Part 2! Not that these are less important stories, I just happened to write about them second.

Aditya Roy Kapur Trains for Action

This is hardly a story beyond “woo! Aditya Roy Kapoor!” He’s making another movie with Mohit Suri, and I guess he will have an action role? He is supposed to be training in Kalaripayattu, in order to get more comfortable in fight scenes. I’m excited! ARK hasn’t had a real action role yet, and it might be a good genre fit for him (story here)

Salman, PC, and Bharat

Salman made another little comment about Priyanka leaving Bharat. He hasn’t minced words from the start about how far in the lurch she left them. He hasn’t needlessly brought her into the conversation, but when she comes up, he is honest. This time it was in response to a question about how long Kat prepared for the role, she said 2 months, Salman said “Priyanka didn’t leave us much time”. (story here)

See, the thing is, Salman has three options when he gets these questions. He can use PC’s excuse of the wedding, but that is so obviously false that it will just make people come up with their own explanations. He can say nothing, but that also lets people come up with their own explanations. Or he can say “yeah, she didn’t care about the film and left us in trouble through no fault of our own”. And I am fine with him choosing the last option.

The problem is, in this situation, either it is PC’s fault or it is the film’s fault. He has to defend his film even if it means being ungentlemanly towards PC. In this case, leaving it that Kat only prepared for 2 months makes it look like she didn’t care that much about the character or the film, like she will be playing another light weight heroine and the film isn’t worth it. Salman could have let it go, or jumped in to point out that it was nothing to do with her role or the film that made her have so little time, it was Priyanka dropping out with no notice. He chose to jump in and defend the film.

Amitabh Skips His Darshan!!!!

This is a very specific story. It boils down to “Amitabh was feeeling under the weather and didn’t go to meet his fans”, but it’s a big deal in context. When Amitabh came back from the hospital after his near death accident while filming Coolie, the crowds gathered at his gate to see him became a traffic hazard. In order to solve the problem, Amitabh announced that he would come out and let people do Darshan every Sunday evening if he was in Bombay. That was over 25 years ago, and hundreds of people come to see him every Sunday. Except this week, when he announced on social media that he would be skipping.

T 3154 – All Ef and well wishers .. not doing the Sunday meet at Jalsa Gate this evening .. 🙏

— Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) May 5, 2019

Darshan (for those non-desis) is a specific kind of worship. You do it for religious leaders, or for famous statues of Gods. It’s something you do, it’s active, it’s more than just seeing a thing, it’s letting its power touch you through your eyes. And Amitabh, like a statue of a God, is one of those things you “do Darshan”.

And Amitabh follows his part of this contract, he is aware of how important it is for his followers so he makes an effort. Despite his Myesthenia Gravis, his Hepatitis B, and all the various illness involved with being 76, he always appears every Sunday. Until this week. WHY????