As if pretending we greet everybody with ‘adaab’ and wear kajal around our eyes wasn’t enough, now Bollywood can’t even get a simple Urdu text typed properly.
Twitter was in fits after the trailer for ‘Mission Majnu’ releasedand we got some *chef’s kiss* memes from our twitter users
But now, eagle-eyed netizens have found another hilarious reason to keep mocking the film and the abysmal representation it offers of Muslims. In a viral post by twitter user @karakmufti, a scene from the movie shows a sign in a masjid where the Urdu text is quite absurd.
Ok, so my Urdu isn't great, but I feel like "کیپ یور شوس حری" is not a correct translation of "keep your shoes here". pic.twitter.com/FWmiUoTJ5j
This led to users trolling the film all over again, like comedian Jeremy McLellan sharing that the makers of the film had relied on Google Translate for the Urdu text.
There were many other hilarious reactions to this translation error that are just too brilliant to miss out. For instance, another translation error found in the movie.
This is just pure laziness on part of the production team. India has a large Urdu speaking population and they couldn’t find one Urdu speaker to do production design for them? @NetflixIndia really poor effort. https://t.co/5QXZxOlLW8
More than 4 years after his last release Zero (2018), Shah Rukh Khan is making a comeback to the big screen with Pathaan and the hype around the spy thriller is at an all-time high.
Recently, it was announced that the advance booking of the film will open in India on January 20 but a couple of days before that, a few cinema chains including IMAX shows opened ticket bookings for the audience. And the response was unprecedented.
A lot of people on social media are sharing screenshots & clips of ticket booking site Book My Show where most of the shows of Pathaan are either on a filling fast mode, about to get sold out or simply sold out.
A report on Box Office India revealed that one of the best & the biggest multiplexes of Hyderabad, Prasads Multiplex saw a whopping 1800 tickets being sold in just 2 hours of bookings going live.
Several reports further state that the Siddharth Anand directorial has already collected over Rs 2 crore in advances for day one.
The film is now easily on course to be the biggest post-pandemic when it comes to advance booking beating last year’s Brahmastra: Part One – Shiva.
That’s not all, going by the massive response to the advance booking, a report in Bollywood Hungama predicts an opening day in the range of Rs 40 crore plus in India.
The film is releasing on Wednesday, which is a normal working day and to collect in the range of Rs 40 crore on a non-holiday is pretty huge.
Earlier, the advance booking in several international territories opened to massive response and the film is set to create new records in several countries.
Predicting the biz on the extended opening weekend, trade analyst Girish Johar told ETimes that Pathaan is expected to earn Rs 300 crore global gross in the first 5 days of its release.
Also starring Deepika Padukone & John Abraham, Pathaan is slated for January 25, 2023, release.
Earlier this month, Hindu seer Mahant Paramhans Acharya threatened to burn Khan alive for supposedly ‘insulting’ saffron colour in his upcoming film Pathaan.
The threat has come about after extremists raged against a song in the film in which the female lead, Deepika Padukone, can be seen wearing a saffron bikini. The title of the song, Besharam Rang roughly translates to ‘Shameless Color’. Hindus revere the colour, with many priests choosing to wear saffron robes.
Acharya said that the song insulted the saffron color. “People of our Sanatan Dharma are protesting continuously regarding this matter. Today we have burnt the poster of Shah Rukh Khan. If I get to meet the film Jihadi Shah Rukh Khan, I will burn him alive,” he said.
Mumbai Police reported receiving a complaint to fill an FIR against the movie’s director, producer, and actors for the song Besharam Rang. The complaint was regarding the saffron bikini Deepika had worn, saying that the color had been used to hurt the religious sentiments of Hindu people.
It’s 2023 but Bollywood can’t seem to get over its obsession of portraying lame and rather bizarre stereotypes about Pakistanis in its movies.
Netfilx released the official trailer for Mission Majnu that features Sidharth Malhotra as an Indian spy on a covert operation to expose nuclear weapons in the heart of Pakistan that India must “neutralise”. Everything was fine till Malhotra dresses up like a ‘Muslim Pakistani’. So Indian filmmakers have a starter pack for actors playing the roles of Muslims and Pakistanis. A man with kohl-rimmed eyes who spits adaab in every sentence, wearing a namaz ki topi [skullcap] and something green in the background somewhere to show that this is a Muslim person or from the Muslim community. Women would be shown wearing lehnga aur ghagra, with lots of bangles, and yes the tradition of adaab continues for them too. However, the reality is far different.
The matter of the fact is that Bollywood has been successfully fooling the world by portraying and creating this image to represent Pakistanis. One of the leading film industries in the world has been adamantly bent on trying to portray and represent Pakistanis as a threat. Due to this portrayal, for the longest time people believed it to be true when it comes to Pakistan.
Bollywood has been making bad anti-Pakistan propaganda for years now but a little research would tell them that no, Pakistanis do not look, wear or talk like they depict in their movies. From Veer-Zaara in 2004 to Mission Majnu in 2023, Bollywood’s depiction of Pakistan and Pakistani lifestyle has been completely wrong. No, we don’t live in 19th century Lucknow. Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta and other cities of Pakistan don’t have men with kajal going adaab-adaab or roaming around in sherwanis as if it’s a norm.
What is even more appalling is to witness that in India, most leading Bollywood actors are Muslims, some originating from Pakistan and yet they don’t wear and look like anything Bollywood so often depicts Muslims, be they in India or Pakistan.
We hope that for once Bollywood comes out of its propagandist thinking and portrays ‘Pakistani Muslims’ as they are.
Actor Sanjay Dutt, who was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2020 has shared in an interview that he refused to get proper treatment for the disease and rather preferred dying.
Recently at an event, Dutt revealed that after his diagnosis he told his sister Priya that he do not want to get chemotherapy and that he would like to choose death over treatment.
He further recalled that his family has had a history of cancer as his mother Nargis and wife Richa Sharma died due to the same.
The Munna Bhai MBBS actor quoted saying: “My first reaction was that, once you hear something like this, your whole life reflects back at you. I have a history of cancer in my family. My mom died of pancreatic cancer, and my wife died of brain cancer. So, the first thing I said was that I don’t want to take chemotherapy. If I’m supposed to die, I will just die but I don’t want any treatment.”
Previously back in the days when he was shooting for Shamshera in 2020, Sanjay was diagnosed with severe lung cancer. The actor resumed the shoot after his recovery.
Bollywood dancer and actress Rakhi Sawant announced her marriage to longtime Muslim beau Adil Khan Durani in a Nikkah ceremony. On her Instagram account, Sawant shared pictures of herself and her husband signing the Nikkahnama together, with the caption: “Finally, I’m happy so excited and got married my love is 4 Ever unconditional love for you Adil”.
According to the marriage certificates, Sawant has changed her name to Rakhi Sawant Fatima.
Rakhi disclosed in a recent interview that she got married to Adil in July 2022, however, he had stopped her from sharing the news at the time. In her trademark frank style, the actress revealed that Adil felt it would be difficult to find a groom for his sister if news of his marriage to Rakhi was leaked out.
She also said that Adil’s family had not yet accepted her.
Rakhi Savant was previously married to Ritesh Singh. The couple announced their seperation after they left Big Boss season 15.
On the occasion of late actor Irrfan Khan’s birthday, his son Babil Khan revealed how he dealt with his father’s death.
During the promotion of his debut project Qala, Babil shared the difficult phase of his life i.e. his father’s death. He added: “When it first happened, the first day, I didn’t believe it. One week had passed and it hit then. And then I just went into a really bad spiral. I just locked myself in my room for one and a half months.”
“Back then he used to shoot so much that he’d be gone for a long shooting schedule. When it just happened, I had somehow convinced myself that he’ll come back after the shooting schedule. And then I slowly started realizing that this is an indefinite shooting schedule. He’s not coming back. I just lost my best friend. It was devastating on a level that I can’t really put into words.”
Khan says that now he feels positive whenever he remembers his late father.
On the work front, Babil Khan just made his acting debut with the Netflix film Qala. He further has a web series coming his way by the name The Railway Men. The series features prominent actors like Kay Kay Menon, R Madhavan, and Divyenndu Sharma. Babil will also be collaborating with filmmaker Shoojit Sircar for a project, reports IndiaToday.
Singer Sajjad Ali clarified to his fans that he was not pointing fingers or accusing anyone of plagiarising his song ‘Ab Ke Hum Bicharay’ in the Bollywood number ‘Besharam Rang’. A few days ago, the singer had posted a clip on Instagram where he said that he had been listening to some new music a few days ago, and which had reminded him of an old song of his.
On Tuesday, Sajjad Ali posted a video where he said that he was not pointing fingers at any artist or song and had not claimed that they had copied his song.
“After watching my previous video, many people started saying that ‘Sajjad Ali is claiming his song has been copied’. First of all, when did I even say this? Please see the clip again and observe how I never uttered any singer’s name, never called out any song, music director or even actor,” the veteran singer said.
Ali revealed that the reason why he had made the video because the tune of that song had been similar to his own music.
“I actually said that I was reminded of Ab Ke Hum Bichare while listening to some of the latest music in cinema. Why did it remind me of my song? Because 80% of the tunes made on raag bhairavi sound pretty similar to each other. I have also curated multiple songs on the same raag, therefore the tunes reminded me of them.” Ali further explained that he didn’t need to indulge in theatrics to gain fame, as many of the critics were pointing out.
“To the people who are suggesting that I made such statements to gain fame, I’ll remind everyone that, Alhamdulillah, I am already pretty popular and don’t need to perform any theatrics to gain attention. I have many fans and never get involved in controversies because I always mind my own business. When many of my songs were actually copied in the 90s, I never made any public claims and hopefully I will do the same in the future.”
Sajjad Ali concluded the video by requesting his followers to educate themselves on the matter before spreading rumors.
“The problem is we don’t understand these technicalities of music because we have the passion for arts but lack the required knowledge of it. So, please my fellow brothers, when you don’t have an understanding of a topic, don’t go on to pass such comments.”
Actor Mahira Khan has opened up about her work experience in India and friendship with Bollywood celebs in her latest interview. Speaking of her experience, she said, “I had the most amazing time working in India. I am still in touch with so many people and there’s a lot of love there. Unfortunately, we are easy targets, soft targets, whether it’s us here in Pakistan, whether it’s them there in India. Because we’re artists, and we’re connected by that thread of art, we actually get each other.”
She further said, “So we’re trying to look out for each other, more than anything. Even now, we are so careful with what we write on social media. It’s not that we don’t talk to each other. It’s not that we don’t wish each other on our birthdays. It’s not that we don’t meet each other in different countries. It’s not that – it’s just that we are actually not just protecting ourselves but protecting each other.”
Mahira also mentioned that the reason behind this feud is politics. She said, “Unfortunately, it’s politics, it’s not a personal thing. On both ends, until the time that scapegoats are needed, we will always be that… But let’s say that it gets better. Let’s say that there is someone in power who does not use us as easy targets. That would be lovely. Can you just imagine the collaboration? It would be lovely.”
Last year, Khan shared a seven year old picture from the sets of her Bollywood debut, Raees. The Verna star shared the picture on her Instagram story and made a heart emoji.
She starred opposite Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan in the hit movie Raees (2017).
On the work front, the Humsafar diva will soon be seen in Neelofer opposite Fawad Khan.
It is heartening to witness those rare moments when Pakistani and Indian actors are able to put aside their differences and express their love for each other’s talent and creativity. As Mahira Khan had put it in a recent interview: “Because we’re artists, we are connected by that thread of art, we actually get each other.”
Recently, Saboor and Sajal Aly’s brother Muhammad Ali bumped into Bollywood actress and model Sushmita Sen, and asked her to send a message to his sisters, which he later uploaded on his Instagram story.
In the video clip, Sen was seen sending her love to the actors and also lauded their acting skills:
“Hi sweetheart, Sushmita here! You both have the sweetest brother who insisted that a photograph wasn’t enough and I also had to say hello in a video too. Wish you all the best, you are amazing actors, keep growing. May peace be always with you.”
It seems as though Bollywood’s tendency to plagiarize Pakistani music hasn’t ended. This time, it was singer Sajjad Ali who called out Bollywood for plagiarizing his song ‘Ab Ke Hum Bicharay’. Yesterday, the singer uploaded a video on Instagram, where he says he was listening to songs from an upcoming movie and realized that the melody resembled a song he had written years ago. He did not name drop the Bollywood song directly, but left it for his followers to interpret.
After close observation, many fans were quick to point out that the melody of Sajad Ali’s song was similar to the Bollywood song ‘Besharam Rang’.
This is not the first time Bollywood has been called out for stealing music from Pakistani artists. Politician and singer Abrar-ul-Haq had announced that he was suing T-series for copying his iconic song Nach Punjaban in the film Jugjug Jeeyo, that too without giving him any credit.
Singer Hadiqa Kiyani had criticized Bollywood singer Kanika Kapoor for covering her song ‘Boohey Bariyan’ without giving any credit to the original singer. In her Instagram stories, Kiyani called it ‘the theft of Pakistani music’ and said that covers of original songs need to require permission from the original artists first, and also revealed that this was not the first time she had seen her music stolen by Bollywood.
