Women-centric films not conscious decision: Vidya Balan

Washington, Jul 26: Regis Philbin, the iconic television personality best-known for his hosting duties on 'Live!' with co-hosts Kathie Lee Gifford and Kelly Ripa, and 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,' has died. The beloved star was 88.

According to People Magazine, the longtime television host died on July 24. His family shared a statement on Saturday, "We are deeply saddened to share that our beloved Regis Philbin passed away last night of natural causes, one month shy of his 89th birthday,"
"His family and friends are forever grateful for the time we got to spend with him - for his warmth, his legendary sense of humour, and his singular ability to make every day into something worth talking about. 

We thank his fans and admirers for their incredible support over his 60-year career and ask for privacy as we mourn his loss," the Philbin family says.

Philbin began his iconic career in 1988, as the host of 'Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee' alongside TV presenter Kathie Lee Gifford. After 15 years, Gifford left the ABC show but the pair remained close after her departure.

In 2001, the franchise became 'Live! with Regis and Kelly', co-starring Kelly Ripa before he left in 2011 after 23 years on-air.

From 1999 to 2002, Philbin also served as the original host of the widely popular game show 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.' In addition, the New York City native's hosting credits include 'Million Dollar Password', the first season of 'America's Got Talent', as well as a reoccurring co-host seat on 'Rachael Ray'.

Born on August 25, 1931, Philbin was raised in the Bronx and graduated from Cardinal Hayes High School in 1949 before attending the University of Notre Dame, where he earned a sociology degree in 1953.

After serving in the Navy, Philbin began his career in show business as a writer and made his way in front of the camera in 1961 with a local talk show in San Diego called 'The Regis Philbin Show'. Then in 1967, he became widely known as Joey Bishop's sidekick on 'The Joey Bishop Show'.

After a string of local talk shows, including 'A.M. Los Angeles' and 'Regis Philbin's Saturday Night in St. Louis', the star moved to New York in 1983 to host 'The Morning Show', which was renamed three years later as 'Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee'.

His accolades include Daytime Emmy Awards for outstanding talk show host for 'Live!' in 2001 and 2011 as well as an outstanding game show host for 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'. He also received a Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003 and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Daytime Emmy Awards in 2008.

Throughout his career, Philbin had various health issues. He underwent an angioplasty in 1993, followed by triple bypass surgery due to plaque in his arteries in March 2007. In December 2009, the television personality had his hip replaced.

Married twice, Philbin is survived by daughters J.J. Philbin and Joanna Philbin, whom he shared with his wife of 50 years, Joy Philbin. He was also father to daughter Amy Philbin, whom he shared with his first wife Catherine Faylen. Philbin and Faylen had another child, son Daniel Philbin, who died in 2014.

New Delhi, Jun 26: Actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death has exposed the deep faultlines in the Hindi film industry with issues such as bullying, nepotism and discrimination emerging from tinsel town’s rarely discussed dark corners into the spotlight of introspection and debate.

The days since the death of the 34-year-old actor, whose body was found in his Mumbai apartment on June 14, have split the glamour industry down the middle – between ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’, 'us' vs 'them', and those born to fame and those who sweated for it.

That Rajput, who came from a middle class home in Patna and made his mark in mainstream Hindi cinema in what could be the classic fairytale, ended his life led to soul searching about power structures in Bollywood and also angry accusations at the biggies who call the shots.

'Outsider' Manoj Bajpayee said the structural shift that everyone in the industry wants to see will begin once the powerful abolish the "insider-outsider" divide.

"Nepotism has been in the debate for a few years now. It'll change only if each and every individual who is positioned well, who is established and powerful starts making efforts to make it healthy and democratic for all the talented people who are coming in," Bajpayee said.

“We will have to work very hard to turn this industry into a fraternity where each and everyone is welcomed," he said. Dibakar Banerjee, who directed Rajput in Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!, added that outsiders need to put in twice the amount of work as compared to star children to convince the industry, the public and the box office of their talent.

"The biggest unfairness in all this is that it takes double the talent, energy and hard work for an outsider to convince the audience and the industry that he or she is as safe a box office bet as a mediocre, unmotivated and entitled establishment elite," he told news agency.

Rajput was considered that rare actor, after Shah Rukh Khan perhaps, to have transitioned from television to Bollywood stardom and his death opened the proverbial can of worms.

Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! was produced by Yash Raj Films, which also backed Rajput’s Shuddh Desi Romance. As rumours swirled about unfair contract details, the powerful production house and other industry bigwigs and star children such as Karan Johar, Alia Bhatt and Sonam Kapoor faced ire from not just the public but even some of their colleagues.

The untimely death of the young actor had clearly not just touched a chord but triggered a rallying cry for change.

An out of context, old clip from Johar's chat show Koffee with Karan in which Bhatt is seen joking about Rajput and Kapoor confesses not knowing him fuelled the anger.

Hashtags like #BoycottKhans, #boycottnepotism and #JusticeForSushantSinghRajput started trending online a day after the actor's death with many calling for a boycott for the films made by Johar and featuring star children.

An online petition on Change.org asking fans to boycott Johar, YRF and Salman Khan has gathered almost 38 lakh signatures so far.

Reflecting the split in filmdom, Johar unfollowed everyone on Twitter except eight people, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan.

Hate comments also made actor Sonakshi Sinha, daughter of veteran actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha, deactivate her Twitter account last week.

Kapoor, too, disabled the comments section on her Instagram page and that of her father, veteran actor Anil Kapoor.

The public's angst found resonance in Bollywood with many in the fraternity saying the industry needs to introspect on how it treats outsiders.

Actors Gulshan Devaiah and Sushmita Sen, directors Hansal Mehta and Onir and singers Sonu Nigam and Kumar Sanu were amongst the many people who spoke out on the deeply disturbing issues that Rajput’s death had thrown up.

Mehta made a distinction between nepotism and bullying. 

He said his son Jai Mehta was an assistant director in his own film Shahid and also in Anurag Kashyap's Gang of Wasseypur series. He stepped inside the door because of his father but got ahead because he is talented.

“So when people take off on nepotism they do not really address the elephant in the room. They belittle the real battle -- the battle is between the powerful and the rising, between old and new, between rigidity and change, between secure and insecure,” Mehta said.

The director also criticised those bullying people in the guise of criticism.

“People in power (inherited/earned) have no business bullying those perceived to be less powerful or dependent on them,” he said, adding that the debate had been narrowed down to target certain people not for reform or the larger good.

According to Sen, nepotism is a truth as old as the industry.

“I think competition is a great thing but it should be a fair one for everyone… We have lived with it for many years. If it needs to change then all of us need to take responsibility, no one person,” she told PTI.

Onir said calling out nepotism does not mean denying talent just because someone belongs to the industry.

“It is about empowering all those deserving and talented denied opportunity by blatant discrimination. It’s about marginalising talent and creating a non-inclusive space,” he said.

Devaiah, known for his roles in Shaitan and A Death in the Gunj, said there is a lot of "toxicity" in showbiz because of the power structures but actors need to safeguard themselves from getting into a position where they can "lose control".

The debate was just not about actors but also the music industry.

“I have a request for music companies. Today, Sushant Singh Rajput has died. An actor has died. Tomorrow you might such news about a singer, a composer or a lyricist. The state of affairs in the music industry... there is a bigger mafia in the music industry than the film industry…,” singer Sonu Nigam said in a heartfelt video after Rajput’s death.

His colleague Kumar Sanu also uploaded a video on Facebook this week, saying he can sense a "revolution".

"Since his demise, I can see a different revolution emerging. Nepotism exists everywhere. It's a little more in our industry. You (the audience) make us who we are… Filmmakers or the top people (in the industry) cannot decide. It is in your hand to make us," he said.

As the debate intensified, Aligarh scriptwriter Apurva Asrani said some ‘woke’ friends were trying to crush the movement the actor’s death had sparked.

“Claiming to want dignity for him, they want others to suffer indignity in silence,” he tweeted, sharing a thread in which other such as Shekhar Kapur Ranvir Shorey and Abhay Deol also discussed nepotism and the camp culture in Bollywood.

New Delhi, Jan 2: Hoping her cinematic voice can help bring about lasting change in how society perceives acid attack survivors, actor Deepika Padukone says her latest film Chhapaak should ideally be so impactful that there won't be need for another story on acid violence.

After all, cinema is in itself such a powerful medium, Deepika told news agency ahead of the release of the film, which is based on the life of acid attack survivor and activist Laxmi Agarwal.

The idea behind the social drama is to invoke empathy and understanding rather than paint women who have undergone the ordeal as victims, the actor, who has also produced the film, said in a telephonic interview from Mumbai.

"Beyond the gruesomeness, the violence and all of that, there is a story of the human spirit and hope. That's why we're telling the story," she said.

Deepika, 33, said it was a story that spoke to her and she felt pride in attaching herself to the project.

Chhapaak, directed by Meghna Gulzar and featuring Vikrant Massey, is the second mainstream film to focus on the subject after 2019 Malayalam movie Uyare starring Parvathy Thiruvothu.

"I hope we won't have to constantly tell stories on acid attack survivors for us to see change. I hope with our film we begin to see that change for ourselves as a society and for acid attack survivors.

"If we don't, then we've done something wrong as a society. Cinema in itself is such a powerful medium that hopefully just through this one film we will hopefully be able to see that kind of change and impact," Deepika said.

The actor said there was not much planning behind the decision to back the film financially.

"Sometimes certain films need a little more hand holding, a little more love and support. I felt like I would be adding a little more value as a producer.

"This is a film I'm very proud of, not just from the script point of view but even in terms of the story and its message," she said.

The film, which releases on January 10, will be Deepika's first release in two years and comes after her marriage to frequent co-star Ranveer Singh.

The actor said she used the time to creatively replenish herself.

"It was about finding a film worthy of putting out there. It's not that work at my end had stopped. I was constantly looking for scripts that challenged and excited me.

"I would look at it as time for creative fertility. It's important to nurture yourself. The work that goes on behind the scenes... most often we're constantly on a film set, but whether it's meeting with writers and directors, looking for scripts... That is also part of the creative process and that's what I've been doing."

The title Chhapaak instantly evokes the image of acid being splattered, and Deepika said the director wanted a word for the film's name that could also lend itself to a song.

"I think she said 'chhapaak', which is the sound of a splash, is something that could adapt or lend itself beautifully to a song. Perhaps, it also has to do with fluidity. So on one hand, liquid is known to take different forms, a liquid such as this (acid) can change someone's life forever," she said.