Dangal is going to be released later this month and Aamir Khan, after a two-year absence from the big screen, will be on show again. Will he break his own record of the most lucrative movie ever made in PK?
Unlikely, given that the subject of Dangal does not sound very commercial. He plays a wrestler who breaks tradition and makes wrestling champions out of his two daughters. Then there is the fact that Salman Khan has just played a wrestler in Sultan, the biggest hit of the year and the audience might not be lured by the novelty quotient at least.
But with an Aamir movie you really can’t say. He has always gone against the grain and it has somehow worked for him.
A promotional video of Dangal that has gone viral reveals just how much Aamir had to get unfit and fit again for the movie. It shows him before shooting began when he plays the old man character. He is incredibly overweight with the flab in the stomach hanging down. And then after that part of the movie’s shooting was finished and he had to be in the character as a youth, over a course of the next five to six months Aamir ends up lean and toned with ripping muscles.
The video shows why and how he managed that transformation. Apparently, while it was suggested that he first play the young man and then become fat for the older character, Aamir said he would do it the other way round. He would become fat first by going on an eating binge for the aged look and then shed it all off.
This, he reasoned, was so that he would have an incentive to become slim again. Also, it would ensure that when the movie releases he will be in a fit shape. And day by day, as he slogged it out, the transformation could be gradually seen, until he had less than 10 percent body fat.
While people on social media found his commitment inspiring, there was also a minor controversy. A fitness blogger put up a video which argued how it was impossible for Aamir to have done what he did in that short time frame unless he was using steroids or hormones like testosterone. That too went viral.
The blogger also said that all film stars take steroids to spruce up their image because that is the nature of their profession and Aamir had not denied or confirmed use of such substances, he merely didn’t talk about it. If he had some chemical help, it is something of a dampener for those who celebrated Aamir’s effort in losing weight.
Second coming?
Vidya Balan has come into the limelight after some time with the release of Kahaani 2. While the title of the movie and crew are more or less the same as Kahaani, the hit suspense thriller of 2012, Kahaani 2 is not really a sequel.
But there is still expectation that it might provide a much-needed push to her career, which has been flagging. Just a few years ago, she had been riding on a high that began with Dirty Picture and ended with Kahaani.
After that, suddenly, the movies just didn’t do the same magic at the box office. Hamari Adhuri Kahaani, Bobby Jasoos, Shaadi Ke Side Effects, Ghanchakkar – the list of underperformers is long.
Kahaani 2 might do the trick, though it is too early to tell whether the movie is a hit. The critics as usual have given their thumbs up to Vidya though not with the same enthusiasm as with the earlier Kahaani.
In an interview to a newspaper, Vidya said that she is in fact under no pressure precisely because her films have not done well recently. Vidya’s career pangs is ironical given that she was the one who actually launched the new wave of hits that had female characters as central characters, something which Kangana Ranaut then emulated. Perhaps, there is some truth in the Hindi film audience still being biased against female actresses.
Show and no show
As it turns out, rumours that Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone are running into relationship problems are turning out to be false. Both are suddenly back to cosying up in public.
Possibly, now that Deepika has finished her work in Hollywood for the time being at least and is back in India, they are finding more time for each other. They were spotted at the party of an industrial magnate hold hands leaving little doubt that they were still firmly together.
In one chat show, Ranveer when questioned even called Deepika ‘marriage material’ and again set tongues wagging. Even Deepika’s father was asked to comment on it by the media and gave a non-committal answer that she will decide whatever she wants.
Meanwhile, there is also a rumour that their public appearances might stop because Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who is directing them in Padmavati, has decreed that they limit public appearances, perhaps to keep the curiosity value of the movie high.
Wordsworth
Last week, Twinkle Khanna won a popular award and it was not for a movie. Instead, it was for her book Mrs Funnybones, a collection of her humorous column in newspapers. That she has gotten a literary honour under her belt might be unusual, but on stage to receive the award she gave a speech in which she spoke about being a bookworm all her life.
Twinkle was accompanied by her son and daughter at the event, indicating just how proud she was. She has made quite a leap. From an actress with average talent but just enough screen presence to hang on in movies, she had the wisdom to get out of the rat race after marrying Akshay Kumar.
She went on to be an interior designer and then a writer. Recently, she even came out with her second book, a collection of short stories. This is a progression from her first book, which was just stuff she had earlier written. But fresh stories in the realm of fiction needs creative effort. While earlier many had thought that her columns were being ghost written, gradually it has become clear that, rare as it may be, there are at least some stars who can also be writers in their own right.
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DEDICATED: Aamir Khan in his Dangal look.
