Shreya’s Season

Season One of Prime Video’s Bandish Bandits released during the lockdown. Yet Shreya Chaudhry’s polished performance was appreciated. Four years on, Chaudhry is the breakout star of the second season, wearing her vulnerability like armour. As the social media star turns into a serious music stu­dent, Chaudhry’s journey as Tamanna Sharma on the show mirrors her own. “There are days when I am under confident, insecure, but that is the life of an artist,” she says of the long periods of unemployment punctuated by hectic work. Chaudhry was in Boman Irani’s directorial debut, The Mehta Boys, last year. She isn’t daunted by fallow periods, and does acting workshops, dance classes and boxing while waiting for the scripts she wants. “I’ve found a sense of belonging in my craft and it helps me cut out a lot of the noise.”

Salman’s ‘Sikandar’

Salman Khan fans will be happy to know that he is now in the midst of shooting the last schedule of his Eid release, ‘Sikandar’, in Mumbai and Hyderabad. The actor has been plagued with death threats from Lawrence Bishnoi and bad behaviour from Big Boss inmates so the filming break must be a relief.

The Boss of ‘Bokshi’

Bhargav Saikia’s horror film, ‘Bokshi’, set in Sikkim, based on a fictional tribe with an invented language, is a film of the moment. The horror genre is resonating with audiences, and Saikia’s settings, a boarding school (like his own Assam Valley School in Tezpur) and a sacred forest grove in Sikkim, give it an authentic feel. ‘Bokshi’ goes to the Rotterdam International Festival, and Saikia couldn’t be prouder. Saikia says his region is unrepresented in Indian cinema, and it is “my duty to repre­sent it well,” he adds.

Bhargav SaikiaBollywoodcinemaSalman KhanShreya Chaudhry