Category: Entertainment

Veteran Indian actor Ratna Pathak Shah has termed SS Rajamouli’s blockbuster film RRR starring Ram Charan and Jr NTR as a regressive movie.

At a recent event, Ratna took a dig at Rajamouli’s magnum opus, said: “Films like RRR are so popular today. But it’s a regressive film. It looks backward while we should look forward. We just feel whatever we are doing is good because we are part of the mother of democracy India.”

“Until filmmakers will not see their work critically, we will have to watch films like RRR. But we don’t like criticism. Our ego gets hurt. This atmosphere is created by so many big people and, unfortunately, we have accepted it,” said the Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na star.

RRR has been a recognized film not only on a domestic level but also internationally. The film portrays the story of two freedom fighters Allu Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem. Apart from Charan and NTR, it also stars Alia Bhatt and Ajay Devgn in supporting roles.

Earlier this year Ratna even termed the Hindu festival of Karwa Chauth as regressive. The Golmaal 3 star spoke about how women in the 21st century, are still observing age-old traditions like Karwa Chauth – a Hindu ritual in which the wife prays for her husband’s long life by fasting.

On the work front, Shah is currently busy promoting her upcoming Gujarati film Kutch Express which is set to release on January 6, 2023.

Avatar: The Way of Water, the recently released sci-fi movie directed by James Cameron, made over $435 million at the box office in its opening weekend in theatres, as reported by Mid-Day.

Though the film’s collection in its opening weekend is huge, it is still considered underperforming as Avatar 2 was expected to have a business of around $500 million in its opening weekend.

As per a report by Box Office Mojo, the film will cross the $1.5 billion mark surely and it may also reach the $2 billion mark in its lifetime which is still low considering the scale of the film.

Avatar: The Way of Water is a sequel to James Cameron’s 2009 film Avatar which is the highest-grossing film of all time.

Made on an estimated budget of $250 Million Avatar 2 stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, and Sigourney Weaver from its sequel while also adding Kate Winslet in the sequel. Avatar: The Way of Water is the widest release ever in cinema history.

The film is performing well in India, and has exceeded the lifetime collections of its prequel in just four days.

Amber Heard will pay Johnny Depp $1 million to settle their long-running legal battle, in which each accused the other of domestic violence.

The sum is a significant reduction from the $8.35 million she was ordered to pay after a six-week trial in Virginia earlier this year. The payment is expected to come from her insurance carrier.

In a statement, Depp’s attorneys said that he would donate the money to charity. His attorneys have previously said that the case was “never about the money” for Depp. In her own statement, Heard said she had “lost faith in the American legal system.” She also said that the settlement spares her the ordeal of further litigation and allows her to finally “emancipate” herself from their marriage.

Depp originally filed a $50 million defamation claim against Heard in March 2019 after she published an op-ed in the Washington Post in which she described herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.”

At the trial in Fairfax, Va., each actor testified for several days, revealing lurid details of drug abuse and screaming matches. Their testimony was streamed live on YouTube and remixed endlessly on TikTok and Facebook. Heard alleged that Depp repeatedly assaulted her, choked her and once raped her with a liquor bottle. She often broke down in sobs during her testimony.

Depp, meanwhile, alleged that Heard was the aggressor in the relationship, and that he would try to retreat whenever she became violent. The couple had made audio recordings of their arguments during their marriage, and each side played clips they had selected to try to corroborate their accounts.

The seven-person jury ruled in Depp’s favor on three separate claims of defamation, awarding him $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. The latter sum was knocked down to $350,000 to comply with a statutory cap.

In a small consolation to Heard, the jury also found in her favor on one of her three counterclaims, finding Depp liable for a statement made by his attorney in which Heard was accused of perpetrating a “hoax.” Depp was ordered to pay Heard $2 million, leaving a net judgment of $8.35 million in Depp’s favor.

The following month, Heard filed a notice of appeal, with her attorney citing “errors” made by the court. However, the “Aquaman” actor has now agreed to withdraw her appeal.

In a statement posted on Instagram announcing the decision, Heard made clear that “There are no restrictions or gags with respect to my voice moving forward” and blasted the U.S. legal system for turning her testimony into “entertainment and social media fodder.”

She also compared her experience of the U.S. legal system to the U.K., where Depp sued British tabloid The Sun in 2020 for calling him a “wife beater” in an article. Heard was a chief witness for The Sun. In that case, the judge called the allegations “substantially true” and found in favor of The Sun.

In a statement, representatives for Depp said they were pleased with the outcome, and emphasized that the jury’s verdicts still stands.

“We are pleased to formally close the door on this painful chapter for Mr. Depp, who made clear throughout this process that his priority was about bringing the truth to light,” said Depp’s attorneys Benjamin Chew and Camille Vasquez. “The jury’s unanimous decision and the resulting judgement in Mr. Depp’s favor against Ms. Heard remain fully in place. The payment of $1 million – which Mr. Depp is pledging and will (actually) donate to charities – reinforces Ms. Heard’s acknowledgement of the conclusion of the legal system’s rigorous pursuit for justice.”

Heard first leveled her abuse allegations against Depp in 2016, in the course of her divorce from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star. She later received $7 million in a settlement and the couple agreed not to speak of the matter again, signing non-disparagement and non-disclosure agreements.

Read Heard’s full statement below:

“After a great deal of deliberation I have made a very difficult decision to settle the defamation case brought against me by my ex-husband in Virginia. It’s important for me to say that I never chose this. I defended my truth and in doing so my life as I knew it was destroyed. The vilification I have faced on social media is an amplified version of the ways in which women are re-victimized when they come forward. Now I finally have an opportunity to emancipate myself from something I attempted to leave over six years ago and on terms I can agree to. I have made no admission, this is not an act of concession. There are no restrictions or gags with respect to my voice moving forward. I make this decision having lost faith in the American legal system, where my unprotected testimony served as entertainment and social media fodder. When I took before a judge in the U.K., I was vindicated by a robust, impartial and fair system, where I was protected from having to give the worst moments of my testimony in front of the worlds media, and where the court found that I was subjected to domestic and sexual violence. In the U.S., however, I exhausted almost all my resources in advance of and during a trial in which I was subject to a courtroom in which abundant, direct evidence that corroborated my testimony was excluded and in which popularity and power mattered more than reason and due process. In the interim I was exposed to a type of humiliation that I simply cannot re-live. Even if my U.S. appeal is successful, the best outcome would be a re-trial where a new jury would have to consider the evidence age. I simply cannot go through that for a third time.”

She added, “Time is precious, and I want to spend my time productively and purposefully. For too many years I have been caged in an arduous and expensive legal process, which has shown itself unable to protect me and my right to free speech. I cannot afford to risk an impossible bill – one that is not just financial but also psychological, physical and emotional. Women shouldn’t have to face abuse or bankruptcy for speaking her truth, but unfortunately it is not uncommon. In settling this case I’m also choosing the freedom to dedicate my time to the work that helped me heal after my divorce; work that exists in realms in which I feel seen, heard and believed and in which I know I can effect change. I will not be threatened, disheartened, or dissuaded by what happened from speaking the truth. No one can and no one will take that from me. My voice forever remains the most valuable asset I have.”

Amber concluded by saying, “I’d like to thank my outstanding appellate and original trial teams for their relentless hard work. I want to thank everyone who has supported me and I turn my attention to the growing support that I felt and seen publicly in the months since trial, and the efforts have been made to show solidarity with my story. Any survivor knows that the ability to tell their story often feels like the only relief. I cannot find enough words to tell you the hope your belief in me inspires. Not just for me, but for all of you.”

Actor Affan Waheed recently answered on Hassan Chaudhry’s The Talk Talk Show if he is dating co-star Sidra Niazi. The Do Bol star also explained why they were spotted together.

Affan stated that he frequently visited London to see his little nephew, and it was purely coincidental that Sidra was also in town at the same time, and they both met and took pictures.

He also said that Sidra is an old family friend of theirs, and they both knew each other before they were famous.

Last year when Waheed appeared on theThe Big Pick show, he revealed that because of his marriage rumours with Shehnai co-star Ramsha Khan, many people in his circle and even neighbourhood believed it.

“Women in my neighborhood visited my home and gave “Salami” (wedding token) of 5000 to my mother, fans are highly convinced about the marriage of Ramsha and me.”