'When I came into the process, there was a treatment and in the treatment, there are always stories and parts that take place in Mumbai.'
Not every Indian superhero movie lands, but these seven prove the genre has plenty of potential.
The once promising YRF Spy Universe, which delivered Bollywood's first Rs 500 crore grosser with Pathaan, is now grappling with an uncertain future as recent releases like Alpha and War 2 fail to ignite the box office.
'People usually send audition videos, but I didn't even send one because I never planned to participate.' 'I had gone there to prepare my students for the auditions.' 'Eventually, I ended up competing and became the winner.'
This Superman likes a cuppa of hot cocoa, trusts people around him quite easily, gets hurt by social media trolls (the '#Supershit' particularly irks him), and admits to 'screwing up' all the time, discovers Mayur Sanap.
As the spirit of summer holiday takes over , here's looking at 15 Hindi songs whose tourist-y picturisation transported us into a feast of sights and sceneries on silver screen.
As 2022 readies to bid adieu, Sukanya Verma raises a toast to the 10 high points of the year.
There is a superhero, a super woman, a super solider and a super ghostbuster arriving in theatres!
'Movie-goers will thrive if you give them what they want.'
'Even actresses who are mothers play leading roles. There's also been a dramatic shift in the kinds of roles available to women. It's no longer limited to being the heroine, the heroine's mother, aunty or vamp.'
Along with Salman Khan's Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan and Keanu Reeves' action blockbuster John Wick: Chapter 4, we have Nawazuddin Siddiqui's rom-com Tiku Weds Sheru releasing on OTT this week and much more.
'In anything in life, privilege helps.' 'Privilege means access. Access means connections.' 'Does it help? Of course, it does. In whatever you do.'
Even with an ongoing pandemic, theatres in many states functioning at 50 per cent occupancy, a quieter social life and fewer movies, Bollywood still managed to pack in plenty of drama and trauma, fun and festivity, love and war into the year.
'When people would tell me that any actor would give his left arm to be seen in a single frame of a Marvel project without even a single line of dialogue, I would laugh them off.'
Uzbekistan lives comfortably in several centuries but is also a forward-looking nation, Deepa Gahlot discovers on a visit to this Central Asian country.
It's not uncommon for performers to become bigger than the stories they are placed in and Sreehari Nair would happily pay to watch Isha Talwar and Paramvir Singh Cheema riffing on love, bad life choices, psychology, rhythm, and oven-baked Kulchas in Chamak.
Sukanya Verma looks at 2019's winners and washouts so far.
'Some people believe that guys with muscles don't have a sense of humour.' 'We wanted to prove them wrong.'
Sukanya Verma shares her exciting filmi week with us.
Sreehari Nair reviews Ayyappanum Koshiyum.
'There are enough LGBTQ people in the industry, so I don't feel like a misfit.'
As we prepare to return to the land of silver screens and samosa, Sukanya Verma looks at notable theatre moments in Hindi films.
Get your low down on what's happening in the world of Bollywood, right here!
Jahnavi Patel/ Rediff.com chats with Mowgli when he comes to Mumbai.
Onir has got what it needs to make sensible, thought-provoking, entertaining cinema, feels Prasanna D Zore.
Franchise films will continue to dominate the calendar, with big-ticket movies like Avengers: Infinity War, Aquaman, Dark Phoenix, Deadpool 2, Black Panther.
Sukanya Verma celebrates 25 years of Bollywood images.
With some variations, all regional political formations, whether in power presently or out of it, share some common features: Tight family control of the political apparatus, key members in elected or appointed positions, obvious wealth but not quite known sources of income, and family factionalism, sometimes open and bitter, notes Shreekant Sambrani.
On his 46th birthday on January 10, Sukanya Verma lists 10 impressive Hrithik scenes.
Quentin Tarantino, declares Sreehari Nair, will be remembered as someone who made just two great movies, and who then brought misery upon himself.
More than anything else, Pathaan is a silent and subtle statement of Shah Rukh Khan about his place, his commitment to cinema and, if one can say, his politics, observes Mohammad Asim Siddiqui.
'I am greedy to have my eggs in different baskets.'
Gajraj Rao's performance in Badhaai Ho is the finest by an actor in a Hindi film this year, applauds Sreehari Nair.
'I am the undiscovered Julia Roberts of India. They haven't figured it out yet.' Kalki Koechlin gets talking.
'I was playing a rockstar.' 'After three days, I get a script that my character will turn into a lion.' 'I felt I hadn't signed up for this, so I told Ekta about it.' 'Ekta told me, "Beta, na tu important hai na main important hoon. Woh spot wala hai na, usko ghar pe khana khilana hai".' 'She said if she didn't change the content, she would not get TRPs and eventually, her show would shut down.' 'If the show stops, she asked me if I would take these workers home.' 'I said "Let's become the lion".'
Padmarajan's Thoovanathumbikal has become a part of Malayali mythology, just as its maker himself now possesses mythological status.
Sukanya Verma looks at some of the dance-offs that regaled us in the past.
'For the last ten years they have approached me every single year.' 'There was a year when I was really looking forward to going.' 'I wanted to see how interesting it is to spend 60 days with random people.' 'But as time progressed the dirt kept becoming bigger and bigger and personalities kept becoming smaller and smaller.'
Filmmaker Mansoor Khan turned his back to the movies, to live a simple life off the land. He has another passion now -- Mother Earth.
