Sources say Shah Rukh Khan, who played Alia Bhatt's counsellor in Dear Zindagi, in talks with the actor for next production
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; August 28, 2020)

Almost four years after a memorable collaboration in Gauri Shinde's Dear Zindagi, rumours are rife that Shah Rukh Khan is set to reunite with Alia Bhatt. Where he played her counsellor in the 2016 coming-of-age drama, the superstar will serve as the producer, this time around.

A source reveals, "Among the many projects on Red Chillies Entertainment's roster is a woman-led comic-drama. The first round of narration has happened with Alia, who has expressed her interest in the subject. She will hear the final script in the coming months, post which she will sign on the dotted line. The makers have a few directors in mind and will zero in on one soon. The film is likely to go on floors by early next year." In the meantime, Bhatt will wrap up the shoot of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Gangubai Kathiawadi.

mid-day reached out to Khan and Bhatt's teams, who remained unavailable for comment.

Rakesh Roshan develops Krrish 4 script during the lockdown, Hrithik Roshan to reunite with Jadoo in film about intergalactic travel
Upala KBR (MID-DAY; July 8, 2020)

Seven years since Krrish 3 (2013), Hrithik Roshan is gearing up to don the superhero cape again. Work on Krrish 4 had been put on hold when Rakesh Roshan was diagnosed with throat cancer last year, but now, the filmmaker has utilised the lockdown to develop a worthy script. In the fourth instalment, India's favourite superhero will apparently travel in time to bring back his scientist father Rohit Mehra, and his trusted extra-terrestrial friend, Jadoo.

While Roshan was exploring several concepts in the past months, a trade source reveals that the idea of intergalactic travel appealed to Hrithik. "As soon as they finalised the idea, Rakesh ji began the pre-production work with Rajesh Roshan taking over the music department."

"Given the movie's ambitious theme, the director has entrusted Shah Rukh Khan's Red Chillies with the visual effects. He intends to introduce an army of super villains who will battle the hero and has hired a Hollywood designer to give a distinct look to each baddie," says the source.

Like the previous two outings, the fourth instalment will see Hrithik in a double role — as Krrish, and his father, Rohit Mehra. With Mehra's character shown as being killed in the earlier edition, the story will focus on the protagonist's efforts to bring his dad back from the dead. "Rohit is integral to the story as he is the only person who can contact Jadoo. Rakesh ji has designed the script cleverly to incorporate the much loved alien from Koi Mil Gaya [2003]. While the cast is yet to be determined, Priyanka Chopra is not expected to reprise her role," says the source, adding that the sci-fi movie may go on floors in January 2021.

When mid-day reached out to Roshan to confirm the development, the filmmaker said, "We are still working on the script."

Marathi screenwriters move HC against Shah Rukh-backed Netflix series alleging copyright infringement, claim '10 plot points' similar to their zombie film
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; May 23, 2020)

No sooner did the trailer of Betaal drop online last week than Marathi screenwriters Sameer Wadekar (right) and Mahesh Gosawi moved the Bombay High Court, alleging that Netflix and Shah Rukh Khan's Red Chillies Entertainment have lifted the plot of their zombie film, Vetaal.

"We had taken our script to several production houses. We hadn't pitched it to Red Chillies Entertainment, so the onus isn't on them, but on the platform that commissioned it. I haven't been able to figure out how [the idea] reached them. I am told the show went on floors in July 2019, a year after my script was registered with the Screen Writers' Association [SWA]. We've registered a complaint with the SWA too," said Wadekar, hours after the hearing on Friday.

While Betaal — written by Patrick Graham and Suhani Kanwar — revolves around a counter-insurgency squad that aims to displace tribals from a village, Wadekar claimed their Marathi feature is centred on an environmentalist who opposes a mining company that tries to drive away the villagers.

Drawing parallels, he said, "There are at least 10 plot points that are similar. We have depicted zombies as descendants of the Vetaal army from Shivaji's era while, in Betaal, they are shown as belonging to the British era. We had written a sequence where the army dances to folk music during a procession. A similar scene is included in their trailer."

Though the Bombay High Court dismissed their petition to put a stay on the show, he has a glimmer of hope. "The court has affirmed that we can seek damages if the plagiarism charges are proved."

Netflix remained unavailable for comment.

Emraan Hashmi, who makes his digital debut with Bard Of Blood, now wants to surprise the audience and begin anew
Shaheen Parkar (MID-DAY; September 29, 2019)

He feels his sugar level is dipping. Emraan Hashmi's already given some 15 interviews and has more lined up. The actor deliberates over candy or perhaps a hot cup of coffee to recharge his batteries.

We are with him at a Lower Parel hotel where he is promoting his digital debut, Bard Of Blood. Last seen in Why Cheat India earlier this year, Hashmi is the latest Bollywood star to jump onto the digital bandwagon with the Netflix series. The actor says he "was not apprehensive about taking the web route. It is just something that did not cross my mind earlier. Initially, there is always resistance to something new."

Bard Of Blood, which also marks Shah Rukh Khan's digital debut as producer, is based on Bilal Siddiqi's 2015 novel of the same name. "I knew Bilal and we used to talk about bringing the spy thriller alive on the screen. We would often discuss the names of the actors who could play the protagonist."

Siddiqi co-wrote Hashmi's book, The Kiss of Life, an autobiographical account of how the actor coped when his son Ayan was diagnosed with cancer. "So when the project was taking shape, Bilal suggested I give it a shot as I had not explored the medium or played a character of an espionage agent before," he says.

Hashmi took it up "as a challenge to test my skills as an actor. I can't be doing the same stuff all my life. An actor has to keep reinventing himself. A film has its space, it is something you are familiar with, but the web world is a different ball game. At the end of the day, you have to test your skills as an actor."

In Bard Of Blood, Hashmi plays Kabir, a former Indian spy who now teaches William Shakespeare to school students. "People have a certain image of me. The last thing that anyone would imagine was me speaking Shakespearean language." This was yet another reason for him to take the plunge. "I would not have got a Bollywood film of this nature in which the characters are so nuanced and detailed. Something that is real and entertaining where the focus is only on the story. I wanted to go into a direction in which something new is expected of me."



Ever since he experienced success with films like Murder (2004), Aashiq Banaya Aapne (2005) and Gangster (2006), Hashmi became to be known as Bollywood's serial kisser having locked lips with all his heroines. Hashmi, 40, says, "Some 10 years down the line, I don't want to be that guy who puckers up with girls half his age on screen. Back then, I was some sort of a cultural phenomenon. We, Indians, are not open about sex and kissing though today's kids are. It is still something that is discussed in hushed tones. So, I became this guy who made all their fantasies come true." He says it "is difficult but not impossible to shed this screen persona. I want to deconstruct myself and start afresh. I want to constantly remind the audience that I can do this as well." He hopes that his upcoming slate of films, which include The Body, Mumbai Saga, Chehre and Ezra does so.

Hashmi is also synonymous with having chartbusters, "make that Sufi songs," he says in his films. "Imagine if I had to break into a song every few minutes in Bard Of Blood, except for India no other Netflix viewer from around the globe would stay tuned. They would most likely switch off. Now, I don't miss the song and dance. I have moved on," he says.

From Book To Screen
Author Bilal Siddiqi on whose book Bard Of Blood is based was interning with Shah Rukh Khan’s production house, Red Chillies, when a casual conversation about the spy thriller resulted in making it into a web series. He presented the book to SRK who liked it. "He was contemplating getting into the digital medium and felt this was apt. Everyone liked the conflict in the title. You don’t associate William Shakespeare with blood," says Siddiqi.

Director Ribhu Dasgupta, who recently wrapped up the Parineeti Chopra starrer The Girl On The Train, makes his digital debut with the seven-episode show. He says, "I had not read Bilal’s book till I was on board to helm the series. What attracted me was the genre as I am inclined to thrillers. The way it was written, it was visually rich, which made it ideal for a screen adaptation. We shot extensively in New Delhi, Rajasthan and Ladakh in freezing cold," says Dasgupta who has also directed the Amitabh Bachchan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui-starrer Te3n (2016). "The audience usually binge watches web shows, so each episode has to be captivating in order that they continue viewing," he says.

Adds Gaurav Verma of Red Chillies, "We spent a lot of time in pre-production as we wanted to cast actors who have not done anything similar before. We were all working together for the first time so we wanted the approach to be new and interesting."


Ribhu Dasgupta, Gaurav Verma, Shah Rukh Khan and Bilal Siddiqi

Emraan Hashmi on foraying into the web with Shah Rukh Khan-backed spy thriller, Bard Of Blood
MID-DAY (August 22, 2019)

Given his experimental streak, it was only a matter of time before Emraan Hashmi would dive into the digital world. Almost a year after he announced his first collaboration with Netflix, the actor is ready with Bard Of Blood, a web series based on Bilal Siddiqi's book by the same name. The spy thriller also has the distinction of being the first original developed by Shah Rukh Khan's stable, Red Chillies Entertainment, for the streaming giant. mid-day was privy to the first look of the Ribhu Dasgupta-directed series, the trailer of which drops online today.

"You will first spot Kabir Anand in Mumbai as a literature professor, teaching Shakespeare in college. He is then reluctantly pulled into the battlefield because of a certain situation," begins Hashmi of his character, a former spy who has swapped guns and a gritty life for a peaceful existence as a professor in the remote mountains of Panchgani. However, a call from the PMO thrusts him back to the unforgiving terrain of Balochistan where he has to rescue four Indian Intelligence Wing (IIW) officers who have been captured. The actor adds that his character's troubled backstory adds to the layered narrative, that also features Sobhita Dhulipala, Kirti Kulhari and Vineet Kumar Singh in pivotal roles.

No subject has been off-limits for Hashmi whose eclectic filmography makes room for a middle-of-the-road film Shanghai (2012) as well as a mainstream and commercial fare like the Raaz series. The actor admits that it is his creative pursuit that has made him explore the OTT platform. "I've always believed that in movies, because of the very nature of the business, there are a few stereotypes that one has to abide by. That is not the case here. One can try out nice and experimental ideas with a platform like this. I probably consume more than 80 to 90 per cent of my media through Netflix."

Bollywood is quite ruthless or some would say, practical. An actor’s box office track record plays a very important role in determining if the actor will survive in the rat race or fade into oblivion. Several actors, who were once ruling or were ‘the next big thing’ have stopped getting work after giving back to back flops. A few of them are still securing films for ‘nepotism’ reasons or for having solid connections. But an actor who stands out in this regard is definitely Emraan Hashmi.

The actor started out in a big way. He is credited as the pioneer of making sex and kissing scenes mainstream in Bollywood. Earlier, it was only B-grade films that would mostly deal with skin show. However, with his second film Murder, it all changed. It was a fully A-grade film and yet had some scintillating lovemaking sequences, with co-actor Mallika Sherawat. The fact that it had super-hit music also helped in getting audiences to cinemas in large numbers. Not just frontbenchers but all sections of society gave the film thumbs up. As a result, the film that was made on a shoestring budget earned almost five times its investment. It made it clear that audiences are ready for bold content and thus began the trend of A-grade actors and actresses shedding their clothes and inhibitions on screen.

As for Emraan Hashmi, he repeated his act in many other films. He mostly played morally wrong, twisted, rebellious character that has a way with women. As a result, the masses whole-heartedly accepted him with open arms! I remember watching Baadshaho two years back on the first day at Mumbai’s premiere single screen complex, Gaiety-Galaxy. Emraan himself came there during the intermission and the way the crowd went berserk was seen to be believed! It was as if an actor of Salman Khan’s stardom was present in the auditorium! And Emraan enjoyed this popularity even when his films were failing.

The initial phase of his career was more or less fine. There came a point in 2006-07 when lot of his films flopped. But with the super-success of Jannat in 2008, his career got a new lease of life. He then followed it up with more hit films like Raaz: The Mystery Continues, Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai, Murder 2, The Dirty Picture and Jannat 2. With Raaz 3 in 2012, he reached the pinnacle of success and everyone thought sky would be the limit for him. Alas, the opposite happened. After Raaz 3, he acted in 11 films out of which only Ek Thi Daayan was an average grosser. The rest of the 10 films were all flops! Some of the films were not masala, which is his forte, and he tried his hands in experimental cinema. Then there were two films – Rush and Ungli – that were delayed. But the rest of the films like Raja Natwarlal, Raaz Reboot, Azhar, Mr X, Baadshaho etc were all conventional, mainstream films. But none of these films had a well-written script. Even the music score, once his forte, in these films wasn’t up to the mark. His last film released recently, Why Cheat India. It was an important film for him as he had turned producer. Unfortunately, the film never opened well due to lack of buzz. Public reaction was negative due to which it couldn’t even cross Rs. 10 crore!

Despite such failures, Emraan Hashmi is not yet out and is going nowhere. He has an important film in his kitty, The Body. It is the remake of the Spanish film of the same name and is directed by Jeethu Joseph, who directed the original Drishyam. Besides Emraan, it also stars Rishi Kapoor and Sobhita Dhulipala, the latter who is making waves at presence thanks to her web show Made In Heaven. Recently, another remake of a Spanish thriller Badla did roaring business at the box office and it remains to be seen if The Body also gets similar kind of success. And post the debacle of Why Cheat India, Emraan was signed on for another exciting film, titled Barf. It co-stars none other than mega star Amitabh Bachchan. This is a courtroom drama and it also features Annu Kapoor and Saurabh Shukla.

And that’s not all. Emraan Hashmi is also simultaneously working on the Netflix show, Bard Of Blood. It is adapted from a book of the same name and is backed by Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment. It will be aired this year and is expected to be a rage, on the lines of last year’s Sacred Games. This web series starred Saif Ali Khan who surprisingly also had a similar journey like Emraan Hashmi. Even his films didn’t work back to back and finally he tasted success on the OTT platform. At the same time, his film Baazaar was his rare success after ages. It remains to be seen if Emraan also has a similar trajectory. He is a fine performer and as a person, he has been no-nonsense and non-controversial. As he turns 40 today, we give him our best wishes and here’s hoping he continues to get work and that he continues to entertain us!

Sonil Dedhia (MID-DAY; January 10, 2019)

Besides being the first Netflix original from Shah Rukh Khan’s stable, Bard Of Blood enjoys another distinction. The spy thriller, an adaptation of Bilal Siddiqi’s book by the same name, also marks Emraan Hashmi’s foray into the digital space.

The actor asserts that the dynamics of the OTT platform are markedly different from that of Hindi cinema. “It’s like shooting three films simultaneously. We have seven episodes, each 45-minute-long,” says Hashmi of the show that has him play a former R&AW agent, who is recalled from his new life as a Shakespeare professor, to save his country.

Although a spy thriller on the surface, Hashmi points out that the makers need to adopt a different tonality when creating content for a global audience. “We are catering to 190 countries; so, the concept of ‘Indianising’ things doesn’t apply here. It has to be real; It can’t be illogical and jingoistic like most of our films.”

Hashmi is no stranger to Siddiqi’s works, having co-written The Kiss Of Life [Hashmi’s book chronicling his son’s battle with cancer] with him. He says he couldn’t have asked for a better debut vehicle. “When Red Chillies offered the show, they felt I might have reservations about foraying into the OTT platform. I had already read the book, and when I read the first three episodes of the adaptation, I decided to give it a shot.”

The actor — who will be seen next in Cheat India — adds that the show is likely to drop online by August-end.