Vicky Kaushal makes his singing debut with Manmarziyaan

After Dev D, Anurag Kashyap is back with a musical love story Manmarziyaan. Promising to be the album of the year, the film's music composed by Amit Trivedi is already a subject of heated discussion .

In a unique promotional stratergy , the makers are releasing one song each day and audiences were in for a treat as the first song 'F for Fyaar' marked actor Vicky Kaushal's singing debut.

Such was the reception that the song went on to cross 7 million views in less than 8 hours.

Talking about the idea says music director Amit Trivedi, “Since Vicky plays a DJ in the movie, we felt it would be great if he could sing a few lines in the song to give a real feel to it. It has come out well. When Vicky heard the song, he was pleasantly surprised to hear his voice. He enjoyed the singing process.”

Excited to be teaming up with his mentor again says Vicky Kaushal,“I am very excited and I have said this to Anurag as well, but I feel like I should collaborate with him once in every two-three years because he really makes you reinvent yourself as an actor, which I feel is very important for me. Each time I work with him, I see something new in myself and that’s what happened in Manmarziyaan as well.”

Jassie Gill turns turbanator for Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi

Popular singer Jassie Gill, who is eagerly anticipating the release of his big Bollywooddebut, Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi, produced by Eros International and Aanand L Rai’s Colour Yellow Productions and directed by Mudassar Aziz, had a whale of a time shooting for the laughter riot.

Besides sharing the screen space with Sonakshi Sinha for the first time and working with Aanand L Rai and his costars including Diana Penty, Jimmy Shergill, Piyush Mishra and Ali Fazal, the film is quite special to Jassie for quite a few reasons, including the fact that he had to sport several pagdis in the movie!

“Since I belong to a Sardar family, I’ve always been fond of wearing a pagdi,” Jassie informs as he recollects, “I used to have pictures of popular Punjabi singers on the wall of my room and I used to look at them and wear pagdis. When I started my singing career and was in college, I wore a pagdi for one of the scenes in a music video.” Then i wore Pagdi in my video Bapu Zimidar & Att Karti, with the grace of Almightly, both became sesational hits.

While most of his costars only changed into their next costume, Jassie would take relatively more time to change since he had to wear a Pagdi as well! Interestingly, Mudassar along with the cast would often playfully pull his leg over this by blaming him for delaying a shot!

“I didn’t anticipate that I’ll get the opportunity to wear a pagdi in just my debut film. People all over Punjab have really appreciated my pagdi look in Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi. It gives me a feeling of pride to wear a pagdi,” Jassie adds.

Presented by Eros International and Aanand L Rai, A Colour Yellow Production, Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi, hits the theatres on 24th August.

Rani Mukerji Wins the Best Actress Award for Hichki and the ‘Excellence in Cinema’ Award at Indian Film Festival of Melbourne

Rani Mukerji won hearts everywhere with her outstanding performance in Yash Raj Films’ superhit film Hichki. As Naina Mathur, a passionate teacher who deals with Tourette Syndrome, Rani delivered a powerful performance, also communicating a key message about equal treatment for people with physical challenges in India.

Her character inspires positive change in school students from economically backward origins, a story that resonated globally for Hichki to become a massive hit and now Indian Film Festival of Melbourne has awarded Rani with the Best Actress Award for the year. 

Hugely popular with sizeable Indian diaspora living in Melbourne, Rani expressed her gratitude saying, “Indian Film Festival of Melbourne has always welcomed the best of Indian cinema and celebrated our form of storytelling. I feel very proud and thankful that Hichki has been accepted and loved by audiences here.

It’s a story with universal resonance, and it’s spirit of positivity has won over Indians and locals here. I am also grateful for winning the Best Actress Award and sincerely thank everyone for applauding my performance. I have found this film festival a vibrant and progressive setting for cinema and its impact beyond languages and cultures. I thoroughly enjoyed being in Melbourne and hope to travel with my films here in the near future.” 

The theme of the IFFM 2018 festival was ‘Inclusion’. Rani Mukerji is the only mainstream actress who has successfully and sensitively embraced such subjects through her exceptional films Black and Hichki so Rani was also chosen unanimously to win the ‘Excellence in Cinema’ award at the ceremony. 

IFFM had an eminent panel of jury (Andrew Anastasios, Jill Bilcock, Geoffrey Wright, Nikkhil Advani, Rajeev Masand, Simi Garewal, Sue Maslin) who unanimously decided upon Rani Mukerji’s win as the Best Actress.

“The storyline of Banned’ made me say a yes to web series” – Sahil Anand

The extremely talented actor Sahil Anand has left no stone unturned to entertain the viewers with his extraordinary acting skills. After giving some hit television shows, the actor marks his entry in the web world through Viu’s upcoming series Banned.

Based on comedy musical drama, Sahil Anand will play a pivotal role in Banned. Excited on his debut, the actor quipped, “I mark my debut in web series with Banned. The storyline of Banned’ made me say a yes to web series. Since it revolves around the musical background, shooting for it was really fun. Apart, I always wanted to be a part of Viu which is such a big platform across the world. I am sure the viewers will in for umpteen entertainment with this show.”

The series is slated to go on floors on 24th of August, only on Viu.

Ranbir and Hirani are the best in Indian Film Festival of Melbourne Awards 2018

It was a grand affair last night in Melbourne, Australia as some of the biggest Bollywood stars made their presence at the annual Indian Film Festival of Melbourne Awards Night. This year themed on inclusion at its core, the festival kicked off on 10th of August and witnessed its biggest even last night at the Palais Theatre one of the oldest and most iconic landmarks of Melbourne.

The awards night started off with a grand red carpet celebrating various cultures of India with a grand welcome to each guest. An extremely exciting night was celebrated in the presence of some of Victorian government’s senior ministers and members of the Australian film fraternity including director of Dev Patel’s LION, Garth Davis. The night witnessed various performances of various dance forms from India, but the highlight was the extremely energetic and soulful performance of Sachin-Jigar and also the phenomenal comedy set by comedian and host of the night, Saadiya Ali.

Hichki, Sanju and soon to be released Love Sonia took award the majority of awards including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Indie Film. The marvellous team of Mahanati took home the Equality in Cinema Award and Freida Pinto was conferred with the award for Diversity in Cinema award. The highlight of the night was when Simi Garewal gave away the top honour of the night with a moving speech to Rani Mukerji for Excellence in Cinema Award.

Freida Pinto, who won the Diversity award said, “I feel responsible to be representing the few of my own, my own country in another industry. I think it’s a huge responsibility to create such diversity. And as much as I’m honoured to be given this award, I would like to say it’s not me alone, it’s the writers, the filmmakers, the storytellers who contribute to bring forth such diversity and such diverse roles.”

Richa Chadha, who won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Love Sonia, said, “Today standing here accepting this award I want to say that without having someone who knows someone and being an outsider, I feel like I have made it. So I feel if I can do it and be an actor, so can you. Just hang it in there and if you’re talented things will come to you. I feel elated to win this award. I was one of the last people to come obo board for Love Sonia but I’m so glad I did. It’s an important film and it must be seen by people know of the importance of the topic.”

Rani Mukerji, winner of the Best Actress and Excellence in Cinema awards, said, “Thank you Melbourne and thank you to IFFM. This is my first award after becoming a mother, so it’s very special. And I’m so honoured that such a brilliant jury chose me as the winner. I usually don’t give importance to awards but with Hichki it’s different. We made this film to create awareness and I feel there’s little people know about Tourette’s and I feel by winning this award if people get more curious to discover the film even today it will help the larger idea.”

Here is the complete list of winners: 

Best Indie Film: LOVE SONIA 

Best Indie Film Special Mention: GALI GULEIYAN (IN THE SHADOWS ) 

Equality in Cinema: MAHANATI 

Diversity Award: FREIDA PINTO 

Best Actor: MANOJ BAJPAYEE FOR GALI GULEIYAN (IN THE SHADOWS ) 

IFFM VANGUARD AWARD: Ranbir Kapoor for his Breakthrough Performance in Sanju 

Best Actress: RANI MUKERJI FOR HICHKI 

Best film: SANJU 

Best Director: RAJKUMAR HIRANI 

Best Supporting Performance: VICKY KAUSHAL FOR SANJU and RICHA CHADHA FOR LOVE SONIA 

Excellence in Cinema: RANI MUKERJI