There is a reason why you meet the person you do because every encounter is an opportunity to learn something.  I have learnt something from all the people I interviewed over the decades and knowingly or unknowingly, leant something from them.

I met Nargis Dutt sometime in the mid-70s. There was a screening in Sunil Dutt’s private theatre Ajanta Arts and she was watching the film with us. It was an unusually boring film and I was young and restless planning to leave in the interval. Nargis overheard my plans and explained to me that no matter how boring any film, it is insulting to walk out of the film half way. I’ve remembered that and never misbehaved ever since.

Nutan disapproved of the media coming to interview her without homework. She said it was insensitive of editors to send novice reporters to meet veteran artistes because they knew nothing about their subject and tried the artist’s patience.  Some of them lacked basic shooting etiquette and conversed in the middle of a ‘take’ and some had to be forewarned to get out of the frame.

To be continued

Bholaa is unpretentious

#BhawanaSomaaya #Review #Bholaa

The advantage of having Mahrashtrisn house-help is that they educate you on their customs and rituals.
On Gudi Padwa Sakshi arrives wearing her best sari, touches my feet and places a dressed up Gudi with lots and sari in my balcony for good luck.
She draws s rangoli outside our door and prepares s Maharashtrian meal as well.
Happy Guddi Padwa to all.

Motion Content Group and Film Critics Guild announce the list of Nominations: 5th Edition of Critics’ Choice Awards

• The 2023 edition recognizes and honours the best of talent in feature films, short films, and web series along with the nomination list for short films, series and feature

The Critics’ Choice is an esteemed body of reputed and credible critics from India that acknowledges cinematic work across languages, categories, and formats.

You always entered a room with a smile and greeted everyone with a smile.
I am determined to bid you farewell with a smile and remember you with a smile!

The river descends from heaven and travels through the various yugas and by the time she arrives at the kal-yug but still selfless and a life-giver.  River Ganga epitomises all that is holy and sacred in Hinduism. She was brought down to earth by King Bhagirath after a penance of a thousand years. Originating from Gomukh and flowing through the Bay of Bengal, she purifies every shore she touches, inspiring sages, poets to ultimate creativity. Dancer Hema Malini says her new dance ballet is to inspire the youth to restore our sacred rivers and to ensure that their pristine glory is preserved forever. Ganga is a collaboration with Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav where the Maharashtra Government has embarked upon a massive plan to revive India’s 75 rivers and will premier in Mumbai on 19 March 2023.

Recently I was invited to address school students and the topic given to me was Control -Alt-Delete. I don’t identify with the terminology because I was born pre computer times. But as a writer, I have a relationship with the commands, in fact I am the first editor to go on the internet in India. Shammi Kapoor, President of Yahoo launched our publication on the internet and therefore, I have a long and a psychological attachment with technology. I control the keyboard yes but can all the alphabets/ numbers/ exclamations put together, control my thoughts? Answer is No. 

Alt is a facilitator but again all the options put together cannot generate content simply because I conceive/ create/ project my own content! The Delete command I feel is more for aesthetics because it facilitates an impression of a clean copy. In the olden days, when there were no laptops, we used ink and paper and scratched the required out all that was unrequired. The bottom line is that computer is not life and my journey is dependent on my circumstances. My options are dependent on my destiny and I can never delete what occurs in my existence, at the most, I can damage control it.

Congratulations to the RRR team for bringing home the Oscar for the Best Original Song/ Naatu Naatu.
Everyone is celebrating tiis victory across the globe.
A few days before the ceremony, NTR Junior bumped into Lucien Lavisran of Emily in Paris at a café in Beverly Hills and the two were delighted to chat about cinema. Lucien couldn’t stop raving about NTR’s tiger sequence in the film and was curious to know how it was shot.
Their enthusiasm about each other’s work reconfirms that actors all around the world are the same.

Not show business fortunately, especially reality shows. They are all the time improvising and evolving to retain the audience’s interest. Season 2 of Shark Tank India had a surprise for the viewers when Kaushik Mukherjee, Co-founder and COO, SUGAR Cosmetics came on the show to pitch the brand alongside Vineeta Singh, Cofounder & CEO, SUGAR. Something like this has never happened before on the show where the shark steps down from her position to be on the other side and pitch her product but then there is always the first time.