Theatre cancels shows of 'Bajirao Mastani' after BJP's protest

Mumbai, Jul 2: The Mumbai police have summoned noted filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali for questioning in connection with the Sushant Singh Rajput suicide case. According to several reports, casting director Shanoo Sharma too might be questioned in connection with the star’s death.

Reports also state that Kangana Ranaut and Shekhar Kapur, who are not directly involved with the investigation, are likely to be asked to record their statements.

The development comes days after the cops had asked for the details of SSR’s contract with Yashraj Films. The MS Dhoni actor had starred in Shuddh Desi Romance and Detective Byomkesh Bakshi, which were backed by the banner. He was supposed to team up with YRF for Paani, directed by Kapur, but the movie was on hold due to creative differences between the Mr India helmer and the production house.

Sushant died by suicide on June 14, leaving his near and dear ones in a state of shock. Following his demise, fans alleged that several Bollywood biggies had tried to sabotage his career as he was an ‘outsider’, reigniting the nepotism debate.

SSR, who hailed from Patna, made an impact in the TV industry before entering Bollywood with the sleeper hit Kai Po Che. He impressed fans with his performances in PK and Shuddh Desi Romance, consolidating his standing in the industry. It was, however, MS Dhoni that established him as a bankable star. Chhichore was his last theatrical release before his death. Drive, backed by Karan Johar, released directly on Netflix. His last film Dil Bechara is slated to release on Disney+ Hotstar on July 24.

Bandipur, Jan 28: British adventurer Bear Grylls and superstar Rajinikanth arrived at the Bandipur Tiger Reserve and National Park in Karnataka on Tuesday for shooting a special episode of the show 'Man vs Wild'.

The actor arrived at the location dressed in comfortable sporty clothes. Donning a dark blue jacket and grey track pants, Rajinikanth was also carrying a cross-body sling bag.

Videos and photographs of Rajinikanth arriving at a helipad were shared widely on social media.

Reports say that an agreement was signed between the Karnataka Forest Department represented by the Field Director of Bandipur and Banijay Group, Seventaurus Entertainment Studio Private Ltd, Mumbai for shooting of the documentary in December 2019. The team was also allowed to do a recce from December 27th to 29th as per the agreement, a report said.

The shooting has been permitted for six hours. "Permission for the shooting has been given for Sultan Batteri highway and ranges of Mulleholle, Maddur and Kalkere ranges. They will be shooting in non-tourist zones. If permission was given for the shooting of Wild Karnataka, then this can also be permitted. Also, no tourist or regular forest patrolling activities will be affected. The shooting will be done under special forest protection and no one will be aware of the locations," a forest official was quoted as saying in another news report.

Earlier in 2019, Grylls shot an episode of the show with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Grylls is also back with the latest edition of his National Geographic show ‘Running Wild With Bear Grylls’, where actors such as Channing Tatum, Brie Larson, Joel McHale, Cara Delevingne, Rob Riggle, Armie Hammer and Dave Bautista take on adventurous challenges in remote wilderness.

California, Jun 30: Online video-sharing platform YouTube on Monday banned several prominent channels, including those belonging to Stefan Molyneux and Richard Spencer.

The company banned six channels for repeatedly violating YouTube's policies.

According to The Verge, other channels banned include American Renaissance (with its associated channel AmRen Podcasts) and the channel for Spencer's National Policy Institute.

YouTube began taking stern measures on supremacist channels in June 2019.

"We have strict policies prohibiting hate speech on YouTube, and terminate any channel that repeatedly or egregiously violates those policies," the Verge quoted a YouTube spokesperson as saying.

"After updating our guidelines to better address supremacist content, we saw a 5x spike in video removals and have terminated over 25,000 channels for violating our hate speech policies," the spokesperson added.