Malala the Producer

The world’s youngest Nobel laureate, our very own Malala Yousafzai, is not only a peace activist, she also has an entrepreneurial streak in her. She has a television production company interestingly named Extracurricular, and the young courageous woman is all set to produce not one but three projects for the global TV industry, the first which is going to air on Apple TV. Now isn’t that fantastic! This also means that Pakistani artists may get more than ample chances to work in international shows. Malala Y, you rock!

Slap Gap

Remember Slapgate, when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock for cracking a joke about his wife at the Oscars? Not something worth remembering, right? So, when Ahmed Ali Butt and Ahmed Ali Akbar recreated a scene at the recently held award show abroad (the former instigating the latter for blackening his face in the drama series Parizaad), Akbar fake slapped Butt. Apparently, it was done to elicit laughter. Well, it didn’t go down well with a big number of those who saw the clip or, for want of a better word, the skit. Justifiably so… violence, real or simulated, can never amuse. And no ifs and Butts about it.

Not Smelling the Koffee

Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri (who made the controversial film The Kashmir Files) is super miffed with the talk show Koffee with Karan. Talking to a journo, the director has said that the chat show is bull**** and is all about people’s personal (read: bedroom) lives, adding that he would never appear on it. Hmmm… actually Vivek A, you are not off the mark when you say that it’s about people’s personal lives, but don’t worry, and let’s break this to you: you will never be invited to that programme.

Gossip Mongering

No one should be allowed to spread baseless rumours because they can deeply hurt people’s intimate relationships. Last week, someone on social media by the name of Umair Sandhu claimed that things are not hunky-dory between Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh. The reason that the gossip monger gave was that Deepika P has been under a severe spell of depression, again, which is refusing to go away and for which she was hospitalised in Hyderabad during the shoot of a film titled Project K. The claim has been rubbished by sources close to the celebrated couple and investigations are underway about the person with that Twitter handle. Depression is a serious ailment; it shouldn’t be used to cause a rift between a married pair. There could be other reasons, though.

Coolio RIP

On September 28, one of the most influential rappers to have emerged on the music scene in the 1990s, Coolio, died in Los Angeles at the age of 59. It was in 1995 that his track Gangsta’s Paradise did astronomically well at the charts and shot him to international fame. It was also the number one song of the year on Billboard Charts, winning him a Grammy for the best rap solo performance the next year. Coolio, whose real name was Artis Leon Ivey Jr, was known for making songs with irreverent lyrics and groovy beat patterns. May he rest in peace.

Changing Lanes

Earlier this year, singers Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes split as a couple. These days Camila C is one of the judges on the music reality show The Voice, where the judges listen to a contestant’s song without looking at them and, if they like what they’re hearing, they turn their chairs around to approve of their singing. On Sept 27, while listening to a contestant named Tanner Howe, Camila C thought it was Shawn M and didn’t turn her chair. When he finished the track she complimented him by saying that he sounded just like her ex-boyfriend, to which Tanner H said, “I really respect Shawn as an artist and I see myself in that lane, but I totally love what you’re saying.” The pop star replied, “I was in his lane deeply.” Well, Camila C, now you’ve changed lanes and you can’t drive back.

Published in Dawn, ICON, October 9th, 2022