Showing posts with label The Devil Wears Prada. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Devil Wears Prada. Show all posts
When you watch Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, are you thinking about her age?-Shilpa Shetty
8:26 AM
Vinay MR Mishra (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 30, 2026)
Three decades into the spotlight, Shilpa Shetty Kundra continues to juggle multiple roles — actor, entrepreneur, television personality and mother. In a conversation with us, the actress talks about how society places too much emphasis on age, raising children in the digital era and the woman she credits for shaping her outlook on life, her mother.
‘I choose to give my body and mind discipline’
At a time when discussions around ageing, beauty standards and relevance continue to dominate narratives around women, especially in showbiz, Shilpa has a simple perspective. As she prepares to turn 51, she says, “I think too much importance is given to age in this country. When you watch Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, are you thinking about her age? When you watch Jennifer Lopez perform on stage, are you thinking about her age? No! For me, it’s not about how you choose to age; it’s about how you choose to live. I choose to give my body and mind discipline and, along with care and time – that reflects outwardly.”
‘We all go through highs and lows in life’
Few actors have lived through the kind of scrutiny that Shilpa has over the years. Every day, a new controversy around her husband, Raj Kundra, makes headlines. Yet, she has consistently managed to appear composed in public — something she attributes not to strength alone, but discipline.
She says, “We all go through highs and lows in life. Yes, I’m also an actor, even if something is troubling me personally, I’m not being paid to show that on my face while I’m working. That is reserved for my private space and for the people who are my safe space. My attitude has always been very positive. If I step out for work, I want to do it to the best of my ability, regardless of what’s happening in my personal life. That work ethic comes from my parents. Both of them worked extremely hard and we only really saw them on weekends because they were constantly working for us.”
She adds, “I have absolutely been an overthinker. Yoga changed my life completely. It changed the way I think. Human beings constantly overthink. We’re always worrying about what if this happens next week or next month. And then half the things we spend months worrying about never even happen. I would waste so much time fretting. Yoga just made me more mindful and aware.”
‘People knew that if they wanted to mess with Shilpa, they’d have to deal with her mom first’
Shilpa is soon going to be seen in a reality show Zee 5's Maa Hai Na, so naturally the conversation drifts towards motherhood — both as a daughter and now as a parent.
Talking about her bond with her mother, she says, “Every day I thank God for having her in my life. Even back in the day, people knew that if they wanted to mess with me, they’d have to deal with my mom first. She was my original momager. Even if professionally, I had managers, the rules were set by my mother. Shamita and I are both strong-willed because we’ve inherited that strength from her. She was a working woman who balanced family and career beautifully, and that was incredibly inspiring to watch while growing up.”
‘It’s fascinating and scary to see how aware the kids of today’s generation are’
While she speaks lovingly about the simplicity of her own childhood, Shilpa admits parenting today comes with a completely different set of realities. Reflecting on raising children in the digital age, she says, “You can’t compare the current times we are in with the era we grew up in. We grew up very simply. If we needed information, we went and asked our parents. Today, kids have Google and AI. It’s fascinating and scary at the same time because this generation is very aware. Their perception and opinions are far more evolved than what we were at that age. My son is 14, and he can genuinely have conversations on a variety of topics and hold his own. The biggest difference I see is that we as parents, today give our children the space to have opinions. Back then, if we had opinions, our parents would just say, ‘We don’t care. Do what we say.’ And somehow that worked too.”
How airlines pick the movies on your flights
10:33 PM
Sure, everyone likes ‘Barbie’, but who knew that ‘Cats’ would be an in-flight standout?
THE ECONOMIC TIMES (December 26, 2024)
On your long-haul trip home for the holidays, you will scrunch yourself into a too-narrow seat, fasten your seat belt and probably turn on the screen in front of you.
At least half and sometimes as many as 8 in 10 customers use that entertainment system, executives from the major domestic airlines say. And the top option, said Dominic Green, director of in-flight entertainment at United, is movies.
"The people who aren't engaging are basically on redeye flights coming back from Las Vegas or they are children under 2," said Ekrem Dimbiloglu, a managing director for customer experience at Delta.
Delta has 165,000 screens on 840 jets. United has 500 planes equipped with seat-back screens and more are being added every day. That means that airlines, as Green likes to say, are some of the largest "cinemas in the sky."
But who determines what you get to see while stuck in a metal tube at 35,000 feet? And how do they choose? We talked to the people in charge to find out.
Who decides which movies are available?
Airlines mostly have teams that help curate the entertainment. At Southwest, Kennedy Wilson is, as she put it, "a team of one." Dimbiloglu leads a team of four at Delta, some of whom attend film festivals. Green's team has quadrupled in recent years from two to eight.
The airlines also partner with content service providers -- akin to middlemen -- that offer recommendations and they sometimes seek additional help when putting together a collection for, say, Hispanic Heritage Month, or trying to program for an international flight.
On a cross-country trip in October, Delta offered a Halloween collection that included "Beetlejuice" and "The Conjuring." There was also a category called Cozy Family Fall that featured "Coco" and "Remember The Titans."
Green said United worked with more than 100 content providers to fill out its roster of movies, TV series, music and podcasts. American Airlines carries more than 1,500 titles overall and an average of 500 movies, said Kim Cisek, vice president of customer experience.
How are the movies selected?
The airlines say they are data-driven. They can see which movies we are watching and how long we are watching them for.
Some airlines also track how shows are performing on external streaming platforms that viewers use at home and consider how titles are being received in different markets and among particular demographics. Cisek said American Airlines gathers insights from flight attendants, too.
And customers famously love giving feedback. Many fill out satisfaction surveys, and more than a few feel compelled to tweet or write in with a specific request -- or complaint.
But data cannot tell you everything. Only humans know that "Inside Out" and "Inside Out 2" are very different movies. Or that tennis feels kind of hot right now. (See "Challengers.")
Green said his team and their colleagues who run social media noted the buzz surrounding a forthcoming "The Devil Wears Prada" sequel. So they put the original "The Devil Wears Prada" on board, even though it is more than 20 years old, and it performed well.
"Art and science," Green said.
How often do the movies change?
Executives say they rotate and evaluate movies regularly to keep their offerings fresh. For example, American Airlines adds roughly 200 titles every month.
Is it just me, or are there more niche categories now?
As the number of offerings has ballooned into the hundreds, airlines have increasingly sought to categorize them. They sometimes lean on internal employee resource groups to help curate selections for Black History Month and International Women's Day. Or, as was the case at Southwest, they create a Ryan Reynolds category because they have a lot of Ryan Reynolds movies and "that's just fun," Wilson said.
Some airlines are getting even more personalized. United tracks usage and viewership (responsibly, it says) and considers the information and preferences customers share in their profiles. "If they tell us they're really into action movies," Green said, "we can take them straight into that kind of action movie collection."
Delta has recently begun rolling out a way to sync up its in-flight entrainment system with customers' airline membership accounts so they can interact with the system like they would with Netflix. Many customers can now restart a movie right where they left off on their last trip and get smarter recommendations based on what they have already watched. "We're trying to bring that living room experience to you in the air," Dimbiloglu said.
At least five generations are flying in this moment, Cisek said. "So it's really important that we have something for everyone."
Does 'Oppenheimer' cost the same as 'Sleepless In Seattle?'
Definitely not. (Though none of the airline representatives would say how much they spend on movies or specify how much different titles cost.)
Airlines work with studios and content service providers to procure the movies they want to show. But the budget is not unlimited, and curation teams must decide what will give them the best bang for their buck. For instance, Southwest passed on "Top Gun: Maverick," Wilson said, even though she believed it would be popular.
Airlines also must contend with licensing windows. It will be months before "Wicked," in theaters now, can be shown on planes. And once they get it, they may have it for only six months or a year at a time.
What types of movies do people like to watch?
"The golden rule is there is no kind of golden rule," Green said. But airline executives have learned a thing or two about what customers seem to like.
Nostalgic comfort and comedy: Dimbiloglu estimated that 40% of Delta's customers are millennials, and many of them seem interested in shows that took off when they were growing up. "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "The Office" and "Friends" are television series, not movies, but they perform really well on Delta, he said.
"The Office" is also popular on American Airlines, Cisek said, as is "Abbott Elementary." She highlighted comedy series as especially winning. "Customers are looking for ways to have an enjoyable flight and just kind of turn off," she said.
The 'airline movie': Multiple executives independently pointed to the same movie that they said had been popular among customers for years: "Crazy Rich Asians." Those that removed the title said they received complaints. "It's an airline movie," Dimbiloglu said. "A positive, uplifting movie that has a lot of travel associated with it, that has adventure associated with it and that puts you in a good mood."
Like the characters in a good airline movie, he said, most of the people on a plane are going somewhere and want to be happy when they get there.
The 'unicorn': "There's always a unicorn," Wilson said, "one movie that you're like, 'Oh, sure, we'll put it on board," and to everyone's surprise, "it just astronomically performs."
For her, the best example of a unicorn was "Cats." People know the musical, she said, and the movie was heavily advertised before it was released in 2019. But the film was skewered after audiences actually got to see it and it flopped at the box office.
Nonetheless, "Cats" turned out to be one of Southwest's top-performing movies. "House Of Gucci" stole that title soon after.
It all sort of makes sense to Wilson. Time in the air is burden-free, she said, and those "found hours" let you try something new or sneak in something you've secretly wanted to watch.
Delta executives were hardly surprised that "Barbie" found a wide audience. But when they looked closer, they saw something unexpected: Male business travelers were among its highest viewers.
"There's no laws. Watching a movie in-flight, you're already in a tube," Wilson said. "You're already going to be in there for a certain amount of time. So they see a movie that they wouldn't buy a ticket for."
Minissha Lamba to do a The Devil Wears Prada in Internet 4G Love?
4:38 AM
Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 6, 2018)
Actress Minissha Lamba, who was last seen on the big screen in Anand Kumar’s 2013 multi-starrer Zila Ghaziabad as Arshad Warsi’s love interest, followed by an appearance on the TV show Tenali Rama, is now up for a TV comeback. The actress will be a part of the upcoming show, Internet 4G Love, in a pivotal role. In the show, which airs on Colors, she will be seen in a character fashioned after Meryl Streep’s ruthless fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly from the hit Hollywood film, The Devil Wears Prada.A source close to the development reveals, “The story is based in Delhi, but it will be shot at a Mumbai studio. Minissha plays the owner of a wedding planning company in Delhi, who is a perfectionist. She will be seen in a chic western look, and the team has been planning it in great detail. The team starts shooting next week and the show is expected to go on air by the month-end.”
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