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This Superstar’s Words Are the Perfect Advice to Extreme Fans Across India
The god-like reverence that film stars receive in India is a phenomenon one rarely witnesses elsewhere in the world. From fans waiting for hours outside the houses of their heroes for a glimpse to...
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The Forgotten Mumbai Filmmaker Behind 6 Oscars & 31 Oscar-Nominated Films!
For cinema buffs in India and around the world, the name Merchant Ivory Productions holds a very special place. Over the course of their remarkable 44-year partnership, the producer-director team of...
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This Man’s Brilliant Stories Took Him from a Meghalaya Village to Cannes Film...
For Dominic Sangma, a leading independent filmmaker from Meghalaya’s Garo Hills, the journey from a remote village on the border with Assam to the glitz and glamour of the Festival de Cannes has been...
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Thank You For The Laughter: Little Known Stories About the Legendary Johnny...
‘Yeh aap par itne phool barsaingi, itne phool barsaingi . . . ki aap bloody fool ho jayenge’ (They will shower so many flowers on you . . . that you will turn into a ‘bloody fool’) Known as the king of...
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Star Trek to Success: Persis Khambatta, the First Indian Woman to Stamp a...
Long before modern-day actresses took to the international stage, it was a Mumbai born and bred, former Miss India who blazed the trail for Indian actors to venture into Hollywood. She made hearts...
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An Ode to Hrishikesh Mukherjee, The Legend Who Crafted ‘Anand’&‘Golmaal’
Babumoshai . . . zindagi lambi nahi badi honi chahiye, said Anand Sehgal, a terminally-ill cancer patient to his friend, Dr Bhaskar Banerjee. The quote roughly translates to “Life is not about how long...
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Bollywood’s First Empress: Before Madhubala & Nargis, India had Devika Rani
Before Madhubala, Nargis, and Meena Kumari, there was Devika Rani, a star actor and film producer, who co-founded Bombay Talkies, India’s first self-contained film studio, alongside her first husband...
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Meet the High School Dropout From Meghalaya Bringing Khasi Cinema to The World
For filmmaker Pradip Kurbah, life has come a full circle. On 5 October, his third full-length feature film ‘Iewduh’ premiered at the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) in South Korea, which ranks...
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India’s First Talkie Set Off a Riot, And Didn’t Even Have Any Sound Equipment!
78 murde insaan zinda ho gaye. Unko bolte dekho? or as the English tagline ran: All living. Breathing. 100 per cent talking. This is how director Ardeshir Irani advertised India’s first ever talkie or...
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Amjad Khan: 5 Stories You Didn’t Know About India’s Unforgettable Gabbar!
Yahan se pachas pachas kos door gaon mein … jab bachcha raat ko rota hai, toh maa kehti hai bete so ja … so ja nahi toh Gabbar Singh aa jayega. Dressed in a khaki suit and armed with a belt, when the...
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Bob Biswas To Lajja: 8 Iconic Villains Etched Into Bollywood’s Cinematic History
While his boss is screaming at him, an LIC agent checks the picture of an old lady that flashes across his mobile screen. Later, the agent rings a bell and the same old lady opens the door. “Nomoshkar,...
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Flawed, Gritty & Liberated: 7 Women-Centric Bollywood Roles from The Last Decade
A hero falls in love with the heroine. Since he crosses hurdles and challenges to ‘get’ her, her world revolves around him. In the end, he ‘rescues’ her from all worldly atrocities and they live...
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Daily Wage Worker From Kerala Is The Hero Of Her Own Story. Quite Literally!
For Tahira, a resident of Kodungallur, a town in Kerala, depending on people for help or sitting at home was never an option. She was only 14 when her father passed away. Seeing no other way out, she...
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B’Luru Filmmaker is Helping Save a Great Tribe Before Their Culture Vanishes
With The Positive Collective, The Better India’s COVID-19 coverage is available to regional language publications for free. Write to editorial@thebetterindia.com for more details. On the way to Goa,...
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What’s the Real Story of ‘Gulabo Sitabo’? Hint: Amitabh’s Village Is Involved!
“Mohabbat Karte Hai Hum Apni Haveli Se, Be Inteha” – You can hear a decrepit Mirza enunciating this line in the preview of Shoojit Sircar’s latest offering ‘Gulabo-Sitabo’ – the Haveli in question is...
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This Forgotten Pioneer Made India’s First Indigenous Film Camera From Scratch!
Baburao Painter refused to budge when people told him shooting at night won’t get him any results. One of the pioneering filmmakers of India, Baburao ignored the warnings, mockings, and accomplished...
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Lockdown Hack: 3 Filmmakers Share How They Kept Shooting, While Never Leaving...
“The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.” -Arthur C Clarke, British science fiction writer Over the last few months, the...
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Credit De Do Yaar: 5 Songs Where Credit Wasn’t Given to Lyricists
In a video published earlier today, 15 lyricists from the Hindi film industry demanded that they receive proper credit for their work on music streaming platforms and YouTube channels. Titled ‘Credit...
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#Scam1992: The Journalist Who Exposed Harshad Mehta’s Rs 50 Billion Fraud
Harshad Mehta is in the news again. The mastermind of the 1992 securities scam which shook the Indian stock market is back in discussion after almost three decades with the teaser release of Sony Liv’s...
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From Riding a Bullock Cart To Owning an Airline: The True Story of Capt....
‘Soorarai Pottru’ is a Tamil movie starring actor Suriya, scheduled to release on Amazon Prime on November 12. Going by the trailer, the movie is an action-packed drama about a man from a village who...
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‘I Know What Suffering Means’: ‘Raazi’ Actor Who’s Helped 100+ Kashmiri Students
Calm, persistent and focussed is how I perceived actor Ashwath Bhatt’s character, Mehboob Syed in the spy thriller film, Raazi (2018). He portrays the role of a Pakistani army officer who eventually...
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Reel Vs Real: Meet the ‘Dead’ Man Behind Pankaj Tripathi’s Character in Kaagaz
Murda insaan (Dead Man) Abhi taaza taaza mare, abhi uth ke chal diye (A dead man just got up and left) This satirical dialogue from Kagaaz, which stars Pankaj Tripathi, was once the reality of Uttar...
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How a Grass Cutter’s Child Became Indian Cinema’s First Dalit Woman Actor
In 1930 (some say 1928), J C Daniel, known as the father of Malayalam cinema, directed and starred in Vigathakumaran (The Lost Child). The story was about Chandrakumar, who goes missing, and is...
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Malegaon ka Superman: A Spoof That Popularised A Small Town’s Film Industry
Malegaon ka Superman was released a decade ago. The film had no special effects, glamorous sets, superstars, smart gadgetry, mind blowing stunts or any filmmaking aesthetics. The movie was never part...
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Thane Coach who Trained Parineeti Chopra for Saina Nehwal’s Biopic is a...
Ever since Amole Gupte’s directorial biopic, Saina, on ace badminton player, Saina Nehwal released, everyone — from the media to netizens — are talking about how well Parineeti Chopra has embodied...
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National Film Awards Honours 68-YO Woman Who Ran Marathons Barefoot to Save...
Lata Kare from Baramati, Maharashtra first made headlines in 2013 when she ran the first marathon of her life, barefoot and wearing a saree, at the age of 60. She ran neither for glory nor to fulfil...
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Why Parents Must Watch This Documentary Before Sending Kids to Kota for Coaching
About 10 and a half minutes into freelance filmmaker Hemant Gaba’s National Award-winning documentary, An Engineered Dream, an IIT coaching academy teacher is seen telling a group of 15 to 16-year-old...
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Worked As A Waiter, Trained For Years: The Inspiring Story Of ‘Pagglait’...
“Yeh khana toh Astik bhaiya bhi na kha paaye. (Even Astik won’t be able to eat this bland food).” When Parchun, essayed by Aasif Khan, says this to Sandhya (Sanya Malhotra), in Netflix’s Pagglait, it...
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Kerala Woman Takes Love For Regional Films To Hollywood, Bags Golden Globe...
Sonal Naroth was in Class III when Ramji Rao Speaking (1989), a Malayalam cult comedy, became her favourite movie. Unlike children who are usually drawn to elaborate sets and action scenes with flying...
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Scorsese to Nolan: What 6 Legendary Filmmakers Said About The Inimitable...
Satyajit Ray’s cinema weaved together lyricism and realism like very few could. While many of his films are marked by stark realism, he never failed to capture the finer nuances of the human condition...
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Belgaum to Bollywood: The Man Behind Kamat Studios & Hindi Cinema’s Most...
Even after seeing the image of late actor Dev Anand playing a shiny drum set, it is hard for me to imagine him in Teesri Manzil (1966). Anand was the original choice for the desi crime noir film of the...
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‘Mimi’: The True Story That Inspired a Lawyer To Make a Film on Surrogacy
Making a national award-winning film was never part of Samruddhi Porey’s plan. She is a graduate in microbiology and a lawyer by profession, but always loved storytelling as a child. In 2010, she...
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From Gangs of Wasseypur to Tumbad: What Being a Prosthetic Artist in Movies...
Years ago, I remember watching a movie starring Rekha called ‘Khoon Bhari Maang’ (1988). What stuck with me was Rekha’s look in the first half of that movie. As a visual medium, it is important that...
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Avantika Vandanapu: The 16-YO Making History As Disney’s 1st Indian-American...
“Spin shatters the stereotype that Indians can only thrive in STEM. We should not forget that our culture and heritage are very art-centric. We flourish not only in academics, but also in artistic...
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Engineer-Turned-Filmmaker Works with Pratik Gandhi, Rajkumar Rao; Wins...
Mikhil Musale, the director of Wrong Side Raju (2016) and Made In China (2019) tries hard to evoke his memory of his engineering days. But he is unsure if it was the frustration of being stuck in a...
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Sardar Udham to Kesari: At 45, This Teacher Left the US to Live His Bollywood...
“How dare you step in front of my carriage,” blurted an ‘evil British officer’ in a television series played by Richard Klein. He then whipped the poor street urchin and hauled endless curses. But as...
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Real-Life Hero Behind ‘RRR’: The Forgotten ‘Bheem’ & A Revolution Against The...
Two revolutionaries. Two rebellions. Two significant chapters of Indian history. How do they intertwine? In 1922, Indian revolutionary Alluri Sitaram Raju led the Rampa Rebellion against the British...
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How Did an Engineer Bag the Script of Big B’s ‘Sarkar’? Manish Gupta Shares...
In 2004, after having worked in the corporate sector for six years, Manish Gupta finally quit his job to pursue his real dreams in the film industry. This may sound like yet another example of an...
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Jai Bhim to Shershaah: Best Films/OTT Shows That Broke The Clutter in 2021
The pandemic facilitated drastic changes in many fields. One among them is the film industry. Booking a favourite seat in theatres to watch a big-budget film turned into watching movies at home in our...
View ArticleJhund: Meet Vijay Barse, the Hero Who Inspired Amitabh Bachchan’s Role
As the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Jhund hits theatres today, the story of Vijay Barse, around whom the biographical sports drama is centred, is emerging from obscurity. Directed by Nagraj Manjule, the...
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From Sholay to DDLJ: How Anand Bakshi’s Lyrics For 3300 Songs Defined...
In a career spanning over four decades, 3,300 songs and more than 600 films, lyricist Anand Bakshi wrote the soundtrack to millions of Indian lives enamoured by popular Hindi cinema. (Image above of...
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Made by Dev Anand’s Brother, This is The First Indian Film to Win Cannes’...
As we approach the world-renowned Cannes Film Festival later this month between 17 and 28 May, which will take place in France, cinema aficionados across India will be looking forward to their...
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777 Charlie: 5 Heartwarming Stories of A Human & Dog’s Bond That Are Worth A...
You know the saying, ‘a dog is a man’s best friend’ — it’s old, common, and true. If you’re a dog owner, you definitely agree. That bond between you and your furry friend is special and indescribable....
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Shocking Reason Why This Irrfan Khan Film was Banned in 1995 & Why it Should...
Nearly a decade before Irrfan Khan made his mark on mainstream Hindi cinema with his visceral performance as Ranvijay Singh, a violent student leader in Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Haasil (2003), he starred in...
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What to Watch This Weekend? 10 Indian Shows & Movies Across OTT Platforms
Along with some new releases that the OTT world has just witnessed, there are also some great old shows you could catch up on. Here’s a selection of ten such Indian shows and movies for you to select...
View ArticleR Madhavan’s Rocketry: The Real Story of ISRO Engineer Nambi Narayanan
Actor R Madhavan’s directorial debut Rocketry: The Nambi Effect is all set for release on 1 July 2022. Madhavan plays the title character, based on the life of an aerospace engineer at the Indian Space...
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National Film Awards: 10 Real-Life Facts About Suriya’s Role in Soorarai Pottru
Tamil drama film Soorarai Pottru has recently won the Best Feature Film award at the 68th National Film Awards. Actor Suriya also co-won the Best Actor award for the film, while actress Aparna...
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India’s Official Entry for Oscars: 5 Things to Know About Gujarati Film...
Gujarati film titled ‘Chhello Show’ has secured India’s official entry into the prestigious Oscars. A tweet by news agency PTI read, “Gujarati film Chhello Show is India’s official entry for Oscars...
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RRR’s ‘Naatu Naatu’ at Oscars 2023: Meet the Choreographer & Lyricist Behind...
SS Rajamouli’s much-acclaimed RRR track ‘Naatu Naatu’ has been topping the charts and has now found its way to the 95th Academy Awards 2023 shortlist for the Music category. Here, it will be competing...
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All It Took To Become an Animation Filmmaker & Make My Mark in a...
In the early 2000s, recalls Charuvi Agrawal, a woman in a film studio was a rare sight. A woman in an animation studio was even rarer. Whenever the animator would meet clients, she would receive odd...
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