I couldn’t sleep last night, and now I have to go watch Chiranjeevi yell at things for 3 hours after work. So be happy with a tiny tiny news round-up.
Dabangg 3
Look! A teaser! It’s Salman being Salman! Is his childishness still charming or has it switched over to irritating?
Mardaani 2
Look! Another teaser! Do you kind of wish Rani’s crusading cop could deal with stuff that isn’t “women’s issues”? Or is that just me?
Kalki Koechlin is Pregnant
Her boyfriend is a classical pianist. And I try not to think about gender roles, but my first thought was “musician? How is he going to support his family?” Also, he’s Isreali. With Kalki being with an Isreali classical pianist and Radhike Apte being with a British musicologist, I am just going to continue to mix the two of them up.
Strike on Set
Well, this is FASCINATING! The technicians walked off set during a song shoot for Motichoor Chaknachoor because other technicians had not been paid. Which gets into a whole fascinating layer of things with how the Indian film industry works, starting with the standard piecemeal filming process. Sounds like the majority of the film was made, those people were not paid, the producer hired a new crew to do this extra song shoot, and the new crew was part of the same union as the old one and walked out. This kind of slight of hand is not uncommon (so far as I can tell), you can have a job that you are just never paid for whether you are a lowly spot boy or a top movie star. And then the producer disappears, new people suddenly show up and keep the shoot going, and the film limps towards a release. Or else it just never comes out. Oh, and the producers “defense” is that the first crew will be paid but only once the film releases. Which is still not a great way to treat your workers, that they are left waiting for a film release that may never happen even though they already did all their work. It just shows me a) that the film industry is still far less organized than they would like to pretend; and b) that this is why people like to work with producers they trust and know because the ones you don’t know can really mess with you.
dontcallitbollywood 
RApte is married to her music man.
Kalki is not.
In both cases, the woman is probably the breadwinner.
The thought you had is the same thought I have whenever a famous actress in the west marries a cooler-than-thou-minus-the-money musician. Liv Tyler – but she has her father’s money, Kate Winslet – but she’s had a long career, and Keira Knightley come to mind. Even Meryl Streep, though hers is a sculptor. Obviously doesn’t matter now, but back in the 70s I was like “you sure about that?”
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Yes. “cooler than thou” is how it feels. There’s a certain cachet in having a very cool interesting unsuccessful artist as your husband that feels kind of similar to a man dating a supermodel. I am sure there is a very deep gender role discussion to be had here, but right now I am just stuck on “but, there’s no money in being a pianist!”
I can’t remember if they are still together, but at one point Kate Winslet was married to a billionaire trust fund kind who legally changed his last name to “Rocknrolla”. I would not marry this person myself.
On Tue, Oct 1, 2019 at 10:39 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I’m just so bored of Salman’s movies. They come like clockwork and never offer anything but the same old masala. I can’t even tell them apart anymore. God bless the audience that seems to keep watching basically the same movie every 6 months.
Not interested in Rani’s movie either. Why does BW keep making unnecessary sequels? WHO was asking for Mardaani all over again? Not that I remember even the first one but still.
Is there ANYTHING to look forward to? I guess there are another 10 Akshay movies coming too. Swell.
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I was hoping Mardaani would be a equal but different. The idea of a strong avenging female cop could go in a whole bunch of directions. But this movie looks like the same style, same kind of story, basically the same everything. Boring!
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I know Mardaani 2 looks the same but I’m just glad that Rani is back to acting. I do hope she does something light and fun again though!
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Yes! Hichki made me want more charming happy Rani and less dedicated teacher Rani.
On Tue, Oct 1, 2019 at 5:58 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yes, I want more charming and happy Rani! I know she’s not young anymore but I would love it if she did a rom-com or a romance again
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I see you did not put up that song promo from Houseful. Brilliant choice! I’m back asking the only question that matters. Why can’t Akshay go on a sabbatical instead of SRK? Why do we have to endure Akki licking feel (literally!!) in repulsive songs?
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Unfortunately not really a “choice” so much as a “I didn’t realize there was a song promo out”.
I’m going to treat your question seriously because I find it interesting. Both Akshay and Shahrukh came to Indian film from relative poverty (both had good family backgrounds and loving parents and all that, but also are more aware of the possibility of poverty than other stars from privileged backgrounds). Both of them are clear and explicit about being in film for the money and wanting to make money and not being ashamed of it. Both of them will do ad campaigns, wedding performances, whatever and whenever just for the money. And both of them are very family focused and concerned with protecting and supporting their family, including financially. But Akki seems to have a different moral code, and a different attitude towards financial security than Shahrukh. Maybe it is a matter of independence? Shahrukh wants to be independent, he doesn’t want to work for a salary or rely on others (or let his children rely on others) and so has focused on building his business empire rather than working as an actor. And in the same way, he is not willing to change his artistic style and attitude to match the prevailing tastes of the times.
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