Honoured that John entrusted me with ‘1911’: Nikkhil Advani
Mumbai– Filmmaker Nikkhil Advani says he is honoured that actor-producer John Abraham chose him to helm “1911”, which will tell the story of an iconic event in India’s sports history.
“Totally honoured that John Abraham entrusted me to tell the story of 1911′. Truly an inspiring story of an iconic event in our country’s history. Wait for it,” Advani tweeted on Monday.
John has joined hands with Advani’s Emmay Entertainment and Bhushan Kumar’s T-Series for the project.
In response to Advani, John wrote: “The honour is all mine.”
“1911” has been a dream project of sorts for John, who is a football fanatic himself. The movie, John had earlier told IANS, is a story of late Indian footballer Sibdas Bhaduri, who captained Mohun Bagan in the historic 1911 IFA Shield final when they defeated the East Yorkshire Regiment to become the maiden Asian team to emerge victorious in the competition.
John, a co-owner of Indian Super League (ISL) Guwahati franchise North East United FC, in a 2014 interview to IANS, had not ruled out roping in some real football players for the project.
We went wrong: Aamir Khan on ‘Thugs…’ failure
Mumbai–Actor Aamir Khan has taken full responsibility for the debacle of ‘Thugs Of Hindustan’, and has apologised to the audience for not being able to entertain them even though the team tried hard to give the high budget film its best shot.
Aamir interacted with the media at the second edition of Cinestaan India’s Storyteller Script Contest 2018 along with writers Juhi Chaturvedi and Anjum Rajabali here.
Acknowledging the failure of ‘Thugs Of Hindostan’, in which he united with megastar Amitabh Bachchan for the first time, Aamir said: “I think we went wrong and I would like to take full responsibility for that. We tried very hard to make a good film and we didn’t hold back from putting in our entire effort, but somewhere or the other we went wrong.
“There are people who have liked the film and we are thankful to them, but they are in a minority. Most people didn’t like our film — we are aware of that.”
Over the years, Aamir Khan has had a loyal audience which he has earned through films like ‘Taare Zameen Par’, ‘Ghajini’, ‘3 Idiots;, and ‘PK’.
“I want to apologise to my audience also as this time I wasn’t able to entertain them. I know people came in theatres with a lot of expectations but they didn’t enjoy the film.
“Audience is free to say what they feel about the film. What I can say is that we certainly tried our level best and I am feeling really bad that we didn’t succeed in entertaining the audience. So, next time we will try harder.”
Acting cannot be learnt in classrooms: Sunny Deol
Mumbai– National Award-winning actor Sunny Deol says the art of acting cannot be learnt in classrooms and that it comes from observations in real life.
Known for his performance in iconic films like “Border”, “Gadar – Ek Prem Katha”, “The Hero: Love Story of a Spy”, “Yamla Pagla Deewana” and “Ghayal”, Sunny told IANS here: “You cannot learn acting… The core of it, cannot be learnt in a classroom. You learn acting from observation, from exploration as you progress in life.”
“Of course when it comes to staging a performance, there are certain technicalities that can be taught, but one has to articulate and use their voice and body in a manner to perform because stage performance is live. When it comes to cinema, a camera can capture the finest movement of your eyes through close-ups. So as a film actor, one has to internalise the character to deliver it on-screen,” added Sunny, who went to a film school in London in his younger days and attended classes in theatre and performing arts.
Asked if being the son of yesteryears superstar Dharmendra, acting was a natural choice for him, Sunny said: “As a child, I had problems in reading and writing. but my IQ and reflex was very good. Therefore, though in the class I was not a great student, I used to score pass marks. I was rather very good at sports and other co-curricular activities.”
“After a certain age, of course, we all had to decide on our career and that is when I realised that acting and performance is my true calling. More than attending an acting class, I went abroad for my self-discovery which was not possible otherwise in India.”
Storytelling has been special part of my growing up years: Radhika Apte
New Delhi– Actress Radhika Apte says storytelling has been a special part of her life since her growing up days. She says she used to listen to Marathi writer and humorist Purushottam Laxman Deshpande on cassettes.
Radhika was present at the launch of Audible.in, a dedicated service for Indians by Audible, the world’s leading seller and producer of downloadable audiobooks and other spoken-word content. She, along with actors Rajkummar Rao and Kalki Koechlin, have come together for the first time to narrate the Audible adaptation of the novel.
On the experience, Radhika told IANS: “I’ve transitioned from an audible listener to an audible narrator with this project, which is the highlight for me. Storytelling has been such a special part of my growing up years. I remember the time when I used to listen to Purushottam Laxman Deshpande on cassettes. He was such a great storyteller, could really draw you into a great story and it’s great to know that Audible too just does that.”
Radhika, Rajkummar and Kalki came together for the first time to narrate the Audible adaptation of Hussain Zaidi’s novel “Mafia Queens of Mumbai”.
On that, she said: “I really enjoyed discovering these amazing stories of these strong women that made a name for themselves. It helped uncover a new side of Mumbai.
Silk Smitha empowered many women with her unapologetic choices: Richa Chadha
Mumbai– A biopic on adult film actress Shakeela will pay homage to late actress Silk Smitha, whose roller-coaster life story was captured by Bollywood film “The Dirty Picture”. Actress Richa Chadha says it was only fit for the film’s team to pay a tribute to a woman who empowered many others with her bold choices.
The first look of “Shakeela” saw Richa flaunting only gold jewellery on her body, as she stands against a wall inscribed with various comments and abuses Shakeela was given despite her success.
The movie’s makers have now said the image actually was inspired by a classic image of not Shakeela, but that of Silk Smitha’s “Miss Pamela”. The reason for the inspiration was that the makers of “Shakeela” wanted to pay homage to Silk Smitha, who had an untimely tragic demise, which led to the rise of Shakeela’s popularity.
Richa, who plays Shakeela in the upcoming film, said in a statement: “Silk Smitha was an iconic name in the 90s whose popularity knew no bounds. She created a genre in cinema which didn’t exist and empowered many women with her unapologetic choices. Her films made a lot of money at the box office.
Salim Khan to be feted at IFFI
Panaji– Bollywood’s popular scriptwriter Salim Khan will be presented with the IFFI Special Award at the closing ceremony of the 49th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) for his Lifetime Contribution to Cinema.
He will be awarded at the closing ceremony of the gala here on Wednesday, Minister of Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore announced on Monday.
“It’s a privilege for IFFI to honour Salim Khan for his outstanding contribution to Indian cinema,” Rathore tweeted.
As a master screenwriter, Salim is known for having penned the screenplay of several iconic films such “Deewaar” and “Zanjeer”. He had a formidable partnership with celebrated writer Javed Akhtar. (IANS)
