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Most loved and enduring Nagarjuna

He is also well-known in Bollywood with outings such as ‘Khudagawah’, Criminal’ and the soon-to-be-released ‘Brahmastra’…writes Narendra Puppala.

He’s been compared to fine wine. And rightly so. With each passing year Nagarjuna is only getting better.

As he turned 62 on Sunday, the face of the Akkineni film family continues to give 26-year-old stars a run for their money – in looks, and physique, not to mention in box-office collections. No wonder he’s popularly known as ‘King’ Nagarjuna in Tollywood.

Understandably, Sunday had social media erupting with stars and celebrities wishing the evergreen hero on his special day. Best friend and megastar Chiranjeevi was among the first to reach out to Nagarjuna. “An ultra-cool guy who takes life as it comes and makes most of each moment,” he tweeted. “An Actor who is constantly experimenting and pushing boundaries. And Most of All a dear Friend to have for all times and forever, dearest @iamnagarjuna, a Very Happy Birthday to you!”

Among politicos, the BJP’s co-incharge for Andhra Pradesh, Sunil Deodhar, wished the star. “Wishing @iamnagarjuna Garu A Very Happy Birthday! A great actor that you are, you’ve been gracefully carrying the Legacy of ANR Garu. Wishing you more success, Good Health in the Years to Come!” Deodhar tweeted.

Nagarjuna has remained one of Tollywood’s most loved and enduring stars. His movie releases are a mixture of commercial and technically well-crafted offerings that just stand out in the flood of movies the Telugu film industry churns out year in and year out.

He is also well-known in Bollywood with outings such as ‘Khudagawah’, ‘Criminal’ and the soon-to-be-released ‘Brahmastra’.

As the son and inheritor of his famous father Akkineni Nageswara Rao’s acting legacy, Nagarjuna had an easy entry into Tollywood. But thereafter, its been his show all the way.

Although he began his film career as a child actor in several movies, his formal entry into tinsel town was in the year 1986, with his debut in ‘Vikram’, a remake of the Subhash Ghai movie ‘Hero’ (1983), starring Jackie Shroff and Meenakshi Seshadri.

Ever since, Nagarjuna has continued to stay relevant with Telugu audiences across the world. From Tollywood to Bollywood, family-oriented movies, mythologicals, edge-of-seat thrillers, to romance, and even comedies – he’s done them all. His biggest asset is his ability to ease himself effortlessly into any role – old, middle-aged, or young – without looking odd or out of place.

Whether it’s choosing roles or picking projects, Nagarjuna is the cool analyst at work. Many an eyebrow was raised when he went out on a limb to give director Ram Gopal Verma his break with his 1990 Telugu debut film ‘Siva’.

The movie revolving around colleges and politics was a blockbuster and trendsetter rolled in one. The visual of the central charater Siva snapping a bicycle chain and wrapping it around his palm, to take on the bad guys, is one of Nagarjuna’s iconic scenes. For Ram Gopal Varma, it was ticket to bigger successes.

Incidentally, ace director Mani Ratnam’s sole Telugu directorial venture ‘Geetanjali’ starred Nagarjuna and was a super smash hit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tlnqADwb2M

Apart from giving new talent a break behind the camera, Nagarjuna is also known for introducing new faces to the silver screen, foremost among them being Anushka Shetty of ‘Bahubali’ fame.

An astute businessman, Nagarjuna set about nurturing new talent with his film school. He has also forayed into other businesses such as restaurants and hospitality. But showbiz remains his focus.

His family is choc-a-bloc with film stars. Nagarjuna tied the knot with Amala, who had acted with him in several movies, during the making of which their romance blossomed somewhere along the way. Apart from being a vocal supporter of animal rights, Amala acts in the odd-movie nowadays.

His elder son Naga Chaitanya, from a previous marriage, is an established actor while daughter-in-law Samantha is a leading South Indian film star who essays a leading role in the second season of the web series ‘The Family Man’, starring Manoj Bajpayee.

Nagarjuna and Amala’s son Akhil is also trying to find his place in moviedom. And then there are the other stars in the extended family, such as nephews Sumant and Sushant.

Whether it’s televison or on OTT platforms, Nagarjuna has made sure he’s a part of the game as it evolves. Be it ‘Bigg Boss’ or ‘KBC’, he has been on all.

For now, ‘King’ Nagarjuna has his hands full as actor, producer, television anchor, mentor and businessman. As his next Tollywood ventures unspool, for Nagarjuna, life is all about about the journey, not the destination.

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Atul Kulkarni: ‘Film making never about one person dictating everyone’

Kulkarni’s latest release is the second season of the political drama web series ‘City of Dreams’ for which he has collaborated with noted filmmaker Nagesh Kukunoor…writes Ahana Bhattacharya.

Atul Kulkarni is a well known actor not only in the Bollywood but in the other popular industries too. Filmmaking is a collaborative effort and good collaborations result in great projects, says National Award-winning actor Atul Kulkarni.

Talking about the same, Kulkarni told : “I have always believed that filmmaking is about collaboration. It is never about one person dictating everyone whoever that maybe, be it the director or the actor or anyone. When that collaboration works in an excellent way, something like City of Dreams comes out.”

On the work front, Kulkarni’s latest release is the second season of the political drama web series ‘City of Dreams’ for which he has collaborated with noted filmmaker Nagesh Kukunoor.

“Nagesh and I have been old friends. We have been watching each other’s work and talking about it and wanted to work with each other since long. When the opportunity came, both of us were extremely happy to collaborate,” said the actor.

In the second season of the show, Kulkarni reprises his role of Ameya Rao Gaikwad from Season one. Throwing light on how the story progresses in Season two, the actor said: “In the first season, Ameya was a man who was the patriarch, who was the most powerful person of the state and he was in coma for almost 80 per cent of the time. But he was that powerful a man, that despite being in coma, everything was revolving around him and everyone was thinking what would happen once he gets up. In the second season, here is a man who has lost his power, his money and his son. Physically also he is handicapped and his daughter is challenging him in a big way. That’s where it begins!”

The series deals with a power play between the father-daughter duo of Ameya Rao Gaikwad and Poornima Gaikwad (played by Priya Bapat). The actor says power struggle was there since the inception of humanity and will always be there.

“The concept of power is there ever since human beings came onto this earth. It is a very basic instinct to control, to have power and it doesn’t necessarily need a political scenario. Even in a small family of 3-4 people, you can see glimpses of power struggle and who controls whom. It’s very natural. It has been relevant and will be relevant all the time,” he expressed.

For more than a year now, our lives have been affected as the world battles Covid-19. What lesson did the pandemic teach him?

“What I have learnt is that we need more empathy, we need to open our eyes wide as to what is going to happen 10-12 years from now and the repercussions that we are going to face as a society. What I have experienced as an individual, absolutely does not matter. But I think as a society, we need a very encompassing point of view in whatever we do for the next 10-15 years,” Kulkarni suggested.

Also starring Sachin Pilgaonkar, Eijaz Khan, and Sushant Singh, ‘City of Dreams’ Season 2 streams on Disney+ Hotstar.

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KHUDHA HAFIZ DILIP SAAB

Dilip Kumar, who passed away on Wednesday in Mumbai at the age of 98, still remains the benchmark for actors in Indian cinema, writes Vinayak Chakravorty

Few actors in Bollywood have had as many clones as Dilip Kumar. The assertion would seem like the greatest note of flattery in a film industry that survives and thrives on being ‘inspired’, more than superlatives such as star, superstar, megastar, thespian — even legend, for the word is often loosely used in Bollywood.

Dilip Kumar, who passed away on Wednesday in Mumbai at the age of 98, was always the benchmark. He had a direct impact on many actors who worked in his time, from the forties to the nineties. He continues to indirectly impact actors post nineties too, for those who fashioned their acting after him continue to influence many rank newcomers of today.

Perhaps that is the mark of a legend — when the trademark style of your art continues to outlive you, and find new ways to reinvent itself through budding talents who started out long after you quit.

For the record, Dilip Kumar quit acting in 1998. That was the year Yusuf saab — as he was widely known to friends and fans alike — last faced the camera for Umesh Mehra’s “Qila”. If the actor was never seen on screen over the past two decades since its release, the rest of the film’s primary cast including Rekha, Mukul Dev and Mamta Kulkarni have also all but vanished, and director Mehra stopped making films nearly two decades ago. “Qila”, an otherwise forgotten attempt, will continue to garner recall value because it was the last film of one of Bollywood’s greatest.

Flawed and over the top as the film was, “Qila” gave Dilip Kumar a dual role as protagonist and antagonist (or ‘hero’ and ‘villain’ as masala filmdom loves classifying). Somewhere in those portrayals lay the key to why he was hailed as the phenomenon back in the day, when they showered him with epithets as Tragedy King, and the Great Method Actor of Bollywood.

There are tales about Dilip Kumar’s method acting. The most widely-known pertains to the self-produced “Gunga-Jumna”, the Nitin Bose directorial of 1961 that, many whisper, was ghost-directed by the actor himself. Coming immediately after his 1961 superhit “Mughal-e-Azam”, Dilip Kumar is said to have run all around the studio premise, to the point of collapsing, in order to get the right look and feel for his death scene in the film. The performance is counted among one of the finest by any male actor in mainstream Bollywood, and plot of the film would find resonance in many subsequent Hindi hits, notably “Deewar”.

If the subject of method acting largely defines Dilip Kumar’s oeuvre, the actor himself tried to deconstruct it in his autobiography “Dilip Kumar: The Substance And The Shadow”, released in 2015.

“I am an actor who evolved a method, which stood me in good stead,” he says.

That alone explains the consummate acting we saw in all his films, right from his debut effort “Jwar Bhata” (1944), as well as other notable early roles in “Milan ” (1946) and “Jugnu” (1947).

By 1948, only four years into the industry, Dilip Kumar was a busy star. He had as many as five releases that year — “Ghar Ki Izzat”, “Shaheed”, “Mela”, “Anokha Pyar” and “Nadiya Ke Paar”. By the time the last film of the year released and went on to become the biggest hit of 1948, Dilip Kumar was one of Bollywood’s exciting new sensations along with two others — Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand.

The trio would go on to define Hindi cinema in the next decade, and be called Bollywood’s Triumvirate. Together, they continue to shine the brightest at the mention of the Golden Fifties of Hindi cinema. While each of them carved a niche to ensure greatness, somewhere their individual images as stars summed up the essence of an era that continues to be regarded as the classiest that Hindi cinema has seen.

Dilip Kumar would collaborate with Raj Kapoor, incidentally said to be his childhood friend from Peshawar, on Mehboob Khan’s 1949 love triangle “Andaz” that co-starred the inimitable Nargis. The film was a superhit upon release and, for the second consecutive year, Dilip Kumar would be part of the year’s highest-grossing film with “Andaz”.

That was just the start of a dream run. The fifties saw him deliver innumerable superhits including “Jogan” and Babul (1950), “Tarana” and “Deedar” (1951), “Aan” (1952), “Footpath” (1953), “Amar” and “Daag” (1954). “Devdas”, “Azaad” and Uran Khatola” followed in 1955, “Musafir” and “Naya Daur” released in 1957. The spate of memorable roles continued with “Yahudi” and “Madhumati” in 1958, and Dilip Kumar ended the decade with “Paigham” in 1959.

If the decade that ended established the method about Dilip Kumar’s stardom in its versatility, it also prepared fans for the one role that continues to draw automatic recall when you think Dilip Kumar. The decade started with K. Asif’ s epic “Mughal-e-Azam” for Dilip Kumar, after the successful “Kohinoor” the same year. The film became the highest grossing Hindi film of all time upon release.

After the success of “Gunga Jumna” in 1961, Dilip Kumar would again essay a dual role of a very different mood in “Ram Aur Shyam” (1967). His other memorable roles in the decade were “Aadmi” and “Sunghursh” (1968).

He started out in the seventies with “Gopi” (1970). The sixties and the seventies, however, saw the actor slowdown in terms of solo releases. The advent of Rajesh Khanna’s brand of romance in the late sixties, and Amitabh Bachchan’s Angry Young Man in the mid-seventies, changed Bollywood trends. The great socials of the fifties and the sixties seemed to be on the wane. Dilip Kumar decided to take a break in 1976, after “Bairag”.

He would come back, of course, in Manoj Kumar’s 1981 release “Kranti”. The film was a multi-starrer, Bollywood’ chosen genre of the eighties, and Dilip Kumar found ready takers in such lavishly-mounted productions that needed multiple heroes across age groups. He was notably seen in the Subhash Ghai multistarrers “Vidhaata” (1982) and “Karma” (1986) as well as “Saudagar” in 1991. Two-hero or multi-hero projects as “Shakti” (1982), “Mazdoor” (1983), “Mashaal” (1984) and “Duniya” (1984) mark his last phase as an actor, one that culminated with “Qila” in 1998.

The five decades of acting is balanced by the irony that Dilip Kumar never released a film as director. In his lifetime, he is said to have been involved with direction twice. He is said to have directed the 1966 drama “Dil Diya Dard Liya” along with the officially-mentioned helmer, Abdul Rashid Kardar, though he isn’t credited as a director for the project. Decades later, he would launch the self-starring “Kalinga”, with Jackie Shroff, Meenakshi Sheshadri and Amitoj Mann. Some say the film was shot, though it never saw light of day.

For a man known to take an active interest in all departments of some of the biggest projects of his heydays, it remains a mystery why Dilip Kumar lost interest in releasing “Kalinga”. Perhaps the phenomenon, one of 12 children born to a Peshawari fruit merchant, knew when to go cold on a bad business prospect.

ALSO READ-Cinematic legend Dilip Kumar passes away

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Cinematic legend Dilip Kumar passes away

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday offered his condolences over the demise of veteran actor Dilip Kumar…reports Asian Lite News.

Of course, it’s an end to a fruitful era of Indian Cinema. Veteran Bollywood actor Mohammed Yusuf Khan, world-famous as Dilip Kumar, passed away here in the early hours of Wednesday, his family and aides said.

“With a heavy heart and profound grief, I announce the passing away of our beloved Dilip Saab a few minutes ago. We are from God and to Him we return,” said the thespian’s longtime aide Faisal Farooqui in a tweet.

Dilip Kumar had been admitted to the P.D. Hinduja Hospital on June 30 for a variety of age-related health issues. His wife Saira Banu Khan had earlier tweeted about his improving medical condition. But that was a shortlived glimmer of hope.

Modi remembers the cinematic legend

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday offered his condolences over the demise of veteran actor Dilip Kumar.

Modi said Dilip Kumar will be remembered as a “cinematic legend” and his death is a loss to the cultural world.

“Dilip Kumar Ji will be remembered as a cinematic legend. He was blessed with unparalleled brilliance, due to which audiences across generations were enthralled. His passing away is a loss to our cultural world. Condolences to his family, friends and innumerable admirers. RIP,” the Prime Minister said in a tweet.

Dilip Kumar breathed his last on Wednesday morning due to age-related illness.

He was 98. He died at the private Hinduja Hospital where he had been admitted for certain breathing issues.

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Ranveer becomes an all- rounder in the industry

My single-mindedness and determination eventually paid off and my dream became my reality…says Ranveer.

Bollywood star, youth icon, fashion icon, entrepreneur and actor. It’s taken Ranveer Singh just over a decade to tick all those boxes and establish himself as an entertainment super brand who promises a maverick surprise, every time he hits the public gaze, on or off the screen.

Ranveer’s success as a celebrity lies in his ability to balance two very different aspects of being a new-age Bollywood star. He is equally at home cutting an impromptu eccentric picture — mostly highlighted by his irreverent sartorial choices for the media glare — as he is while showcasing well-prepared perfection while living his protagonist in films such as “Bajirao-Mastani”, “Padmaavat” and “Gully Boy”.

Ranveer would tell you it is important for him to draw from life’s experiences, in order to take his on-screen roles to the point of authenticity.

“For each different character, one has to tap into one’s own bank of experiences to make the portrayal truthful, visceral and honest. I deeply empathise with the underdog characters that I have played because I have been through a similar journey in my own life,” says the actor.

He finds a special connect with Murad, his character in “Gully Boy”, as well as former Indian cricket captain Kapil Dev in the upcoming “83”. For Ranveer, playing Kapil, who captained an underdog team to India’s first-ever World Cup win in 1983, was about acting out a historic moment of triumph against all odds.

“There is a dialogue in ‘Gully Boy’ that broadly translates from Hindi to, ‘I refuse to change my dreams to match my reality, I will change my reality to match my dreams’. I have felt this sentiment deep down in my soul. When these characters have to prove themselves against all odds, I can relate to that struggle at a very profound level. In ‘Gully Boy’, Murad achieves the impossible. In ’83’, Kapil’s devils achieve the impossible. I can lend truth to these roles because I’ve been there in my own journey. I feel their disillusionment, I feel their anger, their frustration, I feel their grit, all in a very intense way because I’ve been through it myself. I’ve felt it for real,” he asserts.

Ranveer Singh arrived in Bollywood with the 2010 hit “Band Baaja Baaraat”, and by 2013 he had established his credentials as one of Hindi mainstream’s most exciting new-gen stars, playing a modernday ‘desi’ Romeo in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s superhit romantic tragedy “Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram-Leela” opposite Deepika Padukone. If Ranveer’s career has only moved upwards since then, he can afford to look back at his struggling years with a note of contentment.

Ranveer Singh

“At different points and in several instances during my struggling years, I felt like there was no hope. Getting one’s foot inside the door of a largely exclusive entertainment industry seemed unachievable. But I persisted. You could say I was both hungry and foolish. More than anything, I believed in my abilities and in my potential,” he recalls.

“Even back then, when I had nothing, the same driven, tenacious and meticulous work ethic was characteristic of my hustle. I was well aware of what a long shot it was. But I was willing to take that leap of faith. When there wasn’t a good lead in sight for long periods, the phone wouldn’t ring for months, my faith was challenged, but I debunked the idea that what I was trying to achieve was impossible. I stayed focused in the most testing of times. I almost forced the universe into making it happen for me,” says the actor.

“My single-mindedness and determination eventually paid off and my dream became my reality. Ever since, every day feels like I am living a dream,” he adds.

A decade later, having established himself firmly on solid tinsel terrain, Ranveer is clear about his biggest learning. “When young actors, especially ‘outsiders’, come up to me seeking advice on how to navigate their hustle, the first and most important thing I tell them is ‘do it for the right reasons’. Do it simply because you love performing. I urge them to not be lured towards performing arts or the entertainment business because success in this field comes with fame and money. Those are transient, they are frills — just trappings. So, I say, ‘be true to your craft and do it for the love of and for the joy of performing’,” says Ranveer.

“Another thing I learned along the way, is that authenticity has the most resonance. If you try being something that you are inherently not, you are doing a disservice to yourself. If you stay true to who you are, if you lose the fear of being judged, only then will you vibrate at a high frequency. ‘You do you’, I tell them. Be original, be your unique self. And another important thing I’ve learned is to keep taking risks. The bigger the risk, the bigger the reward. You may falter during that process, but I believe that there are no failures in life, there are only lessons,” he adds.

Ranveer acknowledges the importance of getting the right break, and the fact that it can often become the defining factor for success in an unpredictable industry as showbiz, along with passion and hard work.

“One can have the passion and grit and can even prepare endlessly for the moment that one gets to shine. But often, the missing piece of the puzzle is ‘opportunity’. My hustle was as difficult as it was because of the sheer lack of opportunities. That’s what I wanted to create for fellow dreamers. To provide the opportunity to young creators who were burning with passion. To give them a platform to showcase their talent. It is my way of giving back. It is my way of paying forward the blessings I have received. It is my way of showing gratitude to the universe,” concludes Ranveer, who is part of a new campaign for Adidas.

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Actor Amit Sadh leaves social media

In a long note, the actor said that in these tough times of pandemic, he doesn’t feel right about spamming people with trivial posts…reports Asian Lite News.

Celebrities have habit of quitting social media frequently. Actor Amit Sadh on Wednesday uploaded what will possibly be his last post on Instagram. In the post, he informed fans that he is leaving social media for good.

In a long note, the actor said that in these tough times of pandemic, he doesn’t feel right about spamming people with trivial posts.

“I am going offline. The recent events have made me reflect on whether I should be posting my pictures and reels. Especially when my city Mumbai and the entire state is under strict Covid restrictions, the whole country is going through a difficult time. I believe my post and reels of gym sessions, the silly things I do, will not heal or entertain anyone. This is not a criticism to anyone. I personally feel the best way to be sensitive about the situation is to pray and hope for the things to get better,” he wrote in the post.

In his post he also urged people to help those who are in need, especially daily wagers.

Amit ended his three-para post by thanking fans and assuring them that he is not abandoning them. The actor also requested all his fans to take care of themselves, help the needy, give people salaries on time and be safe.

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