Somehow, it is both rainy and overcast, and also 90 degrees out today. And Banjo isn’t playing anywhere near me, so I don’t get to see a new movie tonight. And generally life is bleak and depressing. So, here is a random collection of recent news items that make me happy. Feel free to bookmark this post for the next time you feel down!
I put up a post earlier today about the new Mirzya trailer and how it reminded me of “Jaati Hoon Main”. Which just got me in the mood to watch more SRKajol videos!
A news item from Times of India! I am shocked! Usually they are far behind on the news, or far ahead (a nice way of saying “reporting unverified gossip”). But this time they scooped Bollywoodhungama on a big story!
I’m doing another live twitter watchalong! Just like I did for Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham a few months back (click here to see how that went)! This time, Kal Ho Na Ho! Which is available in American Netflix, as well as most streaming services. It will be at 10am Chicago time tomorrow, which is 8:30pm on Sunday the 18th India time, 1am Australia time (sorry Australia people), 11am New York time, and 8am California time. Join in by searching for the hashtags #KHNH (for Kal Ho Na Ho) or #DCIB (for my book, Don’t Call it Bollywood, which this is nominally promoting. And which you should all read! It’s really good!).
And so is his father! And also a bit of a tech nerd, have you noticed that since he discovered instagram, Shahrukh has been posting a lot of videos that are kind of like the ones your dorky uncle posts after his son shows him how to use the video tools? But more interesting, because it’s a movie star.
Maybe this has happened before and I just haven’t noticed it, but it feels unusual to me, the speed and excitement over creating fanvids the minute the Ae Dil Hai Mushkil song came out!
I thought we should start the week out on a light note, so two nice light stories.
If you are really really desperate, I have one for you! Sort of!
These two things have nothing in common, don’t even try to find a connection. But moviemavengal tweeted me about Dulquer’s gift to his Dad, and another commentator pointed out that it was Mammootty’s birthday today and now I feel bad for not acknowledging it at all. Although I did happen to post my Jagratha review today, so that’s cool!
Today it’s a bunch of stories that might someday turn into real stories, but right now are just little story seedlings.
My post earlier today about the new Lux ad Shahrukh is in got me thinking about all those wonderful star ads we don’t get in America. Well, unless you spring for the India package on cable (Someday!!!).
Not the biggest collection of news stories today, but still worth posting because of the bigger stories they are teasing out for the future.
There is a really funky little human interest story, and a really important industry story. But most of all, a really NO WAY!!!!! story about Anupam Kher.
FanVid Post time! I was debating between that and a post running through all the previous superhero movies in honor of The Flying Jatt. But FanVids are more fun, right? And maybe I do the superhero post at some point in the next few days.
Forbes came out with their top earning actresses list yesterday, and the top earning actors list today. While yesterday Deepika was the only Indian news, today there are FOUR Indian actors on the list. Plus Jackie Chan right at the top at number 2. So, yeah, Hollywood watch out! Asia is coming for you! (also, Shahrukh is the highest Indian on the list! Woot-woot!)
I am going to be just super self-indulgent and use this holiday as an excuse to post a bunch of cute photos/videos of movie stars with babies. And as babies. And other babies who love movie stars.
Full disclosure: I’m coming up on my 1 year blog anniversary in a few months, and I want to make it to a thousand posts before then. So get used to lots tiny little posts where you think, “wait, why didn’t she just combine this with the earlier post?”
I can’t tell if there is a lot of big news today, or just so much little news that it all starts to feel big.
This is all from twitter, basically. Sometimes, that’s all you need! The stars give you your stories directly.
Happy Raksha Bandhan! A holiday I don’t get to celebrate at all, because there are no brothers in my family. Yes, even if I count cousins. All girls, all the time, both mother and father’s side of the family. But, at least I can watch movies and pretend this is what it would be like if I had a brother or a cousin-brother.
(as always, if you have a favorite video for the holiday, let me know in the comments!)
Oh dear, not a good day for Salman or Shahrukh, and I can’t help but feel it is partly my fault! As an American, and part of “The Internet.”
Two trailers that I haven’t gotten around to discussing yet, and just to round out the post, my favorite song from KANK (actually, one of my all time favorite songs), in honor of the 10 year anniversary of its release.
I really wanted to do 3 news stories about Salman, so I could have a nice structure for my headline, but no luck! And also no luck in only doing one on him and 2 on someone else, because his 2 stories today are too big to ignore. And then I had to shove a 4th story in there because the Shahrukh rumor is too good to ignore. It’s all out of balance!!! Oh well.
Okay, I’ve talked about all the important Devdases, all the good ones that are closely related to the novel and deal with the ideas of hidden tragedies and casual disasters and all those cool things. Time to deal with the one that is just really really really pretty!
dontcallitbollywood 