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.
'Failure teach you far more than your successes do you.' 'Like they say, success has many fathers and failure is a bastard.'
Composer Sidhant Bhatia, singer Raja Kumari, singer-producer Raghav Mehta and mixing engineer Deepak PA talk about Sounds of Kumbha, which is shortlisted for the Grammys in the Best Global Music Album category.
Kannappa is a bloated mess of a film that underutilises interesting story ideas, observes Arjun Menon.
The film has emerged as an instant success.
Saiyaara has emerged as a blockbuster, and it's time to welcome the two newcomers, Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda, to Bollywood.
As the year draws to a close, Rediff's Senior Contributor Roshmila Bhattacharya takes a look at the hits and misses, the highs and lows, the newsmakers and the dealbreakers in alphabetical order.
The comedy is unfunny, the emotional bits are dubious and the music forgettable in Heer Express, observes Deepa Gahlot.
Arjun Menon celebrates his 70th birthday on August 22 by looking at his most memorable films.
Flms belonging to genres as diverse as comedy, drama, romance, crime, and history get ready for release in theatres.
'Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda have captured the relevance to and imagination of Gen Z and millennial viewers.'
The world is celebrating Raj Kapoor's birth centenary, but when was the last time you watched an RK film?
What if Sholay were produced now, in our technologically advanced era, with AI vying for our attention?, asks Atanu Biswas.
'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 don't make films for profit and that's exactly why profit follows.'
'Gen Z was devoid of love stories with sad endings like Heer Ranjha, Laila Majnu or Romeo Juliet; they have never seen something like this in their lifetime.' 'Saiyaara is a rooted love story.'
Shah Rukh Khan won his first National Film Award for best actor for Jawan, sharing the honour with Vikrant Massey for 12th Fail. Rani Mukerji was named best actress for Mrs. Chatterjee vs Norway. 12th Fail was adjudged best feature film.
With his killer smile, the sex symbol image, Robert Redford would go beyond just being an actor, remembers Aseem Chhabra.
Apple's high-octane racing film "F1: The Movie" roared to the top of the U.S. and Canadian box office this weekend, fueled by star-power and a finely-tuned marketing campaign
'It is daunting, for sure, because you're rowing upstream.'
The top 10 films of the year may not be great by themselves but they stand out amidst the other OTT releases.
Despite the mediocrity at large, these films had me in raptures for the emotions they evoked within as a cheering audience, critic and cinephile.
Joginder Tuteja takes a look at 10 small-scale films which made big bucks.
It collected Rs 13.30 crore (Rs 133 million) on Friday, and zoomed past Rs 20 crore (Rs 200 million) on Saturday and Sunday.
Taming the animal called AI in its many avatars will clearly remain a work in progress.
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.
'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.'
'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.'
'The satisfaction of making content only comes when it reaches theatres as you are directly connecting to the masses.'
'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.'
July has so many interesting films to choose from!
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.
'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.'
Among fresher job seekers, one in three believes AI will create more jobs.
'When Shahid, Ishaan and I are together, it is a madhouse because we are all performers.'
'I thought of a suppressed country and a free world.' 'If we travel from one to another, what will that road look like?' 'What colours, music there will be? What kind of people would you see?'
Soldiers, cops, detectives, K-Pop idols, here's everything you can catch on OTT this week.
'When India opened its doors to the world, moving away from an agrarian to a market economy, everything, whether life or love, was commodified.'
A peek into the lives of film folk from their Instagram feeds.
