Irrfan: Alia Bhatt is gifted; she is a born actor

Actor Irrfan Khan is someone who hasn't given up his complete earnestness, especially in his interviews, over the years. He doles out some witty responses, each filled with innocence and honesty at times, which many shy away from. He not only impresses with his brilliance on screen but also with his magic of words off it. In a candid chat with The Times of India, the National Award-winning global star talked about Hollywood, working with Tom Hanks and his upcoming Bollywood movie 'Madaari'.

There is no doubt that Irrfan Khan has given us enough reasons to be proud. Adding another feather to his cap is the fact that he will be next seen in 'Inferno' alongside Hollywood superstar Tom Hanks. Speaking about working with Hanks, Irrfan looked very pleased and sang praises for the director, "He brings out a very interesting point of view when he's doing a character. He's very daring. He seems like a gifted actor but he's actually a born actor. We never discussed acting technique with him. I used to observe," he said.

When further asked about remaking Bollywood films in the west, he said, "I think there are films in Hindi film industry which are at par with the international standards but if there is one film that can be made in Hollywood then it's 'Piku'. He also sang praises of how Alia Bhatt is someone who would shine in the west and has the potential to be an international star, "Alia is gifted, she is a born actress."
Throwing some light on his next film 'Madaari', Irrfan shared an interesting anecdote, "They couldn't find any titles for the film so I took it on myself to come up with an apt title. I stayed up all night to find a perfect one. I made a list and presented it to the makers." Speaking further about the film he said that the director Nishikant Kamat had done a great job and 'Madaari' is a different and interesting story. "He is a normal guy who doesn't want to invite any conflict and is complying with whatever is there in the system. He just wants to take care of his immediate problems," he said explaining his character in the film.

When asked about the character that have stayed with him until now and his plans to do a romantic film in his career, Irrfan cheekily named most of his films stating that he has learnt something or the other from every character, "There are many - 'Namesake', 'Paan Singh Tomar', 'Piku', 'Lunchbox', 'Life in a Metro' - basically I picked up something or the other from each character, but 'Paan Singh Tomar' and 'Piku' are two characters that have stayed with me and about that romantic film, I am doing a film which is humorous and very romantic and after that I will do only romantic films," he added laughing.
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Mohenjo Daro trailer: Hrithik Roshan is here to save an entire civilisation

Sarman, played by Hrithik, uncovers the secrets about Mohenjo Daro and about his own past that set his life on a roller coaster ride.

• Hrithik Roshan dominates the first trailer of his latest movie Mohenjo Daro, released on Monday evening.
  The movie also stars Pooja Hegde and Kabir Bedi and it is the latter, who plays the ruler of Mohenjo Daro, who leaves quite an impact with his powerful presence in the three minute long video.
  The epic adventure-romance, set in the era of the Indus Valley civilisation, traces the lives of Indigo farmer Sarman (Hrithik) and Chaani (Pooja) in the pre-historic Indus Valley. Sarman meets Chaani, the daughter of a priest, predicted to be the origin of a new society. Sarman uncovers the secrets about Chaani, about Mohenjo Daro and about his own past that set his life on a roller coaster ride.
  Read | Meet Hrithik Roshan’s princess in Mohenjo Daro, Pooja Hegde
  Co-written, co-produced and directed by Ashutosh Gowariker, the film is produced by Siddharth Roy Kapur and Sunita A Gowariker.
  Mohenjo Daro is set in the era of the Indus Valley civilisation that dates back to 2600 BC.
  Gowariker’s movie took over three years to materialise. He took help from archaeologists who documented the discovery of Indus Valley Civilisation. The film was shot in Bhuj and Mumbai with short schedules in Jabalpur and Thane.

• Pooja Hegde in a poster of Mohenjo Daro.

  The female lead, Pooja Hegde, has earlier starred in Tamil superhero film, Mugamoodi, in 2012, Telugu films Oka Laila Kosam and Mukunda in 2014.
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SHATRUGHAN SINHA’S STATEMENTS ABOUT AMITABH BACHCHAN ARE NOT AT ALL FUNNY

Shatrughan Sinha recently released his biography and aptly titled it ‘Anything But Khamosh’. The book has been penned by famous journalist Bharti Pradhan. Sonakshi Sinha‘s father who is known to make many a controversial statement that do put his party in an embarrassing situation has once again made the mark. The actor has taken a dig at Amitabh Bachchan by revealing tiny tales of days back in the 80s when they both ruled the industry.

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‘Stop making us the soft target’

A day after Bombay High Court rejected all but one of the cuts suggested by CBFC in Udta Punjab, the film team comes together to thank its supporters and look ahead.

Director Abhishek Chaubey with actors Alia Bhatt, Shahid Kapoor and Diljit Dosanjh Kevin D’souza.

Stop judging films and characters from a promo. It is a two-hour-and-20-minute film and, if you believe, that there is any credibility in the people who are seated here, have the discretion before passing any judgement or creating a controversy. This has been happening with this film so far — all the controversies around it have cropped up even before it has been viewed,” said Shahid Kapoor, one of Udta Punjab’s actors. He was referring to the criticism that his co-actor Alia Bhatt faced for “not sounding like a Bihari immigrant” when the movie’s promo released. Moments later, Bhatt returned the favour when she said that Shahid had pushed himself “far ahead” in the role of Tommy Singh, a rockstar with a drug habit.

Udta Punjab is a story of four lives that are affected by the problem of drugs. At a press conference held in Mumbai on Tuesday afternoon, a day after the Bombay High Court rejected all but one of the cuts suggested by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), the Udta Punjab team came together to thank those who supported the film. It was also the time to announce that they would be spending some more sleepless nights to meet the deadline of reaching the theatres on June 17.

With the court asking the CBFC to certify movies and not try to censor them, the question of revamping the Cinematograph Act, 1952 was raised more than once. Director-producer Anurag Kashyap, one of the four partners at Phantom Films, who has been vociferous in his protest against the unreasonable stand taken by the CBFC said that the campaign for the Act’s “overhauling” had started for a while ago. With the film industry joining the Udta team in their fight against CBFC, it has gained momentum. “Under the same guidelines, we had released Gangs of Wasseypur and Dev.D. Earlier, I had faced problems over my film Black Friday too. We used to be given a reason for their objections and it was a fair ground to fight. In this case, we kept hearing from others that the film has been banned and multiple cuts suggested. We did not have the letter of recommended cuts from the CBFC (till we moved the court) to fight against it,” said Kashyap. He sounded hopeful that “the obsolete Act” would be amended soon and requested that “filmmakers should not be made soft targets”.

Ekta Kapoor, another producer of the film, said that the film will be released on over 2,000 screens. With this verdict, however, the filmmakers believe there is a responsibility imposed on them. “Now that we have the freedom to make and say what we wish to express, we have to be more responsible and still enjoy doing what we do,” said Vikas Bahl, another partner at Phantom Films.

Meanwhile, at least three other films are caught in CBFC hurdle. They are Salagto Sawaal Anamat (Burning Question of Reservation). The CBFC has reportedly suggested 100 cuts to this Gujarati film that talks about the agitation over quota in Gujarat. The board had also asked the makers of Shorgul, a political drama, to mute the words “Godhra” and “gau ganga” because they feared it would create communal unrest. The Examining Committee of the CBFC reportedly declined to pass the awarding-winning film Haraamkhor last week, objecting to its theme of showing a teacher having an affair with a minor girl.

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Censor Board chief: The CBFC has no relevance now

'Now that the honorable court has given Udta Punjab the go-ahead, other filmmakers can also appeal to the courts.'
Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani reacts to the court verdict on the film.
The Bombay high court's verdict on Udta Punjab could have far-reaching repercussions on the workings of the Censor Board.
The Shahid Kapoor-starrer was cleared with just one cut and a revised disclaimer.
"We respect the honourable court's verdict," says Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani. "Now that the honorable court has given Udta Punjab the go-ahead, other filmmakers can also appeal to the courts."
Recalling the CBFC's decision to pass the film with 13 cuts, Nihalani says, "We offered to clear Udta Punjab with an 'A' certificate and some cuts which we thought would not hamper the flow of the narrative. It has never been the CBFC's endeavour to obstruct a film's creativity or to be a stumbling block to its release."
"The producers of Udta Punjab were supposed to return to us with the cuts that we suggested," he added.
Nihalani draws attention to the fact that the Censor Board has cleared another film about the drug menace.
"If we had a problem with the drug problem in Punjab being shown on screen, why would we clear the Punjabi film Dhee Punjab Dee, which deals with the same issue? Its producer Baljeet Singh has gone on record to condemn the strong language in Udta Punjab. We, at the CBFC, are not against the film."

"We are happy with whatever they have decided," he says. "Now every filmmaker, who has an objection to our cuts, can go straight to the honourable courts. The CBFC has no relevance."
The film fraternity may be up in arms against Nihalani's policies, but he has found support in BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha.
"I haven't seen Udta Punjab -- I will soon -- but speaking from an objective point of view, Pahlaj is doing a thankless job, and doing it most efficiently," Sinha says.
"Filmmakers who attack him forget that he has not made the rules. He is only following the guidelines laid down by the government. Don't shoot the messenger if you don't like the message," says Sinha.
Speaking of the abusive language in Udta Punjab, Sinha says, "I don't use that kind of language in my everyday conversation. I have never used abusive language even while playing ruthless villains on screen. I always made sure that my dialogues did not disparage women, any community or caste. Why must characters make their point with profanities?"

The censor laws, he feels, need amendments. "Until that happens, don't abuse the censor chief for clamping down on abuses. He is just doing his job. According to me, Pahlaj is the best chairperson of the censor board ever."
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Abhishek Bachchan thinks he wasn’t the ‘hero’ in ‘Guru’, ‘Bluffmaster’

Abhishek Bachchan says he doesn't consider himself the main lead in his hit films such as 'Guru' and 'Bluffmaster'.

Abhishek Bachchan says he doesn’t look upon films in terms of words like ‘lead actor’ and ‘male solo actor’.

Actor Abhishek Bachchan says he doesn’t look upon films in terms of words like ‘lead actor’ and ‘male solo actor’ and doesn’t consider himself the main lead in his hit films such as ‘Guru’ and ‘Bluffmaster’.

Asked if he has any upcoming projects where he plays the lead, he said: “I hope so. If you have a nice script, I’ll be more than happy to read it. But I didn’t understand your question.”

He was speaking at a press conference regarding the success of the film ‘Housefull 3’.

When mentioned as a ‘solo actor’, he said: “As the only person in the film? It will be a very boring film.”

When the journalist clarified that he meant ‘male lead’, Abhishek said: “So I act like a female right now or what? I’m not understanding your question.”

Asked about films such as ‘Guru’ and ‘Bluffmaster’, where he was the ‘lead’, Abhishek said: “In ‘Bluffmaster’, I had wonderful co-actors called Riteish Deshmukh and Boman Irani. In ‘Guru’ I had wonderful co-actors like Mithun da (Mithun Chakraborty), Maddy (R. Madhavan), Aishwarya (Rai) and Vidya Balan. What’re you trying to say?”

When told about being a ‘male lead’ in ‘Guru’, he said: “Mithun da and Madhavan were male actors in that as well.”

When told that he was the ‘lead actor’ in these two films, Abhishek finally said: “I don’t think so. I don’t look upon films like that. My definition is slightly different. I believe anybody, no matter how big or small their role, is equally responsible for the film and in the success or the failure. I don’t like to differentiate just based on the size of the role.

“If you look at ‘Housefull’; It’s a wonderful franchise and the most popular character of the ‘Housefull’ franchise is Chunky (Pandey), who shot for just three days in the film. Aakhri Pasta (Chunky’s character) has got the biggest recall in the ‘Housefull’ franchise. So the size of the role shouldn’t matter.”

Abhishek added: “I just feel that every actor should be given the love and respect as his fellow actor. So I have never believed in this word ‘solo male lead’, for me a solo film is when you’re doing it alone; you’re the only person in the film.”

Abhishek was nominated for the Filmfare Award Best Actor category for ‘Guru’.

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Madhur Bhandarkar denies signing Radhika Apte for his next

Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar has dismissed reports that Radhika Apte will be seen in his next film. There were reports that the 'Badlapur' star had bagged a role in the National award winning director's next, 'Main, Indu'. When asked, Bhandarkar told PTI, "No nothing like that (has happened). I have denied it previously. Don't know where these rumours are coming from. I haven't signed anyone." Reportedly, the film will be set in the emergency era and will apparently revolve around the life of a poetess who rebels against the system.  

The 'Fashion' director, however, did not divulge any details. Radhika was last seen in 'Phobia' and will feature opposite superstar Rajinikanth in 'Kabali'.