Entertainment
Tokyo’s Olympic fears give way to acceptance, to a point
When the Tokyo Olympics began during a worsening pandemic in Japan, the majority of the host nation was in opposition, with Emperor Naruhito dropping the word “celebrating” from his opening declaration of welcome.
But once the Games got underway and local media switched to covering Japanese athletes’ “medal rush,” many Japanese were won over. They watched TV to cheer on Japanese athletes in an Olympics that ended Sunday with a record 58 medals for the home nation, including 27 gold.
There are still worries that Japan will pay a price for hosting these Games; recent days have seen record numbers of virus cases. But for now, among many, a sense of pride and goodwill is lingering.
“Having the games in the middle of the pandemic didn’t seem like a good idea, and I did wonder if they should be canceled,” said Keisuke Uchisawa, 27, an office worker. But the medal haul, he said, was “very exciting and stimulating. Once the Games started, we naturally cheered the athletes and simply enjoyed watching them.”
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His wife Yuki, a medical worker, worried especially about the pandemic. But she began cheering when she noticed patients at her hospital beaming as they watched the Games. “I saw the power of sports, and I thought it was wonderful,” she said. “Athletes made outstanding performances, and we wanted to cheer for them.”
The couple were recently picking out matching Olympics shirts and pandemic masks from an official goods store in downtown Tokyo. The store, almost empty before the Games, was crowded on a recent weekday toward the end of the Olympics. Many customers appeared to be workers from the neighborhood dropping by during lunch breaks.
Beforehand, a lot of Japanese expressed reluctance or opposition to holding the Olympics during a pandemic that, for them, was worsening. A series of resignations of Olympic-linked officials over sexism, past bullying and Holocaust jokes also hurt the Games’ image ahead of the July 23 opening. There were protests on Tokyo streets and on social media.
After the opening ceremony, however, many opponents started to cheer.
More than half of Japan’s population watched the event, according to rating company Video Research — the highest rating for an Olympic opening ceremony in Japan since 61% for the 1964 Tokyo games, a time when far fewer people had televisions.
Outside the National Stadium, where dozens of demonstrators regularly held anti-Olympic rallies, many fans stood in a line next to the Olympic rings waiting to take selfies. It was the closest they could get to locked-down, spectator-free stadiums.
Opposition to the Olympics has steadily dropped in recent weeks. One poll taken by the Asahi newspaper just ahead of the Olympics showed opponents fell to 55% from around 70% earlier this year, and 56% of the respondents said they wanted to watch the Games on TV. And separate surveys taken by the Yomiuri newspaper and TBS Television at the end of the Games showed more than 60% of their respective respondents said it had been good to hold the Games.
Those who felt intimidated by the unwelcome mood in the beginning began to feel relieved.
“It was a bit scary to get on a train wearing an Olympic volunteer uniform” early on, when people were still more strongly opposing the Games, said Asuka Takahashi, a 21-year-old student who helped at the beach volleyball venue. She felt less tension after the Games started, and thought more people were interested in them than she had initially believed.
Read: Over 450 Covid cases confirmed during Tokyo Olympics
And when Takahashi recently visited Olympics stores, she also saw that lots of merchandise was sold out. “Many Japanese,” she said, “are enjoying the Olympics in the end.”
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, criticized for insisting on hosting the Olympics despite the virus, was likely hoping for this evolution in sentiment. He has been trying to reverse nosediving support ratings for his government ahead of general elections expected in the autumn.
“Japanese Olympians’ outstanding achievements will give us strength, too,” said Tateo Kawamura, a veteran lawmaker of Suga’s governing party. Suga called and congratulated judoka Naohisa Takato, who won the first gold for Japan, and has since publicly congratulated medal winners on Twitter.
Suga has repeatedly said there is no evidence linking the upsurge in cases to the Games — and, in fact, barely more than 400 positive cases were reported inside the Olympic “bubble” from early July until the closing ceremony.
But whether the Games lift public sentiment in a lasting way could hinge on how the virus plays out.
“The government has forced the holding of the Olympics and Paralympics in order to regain popularity ... but it’s a risky gamble,” Seigo Hirowatari, a University of Tokyo law professor emeritus, said during a recent online event.
While some have tried to see the positive side of the Olympics, others remain opposed. There’s a new word floating around to describe what some see as a growing pressure to support or even to talk about the Games: “Oly-hara” or Olympic harassment.
Medical experts have raised alarms as virus infections accelerate in Tokyo; daily cases surged to new highs during the Olympics. On Aug. 5, Tokyo logged 5,042 cases, an all-time high since the pandemic began early last year. Experts say the ongoing infections propelled by the more contagious delta variant could send the daily case load above 10,000 within two weeks. Nationwide, total cases exceeded 1 million, with more than 15,300 deaths.
Last week, Japan’s government introduced a contentious new policy in which coronavirus patients with moderate symptoms will isolate at home as the surge of cases strain hospitals. That policy was needed, the government said, in spite of an expansion of the state of emergency from Tokyo to wider areas that will last until the end of August.
Read: Mixed bag: Erratic Pandemic Olympics come to a nuanced end
“If you turn on the TV, there is nothing else but the Olympic Games, and people are not sharing in a sense of crisis” about the exploding infections amid the festivity, said Dr. Jin Kuramochi, a respiratory medicine expert. “People will see the reality after the closing ceremony.”
Those who opposed the Games say the money should have been spent on health care and economic support for pandemic-hit people and businesses. The $15.4 billion cost of the Games — largely shouldered by Japanese citizens’ tax money — has caused concerns.
That leads to sentiments like the one from Yoko Kudo, a preschool teacher.
“I hope” she said, “at least the rest of the world will thank Japan for achieving the Games despite the difficulties.”
The emerging new normal in the entertainment industry
The festivity of Eid, whether at the end of a month of fasting or with the qurbani (sacrificial offering) of cattle, has traditionally been the most important period of the year for the country's cinema, and general entertainment industry. Each year, the two chunks of holidays were always observed with a number of new movies in the theatre halls and a lot of television dramas for the viewers at home.
Even in the entertainment industry's worst years, or as the number of cinema halls up and down the country kept shrinking, this remained a fixture, with the year's most anticipated movie premieres booked around the Eid holidays and the Bengali New Year.
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The exception occurred finally in 2020, in the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic, and now it has carried over and taken away 2021 as well. Another Eid just passed with no new films in the theatre but a significant number of drama productions.
Due to the ongoing global pandemic of Covid-19, two of these biggest yearly festivals were not celebrated with brand new movies in the theatres. However, thanks to the moneymaking platforms like YouTube and OTT platforms as well as the classic medium of entertainment, television - the drama industry saw a massive amount of new productions for Eid-ul-Adha.A large number of new films namely the much-awaited “Mission Extreme”, “Operation Sundarban”, “Bidrohee” and more were scheduled to be released this Eid, which could not be possible because of the current hazardous situation in the country.
Read:Bongo introduces seven original telefilm adaptations Based on books this EidMeanwhile, small screens including television, YouTube and OTT’s took the charge of mass-entertaining people on the festive holidays, which have also been elongated amid the nationwide shutdown and let people watch the contents more comfortably on their cellphones, laptops and smart televisions.According to the producers and various production companies, more than 300 drama productions have entertained the audiences this Eid, uploaded on YouTube after being aired on television. The TV channels aired these dramas on their usual 5 to 7 days special programme schedules, starting from Eid day.
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Based on the ‘Trending’ section of YouTube which showcases the interest of the viewers at the platform in specific regions, a handful of recently made and aired drama productions are dominating the top-list among other contents; although ‘Trending’ sometimes changes in a few hours, sometimes for one-two or three, even weeks. Over the last couple of years, a trend has been ongoing to air hundreds of drama productions on Eid occasions. For a considerably long period, Eid dramas were mostly comedy-based productions with monotonous themes and recurring storylines, however, due to the increasing competition on the above-mentioned platforms, makers are now becoming more aware of what kind of drama the audience is interested in and that has been vividly reflected on the trending dramas of this Eid.
Read Best Olympic Movies of All Time: The Greatest Films Enlightening the Kingdom of Olympians
Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty's husband arrested
Indian police have arrested Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty's businessman-husband Raj Kundra for allegedly making and uploading on OTT (over-the-top) platforms a number of pornograhic films.
Raj was taken into custody late on Monday evening by the crime branch of the Mumbai police in India's entertainment capital, after hours of questioning in a case involving the creation of pornograhic films that was lodged in February this year.
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According to police officials, the pornograhic films were shot in India and then transferred to Britain via a UK-based firm. The Mumbai police have arrested a total of nine people in this case.
"There was a case registered with the crime branch Mumbai in February 2021 about the creation of pornographic films and publishing them through some apps. We've arrested Raj Kundra in this case as he appears to be the key conspirator of this," the Mumbai police said in a statement.
Though cops claimed to possess "sufficient evidences" against Raj, the 45-year-old British-Indian businessman insisted that he was innocent.
In 2013, Raj hogged media limelight after he was grilled by Delhi Police in connection with a betting and spot-fixing scandal that rocked the multi-million dollar cricketing tournament Indian Premier League. He's a co-owner of the Rajasthan Royals team.
Shilpa and Raj tied the knot in 2009, after dating for a couple of months. They have two children -- a son and a daughter.
Read:Dilip Kumar: Life History, Success Story of the Legendary Indian Film Star
A former model, Shilpa made her Bollywood debut in the thriller Baazigar (1993) starring Shah Rukh Khan as an anti-hero in the lead role. She went on to act in several other successful flicks, including action comedy Main Khiladi Tu Anari in 1994 and romantic drama Dhadkan six years later.
Shilpa is also a celebrity endorser for several leading brands and products as well as a number of fitness campaigns such as the Fit India Movement, launched by the Indian government.
Evergreen actor Afzal Hossain turns 67
Today marks the 67th birthday of noted thespian, director and artist Afzal Hossain.
Afzal, known for his versatile presence in the media sphere of Bangladesh, was born on July 19, 1954, in Parulia, Satkhira.
One of the iconic names in the industry, Afzal Hossain is highly popular in television and film who began his acting career on stage. While studying Fine Arts, he started performing on stage through Dhaka Theater.
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He entered the world of television in the late seventies and soon became a heartthrob in television dramas during the eighties. His breakthrough was the drama titled 'Rokter Angurlata' aired in 1980 on BTV.
Revered to his fans for his creative brilliance and personality, Afzal Hossain is vibrantly present as a well-respected name in the media arena. Several of his plays, television dramas and films are still admired by his audiences.
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The actor has recently showcased a critically acclaimed performance in Mostofa Sarwar Farooki's maiden web series 'Ladies & Gentlemen', produced by South Asian OTT giant ZEE5.
A man of diverse talents, Afzal Hossain is simultaneously creative as his talents extend to direction, painting and poetry. Recently his paintings got exhibited outside the country.
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Besides, he is expected to release his debut feature film and new theatre productions after the government lifts the lockdown.
As a prolific creative advertisement maker, Afzal Hossain has revolutionized the advertisement industry of the country and is idolized by many successful creative directors in Bangladesh.
‘Titane’ wins top Cannes honor, 2nd ever for female director
Julia Ducournau’s “Titane,” a wild body-horror thriller featuring sex with a car and a surprisingly tender heart, won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, making Ducournau just the second female filmmaker to win the festival’s top honor in its 74 year history.
The win on Saturday was mistakenly announced by jury president Spike Lee at the top of the closing ceremony, broadcast in France on Canal+, unleashing a few moments of confusion. Ducournau, a French filmmaker, didn’t come to the stage to accept the award until the formal announcement at the end of the ceremony. But the early hint didn’t diminish from her emotional response.
“I’m sorry, I keep shaking my head,” said Ducournau, catching her breath. “Is this real? I don’t know why I’m speaking English right now because I’m French. This evening has been so perfect because it was not perfect.”
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After several false starts, Lee implored Sharon Stone to make the Palme d’Or announcement, explaining: “She’s not going to mess it up.” The problems started earlier when Lee was asked to say which prize would be awarded first. Instead, he announced the evening’s final prize, as fellow juror Mati Diop plunged her head into her hands and others rushed to stop him.
Lee, himself, spent several moments with his head in his hands before apologizing profusely for taking a lot of the suspense out of the evening.
“I have no excuses,” Lee told reporters afterward. “I messed up. I’m a big sports fan. It’s like the guy at the end of the game who misses the free throw.”
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“I messed up,” he added. “As simple as that.”
Ducournau’s win was a long-awaited triumph. The only previous female filmmaker to win Cannes’ top honor — among the most prestigious awards in cinema — was Jane Campion for “The Piano” in 1993. In recent years, frustration at Cannes’ gender parity has grown, including in 2018, when 82 women — including Agnes Varda, Cate Blanchett and Salma Hayek — protested gender inequality on the Cannes red carpet. Their number signified the movies by female directors selected to compete for the Palme d’Or — 82 compared to 1,645 films directed by men. This year, four out of 24 films up for the Palme were directed by women.
In 2019, another genre film — Bong Joon-Ho’s “Parasite” — took the Palme before going on to win best picture at the Academy Awards, too. That choice was said to be unanimous by the jury led by Alejandro González Iñárritu, but the award for “Titane” — an extremely violent film — this year’s jury said came out of a democratic process of conversation and debate. Juror Maggie Gyllenhaal said they didn’t agree unanimously on anything.
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“The world is passion,” said Lee. “Everyone was passionate about a particular film they wanted and we worked it out.”
In “Titane,” which like “Parasite” will be distributed in the U.S. by Neon, Agathe Rousselle plays a serial killer who flees home. As a child, a car accident leaves her with a titanium plate in her head and a strange bond with automobiles. In possibly the most-talked-about scene at the festival, she’s impregnated by a Cadillac. Lee called it a singular experience.
“This is the first film ever where a Cadillac impregnates a woman,” said Lee, who said he wanted to ask Ducournau what year the car was. “That’s genius and craziness together. Those two things often match up.”
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On stage, Ducournau thanked the jury “for letting the monsters in.” Afterward, she acknowledged to reporters her place in history, but also said she “can’t be boiled down to just being a woman.”
“Quite frankly, I hope that the prize I received has nothing to do with being a woman,” said Ducournau. “As I’m the second woman to receive this prize, I thought a lot about Jane Campion and how she felt when she won.”
More women will come after her, Ducournau said. “There will be a third, there will be a fourth, there will be a fifth.”
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Cannes’ closing ceremony capped 12 days of red-carpet premieres, regular COVID-19 testing for many attendees and the first major film festival to be held since the pandemic began in almost its usual form. With smaller crowds and mandated mask-wearing in theaters, Cannes pushed forward with an ambitious slate of global cinema. Last year’s festival was completely canceled by the pandemic.
The slate, assembled as a way to help stir movies after a year where movies shrank to smaller screens and red carpets grew cobwebs, was widely considered to be strong, and featured many leading international filmmakers. The awards were spread out widely.
The grand prize was split between Asghar Farhadi’s Iranian drama “A Hero” and Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen’s “Compartment No. 6.”
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Best director was awarded to Leos Carax for “Annette,” the fantastical musical starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard that opened the festival. The award was accepted by the musical duo Sparks, Ron and Russell Mael, who wrote the script and music for the film.
Jurors also split the jury prize. That was awarded to both Nadav Lapid’s “Ahed’s Knee,” an impassioned drama about creative freedom in modern Isreal; and to Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasthakul’s “Memoria,” a meditative film starring Tilda Swinton.
Caleb Landry Jones took home the best actor prize for his performance as an Australian mass killer in the fact-based “Nitram” by Justin Kurzel. Renate Reinsve won best actress for Joachim Trier’s “The Worst Person in the World.” Best screenplay went to Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car,” a Haruki Murakami adaptation he penned with Takamasa Oe.
Read Asia in Cannes: Spotlight on Asian Movies in 74th Cannes Film Festival
The Croatian coming-of-age drama “Murina,” by Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović, took the Camera d’Or award, a non-jury prize, for best first feature. Kusijanović was absent from the ceremony after giving birth a day earlier.
Lee was the first Black jury president at Cannes. His fellow jury members were: Gyllenhaal, Mélanie Laurent, Song Kang-ho, Tahar Rahim, Mati Diop, Jessica Hausner, Kleber Mendonça Filho and Mylène Farmer.
Read Best Movies Preview: The Anticipation on the Run for Cannes Film Festival 2021
Will Smith opening up, releasing memoir ‘Will’ in November
Will Smith is ready to open up about his life story.
Penguin Press announced Sunday that Smith will release his memoir called “Will” on Nov. 9. The actor-rapper shared a photo of the book’s cover art to more than 54 million of his followers on Instagram.
Read:Plans for movie on New Zealand mosque attacks draw criticism
Smith said he is “finally ready” to release the memoir after working on the book for two years. His book will be published by Penguin Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House and co-authored by Mark Manson, the author of “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F(asterisk)ck.”
“It’s been a labor of love,” Smith said in his post.
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Smith will also narrate the audiobook of “Will” from Penguin Random House Audio.
“Will” looks to tell a story about Smith’s life and career. The book will delve into him being raised in West Philadelphia to entering superstardom as an actor and rapper. He’s a two-time Academy Award nominee and won a four-time Grammy winner.
Read:What was with that weird Oscar ending?
Smith starred in the “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” “Bad Boys,” “Men in Black” and “Pursuit of Happyness.” He’s won Grammys for “Summertime,” “Men In Black,” “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It” and “Parents Just Don’t Understand.”
Ned Beatty, titanic character actor of ‘Network,’ dies at 83
Ned Beatty, the Oscar-nominated character actor who in half a century of American movies, including “Deliverance,” “Network” and “Superman,” was a booming, indelible presence in even the smallest parts, has died. He was 83.
Beatty’s manager, Deborah Miller, said Beatty died Sunday of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles surrounded by friends and loved ones.
After years in regional theater, Beatty was cast in 1972′s “Deliverance” as Bobby Trippe, the happy-go-lucky member of a male river-boating party terrorized by backwoods thugs in “Deliverance.” The scene in which Trippe is brutalized and forced to “squeal like a pig” became the most memorable in the movie and established Beatty as an actor whose name moviegoers may not have known but whose face they always recognized.
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“For people like me, there’s a lot of ‘I know you! I know you! What have I seen you in?’” Beatty remarked without rancor in 1992.
Beatty received only one Oscar nomination, as supporting actor for his role as corporate executive Arthur Jensen in 1976′s “Network,” but he contributed to some of the most popular movies of his time and worked constantly, his credits including more than 150 movies and TV shows.
Beatty’s appearance in “Network,” scripted by Paddy Chayefsky an directed by Sidney Lumet, was brief but titanic. His three-minute monologue ranks among the greatest in movies. Jensen summons anchorman Howard Beale (Peter Finch) to a long, dimly lit boardroom for a come-to-Jesus about the elemental powers of media.
“You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won’t have it!” Beatty shouts from across the boardroom before explaining that there is no America, no democracy. “There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.”
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He was equally memorable as Otis, the idiot henchman of villainous Lex Luthor in the first two Christopher Reeve “Superman” movies and as the racist sheriff in “White Lightning.” Other films included “All The President’s Men,” “The Front Page,” “Nashville,” and “The Big Easy.” In a 1977 interview, he had explained why he preferred being a supporting actor.
“Stars never want to throw the audience a curveball, but my great joy is throwing curveballs,” he told The New York Times. “Being a star cuts down on your effectiveness as an actor because you become an identifiable part of a product and somewhat predictable. You have to mind your P’s and Q’s and nurture your fans. But I like to surprise the audience, to do the unexpected.”
He landed a rare leading role in the Irish film “Hear My Song” in 1991. The true story of legendary Irish tenor Josef Locke, who disappeared at the height of a brilliant career, it was well reviewed but largely unseen in the United States. Between movies, Beatty worked often in TV and theater. He had recurring roles in “Roseanne” as John Goodman’s father and as a detective on “Homicide: Life on the Street.”
On Broadway he won critical praise (and a Drama Desk Award) for his portrayal of Big Daddy in a revival of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” a role he had first played as a 21-year-old in a stock company production. His more recent movies included “Toy Story 3” (as the duplicitous stuffed bear Lotso) in 2010 and the villainous tortoise mayor in “Rango.” He retired in 2013.
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Ned Thomas Beatty was born in 1937 in Louisville, Ky., and raised in Lexington, where he joined the Protestant Disciples of Christ Christian Church. “It was the theater I attended as a kid,” he told The Associated Press in 1992. “It was where people got down to their truest emotions and talked about things they didn’t talk about in everyday life. ... The preaching was very often theatrical.” For a time he thought of becoming a priest, but changed his mind after he was cast in a high school production of “Harvey.”
He spent 10 summers at the Barter Theater in Abingdon, Virginia, and eight years at the Arena Stage Company in Washington, D.C. At the Arena Stage, he appeared in Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” and starred in Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman.” Then his life changed forever when he took a train to New York to audition for director John Boorman for the role of Bobby Trippe. Boorman told him the role was cast, but changed his mind after seeing Beatty audition.
Beatty, who married Sandra Johnson in 1999, had eight children from three previous marriages.
Why is Kareena Kapoor the talk of the town
With fame comes controversies. Over the years, several Bollywood celebrities have found themselves the subject of unwanted attention in India for various reasons -- from surprise weddings and baby bumps to extra-marital affairs and divorces. The latest celebrity to hog the limelight is actress Kareena Kapoor Khan, this time not for any feel-good news.
Kareena has recently been trending on Twitter, following reports that she had demanded a whopping Rs 12 crore fee for playing the mythological character Sita on-screen. Thousands used the hashtag #BoycottKareenKhan to slam Kareena for demanding such a high fee for portraying the revered Hindu character despite being married to a Muslim actor in real life.
Read:Radhe: A Salman Khan movie to watch with family this Eid
Let's explore the controversy.
Why is Sita revered in India
Sita is the lead female character of Ramayana, one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, penned by sage Valmiki between 500 BCE and 100 BCE. In the Hindu epic, Sita is described as the daughter of Bhumi (the Earth) and the adopted daughter of King Janaka of Videha kingdom and his wife, Queen Sunayana.
The marriage between Sita, known for her dedication and purity, and Rama, the Prince of the ancient kingdom of Ayodhya, in itself is a story worth telling. Sita chose Rama as her husband in a swayamvara — bride choosing the best from among a list of suitors after a contest. This was after Rama successfully completed the task of stringing a magic bow.
Sita subsequently accompanied Rama to his kingdom but had to soon go into exile with her husband and brother-in-law Laksmana for 14 years through the plotting of his stepmother. In exile, they settled in a forest from where she was abducted by Ravana, the demon king of Lanka. Rama gathered an army of monkeys and rescued Sita after killing Ravana in a war.
Later Sita was asked by Rama, an incarnation of a Hindu God, to prove her chastity. Sita entered fire, but was saved by other Hindu Gods. After the couple's triumphant return to Ayodhya, Rama's righteous rule came to be known as Ram-raj (golden rule) for all mankind.
Why the controversy
In the later 1980s, Indian state TV telecast a series based on the ancient Sanskrit epic of the same name. The TV series, Ramayana, broke all records and became a national craze then.
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Over the years, a number of Hindu nationalist parties, including India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, rode the TV show to spark a Hindu awakening in this country. And the BJP cashed in on the opportunity to start a campaign, Ram Janmabhoomi (Rama’s birthplace) movement, and forged a sense of Hindu togetherness to eventually come to power.
"Criticised for its government's poor handling of the Covid situation in the country, many in the BJP are now trying to salvage the party's nationalist image and divert people's attention from the health situation. And Kareena is indeed the ideal diversion tactic," said Prof Suneeta Roy, a political pundit.
Kareena and the social media
Four months ago, 40-year-old Kareena also hogged the limelight when she gave birth to a baby boy -- their second son -- at a private hospital in the Indian city of Mumbai.
In fact, Kareena and her husband Saif Ali Khan -- dubbed Saifeena by the paparazzi -- announced the pregnancy on social media in August last year. "We are very pleased to announce that we are expecting an addition to our family!! Thank you to all our well-wishers for all their love and support."
Kareena and Saif -- the son of former Indian cricket captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and former Bollywood's yesteryear heroine Sharmila Tagore -- tied the knot in 2012. The couple welcomed their first son, Taimur, in December 2016. Saif also has two children -- actor Sara Ali Khan and Ibrahim Ali Khan with former wife Amrita Singh, also a Bollywood actress.
Born to the Kapoor family, known as the 'First Family of Bollywood', Kareena -- the granddaughter of legendary actor-director Raj Kapoor, made her acting debut opposite another legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan's son Abhishek with the 2000 drama Refugee.
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But her real success came in 2004 when she played a sex worker in the drama Chameli.
She subsequently earned critical recognition for her role in the 2006 crime flick Omkara, a character based on William Shakespeare's heroine Desdemona.
Recipient of several awards, Kareena is one of Bollywood's highest-paid actresses. She will be next seen in Advait Chandan's Laal Singh Chaddha and Karan Johar's Takht. Kareena is also all set to publish her first pregnancy book later this year.
Plans for movie on New Zealand mosque attacks draw criticism
Tentative plans for a movie that recounts the response of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to a gunman’s slaughter of Muslim worshippers drew criticism in New Zealand on Friday for not focusing on the victims of the attacks.
Hollywood news outlet Deadline reported that Australian actor Rose Byrne was set to play Ardern in the movie “They Are Us,” which was being shopped by New York-based FilmNation Entertainment to international buyers.
The movie would be set in the days after the 2019 attacks in which 51 people were killed at two Christchurch mosques.
Read:‘Conjuring 3’ tops ‘A Quiet Place 2’ as moviegoing returns
Deadline said the movie would follow Ardern’s response to the attacks and how people rallied behind her message of compassion and unity, and her successful call to ban the deadliest types of semiautomatic weapons.
The title of the movie comes from the words Ardern spoke in a landmark address soon after the attacks. At the time, Ardern was praised around the world for her response.
But many in New Zealand are raising concerns about the movie plans.
Aya Al-Umari, whose older brother Hussein was killed in the attacks, wrote on Twitter simply “Yeah nah,” a New Zealand phrase meaning “No.”
Abdigani Ali, a spokesperson for the Muslim Association of Canterbury, said the community recognized the story of the attacks needed to be told “but we would want to ensure that it’s done in an appropriate, authentic, and sensitive matter.”
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Tina Ngata, an author and advocate, was more blunt, tweeting that the slaughter of Muslims should not be the backdrop for a film about “white woman strength. COME ON.”
Ardern’s office said in a brief statement that the prime minister and her government have no involvement with the movie.
Deadline reported that New Zealander Andrew Niccol would write and direct the project and that the script was developed in consultation with several members of the mosques affected by the tragedy.
Niccol said the film wasn’t so much about the attacks but more the response.
“The film addresses our common humanity, which is why I think it will speak to people around the world,” Niccol told Deadline. “It is an example of how we should respond when there’s an attack on our fellow human beings.”
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Byrne’s agents and FilmNation did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The report said the project would be filmed in New Zealand but did not say when.
Niccol is known for writing and directing “Gattaca” and writing “The Terminal” and “The Truman Show,” for which he was nominated for an Oscar.
Byrne is known for roles in “Spy” and “Bridesmaids.”
‘Conjuring 3’ tops ‘A Quiet Place 2’ as moviegoing returns
The domestic box office is getting back to normal, with moderate wins and sizable second weekend drops. After its triumphant first weekend, “A Quiet Place Part II” fell 59% at the North American box office leaving room for the third movie in the “Conjuring” franchise to take first place. Warner Bros.’ “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” earned an estimated $24 million, according to studio estimates Sunday, making it the biggest R-rated opening of the pandemic. Paramount’s “A Quiet Place” sequel meanwhile earned $19.5 million in ticket sales, bringing its domestic total to $88.6 million.
“You normally don’t see two horror movies at the top of the chart. But it was a solid weekend for both movies,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “The movie theaters are coming back and Memorial Day was no flash in the pan ... It feels like summer again.”
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“The Conjuring 3” has Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga returning as paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. Although there’s a whole extended universe set around these films that have thus far grossed over $1.8 billion, this is the first “Conjuring” since 2016, and the first to be helmed by someone other than James Wan (Michael Graves directed). With an additional $26.8 million from international territories, globally, the R-rated pic has grossed over $57.1 million.
“It’s a terrific result,” said Jeff Goldstein, the head of domestic distribution for Warner Bros. “We’re continuing to see a ramp up of return to life outside of our homes. It was never going to be a light switch.”
In a pre-pandemic world, “The Conjuring 3” might have been considered a bit disappointing—the previous installments both opened around $40 million. But, as Goldstein noted, the third films in a horror franchise often take a hit. It has another caveat too: The film is also currently streaming free for subscribers on HBO Max. Warner Media did not say how many people watched it on streaming over the weekend or how many new customers signed up for the service.
It has become more normal than not for films to embrace a hybrid day-and-date release strategy, with the major studios using their biggest titles to drive potential subscribers to their streaming services. “A Quiet Place Part II” had the rare distinction of being exclusively in theaters, but even so it will be a shorter stint than usual before it hits Paramount+.
The Walt Disney Co.’s “Cruella,” which opened in theaters last weekend, was also made available to rent on Disney+ for $29.99. The Emma Stone and Emma Thompson pic added $11.2 million from 3,922 theaters this weekend to take third place. Disney also did not say how much it earned from streaming rentals, but the company did note the drop from last weekend was only 48%. Globally, “Cruella” has earned $87.1 million thus far.
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The animated family film “Spirit Untamed” also opened wide theatrically this weekend in 3,211 theaters to an estimated $6.2 million. The DreamWorks Animation film features the voices of Isabela Merced, Eiza González, Julianne Moore, Marsai Martin and Jake Gyllenhaal.
Most family films have gone straight to streaming over the past year and many big studios are opting to continue with the strategy for the near future. Disney and Pixar’s “Luca” is skipping theaters and going straight to Disney+, where it will be free for subscribers on June 16. DreamWorks Animation’s “Boss Baby” sequel is also debuting on Peacock Kids and in theaters on July 2.
The North American theatrical landscape is still a bit hobbled by the pandemic. Most Canadian theaters remain closed and around 27% of U.S. locations are still shuttered too. Many chains have also said vaccinated customers can now go mask free in theaters.
Hollywood titles have also started performing better than they have been internationally during the pandemic over the past few weekends. In particular, Universal’s latest in the “Fast & Furious” franchise, “F9,” continued to pick up speed prior to its U.S. debut on June 25. This weekend “F9,” which has already grossed $256 million from eight territories, became one of only 19 U.S. movies to have earned more than $200 million in China.
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And although release strategies continue to differ company by company in unprecedented ways, Dergarabedian said the numbers are promising for the theatrical business even with the at-home viewing options.
“Over the past two weeks, the industry has been able to test out theatrical only (“A Quiet Place Part II”), a day and date with a (pay) subscription model (“Cruella”) and a day and date that’s part of a subscription (“The Conjuring 3″). The numbers have been solid,” Dergarabedian said. “As long as we keep getting solid movies released, we’re going to see the box office ramp up week after week.”