So working after Season One, what’s your experience like working on a very important show? Did you learn anything different? Do you feel any more pressure for the second season?
Yeah, definitely, I feel like when you start a project, when you start a show, there’s no way to know how it’s going to be received. There’s no way to know what it’s going to look like when you put it all together. It’s like you’re in a bubble, meaning that everyone that’s working on the show thinks it’s great, but who knows how it’s going to be received.
We knew we were doing something important. We knew that we wanted to make something with a lot of integrity. But to have it released to the world, and have them receive it in the way that they have, to have everyone talk about how timely the show is… we definitely didn’t see all of that coming. I think for Season Two, there’s a sense, at least for me, of a new-found responsibility to get the story right. To make sure that we’re giving, you know, our audience what they have come to know and love about the show. And stay consistent with that.
And yeah, it does feel like a little more pressure, especially with all the awards the show has received. It’s like guys, we got to do that again.
What do you think is the worst aspect of what Moira has to go through in Gilead?
To be honest, I think coming from the perspective of my character, one of the things that is obviously horrible is the rape. But I think for Moira, and for people, women who are gay, it is an affront that is indescribable and just the worst thing that could ever happen to you. To be violated in that way. Any woman, but of course, a women who doesn’t even have intercourse with men by choice, I think it’s indescribably horrible. That’s what I feel is the most horrible thing for Moira to go through.
Moira still picks Jezebels over the colonies at some point. What are your thoughts on that decision?
I think that it’s this dichotomy of what’s the lesser evil? And Moira knows for a fact that if she goes to the colonies she will die. She’s weighing going to the colonies, and you know, doing drugs every day, and drinking alcohol and making herself completely numb to it all.
In that moment she had to make a decision and, thank God she did because now she’s in Toronto.
Can we expect Moira to be in Canada in Season Two?
Yes, Moira’s going to be there in Season Two. I’ll tell you that much. She’s reunited with Luke. And they have to kind of form this makeshift family, and move to a place in Canada called Little America.
She gets a job at the embassy because she was so affected by that moment when she first got into Canada and how much the embassy helped her.
So she has in turn taken that and is helping refugees in the refugee center.
And when you think about Moira being a refugee, you think about how wonderful that is. She’s escaped, and she’s in this new place. But, as a refugee, it’s also terrible because you don’t know the land. You’re not with your people. And it’s this rollercoaster that I think we’re going to see with her, the good and the bad of being a refugee.
From misogyny to refugees, this show has a never ending list of important topics. You’ve been in another show that was also packed with very important subjects. The choices you make as an actress, are they politically motivated?
You know, I wish that I could sit here and tell you yes. But I think for me as an actor, the thing that pulls me toward projects is the heart of the character. First and foremost, before the project, and of course the project is very important itself. But for me, in terms of what attracts me to something, is the heart of the character. And what their essence is, what they’re fighting for. And just from reading something, I say to myself, do I feel I can bring that person to life?
And if the answer is no, it’s going to be too hard of a challenge then I don’t want to do that because I feel like it’s a disservice to the actress could do a really good job. But I’ve been really, really lucky in terms of the projects that I’ve been involved in, that as you say, have been on the forefront of people’s conscientiousness.
A major theme of the show is survival. What do you think drives Moira? How does she find the strength to go, to escape? And how do you bring life to the character?
We always talk about nature versus nurture. And I think Moira’s nature is a person that’s just a bull dog. Like she’s a tough person, she’s got that ingrained in her.
In the scene, where she’s at Jezebel’s and she’s been broken and has the conversation with June, I think she comes back to herself in that moment, in that conversation with her best friend. June is able to say, basically where are you, where have you gone? This is not you. Don’t let the bad people grind you down.
And I think in that moment she comes back to herself and she realises, oh, I’m not a victim, or I don’t have to be a victim.
I can be proactive and I can figure out how to get out of here.
For me, in terms of bringing life to the character, I think a lot of that has to do with all the things that make her a minority. She’s black, she’s gay, she’s a woman. Me being all of those things in my life as Samira, I can tell you that definitely influences the way that I move through the world. So I think that’s one of the things that I can point to.
This is a very dark show but the theme of empowerment is also very present. Do you feel that there is a lot of hope in this story?
Honestly, in the last episode of the first season, doing the escape scene we had drones following me. I was like, this is awesome. It’s was a moment of almost too much joy to even take because Moira’s escaped to Canada. It is a story of survival. It is a story of perseverance. And I think that a lot of times people focus on how dark the show is but the message that we want to keep beating, the under beat of the whole show, is this message of hope.
Were you proud or surprised when you saw the pictures of people wearing Handmaid’s costumes at the Women’s March? What was your feeling when you saw that?
It was definitely surprising, in the best way possible. You know when you’re working on something, whatever it is, you always hope that it impacts whoever’s going to watch it. Whether that’s one person or a bunch of people. You want them to have a conversation they wouldn’t have had otherwise. I want people to think about something they wouldn’t have thought about without seeing the project.
So to see that, and to see how the show has impacted the whole world, and also Hillary Clinton quoted the show… all of those things are very overwhelming and also very humbling to know that something that you’re doing is out there in people’s consciousness.
You’ve been in shows that are very female-driven. Do you think placing women behind the camera as well as in front of the camera makes television more relevant and actually more interesting?
Yes, I’ve been really blessed to be on The Handmaid’s Tale and Orange is the New Black, to be surrounded by so many women in power… the women in the cast, the directors. Even in The Handmaid’s Tale last season, every single director we had was a woman, except for one.
I do feel really naive and lucky to be in this position because I haven’t been surrounded by a bunch of men. And I do think that is completely a reflection of the time that I am working in. You know, thank God that I am working in this time. I think it’s our job really as artists to reflect the time that we are living in so that people can look back and say that was going on.
(Watch Handmaid’s Tale Season 2 every Monday at 10 pm on AXN.)
Writer: Team Viva
Courtesy: The Pioneer
I did cheat in my Economics exams. I had an invigilator who let the entire class cheat. I am not proud of that,” says actor Emraan Hashmi with great candour. He is in the capital to promote his film, Why Cheat India, and unlike many from the fraternity who prefer to be politically correct, the 39-year-old’s no-holds-barred discussion is certainly welcome. Nothing is off limits, whether it is nepotism or his child’s battle with illness or even a political gaffe (deliberate or otherwise about one ‘Modi’ being the biggest cheater, which he later clarified as being Nirav) that he made at a recent press conference.
“I don’t mince words. Over the course of the year, I have learnt so much about what is wrong with education in the country that it enrages me. So much can be done and should have been done but is not being attended to,” he says and goes on to talk about how only a minuscule amount of the GDP, about 2-3 per cent, is being ploughed back into education as compared to other countries where it is as high as 25 per cent. He elaborates, “When you do not have enough money to pump into the education sector, you don’t get qualified teachers or good schools. Then at the University level, there are not enough seats and the justification that is given is that unless you get a 98 per cent you cannot get a seat in college. Even if you are a 90 per cent holder, you will still be a failure. But the reason is that there are not enough seats,” he says. It was while researching for the movie that he learnt how the cheating mafia in different states is eroding and eating the system. “As it is, there is 60 per cent reservation — 50 per cent for the lower caste and 10 per cent for the economically weak upper caste. Of the minuscule per cent left, the cheating mafia is spreading its net over that too. So where do the deserving students go? The systems promises that you can be what you want to be. If you work hard, you will get dividends. But you see jobless people and kids committing suicide,” says the actor.
It is not as if he is just critical. Emraan does have ideas on a system that could be more holistic and inclusive and enable a child to develop to his full potential. “Universities might move out of the brick and mortar building. They are now in the internet as one can get more information there rather than sitting for eight hours in the class where you are told facts that are of no use. Everything is a click away. In the school and college of the future, you can learn from the comfort of your home. And at the physical building, there can be case studies, projects and discussions rather than sitting like a robot in a classroom. Children need to learn things that have real world application — communication skills, emotions, responsibility, discipline, managing your mind that comes in the domain of spirituality. Do you know the average depression age is 15? It is alarming,” says the actor.
There is no hint of the swagger that was common in his earlier movies. Emraan comes across as an ordinary person who just happens to work on the big screen. Talking about his course of action, he elaborates further and says, “It is not necessary that I will only do socially-relevant films. But there is essentially a departure from the kind of things that I was doing. I have changed as an actor during the past 18 years that I have been in the industry because of life experiences, maturity and the evolution of my craft. From 10 kisses in a film, I am down to one and that is some progress,” he laughs hinting at the moniker of ‘kissing star” on account of the content of his films like Murder, Aashiq Banaya Aapne and more.
But there has been an attempt to break out of that image, he believes, successfully. “Once you do another genre, it is a step in the right direction. I couldn’t do that for the rest of my life. A 45-year-old snogging with a 20 something. How sick is that? Of course, I couldn’t do it overnight for it is a gradual process,” says the actor dressed in a tan jacket and matching shoes paired with jeans and black-rimmed glasses.
Dibakar Banerjee’s Shanghai was one of the seminal movies that set him on the path that he is trying to chart out. “It gave me what 10 blockbusters couldn’t even though it was not a hit. It gave me a perspective that I could play a characters in films rather than the star,” which was a revelation to him as at that point. He goes on to explain the difference between the two. “A star means that you change and adapt the script to suit your star quotient but an actor is someone who adapts to fit into the script. That is what the film did and it paid huge dividends. A huge section of the cinema-going audience, which was slightly more evolved, felt that he can act.”
The winds of change had started blowing and have come to a head. “There is a change in content which is helping everyone as one can engage with a lot more creative material than was done 10 years ago. You couldn’t have made Why Cheat India 10 years back because either it would not have been made or it would not be a box office success,” he says.
He feels that the film is like starting afresh even if it does not make big money. “I know that it will build on the fresh different persona of myself,” he says.
Not just in himself, he also wants a change in the way films are classified. “I firmly believe that films should not be slotted on the basis of budget but on the basis of the idea. The big films should be the ones which have the bigger ideas. This year a lot of big budget films did not do well,” he says, driving home the point.
The change is also evident in him turning producer with the film. “I have seen the process from its infancy, starting with the story, script, screenplay right to marketing. While it does not help in the craft of acting, it does give you a bird’s eye view of where the film is going. If it starts raining then we need to figure out how to finish the shoot within a given time. You are a part of the entire decision-making process and you are not limited to your performance on screen,” he says.
Having started the process, he has decided to start producing more films. Next one up is Father’s Day, which is starting in May, and another by the end of this year. He will also be seen in Body, directed by Jeethu Joseph, the director of Malayalam Drishyam, which co stars Rishi Kapoor and two fresh faces. He will also be seen in Bard of Blood, a Netflix show which should be out in August. It is based on on a book of the same name. “It is about an English literature teacher who teaches Shakespeare and is an ex spy. He is thrown back into the battlefield and goes to Balochistan to rescue agents,” he divulges.
Talking of web content, he agrees, “There is better content as the audience has evolved because of the many diverse influences. This keeps us on our toes and makes us test our creativity because we cannot take the audience for granted. There are a lot more options including cinema, OTT platforms, TV and YouTube. It has become a consumers’ market now. Films with stars crashed last year as mediocre content and shoddy stories don’t work,” he says.
For making better content and characters that are more evolved involves a lot more research than goes into playing a lover boy or an action hero. For Why Cheat India, he researched a lot as it factually based on a system. “I spoke on the phone to a lot of people who are a part of the cheating mafia to understand how it works and is organised. They refused to identify themselves but I tried to understand their take on education and if they are looking for a justification for doing what they were doing. I had to completely immerse myself,” he says.
He goes on to add that the tonality of the film is very realistic. “In that sense, it is a departure from my earlier work. It is like you have placed a camera in a home in Lucknow or in a college where you see these characters come alive. We will pull you into this world and hopefully teach you how cheating works,” he says.
Coming back to the film, it ran into trouble with its initial name of Cheat India. “I don’t look for logic. The Censor Board looks at the negative connotation without looking at the overall context of the movie and the perspective it has on scams and cheating. It is in a pathetic state. I often call it the ‘senseless censor board’”, he says.
Arguing his case further, he points to a film like Simmba which had a UA certification. “Children can watch this film which talks about rape and putting cocaine in a school child’s bag with parental supervision. A 13-year-old might understand it but a seven-year-old might not. Why can’t they make it more elaborate and change it with more grades,” he says, shrugs and adds, “But I don’t know if it is effective because what is PG 13 or PG 15 by their logic might not work.”
Talking about children, one can’t help but talk about Emraan’s boy who battled and successfully overcame cancer. “It is very tough. It is more palatable to hear that you have an illness but when you hear that a three year 10 month-old-kid has that illness, it shatters you,” he says. While they battled cancer as a family, there was learning involved. “It is close to five years. We lied to him as we had to take him to the hospital. We realised only when we took him for treatment to Canada that we should have told him that there is a monster in his body and that we need to fight it. We could have used that narrative and added a philosophical aspect to it,” he says. Emraan wrote a book, Kiss of Life about how to fight the disease effectively which he hopes would help anyone fighting cancer.
Talking of his child also brings us to the question of nepotism in the industry. He agrees that he would not have been in the industry had he not been related to Mahesh Bhatt. “On the flip side, you still have to work hard. The family can’t make you work as only the audience can. It is their acceptance that governs if you will be a star or you will be chucked out. It is that which makes or breaks you. On the other hand people expect a lot from actors who have successful fathers and if they can’t match up, they are overshadowed by legacy,” he says.
Emraan acted in about 20-25 advertisements as a child for brands like Goodnight Rasna, Bournvita and more in the eighties. “I was trying to get hold of the material to put on my website but it was all damaged. I got pushed into acting later and took it as a summer job and things happened. I was an accidental actor!” he says with a laugh and walks off.
(The film releases on January 18.)
Writer: Saimi Sattar
Courtesy: The Pioneer
Richa’s 12 avatars for Shakeela
Actress Richa Chadha will be featured in 12 different avatars, as Shakeela makers will soon launch a first-of-its-kind 90s pulp movies-inspired calendar. For the first time a film will have a dedicated calendar being launched starring it’s central character. It will have Richa posing in posters inspired by genre of the cheesiest, quirkiest pulp films of the 90s which would be equally hilarious and yet will be induced with a great deal of thought as an homage to the genre. Richa said, “Even though our film is in post-production, we wanted to do something special. The team thought we should pay this homage to Shakeela and the films that she has been a part of. I hope people find the humour in this calendar.”
‘I was fortunate to get good songs and collaborate with amazing choreographers to create memorable songs which are still loved and enjoyed so much. There is no substitute to hard work. To succeed, two per cent is genius and 98 per cent is hard work. I have tried to give my best in every role.’
—Madhuri Dixit Nene
The title of forthcoming film Cheat India has been changed to Why Cheat India after the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) expressed concern over it, the makers have said.
A statement issued on behalf of the film’s producers and Emraan Hashmi Films read, “The CBFC had concerns about the title Cheat India. We had an extensive conversation with the Examining Committee and Revising Committee regarding the proposed change as the film has been in public domain for a year, and more importantly, because the theatrical teaser, trailer and television promos had already been certified with the original title.”
The film releases January 18.
I like chaos: Christian
Academy award-winning actor Christian Bale, who is known for undergoing physical transformations for his performances, says he likes chaos.
He has delivered on demanding performances — whether it was his skeletal frame in The Mechanist or the Herculean built in The Dark Knight Rises, the mentally exhausting character of a sadistic psychopath and a deranged serial killer in American Psycho or as Dick Cheney in Vice, where he has managed to bulk up and try prosthetics. Asked if there is anything else he aspires to do, Bale said, “I have never had a plan or a strategy. I like chaos. So, I wait to see what happens next.”
Writer: Team Viva
Courtesy: The Pioneer
Actor Akshaye Khanna, who plays a crucial role in the movie, The Accidental Prime Minister, sees the reactions as a debate and not a controversy.
Asked about the response to the trailer and the controversy around it, Khanna said, “This is the first time that a film is made on a politician of recent times, taking the real name, and (showcasing) all the real incidents that are very much in the public domain and vividly remembered by the people. Of course, people will have their opinion and they must express them in all the mediums. I do not think these events as controversy. We are living in a democratic country.”
‘Alia (Bhatt) has evolved as a person far beyond her age. She is on her way to greatness. She was really brilliant in Raazi. I have been an admirer of her work and craft ever since Highway. I did some ads with her before and she has lovely energy. But after working with her on, Gully Boy, I realised what a powerhouse of talent she is.’
—Ranveer Singh
Actor Arjun Kapoor is taking horse riding lessons to prep for his forthcoming period drama Panipat and says the process of learning has been therapeutic and empowering.
Arjun posted on social media, “New year, new learnings… so the last whole month of 2018 went in enjoying the company of an animal, mother nature and sunrises… as I gear up to restart shooting for Panipat, I feel privileged to be able to learn this beautiful art of becoming one with this most glorious animal.”
‘Want to create a song for everyone’
Latin Grammy Award-winner J Balvin, who reached global popularity with the number Mi Gente, says he wanted to create a song for everyone and at the same time wanted to bring Latin culture to a wider audience.
Talking about Mi Gente which resonated among many, Balvin said, “First-off, I will be forever grateful to Willy William, for creating a beat that I instantly connected with and I knew would captivate the world.”
The X hitmaker added that he wanted to create “a song for everyone. A song everyone in the world could vibe with and dance to, and in the process bringing Latin music and Latin culture to a wider audience.”
Writer: Team Viva
Source: The Pioneer
The year of UK’s female pop stars
Female pop stars have seen their popularity rocket in comparison with their male counterparts, according to analysis of time spent in the UK Top 40 chart this year. Data analysis by the Press Association found that five of the top 10 most popular acts of 2018 were all female; they racked up a total of 310 weeks on the chart versus the 328 weeks achieved by men.
According to Press Association, in 2017 the figure was just 226 weeks for female artists, with 386 weeks for men. The 2018 list is topped by the Canadian rapper Drake; he had a total of 102 weeks on the chart for 13 hits. The female rapper Cardi B came second, and British-Kosovan pop singer Dua Lipa third, while Jess Glynne, Ariana Grande and Anne-Marie all featured in the top 10.
The data is slightly complicated by the fact that some of the music tracks on which the women performed were produced by men: Dua Lipa’s hit “One Kiss” was made in collaboration with Calvin Harris, so both would be credited in terms of chart weeks; “Electricity” was produced by the duo Silk City; 22 of Jess Glynne’s weeks on the chart were from her track with Rudimental and Macklemore, “These Days”; and Anne-Marie’s “Friends” was a hit with the EDM producer Marshmello.
Cardi B also had three charting tracks as a guest star to male acts: “Taki Taki” with DJ Snake alongside Selena Gomez and Ozuna, “Girls Like You” with Maroon 5, and “Finesse” with Bruno Mars. But the New York rapper had another three hits under her own name, plus a guest spot for Rita Ora on the controversial track “Girls”.
‘Leonard Cohen’s music moving’
Whenever I hear it, it always makes me feel better,” said the prince from Jean-Marie Leclair’s Scylla et Glaucus, an 18th-century opera about malignant rage and the summoning of demons to destroy a rival. “It is so incredibly rhythmic, it is incredibly joyful and exciting … do you know those bits of music that put a spring in your step again when you’re feeling a little bit down.”
The rarely performed opera, as well as the songs of Leonard Cohen and Russian Orthodox liturgical music, have been revealed as the private musical choices of Prince Charles on a special edition of Radio 3’s long-running show Private Passions.
Marking Charles’s 70th year, the hour-long special features the prince talking about his musical passions and the importance of arts and music education. When asked how he felt about the decline of music education — which the presenter, Michael Berkeley, said was at significant risk of disappearing in state schools — the prince said: “I’m one of those people who believes in the importance of arts education and music education in schools.
“Apart from anything else, I think people forget — or may not realise — what an enormous contribution the creative arts make to the whole economy. It’s immense. So we slightly shoot ourselves in the feet if we ignore it altogether. When you go to schools which still have it [music education], it is wonderful to see the enthusiasm on the part of the children in their orchestras.”
U2 stars busk for the homeless
Bono has joined The Edge at the annual Christmas Eve charity busking session outside the Gaiety theatre in Dublin, performing along with a host of other famous Irish musicians in aid of the city’s homeless. The event took place in support of the Simon Community, a homelessness charity that helps people who are homeless or at risk of becoming so. It was Bono’s first appearance at the charity gig in three years, and his seventh overall.
The U2 members serenaded onlookers with a song from their latest album, as well as two Christmas carols — O Holy Night and O Night Divine — before they were joined by an ensemble to sing Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), a rock song originally sung by Darlene Love in 1963. Bono told the crowd: “As the buckets go around, fill them with silver, fill them with hope — [it’s] the season of hope.”
Crowds had gathered around a makeshift stage on Grafton Street. Other performers included organiser Glen Hansard, Damien Rice, Danny O’Reilly, Imelda May, Luke Clerkin, Mundy and Róisín O.
Writer and Courtesy: The Pioneer
After combining to defeat Vijayanagara in 1565, the Deccan sultanates of Bijapur, Ahmadnagar, Golconda and Bidar had fallen apart. Though Akbar, who would live until 1605, had significantly expanded the Mughal empire, he was headquartered too far to the north, in Delhi or Agra, to think of running the southern peninsula.
While different native chiefs — sultans or nayakas — controlled pieces of the southern hinterland, admirals and priests of a small European country, Portugal, had long established themselves in pockets on both coasts. Leading a four-ship fleet armed with cannon, Vasco da Gama had landed on the Malayali shore 102 years before the 17th century arrived. His voyage taking more than nine months, he arrived in Kozhikode on May 20, 1498.
Until then no one had sailed all the way from Europe to India. A century and 10 years later, in 1608, the Dutch arrived at Pulicat on the east coast. In 1620, a Danish fleet landed in Tranquebar (Tharangambadi), also on the east coast, a good deal south of Pulicat. The British and the French were not far behind.
If horses — the sound of their hooves and the dust they kicked up — announced the outside world to northern India, slowly expanding sails on the horizon were thus alerting coastal South Indians to a visit by strangers.
Sponsored by monarchs, these ships from Europe brought traders who established ‘factories’ in several coastal places with apparent ease. Incoming and outgoing merchandise was stored in these ‘factories’ where a fort, too, was usually built, inside which European and Indian retainers protected their European masters and their goods. In the initial decades, South Indian merchants entering the fort dealt on equal terms with their European counterparts.
When Vasco da Gama landed on Kerala’s coast, Kozhikode (Calicut) had a strong ruler, the Zamorin, with whom the Portuguese trader-explorer had to negotiate. A fair distance inland, northeast of Kozhikode, lay Hampi, capital of a Vijayanagara Empire then at its zenith. Its umbrella covered large portions of what we think of today as Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. As the historian Burton Stein would put it:
Whether the Vijayanagara rulers are to be regarded as essentially Kannadigas or Telugus or whether they are to be regarded as both from the very beginning, the territorial scope of their power included the entire southern peninsula.
Ascending the throne 11 years after da Gama’s landing, Krishnadevaraya, Vijayanagara’s greatest emperor, reigning from 1509 to 1529 and a poet in Telugu, was in fact of Tulu origin.
After Vijayanagara’s defeat, the Dutch, Danish, British and French traders wishing to set up a ‘factory’ or fort in South India had to obtain permission from a nayaka or a surviving Deccan sultan.
Places in the Tamil country like Trichy (Tiruchirappalli), Thanjavur (Tanjore) and Madurai (Madura) were under separate nayaka dynasties, mostly of Telugu origin, whose entry into these Tamil territories in the 14th and 15th centuries had been accompanied by a significant southward migration of Telugu-speaking agrarian castes.
Whether characterised as viceroyalties or kingdoms, the nayaka territories in South India that followed the Vijayanagara decline saw the construction of stone walls, thick forts, market towns and temples. As the fortification implies, the period also saw numerous destructive battles. In fact, fighting in the nayaka period was ‘more or less incessant’.
Some wars were on a truly large scale. The Jesuit Manuel Barradas, who travelled in parts of the South at the beginning of the 17th century and noticed, close to the city of Thanjavur, shade-giving trees as well as strong walls and a moat, wrote of a war occurring in the Trichy region in 1616 or 1617 which according to him was fought by ‘as many as a million soldiers’. Barradas may have exaggerated, but war among even a 10th of that number would have consumed a great quantity of blood and grain.
The nayakas of Thanjavur, Madurai and Gingee were evidently among those involved in this immense land war, as also the Portuguese, who seem to have assisted one side, and the Dutch (possibly joined by recruits from Jaffna in Sri Lanka), who helped the other.
The picture one gets of post-Vijayanagara South India is of power vacuums and struggles for supremacy involving natives but also outsiders. We have scant information on conflicts in the first quarter of the17th century. The soldiers’ castes or ethnicities are not known. European mercenaries, ‘Turks’ (probably Muslims from the Deccan sultanates) and even Abyssinians feature in some accounts, but most soldiers would have come from within the region.
From the 16th century, cannons (first brought into India by the Turks) were beginning to be cast in South Indian foundries, at times with the aid of a European mercenary, but these native products were of uncertain quality. Maintaining war elephants (including some imported from Burma and Thailand) and buying warhorses from Arabia was a huge expense, as was putting together a large infantry and cavalry.
The nayaka period also saw a steady cultural output in poetry, painting and sculpture, often explicitly erotic, at times witty, at other times merely crass. In some instances, making love and making war were seen as two essential parts of a ruler’s dharma, even though the ruler himself did not enter the battlefield.
Feeding Brahmins en masse was viewed as the ruler’s duty, but Brahmins were not central to the installation of the nayaka rulers or viceroys, who in most cases were descendants of Telugu-speaking warriors from peasant castes proud of their Sudra origin. Yet peasants and artisans did not seem to be their ruler’s first concern. The courtesan’s smile interested him more than the contentment of the peasant’s wife or the pride of the artisan’s mother.
Rivalries between South Indian chiefs and between European companies led to battles where one Indo–European alliance clashed against another brown-white alliance. These alliances shifted from year to year, or even week to week. After elimination and sifting, two European powers, the French and the British, would eventually remain to fight it out, in association with native chiefs.
Excerpted with permission from the publisher of the book, Modern South India: A History from the 17th Century to Our Times, published by Aleph Book Company, and priced at Rs 799
Writer: Excerpt
Source: The pioneer
Girl’s facial swelling caused by a leech
A six-year-old girl brought to a Vietnam hospital with swelling in her nose turned out to have a leech living inside her face. A video filmed at Bat Xat General Hospital in Lao Cai province shows a doctor using tweezers to pull a still-squirming leech out of the girl’s nasal cavity. The doctor said the leech was likely smaller when it found its way into the girl’s nose and grew over the course of more than a month. The girl is not expected to suffer any long-term medical issues from the incident.
Kite surfer’s crash with shark caught on video
A professional kite surfer collided with a shark off the Dominican Republic coast and the moment was caught on camera. A GoPro camera captured a video of the Australian surfer Alex Soto’s unexpected shark encounter while he was in Cabarete training for the 2019 Pan American Games.
Soto said his board was headed toward the water and he saw the shark moments before the crash, but it was too late for him to avoid the predator.
The video shows Soto losing his board, but holding onto his kite as he falls into the water. “I went back to the school where I work, and I told the guys but they didn’t believe me, but I had my GoPro and I showed them the video,” Soto said.
He said he does not blame the shark, which survived the encounter. “We are invading their habitat, do not be surprised if you see any [sharks],” he said.
Same Christmas card for 50 years
A pair of Wisconsin women said this holiday season marked the 50th year of them exchanging the same Christmas cards. Jackie Gempler and Evelyn Weier said they sent each other Christmas cards 50 years ago, when they were in their 20s, and they have been resending the same cards every year since. “I just wonder how many more years we can keep it up,” Gempler said. “They’re getting kind of beat up. They look like they’re 50 years old.” The women said the cards are a testament to their lifelong friendship and the closeness they enjoyed as young women. “We were doing everything together,” Weier said.
A different pair of Wisconsin women, Bonnie Jean Klamar and Bonnie Marie Magistrelli, revealed in 2011 that they had been exchanging the same birthday card for 50 years.
Magistrelli said she originally sent the card to Klamar for her 18th birthday. The card included a poem encouraging the recipient to erase their name and return it to the sender for their next birthday, but the friends didn’t need to erase the same. “We didn’t erase the sender’s name. We just kept adding to it,” Klamar said.
a Kangaroo and goat visit australian stores
Police in Australia said a kangaroo and a goat made back-to-back visits to the same block of stores in a Victoria city. Victoria Police said a security camera outside the block of stores in Footscray captured a wayward kangaroo window-shopping on Christmas morning. “Santa wasn’t the only visitor to Footscray early this morning — it appears this sneaky marsupial decided to a do a bit of last-minute Christmas shopping,” police wrote. The kangaroo’s appearance was followed up by a Boxing Day visit from a wandering goat. Police said a goat was captured in the same area of the city and investigators are trying to find the animal’s owner.
Snowman causes sometrouble in Sacramento
A snowman drew a crowd of surprised onlookers after it was assembled in an unusual location: In front of a Sacramento Calif coffee shop. The temperature in Sacramento was well above freezing Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, making the snowman’s presence outside Old Soul Coffee more baffling in a city that doesn’t receive snowfall. A coffee shop employee who identified herself as Carissa said she had someone bring the snow down from South Lake Tahoe to give Sacramento a seasonal treat. “Just wanted to give Sacramento something they’ve never seen — some snow. Give you guys some snow, a snowman and have a little miracle on Christmas,” Carissa said.
hundreds of surfing Santas in Florida
Nearly 600 people dressed in Santa suits and other festive apparel took to the waves in Florida for an annual Christmas surfing event, organisers said. The Surfing Santas in Cocoa Beach event, which took place on Christmas Eve, featured nearly 600 people in Santa Claus suits and other Christmas-related costumes riding the Atlantic Ocean waves on long boards, short boards, boogie boards and paddle boards. George Trosset, who founded the Surfing Santas event a decade ago, estimated there were about 10,000 spectators enjoying the spectacle and Christmas music. The event raised money for the Florida Surf Museum and Grind for
Life, a cancer support organisation. Cocoa Beach Mayor Ben Malik was among those in attendance.“It’s an awesome way to start the Christmas holiday,” Malik said.
Writer: The pioneer
Source: The pioneer
The Supreme Court’s historic verdict has decriminalised homosexuality and paved the way for same-sex couples to legally cohabit and conduct their personal affairs without fear of persecution. There has been a new focus now in making the LGBTQ community more visible through cinema and the arts.
Two Hindi feature films are slated to be released in theaters early 2019 — Evening Shadows directed by Sridhar Rangayan on January 11 and Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga directed by Shelly Chopra Dhar on February 1.
While Evening Shadows starring Mona Ambegaonkar, Ananth Mahadevan and new comers Devansh Doshi and Arpit Chaudhary is a heartwarming drama highlighting the struggle by a mother to accept her gay son.
The film Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga starring Sonam Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao and Anil Kapoor is said to be a coming-of-age romantic comedy-drama. Both films seem to focus on the challenges faced by families in accepting their children who have a different love interest.
The film appears like any other regular love story, has a beautiful twist. Sonam, for the very first time will play a lesbian character in the space of mainstream cinema. The plot of the film is placed within a regular North Indian Punjabi home, where the concept of homosexuality is still taboo.
“It is a good time for Indian cinema to push boundaries and spotlight issues which have been hidden and buried till now. Bringing it to mainstream theaters for the larger audience to see the films with their families, will remove prejudices and pave way for an equal society”, said Sridhar Rangayan who is hopeful that his film Evening Shadows will make an impact on mindsets.
Filmmaker Onir, who has handled complex stories of same-sex love in his path-breaking films My Brother Nikhil, I Am and Shab said, “Post the Supreme Court ruling on IPC 377, the New Year begins with a beautiful gift to LGBTQ cinema in India. Evening Shadows will hopefully start a new episode of more such narrative in our theaters. It’s a film about acceptance and celebrating love.” It remains to be seen how cinema going audiences will react to these films.
“While Evening Shadows has won 13 audience and jury awards, and screened at more than 50 international film festivals around the world, the real test would be how mass audiences in India embrace our film”, said Rangayan who has been championing for LGBTQ cinema in India for over two decades with his films (Gulabi Aaina, Purple Skies, Breaking Free) and also organising ‘Kashish’ Mumbai’s LGBTQ film festival.
Writer and Courtesy: The Pioneer
Ariana cancels concert
Singer Ariana Grande has cancelled her New Years Eve weekend concert in Las Vegas due to health issues.
The singer wrote on social media, “Vegas, I’m currently working through some health issues and am beyond sorry I won’t be able to see you this weekend. I love you and so look forward to seeing you and making it up to you next year.”
Ariana was scheduled for performance on December 29 at the Cosmopolitan’s Chelsea Theatre —her first full performance since both the death of former boyfriend Mac Miller and her break-up with Pete Davidson.
Kher against special screening
As controversy erupted over the forthcoming film The Accidental Prime Minister, a biopic on former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, lead actor of the movie
Anupam Kher said that after certification of a film by the censor board, nobody has the right to ask for showing the film before its release.
Satyajeet Tambe Patil, President of the Maharashtra State Youth Congress, sent a letter to the producer of the film demanding a special screening before it is released. He raised objections to “incorrect presentation of the facts” in the film.
Kher, who is narrating the character of Singh, said, “It’s nobody’s right to ask us to show our film to them before releasing it. The film is based on the book (by the same title), and it is based on facts.
‘Music companies should also respect everybody. It’s a world of interdependence. At this point, I don’t plan to open any music company but yes, in my entire life, I have supported a lot of new singers…not because I wanted to become an ustad but because I felt their talent needed to be brought in front of everybody.’
—Sonu Nigam
Actress Sonam K Ahuja says she is a “huge advocate” for LGBTQI rights, and hopes to see a world without labels one day.
“I’m a huge advocate for LGBTQI. For me, it is one of the most important things that I fight for and I hope for when there is a country and a world without labels,” Sonam said.
“I’m very happy and proud that India has taken a step forward and people can live and love the way they want to love and that’s very important to me. And I think it should be vital to everybody in this world,” added the actress.
Writer and Courtesy: The Pioneer
When Salman Ali sang Karu Main Tera Sajda for the first time on the stage of Indian Idol season 10 as he auditioned for the talent hunt show, there were three speechless judges and applause all around to commend his voice that had limitless capacities. Who knew he would survive a fierce 25-week competition emerging as the winner?
Well, it hasn’t been easy even for someone who began singing at the age of seven, or so he believes. Salman, who hails from a family of professional singers, said that struggle is a part of everyone’s life and the only way out is to put your heart and soul into whatever one’s passion is.
The singer believed that everyone’s aim while entering such a show is to win. “So was mine. To win. Even though I never expected that it might come true for me, but I did all my efforts into it to make it happen. I also thank all the viewers and audience who voted for me,” he said.
When asked what has been one of the most memorable experiences while being a contestant on the reality TV show? He revealed that it was meeting the two Khans — Shah Rukh and Salman — and singing with the veteran singer Kumar Sanu that he “will cherish all his life. They joined me in my performance, liked it and wished me luck. What better a thing than that?”
While there have been numerous debates on how reality TV shows work in the real scenario and that do they even help the young aspiring artists battling to win?
Salman, who has also been a part of the reality TV show, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li’l Champs during his childhood, said, “It does mount to a tough competition where you feel that you might lose or someone else is better than what you have to offer. But the biggest thing is your resistance and determination throughout the period of struggle.”
However, reality TV talent hunt shows do help the budding artists to a bit come closer to their dreams, he felt. “It is not just about appearing on national TV and that so many people are able to watch you. It is also about how you as a person evolve. Honestly, Neha Kakkar (mam) and all the mentors have been really helpful to make me grow as a person as well as a singer.”
He talked about the rehearsals and the rigorous routine that they have to follow. “We have to rehearse over and over for one song. It’s a tough schedule but important to follow,” said he.
As more and more people are engaging themselves on social media and targeting it as a platform to showcase their talents, which medium is the easier one? Salman answered, “Definitely, it’s social media. People today have online channels to showcase their dancing, singing, and even magic talents. They don’t have to wait for a particular show on TV to showcase what they have. Though, yes it takes time to get noticed there. The competition has risen.”
The 20-year-old singer, who has been awarded with Rs 25 lakh cash prize, and a Datsun car, said that he will use the amount particularly to boost his singing career. “I am looking forward to collaborate with Vishal Dadlani (sir) as he promised one to me on the show. I want to try out my luck in singing for Bollywood films as a playback singer,” he said.
However, he will also try out “acting” in Bollywood now that he is “done with his singing,” he laughed.
Writer: Chahak Mittal
Courtesy: The Pioneer
A group of people are standing and chatting around a corner shop in Lucknow. Out of nowhere a gangsters strolls in, takes out a gun and shoots a person. Can you imagine the scene? Now place yourself in the centre of the situation. What would be your reaction? This is exactly what happened with some people in the city of Nawabs recently.
Director Bhav Dhulia’s new web series, Rangbaaz, starring Aahana Kumra and Saqib Saleem in lead roles, placed ordinary people at the centre of the action during one of the scenes. “We set it up without telling Saqib that there were people from the real public standing around. He just had to come to shoot a person. I wanted to catch the real reaction of the people but,” he laughs, “he spoilt even that. There were many re-takes and by then the people obviously understood that it was a fictional scene.”
Rangbaaz is a term, often used in parts of Uttar Pradesh, especially Kanpur and Lucknow, used for cunning or sly people. When Bhav describes his idea of a rangbaaz, he says that it is the journey and a love story of a man in his 20s who is responsible for more than 20 murders. “It is the real-life story of Shiv Prakash Shukla (Saqib’s character’s name) who was the talk of the town in the 90s. He was one of the first gangsters to be involved with the state politics and power games in the state where he was in touch with several politicians and police officers. This was unprecedented as nobody had earlier done something like that. A task force was made for the first time to catch a gangster like him. It is also a story about his transition as the 90s saw the liberalisation and globalisation in the country. It is a very fascinating period that way. Indians saw cable TV for the first time then. Things started becoming easily accessible to some extent. So it is about how he was influenced by and in turn influenced the political and liberal landscape,” says he.
Saqib, known for his roles in films like Mujhse Fraandship Karoge, Hawa Hawaai, Mere Dad ki Maruti, and more, the most recent one being Dil Junglee and Race 3, plays a gangster in the series which is set in the backdrop of politics and crime in Lucknow in the 1990s.
If you ask Saqib how he transitioned to such an intense role after playing what is referred to as a “chocolate hero”, he says that it was all about changing his conventional understanding of a hero.
He says, “I have never done a role similar to this one. Even when I did Race 3, it was on a very different track, I was the bad guy there. When this role came to me, I saw it as a great opportunity especially because of the web space doing so well in the industry today. So I decided to walk out of my comfort zone. I felt ki ab Hero-Hero bohot khel liya. You get influenced by what others are doing too. I observed that everybody is playing characters today, especially ‘flawed’ ones. I realised, why such roles would always be larger-than-life characters. The fact that I wanted to step out of my comfort zone was the most important thing here for me.”
He believes that the role had given him a chance to grow on a personal level. “Earlier, I wasn’t even thinking before acting. I was just playing roles without understanding them. To play such a person who came from Gorakhpur was really important for my personal growth. Here I didn’t have to just stand there, talk, keep my hair in place and look like a handsome hero. I had to move ahead and simply act no matter how I looked,’ he adds.
Saqib narrates how he attained an understanding of the character he played, since it is inspired from real life. He says, “If Bhav had let me play the kind of gangster I understood, I would have only been abusing and shooting people. But there were a thousand other things which had to be done with subtlety.”
He tells us that Bhav would keep insisting on “‘Less is more. Even if you are angry you don’t have to show it.’ I laughed when I heard him say this. I actually came here after doing Race 3,” he laughs to add, “It was a film where you have to look like a hero in every frame or even walk in slow motion every time. Here, I had to understand what my director wanted and then fit in that. So everything was a challenge for me, especially since I come from a school of thought that if I remove my shirt as an actor, my six-pack abs should be visible. And when there was a scene where I actually had to remove my shirt, I asked him if I could wear a vest, since I don’t have them. (Laughs). But I didn’t have to play a stereotype here.”
For Aahana, who is from Lucknow, fitting into the character was not a great challenge since the set up was familiar. She laughs to say that when she first heard that the web show would be set in Lucknow, she instantly agreed. Adding, “It was a great story. There were some things that I have actually seen before. I had taken stories and character references from my family itself.”
She says that she has known the belt, especially in the 90s, since that was the time when she spent her childhood there. It was her family background that gave her a better understanding of a woman in that time and what consequences she had to go through when people caught her or got to know about her relationship with someone, given the prevalent gender restrictions.
She tells us what she found was the most intriguing thing about her role and the story, “Most of my scenes were shot separately from Saqib as it was more of a telephonic relationship than physical or the one where meetings were involved. I thought that I have never done a role like this. I was instantly attracted to it. Plus, I knew the dialect and the style of communication in that city. It was quicker to pick up the style.”
The only challenge, as she describes, was that she never cued any scene with Saqib, it was all done separately.
While talking about how the relationships have evolved today, both the lead actors believe that things have become way easier today.
Aahana says, “There’s only one reason why relationships are losing their endurance — things getting easier and those that can be manipulated.”
Saqib recalls the time when he was a teenager to say that since there were no mobile phones at that time, they used landlines to call their partners. “And even then, they had to look for an appropriate time when their parents were not around. They had to first give two to three missed calls to the other person to give an indication. Today, in the whatsapp age, you don’t get one reply and the relationship is called off. How easy, right?” he says.
Aahana, who has worked for five separate media — TV, cinema, digital, live sports anchoring and theatre — says that the most challenging one was to anchor live. The Lipstick Under my Burkha actress, who undertook this during Pro Kabbadi, says that there were many complex steps that were involved including spontaneity and pre-researching. “Before being actually present on the field, I had to be prepared with all the information about the players and their previous records. I was strictly instructed to not even once question them about ‘how did the match go?’ I had to study all of it myself to actually ask them relevant questions.”
There was yet another factor. “The coordinator who was from Yorkshire had a hard-to-get accent. I had to constantly keep listening to what he was saying through micro phones and then ask questions accordingly and he would often change the questions at the last minute. There were 20,000 people in the stadium and you can’t make a mistake because it’s all live,” she adds.
For her, it’s always important to seek out something and respect people for being what they are since as an actor, “one always has to step into someone else’s shoes in order to know them and portray them better.”
(The web show airs on ZEE 5.)
Writer: Chahak Mittal
Courtesy: The Pioneer
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