Happy Veteran’s Day!  I bring you greetings from my sister’s living room while we watch Nagarjuna on the TV (we needed something nice to wake up to).  Very exciting to wake up to, SO MUCH NEWS!!!!  Including the continuing saga of Abhishek.

Abhishek, Aish, and Bhansali

First, there is an article about Abhishek preparing for the Sahir Ludhianvi biopic.  This news on its own, I am not thrilled by.  Sahir Ludhianvi was the greatest poet in the history of Indian cinema (yes, better than Javed Sahib.  As Javed himself would be the first to tell you).  He’s not necessarily someone that I want to get a biopic at all, more on the “let his work be his legacy” level.  And I don’t really look at Abhishek and think “poet!”

(His life story is kind of filmi, he has a romance in poems with a poetess)

But that’s not the interesting bit!!!!  Remember when Abhishek first went on his “nothing to see here! I’m signing a bunch of movies!” spree and I said “of course, you can say you are signing a bunch of movies, and then come up with reasons later that they aren’t happening.”  Ta-Da!!!  REASONS!!!  The word is, Abhishek is SO FOCUSED on this one film, and the preparation for it, that he is dedicating himself fully to it.  Oh, and no filming start date has been set or anything.  So Abhishek has bought himself some time, all those other movies may not happen but not because they were fake movies to begin with, just becuase he is SO FOCUSED.  And also, even if this movie doesn’t start filming for ages, Abhishek can just be busy “preparing”.

And here’s the thing that I, myself, with my amazing investigative abilities, have figured out!  Because there was another news story was like right next to this one.  Bhansali is producing the Ludhianvi biopic and his people are confirming this story.  Coincidentally, Aishwarya has been seen having a series of meetings with Bhansali and is rumored to have agreed to work with him again, as he has wanted for years.  Hmmm.  Is this a coincidence?  Or is this payment for agreeing to support the “Abhishek working hard” cover story?

Censor Versus Censor

Speaking of Bhansali, Padmavati has turned into an issue.  Because it’s a big heavily promoted film, which means someone somewhere will find a way to get their name in the headlines by talking about it.  Or in this case, everyone everywhere is getting their name in the headlines.  Including a member of the censor board!!!!  Who wrote that he wants Bhansali to be arrested for treason?

And this brings me to wikipedia!  Source of all knowledge.  I wanted to look up where these Censor Board members came from.  They are all appointed by central government, there are 25 members, but the chair has ultimate authority.  If you remember, the last chair, Pahlaj Nihalani was the most reactionary and extreme chair in the history of the board.  Like, he made a pro-Modi propaganda music video and wouldn’t give Dilwale a censor certificate until the filmmakers attached his film to the beginning of it.

Thank goodness, Nihalani was finally fired after he got so extreme as to be embarrassing.  And now Prashoon Joshi is the head, who is much much more reasonable and has excellent filmi credentials (lyricist and National Award Winner, worked with a lot of the top names and studios).  However, I don’t know if all 25 members of the board have been replaced.  And presumably if Nihalani was the one the government chose to put in charge, they chose similar people to work with him on the board.  And poor Prashon Joshi has to deal with this idiots.

(Joshi got one of his National Awards for writing this)

And he is dealing with them by saying “no, you are idiots”.  Well, actually he is saying:

It’s unfortunate to see the personal point of view expressed by an advisory panel member of CBFC against Mr Sanjay Leela Bhansali. By no means does it represent the point of view of CBFC as an organisation or the CBFC board. We have respect for Mr Bhansali as an individual and artist.

So that’s nice!  For us watching it.  I still don’t want to be Joshi, seems like the worst possible version of “new middle manager hired by the big bosses to implement a change but the old staff still work there and all hate him”.

Okay, now I am going back to watching Nagarjuna with my sister.  No more news!