The veteran actor passed into the ages in the early hours of Friday, April 4, 2025. Sukanya Verma looks back at his most memorable performances.
The fifth Filmfare OTT Awards 2024 was held on December 1 in Mumbai, and it saw a lot of glamour.
Jugnuma has the unhurried pace of a stroll at dusk through the hills and the quiet delight in coming across jugnus (fireflies) twinkling in the trees, observes Deepa Gahlot.
With his killer smile, the sex symbol image, Robert Redford would go beyond just being an actor, remembers Aseem Chhabra.
As we celebrate the actor's much deserved award, Divya Nair presents 10 landmark films in Suriya's career, ranked in order of performance.
'Everyone wants me to do Naatu Naatu again.'
'Everybody goes through tumultuous times. I've been lucky and my journey has been excellent.' 'I can't complain because I've had everything and God has been kind.'
Yuan has a pleasant surprise up his sleeve for the Tamil film music fans; his father Ilayaraja has rendered one of Yuvan's compositions in this album and incidentally it is the pick of this five-track album.
'I make films which I think have the possibility of being liked by a majority of people, and you present it with the right emotions.'
'Bappi Lahiri was looking for a break so he and his father would meet me.' 'I told Director Bhisham Kohli about this promising young boy from Kolkata, and Bappi came over with his harmonium.' 'Bappi played this composition and Bhisham liked it immediately.' 'As we were discussing, I said I would give the words, and that's how I wrote this song.'
Film folk have been very busy this year, attending trailer launches and promotional events. Hitesh Harisinghani/ Rediff.com vouches for that, as he recaps 2024 with his insightful clicks.
It was an emotional evening for many film folk, as they won the top awards at the 25th IIFA ceremony in Jaipur.
'Whenever people say to me that all my work looks unique, I say to them originality is the art of concealing your source.' 'You can't see the sources that I take from because usually, they are Indian.' 'But then Indians don't find my work Indian.'
'Thank you to the Cannes Film Festival for having our film here. Please don't wait 30 years to have another Indian film.'
'The way the anticipation is built up for Gabbar Singh's introduction scene with sound, image and details of his personality, like the combat boots he wears.' 'The camera comes so close -- not a tele lens shot, but a wide-angle close-up -- that you can almost smell Gabbar's breath.'
While Hollywood attended the Oscars on Sunday night, film folk back home were busy getting glam for the Zee Cine Awards in Mumbai.
'I don't know how long cinema will survive.'
'Editor M S Shinde deserves full credit because, I'm told, Ramesh Sippy had shot 300,000 feet of footage, which was brought down to 18,000. 'He died in 2012, in a 126 square foot flat in Dharavi, penniless, a forgotten hero.'
'I'm totally focussed on finding the right energies around me. A lot of the treatment is psychosomatic, as my mother keeps reiterating, if you think positive, positive things will happen to you.'
'The moment a movie was declared a hit, he would immediately start planning his next.'
'Expect an emotional dramatic film with action. Expect a world within the crime world.'
'If you watch songs like Acha Ji Main Haari Chalo Maan Jao Na, Lag Ja Gale or Jhumka Gira Re, you'll notice they're not just a distraction. There's a story unfolding within them.'
Veteran filmmaker Chandra Barot, best known for directing the 1978 Amitabh Bachchan-starrer 'Don', passed away on Sunday due to cardiac arrest at a hospital in Mumbai. He was 86.
'Star didn't think Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi was good enough to come immediately after KBC.' 'Except for Ekta, no one imagined it would become such a hit.'
'Everyone at Guru Dutt Productions would get monthly salaries. Waheeda didi would get Rs 2,500 per month. And that was the reason why she left.'
'This maha-parivarik is because of Mallika Sherawat.'
'When India opened its doors to the world, moving away from an agrarian to a market economy, everything, whether life or love, was commodified.'
The actors star in the biopic, Amar Singh Chamkila, which has music by A R Rahman.
'While shooting the Don song, Chandra Barot ordered 30-40 paans and insisted Amitabh Bachchan eat them all.'
Picking 10 excellent performances has been difficult but the attempt is to acknowledge the work of actors, who are often overlooked in favour of stars.
The band was launched last month to mark Rahman's 48th birthday
A R Rahman and SP Balasubramanyam win the top awards.
Aseem Chhabra lists his favourite Indian films of 2021.
The 66th National Awards have been announced, and Hindi cinema has emerged a major winner.
Aseem Chhabra lists the best non-Hindi language films he watched in 2020, with the hope that they will have a wider reach in the new year.
Metro... In Dino is about modern day relationships that feel 'relatable'.
Kareena has been a leading lady now for 25 years, Deepika for almost two decades and Alia for over a decade. Dinesh Raheja chronicles the changing ways Bollywood has treated actor-moms.
'Casting the Bachchans NOT as father and son was the toughest and the easiest part.'
Aseem Chhabra lists his favourite films, most of them shown at international film festivals held virtually (Berlinale and Rotterdam), hybrid (Toronto) or physical (Cannes and Venice).
The 23rd Indian Television Academy awards brightened the weekend for some film folk who took home awards for their work this year.
