Oscar noms

It’s that time of year, when the Pakistani Academy Selection Committee invites filmmakers to submit their films for Oscar consideration in the Foreign Language Film category. The deadline that the committee has given for submissions is Aug 20. So good luck to all those who believe their movies released in the last year were worthy enough for an Oscar nod.

In the past, Pakistan has chosen quality projects such as Moor for the purpose, though it couldn’t make it to the final shortlist. This year, the only film that immediately springs to mind as a worthy effort is Asim Abbasi’s Cake. Which is a sad state of affairs — just a single movie. But let’s see if there are any surprises in store.

Battle of the Fizz

The song that announced the third season of Pepsi Battle of the Bands (PBOB) — featuring Fawad Khan, Meesha Shafi and Strings singing alongside last year’s winner and runner-up bands Kashmir and Badnaam — has been pretty well received. The real deal, however, will be seen when the show formally kicks off, because this is where we will get to know if there are more upcoming quality bands waiting in the wings to woo us all.

PBOB’s Season 2 had taken place after a hiatus of a decade, so naturally music lovers found the programme refreshing (and the bands were cool too). This will be more testing. Another mouth-watering thing that’s happening, albeit without much discussion or fuss, is the rivalry between PBOB and Coke Studio. The Studio wasn’t performing well for a couple of seasons, which was why producers for the show had to be changed. Well, to be honest, it’s a healthy, fizzy rivalry.

Diamonds are forever

A little over a week ago, pop star Justin Bieber and model Hailey Baldwin got engaged in the Bahamas where the singer popped the question and slipped a big diamond ring on her finger. Congrats to both of them.

Here’s the thing, though: we knew that Hailey B is into glitzy, blingy stuff, but their fans were a little surprised when she posted on social media a picture in which both of them are seen wearing shiny diamond watches. You wonder, why such expensive wristwatches? Is it all about ‘Lov(ing) Yourself’?

She’s super-romantic

Ever since the dusky damsel-not-in-distress Priyanka Chopra has started going out with American singer Nick Jonas, tongues have been wagging about her intention to get hitched. Though insiders believe that she’s not going to tie the knot with him and it’s all a publicity gimmick, the actress has been dropping hints otherwise.

Talking to an Indian newspaper Priyanka C has said that she’s ‘super-romantic’ and loves the idea of getting married. She exclaimed, “I totally want to get married at some point.” Since she’s 35 years old, I’m guessing that ‘point’ is no more than a couple of years away because after that romance, leave alone marriage, may start to sound pointless.

‘A piece of trash!’

Showbiz celebs should be wary of their grown-up children. If Ewan McGregor wasn’t before, he certainly would be now. In January the actor got divorced from his wife of 22 years Eve Mavrakis, with whom he has four daughters. Why? He was (and still is) seeing actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead since November 2017.

The affair hasn’t gone down well with his oldest daughter, 22-year-old model Clara McGregor. Last week she commented under an Instagram picture of her father’s girlfriend, “The girl is a piece of trash.” Meanwhile, his second daughter Esther has also penned a song about the affair. Aren’t they gutsy!

Kashyap gets back at Ranbir

Boy oh boy, these film wallahs can be really unforgiving towards each other. When Ranbir Kapoor’s film Bombay Velvet directed by Anurag Kashyap tanked at the box office, the actor called it his worst film ever. Of course, the filmmaker wouldn’t have forgotten the remark.

Now that Ranbir K is basking in the success of Sanju, Anurag K has come out with this statement, “I don’t want to make biopics of people whose life everyone knows. These biopics seem forced ... I’d rather make a biopic which is instinctive. The problem with our Bollywood biopics is that we make them too soon, we build their characters a little too early even before their stories or life is complete.”

Hmmm … the velvet gloves are off. Let’s see how Ranbir K responds to this. No, wait, he doesn’t have time for a response, he’s too busy with Alia Bhatt … acting with her in a movie, that is.

Published in Dawn, ICON, July 22nd, 2018