Cannes Film Festival: ‘Titane’ wins prestigious Palme d’Or award

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Cannes Film Festival: ‘Titane’ wins prestigious Palme d’Or award

The prestigious Cannes Film Festival culminated here on Saturday. The highlight of the event was French director Julia Ducournau’s film “Titane” winning the most prestigious award of the festival – Palme d’Or.

The French and Belgian co-production tells the tale of a young female killer who indulges in sexual activity with cars after surviving a traumatic car crash in her childhood.

The award was presented to her by American filmmaker Spike Lee, who made quite a stir by giving away the winner prematurely at the beginning of the ceremony. He later apologised for the slip up.

The second-most prestigious award of the festival, the Grand Prix, was a tie between Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s film “A Hero” and “Compartment No 6” directed by Juho Kuosmanen, French film director and screenwriter.

Amongst the other winners were Leos Carax, who won best Director award for his musical “Annette”.

Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve went home with the Best Actress award for her work in the film “The Worst Person In The World”.

Actor Caleb Landry won the Best Male Actor award for his role in “Nitram”.

Ravi Bhatia: Monsoon makes acting easy, more realistic

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Ravi Bhatia: Monsoon makes acting easy, more realistic

Actor Ravi Bhatia, who is currently seen as the protagonist in series, “Shukla the Tiger”, is gearing up for the release of his next series, “Margaon: The Closed File”. He feels that monsoon is a great time for artists.

“Monsoon awakens the artist inside you and lets you perform with lots of energy. I henceforth enjoy shooting during this time. As the monsoon makes acting easy and more realistic. Even if you work extra, you don’t feel tired at all,” Ravi tells IANS.

The season of rain also makes the foodie in Ravi crave for good food.

“Monsoon is one of my favourite seasons, it is the time when your heart and brain start feeling good. When it’s raining heavily outside, your heart definitely wants just two things, one is romance and the other is delicious, mouth-watering food. I’m a big foodie. So even if I’m shooting I make sure to arrange snacks for myself and people around me,” he says.

Ravi is known for featuring in television shows like “Jodha Akbar”, “Do Dil Bandhe Ek Dori Se” and “Ishq Subhan Allah”.

UP cop makes debut on big screen

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UP cop makes debut on big screen

A circle officer posted in Badaun district, Aniruddha Singh, is making his acting debut in the upcoming film “Bhuj-The Pride of India”, which stars Ajay Devgn and Sanjay Dutt in lead roles.

The 41-year-old police officer will play the role of Sanjay Dutt’s younger brother in the war drama, slated for release in August.

According to director Abhishek Dudhaiya, Singh’s personality on screen captures his ‘dedication’ to policing in real life.

“Despite being busy with shooting at the set and off-duty, Singh was constantly checking in with his colleagues. His role could have been longer but he decided to return to duty,” the director said.

Aniruddha Singh, who joined the force in 2001 as a sub-inspector, has been involved in the encounter of 26 criminals, including Naxalite Sanjay Kole who was wanted in five states.

He first caught the eye of a director, Shekhar Suri, while he was controlling the crowd during the shooting of Suri’s movie in Varanasi in 2016.

Singh said, “The director was apparently impressed with my moustache, my height and my personality. He offered me the role of a police inspector in his next movie ‘Dr Chakravarthy’ which was released in 2017.”

Since then, Singh, who hails from a farmer family in Jalaun, has acted in a web series and another movie “Guns of Banaras”. The release has been delayed due to the pandemic.

Badaun Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Sankalp Sharma said, “Singh has come up with many unique initiatives that have been helpful in controlling crime in the area. For instance, earlier this year, he helped residents of two villages in the region quit illicit liquor manufacturing and take up handicrafts and poultry. His team also encouraged families there to send their children to school.”

Vicky Kaushal shares painting of Lord Ganesha

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Vicky Kaushal shares painting of Lord Ganesha

Bollywood actor Vicky Kaushal took to social media on Sunday to flaunt a hidden talent of his. The actor, who enjoys painting as a hobby, shared a photograph of his latest creation, a painting of Lord Ganesha.

Vicky posted a photo on Instagram where he can be seen posing for the camera holding his painting with both hands. The Ganesha is painted in a shade of bright signal red with acrylic colour over a dark blue-green background.

Even though Vicky did not write in his post that he has made the painting himself but he hinted at the same by using emojis of an artist holding a paintbrush and a colour palette.

Meanwhile, the grapevine is abuzz with speculations whether Vicky Kaushal is secretly planning to tie the knot with his rumoured girlfriend Katrina Kaif. However, the rumoured lovebirds have not yet opened up on their relationship status to the media.

On the work front, Vicky will feature in upcoming films like Shashank Khaitan’s “Mr Lele”, Shoojit Sircar’s “Sardar Udham Singh”, Karan Johar’s “Takht”, Meghna Gulzar’s “Sam Bahadur” and Aditya Dhar’s directorial “The Immortal Ashwatthama”.

Tollywood reboots: Telugu film industry jumps back into action

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Tollywood reboots: Telugu film industry jumps back into action

Bollywood is still cagey about restarting shooting work despite restrictions easing, but the Telugu film industry has jumped back to action with gusto. Filmmakers are picking up projects where they left off before lockdown, to try and wrap up films for release without delay.

Big films such as “Ghani”, “F3”, “Lakshya” and “Major” have entered final schedules of shoot in the month of July.

Producer D. Suresh Babu, whose film “Narappa” is now set to release digitally, explains how the team planned shoots in a way so that everyone remained safe through the first and second wave.

“When we were shooting before the first wave, there was a village five kilometres away from where we were shooting and there was news that two people had got Covid. The whole unit left overnight. We had about four days left. If you see, Venky (the film’s hero Venkatesh Daggubati) has two looks — a bearded one and one without beard. Our idea was to finish portions with the bearded get-up first and come back. But the whole unit was so scared that we cancelled the shoot,” Suresh Babu tells in an interview.

He adds: “We waited through the first wave, and when normalcy was restored, we first shot portions where he had his beard. We took a break, and then started the parts where he didn’t have a beard. While we were closing up, the second wave was starting and we had bits and pieces to do, so with great caution we had to work on that.”

“The entire post production was done in the second wave. We were scared to go for background scores because those days, the cases were on a high. Things have now become better but again, we don’t know when things are going to be back to normal. One of the reasons why we decided to release it digitally is because we thought people are going to be safe at home. Why not sit and watch it at home?” Suresh Babu says.

Talking about priorities, Sharath Chandra, co-producer of the Adivi Sesh-starrer “Major”, says: “The top priority of any person is to finish the film because there is a lot of dependency on actors. People have to move out of projects and do new projects. So, I think the primary focus is to finish it. Release is something that will happen once theatres open. Of course, everyone wants to release their films when there is a safe environment.”

Actors have multiple film commitments and sometimes it is difficult to give away long dates or continuous hours of shoot to one film. In such a case, director Ramesh Verma, who is directing Ravi Teja’s next, “Khiladi”, says they make do with whichever artiste is present for shooting and let editing take care of the rest.

“We want to finish our shooting before the third wave. All films shooting have started now. We want to finish films as early as possible. If we have one actor available, we shoot with that actor and when the other actor is available, we shoot him. Then we combine the scenes in editing rooms. To finish the schedule in this pandemic, we are planning things in a different way,” says Ramesh, who recently announced the sequel to his film “Rakshasudu”.

Actress Shruti Haasan, who will soon head to Hyderabad for the shooting of her next Telugu project “Salaar”, reveals that she sped up her work at the beginning of the pandemic last year itself.

“I have been like that since Covid started. I am a producer’s daughter but I never acted like a producer’s daughter before and it was really during the pandemic that I was like ‘chalo chalo sunset se pehle yeh shot khatam kar dete hain (come on, let’s wrap up this shot before sunset)’. I just want to finish work and move on to the next thing. I want people to see my work. I have always valued my work but this phase has doubled that up in me. We’ve started realising the value of work, and the things we took for granted, like being on sets and having a film release on time,” she sums up.

Bring back the ‘Bolly good’ lip-synch fad in songs

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Bring back the ‘Bolly good’ lip-synch fad in songs

Hindi mainstream has served up a couple of songs lately that managed to grab eyeballs in an old-Bollywood way.

The movies that feature the respective songs are lined up for OTT release, but that hasn’t taken away the filmi touch. “Param sundari”, filmed on Kriti Sanon in “Mimi”, and “Chura ke dil mera 2.0” in “Hungama 2”, bringing back Shilpa Shetty, have been trending upon release within a span of days from each other.

The songs, dance numbers both, interestingly represent the two conflicting schools of thought in the music industry. “Param sundari” is an original song penned by Amitabh Bhattacharya and scored by AR Rahman for Shreya Ghoshal. “Churake dil mera 2.0” credits Anu Malik as composer and is a remix of an old hit the composer created on Rani Malik’s lyrics for the 1994 hit “Main Khiladi Tu Anari”.

These two numbers in no way herald a revival of Bollywood music, which in recent years has been weighed down by a new-age filmmaking approach that is reluctant to accommodate songs in the narrative. Film songs, as we know them in the traditional sense, have been gasping for survival overall.

Interestingly, these two songs seem to be doing what Salman Khan’s “Seeti maar” (“Radhe”) struggled to do earlier this year. At least, these numbers have got people taking note of Bollywood music again for what it’s worth, and not for star value or hype.

An interesting fact here is that “Mimi” and “Hungama 2” are films slated for OTT release. In other words, these films will cater to an audience that increasingly demands realism in entertainment more than larger-than-life absurdity. In this context, Hindi film songs, especially the lip-synched variety as these two numbers, have traditionally represented escapism.

If Hindi filmmakers are really looking for a way to revive films songs, the key perhaps lies in understanding that above notion. Film songs have to be served with a pinch of larger-than-life verve, no matter how realistic the film in question may be.

There is, after all, a reason why most film songs have failed to leave an impact in recent years. Most songs, barring item numbers, have been used as part of a film’s background score lately, thereby robbing these numbers of the obvious advantage of a star’s direct participation.

When a song is lip-synched by the star/s on the screen, the impact is immediate. It leaves a mark in the minds of millions of fans almost automatically when they see their favourite star/s ‘singing’ the song on screen.

Case in point: A sizeable chunk of comments about the “Mimi” and “Hungama 2” songs on the official YouTube pages are about Kriti Sanon’s dance or Shilpa Shetty’s yoga-fit look. The audience of any film — whether released on OTT or big screen — is mainly interested in the stars, and the star’s active participation will always draw preliminary attention beyond, which, of course, the song’s merit would decide its popularity.

GenNow filmmaking, especially when it creates films for direct-to-OTT release, has very little scope for old-Bollywood style, lip-synched numbers. Ninety per cent films nowadays, influenced by Hollywood-style realism of narration, don’t leave scope for lip-synch in songs.

So, songs in films are nowadays mostly blended with background score. Such songs do not leave an impact in the audience mind the way lip-synched songs would.

Which is an irony because, take a look at the most popular films songs in recent months and you discover they have all been lip-synched numbers. From “Burj khalifa” in “Laxmii” to “Nadiyon paar” in “Roohi”, recent hit songs bear testimony to this fact.

At a time when the rising indie music culture and the music video wave have overshadowed the film song, a dash of larger-than-life lip-synch could perhaps be the way out for the Hindi film song to find new life. It could be worth an experiment, trying to mix old-school song picturisation with new-age storytelling. Our filmmakers, after all, have been past masters at mix and remix.

Manjot Singh: Joined social media because of peer pressure

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Manjot Singh: Joined social media because of peer pressure

Actor Manjot Singh, who is geared up for the release of his upcoming web show “Chutzpah”, has revealed that he joined social media because of peer pressure.

“I guess I was a little late when I joined (social media). Once you get a hang of it, you start having that urge to get your account verified and make sure there is an increase in followers,” he said.

“So, that’s the pressure. The challenge is to maintain it and ensure that followers keep increasing. But now, honestly, I don’t think about it a lot,” he added.

“Chutzpah” talks about the world of the internet, social media, dating apps and long-distance relationships and its influence on youth.

Talking about the pros and cons of social media, Manjot said: “A few years ago, some fake news had appeared about me that I cut my hair. Being a Sardar, when I read this, I was shocked thinking that how can someone write something so personal without even knowing. Later, I realised these are pros and cons of social media. Even if you are right, you won’t be able to convince people on social media that you are right.”

“Chutzpah” also stars Varun Sharma, Gautam Mehra, Tanya Maniktala, Elnaaz Norouzi and Kshitij Chauhan. It will premiere on SonyLIV from July 23.a

Anupam Kher announces 519th film while flying above the Atlantc

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Anupam Kher announces 519th film while flying above the Atlantc

Actor Anupam Kher took to social media on Saturday to announce his 519th film. The actor announced the film while flying above Atlantc Ocean.

Although he did not share the film’s name or information about cast and crew, Kher promised fans that he would divulge details soon.

“Delighted to announce my 519th film while flying above the #AtlantcOcean at 36000 feet. God has been kind to me. It is so humbling to be able to reach this possibility. Of course, it is my hard work but it is also the blessings of millions of people, my fans, my followers on SM, my friends, my family, my elders,” Kher shared in an Instagram post.

“Also thanks to #IndianFilmIndustry and the film makers around the world for being so kind and generous to me. I feel special. But if my father was around he would have said, allah meherban toh gadhera pahalwan. will give you the details soon!!” he added.

On the work front, Kher will next be seen in films like “Happy Birthday”, “The Last Show”, “Mungilal Rocks” and “The Kashmir Files”.

Mimoh Chakraborty spends time e-learning

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Mimoh Chakraborty spends time e-learning

Actor Mimoh Chakraborty, son of veteran star Mithun Chakraborty, has been spending time e-learning various languages.

“Learning is a great process and keeps us in the present. It’s a great time to invest in learning something new and really taking time for ourselves. We are mostly in our homes and the web is our great friend now. Let’s take out time to figure out where we wish to go and keep adding to our armory all the necessary tools to get us there,” Mimoh said.

He added: “It can be software, data analysis, painting, communication, and just about anything and we would have a good time as well as we would be passionate about learning what we wish to.”

Mimoh had earlier shared he has taken up mixed martial arts and crossfit to stay in shape.

Aastha Gill says this is a golden time for all musical artistes

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Aastha Gill says this is a golden time for all musical artistes

Singer Aastha Gill says she feels blessed to be part of an era where independent music has grown and is still gaining momentum.

Aastha rose to fame with her collaborative works with Badshah such as “DJ Waley babu” and “Paani paani”, besides hits like “Buzz” or “Naagin” with Akasa among others.

“Our audience’s taste has evolved and people know what is going on worldwide. They know what sounds are in. People know how music is made. So, many people are learning that. I think this time that we have, I feel very blessed to be a part of this era where the indie scene has grown in India and I am a part of it,” Aastha told in an interview.

She added: “I wake up and I realise that I am blessed. There was a time when I used to listen to Alisha Chinai and the band Viva. Now I am here. At times it is difficult for me to believe that I have made it. But yes, this is a golden time for all artistes and everyone is doing their kind of work. I respect all Indian artistes who are putting out their flavour.”

Aastha will soon be seen in participating in the adventure reality TV show “Khatron Ke Khiladi” season 11, which will air on Colors.

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