Telugu film Dil Raju’s 50th birthday party turned out to be one epic gathering of big names from south cinema. Actor Vijay Deverakonda shared a photo of him posing with some of the biggest stars of Telugu cinema, like Ram Charan, Mahesh Babu and Prabhas.
In the photo, the Arjun Reddy star was seen with Ram Charan, Mahesh Babu, Naga Chaitanya, Prabhas and Dil Raju. Sharing the photo with his seniors in the industry, Vijay wrote, “The Big Boys and the kid! Last night :)”
Apart from Deverakonda, the who’s who of Tollywood including megastar Chiranjeevi, powerstar Pawan Kalyan, Samantha Akkineni, Raashi Khanna and others were seen at the do. Kannada actor Yash and director Prashanth Neel, who are currently busy with the shooting of KGF: Chapter 2, also attended the birthday party in Hyderabad.
Dil Raju is the founder of the production house Sri Venkateswara Creations that was established 2003. He has bankrolled some of the hit films of the leading actors of Tollywood. Some of the hit projects include Dil, Arya, Bhadra, Bommarillu, Duvvada Jagannadham, and Fidaa.
Vijay Deverakonda will be next seen in a pan-India action movie opposite Ananya Panday as the leading lady. He recently announced that he will also be collaborating with Sukumar.
Cast: Neeraj Kabi, Jaideep Ahlawat, Abhishek Banerjee
Creator: Sudip Sharma
Crime thriller genre has really caught up with the showrunners on the Indian OTT platforms, and Amazon Prime Video’s latest show Pataal Lok has just made it a better choice. Established in the bylanes of Delhi and explored in the ravines of Bundelkhand, Pataal Lok dissects the world of heinous crimes with surgical precision. You don’t know whether to hate these criminals or give them the benefit of doubt as they casually go about their victims.
While shows like Sacred Games and Mirzapur relied on sudden chills, Paatal Lok is more about going inside the criminal’s mind without attributing superhuman qualities to them. Though Sacred Games was also from a cop’s perspective, Paatal Lok’s Hathiram Chaudhary (Jaideep Ahlawat) is different in a way that he doesn’t have resources like Sartaj, and unlike Sartaj, he is not at all clued in about the larger conspiracy he has unknowingly been a part of. To be honest, the only driving force Chaudhary has is his curiosity, which the makers cheekily equates with a cat’s.
There is a top news anchor Sanjeev Mehra (Neeraj Kabi) hobnobbing with the corrupt and shady with a weird conviction of being righteous. Kabi, in his usual nuanced ways, makes you confused about his real character. The self-obsessed newsman is in for a shock when he discovers that he is the target of some assassins.
While seizing the opportunity for more TRPs, he slowly starts getting a hang of the situation, and what he finds out, simply robs him of sleep.
Creator Sudip Sharma’s show is unlike other Indian shows that make us happy with expected twists and usual progression. Paatal Lok goes beyond the obvious, and that’s where it shines.
Directed by Avinash Arun (Killa) and Prosit Roy (Pari), Paatal Lok’s strength lies in its detailing. ‘Jamna Paar’ area in Delhi, where it begins, has many layers of crimes and corruption. There’s a huge disparity between the Lutyens’ zone and trance Yamuna, and the show brings out many aspects of it through Ahlawat’s typical Delhi cop, down but not dusted.
Paatal Lok comes to its own with the backstories of its criminals. Abhishek Bannerjee’s Hathaura Tyagi (as hammer is his weapon of choice) could find a reflection in thousands of misguided youth who never knew any better. Though Bannerjee has played negative characters in shows such as Mirzapur and Typewriter, but his terrifying intensity and odd beliefs make this one to watch out for. It’s definitely a ground breaking role for him.
The writers have consciously kept Delhi mostly as a city of migrants from smaller towns in the Hindi belt. When harsh surroundings get better of them, they turn to crime for survival, and all this seems neutral and natural. For example, the two kids who meet on a train and remain there for each other through thick and thin, is a case study in itself. The casual attitude with which they see through sexual and mental abuses breaks heart.
Then there’s a Dalit boy from Punjab who would see Delhi’s underworld as an escape from his lived reality. What worse could happen!
It keeps getting darker and more vocal with an almost failed cop struggling to quench his thirst for more. It may also remind you of Navdeep Singh’s terrific Manorama Six Feet Under, where it kept getting bigger and more local. The show doesn’t look outside to seek answers, but tracks the footprints of its characters through an inward journey.
Even not so prominent characters like Swastika Mukherjee’s Dolly and Gul Panag’s Renu leave significant impact on the story. They keep adding new dimensions to Hathiram Chaudhary’s evolution. In fact, Panag’s excellent understanding of human behaviour comes to the fore when she confronts her brother for using her. No extra drama, but painfully penetrating.
Coming back to Jaideep Ahlawat, this is the role of a lifetime for him. His expressions don’t drop for a second even if he is chasing a goon with a duffle bag on his shoulders. He is the binding force to assemble all the clues and cues at one place. He takes the center stage only after the fifth episode, but once he does it, he absolutely nails it. It’s difficult to think anybody else in the character after Ahlawat. Top notch.
Paatal Lok is a reminder of the futility of our existence and that makes me sad, but as the coronavirus is teaching us, we might have to live within the bubble as it seems safe, at least for the time being. Binge Paatal Lok, it will help you survive.
The shooting of Vignesh Shivan’s upcoming Tamil film Kaathu Vaakula Rendu Kaadhal has begun. A video of actor Vijay Sethupathi has already surfaced online where he is seen exchanging bouquets with Vignesh in a funny way. Now, a video of actress Samantha Akkineni has been shared, where she can be seen getting ready for the shoot.
The video showed Samantha in her vanity van as her makeup artist gave her a final touch-up. Director Vignesh Shivan is seen paying her a visit with a bouquet, which Samantha accepts with a smile and thanks him. Vignesh shared the video welcoming Samantha and wrote, “A very Warm Welcome to @samantharuthprabhuoffl Looking forwardsss Positive beginning from today.” Watch the video here:
Kaathu Vaakula Rendu Kaadhal stars Vignesh Shivan’s girlfriend Nayanthara as the leading lady. This will be the first time Samantha and Nayanthara will be seen on screen together. Nayanthara starred opposite Vijay Sethupathi in Vignesh Shivan’s Naanum Rowdy Dhaan.
Samantha and Vignesh Shivan were both part of the dark comedy Super Deluxe, though there was no scene that showed them together. It is one of the critically acclaimed Telugu films in recent times.
Anirudh Ravichander is composing the music for Kaathuvaakula Rendu Kaadhal, which has been written by Vignesh Shivan. Vijay Sethupathi will be losing some weight for his role. Nayanthara is expected to start shooting for the film after she finishes up her work on Annaatthe.
Telugu star Allu Arjun continues to garner love from viewers despite the constraints of 2020. This year the majority of those seeking entertainment opted for OTT platforms and Allu Arjun’s Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo stood as one of the top ten films with most views on Netflix.
What makes this feat commendable is that the Allu Arjun-starrer released on the 12th of January this year and it still remains etched in the memories of viewers. From time to time, the family drama features on various lists of most viewed films since its monstrous success at the box office.
Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo making it to the top ten titles over the OTT platform validates the fact that Allu Arjun has an unparalleled connection with his fans worldwide. One of the biggest reasons for his success streak at the movies is that his films are a fusion of many genres including action, drama, romance and comedy.
Not long ago, Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo hit the record-breaking TRP score of 29.4 with 2.19 crore impressions at its TV premiere, making it the first Telugu film to have touched such numbers. Not to mention, the movie is also a favourite among non-Telugu speakers.
Directed by Trivikram Srininvasan, Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo revolves around Bantu (essayed by Allu Arjun), who grows up being constantly subjected to his father’s scorn, until he learns of his real parentage and decides to carve a place for himself within the family he truly belongs to.
Rajinikanth or the ‘Thalaiva’ of Indian cinema celebrates his 70th birthday today, December 12, and the entire country is in a celebratory mood. An official common birthday display picture has been shared on social media along with a special mixtape on the occasion of his birthday.
Fans from across the globe have taken the chance to wish the actor and the list includes popular stars such as Dulquer Salmaan, Raghava Lawrence, Keerthi Suresh, and Aditi Rao Hydari.
Here are the birthday wishes received by Rajinikanth:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was one of the first personalities to wish the actor on his birthday. He wrote: “Dear
@rajinikanth Ji, wishing you a Happy Birthday! May you lead a long and healthy life”.
Music composer AR Rahman was given the responsibility of sharing the common birthday display picture on social media on behalf of his fans. He wished him “a great birthday and good health.”
Soon the same common birthday display picture was shared by South actors. Dulquer Salmaan tagged the legend as an “inspiration and a personification of humility and generosity”. His tweet said, “An inspiration and a personification of humility and generosity! Extremely honoured to release our beloved superstar @Rajinikanth’s 70th birthday CDP #HBDSuperstarRajinikanth.”
Keerthy Suresh expressed her excitement on being able to share the CDP as well. She wrote, “So excited and honoured to share the CDP of the living legend, @rajinikanth sir. Wishing you an advance Happy Birthday.”
Actors Tovino Thomas and Sivakarthikeyan also felt privileged to share the CDP.
Suniel Shetty and Aditi Rao Hydari were among the many Bollywood actors to have wished the megastar.
Sakshi Agarwal, who worked with Rajinikanth in Kaala, shared a couple of pictures with Thalaiva.
PA Ranjith also extended his greetings on Twitter.
Actor, director and choreographer Raghava Lawrence was seen wishing Rajinikanth as well.
Here’s wishing superstar Rajinikanth many more such birthdays ahead.
You were just beginning to get excited about new-age Bollywood horror after cutting-edge stuff as Stree and Tumbbad. Then came Laxmii, and now Durgamati — as rude reminder that Bollywood horror still has some way to go.
Durgamati, crafted almost frame to frame from the 2018 Telugu-Tamil horror drama Bhagmathie, comes across as cliched melodrama more than next-level scare fest as it tries peddling horror with a message. The outcome is neither scary nor relevant commentary, for the societal ills the film tries highlighting are far too familiar as subject material on the mainstream screen to leave an impact.
Writer-director G. Ashok’s narrative starts off with a dozen-odd rare idols being stolen in a span of around six months, even as brutal killings take place. Minister Ishwar Prasad (Arshad Warsi), who is under suspicion, announces he will nab the culprits or retire from politics.
CBI officer Satakshi Ganguly (Mahie Gill) is given charge of the case. In the course of her investigation, she is led to IAS officer Chanchal Chauhan (Bhumi Pednekar), an aide of Ishwar Prasad. Presently arrested for killing her fiance (Karan Kapadia), Chanchal has been taken to a decrepit mansion. Local villagers believe the house is haunted by the spirit of Durgamati.
The film would seem like an unusual mainstream attempt using horror as a vehicle to focus on societal ills. The idea would have worked had Ashok shown an amount of imagination in scripting and execution.
Rather, the tale of Durgamati suffers from jaded treatment. Despite an engaging start, the narrative soon reels under age-old commercial Bollywood cliches about a crooked politician and his corrupt schemes, and how the powerful ruthlessly exploit the downtrodden for their gains. These themes, relevant as they continue to be, have been flogged by our storytellers for ages. (Besides, anyone, who stays in touch with news headlines about how smart corrupt politicians can be, would find Ishwar Prasad’s get-rich-quick plan ridiculously amateurish).
A sloppy narrative soon loses focus on what the film was originally sold as — a horror thriller. As the story plods ahead, the plot falls all over the place. The stray ‘scary’ scenes are too pedestrian to startle. You know a horror film is not working when what unfolds on screen fails to hold your attention.
The erratic storytelling affects the characters and, in turn, the performances, too. Bhumi Pednekar brings alive the haunting of Chanchal with the expected quota of bawling and rolling of the eyes, as a high-speed fan stays firmly pointed at her undone hair. She is let down by a ludicrous screenplay, as are the other proven artistes in the cast as Arshad Warsi, Jisshu Sengupta and Mahie Gill.
Although official historical narratives remember the Indian soldiers who ‘contributed’ to the First World War by fighting for the British empire, there were more than 550,000 Indian men, who participated in the same war as ‘non-combatants’ whom no one remembers.
They were porters, stevedores, construction workers, janitors (sanitation workers who cleaned latrines), washermen, stretcher-bearers, water-carriers, cooks and many other menial job workers. It was through their backbreaking work that the British were able to maintain the supply chains, remove wounded soldiers from the battlefield and tend to the many needs of their army.
One rarely finds their mention in the official literature of the Great war, but Radhika Singha – a professor of Modern History at Jawaharlal Nehru University – has meticulously plugged that literature gap with her new book, The Coolie’s Great War: Indian Labour In Global Conflict 1914-1921.
Singha’s book is a result of a decade long research on legal, and military history of the first world war and talks about the labour systems — built on the backs of the menial workers — which collectively sustained the military infrastructure of the British empire. The book views the global conflict through the lens of Indian labour, talking about how Indian tribals, as well as colonial prisoners, were shipped off to far-flung battlefields of France and Mesopotamia, for the vested interest of the British rulers.
Singha’s research on the subject began after she stumbled on a letter from Mesopotamia sent on March 1916, which was marked ‘confidential’. The letter was an urgent call for latrine sweepers from India, but the reason it was kept confidential was that Cholera had broken out in the area. By calling sweepers from India, they were sending Indian labourers in the cusp of an epidemic for their own advantage.
In the book, she collectively calls the menial workers, the ‘Coolie’ corps. She explains that although they were initially viewed as ‘racially subordinate and subjected to non-martial caste designations, they fought back against their status, using the warring powers’ need for manpower as leverage to challenge traditional service hierarchies and wage differentials.’
In the book, Singha writes:
Inspecting the Lady Hardinge Hospital at Brockenhurst, which treated Indians from the Expeditionary Force in France, Sir Walter Lawrence noted an act of local kindness. A burial plot had to be found for a sweeper belonging to a peculiar sect which never cremates. We asked the Woking Muhammadan Burial ground to allow us to bury him there, but they flatly declined. We then had recourse to the Rev. Mr Chambers, the Vicar of Brockenhurst. He came forward and kindly allowed us to bury him in his churchyard.
Lieutenant General George F. MacMunn embroidered this incident into a story about untouchable life, seeking to strike ‘a mingled vein of sorrow and glory’. Bigha, the latrine sweeper in MacMunn’s account, is from the Lalbeghi community, whom MacMunn describes as ‘nominal’ Muslims, though ‘untouchables’. They, therefore, bury their dead instead of cremating them, so that they ‘might face the recording angels like any other follower of the prophet.’ The Imam refuses to bury the outcaste in his ‘cleanly plot’, but the other hospital sweepers insist he has to be buried. Learning of the dilemma, the vicar declares, ‘Surely Bigha Khan has died for England, I will bury him in the churchyard.’ ‘And so Bigha, outcaste Lalbeghi, lies close to a crusader’s tomb’ by the end of the story, ‘in the churchyard of St Agnes Without … Lalbeghi and Norman, the alpha and the omega of social status.’
There is no real churchyard of St Agnes Without, but the grave of one Sukha Kalloo, a sweeper, lies beside some New Zealand graves in the churchyard of St Nicholas at Brockenhurst. Sukha was probably the sweeper of Lawrence’s report and the ‘Bigha’ of MacMunn’s fictional account, as his gravestone is indeed subscribed by the parishioners of Brockenhurst, and it has an Islamic arch instead of the cross which marks the grave of an Indian Christian sapper nearby. MacMunn added a second such tale of ‘pathos and glory’, modelled, he claimed, on another real-life incident.
In this, the regimental latrine cleaner Buldoo, inspired by his childhood play at soldiers with a golden-haired English boy, assumes the identity of a Rajput sepoy and dies leading a heroic counter-attack from a trench in Mesopotamia. Clearly, MacMunn was suggesting that it was in empire alone, in such spaces as the British home and regiment, that the ‘untouchable’ found succour, not, as he crudely put it, in ‘Gandhi and his blather’. But the war’s hunger for manpower had also allowed the unimaginable to be imagined—the sweeper to be cast as a war hero.
Singha explains how the war not only gave those ‘racially subordinate’ to earn their respect, and climb up the ladder in the army to become war heroes, but also gave farmers and farmhands a respectable occupation as soldiers. She writes:
In recruitment propaganda, service as a sepoy or an Indian cavalryman was cast as the only form of off-farm work which did not demean respectable agriculturalists:
Jat ki kamai, kahan-kahan kis kaam mein aati hai Karen kheti hai zamindara, fauji kaam hamaara Aur jitne hain ahalkaar, yeh kamai nek kehti hai. Jat ki [Of all the different forms of work it is only cultivation or military service which is honourable for the Jat].
Some propaganda pamphlets described sepoy service as ‘not work at all!’ The peasant had to be induced to believe that when he put on his military boots, he distanced himself from an existence shaped by backbreaking labour and the vagaries of the weather. He also acquired, propaganda materials suggested, some immunity against the rough handling of his person by the policeman, the creditor and the revenue official.
A World War One recruiting song contrasted the plight of the man outside army life with his position inside: ‘Here you get tattered shoes, out there you get full boots … Here you get shoved around, out there you get a salute.’
Such immunities prioritised the army’s own claims to the person of the sepoy, but they were cast as status enhancing privileges acquired by service to the state.
The world of work was still an insistent reality for the follower ranks. However, they were told that their uniform and fixed monthly wage gave them the prestige of government service. Medical and transport officers who wanted a better deal for their follower personnel had to contend with the hyper-masculine code of combatant service. The rhetoric they used was that the devotion of the follower ranks gave a higher gloss to the valour of the fighting races, rather than dimming it. At the same time, they pointed out that this duty of care exposed stretcher-bearers and mule-drivers to battlefield risk.
They also drew upon contemporary ideas about labour efficiency to argue that better food and kit for followers would allow them to train more intensively and would prevent desertion and invaliding in field service. To track the improvement which took place over 1916–17 in the institutional position of the ‘higher followers’, this chapter focuses on the stretcher bearers, or kahars, and the mule-drivers, or drabis. It also picks out the cook, bhisti (water-carrier), sweeper and syce (groom and grass-cutter) in order to explore the service milieu of the attached followers, often referred to as the ‘menial ranks’.
The following excerpts have been published with permission from HarperCollins.
South actress-producer Niharika Konidela and Chaitanya JV got married in Udaipur on December 9. The wedding took place in the presence of her famous family members including uncle Chiranjeevi, cousins Allu Arjun and Ram Charan.
The ceremony took place in Udaipur’s Umaid Bhawan Palace on Wednesday night. Niharika looked stunning as as a bride in a golden saree and accessorised her look with a matha patti and a statement necklace. Groom Chaitanya complemented her in a brown and gold sherwani. Pictures from the wedding are being shared by fanclubs on social media.
The wedding, predictably, was a star-studded affair with family members Chiranjeevi, Allu Arjun and Sneha, Ram Charan and his wife Upasana Konidela, Sai Dharam Tej, Sreeja Kalyan in attendance. Pictures from Niharika and Chaitanya’s wedding have been shared by several fan pages. See the pictures here:
Earlier on her wedding day, Niharika’s father and veteran actor Naga Babu posted a picture from a ceremony and wrote, “It looks like the end of an Era….Serious nostalgia hit me all again…It feels like the first day of her school…just that she won’t be returning by evening. It took years to make peace with the fact that my baby girl is all grown up to go to school and I can’t play with her 24 x 7… Just donno how long it will be this time….’Only time will decide.’ Already missing you Niha thalli.”
Niharika got engaged to Hyderabad-based techie Chaitanya JV in August this year. She has starred in web-series like Muddapappu Avakai, Nanna Koochi and Madhouse, which she had also produced.
Tamil television actress VJ Chitra was reportedly found dead at a hotel room in Nazarethpettai, Chennai. She was reportedly found hanging from the ceiling fan.
Chitra is known for playing Mullai in the hit Vijay TV serial Pandian Stores. She had recently gotten engaged to businessman Hemanth, reported Zoom TV.
Reports say Chithra had finished shooting at EVP Film City Tuesday night and had returned to her hotel room around 2:30am. She was staying at the hotel with her fiance Hemanth.
In his statement to the police, Hemanth has claimed that Chitra told him she was going for a bath soon after returning from the shoot. However, apparently she didn’t come out for a long time, nor did she respond when he knocked at the door. Hemanth then called the hotel staff and when they opened the door with a duplicate key, she was reportedly found hanging from the ceiling fan.
Condolences have been pouring in on social media ever since the news broke. Fans are in shock over the untimely death of the cheerful actress.
There is no statement yet regarding Chitra’s death from her family. Chitra worked as a presenter and anchor on various TV channels in the Tamil industry. She was currently starring in Pandian Stores and was much loved by her fans. The actress had earned a huge fanbase through her role as Mullai.
She was very active on social media and used to entertain fans with beautiful photos and positivity posts. She was also known for her positive comments even towards the trolls on her Instagram handle.
Actress Meghana Raj and her newborn baby son have both tested positive for coronavirus. Her parents have tested Covid-19 positive, too.
The wife of late actor Chiranjeevi Sarja took to her Instagram page and penned a note requesting their fans not to worry after hearing the news. She assured that her son, who is lovingly called Junior Chiru by fans of the Kannada actor, is fine and keeping her occupied the whole time.
Meghana’s note on Instagram read, “Hello all, my father, mother, myself and my little son have been tested positive for COVID-19… We have informed everyone who has come in contact with us during the past few weeks about our results… I urge Chiru and my fans to not fret and assuring you guys that we are all doing fine and are currently under treatment… Junior C is fine and keeping me occupied every second. We as a family will fight this battle and will come out of it victorious.”
Chiranjeevi and Meghana’s first child was born in October this year, four months after the actor died of a cardiac arrest. Meghana spoke to the media for the first time after her husband’s death on June 7 this year, after the cradle ceremony of their son in Bengaluru last month.
“It is a new step, new form of happiness. I have a son and I am happy. I wanted to meet you all on this day and share the happiness. It is overwhelming,” she said as she pointed to how the baby resembled her late husband who once said he is a phoenix.
