A historical poster

The poster of Detective Byomkesh Bakshy has been artfully hand painted by Kolkata artists. Dibakar Banerjee is set to mark history with his upcoming film Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! The film which is on the cult detective character set in 1943 had its first poster launch in Kolkata recently. On 20th December, 1943, Japan had done an aerial bomb attack on Calcutta right on The Great Eastern Hotel. Japan was then on an aerial attack spree and found Calcutta at a disadvantage, making it an easy target. The poster has captured this subtly. While the very interesting poster will have a glimpse of Sushant as the detective it will also have elements of the Japanese attack.

Case of clueless actors

Anurag Kashyap not only makes a different kind of cinema, but also makes his films differently. For his next film Ugly, the director did not have to give a script to any of his actors. All the actors trusted him so much that they agreed to do the film only after knowing their respective characters. Anurag wanted the actors to remain in a state of confusion and keep guessing the plot. 

He felt they would be able to portray the required nuances better if they were in the dark and had only as much information as they needed. Anurag wanted the actors to be spontaneous and portray their characters as realistically as they could. In fact, until Ugly was screened, none of the actors knew what was going to happen in the film.

Behind the mind of a scientist

The poster of Hawaizaada is finally out. Directed by Vibhu Puri, the film stars Ayushmann Khurrana in the lead role. It is based on the life of a scientist named Shivkar Bapuji Talpade, who is known for having created India’s first unnamed aeroplane. Hawaizaada is set to release on 30th January 2015.

Akshay takes a tough stand

Akshay Kumar is a man who says what he thinks, and so he recently voiced his views on women’s security by raising speculative concerns that not enough is being done in his homeland to prevent and deter the widespread rape cases emerging.

The Bollywood star has stated that so often, rapists are unafraid of committing crimes, with a large proportion of rape cases being repeat offenses. Akshay notes, “We need to put fear in men, instead of women walking around in fear every day. There is no excuse not to have a strict punishment for such inhumane action.”

These comments have been made in the aftermath of a string of rape cases, most recently the alleged rape of a financial analyst by a taxi driver in Delhi. The Indian film star admits his additional concerns for his two-year old daughter, Nitara, and her future upbringing in India. “I thought I was protective of my daughter before, but there’s nothing that prepares you, as a parent, for the constant fear about your daughter’s safety and happiness. I know it’s my duty, as a father, to look after her but I also expect my country’s government to protect her,” he added.

A big launch!

India’s first ever underground music launch saw Mahesh Bhatt and the cast of Khamoshiyan - Gurmeet Chaudhary, Ali Fazal and Sapna Pabbi - launch the music of the film only with the audiences and fans chosen from across the country through an online contest held by Fox Star Studios.

This is the first ever kind of music/film promotion activity done for any movie ever in India and the response to this activity was outstanding. The activity saw the Gurmeet dancing impromptu with contest winners on the chartbuster Khamoshiyan title track, Ali and Sapna perform on the newly released track Har Lamha that is being overwhelmingly liked by audiences, and the cast singing with the participants who had been flown down to Mumbai specially for this marketing initiative that was purely aimed at the youth.

Mahesh Bhatt says, “This is the best ever music launch that any film could do. I’m glad we are first in the country to be doing this. We make films for audiences and who better to launch music but audiences who make the songs superhits or flops. We got great feedback on  Khamoshiyan album and I’m thrilled that they loved our album which makes me very confident about our film.” 

A meaningful Christmas 

Actress Mishti Chakraborty, of Subhash Ghai’s film Kaanchi fame, recently celebrated Christmas with mentally challenged adults. It was double celebration time for Mishti as it was her birthday too. She was touched emotionally with the kids and showered them gifts and chocolates.

Dead against steroids

Tiger Shroff does not believe in supplements. The young actor believes only in maintaining a strict diet and working out with sheer dedication. Tiger is a pure naturalist. He does not encourage or practice steroids. The young actor wakes up almost at dawn to practice with his team. He is trained in martial arts and also regularly visits gym. He believes fitness is for all and it’s very important that health is looked after first.

One for the cops

The PK team recently hosted a special screening for the Mumbai Police Officers. The entire team, comprising Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani, Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma and Saurabh Shukla got together. The film has got great reviews and packed cinema halls.