BEING FRANK: Shah Rukh Khan has said there is a feeling of intolerance in India.There has for some time now been a movement against what is perceived to be a growing climate of religious intolerance in India ever since the present government took charge last year. A series of murders of rationalists added fuel to the agitation. And then the film industry found itself dragged into it when a patently unworthy candidate was selected to head FTII, the premier film teaching school in the country and the students went on strike. The strike was called off recently but by then many in Bollywood had come to agree that this was not a government that respected the arts. And then started writers and filmmakers returning the awards bestowed on them by the state. It began as a trickle but has now become a flood. Recently over 20 filmmakers decided to return their awards. But what however made all the news was when Shah Rukh Khan got into the issue. He didn’t return any of his awards but in television interviews, he spoke about how there was a feeling of intolerance in the country. That was something of a shock to the government. Because this took the movement against them to an entirely new level. So far mostly non-commercial filmmakers had been railing like this but now a superstar had also echoed them, giving it legitimacy to the mass audience. There was a vicious attack against Shah Rukh with one member of Parliament even saying that his stand came because he was facing legal issues over his finances. But actually it was not Shah Rukh who had initiated the statement. His 50th birthday was being marked and the media had been interviewing him because of that and during the course of the interviews when he was asked the question, he replied forthrightly. Shah Rukh didn’t have any political agenda but he was suddenly being looked at as an enemy by the religious right wing. Interestingly, those in Bollywood who were supporting the government like Anupam Kher was caught in a bind. People like him had been saying everyone who spoke against the government had an agenda but they couldn’t say that against Shah Rukh because then they would have a tough time in Bollywood. Shah Rukh also found a lot of moral support pouring in from the rest of the industry once he became a target of hate speech. An entire spectrum of stars from Anil Kapoor to even Kher said that the personal remarks and threats made to him were condemnable.Cleanliness overdrive
So we know much about Deepika’s personal life because she herself has spoken about it. She was the one who revealed in an article that she had been suffering from depression and had taken medication for it. And now she has revealed yet another aspect of her personality. She was quoted in a website as saying that she has an obsession with keeping things spick and span. And that she just can’t tolerate uncleanliness and when she was in such a place, she herself gets down to cleaning it up. Not just that, apparently, she has also cleaned public toilets because she just couldn’t endure leaving them in that state. And that some of this could be attributed to her childhood in which her parents instilled in her the necessity of doing housework. And that she cleaned dishes, etc at home when growing up. Meanwhile, there is also speculation that after Priyanka Chopra, Deepika might be keen on trying her luck in Hollywood. If the success of Priyanka’s show is anything to go by, there should be takers for more from Bollywood.Fair biopicRajkumar Hirani’s next big project is a biopic on Sanjay Dutt and it seems decidedly odd that he should deviate from the usual métier to take on such a project. Especially since it was Sanjay Dutt, the star who by acting in Munnabhai MBBS, propelled Hirani into becoming the most successful director of Bollywood. Hirani and Dutt are very close. Given that Dutt has done some rather questionable deeds and been associated with some rather questionable people, it was thought how would Hirani approach the movie and be fair. Because to tell the truth as it is might show Dutt in a bad light. Dutt is now a convicted felon and he has been said to have had links to the underworld in the past. Recently, at an event, Hirani said that he would not glorify Dutt and that the movie would even feature the underworld, something he normally avoided in his films. It is actually not a very good idea to make a movie on a friend who is a star. They can be very temperamental and change their minds when the movie is almost over, leaving the director in a bind. Hirani has got Ranbir Kapoor to play Sanjay Dutt and it will be interesting to see how he portrays him.46 years laterFor those who like to store away numbers of important landmarks, here is one: the number 46. And it is an important one because that is the number of years that Amitabh Bachchan has just completed in the Hindi film industry. It was on November 7, 1960 that Saat Hindustani was released and India first saw Amitabh in a minor role. Since then what a journey it has been. That movie didn’t do any wonders to his career and he had to suffer through a few years of struggle. It was in 1973 with Zanjeer that the legend of the angry young man would be born. And from then on, superhits would follow superhits until by the end of the 1970s he was the only superstar in Bollywood. And it is the kind of stardom that will be hard to emulate for anyone else because Amitabh’s staying power has been extraordinary. He has relentlessly reinvented him and that is why he manages to even today, when he is over 70, have a following that is comparable to any other young Hindi star. India has never grown tired of him 46 years later and the way he is going he is going to be in the hearts of his fans for a long time more.Send your feedback tobollywood.eye@gmail.com