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Posts tagged irrfan
National Award winners to throw grand bash for industry friends
02 months ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
National Award winners Irrfan, Nikhil Advani and Shankar Mahadevan will be throwing a grand bash for their industry friends
Kunal M Shah (MID-DAY; March 23, 2013)
They may have won the National Awards themselves, but Irrfan, Nikhil Advani and Shankar Mahadevan are in the mood to spread the cheer around.
According to sources, the three winners of the prestigious film award will be throwing a bash together at a Bandra nightclub for the who’s who from the industry.
Says our source, “The three will soon be seen together in an upcoming film, which is being directed by Nikhil and Irrfan will be part of the cast. Shankar will be doing the music for the film.”
Insiders say an estimated 300 guests are expected to turn up at the bash that apparently has been chalked up on a grand scale.
Advani says, “Since we have all won the National Award, I happened to speak to Irrfan. We decided to throw a party together. We are calling our respective friends from the industry and are planning to have a blast.” While Irrfan won the National Award for Paan Singh Tomar, Shankar raked in his trophy for the Bolo na track in Chittagong. Advani bagged the award for his animated film Delhi Safari.
At home, I’m like my other; as a director, I’m macho-Ang Lee
06 months ago
by Fenil Seta
in Interviews
Priya Gupta & Haimanti Mukherjee (BOMBAY TIMES; October 30, 2012)
Oscar-winning director Ang Lee asked for masala chai before he sat down for an exclusive conversation with Bombay Times at a suburban Mumbai hotel just ahead of his latest film Life Of Pi, adapted from Yann Martel’s Booker winner.
What made you choose Life Of Pi? The book chose me. I read it when it came out in 2001. I introduced my wife and kids to the book. It was a very difficult book to adapt, both economically and artistically. I didn’t agree to make it right away. But then I started thinking and after eight months of contemplating, I finally said yes as I was challenged by the idea to translate this story on celluloid.
Do you see it as an Indian story? No, I don’t think it’s an Indian story. I think it’s Canadian. Yann Martel wrote it as a Canadian. People use the East to make a philosophical point as East is unknown to them. The story is about the illusion called life. How does one survive when you don’t have society and organised religion, and are left at the mercy of the sea? You can rely on yourself, and a higher power. You face God and emotionally connect with the unknown.
What was your impression of India when you came here on your first visit? My first impression was that you have to stay here to understand it. India isn’t a place you understand in a day or a week or even a month. There are such tall buildings surrounded by slums. There are highs and lows right next to one another, and it More >
Naseer doesn’t mind sharing trade secrets-Ankur Vikal
01 year ago
by Fenil Seta
in Interviews
Ankur Vikal, a lead actor of Naseeruddin Shah’s theatre group, on his mentor and what sets him apart from the other acting gurus in town
By Sujata Chakrabarti (MID-DAY; May 7, 2012)
30-something Ankur Vikal is a self-confessed culinary expert. When we call him for a telecon, he is busy planning his beloved cat, Tigger’s first birthday party and dinner.
There is of course the option of cooking fish for his tabby, while also whipping up some chicken-based dish for the novelty factor. For Ankur, managing both comes rather effortlessly, which is also reflected in the way the young actor has been flitting in between acting on stage and on the big screen for more than a decade now.
After being handpicked by Naseeruddin Shah to become a part of his theatre company Motley, Ankur not only plays lead in several of the group’s plays, but has also reprised characters that were once played by the stalwart himself.
And being a true chef at heart, Ankur uses a reference from the culinary world to describe what he learnt best from his mentor and now co-actor Naseer. The NSD alumnus points out, “If I cook a particular dish several times over, I will end up doing it better. That is exactly what Naseer means when he taught me those priceless words — ‘Everything that is spontaneous is extremely rehearsed’,” and adds, “You need to be thorough everyday.”
Sharing secrets Like several of Naseer’s co-actors, Ankur too candidly admits to being extremely intrigued by this phenomenon that is More >
Irrfan to romance Aditi Rao Hydari
01 year ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
By IANS (MID-DAY; April 3, 2012)
After giving a thrilling performance in "Paan Singh Tomar", actor Irrfan is set to romance Aditi Rao Hydari in a new romantic comedy directed by Shivam Nair
The film, produced by Anjum Rizvi, is set in Lucknow. It will have an earthy rustic language with the flavour of the city in it.
Nair agrees that the pairing is unusual, but will be the highlight of the film.
"We were looking for a young girl to play a street smart girl. Aditi suits the character perfectly. The pair would be one of the highlights of the film," he said in a statement.
"Irrfan plays a member of Saraswati Brass band that goes for weddings in Lucknow and he keeps on checking and wooing girls attending the wedding. People will see him in a light role after a long gap. I always had Irrfan in mind even while writing the script," he added.
The film is yet to get a title and will go on the floors soon. Aditi was last seen in Anu Menon's "London Paris New York" with Pakistani-actor singer Ali Zafar.
George Clooney will be rejected if…-Irrfan
01 year ago
by Fenil Seta
in Interviews
With the success of Paan Singh Tomar behind him, actor Irrfan deconstructs myths about the Indian actor in a Hollywood film. No formula, only character, he tells Dhamini Ratnam
TIMES NEWS NETWORK (TIMES LIFE; March 17, 2012)
WHEN we speak to Irrfan (he dropped his surname ‘Khan’ earlier this month), he’s in Himachal Pradesh shooting a film for Switzerland-based director Anup Singh Batla. But the actor, who offers a telephonic rap on our knuckles for getting his age wrong (“it’s not 50, but close”; “it doesn’t matter”; “write whatever you want”), calls this project an Indo-German-Dutch-French collaboration. Called Kissa, the film is in Punjabi, and is aimed at an international audience.
If there’s one actor in Bollywood today, who can pull that off, it’s Irrfan. With several big-budget Hollywood films in the pipeline, including Spider-Man 4 and Life of Pi, he is no stranger to questions like, “How did you crack the code?” His answer: There is none.
Excerpts from the interview:
The first question is not going to be about how you cracked the code to land Hollywood films. Good, because there is no formula that made it happen. Some actors manage that with their marketing skills, but I don’t have those. I guess, now it’s also the body of work I’ve done. When Marc Webb, director of Spider-Man 4 approached me, he told me that what he saw in The Namesake (Mira Nair’s 2006 film), he hadn’t seen on screen before. I don’t know what led him to say that, but clearly, my work’s More >
Wanting fame is a disease-Irrfan
01 year ago
by Fenil Seta
in Interviews
Irrfan speaks to BT about his quest for profound things in life
Anshul Chaturvedi (BOMBAY TIMES; March 9, 2012)
Why have you consciously kept away from the naach-gaana? Arre, why, naach-gaana na karo toh aap ki koi limitation hai kya? Kahani sunana hai mujhe. Kahani entertain karti hai logon ko, usme naach-gaana aakhir itni badi shart kyun ho? That is what I am trying to bridge. And I’m doing something right, I think.
We are the largest filmmaking nation but our movies and even our superstars don’t come within sniffing distance of critical appreciation such as the Oscars most of the time. Does our song-and-dance cinema not have the potential to cross international boundaries? The director creates the story, he fits you there. There are so many actors who can do wonders if put into the right hands. Correct casting is critical. But it’s not their – the director’s – need. It’s my need. If I’m doing a film in two months, and it is giving me a lot of money – and then there’s a film where I am getting one-fourth of the money, and it takes 5 months of my time, but it’s a role like “The Namesake”, I’ll take that. That’s a choice I have to make. But why that work came to me in the first place – whether “The Namesake” or others – I cannot decipher that. I am incapable and too limited to be able to really understand that.
Is the pace fast enough? Your friends have said that you may do at 50 what others do at 40, and that sort of thing. I have made peace with it, because I have More >
Movie Review: THANK YOU by TARAN ADARSH
42 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in External Reviews
By Taran Adarsh, April 8, 2011 – 08:08 IST
Okay, now here’s the first biggie of the season. Major studio, super-successful director, mega budget, ensemble star cast, lotsa glitz-n-glam… Besides, after the stupendous success of films like WELCOME and SINGH IS KINNG, the Akshay Kumar – Anees Bazmee jodi teams up for the third time, promising to complete a hat-trick of enjoyable laughathons. The expectations, therefore, are humungous.
There’s talk that THANK YOU is an extension of SHAADI NO. 1, NO ENTRY and MASTI, besides the Hollywood film THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH. The commonality is that all these films talk of philandering husbands and extra-marital affairs. But THANK YOU is more of a cat-n-mouse game between philandering husbands and a detective, incidentally hired by both the sides – the husbands as well as the wives. Lots of scope for humor and fun moments, right?
BOLLYWOOD HUNGAMA.COMBazmee has successfully followed the magic mantra over the years: Garnish light moments with spice [sex], gloss [panoramic locales], a bit of pulsating action and of course, hip-swinging music. Sprinkle gags and punches. Throw logic out of the window. Pack a number of stars in the enterprise. Voilà! The recipe for a paisa vasool entertainer is ready.
But THANK YOU is as inconsistent as the roads of Mumbai. Sometimes, the ride is as smooth as silk. But there are times when one encounters potholes aplenty during the course of this journey. In fact, like GAME last Friday, More >
When movies look to murder…
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
Raja Sen (MUMBAI MIRROR; February 11, 2011)
Murder has long been one of the sexiest tools in a filmmaker’s arsenal, the very implication of elaborately-planned violence bringing with it an adrenalin high.
And while many films feature murders routinely, here’s a look at ten very different kinds of films wherein the entire action is planned around the murder, ten movies *about* murder, so to speak.
Saat Khoon MaafVishal Bhardwaj’s latest film is based on Ruskin Bond’s Susanna’s Seven Husbands, a short story the veteran writer padded into a novella just so the filmmaker could have more meat to work with.
Priyanka Chopra stars as a woman who marries and kills seven husbands and we’ve never quite seen anything like that.
MaqboolSimilarly, Bhardwaj’s earlier take on Shakespeare was also one where the Bard’s tale centred around murder.
This time, Irrfan and Tabu star as clandestine lovers having an affair and eventually conspiring to kill Tabu’s husband, the mafia don played fantastically by Pankaj Kapoor.
It is a dark, murky tale of longing, betrayal and loss.
OmkaraVishal Bhardwaj’s rustic adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello features many deaths guns figure prominently in Bhardwaj-land but the film, about Omkara tragically doubting his Dolly, culminates in one massive, predetermined murder.
It’s one of the most shocking and brutal killings ever shown on the Indian screen.
No One Killed JessicaBased on the Jessica Lall More >