Farhan hits the road
Filmmaker-actor-singer Farhan Akhtar, who is set to make a comeback as a director after over a decade, has started scouting for locations for his upcoming film, Jee Le Zaraa, starring Alia Bhatt, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Katrina Kaif. He took to social media and shared a picture of himself in a desert. Suggesting that he was scouting for locations in Rajasthan for the film, he captioned it, “Searching for gold.” Bhatt responded by stating that she “can’t wait” to begin filming. Co-producer Ritesh Sidhwani wrote: “And he is back on the director’s chair.” Farhan’s last directed film was Don 2, starring Shah Rukh Khan. Jee Le Zaraa has been written by Zoya Akhtar, Reema Kagti and Farhan. It is touted to be the female version of Zoya’s acclaimed directorial venture, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, which followed the adventurous journey of three friends. The film featured Hrithik Roshan, Farhan and Abhay Deol. Kaif also starred in it.
Dad again!
Singer Atif Aslam announced that he and his wife Sarah Bharwana have welcomed the latest addition to their family, a baby girl. The couple is parents to sons Abdul Ahad and Aaryan Aslam. “Finally the wait is over. The new queen of my heart has arrived,” he captioned the image. His friends, including celebrities such as Stebin Ben, and Sharad Malhotra, congratulated the singer.
Aslam is known for songs like Woh lamhe, and Tere bin.
67.5 million? Vote’s up!
As elections go, the recently concluded fourth edition of the mid-day and Radio City Hitlist OTT Awards was a landslide victory, isn’t it? Just look at the number of public votes polled — a whopping 67.5 million! Assuming that many people can’t go wrong with their choices. This also made the Hitlist Awards the biggest celebration of the year in the digital entertainment world. It was conducted virtually on March 17, where artistes in the OTT space competed in 16 categories. Winners, including Shefali Shah, Munawar Faruqui, Rajkummar Rao, were decided based on the audience votes. The virtual ceremony featured special performances and speeches by winners. The nominees were selected by mid-day’s Hitlist editorial team.
Man who made Mughal-e-Azam
Tigmanshu Dhulia, who won a National Award for his film Paan Singh Tomar (2012), is excited to direct another biopic. This time, his subject of interest is producer-director K Asif, who is most noted for the 1960s classic, Mughal-e-Azam. On his fascination with Asif, Dhulia says, “I learnt about some incidents about K Asif, which intrigued me. That man was a class-five dropout; tailoring was his craft, and he made [few] films in his life: Phool (1945), Mughal-e-Azam and Love and God. [Mughal-e-Azam] is said to be a magnum opus, but from where I see it, that man was a magnum opus.”
