Bored of playing female characters: Ali Asgar

Agencies
February 2, 2019

Mumbai, Feb 2: Ali Asgar is synonymous for playing female characters on several comedy shows but the actor is now "bored" of them and says he is "mentally out of it." 

Though he has been doing comedy shows like "FIR" and "Jeannie Aur Juju", Ali gained prominence for featuring in a female drag as Dadi in "Comedy Nights with Kapil" and followed it up with "The Kapil Sharma Show".

Such was the success of the character, that it's shadow hasn't left the actor.

"I am now bored of playing female characters because I have nothing new to offer to it. Unless it's written well. Now drag is taken for granted. That just because a man is doing a female character, it's funny. It is not! There's no novelty," Ali told PTI.

The actor says the newness of his character, the energetic Punjabi Dadi in "Comedy Nights with Kapil", worked big time but the steam soon ran off when his female characters started to lose novelty.

"I need some character sketch. Like what is the purpose, nuances, back story of the character? You can't say 'sir you are experienced, you'll pull it off'... It doesn't work like that." 

Ali has rejected a lot of comedy offers because the characters offered to him were not only caricaturish, but also repetitive.
"If someone needed a female character in a drag, the channel or production would only approach me. My argument was: why me in a drag? But they used to say audience wants only me in a drag because I do it the best.

"Trust me, for seven months I had to sit at home because I was getting the same offer before I got 'Jeannie Aur Juju'. This was the time I was doing 'Comedy Circus', award shows, among others," he added.

Ali says the "writing on TV is so weak" that he often struggles to add nuances to his characters as there is nothing new to do.

"I'm mentally out of playing female characters, unless the material is strong. You at least give me 50 percent character sketch and then I'll bring my own 50 percent nuances to it," he adds.

Ali is often asked why he plays female characters and he says he does not want to take up a daily soap just to escape from it.

The actor is awaiting the release of his upcoming horror, "Amavas". The film, directed by Bhushan Patel, also features Nargis Fakhri and Sachiin Joshi, and will hit the theatres on February 8.

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Agencies
January 11,2020

Washington, Jan 11: Fresh off his win at the Golden Globes, actor Joaquin Phoenix participated in a climate change protest and was arrested by the police.

The "Joker" star took part in the weekly protests against climate change, started by Hollywood veteran Jane Fonda.

According to Variety, the 45-year-old actor also addressed the crowd of close to 300 people.

In his short speech, he took aim at the meat and dairy industry for being the third leading cause of the climate crisis.

"Sometimes we wonder what can we do in this fight against climate change, and there is something that you can do today and tomorrow, by making a choice about what you consume," Phoenix said.

"There are things I can't avoid. I flew a plane here today, or last night rather, but one thing I can do is change my eating habits," he added.

Besides Phoenix, veteran Hollywood star Martin Sheen also turned up for the protest and got arrested by the police. Actors Maggie Gyllenhaal and Susan Sarandon were also present.

Capitol Police said it arrested 147 people who were charged with crowding, obstructing or incommoding. All the protestors were later released.

Fonda, who was on stage with Phoenix, called him "one of the greatest living actors today".

She has been protesting weekly as part of her "Fire Drill Fridays" initiative since announcing she was moving to Washington "to be closer to the epicenter of the fight for our climate." Her participation has ended in multiple arrests.

Earlier this month, Phoenix had talked about climate change at the Golden Globes ceremony, asking Hollywood to walk the talk on the issue.

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News Network
May 8,2020

London, May 8: Actor Florence Pugh says the most terrifying aspect of starring in the upcoming superhero film "Black Widow" was doing the Russian accent.

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe's stand-alone film, the Oscar-nominated actor plays Yelena Belova, a sister-figure to Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff/ the titular Black Widow who was trained in the Red Room.

"I was scared because my Russian accent was going to be out there and I didn't know what it sounded like.

"I'm also playing a character who no-one's seen before but they've read about her. I didn't know whether people were going to hate me!" Pugh told ELLE UK for its June issue.

The 24-year-old actor also said the idea of joining the MCU itself was quite "daunting".

"When you think of Marvel, it's big and daunting. Especially being a relatively small actor to look at it and go, 'Oh! I'm going to be a part of this', that's a big decision," she said.

"Black Widow", which was scheduled to hit the theatres on May 1, will now release on November 6 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Directed by Cate Shortland, the film also stars David Harbour and Rachel Weisz.

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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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