Bollywood Masala Mix
Juhi Chawla is an actress, model, film producer, voice actress and television presenter. She is the winner of the 1984 Miss India beauty contest. Her most popular films included Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, Darr, Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke, Yes Boss and Ishq. After being crowned as the winner of the Miss India beauty contest in 1984, Chawla pursued an acting career.
Chawla made her film debut in Sultanat (1986), but she received wider public recognition with the highly successful tragic romance Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988), alongside Aamir Khan, for which she won the Filmfare Award for Lux New Face of the Year.
Chawla has worked predominantly in Hindi language films, in addition to Punjabi, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, and Bengali language films. A top leading actress in the late 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, she has garnered particular praise for her comic timing and vivacious on-screen persona.
During the 2000s, after having starred in over 70 mainstream Hindi films, Chawla turned towards art and independent cinema, along with films in her native tongue of Punjabi, and has been mostly working in parallel cinema. Her turn proved to be successful, and she gained critical recognition for her performances in films like 3 Deewarein and Bas Ek Pal. Since 2000, Chawla branched out into film production and television presenting as well.
Juhi shared the screen space with her once-rival Madhuri Dixit for the first time in the film Gulaab Gang. In the 1990s both were contemporaries and never worked together. This film has washed out the misunderstanding between the two gorgeous actresses.
Juhi Chawla was born to Punjabi-speaking dad, Dr. S. Chawla and Gujarati-speaking mom, Mona. She was born to the Chawla family on November 13, 1967, in Ambala, Haryana, India. Her father was an officer of the Indian Revenue Service (IRS). She has a brother named Sanjeev. Her mother passed away in an accident during the year 1998 while Juhi was filming Duplicate.
After completing her school in Ludhiana, the Chawla family moved to Bombay, Maharashtra, India, where Juhi attended at Sydenham College. After graduating, she entered the Miss India competition and was crowned ‘Miss India 1984’, taking over from Miss India 1983, Rekha Hande.
Juhi Chawla was married to Jay Mehta, a millionaire industrialist in India. Juhi was India’s top model. Still doing movies for more than 20 years, no model has lasted as long as she has in the Indian film industry.
In 2008, Chawla and her husband Jay Mehta in partnership with actor Shahrukh Khan acquired ownership rights for the franchise representing Kolkata in the Twenty20 cricket tournament Indian Premier League, for a price of 300 crore, around $75 million at the time, and have since named the team Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
Playback singer Payal Dev, who hails from Jharkhand gave voice for Student of the Year 2 track, “Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani”. The original track from the Randhir Kapoor starrer Jawani Diwani (1972) was sung by Kishore Kumar and composed by R. D. Burman. It has been reprised for the film by composer duo Vishal and Shekhar.
On being able to give her voice for a Kishore Kumar song, Payal said, “It is a legendary song, so I felt really fortunate to have sung it, with Kishore Kumar sir, as his lines and voice is retained in the song. It was like an impossible dream that came true. This will always remain a special memory for me.”
“Vishal (Dadlani) asked me to sing my lines in my own style and not to try and imitate the original song. So I did that. Since the characters were also so young, I wanted to make sure that the song suits their attitude also,” she elaborated.
This is not the first time that Payal has sung a Kishore Kumar song for a movie. She also sang “Haseeno Ka Deewana” for Hrithik Roshan’s Kaabil (2016). She shared, “I have always maintained that while I am chosen to recreate these legendary across as mimicry, and there is a certain amount of freshness to the song. I think Kishore Da is very lucky for me. These songs were already loved by people, so recreating them becomes difficult but I think my music directors have made sure they keep the song’s soul alive.”
“Once you make a formula of your singing, you start to deteriorate. Only on experimentation would you know how versatile your voice is, and according to me that is important, because I want to touch people’s heart through my voice, they should feel something on listening to my voice,” Payal concluded.
“In the entire space of factual entertainment, documentaries are somewhere the step-child. They have never really got the attention and spotlight they deserve, though a lot of short-format factual content on social media and general entertainment platforms offer it as one of the many things they do," said Akul Tripathi, chief operating officer, DocuBay.
“Nobody really focuses on documentaries as such, and we realized this was a global phenomenon when we started. We think there is a big space for it because there is talent out there making it and people watching it but no dedicated platform. And that is where DocuBay sets in," said Tripathi.
DocuBay enters the cluttered Indian market that is currently home to nearly 34 OTT (over-the-top) video streaming apps. According to the Ficci-EY media and entertainment industry report 2019, paid video subscribers in India grew from around 7 million in 2017 to around 12-15 million in 2018.
Tripathi said the team was curating its library in a variety of ways – by staying in touch with individual documentary filmmakers and creators, besides sales agents and other distribution entities that have catalogues, to collate the best possible mix. While the idea is to put together a library for the initial launch, these could also translate into long-term partnerships. Given the dynamic nature of the Indian market, Tripathi said the team would commit to an actual pricing closer to the launch.
While the initial focus is on an English-speaking population, Tripathi said there are definite plans to localize content going forward, as and when they gather analytics on who is watching what and where.
“It’s a connected world and there is such a large young population discovering each other across the globe, so we have several topics and issues which are common. There are things that unite us as a tribe, be it global warming, depletion of groundwater reserves or human stories and no medium does it better than documentaries," Tripathi said.
DocuBay will be available in India with a distinctive global catalogue for Indian audiences, and several titles exclusive to the country. The global consumer premiere is scheduled for the summer of 2019 and will include India in its first phase.
“IN10 Media’s goal has always been to deliver excellent content across genres and platforms, and we are proud to add DocuBay to our stellar class of brands. With consumers worldwide having more content choices than ever, DocuBay’s constantly expanding library of international documentary films will create its own niche through its focus on discovery and distribution," Aditya Pittie, managing director, IN10 Media said in a statement.
The film ’83 brings alive the epic 1983 Cricket World Cup win of India against West Indies on screen and plans to recreate the winning moment at the iconic match at the Lord’s Cricket Ground in England, where then captain Kapil lifted India’s first ever World Cup.
Confirming the report, Ranveer said, “I’m looking forward to spending more time with Kapil sir. He is kind, generous, warm and funny. I had a memorable two days with him in Dharamshala. I’m going to spend more time with him in Delhi to learn more about him. It’s a first of its kind exercise in my acting process where I’ll be studying the man himself in the flesh for my on-screen portrayal of him. I’m thrilled to have this opportunity to learn about life from a true legend.”
This is not the first time that Ranveer has gone an extra mile to prep for his onscreen character. Earlier, for Padmaavat, he retired from the world for three months to get into the skin of Alauddin Khilji. For Gully Boy, he spent two months with the people of Dharavi to understand their minds, their world and their daily life.
Realty firm Godrej Properties last week announced that it has acquired the iconic R K Studios’ land in Chembur, Mumbai, where it would develop mixed-use project housing luxury flats and retail space.
When asked about the development, Kareena told reporters, “The legacy of RK has already been taken ahead with girls like Karisma and I. Now we have Ranbir.”
“Through our work and performances, the legacy is being taken ahead. Hopefully, our kids will also take it ahead,” she added.
The Indian Film and Television Director’s Association (IFTDA) recently appealed to the realtor to build a Raj Kapoor Museum, its founder, on the site of the studio. Raj Kapoor built the studio in 1948 and directed and produced several projects under its banner over the next few decades, the last one being Rishi Kapoor’s Aa Ab Laut Chalen in 1999.
Kareena will next be seen opposite Akshay Kumar in Good News, which is slated to release on December 27.
“We have four amazing actors Akshay Kumar, Diljit Dosanjh, Kiara Advani, and me. People should expect a fun ride.
“Our film is releasing maybe one week or two weeks after ‘Dabangg 3’. But there can’t be any comparison between the two films, they both are different from one another,” Kareena said on the sidelines of the third edition of UNICEF-AROI Radio4Child awards.