This year on Teacher's Day, we take a tongue-in-cheek look at the 10 invaluable lessons Bollywood has imparted.
'The Chinese have a set pattern. They demonstrate, warn, threaten, attack and withdraw.' 'We were lulled into complacency, but I am certain things are being corrected now.'
Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa director Kundan Shah tells Patcy N/ Rediff.com how he impressed he was with Shah Rukh in his early years.
Sreehari Nair attempts to bring you up-close the pleasures of Javed Akhtar's poetry.
As means of transport or metaphor, the romance of trains is unmistakable in Hindi cinema.
On December 15, Mohammed Mustafa, an MBA student and IAS aspirant from Jamia Milia Islamia University, was among the students who were dragged out of the library and lathi-charged by policemen. In a conversation with Rediff.com's Divya Nair, the 26 year old recounts the ordeal he faced for a protest he says he didn't participate in or volunteer for.
On the actor's 54th birthday on November 2, we write another tome about the boy with big dreams and a regrettable haircut, who defied incredible odds to become one of the most loved actors on the planet.
Just 20 years old, Inderlal Kamalsingh Dhurve is a migrant labourer, a part-time farmer, a sole breadwinner and one of four survivors from the group that was mowed down by a goods train near Aurangabad, Maharashtra, 10 days ago, claiming 16 lives.
Some of Bollywood's amazing women shared some amazing words on Women's Day.
Photographs tell us so much about the person!
'Disney is presenting Black Panther as Manoj Muntashir's film.' 'Such a big studio, a billion dollar film is being released as Manoj Muntashir's film.' 'It is in the same space of Baahubali, which I wrote.' 'The film has got a kingdom, kings, treachery... things which are very much up my alley.'
Abhishek has been posting fond memories and interesting anecdotes on Instagram, recapping his #RoadTo20.
'The attack on Kanhaiya was an attempt to silence his voice and send a warning to all those who are supporting him.'
A look at the top tweets from your favourite Bollywood celebrities.
Mekhail delivered the most deliberate heart-tugging line of the day: "If a son asks his mother for money is wrong, then tell me." At the back Indrani gave one of her most beaming smiles that was meant to convey the exact opposite. This was no mother happy that her son had said he turned to her when he needed money because she was his mother.
Vaihayasi Pande Daniel reports from the Sheena Bora murder trial.
A look at the top tweets from your favourite Bollywood celebrities.
2 States, for all its modern touches, is a very regressive film, deeply rooted in old fashioned values that surely make no sense in the India of 2014.
In an all Dalit village in Muzzaffarnagar, three girls who do mazdoori after finishing the day's chores, will cast their vote for the first time. Opening their home and heart to Archana Masih/Rediff.com, they say all they want is a high school, a vehicle to take them to the main road and a sewing machine.
After the wedding, Sheena and Mekhail did not meet again. Four or five months later she met her death. Mekhail referred to their last meeting without overt emotion, clear-eyed.
Mekhail hopped off the bench in a hurry and turning his back to Indrani, stood at the window. Indrani ignored him too. Mekhail is getting married later this year. His mother will, of course, not be in attendance. Nor, of course, would he want her to be there, if she could.
Half of the screenplay's job is done the minute Dilip Kumar's hypnotising gaze falls on Nargis. The screen bubbles with intense chemistry and sexual tension every time this incredibly handsome pair converse from a distance. Revisiting Kidar Sharma's 1950 classic, Jogan.
Mumbai visarjans take place with military precision. Thousands and thousands of Ganpatis are immersed across 11 days with hardly an incident. And minimum traffic disruption given the scale of the festival. Meet the the folks who ensure visarjans happen smoothly and efficiently.
Balbinder Singh Dhami, who has played an inspector, for over a year, in The Zee Horror Show, took on the role of a witness on Monday. It was a part he had no experience of.
The ripping off the lid, that Mekhail did, on the chain of episodes that lead up to his sister's murder, while condemning Indrani for her actions, for the first time, paradoxically, allowed a more human -- if flawed and complicated -- picture to emerge of Indrani, allegedly The Woman Who Killed Her Own Daughter and shocked a nation.
'I am an accidental lyricist,' confesses the superstar who has written Haanikaarak Bapu, Emotional Atyachar, Abhi Mujh Mein Kahin, the songs for Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and many, many, more chartbusters.
Pankhuri Gidwani took a year's break to focus on the pageant, but scored brilliantly in her CBSE Class 12 exams this year.
'Laxmikant-Pyarelal called upon Abba to ask him to sing this ghazal. "Please sing this ghazal for us. The producer is keen that only you should sing this ghazal, so that it will have the desired effect. But he doesn't have money enough to pay you".' Abba's heart was bound to melt on hearing this. He consented immediately. His daughter-in-law Yasmin K Rafi remembers the legendary Mohammed Rafi who would have been 91 today.
And then came the chief moment of Friday. If the courtroom had a soundtrack, Beethoven's 9th would be playing, providing a triumphant, dramatic prologue to the production of this last clip. A woman reporter was asking Mekhail about Sanjeev Khanna. He says clearly, without mincing words, emphatically: 'Never seen him. First time I am hearing his name.'
As Peter sits outside the court with his sister, Indrani walks in with a request. It has been three months since Peter has started speaking to Indrani again, after a long silence of two years.
How many of these have aged well?
Bollywood's Badshah turns 50 on November 2, and it's time to celebrate his life and movies.
Pasbola wound up his cross examination, tabling a new narrative in the murder case. That Sheena Bora had been murdered not by her mother. But by her brother.
'People, who think Sunny Leone comes with baggage, are all humbug. She has made people look at the porn industry with a lot of respect.' Gautami Kapoor on husband Ram Kapoor, Sunny Leone, and her new TV show, Tere Sheher Mein.
'Aamir has bigger goodwill than even the Tatas and Birlas.' 'The Sanjay Dutt biopic is amazing because of Rajkumar Hirani, because of Abhijat Joshi's writing and because of Ranbir Kapoor's acting.'
'After Indrani's arrest did you go to the police and say I did this kind of forgery?'
'I get angry when people throw ink or slap him - but Arvind takes all this in his stride. People nowadays make fun of him and point out his mistakes but they haven't seen his sacrifice. If you understand his commitment towards this country, you will not dare say anything against him," says Dr Bipin Mittal, a longtime friend and family doctor of AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal.
'Love yourselves. Embrace all that this life has in store for you, let your heart be as deep as the deepest ocean and as wide as the farthest horizon.' Beautiful words from Shah Rukh Khan.