My serial has not brought sex on television: Sakshi Tanvar

April 8, 2012

talwar


There's no need to to blow up things out of proportion, says Sakshi Tanvar, under fire from critics for the her steamy act on the small screen


Much in news, Sakshi Tanwar, aka Priya Kapoor of "Bade Acche Lagte Hain", is not happy with the way her bedroom scene in the show, is causing tounges to wag. In Varanasi to shoot for "Mohalla Assi", the actress says that unnecessary hue and cry is being made about the whole thing.


Reacting to the brouhaha, Sakshi says, "My serial has not brought sex on television. In fact, there have been serials in the past when I had not even started working, on TV, like " Tara", "Saans" and "Hasaratein", which were far bolder in content than this show is. In our show, the scene was the outcome of a gradual progression of a very mature relationship, which was eventually consummated. Though, I agree that it is perhaps one of the longest such scenes, but shows like "Maryaada" also had similar scenes. In fact, ours was not even the first liplock on TV as it being claimed out to be, so why is it being blown out of proportion?"


The actor who started off with the role of Parvati, considered to be epitome of the Indian values on tellyworld, says "I was apprehensive, initially, about doing such a bold scene since I belong to a conservative family. The creative team took a lot of time to convince me and then I needed time to convince my family. I spoke to my sister and it was she who spoke to my mom and dad about it. Once I was prepared, then it was like any other take and I did it the way an actor is suppose to shoot any scene. Moreover, I feel it was beautifully depicted and aesthetically shot. I did not get any negative feedback from any one," she adds.


The actor also rejects all the criticism, based on the ground that television is a medium for family entertainment. "The scene was not aired out of blue as the promos for the same were running 15 days prior it and were steamy enough," says Sakshi. Going further, she says, "There is a thing called remote too, which I am afraid they forget to use. The scene came at the end of the episode so why did anybody wait to see the entire episode? Right now, TV is in a state of flux, where mature subjects are being accepted. Any phase in any medium that brings about a change should be welcome," she says.


Already successful on the small screen, Sakshi is graduating to the silver screen, with "Mohalla Assi". The talented actor says that she is not ambitious. "There are no career plans for me. "Mohalla Assi" just happened, as did television. I don't do acting to prove myself. If this had been the case, I would not have sat at home for two and a half year doing nothing. Instead, I would have gone out, met people and looked for work. In fact, it took several years for Ekta to make me do "Bade Acche Lagte Hain", since she had planned to start this at the time "Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki" was off air. But I wanted to take a break after "KGGK", so "Bade Acche Lagte Hain" got delayed. I work by my instinct and I am always in a state of surrender to the amighty so I do not plan. So many of my friends call me lazy but this is what I am," says Sakshi, who has been approached by several film makers.


Ask her if she is being choosy in Bollywood, the Sakshi clarifies, "The roles I have been offered so far are not the typical commercial ones as directors who are into off beat cinema have sent feelers. In fact, I had worked in a film, "Saalon" of Pritish Nandy production house directed by Nikhil Nagesh Bhatt, which has not hit the screen so far," she says before signing off.


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News Network
January 23,2020

Jan 23: Calling himself an optimist who believes in the goodness of people, director Kabir Khan says everything these days is being looked at through the prism of religion but India is about more than that.

The director of blockbusters such as Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Ek Tha Tiger said he is happy he has a platform as a filmmaker to present a counterpoint to the prevailing narrative based on religious fault lines.

"I’m an optimist who believes in the goodness of the people. But yes, there is a certain level of bigotry that has crept in. Everything is being looked at through the prism of religion but India is not about that.

"It sounds like a cliché but when I was growing up, I was not aware of my religion. That was the greatness of this country,” Kabir told news agency.

He said he is a product of a mixed marriage and is pained to see the social fabric being tattered.

“I have celebrated the best that Indian secularism has to offer. But to see the greatness of this country being simplified and broken down into religious fault lines is a painful experience,” he added.

According to Kabir, it is dangerous to see history through the prism of religion, whether in cinema or society. But it is important to revisit history to know what happened and one can always find something that is relevant for the present, he said.

The director, who started as a documentary filmmaker, returns to his roots for a five-episode series on Subhas Chandra Bose's Indian National Army, The Forgotten Army: Azaadi Ke Liye, on Amazon Prime, his most expensive project yet.

Asked whether this is a difficult time for filmmakers, Kabir said he believes art thrives in the time of strife and, as a storyteller, his politics will always reflect in his work.

“Every film has its politics and every filmmaker has to reflect his or her politics. Every film of mine will reflect my politics and it will never change according to the popular mood of the audience. But a film should not be just about that. Politics should be in the layers beneath," he said.

He terms his 2015 Salman Khan-starrer Bajrangi Bhaijaan an "extremely political" film. At face value, it can also be enjoyed as the story of a mute Pakistani girl who drifts into India and is taken back to her homeland by a Hanuman devotee. But there is so much more. The "chicken song", for instance, was a sly reference to the beef ban controversy at the time, he said.

"I won’t say it is a difficult time for me as a filmmaker. It is good that I have a platform where I can talk and present a counterpoint and I refuse to believe that the entire country believes the narrative that is being sent out. There are millions and millions of people, and perhaps the majority, that does not believe. And if I present the counterpoint, they will think about it.”

Discussing his new series, the director said it has always fascinated him that the sacrifice of the men and women who comprised the INA is just a forgotten footnote in history.

“I wanted to make something that stands the test of time. It goes down in posterity,” Khan, who first explored the subject in a Doordarshan documentary 20 years ago, said.

For the documentary, he traveled with former INA officers Captain Lakshmi Sahgal and Captain Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon from Singapore to India via erstwhile Burma, retracing the route that the INA followed.

“The documentary got me a lot of attention and acclaim but the story just never left me. It's actually the first script I ever wrote and I landed up with that script in Bombay from Delhi. I realised very soon that nobody's going to give me a budget of this size to make my first film.

"And then after every film, I would pick up the script and say, ‘Okay, this is the one I want to make’, because this is the story that made me want to become a filmmaker. On the way, I ended up making eight other films but this is really the story that I wanted to make,” he said.

Kabir is happy that the story has come out as a series, not a film, as it would have required to compromise with the budget and other elements.

"Without giving any numbers, this is the most expensive project I have ever worked on… It required that kind of budget."

Kabir believes the INA was responsible for bringing down the morale of the British establishment, which realised it would be impossible to keep the country colonised without the support of the local army.

"There are a lot of debates and discussions about what happened with the INA and the controversies around it. The whole point is that, if you want to judge what the Army did, sure that's your prerogative, but at least get to know what they did. Nobody knows what happened with the Army from 1942 to 1945."

He added that 55,000 men and women of the INA fought for independence and 47,000 of them died.

"Not a single person from that Army was ever taken back into the independent Army, which is such an amazing fact... the fact that the British called them traitors became the narrative and we also started assuming that they were traitors."

"They were the only women's regiment in the whole world 70 years ago. That's what they thought about women's importance in society. I don't know whether they will be happy with what the current situation is," he said.

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News Network
March 5,2020

New Delhi, Mar 5: Urging netizens to adopt traditional salutation styles like 'namaste' and 'salaam' to greet everyone in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, megastar Salman Khan on Thursday shared a picture from his workout session.

Flaunting his perfectly chiselled body, the 'Sultan' actor shared a picture of himself sitting on a pull-down machine with folded hands as a mark of Indian tradition 'namaste'.

"Namashkaar ... hamari sabhyata mein namaste aur salaam hai! Jab #coronavirus Khatam ho jaye tab Haath milao aur gale lago...." he captioned the picture.

Khan recently touched the mark of 30 million followers on Instagram on Saturday and shared a short video on the platform thanking his fans for it.

In the video, he first thanked fans with folded hands and then a salute.

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News Network
May 26,2020

Washington, May 26: Making a slight change to the name of their newborn, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his singer girlfriend Grimes have now named their first child X AE A-Xii.

The difference is only in the numeral part of the name which is now written in the Roman format.

Earlier this month, the celebrity couple hogged headlines for naming their son X AE A-12.

The change in the name came when an Instagram follower of the Canadian singer asked if she had considered changing the name of the child and she replied with, "X AE A-Xii."

However, the performer didn't provide further insight concerning the reason behind the change.

Canadian singer Grimes gave birth to her first child on May 4.

The 32-year-old had earlier taken to Twitter and explained the meaning of the baby's name.  

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