Top Bollywood stories of the week transcript
Let’s begin with the latest update. Amid the simmering controversy over director Sudipto Sen’s film The Kerala Story, actor Adah Sharma, who played the lead role in the movie, stated that her character in the film has physically and emotionally scarred her. Sharma told The Times of India – “Playing Shalini Unnikrishnan has physically and emotionally scarred me. These are scars to the depths of my soul. Scars that won’t be healed in a lifetime.” When asked how she dealt with the aggressive opposition to the film’s release, the actor said, “The awareness that the film has created will save the lives of so many girls. The support we have received is huge.”
Meanwhile, the makers of The Kashmir Files have sent a legal notice to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the alleged “defamatory” remarks she made a day before against the controversial film. Announcing a ban on the film The Kerala Story in the state, CM Banerjee had on Monday, 8th May, also said that The Kashmir Files was meant to ‘humiliate one section’ of society and was a piece of propaganda. In a Twitter post, The Kashmir Files director Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri said that he along with his actor-wife Pallavi Joshi and Abhishek Agarwal, both producers of the film, served the notice on the CM. The statements, he alleged, are “false” and “highly defamatory”.
Actor Janhvi Kapoor will headline “Ulajh”, a film billed as a patriotic thriller. Directed by National Award winner Sudhanshu Saria and produced by Junglee Pictures, the movie also stars Gulshan Devaiah and Roshan Mathew.
Set in the prestigious and intriguing world of Indian Foreign Services, “Ulajh” follows the journey of a young IFS officer, played by Kapoor, belonging to a prominent family of patriots, who gets embroiled in a dangerous personal conspiracy while far from her home turf, at a career-defining post. The script of “Ulajh” is penned by Saria and Parveez Shaikh, with dialogues by Atika Chohan. Rajesh Tailang, Meiyang Chang, Sachin Khedekar, Rajendra Gupta and Jitendra Joshi also round out the cast of the film.
The new trailer for Adipurush, the epic film starring Prabhas, is finally out amid great expectations. Director Om Raut’s film is a big-screen adaptation of the epic Ramayana, in which Prabhas stars as Lord Rama, Kriti Sanon as Sita and Saif Ali Khan essays the role of Lankesh. The teaser of Adipurush had been released last year, but it received severe backlash for the poor quality of its VFX. After its critical reception, it was decided to postpone the film and fine-tune the visuals. Adipurush will have its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, on June 13 before releasing in theatres on June 16, in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.
Moving on. Actor Richa Chadha is known for speaking her mind on topical issues. At a time when Bollywood is hardly seeing a great run at the box office barring a few exceptions like Pathaan, Richa recently took to her social media to give her take on the matter. Asking filmmakers to cast decent artists, Richa wrote on her Instagram stories – “Dear directors, please cast good actors. At least you will make a film with someone who can elevate your written material and take it off the page. Your so-called-whatever is not getting you any openings anyway. Make a film which you can be proud of, not a project.”
Manoj Bajpayee will soon be seen on our screens again with his upcoming OTT release, the ZEE5 film Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai. The makers on Monday, 8th May, shared the film’s trailer, giving us a glimpse of what one can expect from the courtroom drama. The short clip sees lead star Manoj as an advocate who is fighting on the side of a rape survivor. Manoj seems passionate as the lone lawyer who vows to bring a self-proclaimed god-man to disgrace after he is accused of behaving inappropriately with a minor. Helmed by Apoorv Singh Karki and penned by Deepak Kingrani, Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai will release on ZEE5 on May 23.
2024 will be special for Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff’s fans as their film ‘Bade Miyan Chote Miyan‘ has been locked for a festive release. On 5th May, Akshay and Tiger took to their respective Instagram accounts and shared that the film will hit the theatres on Eid next year. Akshay also shared his and Tiger’s images from the film. The images show the duo in fiery avatars. Directed by Ali Abbas Zafar, the film has been shot in exotic locales across Scotland, London, India and UAE. Alongside Kumar and Shroff, Malayalam star Prithviraj Sukuraman will also be seen in a pivotal role.
Lastly, veteran actor Neena Gupta shared her feelings of envy towards the opportunities and exposure that current generation actors get on a global platform. Recently, Alia Bhatt made her Met Gala debut and Deepika Padukone was a presenter at the Academy Awards. In an interview with News18, Neena, talking about the exposure the current lot of actors get, said, “I wish we also had the same kind of exposure. I think about it every passing minute. I feel envious every second. I wonder what if I was a young actor in this day and age. I could have achieved so much more. Having said that, I know that you can’t have everything that you wish for.”