Stardust - October 2021

Is Akshay Kumar really in his “last overs”?

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A MAGNA PUBLICATION DIWALI ISSUE

Is Aryan Khan being targeted for being SRK’s son?

Diwali Sparklers: Total Filmi Fiesta “We want to make a good song, not a hit song.” – Salim-Sulaiman

ICONIC & INSPIRATIONAL

Exclusive: Filmmaker Mira Nair on her films, mentor Satyajit Ray & much more...

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Cover Story: “I never intended to be an educator. I wanted to make my films my way

but reach the widest possible audience.” – Mira Nair ...................................................................14 Get Snappy: “Professionally, I think I’m in a good place.” – Shahid Kapoor ......................................... 21 Get Snappy: “I think I’m nobody to judge whether I should get credit or not” – Parineeti Chopra .......... 25 Stardust Special: Is Aryan being targeted because he is SRK’s son? ................................................ 28 In Focus: After Two Flops One After The Other, Can Akshay Kumar Bounce Back? ................................. 32 Stardust Exclusive: Baby Out Of Wedlock? Actor Nusrat Jahan Shocks Tollywood! ....................... 34 Starry Festive: Festive Dhamaka, Rocking Parties & Foodilicious Hampers! ................................ 37 Candid Say: “No, it’s not entirely true. Shreyas did not give me a hard time.” – Kashmera Shah ....................... 43 In Conversation: “There are certain scripts that you read and fall in love with immediately

because you see the potential they hold.” - Saif Ali Khan .................................................... 51 Star Spotlight: Where is Diana Penty? ....................................................................................................... 53 Blast From The Past: Kalpana Iyer ............................................................................................................... 70

FEATURES

Music Room: Salim – Sulaiman Merchant ............................................................................................................ 55 Star Beauty: Sonam Kapoor ............................................................................................................................ 64

COLUMNS

Neeta’s Natter ....................................................................................................................................................... 06 Starry Sashay ........................................................................................................................................................ 68 Stardust On The Go ........................................................................................................................................... 66 Web Show ............................................................................................................................................................ 78 STARDUST is published monthly by the proprietors MAGNA PUBLISHING CO. LTD., Magna House, 100/E Old Prabhadevi Road. Mumbai 400025, India. Tel No: 91-22-67091234. Editorial texts and illustrations are the copyright of the publishers of this magazine. No one may reproduce any material before permission is obtained in writing.

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For all those people who couldn’t see Katrina Kaif going beyond Salman Khan and Ranbir Kapoor and the ones who scoffed at the thought of Kat getting serious about Vickey Kaushal, well, here’s news for you. Kat was there at Vickey Kaushal’s film Sardar Udham‘s screening looking rather hip in a short denim skirt and a chic top.

She had come as Vickey’s ‘special’ guest and played the perfect hostess at her rumoured boyfriend’s film screening.

Sidharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani too were there at the same screening looking very much in love. In fact, the Shershaah real couple have thrown caution to the winds and are now open about their love for each other. At the screening, Kiara was hanging onto Sid’s arm and gazing into his eyes each time he spoke to her, while Sidharth just couldn’t tear his eyes off her. How cute!

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It’s official, Kartik Aryaan has told Parineeti Chopra, ‘Stop copying me’. And before Kartik’s statement becomes breaking news, let us explain. Recently, Parineeti Chopra visited Nepal and in front of the lofty Mount Everest got a picture taken of herself with a bag pack. For the uninitiated, Kartik who is an avid traveller had clicked a picture in the same pose in front of a mountain and so rather cheekily told Pari, his bum chum, to stop copying him. Phew, another top of the voice media ‘breaking news’ TV drama averted.

Talking about Kartik, this young man is super cool. He’s decided to dust off the sparkling tinsels from his superstar shoulders for a while and mingle with nature. So he trekked to remote Dharmshala and his social media posts are replete with adventures of his tryst with the mountains. Not only that, he seems to be enjoying rubbing shoulders with the common people – in fact, one of his pictures taken with two monks, has the caption ‘monk, monkey, monk’. Guess who the monkey is?

It’s been 23 years for the iconic Kuch Kuch Hota Hain starring Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukerji and Kajol. Karan Johar who directed this easy breezy popcorn flick recalls that it was the first time he had taken up the directorial baton and he was all nerves. It was SRK who walked over to him and told him to chill and enjoy the journey. And that’s exactly what KJo did... and the film was a stupendous success and till date, it remains a teenybopper cult film.

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Supposedly the ED which has their eagle eyes peeled onto Bollywood, sent summons to the super sexy Jacqueline Fernandez demanding that she present herself at their office and answer on some serious money laundering matters. However, Salman Khan’s fave costar Jacqueline didn’t bother. Supposedly, she ignored the summons for the third time and that has got her deeper into the quagmire. Will Bollywood ever learn that when government officials summon, they mean business.

It’s pretty sad that with all the brouhaha happening over Aryan Khan and the NCB, an old interview of Shah Rukh Khan given to Simi Garwel on her show ‘Rendezvous with Simi’ has emerged. At that point, Aryan was just 2 and when Simi asked SRK about his son. SRK quipped jokingly, “Aryan can have sex with women, do drugs, do anything.” Unfortunately that statement seemed rather ironic today and perhaps Shah Rukh Khan must be really wanting the chance to just eat his words for once!

Talking about couples, Genelia and Rietesh Deshmukh are seriously too cute. Supposedly, in their free time, they love making reels together. So from dancing to old Hindi songs to romping with friends under the waterfalls, Rietesh and Genelia have reinvented couple goals. So is Rietesh the ideal husband, Genelia, after all we have never heard tales of any extra-curricular activity? Geneila snorts, “Ah, but he’s smart. He may seem as if he’s not looking anywhere but actually he’s looking all over, everywhere.” Hmm...

Another old episode of Simi Garewal’s iconic show “Rendezvous with Simi’ has popped up and this time, it’s all about Big B and his wife Jaya. Supposedly, they had met on the sets of Guddi for the first time and when Simi asked Jaya about her immediate reaction to Mr Bachchan. She claimed she was “scared”! ...Frightened because Amitabh Bachchan was the only man who could make her do things for she always wanted to please him and even do stuff she never wanted to – something she had never felt before. Well, Big B quipped to that: “25 years later, it’s the other way around”.

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What on earth is Hrithik Roshan up to? Last seen, he was dancing in wild abandon to an old Hindi song... he put it up on his social media. Nothing wrong with that... but the man who is called twinkle toes and who can dance to any tune, looked rather ungainly and out of step.

Perhaps it was one of those “off” days none of us look forward to. Come on Hrithik, you can do better.

Student Of The Year 2 star and KJo’s protégé Aditya Seal supposedly is all set to walk down the aisle. And the lucky girl is no other than long time girl friend Anushka Ranjan, daughter of veteran actor Shashi Ranjan.

Supposedly, ‘D’ day is next month and both the families of the groom and the bride are racing ahead with preparations. Well, we love true blue romances that end in fairy tale weddings, so thumbs up from us!

We love the camaraderie between chachu Sanjay Kapoor and bhanja Arjun Kapoor. On Sanjay’s birthday, Arjun put up an emotional message about Sanjay “being the nicest soul and the wittiest guy”. Though Arjun insisted that he was much funnier than Sanjay, Sanjay disagreed and quipped, “I don’t think so. You’re a close second.” Ha! Cute!

Talking about Arjun, girlfriend Malaika Arora and he have really settled down to a steady solid relationship. They walk hand in hand together and look completely at ease with each other. Is marriage on the cards? Well, the couple isn’t telling but supposedly, Arjun would prefer his sister Anshula to settle down first before he walks down the aisle. We like Arjun, he’s got his heart in the right place!

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Another couple or rather a non couple who look totally at ease with each other are Kat and Salman. In fact, shooting for the Tiger sequel seemed to be a total breeze with the two lovers turned best friends. And even though Kat is supposedly dating Vickey Kaushal and Salman still has his steady gf Iulia, supposedly, Kat and Salman painted the town red in Russia where they were shooting together. It was madness in Russia, Kat and Sallu style!

Incidentally at the preview screening of Sardar Udham, Vickey Kaushal who plays the protagonist, was asked a personal sawaal. He was asked to comment on the roka rumours between Kat and him. Unlike other stars who would go blue on the face denying things, Vickey rather causally and with ease took the bull by the horns and commented, “Uska bhi time ayega (That time too will happen). What do we say? After all we were the first to break the story about Kat and Vickey’s loving ‘liaison”.

Critic KRK has done it again. He has supposedly commented on Akshay Kumar rather nastily that he is on his “last overs” and that “jitna crore kamana hain kama lo”.

Well, with half the industry ready to grab his jugular and the other, racing to sue him, KRK seriously should know better. But then some people are unstoppable.

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By the way Akshay Kumar has announced his new film Gorkha but unfortunately, in the poster they placed the khukri wrong. A retired army officer pointed out the error and Akshay promptly thanked the man on his social media promising to correct the poster. Well, a wise man always knows when to say sorry at the opportune moment and Akshay sure is smart.

Where is Sona? Yes, we are talking about Sonakshi Sinha. She’s completely disappeared from any starry activities.

Of course, thanks to the pandemic nothing much was happening on the work front but her personal life too which had a couple of ups ‘n’ downs had her down a bit. But the brave girl that she is, Sona has bounced back and this time, she seems to be doing alright. In her latest post, Sona was seen posing in front of a heritage building in London looking super hot. Way to go Sona!

Cat’s Crown

This month goes to...

Konkona Sen and Arjun Rampal.

Their film ‘The Rapist’ wins the prestigious Kim Ji seok award at the 26 th Busan Film Festival.

This film is directed by Aparna Sen. Congrats to the cast and crew.

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Cover Story

“I never intended to be an educator. I wanted to make my films my way but reach the widest possible audience.”

– Mira Nair

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F

ilmmaker Mira Nair is the creator of stories that have led me on a journey of both self and social discovery. As a five-year-old about to make my first trip to India (Mumbai) from the US, Salaam Bombay! introduced me to the reality of the life of street children and prepared me for the heartbreak that I would encounter once I landed in the country.

As a ten-year-old growing up in America, Mississippi Masala highlighted people of my ethnicity in a mainstream film for the first time, in a story we could otherwise never have spoken about. Lastly, The Namesake revealed internal and external conflicts as the child of first-generation immigrant parents in America. With these and many other vibrant tales of the human journey, the Odisha-born, Harvard-educated global citizen Mira Nair has taken us through a kaleidoscope of colours, images, and emotions, and now we have the privilege of getting an insight into her inspiration.

Interview by Nandita Chatterjee Could you talk about your journey into the world of filmmaking, which started with your series of thought-provoking documentaries, from taking us through the cerebral journey of the local son to the streets of old Delhi in “Jama Masjid Street,” to the early diaspora immigrant experience of a newspaper hawker in So Far from India, ending with the uncharted journey of a John going to a sex worker in India Cabaret?

I came to making films as an exploration of truth with questions that got under my skin and would never let me go. Growing up in Bhubaneswar - a small town in Orissa, which was fairly remote, as most other parts of India - we lived cheek by jowl with those who have and those who have not. Their lives and our lives were intertwined and yet completely different from each other. That was the first major influence in my life, my interest in the other side stems from that time. I would often ask the question, “Why?” In the beginning in a childlike way, questions like, “Why does the sweeper’s child have to go back into their quarters when we have our dinner?” The world around me was constantly full of injustice and wonder.

I came to the theater and started working as an actor. I worked in street theater in Calcutta with Badal Sircar and on stage in Delhi with Barry John. Then I studied sociology at Miranda House. However, I came to America on a tukka, on a scholarship, not knowing what was in store. It was my first

time leaving India. When I discovered films at Harvard, the courses that were offered were the principles of cinéma verité - the cinema of truth- the cinema that attempts to capture the real world. My real world was in India and I realised that cinéma verité was a way to explore that world.

In 1978 for my student thesis, my professor Robert Gardner gave me a hand sprung Bolex camera and I shot my first film Jama Masjid Street Journal - an area in Old Delhi, near where I grew up in Delhi University.

What were the stories of the street as I looked through my camera instead of a veil?

This led to making my next documentary, So Far from India, which is about Indian immigrants in the U.S and the unseen, the invisible. It was about the dream of America in people’s hearts, which leads a young man from Ahmedabad to come to America. What does he give up? What does he leave behind? What does he yearn for? It’s difficult because, in cinéma verité, you don’t know what you’re going to get.You don’t know when it’s going to be effective. And this was the early eighties, where we shot real celluloid 16-millimeter film, nothing digital like it is now. It was an expensive process, not an easy one, where every frame had a price tag to it. Cinema verité is a humbling study of life and all its complexities, the extraordinariness of ordinary life. The unpredictability of it was challenging and kept me on my toes. You never knew what would happen next in that kind of filmmaking.

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Even though my documentaries were mildly successful, that they won prizes at festivals and were on television, I hankered for a wider audience. There was so little known about India at the West at that time, that I was almost looked at an educator. I never intended to be an educator. I wanted to make my films my way but reach the widest possible audience.

There was no script, yet I was armed with questions, I followed the character, and then the character’s life revealed itself to my camera, or I would hope. This was the style I enjoyed – a laborious, painstaking and risky style. It needed a lot of patience and endurance because one did not know the journey.

After that was India Cabaret, about the line that divides women considered to be good and those that were considered outside goodness. You asked why I did that? Once more, it was about questions regarding the world. Why is the world so unjust? As a woman, how do you cope with the double standards in our patriarchal society? Why do men need this kind of entertainment and then shun the women who deliver it? What is shame? Who feels it? And who doesn’t?

I lived in New York, but all my work was in India. Just coming and going gave me the ability to not be numbed by what I saw at home. I looked at it with somewhat new eyes, but eyes that were familiar with our society.

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Then there was your debut, Salaam Bombay!… Why did you decide to debut with this film? Was the decision to use non-actors and actual children residing in the slums an effort at transcending the real into a reel without labeling it as a documentary?

I was somebody who was trying to bring my audience into a world which was incredibly entertaining as well as painful. Rekha, the centre of India Cabaret had this unique sense of humor. There was no self-pity or mera kya hoga. It was more like her saying, “Here is the world!” This was inspiring, it moved and kept me devoted to cinema verité. I will never forget opening night at the India International Film Festival in Hyderabad in 1985, where I presented the two cabaret dancers Rekha and Rosy, who were coincidently from the same city of Hyderabad. The hall was filled with 1,500 people, mostly men, who when they heard of a film called India Cabaret, thought it would be a sex fest. Instead, it was a hard core documentary told in the voices of women who tell you like it us, no holds barred. Their language itself brutal, real, funny patois, brought the house down. It was a seesaw between guffaws and an electric silence that held a mirror to our society.

That one screening changed the course of my life. Sooni Taraporevala and I were both in the audience, about to go to Orissa to begin writing our first autobiographical screenplay. But the impact of India Cabaret, in this language, the street language of Bombay patois was clearly reaching this common unpretentious audience so effectively and I thought this is what I have to do. I have to make feature films in the language of the world and the language of the street, not in the high-landed Mughal-e-Azam, but in this real language of how the street speaks.

I was already inspired by the unsentimental spirit of street kids, their insistence of having a life despite having nothing, the way I encountered them while making India Cabaret. There is a scene in India Cabaret where the chai-pau comes up with hot tea every morning to wake up the dancers with chai and a disco song. The dancers would order them around the male customers had done to them the night before. It was hilarious role reversal.

Your mentor, the late Satyajit Ray, has said, “I cannot recall ever being impressed so much by a first feature. It is completely unlike any other film ever made in India and shows complete command over every aspect of the medium.” What aspects of your journey would you say drew inspiration from his mentorship?

I wouldn’t call it a mentorship because I never got to study with him in that sense. I applied several times to be his assistant, but it never worked out for various reasons. He was very kind and accessible always. I have a theory though: when I admire an artist, I first want to make something of my own to present to them.

When I finished one of my first films, So Far from India, I held the reels under my arm and walked up the stairs to Mr. Rays home, holding a16 millimetre projector . We lowered the blinds in his veranda and projected this documentary on his wall with Mr Ray and Mrs Ray as my audience. It was clear he had never seen a cinemaverité, where nothing is manipulated and yet a story unfolds. When the film ended, with our newsstand worker returning to America without his peasant wife, Mr. Ray said to me “If you had cast a more beautiful wife, he would have taken her back”. I then understood that he didn’t realize that I hadn’t cast the girl, but it was a real story!

What was quite marvelous was that we kept up our relationship over 7 years. His inspiration has served me so fully over several decades.

There are several films of his that I think are absolutely perfect - the Apu trilogy, Jalsaghar, and Devi, Charulata, Aranyer Din Ratri. These films were a big part of how to make cinema for me.

Seven years later, when I asked him to open Salaam Bombay! in India he was already quite frail but promptly agreed. From a wheelchair in Nandan Cinema in Kolkata,he opened the film.

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Satyajit Ray was a reserved man, he never said what he didn’t mean and he didn’t waste a word. I was so nervous while I was sitting outside in the lobby, because the projection bothered me. I suffered with the early projections of India - the film did not look as luminous and phosphorescent. I suffered outside biting my nails. But when the film finished, Mr Ray had tears in his eyes. He was genuinely overcome and told me he has never seen anything like this.

When we were later nominated for the Academy Award, he wrote those lines to be used in the advertisements to promote the Academy Award.

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Soon after, in 1991, he passed away. I guess you could call it a mentorship if you wish, but it was beautiful to be able to offer him my films and to be able to talk to him as a young filmmaker. He treated me as a colleague in cinema.

The audience has often been mesmerised with your use of color, merging with the emotions of your films like Kama Sutra and Monsoon Wedding. Would you say it was an aesthetic effort to merge the raw emotions of the Indian people into a vision of abstract hues?

I’m currently in Budapest, pursuing a film on Amrita Sher-Gil, the great Indo-Hungarian modernist painter from India - deeply inspired by her use of colour. Before I make any film, I make these look books, in order for me to talk less and show more to my team, what I am looking for. In all of these look books, even prior to Salaam Bombay!, you will always see some portion of an Amrita SherGil painting. She is a great inspiration. I always say Amrita Sher-Gil taught me how to see.

My influence of using color comes a lot from art, from painting and from the audacious use of colour that comes from Indian culture.

I was always walking a tightrope between what we create being seen by a small pocket versus reaching a larger audience.

I am deeply nourished by contemporary photography in studying how to frame the world. Yet each film must have its own photographic style emanating from the story.

For instance, The Namesake was made like a series of still photographs, more like the family albums people leave behind or carry with them when they cross oceans. Monsoon Wedding, which was more freewheeling camera in the reds and gold and ivories of a wedding. But even in Monsoon Wedding, I would often offset it with these amazing modern paintings on the wall, from Jamini Roy to Gaitonde just to show how colors can serve the emotionality of a scene.

When Kama Sutra was banned in the subcontinent, what was your greatest frustration?

The film was not banned forever. It was the Censor Board, a beast that every filmmaker in India has to deal with. The battle with the Censor Board went on for four months. Even though I won on paper in many ways, the struggle with the Censor Board began to possess my dreams.

That’s when I had to stop, because I realised that this could be the ultimate victory for them.

I convinced the distributors to only have all females’ screenings on Tuesdays, all across India. This was because I wanted an atmosphere of safety for women to see the film, to enjoy it because it was an erotic film not a sex film, as it was advertised to be.

In many ways it was a Kamasutric film, it engaged all your senses. As far as I was concerned, I was not fully successful in making this film. It had chosen English as the language, which is alas the language I think and dream in, but later, when I dubbed it in Hindi and watched it, I enjoyed it much more in our language and regretted not making it in Hindi from the beginning. However,

I was a ten-year-old, U.S.-born child when your film Mississippi Masala came out. I remember being full of excitement that there was finally a film that was about people like us. But, much to my chagrin, I wasn’t allowed to watch the film, for some said that the content might influence me to run off with a black man. What would be your reaction to these regressive views, and how do you feel it has changed in the last two decades?

The film has been re-mastered and just had a huge and beautiful screening at the New York Film Festival of a thousand people sold out. It really encompasses the world with the politics of race between our two communities, the African Americans and the Indians. Mississippi Masala was enormously inspired by the racism in our own hearts in India. I mean, we have perfected, sadly, the hierarchy of color in our hearts, with being fair as lovely and being dark as not. And it was, of course, inspired by the separatism in us, like how we keep to ourselves, despite living in Africa for a whole generation, there’s barely any integration. In that sense, it was a combination of basically holding up a mirror to the complexity of all of it. It’s related to my early work in that sense of always showing the truth, but I think it came to be a lot of fun. it also allows for the love and commonalities between communities, both the African-American one and the Indian one. For this, I thank Sooni Taraporevala, who is my writer and collaborator. She has a great talent of writing characters that really show us for who we are.

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stories, my father-in-law and mother-in-law, married for 59 years. That type of love story which you never see again, of people who don’t do the Valentine’s Day thing, who don’t say I love you, who don’t do any of the niceties that we associate with this generation, equate with expressing our love. But, just sitting at the kitchen table with the chai perfectly made and looking at each other is a sign of beautiful silence that speaks volumes and that is what I had the honor to be around, with my inlaws, with whom I lived for 20-some years.

The Namesake continues to be a classic for all Indian Americans, with the story resonating with our external experiences and internal conflicts. When you decided to take on Jhumpa Lahiri’s story, what was your vision when bringing it to celluloid?

I came to The Namesake from a place of grief through losing a parent in a country that was not her own, and happening to read The Namesake at that moment of terrible loss and melancholy. I just randomly picked up this book on a plane and instantly felt like I had found a sister in Jhumpa - who also understood this feeling. Her beautiful writing gave me the solace that I was looking for at the time.

And within a week of reading it, I had the rights from her. We didn’t really know each other well, but we admired each other. Sooni, my writer, also loving the book in advance of my calling her even…And, in nine months, we were shooting that film!

But my inspiration for that film was more to speak about the parents because I had lost my own mother-in-law, who was like a mother to me. And they had their own love 20

Then, with Jhumpa’s beautiful heart, and I was thrilled to capture that, and I took it, I hoped to speak much more about Ashok and Ashima (the parents) than about Gogol.

It was that point of view and in other adaptations, like in Vanity Fair, written by William Thackeray, who was born in Calcutta and came back to England as a 14-year-old boy, I think he always wrote about his English society with the eyes of an outsider, especially the creation expiates classic society at that…

Simply because the empire was raping the colony and the money from India from such was really flooding the English society, then creating a more fluid class of people who could aspire and had the money for more that their class did not have prior to colonization.

For me, that was the angle in Vanity. Many people have adapted this much more as a rags-to-riches story, but I choose to portray a conniving society climber social dynamics, so it was more about the relationship between the empire and the colony creating such a character as Becky Sharp. The point I am trying to make is that you can’t and shouldn’t translate every page.

Get Snappy

“Professionally, I think I’m in a good place.”

- Shahid Kapoor

A little under-stated, perhaps a bit under- rated, yet Shahid Kapoor is one actor who can soar to newer heights with each of his performances. In a throwback interview to Stardust, Shahid opens up about his personal and professional life.

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What is the most exciting thing happening in your life right now?

Well, on the personal front, it is obviously fatherhood. It is very exciting and very new.

You are a hands-on father ?

I don’t know what the standards of a hands-on father are. But yes, I am trying to do everything I possibly can.

I’ve been told that I am a bit obsessive and a bit too into it. And that I need to chill out and go work. That’s what I’ve been hearing a lot now.

Scared of being replaced in that time probability?

Sure. Sometimes you have to be okay. It is about prioritisation and what is more important. You decide this is more important to me and this is why I’ll prioritise it. Whatever else happens is a natural consequence of the situation, and you’ve to learn to be peaceful and okay with it.

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That’s on the personal front.

Professionally?

Professionally, I think I’m in a good place. I feel very happy with the way the choices I made have turned out.

A lot of times you make good choices, but somehow the film doesn’t turn out the way you want it to. And that’s happened to me sometimes. That helps you understand that your choices can only be a limited part of the end result eventually. The actor is not the captain of the ship. You’re on a ship, you are a big participant, but you are not the captain of the ship. There are so many other factors which impact the final outcome of a product.

But the responsibility is not just the captain’s, or the director’s. It is some part, the crew’s and the actor’s too.

Despite having steered it to the best of his ability, how do you account for storms and rough weather?

Absolutely. That is why I think it is very important to work with people you get

“I don’t want the audience to feel that I fooled them after the film releases that this guy promised that this is going to be the best film of his career, and he probably must’ve known.”

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along with, because while you are making movies, life happens, and that essentially, is a huge part. You need to be a team, need to be together, you need to feel a sense of team-spirit to be able to fight all these things that happen.

When you work in a film for a period of time, six months, one year sometimes, the entire team becomes a family. But when you wrap up, that comes to an end and you move on to the next project.

How strong are these relationships the actor forms over each film?

Often, in the film industry there is this fake need to be in love with each other.

A forced need to be a family. When you know it is not going to be long-lasting, then you should get into it knowing that this is, in all probability, a finite journey. We’ll stay in touch. Of course, there are those people who come in to your life in all kind of random ways and then they just stick. But it is a rare occurrence. It is not something that’ll happen all the time. So I really feel that I would rather put my energies in the work, in collaborating, in finding workequations which are friendly and which are beneficial, which create a comfort, which I think is very important. And trust is very important. But let’s become a family and all that, is a bit forced in the industry. I see it as a problem, because it creates a lot of expectations. I shouldn’t say fake, I would say it is a bit forced. It is not completely natural. It is like, you feel the need to be in a heightened state of happiness whenever you meet the fraternity. At a gathering, everybody is in a heightened state of happiness, and if that state wasn’t there, probably the warmth would be more real. And you can feel the difference. It is a pitch difference. When you meet some people, they are like, “Hey, what’s up? How are you?’ They give you a bit of a smile and you’re hugging, and you know it’s real.

And then there are others, when they go (raises his pitch), ‘Heyyyy, soooo how have you been?’ You can tell that it is fake, and I have to be fake for the next three minutes.

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Is every new release the best film that you’ve worked on? Shouldn’t it be?

No.You should be real about it with yourself.

You must promote every film with a lot of positivity, in a professional manner. That is very essential. At the same time, it’s better not to live in denial. When you create that perception in your head that this is the best film of my career, you will get disappointed.

It is not possible for every film to be the best of your career. It is possible to do good films, it’s possible to do credible films. It’s equally real to be part of really crappy films.

Isn’t one exerting ones best efforts in every film that one is doing?

But by smiling and shouting and yelling, that bad film is not going to end up doing well.

So it’s like you’re creating a false reality for yourself which will crumble, and then you’ll go into depression. So, it’s very important to project positivity when you promote a film.

It is very largely what people expect from our film fraternity. This is considered the line of entertainment so people expect to feel positive and happy and elated when they experience either our movies or the actors, it naturally gets related to that. So I would want to project myself with a lot of positivity and I would want to project my films in a manner where I am putting out what the film is about.

I don’t want the audience to feel that I fooled them after the film releases that this guy promised that this is going to be the best film of his career, and he probably must’ve known.

Get Snappy

“I think I am nobody to judge whether I should get credit or not.”

– Parineeti Chopra

The effervescent Parineeti Chopra has not really had a superlative run at the box office but no matter what the outcome, her performance has always been appreciated. In an in-depth interview, Parineeti talks about films, her sister Priyanka Chopra and why she thinks she doesn’t belong to a filmi family.

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What gets to you the most about being an actor?

Sometimes the lack of privacy! There is no moment which is completely yours. It is always shared with the world and people. It’s more difficult when you’ve not grown in a famous home and you are used to a certain amount of privacy or you are used to a certain type of lifestyle so that definitely is something you really need to learn to adapt to. But it is a very small price to pay for being loved by your fans 26

How different is it to work in an ensemble cast film?

It is not different actually, it is almost exciting for an actor because there are so many actors in one frame, in one scene and there is so much give and take between costars. It almost becomes like a family.

Do you think you’ve been duly credited for your work in the industry?

Who am I to say that? Most important thing

for me is the love that fans give you and the acceptance. In that I’ve been lucky and I think I am nobody to judge whether I should get credit or not.

Are you planning to take music seriously, will you be singing for the movies in future?

Yes for sure that is definitely the plan I already started with Kesari and Meri Pyarri Bindu and I will be singing in future as well.

As an actor what do you prefer critical success or commercial success?

I think if any actor can choose that let me know because I don’t think anybody can choose between the two. You want every film to be loved and want critical success and you want commercial numbers as well and there are many films that get both so I think the bifurcation is made only by the media, actors will always want both.

“You want every film to be loved and want critical success and you want commercial numbers as well and there are many films that get both so I think the bifurcation is made only by the media, actors will always want both.”

You worked for Manchester United’s, do you still follow them - you watch their matches?

They were my employers, I am not a big football fan, and I don’t have much knowledge about football. They were my employers and I still think of them like that.

What kind of genre would you prefer working on now?

I always wanted to do a sports film and also I want to do a dance film.

Belonging from a filmi family, did that give you an extra edge in the industry?

I don’t think that I am from a filmi family. A filmi family is a different situation where most of your family members are associated with some department in the industry, I’ve one sister, who is extremely successful. I don’t count it as a filmi family it’s just the two of us from our family.

All I do is learn from her experience because ideally, she is the best that we have and I think we will not have another Priyanka Chopra for another hundred years. What I can do is take advantage of the fact that she is my sister and I can take as much advice I want.

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Stardust Special

Is Aryan Khan Being targeted Because He is SRK’s son? ...Sumita Chakraborty digs deeper.

“Breaking News”

So it did surprise a lot of people when news filtered in early this month that Aryan Khan was detained along with Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha by the NCB. The NCB claimed that on a tip off from an insider, a group of officers boarded a cruise liner Cray’Ark which was organized by Fashion TV and drugs were found in the raid. The NCB’s remand application filed in a special NDPS court claimed they seized 13 grams of cocaine, five grams of Mephedrone, 21 grams of cannabis and 22 pills of MDMA, popularly known as Ecstasy.

Aryan was arrested on October 3, 2021.

In Aryan’s case, although the NCB filed a case initially for consumption, they again slapped sections 27, 28 and 29. Section 28 is attempt to consume, Section 29 is conspiracy to consume and Section 27 is for consumption. And the result: Aryan Khan’s bail hearing was rejected for the fourth time till we went to press.

No Drugs?

Supposedly, Aryan Khan was found with no drugs in his possession. And even if he had consumed drugs, the NDPS Act dictates that his blood should have been first tested to confirm this. In case his blood tested positive 28

for drugs, he was to be given a choice between going to a drug rehabilitation centre for a short period of time, or in case he refused, to prison.

Similar Case

Supposedly, many aeons ago when Fardeen Khan was arrested on a drug charge, he was given a similar choice and he took it, spending a stint in rehab before being released - his lawyer got him bail within three days. But Aryan’s lawyer Satish Maneshinde told the court that Aryan’s blood and urine samples were not even collected. Why?

Why?

There are strangely too many ‘Why’s attached to this case. Why hasn’t Aryan got bail even though supposedly there were no drugs found in his possession? Aryan was arrested on October 3, 2021 and he has been denied bail four times. Aryan has never had any prior criminal charge or no history in drug consumption or possession.

So why has Aryan been detained for so long? One of India’s most illustrious lawyers Harish Salve commented: Is the young man being targeted?

Whatsapp Links

According to NCB’s first remand application, they claimed that they had found certain ‘incriminating’ WhatsApp chats from his phone. The NCB stated: “incriminating material in the form of WhatsApp chats showing the nexus of these respondents with suppliers and peddlers on a regular basis”. SRK’s lawyers however argued that Aryan and his friends were just being Gen Z and were chatting in the same neo modern lingo which was supposedly taken out of context.

NCB Claims

During the bail hearing, the Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh appearing for the NCB claimed that there was evidence to show that Aryan Khan was a regular consumer of drugs. He claimed that though there were no drugs in Aryan’s possession, Aryan’s whatsapp chats clearly show his link with drug peddlars.

Support

The Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thakeray was one of the first to aver on the NCB that: “They are interested in is to catch celebrity and make noise around it.” Likewise

The NCB claimed that on a tip off from an insider, a group of officers boarded a cruise liner Cray’Ark which was organized

by Fashion TV and drugs were found in the raid. some of the industry people too outrightly came out in support of Aryan. Salman Khan, a close friend of Shah Rukh Khan after the news broke out immediately drove to Mannat, SRK’s home to offer his support.

At that point, SRK was away in Greece for a shoot. So many other colleagues from Hrithik Roshan to Suniel Shetty to Farah Khan tweeted their support for Aryan.

In Prison

As of now, Aryan who was first kept in a quarantine cell but after that the 23-year29

old has been moved to Arthur Road jail which normally houses hardened criminals from the underworld to murderers and smugglers. Aryan is qadi Number N956. The boy is allowed to get Rs 4,500 from his home to buy essentials from the prison canteen and can video chat with his family through the jail phone once. Supposedly, on his first call to his anguished dad SRK and mom Gauri, the shaken 23-year-old burst into tears.

In jail, according to an insider, Aryan is limiting his food and water intake in order to avoid using the jail toilet too much. He is supposedly surviving on biscuits and mineral water bottle purchased from the prison canteen.

Will Help

This incident really must be a scarily chastening stint for any 23-year-old.

Perhaps it has helped Aryan take a deeper look at his life. He has supposedly told the NCB that he will help the poor and work for the weaker section from now

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One of India’s most illustrious lawyers Harish Salve commented: Is the young man being targeted? on at a counseling session held by NGO workers and NCB’s Sameer Wankhade.

Aryan has even promised his parents that from henceforth he will make them proud.

Politically Motivated?

There have been reactions from all fronts. Supposedly, there are hushed whispers doing the ‘rounds that perhaps this is a political attack on SRK and they were using Aryan just as a scapegoat. A group of SRK fans even gheraoed Mannat (Shah Rukh Khan’s home) to show their solidarity with their superstar. SRK and

Aryan has supposedly told the NCB that he will help the poor and work for the weaker section from now on at a counseling session held by NGO workers and NCB’s Sameer Wankhade

to the NCB and Sameer Wankhade, they have been performing well and doing good work in the past. Perhaps the case of Aryan Khan will get a little clearer as time goes by… But for now, here’s hoping 23-year-old Aryan Khan gets bail soon, if the Courts deems it proper. …Let’s hope this 23-year-old is not bearing the cross for being the son of India’s most charismatic matinee idol.

his wife Gauri have however remained mum on the subject. But the family is standing firmly by their son. Supposedly Gauri is keeping a mannat for Aryan while SRK is totally broken and is in anguish and he keeps calling up lawyers to take advice for his son.

Foot Note

One, however, really can’t comment on the legal aspects of the case. To be fair 31

In Focus

After Two Flops One After The Other, Can AKshay Kumar Bounce Back?

Previously called a box office dazzler, Akshay Kumar has however in the last two films seen little or no static as both his films have been resounding duds. Sumita Chakraborty analyses whether Akshay will bounce back and be ‘lucky Akki’ again?

At one point, Akshay Kumar was considered as one of the luckiest actors in Bollywood as whatever he touched became Box office darlings. In fact, in the last five years, Akshay had even changed his path and dabbled in meaningful cinema like Padman which went on to be a huge success. But Laxmii – a film that Akshay was banking a lot on to prove his acting chops bombed. And, how!

Of course, it was pandemic time and the lockdown was at its zenith, so when Laxmii released on Amazon Prime, an OTT platform, the reaction from the public was shockingly lacklustre. But still, Akshay had always been lucky so people just assumed it was a one off thing, “an experimental” film that the public just didn’t take to, But Akshay being Akshay would definitely find his golden touch and be back as the undisputed king of the Box office.

But his much tom-tommed film Bell Bottom came and this time, it was the first film to 32

open up at the theatres after the lockdown.

But again, the non -reaction of the public was almost shocking. Film pundits however analysed that since theatres at that point had just open up to 50 percent of its capacity, perhaps that was the reason, the film came and went almost un-noticed. They claimed releasing Bell Bottom on the OTT platform would be a different story. A few weeks later, Bell Bottom was released on Amazon Prime, but shockingly then again, the film proved to be a dud. The criticism and the trolls became unbearably personal to the extent that they were foretelling t Akshay Kumar’s career end.

Suddenly Akshay who was considered the winning horse on the box office, looked to a rather uncertain future. Of course, he still has a whole host of good films from Singham, Prithviraj, Ram Setu, Bachchan Pandey to Raksha Bandhan under his belt. So perhaps it isn’t really necessary to ring in the alarm

“ In fact, everyone from Shah Rukh Khan to Salman Khan, to even Ashay Kumar have gone back to the boardroom to reinvent their scripts. It’s no use serving old wine in new bottles, the audience now want good content and good cinema.” bells as yet. But an insider claimed, “Some of Akshay’s producers are now walking on egg shells. After all a winning horse is viable only till it wins and after that, one has to identify solutions. “ True, after all Bollywood is a place of business and nothing works better than success. The same insider elaborated, “After the pandemic, things have changed. The OTT audience has been exposed to world cinema so now won’t be appeased with the same popcorn flicks Bollywood would regularly dish out. In fact,

“Khiladi Kumar is no loser! He has reinvented himself several times before and he can do so even today.”

everyone from Shah Rukh Khan to Salman Khan, to even Ashay Kumar have gone back to the boardroom to reinvent their scripts.

It’s no use serving old wine in new bottles, the audience now want good content and good cinema.”

So will Akshay bounce back? Akshay Kumar has been called the luckiest star at the box office but behind the luck factor, there has been a lot of thought, hard work and persipiration. Akshay knows all the tricks of the trade and can feel the pulse of the box office. The minute he realises something is not working, he changes track and moves with the times. His tryst with meaningful films did pay rich dividend more so as he himself had invested on the subject. So it’s definitely a no brainer to think Akshay Kumar will keel over and give up. Khiladi Kumar is no loser! He has reinvented himself several times before and he can do so even today.

So do we put our money on lucky Akki? Not necessarily, but we still believe that Akshay Kumar can bounce back and get back into the race and be that khiladi that he is.

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Stardust Exclusive

Baby Out Of Wedlock?

Actor Nusrat Jahan Shocks Tollywood!

Tollywood’s top actor Nusrat Jahan has stirred the hornet’s nest in Kolkata by staying mum about her pregnancy and who the father of her baby is… A report.

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A huge favourite with the viewers because of her amazing beauty, Nusrat Jahan, Kolkata’s firebrand actor has always listened to her heart. And, why not?

Known to have strong views, she has always spoke up when necessary and has never hesitated to mince words. Perhaps that’s why political parties were quick to woo her and she too being politically inclined agreed to be a sitting MP for Trinamool Congress.

But she’s indeed controversy’s fave child.

Many years ago, she was pushed rather reluctantly into the limelight not for her acting prowess but for the company she kept. Supposedly, her then boyfriend was allegedly one of the prime accused of the Park Street rape incident. Of course at that point, the ethereally beautiful Nusrat Jahan who had nothing to do with the case, won the sympathy of the people.

But her life choices from thereafter, was constantly criticised and put on trail.

Her personal life which had endured the eye of the storm during the Park Street rape case too was always up for media scrutiny more so being a prominent actor and a member of a front-liner political party. When she got married in Turkey to Nikhil Jain, a business man in 2019, supposedly many of the heroes in Tollywood were pretty heart-broken. But just a year back, Nusrat publicly denounced her marriage saying it wasn’t valid as it was held in Turkey and was not in accordance with the Indian laws and that she was actually in a “living in” relationship with Nikhil. But that was broken.

Just when the dust from the media storm that resulted from her ‘breaking news’ statement settled down , hushed whispers rocked Tollywood that Nusrat was pregnant and nobody knew who the father was. Just before that, Nusrat was playing a key role in SOS Kolkata, a film that starred heart-throb Yash Dasgupta who supposedly was divorced with a 10-year-old son. There was a buzz about their relationship but news of her being pregnant overshadowed that.

A baby out of wedlock was shocking news especially in Tollywood and the trolls had

a field of a time being moral policemen and flooding her social media with nasty and mean comments. But Nusrat refused to budge and so kept mum about her pregnancy and until she gave birth to her baby son - rumours were rife about the identity of the father.

However, after Nusrat gave birth to her son, Yash Dasgupta, her co-star from SOS Kolkata was present at the hospital and he proudly returned home with both Nusrat and the baby giving out statements to the media that both mum and the baby were doing good. Supposedly, even on the baby’s birth certificate, Yash has been named as the father.

Unrepentant trolls attacked both Nusrat and Yash but both stayed away from commenting. However, on Yash’s birthday, Nusrat tweeted a picture of a birthday cake which said ‘husband’ and ‘father’, again giving rise to conjecture that perhaps Nusrat and Yash were married.

However, no comment was forthcoming.

Until in a recent joint interview given to a leading newspaper, Nusrat at last revealed that she didn’t really care what 35

“Nusrat at last revealed that she didn’t really care what people thought of her for not naming Yash as the father of her son – “they’d either call me strong or call me names.”

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people thought of her for not naming Yash as the father of her son – “they’d either call me strong or call me names.”

As for the baby, she revealed, “Do people know whether or not it’s out of wedlock?

Just because we don’t open up on things doesn’t mean whatever they are saying is true.”

Yash Dasgupta, however, has confirmed that he is the father of the baby saying, “People should understand that wanting to keep your private life to yourself isn’t a crime. There was no hiding of the fact that we were having a baby. If we wanted to hide, why would we even have the baby, right? She was roaming around with a baby bump. What were people thinking? That we were pulling a prank on them? Was I expected to stand on the roof with a placard in my hand? I’m not that person.”

We wish the super strong Nusrat and Yash a wonderful life ahead.

Starry Festive

Festive Dhamaka, Rocking Parties & Foodilicious Hampers!

Hip ‘n’ happening parties, swinging card parties, fireworks and yummy food make Diwali extremely happening in the Hindi film industry. Read on as we present the best of Diwali in Bollywood.

Diwali is almost here and guess what, there is surging excitement in the air. Perhaps a tad subdued due to the pandemic, but nothing can dim Bollywood’s enthusiasm in celebrating the festival lights with pomp and show, right? We present six best Diwali dos in Tinsel Town, celeb take on Diwali and celebrate the festival lights with our rating on the best food artisans and their festive hampers.

Amitabh Bachchan and his family celebrate Diwali with laughter, fun and masti. With yummy cuisines lined-up and a night replete of fireworks and fun, their party is looked forward to by most of Bollywood.

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Shah Rukh Khan is known to host some very hip Diwali bashes. In fact, the who’s who of Bollywood from Alia Bhatt, Ranbir Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit, Kajol to practically all the bigwigs in Tinsel Town, attend SRK’s party.

Everything from the décor, food to fireworks spell elegance as they are said to be hand-picked by SRK’s wife Gauri.

Anil Kapoor’s residence in Juhu is lit up every Diwali for his very lavish bash.

And of course, the massive Kapoor family and so many others attend it.

The party at Karan Johar’s house is well-attended too mostly by all his camp wallas.

Tusshar and Ekta Kapoor supposedly have a rocking card party with amazing food during Diwali.

Mukesh Ambani’s house too becomes a huge fave during Diwali as practically the entire film industry attends it.

Celeb Speak On Diwali Ananya Pandey, actor: In our family - and not just us but even with my cousins, uncles and aunts, we celebrate every festival — be it Christmas, Easter, Eid, Diwali or our birthdays.

But Diwali is one special festival when everyone really comes together. So, it’s absolutely necessary that we go to everyone’s house and light diyas. That has had been a long-standing tradition for us. When we were younger, I would enjoy phuljharis, but I have always been very scared of firecrackers. That’s why, I always urge people not to burst crackers.”

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Romil Chaudhary, actor: “Diwali is special and I love going home eating the delicous ghar ka khana. Since I’m an actor and I have a hectic shooting schedule so I can’t go home and even though my fans send me mithai and I do order stuff from Zomato and Swiggy. But I really miss home and spending time with my family and eating ghar ka food. I belong to Haryana and the mitti ki khusbu family of farmers – we have our own cows and buffaloes, so we get ghar ki doodh se bana mawa and mawa se barfi, peda and ladoos are made which I really miss eating.”

Amit Mishra, singer: “I love eating paneer dishes and am a huge fan of matar paneer and mushrooms. During festivities, I enjoy eating this and lots more.”

Celina Jaitley, actor : I am extremely particular about my diet however during the festive season I truly enjoy indulging myself. Roshugulla, Ghugni, Luchi, and gujiya are my favourites.

Having an international family it is even more important for us to have festive foods at home in Austria so the kids can always keep their connect with the delicious cuisines their Indian roots have to offer.

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Festive Food Bonanza The pandemic may have been rather horrific but it secreted out in the open a lot of hidden talents. Many local artisans joined hands to bring out some super fabulous brands. This festive season, we present a pick of some of the best food designers and their hampers with our review of them.

Lokal Kitchen, a food tech app’s beautifully decorated elegant two Diwali hampers (family pack and small - designed by Karishma Hatkar) comprised of scrumptious dips, lavash, choco chip cookies, Indian sweets, methi mathris and dry fruits. Everything was indeed extremely tasty and fresh.

Price: Rs 3,300 (family hamper) & Rs 2,222 (small hamper) Available on: Lokal Kitchen app on the play store on Android and Apple.

Nirvanaa Chocolates Standard Luxury chocolate hamper is elegant. The two boxes of wafer thin melt-in-the-mouth gourmet Belgian chocolates inside are indeed super yum.

Price: The hamper cost is Rs 1,200 (Rs 660 per box).

Available at: On nirvanaachocolates.com, other general stores Pan India

Amazon, Flipkart and

Vocal for Local, a social commerce mobile app and platform enables home entrepreneurs to scale their businesses by showcasing good homegrown brands on board. The hamper comprised of kachori, Sindhi raw pickle, waffle, Mexican classic layered dip, walnut fudge infused with nuts, focaccia - caramelized onion and olives and beetroot soap. Everything was delicious.

Price: These are customizable hampers starting from Rs 100 to Rs 9000.

Available at: Vocal for Local on their app.

Gourmet On The Go cloud kitchen presented an assorted hamper that comprised of 3B’s Combo ( Rs 550), Stars & Stripes Bagel, Limonata and Belgian Chocolate mousse which were tasty.

Available at: Zomato, Swiggy and Thrive and direct orders.

If you are a hummus fan, this is for you… Hola Hummus’ hamper had a delicious Hummm…us Combo ( Rs 499), Classic Hummm…us with Pita Bread, Classic Shawarma and Dense Chocolate Cake.

Available on: Zomato, Swiggy and Thrive or direct orders too.

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Candid Say w

“No, it’s not entirely true.

Shreyas did not give me a hard time.”

– Kashmera Shah

She’s bold, super candid, and doesn’t mince her words. Meet the firebrand Kashmera Shah who is currently directing her second film.

In a cosy tete-a-tete, Kashmera talks about directing her film, her equation with her actors Shreyas Talpade and husband Krushna, and how she balances her personal life being a mother of small kids.

Photographer - Siddharth Jaiswar

Makeup and Styling

Tushar Gupta Hair - Lata More

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Kashmera, this is your second film as director, how has the experience been?

Every film is a very different experience. Lot of times you prepare a script and decide that this is how the film is going to be but what happens on the set or what happens on the location is a completely different story.

The same thing happened with my film. It began very well but by the time, we reached the outdoor location - the second half was supposed to go one way and though 80% of the time it did go that way, I realised that I had to handle a lot more things than just direction. A good director is somebody who is a people’s person who knows what is happening in the production and also knows the limitations of his or her actors as well as the plus points – the same thing happened with me.

In my first film, I was working with a small cast but this film had a much bigger and more popular cast - very famous and busy people so I had to make sure that everybody’s role was well defined and that they all stayed in character. When one is making a comedy film, it becomes very difficult to control actors and to make sure that they don’t overstep the characters - what I mean is a lot of times actors just to crack a punch or make the scene more funny, often step out of their characters - and this is something that I had full control on and I wanted to make sure that everybody that was a part of my project knew this. Luckily I was working with very good people, you know they often say that a less accomplished or less talented actor is okay but a bad person or someone you can’t work with can be a nightmare.

I was blessed not only with absolutely accomplished and talented actors but also fabulous human beings. So my experience with my second film was slightly better than my first one other than that I missed Greece a lot and you will see a lot of Greek influence in my film as well.

Could you tell us a bit about this film and the cast?

The cast includes Krushna, Shreyas Talpade and Kiku Sharda.

My film highlights friendship and that is the backbone of my film. It also plays on human emotions 44

“The film began very well but by the time, we reached the outdoor location - the second half was supposed to go one way and though 80% of the time it did go that way, I realised that I had to handle a lot more things than just direction.”

which are very real. My film is also about the Bollywood film industry and that is the backdrop of my film. Mumbai or Bombay as we all knew it earlier is a city of dreams - a lot of people from all over the world come to Bombay to fulfil the dreams and to be seen on silver screen. The same thing happens with my lead actor Krushna who has been struggling for a whole lot of years to make it as an actor. I have shown the struggles of an actor - how they live in a small room and how they struggle to make ends meet, how somebody takes care of them. You know when you stay in a small community, they normally takes care of their less fortunate ones. My film also shows the other side of the glitz and glamour – how when someone makes it in this film industry how different life is - what happens how things change.

Dreams do come true but sometimes, the dream that is becoming a reality may not be exactly the dream that you have dreamt.

My film is also a very funny film - it’s not dark humour like my last film was - this is more a satirical more ‘in-your-face’ funny and I made sure that there were no under the belt dialogues - this was not a bedroom comedy so there was no dirtiness in the film. There are no double meaning dialogues in the film I wanted to keep it very clean and extremely

“When one is making a comedy film, it becomes very difficult to control actors and to make sure that they don’t overstep the characters.” funny. I mean you can make a funny film without having to resort to under the belt dialogues or double meaning dialogues as that kind of comedy is not something that I am a fan of. so my cast and I used to sit with the dialogues to make sure that nothing would look vulgar or sound dirty.

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Why don’t we see more of you as an actor?

I don’t get cast anymore.

We heard that Shreyas Talpade did give you a bit of a hard time, is this true?

No, it’s not entirely true. Shreyas did not give me a hard time. It is just unfortunate that just a day prior to the shoot, he fell ill and we had to adjust and change dates back and forth.

It was a very stressful time for both Shreyas and myself but he finally came on the set a few days late - let me tell you that he is one of the best actors I have ever seen.

He always comes well prepared with his dialogues so I never needed to take a second take with him because he’s such a fabulous actor also as a person, I really like him. He’s very natural - way down to earth - he would eat with the entire unit because I had a common kitchen for everyone in the outdoor.

There were no tantrums - if he was called for his scene - he would come and sit on the set till his scene was done and wait for the next scene to be explained - he rarely went back to his room. In fact even in the Mumbai schedule, though he had his personal van he never sat in the van unless he had to get ready or to change his outfit so he has never really troubled us. It was unfortunate that he fell ill before our schedule began and in fact, because of Covid we have to take extra precautions and we could not cancel our schedule as we had booked everything and all the actors were confirmed and people had already travelled. I am happy that he was cautious so we managed. I really like Shreyas as an actor I am happy to cast him in this film.

How was it working with Shreyas?

He had some fabulous ideas plus he can really make a scene come alive. Also his chemistry with Kiku and Krushna is fabulous.

In fact with Krushna, it’s awesome - you have to see the film to believe it. Shreyas is absolutely fabulous in the film Have you enjoyed your stint in direction?

Ordering hundred men around and making them do what I want - having everybody at my beck and call, hell of course I love it!

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“It is just unfortunate that just a day prior to the shoot, he fell ill and we had to adjust and change dates back and forth. It was a very stressful time for both Shreyas and myself.”

How difficult has it been balancing your personal and professional life considering you have two small kids?

I missed my kids a lot but I have made a decision and I have been doing this for the last four years as my kids are only 4 1/2 years old. I have compartmentalised my brain to think that when I am professionally working. I only think of my profession when my mom mind activates my brain when I only think about my kids and my husband.

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“Ordering hundred men around and making them do what I want - having everybody at my beck and call, hell of course I love it!”

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It was very very difficult to be away from them for so many days and I made sure that I did only one video call a day because otherwise I would break down and cry - and I didn’t want to be so emotional during a comedy film. I was told by my cameraman to get the kids after few days of shoot because the place that we were filming Mayfair Lake resort Raipur - was absolutely beautiful and they were a lot of things for the kids to do. Krushna was doing the Kapil Sharma show so he was flying back and forth with Kiku so when only three or four days were remaining in the schedule to end, I asked him to get my kids. This was the first time that they were coming to meet me.

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“My ‘behind the scenes’ cameraman was filming and he got the moment of my son’s coming through and my younger son Krishaang just looked at me and started crying because he had missed me so much and I had missed him.”

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My ‘behind the scenes’ cameraman was filming and he got the moment of my son’s coming through and my younger son Krishaang just looked at me and started crying because he had missed me so much and I had missed him. That was the highlight of my personal life – my professional highlights have been many as an actor and as a director - but as a mother, this is one of the highlights after the day that they were born. I did not know that they were so attached to me because I was never away for such a long time from them and it really melted my heart and this was one of the videos that I actually put out on social media. I don’t really put out so many pictures or videos of my kids but this was one I put out because I thought I should share it with every other working mother out there.

My husband is a very big supporter of my career- if he was not such a huge support in my life then I would not have been able to be a director. My kids too understand that their mom is a working mom and she has to go for shooting so they kind of have now understood it but they are so young that they miss me.

What’s next in the pipeline?

A film in Uttarakhand with my earlier hero Rishaab Chauhaan, and hopefully a sequel to my current film with Krushna.

In Conversation

“There are certain scripts that you read and fall in love with immediately because you see the potential they hold.”

- Saif Ali Khan …Up close ‘n’ personal with Saif Ali Khan on his film Bhoot Police and more.

The recently released horror-comedy Bhoot Police starring Saif Ali Khan, Arjun Kapoor, Jacqueline Fernandez and Yami Gautam has been receiving love from all quarters. The film serves a tasteful dose of humour packed with nail-biting horror. But more than the rest of the cast, Saif’s performance has received rave reviews and the critics have praised him for bringing in a different energy to the film and its storyline.

In the film, Saif Ali Khan is seen in the skin of Vibhuti Vaidya, a tantrik who is in the business only to make money and enjoy all its perks but prefers to keep himself removed from the potential risks the job poses.

We caught up with Saif Ali Khan to find out more about this film and all the BTS (behind the scenes) action.

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“Horror and comedy are genres that are best viewed collectively in a group.”

So why did you pick Bhoot Police?

“There are certain scripts that you read and fall in love with immediately because you see the potential they hold. You find it important that it gets made in a certain way because you have a lot of hope with that kind of script. Bhoot Police is certainly one of them!

How did you get this film?

This is a movie that is very close to my heart. I want to thank everyone associated with the film - especially the producers Ramesh Taurani and Jaya Taurani for identifying and agreeing with me on the potential of this idea, and of course, Pavan Kirpalani for bringing the movie to me and standing by me. I would also like to thank my co-actors Arjun, Yami and Jacqueline. I’d like to thank everybody for all the love and happiness.

Any fun moments you can speak about?

With Arjun especially, it was a fun fest because we were in it together from the beginning and it was a lot of fun jamming with him on our scenes together.

It’s a horror-comedy – what genre is that?

And what do you think of the reaction to the film and this genre?

Horror and comedy are genres that are best viewed collectively in a group. This is a family movie and you can watch it with your young children without them getting scared and that’s always lovely. We are very happy with the enormous traction the movie has received. Thank you everybody for everything. We are very excited and have already started working on a sequel - which is the biggest sign of acceptance.

It was released on the OTT platform. How successful do you think the film has been?

Success is measured in strange and different ways. And especially in today’s times, in a pandemic, I think we can really call this a success and a feather in our caps.”

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Star Spotlight

Where is Diana Penty?

The gorgeous Diana Penty has been keeping a very low profile. So what has this pretty woman been upto? Let’s find out?

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She debuted in 2012 with Cocktail and even though the super talented Deepika Padukone hogged every frame in the film, Diana Penty held her own ground too. No wonder, it earned her several nominations in the best debut category. But after that, she spaced herself out quite a bit. Of course, her films Happy Bhaag Jayegi, Lucknow Central and Parmanu: The Story Of Pokhran earned her critical acclaim for her understated yet powerful performances.

But then after, the aloof Diana Penty seemed to disappear from the limelight.

In fact, she didn’t have any film release in 2020 and in 2021 except for a special appearance in a dance sequence, she just faded into the shadows. So where did the girl disappear?

No where it seems for Diana recently came back with a bang. That’s right, it was quite a relief for her fans when the gorgeous Diana Penty stirred up quite a storm with her latest release, Shiddat.

Playing the role of Ira in the romantic drama, Diana Penty left her fans wanting to see more of her on the silver screen.

Luckily for them, it looks like she will soon be fulfilling their wishes A source revealed, “Diana has once again impressed the audience with Shiddat, even though she plays a small role.

With reviews and fans wishing there was more of her character in the film, it looks like we will be seeing a lot more of her on the silver screen in the months to come. With quite a few movies in her kitty, Diana has been busy with back-toback shoots.”

Supposedly, Diana has a back-to-back shooting calendar for 2021. And, how!

Diana will soon be making her debut in the South film industry with the Malayalam movie, ‘Salute’. In the movie, she will be starring opposite Dulquer Salman, one of South India’s biggest names. Last month, Diana also took to Instagram to post pictures from Budapest. Rumour has it that she was in the city for an 54

untitled project she is working on! Her movie Adbhut, co-starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui and directed by Sabbir Khan, is also currently on floors. In fact, recently, she posted a teaser video of the supernatural thriller on her social media channels. Looks like Diana’s on a roll!

Music Room

“

Bhoomi is not just a project which expresses musically, and it's not just about our culture but about our tradition, history, our environment and also our faith.

Bhoomi 2021 is a movement.”

– Salim-Sulaiman Merchant

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Salim and Sulaiman Merchant with their magical compositions and amazing versatility are undoubtedly the undisputed musical maestros of Bollywood.

A force to be reckoned with in the music industry, they also believe in championing new talent and have collaborated with numerous emerging and established artists.

From love ballads and pop rock to motivational and devotional tracks - their discography is brilliantly versatile. This year 2021 has been no different despite the lockdown. Read on as Salim and Sulaiman Merchant talk about their newest launch Bhoomi 2021, their music, politics in the music industry and more.

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You had a grand launch with Bhoomi 2020 and now you have Bhoomi 2021 on a mega scale too. Please tell us about this project.

Bhoomi 2021 is a continuation of the movement of “Bhoomi” that Salim-Sulaiman started twenty years ago and last year, we did Bhoomi 2020 very successfully. This time, we have had the vision to not just keep the languages of North India but also go South.

We’ve gone East and West as well.

Bhoomi 2021, as the name suggests, is about the musical influences in terms of styles, melodies, and lyrics across our own “Bhoomi”. So, working with different musicians from the length and breadth of our country brings another layer of authenticity to the concept. Bhoomi is not just a project which expresses musically and it’s not just about our culture but about our tradition, history, our environment and also our faith.

Bhoomi 2021 is a movement. It’s the culmination of a journey. …A journey where we have worked and re-worked on unique ideas, concepts, styles, genres, and melodies for the last twenty years. Bhoomi is getting bigger and bigger each year as we have participation from so many incredible artists from India. We are truly excited about this project coming to life from 18th October onwards.

In spite of so many hurdles due to Covid limitations, you have put this album together. Was it challenging to bring together a team of leading artists and build this project?

It was really a very, very tough task and we can’t believe we did all of this in two months.

First of all we did not expect that we were going to get into the second wave of Covid that really pushed us. Some of our key people in our studio were down with Covid and we didn’t know if we will be able to finish Bhoomi 2021 on time. But as they say ‘no pain no gain’, Covid has taught us to be innovative and we have been able to get stuff done without physically meeting anyone.

For the first half of the project, we worked from home constantly transferring files and ideas between us and then sending scratch ideas to singers to send us the vocal files. It was tedious but the creative juices started to roll. After the vaccination, things changed.

We got bored of staying at home and started going to the studio with few core people meeting and making music at the studio.

Bhoomi 2021 has ten songs and we will release one song every week so if we hadn’t released it in October, we wouldn’t finish it in 2021. Hence it was important to finish dubbing and shooting by September in order to be ready for the release on time. Recording musicians, doing rehearsals, getting singers to the studio… was all very tough. But the adrenaline was so high that we were able to focus and complete the project as planned.

Bhoomi 2021 has 10 songs and 25 artists.

Tell us about some of the most memorable and most challenging collaborations.

Bhoomi 2021 has ten mesmerising and vastly different tracks featuring the biggest vocal talents in the country. The music captures India’s traditional folk, classical raagas and instruments in a way that’s never been heard before. “Ja Ja Re” featuring Vishal Dadlani, Sattar Khan and The Manganiyars 57

is a modern interpretation of a 300-year-old traditional classical Bandish from the time of the Mughals by Sadarang. Sadarang was the pen name of the Hindustani musical composer and artist Naimat Khan. The song conveys the emotions of a newly married couple. “Ghar Aao Na” sung by the incredible Sunidhi Chauhan is a longing love song set in the monsoon season. It is a fusion of a classical Bandish in a pop rock style and resonates a jugalbandi of tabla and sitar in a one-way conversation with the vocals. “Chidiya Da Chamba”, a traditional composition by Mohammad Tufail Niazi, revolves around the Indian tradition of ‘Bidaai’ with powerful vocals of Sukhwinder Singh. We go to Assam in the East with “Kasiyoli”, which means ‘Ray of Light’, a magical fusion of progressive Rock fused with a traditional prayer from the Ahom tradition composedby Anurag Saikia and sung by Vivek Hariharan and Jutimala Buragohain. “ B a r b a a d ” features the epic line up of Raftaar and Afsana Khan set in a very dark drill hip-hop beat with dramatic orchestral moments. We move South with “Kaadu” a song about the environment, composed by the Grammy Award winner, Ricky Kej and featuring Arivu & Charanraj and Rasika Shekar on the flute. “Naad-E-Ali is a powerful prayer, calling Hazrat Ali and resonates the event of ‘Ghadir Khumm’, in a traditional Qawwali with powerful high-pitched vocals of Salman Ali and Vipul Mehta accompanied by Salim Merchant and Raj Pandit.There is an intense song “Jallianwala” - about the historic event of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar, Punjab. The song is composed by “Shor Police”- Clinton Cerejo and Bianca featuring 58

Harshdeep Kaur. To lighten the mood is “Need To Know Now” featuring a real life couple Nikhita Gandhi and Shashwat Singh.

For the devotional listeners there’s “Sai Narayana” – a Sai bhajan in the soothing voice of Raj Pandit.

“Chak De India” has been a Sports Anthem of India for every sport in India. With “Haq Se India” was there pressure to build on this legacy? As composers, do you consciously plan to outdo yourselves with every song and project?

Chak De… has and always will be the first big anthem that we ever created so there’s always a little bit of pressure when somebody comes to us and wants another anthem.

Though we must say ‘Haq Se India’ was very different.

We had Amitabh Bhattacharya writing some phenomenal lyrics and when we were narrated the idea behind the film, it became even bigger. As composers, we always try to outdo the last song that we did, it’s almost like you challenge yourself constantly.

It’s not conscious but there’s always a legacy that you have that will outlive you and you need to be true to it. Haq Se India was a huge challenge because it was encompassing the miraculous victory of the World Cup. Chak De was a huge celebration as India returned and the movie released in 2007. Haq se India captures the spirit of that victory and now it’s releasing just before the next World Cup. It is a big high for us and a huge challenge as well since we set a high benchmark with ‘Chak De’ so we wanted to go higher and capture that spirit that anthem had. We hope that this song in the voice of the super talented Raj Pandit will evoke strong feelings of patriotism and inspire supporters to get behind the current squad; in the run-up to the upcoming tournament.

Your own music label “Merchant Records” was launched in peak Covid times and you have released a bevy of songs and showcased a variety of talent.

How has been this journey of curation and presenting music, especially by budding artists?

We’ve been discussing our dream of launching our own music label for the last three years. But, due to our busy travel and work schedules we never got around to kick-starting this project or for that matter even putting a plan around it. It was towards the end of 2019 that we thought the concept through and structured it - on paper. All we were waiting for was some extra time and bandwidth to set these plans in motion. And, then the pandemic and lockdown happened. But as they say ‘there’s opportunity in adversity’. It wasn’t an ideal situation, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise for us. We were able to launch our record label during this time.

The speed and momentum that we’ve managed to build, as the label gathers more traction, has surprised even us. This continues to be a great journey and has been a great use of precious time for us.

While everybody was struggling to come to terms with the pandemic, we were

creating a platform for artists to be able to express their creativity through music.

Merchant Records is the fruit of labor of many sleepless nights and a vision to create a platform for artists to be able to release their music without being bound in contracts that would take away their most basic rights. We feel very proud to be able to create something that will change the rules and keep music alive.

We don’t just want to make great music but want to go about it the right way. We want budding artists to be fearless with their compositions and create music from the heart for the soul. We don’t want them to worry about pressures or costs involved in creating and delivering a hit. That’s something we will handle and handhold them through end to end.

Merchant Records is not only for Salim and Sulaiman and our objective and long-term vision is to invite the creative community of established, new, and emerging talent to co-create quality music. And, this isn’t restricted to just singers, but extends to composers, lyricists, and other musical skills. Our vision has begun to quickly take shape already.

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and that God had been kind to us. We are content knowing that there is a huge fan base that awaits every single release that comes from the Merchant Brothers’ table. We are truly grateful everyday for the love of our fans without whom we are nothing. Even if we announce that we are coming out with a new song or are coming to a particular city for a show, the kind of excitement they display and the love that we get is unquantifiable. It’s what keeps us grounded and motivated to do more for them. We are also deeply grateful to our gurus, mentors, and parents who have given us the knowledge, values, and humility - that gives us the strength, passion, and purpose to spread happiness, love, and peace through our music.

Fame, awards, accolades was never a criterion for us when we started to pursue music. We don’t think that we have yet achieved what we wanted to in music. We always want to make a good song and not a hit song. A hit song will come and go but a good song will be heard forever. We don’t make music for fame or glory but we make music for happiness.

What is the most rewarding thing about being a musician?

The fact that every day is a new day, every day is a learning process, every day we experience a different melody, a different wave, a different emotion and different music. It’s very moving emotionally, physically, spiritually and that’s what keeps life interesting. Also what is most rewarding for a composer is to see your songs being performed live and your fans going crazy dancing, singing, crying... The emotion that an artist feels comes from the love of our fans is the best high in the world.

At this juncture in your career, what do awards and accolades mean to you? As creative icons, what is the professional validation that you seek today?

We think the biggest blessing in today’s environment is the fact that we are safe 60

Apart from different genres of music, you have also produced a film and also launched your own fashion line.

Karsh Kale is a very special artist with Indian roots, born and raised in the USA. His unique style and frequency of music - that beautifully blends Indian and Western sounds and musical inspirations - was something that had always amazed and intrigued us. Interestingly it was Karsh who got in touch and met us to potentially collaborate on one of his forthcoming albums. That meeting turned into a close friendship, with all three of us yearning to create magic together. We produced a film - “Rock Disco Table” which has won two awards at the prestigious Golden Gate International Film Festival. Directed

by Shakti Hasija, the film is based on the life and musical journey of Karsh Kale and the impact he has created on world music through his unique sounds using his creation the ‘electric tabla’.

Celebs Speak Vishal Dadlani: “The setup and vibe at Salim and Sulaiman’s studio resonates a beautiful energy that’s infectious. And, when I first heard the song in the incredible voice of Raj Pandit coupled with the authenticity of Rajasthani folk music in the voice of Sattar Khan, that same energy got magnified. It was almost like the creative forces from two magical genres coming together and made for a genuinely enriching experience.”

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Sunidhi Chauhan: “Ghar Aao Na” was just the perfect song for me since the only place other than my home is Salim Sulaiman’s studio and I come here so often and feel at home. The lyrics are so beautiful, the groove is contemporary and when I first heard this song I wondered why they wanted me for this song. It was quite challenging to internalise it. I needed time to process and grasp it. But I had the complete freedom to sing it in my style. The arrangement of the song is so beautiful and inspite of being a peppy song it is yet calm and soulful. When you watch the music video you will find a new side of me totally at ease.”

Harshdeep Kaur: “I would go and sing any song when there’s a call from Clinton Cerejo’s studio but when I was informed that it was about “Jallianwala Bagh” I got goose bumps and since I am aware of this historic tragedy, I couldn’t wait to give my voice to it. Also it was very important to ensure the emotion in the song of pain and anger at the same time. So to bring that in my singing was a challenge. The fact that it was a part of Bhoomi 2021 made it even more special for me to have a song release with Merchant Records. It’s a beautifully written and composed melody and I really enjoyed the recording process.”

Shor Police- Clinton Cerejo & Bianca Gomes: “We were super excited when Salim and Sulaiman approached us to compose a song for this awesome project.We wanted to take an electro pop route because that’s the sound that best defines us as a band. The production turned out to be moody, aggressive and intense and once the composition was ready, it naturally opened the door to a more meaningful subject matter, lyrically.

Salim was the one who heard the first draft we had and suggested that we make it about a very dark event in our country’s history. The Jalianwalla Bagh Massacre. Also Harshdeep whom we wanted to collaborate with, is Punjabi and the tragic event is very close to her heart so all the pieces of the puzzle came together in a sense.

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Bianca’s vocal approach to the song is this extremely hard-hitting pop sound, and then Harshdeep brings the earthiness, to the Punjabi chorus. While we wrote the English lyrics ourselves, IP Singh did an incredible job bringing the intensity that we needed with the Punjabi lyrics. The Bhoomi movement is an amazing stage that encourages free thought and expression, and we’re honored to be a part of it.”

Anurag and Vivek: “I come from Northeast India which entails a huge variety of folk culture and music. I wanted to incorporate such elements in this project without making it mundane. And we all mutually decided that the song should be in Assamese, my mother tongue. So, I called Rahul Gautam Sharma, a young sensible lyricist from Assam, to write the song.

We wanted to share some positives for a better tomorrow.

The song seeks a new dawn of how humankind has evolved personally and holistically through tough times to find itself in a better position. In the voice of Vivek Hariharan, I found the proper messenger to deliver what we wanted to say. Then came Jutimala, who has been working relentlessly for the revival of the Tai Ahom culture in Assam and her Tai language chant added a beautiful touch to the song. I am glad to be a part of this project and thanks to all the people associated with me in this journey specially Ishan, Nawaz, Putai, Akash, Manoj, Satyajit, Bishal, Shekhar, Kavya, Kriti, Arabinda, Pankaj. Thank you again Salim - Sulaiman Sir for making us part of this musical movement.”

Raftaar: “This is a special collaboration for me as Salim Sulaiman have experimented with their musical style and jumped right into my zone which is indeed a big feat. It’s a drill track that’s more like a theatrical. It’s like a livewire performance with the works in the form of a track. It was a very organic process collaborating with the duo as I share a great comfort level with them and they allow me to bring out the unbounded version of my soundscape to the forefront. It was a great learning curve right from co-writing the track to performing in it. The experience has been artistic and wholesome to say the least. There is a heady mix of poignant lyrics and futuristic soundscapes and I’m sure we are going to surprise our cumulative fanbase! Bhoomi is a movement to make music that visits your lineage and culture in a very experimental sense and is pushing the boundaries of the art. It’s great to have Salim-Sulaiman support such a progressive movement!”

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We also launched our exclusive Salim Sulaiman Apparel Merchandise label.

Beginning with a line of T-shirts based on some of our iconic songs over the years, we wanted our clothes to be relatable; just like our easy-going personalities. Imagine wearing a T-shirt that captures the essence of chartbusting hits like “Kurbaan Hua”, “Shukranallah”, “Chak De India”, or “Yeh Hausla Kaise Jhuke” with pride and comfort! Something that adds an extra spark and cultural spice to your wardrobes.

How do you tackle politics in the music industry?

We don’t think there is politics in the Music industry. Everyone is busy doing their own thing. You must be speaking about the Music Label politics but then in every industry, there are powerful players who are trying to rise up to exercise their supremacy. There are people who are making remixes for commercial gain and use all the tactics for better business to make hit songs without any artistic balance. We decided to move away from this kind of politics a few years back and started our own record label. Merchant Records is a label by the artist for the artist. The music industry has a responsibility towards creating good music. It is upto the listeners to support good music.

What are your plans for the coming festive season, do you see yourselves hitting the stage/touring given that travel is opening up?

We have been doing concerts, though not too many, even during the pandemic. We did a few virtual concerts and a couple of live concerts as well. This season we see ourselves back on stage with a bang. We already have a line-up of concerts from October till next February and we can’t express how happy that makes us to be able to connect once again with our fans. Of course besides that we also have the release of “MYn presents Bhoomi 2021”, our most precious project that releases on the 18th October with one song every week all the way until December 22. Isn’t that celebration enough?

We hope that India opens out slowly and we are very careful in following our safety regulations in wearing masks and getting vaccinated. The more we fight Covid responsibly, we will be able to come back to our lives like before.

Tell us about your upcoming film and independent projects.

A film that we are very excited about is ‘Haq Se India’ which is releasing in end October and is a beautiful film about our victory in the 2007 World Cup. We’ve done another song for Madhuri Dixit for her dance track in ‘Finding Anamika’, we’ve got the release of our album Bhoomi 2021 so it’s a very exciting time for us as music composers and as a Record Producer and Label owners. We have a big audience and have got a lot of love from our fans and subscribers.

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Star Beauty

Sparkling!

Sonam Kapoor’s beauty is unmatchable. No wonder, she’s considered as one of the most beautiful actors in Bollywood. Here, we deconstruct her beauty regimen to know what makes this super attractive heroine look so good.

She’s indeed an ethereal beauty – perhaps in the same mould as the classic bea uties of yore. That’s right; we are talking about Anil Kapoor’s ladli Sonam Kapoor whose flawless beauty is indeed the talk of the town. On screen or off it, Sonam Kapoor is always perfectly turned out whether she’s at Cannes showing off her haute couture style or lounging prettily at her London home, dressed casually in a chic jumpsuit and a pair of sneakers.

So Beautiful

So how does she manage to look so good all the time? Well, yes agreed, it is her good genes that help in making her look so good but along with that, Sonam also has the perfect skincare routine.

Skin Win

Sonam is on point whether it is her day or evening look. She follows a simple CTM routine which effectually is cleansing, toning and moisturizing – Sonam believes that this keeps her skin look good at all times.

Block The Sun

Sonam is also a big fan of using a sunscreen and she never steps out in the sun without applying it. She believes it keeps her skin protected from harmful UV rays that may damage the skin.

The V Factor

Skin care is enhanced by Vitamin C as it is not only great for the skin but it also works as an anti aging factor. It brightens the skin and helps reduce lines and wrinkles.

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The Elixir Water. Talk to any actor and they’d tell you that drinking more than eight liters of water is mandatory.

Water keeps your skin hydrated and removes all the toxins.

No Makeup

When Sonam isn’t shooting, she tends to have a no makeup look.

But during a party or a festival, she does enhance her looks with makeup and it’s mostly doing up her eyes and lips. But her mantra is to remove all traces of makeup when she goes to bed as it tends to clog the pores.

‘Skin’tillating!

We tried out Quench’s path-breaking Korean Skincare products which are powered by Korean Ginseng, Cica, Lotus Root, Grapefruit, Cherry Blossom Extracts, Sea Buckthorn and so many other beneficial natural ingredients. And they were really good. The products creates happy, healthy and radiant skin, as it has intensely nourishing and refreshing formulas that target skin concerns like acne, blemishes, oil control, open pores, dull and uneven skin. All Quench products are free of sulphates, parabens, phthalates and alcohol, they are 100% vegetarian and cruelty-free.

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Stardust on the go Sepia tone: Janhvi Kapoor tries out the look of the ‘50s

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Pristine white: Sonakshi Sinha looks ethereal in white

Success story: Kriti Sanon looks fab in olive green.

Are actors outside their shooting world as glamorous as they look on the silver screen? Can female actors in Tinsel Town be good friends?

Who are the new lovebirds in B-town? Team Stardust brings you a bird eye’s view into the private lives of Tinsel Town eye candies

Poser: Kajol takes a picture of mum Tanuja in a bathtub

Upside Down: Kartik Aryan prefers to have a new perception

Yin & Yan: Raveena Tandon and Jackie Chan

With the legend: Jacqueline Fernandez with Amitabh Bachchan

Black Beauty: Disha Patani poses

In London: Sonam Kapoor with hubby Anand Ahuja and besties

Happy people: Akshay Kumar and Aanand L Rai share a joke

Beating About: Ayushmann Khurrana playing a tune

Divine intervention: Varun Dhawan at a temple

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Starry Sashay Sensuous. Sassy. Stunning… That’s right, trench coats are back in fashion and they are super ‘lit’. Most probably because they look so cool yet sexy. In the Fall Winter 2021 phase, these chic trench coats have scaled the trend ladder… And, how! We pick some gorgeous Bollywood divas who raise the temp in their hip ‘n’ hot trenches.

So what are you waiting for…? Get your rating grades and mark the actresses according to who flaunted the hottest trench chic look best.

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m o r f t s a Bl t s a p e h t “If sleeping around could get one roles, wouldn’t all the aspiring actresses have made it by now?”

– Kalpana Iyer 70

Critics accuse her of vulgarising the cabaret; heroines dismiss her as a temporary survivor on sheer sex power; but heroes pant at and after her hip-wriggles, stripping and bad games! KALPANA IYER knows that her figure is her fortune, and flaunts it (on and off screen) to the ‘barest’ maximum to make it pay – in cash and kind!

On public demand, we bring back her throwback explosive interview.

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Whatever happened to the tall announcements you made about switching over from dancing to acting roles, two years ago? Are you so minus talent that you couldn’t bag even the smallest of roles? Even Sheetal gets more lines to deliver (‘Satyam ShivamSundaram’) in her films than you?

You see, I happen to be a very pushy girl. I’m not in the habit of waiting, but in the habit of grabbing all that comes my way. People seem to have forgotten that I did start my career as an actress in ‘Manokamna’. But after that film, I was not very willing to wait. So as soon as DevAnand, the lovable person that he is, offered me a dance number in “Lootmaar’ (because Simple Kapadia couldn’t dance for nuts), I grabbed it without batting an eyelid, completely ignoring all those who tried to stop me from doing it. And now I’m glad I did it, because ever since ‘Lootmaar’, I’ve been signing film after film and am being very much appreciated and applauded for all my dance numbers. I’m sure this wouldn’t have been the case if I had waited for acting roles to come

“The masses don’t bother to find out the whole star-cast, but if they know Kalpana Iyer is doing a dance, they rush to see the film!”

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my way. And if you call Sheetal’s role in ‘Satyam…” acting, well, then I’m glad that I’m not acting! I’d rather stick to my dance-numbers. Incidentally, I do have a few very good and important roles to my credit, like ‘Yeh Rishta Na Toote’, ‘Vardaan’, ‘Dil Tujhko Diya’, where I am not doing any dancenumbers!

Don’t you feel ashamed when you are dismissed off as a box-office filler and your dances are becoming more and more provocative to give cheap thrills to the public? Don’t you find it humiliating to be referred to as the ‘vulgar version of Helen’? Even Bindu insists that you get so many offers only because you grab the most minute and meaningless dance sequences, even if they have no connection to the film’s story!

Who says that I’m a box-office filler and that my dances are meaningless and have no connection to the story? If I was doing those two-minute sidey roles like people are in-sinuating, it would have been a different thing. But what I’m doing are those hit dance-numbers which draw the crowds. When the masses, the people in the villages, etc., see a movie, they don’t bother to find out the whole star cast. But if they know that Kalpana Iyer is doing a dance sequence, they rush to see it! ...So many of my movies have been sold because of my dancenumbers. And if at all people are comparing me with Helen, well, it’s the biggest compliment to me!

She is the one lady I really admire and respect and I know that she is far better than me! I think she’s real great. Imagine doing only dance-numbers and yet surviving in the industry for more than twenty five years! And at the same time, maintaining that dignity and respect. I’m not at all ashamed, but

“Mithun doesn’t want us to be linked up because he knows what a decent girl I am!” rather proud in fact, to be anywhere near Helen, because before I became a KalpanaIyer, I used to dance on all Helen’s numbers at my stage shows.

But no one can point a finger at me and say that I’m copying her now, because Helen belonged to a different era. She never did disco dances, while I specialise in them.

Why does Bindu go out of her way to pick on you? Didn’t it harm your career when she declared in print that you and she were of the same age and that you can never achieve what she has?

I know statements like that are totally uncalled for and in very bad taste, made by those who have age hang-ups. But I’ve learnt to ignore them because I’m quite positive that no one believes them. After all, the public is not blind.

Everyone knows that I’ve been in the line only since the last three years, and Bindu has been here even before I was born! Besides, birth certificates don’t lie! But all said and done. I’m sure that Bindu won’t say anything nasty about me from now onwards, because we recently got an opportunity to meet each other and I found that basically she is a nice person and her husband Champakbhai is the most beautiful and understanding human being I’ve ever met.

After capitalizing on your body (“People like me better without clothes. If I have a good body, why shouldn’t I show it,” etc.) so blatantly, wasn’t it hypocritical of you to throw a tantrum during the shooting of ‘Teri Baahon Mein’ because men were ogling at your semi-nude appearance? Wouldn’t it have been simpler for you not to wear such daring clothes? Or don’t your producers (Umesh Mehra, etc) give you any choice in the matter?

I admit I did throw a tantrum on the sets of ‘Teri Baahon Mein’. I felt I had to. I couldn’t bear those men who were total strangers ogling away at me. Not only that, they were also restricting my movements. I don’t mind when there are thousands of people ogling at me on screen, but it’s different in person. Besides, I was doing the dance with Mohnish Behl who is a newcomer, who I felt was also feeling uncomfortable. But obviously, he didn’t make a noise about it because he couldn’t afford to. So I took it in my hands to shoo away the crowd. I had to do it. I’m sure the director UmeshMehra would have done it himself if he hadn’t been so busy with the journalists that day. Then also, the fact that I was wearing a more revealing dress than usual, made me all the more uneasy.

But it couldn’t be helped because the outfit went with the director’s concept of the film. In most of my films, my dress is already decided upon and I don’t have much choice. But there are a few directors who are rady to accept my designs, and there I try to cover my body as much as possible. I’m not saying that I turn around and tell my director ‘no leg revealing’, because after all, I’ve got good legs, but I do draw a line somewhere!

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“I can’t understand why Mithun feels insecure.

He is a star, after all!”

Why are you such a Zeenat Aman chamchi?

Your praises of her looks, talent, etc., ring absolutely false. Is it your way of hitting out at Zeenat’s rival ParveenBabi who is encroaching on your dancing territory (‘Namak Halal’ ‘MeriAwazSuno’) and doing a better job of it?

Parveen has been doing those vamp roles lately, so she’s encroaching on a vamp’s territory, not mine. You should be asking Bindu this question, not me. Anyway, those dances which Parveen has done are no threat to me. In ‘Namak Halal’, the dance looked okay purely because it was a well picturised dance sequence. Parveen certainly has no dancing talent. It was just luck that the dance clicked. Of course, she did more justice to the role

That’s why in one of his interviews, he even said something like how can anyone call Kalpana of all people a sexy actress.

Anyway, what is Raj Kiran who is he?”

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than any other actress would have done in her place. But that’s that! It’s not that I’m being mean to Parveen, I’m just being frank. I do like Parveen, but I like and admire Zeenat a lot more. Because in spite of being such an open book, she has carried herself so well for so many years. As for Parveen. I feel she’s a more closed person, more within herself.

Isn’t it true that three-fourths of the film you have in hand are kind courtesy Amjad Khan?

Is it because Amjad has threatened you that you keep denying your affair even though eyewitnesses swear they have seen you sneaking into five-star hotels at all odd hours (3 a.m.) with him? Don’t you feel humiliated when Amjad’s wife lambasts you as a third-rate, sub-standard starlet and not the kind Amjad goes for, to defend her marriage against the rumours?

What nonsense! I haven’t got a single film because of Amjad. I have too much self-respect to accept something out of charity! If Amjad was getting me roles, wouldn’t I have been in all his films? Then how come I’ve done only three films with him – ‘PyaaraDushman’, ‘SattePeSatta’ and ‘Chor Police’?

And even in these films, I hardly have a single scene with him! You’ll be surprised to know that Amjad didn’t even know I was in ‘Chor Police’. The producer of the film had approached me for the role. I don’ think Amjad has ever recommended me to any producer. Yes, at one time in 1979 when I’d taken part in some competition as a model and Amjad had been the judge (he didn’t even know me then), he’d told the person sitting next to him that I’d make it as an actress someday. Well, if that person has decided to take me in his film three years later, I don’t think it’s because of Amjad, but because I am Kalpana Iyer! Actually, it’s these frustrated actresses who spread these rumours

“I don’t believe in going to toilets, green-rooms, dressing-rooms, to have a quick smoke, like the other actresses do.” about me and Amjad. If being terribly fond of a person means you are having an affair with that person, then I think all these people who think this way are too narrow-minded to live in this world! It’s just that both Amjad and I vibe very well, and he can converse with me freely and intelligently, which he can’t with others.

Frankly, I’m not bothered about what everybody else says, but I’m hurt that Amjad’s wife has doubts about her husband after so many years of marriage, and has begun to believe these rumours to make such rude statements…

What’s the reason for the hostility between you and Raj Kiran? Is it true that you made a big play for him during ‘Manokamna’ but he rejected you?

In fact, it was very much the other way round.

When we were shooting for ‘Manokamna’ it was he who was on the go all the time and it was I who was cold because I felt, who he to touch me! That’s why in one of his interviews, he even said something like how can anyone call Kalpana of all people a sexy actress.

Anyway, what is Raj Kiran who is he? One Raj Kiran doesn’t make an industry!

Whatever went wrong between you and Mithun Chakraborty? At one time you two were quite a steady number, but now he literally begs people not to connect him with you in any way!

Mithun and I are very old friends. We were very friendly in those days when I was a top model and Mithun was an upcoming model, trying to make it big. At that time, he used to confide in me about a girl he was engaged to. Of course, that lady is married now, so I don’t want to elaborate but all I want to say is that if we were having an affair, he wouldn’t have confided in me about another girl he was engaged to. Mithun doesn’t want us to be linked up because he knows what a decent girl I am! I am not one of those ex-girlfriends of his who snub him in public all the time!

“All these cheap remarks are made by third rate actresses who have perverted minds and are frustrated sitting at home.”

You are said to be most slept-around woman in the industry. Are you so desperate for your career that you are ready to oblige anyone who promises you even an extra close-up in a film?

All rubbish! All these cheap remarks are made by third rate actresses who have perverted minds and are frustrated sitting at home. If sleeping around could get one roles, wouldn’t all the aspiring actresses have made it by now? Do you mean to say that Zeenat, Parveen, Rekha, have slept around to make it to the top? In fact, to this date, no one in the industry has even made a pass at me. Leave alone sleeping. I can’t think of even asking someone to take an extra close-up of mine in a film! I wouldn’t stoop so low! Honestly, I tell you I haven’t had a single affair up to this date. I think I don’t have the time to have one!

Insiders insist that your career desperation is purely money-oriented. Having lived through abject poverty in the past, do you also feel as scared and insecure about your success as Mithun Chakraborty?

I can’t understand why Mithun feels insecure. He is

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“I’m hurt that Amjad’s wife has doubts about her husband after so many years of marriage, and has begun to believe these rumours to make such rude statements…”

“Do you mean to say that Zeenat, Parveen, Rekha, have slept around to make it to the top?” a star, after all! Poverty hasn’t made me scared or insecure, it has made me a lot wiser and given me guts. My days of poverty have been a thousand times worse than Mithun’s. Right from the age of eight, I used to support a family of six, with the twenty rupees I earned. Tell me, is it possible for a family of six to survive on twenty rupees? Well, we did. I know what my mother has gone through to make me what I am today and that too without any means of support. That’s why, till I’m there in this world, I shall see that the precious smile on my mother’s face shall never be wiped off. God forbid, but even if my career goes to the dumps I shall not stop. I will go back to my modelling, that’s my world. I’ve been in it for eight long years and I’m sure I’ll be accepted back any time. Even if I don’t model, I shall work and keep the money coming in. That’s why I don’t live like a star, because I don’t take my success for granted.

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Is it because you yourself are ashamed of what you have to do on screen, that you make it a point to be respectably dhakofied in sarees whenever you attend social parties and functions? Prema Narayan, KomillaWirk, Padmini Kapila and your other colleagues don’t indulge in such double standards.

I know a lot of people think I have double standards, but it’s not that. It’s just that I am a very very simple girl. In fact, I’m much too simple for my own liking! The glamorous person which people see dancing away to glory on screen is not me. I hate all this glamour which is stuck down

my throat. That’s why I love every single moment when I don’t have to act and behave the way I’m made to on screen.

Because in reality, there are two different Kalpanas. You will be surprised to know that I’m a strict vegetarian, I don’t drink and I am a very God-fearing person. The only thing which goes with my glamorous image on screen is my smoking off it. And I’m not ashamed of it. I do it in front of my own mother. I don’t believe in going to toilets, green-rooms, dressing-rooms, to have a quick smoke, like the other actresses do. What I’m trying to say is that I prefer to be the person I am. So if I’m comfortable when I’m dhakofiedin sarees, why shouldn’t I dress that way?

How long can yvou hope to survive in the rat-race on your sex-appeal alone? Where are the other sex symbols, Bindu and Komilla Wirk, today?

For heaven’s sake, please don’t compare Komilla Wirk and Bindu. Who is Komilla Wirk today, where is she?

As for Bindu. I do appreciate that she has managed to survive on vamp roles for so many years in this cut-throat industry. But for me, I need time. All I’m doing is asking for time. I’ve just been in this industry for three years and two months and have already proved myself as a dancer. Now I need time to prove myself as an actress. But like I said before, I’m not willing to put away my dance-numbers and wait for acting roles to drop in my lap. I’m sure I’ll get them on the way. My ultimate aim is to prove myself as an actress, which I’m certain I will do!

FAST FORWARD They’ve broken the mould when they made this strong bold lady.

Her interviews were a delight – bold, unapologetic and explosive.

Indeed, Kalpana Iyer was and is a firecracker.

She personified the ‘naughty’ vamp on screen to the T and though she was a bit under-rated and loomed under the shadow of Bindu and Helen for a while. Kalpana Iyer made her presence felt no matter how long her character would be.

In her personal life, there were hushed whispers about a love tryst with Amjad Khan but both she and the late Amjad Khan negated it always.

In the latter part of her life, she has tried her hand as a restaurateur in Dubai. She also tried out a bit of TV but as of now, this wonderful lady prefers to stay away from the limelight, which is quite a pity as her screen presence is as formidable as before.

- Sumita Chakraborty

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Web Show Sumita Chakraborty picks eight good content driven shows that are making waves on the OTT domain.

The OTT world is on a binge. And, how! From thrillers to action, romance to history, horror to progressive love stories... the digital domain is on fire.

The Guilty, Netflix, English An action packed thriller, this webshow keeps you on the edge of the seat till the very climax. A troubled police detective is demoted to be a 911 operator as the authorities believe he can’t do much harm there but unfortunately for them, a distressed call spirals into a harrowing day of revelations and reckonings. The detective must keep pace with momentous happenings to save the situation. Will he mange to do it or will his troubled past catch up with him?

Diana: The Musical, Netflix, English Princess Diana has always been a favourite with the viewers and this time, they’ve given a new hue to an original musical show which tells the tale of the dazzling and devastating life of Princess Diana. The music is the perfect accompaniment to this dramatic show which is filmed in advance of its official Broadway opening. The musical score and the poignant life of the royal princess of hearts take center stage in this original musical. Indeed, it is a treat!

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A Sinister Sect: Colonia Dignidad, Netflix, English It’s fascinating to watch this dramatic show with sinister shades.

A colony of German Christians with a charismatic and manipulative leader establishes itself in Chile and becomes instrumental to the dictatorship. This film is all about the power struggle, the greed and avarice that make the leadership plummet to levels down only to put an entire sect into danger.

Forever Rich, Netflix, English He’s the king of rap and he’s high on the music charts and in life. This webseries is the story of a rising rap superstar whose life goes topsy-turvy when a humiliating video goes viral. He is then pushed into a battle for redemption over the course of one long night. Can he redeem himself? Or is he destined to spiral into obscurity and wastefulness that may dangerously engulf his life and plummet him further down.

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Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, BookMySHow, English It’s a tale of the supernatural.

Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren are known for their amazing work in the world of ghosts and the supernatural.

But suddenly they are pushed into taking one of the most sensational cases of their careers. A policeman runs into a dazed and bloodied young man on the streets… the man insists he’s in possession of demonic powers. The Warrens now have to find out if this is real or is there a more grisly truth to the matter. Interesting!

Shiddat, Disney+Hotstar, Hindi It has a good cast which includes Radhika Madan, Sunny Kaushal, Diana Penty and Mohit Raina. The film has the protagonist Jaggi who meets Kartika one romantic evening and their one night stand ends up becoming a love romp. Jaggi is head over heels in love with this spunky girl of his one night stand liaison only to find out she’s engaged to be married in three months. But the progressive girl played rather well by Radhika Madan suggests that Jaggi does a Rahul of DDLJ. So Jaggi decides to follow her to London and whisk her away and so begins an adventure from entering Europe illegally to landing into a whole lot of trouble.

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Bingo Hell, Amazon Prime, English

This is a scare fest that seems to becoming a hot favourite on the OTT these days.

Lupita is trying hard to save her house which has fallen on bad days from developers. She has a bingo hall which she loves more so when she has to call in the numbers during the local events.

All seem quite ordinary until a man dies under mysterious circumstances and that’s when everything goes haywire.

A number of horrific events add to the eerie touch and so if you like horror, this is definitely for you!

The Raincoat Killer: Chasing a Predator in Korea, Netflix, English A psycho thriller, this web-show is an edge of seat fare. In the early 2000s, Yoo Young-chul hammered his victims to death and cast fear across Seoul.

This docu-series recounts the hunt for a prolific killer. Real, gritty and hardhitting, this docu-series in indeed worth a watch.

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