Eye Spy: Top stories from the world of entertainment

KUMAIL STAND UP

Hollywood actor Kumail Nanjiani has returned to his stand-up comedy roots with a major tour of his show Doing This Again. He is set to perform at Union Chapel in London on September 20. Once the tour concludes, the stand-up special will stream on a major platform. The multi-talented star also has several upcoming projects, including roles in the high-profile films Ella McCay, The Wrong Girls and Driver’s Ed.

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Kumail Nanjiani

DYNAMIC DRESS

Unlike most Indian celebrities who wear expensive designer gowns on the Cannes red carpet, Simran Balar Jain chose to do things differently. The social media influencer wore a striking outfit featuring a symbolic silhouette of one woman lifting another. Her hand-sculpted gold metal corset, made from recycled materials, conveyed a powerful message of collective empowerment and sisterhood. She also shared engaging behind-the-scenes vlogs from the film festival.

Simran Balar Jain

SOCIAL MEDIA SPOILER

The Sixth Sense (1999), directed by M. Night Shyamalan, was a spectacular success thanks to its unexpected twist ending. If the film were released today, it would not have had the same impact – social media users would have quickly given away the big surprise. Bollywood comedy Housefull 5, like many modern-day murder mystery films, is likely to face a similar problem when it is released next Friday (6).

Within hours, social media users, vloggers and influencers will reveal the identity of the murderer, which will undermine one of the film’s main selling points

Mumtaz

STREAMING SITE STINKER

It is utterly tragic to see how Netflix has become a dumping ground for substandard Indian content. Whether it is acquiring disastrous box office failures or greenlighting dreadful original productions, the clueless streaming platform seems to attract horrid Indian projects. A prime example is the recently premiered series The Royals, which is shockingly poor. The cringeworthy drama, headlined by Bhumi Pednekar and Ishaan Khatter, is best avoided.

Five years from now

BAD BOLLYWOOD IDEA

Instead of using their platform to call for peace, most celebrities in India and Pakistan have either remained silent or acted as cheerleaders for bombings that have claimed lives on both sides of the border. Some C-listers in both countries have even used the ongoing conflict to generate cheap publicity. Perhaps the worst response has come from those already looking to cash in on what is ultimately a human tragedy. Bollywood producers and stars rushed to register the title Operation Sindoor and now plan to profit from a film named after India’s missile strike on Pakistan. If past films are any indication, the conflict will likely be exaggerated on screen, featuring caricatured villains and misinformation – further inflaming tensions rather than promoting understanding.

Janhvi Kapoor

PHALKE FILM BIOPIC

The dream team of actor Aamir Khan and filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani will reunite – after record-breaking hits PK and 3 Idiots – for a biopic on the father of Indian cinema, Dadasaheb Phalke. The film will trace his journey towards making India’s first feature film, Raja Harishchandra, in 1913. Meanwhile, acclaimed director SS Rajamouli is planning a separate film on the same subject, with superstar NTR Jr in the lead role. This follows the 2009 award-winning Marathi film Harishchandrachi Factory, which was India’s official entry for the Academy Awards.

Dadasaheb Phalke

HOLLYWOOD BUBBLE BURST

For Indian celebrities, it often seems that anything made in America is labelled a Hollywood project – even when it has no connection to a major studio. That is why reports of Kangana Ranaut making her “Hollywood debut” with the forthcoming film Blessed Be the Evil are rather absurd. A closer look reveals that it is an independent production, co-written and directed by the relatively inexperienced Anurag Rudra. Ranaut will reportedly star alongside a couple of Z-listers in this psychological horror drama.
The only genuinely entertaining aspect of this film might be watching the clueless individuals bankrolling it eventually discover just how notoriously difficult Kangana is to work with. That is why I predict this project will either be shelved or flop badly — if it ever gets completed at all.

Kangana Ranaut