'After the first Kantara, when they announced the second one, I kind of knew he will call me. I had this instinct. Then he called me at midnight and I didn't pick up. I was like, I'm not talking to anybody at 12 at night. The following day, I called and we chatted. He said, I have to narrate you something. I said, I know, it's Kantara!'
'Look after your own mother before looking after your neighbour's mother.' 'I don't believe in starving my own mother and feeding sweets to the neighbours.'
At 8,700 screens, India, the world's largest film producing country, has just six screens for every million of its people, compared to 125 in the US and 30 in China. With Sitaare Zameen Par, Aamir Khan hopes to expand the market for Indian cinema.
Arjun Menon celebrates his 70th birthday on August 22 by looking at his most memorable films.
'...and say that if I don't wear a sari, they will unfollow me.' 'Today, if I have 2.9 million followers on Instagram, out of that, the majority is from the South.' 'Telugu has given me the most fame and money.'
'The moment I watched the teaser I was astonished.'
It's been an emotional night for many film folk across India, as they were honoured at the National Awards.
Mari Selvaraj delivers his most rage-filled film in years, with a superbly cast Dhruv Vikram giving it his all, notices Arjun Menon.
Taming the animal called AI in its many avatars will clearly remain a work in progress.
'A story has to do something within me for me to say yes to it.'
In 1973, several major leading ladies like Mumtaz, Raakhee, Jaya Bhaduri, Dimple Kapadia, Tanuja, had married and retired from films. Producers wanted a new heroine as a replacement. Many thought Sulakshana was a Mumtaz lookalike and was soon persuaded to sign on multiple films as a leading lady.
It has entered the Rs 100 Crore Club with ease and will eventually aim for lifetime collections in the vicinity of Rs 150 crore.
The growing list of Bollywood's new-gen actors gets fresh faces in Vyom and Saachi Bindra, who will make their big screen debut in the musical romance, Mannu Kya Karegga.
Diane Keaton's wit and honesty taught us that ageing and uncertainty aren't weaknesses, they are part of what makes us human and graceful, observes Sreehari Nair.
'I was blessed that I had seen him very closely. There was a time when he was trying to direct a film with me when I was a teenager'
'I wouldn't have called myself an athletic person growing up. But training for this film changed that.' 'It pushed me in ways I didn't expect and made me discover a strength I didn't know I had.'
What we see in him today is not just stardom, but the reflection of his sincerity, humility, and an artist who carries the fragrance of his roots, asserts K R Nayar, who has known the Dadasaheb Phalke Award winner from their school and college days.
This weekend, we lost Diane Keaton, that piece of American heart, Hollywood's darling hummingbird. Thank God she is still alive in her films. Aseem Chhabra on the Hollywood star he was in love with.
'Nawaz's character was created around Vikram Betaal.' 'Betaal was a little more gimmicky, funny; he would laugh at you, tease you.' 'That's why I made Nawaz very quirky.'
From facing Dennis Lillee to filming with Dharmendra, Mohsin Khan goes back in time in a freewheeling interview.
More screens, more films, and longer windows will convert to more people watching, assuming they know a film is releasing, points out Vanita Kohli-Khandekar.
'Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda have captured the relevance to and imagination of Gen Z and millennial viewers.'
While Amitabh Bachchan's chemistry with his heroines -- from Jaya Bhaduri to Rekha to Hema Malini -- brought sizzle to his films, many of his biggest blockbusters have been powered by his combustible combination with male co-stars.
'We should support cinema that's rooted in our culture and not ape the West.'
'I wanted to go for the heart, and at the same time, open the audience's mind.'
'Playing a negative role was a positive experience for me, doing things I'd never do in real life.'
'He was able to push the AIADMK to the background.'
'If I had the chance now, I would have continued acting.' 'The cultures of Maharashtra and Bengal are different and I felt I had to give my best to be a good daughter-in-law and an ideal wife.' 'I never thought I could balance both.'
The reasons are too private to be discussed at a round table, listed out during a seminar, or uncovered in an academic course. A proud but insomniac connoisseur murmuring in his sleep may do a better job of explaining the phenomenon than an expert on a podium. Sreehari Nair airs his thoughts.
'The evening show is coming to an end, and everyone is on the phone and I want to take everyone's call.' 'I want to ask how they liked the film. How did they feel when they left the cinema while crying?'
'We're witnessing a consistent surge in audience demand for IMAX screenings, particularly for high-octane, spectacle-driven films.'
'What is it about the institution of faith that makes somebody get a sense of impunity, that they believe they can get away with anything?'
'I fell in love with Suraiya and that was my first real gafla. The more I couldn't get her, the more I wanted her. When I couldn't marry her because the world didn't want it, I cried for the first time.'
'Vijay is not in the mood to care for the people even now.' 'Everybody is traumatised but Vijay is not consoling them.'
'I went from being a teenager, to an actor and eventually into a star all so quickly.'
Seventy years after Pather Panchali released on August 26, 1955, we finally get it. Shuttling between the village of Boral and a studio in Calcutta, caught between worrying about the next purse of funds and wondering which item to mortgage next, Satyajit Ray was explaining Indians to themselves, discovers Sreehari Nair.
'Story-telling is at the core of everything I do.'
After all, she was working with three legends -- Kamal Haasan, Mani Ratnam and A R Rahman.
Harshaali Malhotra, best known for playing Munni in the Salman Khan-starrer Bajrangi Bhaijaan, will make her debut in Telugu cinema with Akhanda 2: Thaandavam.
No author in the Malayalam literary canon has influenced and profoundly changed the way normal people interact with each other than the ever-relevant, eclectic yet elusive body of work left behind by MT Vasudevan Nair, notes Arjun Menon.
