Happy Monday! So much news to catch up on! For instance, Amitabh went to the hospital, which is always an exciting experience for the international news media. Poor Amitabh, can you imagine if every time you went in for a routine procedure, your picture was headlines everywhere in the world? So stressful!
Amitabh and Aditya Chopra the Control Freak
Amitabh went to the hospital for a routine check-up, but this made the news a) because anything Amitabh does is news especially if it might mean his very fragile health is affected, and b) because photos of him leaving the hospital showed a strange mask over his face. See:
(Is that Abhishek’s eye peaking from behind the driver?)
But now we have an explanation! Apparently, Amitabh is under strict instructions from Aditya Chopra not to reveal his “look” for Thugs of Hindostan until the time is right. So, first, confirmation again of the high level of involvement Aditya maintains in Yash Raj films, even if officially someone else is directing them.
Second, confirmation of the almost OCD way that Aditya is about the tiny details of everything. Which reminds me, have I told you about my Veer-Zaara wall hanging? I got it from a friend-who-shall-remain-nameless, she got it from her local movie theater after she went to see the movie over and over again and begged and begged. But the movie theater told her she had to promise not to talk about it, because they were supposed to send every single poster back to Yash Raj after they stopped showing the film, so the only way they could give it away was to lie and say it was destroyed. Which, from my experience of working at movie theaters, is NOT NORMAL. Most studios don’t care what happens to their posters once they are sent to the theater, even the big wall hangings.
Anyway, now every time I look at my wall hanging, I have this image of Aditya Chopra wandering the warehouse counting and recounting going “where is Veer-Zaara wall-hanging #123679? My collection is incomplete! My numbers don’t add up! All of life is a veil of sorrow!” And the fact that he makes Amitabh Bachchan wear a mask when leaving the hospital as part of a very calculated pre-film release strategy just makes this image stronger in my head.
Two awesome women team up!
This is just an announcement story, but it is very cool. Ashwini Iyer Tiwari, the director of Bareilly Ki Barfi, announced a two film deal with Ekta Kapoor. Most importantly, this is being announced as a partnership between Ekta and Ashwini personally, NOT Balaji Films.
This is what I have been waiting for! Ekta’s instincts made her the top of the TV field as a teenager, I don’t know why she kept trusting other people to run her film division instead of taking a personal hand in it. It sounds like she is now, finally, running things personally and her first step is to pull another powerful woman with a creative heart and a business head (remember Ashwini was the most successful woman in advertising in India before she quit to make films) as her partner.
Anupam Kher in NBC Series
First, yaaaaaay! A doctor series that finally has a desi doctor in it instead of pretending all our hospitals are staffed by attractive white people and troubled Black people!
Second, Anupam continues his slow slide into the mainstream in America. Not directly into the mainstream, but sort of sideways through character roles and so on. In this case, sounds like he will be a small part as an aging wise old doctor. But still, broadcast television! That’s definitely A Thing to be proud of!
Sonam Kapoor and Sonakshi are Classy
Sonakshi on some talk show was baited into saying that Sonam had been rude to her at one point. Which could have turned into a never ending media cycle, but instead Sonam immediately took to twitter to apologize if she ever gave unintended offense, and Sonakshi apologized back saying it was no big deal, you know how those talk shows try to trick you. And Story Over. I mean, the two women could secretly still hate each other, but they are savvy enough to know that public feuds are ultimately destructive.
Two things: first, this is Part the Thousandth in the continuing series of “Sonam models how to be a good feminist in the world”. Rather than turning it into a whole thing and claiming offense for being blamed for being outspoken, or blaming Sonakshi for tearing her down, or any of that, she immediately took to a semi-public forum to apologize and claim responsibility and build them both up as woman working together.
Second, this is the best possible way to use twitter! They are talking directly to each other, not sending messages through the media, but doing it in a way where there is a public record of what happened so no one can try to start it up again or claim the conversation never happened.
Manikarnika Protests Over
Speaking of outspoken women, Kangana’s Jhansi Ki Rani biopic is back on track. As expected. The Brahmin group has backed off saying that it was a “misunderstanding” and they thought that Kangana’s character would be shown having a romance with a British officer, that’s why they were protesting, but now they have met with the filmmakers and learned that is not the case, so no more protest.
All of this translates to me as “they were paid off”. Feel free to disagree, but when a protest appears out of nowhere, and then suddenly disappears post a meeting with the producers, it just seems like the most obvious answer.
Imran Khan Has a Job!
So, the Aamir Khan Khan Family is apparently spinning the last few years as “extended paternity leave”. Uh-huh. Now that Imran’s “paternity leave” is over, he kind of would like to work again! And coincidentally, his uncle Aamir thinks he would be just perfect for a role in his Mahabharat. I am sure Aamir had an open casting call, carefully considered all options, and then decided that his out of work nephew is the best choice out of all the actors in all the world *sarcasm*.
I wonder who Imran will play? Can you see him as ANY of the Pandavas? I just keep picturing him wandering through epic battle scenes in a hipster t-shirt playing on his smart phone.
(NO!)
dontcallitbollywood 
That Adi chopra story is crazy. Posters? I mean why???🤔
Ekta & Ashwini sounds like a win win so yay. Though I’m always glad ekta doesn’t approach her movies the way she does her TV serials. Mainly because she went for what works on tv and it’s highly regressive (which made her the most successful for sure).
Sonam is cool. She gets a lot of flak for being outspoken (and for some earlier terrible roles ) but I constantly feel people refuse see her growth as a person and role model. Like say kangana can do terrible things but get away with it cos she is a super good actress most times. Which is strange but true.
Also your whole segment on Imran has me rolling on the floor. Hipster Tee Imran back from an extended paternity leave in … Mahabharata 🤭. Okaaaay then.
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I don’t actually KNOW that Adi is wandering around looking for film posters, but I can’t stop picturing it. And it is true that most studios let movie theaters do whatever they want with stuff once the movie is done. The only rule is you aren’t supposed to sell it. So I can picture Adi, in his sensible profit mode, deciding to make theaters send back the stuff so YRF can sell it, or reuse it if they decide to re-release a movie, or whatever. Or else being so bugged by seeing YRF products being illegally sold that he decides to crack down by making everyone mail everything back.
Definitely can also picture Imraan showing up in the logo tee version of battle armor and dropping a bunch of Hinglish on us in the middle of his uncles grand opus. Also, paternity leave is a wonderful thing which all employers should offer, but 2 YEARS???? dude. Really.
I really like your point about Sonam growing as a person. You are absolutely right, she said a bunch of dumb things and gave a bunch of bad interviews when she was starting out, but she was also basically a teenager. She’s a different person now. It feels like that kind of growth is something we expect and acknowledge from male actors (Shahid, Ranveer, Ranbir), but female actors are expected to be perfect from the start and if they aren’t, they are never forgiven.
On Mon, Feb 12, 2018 at 3:11 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I dreamed about having Veer-Zaara poster and I went to the theater once asking about it, but the guy didn’t want to give me one. He said that the movie still has to visit other cities, and they need the posters. For years I belived him but now I’m not sure LOL
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Back in the 1980s, St Elsewhere had Kabir Bedi (?) as a doc, and ER in its post-Clooney years had the Bend it like as Beckham lead actress as a principal doc. So it’s not that the doctor shows haven’t had south Asian actors or characters. It’s that the doctor does should have *mostly* south Asian characters since at least the 1990s in order to reflect reality.
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This is Reflects on Life btw, I was trying out incognito mode on my browser. I didn’t realize that it would anonymize me, even though duh!
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I thought it was you! Just because it was such a smart and history-aware comment.
On Mon, Feb 12, 2018 at 3:53 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Kabir Bedi was on St. Elsewhere? Well, there’s another part of the “crossovers are not new, just newly noticed” argument. Kabir Bedi was also in a Bond movie I think. And Shahrukh’s first co-star. And way handsomer than I remember, I am always surprised when I see him.
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Kabir Bedi was really big in Italy thanks to Sandokan series. He still comes to Italy often, speaks italian, and even has been in L’isola dei famosi (The Celebrity Island, a reality-show)
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First: Since Kabir Bedi is over 6 feet, isn’t he big everywhere? (Ha! I crack myself up! Also, I may be punchy on too much coffee)
Second, again, this is what I am saying about the crossovers! There hasn’t been a big big star in Indian film who became an equally big star in non-Indian film (Anil Kapoor and Priyanka came close, but their fame overseas still doesn’t quite match their fame at home), but there have been many not-top stars and character actors and all sorts of things who worked all sorts of places over the years.
On Mon, Feb 12, 2018 at 4:16 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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So true! I loved Parminder Nagra’s character on ER. She’s still doing recurring roles on American television.
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That Veer Zaara poster story is hilarious! Wow is Adi Chopra anal or what.
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Poor Adira, he is going to be that Dad that fusses over every grade one every school project.
On Mon, Feb 12, 2018 at 11:20 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Thoughts on sonakshi-sonam non-feud: Well sonam has a rep for being rude especially about people’s clothes and I don’t doubt that she would have at some point said something to or about sonakshi too. Considering the news item came from a sonakshi talk show (how the hell does a talk show blow things out of proportion?? that’s what the news media does, doesn’t it? a talk show mostly lets YOU talk so unless something falls out of your mouth, the show can’t conjure things up!), sona probably did say something that got edited out in po-po “on request” and the “news” leaked (thanks, Bollywood press!) and when the bit reached sonam, she was too clueless about what she could have said because she says mean things about people all the time and there was a time not so long ago when there wasn’t a single person sonam hadn’t said mean things about (back when she couldn’t step out of the Aisha character and thought she was the best dressed person in the galaxy). Of course, NOW, without a hit to her own name in quite a while and knowing the acting ship may well have sailed for her, she needs to be in the good books of the still-working big name actresses for future favours etc. if anything, sonakshi was rather graceful in forgiving sonam.
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The actual quote was provided, she was baited into saying what she thought of Sonam, Manish Malhotra who was onw ith her said something nice about Sonam’s fashion, and Sonakshi said that she was rude to her once or something like that. It does sound like the kind of thing where they are trying to get you to talk without thinking and then stopping you before you can explain a remark. I have no doubt that Sonam did actually say something rude, I’m just very impressed with both women’s professionalism in quickly handling and killing the story. With more props to Sonam since she was the one who started the twitter conversation to handle it.
On Mon, Feb 12, 2018 at 11:22 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Regarding Imran, I really liked him in Jaane Tu and I hate love stories( I refuse to use the incorrect spellings). But it seems like he can only play the urban cool dude and nothing else. Between Ranbir, Imran, Sonam and Deepika who all started around the same time, It’s only Deepika and Ranbir ( inspite of his flops) who are stars, even though both Imran and Jaane Tu were praised.
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I agree about Imraan, if he is given just the right role, he can be very very good. I was also impressed with him in Matru Ki Bijli Ka Mandola. But the problem seems to be he picked a few bad scripts, and there just aren’t that many movies that need the exactly sort of leading man he can play.
On Mon, Feb 12, 2018 at 11:24 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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He was also super impressive in Mere brother ki dulhan
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One of my favorite films of all time and the primary reason I became an Imran apologist!
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The Bhai Saheb thing didn’t look unnatural or unnecessary on him at all.
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As a big fan of Imran’s romantic performances, I’m pretty excited about the news that he’s coming back even though I think the casting is crazy, too. I knew that it would be an Aamir Khan project that brought him back into the industry…I just thought it would be Thugs (still expecting a cameo, though).
Katti Batti was a disaster of a movie and he did have trouble breaking out of those hipster emo roles, but he’s definitely got some good performances left in him and he may come back with more ambition and drive. Loved him in Matru Ki Bijilee Ka Mandola, too. And many forget how good he was in Delhi Belly. I kind of believe that he was taking a real paternity leave. He’s clearly very progressive in his social views (he’s done pro gay rights PSAs, etc) and maybe he took this time to be with family and bond with his kids AND figure out his career!
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Speaking of crossovers, I would like to see Imran in an Amercian or international project. He has pretty significant American roots if I recall.
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Born in Michigan! And his Dad still/always lives over here. Years back at least, it was also reported that his father worked for Netflix. In a computer engineer way, not a creativity way, but Imraan would be perfect in a limited edition clever rom-com style sitcom on Netflix, wouldn’t he? Like, Jaane Tu…Ya Jaane Na but expanded into 6 episodes would be perfect for him. The sarcy guy in the group of friends who you slowly realize is secretly sweet and responsible, and you are happy when he and the female lead get together in the last episode.
On Tue, Feb 13, 2018 at 10:35 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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In my most generous perspective on things, it also sounds like he was doing some family stuff beyond paternity leave. He and his wife are living in the old family home, I think with his grandmother, they fixed it up and stuff, I know Aamir’s brother/Imraan’s uncle has health issues, and his mother is divorced of course. So maybe Imraan was not only bonding with his kid but also sorting out family finances and getting everyone moved into one big house and all of that stuff. Maybe.
On Tue, Feb 13, 2018 at 10:34 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Thoughts on jhansi ki rani– HAH!!! She wasn’t a wuss and neither is Kangana and the “misunderstanding” clearing looks like the producers made a few phone calls rather than offer money to the outfit. Money doesn’t shut people up in this country enough. A phonecall from the right person does. How do you think they got into the entire mafia mess in bollywood anyway? and how’d they get out of it!!
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But we can both agree that there is NO WAY it ended because the producers actually did explain the misunderstanding and that was all to it? Or that it started because of a sincere concern with Indian morality? It’s blackmail ended by threat or payoff, plain and simple.
On Mon, Feb 12, 2018 at 11:25 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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imran could be Nakul. with a voiceover for the roar thingy. i think a bit of muscle would look good on him. although Amir could have picked vidyut, sonu or tiger too. maybe he has them in other roles. I’d be highly disappointed if any version of mahabharat has noodle armed boys in it!
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Didn’t even think of that concern! Now I am picturing a dozen of our top stars suddenly all turning into gym bodies and long hair for 5 years during filming.
On Mon, Feb 12, 2018 at 11:30 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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*drools*
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And if you follow Imran’s instagram…he has been bulking up in the gym!
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I had to Google that asap of course. I was so disappointed. I was expecting something close to Chris Hemsworth from his first Thor outing. So disappointed!!
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The Ekta and Ashwini team could be interesting…I get why I should respect Ekta’s skills as a media mogul, but I do always think she could elevate her product a bit more but that sounds snobby. Balaji Films has done some really great things like Shor in the City, Lootera and Udta Punjab, but there’s been a ton of awful b-list, lowest common denominator stuff, too.
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I get what you’re saying. Ekta is really good at figuring out what people want, but sometimes maybe ignores or avoids the responsibility of giving them what they SHOULD want. I always think of Once Upon a Time in Mumbaii and Dirty Picture with Balaji Films. Sexy and fun, but also really high quality and pushing the envelope in terms of what was acceptable in a mainstream film.
On Tue, Feb 13, 2018 at 10:43 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Well, I think he had further to go than Chris Hemsworth! But he’s noticeably more muscle-y. Just found this picture and have hope that as he gets older and scruffier he will get sexier and sexier. He has the smolder down here…https://media0.mensxp.com/media/photogallery/2013/Oct/253174_1382005432.jpg
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Is it me or does Rajinikanth look a lot like Mohanlal in that poster? Either way, he does look great!
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The grey in the hair and beard is an excellent look!
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