I’m just getting kind of bored with reporting these ADHM updates. And all the other news items aren’t really exciting me either. So I am going to mush them altogether into one huge post that covers everything!
Pierce Brosnan first. His print ad for Pan Masala got re-printed all over the place when it suddenly showed up last week. It was just so surprising to see him shilling for an Indian product. But this week he issued a statement saying he wasn’t.
Well, okay, he was shilling for an Indian product. The storyline of “Major Western Star takes money to endorse random Indian ad, films whatever photos and ad films are required, ha-ha doesn’t he look funny” is totally true. And really not super surprising, major stars are always taking big pay outs to do wacky commercials, so long as the commercials don’t play in America. Because America only gets boring commercials 😦
But Pierce is now claiming he had no idea he was endorsing a carcinogen. He thought it was some kind of tooth powder. I find it completely believable that an Indian company decided to fudge a little in their contracts, and figured the Western star they were working with wouldn’t care or notice. Have I mentioned that my last DVD order is now one month overdue, and there is no response when I email the company? I am pretty sure it will come eventually, but there doesn’t seem to be much concern with keeping me informed or happy in the meantime.
In somehow even more shallow news, Hrithik Roshan is coming out to talk about his struggle with stuttering. This kind of reminds me of when Agneepath was coming out, and they needed an interview about his personal struggles so people could relate him to the character. And he talked about his struggle with “obesity”. Which ended up just making it clear how crazy his body image was. He described the horror and embarrassment of the moment he realized he had a 36″ waist! He couldn’t even look in the mirror!
And what was really hilarious/weird is that they needed him to talk about a dark time in his life in order to promote Agneepath, a movie about a son avenging his father’s death at the hands of gangsters. And they went with this ridiculous weight loss story, instead of the time his father ACTUALLY almost died at the hands of gangsters!
In the same way, now they are doing stuttering interviews, I am sure related to Kaabil where he plays a blind man, so they want some kind of physical disability angle. But, wouldn’t you want to use his birth deformity hand thing instead? Especially if the angle is “the kids used to tease me in school!” Wouldn’t mean little kids tease you much more for having 3 thumbs then a speech impediment?
This isn’t to say that Hrithik’s “obesity” struggle wasn’t real (at least, to him), and that his stuttering wasn’t a real problem for him as a child. I just find it funny how he keeps avoiding the obvious option, and all the media goes along with it and pretends there isn’t a more obvious angle staring them in the face.
(Hrithik’s “fat” phase)
And then there’s ADHM, the story that everyone just can’t stop making happen. Naseeruddin Shah has now weighed in, even though no one really asked him to. Naseerji says (from Bollywoodhungama):
“I’m no fan of Karan Johar, but I’ll definitely watch Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, because I feel that a creative person who wants to get work done should be supported. The government has also assured its support to the film. So I think that Karan should not have apologised and there was no need for him to plead helplessly.”
Well, thanks for the support-not support, Naseerji! You think Karan should be allowed to do his own creative work, no matter how terrible that work is. And also how cowardly you find him as a person. Lovely! Didn’t he just give your wife one of the greatest roles of her career in Kapoor & Sons? Do you maybe want to be a little grateful for that? And maybe a little respectful, since apparently your wife liked his work enough to be in it?
Oh, and the COEAI isn’t happy with Karan yet either. That’s the single-screen theater owners people. They are calling his supposed accord with the MNS “a trap”. Huh? I can kind of understand why they are cautious, because again, they are the ones who will really suffer if a protest starts up. But do they really think the MNS and the police and everyone else are going to risk the bad press if they back out on the agreement at this stage? That the MNS will protest anyway and the police won’t protect the theaters?
dontcallitbollywood 
I think the reason Hrithik didn’t talk about the attack on his father is that it is still dangerous for him to do so. Most Bollywood people who have suffered at the hands of the underworld tend to downplay it, I think because they don’t want any payback from someone who’s annoyed by their present comments.
As for the extra thumb, it might just be too painful for Hrithik to talk about? There’s no need for the audience to know about a star’s private life. Or else it might be that they don’t want to draw attention to the one “imperfection” in the “Mr. Perfect” image they have built up for Hrithik? Actually, there’s a theory in Indian art that, in order to appreciate perfection, you need some small imperfection to compare with; this is called “the deliberate flaw”. So maybe his extra thumb is the “deliberate flaw” that underlines the perfection of his appearance otherwise? In his first few films, Hrithik was always careful to keep his with the extra thumb out of sight of the camera. Whether that was his decision, or the director’s, I don’t know. But I noticed that, after he became established, there was no more effort made to hide the thumb, not even in close ups of his hands. So take your pick of those possibilities.
Random fact: When I was in elementary school in India, there was a boy in my class who had an extra thumb. No one made fun of him for this. OTOH, he was from North India (I was in the south), and the kids made a lot of fun of him over this, i.e., his not knowing local customs/festivals, etc.
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There’s so much stuff in the Indian film industry that everyone knows but nobody talks about. It was super frustrating when I was just starting out, because I could tell there was all this stuff right under the surface that the media would only allude to but not say straight out. Thank goodness I knew a bunch of desis and they could give me all the gossip!
With the deliberate flaw, I heard that was why dancers put a black speck on their face. Is that true, do you know?
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What have I said now about the Indian film industry that you didn’t already know?
For dancers, yes, the spot on the cheek can be thought of as a “deliberate flaw”, though it is more usually put there (for brides and grooms, as well as some babies) to ward off the “evil eye.” The “deliberate flaw” theory comes into play more in actual art, such as paintings or sculptures, where one thing will be slightly off on purpose — a slight distortion of line somewhere, or a minor background figure which isn’t 100% faithful to reality, etc. It won’t be in the main figure or focus of the artwork.
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The hardest stuff is the scandalous gossip. I’ve picked up most of it, but I can still be surprised by things. Like, someone just told me that “everyone knows” Rekha is bi and is in a long term relationship with her secretary. I had no idea! And suddenly a lot of odd little sentences in articles start to make sense.
Not that gossip stuff like this is necessarily true, but there’s this strange feeling of everyone being in on a secret when you read the Indian press, you know? Like, it’s very rare to come right out and say “Amitabh and Rekha had an affair and it was a huge thing”, but by golly every single FilmFare, the camera keeps cutting between them!
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H’mm, yes. The hardest thing for me was to keep everybody’s relationships straight. Like who is who’s son/daughter/nephew/cousin/former spouse, etc. Add the affairs on top of it and it can be overwhelming. 🙂
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