Top Shot

History tells us that cricket and showbiz go hand in hand. Here’s one more piece of evidence. Cricketer Fawad Alam will soon be seen flexing his acting muscles as the lead in a web series titled Khudkush Mohabbat on the OTT platform UrduFlix. Since he is still playing international cricket, this means he has started a parallel career. We feel it’s a wise decision. After all, he was ignored by the national selectors for 11 long years despite performing incredibly well on the domestic circuit. Had he been ignored by producers and directors for such a long time, he would have only been fit to play character roles. And there are no second innings in showbiz.

CS Dilemma

It is extremely disappointing to know that Rohail Hyatt is not going to produce the next season of Coke Studio, though he may still be associated with CS in another capacity. This was revealed by Rohail H himself during a Twitter chat with a fan. Whatever the reasons for not doing the job anymore, the fact remains that of all the producers that the show has had so far, no one has been able to match his charisma — besides, he is the creator of the programme. The last season (2020) may have been upstaged in terms of popular hits by other music shows but there is no doubt his is a rare talent in pulling diverse groups of musicians together. Well, we guess Rohail H is not feeling the groove anymore.

Hania Asks

Hania Aamir is livid, perhaps justifiably. Her vivacious presence on social media hasn’t always gone down well with the trolls, which has made the actress a bit sad. So she recently wrote something on Instagram which raises quite a few pertinent questions. “How can people not be okay with seeing someone happy? Why can’t people be happy in others’ happiness? Somebody smiling can put you off? Because they’re not what you expect them to be or they don’t lead their life how you do?” That’s a salvo of queries girl. Be cool. Life is full of questions; and not all of them have answers.

Are They Going Out?

Now that’s pretty interesting. Rumour has it that the gorgeous gal with oodles of talent Kiara Advani is dating Bollywood hunk Siddharth Malhotra — can’t say much about his acting ability though. It’s not an official thing as yet, but both have been seen having dinner at Mumbai’s swanky restaurants at least on two occasions. (Hope they’ve been maintaining social distancing.) When recently Kiara A was asked by a journo about her dating life, she responded, “Last time I went on a date was… it was sometime this year. And it’s been only two months for this year, so you do the math.” Hmmm… one plus one equals a couple, we think.

Identity Crisis

Pete Davidson is one of those handful of current Saturday Night Live (SNL) members who are often in the news for their non-comedic talent — his relationship with Ariana Grande, for example, which hogged newspaper headlines for a long time until they broke up. A couple of weeks ago, a woman by the name of Michelle Mootreddy claimed that she’s married to the 27-year-old comedian. (He has kept mum about it — sources say they are childhood friends.) Things didn’t stop there. On March 18, the woman tried to get into his house through the backdoor but was arrested by the police. She’s charged with criminal trespassing. Tell you what Pete D. If she is right about her claims, you could have her house arrested.

B Gift

Pop star Taylor Swift thought that winning this year’s Grammy award for album of the year (Folklore) would keep her buzzing like a bee for some time. But a few days later, something happened that made her go further over the moon. On March 19 (Friday) she received a gift, a bouquet from none other than Beyonce, attached to which was a letter. “Congratulations on your Grammy. It was great seeing you on Sunday night. Thank you for always being so supportive. Sending love to you and your family — B.” Taylor S gushed with emotion, saying it was the “best Friday ever”. She totally felt like the 1.

Published in Dawn, ICON, March 28th, 2021