ENTERTAINMENT

Actor-producer Alia Bhatt on Wednesday announced a five-part series as an attempt to disseminate authentic information about Covid-19 vaccines amid "myths and rumours that are exchanged on social media".

Titled The Intersection: Vaccinate India, the series is a collaboration between Alia's production house Eternal Sunshine Productions and podcast network Audiomatic.

"Even though the vaccines are here, some of us are still hesitant. A great deal of this hesitancy is due to misinformation, myths and rumours that are exchanged on social media and other messaging platforms," the 28-year-old actor says in the video shared on her official Twitter page.

A Twitter user on Tuesday shared an old clip from a chat show that was attended by Bollywood actor Randeep Hooda. In the said clip, Hooda tells a problematic, sexist joke on politician Mayawati, the former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. It is not clear when the video was originally shot.

Calling out Hooda for his inappropriate joke, the user wrote, “If this does not explain how casteist and sexist this society is, especially towards Dalit women, i don’t know what will. the ‘joke’, the audacity, the crowd. randeep hooda, top bollywood actor talking about a dalit woman, who has been the voice of the oppressed (sic).”

Raj and DK, the directors of Amazon Prime Video web series The Family Man Season 2, have responded to the calls for banning the series, noting that assumptions have been made based on a few shots in the trailer. Requesting people to wait for the show, they said utmost pains have been taken to present ‘a sensitive, balanced, and riveting story’. The same statement has been shared by the show’s cast including Manoj Bajpayee and Sharib Hashmi on their social media handles.

On Monday, the Tamil Nadu government had requested the Information & Broadcasting Ministry to either stop or ban the release of The Family Man Season 2 for allegedly depicting the Eelam Tamils in a negative light. In a letter to I&B minister Prakash Javadekar, Tamil Nadu IT Minister T Mano Thangaraj said the trailer presented Tamilians in a “highly objectionable manner” and their was an attempt to discredit the struggle of the Eelam Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Karan Deol, who made his Bollywood debut with Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas in 2019, reminisced about his first-ever shot and how he ‘broke down really badly’. The film was directed by his father, Sunny Deol, and produced by the family banner, Vijayta Films.

In a new interview, Karan said that his first shot was ‘kind of intense’, and he was overwhelmed with emotions. For a moment, he even began to doubt his decision to pursue a career in films.

Speaking to a leading daily, Karan said, “My first shot was actually a nerve-wracking experience because I was very nervous. I did break down. Luckily, from there, it just got better. But it was a nerve-wracking experience for me, overall, and I will obviously remember it for life.”

Actor Rakul Preet Singh says “experimentation" in movie writing has enabled performers to pick varied and contrasting roles. The 30-year-old actor made her debut in Hindi cinema with Yaariyan in 2014 and later featured in Neeraj Pandey-directed Aiyaary and Ajay Devgn-starrer De De Pyaar De.

“I think it’s a great time where people are writing different kinds of scripts, that possibly the audiences are looking to watch. The experimentation that’s happening is different and that leads us to get that opportunity to be able to choose those different roles," Singh told a news agency. “I am very grateful that I have an opportunity to be able to choose these different kinds of roles. And each character is different and contrasting," she added.