Niharika Lal and Rachana Dubey (BOMBAY TIMES; April 14, 2018)

While addressing the press conference for the 65th National Film Awards, jury head Shekhar Kapur said that after films continuously watching for 10 days, his opinion about the quality of Indian cinema has changed. Shekhar said that even though regional cinema doesn’t have “a Shah Rukh Khan”, Hindi cinema doesn’t come close to it.

He said, “Maine Hindustan mein last film banayi thi Bandit Queen, usske baad maine yahan koi film isiliye nahi banayi because I wanted to make better films. For years, I have been watching Hindi films and I’ve been saying, ‘it’s not good enough’. Main kyun wapas aaya? Kyunki aage badhna chahiye, naye challenges lene chahiye. After 10 days of watching films from 9am to 3am, it has changed everything. I was wondering about the quality of films — not of Hindi cinema, but regional cinema, the cinema that has never come up before. I didn’t even know Lakshadweep mein filmein banti hain. Main nahi janta tha ki Assam mein aisi films banti hain. Mujhe nahi maloom tha ki Bengali films itni aage badh chuki hain.”

About the selection process for this year’s winners, Shekhar said, “There was no award which was not debated. Bahut aasaan hai award dena — chalo kisi ko bhi de do. Mujhe 12 saal lage thay Masoom banane mein, idhar se bheekh maang kar, udhar se bheekh maang kar. Regional cinema ke paas Shah Rukh Khan toh hai nahi! Ghar se chori karte hain, ghar se bhaag kar film institute chale jate hain aur phir jod-jod kar film banate hain. We took no film lightly.”

He also explained the choice for this year’s Best Actress award, which was posthumously given to Sridevi, saying, “Don’t think we are giving the award to Sridevi because I am part of the jury”. Shekhar added, “Main hi tha jo ladta tha ki Sridevi ko mat do. Because we are all emotionally involved with Sridevi. But I used to say, don’t give her the award because she passed away, because otherwise it is unfair to the others. Unki kya galti hai, they have also worked hard for 9-10 years to reach here. But each time, it came back to Sridevi.”
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This was long overdue for Sri. I wish she was here to hear the news and collect the award herself. It pains me to think that I will have to collect it on her behalf. Wherever she is today, she must be smiling.I miss my jaan every day and today, I’m missing her even more. Sri had worked so hard for Mom. She put life into every scene. She stayed away from me while shooting to avoid distraction; she wanted to concentrate on portraying the emotions correctly. I thank God and the jury for acknowledging her hard work

– Boney Kapoor, Sridevi’s husband and producer of Mom
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This is my first National Award.This award is very special for me because I lost my mother while working on Irada. My mother and other well-wishers have always said that I deserve a National Award. So, their reactions to my win are making me feel euphoric. I am totally overwhelmed. This is the ultimate award.

– Divya Dutta, Best Supporting Actress, Irada

The 65th National Film Awards:

1.BEST DIRECTOR: Jayaraj (Bhayanakam)

2. BEST BOOK ON CINEMA: Matmagi Manipur. (This is the first time that a book on Manipuri films has got an award)

3. BEST FILM CRITIC: Giridhar Jha

4. SPECIAL MENTION: Marathi Film: Mhorkya; Odia film: Hello Arsi; Malayalam: Take Off; Pankaj Tripathi for Newton

5. BEST REGIONAL FILM: Ladhakh

6. BEST MARATHI FILM: Kaccha Limbu

7. BEST MALAYAM FILM: Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum

8. BEST HINDI FILM: Newton

9. BEST BENGALI FILM: Mayurakshi

10. BEST ASSAMESE FILM: Ishu

11. BEST TAMIL FILM: To Let

12. BEST TELUGU FILM: Ghazi

13. BEST GUJARATI FILM: DHH

14. BEST ACTION DIRECTION: Baahubali 2

15. BEST CHOREOGRAPHY: Gori Tu Latth Maar from Toilet - Ek Prem Katha (choreographer, Ganesh Acharya)

16. BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS: Baahubali 2

17. SPECIAL JURY AWARD: Nagarkirtan (Bengali)

18. BEST LYRICS FOR SONG: Muthu Ratna, for Kannada film March 22

19. BEST MUSIC DIRECTION: A R Rahman for Kaatru Veliyidai

20. BACKGROUND SCORE: A R Rahman for Mom

21. BEST MAKE-UP ARTISTE: Ram Razak for Nagarkirtan

22. BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN: Santosh Rajan

23. BEST EDITING: Rima Das (Village Rockstars)

24. BEST SCREENPLAY ORIGINAL: Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum

25. BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Jayaraj

26. BEST FEMALE PLAYBACK SINGER: Shasha Tirupati ( Vaan Varuvaan song)

27. BEST MALE PLAYBACK SINGER: Yesudas

28. BEST CHILD ARTIST: Bhanita Das (Village Rockstars)

29. BEST FILM ON SOCIAL ISSUES: Aalorukkam

30. NARGIS DUTT AWARD FOR BEST FEATURE FILM ON NATIONAL INTEGRATION: Dhappa

Rachana Dubey (BOMBAY TIMES; January 31, 2018)

Interviewing actors can sometimes be a tricky job; especially when the subject doesn’t believe in censoring his words. In today’s day and age, Naseeruddin Shah represents the endangered species of celebrities, who unabashedly speak their mind, endorse frank thoughts and indulge in self-deprecation. In a conversation with BT, the actor delves into what makes Akshay Kumar’s choices smart, the insatiable desire for stardom that’s common in the industry and why hits and flops have never decided the course of his career. Excerpts:

You will soon be seen in Neeraj Pandey’s upcoming film, Aiyaary. The last time you collaborated with him was for his debut, A Wednesday, which was a decade ago…
Yes, Neeraj didn’t need me all these years. He found Akshay Kumar (laughs!)

Well, they have delivered some good films together…
I’m not denying that. Akshay is a smart guy, he was intelligent enough to realise that the audience had seen enough of his acrobatics and he has to change. He has done some decent movies in recent times and grown as an actor.

In one of your earlier interviews, you had mentioned that casting a star in a realistic role doesn’t work. Looking at Akshay’s line-up of films in the last few years, would you change that stance?
No, I still stand by what I had said. Airlift and Jolly LLB 2 succeeded, but I do think that those people, whose orientation into acting is as a star, find it difficult to move away from stardom. Most of them are not real even in their real lives. Only someone like Mr Bachchan (Amitabh Bachchan) with exceptional skills can manage that. His orientation into cinema was as an actor and not as a star. Stardom for him came much later. That’s the reason I was impressed with Akshay, because after having been a star for so long, he could impart authenticity to the roles he has played lately. He picks relevant topics. Varun Dhawan is also pretty good at what he does and is hard working. Alia Bhatt, to me, is an exception. She was crying a bit much in her first film, but that girl is something else. Girls like her, Kalki Koechlin and Swara Bhasker are among the finest actresses we have today.

But Alia, like several others brought up in the industry, has found a lot of support from the fraternity’s big-wigs, which actresses like Kalki and Swara lack…
(Cuts in) This industry is a pretty incestuous place. It doesn’t work for everyone. You need to have the talent for someone to back it. If one doesn’t have the ability and the drive to do well, the backing is of no use. It’s terrific that girls like Swara and Kalki, despite not being embraced by the industry, are doing well. They must not hanker to become stars.

Do you think that most actors eventually want to become stars?
Everyone wants to become a star. There is no doubt about that, but you have to outgrow that phase. When I was 20, even I wanted to be a star. Eventually, when I went to drama school, I was sure I won’t be dancing around trees. And what do you know? The next thing I was doing was dancing around trees. It was thrust upon me. I wanted commercial success very badly and I never got it, but it didn’t kill me. It hurt me, but I realised my strength is elsewhere. The sooner you realise it, the better it is. I realised it after my first song-and-dance role, but I continued to do it for some more films after that. I finally cracked the naach-gaana formula with The Dirty Picture. Thirty years too late?

What do you think of actors like Rajkummar Rao and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who started out with small roles in big films and have now begun to make waves as leading men in commercial cinema?
It’s great that actors like them are getting such films. I think Irrfan Khan has also handled his career very well. I was a tad afraid when he did something with Rakhi Sawant in the past, but look at his choices now. Rajkummar and Nawaz’s success gladdens my heart, but I also have my apprehensions. Will they continue to back the kind of films that have brought them this far? Or will they jump the ship and do the Rs 100-crore movies? That’s a choice they have to make because it’s difficult to straddle both worlds. Nawaz is becoming a tad repetitive, but I still look forward to his films.

Over the last two-three years, you’ve restricted yourself to fewer films — some like Irada (2017) which failed at the box office, Nude (yet to release), which has run into controversies, and Welcome Back (2015), which got a lot of flak. So, what keeps you going?
No one watched Irada and it wasn’t a good film. Nude, I thought, was an important film and that the situation of these women must be highlighted as they lead a tragic life. Ravi Jadhav (director) also made Natrang, which was a beautiful movie. Through the last year, I did very little work — Nude, a Gujarati film called Dhuh and a small role in Aiyaary. I didn’t feel like doing the rest of the work that was offered. It wasn’t interesting.

There aren’t too many actors who say that they have done a bad film. Like they say, there’s some audience for every film...
Sure. Some people also told me that Zinda Jala Doonga (1988) was great. People couldn’t stop raving about Karma, which I can’t stand. So, a few people did say that Irada’s subject was good and the acting was fine, but it was a dreadfully-made film. The directors (Aparnaa Singh and Nishant Tripathi) knew nothing about their job. I lost hope for that film while shooting it. When I work on films like this, I do it in the hope that it’s an important film and a good subject. But it’s like the throw of the dice: it may turn out to be Irada or A Wednesday. I did just one scene for Zoya’s film (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara), because I like her and the script. You can have different reasons for doing different things.

What was your reason to work in a film like Welcome Back?
There were millions of reasons to do that film. Why did you have to watch it? The reason these films get made is that they end up making money at the box office. What do you do about that? I enjoyed working with Anees Bazmee, though some people don’t like him as much. So many actors, cars, camels and dancers in the middle of a desert and yet, he was in control. You need some ability to do that.

Often, decisions to make a film’s sequel are driven by commerce. Is that the reason one might never see another edition of Ishqiya, though there were many who liked the film?
The second one (Dedh Ishqiya) failed at the box office, so Ishqiya may not have another sequel. What else other than money can drive one to make a sequel here? Unless you are Francis Ford Coppola, creative satisfaction is not the reason you back a sequel that didn’t make money the last time around. And here, there are many Francis Fraud Coppolas.

But lately, a lot of small, concept-driven films seem to have worked with the audience. What do you make of that?
It’s become easy to make films with smaller budgets, but releasing them is still a cumbersome task. There are some 35 films of mine which are rotting somewhere. I’m sure when people ask, ‘Hero kaun hai?’ and they’re told ‘Naseer’, they know where to look. Coffin Maker has been in the cans for more than four years now. So, money makes the mare go around. A Wednesday released because the producers saw money in it. Otherwise, despite its content, it would never have released.

Doesn’t this situation frighten you as an artiste?
Doing the work is more important than these things. I did a commercial hit like Tridev, but it did nothing to my market value, or my attitude, or the movies I did after that. I wasn’t flooded with offers even after Mohra’s success. Instead, I had a steady stream of roles that no one would do, because people felt I can deliver the goods. Not that my name adds anything to a project, but the failure or success of my film doesn’t make any difference to me either. I did Welcome Back, but after that no offers man! And I’m fine that way. My career has gone off very smoothly. No turning points, no sudden showers of fame and money and no sudden dips. The best part is that I don’t need to lose my sleep over how my next film will do.

MULTIPLE RELEASES TOMORROW BUT JOLLY LLB 2 TO DOMINATE!

Multiple small releases on a single Friday is never a good idea but Bollywood has never learnt its lesson. Tomorrow 3 Hindi movies will hit theatres along with 4 Hollywood movies and a couple of Gujarati and Marathi films! My analysis on these Hindi films:

THE GHAZI ATTACK: It is a bi-lingual and based on a true incident during the 1971 war involving an Indian submarine. Rana Daggubati, Kay Kay Menon, Atul Kulkarni feature in this film and there's also a special appearance by Taapsee Pannu. It looks interesting although viewers have seen better presented war movies. Even if the response is positive, it will have a tough time since the buzz is just not there due to which the opening will be very poor.

RUNNING SHAADI: The film is ready since 2014 and it has taken an unusually long time to release. It stars Amit Sadh and Taapsee Pannu and produced by Shoojit Sircar. The premise catches attention but it hasn't really excited viewers. Thankfully the dated feel is not there. If the costs are limited, then the film can at least break even, provided the response is really positive.

IRADA: Arshad Warsi, Naseeruddin Shah, Divya Dutta and Sagarika Ghatge feature in this film, based on eco terrorism. The trailer evokes interest only till an extent. Audiences on the whole don't like unconventional films and hence even if Irada gets a lot of praise, the box office performance is going to be dismal.

Meanwhile last week's release Jolly LLB 2 had a great run at the box office in Week 1. With the new releases being unexciting, the Akshay Kumar starrer will have a another jolly good week at the ticket window!

Warsi, nixed from Jolly LLB 2, to release film with Ishqiya co-star Naseer on the same day as the sequel
Shaheen Parkar (MID-DAY; January 5, 2017)

Looks like Arshad Warsi is not yet over losing Jolly LLB 2 to superstar Akshay Kumar. In what seems to be a counterstroke, the actor will arrive in theatres on the same day as Akki — February 10 — with his new film Irada, which reunites him with Ishqiya and Dedh Ishqiya co-star, Naseeruddin Shah.

Directed by debutante Aparna Singh, Irada deals with social causes. It has been shot in Chandigarh. Says producer Falguni Sheth, “Our film is ready and we are looking at an early release. We were eyeing a window next month and February 10 appears ideal.”

Since Raees and Kaabil will battle it out in the Republic Day weekend and are expected to have a good run for a fortnight or so, Irada makers feel it won’t be a sound business proposition to release the film in the first week of February. Later that month would also not be wise as Vishal Bhardwaj’s Rangoon with a star-studded cast (Kangana Ranaut, Saif Ali Khan and Shahid Kapoor) hits the marquee.

When Jolly LLB 2 was announced last year, Arshad had reportedly said, “I was supposed to do it, but the
studio needed a bigger star. If you have a bigger star, then even if the film is not that good, you still manage to recover the money, so the risk factor from the producer’s point of view is less. It bothers me a bit, but not that much. I was the one who convinced Subhash (Kapoor, director) to go ahead and do it [cast Akshay] since he was not willing to.”

Commenting on stepping into Jolly’s shoes, Akshay had said, “It is the producer’s call. I did Welcome (2007), but not Welcome Back (2015); I did not feel bad. It was my franchise, so should I feel bad?”

Ask Falguni about the clash between ex-Jolly and new Jolly, and she says, “That will be interesting, but we are weighing all options, not that too many are available.”

Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 18, 2016)

Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; December 15, 2015)

After a personal setback Sagarika Ghatge admits that she is back to B-town to say Chakde once again
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 3, 2015)


Most popularly known as Shah Rukh Khan's Chakde! India girl, Sagarika Ghatge's last release was a Marathi film, Premachi Goshta, in 2013. Two years later she's all set to return as the leading lady of Aparna Singh and Nishant Tripathi's debut film, Irada. The thought-provoking thriller drama also features Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi.

"I play an independent, educated girl who always stands up for what she believes to be right. I am the only female character in the film but not romantically linked with either of the actors," says Sagarika, adding that the film will roll in December.

Before that she plans to sit with the directors and understand the character through workshops. "I'm overwhelmed about sharing screen space with Naseeruddin Shah. I've always looked up to him," she says excitedly.

The actress will start another untitled film in October. It's a women-centric subject being directed by Shiladitya Moulik. "I'm happy that I'm finally getting good roles," she says, dodging questions on the details of her relationship. "Earlier, I had a lot to deal with in my personal space. I give 100 per cent to a relationship but sometimes things don't work out the way you had planned. I had also wanted to go in for further studies. But I am happy to be back," she smiles, refusing to reveal more.