Deepa Mehta: Fire Starter

 The director Deepa Mehta won a lifetime achievement award at the Singapore International Film Festival and she chose her star from Fire (1996), actor and direc­tor Nandita Das, to give it away. Mehta was there with her long-time partner and pro­ducer David Hamilton, her photographer brother Dilip Mehta, and her distributor friend Hussain Amarshi. Much fun was had, especially at the viewing of Fire together.

Akshaye Khanna: Sensational Song

It’s an Arabic song by Bahrain rapper Flipperachi and it has caught the imagination of Indian audiences with its beat. It is another matter that the song, ‘FA9LA’ in the new movie Dhurandhar, is inaccurate to play as the soundtrack to a Baloch wedding. Added to that is Akshaye Khanna doing a Vinod Khanna step to it, and it is a viral sensation, much like ‘Jamal Kudu’ was for the film Animal in 2023.

Kriti Sanon’s Mukti

Kriti Sanon is winning acclaim for her portrayal of Mukti in Tere Ishk Mein. But it wasn’t an easy character to play. “There was often a conflict between what she said and what she felt,” Sanon says, call­ing Mukti a layered character. “It was all in Aanand (L Rai) Sir’s head,” she says of the film’s director. “She means well, has a pure heart, and is neither black nor white. Even when Shankar (the character played by Dhanush in the film) is burning down her house, her first thought is to go hug him, not prevent him, but to reassure him,” she adds. She didn’t like her character initially when she read the script, but once she understood Mukti, she didn’t judge her. “On another note, I am glad flawed female characters are being written, not Ms Goody Two Shoes,” Sanon says.