Anuparna Roy scripted history by winning the Orizzonti Award for Best Director at the Venice Film Festival for her film, Songs Of Forgotten Trees.

In her acceptance speech, Anuparna said, “Every child deserves peace, freedom, liberation and Palestinians are no exception... it’s a responsibility at the moment to stand by Palestine....”

Her speech drew strong reactions across the country. Speaking to ANI, the filmmaker voiced her strong stance against “injustice.”

She said, “I meant whatever I said at the festival. It was said with the intention of pointing out injustice around the world. If I support Palestine, if I am standing against injustice, it doesn’t make me less Indian. People are thinking that I have spoken about it for the first time, but it’s not that. I mentioned Palestine while receiving an award in Russia. This doesn’t mean that I will not talk about the genocides or the violence in Nepal.”

Anuparna revealed that Anurag Kashyap had advised her to avoid Palestine-related comments at the event. “People are claiming that I made the comments under the influence of Anurag Kashyap, but I was strictly advised by my producers, my mentor, and Anurag himself that I don’t need to talk about it. I went beyond their advice and said it all,” she said, adding, “I will continue to speak against injustice. I believe such things should come into discussion, whether it is Kashmir, Murshidabad or Gujarat.”

------------------------------------------------

Freida Pinto took a break from her jury duties at the Red Sea Film Festival to talk to Variety about her career and her hopes for the future.

The Indian actor shot to world fame for her starring role in Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire” (2008) and remains committed to the breadth of cinema. “I’ve always looked at cinema globally,” she tells Variety. “After ‘Slumdog,’ I could have easily played all the Indian roles, the girlfriends and sidekicks, or just gone and done something only in India.”

Instead, she sought out challenging roles, often playing non-Indian characters such as Iranian or Arab women, for example a Palestinian girl in “Miral,” a choice that she recognizes is now controversial.

“I know it’s not okay these days, because the world has opened up and there’s so much talent,” Pinto says. “But — and I don’t mean this in a pompous way — with a film like ‘Miral,’ where I’m playing a Palestinian girl and it’s such a controversial subject matter, they needed someone then who could put butts on seats. I now see that’s why they chose me, but at the time I thought: I can see myself as x, y and z, and I feel that in me too. The way I think now is not the way I thought back then, at all. But those films opened doors and made people more aware of a whole region, which has so much talent and so many stories that are not being told frequently enough. I wouldn’t do it now, but I’m very proud of what I did then.”

Having had a large part to do with placing Bollywood in the mainstream of Western culture, how does it feel to be in Saudi Arabia where Bollywood stars are greeted with such adulation?

“Bollywood is all over the region. The Middle East and Northern Africa. I believe it’s also huge in Japan. When I was filming in Israel and Palestine, I remember going into the old city of Jerusalem, and they were literally selling DVDs of old Bollywood movies and they would say “Hind,” which means Indian in Arabic. They would ask me, even though I was in character, if I knew all the old Bollywood actors, which obviously I said no.”

So what’s the appeal?

“I think what really works is the escapism, which is something Bollywood cinema does best. I love what we do in the Western world as well, but there’s something magical about Bollywood and it’s always about family, love and culture, and it’s immediately relatable for the Middle East. Coming together, respect for your elders, all of that is represented in Indian Cinema and although Saudi Arabia and India are different countries, there’s no disconnect, when it comes to that. The Western world and their beliefs are more nuclear than the extended family.”

This global perspective also is dictating Pinto’s own future both as an actor and a producer.

“The opportunities are changing now. We’re celebrating ‘Minari’ and ‘Parasite’ at the Oscars. You’re in a bubble if you think Hollywood is the only thing. There’s Asian cinema that isn’t tapped into or explored, and they’re all doing really well in their own countries as well as elsewhere. I don’t want to be just doing Hollywood and working with the filmmakers who we hear about over and over again. That’s why I would love to work with Nadine Labaki. I loved her first film ‘Caramel’ and I’ve been hoping an opportunity would come and now with my own production company I can create that opportunity for myself if I wanted to.”

2024 looks to be a big year with a slew of projects potentially coming to fruition, including roles in Season 2 of Apple TV+ show “Surface” and a film adaptation of Onjali Q. Rauf’s “The Boy at the Back of the Class.” As a producer, she has four projects near “the finishing line,” including a Deepa Mehta film.

“It’s all coming together,” she says.

Following the success of their Israeli TV series Fauda, its creators Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff are enjoying the immense love they are getting from fans – be it in Jakarta, Colombia or especially India. The duo, who recently visited India to attend a film festival, says they’re bowled over by people’s warmth. “When we landed here, at immigration, the officer looked at me, and said, ‘I saw Fauda three times’,” Lior, who also acted in the show, told us, adding, “Then I lost my baggage, and the officers helped me and they (all) knew who I was. It is so nice to know that people all over the world, and especially India, appreciate your work. It’s not easy, as sometimes you get mobbed and sometimes I try to hide myself. But when someone says they want to take a picture, for me, it’s just their way of expressing their love. ”

Avi told us, “We are working on a true story that follows an Indian guy and if everything falls in place, we will be filming in India. The lead character of the show is based in Delhi. The story starts here (in India) and it develops and goes to England and Russia. This is at an early stage. We want to shoot here and work and produce here. This is why we are coming back again soon to Mumbai to talk with Indian companies and producers.”‘

While dealing with such a sensitive topic, Fauda creators said that authenticity is crucial. Since they have both worked as undercover agents, how do they draw the line between what to reveal and what not to?

Avi said, “We both know what we shouldn’t expose. There is an ongoing dialogue between us about how far we can go without putting anyone in danger. We both were in a unit that was nothing like on show, which belongs to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). And we both have been very careful with human life in what we do (pauses)...I have to say that reality brings all kinds of meanings and events that we could not really expect to happen and we could not imagine will happen. But it’s a very weird life in Israel and in the Middle East (in a way) that sometimes reality is way bigger than fiction.” 

Lior added, “What is interesting is that because of the show, there is an increase in young people who want to be in those units. There are thousands more people who want to join these units. The number has doubled. People really want to be a part of that unit. This is a byproduct of what we are doing.”

Talking about the impact of Fauda across the world and in the Middle East, Lior said, “We were surprised that it was number 1 on the streaming platform in Lebanon and in the Top 10 all over the Arab world. There was an article about us in a newspaper in Egypt that stated that we have changed Arab people’s perspective on Israel. Until now, it was all about propaganda. But you see, as people, we are all good sometimes and we are bad sometimes. And not just other countries, but even in Israel, people feel compassion for those who are on the other side too. People who support Palestinians sometimes feel compassion for the Israeli side as well.”

“The people who surrounded us here (in India) were so kind and polite. I was eating all the time here, everybody here wants us to eat a lot because they love us,” said Lior. “Fourteen years ago, I wanted to go on a spiritual trip, so I chose the south of India. With a good friend of mine, I started the trip on a motorcycle and we just travelled from Goa to Hampi to Kerala and we met so many interesting and loving people. It was the most spiritual moment of my life to be in India for a few weeks, just to travel and meet people. Now when I came to Goa this time again, I felt immediately at home. It was a great experience and I’d love to explore more,” added Lior, to which Avi agreed.

Actor Gauahar Khan is spending her birthday wishing for peace all across the world. She hopes that the exploitation of people in the name of religion will end. “I spend every birthday, in fact every day, wanting peace. I want the suffering to end. I want people to just stop (doing) everything in the name of power, religion. They need to stop exploiting people’s minds to take them away from the real issues. I really want people to find peace and happiness,” shares Khan, who turns 38 today.

Throughout the years, the actor has been vocal about significant issues, from patriarchy and global conflicts to Islamophobia, and the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan. She uses social media to voice her opinions. Asked about the same, she says, “Right now, everybody is talking about the Taliban entering Kabul, which is absolutely crazy. I want to know how many people actually spoke up about the issues that were happening in Afghanistan in the last 20 years when America was there. It was not at all happy and hunky-dory.”

She continues, “It was a war zone, people were still dying. The Taliban was still attacking people. It was not a peaceful land, Syria is not peaceful, Palestine is not peaceful, but nobody really speaks about it. I feel it is a media operated propaganda that people want to be selective about the causes they support”. According to her, humanity is “across religions, sex, faiths and countries”.

“If you are humane, you should have the same kind of values for everybody. It has got nothing to do with, ‘humko matter karta hai toh hi hum baat karenge warna nahi karenge’. Your voice is yours. You need to use it wisely and use it for the correct topics,” says the actor, who has been having an eventful birthday month with back to back releases. Meanwhile, her birthday also marks one year since actor Zaid Darbar proposed to her for marriage, making it more special.

Salman Khan's fandom is spread as far and wide as Palestine. Eight actors from the country's The Freedom Theatre, whose collaborative play titled Hamesha Samida, with Delhi-based theatre group Jana Natya Manch is currently on a 10-city tour in India, recently confessed to being huge fans of Bhai. When the play's director and co-star, Sudhanva Deshpande, got wind of it, he immediately reached out to his childhood buddy, Bajrangi Bhaijaan director Kabir Khan, to arrange a meeting with the star.

“Not many know that Palestine is huge on Bollywood, especially Salman.With Kabir's help, these actors managed to meet him at a five star hotel on Tuesday afternoon, where the latter was shooting for his forthcoming wrestler film,“ informs a source present at the location.

“Salman was extremely courteous and showed keen interest in their play while the group gifted him a Keffiyeh (a traditional Palestinian cotton scarf worn by men for ceremonial purposes) which reminded the actor of his look from Kabir's Ek Tha Tiger,“ the source reveals, adding that the filmmaker was present at the hotel to ensure a hassle-free meeting.

Interestingly, the Keffiyeh rose to fame among Sallu's Indian fans after he was spotted wearing it in the hit 2012 spy actioner. Before they headed to stage their play in the evening, the group also got to witness Salman in action on the sets and bid their favourite star adieu with a, 'see you in Palestine,' to which the 50-year-old actor quipped, 'take Kabir with you and he'll make a film there.'