Showing posts with label Ben Rekhi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ben Rekhi. Show all posts
Manoj Bajpayee to front American director Ben Rekhi’s upcoming movie; backed by Rana Daggubati
3:10 PM
Sources say Bollywood actor Manoj Bajpayee has fronted American director Ben Rekhi’s yet-untitled Hindi social drama, backed by south superstar Rana Daggubati
Upala KBR (MID-DAY; March 21, 2025)
After Pinjar’s (2003) release, Manoj Bajpayee was set to star in an international film with actor Frank Langella, but the project didn’t materialize. Over two decades on, Bajpayee has added an Indo-American movie to his filmography. mid-day has learnt that the actor has fronted a yet-untitled Hindi social drama, directed by American filmmaker Ben Rekhi, who previously helmed The Ashram (2018) and Watch List (2019). Interestingly, the film is produced by Rana Daggubati, marking his first collaboration with Bajpayee.
Daggubati, through his production house Spirit Media, has been throwing his might behind promising movies, Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light (2024) being one example. When he crossed paths with Bajpayee in recent years, thanks to their involvement in Discovery+ shows, the actor-producer felt the latter would be the right fit for a social drama he was developing.
A source reveals, “Ben has written the story. Manoj plays a common man whose family lands in trouble, leading him to fight for a cause. Through the family’s journey, the story highlights a social issue. The actor is known to be selective about his scripts. When Rana and Ben narrated the story to him, he said yes immediately.”
The film was shot in Mumbai last year. “Some theatre actors from Mumbai are part of the cast. It’s a collaboration between Rana’s banner and a Los Angeles-based production house. The makers are keeping it under wraps until they finalise the release plans,” adds the source.
I want to be in Chennai to see the Rajinikanth craze-Radhika Apte
8:19 AM
Radhika Apte, the Thalaiva's newest leading lady, on working with the superstar and other projects
Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 20, 2016)
On Tuesday, rumour mills
were abuzz that Rajinikanth's upcoming gangster drama, Kabali, had been
leaked online, three days before release. This despite the producer, S
Thanu, having filed a petition with the Madras High Court to stop
illegal downloads by 180 named websites and countless unknown sites.
Radhika Apte, Rajini's leading lady, is on her way to the dentist when
this is conveyed to her and she reacts with an “OMG, really?“ She's been
busy shooting for her horror film, Ghoul, and was completely out of the
loop, unaware that Udta Punjab, Great Grand Masti and Sultan had also
leaked online. “It's sad but watching a film on your laptop is not the
same as watching a film on screen. Those who want to experience the
magic of cinema, will go to the theatre,“ she asserts.
Working with the Big R, she says, was a dream come true. “To be honest I'd not even dreamt of it,“ she exults, admitting that she had accepted Kabali simply because it was a Rajinikant film. “But I also knew from the first phone call that even though it's a commercial film, it was a content-driven one and I had a role that had substance. I wasn't just there to sing songs. I also like writer-director Pa Ranjith's sensibilities,“ she reveals. She met the legendary actor for the first time during a photo shoot. He was in his vanity van and she asked the manager if she could meet him. When she reached the van he was waiting outside to receive her. “It was a great gesture. We chatted...Random conversation, we chilled right from first connect. He spoke to me in Marathi on the first day of the shoot,“ she reminisces with a smile.
They started out with a night shoot in Goa. Radhika had a lot of lines, her hero had none. She was all prepped up and the scenes went off well. “Since it was Goa he was sitting outside and we continued to chat about a lot of things,“ she recalls acknowledging that she was both excited and nervous about sharing screen space with the Thalaiva but he turned out to be warm, exceptionally professional, a down-to-earth man. “He speaks to you as if you're his equal so there's no pressure and you don't feel stressed,“ she explains.
It was in Malaysia that she realised what a huge star Rajini is and was mesmerised to see fans throng the sets, hang out all day, scream every time they spotted him. “He would acknowledge them with a smile and a wave and I would absorb the fan worship,“ she flashbacks, admitting that she's never really idolised anyone though she has been inspired by many. “The one person I was crazy about was author Milan Kundera. After reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being, I bought everything he'd written and went backpacking through Europe, foolishly hoping to bump into him. I didn't but I met someone who knew him.He told me some interesting stories about Kundera.“ Returning to Rajini, she is embarrassed to admit that she doesn't remember the names of his films she'd watched when in school but does recall all his moves--from the stunts with bullets to his unique style of putting on his sunglasses. Did she ask him to demonstrate them? “I would never do that,“ she says primly.
Radhika was seen in Shrish Kunder's debut short, Kriti, recently which after a controversy over copyright violation is back on YouTube. She has just wrapped up an English film, The Ashram, also featuring Hollywood actress Melissa Leo (Olympus Has Fallen, Oblivion). “I know the director, Ben Rekhi, well, it was shot in the Himalayas,“ she says, equally gung-ho about the women-centric Parched, produced by Ajay Devgn, which is getting rave reviews on the festival circuit. “Another film, Bombairiya, should open this year.Then there's Ghoul, a Phantom-Ivonhoe production, in which I play the female protagonist. A horror film like this has never been seen before in India,“ she says.
Ghoul could keep her away from being a part of the Rajini festival on Friday. “I really want to be in Chennai for the premiere, see the Rajini craze for myself, but the shooting is keeping me in Mumbai,“ she sighs. Tell her that a holiday has been declared in Chennai and Bangalore so Rajini fans can see their 'hero' in action and she quips, "See what I mean, I want to be a part of all this!“ Meanwhile, she's gearing up for a holiday in September. “I haven't decided where I'm going but on my birthday, September 7, I'll definitely not be working,“ she signs off.
KABALI LEAKED, YES! AFFECT NONE!
The alleged leak of Kabali on the 'Dark Web' (unindexed peer-to-peer sharing deep web part of Internet ) has not even broken a sweat on exhibitors and distributors of the film in Bangalore. Tulsiram Naidu, whose company, Lahari Music, is releasing the film in the city's multiplexes (and also for the first time in India in five star hotels) said, “The information we have now is that bits of the film are available on the dark web. Such risks are associated with all big films and even more so for a Rajinikant-starrer. The advance bookings for the film are unaffected by such things and as of now, all the screens where advance bookings have opened are sold out, including in five star hotels. Fans want to enjoy the film with friends, families and a crowd, not in privacy.“
Abey John, a web expert based in Pondicherry said, “Almost all movies can be found on the dark web if you know where to look. Full HD versions. New releases if they turn up are either stolen prints or theatre filmed“.
Working with the Big R, she says, was a dream come true. “To be honest I'd not even dreamt of it,“ she exults, admitting that she had accepted Kabali simply because it was a Rajinikant film. “But I also knew from the first phone call that even though it's a commercial film, it was a content-driven one and I had a role that had substance. I wasn't just there to sing songs. I also like writer-director Pa Ranjith's sensibilities,“ she reveals. She met the legendary actor for the first time during a photo shoot. He was in his vanity van and she asked the manager if she could meet him. When she reached the van he was waiting outside to receive her. “It was a great gesture. We chatted...Random conversation, we chilled right from first connect. He spoke to me in Marathi on the first day of the shoot,“ she reminisces with a smile.
They started out with a night shoot in Goa. Radhika had a lot of lines, her hero had none. She was all prepped up and the scenes went off well. “Since it was Goa he was sitting outside and we continued to chat about a lot of things,“ she recalls acknowledging that she was both excited and nervous about sharing screen space with the Thalaiva but he turned out to be warm, exceptionally professional, a down-to-earth man. “He speaks to you as if you're his equal so there's no pressure and you don't feel stressed,“ she explains.
It was in Malaysia that she realised what a huge star Rajini is and was mesmerised to see fans throng the sets, hang out all day, scream every time they spotted him. “He would acknowledge them with a smile and a wave and I would absorb the fan worship,“ she flashbacks, admitting that she's never really idolised anyone though she has been inspired by many. “The one person I was crazy about was author Milan Kundera. After reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being, I bought everything he'd written and went backpacking through Europe, foolishly hoping to bump into him. I didn't but I met someone who knew him.He told me some interesting stories about Kundera.“ Returning to Rajini, she is embarrassed to admit that she doesn't remember the names of his films she'd watched when in school but does recall all his moves--from the stunts with bullets to his unique style of putting on his sunglasses. Did she ask him to demonstrate them? “I would never do that,“ she says primly.
Radhika was seen in Shrish Kunder's debut short, Kriti, recently which after a controversy over copyright violation is back on YouTube. She has just wrapped up an English film, The Ashram, also featuring Hollywood actress Melissa Leo (Olympus Has Fallen, Oblivion). “I know the director, Ben Rekhi, well, it was shot in the Himalayas,“ she says, equally gung-ho about the women-centric Parched, produced by Ajay Devgn, which is getting rave reviews on the festival circuit. “Another film, Bombairiya, should open this year.Then there's Ghoul, a Phantom-Ivonhoe production, in which I play the female protagonist. A horror film like this has never been seen before in India,“ she says.
Ghoul could keep her away from being a part of the Rajini festival on Friday. “I really want to be in Chennai for the premiere, see the Rajini craze for myself, but the shooting is keeping me in Mumbai,“ she sighs. Tell her that a holiday has been declared in Chennai and Bangalore so Rajini fans can see their 'hero' in action and she quips, "See what I mean, I want to be a part of all this!“ Meanwhile, she's gearing up for a holiday in September. “I haven't decided where I'm going but on my birthday, September 7, I'll definitely not be working,“ she signs off.
KABALI LEAKED, YES! AFFECT NONE!
The alleged leak of Kabali on the 'Dark Web' (unindexed peer-to-peer sharing deep web part of Internet ) has not even broken a sweat on exhibitors and distributors of the film in Bangalore. Tulsiram Naidu, whose company, Lahari Music, is releasing the film in the city's multiplexes (and also for the first time in India in five star hotels) said, “The information we have now is that bits of the film are available on the dark web. Such risks are associated with all big films and even more so for a Rajinikant-starrer. The advance bookings for the film are unaffected by such things and as of now, all the screens where advance bookings have opened are sold out, including in five star hotels. Fans want to enjoy the film with friends, families and a crowd, not in privacy.“
Abey John, a web expert based in Pondicherry said, “Almost all movies can be found on the dark web if you know where to look. Full HD versions. New releases if they turn up are either stolen prints or theatre filmed“.
Kal Penn wraps up trip of a lifetime across India
11:24 AM
The
Indian-American actor travelled through Manali, Diu, Rishikesh and
Hampta Pass while shooting for Guneet Monga's upcoming fantasy-thriller,
The Ashram
Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 31, 2016)
Kal Penn who arrived in India last month to
shoot for Guneet Monga's fantasy-thriller The Ashram is still trying to
overcome the embarrassment that is preceded by sudden bursts of
"oh-my-gods" when people recognised him as Kumar, his character in the
famous Harold and Kumar films. It happened at a tiny cafe in Kasol, when
a local excitedly pointed a finger at him, leaving him red-faced. Then,
there were the foreign tourists in Diu and Rishikesh, who stopped to
say 'hi'.
The Ashram also features Melissa Leo, Sam Keeley and Radhika Apte and is set in the mystical world of Himalayan yogis. The 150-member film crew shot for seven weeks, with Penn on set for two weeks.
"Kal landed in Delhi and wanted to go to Chandni Chowk to eat at Kareem's! He knew everything about India and was eager to visit every famous restaurant and go sight-seeing on off days," Monga said.
During their Hampta Pass schedule in Himachal, the unit hiked or rode a raft through the river to reach their location. "It was a two-hour drive, followed by an hour-long trek for a sequence that had to be wrapped up in four hours during the day," reveals Monga.
There were times when the crew had to wait for three hours for a mere seconds of light. But Penn didn't care. He was the inquisitive child on the sets, questioning, learning and taking off to explore locales when the cameras weren't rolling.
"It was so friggin' sad to see how people here treat their beautiful mountains. There's trash everywhere. Take down what you bring up, friends!" Penn urged, saying that the sunsets and mountains made for a perfect workplace for him but the Indian attitude towards waste management is terrible. The sheep and goats in the mountains particularly intrigued Penn. "They were chewing on barbed wire, must be high," he jokes.
Director Ben Rekhi who travelled through North India four times in the last six month to hand-pick each location, shares, "India is known to the West for its mysticism and spirituality but the country's rich and ancient philosophies have yet to be fully explored in cinema. With The Ashram, we aim to take audiences to a far corner of the planet where magic is still possible, where the ancient collides with the modern and the inexplicable happens every day,"
For a particular sequence, which was to be shot on the banks of a river, Rekhi couldn't find the ideal location and decided to get onto a raft and explore the region himself. "He said that at some point, he would find an island and he did. But when the unit was filming, a nearby dam had been opened and the water became uncontrollable. It was dangerous and the DoP exclaimed, 'This was supposed to be a simple, calm film!' It was hilarious," Monga reminisces.
The team's many adventures were accentuated by A R Rahman songs, which were a hit with the local drivers as well as with Penn.
While the unit took off to Dharamsala for a quick getaway in the first week of April, Penn returned to the Capital, where he was hosted by US Ambassador Richard R Verma. The duo visited the Shastri Market Camp near Moti Bagh. Later in the day, Penn participated in a discussion and screening of his widely acclaimed Mira Nair film, The Namesake, at the American Center. In the evening, Ambassador Verma hosted a reception in the actor's honour.
"Every actor has said that they want to work with Amitabh Bachchan, so that's probably given. One of the things that I like watching about Irrfan Khan is that he has done these big budget movies but the way he utilises silence in his films is so amazing," Penn said. He admits, Bombay Talkies is his favourite Bollywood film. "I keep e-mailing Zoya (Akhtar), 'Can I work with you, please?' She is sweet but my Hindi is not good," Penn admits, continuing, "I ordered the desi cable package but couldn't understand most of it because it is so fast but these are like mother-inlaw shows and I am totally, not kidding you, addicted to Saath Nibhana Saathiya," Penn concludes.
Kal Penn who arrived in India last month to
shoot for Guneet Monga's fantasy-thriller The Ashram is still trying to
overcome the embarrassment that is preceded by sudden bursts of
"oh-my-gods" when people recognised him as Kumar, his character in the
famous Harold and Kumar films. It happened at a tiny cafe in Kasol, when
a local excitedly pointed a finger at him, leaving him red-faced. Then,
there were the foreign tourists in Diu and Rishikesh, who stopped to
say 'hi'. The Ashram also features Melissa Leo, Sam Keeley and Radhika Apte and is set in the mystical world of Himalayan yogis. The 150-member film crew shot for seven weeks, with Penn on set for two weeks.
"Kal landed in Delhi and wanted to go to Chandni Chowk to eat at Kareem's! He knew everything about India and was eager to visit every famous restaurant and go sight-seeing on off days," Monga said.
During their Hampta Pass schedule in Himachal, the unit hiked or rode a raft through the river to reach their location. "It was a two-hour drive, followed by an hour-long trek for a sequence that had to be wrapped up in four hours during the day," reveals Monga.
There were times when the crew had to wait for three hours for a mere seconds of light. But Penn didn't care. He was the inquisitive child on the sets, questioning, learning and taking off to explore locales when the cameras weren't rolling.
"It was so friggin' sad to see how people here treat their beautiful mountains. There's trash everywhere. Take down what you bring up, friends!" Penn urged, saying that the sunsets and mountains made for a perfect workplace for him but the Indian attitude towards waste management is terrible. The sheep and goats in the mountains particularly intrigued Penn. "They were chewing on barbed wire, must be high," he jokes.
Director Ben Rekhi who travelled through North India four times in the last six month to hand-pick each location, shares, "India is known to the West for its mysticism and spirituality but the country's rich and ancient philosophies have yet to be fully explored in cinema. With The Ashram, we aim to take audiences to a far corner of the planet where magic is still possible, where the ancient collides with the modern and the inexplicable happens every day,"
For a particular sequence, which was to be shot on the banks of a river, Rekhi couldn't find the ideal location and decided to get onto a raft and explore the region himself. "He said that at some point, he would find an island and he did. But when the unit was filming, a nearby dam had been opened and the water became uncontrollable. It was dangerous and the DoP exclaimed, 'This was supposed to be a simple, calm film!' It was hilarious," Monga reminisces.
The team's many adventures were accentuated by A R Rahman songs, which were a hit with the local drivers as well as with Penn.
While the unit took off to Dharamsala for a quick getaway in the first week of April, Penn returned to the Capital, where he was hosted by US Ambassador Richard R Verma. The duo visited the Shastri Market Camp near Moti Bagh. Later in the day, Penn participated in a discussion and screening of his widely acclaimed Mira Nair film, The Namesake, at the American Center. In the evening, Ambassador Verma hosted a reception in the actor's honour.
"Every actor has said that they want to work with Amitabh Bachchan, so that's probably given. One of the things that I like watching about Irrfan Khan is that he has done these big budget movies but the way he utilises silence in his films is so amazing," Penn said. He admits, Bombay Talkies is his favourite Bollywood film. "I keep e-mailing Zoya (Akhtar), 'Can I work with you, please?' She is sweet but my Hindi is not good," Penn admits, continuing, "I ordered the desi cable package but couldn't understand most of it because it is so fast but these are like mother-inlaw shows and I am totally, not kidding you, addicted to Saath Nibhana Saathiya," Penn concludes.
Radhika Apte joins Kal Penn, Melissa Leo, Sam Keeley and Hera Hilmar in Guneet Monga's The Ashram
1:55 PM
Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 4, 2016)
An American blonde travels to India in search of his girlfriend, only to discover that a guru with mysterious powers may be behind her vanishing act. "The Ashram is a spiritual, fantasy-thriller with magic and discovery," says Guneet Monga, who produced Gangs of Wasseypur, The Lunchbox and Masaan, among others.
The film rolled on Friday in Manali and will be shot over a two-month schedule with Ben Rekhi wielding the microphone. The story has been co-written by Binky Mendez. The Namesake and Harold & Kumar-actor, Kal Penn, who gave his nod within 24 hours of reading the script, features alongside Melissa Leo, who won the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Alice Eklund-Ward in The Fighter. Hollywood actors Sam Keeley (Burnt, TV series Raw) and Hera Hilmar (Anna Karenina) are also a part of the film. The cast lands in India this week and the English film will be shot entirely in the country.
"The film requires only one Indian actress and Radhika Apte was Ben's first choice. Telling Indian stories to a global audience has always been exciting and this is my first step in the English language territory. I've got a chance to work with the best of both the worlds," exults Guneet, adding that while her earlier films have travelled the festival circuit before their theatrical release, the format of releasing an international film is different and she is learning the ropes along the way.
Guneet further adds, "When Kal Penn took to the social media to share that he was "pumped for this and excited to be working with Guneet," it was a wonderful feeling!"
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