Nice heartwarming story, interesting PR twisting, and (my favorite) glimpse of contract issues and arrangements. A good day for news!
Shahrukh and Salman Are Friends
This is two separate stories, but they are related. First Salman talked at an event and gave an update on Bharat. Katrina is all set to film, partly because Shahrukh adjusted her Zero dates to accommodate Bharat. Just to be friendly, because he knew what a jam Salman was in and how tricky the scheduling was. Awww, that’s nice. I remember he did the same thing with Ra.One, so Kareena could finish We Are Family ASAP and Kajol could go on maternity leave. People are nice, they will work around you if you give them a chance. But it would also be nice if, whenever possible, they DIDN’T have to work around you and upset a whole series of film schedules to accommodate one person’s preference. (story here)
Salman also at a recent event gave a few more comments on Priyanka. Nothing really new, just clarifications. For instance, pointing out that they were perfectly ready and willing to work around her schedule, it was just a 75 day shoot, they could have structured it around any engagement events. And confirming what was suspected, Priyanka only got the role through her connection to Ali Abbas Zafar. The producers, Atul Agnihotri and Arpita (Salman’s brother-in-law and sister) wanted Katrina, but PC campaigned for the role, so they gave it to her instead. He isn’t trying to rewrite history to the point of saying “Katrina was always our first choice”, but he is saying “Katrina was a choice we could have made originally if PC hadn’t put herself forward”.
And then the other story is that Salman gave AbRam one of his Being Human e-cycles. He rode his bike over to Mannat to visit and AbRam was fascinated, so Salman had a little AbRam sized one specially made and gifted it. Awwwww! I want pictures! Little AbRam on his little bike!!!! (story here)
(Here’s Salman on his bike, but it’s not as good)
Priyanka Prepares For a Broken Engagement
Bollywoodhungama seems to be PC’s leak place of choice. And here is another choice one. And predictable one. Nick Jonas’ father’s financial troubles were widely reported in the Indian press (not so much the American) and PC took the opportunity to respond, and also start preparing the ground for a broken engagement or a wedding that never happens (story here):
“I am not saying that PeeCee is getting married anytime in the future. But whatever the couple’s future plans, they remain unchanged by Nick’s dad’s financial status. The insolvency case involves a long-ailing business concern that the family decided to close down. Nick and his brothers are more than capable of shouldering the family responsibilities, if and when required,” says PeeCee’s friend.
So, two things. First “insolvency case” sounds very nice, doesn’t it? But that’s not what it is. “Bankrupt” means you are filing a ton of paperwork and so on and so forth with the end goal of having any pending debts declared null and void. If you are shutting down a business, then you pay any debts left and shut it down. This is a dodge to avoid paying debts, instead of asking your wealthy sons to give you the money so you can close the business cleanly. Or else it is a legitimate last minute desperate act because you are so in debt you can’t see a way to get above ground again.
But second, I love that opening! “whatever the couple’s future plans”, “I am not saying that PeeCee is getting married anytime in the future”. Isn’t that what an engagement IS???? Declaring to the world that your future plans are marriage?
Reading between the lines, this is a statement of “don’t look at the financial thing, that’s embarrassing and she is too noble to care about it anyway. But also, I’m not going to promise a wedding because I don’t want you looking for it and noticing that it isn’t happening.”
Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, then there was another statement of “yeah, don’t look for them to move in together any time soon either”:
Both Nick and Priyanka are very family-oriented. PeeCee doesn’t want Nick to move out of his family fold. Nick and his brothers are very close to their parents. And so it shall remain. Priyanka is not about to play Bindu’s role (of the disruptive Bahu) in Raj Khosla’s Do Raaste. So yeah, though Nick is searching for a love-nest for the couple, whether they will eventually move into it is undecided.
So, Nick and PC will not be living together, may or may not be getting married at some point in the distant future, but everything is fine.
(And we know Priyanka doesn’t have a problem living with men! Oh right, that’s a movie. Anyway, I was thinking “what’s the rush to move in? They just started dating”, but then an engagement/marriage is a much bigger commitment and will include the need to live together, so it is a bit odd that they can’t even take this small step)
Oh, and the most interesting part of this! PC is once again, successfully, selling one version to the West and another back home in India. India is very focused and concerned about the financial issues of Nick Jonas’ father. And PC is selling these quotes about “the family is stable, don’t read anything into a delayed marriage” and “they aren’t living together because she cares about his family closeness”. But in the West, all I can find is stuff about double dates at the US Open and what Nick’s ex-girlfriends had to say about things. Everything is sunshine and romance and perfect in the Western press, where we wouldn’t read problems into a couple failing to announce a marriage right after an engagement (unaware that in India the big formal “engagement” is essentially the start of the wedding season). And in India, everything is sloooooooooooooowed doooooooooooooown.
Arjun Reddy Recasting for an Interesting Reason
Well, I think it is interesting! Tara Sutaria has dropped out of the Arjun Reddy remake with Shahid Kapoor. Because Student of the Year 2 filming has been pushed back which means Arjun Reddy is on schedule to release before SOTY2, which means it would be Tara’s first film, and her SOTY2 contract states that SOTY2 has to be her first film. (story here)
Isn’t that interesting??? Well, to me. That it is a standard accepted part of the contract to specify it must be the launch film. I think of the launch film as a good thing for the actor and a hard thing for the studio, but I guess there is a studio advantage too, they can mold you and make your image anything they want, they don’t have to be playing catch up with something like, for instance, making you into an innocent young high school student after you just played a sexually active med student in your last film.
And Tara is the one they really need in SOTY2, because she’s their “ringer”. This is her first film, but she’s been acting in Disney India type TV stuff since she was a child, and can dance. They need her to balance out Chunkey Panday’s little girl and Tiger’s “acting”. If she’s in something else before, it might make it too obvious that she isn’t exactly a new actress, especially because I am guessing the Arjun Reddy promo campaign might lean more towards “I am mature and experienced, don’t feel uncomfortable about me doing explicit scenes with an older actor” which is in direct conflict with the “we are introducing 2 unknowns!” SOTY2 campaign.
Anyway, now the Arjun Reddy role is up for grabs, so they need to find another new face but with experience not to be uncomfortable in explicit scenes (the role really requires a new face, someone it is hard to read and who feels fresh and innocent). Maybe the young actress from Karwaan? She had oodles of stage experience. Just so long as they don’t land on Shraddha.
(Also lots of youtube videos and stuff. And an interesting face. And no one saw Karwaan, so it would be like she is an unknown. Yes! They should cast her!)
dontcallitbollywood 
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. . . now I want an e-bike (whatever that is).
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Doesn’t it look fun? I can’t tell if the “e” is for “electric” or for “environment”
On Fri, Sep 7, 2018 at 8:11 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Laila Majnu is getting some good reviews-especially for the lead actor -Avinash Tiwari & the music. I’m struck by such a non-filmi name for a Hindi film actor.He somehow seems like a better Arjun Reddy than Shahid. But then Majnu & Arjun Reddy aren’t very far from each other. Will u be watching it?
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My sister is in town again this weekend, so I probably won’t be able to see either of the new movies. But next week I will be back on schedule! For whatever is opening next week, I don’t even remember any more. Probably another Shraddha movie.
On Fri, Sep 7, 2018 at 8:25 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I love those leaked news about PC. I’m so curious how long they will pretend yet. I give it 2 months at most.
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Right? And now they aren’t even living together? If I am understanding the story right, he is staying in New Jersey because he is very close to his family and I guess also has to be physically close to them, and she is in LA.
On Fri, Sep 7, 2018 at 9:31 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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They live separately and that’s why Priyanka couldn’t work for Salman, she just miss her man so much that she can’t focus.Poor thing.
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Yes, that must be it. They only get to see each other at rare moments in public places surrounded by paparazzi, and are tragically separate during all private moments of life.
Also, Nick just signed a second movie. So, I guess the engagement did it’s job for him and he’s out.
On Fri, Sep 7, 2018 at 10:25 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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The next leaked news will be: Priyanka is so succesful, and Nick also, they love each other but have to split because of the distance and busy scheldues.
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I don’t understand what is the point of selling two different stories to two markets. The world is so small that news travels very fast now. Whatever the American media writes gets to India within a day and vice versa. How can you make two different stories work? In the US, PC calls the paps everyday and she and Nick have been spotted coming out of her apartment in NY. They were also “caught” house hunting in Los Angeles. They were at the US Open deliberately doing PDAs in public and playing it up for the cameras. It looked incredibly fake but what’s the point of spreading the opposite story in India?
I’m just thankful for small mercies that she isn’t currently planting that someone is just so jealous and heartbroken over her and Nick. I won’t be surprised if that is being saved for later in her arsenal.
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To me, the two stories read like they are needed because of the two meanings of “engaged”. Like, in America officially announcing your engagement just means you are in love and want to be married and are figuring it out and it might happen in 1 month or 2 years or never.
But in India (as I have learned from movies and friends), there is the kind of unofficial engagement, and then once you are engaged for real and in public, that’s the starting gun for all the wedding festivities.
So in America they can relax and spin this story out without any changes for a little longer. But in India it is immediately weird that they had the big engagement thing and there isn’t a wedding scheduled yet, so they need to start damage control now.
And yeah, I am surprised, I keep googling around and there is no coverage (almost) of Nick’s father’s financial issues in America, and it is all the coverage in India. And no coverage of Wimbledon PDA in India, but the “maybe we won’t be married” hints are quoted verbatim in multiple sources.
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In the US bankruptcies are relatively common and it doesn’t mean the family is impoverished, necessarily, simply that the business is closing and has debt to manage. So the US press wouldn’t cover it because it’s not really a big deal in our culture/economy while in India there seems to be a heavy load of shame attached to a failed business.
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The other thing I was thinking about is that India has more of a sense of collective family finances. Their father’s financial problems reflect on his sons, makes it look like they aren’t taking care of their parents properly.
On Fri, Sep 7, 2018 at 6:10 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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One of the interesting aspects of Arjun Reddy is how pretty-but-plain the heroine is, looking very much like a good girl from her caste, but sligh-ly progressive, able to live a double life. The woman from Karwaan feels more overtly teen-rebel to me, which is almost the opposite archetype, even in her branding, like her YouTube videos and insta. Not sure who can be both demure and subversive, pretty but plain… maybe shraddha lol.
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No!!!! Never Shraddha!!!! Kareena when she was young would have been perfect, she had that “pretty, and then you catch her face at a certain angle and she is beautiful” kind of effect. Vaani Kapoor might be interesting or Kriti. But that doesn’t feel quite right either.
I am sure there are other Disney stars I don’t know about who would be similarly perfect, hopefully the team is looking there instead of at the old familiars who aren’t quite right.
On Fri, Sep 7, 2018 at 12:39 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Arjun reddy is far more good looking and charismatic as a man than his love interest is as a woman. She’s easily obtainable, and that’s part of the point. Who could give us that unusual dynamic on the Hindi side against shahid kapoor. Maybe Bhumi? Probably someone new. And knowing Bollywood, they will eschew that dynamic and give us a glamorous heroine, or at least a newbie who is equally “pretty” to shahid.
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*easily overlookable
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That Qaidi Band actress might be perfect. She had kind of a girl next door look to her.
On Fri, Sep 7, 2018 at 2:07 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Priyanka lives in New York and the PDA looked so contrived I have to admit. This whole thing baffles me. Why on earth did she need this? Blemishing the name of married men is now taken by Kangana, so Priyanka needs another niche?
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Well, it kind of makes sense, they started this thing back when Quantico was ending, she needed something to keep her in the news while she looked for a new job. Nick was trying to stay relevant and his brother got a lot of benefit from a high profile romance, so makes sense for him to try it out too. And now Nick has two new jobs and PC is still unemployed. So either it didn’t give her the bump she was looking for, or the whole “I just want to be a wife and mother” thing turned off potential employers.
If PC lives in New York, then why was Nick looking for houses in LA for the two of them? This whole story sounds so odd. I just assumed she was in LA and he was in NYC and the explanation was that he was looking for homes for the two of them in LA and she was saying “no” because it would mean moving him away from his family. So either they are both in the New York area now but not living together. Or he is in LA currently and she is not even allowing him to move one block from his parents because that is how good a bahu she is.
On Fri, Sep 7, 2018 at 2:11 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Priyanka is unemployed? Doesn’t she have the movie with the Dangal actress where she plays the mother?
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I think that may already be finished? Or almost, it was an easy shoot. And there’s nothing else on the horizon for her.
On Fri, Sep 7, 2018 at 3:48 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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That movie is still shooting. They only finished the first schedule. Now they’re on a break and Farhan is busy doing concerts. Can’t believe he actually thinks he’s a rockstar.
It must be an easy and quick shoot in total. These small movies wrap quickly.
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They were both in LA together house hunting. Now they’re both in NY. She is attending fashion shows and he is appearing on Jimmy Fallon tonight. Both are basically just maintaining visibility. She spoke to the media about what she has upcoming: a movie in India, a youtube show where she interviews people, a book she’s writing, and that she’s “planning her wedding.” Basically, nothing very important.
She must have expected a bigger career boost than this through the public romance. She would have been able to get all those other things without him/it anyway. She lost Bharat too because she tried to jump into the Christ Pratt movie and then that got shelved. Salman btw has been giving quotes that Priyanka called Arpita “a thousand times” to get a movie with him and lobbied Ali too. Then had the audacity to walk out at the last minute to chase a HW movie. She’s effectively messed up relations with a lot of the top players. It won’t matter as long as she’s happy doing small movies or agrees to work with newer producers/directors like Kangana does. Otherwise, tough luck.
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Is Katrina still needed for Zero-shootings??? (Or are they talking about dates for the promotion?)
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I’m not sure? I could believe either way, it seems like Zero is mostly done, but maybe they need dubbing or something.
On Fri, Sep 7, 2018 at 3:51 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Just an note – Amazon Prime now has 4 Prabhas movies, besides both Baahubali flicks. They are Raghavendra, Pournami, Varsham and Billa. English subs. Okay, none of these are exactly award winners but with a star as freakishly adorable as Prabhas, they are “must-sees.”
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Varsham is really good and I really like Pournami as well.
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