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The Hindu
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
A new book documents Girish Karnad's cinematic journey
'There are plenty of books that celebrate Girish Karnad's contributions as a playwright and theatre director, but his celluloid journey has been vastly ignored. There is no documentation of it,' says Muralidhara Khajane, senior journalist and the author of the book, Karnad Kaleidoscope (published by Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy and edited by another senior journalist M.K. Shankar. The book was first released at BIFFES-2025 in March by Sadhu Kokila, chairman of Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy and at Suchitra Film Society in April. This is Muralidhara's second book, his first is Random Reflections — A Kaleidoscopic Musings on Kannada Cinema, also published by Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy and co-authored with Subrahmanyan Vishwanath. Sharing the whys and hows behind the book, Muralidhara says 'I never planned to write a book on Girish or any other personality. In fact, I never dreamt of writing a book, simply because it is tiring to chase publishers.' Karnad Kaleidoscope, he adds, 'happened after a long-drawn process. It includes many of my interactions with Girish during my journalistic years.' Muralidhara goes back in time and recalls his association with the renowned actor and playwright. 'I was introduced to Girish in 1984 at the office of the Bengaluru-basedVaara Patrike (a Kannada weekly) by its Editor B.V. Vaikunataraja, who was also a playwright and screenplay writer. I was enamoured by Girish's personality and intellect. Soon after, Vaikuntaraju asked me to write a piece on Girish. I was nervous since I was a novice; but my Editor insisted.' Muralidhara next went to meet Girish for the article. 'Girish realised that I had not only watched his films, but had also read the books they were adapted from. So the interview went on smoothly.' The math of creativity 'Girish was a commerce student who took to cinema. He learnt the craft on-the-go. When he was asked to make a documentary on Da Ra Bendre, he went to FTII (Film and Television Institute of India), Pune, and watched 65 documentaries, and read books on filmmaking. There is so much more about Girish that could not be compressed into this book. At that time, there were directors, composers, and screenplay writers with new perspectives, out to make their mark. Hence, their films felt different. Girish's Samskara was one such — an iconic film.' Karnad Kaleidoscope documents Girish's journey from Samskara to Kanooru Heggadithi, which was his last. The book also includes the classic Utsav, directed by Girish and produced by Shashi Kapoor. There are interesting anecdotes shared by actors, writers, and cinematographers, including B.V. Karanth and L.V. Sharada, who worked with Girish. 'The idea was to present his cinematic journey chronologically, giving the reader a peek into the behind-the-scenes. My years as a journalist at The Hindu and the stories I wrote about Girish and his works then helped me write this book,' says Khajane. After the first meeting, Girish and Muralidhara met often. 'We would discuss literature, theatre and cinema. A few years later, I asked Girish if I could write a book on him. He refused straightaway saying, 'I will write one myself'.' Girish's health started deteriorating, 'despite this, he gave The Hindu an interview, which turned out to be his last. After the interview, Girish asked me to meet him again, alone, and that is when he asked me if I was still keen to write a book on him and that I could go ahead. 'I do not think I can, but can share my notes with you for your book,' he said. I was moved because he was generous to me,' says an emotional Murlidhara, who started writing the book during the pandemic. 'The best part of the book are the photographs. Since I worked with The Hindu, I was able to access them from the newspaper's archives.' The midas touch Says M.K. Shankar, 'Karnad Kaleidscope is a result of an organic evolution over the years and not a result of an impulsive decision. Having worked as a film journalist, Murlidhara delves deeply into Girish's creations as a filmmaker and brings together varied aspects of his distinct style. Hence, 'Kaleidoscope' in the title.' According to Shankar, who teaches Hindustani music and writes and directs plays, 'the book can be divided into three parts — Girish's filmography, people who worked with him in films and his unfinished works.' 'When he passed away, Girish had scripts for over 25 films ready. He always thought in terms of script first,' says Murlidhara.
Mint
08-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Mint
Two films show our present is the future we once feared
If Hindi films often turn to dystopia to grapple with technological dread, then filmmakers Udit Khurana and Aranya Sahay chart a more unsettling course—rooting their narratives in real-life premises. For Khurana, the starting point for Taak lay in 2020 headlines that detailed how Chandigarh's sanitation workers were being forced to wear GPS-enabled tracking watches under the guise of efficiency. Sahay's Humans in the Loop on the other hand, draws from reporting that illuminated the invisible workforce sustaining artificial intelligence: indigenous women employed in data-labelling offices set up by tech companies across rural India. Both films don't imagine the future as much as reveal the overlooked realities of the present where the burdens of surveillance and automation fall most heavily on marginalised lives. Since its premiere at Mumbai MAMI Film Festival last year, Sahay's 72-minute feature debut has had an award-garlanded festival run, most recently winning the Grand Jury Prize at Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) in May. Set in Jharkhand, Humans in the Loop follows Nehma (Sonal Madhushankar), a tribal woman who returns to her ancestral village after a separation. In order to gain custody of her teenage daughter and infant son, Nehma—a college graduate—takes up a job as a data-labeller at a nearby centre, effectively feeding information into systems that power an American tech company. Alongside other women hunched in front of their computer screens, Nehma spends her time labelling images of crops, weed and pesticides. On some days, she marks parts of the human body—right arm, left knee—so that when the algorithms are eventually shown a hand or a leg, they know what they are looking at. And on others, she is training it to recognise a football foul or differentiate between turmeric and ginger. It's slow, repetitive work, but essential. For all its promise, artificial intelligence can't build itself. Instead, it is realised through countless hours of 'ghost work", a term coined by American anthropologist Mary L. Gray to address the kind of underpaid back-end labour that propels the artificial intelligence revolution. Yet as Nehma delves deeper into the job, she begins to see the limiting worth of her own intelligence. Her American clients don't define her labour as knowledge—even though the job routinely necessitates her judgement and insight. When she refuses to label a caterpillar as a pest, arguing that it only feeds on rotting parts of the plant thus protecting it, her manager receives a complaint about poor data quality. Even when Nehma likens artificial intelligence to a child, saying it will learn the wrong things if fed the wrong input, she is told to stop using her brain. 'If the client says it's a pest, it's a pest," her supervisor snaps. A graduate of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Sahay directed short films and assisted Patrick Graham and Imtiaz Ali before helming Humans in the Loop. With the film, Sahay set out to examine how new, cutting-edge tech still echoes old hierarchies, prejudices, and inequalities. As Humans in the Loop suggests, when algorithms are built almost entirely on data sanctioned by the West, marginalised voices and knowledge systems disappear and progress becomes just another name for exclusion. With his directorial debut Taak, Khurana, much like Sahay, turns his gaze toward the politics of technology—how it becomes a tool that weaponises and perpetuates class and gender divisions in society. Like Humans in the Loop, the action in Taak, which also showed last year at MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, is located in the workplace. The 39-minute short revolves around Shalini (a magnetic Jyoti Dogra) and Komal (Ambika Kamal), two former wrestlers now working as bouncers at a testosterone-soaked Delhi nightclub. After a serious security breach one night, the club's management responds with a new rule: all staff members must now wear smartwatches, supposedly for safety—but clearly for control. Held accountable for her team's lapse, Shalini—the older of the two women—is pressured to ensure that no one resists the new rule. She complies immediately, believing the management's pitch that the watches are there to boost efficiency with location-tracking and attendance-clocking. But Komal, younger and more wary, sees it for what it really is: constant surveillance. She's hiding from a violent past and her safety depends on staying unseen. With the watch, which has facial recognition built into it, being found becomes all too easy. Komal's resistance ends up as a sore point between the two. But more crucially, Taak underlines, it also turns Shalini into both a victim of constant monitoring and the oppressor expected to enforce it. In that, Taak reveals a disturbing truth: in today's digital world, the working class is often made complicit in their own subjugation. Khurana, who previously shot Chhatrapal Ninawe's Ghaath (2023) and Sumanth Bhat's Mithya (2024), transforms the nightclub and the cramped bylanes of the Capital into a sharp metaphor for a surveillance state. A sense of danger pervades every exchange, every gesture in the film. By interweaving the plot with CCTV footage, the filmmaker employs sound and image to heighten this sense of entrapment and alienation—creating the feeling of being cornered in plain sight. In a way, most films consumed by the idea of a dystopian future often get caught up in their own dazzling visions. So it's oddly moving to see two independent films—made outside of the constraints that plague the Hindi film industry—resist framing technology's threats as a sudden catastrophe. Instead, they lavish attention on structures and spaces designed to ensure that technology's grip tightens little by little, settling into workplaces, into homes, and into bodies. Few Hindi films respond to our anxieties as they unfold. Taak and Humans in the Loop go one step further and remind us that our present is the future we once feared. 'Humans in the Loop' and 'Taak' screen at the New York Indian Film Festival this month. Poulomi Das is a freelance film and culture writer based in Mumbai.
Hans India
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Hans India
Tigmanshu Dhulia was surprised by 'Black White & Gray' co-star Sanjay Kumar Sahu's performance
Mumbai: Actor Sanjay Kumar Sahu managed to garner a lot of eyeballs for his powerful portrayal in the psychological thriller "Black White & Gray - Love Kills". He left everyone dumbstruck as a man accused of multiple murders. Adding to the growing list of Sanjay's admirers, director and co-star Tigmanshu Dhulia was also left presently surprised after seeing the actor on screen. It might be interesting to know that as Tigmanshu met Sanjay during the promotion of "Black White & Gray - Love Kills", the director thought that Sanjay was one of the local contributors, not knowing that he is, in fact, a trained actor from FTII. Recalling the incident, Tigmanshu shared, 'I thought he was just a regular guy. I had no idea he was an FTII graduate until much later." Despite being a part of the same cast, Tigmanshu and Sanjay do not share the screen in "Black White & Gray - Love Kills". The ease in Sanjay's performance made it hard to believe his intense training as an actor. It was only during the promotions of the show, that Tigmanshu realized Sanjay's true potential. Sanjay's journey as an actor commenced during his college days when he juggled his studies with folk theatre. He later got accepted into FTII back in 2012. Carving a niche for himself, Sanjay has been a part of some celebrated projects such as "Haseen Dillruba" in 2021, "Atrangi Re" in 2021, and "Raanjhanaa" in 2013, to name a few. Helmed by Pushkar Sunil Mahabal, "Black White & Gray - Love Kills" talks about a high-profile case of serial killings. Tigmanshu and Sanjay are accompanied by Isha Mate, Abhinav Gupta, Singh Rajni, Abhishek Bhalerao, Nishant Shamaskar, Mayur More, Palak Jaiswal, Deven Bhojani, Hakkim Shahjahan, Edward Sonnenblick, Kamlesh Sawant, and Anant Jog as the film's core cast.
Indian Express
04-06-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Jaideep Ahlawat, wife Jyoti Hooda buy Rs 10 crore luxury apartment in Andheri West, pay Rs 60 lakh in stamp duty
Jaideep Ahlawat is no longer just another name in Bollywood's long list of actors and ranks among the industry's finest talents now, having set a benchmark in screen acting with exceptional performances one after another. A complete outsider who broke into show business through sheer hard work, Jaideep is finally receiving due recognition, offering hope to many aspiring actors who dream of entering the world of cinema. After years of struggle, Jaideep and his wife Jyoti Hooda recently purchased a luxurious apartment worth a whopping Rs 10 crore in the posh and upscale area of Andheri West, Mumbai. According to property registration documents reviewed by Square Yards, Jaideep and Jyoti registered the transaction on May 22, 2025. Located in Poorna Apartments, the apartment features a carpet area of 1,950 sq ft and a built-up area of 217.47 sq m. The purchase also includes four car parking spaces, and the couple paid Rs 60 lakh in stamp duty and Rs 30,000 in registration charges. The complex is situated in the heart of Andheri West, just 3 km from the Western Express Highway. Also Read | Archana Puran Singh, Parmeet Sethi travelled by business class, made sons fly economy: 'We made a rule, they had to earn it' Hailing from the Rohtak district in Haryana, Jaideep is an alumnus of the prestigious Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune. Though he began gaining attention early in his career itself in films like Khatta Meetha (2010), Aakrosh (2010), Chittagong (2011) and Rockstar (2011), it was director Anurag Kashyap's epic two-part crime drama Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) that truly brought him into the limelight. His performance as Shahid Khan, despite the limited screen time, earned Jaideep widespread acclaim, and he soon landed a key role in Kamal Haasan's action thriller Vishwaroopam (2013). Since then, Jaideep has delivered many notable performances in films such as Commando: A One Man Army (2013), Gabbar Is Back (2015), Raees (2017), Lust Stories (2018), Vishwaroopam II (2018), Raazi (2018), Ajeeb Daastaans (2021), Three of Us (2022), Jaane Jaan (2023) and Maharaj (2024). He also received global recognition for his performance in the widely acclaimed streaming series Paatal Lok.
India.com
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- India.com
Salim Khan predicted the future of this actor with one look, became a star after 33 flops, not Amitabh Bachchan, he is…
Bollywood actor Salman Khan's father, Salim Khan, is considered one of the greatest personalities in the film industry. Veteran actor Salim Khan is known for reshaping the careers of many actors. Despite the tedious task of recognising an actor's full potential, Salim Khan never left a mark unnoticed when he saw talent in any artist. No doubt, Salim Khan's stories and dialogues reshaped the prime Amitabh Bachchan, giving him the status he deserved in the film industry. Many may not know this, but Salim Khan deserves credit for writing superhit films like Sholay and Deewar. Salim Khan's eye for detail is not just limited to scripts and dialogues; his interest in looking for new talent was always a curious one. It is said that Salim Khan could see whether an artist could become a superstar or not, with a market full of actors. Today, we will tell you about one such actor whom Salim Khan saw as a unique talent. However, after 33 flops, this actor finally made his name in the industry. After a hiatus, this actor went on to dominate the film industry, he even challenged Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna, Rishi Kapoor, and Dharmendra's rising stardom, still couldn't figure out which actor we are talking about? The actor in question is none other than Bollywood's own 'disco-dancer', yes, we are talking about actor Mithun Chakraborty. The actor Salim Khan emphasised was none other than Mithun Chakraborty, who was trying to make his fortune in Bollywood. In 1976 Mithun Chakraborty used to visit a famous tailor shop called Playboy. One day, he saw Salim Khan there, his eyes saw Mithun Chakrabort,y and he kept looking at him for some time. After this, he approached Mithun Chakraborty and said, 'Brother, there is a special charm in your face. Why don't you try in films.' By that time, Mithun Chakraborty knew very well who Salim Khan was and how much influence he had in Bollywood. He could not believe his ears when he heard these words for himself. Mithun Chakraborty told him that he had also completed his graduation from Pune's FTII acting school. After this, Salim Khan handed over Yash Chopra's address. At that time, Yash Chopra was looking for an actor opposite Poonam Dhillon for the movie Trishul. However, before meeting Mithun Chakraborty, he had already starred Sachin Pilgaonkar for the role. But Mithun Chakraborty did not feel disheartened because what Salim Khan said was encouraging him. After this, he got a chance to work in the film Mrigayaa. He also received a National Film Award for Best Actor for this film. However, Mithun Chakraborty got real success through the iconic film Disco Dancer, released in 1982. There was a time between 1993 and 1998 when his 33 films were a disaster. But this did not affect his career or his demand. Even after giving flop films, he had 19 new films in his hands. Today, everybody recognises Mithun's impressive career in the world of cinema.
