Sai Pallavi clarifies after a row over her cow vigilantism remarks

Team TB
-
0
Sai Pallavi clarifies after a row over her cow vigilantism remarks

The continued backlash over Sai Pallavi’s comments in an interview looks to be having a significant influence on her.

Sai Pallavi has had enough of the love and hate on social media and has decided to put an end to it.

The ‘Fidaa’ actress has clarified what she actually meant by releasing a video.

Sai Pallavi on Saturday created a video in which she clarified the situation and expressed her feelings. “This is the first time getting on live and clarifying something,” she remarked in her video.

“This is also the first time I’m hesitant to voice my feelings because I’m afraid my words may be misunderstood.”

“I was recently asked if I am left or right supporter, and I responded unequivocally that I am neither. Before we identify ourselves with our views, I was aware that we should first be good human beings. I went on to expound on two of the points I made earlier, both of which had a significant impact on me and left me traumatized for days,” Sai Pallavi conveyed. “I must quote an incident, when I had a chance to speak to the director of ‘The Kashmir Files’, and expressed my dissatisfaction with the people’s suffering at the time. I said that I was traumatized for days together.”

“Being who I am, I would never minimize a tragedy such as the genocide and the generations of people who have been affected by it.”

Sai Pallavi later explained, “Having said that, I cannot forget the incident of a man being lynched, which obviously, had as much impact as the above incident on me”.

“I believe that violence in any form is unacceptable and that it is a big sin to commit it in the name of faith.

“This is all I had to say, but it was distressing to see so many people rationalizing the mob lynching incident on the Internet. I don’t believe any of us has the authority to take another person’s life. As a medical graduate, I think that all lives are valuable and equal.”

Sai Pallavi went on to explain, “I pray the day never comes when a child is afraid of his or her own individuality. I hope we aren’t moving in that direction. I recall chanting ‘All Indians are my brothers and sisters’ when I was 14 years old, and it stuck with me for the rest of my life.”

“It was also quite disappointing to find that a number of well-known people and websites had carried a fragment from a previous interview without having seen the entire interview or the sincerity of what was stated,” Sai Pallavi expressed.

“I’d like to take this occasion to express my gratitude to those who stood by me when I was feeling so alone and uncertain, unsure of what wrong I had done. It was uplifting to see so many individuals speaking up in favor of me. They seemed to recognize me for who I am. ‘Happiness, peace, and love to you all,” she said, as she ended the video.

Earlier, during her promotions for ‘Virata Parvam’, Sai Pallavi had stated that she views every inhumane act done in the name of religion as the same. But, the examples she had quoted in the interview, sparked much controversy. It appears that Sai Pallavi has clarified the situation, and the dispute may end now.

 

Box-office collections of Kamal Haasan-starrer ‘Vikram’ to touch Rs 350 cr mark

Team TB
-
0
Box-office collections of Kamal Haasan-starrer ‘Vikram’ to touch Rs 350 cr mark

Director Lokesh Kanakaraj’s action entertainer ‘Vikram’ continues to shatter records at the box office, even as it seems well placed to touch the magical figure of Rs 350 crores just from its theatrical collections this weekend.

Talking to IANS, Entertainment industry tracker Sreedhar Pillai said, “The gross theatrical collections of ‘Vikram’ is expected to touch the Rs 350 crore mark this weekend.”

On Friday, the team of ‘Vikram’ organized a huge success meeting to mark the all-time records the film was smashing.

The event was attended by a host of dignitaries, including director Lokesh, actor Kamal Haasan, music director Anirudh, and Udhayanidhi Stalin.

Speaking on the occasion, Udhayanidhi, whose Red Giant Movies holds the film’s distribution rights for Tamil Nadu disclosed, “We knew the film would become a hit but we did not know it would become such a big hit. We have entered the third week and just the share itself is Rs 75 crores. So far, no Tamil cinema has earned so much. The film is still going strong. As far as I know, the pressure for tickets to this film is going to be there for another five to six weeks. ”

Sanjay Wadhwa, the Managing director of AP International, which is the international distribution partner of the film, said, the film had broken records in every single country.

“I will be glad to inform you that overseas collections of ‘Vikram’ will touch Rs 100 crores by Monday,” he informed.

In Kerala, the film, which was distributed by producer Shibu Thameens, has already made Rs 35 crores as of Friday, the highest for a Tamil film in Kerala so far.

Industry experts say that the film is going strong and the box office collections could go up to being as high as Rs 375 crores.

Says Sreedhar Pillai, “I see ‘Vikram’s’ gross box office collections being anywhere between Rs 350 – Rs 375 crore.”

The veteran tracker says that these are gross collections and that apart from this, all other rights including OTT and satellite rights of the film had been pre-sold for a sum of Rs 150 – 175 crore.

The film has come as a godsend to both the film industry and theatres, which had been hit hard by the pandemic. The film’s trailblazing performance, experts opine, will give a big boost to the film business.

Varun Dhawan asks contestant Mohd Faiz to playback for him on ‘Superstar Singer 2

Team TB
-
0
Varun Dhawan asks contestant Mohd Faiz to playback for him on ‘Superstar Singer 2

Bollywood actor Varun Dhawan requested contestant Mohd Faiz to sing playback for him on ‘Superstar Singer 2’.

Varun is coming as a celebrity guest for the promotion of his movie ‘Jug Jugg Jeeyo’ along with Kiara Advani and Anil Kapoor.

Contestant Mohd Faiz along with captain Sayli performed on RD Burman’s popular songs like ‘Tumse Milke’ and ‘O Haseena Zulfon Wali’.

In fact, after listening to Mohd Faiz’s rendition of the song ‘Tumse Milke’, actors Varun Dhawan and Kiara Advani went on the stage to dance to this romantic track.

Varun shares: “I found my singer and I want you to sing for my movie one day. Your voice is superb and the way you add a new zing to these old retro songs is really commendable.”

‘Superstar Singer 2’ airs on Sony Entertainment Television.

 

Payal Rohatgi and Sangram Singh to tie the knot on July 9

Team TB
-
0
Payal Rohatgi and Sangram Singh to tie the knot on July 9

Payal Rohatgi and her boyfriend Sangram Singh are to get married in Agra on July 9, the actress confirmed.

The couple is to have a three-day-long big fat wedding at Jaypee Palace in Agra.

As excited as ever, Payal said, “Agra is known for the Taj Mahal, but there are many Hindu temples in Agra that we don’t know about. I would love to find out about them. Agra is known for Mughal architecture. I want people to know Agra for the beauty of Hindu temples. Our wedding is an opportunity to be rung together people who unite to achieve greater goals. That’s why we are getting married there.”

Adding to that Sangram Singh said, “I met Payal for the first time on Agra Mathura Road. It was destiny. We are getting married in July at Jaypee Palace, Agra. The Mehendi, Haldi, and Sangeet ceremonies will take place over three days. We are getting married as per Hindu custom replete with all rituals in an age-old temple in Agra in the presence of our family members.”

“Agra is known for being the symbol of love. Here we choose to be united in a temple with the deities and elders blessing us,” he further added.

The couple plan to hold receptions in Delhi, Mumbai as well as Haryana post the wedding for their extended family.

Payal Rohatgi and Sangram Singh will tie the knot on July 9 in Agra.

Aakanksha Singh goes gangsta: ‘Rangbaaz’ has been an interesting journey

Team TB
-
0
Aakanksha Singh goes gangsta: ‘Rangbaaz’ has been an interesting journey

Aakanksha Singh who was last seen in the Amitabh Bachchan Ajay Devgn starrer ‘Runway 34’ is busy shooting for the new season of the upcoming web series ‘Rangbaaz 3’.

The story and her character are inspired by Hena Shahab, the wife of gangster-turned-politician Mohammad Shahabuddin, and the actress went through extensive preparation for her role.

Confirming the same, Aakanksha said, “Since I play a politician’s character in the web series, I had to do extensive research by reading everything. I also watched a few interviews, documentaries, and videos available every day for four to five hours before I started shooting for the show.”

“The idea was not just to look like my character but also imbibe the character traits to make it look authentic on screen. Overall, working on ‘Rangbaaz’ has been an interesting journey,” she added.

The upcoming season will also be featuring actors like Vineet Kumar Singh, and Rajesh Tilang in pivotal roles.

With ‘Dhaakad’ earning just Rs 2.58 cr, has Kangana ceased to be a bankable star?

Team TB
-
0
With ‘Dhaakad’ earning just Rs 2.58 cr, has Kangana ceased to be a bankable star?

Bollywood films may not be witnessing the best of times at the box-office but the real shocker comes from the Kangana Ranaut-starrer ‘Dhaakad’ which managed to earn an embarrassing figure of just Rs 2.58 crore as per ‘Bollywood Hungama’ against its monumental reported budget of Rs 85 crore.

The film, which was released in cinemas on May 20, clashed head-on with the Kartik Aaryan-starrer ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’. While the horror-comedy sequel had a flying start at the box office heading for lifetime collections of close to Rs 180 crore, ‘Dhaakad’ failed to pull in the crowd despite decent marketing and buzz.

Independent film trade analyst Sumit Kadel explains the reasons behind the debacle that ‘Dhaakad’ has turned out to be. In his opinion, ‘Dhaakad’ alone is not a standalone story to have been subjected to such poor turnout. There’s a pattern, big-budget films are getting severely bombed by the audience in cinemas.

Sumit told IANS, “Post-pandemic, many big films led by big stars like ‘Anek’ and ‘Jayeshbhai Jordaar’ tanked at the box office badly. They failed to collect even Rs 15 crore in their lifetime. The same happened with ‘Dhaakad’, the audience was not at all interested in watching a woman-centric Hollywood style kind of action film.”

But, there’s a more worrying trend that’s forming the undercurrent and it’s definitely not good news for Kangana. The actress’ stardom seems to be fading, as Sumit says, “Kangana’s box-office pull is going downwards with each passing year.”

He however is quick to point out an exception, “‘Manikarnika’ (Kangana’s directorial debut) was an exception which was an average grosser.” Come to think of it, “her last clean hit was ‘Tanu Weds Manu Returns’ way back in 2015,” Sumit furnishes the reason supporting his analysis.

“It’s not that ‘Dhaakad’ was an out and out bad cinematic experience, the film boasted of sleek action sequences, tout camerawork, and a tasteful color palette but the biggest pillar that a film rests on – the story, turned out to the be the weakest one for the film.”

“Audience wants to watch entertainers which can justify their big-screen experience and their hard-earned money”, the trade analyst firmly puts across his point maintaining that it’s the age of good content coupled with high production value.

For all said and done, entertainment reigns supreme for the film to work at the box office, “High on content films with less entertainment value and social message kind of films would not work at the box office unless the content is extraordinary like ‘The Kashmir Files’,” he adds.

As for ‘Dhaakad’ the damage seems to have been compounded just because of the makers’ misplaced confidence, “They were so confident about their product that they didn’t even sell their film to digital and satellite distributors, and now looking at such poor performance of the film nobody is willing to buy it even scrap value,” Sumit concludes.

 

It was tough for me to come to terms with being dropped, but I was very bull-headed: Karthik

Team TB
-
0
It was tough for me to come to terms with being dropped, but I was very bull-headed: Karthik

India cricketer Dinesh Karthik has revealed how difficult it was for him to come to terms with being dropped from the India team, adding that he had made it a big issue of getting his spot back, practicing endlessly, and desperately to again wear the jersey.

Karthik smashed a superb 27-ball 55 in the fourth T20I against South Africa at Rajkot as India defeated the tourists by 82 runs to level the series at 2-2 on Friday night.

Talking about his return to the India side after being in the wilderness for three years, Karthik said, “I was very bull-headed that I want to play… that I want to play this (T20) World Cup (in Australia this year). I think it is very important in my life because I’ve been around for so long, I know what it feels to be dropped (from the Indian side).

“I also know how valuable it is to play for Team India, so I wanted to do something special and luckily Royal Challengers Bangalore gave me the platform, the role that I really enjoyed doing at the backend. I practiced for it, I worked for it and see it come through and then obviously get the love and affection from everyone,” said Karthik in interaction with Hardik Pandya on BCCI.TV.

Karthik added that now that he was being made to feel secure in the side, his next aim was to help India lift the elusive T20 World Cup trophy when the tournament takes place in Australia in October-November this year.

“Now that I’m here, I want to be that guy, who can help Team India win those tough games. I want to be in that situation, stay and do something special every time. I want to do this because I’ve seen this team from the outside. I know how tough it is to be a part of this team… the kind of competition there is, the kind of talent there is in the dressing room is phenomenal. So, just to be around this dressing room, the vibes are very different, I want to enjoy it a lot,” said Karthik.

Karthik said that he had envisaged match situations on the flight from Visakhapatnam to Rajkot, which helped him play the match-defining hurricane knock in the fourth T20I.

“From Vizag to Rajkot we had this conversation about how to counter certain situations. As a middle-order batter, you need to be very aware of who you can target, and how you can do that. That helped, for a start, and obviously, when I’m batting with you (Pandya), it’s very comfortable. It was a very important innings for us because obviously being 1-2 down and then dominating the first 10-12 overs of this game. They put us under a lot of pressure. It was a hard wicket to bat on so I though let us put the pressure back on them. And the way we batted was important,” added Karthik.

Ajayan Vincent named cinematographer of ‘Gentleman 2’

Team TB
-
0
Ajayan Vincent named cinematographer of ‘Gentleman 2’

K T Kunjumon, who is now producing the sequel to his blockbuster ‘Gentleman’, has named Ajayan Vincent as the cinematographer of ‘Gentleman 2’.

This isn’t the first time that Ajayan Vincent, who has worked on big-scale projects like ‘Annamayya’ and ‘Rudhramadevi’, will be working with K T Kunjumon. Ajayan was the cinematographer of Kunjumon’s earlier film ‘Ratchagan’ as well.

Already, the producer had announced M. M. Keeravani, who had scored the music for ‘Baahubali’, as his film’s music director and had announced A. Gokul Krishna as its director.

Kunjumon, who is known for having introduced ace director Shankar to the film industry, has already disclosed that Nayanthara Chakravarthy and Priya Lal will be playing the female leads in ‘Gentleman 2’.

Sources say that with the names of the director, music director, cameraman, and heroines having been announced, the producer is bound to shortly announce the name of the hero and the other members of the cast.

‘DID L’il Masters 5′ contestants’ mom fetes Sonali with mogra garland

Team TB
-
0
‘DID L’il Masters 5′ contestants’ mom fetes Sonali with mogra garland

Bollywood actress Sonali Bendre, who will be seen as a celebrity guest on ‘DID L’il Masters 5’, felt overwhelmed by the gesture of one of the contestants Sagar’s mother after his performance.

She presented mogre ka gajra (garland) to Sonali while saying that in their culture, they offer these flowers to God, and that’s why she is doing it.

Sonali expressed her gratitude and said: “Thank you so much, but I don’t think I have done anything so big to get such an honor. This is all Sagar’s hard work that is paying off today.”

The show is judged by Bollywood actress Sonali Bendre, TV actress Mouni Roy, and choreographer Remo D’Souza.

‘DID L’il Masters 5’ airs on Zee TV.

 

‘Shamshera’ first poster gets leaked, and Ranbir’s look creates a buzz

Team TB
-
0
‘Shamshera’ first poster gets leaked, and Ranbir’s look creates a buzz

The first poster of the epic period film ‘Shamshera’, which will see Ranbir Kapoor returning to the big screen four years after ‘Sanju’, recently got leaked after a fan activation event.

The makers were set to kick-start the film campaign next week as activities were meticulously planned by Yash Raj Films leading up to the trailer launch.

However, all those plans seem to be dashed with the first poster getting leaked on Twitter. Fans went into a frenzy as Ranbir’s heavily guarded look drove the internet wild. Fans and audiences have given two thumbs up to Ranbir’s look as Shamshera, calling this to be one of the hottest looks sported by an actor on screen.

YRF admitted to the leak and all fingers point towards a fan activation event that was recently held with Ranbir. The production house will now have to rejig all plans due to this development.

When contacted, a YRF spokesperson confirmed to IANS saying, “Yes, we have been monitoring this situation since morning. There has been a leak and it’s quite unfortunate. Ranbir is coming back to the big screen after 4 years and we wanted to guard Ranbir’s look till people see the trailer because we were aware that it would be the biggest talking point.”

“We will now need to rejig our entire plan in the run-up to the trailer launch. We should have more updates to share in the next two days”, the spokesperson added.

The story of ‘Shamshera’ is set in the fictitious city of Kaza, where a warrior tribe is imprisoned, enslaved and tortured by a ruthless authoritarian general Shudh Singh. This is the story of a man who became a slave, a slave who became a leader, and then a legend for his tribe. He relentlessly fights for his tribe’s freedom and dignity. His name is ‘Shamshera’.

The high-octane, adrenaline-pumping entertainer is set in the 1800s in the heartland of India with Ranbir essaying the titular character. Sanjay Dutt plays Ranbir’s arch-enemy in this huge casting coup and his showdown with Ranbir will be something to watch out for as they will ferociously go after each other with no mercy.

Directed by Karan Malhotra, this action extravaganza has been produced by Aditya Chopra and is set to release in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu on July 22.

1...449450451...1,379Page 450 of 1,379