When Arundhati Roy wrote her first novel God of Small Things, her team reached out to Shah Rukh Khan inviting him to read a passage from the book at its Mumbai launch. Perhaps because he still held a grudge, Khan refused the invitation.
'What if a ring had gotten stolen, or a gem had fallen? There were uncut diamonds, rubies and emeralds. And the security from the jewellery shop came to watch the shoot.'
Having grossed nearly $370 worldwide, Sinners filled up Warner Bros coffers when many of the studio's key 2025 films lost money, and deserves its many Oscar nominations.
This year's Golden Globes was a test to see if Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another is still riding on an unstoppable train, similar to one that Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer rode on in 2023, observes Aseem Chhabra.
'What interested me more than the influencers was how were they surviving in Bombay?' 'How many reels did they make per month? How much money did they need to get by?' 'Did they get a job and then come back home and do this at night?'
'One's country is the best place to live, no matter what problems, what difficulties.' 'My country is where I can breathe, where I can find the reason to live, and where I can find the strength to create.'
Aseem has written Irrfan Khan: The Man, The Dreamer, The Star and he's here to answer your questions on Irrfan.
'...including my baby sisters, age three and one.' 'My dad was humiliated, and he started screaming at them.'
'We have come to the point in civilisation where emotion seems to be something you hide or you have to be discreet about, or to be ashamed of.'
Aseem Chhabra ranks the Best of 2025's films that released in theatres, or went directly to OTT platforms.
Know all you want to know about the star!
'I wish Ra.One had more of the evil character played by Arjun Rampal. I wish we could have seen some more sparks of evil from Kapoor. But Ra.One is mostly about Shah Rukh Khan.'
The New York City mayor-elect's mother has made some incredible movies.
'It is something that he always wanted to do and he has achieved phenomenal success in doing it.'
'She was brave. She didn't care a hoot. And India was not the strongest of nations as it is now.'
'She was brave. She didn't care a hoot. And India was not the strongest of nations as it is now.'
Lovingly made, heartfelt stories that speak the truths about our lives.
'There have been multiple cases of people being shot for pulling into someone's driveway because they made a wrong turn or ringing the wrong bell because they made a mistake.' 'That is also the pathway to fascism.' 'The way you divide people is to make them fear each other. Then a strong man can come in and say, "I will protect you".'
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.
'For the longest time, he was not an activist.' 'He was just trying to build his own self-identity, self-respect and ambition.'
'I realised why the farmers and the rural folks are going for Trump. They are so insecure and vulnerable that anybody who is throwing a line of hope to them, they seize it.'
Filmmaker and actor Manish Acharya died in a freak accident in Matheran on Saturday. He was only 40 years old. Aseem Chhabra salutes a friend and colleague.
'They are clueless about the man on the currency notes.' 'They have been fed with WhatsApp forwards, so either Gandhi is vilified or deified. There's nothing in between.'
'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?'
With his killer smile, the sex symbol image, Robert Redford would go beyond just being an actor, remembers Aseem Chhabra.
The festival's People's Choice Award, voted by the audience, is a strong indication of films that can eventually be nominated and even win Oscars. Twelve of the last 15 People's Choice winners have received Best Picture Oscar nominations.
The four-day CIFF was packed with so many other new projects, like Radhika Apte's first directorial effort Koyta, with Vikramaditya Motwane as the producer, Venkatesh Maha's Ko Ko Ko, Jeo Baby's Punishment and Shonali Bose's Black Mountain Monpa.
'On our first day at the Kumbh Mela, there was a fire and shook our confidence. 'There must have been a few crore people there.' 'How do we place the camera in between them?'
'When you are a pioneer and someone who's put on a pedestal, but then the pedestal gets dusty, people don't look at the statue anymore.' 'They would say, 'Yes, yes, of course I know Bimal Roy. He made Do Bigha Zamin.'.'
Shriya Pilgaonkar recaps March on social media, giving everyone a look at her many emotions and events.
'You need the drishti, the experience. I am beginning to see things differently.'
'So my question was, 'What is it that you are proud of? What have you achieved? What is your contribution?' 'He had no answer.'
Chennai Express is a full throttle masala entertainment ruled by Shah Rukh Khan's star power
The 97th Academy Awards are days away and there are some strong contenders for the top awards.
A skinny African-American man, with goofy ears and Hussein as a middle name is going to become our 44th president. It is a win for all of us-- African-Americans, whites, Latinos, Asians, men, women and children, old and young, straight and gays. We should rejoice at this historic moment.
'These characters have huge spirits and they are fighting something that is much bigger than them.' 'The attempt was to portray how they navigate their lives, to retain that spirit and not let it die.'
'If you look around the world at people of colour, religion, caste, sexuality or any of the marginalised communities, we are always talking in numbers.' 'We are always assigning them a statistic.' 'That is an easy way to assuage your urban guilt. Because you hide your apathy with hollow sympathy.' 'We are, in a way, making them invisible.'
'In a world which is full of categories, hatred and ideologies, there was this basic decency.'
'I have always looked at people and said, 'You just have to accept. You just have to love. You just have to let this person be and the trouble would be less.' 'But we keep complicating things, and that is the tragedy -- our desire not to understand.'
'The value of a human being is being lost. That's my biggest worry.'
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances