After hosting Diwali bash, Abhishek Bachchan to whisk wife Aishwarya Rai to Italy for her 46th birthday celebration
Upala KBR (MID-DAY; October 28, 2019)

A week-long celebration lies ahead for Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who turns a year older on November 1. After playing host last night as the Bachchans threw open the doors of Jalsa for their Diwali bash, the actor is expected to head out of the country for a quick birthday holiday. mid-day has it that husband Abhishek Bachchan is whisking Aishwarya to Rome for a few days of rest-and-recreation.

A source says, "On Sunday, the Bachchans hosted a grand Diwali bash at home that went on till the wee hours of the morning. After a round of merry-making last night, Aishwarya, Abhishek and daughter Aaradhya will leave for Rome tonight. The doting husband has planned a week-long holiday, which will be a mix of business and pleasure. Aishwarya has an event lined up in the Italian capital on October 30 to mark her 20-year association with a Swiss watch brand. It will be a dual celebration as the brand officials have arranged a special birthday gala for her, with Abhishek and Aaradhya in attendance. After that, the trio will explore Rome and possibly the Vatican City over the next three days. He has already zeroed in on an exotic venue where they will ring in Ash's birthday on the night of October 31. Last year too, he had hosted a surprise birthday bash in Mumbai after which the trio headed to Goa for a getaway."

After the holiday, it will be all work and no play for the actor couple. Bachchan is expected to kick off the second schedule of Ajay Devgn-produced The Big Bull in the second week of November while Rai will begin prep for Mani Ratnam's Ponniyin Selvan. The source adds, "Before they dive headlong into work, the couple will organise an intimate party for their friends on their return to the bay."

MUMBAI MIRROR (October 11, 2019)

It’s the time for ticking items off bucket lists. Kiara Advani, a travel junkie, enjoys going off on leisurely excursions with family and friends between schedules. She was recently in Italy for a vacation and is already planning another trip to the Mediterranean country.

“The country has so much culture and history worth exploring, it’s astounding. We visited Milan, Florence and Lake Como earlier, a fun trip during which we enjoyed great food, visited some beautiful museums and churches and shopped. There’s still so much more to see and I’ve decided to cover the south of Italy as well as Rome, which was impossible to visit in 10 days, on my next trip. It will be less touristy and more relaxed,” she informs.

Also, on her bucket list, are trips to Tokyo, Australia and Africa, along with a Bharat darshan. And when she’s in a new country, she likes to explore on foot. “By default it keeps me fit,” she smiles.

Travelling across multiple Mumbai sets of the sequel to world’s most watched Indian web- series, Sacred Games
Mayank Shekhar (MID-DAY; August 11, 2019)

"I can give you the script [to read]," says director Anurag Kashyap, lounging after the day's gruelling shoot. He's of course not referring to the script of Sacred Games (SG) season two, the tightly guarded sets of which we are at, in Mumbai Film City's Reliance studio.

"We're bound by such contracts that there'll come a time when I may have to look into it, even before saying hi," says Kashyap, revealing precious little about a dark 'warehouse sequence' he's just shot. But the script he's willing to privately share is still SG, although a different version that was offered to him to direct in 2013, by the American Scott Reid Productions.

Kashyap had flatly said no to it then, primarily because that script, sticking completely to Vikram Chandra's novel of the same name (unlike the Netflix version), was to be shot entirely in English. And he could never do that. The authenticity would've been completely lost.

The fact that the 'universal is specific first' is a model that Netflix has followed to global success with subtitled super-hits like Narcos (Spanish), Fauda (Hebrew), and so many others. There is in fact an English-dub of SG available on the web-platform as well. Those who have seen it say it completely destroys the experience. Deeply rooted in the Mumbai milieu, characters in SG speak the city's language that, as writer Salman Rushdie once described it, is HUGME—Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, Marathi, English.

Add to that Punjabi, since the lead, Cop Sartaj Singh, is Sikh, played by Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan, in blue turban, who we met earlier in the day in Malad—shooting an 'interior sequence' of an ashram, that he says "explores the 'sacred' part of Sacred Games, which wasn't so much there in the first season; but it comes in now."

Khan appears a much leaner Sartaj Singh (SS, on the set), from before. "The worn-out look, for someone less sedentary, mostly running around, is closer to how the character is described in the book. Also, with a clock ticking and all that, we're getting into more of an 'action series'," he says.

Khan's portions in the second season are being directed by Neeraj Ghaywan (Masaan), who took over from Vikramaditya Motwane from the first part, since Motwane was finding it hard to balance directorial duties with the job of the showrunner—who looks at the "macro-picture"; supervising for months, before and after production, with writers (led by Varun Grover), and editor (Aarti Bajaj); putting together 15-hour shoots, between multiple locations, time-lines, over 200 days, into seamless, eight episodes of a series. Phew!

Motwane doesn't normally visit the sets, he says. He doesn't need to since he implicitly trusts the two directors, Kashyap and Ghaywan, respectively filming parallel stories of Don Ganesh Gaitonde (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), and Sartaj, alongside. Both tracks, not just visually, even pace and performance-wise, play out, if you carefully observe SG season one, like two totally separate films.

Motwane agrees. And this isn't simply because the directors are different. So is the setting. "Gaitonde's world [a series of flashbacks], is a personality-led fable. Sartaj's is a more private space, of tension, and [building] mystery," he explains. From a technical/visual point of view, this is achieved through the use of different kinds of lenses—"anamorphic, with more saturation for Sartaj's [world]; and spherical, with less saturation, for Gaitonde's." While there is no "show-bible" as such, the template is more or less set.

Lay viewers are hardly going to notice these technicalities. What they will/have is, according to Khan, the reason he was instantly drawn to SG as the first Indian Netflix series going out to the world: "Besides an international sensibility in filmmaking, it [the subject] is very Indian. And by that I mean it's got mafia and cops, whose equations are unique. Then you've got religion, politics, God-men, and Bollywood, all thrown into the mix of what's a very psychological mind-game."

True. Can't wait! New season drops on August 15. Two-thirds of SG season one audience, Netflix reveals, has come in from outside India, making it truly a global show. Khan has been around as a Hindi film-star for over two and half decades, with 60-plus movies, and a strong audience-base among South Asians and other Bollywood fans abroad. One wonders if the demography eyeing/approaching him at international airports has broadened/changed a bit since SG. He gently shrugs, making little of that remark, "No... I don't know...Maybe they expect a Sardar with a beard!"

Couple of days after SG dropped, Siddiqui, on the other hand, felt a bunch of locals weirdly staring at him on the streets of Rome while he was there for a film with actor Tanishtha Chatterjee: "Saamne gora dekh raha hai. Matlab, Sacred Games dekha hai," he whispered. The filmmakers shooting the second season seem to have equally benefitted from the prequel's success.

Kashyap recalls, "We've shot the sequel all over—Croatia, South Africa, Kenya… We shot on the same boat from Free Willy. There was an incredible riverside bungalow in Kenya. The moment the owner got to know Gaitonde was going to be there, he just let us do whatever we wanted."

Which brings us to, well: Where is Ganesh Gaitonde? In his village, as we speak. Or a village, aptly created as a set, in Goregaon! Stepping into the refreshment-tent outside the makeshift mud-hut, after a late-night shift, you can tell, Siddiqui has clearly shed Gaitonde behind, to reveal his usual, painfully shy self. Chameleon-like transformations have pretty much defined Siddiqui's career.

But the longest he's ever been with a character is obviously the Marathi gangster's: "It's become too internalised, I can't switch on-off like a computer." And he's evidently developed some empathy for him as well: "For one, he [Gaitonde] loves Mumbai. Two, he's very trusting. And, he doesn't ever discriminate over religion."

For character-study, interestingly enough, Siddiqui points to his own brother as personal inspiration: "I have several [brothers], but only [a younger] one remained uneducated and stayed back in the village. People talk shit about him. I used to as well. It's only when I began to look deeper, I realised, he's essentially over-sensitive and over-reacts. If there's a galat baat (a wrong utterance), people might calm down. He can't. He became bad, because of the bad happening around him."

Extending that example, Siddiqui adds, "Take Dawood [Ibrahim]. People say he has a sharp mind. But it's twisted. If he'd applied his acumen in the right direction, he could've been a great businessman." Hmmm… Got it, Gaitonde.

Having wrapped up Africa schedule, Nawazuddin says Gaitonde’s arc set for unexpected turn in Sacred Games 2
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; January 28, 2019)

“I have left no stone unturned to absorb the nuances of Ganesh Gaitonde,” begins Nawazuddin Siddiqui, aware that his crime lord character from Sacred Games has become an icon in its own right. With the first season of the homegrown Netflix original having won much applause, the onus is on the makers — directors Anurag Kashyap and Neeraj Ghaywan, and showrunner Vikramaditya Motwane — to present a worthy second instalment.

Fresh off the Africa schedule, Siddiqui says, “This season will be the baap of the first one. Even if people know Ganesh Gaitonde, they won’t know what to expect from him. We shot extensively across Mombasa [Kenya], Cape Town and Johannesburg.”

Point out how the new season — slated to drop online mid-2019 — comes with its set of expectations, and he says, “I realised the impact of the show when I was shooting in Rome, a week after its release. People came up to me to click pictures. My team would show me the memes that were doing the rounds on the Internet.”

Before starting their final week-long schedule in Mumbai tomorrow, Siddiqui says that like most collaborations with Kashyap, this too has been “worthwhile”. “When Anurag is working with me, he is constantly pushing me to break my own boundaries. It comes from familiarity and my ability to go on a rollercoaster with him. as an actor, I am someone who enjoys twirling myself up.”

Flushed with the success of Sacred Games, Nawaz on how India’s first Netflix show made him an international star
Sonil Dedhia (MID-DAY; August 21, 2018)

Over a month after he made his web debut with Sacred Games, Nawazuddin Siddiqui says it was a gamble that has paid him rich dividends. Amidst reports that the second season of the adaptation of Vikram Chandra’s novel will go on floors by the year-end, the actor reveals that his portrayal of Mumbai crime overlord Ganesh Gaitonde has brought him recognition among the global audience.

Speaking about the success of the Netflix series for the first time, Siddiqui — who is no stranger to the international circuit courtesy several films, including Gangs Of Wasseypur (2012) and Manto, that have travelled to various festivals — says he understood the farreaching impact it had within a week of it dropping online. “I was in Rome [shooting for Tannishtha Chatterjee’s yet-untitled directorial] the same week when Sacred Games released. What was interesting was the fact that not only Indians, but the locals also recognized me as Ganesh Gaitonde and appreciated my performance. I have never seen this kind of adulation in my life. It is India’s first Netflix series. It is on par, or I would say, even better than the shows that are being made in various parts of the world,” says the actor.

The pilot season received much acclaim, with some drawing parallels with the popular American drama Narcos. Siddiqui shares with mid-day that the second season will be more promising. “Anurag [Kashyap] told me that the second season will be bigger and better. It is in the scripting stage.”

While he awaits the second instalment of the web show, he will be seen on the big screen in Anil Sharma’s Genius. “When Anil ji approached me, I agreed to be a part of the movie, as I have always loved the treatment of his films.”

Actor has been paired with Italian actress Valentina Corti in Tannishtha Chatterjee’s directorial debut
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 19, 2018)

On Wednesday, Nawazuddin Siddiqui posted a photograph with a mystery woman with the intriguing caption, “Yeh Ladki mere ‘rome rome mein’ hai’’ and had everyone wondering who she was. Mirror has learnt that she’s Italian actress Valentina Corti who has been roped in opposite the 44-year-old actor for Tannishtha Chatterjee’s yet untitled directorial debut which is presently being shot in Rome.

Valentina is known for her TV shows, Don Matteo, All the Music of the Heart and Titanic: Blood and Steel. The latter also featured Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham and Frozen actor Kevin Zegers. “I knew she was the one the first time I met her. Valentina is very beautiful, a great actress and well-known in Italy. I did a few days of workshop with both of them before we started shooting and they get along really well, joking and pranking each other. She is a fun person,” beams Tannishtha, speaking to Mirror from the Italian Capital.

The actress-turned-director is reuniting with Nawazuddin after Mangesh Hadawale’s 2011 drama Dekh Indian Circus and Garth Davis’s 2017 Dev Patel-Nicole Kidman-starrer Lion. She was his junior at the National School of Drama and has known the actor for over 14 years.

As part of prep and a bonding exercise, Tannishtha even sent her lead pair on a dinner date so they could get to know each other better. She also gave them five difficult tasks to do which had Nawaz joking, “I thought I was going on a romantic dinner and you gave me so many tasks!”

Produced by Eros International, Pankaj Razdan and Ravi Walia, the film is based on strange experiences which happened to her during one of her travels to a film festival and when she sounded him out, Nawazuddin was equally intrigued and together they decided to take it to the screen. “We are shooting in many iconic locations while sampling the local cuisine as Rome and food go hand-in-hand,” Tannishtha exults, refusing to divulge names owing to the popularity of her actors. “Wherever we go, not only Indians but also the Asian community and Italians who follow Bollywood films are waiting for Nawaz. Our local crew has strict instructions not to reveal our schedule since Valentina is also a popular face and shooting can get really difficult.”

Meena Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 8, 2017)

On Wednesday, Rishi Kapoor, along with actress-wife Neetu, will take off on an 11-day cruise across Europe that kicks off from Rome. The 64-year-old actor revealed to Mirror that they will be sailing around the Greek Islands before their friends join them in London.

The couple’s vacation starts on August 9 and winds up on August 21 so they can be back at their Bandra residence in time for Ganpati celebrations. Rishi and Neetu, who are devout Ganesha devotees, have been celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi for decades with elaborate rituals panning over five days. “We were planning a longer vacation but both Neetu and I wanted to be back at least a couple of days before the festival starts on August 25 to make all the necessary arrangements. We also have a Ganesh puja at RK Studios, which my family hosts. I don’t want to miss that either,” informed Rishi.

Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 22, 2017)

Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 30, 2016)

The actress plans to go backpacking through Italy but minus husband Siddharth Roy Kapur
Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; February 12, 2015)

Sonali Joshi Pitale (MID-DAY; September 3, 2014)

Abhishek Bachchan was a special guest at Match for Peace, a football match in Rome that is played by star players from different cultures, countries and religions in order to help spread the Pope’s message of peace to the world.

A source says, “Abhishek has had a tight schedule as he has been busy traveling with his kabbadi team and he is about to begin promoting his upcoming film, Happy New Year. But when he was approached for this cause, he could not turn it down. Moreover, he loves the game and follows all matches, so he immediately agreed to take some time out and fly down to Rome for the match.”

It is being said that the actor, who owns the Chennai team in the football tournament, Indian Super League, was the only Indian to attend this match that took place on Monday. “Abhishek was invited by former Inter Milan and Argentina captain Javier Zanetti to attend the match. It was organised by the Scholas Occurrentes initiative, an Argentine project that aims to educate the poor in different countries around the world; Italy’s Fundazione PUPI, which works towards uniting people of different faiths and the United Nations’ Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation.”

Abhishek’s spokesperson confirmed the story.