ZARA’S INSENSITIVITY

The Spanish retailer Zara has been receiving flak and justifiably so. A couple of weeks ago, it released a campaign whose images resembled the death and destruction in Palestine. Naturally, it didn’t go down well with a huge number of conscientious people, including Pakistani showbiz celebs Sanam Saeed and Sajal Aly. Sanam S came out with a strong comment against the label: “We are not helpless. We have the power to make a difference and hit back where it hurts. That should be the end of Zara for all of us!” Indeed, that should be the end.

ANOUSHEY’S ANIMAL

TV host Anoushey Ashraf has seen the latest and somewhat controversial Indian film Animal, starring Ranbir Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol and Rashmika Mandanna. For the uninitiated, the film has graphic violence and certain misogynistic undercurrents that haven’t gone down well with a lot of people. In Anoushey A’s opinion, although no one should love Ranbir K’s character in the film, he played it to perfection. Hmmm… well, Anoushey A has always been fond of animals.

SCREEN STARS

Actor and former head of India’s film censor board Mithun Chakrbaroty does not seem to be a fan either of OTT platforms or multiplexes. Perhaps he is, but his statement that Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and Hrithik Roshan became superstars because of ‘single screens’ gives away his opinion on the matter. He could be right, though. After all, there are quite a few actors of the single screen era who did not become superstars, and now sound bitter. Wink.

BIG MAN SONU

Indian ace vocalist Sonu Nigam sang a song Sunn Zarra in Dubai and earned accolades for it. Soon, our very own Omer Nadeem accused him of plagiarising the track from his 2009 song Aye Khuda. The big man that Sonu N is, he swiftly responded on social media: “I was requested to do the song by KRK (Kamaal R. Khan) who is my neighbour in Dubai. And then couldn’t refuse him, even though I don’t sing for everyone.” He didn’t stop there. After listening to the original version, the singer remarked: “You [Omer N] sang this better than I did. I apologise that I did not hear your song [earlier]. I heard it now. What an exceptional song and you definitely sang it better than I did.” Isn’t that music to Omer N’s ears!

OLD IS GOLD PINK

Now that’s how you deal with idiotic trolls. The 44-year-old singing superstar Pink wears her heart on her sleeve. She says what she likes and wears what she wants. So when someone on X tried to get her goat by saying ‘Pink got old’, she got back in the following words: “Growing older is my ‘first’ grateful every day. What a blessing to have life, years. To be this strong, to be able to still piss off complete strangers just by existing. Hell, yeah times 44!” Take that, troll!

THE OPRAH-DREW SHOW

Oprah Winfrey was on Drew Barrymore’s talk show. Since both women are pretty talkative, as chat show hosts usually are, they conversed a lot. However, during the episode, Drew B got a little too touchy-feely with her guest. Viewers found it a bit cringe-worthy. Oprah W has responded in Drew B’s defence, arguing that although she was not comfortable with all the caressing that was going on, she thought it was ‘endearing’. Well, we say you gotta set terms of endearment before going on a talk show.

Published in Dawn, ICON, December 24th, 2023