Expresso Bollywood Highlights of the week

You are listening to the Expresso Entertainment Update. Here are the top stories from the world of Bollywood brought to you by The Indian Express.

Many believed the Netflix show Masaba Masaba was just a one-off thing for Masaba Gupta. The celebrity designer, however, has proved them wrong and is now all set with her second full-fledged acting project Modern Love Mumbai. Masaba is paired with Rithvik Bhowmick in the short ‘I love Thane’ that has been helmed by Dhruv Sehgal. An Indian adaptation of the internationally acclaimed anthology will also include five more shorts featuring the likes of Pratik Gandhi, Arshad Warsi and Fatima Sana Shaikh among others.
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Pooja Bedi has chosen to live a life differently and be a trailblazer of sorts. She says she marches to the beat of her own drum. The actor-host who turns 52 today, is in a happy space. Pooja told indianexpress.com: “I always believe in keeping the child in me alive. Look at an average 50 year old — jaded, bored, in a rut. We shut up our playful, curious, joyful inner child and tow the line of seriousness. Life is so short. We complicate a simple journey. I choose to live differently,” Born to icons Kabir Bedi and Protima Bedi, Pooja calls herself a “positive product of that incredible liberal, bohemian, firebrand upbringing.”
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Before Manoj Bajpayee took over the OTT space with his Prime Video web series The Family Man, the actor was known as a stellar performer on the silver screen. But unlike the ‘mainstream’ films, his movies were hardly seen as money makers at the box office. Manoj, in a recent chat, shared that after appreciating content in the OTT space for two years, the race towards the biggest number at the box office is back again. Talking to Puja Talwar, Manoj said, “No one is talking about the film, or how it is. No one wants to discuss the film, its performances, the other departments who have contributed to making that film.” 1000 crore club.
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Kangana Ranaut in an interview said that her Dhaakad co-star Arjun Rampal is ‘just as controversial’ as her, but he never gets any bad press. Kangana is often in the news for her controversial statements, and has seemingly ostracised herself from the larger film industry because of her repeated remarks against prominent personalities. In an interview with RJ Siddharth Kannan, Kangana said that it is society’s conditioning that allows Arjun to get away with his comments, while she’s attacked for hers. Recalling how Arjun had presented a ‘leading filmmaker’ a nose-trimmer because he was disgusted by their nose hair, Kangana said that he can ‘get away with anything’.
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Actor Sadashiv Amrapurkar devoted his life to Marathi theatre and in the many years that he served his art, he played many memorable characters. But Amrapurkar came to mainstream spotlight when he played the role of Maharani in Mahesh Bhatt’s 1991 film Sadak. Maharani was written as a eunuch, who is a pimp by profession and as per Mahesh Bhatt the “character was referred to as ‘gross’ and ‘downmarket’ by many at that time.” In an obituary written for India Today upon the actor’s passing in 2014, Bhatt shared that the character “came to life because of Sadashiv’s conviction.” The director shared, “He was an enigmatic person who touched the raw chord of the nation with his inspiring characterisation of sari-clad menacing Maharani.”
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The santoor maestro Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma passed away on Tuesday due to age-related issues. He was 83. He is survived by wife Manorama Sharma and sons Rahul and Rohit Sharma. On Wednesday, the musician’s mortal remains were kept at his home in Mumbai for antim darshan before his state funeral. Bollywood actors Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan, Shabana Azmi and lyricist-composer and screenwriter Javed Akhtar offered their last respect to the renowned santoor player. Amitabh and Jaya met the late musician’s family and upon reaching, Big B folded his hands to pay his tribute to Shiv Kumar Sharma. Later, he interacted with his son Rahul for a while before leaving. Jaya paid her condolences to the musician’s wife Manorama.
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It is going to be a delight to watch Sarika return to the silver screen. The actor with hypnotising eyes and unmatched charisma is set to feature in Amazon Prime Video’s Modern Love: Mumbai, for Alankrita Shrivastava’s short film My Beautiful Wrinkles. We last saw her in Baar Baar Dekho (2016). In a candid interview with indianexpress.com, Sarika opens up about normalisation of ageism towards female actors in the entertainment industry, how she craves well-written characters and why she said yes to this short film for an anthology on a streaming platform.
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A decade and 18 films later, actor Arjun Kapoor says he is now trying to “rechart” his personal and professional growth through his learnings in the industry by going back to his “core values”. Arjun made his debut with 2012’s Ishaqzaade, which was a huge hit and set the stage for the young actor to deliver hits in romance drama 2 States and 1970s-set action film Gunday. He followed this up with films such as Ki & Ka, Mubarakan and Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar, but there were also failures in Tevar, Namaste England and Panipat. The pandemic finally gave the actor some time to pause and reflect on his journey in cinema. He said. “Ten years down the line, I’ve reset to thinking and feeling like I was in 2010-2011. That’s what I’ve used the last two years for, to go back to my core values, my core understanding of who I’m and what kind of work I would like to do.”

For those who watched Home Shanti recently, it was the relatability of the show that stood out. Capturing the journey of a middle-class family building the home of their dreams, the show stars Supriya Pathak and Manoj Pahwa as the parents who have been saving all their lives so that they can afford the brick-and-mortar house. Pathak, who is garnering acclaim for her lived-in performance, says that the show rings a bell for her too. In a chat with indianexpress.com, she said: “We have tried to bring the story across without much drama. Given that either comedy or thrillers are being streamed right now, Home Shanti will be a perfect break for families.”
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Pankaj Tripathi-starrer Sherdil: The Pilibhit Saga is set to release in theatres on June 24. Written and directed by five-time National Award winning filmmaker Srijit Mukherji, Sherdil also stars Neeraj Kabi and Sayani Gupta. The makers shared stills from Sherdil: The Pilibhit Saga on Wednesday. Said to be inspired by true events, it is touted to be a ‘dark humour laced satire’. As per the synopsis, the film is “an insightful story about the adverse effects of urbanisation, man-animal conflict and poverty leading to a bizarre practice in a village that resides on the edge of a forest.”

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