So many things happening without my supervision! I’m going to try to summarize them all and we can decide if they are good ideas, or bad ideas.
Kartik Aaryan and Sara Ali Khan Dating
Well, I don’t want Sara tying herself down this early in her career. On the other hand, the age difference isn’t bad. He’s 28, she’s 24 or 25. She lived in New York and finished school at Columbia, he lived alone in the city while trying to get his career up and going, so they both have similar life experiences (neither of them coming straight from their parents’ house). And she’s snappy and smart in her interviews, and he’s snappy and smart in his interviews. As an actual relationship, I think I am okay with it so long as they don’t rush into anything.
As a fake relationship to promote their movie, I am less interested. I think relationships to promote films are a stupid idea, it makes the audience trust celebrities less when we realize they are lying about such a central thing. So I am landing on hoping that it is real, because I wouldn’t like them if it was fake.
Amitabh Hospitalized for Liver
Obviously a good idea to go to the hospital when your liver fails, nothing to consider there. But Amitabh has also chosen to keep this pretty quiet. Or else his family has. His liver has been 75% damaged since 1982 and he’s been quietly chugging along without complaining about it. Story says, he was taken to the hospital at 2am on Tuesday which sounds like it was an emergency situation. But he is still posting on twitter, there isn’t a ton of media coverage, and no celebrities are visiting him besides family.
What do you think, smart decision on the part of the family to keep this quiet and calm, or should they have accepted Amitabh is a celebrity and issued an official statement? Is this going to backfire in the long run if he doesn’t get out soon and starts missing appearances and stuff?
Alia and Ranbir are in Manali, Still Shooting Brahmastra
Well, this whole thing is a terrible idea! Except going to Manali, it looks pretty. But Alia and Ranbir shouldn’t be working together or dating, Brahmastra should have been finished literally years ago (or else never started to begin with), and the fact that the shoot is still going is INSANE. I disapprove of ALL of this.
What do you think?
Rajkummar Rao in Chupke Chupke Remake
I love the original Chupke Chupke, so I am conflicted. On the one hand, how dare they try to remake perfection? On the other hand, the professor who pretends to be a chauffeaur in order to trick his pretentious brother-in-law is a perfect Rajkummar role.
What do you think? Good or bad idea?
Alia Bhatt to Play a Madam in a Bhansali Movie
This sounds WEIRD!!!!! Alia is confirmed to be in a movie directed by Bhansali, which makes sense once Inshallah fell apart that they might look for another project together. But supposedly the project being considered is a biopic of an influential Bombay madam. Sold into prostitution at a young age, eventually rising to power. So either it is the early part of her life (when Alia would be age appropriate) which means we will get the Bhansali view of prostitution as a lovely elegant profession. Or we will get the later part of her life, which means Alia playing an older powerful madam which doesn’t seem right either. What is happening here?
dontcallitbollywood 
The Alia-Bhansali movies sounds very strange but I am excited for it…color coordinated prostitutes dancing away their pain…making dramatic speeches about the dignity of their work…it will be awesome!
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I don’t know, for me it depends on how historical it is. I can find nothing on this woman, if she is from like the 1970s, I’m not super comfortable with romanticizing her sex work. But the 1870s would be a whole different story.
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Rani was very good as prostitute in Savariya, but Aalia??? Strange idea. I don’t know Bhansali’s vision of that madam.
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This was a movie that was rumored a few years back for PC. That makes sense, she’s in that age where she could play a youthful flashback and a modern day powerful madam. But alia? Are we supposed to buy her as an aging ex-prostitute/madam?
On Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 2:10 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Bhansali-Alia movie :
I just read who this movie will be about “”She was a brothel owner who also peddled drugs and gave orders for murders. She was also known as the ‘Madam of Kamathipura’ for her connections with the underworld.”” It doesn’t look like SLB movie at all! Does he have some kind of midlife or creative crisis? First this strange idea of Inshallah and now this. I won’t watch it. But if Alia signed this movie and started working on Brahmastra again it means she isn’t pregnant or ready for marriage?
Kartik-Sara romance. My reaction was: Really? What does she see in him?
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At this point I don’t believe any of the information being let out about the Bhansali movie, just because it is sooooooooooooo early in the process. Maybe he is going to turn it into a fantasy fairy tale type thing like Saawariya, maybe it is going to be a period piece set in the 1930s, I have no freakin’ idea. I’ll accept that it’s a movie with Alia currently planned about a young prostitute who became a madam, but I can’t imagine anything in particular is figured out yet. I can’t even figure out who this woman is/was!
I could believe that Kartik is secretly a really clever charming guy in real life. He’s certainly made it on his own in a tough industry, there must be something there, right?
On Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 2:15 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I didn’t know that Amitabh only had 25% of his liver. That is serious. Since this was posted he is home from the hospital. I think medical issues are private and they owe no one an explanation.
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“it makes the audience trust celebrities less when we realize they are lying about such a central thing…” ya i suggest celebrities do this more to cash on the guile of populace, general populace cares too much about personal lifes of celebrities, which is unhealthy; this pr campaining needs to die off so that good actors get hightlighted. Margaret do you know why this pr thingy happens only in bollywood not other indian industries?
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I hadn’t thought before about it happening more in Hindi film than other industries. Seems like it is fairly new in Hindi film (as in, within the last 10-20 years). Maybe related to the globalization of the industry? romantic relationships outside of marriage became less shameful and therefore fair game for publicity?
On Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 6:37 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I just read about the Chupke Chupke thing and I’m not real thrilled about it, although if they have to do it I’m glad it will have Rajkummar.
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And then maybe I can buy Ayushmann Khurrana or someone like him as Amitabh. But Jaya is the role I can’t imagine recasting. She has to be believably naive, but also with enough maturity that it doesn’t feel “icky”. Who can do that?
On Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 7:16 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Hmmm. Maybe Bhumi? Or Janhvi? I’ve only seen Janhvi in Simmba and she didn’t really do anything.
I just wonder if the humor will work? Chupke Chupke strikes me as a movie like Chasme Baddoor, which needs a sort of 70s innocence to work, and if you try to modernize it the whole thing falls apart. But I’d be happy to be wrong about this.
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Sara is the one in Simmba, but she might work. Kind of a pure innocence to her.
If they manage to translate it to a modern innocence (like Bareilly Ki Barfi, or Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, or Stree), that could work. A world of internet and sexually explicit songs, but there are still young man and young woman who just fall in love and get married.
On Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 8:26 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Oh, Sara, duh! I can’t tell all these young folks apart! Get off my lawn!
It would be so interesting if they could pull that off. It occurred to me that the movies you mention partly achieve this kind of innocence by being set in small towns (I think? Don’t remember exactly about SMS, but it had a small town vibe.). So maybe if they change the original’s sparkly urban wit to a more earthy small town thing it would work.
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Yes, that small town/city kind of Indian location, I think that could work. Set it in two small towns with decent universities, plus a resort cabin. Rajkummar and whoever are living in his small town where he teaches, and her older brother and the rest of the cast are living in another small town with another university. The Om Prakash character could be a sort of small town know it all type.
On Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 8:58 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Sara/Karthik – I don’t think either of them are that conniving to have a relationship for publicity. And they’ve been spotted together long before film promo even started. If it was all closer to film release, I’d be more suspicious. But I like them and hope it’s real and all of my hopes and dreams will be crushed if it’s not.
Amitabh – I think staying private is the right move. Any sort of announcement would put everyone in such a frenzy that he might not get the actual care he needs.
Brahamastra – I LOVE Alia and HATE Ranbir, so I’ve despised this couple since day one. The more I hear about this movie, the less I care, so I have no idea if I’m even gonna bother watching it when it comes out, whenever that ends up being, who knows anymore.
Chupke Chupke – All these reboots are getting on my nerves, but I’ve never seen the original, so I can’t say much more else.
Alia/SLB – I have conflicting feelings about this. Kalank seemed like a Walmart version of an SLB movie, but Alia was gorgeous, and she could be so good in a real SLB project. I almost threw up when Inshallah was announced and was relieved when it was shelved. But I don’t know anything about the woman this new project is going to be about, and after Padmaavat, I’m nervous. But I love Alia, so I will watch it.
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Oh good, at least one other person who is excited about Sara and Karthik! I’ve only seen either of them in a couple things, but I like what I’ve seen.
Brahmastra looks like such disaster. I will volunteer to take the bullet for us all and review it, but then by the time it actually comes out, who knows what my life will be like? Maybe it will be after I win the lottery or something and I can afford not to watch bad movies.
My only hope for the Alia SLB movie is if it is a throwback to his earlier simpler films. I would be all in for a mostly realistic story of a prostitute who rises to be a madam starring Alia, with a few slight touches of magical realism.
On Sun, Oct 20, 2019 at 4:28 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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