Ep 265- Santosh INTV with Shahana Goswami and Khandaan Live Show

[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. Amir, 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.

[00:00:39] Every dollar goes towards creating more and better content. Visit us at patreon.com slash Khandaan Podcast. Hi guys, this week's episode we're taking a little break from the 80s Dharmaka series and we have two things for you. We have the audio version of our live stream that we did a couple of weeks ago, which is available on video format on our YouTube page.

[00:01:07] So if you want to see our faces and see all of the mayhem that's happening, just go to our YouTube, subscribe there. You can watch the whole video. And we also have an interview with actress Shahana Goswami, which was conducted by our very own Yamini, Papu Charo on Twitter, who was talking about her movie Santosh, which is out in UK theaters now, which is a fascinating conversation. So definitely check that out. Let's start with the interview first and then we'll head over to the live stream.

[00:01:36] So hi Shahana, it's great to meet you. I am Yamini and I saw the film, absolutely loved it. Just brilliant. And I wanted to ask him, I have questions on the side here. Like this character like Santosh Saini, she's such a complex character, just navigating like personal loss and all these systemic challenges that are there.

[00:01:59] How did you prepare for this role? Like, and what aspects of Santosh's journey kind of resonated the most with you? You know, a lot of the prep was just in how detailed Santosh is in the script. And that's something that Sandhya kind of managed to create really beautifully in terms of through the screenplay,

[00:02:24] she kind of made it very apparent, you know, almost like a slice of life kind of way who Santosh is and who she's becoming. You also see her kind of metamorphosizing in front of your eyes because you're seeing her real time going through transformations, going through new situations that she's constantly reacting and responding to. So a lot of it is like her becoming, you know, in a sense.

[00:02:51] And, you know, besides that, of course, a lot of discussions and conversations with Sandhya, you know, working through scenes and motivations and scenes individually. You know, the scenes that Santosh is there alone in and then the scenes that are there with Sharma, for example, Sunita,

[00:03:14] Sandhya and I, we sat and worked through all those scenes and not just in terms of fine tuning the dialogues and the motivation and the intention behind, you know, the scene, but also then just kind of working out physicality and in certain moments, how the actions and things would play out in the scene as well. And, yeah, beyond that, I think I had massive imposter syndrome, which I tend to have anyway.

[00:03:40] And then that imposter syndrome this time extended even to feeling like an imposter as an actor, because I feel like I am someone who's much more instinctive. And I think I disregard my preparation for a character because it's not conventional and it's not something tangible. And so because I don't sit with books and writing and physicality and workshopping or, you know, I feel like I'm not doing enough.

[00:04:08] And I try to do that for Santosh, thinking that I should do it differently and maybe I need to put in more effort. And one day before the shoot, I had a breakdown and cried and I thought, you know, I'm totally miscast for this. I don't know who Santosh is. I don't know how I'm going to play her. I don't know why they've taken me and I'm the wrong person for this. And I'm totally unprepared. And then, you know, you just let that steam off.

[00:04:33] And thankfully, you know, one or two days into it, you start finding your groove and you, you know, you make what you make with the person that you are in that moment and everything that you've already done, which you disregard, but the prep that has already gone in your own intention and your heart and mind and soul being there.

[00:04:54] And the only attempt that I feel that it becomes more precedent and important than anything else as an actor for film is you have to be present. And all the prep in the world that you do has to then disappear anyway. And you have to just be really present because not just for the scene and the emotion of the scene ever playing out, but also circumstances. There are things that get shifted around. You cannot be stuck in your ways. You cannot be decided on how something is going to be. You have to have a certain sense of fluidity.

[00:05:23] So that became the thing to then just be able to say, OK, I'm OK with whatever comes my way, whatever is thrown at me and I will be able to navigate that by just being present. Throughout the film, there are like so many moments where like Sharmaji's interactions with Santosh carry this sort of like tension because it's like it's like this homoerotic tension. I mean, it could be read that way. I feel again, this film does leave you to interpret it in the way that it is.

[00:05:53] And I mean, I was just thinking that like how like you answered it, but also like when you delve deeper into that interpretation of her gaze and behavior towards Santosh and like, you know, the context of like gender power and kind of repression within the police force, also like being women. Because at the end of the day, I do feel like this is such a if ACAB was a film like this is that.

[00:06:20] But at the same time, like you you sympathize for Santosh and you were also seeing the situations that she's in, that Sharmaji's in. And yeah, I want to ask you, like, how did how did you initially interpret it when you were like actually, you know, because when I was watching, like I said, like there is the sense of like homoerotic tension. But it's uncomfortable. But at the same time, like you're like, well, I've been in these kind of situations.

[00:06:46] So how do you, you know, how did you initially like interpret it when that came up? Like, I mean, I thought it was great because it's something that is so subtle, like you said, that it's something that, and it's not, you know, the beauty of that dynamic is that even if that were to be a reality in terms of,

[00:07:12] let's say Sharma having some sense of, it's not as simple as just that, oh, she has a, you know, crush on Santosh. She is also maternal to Santosh. She is also a mentor. She also sees herself in Santosh. She also appreciates and admires her for, you know, her ability to think on her feet. She is also manipulating and using Santosh as a canvas to, you know, to propagate her own interests

[00:07:40] and her ideas of wanting to retaliate against the male dominance in that world. She is also, and also perhaps attracted to her. So it's so complex. It's not just one dimensional. And not everything that she does can be viewed through the lens of the attraction or any one of those aspects.

[00:08:03] And that's what's amazing about it, that, like when she gives her, you know, the track pants to wear, that's also a maternal, it's also a maternal act. It's also an act of a, you know, a senior, a friend, a well-wisher, and somebody who is attracted to you, wants to see you dress better, and wants to impress you by doing an act of, you know, kindness and lovingness towards you. I mean, it's everything.

[00:08:33] So I think that that's what was really interesting about, you know, you have a similar moment, let's say, play out with Thakur, where initially he calls her and then feeds her breakfast. And just as she's feeling like, oh my God, he's being so paternal and sweet and loving and like offering a room next door with an AC because it must be hot where she is. And then he's like, yeah, come home and help my wife out and take my dog out for walks.

[00:08:59] So, you know, everything is layered in that sense. And I think that that's what I also took from it when I read it, that it's complex, like so many equations. And I'm anyway, someone who feels like we label relationships and equations too much in life. And I'm much more interested in the, in the, in between the spectrum rather than, you know, fixed airtight boxes of things. So, yeah, I mean, that's, yeah.

[00:09:29] Cause I, I did, you know, on the phone when she does call, it's like written Sharma mad answer. So I remember that's a, that's a very interesting way to label it. But also like one, the film is, you know, doing the rounds, like since Khan, since like everything. And obviously as UK's entry for the best international feature, what do you hope like audiences take away from this film? Like, you know, considering the international buzz that's getting and just kind of the,

[00:09:59] it's really rooted in what India is. And yeah. So what do you hope that people take away from it? I think my hope initially I would say was that, that people are able to see it with a kind of, I think most narratives for me become problematic because they end up showing things from a kind of

[00:10:28] opinionated didactic kind of perspective where this is the truth and this is how it is. And then there is a kind of overextension and overdramatization of reality. And the one thing that I really love about Santosh is that it keeps everything very real. And it doesn't tilt towards an oversimplification of something or overextending one idea. Just as you have one aspect being shown, you'll see the exact opposite play out simultaneously.

[00:10:58] You know, you have one aspect of gender being seen in terms of discrimination. And then you see, you know, gender discrimination within genders also, the power play within genders also. So, you know, it's, it's, that is important to me. I feel like that sense of like that balance that we see where the idea is not to find some place that you can rest your blame on, but to realize that we, your own culpability in the world that is,

[00:11:25] that is the society in the world that has got created around you, you know, and see the parts in which you react and respond in ways that you have actually seemingly a problem with, you know, and yeah. And I think I've appreciated the fact that now I see that people resonate with it because they don't just see it as a film representing India.

[00:11:55] They see it as a film that's representing societies in general. Just, it's a matter of a varying degree in terms of the kind of reality, you know, the nuances and the detailing of it. But the overall themes are things that I think people relate to across continents, across countries. And that's what I've realized because it is, and it is a film that somehow, like you said,

[00:12:24] despite all the things that it shows, it creates a kind of sense of empathy for the people that are exhibiting those qualities and are living those realities and who are creating those realities as well, because it's kind of just holding up a mirror and showing how things are. And there's, it isn't trying to sit on a higher moral ground than,

[00:12:49] and give a kind of, and a dictator reality that exists that is somehow inferior to, you know, one that should be or one that the maker is inhabiting. You know, it kind of levels the playing field and the viewing field. The viewer is the participant. The observed is the observer as well.

[00:13:16] So that's something that I feel I've appreciated about. And I, and I look forward to that of the film traveling and being shown in different parts of the world where people can, can see it also as like you said, a film that represent, represents India in a truer light, but also represent the state of affairs all over the world. After portraying a character like Santosh, how has it like, you know,

[00:13:42] influenced your kind of perspective on storytelling and are there any kind of particular roles or stories you're now eager to explore next? I think Santosh was also a decision. Before Santosh, I was, I had decided like about a year before that, that I will only say yes now, if I feel really excited or compelled to do something. And it doesn't matter what it is.

[00:14:09] I've never been someone who is massively calculating in terms of, oh, does this make sense? Does that make, that part doesn't really work for me. If I'm feeling compelled or pulled to do something, I'll do it no matter what. And Santosh was the first thing that came to me after a year and a half that I felt compelled to do. Before that, anything that came my way didn't seem exciting enough. And so I said no to it. And that is something that I continue to do.

[00:14:37] I'm also very happy that, you know, at the end of Santosh, I, the next film that I've done, which I'm in the process of finishing right now, is also an indie film with Bharat Bala, who's making it. I think this is his first Hindi feature, if I'm not mistaken. And again, a person who has a very passionate and instinctive approach to cinema and to storytelling.

[00:15:01] And I just found his idea and his narrative to be very sensitive and very subtle and very succinct. You know, like the scenes and everything, the way it plays out, the screenplay is just very compact, but very impactful. And so we're finishing that. It's called Mahasangam. It's got Abhishek Banerjee, Niyat Kabhi, and me in it. We're playing a family, father and the children.

[00:15:29] And it's, you know, just about changing family dynamics and kind of over a period of time. And also it's set in Kumbh. Some part of it is set in Kumbh. In the Mela, which we went and shot during this Kumbh, which was also an amazing experience. So that's something that I'm looking forward to as a finished product. I think it'll be quite special.

[00:15:56] And then there are a couple of other projects, which I'm excited about. There are three things that I'm in talks for right now, which are all meant to start in May. And yeah, I'm just waiting for them to get finalized. But these are again things that I feel excited about being a part of and doing. So, you know, two or three of them will hopefully be in motion. And then, yeah, hopefully next year sometime they'll be out.

[00:16:24] And I did a show in Australia called Four Years Later, which is an Australian show which released on SBS in Australia. And now, you know, we're trying to distribute it in different parts of the world. And it's an English language series. It's a romantic drama in that sense. And yeah, I'm really curious to also have, I'm looking forward for that to be also seen alongside Santosh because both of them happen back to back.

[00:16:53] And very, very different worlds and different realities. And again, I feel like a representation of a certain milieu of India that people don't really get to see, the English-speaking Indian world and, you know, different types of Indian lived realities, really. So, and the immigrant life and the immigration life. So, yeah, these are the things for now.

[00:17:21] So, that's wonderful to hear. That's amazing. I mean, all the best with everything. And yeah, thank you so much for taking the time to speak. So, that was Yamini having a chat with Shahana Goswami. I think Santosh looks very interesting indeed. It's out in UK theaters now. But let's now go over to the audio version of our live stream, which happened, I think, a couple of weeks ago. We will be going back to the 80s Dharmaka series.

[00:17:48] The next few episodes have been recorded, so they'll be edited. I think Sikandar might come in between those, but let's see how it plays out. I hope you guys enjoyed. We had a lot of fun doing these live streams, and we will be doing more. We also did a Sikandar trailer reaction, which is the trailer dropped in the meantime, and that is also available on our Patreon page. So, check that out too. But yeah, let's get started.

[00:18:17] Hi, and welcome to the live stream of Khandan podcast. My name is Aston Bernie, and I'm joined with my lovely co-hosts Amrita and Sujoy. Hey, Amrita. Hey, Sujoy. Hey, everybody. Hello. What are we doing today? We've not done a live stream in a while. We thought, you know, it's Holi. Happy Holi, by the way, guys. Happy Holi. Happy Holi. Do you guys celebrate? Nah. Not really, but like when I was in Delhi, yes. When I was a kid and stuff, we used to play Holi. Okay.

[00:18:48] But yeah, so Holi and Ramzan live stream going on. And I think also we've been doing the 80s live stream, 80s, you know, Dharmaka series for a while. And I think we needed a break. Like, how many 80s have been in the 80s? Like, Tridem has done something. Like, you know, Tridem just messed some wiring in my brain. I was like, it's been a lot. I think I need a break.

[00:19:15] And yeah, so we just wanted to catch up, read some comments. And I think also a lot of our listeners and our fans and people on Patreon were saying, you know, we're missing your thoughts on the current releases and kind of the gossips and the trailers that have come out. So I thought, you know, this is kind of a good idea to do this. So we have a bit of a list of things, topics we want to cover. We want to talk about, I want to talk about Sikander as Amrita has rightfully predicted because we haven't had a chance yet.

[00:19:44] We watched a few movies left and right. We saw, Sujai, you saw Superboys of Malegaon. Yeah. I watched Dhoom Dham. We watched a little bit of Nadania. What's Dhoom Dham? Dhoom Dham is a yummy Gotham. It's part of the Netflix slate, which we will also be discussing. So yeah, but the comment section is open. Sujai is monitoring it. Send us your thoughts. Send us your reactions.

[00:20:13] We want to make it an interactive session. And I think we're going to do this for an hour or something like that. And then I'm probably going to lose energy to talk. So let's start it. Shall we get into Sikander first? Sure. I just realized that I posted the wrong URL in our Instagram because I don't know why.

[00:20:40] Literally, my wife is saying, why is this URL not working? Yeah. Okay. So what do we do now? Is the one on, what do you call, Blue Sky and Twitter correct? Nope. Dude, you did this last time too. I know. I don't know why it's going to the other video, which is, it's not supposed to do that. But we don't need enemies. We have Sujai.

[00:21:12] Sujai is our greatest enemy. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Sorry, guys. Okay. Let's give out the good YouTube link because otherwise it's a point. Let me repost it. Yeah. Oh, dear. Yeah. I don't think anybody. Yeah. We're not even live on this one, but like on the YouTube link. Yeah. The other one is just showing us freaking. Okay.

[00:21:40] I'll just put that as private and then I'll post the other one. Just give me five minutes whilst I panic internally. Just fire me. Never. This is so much fun for everybody watching also on the live stream, right?

[00:22:08] Like, it's a step better than last time where Sujai, you didn't show up. Remember? Yeah. Well, there was no electricity the last time. Okay. Maria, like we're rooting for you. Thank you. Yeah. Let's just start with like a few Patreon things, actually. Because I, you know. Yeah. Go ahead, Amrita. What did you have for us? So, yeah.

[00:22:37] So, I think it was Abhishek who said he wanted to know what was that piece of, yeah, Abhishek Jan, and he said that, unrelated to the Trudev episode, but this has been bugging me, which song is used at the very beginning of the 80s intro? And we have an answer for you, actually. Yeah. Actually, we had dinner with DJ Shai Hussain, our friend.

[00:23:06] We had some lovely Chinese food. First of all, we went to the Palestine March, which is more important than anything else we do. So, you know, free Palestine. So, we went to that. And then afterwards, we had dinner together. And I told him, first of all, how much people love the 80s tune. And funnily enough, also, our editor Yamini was there. And she, so the person that had created the video and the person that had created the audio were all there together.

[00:23:33] So, we were all like, you know, clapping ourselves on the shoulder and like, oh, look at how much of a great job we did and all that. So, the song is Pag Gunguru from Malama Kalal. There's a horn section that comes out. I did ask Shai to make like a track list if he can, because a lot of people have asked which song it is. But that's that. And he absolutely loves the song. We had a whole discussion about what is the better movie?

[00:24:01] Is it Satipit Satta or is it Nama Kalal? And Shai was very wrong in saying it was Satipit Satta when it's clearly Nama Kalal. What even is this question? Why would you compare those two? But if you have a bad take, go ahead, you know, Apne Aapko Zaleel Karo in the comment section if you think Satipit Satta is superior to Nama Kalal. I mean, we're saying all of this and then by the time we get to Nama Kalal and then we'll be just like, my God, this is a piece of shit.

[00:24:32] That has happened to us. That has happened multiple times on this 80s series. But Nama Kalal is not a piece of shit. It's I've recently watched it and it holds up like no other movie. It's I cannot wait until we get to Nama Kalal. So before we start off. No, before that, we'll have to talk about Umrao Jaan, which was Asim's contribution to the 80s list. So congratulations to you on that.

[00:25:00] I just wanted some Khala Jaan representation, you know, that's what I want. You're going to be hangry and you're going to be watching Umrao Jaan. Anyway, sorry. Yeah, are we all sorted on the links now? It's posted on our Twitter, Instagram. I've reposted it. You've posted it on Blue Sky. I'll repost that as well on Blue Sky and on Patreon as well. Yeah, and Spell says the Insta link works now. So that's fine.

[00:25:30] That's great. I'll just post it on Patreon. Oh, dear. Okay. Take a deep breath. It's okay. Tu pani pili. Thank you. You're not on Rosa. Have a glass of water. So I have one more thing from Patreon.

[00:25:51] Melanie wrote in and she says, I think the reason why we have not had a real star that has debuted since 2015, especially female ones is because of the whole PR machinery behind these actors. If you take the likes of Kareena Priyanka and Tara, you like them or not, they have personalities on and off screen. They feel like stars. But in the current ones, even the good ones, it seems like they want to have this relatable,

[00:26:21] humble, likable image. But stars are not supposed to be entirely relatable. What is your take on that? So I actually have some thoughts about this one because I think the media landscape has just changed, you know? And I think that's like when you mentioned 2015, I think the clear answer is that social media took off, right? I think it's just like a very difficult situation stars are in. Like they cannot, if they're not relatable, you know, they're like arrogant.

[00:26:50] And if they're down to earth, it's like, oh, they're faking it. So there's literally no way to win, basically. I think the audience has just gone crazy. And they're like, you know, this whole elitism, privilege, nepotism, all of these words get thrown around and they don't mean anything. I mean, in the context of, you know, Hindi cinema, I guess. Like we're seeing this with this Amisha versus Kareena Ariel that's gone kind of viral

[00:27:20] on our Instagram post. And like, I don't know how many comments there are at the moment. So I don't know if you check them, but there's like hundreds and hundreds of comments. And most of them are from insane people. The people are insane or they're very, very stupid or they have like reading comprehension. And we're not even, you know, we're not even the stars. We're just making like, you know, it's a piece of a podcast that we're recording.

[00:27:49] And it's kind of like a clip of that. And people are insane. So if I was a star, like we're going to be talking a little bit about Nadania later on, right? Because I watched a little bit of it. Like look at the conversation about what's happened with Laviapa and Nadania in these last few months. Yeah. There is no winning. Like when Amir's son is taking a rickshaw, he's faking it because he's like being fake thing.

[00:28:16] If he acknowledges his privilege, then he's just being, you know, he's kind of like, oh, he's doing it for clicks. Right. And how can you even then become a star? Like, do you think like, for example, Janvi Kapoor, right? She has all the trappings of being a star. She's, you know, she's gorgeous. She dances great. She has amazing screen presence.

[00:28:41] Um, but if she doesn't acknowledge where she's coming from and kind of talks to you on a level, the amount of hits she would be getting would be even more than she's getting now. Right. So I just don't think there's any winning anymore. And I, and also, I don't think you can not be on social media. Um, I don't know. I don't know what the, what the solution for this is. Yeah.

[00:29:06] I think, and I've said this before that there are, like you've all just become really petty and nasty and mean over. And I've seen that take place, you know, and it's just, I don't know if it's just the kind of people who have now gotten access to the internet and, you know, they've never had to, um, uh, try and be polite.

[00:29:33] And they're just like, and I don't think a lot of these people understand that they're talking about real life people, um, who have feelings and emotions and are, you know, like it can't be like right now, you know, I don't know if I should talk about this right now, but I think I will. So after Nadanya came out and it was pretty much trashed, Ibrahim got into it with some

[00:30:01] Pakistani critic I've never heard of, uh, and whose original comment I have not seen. Uh, but apparently he said something about Ibrahim's nose. And this is a thing that I have seen, like a lot of people, even in real life, I've been talking about Ibrahim's nose, which is not something that he can control. Like you can learn how to act. You can learn, you know, you can lose weight. You can do a lot of things, but you know, like she did do something about her nose. And then everybody was just like, look at her.

[00:30:30] She's plastic. Look at what she did with her nose. And Ibrahim is like showing up with his actual nose and everybody's like, look at that. Like it's a beak, you know, like people are like really mean about it. So apparently he went into the DMs of this, uh, this dude and called him an ugly piece of trash and said, stop being like so obsessed with my brother and me. Uh, because apparently he also talked about like them all being good looking or something. Um, and said like, you know, just to stay off.

[00:31:00] And then this dude is all like, that's the fire I wanted to see, bro. And I'm like, why? You know, like it's just weird unemployed behavior. It's that Shah Rukh thing, right? Like, uh, all they want is a selfie, you know, like where he was saying like, you know, they can trash me and stuff like that. But when you see them face to face, all they want is a selfie with me, you know, and it solved everything. And I think a lot of it is that kind of frustration, you know, like if they,

[00:31:29] if they turn around and answer you, then it's like, you know, it's that thing like, you know, that comment that was like, you know, uh, but yeah, it's, uh, it's, uh, I don't know. It's, it's stupid to say it's tough to be a star, but I think it is tough to be a star. Like, I don't know how, like, I mean, like how old are these, how old is Khushi? How old is Ibrahim? You know, like these are kids, you know, and yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what the, I don't know if it's like,

[00:31:58] I don't think they're lacking aura or like lacking stardom. I think we lack patience and we like, we lack grace as an audience now, you know, and we want stars, but we hate stars. And I think we have way too many opinions. And I mean, we're on a podcast talking about opinions. We made jokes about noses. I remember when we were doing, um, uh, Raees and we were like, oh, you have Mahira's nose and you have Shah Rukh's nose. That's a lot of nose. I remember that like comment, right? But I don't feel that's a, that's like a jokey kind of thing.

[00:32:27] Instead of like, you know, what, what that guy was doing about, um, Ibrahim Ali Khan. Um, but yeah, that's maybe just my, it's my opinion. I don't know. But I think there's also something to what Melanie is saying about the PR machinery, because I feel like, you know, that like, that's what publicity people do. You, they come and tell you that, you know, I can solve these problems that I have now invented.

[00:32:53] And I will give you, um, a path. Like I will create a narrative and it's not, this is not a new thing. Uh, if you go back and watch Shah Rukh's interviews, you know, just to go back to Shah Rukh, if you go back and watch Shah Rukh's interviews, he talks about how he came to Bollywood and he and Vivek Vaswani came up with a strategy and a narrative about why this was somebody that,

[00:33:21] uh, the industry should invest in. And then eventually, you know, like once they invested in him, he was able to then, you know, showcase himself and then become the star that he eventually became. So this idea of building a narrative to show to, um, you know, the industry and then,

[00:33:43] you know, the larger audience, that's not a new thing, but I think it's become really weird. I also think there's a lack of talent in PR. Oh yeah. If they are pretty much running like headless chicken with no idea of what is the end goal, it feels like they are just copying strategy from left, right, and center from parallel industries,

[00:34:09] not even with whatever has happened or whatever has been proven successful in the entertainment industry elsewhere. It just feels like, oh, people are doing this. Then we should all go to Kapil Sharma show. We should all appear in the malls. We should all dance to this particular TikTok trend and hope for the best that it works in making money for the movie. Whereas, and also like the whole corporate booking thing, probably we will talk about the whole

[00:34:37] Komal Nahata thing that has dropped over the last couple of weeks. He's been making podcasts more actively than us. But yeah, it's, it's such a weird state of the industry that, you know, nepotism or no nepotism, the whole, it's so like vile and poisonous, the whole comment section. I don't know what, like there seems to be no goodwill for anybody else.

[00:35:06] And like the whole star system, I don't think any, any, anybody can like claim to be it anymore. And yeah, it's just seems like a thing of the past now. I just think PR and marketing should be seamless, you know, it shouldn't be obvious. And I think now that it has become obvious, they're not doing a good job at it, you know? So I think that's kind of a problem. I think there's also just a lack of talent there.

[00:35:31] I think also like there's been a conversation going on lately about influencer journalism, that that's also kind of reached its end. And I also agree with that because I was seeing some influencer interview Millie Bobby Brown and the questions are shit. The, the, the, they have no, like they have no skills to kind of ask a follow-up question. They're not able to really delve into anything deeper.

[00:36:01] A lot of times they don't even love movies as much as, you know, somebody like, and I'm, I'm sure the old system was also not perfect where film critics are interviewing stars, which I also find a problematic setup, right? Film journalism can be separate from the people that are interviewing them from the ones that are reviewing their movies because that creates a whole kind of, kind of messy ecosystem. But at the moment, it's not really, it's not really working at all.

[00:36:26] Like I don't find any interest in watching and, you know, all of those videos of people sitting in a car and driving to the city or going to their favorite food spots. I just don't get any value out of that at all. So I, I just think it needs to like marketing and PR needs to kind of step their game up. You know, advertising is doing great. Like, did you see those two advert, the Shahrukh advert, the Davat one that came out and the Ranbir and Amir.

[00:36:56] Yeah. Yeah. And I was like watching them. These are fun, entertaining ads. Right. And I was like, I'm getting more entertainment out of the ad than I'm at the moment getting from the movies. And that is a very sad situation to be in. Right. But yeah. And also like the massive, massive fails, like the Bade Mia Chote Mia mall set up where they were throwing shoes at them. Again, that's a massive PR failure. Like it's insane to me that that happened. Right. Right.

[00:37:25] But there's just a lot of untalented people doing what they're in. A lot of that has to do with Shahrukh. I think because like Shahrukh sort of pioneered this whole like PR thing, you know, like he came in, he had a vision about like how he could, you know, use the PR machinery to promote his movies and whatever projects that he was doing. And he actually understands the ecosystem.

[00:38:21] And he has like a, you know, he has a strategy. And it was something like I said that. He has to do with him on the next level of the conversation. He's like, yeah, he has a product. He is what he said. He has a�� Futurism. In this movie, he has a partner. He has a product to me and I actually did. And I was like, yes, I would like, have a weapon. He has a guy that was like, I think I did.

[00:38:46] sharuk yeah and that's also like i remember when loveyapa came out and people were ragging on khushi and janet for not having enough um pizzazz or energy when they were doing all these promotion things and i'm like yeah because it's hard work yeah not everybody can do it like it's not everybody is ranveer singh not everybody is varun thavan like to get on a stage and be that you know

[00:39:14] like unselfconscious you might say that that's your job but that's actually not the job that these kids are looking at these kids are looking at a job in front of the camera promotion is the whole other side of the business yeah it's a different skill set as well and when you're somebody who's like a total extrovert like sharuk or akshay or uh ranveer it comes very natural to get up on a stage and be like okay now i'm just going to be like dancing and shaking a leg i'll pull up people from

[00:39:43] the crowd and i'll interact with them and then you'll see somebody like say ajay devgan or ajay devgan's nephew actually also i don't know if you remember the um the promotion that he and uh what's her name russia uh russia i don't know how to pronounce her name russia tadani ravina jr yes ravina jr and uh this dude's uh you know promotional uh efforts and that like that girl like god bless

[00:40:13] her like she's like she's 19 she's full of pep and she's very much like you know like old school in that way so she's out there dancing shaking her leg and like doing the dance moves and everything and this dude is just standing there like hopping from like one foot to the other and looking like he wished he the earth would like swallow him yeah it's because he like really hates being there and he's probably really anxious and you know having a really bad time of it so yeah it's um i kind of

[00:40:42] blame sharuk for all of it sorry shall we start blaming salman shall we talk about sikandar yeah sure asim is dying like before so so optimistic my god i was optimistic for a week yeah uh yeah so the trailer came out for sikandar and the two songs drops uh dropped zora jabeen and

[00:41:09] bam bam bole which is one is a holy song and one is kind of like a muslim coded song i guess like as muslim as you can get like without being safe and it's like i liked it because it was like slightly muslim coded and it's like jaldi jaldi holy song nikaal do anna zada muslim i'll die you know like you know yeah like farah khan farah khan is you know doing the choreo salman is dancing you know thing is sajid is uh producing it's too much muslim we cannot get the holy one out quickly

[00:41:38] um yeah so uh yeah i i had a little uh video that i made after the trailer came out where i was slightly positive about the movie uh i thought salman looked good which you took umbrage at uh amrita but uh i think he still does i think even in zora jabeen i think that kurta and all that looks nice i think it looks nice um he looks terrible in bam bam bole though yeah um and then uh my two

[00:42:06] issues worries that i had is a i don't think the casting with uh rashmika works at all and shouldn't have happened and secondly i don't think murgados has the the marbles anymore to deliver a good decent movie um so those were my two three things salman looks good rashmika doesn't pair well and murgados is not able to deliver um so joy you had some thoughts on that what do you think

[00:42:34] uh zora jabe forgettable uh bam bam bole even worse i is my take pretty much i just feel like uh i'm going into this movie with the lowest of my expectations because my fingers have been burnt before and like um it just feels like oh we have to endure this again like uh we every time we so hope like

[00:43:01] there might be some different something different and i just feel like because the songs aren't great guys the songs just aren't great songs are really not good like it's such a like it like it really depressed me like i was really hoping zora jabe would be like a good song like some like a real banger like back in the day sarman used to have good songs like it feels like such a long time ago right

[00:43:25] and it just feels like uh you know on some sort of uh yeah iteration of balampichkari and selfie somehow fused and like you know it feels like that and and the whole vibe of this movie is like it's eid it's a salman movie people will come and watch it and like if not then we'll just book

[00:43:52] halls you know fuck this uh it just feels like that it's there is no it's so it feels tired man it's so insincere yeah even in zora jabe when salman started rapping i was like i think i've seen this hundred times already like you know like how many times he's gonna sit down and like do the rap thing it was like back in maria maria and partner he was doing this you know like it's been aged like i don't know there yeah

[00:44:17] and and the whole uh the bambam bole thing i think they sort of revealed it feels like there is a minor spoiler in that song where rashmika is the one only the only one wearing like a safet kurti um and salwar kameez or whatever and it feels like she's a ghost so she might be like you know ashwarya rai yeah pretty much and this kajal agarwal who's looking at both of them with very much like contempt

[00:44:46] in a way i just i don't know i can't read anybody's expression i don't know what's going on there's too much like pink smoke to really figure out what's going on amrita thoughts on sikandar i do we know what the story is for sikandar do they know what the story is i think apparently they're still shooting the movie so i don't know if they've figured it out is it a remake of something because the weird thing is like a lot of people are behaving as if they know what's happening and i'm like i i don't

[00:45:14] know where you're getting this from because we've had that teaser which was just salman being like you know like i'm gonna you know fuck things up um and then we have zora jabeen which okay rashmika fine like you know she doesn't have any chemistry with salman but then i can't remember the last heroine who had chemistry with salman like katrina to a certain extent but that's about as far as i

[00:45:38] can take her um so you know i'm not really that fussed about that um but rashmika did look good in zora jabeen i thought yeah yeah i thought yeah she looked i thought she looked great i think she dances it's fun like it like she's fun in it you know so all i can notice in both of these songs is salman's wig like you're like you know you're a billionaire like get a better wiglet i don't

[00:46:06] like i can i can see the edges of the lace front like you know like yeah he used to have better hair pieces like i don't know what's going on like it's going just downhill or all over the place and i mean like we don't want to like we just were complaining about you know noses so let's not talk about hair now but it's it's it's just the team around him and i was even surprised that zora jabeen is directed by uh farah khan because it didn't feel like a farah khan i had to re-watch it after i

[00:46:34] knew and i was like okay it does have some farah khan elements the way the camera moves and you know some of the the quirky sides where he's rolling out the carpet and then there's hearts on the carpet and the little he's doing a dance move and the floor lights up so there's a few of these uh and a lot of like purple shading which made me think of the mehuna songs the kawali songs so i i guess i can

[00:46:58] bring that out from farah khan and they seem to have a really good time shooting the song but again it's like i wish we had a good time watching this yeah it pretty much feels like you know when sajid khan used to release his behind the scenes footage and like everybody on set is having fun but the movie is really crap you know uh yeah no it's it's a shame and somebody somebody sent you a burn as him

[00:47:26] naniko wrote as him talking about hair sounds cool yeah um no i'm the thing is we're still gonna be watching it um because it's khan dan basically we're not paid to do this but yeah what else are we gonna do uh so we're all gonna go in a group to um uh to watch it together uh but uh and we'll be reviewing it on khan dan so let's see i'm just

[00:47:52] like i just wanted to be a bearable i cannot stand another kisika bhai again yeah yeah when sujoy was talking about like how his uh expectations are low i'm like how can it possibly be lower than kisika bhai yeah but uh we'll see we'll see we'll see we have been proven wrong amrita this could be a totally different row low um from the live chat melanie writes hi uh salman is tired he should

[00:48:22] take a break and come back where is the charm that he used to have the last salman film that i enjoyed is sultan and that is a very good performance i agree he is tired like even in the documentary about his dad like you know angry young men um about salim and salim khan and javed akhtar i was really

[00:48:43] taken aback by how saman appeared in it because he looked like he was he was in pain and i don't know if he's been ill like has he been no no he has been ill he's had health problems i think also like the stress of having like this death warrant on top of his head also kind of thing but like apparently a lot of fans were saying that zora jami shot with two broken ribs um oh wow so he he does

[00:49:10] he the thing i think with salman is like he's the industry on his own like he has he's feeding so many people so if he doesn't show up you know all the people are just like you know without jobs and money and rent money you know so he just kind of shows up and he's just forced into these things but yeah i don't know if even like i don't know about the break thing because i do agree with that akshay thing where he says you know if if i make less movies do you guarantee those movies will be

[00:49:37] hit the hits and no i don't think i don't think that's the case but it's just that i think he's just surrounded with bad people that are not advising him on good movies not bringing him the right projects he's not working with the right filmmakers anymore uh he doesn't have good costume people anymore he doesn't have good hair and makeup people anymore and i don't know what's going on um yeah i think that's kind of the thing he's probably loyal because that we've seen throughout his career

[00:50:06] that he's always like working with the people that he's you know always been working with and i think they have just not been upping their game enough anymore and i think that's showing in the movies i do wonder like one last thing about sikandar i do wonder if salman will go through with what he said when uh ikka tiger three um flopped not ikka tiger three what do you call it tiger three right like

[00:50:29] tiger three tiger three flopped um i remember him saying that next time even i'm going to just increase the price of my tickets um and after seeing how well that works for pushba two i wonder if sajid nadia adwala is going to do that uh for sikandar and say what you want like saman is a star like there's not that many people that can kind of create the kind of fandom and the furore that he can uh he

[00:50:58] still is it it's just been not being channeled in the right way especially not in the last five six seven movies we've seen it's been terrible so and i don't know i sikandar is probably not going to be great unfortunately uh even though i i thought it would be i was positive about it um but yeah i'm still kind of like um um excited for it you know uh tiger three four fifty yeah dude this is not an argument it's like come on like i i just want to pick up on this because this

[00:51:28] comes up a lot it's like tiger three four fifty is a crore it's a flop it's not a good movie i don't care about the box office like they can engineer this the way they want i as a fan go into the movie with expectation i come in disappointed i don't care how much money it makes at all man like it doesn't and okay so tiger three four hundred fifty is a flop but look at um the the bhutani movies this three two right it's three three it was two or three that came out you know that made 300 crores

[00:51:55] maybe but you have to admit that that's a hit with 300 crores when tigers four fifth with 450 is under underwhelming you know and if you cannot see that reality that is just insanity like it's not like that this doesn't help anybody to be honest like it's just a stupid argument to be honest like uh yeah um yes three uh tiger three was made on a budget of 300 crores so to have made 450 crores

[00:52:21] just by maths as well it is a flop uh three two on the other hand was made for a budget of 120 crores it made 874 crores at the box office that's crazy that's that's yeah a salman khan to movie to make a yashraj war spy universe salman khan movie to make half of what street two made it's insane yeah it's like somebody amputates your leg and you're trying to put it together with super glue

[00:52:49] you know like it doesn't make any sense saying this kind of stuff like it doesn't make any sense to me uh but yeah uh let's move on uh let's move on on uh shall we talk a bit about netflix or do you want to talk about some of the movies you watch first i'm gonna talk about super boys of malaga nobody has been talking about it enough for i think um it is probably one of my favorite movies of the year

[00:53:13] it will be by the end of it like it's feels like something you know last year when we all watched lapata ladies and thought like this will be in our end of the year list it feels like that movie it is so much full of heart it's um i want to be accurate about this it's based on a documentary um that came out in 2008 by faiz i am of khan who made a documentary called super boys of malaga or malaga super super super

[00:53:40] um based on these people who are in a small town in maharashtra called malaga where they made like spoofed or sweded movies basically of uh sholay of um sean and then eventually made one on superman and it's just that whole movie about movies and the passion of filmmaking the craziness the the drive

[00:54:08] but also the friendship aspect of these people you know the the the the conflicts uh the love stories behind the scenes and and then eventually you know overcoming all those obstacles faced by them it's about the social hierarchy of this muslim people in this muslim town making this very small movie industry of their own and to overcome all of that and it's also got you know a similar sort of uh

[00:54:36] um a story arc that we have already seen in other excel movies like rock on where you know luke kenny is the one guy with a terminal illness and they all come together to bring the band together it's almost like that uh a lot of people have who have seen the movie uh which is the reema kakti fictionalized uh version of that documentary or um uh written by varun grover have really praised it but not a lot of

[00:55:05] people have seen it uh primarily because i think it's it just felt like the vibe of it was that it was coming straight to streaming um that that was of the documentary or the movie sorry the the movie super boys of malagao i i felt like the because it was so much pushed by prime video i think like a lot of us had that confusion that whether it's getting a theatrical release or not and because the the moment

[00:55:33] you see the splashing prime video logo it just feels like oh it will be there in two weeks or so i i had that thought i i was very confused um and you already had gone and seen it um so i was like wait i when is it dropping on prime um so i really wasn't sure and it's been very confusing also i just and we were having dinner yesterday when our friend mike made this comment uh mike mccayhill right for the guardian um he said you know it just kind of bums you out you go to the cinema

[00:56:00] and the first logo comes like streaming soon on prime streaming soon on netflix it's like why am i here you know like yeah it's kind of like a real real bummer i don't feel that logo needs to be there at the first screen that you come in i don't know yeah it should be put at the end with the end credits like you know might be streaming on might be streaming on prime or something like that but i think i guess it it they try to make it front and center because they probably invest a lot with in the making of

[00:56:29] these movies themselves they are kind of the co-producers in a way um so maybe that's a content strategy to make movies like this happen uh but it's a brilliantly acted brilliantly written movie um everybody involved from um others gaurav veneet singh and other actors um they are all really really great it's shot beautifully and you know if you like movies about movies it will fill you with

[00:56:57] so much joy uh that a movie like this exists uh and i think people who will watch it on streaming will find it to be like you know worth your time um so i i just wanted to point out because we are have been sort of being all doom and gloom about the movie industry of india so far uh talking about what what all has been wrong so far and what hopeful things that we can look forward to super boys of

[00:57:25] malagao is that movie whenever it drops on streaming go check it out because i think it's already out of cinemas in the uk yeah not sure what's the status in india uh if it's still um screening somewhere at a cinema maybe check it out amrita did you watch the documentary when i watched the documentary i did yeah uh i can't remember at what film festival i watched it but

[00:57:48] it was like a long time yeah yeah um i don't even remember when but i think i watched it in new york i'm not sure but it was like it was long ago um and i remember it was lovely like i had like i was in love with that documentary it was it was at that time when like a lot of really great documentaries were coming out um and this was one of them and i guess now you just don't get any funding for

[00:58:16] documentaries either you know unless it's about stars and shot in their house and talking to yeah it's like shot by their best friends in their backyard and like let's them just say whatever it is that they want to say oh my god we are so humble and oh my god yes you are so humble and lovely my son the star always picks up the phone when i call oh so humble so humble um anyway

[00:58:44] oh he loves doll travel on a friday thanks for the detail um but uh when i i'll be honest like when i heard that reema kathy was making this movie i was like why because i remember the documentary and i was like it it's perfectly good like the people who were in that documentary you know like if she had done like a project with those people i would have been like

[00:59:12] oh okay but then i realized that you know like they were basically working as consultants for this film you know like she actually did go back to them she didn't just like rip it off the documentary she actually went yeah and it's not a recent thing either they have been involved since the documentary came out so it's been a long thing in the process they've been together with um you know nasir who was the original filmmaker in super boys of supermen of malaga and and and yeah it feels more sincere

[00:59:40] and genuine right and that how they were involved and to see like uh even when this movie super boys of malaga premiered at tiff um nasir made it to the red carpet along with the filmmaker so that was like a whole you know full circle mode i would like uh highly recommend people to go and watch it yeah i'll definitely watch it when it comes um on screen on on streaming for sure i just didn't have

[01:00:08] i i didn't know when it came out i thought it was a very confusing release strategy that yeah unfortunately we have a lot of questions going on should we pick up some of them apparently my uh uh apparently my my sound is really low yeah there is it no i'm i'm feel hearing it okay amrita same here

[01:00:32] i have mine at like really like like you know i said as high as max yeah it seems okay it seems to be a local problem maybe okay um okay uh js says uh did you guys talk about imbrahim's meltdown and threat to critics through insta uh we will probably talk about that when we get we did already we did you were

[01:00:58] getting up with links at that moment so joey's not even paying attention to what asim and i are talking about a panic moment he was so stressed out bichara yeah um yeah asim looks very handsome according to steve ah mira dos steve aagia bachane miri is that yeah thank you steve somebody made fun of asim's lack

[01:01:20] of hair and steve is there like i'll i'll make it up for asim uh what villain names would you describe yourself by asim you know i was thinking about this when we were watching um uh three day right uh i don't think there's a better name than azgar jirat like that is like the best villain name ever

[01:01:45] i know people tend to go for mogambo and stuff like that i don't agree it's azgar jirat that's the name i would pick if i could i'll say i'll pick uh lotia pathan lotia pathan that's such a good one too yeah yeah yeah slightly somophobic for the sujait

[01:02:12] i was just thinking like i would do something kandisha related but like i i do like a good rhyming uh yeah i don't know though i don't know yeah um if you had to watch only the filmography of one khan for the rest of your life which one would it be salman sharuk

[01:02:36] but let's argue why though let's argue why like why why are you picking sharuk sujait uh kabhi haan kabhi na chakde swades and fan okay for me it's just like you know like those were the movie like the sharuk's filmography was basically the background to my basically the same thing as for you for salman it was basically the background of my uh my adolescence and you know like growing up and everything

[01:03:05] salman because salman is the total package you get the action you get the romance you get the movie you get this terrible movies you get the cgi with movies like uh oh my god it's the full package it's all of cinema it's all of masala that's why salman although having said that like i would like dearly miss anta sapna to not be able to watch that yeah imagine you just have to watch comedy

[01:03:34] sharuk's comedy your life would be miserable well i just wouldn't watch it there would be no comedy in your life then how would you laugh it's okay it's okay absolutely okay salman even in comedy as playing uh bhagwan in uh meh tera hero it's just so funny it's so funny meh tera hero amazing yeah that would be included that that would make me happy yeah uh did any one of us watch aifa

[01:04:03] yeah i just watched that song with like sharuk and madri yeah i watched that on the twitter the clips again i wanted to bring that up when we were talking about zora jabeen um with all of that money spent on bambole zora jabeen choreography cinematography moving cameras amazing costumes sharuk does

[01:04:29] sharuk does it better with just being on stage sweaty with madri right and that is what annoys me when they have all of these resources available to them and they cannot even give like a 30 percent good output right that's what annoys me about sikandar's song it's just magic watching sharuk and madri together right it's so lovely it's so literally the only thing i watched i also just want to

[01:04:56] shout out like what you said on twitter because immediately right like every including me everybody was just like my god like if only sharuk and madri would be in a movie together again like life would be so much better like they could say hindi cinema blah blah blah and asan said very correctly that uh the only person stopping that from happening is sharuk yeah because if sharuk woke up tomorrow and said hey you know what i'd really want to make a movie with madri nobody is gonna check him

[01:05:25] sharuk is in his i want to make cash era like i want to make bank era and it's fine that that's his era that's what he wants to do it's fine i'm not thinking but let's not say oh what is the state of bollywood yore like you know we don't get these movies anymore yore like it's just like sharuk can make a movie tabo get hansal mehta to write something for two crores he'll lovely happily do it it's fine

[01:05:49] that was the worst delhi accent i have ever heard in my life but then i haven't heard i haven't watched nadania so maybe like that but by the way we just glossed over the lack of ami representation in the three of us and amir khan is having a film festival re-release of all his movies next month and it's crazy that we just glossed over it like there's somebody somebody asked can we send amrita to

[01:06:18] cover this festival it's like amrita mar jaegi or mar degi who is this hater of mine like i want to know who hates me like that but i'm just gonna list the movies quickly dangal uh lagaan three idiots um

[01:06:43] none of these are surprising yeah most of them like with the exception of raja hindustani there's a pretty solid list um am i excited to re-watch any of them though you're not even excited when we do it on the podcast so let alone you're going to this you know yeah that's the thing that's what you know like amir is a fine actor i you know like fine he's just not a star like and i wish people

[01:07:09] would just put their rap there even he knows that you know he knows it and i i know i'm i'm the number one on the podcast he has that self-awareness in the ad with ranbir kapoor even that ranbir is a bigger star than him that's such a good ad though i like that amir he's like kamina amir is really fun too yeah um also farzan wants to uh wants to ask have we started talking about amir's new girlfriend

[01:07:37] and andaz apna apna re-release i will go watch andaz apna apna and i don't really have anything can i just say okay i don't have anything to say about his new girlfriend like it's fine like she seems like a really nice lady as do all his other the ladies in his life um acknowledged and unacknowledged what really takes me aback are the number of people especially on like reddit and other forums who

[01:08:05] are just like i will never understand the relationship between amir and his exes and i'm like yeah tell me how you're just used to toxic people and have never met like you know like grown up yes yeah you know like he's divorced but he has like two kids with reena he's divorced but he has like a kid with kieran and now he is dating a woman who's basically a few years younger than he is and

[01:08:32] it's like very age appropriate from the sounds of it um or at least i think so i i'm actually i'm not sure how old she is but she sounds age appropriate um and they're all like you know like really good friends and you know like it didn't work out it didn't work out it's fine but people are so weird about it people are just like what does amir do like what kind of magic does he he doesn't have any magic he's just like a person who knows how to be like you know not a dick when he's breaking up with

[01:09:02] someone which is great you should try that sometime so the fatma sana shake thing was never it's true i it was but i don't know what happened so uh but you know okay she don't want to talk about it he doesn't want to talk about it so shall we talk about the netflix later a little bit yeah yeah yes so um net this this came out a while ago actually but we never got a chance to talk about it it's like

[01:09:30] we were too deep into the 80s so we didn't have internet there there were no streaming in the 80s right so yeah uh they brought out this promo about all of the movies that is dropping this year and on netflix and there's a bunch of them and we kind of want to talk about that a little bit um a few have already kind of released um yeah you know one being uh dhoom dham which i watched

[01:09:53] and actually quite enjoyed um it's like i like uh first of all i like yami gotam i've said this many times and i think that slight um uh you know slight tinge of fascism in her makes her more attractive it's a it's a thing it's a pattern asem like this long list of questionable choices where i'm just like really this is what okay

[01:10:21] i i call it the pretty patel syndrome and you can't like one day asem goes to like march uh for palestine and the next day he's just like yami gotam yeah so no i i just think i like her so and the second thing i also like about some movies is like one night like movie set in one night yeah and that i also like i feel the trailers don't do justice to what the movie is because i thought it was like oh they're all chasing yami like it's basically

[01:10:49] they get married it's an arranged marriage and uh prati gandhi is playing prati it's prati gandhi right yeah yeah he's playing the same guy he's playing in that other movie where they went to goa madgao madgao right he's playing kind of a very similar character that gets gets married to clear to yami gotam who's clearly amazingly beautiful and like very like you know like jeet coded um and then they kind of like get together and ex-boyfriends and gangsters and running around the city

[01:11:18] and it's actually quite fun uh for a netflix movie so um i think it might be one that's already slipped under the radar yeah but i i actually had a good time but i'm telling you like you need to maybe either like yami gotham or like you know movie set into in one night so uh yeah those those both of them sound like my cup of tea so yeah probably yeah the second movie that also has already come out is

[01:11:43] nadania yeah let's get into it so i have i basically i'm fasting so i haven't had time to really watch a movie my schedule is just all over the place disclaimer yeah no but so but sujoy was like asim yesterday at the march you were saying watch 20 minutes in the bathroom on your phone because that's what the movie deserves um and this movie has been ripped apart by critics by audiences like

[01:12:10] it's like all of the goodwill that ibrahim ali khan had has basically been squandered by the release of it the only person relieved is probably sarah ali khan who's like you know like but how much of a star does she look how good was she in her first you know movie like when you think about it um but yeah uh amrita you managed to not watch it you dodged it but you did watch the you did follow kind

[01:12:36] of the conversation going around but sujoy you lasted 20 minutes in this movie yeah why did you not like i just could not take it anymore man and i like it felt so like unprepared like this live stream it just felt like they decided on a whim to make a movie and no there was no quality control regarding from the script stage to the edit stage nobody did any acting workshops like you see um

[01:13:05] what was that the hard jail with zahan kapoor uh black warrant black warrant you see the gap in the talent between zahan kapoor who comes from a theater background and who's done the legwork and perhaps many many acting workshops versus how ibrahim ali khan who is pretty much they have a

[01:13:28] you know very connected family tree there who pretty much has the same resources at his exposure and it just feels like why did ibrahim ali khan need this project to come out why did he sign it off like um it just feels like a lot of peer pressure went into this movie being made um because he i don't know there was fomo involved or something but at the same time i feel like very sorry like like uh he

[01:13:58] probably did not have any like say in the decision making somehow it just went like i i don't know if he anticipated the backlash to be this humongous because the the the the movie is just terrible and it's not just him or hushi it's just the writing the direction and the talent involved at every single

[01:14:22] stage it's just terrible um it's just terrible like all across the board and even all the nostalgia that they could have played into with like uh mahima and sunyuchetti being in the same movie um there's dia mirza and jugalhans raj just feels like nobody even cared about these people and and yeah it just

[01:14:44] felt like a meh you know uh this was sort of pushed as netflix's 2025 big one of the big lineups right and it just what kind of a what kind of a terrible terrible movie is this so i have an alternative take on this okay i watched the 21st 20 minutes and i ended up watching around 30 minutes because i was

[01:15:08] i there's there's a shot that happens in this movie where um uh hushi looks up and screams i have a boyfriend and at that moment i knew that this movie has completely miscalculated what how it was presented this movie is a disney show you know those disney shows like hannah montana yeah uh that's what it's supposed to be and i don't think that uh that language has been communicated

[01:15:38] to the audience that this is the tone we're trying to strike i have one like big objection to that because when it's trying to do that it also injects miss braganza so the direct connection to kuch kuchota is there so the the expectation is set to kuch kuchota i i i thought it was just kind of like an mcu kind of thing like we're in this universe like miss braganza got like a promotion she's like

[01:16:05] the head of the school and i thought that was kind of fun like i thought it was fun to have miss braganza back on and everybody's still like oh miss braganza uh-huh you know like she still has that effect so but i you know me i'm very pro nepotism just generally i like it um i and also like a lot of people are complaining about ibrahim Ali khan i think he chose this project because on paper it looks good you know it's a dramatic project it's on streaming it has like the right people backing

[01:16:33] him he felt safe probably um the thing is like people complain about his talent but i we saw parampara when it came out like we you know we know his dad's debut we saw all of those movies and he's not that bad like he's not as bad as safe was when he he's not as raw when safe came out you know i just think it's kind of a i think the people just made him his everybody's imaginary boyfriend you

[01:17:00] know and um when the reality hits of your boyfriend and imaginary boyfriend it hits hard i think also the styling is not good like the way the because it has like the very disney lighting you know like very harsh lighting and i think that when people talk about the noses and stuff like that it's not fracturing the way the features are lit because it's very harsh lighting can i just say

[01:17:26] like i feel because i've seen khushi in love yapa with junaid right i saw that movie and i liked it i thought it was like a very fun little movie and the two of them were very new and they had like the whole like you know clearly learning their craft uh especially when they're like dancing and stuff uh you can see them like counting their steps and like trying to hit their mark and stuff like that you know but it was like it was a pretty fine uh like movie and then when this movie came out and

[01:17:55] people were posting clips from it because that's what we do now um and i cannot begin to tell you how much i loathe that by the way but uh people are posting it all over social media and dissecting it out of context of course i'm sure um and i was really taken aback because i thought like khushi was a lot better in love yapa and archies and archies yeah and i think the reason why nadanya

[01:18:22] comes across as so bad and the performances especially has to do with the director yeah and the writers they make a conscious choice of how to like there's the the moment where like she's clearly a they're both gorgeous people right but they look weird like there's like this the way it's short the way her hair is placed we've seen her in three movies now she never looks like a like there was this cartoon back in the day movements where everybody has these long noises

[01:18:49] and it's like that she looks like a moment and there's no reason to light her that way or do her makeup that way it's very unflattering and these are the choices they're making and i've saw i saw the clips where they're like i saw somebody doing they're calling her now chicken neck acting that she's moving her neck too much or something like which is such a stupid thing to say but it's she is playing a character she's playing like it's it's imagine if you say you know um like let's go back to the

[01:19:17] argument of hannah montana right like oh why is miley cyrus being so exaggerated like just take a clip of how she is as a child right she is playing kind of a very exaggerated character who's like very dramatic and these this idea of you know the problems in high school are such big problems they think you they take over your life when they're all basically just ridiculous things and uh so i was actually quite i thought the movie was okay kind of like i was like i want to watch this with my

[01:19:46] family the rest of it i don't think it's that bad i think people are very very being very harsh with it um but yeah maybe i'm it's just my pro nepotism side and having seen parampara and imtihan and ole ole you know all of that and i also want to say that i think what part of the reason why ibrahim lost his temper with that critic um is also because there's been a lot of

[01:20:11] really unkind rumor mongering about him oh um they're talking about how he has a speech disability about like how you know they dubbed his voice because he can't speak properly like all that kind of stuff to be fair the dubbing was piss poor yeah it was it was bad it's bad yeah the dubbing can

[01:20:36] there'd be like other movies with like really bad dubbing as well and yep i and it doesn't necessarily mean anything and even if it does i don't think it's the place of you know gossip forums to come forward and be like this is what happened um it's just and i think like you know like if it actually is true or whether it's not uh if you're in ibrahim's shoes and that's the kind

[01:21:04] of stuff that you have to deal with yeah at that young age man it's and he's a baby yeah you know like oh it's just it's just really bad yeah plus dharmatik probably made him starve to get that six pack abs so he's probably just also hungry i can i i can relate i can relate um okay let's go some of the movies that are in this netflix slate uh thing yeah so oh by the way uh jay is like did you guys

[01:21:31] see the govinda avatar interview i did not see that but i did see bits of his wife who was on some kind of publicity tour i don't understand why um and i had never heard sunita puja before um and i wish i could go back to the time but i hadn't yeah yeah i did hear that interview and he's bonkers

[01:21:58] just to reply to that yeah yeah he just made a claim that james cameron came to him with the offer of avatar and he was like i'm not going to spend months painted in blue so you go ahead this movie will be hit but i won't be starring in your movie he said the task too yeah and he claimed that in an

[01:22:18] interview man it's just yeah so here are the splits that um uh the way they've spread it up they've called it high octane productions first of all so you have uh the movie i cannot pronounce aryan khan's debut is it the bads of bollywood the bastards of bollywood i don't know what it is um yeah that's one then they have a siddharth anand's high stakes drama jewel thief the heist begins i'm

[01:22:46] assuming that's the one the safe ali khan one right if i'm not mistaken yeah yeah with jaydi palawat right and then akka which is an exceptionally yrf production a production gripping tale of powerful sisters i think that one is coming out soon if i'm not mistaken yeah akka is a um it's a historical drama about uh this woman queen on the west coast of india who fought off the portuguese i believe

[01:23:12] is that a hindi production or is that a south indian i think i don't know because who's the actress playing it keithi suresh right and it's got radhika apte as well and tanvi azmi i'm really looking forward to that yeah i hope it's like really good and keithi suresh can act yeah it's really good so i'm hoping for good things and all three are movies right these three

[01:23:37] i have no idea it's very confusing so the bads of bollywood uh is a series oh right uh it's a series uh jewel thief i think is a um it's a movie with sef um and then akka i don't know what it is it's a series okay it's a series okay then we have uh romantic comedies reimagined so uh they have

[01:24:05] nadania which we just spoke about unfortunately uh dhoom dham which i spoke about um and then abjessa koi and the royals yeah the royals looks fun like i'm yeah i'm like like i like ishan kattar man it's like he he does quirky kind of different things i'm enjoying whatever he's bringing out as a and there's zenith oh yeah she's in it too yeah yeah um i don't know what abjessa koi is

[01:24:31] it's the madhavan and fatima sana sheikh that looks really good i'm liking that although like i said to you yesterday it does feel like one of the short stories in ajeeb dasthans or something like that stretched out to a whole movie um but uh i i don't know it's a pairing i did not expect but a pairing i'm kind of excited to watch um so yeah then we have uh strengthening our south originals test a tamil

[01:25:00] tamil a cricket drama with our madhavan nayantara sidharth yeah and then super subu our first telugu comedy drama series that explores purpose and love in unexpected places okay i think the trailer for test is coming out in the next few days i said i saw the teaser of it and it yeah it looks good um there's nainthara in it and there's siddharth i'm rooting for this i'll probably watch it

[01:25:25] yeah uh comedy they have a great great indian couple show a show none of us watch i think right no yeah veer das full volume i think i'm not sure but i think i went to the taping of that in london um i'm not he didn't give it a title so i'm not sure and they shot it and they were like oh stand up and you might actually see me who knows like the the way i was placed i was very strategic and uh you

[01:25:53] know this bald head like the light shines and then it goes like that you know so there's like an aura like i'm jesus so that's the advantage so if that's the one you might see me i mean you are going to be the ajkar zuraat of veer das's show so if that's the one if if that's the thing i'll it was enjoyable show but it is that veer das thing or not even veer das thing it's just generally um indian stand-up

[01:26:23] comedies where i think they just don't have enough teeth um the bite isn't where it needs to be i don't really like veer das okay yeah um and then toaster which is an offbeat comedy which i but that one i'm really looking forward to yeah with raj kumar rao and i was just like so this is the thought i had it's just so funny you have safe ali khan's netflix movie he's an international jewel thief going from

[01:26:51] one place to the other place and raj kumar's netflix he has a toaster and he wants to give it back it's like the same problems of the star system are now being repeated in streaming which i think uh is hilarious one thing about uh jewel thief though in the teaser you see these two uh jade palawat and saif ali khan you know in different disguises and one of them saif ali khan puts on the sarta uh you know the sardar costume and he looks like sartat singh from sacred games yes i think that was

[01:27:19] deliberate they were probably playing with this no and and then the different disguises of jade palawat and he looks like the same guy it's like where's the disguise guys yeah uh crime and action they have mandala murders um dabba cartel which is already out it's already out and i i haven't watched it um i haven't heard really mixed things about yeah it came and went like nobody really

[01:27:45] talked about it that much it feels like glory because it's like got an amazing cast yeah glory which is a family fierce pursuit of an olympic medal and sare jahan se achcha an intense 70s spy thriller inspired by history india's unsung hero i'm wondering who the villain will be let it be a surprise awesome

[01:28:11] who might be the villain of this intense spy thriller maybe china i know it could be china this time um then uh so then the returning favorites uh i'm excited for this yeah khaki which i liked khaki i didn't know if you guys watched it or not i i watched like half of it i didn't complete it but

[01:28:37] i'm really excited about the bengal chapter because it's got uh prushanjit chattaji and it's got shashoto chattaji as well and uh it's got jeet uh which i hate rana and i do which we all gave up on i don't think anybody have watched this but arjun rampal is coming back and rana and i do what do you mean comes back like he he's making a

[01:29:03] comeback yeah yeah oh yeah no but he was in jitega to jitega you know he's already made his comeback oh oh okay crack the movie that only awesome remembers you should guys you should watch it i was saying you should watch crack you should watch crack just put that clip out of context you should watch crack guys

[01:29:30] you should watch crack guys um kohra which was good and intense and then delhi crime which i've not seen the first two seasons but i might watch season three uh i'm thinking of it because i knew that the first one were very like gruesome and i wasn't in the right state of mind but i'm actually in season two wasn't as wasn't right yeah yeah yeah i don't think i'll have time to catch up on season two so i might try to just jump in and like if they're just like case based i think i could probably jump in

[01:29:59] in season three so it should be fine um and then we have anuja a short film which is already released uh i don't i've not watched it dining with the kapoos which we've made fun of these kind of movies already i'm gonna watch it still of course yeah i love the nepa babies who which kapoor are you most excited to watch in dining with the kapoos

[01:30:25] kareena i actually want to know like i want to i want to hear like randhir talk about it because he's like the last of the of that generation of kapoos very sadly and uh one thing i'll say for raj kapoor sons none of them had a filter whether it was rishi randhir or uh chimpu um none of them had a filter when they were talking about and they would actually they would be like things that

[01:30:51] people had gossiped about for years and like there was no confirmation and then they would just like randomly rishi kapoor would show up and be like huh of course my father was having an affair with my mother left the house and i remember very clearly what is this woman saying that she never had an affair with raj kapoor i remember um and that's the kind of energy that i want to see in dining with the kapoos i want radeer kapoor to basically bring out every single skeleton in the

[01:31:17] faucet yeah so i i wished we had like you know early to mid 2000s bebo uh in this documentary like not like you know not like lady bebo we have now lady you know uh nawabi bebo uh because that bebo would have been fun but we don't have that bebo anymore um uh yeah i don't know yeah i'm looking forward to this i think when you compare it to the rossians one right which i just don't

[01:31:46] think they have enough meat to have a documentary and especially not but the kapoos definitely do so i think that is something that i am looking forward to um so yeah uh i think that's it in terms of slate for netflix um you had uh you watched picture this uh amrita you want to talk about that also i just want to uh like a bunch of people uh include like second steve and like a whole bunch

[01:32:13] of other people have mentioned system midnight is i'm very excited for that one yes i am also very excited to watch i think it's already out no yeah i think it's out in the uk in india it's out a little later uh yeah i'll probably try to catch it this week yeah i'm very excited to watch it um what was i going to say picture this i saw picture this it's already streaming on prime even i think in

[01:32:40] the uk um and it stars simone ashley uh whom some of you might remember from bridgerton who is an absolute goddess and um she has also produced this and it also has sindhu v who's like a very funny comedian um and it's it's really it's it's a really like you know it's like an old-fashioned

[01:33:04] rom-com um and it's a little bit bridget jones-ish um it's you know it's about a woman who is trying to um become everything that she hoped that she would be and she isn't yet um and also the romantic entanglements that she falls into etc and modern dating in london uh etc etc and uh it's cute it's

[01:33:33] cute and uh simone is just gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous so and very funny um uh yeah uh i i was actually talking to my wife that she should watch this movie it's because it came out on prime um so uh it looks fun though it looks fun i've seen some clips asim chowdhury is in it who's always really really fun um uh by the way can i just mention so there's also uh there's this show called delhi boys on i was

[01:34:02] just gonna talk about that yeah so i saw um there was talking about like influencer marketing etc uh i saw an interview where they go on um the hot ones but it's not the traditional not the sean evans hot ones but the one where three people sit and like ask each other questions and they have to eat a

[01:34:24] death wing if they can't answer um and it was um asif ali um purna jagannathan and i think the third guy's name is saga shake if i'm not mistaken and the three of them were having this thing and at some

[01:34:42] point asif ali uh who is pakistani american i believe um and he asked saga shake who is pakistani indian um you know like to do like a six degrees of separation between him and the indian actor who shares his name and i genuinely thought he meant saif ali han and instead of saying like you know shares my name

[01:35:11] he meant like an anagram of his name and no he meant asif ali the malayalam actor and he was like talking about like you know apparently i don't know like he does he he has like a like a bridge because like you know like um asif ali worked with parvati parvati worked with irfan uh irfan worked with

[01:35:33] somebody else who also worked with asif yeah um and uh i was like i'm a malayali girl who grew up in delhi in like the 80s and 90s and i cannot begin to tell you how taken aback i am to hear not just like indians but like south asians in general talk about malayali actors with that level of familiarity

[01:36:01] because when i was growing up people would be like oh you're from south india how far is your house from madras like there wasn't even like any you know um any acknowledgement that malayalam was a different language much less a different film industry and now people are talking about asif he's not mamuti it's not mohan lal he's not like you know like one of the big stars of malayalam cinema he's not about asif ali um who's like a very good actor and who's like you know made some very

[01:36:31] successful movies but i'm just like really taken aback um anyway i just wanted to say that by the way delhi boys not delhi delhi i don't know how different yeah different in pronunciation is an amazing show i've finished the whole thing uh it's just 10 episodes it's very snappy every episode is around 30 minutes it's kind of a combination between snatch and kim's convenience but with like pakistani tadka on top

[01:37:00] of it and it is so good like it is like literally one of the best things i've seen um it's so funny so hilarious and it just also because no no you have to say it with that just wow i have to say wow you love it now you love it that's how i described the show but it's just like um

[01:37:24] it made me also think that we've seen so many in uh indian american content we rarely see pakistan like proper pakistani content like marvels was kind of a mixed pakistan like come on it's not really pakistan it's kind of like you know cosplaying as pakistan but there's a difference between having you know shaan masala and trs on your food like there's a subtle difference and i just like the

[01:37:49] different subtleness of it you know i really really had a great time so it's going to be one of the shows that so it's it's one season but clearly they're building up towards a second season um and i hope it gets green it and i hope people like everybody in the khanan stream you should watch it i think you will enjoy this show there's no way you will not enjoy it it's really up our alley um i think it's streaming on disney if i'm not mistaken um so definitely take some time to watch

[01:38:18] it it's really fun and it's really it also just appeals to me because you kind of connect with that kind of life where you know you know you know desi in india you're desi in america or in the uk and you kind of live that life where you're kind of like half burger you know um and there's a lot of like quirks going on puna jaganathan is great in it she's so good i did have a moment where i thought you know was this actually written for priyanka chopra and they didn't have the budget and she

[01:38:46] didn't want to play an auntie maybe those are the reasons they didn't get her but it feels like the way she's has this fabulous hair and hoop earrings and just she's kicking ass she's so good in it and i was just like so happy for her that she was able to take on a role like this because it's not the kind of rose like the the person she's playing lucky and it is one of the most badass characters i have

[01:39:09] seen ever in my life played by a desi woman it is amazing um so definitely like i strongly urge you to watch delhi boys and hopefully by us watching it and pushing it and promoting it it will get a second season because it deserves it a tan france shows up and he is having so much fun playing a british gangster he is not 100 pulling it off but it's so much fun to watch and he has clearly have

[01:39:36] it he has a fight scene with puna jaganathan and it's so cool they're like kniving each other and stuff like that it's really cool really really cool i think uh amrita you sent us that clip of them choosing their favorite bollywood movie and tan france chooses hoon bari wang which is also on our 80s dhamaka it will appear at some point maybe tan france is listening to the 80s dhamaka that's why you thought of it um cool uh so you want to read some comments before we start wrapping up yeah sure

[01:40:04] uh yeah that show was delhi boys as uh uh laina was asking for it um mary piari bindu is so good love that film uh i don't know what was that in context i actually recommended some i was talking to my sister about it that she should watch that movie not too long ago uh yeah weird that yeah weird that we talk about that random movie something yeah uh nani got really excited that

[01:40:33] netflix took revenge for saev's sacred games 2 failure with ibrahim ali khan in nadania that's a weird connection that you made nani uh i don't want to look into your brain um paresh said would it be that this movie was meant to be an episodic bubblegum thing um this is

[01:40:57] regarding uh nadania again um yeah if you press on the comment it shows up on the screen by the way

[01:41:06] uh okay uh yeah steve mentions that radhika up the um sean prashar made a movie what i don't know

[01:41:28] look i did it i did it yes thank you uh sister midnight yeah i'll be catching that this week um any comments on if i award winners i don't know who won and i don't care i think we all lost basically yeah uh i wish they'd bring back bombay begums i really enjoyed that series do you remember bombay begums there's a puja bhat one right is that the one yes yeah yes i remember it just was one of

[01:41:58] those movies where it's like we hate our kids kind of thing our all our kids suck and we you know are teenagers and they all suck and they're all doing drugs and we hate them and they hate us and also like weird sexuality in that show i remember like i don't know yeah uh well finally this will breathe the last comment that we read uh priyanka chopra in a rajamoli movie which one is that oh yeah

[01:42:23] she's in the new mahesh babu movie that rajamoli is directing oh you were asking what she's doing yesterday no yeah yeah so she's doing i was yeah that explains a lot that's it that's it from the comment section thank you all 35 people who joined this live stream kartik aaryan won best actor for bb3 see that's why i don't watch ipha you know it's just wow terrible just looking like a wow

[01:42:52] any thoughts on chava i mentioned in previous chava no none of us watch chava no i boycott i think like it's be too it's too a little too violent for me like i don't really need to see somebody being tortured for like damn i don't know maybe it's also it's going to probably come out on streaming would you watch i have no interest in it so i don't think if i can make fast forward

[01:43:19] through the torture scenes maybe i can watch it i don't know i've been watching a lot of non-desi content to be honest and uh i have been watching the wheel of time the first three episodes of season i was telling you guys that i was the recap of wheel of season season three on the episode one and i thought i had finished season two apparently not or i've completely forgotten what was season two like i don't think you watched any of it dude like

[01:43:46] i don't know i did watch it i did watch it but i can't remember any of it it was really good uh so season three so far is way better than season two and it also um there's so remember i don't know if you guys remember but last season i was like telling you guys that there's this particular scene with matt that is my all-time favorite scene uh of a character in any book and it's just matt being a

[01:44:15] badass and that's the first time that you see matt being a badass and i thought that they had cut that from the series but in season three it's there right and uh it i was so happy and they do it really well it's it's better in the book but it's pretty great in the show um and they also make a whole bunch of changes that i think make a lot of sense and uh i like it i remember also when we were talking about

[01:44:44] it last season it just felt that they were still constrained in terms of budget and i think now they've just unleashed the money bags and i think i'm really excited to watch it i just didn't get a chance to do it but i'm uh i actually really want to watch wheel of time three and uh uh yeah i'm just it's just crazy that they're continuing making the show nobody's watching it it seems like except the people that are like fans of the books um but i'm glad they are like i'm i'm invested in it like uh

[01:45:09] yeah yeah it's crazy that this show got three seasons now yeah rings rings of power is still struggling yeah yeah no no i'm excited i'm let's do like let's do an episode when we're done amrita because i want to do want to talk about this quirky little show cool cool okay guys that's it from all of us um sorry for the snuff again about the link i'll try to be better next time

[01:45:39] cool all right bye bye bye bye