Jonas Brothers recently kicked off a monumental chapter and released their critically
acclaimed new offering, The Album, which features fan favourite singles Summer Baby,
Waffle House, and Wings. Over the span of their groundbreaking career, the beloved band has
charted 26 songs on Billboard 100 including the GRAMMY® Award-nominated, 5x-
Platinum Sucker, which debuted No.1 on the chart and became the first No.1 debut from a
group this century. In addition, they have had 10 albums charted on Billboard 200. This fall,
Jonas Brothers will embark on their biggest stadium and arena tour to date dubbed The Tour,
kicking off with two sold-out nights at Yankee Stadium on August 12th & 13th. The Tour
will feature five albums performed every night, with new dates recently added due to high
demand.
The epic collaboration came about on the heels of TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s sold-out
BMO stadium shows in Los Angeles last month. The globe-trotting band wanted to release
the track as a summer jam and invited Jonas Brothers who, loving the idea of collaboration,
hopped on the track.

The 14th edition of KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival, South Asia’s biggest LGBTQ+ film festival is organizing the KASHISH 2023 Online Festival from June 16 – 25, 2023 at https://xerb.tv/channel/kashish2023/virtual-events  

The festival will screen 107 films from 44 countries at its online edition and five films that Sridhar Rangayan, festival director recommends are as follows: 

Home Ground from Republic of Korea, set in 1990 this documentary talks about a shared sense of belonging, and shared environments of kinship and endurance of South Korea’s queer culture. Apaiba Leichil (Flurry Clouds) depictthe conditions of the transgender tribe in Manipur. Runs In theFamily is about a road trip across South Africa, story of a father and son and more. Who Owns the Sky another documentary, explores the interrelationship between gender concepts and cis-hetero norms with colonialism and capitalism.

Hollywood actor Chris Hemsworth cannot get over NTR Jr after watching RRR and has issued a statement that he would like to collaborate on a project with the Indian actor. NTR Jr is not letting all the praise coming his way, go to his head and has told his team to first concentrate on completing his current projects. There are high expectations from Devara that reunites him with director Kortala Siva and another with Prashanth Neel temporarily titled as NTR 31.

When a film is a super success the way RRR has proved, the problems for those involved in the project are far from over. In fact, I have noticed that the insecurities only multiply because now the expectations are higher and there is always a section of people who will say one actor is better than the other and that adds to the trauma, so my advice to Ram Charan and NTR Jr is that you were fortunate to be a part of a beautiful experience and it is now time to move on to another film and another character.

Cinema is the most sensitive and powerful of all the performing mediums. It combines audio-video- music-technology and is therefore most impactful. Politicians over the years have realized this and collaborated with the movie world to depict change and progress. In recent times, we have been exposed to docudramas like The Taskent Files and The Kerala Story. In the coming months we will watch some mythological/ Adi Purush, biography/ Veer Savarkar and Main Atal Hoon the story of Atal Bihari Bajpayee portrayed by Pankaj Tripathi and directed by Ravi Jadhav. To be shot in Lucknow the UP government has asured full support to the film.

Sunny Deol is in the news lately both, as an actor and as a parliamentarian. A few days ago, the producer of Gaddar: Ek Prem Katha re-released the superhit film with bigtime celebrations and the excitement was evident amongst Deol fans and well-wishers. Many were surprised why they were re-releasing the film but I think it is a good build up for the sequel Gaddar 2. Sunny Deol seldom grabs the headlines but that does not mean he is not working. When in Mumbai, he is either shooting or busy with his studio and when in Punjab, he is working for his constituency. His crusade for the employees of New Egerton Woollen Mill, Dhariwal, Punjab is a story to remember. 

The mill workers have not been paid since 2017 and out of 417 labourers 276 have retired and the remaining141 employees have nothing to feed their families. They sought help from all but to no avail. Then Sunny Deol heard of their suffering, he contacted Piyush Goyal, Union Textiles Minister to find a solution  and now with the central government at the helm of affairs, it will soon be a happy ending for all at Dhariwal, Punjab. 

We have seen Kunal Kapoor’s son Zahan Kapoor and Paresh Rawal’s son, Aditya Rawal together in Hansal Mehta’s film Faraaz and now the star sons come together where they genetically belong, to theatre. In a play written by Aditya Rawal, Siachen the young actors collaborate as producers and actors. Siachen is a fictional survival drama about three Indian soldiers stuck on the Siachen Glacier; on the border of India and Pakistan. It is the highest, coldest battlefield on earth but not a single bullet has been fired in that region for twenty years due to a ceasefire between India and Pakistan. And yet, so many soldiers posted there, lose their lives due to extreme weather and altitude. On the surface, this struggle over an uninhabitable piece of land seems futile, but the trauma does not end even though both the countries repeatedly express a desire to demilitarize the glacier.

The play is being directed by Makrand Deshpande and both the actors are excited because Makrand seldom directs for outside productions “I was moved by their fierce passion and also by the subject. Soldiers survive hostile conditions and we are sensitized to their situation only when we watch documentaries.  The script is so real that it is almost unreal and funny but the complexities are deeper and the pain enormous. I hope we will succeed in projecting that to the audience”.

When Charles Webb wrote his novel, The Graduate little did he know one of his characters will stir quite a few emotions. Adapted for the stage by Terry Johnson, the play had its run at both the Westend and the Broadway. And now our own Trishla Patel is all set to revive this play for an opening at the Prithvi Theatre. Trishla says she chose the play because it is contemporary and affects all human beings across continents. “The situation is universal. The attraction between strangers is the beauty of the content and I hope I am able to do justice to the characters. The biggest challenge was in procuring the rights of the play and the music. The second biggest challenge was of course raising the funds. Trishala adds that she was confident that the content was still relevant. “Loneliness is a universal problem; the problem is always finding solace and when you find it you will embrace it at all costs”.

The Graduate will bring back actor Tejaswini Kolhapure on stage after fifteen long years. Tejaswini looks forward to playing the protagonist and is rehearsing every single day “I play a woman who has choices and takes responsibility for her actions. It is a bold and beautiful character, just the perfect vehicle for me to come back to stage after a long break.

Grant it to Randeep Hooda, he has a knack of choosing his subjects and this time he has chosen the most unlikely subject to don the hat of director. Hooda brings to the fore an omitted chapter from our history – the story of India’s most feared revolutionary – Swatantrya Veer Savarkar and launched the film’s teaser on Savarkar’s birth anniversary. The film is co-produced by Anand Pandit Motion Pictures and Randeep Hooda Films and scheduled to release in 2023.

Savarkar was a revolutionary who was ‘most wanted by the Britishers’ because of his strong influence in building the armed revolution in India, which contributed immensely to India getting its freedom.  Courageous leaders like Veer Bhagat Singh, Subhash Chandra Bose, Khudiram Bose, Madanlal Dhingra looked upon Savarkar as their idol and Randeep Hooda is super excited to play Savarkar. Says Hooda, “Savarkar led an incredible life, and I discovered the hero while researching for my film. It is my honour to present the film to my countrymen in his milestone year”.

As Randeep Hooda completes his Savarkar we get the news that Ram Charan is signed by a top banner to also play Veer Savarkar but while Ram Charan film has just been announced, Randeep Hooda’s film is nearing completion.