Dejected 'Beliebers'
A couple of months back, when it was confirmed that Justin Bieber’s Purpose Tour is coming to India, it was a matter of celebration for 'beliebers'. But the thousands of Beiber fans, who spent big bucks to witness the enigma of the international pop sensation, ended up disappointed after the star's performance at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Wednesday—first, because of a management mayhem and second, when the Canadian singer lip-synced during the performance.
The auditorium, with a capacity of 56,000 people, had celebrities including Alia Bhatt, Malaika Arora, Arbaaz Khan and Sridevi, among others. This was apart from hysterical teenagers, some with their parents, some without them. According to a journalist who covered the event, “proper arrangements were not made to make sure that it was hassle-free for the attendees.”
King Khan's witty words of wisdom
The TED Talk by Shah Rukh Khan was another talking point of the week. Khan, delivered a speech at the Vancouver 2017 Ted Conference, which became available online on Thursday. While it is already being touted as one of the funniest talks at the conference, it revealed the star's candidness.
Interestingly, while making a statement about humanity, Khan drew the analogy of his stardom. He said, "Humanity is a lot like me. It's an aging movie star, grappling with all the newness, wondering whether she got it right."
While he continued the talk taking jibes at how people have changed, he didn’t mind addressing issues that he has grappled with. For instance, he said, "Four years ago, my lovely wife Gauri and me decided to have a third child. It was claimed on net that he was the love child of our first child, who was 15 years old. Apparently, he had sown his wild oats with a girl while driving her car in Romania. And yeah, there was a fake video to go with it. And, we were so disturbed as a family. My son, who is 19 now...even now when you say 'hello' to him, he just turns around and says, 'But bro, I didn't even have a European driving licence.'" Trust him to be candid.
Audion launch of Sachin A Billion Dreams
After a much-viewed and appreciated trailer of cricketer Sachin Tendulkar's upcoming biopic Sachin A Billion Dreams, the team launched the songs from the film. The event had Tendulkar and singer Sukhvinder, among others, in attendance apart from A.R. Rahman himself, who composed the music and also sung a song in the movie.
Sukhvinder opened the evening with the Sachin anthem making the cricketer nostalgic. When the batting legend was asked if he had any recollection of hearing ‘Sachin Sachin’ for the first time, he said, “My mom used to say, Sachin Sachin upar aa jao.”
The poster of the film shows a young Sachin batting. The cricketer revealed that the picture was taken when he must have been some four-years-old. While these pictures might have been easy to procure from the family album, there are moments in the film, shown through old footage, that were difficult to get.
Ravi Bhachandka, the producer of the film, told THE WEEK that it has been “an extremely, extremely difficult task”. “We have gone back to 1980s to get the footage. We had to restore some stuff that had drowned in the flood. It has been the toughest process. We had signed almost 80 to 100 contracts. The restoration has really been a cumbersome process. It’s tougher than making a feature film where you are just required to shoot.”
Baahubali craze refuses to die
The Baahubali fever continued this week as well, despite release of new films. Trade sources confirm that Meri Pyaari Bindu, starring Parineeti Chopra and Ayushmann Khurrana, which is also the feature debut of Akshay Roy in director's role, could only be released in 750 screens.
The third installment of the much-appreciated Sarkar by Ram Gopal Varma procured 1,425 screens across the country. However, as it is, critics haven’t warmed up to the two Hindi releases. The films from different regions, which were over-shadowed by the release of Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, though, have made a comeback.
Radio launch of Salman Khan's Tubelight
Radio, the first song from Salman Khan’s next release Tubelight, was launched. According to Amar Butala, chief operating officer of Salman Khan films, the team decided on 'Radio' as the first song because they knew it would be an instant hit. “We are now all geared up to officially launch the song and video in Dubai on May 16 with Salman,” he said.
