Agents of Pak artistes accused of demanding payment in black

Washington, Jun 11: Music maestro AR Rahman has joined the international film 'No Land's Man' as co-producer and composer.

Helmed by renowned Bangladeshi filmmaker Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, the upcoming movie has Indian thespian Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Australian theatre actor Megan Mitchell, and Bangladeshi musician and actor Tahsan Rahman Khan in pivotal roles.

"Time always gives birth to new worlds, new ideals. The newborn world has new challenges and new stories to tell. This is one such story," Variety quoted Rahman as saying.

The movie chronicles the life of a South Asian, whose journey gets complicated when he meets an Australian woman in the U.S.

The film, shot in the U.S., Australia and India, is predominantly in English with some dialogue in Hindi and Urdu.

'Sacred Games' actor, Siddique said: "The filming experience for this project was challenging but a fulfilling one. AR Rahman's brilliance will definitely make the film richer."

"Farooki and I first spoke about 'No Land's Man' at Film Bazaar in 2014. Between then and now, the film has become even more relevant as it looks at what it means to be a vulnerable person in a racially-divided world," producer Srihari Sathe said.

'No Land's Man' won the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and Asia Pacific Screen Awards' Script Development fund in 2014. It was part of the Asian Project Market at Busan and was chosen as the best project at India's Film Bazaar the same year.

Earlier in January, Siddiqui posted multiple pictures on Instagram with the team of the flick, marking the schedule wrap in New York and Sydney for 'No Land's Man.'

He also captioned the post as: "Wonderful experience with the most energetic team."

Mumbai, Jan 9: A day after Deepika Padukone visited the JNU campus to express solidarity with students who had been attacked, her film "Chhapaak" made another splash on Wednesday over the name of its antagonist.

While Deepika was the focus of many a discussion on social media and beyond for showing up at a public meeting in the university, the film, based on the life of acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal, was also making news for quite another reason.

In what could well be a storm in a 'Twitter cup', "Nadeem Khan" and "Rajesh" began trending on the microblogging site after a magazine article claimed the name of the antagonist had been changed. By 4 pm, 'Nadeem Khan' clocked close to 60,000 tweets and 'Rajesh' close behind with 50,000.

In 2005, Laxmi was disfigured for life when a man called Nadeem Khan and three others allegedly hurled acid at her in Delhi's upscale Khan Market.

In the film based on her life, the narrative remains the same but the names have been changed. So, Laxmi is 'Malti' Agarwal and Nadeem becomes 'Babboo' aka 'Bashir Khan'.

On Wednesday, Swarajya magazine wrote an article headlined, "The Ways Of Bollywood: In Deepika Padukone-Starer Chhapaak, Acid Attacker Naeem Khan Becomes ‘Rajesh'." "As part of a backlash against Padukone's JNU 'meet and greet', social media users researched the names of the characters involved in the movie Chhapaak and conspicuously found the name of main perpetrator Naeem Khan absent," the article alleged.

But in the Meghna Gulzar directed film, there is no mention of any Nadeem or Naeem Khan. Moreover, Rajesh is the name of Malti's boyfriend.

Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Babul Supriyo jumped into the controversy, saying it was another example of "absolute hypocrisy".

"...When you say all characters are fictitious and don't have any resemblance with living beings and all of that, this is absolute hypocrisy. When you change the name which also changes the religion, it has been done very deliberately," Supriyo told a TV channel when asked to comment on the controversy.

South Delhi BJP MP Ramesh Biduri also called for a boycott of the movie.

With Deepika grabbing attention by going to JNU, many appreciated her 'silent solidarity' but others criticised her for "supporting the Leftists" and said it was a promotional stunt ahead of the release.

"#BoycottChhapaak" was trending on Twitter as was "#ISupportDeepika".

Mumbai: The 11th edition of KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival is going virtual this year due to the COVID-19 lockdown. The festival is coming up with a full-slate of 157 films from 42 countries.

Tipped as South Asia's biggest LGBTQIA+ film festival, it is the first Indian film festival to come up with a slate of new programs for this year.

The slate of films include 30 films from India, as well as films from countries like Belarus, Iran, Iceland, Lebanon, Macedonia, Malaysia, Puerto Rico, Tunisia, etc.

"We are extremely delighted to launch the registration for the KASHISH 2020 Virtual with a full slate of films as well as panel discussions, filmmaker Q&As, etc, almost replicating the ground event. Only this year not only Mumbaikars but people across India and the world can participate in the festival and enjoy amazing LGBTQIA+ films, discussions and performances!", said Sridhar Rangayan, festival director.

"We are thrilled by almost 95 per cent of the filmmakers whose films were selected to screen at the ground festival, agreeing to screen with us at our online festival. We are overwhelmed by the response from the filmmakers, and we are really glad to reach their films out to the world. This speaks a lot about their trust and support towards the festival", said Saagar Gupta, Director, Programming.

The registrations to attend the festival is now open and details can be viewed at the festival website http://mumbaiqueerfest.com/attend/ along with information about the film line-up. There are early-bird full-festival passes at a modest price in India and outside India. The early-bird offer will be open for a week.