June is Parenting Month, and actor Imran Khan opens up about fatherhood and his relationship with 12-year-old daughter Imara. He also shares how he approached introducing  girlfriend, actor Likha Washington (42), to Imara.

Speaking about the importance of honesty in such situations, Imran says, “Lekha and I knew each other before we started dating and so Imara knew her too. It’s just the context of the relationship that changed and I wanted her to know when it happened. It’s part of being transparent. Trying to conceal anything from a child is unhealthy. That’s not how you build a healthy relationship.”

The 43-year-old adds, “Kids do what you do and not what you say. So I want to live my life in a way where I’m setting a healthy example for her. It’s important to speak to kids like they are rational, thinking beings and not treat them as lesser.”

Reflecting on their evolving dynamic, Imran also shares a light-hearted take on how his daughter now sees him. “We’ve reached a phase where I’m uncool in front of her friends; I still shout out ‘I love you’, but I’m not cool enough to hang out with her friends,” he laughs.

Actor-producer Saif Ali Khan has said he would be open to forgiving the attacker involved in the burglary attempt at his Mumbai residence in Bandra last year on January 16, during which he was stabbed multiple times.

Admitting that he genuinely thought he “might die” during the scuffle, Saif said he has considered forgiveness despite the trauma. “I even wanted to forgive this guy because I think he made a huge mistake, and I think he was not looking for a fight. I would be happy to forgive him, but that part where he tried to kill me is something that I am finding hard to let go of. It’s a question of haves and have-nots and it is the inequality that has led to this,” he told Mojo Story.

Recounting the incident, the 55-year-old added that though the situation escalated, he believes it could have been handled differently. “This burglar broke in through the bathroom window, he had cut the baby too… I could have made him talk it out but something took over me and I jumped on him, and we had a fist fight.. I thought I might die,” he said.

With the success of Maa Inti Bangaaram and motherhood on the horizon, actor Samantha says she is stepping into her maternity break with a sense of fulfilment rather than urgency: “I am taking my maternity break on a professional high. It’s time to soak it all in and I’ll be back when I’m back. I want my return to be with something big.”

The actor, who is expecting her first child with filmmaker Raj Nidimoru, adds that she has no fixed timeline for returning to work. “I’m not putting that pressure on myself. I’m not running any race or pressed for time. I’ll see how it goes.”

The success of her latest female-led commercial action entertainer has also brought her a newfound calm. “I hadn’t had a theatrical release in three years, so there was naturally pressure. But now I feel much calmer. I’ve realised I don’t need to keep delivering films back-to-back. Whenever I do release a film, I just want it to be worthwhile.”

Working with husband Raj, who served as the film’s creator and stunt director, also helped her push herself as an action star. “He knows my strengths and weaknesses because he introduced me to action with The Family Man 2. The biggest challenge this time was handling guns and doing action in saris, which gave it a fresh flavour.”

One reaction, she admits, surprised her the most: “I assumed older women would talk about the family drama or comedy. Instead, women in sarees came up to me saying they loved the action. That was a really special feeling.”

Despite the film finding audiences beyond Telugu-speaking regions, Samantha insists it was never conceived as a pan-India project. She says, “We wanted to make a good Telugu film first. It’s rooted in Telugu nostalgia and history, so it didn’t feel right to force it on a wider audience... Now that we know we’ve struck a chord, maybe the next project can be more ambitious and travel pan-India.”

It began in 2024 and has continued well into 2026 — Kriti Sanon’s successful run at the movies shows no signs of slowing down. It started with Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya, followed by the heist comedy Crew and a darker turn in Do Patti. 2025 brought the intense love story Tere Ishk Mein, and now, the breezy Cocktail 2.

When we point out that she seems content staying out of the rat race and away from social media rivalries, she says she is “actually very competitive”. She says, “When I see someone doing well, I feel like I also want to do well. Competition motivates me to do better. I feel like it also comes at a certain point in your career that you have a sense of security with yourself.” Things changed for the better, especially in 2021, she adds: “The validation that Mimi (2021) gave me, whether from the audience or through the National Award, made me feel like I had finally proved my talent and could now explore more... I am very critical of myself. So, I am always wanting to do better than what I have done before. It’s boring to be in a race with someone else and it just doesn’t give you peace.”

It’s a mix of both. I think any actor craves for that moment and day. Fortunately, this is a role that is very glamorous but also has its layers. I got lucky.

I knew that there would be comparisons, and thankfully, this was not a sequel but a franchise. It’s just the vibe of Cocktail (2012) that was being taken forward in Cocktail 2… and the fact that it was one boy and two girls. Apart from that, there was absolutely no similarity; the story and the conflicts are completely different. I feel like Ally, my character, was not Veronica (Deepika Padukone’s character in Cocktail), and that’s what excited me. If I were doing a remake, then I think the pressure would have been way more.

At the end of it, we all want to be loved, so I feel that’s a similarity. But I also feel even though she is really bindaas and free-spirited, in her heart, she really cares. The empathy part of it was interesting for me, and I connected with it.

There have been so many coming from everywhere. Whether it’s Sajid (Nadiadwala, producer) sir or Sabbir (Khan, director) sir, who have seen me in my debut film Heropanti (2014), and now after this journey of about 12 years, playing a role like this; both sent me long, lovely messages. That was very emotional because when I did Heropanti, I was a baby who knew nothing and just learned everything on the job. The only thing that hasn’t changed is that I used to ask a lot of questions back then. And I am curious even now.

That also happens where sometimes it’s like, ‘Oh now I don’t want to spoil it, it’s a good run going on,’ But when you try different things like when I did Mimi (2021), a lot of people told me ‘Why do you want to play a mother right now’ or ‘Surrogacy is such a serious topic’ or ‘It’s too soon to take something on your shoulders’. The fact that I didn’t listen to it and went with my gut feeling gave me what it did (her first National film award).. So, that made me feel that okay, ‘I need to feel it from inside’. I need to really feel hungry towards doing a certain film. I need to feel challenged by the character and not repeat myself. When Tere Ishq Mein (2025) happened, it was such an intense film; it was emotionally and physically draining. As an actor, by the end of that film, I couldn’t do another intense project immediately. Fortunately, I had Cocktail 2 that came to me, and I was like, ‘This is a breath of fresh air and I would love to do this next.’

Yes. Aapko agar ek hi tarah ka khaana baar-baar denge toh aap bhi bore ho jaoge na? So, as an audience also, you want different kinds of cuisines and different genres of films. I think what we started thinking is ‘Oh, action is working. So, let’s make action films.’ But at the end of it, people want something that is engaging and different for them to not wait for the film to stream on OTT. People should have FOMO, ‘we have to go to a theatre and see it’. That experience needs to happen. Earlier, when OTT was not there, it took six months for a film to come on TV. So, there was a little more urgency to watch it. Now, mediocrity is not going to work.

I am excited to find a script. Genuinely, I have not signed anything, and I am not in a hurry. Right now, quality over quantity for me, for sure.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is coming. I’m excited about that. Dune 3, too. Then there’s Eetha. Laxman Utekar sir is directing, the teaser is fab. It’s Laxman sir in his full element and avatar with Shraddha (Kapoor, actor). It looks very powerful.

That will happen when it happens. I am not in a hurry. I think everything has its own time.

Last week was all about applause for filmmaker SS Rajamouli as he showed the first glimpse of Varanasi at La Cinémathèque Française in Paris on June 27, marking its first presentation to the European audience. Now, the filmmaker is set to dive again into the shoot of the Mahesh Babu, Priyanka Chopra, and Prithviraj-starrer. mid-day has learnt that beginning July 7, the leading man and the director will film one of the movie’s biggest war set-pieces, involving 3500 junior artistes, in Hyderabad.

A production insider revealed, “Preparations have been going on for weeks ahead of shooting the war sequence. The scale is unprecedented, even by Rajamouli’s standards.”

According to another insider, the shoot with 3500 junior artistes will only be the starting point. The sequence’s scale will be magnified at the VFX table.

The insider shared, “Thousands of performers will later be expanded digitally through VFX, resulting in an army that is several times larger on screen. The ambition is to create one of the biggest battle spectacles attempted in Indian cinema. We will see 50,000 vanars on screen.”

Varanasi is said to be a mythological action epic that follows the protagonist’s adventures across timelines.

Although Suniel Shetty was initially hesitant about joining Welcome To The Jungle, today, the actor is happy he did a rethink. Ahmed Khan’s directorial venture has reportedly crossed the Rs 50 crore mark over its first weekend.

“Initially I was skeptical about doing it as I wasn’t sure whether justice could be done to so many actors,” said Shetty of the ensemble film that has a principal cast of 30-plus actors. “I knew the script was over-the-top but because I was comfortable with my producer Firoz A Nadiadwallah and Ahmed, I said yes to it.” 

Many have drawn parallels between Welcome To The Jungle — also starring Akshay Kumar, Sanjay Dutt, Raveena Tandon, and Disha Patani, among others — and Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder (2008) where a film crew’s shoot in the jungle turns into a real-life combat operation.

The comparisons don’t affect Shetty, who reasoned, “Comparisons will keep happening. What makes a difference is the writing, performances, the director’s vision, and our belief that over-the-top, brain rot cinema will also work. We are nobody to judge. Audiences have enjoyed Welcome To The Jungle.”

After the laugh riot, the senior actor is shifting gears to the action thriller, Hitman. In the Sachin Ravi-directed offering, Shetty plays a mentor to Tiger Shroff’s character. Chatter suggests that Shetty’s role has grey shades — something that he remained tight-lipped about, only saying, “I cannot say anything till the producer announces it. Grey is always good, but black never is.”

Suniel Shetty noted that making comedy films is as important as doing spectacle films like ‘Dhurandhar’. “I love Aditya Dhar’s cinema. For me, entertainment is [a movie] that appeals to kids and families. The way they are going to the theatres for ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ speaks for itself,” he said.

What would be a filmmaker’s biggest hurdle? The script? The shoot? Action? Humour? For Ahmed Khan, it was simply getting the calendars of the 30-plus actors to align. That challenge stretched Welcome To The Jungle into a two-and-a-half-year shoot, making it one of the most ambitious ensemble comedies.

“It was an ambitious project from the word go. In India, ambition means getting the cast and their dates,” Khan tells mid-day, on the eve of the film’s release. “Every actor was busy with other films and every character in this film is important. That’s why it took us two-and-a-half years to complete.” 

Having previously worked with much of the cast as a choreographer made communication easier. But Khan admits that being “loud and dominating” on set probably helped him keep everyone together.

If assembling the cast was one challenge, stepping into a franchise originally helmed by Anees Bazmee was another. Khan, however, says he never felt the need to seek the filmmaker’s approval before taking over.

“We’re all friends, but professionally every director can make any film. Anees bhai doesn’t need me to explain how to make an action film and I don’t need anyone to explain comedy to me. A director is a director. Give him a script and he’ll make a film.”

He believes a change in the captainship gives a franchise a fresh identity, a “new vision, and thought”. “Otherwise everyone would keep making the same thing over and over again. It’s like shifting into a new house. You don’t call the previous owner and ask where he kept the sofa. The house is the same, but you’ll arrange the furniture your own way,” explains Khan.

For the director, mounting a large-scale entertainer was also a way of giving back to the exhibition business. “I can make a small action film and make it a hit, but it’s our duty to give back to theatres.”

Ahmed Khan credits Akshay Kumar and Suniel Shetty for backing the film and easing the production’s financial burden. “What Akshay and Suniel did for this film is unbeatable. They simply said, ‘Picture achhi banao. Picture kamayegi, we’ll take from that.’ They didn’t say, ‘I’ve rendered my services, now pay me’.”

Good times have been raining on feminist screenwriter Pooja Tolani in the month of June. Fresh off the success of the dark comedy Maa Behen, she hosted the Mumbai screening of her directorial debut, Razaa on June 27. Co-produced by Maa Behen director Suresh Triveni, the short stars Geetanjali Kulkarni and Bhumika Sharma.

An excited Tolani informed mid-day that Razaa premiered at the Short Shorts International Film Festival in Tokyo and has been “making festival rounds since June 2025”. “But this is the first time we held a private screening.”

Even as praise pours in for both projects, Tolani has moved on to new stories. “There’s one feature and one series, and both are in nascent stages of development,” she said.

Asked whether it is easy to be a feminist writer in the industry, she said, “I feel it depends on who you are working with and what you are working on. Our industry is still trying to figure out how to make women feel comfortable, from basic things like washroom facilities to pay parity. There are [writer] rooms where if you call out something incorrect gender wise, you are sometimes scoffed at, joked about, or told, ‘Baap rey, jhanda gadhne aagayi’. But I have been fairly lucky to have worked with people who are feminists.”

“I used to joke about this with Suresh that my biggest achievement in life is that I made Madhuri Dixit say ‘Mujhe pet mein gas ho rahi hai’ on screen. I will sleep peacefully now. It was great fun to work with Madhuri, to use her image [of a diva] and also break it.”

On the set of Queen 2, the countdown has begun. Kangana Ranaut’s coming-of-age movie, a thematic extension of the actor’s career-defining offering Queen (2013), is only six days away from being wrapped up. mid-day has learnt that the unit is currently shooting the last leg in Naigaon.

That’s brisk progress for the Vikas Bahl-directed film, which went on floors in late March. Ranaut shot the climax in May in Mumbai before heading to a Naigaon studio, where the set of a chawl was constructed, for the final stint.

A source revealed, “First, they filmed a song that sees Kangana’s character Rani and other women taking part in dandiya celebrations. Now they are shooting some emotional scenes set in the protagonist’s home. Principal photography will be wrapped up in the first week of July.”

Like Queen, the much loved film that earned Ranaut the National Award for Best Actress, the sequel will focus on the protagonist’s journey to discovering herself.

The source added, “While that film saw her head to Paris and Amsterdam after being jilted by her fiancé, here the character finds her independent streak when she moves to a big city in India.”