'The magic of Roja can never be replicated because how can you recapture the carefree innocence of childhood?'
A lowdown on what's happening in the Tamil film industry.
'When a common man's house is on fire, he is infused with extraordinary strength.' 'He will go to any length to save his home and family even if he is not as big and strong as Sunnyji.'
Netflix is reminiscent of Star TV in the 1990s: Very Western in its gaze, very expensive, and clueless, notes Vanita Kohli-Khandekar.
Joginder Tuteja looks at the big November hits in the past decade.
Till the lockdown was imposed in March, more than 200 Zee staffers had spent over 2,500 hours across 28 regions in Punjab, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal to understand the audiences. The effort paid off, again and again.
'In India the box office numbers are insane. It released with 7 other films It still did 70 crores during pandemic times. 'To have your second feature film in Telugu create this kind of impact is a dream come true.'
'He is busy building an image on the social media as an anti-right-winger.' 'But remember: An actor is only good at what he was born to do,' observes Subhash K Jha.
'If you look at the Number 1 film in India this year across Bollywood and other regional film industries, it is Avengers: Endgame.'
'Every day, after 'pack-up', Khansaab and Deepika would come for dance practice and rehearse till around 1-1.30 am.' 'The weather was a challenge because while on screen, it looks warm and sunny, it was actually bitterly cold, with a sharp, stinging wind which had the actors and dancers shivering in their summer clothing.'
'Before going to Kashmir, we were apprehensive because of what we had heard.' 'But what we saw when we reached Kashmir was altogether different.'
'Never in the history of Indian cinema did we have a distribution system for 240 countries, but we have it now.' 'And if we still keep catering to the B and C-tiers of our country, and not the whole world, then we are really being losers.' 'The visionaries of the industry must pull up their socks and say that now we will create for the world.'
'Life is too short to be doing something that you do not love.'
'Just because a subject is uncomfortable for some and doesn't suit their political ideology, should a film not be made?'
As the curtain come down on 2022, Roshmila Bhattacharya flashbacks to some of the year's news-makers and events.
'I am a non-resident Indian. I didn't come to India to shine a light on its negative aspects.' 'I came to India to showcase what I think are remarkable aspects of India and Indians on a global scale.'
Why history doesn't always make for box-office success.
"Every actor's life is short. It exists only between 'Action' and 'Cut'," Mohanlal once told Subhash K Jha.
Saif Ali Khan, who showed us how wicked he could be in Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior has been cast in the role.
'In two years, if films continue to perform like Baahubali, RRR and Pushpa...'
The Congress released a booklet 'Nau saal, Nau sawaal', asking nine questions from Modi. The BJP rejected the Congress' criticism as a 'bundle of lies and mountain of deception' and said the questions are born out of 'pathological hatred' of the PM.
The cinema industry is staring at a loss of at least Rs 5,000 crore at the box office over the next six months if Omicron proves to be a spoiler.
We will continue to be enthralled by your golden oldies we grew up with, notes Shreekant Sambrani.
'I'm trying to move away from what I've done before, not because I'm not happy with what it was, but because I have already done that.'
'In my life, whatever I've planned has not really panned out within that time frame.'
'Working with Pooja has been a great experience for Prabhas.' 'Another project with the two is being planned.'
The BJP continuing to look at the Dravidian polity through the religious prism has not worked in Tamil Nadu whereas it has yielded political and electoral results across much of the rest of the country, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'I wasn't getting the roles I wanted to play and the respect I thought I deserved as a senior actor, so I cut myself off from the industry for a while and moved to the US.'
'When I contracted COVID and was extremely unwell, I almost thought I was not going to make it.' 'But this man (Karan Johar) was like family for us in Bombay. He would send doctors for me, made sure my medication was done correctly and made sure I came out of COVID.'
Zee5 is now the fifth largest streaming app after YouTube, Hotstar, MX Player and Voot, and there is talk of hiving off Zee5 to drive valuation, says Vanita Kohli-Khandekar.
As the film celebrates five years of release, 10 interesting facts about S S Rajamouli's fantasy.
Where Laal Singh Chaddha succeeds most is heart, notes Sukanya Verma.
Sooryavanshi and Annaatthe have already collected 6 percent of the film industry's 2020 revenue.
Theek nahi lagta, a song written by Lata Mangeshkar's favourite lyricist Gulzar, was believed to have been lost.
'All my life, I have made expensive films. This time, I want to make the least expensive film ever made in Bollywood.' 'It's an honest attempt to climb Mount Everest without knowing if I will reach the peak.'
Mani Ratnam is experimenting with a real-life historical in Ponniyin Selvan, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
'If I were to say, I had the best vegetarian food in my life in Vietnam, nobody would believe me.' 'When I proclaimed this to my friends, they didn't believe me. I had to show them the pictures and make them drool!!'
The Telugu film industry has its superstars making release announcements in quick succession.
Increase in occupancy will pave way for Hindi blockbusters to release, say multiplex operators.
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