Happy Saturday! I am up at the Lake House again for a long stretch to end out the year. Of course I still have my stupid foot, so I can’t go swimming or on boats. But I can sit on the porch and read a book, so I’ll be doing a lot of that instead of responding to blog comments. Oh, and finishing/reviewing Sadak 2, I’m watching it on my phone
Happy Saturday! I’m gonna give you some happy things to talk about:
BABIES!
Kareena and Saif are expecting again, and Anushka and Virat are expecting for the first time. Quarantine is weirdly good for them, because I am sure neither couple wanted to announce until safely after the first trimester. But both women are so very very famous it would have been hard to keep it a secret if they were still going out and about.
Babies bring with them so much happy stuff to discuss. Do we want a boy or a girl for either couple? Or do we not care? I very much want Anushka to have a girl because, as a raging feminist, I want to see how she raises a daughter. She could be our first Indian celeb to go for aggressively gender neutral clothing, for instance.
Also, 20 years from now, should these babies marry each other? I would like that. Two Cricket/film dynasties merging together. Oh OH! Or if the babies are both boys, 20 years from now they could be on the Indian Cricket team together fighting a fierce rivalry echoed by their aging Diva mothers aggressively ignoring each other in the stands.
It’s Nagarjuna’s Birthday!
Does anyone know who he is? On DCIB I mean? He’s a very big deal Telugu actor, big star in the 80s and 90s through to today (although he’s 61 now, so no more dangerous young man roles). He was the younger hero in Khuda Gawah in Hindi. He was also rumored to have had an extramarital affair with Tabu. And I like him! He’s got kind of an Anil Kapoor pleasant vibe but slightly sexier.
And final random topic, following up on my coffee post a few days ago: when is it Pumpkin Spice season?
I feel strongly that it has to be at least September, and below 75 degrees, before you are allowed to have Pumpkin Spice. No matter what Starbucks says.
dontcallitbollywood 
Well, outside temp can’t matter, because if it did, south Texas would never get pumpkin spice season and my son-in-law would be devastated.
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I say it does matter, and this is a major reason I don’t live that far south 🙂
On Sat, Aug 29, 2020 at 8:40 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Happy we’ll have babies to talk about! Just in time for your nephew to age out of babyhood. Always need new babies.
This seems like it might be interesting. Also appreciate the perspective of making smaller films to release on streaming platforms during the pandemic in order to keep the regular workers in the industry employed during the drought in theatrical releases.
https://amp.scroll.in/reel/971556/how-c-u-soon-went-from-being-a-home-experiment-to-a-feature-film-made-during-the-pandemic
One more: another bit of recovered history, this one about early Bengali immigrants in Harlem and other African American communities during the Jim Crow era.
https://electricliterature.com/bengali-harlem-shows-how-much-south-asians-owe-to-the-black-community/
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Thank you! Both those articles are fascinating. Especially interesting how the Bengali article opened up the idea of only the “proper” South Asian immigrants being “seen”. I see that even in my neighborhood, these are families living in small apartments in the city, still wearing burkas or saris on a daily basis, their kids going to inner city public schools. The usual immigrant experience for all immigrants, but not the standard image of South Asian American immigration, they aren’t children of professionals living in houses in the suburbs nicely acclimating to mainstream American life.
And the other article with the tidbit about day workers versus film release workers, also interesting! I know the “paid upon release” structure is standard for the actors, did not release it was also standard for other workers on set. For actors, the “paid upon release” is part of the reason their price is set so high. Because the film that actually releases and makes a profit has to cover the cost of all the work they do that never ends up resulting in payment. I wonder if the same is true for other workers with that pay structure? One high paying gig to cover them for a year of a bunch of other films that ended up not turning in to anything? There’s been a lot of focus on the daily wage workers (Salman supporting most of them in Bombay, of course), but I hadn’t thought about the other workers who actually need a film to be released before they see the money.
On Sun, Aug 30, 2020 at 11:54 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yes, I was curious if the getting paid when the film releases for day workers was just in the Malayali industry or if it’s common to other industries too.
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Pumpkin spice season isn’t until at least September, or at least after school starts. Same reason why I refuse to do anything Christmas related until after Thanksgiving.
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So far as I am concerned, Christmas starts as soon as Shahrukh Birthday Season ends. Ooo, which is coming up soon! Only a month to prepare for the festivities!
On Mon, Aug 31, 2020 at 4:28 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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