Why Vidya Balan rules

[Archivio] 

Brunch, il supplemento settimanale di Hindustan Times, offre sempre interessanti approfondimenti di argomento cinematografico. Vi propongo la copertina del numero speciale trimestrale di novembre 2011-gennaio 2012 dedicata ad un'irriconoscibile Vidya Balan, nonché il lungo articolo Why Vidya Balan rules, di Vir Sanghvi, del 17 dicembre 2011. Di seguito un estratto:

'For two weeks now everyone I know and possibly most of urban India has been going crazy about Vidya Balan. Nearly everywhere you go she is the subject of discussion and the conversations are nearly always flattering. The obvious point of reference is The Dirty Picture. For two months before the movie released, Vidya was everywhere. Never before in the history of Indian cinema has a star done so much publicity for a film. And The Dirty Picture was not even a big budget special effects extravaganza. (...) But Vidya appeared on every television show you could think of (and many that you would never have thought of) and in every print publication. (...)

Could it be that everyone loved The Dirty Picture? The box office figures suggest that it will be a massive hit not just relative to its (somewhat modest) budget but compared to most other films released this year. Obviously, this is a picture that everyone has seen and liked. Or it could be that they all think that Vidya is terrific in the movie (which she is)? Few actresses could have carried off that role with so much aplomb and managed to hold their own against an actor of the calibre of Naseeruddin Shah who gives one of his best ever performances. (...)

My view is that India has fallen in love with Vidya Balan all over again (...) not because of her current ubiquity or because of any individual film but because we have finally come to terms with who she is. In an industry full of size zero figures, dancing bimbettes and self-consciously trendy bejeaned muppets, Vidya comes off as a breath of fresh air. Basically, it’s this simple: she is a real person. Everything about her is real: the curves, the little roll of fat that she makes no attempt to hide, the clothes that she chooses herself, the roles that she agonises over before finally selecting one that suits her, the hard work she puts into each performance and then into the promotion, and most of all, the guts she demonstrates in finding her own path against the advice of nearly everybody in Bollywood.

We talk of Vidya’s courage only in terms of her willingness to play a southern sex symbol in The Dirty Picture. But compared to the other things she’s done in her life, this is no big deal. In fact, her whole story is one of courage in the face of impossible odds. Born and brought up in Bombay to a middle class south Indian family, Vidya had a dream: to become an actress. But while other girls with that dream would want to be glamorous heroines, Vidya focused on the acting itself. (...) Vidya’s parents insisted that she (...) studied. She did her BA and then an MA in Sociology. “My father said that I could always become an actress,” she recalls. “But I couldn’t go back to college later in life. So I had to first finish my education and then I could do what I wanted. At the time I was not pleased but now, I can’t thank him enough. My parents were absolutely right.”

The education explains why Vidya started off late. But nothing explains why things kept going wrong for so long. She was eventually signed up for a Malayalam film and though it wasn’t the Bollywood career she dreamt of, at least it was a beginning. Moreover, she was starring with Mohanlal. (...) But Mohanlal had a problem with the film’s makers. And so, halfway through, the movie was abandoned, never to be completed. Because Mohanlal is such a big deal in the south, it was unusual for one of his movies to remain incomplete. And the film industry, ever quick to blame a newcomer, decided it was because Vidya Balan brought bad luck to the project. (...) What followed was heartbreaking. In the initial flush of excitement after she had been cast as Mohanlal’s heroine, she had signed a dozen Malayalam films. She was sacked from every single one of them.

She tried Tamil cinema and found a role. There too, things went wrong. The producer also decided that she was a jinx and she was replaced. She signed a second Tamil film, got to the sets and discovered that it was a sex comedy. She had been signed up under false pretences. Naturally she walked out. And as naturally, she was replaced once again. Desperate to find some work at least, she agreed to act in a (...) music video directed by Pradeep Sarkar. This time she was not replaced and the video was completed but there was a fight between labels and the release of the video was stalled. So, after three years in the film industry, Vidya Balan had been replaced in twelve Malayalam movies, two Tamil films and had made one music video which had been caught up in a legal quagmire and not released. (...) I asked her about her state of mind during that phase. She says that it took every ounce of will power to keep from giving up. (...)

Then, slowly, her luck began to change. She was cast in a Bengali film and discovered that she was a Bengali at heart and learnt to speak the language fluently. (She even sings Bengali songs, one of which she sang on camera for me when I seemed somewhat dubious about her linguistic abilities). Pradeep Sarkar (...) had planned to make Parineeta for producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra and insisted that Vidya would make a perfect heroine. Naturally, Chopra was leery of investing money in a first-time director and a virtual newcomer as an actress. He insisted on auditioning Vidya and she says she has lost count of the number of auditions she did over a period of several months. Finally, Chopra gave in. He agreed with Sarkar that she was the perfect choice for the role and agreed to sign her. (...)

Lage Raho Munna Bhai gave her the stamp of commercial acceptability and it would have been easy enough for her to have joined the Bollywood rat race since success seemed to come so easily and naturally to her. But after some strange films (...) in which she tried to pretend to be what she is not a Bollywood bimbette Vidya decided that this was not part of her original dream. (...) The reason I like Vidya Balan (...) is because she was ready to start from scratch again. She was willing to walk away from one kind of success. She was ready to take risks that seemed like commercial suicide. All because she still believed in that original dream, not in the commercial fantasy that it had morphed into.

The films that have come in the latest phase of Vidya Balan’s career are not those that a commercially savvy actress would have signed. She agonised for three months before agreeing to do Paa even though it offered her a chance to act with Amitabh Bachchan. (...) It wasn’t that she minded playing Amitabh’s mother. It was just that she was terrified of screwing up. As it turned out, she was brilliant. She was terrific as a deglamourised Sabrina Lal in No One Killed Jessica. And she was even better in Ishqiya where she played the kind of character she developed further in The Dirty Picture: a woman who is willing to use her sexuality in the advancement of her own interests.

Even so, The Dirty Picture represented a huge risk. Hindi cinema no longer requires its heroines to be virginal angels of innocence. But I can’t think of a single other film where a heroine is shown as seducing a man simply to advance her career and is still treated as a sympathetic character. And then there was the terrible visual deterioration that her character suffered at the end of the movie. Which heroine would agree to do all this without wondering about the effect on her stardom? But Vidya took the risk. She liked the role, she said. It offered her a chance to take a character that society looked down on and to invest that person with dignity and depth. Her character didn’t have to be somebody you felt sorry for. You just had to accept that she was an independent woman making her own choices in her own interests. “‘Treat her with respect,’ was my motto,” she says. Now that the risk has paid off and the film is such a stupendous success, it is easy to say that Vidya was right to take the role. But had it gone wrong, it could well have been career suicide.

Except I don’t think that Vidya cares too much about that any longer. She doesn’t care about image or about body issues. She’s happy to be a star. But she’d much rather be an actress. At some level, I think all of us recognise that in Vidya we are dealing with a real person who is making real choices and not with some machine-made, image-manipulated Bollywood star. We respect her risks. We admire her resilience. And we know that even if we didn’t do all of this, even if we didn’t go to see her movies, it would not make that much difference to her. Because after those years of disappointment, rejection and experimentation, Vidya Balan has found her destiny. And her destiny is simply this to be her own person. To be Vidya Balan'.

Aishwarya Rai ha compiuto 40 anni

[Archivio] Il primo novembre 2013 la donna più bella del mondo ha compiuto 40 anni. Il numero del 20 novembre 2013 di Filmfare aveva dedicato una stupenda copertina ad Aishwarya Rai. In Italia, il primo novembre La Repubblica ha offerto ai suoi lettori una ricca photo gallery: Bollywood festeggia Aishwarya: la più bella compie quarant'anni. Vi segnalo anche il video dell'incontro con la stampa organizzato il giorno stesso del suo compleanno. I prossimi 40 anni? Ash si mostra in pubblico sempre più spesso, per mondanità o per rispettare impegni professionali: fra gli altri, vi ricordo l'evento L'Oréal che si è tenuto a Mumbai nel dicembre 2013, in occasione del quale la diva ha sfoggiato un abito Dolce&Gabbana. Ma il cinema? Aishwarya ha lasciato un vuoto difficile, per le colleghe, da colmare, e quindi non vediamo l'ora di ammirarla nuovamente su grande schermo. 

Mumbai, primo novembre 2013

 

Evento L'Oréal - Mumbai, dicembre 2013

The brave new world of indie films

[Archivio] Vi segnalo l'articolo The brave new world of indie films, di Parul Khanna, pubblicato da Brunch l'8 dicembre 2013:

'Indie films demystified (...)

The generic definition of an indie film points to a small-budget project made and distributed by an independent source, without the intrusion of a big studio. But in India, distribution is a big hurdle, and most times, it happens only with the help of established studios. So our indie films are often made with money from independent sources or a producer who chips in. (...) An indie film could also be made by collecting money from multiple sources. (...) Unlike the parallel cinema movement of the ’70s and ’80s, which focused on social injustices and everyday struggles, today’s indie films are not bound by any one theme. (...) Song and dance routines are optional. (...)

Stories with passion

The reasons driving India’s new-age indie filmmakers are varied. (...) Most indie filmmakers cite world cinema and satellite television as influences and with changing technology, they also have a better means of telling their story than before. A film can now be shot on a digital motion picture camera. (...) Software for editing and music is easily available. (...) 

The roadblocks

If indie storytelling and filmmaking is original, then so are the ways to make and sell it. Big stars will fill theatres but cost money and compromise creativity. Even B-listers are often inaccessible. (...) Often, in the indie world, the star is not a person but a script. (...) Others cut location costs, edit everything on paper and plan better, so the project is more efficient. (...)

Changing tastes

Small films don’t always mean small successes. (...) This change in the way movies are being consumed is forcing filmmakers and production houses to change their thinking. (...) For big studios and stars, fringe films are also a means to invest in new audiences of the future. (...)

Release obstacles

While the nature of the stories has changed with indie cinema, other aspects are still fraught with old challenges. Once a movie is made, it just lies waiting for some Prince Charming distributor to pick it up. For films to be distributed and earn money, they still need to have stars. One reason distributors offer for not helping indie films is that they still aren’t drawing enough people to theatres. However, filmmakers complain that often films lose audiences because they aren’t advertised enough. But with promotion costs often running into four times an indie film’s budget, they’re understandably hard to promote too. (...) Several European countries (and the USA as well) make films direct to DVD or TV, solving the problem of distributors and cinema audiences India does. Add to it the threat of piracy, and it’s anyone’s guess how much money such a film will make. All of which means studio backing is an indie filmmaker’s only hope. Most indie filmmakers say the problem with the Indian distributor is that he acts as the spokesperson for what the audience wants. The distributor filters films even before the audience gets a chance to see them. (...)

Eyes on the world

All our indie films benefit from doing the festival circuit before they come to India. (...) [Anupama] Chopra, a regular at Cannes for years, says that there is a palpable change in our perception on the world stage. "For years, we had an Indian presence just on the red carpet. (...) This year, at Cannes, there were five movies officially selected." (...) The scene is evolving in India, too. (...) With an eye on a growing need for filmmakers to be trained like those in the Sundance Screenwriters Lab, the National Film Development Corporation of India has launched a lab of its own. (...) Still, non-mainstream cinema needn’t and shouldn’t be a byword for boring. That would be the death of the genre. No movie or filmmaker, by default, becomes good, just because it is indie'.

Deepika Padukone: The new dream girl

[Archivio] Vi propongo l'articolo Deepika Padukone's easy appeal and raw energy mark her as the star of her generation of leading ladies, di Gayatri Jayaraman, pubblicato da India Today l'11 novembre 2013:

'Unlike many others of her age and in her position - image conscious, hesitant to reveal more than their carefully crafted public relations spin would have you see - she is intent on being perceived as honest. This rawness is integral to who Deepika is. The equation is simple for her: Since she cannot feign affection or establish subsistence-level niceties, it is necessary to seduce, and fall in love with, everyone. "There comes a time when I give myself so completely to the role that it becomes necessary. I am the character. And I must, in that process, fall in love with everyone I work with," she says. (...) Barely six years into the film industry, she is now an actor with Rs 700 crore riding on her. She has signed 11 top-end endorsement deals. (...) She has starred in three box-office blockbusters this year alone: Race 2 (Rs 110 crore), Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (Rs 184.79 crore), and Chennai Express (Rs 218.29 crore). She is on the cusp of a fourth hit with Sanjay Leela Bhansali's [Goliyon Ki Raasleela] Ram-Leela. (...)

Finding herself

Daughter of badminton champion Prakash Padukone, Deepika began modelling at eight. Her mother Ujjala Padukone, 55, says she always wanted to be number one at whatever she did but her new-found balance has astounded even the parents. "She's got her meticulousness from me, and the ability to tackle success from her father. But the sheer maturity with which she handles her career surprises us every day," Ujjala says. More so because, for a while in between, everyone thought she'd lost the plot. She rode the initial euphoria of the dream launch in Bachna Ae Haseeno (2008) and Love Aaj Kal (2009), but failed to capitalise on it. She struggled from Karthik Calling Karthik in 2010 to Desi Boyz in 2011, picking either bad roles or good roles in films that did badly. The tabloids referred to her as Ranbir Kapoor's current or ex - tags that seemed to gain precedence over any others that she could find at the time.

Towards the end of 2011, something suddenly changed. (...) Deepika has found her craft, and by extension, she's found herself. Shortly after her split with Ranbir, she bought a new sea-facing home in the heart of Mumbai's Prabhadevi area on the 26th floor of BeauMonde apartments. (...) The gated high-rise is not the typical choice for film stars, who usually live in Bandra or Juhu. Here, Deepika is the girl-next-door. She bumps into neighbours in the elevator or at the pool area. "I love the smells and sounds and feel of home," she says. Its gold walls, red velvet sofa, mahogany panelling and brass coffee tables (...) underline where she comes from. "Maturity is not becoming a different person, it's accepting the person you have always been in your core," she says. Ram-Leela director Bhansali sums up her friendly but elusive dream girl persona with his inimitable poetic flourish. "She is beautiful, graceful but pungent. Her face perched on that swan-like neck. She is colour. She is fire."

Love's lessons

Once someone enters Deepika's world, it is hard to exit. This perhaps springs from her self-professed "desperate need to be loved". "I cannot stand conflict and I will do anything to get past it," she says. (...) It's a remark that explains why she mends relationships with a vengeance. Deepika has stayed friends with all exes, and continues to work with them. (...) "When you're in a relationship, you take so much from each other. I believe people come into your life for a reason," she says. She describes Ranbir as a "positive influence" and adds that her relationships have changed her in small ways, making her more certain of what she wants in a partner. "But it's not like I keep a checklist. That would be like grocery shopping for a mate," she says. All she once dreamed of was a man who would be tall, dark, and handsome. Today, someone who is genuine and honest is the key.

Ask about her Ram-Leela co-star Ranveer Singh and she says the world has a problem with a man and a woman hanging out. "Every dinner date isn't a relationship. Feelings take time to develop, and the world does not give actors that time," she says, before hastening to add, "I have never met anyone quite like Ranveer in the industry though. He's so true to himself, so unaffected. He has also been a very positive influence in my life. He does his own thing, I do mine." Make of that statement whatever you will. (...)

World in her stride

Deepika's confidence is borne out of holding her failures as dear as her successes. She takes good natured ribbing about less successful roles in her stride. Chandni Chowk to China (2009), she admits, was "disastrous" but her action sequences from the film have still made it to her showreel. "Why do you need a showreel at all?" asks director Homi Adajania, with whom she is shooting Finding Fanny, and who has overheard snatches of the conversation. "Hollywood jaana hai na (I have to go to Hollywood, after all)," Deepika replies naughtily. (...)

The role that Deepika most identifies with is Naina from Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani - socially awkward as a child, conventional in her beliefs. "If I were to break out, that is the way in which I would," she says, referring to Naina's post-intermission transformation. Roles that personify who she is at heart, her life, and her struggles are the ones she best identifies with. "Women come up to me after my films and tell me that they can connect with me," she says. "This feedback has become vital for me - this link with them, and with myself".'

Southscope ottobre 2013 : Kajal Aggarwal

La rivista specializzata in cinematografie del Sud dell'India Southscope compie il suo quarto anniversario e festeggia proponendo un bel servizio fotografico della star telugu - tamil Kajal Aggarwal. All'interno anche un interessante intervista al regista Mysskin (Nandalala) e un lungo articolo dedicato all'attore Rana Daggubati. Dal sito ufficiale della rivista è possibile visionare un anteprima del numero attualmente in edicola. Buona lettura!

E - Magazine Ottobre 2013

Shah Rukh Khan e Deepika Padukone: Brunch 18 agosto 2013

Chennai Express al botteghino corre come un treno, e la coppia Shah Rukh Khan-Deepika Padukone in questi giorni è ovunque. Vi segnalo l'intervista concessa dai due attori a Vir Sanghvi, pubblicata oggi da Brunch, e un video. Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone in conversation with Vir Sanghvi:

'You are always held up as a classic example of an outsider in an industry that is now dominated by families. And you got to the top. You stayed at the top. But you are also an outsider in the Mumbai sense. You are from Delhi but you have conquered Mumbai.

Shah Rukh: I like to be a bit humble and say, I have conquered the hearts of people around the world and India. The city doesn’t matter. (...) I don’t want my children to get stardom as an heirloom. They need to do their stuff. I will be proudest if they don’t become actors. I will be proud if they do. It’s their choice. I don’t want to start with the family business of Khans. There are enough Khans in the industry, we don’t need another one, unless I change my name to something else, maybe Arora.

You are known across the world as a symbol of manhood. You are giggling?

Shah Rukh: I am personally very shy, even in films the stuff I do, I have trouble doing it. My actor friends will tell you. Deepika will tell you. My concept of manhood anyway is different. The more gentle you are with women, in behaviour, treatment, physicality, the more macho you are. I am like that. I have no problems in letting a lady know I will take care of you. And, I will not take care of you by saying, roses are red, violets are blue, and I will smash anybody who looks at you. I will look after you, I will hold your hand, I will open the door, I will feed you. I was teaching my son how to behave with women. My wife got very upset thinking I was teaching him other stuff. The only thing I told him - the less you have to stand in a crowd with boys to tease one girl, the more manly you will be. Manly is the gentlest, kindest and sweetest you can be to ladies'.

The new brand of Bollywood horror films

Vi segnalo l'articolo The new brand of Bollywood horror films, di Amrah Ashraf, pubblicato da Brunch il 5 maggio 2013. In copertina un truce Saif Ali Khan in versione cacciatore di zombie.

'Most ’80s horror films were almost exclusively made for the wolf-whistling, scare-seeking male. “People lined outside theatres for my movies because they were entertaining,” says Shyam Ramsay, who comes from the family that made India’s first zombie movie Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche (1972), and also worked on other horror hits like Darwaza (1978), Purana Mandir (1984), Veerana (1988) and Purani Haveli (1989). “I sold my movies on sex and bhatakti aatmas [wandering spirits].” So popular were the Ramsays’ smutty scarefests that by the end of the decade, it was impossible for audiences to expect anything else from a horror movie. No other filmmaker wanted to dirty their hands with the genre, until Ram Gopal Varma made Raat (1992) and Vikram Bhatt made Raaz (2002).

In contrast, the new batch of movies actually makes horror sound cool. There are no (...) sinister watchmen, (...) no dense jungles and definitely no skeletons. This time, the locations are real, the scenarios are believable, the details authentic. “The reason Ragini MMS (2011) worked was because it was marketed like a date movie with supernatural elements,” says Suparn Varma, director of Aatma. “People bought the plot because they could believe it. Couples do go to hotels on date nights. They just don’t expect it to become a threesome with a ghost! This movie made them believe that it could happen to them.” And that’s probably the biggest difference. The horror fantasy is rooted deeply enough in reality to make it seem plausible. (...) In Go Goa Gone, three friends on a trip to Goa realise that what they’re actually being attacked by are zombies! "You forget that it’s a movie and start relating it to your life,” says Raj Nidimoru, one half of director duo Raj & DK and maker of Go Goa Gone. “That is when horror grips you and puts you on the edge. Like they say, truth is stranger and scarier than fiction.”

What’s in a tagline?

The next time you watch a horror movie, note the tagline. It will feature terms like ‘zom-com’, ‘supernatural-thriller’, ‘psych-thriller’, ‘thriller-drama’ and ‘neo-noir’. No one seems to be marketing simple scares anymore, and it’s all because horror has become more than vengeful monsters and bloody rampages. (...) Incidentally when Kannan Iyer, director of Ek Thi Daayan, started working on the script 10 years ago, he never saw it as a horror film. He saw it only as a suspense drama. “I still don’t know if it falls in the horror genre,” Iyer says. (...) “But that’s the thing; horror has evolved so much in the last 10 years that it has sub-genres now.” Suparn Varma explains that the taglines are a reflection of how horror movies aren’t just about horror anymore. They’re also about drama, action, suspense and even comedy today. “You make a movie for an audience - the ones that expect a ghost and the ones that expect a story - you cannot afford to alienate any one group,” he says. “You have to balance both sensibilities. And what is real is never one-dimensional. It is always layered and so are these movies.”

Fright choice, baby (...)

There’s a new crop of directors who’ve dared to experiment with the genre. (...) "I wanted my first film to be different. That’s why I worked on this idea for 10 years," he [Iyer] says. "When Emraan [Hashmi] heard the script, he loved it and when filmmaker Ekta Kapoor heard it, she wanted to start immediately." Iyer also explains that casting and roping in A-list backers have been the most efficient tools in raising the profile of what was once a B-grade genre. (...) Director-producer Mahesh Bhatt begs to differ. He believes that the star cast is inconsequential. “Emraan Hashmi was the lead in Raaz 3 and Ek Thi Daayan. Yet, Ek Thi... could not manage a decent opening,” he says. He believes that the only formula that works today is mass appeal. “Ek Thi Daayan was a good movie but it was made for a critical audience. Raaz 3 clicked with the public because it had everything that a filmgoer wants - strong script, good music, believable horror, desire, obsession and sex.”

Ghost in the machine (...) 

“If you can’t plant the seed of doubt in your audience’s minds, you’ve failed as a horror filmmaker,” says Iyer. There’s no room for grave errors (pun intended) and the best way to avoid them is with technology. While Ramsay and his generation had to rely on tacky make-up and poor computer graphics (remember Do Gaz Zameen’s cartoonish zombies?), the new filmmakers happily deploy cutting-edge computer graphics (CG), customised prosthetics, a dedicated visual effects team, 3D and Dolby sound to make the supernatural look perfectly natural. (...) "For Aatma, the CG artists started working with me months before we started shooting," Suparn Varma recalls. "Bad graphics mean that your audience will walk out of the movie laughing instead of being petrified." He also used Dolby surround sound to create the necessary atmospherics. (...) Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who played a menacing spirit in the film, has a good laugh too: "If you thought I was scary in Aatma, the credit should go to the technical team. They made a docile man like me look so demonic on screen." (...) For Go Goa Gone, the filmmakers needed realistic versions of the undead monsters we know from Hollywood flicks. “We knew we couldn’t fool the audience with amateur stuff. The zombies had to look convincing,” says Raj. So they used prosthetics. The duo spent a lot of time storyboarding the film just to understand where they could pull off the look using just prosthetics and where they needed computer graphics.

The future looks scary

That is what it takes to make a supernatural movie these days. Everything from background score, music, lights, colour-grading [the colour tone in which the film is set], to ambient sound is thoroughly studied. “A still shot with no action can scare the audience if the background score kicks in just before or after the audience expects it,” says Suparn Varma. It explains why there are now big names backing the genre. Vishal Bhardwaj and Ekta Kapoor produced Ek Thi Daayan. (...) Raj & DK, on the other hand, have Saif Ali Khan as the producer of their film'.

Vedi anche Zombie e vampiri alla conquista di Bollywood

Aamir Khan: Time 29 aprile 2013

Il numero del 29 aprile 2013 di Time è dedicato alle cento persone più influenti del pianeta. Il numero prevede sette diverse copertine, una delle quali è dedicata ad Aamir Khan. Aamir rientra nella categoria pionieri, occupa la 48esima posizione ed è introdotto da una breve presentazione firmata da A.R. Rahman:

'About 13 years ago, Aamir Khan, the producer and lead actor of the Bollywood film Lagaan, was sitting outside my studio as I was writing the film’s main choral theme. After he heard it, he came in with moist eyes. “A.R., what a great feeling this is,” he said. “My movie is made now!” I saw a childlike honesty in his eyes. In a world of false diplomacy and evasiveness, Aamir is a straightforward man. A man of his word. His movies are commercial successes - Lagaan was nominated for an Academy Award - but they also display a sense of social responsibility: they tackle important themes, like poverty and education. His TV show, Satyamev Jayate, is part journalism and part talk show, and it confronts India’s deepest social ills, from sexual abuse to caste discrimination. He uses his gifts as a charmer to give his audience the most bitter medicine. Hypnotized, we take it without complaint. That’s Aamir’s magic at work. Satyamev Jayate was not intended to provide solutions but to ask hard questions, the kind society is often reluctant to address. By showing the courage to ask those questions, Aamir has started a movement that will help change the world in which Indians live'.

 

Southscope tamil settembre 2012: Jeeva & Pooja Hegde

Nella copertina tamil di Southscope sovrasta l'attore Jiiva dietro la sua maschera di super eroe, affiancato dall'attrice kannada Pooja Hegde, sua co-protagonista nel tanto atteso Mugamoodi. Il film, da ieri uscito nelle sale del sud dell'India, sta dividendo il pubblico e i critici con recensioni alquanto contrastanti. Il regista è Mysskin, autore del commovente Nandalala (2010) e del celebrato action movie Ajanthey (2008). Maggiori info su Mugamoodi qui.

Southscope telugu settembre 2012: Nagarjuna & Nayantara

Southscope propone questo mese una doppia copertina, Nella versione telugu la rivista mette in primo piano Nagarjuna e Nayantara attualmente impegnati nelle riprese di Love Story. All'interno una lunga intervista a SS Rajamouli, il regista di Eega, sorprendente film fantasy da poco uscito nelle sale indiane che ha scatenato un autentico vortice di curiosità e si vocifera di un possibile sequel...

Trisha & Rana Daggubati : Southscope Agosto 2012

La romantica copertina di Southscope di agosto è dedicata a Trisha e Rana Daggubati, i due attori proprio in questi giorni sembrano confermare le voci della loro relazione. Un lungo articolo è inoltre dedicato a Sekar Kammula, regista di Leader, film mi debutto di Rana, attualmente impegnato nelle riprese del suo nuovo lavoro, Life is Beautiful, atteso per il 2012.

Southscope luglio 2012 : Allu Arjun

Uno stiloso (e sempre più palestrato) Allu Arjun si aggiudica la copertina del numero di Southscope di luglio. All'interno articoli dedicati a Prabhu Deva, che festeggia il successo del suo Rowdy Rathore e lascia indiscrezioni sulla sua vita sentimentale, e a Silambarasan giovane stella del cinema tamil, ma soprattutto gli scatti del matrimonio più chiacchierato nello stardom telugu: quello tra il sex symbol Ram Charan (figlio del celebre attore Cheranjeevi) e la sua invidiatissima promessa sposa Upasana.

Shahid Kapoor, uncut

La copertina del numero del 24 giugno 2012 di Brunch è dedicata a Shahid Kapoor. Vi segnalo l'intervista concessa da Shahid a Tavishi Paitandy Rastogi, Shahid Kapoor, uncut:

'He isn’t the easiest star to deal with. Or so say many people who have worked with him. He has the reputation of being ‘difficult.’ And he doesn’t even try to defend himself. But in this interview, actor Shahid Kapoor finally comes clean. Blame it on youth or sudden fame, he says. He promises to improve, to loosen up... (...) Here’s the man. Coming clean. Completely:

Reclusive, arrogant, difficult, snobbish... what’s with this reputation?

(Laughs) I really don’t know. I know I have a reputation that is not so flattering, but I guess I owe it to just being a private person. I don’t mean anyone harm and I’m not being mean. I just don’t socialise much, I don’t party too much, I don’t know what to say to the media if I’m not talking about a film that I am doing, so yeah, maybe I am perceived as a snob. But I assure you, I am working hard to improve all this.

Come on, isn’t "being private" the best excuse for being "difficult" or maybe "temperamental"?

Okay, let’s put it in perspective. Yes, I agree I wasn’t very easy going by temperament. But remember, I was just 22 when I started out. Think about it, I was fresh from a regular middle-class family, with no "star type" background and I was suddenly thrown into the limelight; it was a big thing. I was overwhelmed. If that wasn’t enough, I got into a serious, very public relationship. Fame hit me suddenly. But by nature, I was rather shy and an introvert. Add to it the fact that my father is Pankaj Kapur, who is the most serious and focused actor. So, of course I didn’t know any better. Taking things seriously was the only way I knew. Now, I am learning that is not the only way to be. Sure, you can loosen up. I think I’m going back in time now - from a man to a boy.

You were very young when you came into the industry, but your directors seemed to feel that you were opinionated. You interfered with their filmmaking. And your co-stars felt you were unfriendly and arrogant.

I don’t know if I can call it interfering but I sure was sceptical about a lot of things. I was new and didn’t want to take too many risks. And fortunately or unfortunately, I was also working with a lot of new filmmakers. So yes, I was apprehensive. And I did ask questions and gave my opinions. That, I am sure, would have created some discomfort. About being arrogant with co-stars, I blame it on my being a great boyfriend. I was in a four-and-a half-year long relationship and was very committed. I did not find any reason nor did I have the time to socialise or make friends otherwise. Now, I have learnt better. And I shall not be the most wonderful boyfriend. (Laughs).

You regret your relationship with Kareena Kapoor?

(Smiles) I don’t look back. I am happy the way things happened and the way things are now. I am in a very good space. That’s all that matters. (...) To clear the air, I haven’t been in a serious relationship in the last two years.

You’ve also created a lot of controversies with your co-stars, what with calling Vidya Balan fat or being at Priyanka Chopra’s house in shorts during the Income Tax raid...

Vidya first. I have to get this straight today. I never, never called her fat. It wasn’t a misquote. In fact, there was no quote at all. I don’t know where that came from. I am far too cultured to be disrespectful to a woman. I wouldn’t and I didn’t. And Priyanka, yeah, I was at her place. We live in the same building. When she heard of the raid, she called me because I am a friend and I was the closest at the time, and I went. And I was in my shorts and T-shirt. Something that I was wearing at home. What was I expected to do? Change into my best suit and welcome the IT guys? For heaven’s sake, why did my shorts become such a big deal? I wasn’t standing there naked! (...)

Talking of failures, Mausam would have been a bad hit...

You know, any rejection is heart breaking, but when that rejection comes after two years of unconditional love and nurturing, it becomes really sour. Mausam was just that. We worked on it for two years. Unfortunately, we got just two months to do post-production and I think that took a toll. Yes, I agree it could have been much shorter. A two-hour, 50-minute film just doesn’t work today. But when I look back, I feel bad, but I am glad I did the film. It gave me two years of blissful family time. Something that I had missed always.

You keep calling yourself an "outsider" but both your parents are actors...

... but not in the "commercial" sense of the word, right? Mom was essentially a theatre person, she did some films and TV mainly. Dad was never very mainstream. And my upbringing was never the flamboyant ‘actor ka beta’ [figlio di attori] type. In fact, far from it.

What was it like?

Very, very middle class. My parents were separated. I lived with my mother in Delhi for the first 10 years of my life and studied in Gyan Bharti Public School. I was very close to my maternal grandfather. Those were tough days. I have never lived in a house that was mine. I have always lived in rented accommodation. There were days when we didn’t have enough money to fill petrol. So we walked. I was also conscious about the fact that I was the only son of a single mother, so there was this huge sense of responsibility. I think that’s where my being an introvert comes from. I was very conscious of what to do and what not to do. It wasn’t really a carefree childhood.

Did you miss your father?

Somewhere I tried to understand. Dad was in Mumbai, and at that time, it wasn’t the easiest thing to travel to Delhi at the drop of a hat. Taking a flight wasn’t the cheapest option and travel was difficult. Of course I had my insecurities and vulnerable moments. But in hindsight, it also made me more responsible. And somehow, more positive. I treated it like a problem... "dad isn’t around, period! So what is the way to get past it?" - that was my attitude. I didn’t sit and wallow in it. That was the time I grew up suddenly - from a boy to a man.

Your relationship with your parents also gets talked about often...

It does. And as casually as anything else. People should be a little more sensitive about things... For me, it is complicated. I don’t have a regular happy family like most people. My parents are separated, my dad married someone else and so did my mom. All my siblings are from my parents’ other marriages. So yes, it is complicated and I don’t like talking about it or explaining this to everybody. But all this doesn’t stop us from being close to each other. I am very close to both my parents. And my siblings are far younger than I am, so I am like their father. A lot of times I know questions are being asked and things are written just for kicks. So I don’t respond. Especially when it’s speculation.

When did you learn to dance ?

Will you believe it, I was a bathroom dancer till my college years. Then I somehow joined Shiamak Davar’s troupe and it all started. And till recently, I believed that I was a great dancer, till my brother Ishaan called me “passé” and showed me some new steps. Man! I wanted to run to save my job!

So who is the real Shahid? And why don’t we see him more often?

I am a good boy. Sweet. I love to chill. I have a select set of friends, am big on house music, love Goa. I don’t read much. Though that is one habit I am trying to inculcate. But the last time I read a book with great interest (...), I turned vegetarian! So it’s tricky, I wouldn’t want to give up too much.

The lover boy and his leading ladies:

Kareena Kapoor - Amazingly talented. All the appreciation she is getting now has been long overdue.

Vidya Balan - (...) She is a very fine actor and a wonderful co-star. And wow! Hasn’t she rediscovered herself? And how!

Priyanka Chopra - Very talented, very sharp, positive and a team player. One of the best co-stars you could have.

Sonam Kapoor - Great fun to work with. She taught me all about clothes. In fact a lot of what I wear even now was suggested by her.

Anushka Sharma - (...) She is ready with her lecture on any and everything. I thought, being a senior, I would tell her how to go about things, but damn, I didn’t even get a chance. Good fun and a great actress.

They make the best films. I love these guys:

Imtiaz Ali - One of the finest talents in the film industry. He is a genius of a filmmaker.

Vishal Bhardwaj - Will give my right arm and leg to work with him again. He is the master of the game. Am waiting eagerly for the next film we can work on.

Pankaj Kapur - By far the finest actor in the industry. I’ve learnt so much from him. In fact most of what I know in terms of anything comes from him. He is unbelievably focused.

Southscope Giugno 2012: Karthi Sivakumar

Il numero di Southscope di giugno di regala un sorridente, e sempre adorabile, Karthi Sivakumar. Il fratello minore della star Surya  in pochi anni è riuscito a collezionare un'invidiabile lista di successi tra cui Naan Mahaan Alla, ParutiVeeran e Paiyaa. Nel 2011 Karthi ha interpretato il primo remake del telugu Vikramarkudu (Siruthai) nuovamente portato sullo schermo da Akshay Kumar  (Rowdy Rathore). Dopo un lunghissimo anno sabbatico finalmente il pubblico può festeggiare il ritorno di uno degli volti più amati del cinema tamil, sta infatti uscendo il suo nuovo lavoro, Saguni, il cartellone per il prossimo 06 luglio.

Southscope Maggio 2012 : Ajit Kumar

La star del mese di Southscope Magazine è Ajit Kumar, veterano attore tamil conosciuto principalmente per i suoi thriller oscuri, action movies "da macho" o glitterati successi commerciali come il recente Mankhata. Ajit ha annunciato l'uscita del suo nuovo film Billa 2, secondo capitolo del fortunato film d'azione vagamente ispirato a Don.

Ram Charan : Southscope Aprile 2012

L'affascinante cavaliere impavido di Magadheera sovrasta la copertina del numero di aprile di Southscope, l'attore è attualmente impegnato nella promozione del suo nuovo film Racha (che il titolo sia un'unione delle prime sillabe del suo nome.. RAm CHAran?) action movie commerciale sullo stile dei successi di Mahesh Babu e NTRjr. I numerosi trailer circolanti in rete promettono al pubblico ampie dosi di musica e intrattenimento. 

Farhan Akhtar e Sonam Kapoor: HT Brunch Quarterly marzo-maggio 2012

Una coppia di figli d'arte per la prima volta insieme sul grande schermo. Bhaag Milkha Bhaag è il nuovo film di Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. Ad interpretarlo Farhan Akhtar e Sonam Kapoor. Il primo - attore, regista, produttore, eccetera - è figlio del poeta, sceneggiatore e paroliere Javed Akhtar; la seconda è figlia di Anil Kapoor. Nel 2010 Sonam, nel corso della sua partecipazione al programma televisivo Koffee with Karan, alla domanda 'Con chi ti piacerebbe uscire a cena?', rispose 'Con Farhan Akhtar, anche se è sposato'. Come biasimarla? Eccoli dunque sulla copertina del numero di marzo-maggio 2012 di Brunch Quarterly.

Vidya, Priyanka & Ranbir: Filmfare 14 marzo 2012

Vidya Balan, Priyanka Chopra e Ranbir Kapoor si offrono sulla copertina del prossimo numero di Filmfare in distribuzione il 14 marzo 2012.  La rivista sarà dedicata al fotodiario della 57ma edizione dei Filmfare Awards che ha avuto luogo a Mumbai lo scorso 29 gennaio. 

Kajol: Filmfare 1 febbraio 2012

La radiosa Kajol è il volto della copertina del numero di Filmfare distribuito il 1° febbraio nelle edicole indiane. L'attrice abbaglia con il suo inconfondibile sorriso, e il colore dell'abito indossato per il servizio fotografico suggerisce piacevoli ricordi. Gustiamoci una splendida Kajol in giallo nei video di Yeh Ladki Hai Allah e Suraj Hua Maddhan da Kabhi Kushi Kabhie Gham.

Tamannaah: Southscope marzo 2012

Dopo Shruti Haasan, lo scettro di cover girl della rivista cinematografica più venduta nel Sud dell'India passa a Tamannaah (Paiyya, 100% Love): la bellissima attrice e sex symbol è il volto del numero di marzo. Tra le interviste in primo piano, quella ad Aishwarya Rajinikanth e ad Hansika Motwani.