SRK-Majidi movie?

If there’s even a semblance of truth in this piece of rumour, then Shah Rukh Khan should count himself lucky and say yes to the project without thinking twice.

Tongues are wagging about a meeting between him and the celebrated Iranian director Majid Majidi at the recently concluded Beijing International Film festival. There, insiders say, the two discussed a project helmed by Majid M, featuring SRK as the lead protagonist. Well, do it, King of Bollywood.

After Zero, the only way to go is up.

Return of Bulbulay

One of the most popular and longest running sitcoms in the history of Pakistani television, Bulbulay, is returning with a brand new season and fresh location.

Mahmood Aslam, Nabeel, Ayesha Omer and Hina Dilpazeer play members of a family whose socially awkward antics have audiences in stitches. While it remains to be seen if there’s a certain degree of novelty to the new season’s plotlines, we hope that the sitcom manages to grab the attention of the audiences that these days tend to be hard to impress.

Obsession with Netflix

A recent roundtable conference in Karachi with American film producer and director Galen Knowles, attended by some big shots of the Pakistan showbiz fraternity — Saqib Malik, Amena Khan, Wajahat Rauf, Haroon, Angeline Malik etc — proved to be a nice little exercise for our filmmakers and producers to keep themselves abreast of the latest trends in the world of moviemaking. But for some reason, most of the attendees kept asking Galen K about how to approach Netflix, despite his repeated answers that the formidable streaming service is not interested in original productions anymore. He insisted that Pakistan should have a digital strategy which entails all internet platforms — YouTube, Facebook, Instagram et al — for making original content. But no, ‘how can we approach Netflix?’ seemed to be the mantra at the meeting. Guys, think out of the (Netflix) box.

Britney Back Home

A few weeks back, pop star Britney Spears checked into a mental health facility in Los Angeles. She hadn’t been feeling mentally stable for quite some time. Thankfully, on April 26, she stepped out of it, feeling much better, and was escorted back home by her boyfriend Sam.

However, it has been reported that the singer will keep working with therapists and doctors who will monitor whether she’s complying with the routine that she’s been given to keep herself healthy. We wish her complete recovery and our piece of advice to her would be: tension leney ka nahin, deney ka hai.

Idris Married!

Much to the dismay and chagrin of a lot of girls in the world, British actor Idris Alba got married to his longtime girlfriend, the Canadian model Sabrina Dhowre, in Morocco on April 26.

The ceremony, attended by a close circle of family and friends of the couple, took place at the Ksar Char-Bagh hotel in Marrakech. The theme of the dinner that followed was ‘Colours of the Souk’. Congratulations to the newly-weds. Idris A, make sure your better half doesn’t spend too much time at the souk. It might destroy your savings before you even know about it.

Akshay and Modi Hera Pheri

There are two ways of looking at Akshay Kumar’s interview of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that went viral as soon as it was aired by an Indian TV channel.

One, that the Bollywood A-lister is a fan of his country’s premier; two, that he very cleverly provided the politician with the kind of fillip and goodwill that the latter needed in election time after his anti-Pakistan policies went haywire, with hitherto unproved claims of the Balakot attack. In both cases, it has to be said that the actor willingly became a tool in the larger political scheme of things. Who says artists are apolitical creatures?

Published in Dawn, ICON, May 5th, 2019