Paresh Rawal to play Farhan Akhtar’s coach in Toofan
Earlier this year, it was announced that Farhan Akhtar will be seen playing the role of a boxer for the first time in his career. The movie is titled Toofan and Farhan has been training rigourously for his role in the film. He constantly keeps his fans updated on his progress through social media and they are in love with Farhan’s new and badass avatar.
It has been very recently announced that Paresh Rawal has been roped in to play the role of Farhan’s coach in the movie and has been training with Farhan Akhtar for the past month. He was locked in for the role in April for the Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra directorial. This is the second time that Farhan will be collaborating with the director after Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, where he portrayed the role of legendary, Milkha Singh.
Since Rakeysh wanted to keep the film as close to the sport as possible, Farhan will be seen boxing real boxers in the ring and has been training with Drew Neal, the former world kickboxing champion.
Shabana Azmi gives a positive nod to Swara Bhaskar and Divya Dutt’s LGBTQ film, Sheer Khurma
Shaban Azmi has always been that actress who has done movies which are way ahead of it’s time. She completely supports LGBTQ rights and has been quite open about her social and political opinions. She will next be seen playing the role of Divya Dutt’s mother in Faraz Arif Ansari’s Sheer Khurma, a film that revolves around the issues and the struggles the LGBTQ community faces to get love and acceptance.
The movie also stars Swara Bhaskar and she will be playing Divya Dutt’s lover in the film. Faraz went ahead to express his joy for getting the opportunity to work with Shabana Azmi and said that she was in the top three on the list of the actors he wanted to work with. Shabana Azmi, when enquired about the film, said “Confirming the news, Shabana said, “I was moved by the script which was recommended to me by Divya. After that, I met Faraz who came across as sincere, honest and deeply committed to the story. The bonus is working with Divya and Swara, so we figured out the dates and I said ‘yes’ to the project. We had the first workshop last week and everything came together organically. I am looking forward to the shoot.” The actress plays Divya’s mother in the film.” Shabana’s character is not only going to resonate mothers across the world but will also show that love and acceptance begin right at home, the director went on to call her character the mother we all deserve and Mother India of the 21st century.
The cast got together for the first workshop last week and things went well, organically. They are excited to bring this topic to light.
Akshay Kumar is all set to reunite with his Mission Mangal director, Jagan Shakti for the remake of A R Murgadoss’ Kaththi
Akshay Kumar and director Jagan Shakti are currently prepping for the release of their upcoming film, Mission Mangal. With an extensive star cast that includes Vidya Balan, Taapsee Pannu, Kriti Kulhari, and Sonakshi Sinha among the others, the movie revolves around Indian Space Research Organisation’s successful attempt at launching a ship to Mars. The movie has increased a lot of expectations for the audience and one of the major reasons being that the film is based on true events and one of the proudest moments in the history of India.
While they’re at it, Jagan Shakti went ahead to announce that he will be working with Akshay Kumar for the remake of A R Murgadoss’ 2014 Vijay starrer, Kaththi. The movie has been titled Ikka is expected to go on floors soon and the script is still being worked on. With his second directorial, Jagan says that Ikka will resonate with the underprivileged section of the society and he wishes to explore action in a sleek and underrated way.
Akshay Kumar has also recently announced his upcoming project with Sajid Nadiadwala titled Bachchan Pandey and as for Mission Mangal, it is slated to release this Independence Day.
BREAKING: After Jabariya Jodi, now release of Rajkummar Rao starrer Made In China postponed
There is much chaos and confusion over release dates of forthcoming films. Just when we heard of Balaji and producer Shailesh Singh postponing the release of Jabariya Jodi which was to open on August 2, by a week, we now hear another interesting film Made In China has been postponed.
Starring Rajkummar Rao and directed by the well-known Gujarati director Mikhil Musale Made in China, produced by Bhushan Kumar and Dinesh Vijan was to open on August 30. We now hear its release has been put off.
Confirming this development Rajkummar Rao says, “We are figuring out the best date possible because it’s a really special film for all of us and we all are really excited for it. We will very soon decide on a release date.”
“I was offered Avatar; I even gave the title’s suggestion to James Cameron” – Govinda
The weekend gone by put actor Govinda back in the limelight. He appeared on the much loved television show ‘Aap Ki Adalat’, hosted by Rajat Sharma, the popular anchor and editor in chief of India TV. The set of ‘Aap Ki Adalat’ resembles that of a courtroom and the guests are made to sit in a witness box. And just like it happens in courts, a lot of secrets tumble out of the mouths of the guests. In the past, Kangana Ranaut, Sunny Deol, Aamir Khan and many other celebrities have attended the show as guests and made some honest confessions, which became talking points.
The episode of Govinda was no exception. The veteran actor is anyway known to be blunt and honest. As a result, he made some shocking revelations about his association with Kader Khan and David Dhawan, why he refused films like Taal, Chandni, Devdas etc. and a lot more. All these confessions are already trending on social media.
But there’s one more claim of Govinda that went a bit unnoticed. It was him insisting that he was offered one of the biggest Hollywood films of all time, Avatar, directed by blockbuster director James Cameron. The actor explained why he opted out of the film. He says, “It was me who had given the title of the movie. I had told (James Cameron) that your film will run successfully in cinemas. I also added that your film will take at least seven years to complete. That infuriated him (laughs)!”
While explaining why he walked out of Avatar, he explained, “I told him that the ‘avatar’ you want in the film is handicapped. Woh ishwar ka ansh hai aur apang hai…maine kaha ki yeh nahi hoga. And you want me to shoot for some 410 days and colour my body during the shoot. So I apologized for declining and left. And as predicted by me, the film released 8 or 9 years later and was a super-hit!”
Avatar released on December 18, 2009 and was a story of a paraplegic Marine who’s sent to a moon named Pandora. The idea is to mine the mineral Unobtanium on this habitable place but this would threaten the existence of Na’vi – a humanoid species indigenous to Pandora. The film made 3D version extremely popular. At the box office, it broke several records and was the first film to gross more than $2 billion. It remained the highest-grossing film worldwide for nearly a decade, before being overtaken by Avengers: Endgame very recently. Work on Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 is underway with the second part expected to release on December 17, 2021.
Are you curious how Govinda would have looked like if he was to play a Na’vi? Take a look at the featured image of this article and let us know your views!
After shedding 10 kilos for RoohiAfza, Janhvi Kapoor to gain muscle for Kargil Girl
Janhvi Kapoor is juggling between two projects. The actress began the year with Gunjan Saxena biopic tentatively titled Kargil Girl. For the role of IAF Pilot, the actress had to gain 6 kilos. After the wrap up of the schedule, she went underwent hectic training to shed 10kgs for her next film RoohiAfza.
Now, for Georgia schedule, Janhvi Kapoor will have to gain muscle for her role. Namrata Purohit, her trainer, revealed that Janhvi underwent hectic regime for both the schedules and everything was monitored. For her weight loss, she had to do a fair amount of cardio. Since she has six weeks before the schedule, the actress will follow the same regime. She has been working out six days a week. Four days are allotted to Pilates and two days for electrical muscle stimulation.
Meanwhile, Kargil Girl is set for 2020 release. The film stars Pankaj Tripathi as Janhvi Kapoor’s father.
The Kapil Sharma Show: Did producer Salman Khan ask host Kapil Sharma to stay from controversies?
We all know that Kapil Sharma kicked off his second innings in December when he restarted The Kapil Sharma Show and this time, it was because of Salman Khan who decided to back the show. After many complaints and controversies, Kapil decided to quit the show and entertainment in order to take a sabbatical and was seen spending time on his health. His then fiancé, Ginni Chathrath too supported him extensively and later, the comedian tied the knot with her in December last year. With his second innings having quite a successful run on the personal and professional front, we hear that producer Salman Khan has warned the comedian to stay away from controversies.
As mentioned before Salman Khan has helped the comedian kick off his second innings of The Kapil Sharma Show. The first season of the show had ended up abruptly after complaints about the unprofessional behaviour of the comedian started surfacing. Adding fuel to the fire was the much public showdown of the comedian with the colleague Sunil Grover. Besides that, Kapil also had confessed that he suffered from alcoholic and anxiety problem and later, there were also issues about his social media posts. On the other hand, the second innings has kicked off quite well with successful TRPs being registered in each week. Keeping in mind the success of the show, certain reports have claimed that the superstar wants Kapil to stay away from controversies unlike last time.
Although there has been no official statement regarding the same, it is being said that Salman Khan has been quite clear about it and wants Kapil to follow it too.
On the personal front, Kapil Sharma too is enjoying his life. He recently took off on a babymoon trip to Canada with wife Ginni Chathrath as the couple is gearing up to welcome their first baby.
Malaika Arora opens up about second chances and social media trolls
Malaika Arora has recently come out in the open about her relationship with Arjun Kapoor. Despite the age difference, Malaika and Arjun give out major couple goals with their adorable social media banter. The two make it a point to comment on each other’s pictures and their fans just can’t stop gushing about it. While the two can easily be considered as the fittest couple of B-Town considering Arjun Kapoor’s jaw-dropping physical transformation for Panipat: The Great Betrayal, they are also one of the cutest.
Malaika Arora recently gave an interview where she spoke about getting a second chance at love and how she’s planning on making the most of it. Along with that, she also spoke how important it is to not give any importance to social media trolls as it only adds fuel to the fire. She elaborated on how she feels that the society needs to be a little more sensitive towards issues as opposed to being harsh and callous.
Malaika Arora recently appeared as a guest judge on Dance India Dance where she replaced her best friend, Kareena Kapoor Khan, for an episode.
Arjun Kapoor set to attend a special masterclass at IFFM 2019
Though known more for his candour and his impeccable sense of commerce, the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne has an unlikely guest in Arjun Kapoor. While film festivals a decade ago were restricted to independent cinema primarily, in a refreshing turn of events Kapoor will grace the festival with his presence to join panel discussion about “The Future of Cinema”.
Being a young actor navigating stardom in times of digital invasion via OTT platforms and the hawk eyes of social media, Kapoor’s masterclass will see him discuss the change of template in storytelling and how the filmmakers – producers, actors and directors as well as the crew are finding their feet through these shifting tiles. To be moderated by Rajeev Masand, Kapoor in conversation will discuss the importance of cinema, its shape-shifting forms and how he perceives the imminent changes has triggered the fabric of cinema. The hour-long event will be held at Arts Centre Melbourne on August 11th.
An ecstatic Arjun says, “The master class is about the future of cinema and I’m looking forward to exchanging notes and thoughts with the other members on the panel and with the audiences most importantly. This diverse panel of speakers, each with an incredible body of work is what Indian cinema is about today. This is my first time at the festival and I’m looking forward to meeting people from Australia that watch Indian cinema. Australia has a vibrant film and TV culture. Understanding the perspectives of people from different places is always fun. I am very happy to get this chance to speak on Indian cinema at the prestigious Indian Film Festival in Melbourne and to experience the city’s delights.”
Joining him on the dais will be Ajit Andhare of Viacom18 Motion Pictures, Gaurav Verma – Business Head of Red Chillies Entertainment and filmmaker Onir.
WHAT? Sidharth Malhotra and Parineeti Chopra starrer Jabariya Jodi to release a week late!
Sidharth Malhotra and Parineeti Chopra are currently on the last leg of their promotional tour for their upcoming film, Jabariya Jodi. Marking their onscreen reunion after Hasee Toh Phasee, Jabariya Jodi has already made a special place in their fans’ hearts. From the music to the trailer, the audiences have highly appreciated Sidharth and Parineeti’s new avatar!
With less than a week for its release, the makers have announced that the fans will have to wait a week more before they see their favorite Jodi back on screen again. Initially slated to release on August 2, the film will now release on August 9! While there has been no such reason stated by the makers as of now, the fans are surely going to be disappointed with this delay.
However, we are truly hoping that this delay is worth the wait! Jabariya Jodi is directed by Prashant Singh and is being produced by Ekta Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor.
Sooraj Pancholi starrer Satellite Shankar might clash with Priyanka Chopra Jonas’ The Sky Is Pink!
Sooraj Pancholi will next be seen in Satellite Shankar, a film based around the life of an army man. Instead of discussing the relationship between countries, the movie will revolve around the difficulties army personnel face while protecting the country. While the movie was slated to release in July, it was announced later that the release date has been postponed to September 6. Looks like all the Sooraj Pancholi fans will have to wait for a little longer than that.
Shraddha Kapoor and Sushant Singh Rajput starrer Chhichhore will most likely release on September 6. To avoid clash with this Nitesh Tiwari directorial, the makers of Satellite Shankar are considering to move the release date to October 11. While the makers are trying to avoid clash with Chhichhore, they might clash with Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Farhan Akhtar starrer The Sky Is Pink which is also slated to release on October 11.
There have been no confirmations from the makers of Satellite Shankar, the official announcement is likely to come out in the coming week.
Dia Mirza irks Randeep Hooda with her disparaging remarks against the forest department
Dia Mirza recently took to social media to react after a 6-year old tigress was ruthlessly beaten to death by villagers in Uttar Pradesh. An anguished Dia Mirza took to Twitter to disparage the forest department for not able to rescue the animal.
“The tigress could have been rescued and given timely medical aid as the forest officials had reached the spot. But their inability to rescue the injured big cat in a span of over nine hours undoubtedly reflects their inability in protecting wildlife in adverse situations,” she wrote on Twitter.
However, her remark didn’t sit well with actor Randeep Hooda. He took to Twitter and said that the Forest Department is capable of everything. He had spoken to the experts and that animal was beyond rescue. “With all due respect I disagree with this sweeping accusation @deespeak Forest dept is capable and doing good work. She was beyond rescue when found as I talked with experts. Even staff got injured in process. It’s the forest dept thats keeping our wildlife alive not just NGOs.”
Dia Mirza, shortly, responded stating that she had only quoted the quoted a line from the article. She said that she has always been a champion of Forest Rangers and officials. “Randeep, please know that this is a quote from the article attached clearly denoted by the inverted commas. I have always, and will always champion the cause of Forest Rangers and officials. They work with very frugal means and are brave, resilient, rakshaks of our lives.”
Randeep Hooda, then, pointed out the inconsistency in her statement. “In other words you do believe what you had picked to quote dear @deespeak let’s not make villains out of the forest department on hearsay and undermine their relentless hard work while going about town praising other players for theirs..the aim is the same, let’s work together,” he wrote.
The incident took place in Pilbhit village of Uttar Pradesh where a mob beat the tigress mercilessly to a point that every part of her body was injured. A probe has been launched to investigate the matter and why the Forest Department could not rescue the animal.
Javed Akhtar BLASTS Shekhar Kapur for saying he is afraid of intellectuals
Lyricist Javed Akhtar, who is known for voicing his opinions lashed out at filmmaker Shekhar Kapur after he tweeted that he was always in “fear of ‘intellectuals’.” Shekhar Kapur took to Twitter to write, “Started life as refugee of Partition. Parents gave everything to make a life for kids. Was always in fear of intellectuals’. They made me feel insignicant. Small. Then suddenly embraced me after my films. I still fear them. Their embrace is like a bite of snake. Still a refugee.”
In a series of tweets, Javed Akhtar responded to Shekhar Kapur and blasted him. Akhtar wrote, “Who are these intellectuals who embraced you and you found that embrace like a snake’s bite ? Shyam Benegal , Adoor Gopal Krishna , Ram chandra Guha ? Really ? . Shekhar saheb you are not well . You need help . Come on , there is no shame in meeting a good psychiatrist.”
He added, “What do you mean by still a refugee Does it mean that you feel like an outsider n not an Indian n you don’t feel that this is your motherland .If in India you are still a refugee where will you not feel like a refugee ,In Pakistan? Cut this melodrama you poor rich but lonely guy.”
Lastly, he wrote, “You introduce yourself as neither prejudiced by the past nor afraid of the future living in this moment and in the same breath you say you are a refugee of partition and still a refugee . One doesn’t need a magnifying glass to see the contradiction.”
Shekhar Kapur’s tweets came after 49 celebrities recently write a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him to take strong against mob lynching. However, another section of 61 celebrities including Kangana Ranaut and CBFC Chief Prasoon Joshi wrote a response letter while calling out false narratives and selective outrage.
Vicky Kaushal to kickstart Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw biopic in 2021
After Uri: The Surgical Strike and Sardar Udham Singh, Vicky Kaushal will be starring in yet another patriotic film, Sam, a biopic on Field Marshall Sam Manekshaw. This will mark his reunion with Raazi director Meghna Gulzar. Sam Manekshaw was the Chief of the Army Staff of the Indian Army during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and his military career spanned four decades and five wars.
Speaking of working in another patriotic film, Vicky Kaushal said that he is a true legend the country has produced. It’s the highest honour for him to play Field Marshall Sam Manekshaw. At the moment, he is busy shooting for Sardar Udham Singh. But, he plans to go as close as possible to the character of Sam Manekshaw in terms of looks. He will kick off the film in 2021.
Vicky Kaushal said that he personally could not witness the achievements of Field Marshal Manekshaw but his parents would tell stories about him and what a fearless leader he was.
Sam will be written by Bhavani Iyer of Raazi and Shantanu Srivastava of Badhaai Hoand produced by Ronnie Screwvala.
EXCLUSIVE: After Karisma Kapoor, Raveena Tandon heads for her digital debut
In the last couple of years, many actors have taken up opportunities in the digital space. While they have found success on digital platforms, it has now become a go to option for several stars. With Karisma Kapoor making a comeback with ALT Balaji’s Mentalhood, Raveena Tandon is also heading towards her digital debut.
Yes, you heard that right! Raveena Tandon will be making her digital debut very soon. As per the sources, “Raveena Tandon, who is currently a judge on Nach Baliye 9, is heading towards the digital space. While it is unclear whether she will be opting for thriller or a drama, it seems like a good opportunity for her to explore the online platform. It is yet to be seen which streaming platform the actress will be a part of. There are also speculations that she might be producing soon as well.”
While we wait for the official announcement, Raveena Tandon is currently a judge on Nach Baliye 9 which is produced by Salman Khan. The actress was last seen in thriller movie Maatr in which she played a mother who seeks revenge for her daughter’s rape. She recently made an appearance with Suniel Shetty in the recreated version of ‘Sheher Ki Ladki’ in Khaandani Shafakhana.
