Diljit, Aamir & Karan Johar’s Met Gala Victory

[00:00:15] Hi, this is Asim. This is Sujoy. This is Amritha. And you're listening to Khandaan, a Bollywood Podcast about the three main Khans of the Hindi film industry. Aamir, Salman, and Shahrukh. Hi, you're listening to Khandaan, a Bollywood Podcast regular feed. Thank you so much for your support over the years. We now have a Patreon channel with bonus content and exclusive merch for those of you who would like to support us. Every dollar goes towards creating more

[00:00:41] and better content. Visit us at patreon.com slash Khandaan Podcast. Hi, and welcome to a new episode of Khandaan Podcast. My name is Asim Burney and I'm joined with my lovely co-host Amrita Ayin Sujoy. Hey, Amrita Ayin. Hey, everybody. Hello. We are back. We heard your complaints. A lot of people were asking, where are you guys?

[00:01:07] I love the 10-minute episodes on YouTube, but I want to have a full one hour again. So we're here. We're back. And we have a lot of catching up to do. We have a lot of news that we want to talk about. Some of the things we watched, some of the things we didn't watch. Amritha didn't watch anything. So as usual, we're back. The one thing that we were going

[00:01:32] to record, Amritha, before you had your little break and your trip, we want to take a moment for Asha Bhosle's passing. Yeah. Yeah. But as you very well said to me that, Asim, I want to talk to this about with Sujoy,

[00:01:47] not with you. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Asha Tai was an institution. And, you know, she was so different from her sister, but not just her sister, but also from a lot of Bollywood or

[00:02:12] Hindi cinema. Like she was a free spirit, a rebel. She ran away as a teenager to marry a man who was no good and then came back and established a career. And the career was completely different. You know, she and it's really funny because when you hear Asha and

[00:02:33] Lata talk together, it's startling how similar their voices were. And I think like, this is why Asha is like such a phenomenon because she understood that the world didn't need two Lata Mangeshkar, you know. So all the people that Lata Mangeshkar is supposed to have ruined their

[00:03:02] careers, right? All of them were sort of Lata Mangeshkari or they sounded like Lata Mangeshkar. But why would you go for a knockoff version of Lata Mangeshkar when the real deal is right in front of fear, right? And what Asha Bosley did was that she created her own sound and she's spoken about it, you know, what it meant for her. Like she'd listened to a lot of Western news, like she'd listened to

[00:03:31] the way they pitched their voices and she deliberately went for the kind of songs that her sister wasn't singing. Like Lata Mangeshkar very famously didn't want to do cabaret songs. You know, she only did one cabaret song in her entire career. That was for Helen. And it's a very racist song to boot. But it's a banger of a song, don't get me wrong. But yeah, it's like people. Yeah, like people with

[00:03:58] like, you know, it's like people in blackface and cages and shit like it. We don't need that. That's just Bollywood for you. It was the time. That could happen in the next Akshay Kumar movie, you know. Sure. That's the reason that this was in the past. This could literally happen again. And literally, like she, like she changed with every, with every era. And she, you know,

[00:04:28] she was doing cabaret, then she was doing guzzles, she was doing indie pop. Her last recorded song was for the gorillas, which is insane. You know, like that's the kind of trajectory this woman had. But my favorite, I mean, Asha Tai songs are the slower ones, you know, like,

[00:04:54] not just like the Umrawojaan songs, but like the very seductive ones, you know. Yeah, I don't know if I'll miss her because her songs are so strong and they'll always be there. But she lived a wonderful life and rest in peace, Aasha Tai. I would also argue in a way, I feel she's more influential with today's singers, female singers,

[00:05:21] than even Lata was, right? I think Lata really feels of that era where Aasha almost liberated herself from every era because she's been so prolific, right? And she adapted so well and she was so nimble. But yeah, Sujo, any thoughts?

[00:05:39] I feel inadequate to say much about Aasha Tai because, like, I grew up listening to her and I continue to listen to her every single day throughout my 20s, my 30s and now in my 40s and I will continue to do so. Her work lives in my playlist forever. She was the voice of Cabaret, as Amrita said, you know.

[00:06:07] The moment you think of Helen, the voice of Asha Tai comes to mind. She was one of the pioneers of indie pop music, whether it be her collaboration with Leslie Lewis or even the R.D. Berman remixes. She was the pioneer of the remix industry, you know, before the industry could catch up. All the Rahul R.D. Berman songs that she remixed with Leslie Lewis was there.

[00:06:35] Her A.R. Rahman songs, her songs for Dil Toh Pagal Hai was a whole new generation of people listening to Aasha Bosley with the face of Urmila Matonkar or the face of Karisma Kapoor, you know, and not just Helen for the previous generation. And she's done justice to not just devotional numbers, to ghazals, to cabaret, to modern dance tracks,

[00:07:02] to the most difficult of classical songs. If you pick up the most difficult song there is in the Lakin soundtrack, which is famous for Yara Sili Sili, but there is a song called, what's the song called, Jhute Nena Bole, which is insanely difficult. It's a Ragwes track that Aasha Tai just woke up and sang it probably.

[00:07:29] It's just like the sort of discipline that required and the masterful artistry that requires to render that song and make it come to life is just insane. So just talking about the talent and obviously the global influence of her collaboration with other international artists. And obviously I won't be able to complete the story about Aasha Bosley without talking about her tribute that made it into British music,

[00:07:57] which we know as one of the, you know, one hit wonders from Corner Shop called Brimful of Aasha, which was very, very famous as the, you know, the Fatboy Slim remix. That is dedicated to Aasha Bosley. And yeah, her legacy, her reach and her music lives on. I don't know.

[00:08:21] Like I used to see her appear until last year, probably in, you know, the music reality show. She was always still active in the music scene. So she never left the industry as such. And everybody revered her. Everybody knew the masters she was. And I'm glad that people did that. She was never forgotten and she will never be forgotten. Yeah.

[00:08:48] Yeah, it's, it's, it's, I mean, she had an amazing career and an amazing life. And I think that those songs and those musics, music will always stay with us. I think also, you know, you're saying, it's talking about Brimful of Aasha, but Churalia, right? Like Bali Sagu's, like that whole album, that song created what Britpop, Asian British music became, right? Without her, it wouldn't be possible. So like her influence is so wide reaching. It's crazy, right?

[00:09:17] Because, because I'm talking about, you know, I actually was in a, I was in a press conference thing not too long ago, like a week or two ago with Shreya Ghoshal. In, she was doing her Hearts album, which is kind of live renditions. And I was invited to listen to her talk about it. But it was a mess of a PR campaign, set up. So they had like 40 people in the same Zoom call. And then it was like one person gets to ask a question.

[00:09:46] So obviously after the sixth question, they ran out of time. So I was like, what am I doing here? But it was this thing where a few times she sang live in the Zoom call. And we, since Corona, we've all been in Zoom calls. But being in a Zoom call with Shreya Ghoshal who's singing, it's like the talent is so, it hits you so hard, right? Like, and I just think like... Because nobody sounds good on a Zoom call.

[00:10:15] And then Shreya Ghoshal is singing on a Zoom call. And even with the bad audio quality, it just seeps through, right? It just... That's it. Like in a room, in a small room, there's no like, we know like audio call. Quality can be great. And she's just belting out Sayara. She's just belting out these songs. And I'm like, oh my God. Like all my, you know, snarkiness and like feeling of making a joke. All of that goes away because I'm so in awe of her talent.

[00:10:42] And then Shabostas passing happened. And I was like, oh my God. Like when you see talent like that, you know, like in your lifetime, it is so powerful that when it goes away, you're like, oh my God. Like it's a space that will never get filled up again, right? So yeah. She's definitely once in a lifetime talent. She defined Bollywood to me, like Bollywood music.

[00:11:08] Like not to discount her work in other regional languages, which I'm not that familiar. But yeah, Bollywood music is quite incomplete without the presence of Asha Tai. There are also these amazing clips of her, you know, in concert and on reality singing shows, et cetera, where she was a judge.

[00:11:30] And it's so delightful because somebody will sing one of her songs and they will do a good job of it. It's not like they're bad at what they're doing. They're very, very good. And then she'll listen and then she'll like sort of nod along and then she'll just casually pick up the microphone and start singing the same thing and just elevate it.

[00:11:57] You know, like there's like there'll be like little dips and little trebles that she will introduce into it. And it will just impart so much character. And when you hear her talk about her work, you realize that all of that, you know, was completely intentional, that she intended it to sound like that. And she wanted to always bring that slight Western tinge to her songs.

[00:12:28] And then you listen to Umrao Jaan and you are just like, whoa, you know. It's the other end or like Leakin, as Sujoy was saying, you know. So she really was a woman who could do anything. And we were very, very lucky that we got to be a part of her journey as her audience. So moving on to the next topic, and it seems to be a man that can do anything at the moment.

[00:12:56] I want to talk a bit about Amir Khan. Because we got this little note on Instagram that, you know, one of our Patreon listeners was mentioning. You have to talk about this. It's Faridun. Faridun, our old friend Faridun. Shareyar from... One side of friendship. Yeah, yeah. I'd love to go on, man. I think he'd be a great guest. I think I should reach out to Faridun, actually. That he should come on Khan Khan. I'd love to hear his war stories.

[00:13:24] He made a little reel, very dramatic, like with, you know, like Inception backgrounds, Hans Zimmer scores about what is going on with Amir Khan. Like in the last few years. Like this man had the biggest hit. He changed cinema so many times, you know. He went to China. He became a god over there. Like, you know, all of this was happening. But in the last few years, something has gone wrong. And we cannot figure out what's going on.

[00:13:53] In terms of performances, like it's not working. You know, we thought maybe Thugs of Hindustan was a fluke. But Lal Singh Chadda, again, didn't really work, right? Secret... Not Secret Superstar. The sitar is a meme. I guess like he was trying to do something. But I don't think like even if the movie made money, nobody's going to say that's the top 10 movie of Amir's career or anything like that, right? And then he's been doing these productions that he's doing Ek Din that completely flopped again.

[00:14:23] And then he did Happy Patel, which also didn't work. So, and then beside that, he's been on this very apologetic tour about apologizing about everything. Doing four-hour podcasts, five-hour podcasts about apologies for this, apologies for being a bad dad, apologies for being a bad husband, apologies for screwing up, you know, other movies and apologizing about, you know. I want to ask a question.

[00:14:50] Who is his therapist and what have they put him to do? Like, is this his therapy tour? Like the therapy told him, do this in public. Like, tell them all your grievances so that you can overcome your trauma for some reason. Like who's walking behind Amir Khan with a bell saying shame, shame, shame. Like who's the one? What is this Game of Thrones situation when he's being put through?

[00:15:16] But I'm sure Amrit, you have some thoughts about that because I remember you did watch 20 minutes of Happy Patel before giving it up. Yeah, I really tried. I was excited to watch Happy Patel. I wanted to watch it. I watched 20 minutes of it and it was just, look, I just don't find Amir Das funny. It's as simple as that. You know, like I don't find him funny.

[00:15:38] I tried really hard to find him funny and I thought like maybe, I thought maybe because he was acting in this movie, then it would be a different tone. And therefore like it would be more like Deli Belli or like one of those things. And I did enjoy Deli Belli. So I was like, oh, okay, like maybe he's going to match that tone. But instead the movie matched his tone rather than him matching the movie's tone. And I was just like, oh, like that didn't really work for me. Like no hate to be with us.

[00:16:09] You know, I just, he just isn't my cup of tea. It's as simple as that. And Eegdin, I, I feel like it's homework, you know, like I am being punished for liking Saipa Lavi enough to support her work.

[00:16:27] I don't, I don't know if I, if I want to, but I also have like, you know, I realized Junaid has made three films so far and I've watched two of them already. So I might as well just watch the third one. You're the Junaid completist. Yeah. And Mahalaj actually was a good film, you know, it was just that love and Love Yappa wasn't that bad. It was like a very run of the mill film. Like I've said, I've talked about this before.

[00:16:56] So yeah, maybe Eegdin will also be one of those things. I don't know. But Aamir is going through some stuff. But all this doom and gloom about Aamir, I feel is very much driven by the Bollywood subreddit, the lines and gossip subreddit, which is weirdly like, I don't know who's running it.

[00:17:23] Because you know, like all the stuff that comes on it, like all the stuff that's trending on it is driven by PR houses. And you can see that from a mile away. And I don't know who is running this Aamir is a wreck campaign. But they've been running it consistently for a couple of months. And now it's gaining traction. And like more people are just like, oh yeah, like he's a bit of a wreck, isn't he? And he is apparently just, you know, he can't commit. He can't sign a movie.

[00:17:53] He doesn't know what movie to do, like blah, blah, blah. But the way they are making it sound, he hasn't had a movie, like he hasn't worked on a movie in 10 years. Like that's not true. He's had movies that have come out. They just haven't been very good. And that's sadly the way like a creative person's career goes. That you have your highs and then you have your lows. Right now he's in his lows. It's as simple as that.

[00:18:21] And Aamir being Aamir, he is also probably thinking of retirement. I wouldn't be surprised if he's not. So yeah, what we are probably seeing is Aamir sort of figuring out what it means to be an elder statesman in Bollywood. And how he can bring that about in his own very special, unique Aamir way.

[00:18:47] And he is being irritating while he's doing it because he's Aamir Khan and he's irritating. Like that's literally this man's personality. It has been for like 40 years. I don't know what to tell you if you haven't noticed that before. But he's annoying. Like he never does anything that you expect him to do or like any rational person to do. So that's what's happening. But also like I would say like it literally takes one Friday to change all of this. Yeah.

[00:19:16] A good movie drops with Aamir Khan and all of these people would be like, oh Aamir Khan, he's our God. And that's all it takes. It's just that he's in a low phase. So if there is a movie out there where he can collaborate with the right minds, with the right creators, and he is in it with the right form of script that is suitable for his sort of craft.

[00:19:39] And it all lands, you know, it falls into pieces, releases on the right time, has the right amount of marketing and finds the right audience at the right time. Yeah. It's tall. I think also it's, I feel slightly overblown because both Shah Rukh and Salman have had low phases, you know. I would argue Akshay has been in a low phase for the last maybe 15 years or something like that, right?

[00:20:08] But there's this idea that Aamir drives cinema in a way that more than Shah Rukh and Salman maybe do or Akshay do. He really drives it. He's like a catalyst for change and a catalyst for cinema. And I think the other problem that he's maybe also seeing is that cinema doesn't know what it wants at the moment. And I think cinema is just in a space where we don't know what's going to work, what's not going to work.

[00:20:33] I mean, I got a PR email from one of the companies about the new Pati Patni. Or Do. Do thing. And they called it the Pativerse. Literally in the email, they called it the Pativerse. And I understand that it's probably joking, but somebody is also serious about this, right? And I'm like, is the state of cinema that we want the Pativerse? Is that where we are?

[00:21:02] You know, is it the Mad Dogverse, the Pativerse? And if that's the case, that's not a cinema that Aamir would necessarily fit in, I feel. And I think that's maybe the problem where he's not really finding his groove because we don't know what we want, you know? Look at Ayushman Kharana's career at the moment, right? Like, I would say from the young batch, he's one of those guys that maybe emulates, you know, Aamir's path a little bit. And he's completely lost.

[00:21:31] Like, he has no clue what he's doing. Nothing's really working. There's no excitement for his Pativerse movie at all, I feel. And it's probably going to flop too. And it's just kind of a very interesting, you know, time we're in. So, I don't know. I don't know. I think that's probably more to do with, you know? And I think he's probably going through some things, you know, like age-wise, you know, like you're reflecting midlife crisis, whatever you want to call it.

[00:22:00] He's probably past midlife crisis. But he's going through some things that clearly you can see that. But I don't know. I think they also have different approaches, right? Because Shah Rukh took an active break, right? And he just stepped away. And Aamir hasn't really done that necessarily. He's like more in our faces. And Salman kind of just works through it. He just does like, he doesn't care. He'll just keep on working. Big boss. Big boss. Yeah. Yeah. He'll just keep working. Akshay will do the same thing.

[00:22:30] Ajay will do the same thing. They'll just keep working. But Aamir has to like analyze and talk and like, you know, process it in public. And maybe that's just a bit cringe for a lot of people. Like it's a lot. You're asking a lot of us, your fans, your people that actually still enjoy your movies and your output to go and sit, listen to you for five hours, talk about. And I don't feel like, I feel Shah Rukh when he speaks, I want to listen to him. You know?

[00:22:59] I don't have that with Aamir when I'm like, oh, another, like I've literally not seen this interview. Aamir is the biggest Aamir fan of this podcast, right? Like this five hour podcast, I have not watched any of them. Like I watched them on TikTok with a reel. That's it. So I don't know. Like it's kind of a tough situation to be in. But his new one is dropping. I don't know if you saw the posters for Lahore 1947. It's 1947.

[00:23:28] Is that actually going to come out? Like I think it's been renamed into something. I don't know. That's what I thought. But I saw the posters. But I don't know. Is it AI posters? Because. It could be. Yeah. It could be. But Tisita looked really good on it. So I was like, no way I can make her look that good. She looks really good. Like naturally. I mean, you know, I'm meaning it as a compliment. I'm not meaning it as a compliment. Don't dial it back, Aasem.

[00:23:57] We all heard you. But yeah. So those posters I saw. But apparently they're still going ahead with the name or the title of it. So I don't know what's going on. You know, it's like a Karachi bakery situation for you guys. So you can't stop my problem. Karachi bakery. Next one topic that we have that I want to talk about is the Med Gala.

[00:24:27] And I know that a lot of people want to hear Amrita's thoughts. But I'm not even sure Amrita has thoughts about the Med Gala this year. Yeah. Why do you want? Go ahead. No. Why would anyone want my thoughts? I'm like. The thoughts about Karan Johar. Like, Amrita, you're not on TikTok. So you don't know. I think Karan Johar won the Med Gala on TikTok. He did. He did. No, I don't need to be on TikTok. No, I don't need to be on TikTok.

[00:24:58] Like Reddit was all over it. Instagram was all over it. And now I'm still not back on Twitter. Even the haters of Karan Johar were like, oh, he did it. You know? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was fine. Like, it was a little on point for the theme. But that's what I expect of Manish Malhotra. And I'm glad for Karan because... What was the theme? Fashion and art. Art. Yeah. Fashion. No.

[00:25:28] Art. Fashion as art. I think it was the theme. Okay. And, you know, like, I guess Manish Malhotra saw it as like art as fashion. But, you know. But it was a good outfit. Like, I... Like, you know. And it really suited him as well. And I'm very glad for him that he got to do his little Met Gala thing. But honestly, like, I don't see what's there to, like, talk about. Like...

[00:25:57] Yeah. I was just really happy for him because he really wanted it. Like, you know. Like, he really wanted this praise. He wanted, like... And he's been working on it for so long. So, transforming into Karl Lagerfeld in the last 10 years. You know. Like, he really wants it. So, I'm really just happy for him, you know. It was just really funny to me because I saw, like, a whole bunch of... Like, Formois, which is the Reddit version of Derma.

[00:26:25] They had, like, an article about it, you know. And they were all just like, oh, this is, like, the best outfit of the night. He's won it hands down. Which I'm sure, like, you know, Karan was clipping. Like, his PR service was, like, clipping and sending to Karan. But it was really funny because, like, all the Americans were like, well, that's how you do it. That's amazing. Like, blah, blah, blah. And there were, like, all these Indians in the comments. And they were just like, yeah. But, like, you know what?

[00:26:53] Like, this guy, he cheers on the fascists. He was there for, like, you know, the RSS thing and the Drammandu thing. And, like, you know, they were just like, I don't know. Like, I didn't know that so many, like, lefty, liberal NRIs frequented Formois. Who knew? I thought, like, all of them were, like, right-wingers. But apparently, no.

[00:27:23] Like, they were just like, you've got to watch out for the snake in the grass. And his name is Karan Johar. And I was like, okay. I saw one guy who was talking about, like, Karan Johar. Yeah, I saw Karan Johar too, yeah. But, you know, good for you. Good for Karan Johar. Good for K.O. and his yo-yo, you know. Like, I'm happy for him. I do wish, because I only saw the ones in the front.

[00:27:53] I do wish in the back there was, like, Deepika saying, art. Yeah, art. Art. That would have been amazing. And they don't have the imagination or the chutzpah for that. Put me in charge. I also wear devil Prada, you know. I also wear devil Prada. Shaitan, Tehne Prada.

[00:28:40] Yeah. I hate it. But happy for Karan Johar though. I don't know. Were there any other looks or anything from, like, Desi people there? I don't know. Like... I mean, there were a bunch of, like, weirdos. Like, you know, there was the Ambani daughter who showed up in all her mother's emeralds. And was just, like, oh, like, this is for my mom, my mom, my mom. And then this arm of Hyderabad. And I was just, like, I know. Yeah.

[00:29:06] I thought she was, like, she was meeting up with Aditya Pancholi and Yes Boss. Yeeval A. And then... You had a double R going with Aditya Pancholi. And then there was, like... I know. There was also, like, Ananya Birla and, of course, Natasha Poonawalla. Basically, all the billionaire class were there, you know. Now that Bezos owns the math.

[00:29:35] But, yeah. Who cares? No one cares. I mean, it must... Being that rich, right? And still not being the talk of the town must be... I don't know. It must be frustrating, no? Like, the richest person and nobody gives a damn about your fruit basket, you know. Like, it's... I don't know. I don't care enough, to be honest. Like, yeah. Anyway. Yeah. I just wanted to go quickly over the Met Gala. What else do we have?

[00:30:04] Asim, you really sound like you're underwater. Is it? Yeah. I don't know what to do now. It's much better. Yeah. Now you're fine. Yeah. Stay back, yeah. Next topic I had here was Vijay won the election. I think Vijay himself is, like, so shocked that he won the election. He's just like, what? What? Me? I'm going to be the chief minister? But, yeah. What's going on here?

[00:30:34] Because this seems like a Shankar movie or something. No, it's been wild. Like, the memes have been flying, like, fast and furious for the past few days. Like, all my friends are obsessed. Apparently, like, people are, like, saying, making jokes about, like, how they're canceling their Netflix subscription because all they want to do is follow all the twists and turns of this case on Twitter because it's more entertaining than anything else.

[00:31:02] But, yeah, he finally got all the signatures and support that he needed. And he is going to be the next chief minister of Tamil Nadu. And, you know, like, Trisha is going to be his first lady, I guess. Wild, wild times. But what are these policies? Like, what does he start? I have a meme. I have a meme. I have a meme. Me and Yamini have been sharing memes.

[00:31:31] So, it's more of a Reddit thread. So, is TVK, the party which Vijay is the leader of, is TVK a BJP front? Somebody replied, only Vijay knows everyone is yet to determine his ideological leanings. Reply, vote for him is all on vibes. Which is true. No, it really is, though. It really is.

[00:31:58] I don't think he's going to be a BJP guy, A, because the BJP, like, really went after him for being, like, a Christian. And they're all just like, well, do you know his first name is Michael? Like, they've been, like, really, like, sort of drilling down on that. So, I don't think. And also, he, the Congress is supporting him. But, like, you know, there's, like, wheels within wheels. And there's, like, a whole lot of, like, political context. Which, I don't think you care about us.

[00:32:27] And so, there's, like, a whole bunch of things that I don't care about, to be very honest. So, all the, and I just have, like, a whole bunch of useless information now because of the memes. But the big point is he is going to give a lot of free stuff to people. And he's going to be the chief minister. So, yay. I also just feel like we should just embrace it now.

[00:32:55] I think more and more celebrities should be the ones in power. I feel, you know. Yeah, why not? Like, and also, like, we should take it further. We're only in stage one here where it's actors. Stage two is going to be influencers. You know, I cannot wait for, you know, influencers to be our presidents. Funnily enough, the BJP fielded a couple of influencers in Kerala. Which was, like, an amazing, like, I don't even know what they were thinking.

[00:33:24] Because I think they thought that because Suresh Gobi, who is a film actor, was their first member of parliament, you know, elected from Kerala as a member of the BJP. So they thought that, you know, we need to, like, really lean into the celebrity thing. So they got a couple of big boss winners. And they put them as their candidates for the state elections that just happened.

[00:33:51] And both of them not only lost, but they lost their deposit. Like, they, like, they really lost. One of them was, you know, it's just one of these things, you know, like, they, I think if you go on reality TV, you become an influencer. And I think it sort of inculcates a kind of psychosis in people. Because they immediately become tone deaf.

[00:34:19] They have no idea what they sound like to, like, normal people. So this man took his wife on a TV program. And, you know, the woman is, like, really well known for being this very conservative host. She doesn't believe in feminism. She thinks that women should be, you know, sitting at home. They shouldn't be working. While she's having a job herself, you know.

[00:34:47] This is, like, this is always the grift that conservative women all around the world, you know, they always run the same thing. Like, none of you should have a job. But I, I should have a job. I should have my own money. Thank you. Anyway, so this woman is, like, lobbing softball questions at this man and his wife. And this man calls his wife an idiot on TV. Like, literally says, oh, you know, she's such an idiot. Like, you know. And he's, like, taunting her.

[00:35:17] He's, like, to the point where the host is just, like, my God. Like, you can't talk to your wife like that. Like, it was that bad. And he genuinely was just, like, well, I don't know why everyone's so upset. And then he lost his election. And then I guess he figured out why everyone was so upset. But it's insane. Like, all these people. I have no idea. There's a Lakshya Kumar movie in there somewhere. Probably. Probably.

[00:35:47] Did you lift her up on her shoulders, though? In front of everybody. Because that's what happened on Pakistani TV the other day. And that created a lot of controversy, too. Like, some married couple came on stage. And then the husband lifted his wife up in front of everybody. Like, on his shoulder. Ass out. And I was like, what is going on? Like, it's insane. It was funny. Yeah. Oh, I do want to give a shout out to something that I absolutely love.

[00:36:13] I know that a lot of people don't understand how my brain works sometimes. I know two of those people are on this podcast. But if you want to understand how my brain works, or part of it works, 50-50, the sketch comedy show from the 80s from Pakistan has now been remastered. As much as they can remaster VHS print. So it's not really remastered. But they have put these remastered episodes on the PTV YouTube channel.

[00:36:42] And it's like the Pakistani television. So it's such an old and defunct channel that it might not even be banned. So you might actually go watch it. And oh my God, those sketches are still so hilarious. And I have referenced a few of those on this podcast that you guys don't know where the reference comes from. So if you want to know where the references come from, when you watch something that you're too young to watch and you don't get it, but it alters your brain chemistry.

[00:37:10] That was what 50-50 was for me. So go watch those episodes on the PTV YouTube channel if you want to see some really, really good comedy from back in the 80s. For people that don't know, it has that sketch of two Punjabi lovers are talking to each other in English. It's like, what a way? Oh, yeah. That's 50-50. If you don't know. Oh, shut up, Prano. But so many, man.

[00:37:40] If you watch it, there's like so many. It's like, yeah. It's from that too. It's hilarious. It's hilarious. Diljeet Tosanj was on Fallon two weeks ago. Did you guys catch that? I watched the Moroni performance. That's about it, really. And it was fired. No, I watched this interview as well. Yeah.

[00:38:07] I think it's his second or third, maybe, appearance on American TV, I think. But I think something here, it pierced through. Like a lot of non-desi people are like, hmm, Diljeet is kind of hot, which is interesting. The white ladies on Instagram are like thirsting hard on him.

[00:38:32] And also, they're trying to do the Bhangra because like Diljeet was teaching Jimmy how to do the Bhangra. And they're just like, well, maybe this is like the way to Diljeet's heart. We'll just do the Bhangra now. So, it's pretty funny. But good for Diljeet. Yeah, it's like Karan Johor and his med girl. Two thoughts that I saw.

[00:38:55] One was exactly that about a lot of white women are commenting about, hmm, he's kind of hot, you know. And then the internet outrage cycle is so quick, then you have already like non-white influencers talking about how white women will say that they've discovered something being hot or someone being hot when all of the world has already discovered him like years ago and understands that he's hot and talented and charming and things like that.

[00:39:23] So, both of those arguments are happening, which I thought was very, very interesting. But the second thing that I watched, and I should have taken down the note because I thought it was a very interesting thing. It was a Punjabi influencer and she had made a video and she was basically saying that stop wanting Diljeet Dushanj to be Sidhu Musawala.

[00:39:51] Because Sidhu was Tupac where Diljeet is Justin Bieber. But that's the difference. Like he wants to be popular. He wants to be an entertainer where Sidhu wanted to be a voice of, you know, the downtrodden. And I think a lot... Well, there's also, you know, like, and I don't know things well enough to like really talk about it.

[00:40:20] But I think it's also maybe a caste thing. And it's definitely a class thing. You know, like Sidhu Musawala came from like a... From like very much like the way... Diljeet pretends to be from the class that Sidhu actually was from. That's basically what it is. Where, you know, Diljeet will come and is like, oh, I don't know how to speak the English. I am the man of the Punjab. Like, you know, like that whole thing.

[00:40:50] And the whole time he's like living in a mansion in Canada, you know, with the wife and kid that he never like talks about. So it's an interesting, it's a layered sort of experience that you have between those two. And there's a reason why Sidhu got murdered. And... And Diljeet is doing border too. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, yeah.

[00:41:19] So I just thought, again, like you, I don't know the intricacies of, you know, where they place themselves in the culture. But I felt those, from one appearance on Fallon, those two ideas were kind of, you know, seeping through the grapevine of the internet discussions. So I thought both of those takes were quite interesting. But yeah.

[00:41:43] What it also made me think was what other artists would be on Fallon if it was not Diljeet. Like from the Indian subcontinent or Pakistan, which is like, there is a machinery working for that to happen, for Coachella to happen. For, you know, it's not just a lot of people listen to Punjabi music and they have listened to Punjabi music.

[00:42:09] Like, the Lear Mehendi is much bigger than Diljeet O'Sanj for me, of people of my generation. But the Lear Mehendi never did Coachella. He always performed in Canada. He performed in Brampton. He performed in London. But it's not the same as, you know. I really wish, like, Sunidi wrote her own songs because, like, it would have been, like, she would have been fantastic at Coachella, you know.

[00:42:39] Or there's, of course, Hanuman Kind. But there is this young singer-songwriter called Marianne Alexander. And she's Malayali. And she's on her, she's already in the United States. I think she's, like, auditioning for record companies. And she's trying to sign her first deal. And she has this amazing voice.

[00:43:03] And she is, she's going to be a huge talent if, you know, they actually let her cut a record. But right now, I don't think anyone out of the Punjabi, I know everyone's, like, cut a nodular and everything. But, no, I don't think so. I think Karan Oja was on Jimmy Fallon, if I'm not mistaken. Was he? I think he might have been. I'll Google this quickly. I have this memory of him being on something.

[00:43:33] But otherwise, also, Noda was on there, right? Noda Fatehi. Are we counting her as Indian now? I mean, she was, right? Yeah, Karan Oja was on Jimmy Fallon. Oh, was he? He did The Girl and Boyfriend, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And he also teaches Bhangara to Jimmy Fallon. So, Jimmy Fallon, man, like, learned it. Already. He's not here to teach it. He's making a fool.

[00:44:00] The other name that kind of came up to me when we were thinking about it was Junita Gandhi, actually. Oh, yeah. Who has a very filmy discography, but also private songs, like, you know, non-filmy music. She's very good at it. She's had a few collaborations and stuff like that. And I think she wants it. You know, she wants to be that kind of star. So, that could be another person that could break through, maybe, you know. But, yeah.

[00:44:30] White women need to find you, you know, to do that. I think we're done with topics, right? Anything else you want to bring up? Anything else that I forgot? Yeah, that's about it. Oh, there's a... I will be discussing romance books on Craft Lit, which is a YouTube channel. And I will be posting the link to that.

[00:44:57] It's a YouTube podcast. And it's with my friend Becca, who is one of our Patreons. And Heather, who runs the channel. And it is... Yeah, it'll be out soon. I need to get the link. And then I'll post it in our Patreon for people to watch, if they are so inclined. Maybe I'll put in the show notes of this episode just the link.

[00:45:24] And then people can subscribe already and kind of watch out when the episode drops. Maybe that can be better. Yeah. And maybe I'll do a Patreon catch-up on the Korean movies I've been watching. Oh, yes, please. Yeah, I've been like... You mentioned The Forgotten, right? So, I added it to my list, but I haven't... I don't know if that was Korean or Chinese. Korean. Yeah, so I'm going to watch that one, too, because you recommended it so strongly.

[00:45:52] But yeah, I do want to hear more about your Korean adventures lately. So, that's going to be on Patreon. I think this is it for this episode. Next episode, we are doing a Patreon pick, which is going to be Ye Dil Lagi. So, tune in, become a patron, choose movies that we talk and discover. And thanks for listening.

[00:46:26] Hello.