover — Padukone’s Walk of Fame honor bridging Bollywood and Hollywood recognition, Doomsday assembling casts from half a dozen previously separate franchises, and India’s own OTT slate diversifying well beyond the crime-thriller format that’s dominated Hindi streaming for the past few years, into horror-comedy, mythology, and genre-blending territory. Entertainment coverage this week isn’t short on volume — it’s been a genuinely full slate on both sides of the industry.

Entertainment news moves fast — release dates, casting details, and ongoing legal matters can shift. Check official studio and platform announcements for the latest confirmed updates.