'The only time I went on set was during Badshah. I was very young at that time. After being there for about an hour, I was bored and wanted to go. I couldn't watch it again and again, the retakes.' But Mustafa Burmawalla could not stay away from the arc lights for long.
'The youth is career-oriented these days. Nobody plans to have a family in their 20s, especially the boys. They run away from commitment; they want to make money first. I have been focusing on my career for the last eight years. I came to Mumbai to become an actor and so with a tunnel vision, I did not look left or right during this time. I made good friends but did not focus on a special person. But now, I have understood its value.' Sidharth Malhotra comes clean.
The year threw up quite a few shockers, some rather rude one. Below are Rediff.com's 12 picks that made us sit back and think, 'Did that really happen?'
Bharata Natyam legends Shanta and V P Dhananjayan discover they are a national sentation after their Vodafone ads.
National award winner Chaitanya Tamhane tells us the story behind his film, Court.
'That Mad Men is currently the best-written show and quite unlike anything else out there is an understatement.'
Few in India know that Elvis & Namrata won at the World Salsa Summit in Miami!
'Sreedharan epitomises the way in which an Indic ethos can be brought to bear upon the seemingly intractable problems facing India,' says Rajeev Srinivasan.
'For me, success is saying 'no' when you want to say no.'
A 1990s Bollywood album. Ranbir Kapoor as Balraj Sahni. Dimple Kapadia's Crowning Glory days. Agha-Mukri-Kesto's fun, fabulous, forgotten friendship. Sukanya Verma's super-filmi week was a complete blast from the past.
Raja Sen takes stock of Best Director nominees at Oscars 2015.
Raja Sen takes stock of the five Oscar nominees for Best Actress.
You may think that teenagers and credit cards are a recipe for disaster but before you dismiss the idea give it a second thought.
Lakshmi R has been a professional mourner for over 2 decades
And no, the list doesn't start and stop with Boman Irani!
Mohammad Sajjad salutes the memory of Mushirul Hasan -- historian, thinker, academic, institution builder, -- who passed into the ages this week.
Satyajit Ray's fabulous use of fantasy to condemn fascism and Shah Rukh Khan's gift of enthralling oratory, Sukanya Verma's fantastic filmi week.
Pasbola had a number of queries about the nails of the corpse found at Gagode Khurd. Did it have nails? Nails, in a case of strangulation, are key because they often have particles and skin beneath them to show the victim had been grasping something as s/he was strangled.
'At least 6,000 people attended a meal at Shahabuddin's residence in a feast to celebrate his bail. As if the community has no other priorities of channelising such funds for better purposes!,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
'I'm a rascal, I'm going to play a paramahansa?!'
'There are many stories that could be made in the North East.' And here's one of them.
'One afternoon, I spotted Karan Johar and film critic Rajeev Masand having tea with Nina Gupta, the head of NFDC, and barged into their meeting.' Aseem Chhabra's IFFI diaries...
You can proudly show these movies to the impressionable ones!
'I served the Indian Army and I am an ex-serviceman.' 'I look at this as a battle I am fighting after I left the army.' 'I will not leave till I get her back as my daughter Akhila, and I believe it will happen one day.'
On paper, only 8,000 villages remain to be electrified in the country, but the situation on the ground shows euphoria over numbers is misplaced
'People have a certain perception about my political leanings -- and rightly so.' 'But I am an actor first, and then an activist.' 'And I am not an accidental actor.' 'There was no way I was going to be dishonest with my acting,' Anupam Kher tells Veenu Sandhu.
The DCW had on Monday issued summons to Vishwas and his wife, asking them to appear before it by 3 pm on Tuesday.
Brilliant cinema at the ongoing Mumbai Film Festival, raves Sukanya Verma.
'I had to convince myself that I was steely enough to operate on a cold-blooded killer.' 'For all my medical experience, this was something I had never done!' 'If something happened to Charles, I knew my fate was sealed for me.' 'I would be called Doctor Death until I breathed my last.' 'Success was my only hope of escaping that fate.' A fascinating excerpt from heart surgeon Dr Raamesh Koirala's Charles Sobhraj, Inside The Heart Of The Bikini Killer.
There is such a thing as too much sugar, says Raja Sen
Sakina Jaffrey looks back at her parents, Saeed and Madhur Jaffrey's acting journey, to map the changing Hollywood landscape for desi artists.
Director Praveen Sattaru talks about his National Award winning movie Chandamama Kathalu.
Mohammad Sajjad profiles Professor Riazur Rahman Sherwani, 94, versatile mind, intrepid intellectual.
'I looked at the smiles around and realised that each day that I smiled was amazing.' 'So I put into play something that I have been toying with for years.' 'I called it the Rich Universe.' 'You often hear people say "I wish I become a superstar and my life gets made".' 'I wondered how it would be if I said if I hug my father, it would be an amazing day, or if I hugged my mother and said how lucky I am.'
Son Kunal Kapoor's insight into his legendary actor father are a must-read!
'It is widely believed that such posts require lobbying. Maybe they do, but I can say this straight up, I did not lobby. This appointment has been on pure merit. My lobby is myself and I don't need to lobby,' Waman Kendre, newly-appointed director of NSD, tells Neeta Kolhatkar
Aseem Chhabra gives us the top films that enriched his year.
Shivade then asked if the skeleton finally came out of the ground in many parts. It was difficult not to gasp aloud at that revelation. Bhagat said that was true.
