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Around Tinsel Town
>> Adipurush kicks off a political storm as Kathmandu halts Indian movies’ screening
The Mayor of Kathmandu, Balendra Shah, on June 18 ordered all cinema halls in the Nepalese capital to stop screening of all Bollywood films. The order came three days after Mr. Shah gave an ultimatum to the Indian makers of the film Adipurush urging them to delete a portion where a dialogue refers to Sita as the “daughter of India”. It attracted controversy in India as well as Hindu Sena filed a writ petition alleging that the film ‘hurt the sentiments of the Hindu community by depicting the religious leaders/characters/figures in an inaccurate and inappropriate manner.’
The dialogue writer Manoj Muntashir Shukla revised some of the dialogues after the Prabhas-starrer was criticised heavily for its pedestrian language.
>>Netflix TUDUM 2023: All the announcements and updates from Brazil
> Alia Bhatt faces off against Gal Gadot, Jamie Dornan in ‘The Heart of Stone’ trailer
> ‘Squid Game’ Season 2 cast announced
> Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ‘Fubar’ renewed for another season
> Zoya Akhtar takes viewers ‘back in time’ with ‘The Archies’
> First look and teaser of ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ out
> Monkey D. Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates hit the seas in ‘One Piece’
>> Film censorship clarifications to MP raise further questions
After initially saying in April that the government had no data on the censor’s cuts applied to films before they were released, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting sent a clarification that has raised further questions.
Bollywood
Dhanush, Aanand L Rai and AR Rahman reunite for ‘Tere Ishk Mein’
Kiara Advani joins Jr NTR, Hrithik Roshan in ‘War 2’
Rashmika Mandanna wraps shoot of Ranbir Kapoor-starrer ‘Animal’
Varun Dhawan, Janhvi Kapoor-led ‘Bawaal’ to premiere digitally in July
John Abraham, Sharvari Wagh to lead Nikkhil Advani’s ‘Vedaa’
Sony LIV announces the release date of ‘Scam 2003: The Telgi Story’ on its third anniversary
Maddock Films developing movie series based on ‘Arabian Nights’, shares 15-film slate
Shahid Kapoor, Kriti Sanon’s untitled film pushed to December
Hollywood
Academy updates rules for Best Picture eligibility
Director Sam Hargrave confirms ‘Extraction 3’
Rupert Friend to star in sci-fi thriller ‘Companion’
Ryan Murphy plans to leave Netflix for Disney
Kevin Spacey’s comeback thriller ‘Peter Five Eight’ picked up for U.S. release
David Fincher opens up on remastering ‘Seven’ in 4K
Jennifer Lawrence says she is scared to work with method actors
Veteran Hollywood actor Brett Hadley passes away
Harrison Ford has no plans to retire from acting
Samuel L Jackson defends Brie Larson against backlash over her playing Captain Marvel
Actor Jonathan Majors’ domestic violence trial scheduled for August 3
Regional Cinema
First look of Vijay from Lokesh Kanagaraj’s ‘Leo’ out
Ram Charan, Upasana Kamineni welcome baby girl
Vijay meets and honours students; speech goes viral
Shivarajkumar wraps up shoot for ‘Captain Miller’
Manju Warrier joins cast of Arya-Gautham Karthik’s film
Kajal Aggarwal’s 60th film titled ‘Satyabhama’
It’s a wrap for Kangana Ranaut and Raghava Lawrence’s ‘Chandramukhi 2’
Shine Tom Chacko confirms being a part of Jr NTR- Koratala Siva’s ‘Devara’
Parvathy wraps up filming her portions for Vikram-Pa Ranjith’s ‘Thangalaan’
Tovino Thomas and team wrap up ‘Anveshippin Kandethum’
Praveen Sattaru to direct Telugu spy thriller series ‘Mission Tashafi’
Trailers
Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt reunite in Karan Johar’s ‘Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani’
Zendaya and Luca Guadagnino bring spiky tennis romance with ‘Challengers’ trailer
Aaron Taylor-Johnson leads ‘Kraven the Hunter’, the Spider-Man villain origin story
‘Lust Stories 2’ looks at love, sex and social class
Jacob Elordi and Cailee Spaeny feature in Sofia Coppola’s ‘Priscilla’
Vidya Balan tackles a murder mystery in ‘Neeyat’ trailer
‘Game of Thrones’ creators bring ‘3 Body Problem’ to life
Carrie Fisher is a ‘powerful witch’ in her final movie ‘Wonderwell’
Paul Dano gets rich in trailer of ‘Dumb Money’, a film on 2021 GameStop short squeeze
Elizabeth Banks and Zach Galifianakis play toy titans in ‘The Beanie Bubble’ trailer
New in streaming
Coming to Netflix in June: Henry Cavill’s supernatural series The Witcher: Season 3, Volume 1, the second season of Hindi anthology Lust Stories, and more
New on Disney+ Hotstar in June: The second season of the investigative thriller The Night Manager, Marvel Studio’s documentary Stan Lee, and more
New on Amazon Prime Video this week: Nawazuddin Siddiqui starrer Tiku Weds Sheru, Tamil action movie Kazhuvethi Moorkkan, and more
Coming to Apple TV+: Idris Elba’s Hijack, Brie Larson’s Lessons in Chemistry, and more
Essential Reading
1) Mari Selvaraj on ‘Maamannan’ and the art of immersing the audience in his world
>> The director also speaks about the significance of Pa Ranjith’s entry to Tamil cinema, and what he strives to achieve next
2) Queer cinema’s shackles in the mainstream
>> Filmmakers speak about the many obstacles that other queer cinema, restricting it as a sub-genre in the mainstream
3) Barbie: A study on pink irony
>> Greta Gerwig’s vision of the wildly divisive doll promises to be a fun house ride into serpentine corridors of savage satire
4) David Attenborough’s ‘Our Planet II’ is a visual delight despite its sobering message
>> The show, focused on animal migration, highlights the devastating effects of climate change
5) Mohandas Pallakkottil says a film like ‘2018’ could be made only because of the excellent team work
>> The art director explains why VFX was used only in a few scenes in ‘2018’ and how he designed the sets
6) Ahammed Khabeer wants the quality of his Malayalam series ‘Kerala Crime Files’ to be on par with the best shows on OTT
>> The director ponders on his shift from feel-good movies to a crime thriller and compares theatres and OTT platforms as mediums
What to Watch
1. ‘Elemental’ is Pixar’s beautiful song of ice and fire
2. Nawazuddin Siddiqui is out of tricks in ‘Tiku Weds Sheru’, a bittersweet romance
3. Season 6 of ‘Black Mirror’ is disturbing, disquieting and delicious
4. Tom Holland’s efforts fail to lift ‘The Crowded Room’
5. Fahadh Faasil leads ‘Dhoomam’, an unimpactful film fogged by its message
6. Vasanth Ravi’s ‘Asvins’ has a half-decent story with impressive scares
7. ‘Stan Lee’ documentary is a mildly Marvelous biopic on the creator of our favourite superheroes
8. Nick Fury battles inner demons and a Skrull rebellion in the first episode of Marvel’s ‘Secret Invasion’
9. A charming Kelvin Harrison Jr. leads ‘Chevalier’, a wavering story on Chevalier de Saint-Georges
10. Blood, gore and survival dominate in ‘Shaitan’
Published - June 23, 2023 06:14 pm IST
