Bollywood actors Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor are considered one of the hottest celebrity couples within the industry, and now the actress has revealed details of her first meeting with her husband, with whom she shares daughter Raha.
Bhatt is currently promoting her Netflix film ‘Heart Of Stone’ where she stars along with Gal Gadot and Jamie Dornan. During an interview with Netflix, the ‘Gangubai’ actress said that at her audition for the 2005 film ‘Black’, she met Ranbir, who was working as a film assistant.
Although Alia didn’t get the role, the two met again in 2012 during ‘Student Of The Year’ which was directed by Karan Johar, where Ranbir visited on set. During an episode of ‘Koffee With Karan’, actor Ranveer Singh took everyone by surprise when he revealed the son of Rishi Kapoor had dropped by during the film shooting, and joked with Karan about whether he should marry Alia or not.
It’s been five years since Bollywood superstar Sridevi passed away in 2018 from accidental drowning in Dubai, leaving behind a celebrated legacy with films like ‘Chandni’, ‘English Vinglish’ and ‘Mr India’. The beloved Indian actress starred with Pakistani actors Sajal Aly and Adnan Siddiqui in the 2017 release ‘Mom’, and the two have always remembered her in fond words.
Aly commemorated the Bollywood icon by sharing a picture of her on her Instagram stories with the caption “Happy Birthday! I miss you”.
In an interview with BBC Asian Network, Aly had praised the late actress, stating that she was “like a mother to me” and discussed her experience of working with her on ‘Mom’ by recalling how kind the ‘Mr India’ actress was to her.
“…The first thing a good person and a good actor would do is make the other person comfortable,” the ‘Ye Dil Mera’ actress gushed. “She was that kind of actor. She had a lot of empathy and kindness towards me. For instance, I had that one scene where I was wearing this red dress and when I got ready she was like ‘Oh! You should curl your hair more!’ She was acting like a mother to me, although she was just a co-star. But the fact that she cared about how I’m looking and how I could look better, that is something that stole my heart.”
The host recounted meeting Sridevi for an interview for a film at her house, where she praised Sajal, by saying she’s someone “you need to lookout for.”
“I didn’t know she said that about me, but of course in some interviews she pra
ised my acting a lot. These kind of compliments, I get scared because I feel the pressure. I never talk about her a lot and the relationship we had, it’s something I can’t explain. Because it was really real.”
Aly was also close to Sridevi’s daughter Janhvi Kapoor, whom she could emotionally connect with because both of their moms had passed away.
“We met after six years[in Dubai],” recalled Aly. “When my mother had passed away as well as hers. Probably because of our mothers as well we got a lot more closer. So I connect with her and she connects with me. We used to keep in touch but then she started her career and she’s busy with that.”
Kapoor shared a picture of her mother on set on her Instagram, writing that she wished her mother was still here today.
“And today as I’m on a set on your birthday I wish more than ever I had you with me like this, so we could convince everyone it was actually your 35th and not 60th birthday. And you could tell me if I’m pushing myself hard enough or not. And I could see in your eyes if I was making you proud. I know you’d be happy seeing us try, in your memory. Every day. I love you, you are the most special woman on this planet.”
‘Heart of Stone’, Netflix’s new thriller starring Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt and Gal Gadot has brought out every critic’s stone heart. The spy thriller about an international secret agent who must use all means to protect the mysterious MacGuffin known as ‘Heart of Stone’ has been slammed by critics for its generic plot and poor performances with a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 4.9/10.
Variety called the film “joyless, convoluted, and sludgy-looking” as well as a “degraded descendant of Bond thrillers”. Their review described the film as a laborious two hours long weary form of bloat without a plot and an endless chain of events filled with action sequences.
Mashable wrote that the film has glaring similarities with Tom Cruise’s ‘Mission: Impossible- Dead Reckoning Part One”, calling it a “flimsy action knock-off” and also said that the assemble of the star-studded cast, including ’50 Shades Of Grey’s” Jamie Dornan, failed to charm owing to a bad script that gave them little content to start with.
Giving it a meagre 2/5 stars, Indian Express wrote that Alia Bhatt’s talent had been wasted, as this was the Bollywood actor’s debut Hollywood project- pointing out how she was minimised when her talent could have been utilized better. Their review futher criticised the film’s poor dialogue and overuse of character’s talking in cliche’s like “You know what you signed up for”, and, “Behind you!” or the limited ways their roles were fleshed out throughout the film.
Eid came a little too early for social media users when on August 10, the much awaited sequel to the critically acclaimed Amazon Prime series ‘Made In Heaven’ released online. The nine episode drama focuses on the lives of Delhi wedding planners Tara and Karan, as they attempt to build a brand name for themselves in the cut-throat world of India’s wedding industry.
Created by Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti, the season was lauded for the powerful performances by Sobhita Dhulipala and Arjun Mathur, as well as for boldly bringing to light issues like cast prejudice and sexual assault.
This time, the second season promised to be quite a show-stopper as Karan decides to stop living in shame because of his sexual orientation and Tara decides to take her ex-husband Adil to court to get a good settlement in divorce. The two were left grappling with loss as their business is torn to shreds after a mob attacks it because of Karan’s support to decriminalize homosexuality. And critics, along with social media, had to agree, kay dair aye laikan drust aye.
Indian drama critics have praised the show for delivering beyond their expectations, and bringing the four year long restlessness to a solid conclusion. The Indian Express praised the show-stopping performances by Sobhita, Jim Sarbh and Marthur, praising the skills with which Akhtar, Kagti and their collaborators “detail their characters and fill them in with specificity, reflect a sense of inner knowledge and empathy, which makes you curious about what’s going on behind their perfect exteriors.”
If the first season was praised for addressing bold themes like same sex relationships, infidelity and ageism, NDTV commented that the new season dwleves even deeper by casting a transgender actor to play a career woman who has had a gender-reassignment surgery and is proud of being in her own skin.
Writing for Film Companion, Rahul Desai praised Made In Heaven for remaining “a rare series that isn’t afraid to present its characters as paradoxical and unlikable.”
Bollywood actress Rani Mukherjee has revealed that she suffered a miscarriage a few years ago. At the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne 2023, she opened up about suffering a miscarriage in 2020, five months after the Covid-19 pandemic began. The incident happened before Mukherjee started filming ‘Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway’.
“Maybe this is the first time I am making this revelation because in today’s world every aspect of your life is discussed publicly, and becomes an agenda for talking about your film to get more eyeballs. Obviously, I didn’t speak about this when I was promoting the film because it would have come across as me trying to speak about a personal experience that would propel the film…so, it was around the year when COVID-19 struck. It was 2020. I got pregnant with my second baby at the end of 2020 and I unfortunately lost my baby five months into my pregnancy.”
The ‘Paheli’ actress recalled how the producer Nikhil Advani called her up ten days after the ordeal, and Mukherjee said she immediately connected with the script of the film because of what she was going through at the time:
“After I lost my baby, Nikhil (Advani) would have called me probably like 10 days later. He told me about the story and I kind of immediately… not that I had to have the loss of a child to feel the emotion but sometimes there is a film in the right time of what you are going through personally to be able for you to connect with it instantly. When I heard the story, I was in disbelief. I never thought in a country like Norway an Indian family would have had to go through.”
Mukherjee’s recent release ‘Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway’ is based on the real-life story of the Indian couple Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya, whose children were snatched away by the Norwegian welfare services, deeming the couple unfit to take care of their children. Sagarika sued the Norwegian government to win back custody of her children.
Other than his witty remarks, the Bollywood Badshah had to commemorate some of his iconic films like ‘Chak De! India’ by praising the female actors who helped make the film so memorable
I remember how lovely the girls were. Aditya and Jaydeep and Sumit were so helpful to make this really beautiful film. One of my all time happy place…. https://t.co/ILFaqftN7d
On Wednesday, the internet was blown away when Excel Entertainment announced that the next actor to play the iconic villain ‘Don’ jis ko 11 mulkoon ki police dhoond rahi hai will be Ranveer Singh.
The thriller icon was previously played by Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan- leading to incredibly high expectations about who would be the next person to fill in such big shoes.
Taking to his Instagram account, Ranveer celebrated the announcement by sharing some throwback pictures of his childhood when he used to pretend to play the villain, calling this something he had been dreaming about for a long time:
“As a child I fell in love with the movies, and like the rest of us,” gushed the ‘Rocky and Rani ki prem kahani actor. “Watching and worshipping Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan – the two G.O.A.Ts of Hindi Cinema . I dreamed of growing up to be like them. They are the very reason I wanted to become an actor and a ‘hindi film hero’. Their impact and influence on my life cannot be overstated. They’ve shaped the person and actor that I am. Taking their legacy forward is a manifestation of my childhood dream “
Addressing some of the critics who were aghast by the announcement, Singh went on to say:
“I understand what a great responsibility it is to be a part of the ‘Don’ dynasty. I hope the audience gives me a chance and showers me with love, the way they have for numerous characters over the past so many years. “
Don ka intezar sirf gyaaran mulkon ki police nahi, balkay poori dunya kar rahi thi.
There was a lot of anticipation in the air when it was announced that the iconic thriller film ‘Don’ is going to be revamped for a third film. While rumors suggested that Bollywood Badshah Shah Rukh Khan will reprise his iconic performance in Don and Don 2, many were heart broken when SRK reportedly walked away from the project. At the time, sources revealed to media outlets that the superstar was not sure that this was the kind of cinema he wanted to support.
There was all kinds of suggestion about who would embrace the staple black jacket and say ‘Don ko pakarna mushkil nahi, namomkin hai” which had begun with the veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan.
But now, it has been revealed that the next Don is…Ranveer Singh.
A teaser released by Excel Movies yesterday has confirmed the casting.
Bollywood actor Aamir Khan’s daughter Ira spoke to ET Times about how she came to recognize her bad mental health, stating that it was her parents’ divorce that triggered the episode. The actor and his first wife, Reena Dutta, divorced amicably in 2002, however, Ira revealed that both Aamir and Reena made her feel that it “was not a big deal”.
The mental health activist went on to say that because of Aamir and Reena’s divorce, she had mental misunderstandings but never found the courage to discuss them with anyone. Hence, she “blames herself’ for suffering from depression, believing erroneously that one had to be sad to get love from others. On a positive note, she said that now she is working on making herself happy, and has a better relationship with her parents.
Ira revealed she is in a group chat with her parents and reaches out to them every time she is in need, while her fiance Nupur Shikhare is one of her strongest supporters.
Ira recently made national headlines when she revealed to a publication that mental health disorders run in her family:
“Every 8-10 months I will have a big crash. It’s partly genetic, partly psychological, and partly social. It took me a while to figure it out. But I have mental health disorders in my family. I also did not make healthy choices and I systematically walked into depression.”
Lollywood superstar Meera was recently a guest on the celebrity talk show ‘Hasna Mana Hai’. While speaking about her career and the challenges she faced, the ‘Baji’ actress revealed that not one, but two A-list actors had wanted to star her in their movies! It was Shah Rukh Khan, the actress claimed, who wanted to cast her in the film ‘Jab tak Hai Jaan’ before he eventually went with Katrina Kaif. However, the offer couldn’t work out because Meera wasn’t able to secure a visa to London.
Then the other A-lister was the ‘365 days’ Italian actor Michele Morrone, who had reached out to Meera to do a film together.She confirmed on the show that the two are planning to do a film together once his current projects finish:
“Yes, for work…He said, ‘Let’s work together.’ Once his current projects finish, we will work together professionally, God willing.”
Meera has been the butt of misogynist and elitist jokes in the past because of her limited English speaking skills, among other absurd reasons, but the actress revealed she doesn’t let this backlash shatter her self-confidence or her resilience:
“If you wish to be successful or live a peaceful life, you must forget about what people will say…If you love me, what does my age, personal life, or past have to do with it?” she declared.
However, the actress said after living a public life, she now prefers to remain out of the news, humorously answering a question from an audience member:
“When I was in the news, people had objections that I’m constantly in the news, always on television. Now that I’m not in the news, how do you feel now?” She continued, “Those in print media would write, ‘Learn the talent of staying in the news from Meera Jee.’”
