Tag: Bollywood

Soon after filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt released the first poster of his comeback directorial feature Sadak 2, starring daughters Alia Bhatt and Pooja Bhatt, it was met with massive trolling and hatred. The film which was scheduled to release in cinemas on July 10, will now directly release on OTT service Disney+HotstarVIP.

Ever since the suicide of actor Sushant Singh Rajput last month, Bhatt has been at the receiving end of hate on social media, like many Bollywood celebrities and bigwigs who have been accused of promoting nepotism and scuttling the chances of outsiders.

Following the announcement and release of the poster, netizens and fans of the late actor unleashed their anger and hatred in the comment sections on different social media platforms and called for audiences to boycott the film. While Alia and Mahesh limited the comment section on Instagram, only allowing those who they follow to comment, Mahesh did not do the same on Twitter, following which he received a barrage of hate comments on the microblogging platform.

Reacting to his tweet, netizens slammed the filmmaker, holding him responsible for Sushant’s deteriorating mental condition and threatened to boycott Sadak 2.

“Guy who declared 26/11 as RSS ki Sazish and his own son helped terrorists to identify the places, tried to declare Sushant as mentally unstable, having a relationship with lady younger than his daughter, lowest scum possible…Don’t know why this guy is not in jail,” declared a social media user.

“When you put END to someone’s life intentionally, you’ll soon release your END,” wrote another user.

“We are not interested… get lost,” retorted another user.

A user responded by sharing the poster of Sushan’s upcoming last film Dil Bechara, which will also be released on Disney Hotstar instead of cinemas. Sushant’s fans also began to trend the hashtag #JusticeforSushantSinghRajput on social media.

However, Alia’s co-actor Aditya Roy Kapur, who shared the poster without limiting the comment sections was met with heavy trolling and hate speech aimed at Mahesh and Alia.

Sadak 2 is a follow-up of Bhatt’s 1991 hit Sadak and is produced by his brother Mukesh Bhatt. The sequel reunites the original film’s lead pair of Sanjay Dutt and Pooja Bhatt and also stars Alia and Aditya. The film also marks Mahesh’s return to filmmaking after 20 years.

Meanwhile, Disney+Hotstar also received flak for not giving equal representation to all the films releasing on the platform at their virtual press conference. While Alia, Abhishek Bachchan, Ajay Devgn, Varun Dhawan and Akshay Kumar were in attendance, Kunal Kemmu or Vidyut Jammwal were not invited, leading to online criticism. Both the actors also expressed their reservations and disappointment on social media.

Iffat Omar is not one to hold back and her show Say it All with Iffat Omar is proof.

In a recent Twitter update, the model turned talk show host, fired some shots after she told Pakistani industry to focus on nepotism in their own backyard instead of sharing news of “coffee in Karan in hot water”.

“Ever wondered how many actors we have in our industry?” questioned Omar.

Following the untimely death and suicide of Sushant Singh Rajput, audiences and fans are lashing out at Bollywood bigwigs for endorsing star kids and not giving the same number of chances to ‘outsiders’. Koffee with Karan, in particular, has come under fire, because of the catty and insensitive remarks that are occasionally passed on the couch. Moreso, Karan Johar’s production company, Dharma Productions, usually launches these star kids placing the director in the direct line of fire.

Read more – Sushant Singh Rajput’s death exposes the toxic side of Bollywood

Iffat did not elaborate her tweet further, but we wonder what sort of nepotism she is referring to. Because, in the Pakistani entertainment industry, star kids are a rarity.

Two days after releasing Atif Aslam’s rendition of Kinna Sona, T-Series removed the video and song from their YouTube channel and apologised to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray for releasing it in the first place. The Federation of Western India Cine Employees’ (FWICE) has strictly forbidden Bollywood from featuring Pakistani artists.

Read more- Indian media mistakenly names Atif Aslam’s son as ‘Alhumdulilah’, apologises later

According to a report in The Indian Express, #TakeDownAtifAslamSong started trending on Twitter soon after the music label released Atif’s version of the song.

The issue also caught the attention of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and MNS Cinema Wing president Ameya Khopkar issued a warning to T-Series and ordered them to take down the song immediately.

Following the warning and backlash, T-Series removed the song and issued an apology.

“It has been brought to our notice that the said song has been sung by Atif Aslam and this song was put up on the YouTube channel of T-Series by one of our employees from the promotion team. He was unaware of his action and erred while putting up the song,” stated the apology letter.

It added, “We condemn our mistake and apologise for the same. We assure you that henceforth we will neither release, nor promote the song on any platform of T-Series. Meanwhile, we are removing the said song from our YouTube channel.”

“We also assure you that henceforth we will not be releasing or promoting work by any Pakistani artistes,” the letter concluded.

Kinna Sona first featured in 2019 film Marjaavaan, starring Sidharth Malhotra and Tara Sutaria.

Indian police will probe whether the Bollywood actor who committed suicide the past weekend was depressed in part due to “professional rivalry,” in a film industry that is dominated by big names and has been accused of being insular, Reuters has reported.

34-year-old Sushant Singh Rajput, who won acclaim and fans for his roles in several top-draw films, hailed from a middle-class family with no Bollywood connections – a relative rarity in the industry.

He was found dead at his residence in Mumbai on Sunday.

“There are media reports that he allegedly suffered from clinical depression because of professional rivalry. Mumbai Police will probe this angle too,” the home (interior) minister in Maharashtra, which includes the film capital Mumbai, tweeted late on Monday.

Several of Rajput’s friends in the industry have written about his struggles to break through, while social media and some cultural commentators have criticised the allegedly closed culture in Bollywood, where some families have dominated for up to four generations.

Rajput’s family has not commented so far.

At least half a dozen accounts by Rajput’s industry colleagues suggested Bollywood’s clique-drive culture ostracised him, although none provided concrete details and it was not immediately clear who specifically they were talking about. However, hours after the actor’s death, the actor’s fans pointed fingers at Alia Bhatt and Karan Johar for driving him into depression.

“I knew the pain you were going through. I knew the story of the people who let you down so bad that you used to weep on my shoulder,” Shekhar Kapur, who was supposed to direct Rajput in a film that was eventually shelved, wrote in a tweet on Monday.

Legendary actor Dharmendra, while expressing his condolences said: “This beautiful beloved ‘show business’ is very cruel.”

Raveena Tandon also voiced similar views.

Meanwhile, actress Swara Bhasker called accusations against Bollywood personalities “the height of idiocy.”

Sonam Kapoor also had a similar stance.

Veteran actor Saif Ali Khan too, became part of the conversation as he showed distaste towards the hypocrisy the film industry is indulging in, soon after Singh’s demise.

“Out of respect for him, for Sushant’s tragedy, maybe a day of silence or introspection would be a little more becoming than this outpouring of love – an outpouring of love from people who obviously didn’t care about him and people who famously don’t care about anybody else,” he stated.

“We don’t care about anybody. You know, it’s a very cutthroat line of work. But to pretend that you do care is like the ultimate hypocrisy and I think that’s an insult to the dead, you know, it’s an insult to the soul that’s gone.”

He went on to say, “Nobody really cares in this town. So to pretend they really care is, you know, it’s a little much for me, it’s a little much to digest. They’re really coming across as the most ‘feeling’ people because they want their fans to think that they’re the most, feeling people – but that’s just untrue! Just for Sushant’s memory, there should be some dignity. If nothing else, you should just create some silence. I don’t think this is the time to comment.”

Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who was famous for his roles in PK and M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story, was found dead at his home in Mumbai. The police have said that the actor committed suicide. He was 34.

According to reports, the award-winning actor was found hanging from his ceiling in his Bandra residence, where he was living alone. While no suicide note was recovered from the scene of the incident, it is believed that the actor was suffering from severe depression.

Read more – Rishi Kapoor’s unfulfilled wish: a visit to Pakistan

Sushant’s sudden death has sent waves of shock across the world and many Bollywood stars including Akshay Kumar and Farhan Akhtar have condoled his death.

Born in Patna, Rajput studied engineering in New Delhi before dropping out to pursue a career in acting. He began in television, rising to stardom in the Balaji soap Pavitra Rishta.

Sushant made his Bollywood debut in 2013 with Kai Po Che! and later starred in a plethora of films including Kedarnath, PK, Shuddh Desi Romance and M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story. His last appearance was in the 2019 film Drive.

Sushant’s new film Dil Bechara, co-starring Saif Ali Khan, was scheduled to release in May but was postponed because of the COVID-19 lockdown.

Researchers from Vital Strategies and Imperial College, London have found that people, including children, are exposed to a high and frequent volume of tobacco, alcohol and branded fast-food product placement while watching Bollywood films.

Read more – Trending on Netflix Pakistan: ‘Malang’, ‘The Lovebirds’

According to reports, of the 300 films analysed from the time period 1994-2013, 93 per cent of the films had at least one occurrence of alcohol, 70 percent had at least one occurrence of tobacco, and 21 per cent films had at least one occurrence of branded fast food. Tobacco and alcohol occurrences were more common in films rated for older audiences (A-rated films) whereas fast-food depiction was prominent in movies targeted for all audiences (U and U/A rated films).

On average, tobacco products or usage was depicted four times per film, alcohol was shown or used seven times per film, and branded fast food was shown or used 0.4 time per film. Although the depiction of tobacco in these films fell during the 20-year period of analysis, the placement of alcohol and branded fast food products significantly increased. Researchers assume that the downward trend in tobacco promotion from the year 2004 could be attributed to the regulations related to tobacco advertising, promotions and sponsorships under Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) and WHO Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (FCTC).

Read more – ‘Extraction’ & ‘Love Aaj Kal’ are trending on Netflix Pakistan but not worth the watch

“Our study suggests that Bollywood films are contributing to promoting unhealthy behaviours in their audience, particularly children,” said Dr Nandita Murukutla, Vice President, Global Policy and Research, Policy, Advocacy and Communication, Vital Strategies.

“We hope that this study offers evidence and support to reduce the marketing of these products in films given the known health problems they cause, including obesity, heart disease and cancer.”

While research in other parts of the world has shown an association with these products being used in films and audience members also initiating use, the extent of such imagery in Bollywood cinema has been less clear.