16052022-LSTC-01.qxd 5/15/2022 10:51 PM Page 1 c m y b TRIBUNE Two for joy Wamiqa Gabbi will be seen in Khufiya and Modern Love Mumbai, which are helmed by Vishal Bharadwaj. She feels fortunate for this opportunity to work with the director. —IANS CHANDIGARH | MONDAY | 16 MAY 2022 Channmemories... Sheetal A New beginnings Nimrat Kaur begins shooting for yet another international project Nimrat Kaur is literally set-hopping this year! After wrapping Foundation S2, the actress is back to the grind with another international project. Taking to her Instagram handle, Nimrat gave fans a sneak peek into her shoot’s first day. She shared a picture from her makeup room and wrote, “Something old, something new, something hidden, something true!” Speaking about the same, Nimrat said, “I cannot share I cannot much at the moment, except share much at the that it’s a director I’ve moment, except that wanted to work with for a it’s a director I’ve while and a genre I’ve nevwanted to work with er worked before. Here’s to for a while.” new beginnings.” Meanwhile, fans are still raving over NIMRAT KAUR her performance in Dasvi. S a tribute to the legendary actors of Punjabi cinema, father and son, Dr Chaanan Singh Sidhu and filmmaker Simran Sidhu, bring Punjabi film Chann Pardesi once again to the theatres. If the former shares a special bond with the original film, the latter makes use of his skills to restore this old gem from its original 35mm master negative. He has re-mastered it to high-definition digital and 5.1 surround sound. Chann Pardesi Remastered will release worldwide on May 27. As National Award-winning Punjabi film Chann Pardesi completes 40 years of its release, Chaanan Singh Sidhu and Simran Sidhu repackage this cinematic gem... Many legends of Bollywood, including Amrish Puri, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Sushma Seth, Om Puri, and Raj Babbar, debuted with this film. It also stars Mehar Mittal, Sunita Dhir, Rajni Sharma and Rama Vij. Chann Pardesi won the National Award for Best Feature Film in Punjabi in 1980, and went on to become a box office phenomenon after its release in 1981. Dr Chaanan Singh Sidhu and Simran Sidhu Today, it is widely regarded as the greatest Panjabi film ever made. It’s modern-day release will also celebrate the completion of 40 years of the Panjabi classic’s release and will serve as a tribute to the late legends Amrish Puri and Om Puri of Indian cinema and Mehar Mittal of Punjabi cinema, who are no longer with us. As the trailer secured more than 2.5 million views, Chaanan Singh Sidhu, who bought the rights of the film to re-release it in theatres, shares his association with the film and its writer Baldev Gill. He says, “I was a student at the Department of Zoology, Panjab University, and Baldev Singh, who has written this film, belonged to the Department of Indian Theatre. It was his first time as screenwriter, who later gave films like Jee Aayan Nu, Mitti Wajaan Maardi and Chaar Sahibzaade. We became friends around 1977-78 when he was working on the script of Chann Pardesi. He wanted to connect to someone in Mumbai and I knew Manmohan Singh, who was then studying in the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. I wrote a letter to him and helped the two connect. He also came on board as the cinematographer. Chaanan shares how filming the songs had drained out the entire budget of the movie and it was the conviction of the entire team which helped to overcome the monetary issues. Baldev even sold his land to make this film. Once Chaanan and his son decided to re-release the film, they had to track down who had the rights of the film and then acquire them. The next step was re-mastering it negative by negative. The whole process took them more than three years. The pandemic delayed the release further. Chaanan, whose family members lovingly call him Chann, shares how he settled down in the UK and it took him years to reconnect with Baldev. In other words, he is the real Chann ‘Pardesi’ who took 40 years to return this gem to Punjabi audience. However, Chann Pardesi was not the original name of the movie. It was called Sajjan Bajh Hanera. When Chaanan and Baldev met a distributor in Jalandhar, he said, ‘If you have newbies and Mehar Mittal is not in the film, it’s gonna be ‘hanera’ for you.” Chann Pardesi: Remastered was premiered at the UK Asian Film Festival. Scent of success Grammy winning Indian composer AR Rahman’s very first feature film Le Musk will have its world premiere at the Cannes Film Market’s Cannes XR programme. The 36-minute film is billed as a cinematic sensory experience incorporating virtual reality, with motion, music and scent integrated into the narrative. It follows heiress and musician Juliet Merdinian, who, 20 years since she was orphaned, seeks out the men who changed her destiny. Rahman developed the story from an original idea by his wife Saira. They share a love for perfume and wished to employ scent as a narrative device in immersive cinema. Rahman directed from a screenplay by Gurachi Phoenix, besides composing the score. “Le Musk has been several years in the making with collaborators worldwide; we’ve aimed to create an unprecedented, subtle sensory cinematic surrealism. Creating a feature-length cinema VR experience that pushes boundaries of storytelling and incorporates multiple senses was a guiding force for me. Aroma and music together bring warm memories subjectively for the audience,” Rahman said. The cast includes Nora Arnezeder and Guy Burnet in lead roles, alongside Munirih Grace and Mariam Zohrabyan. Cannes XR is a programme from the Cannes Film Market dedicated to immersive technologies and cinematographic content. —IANS Singer Neha Kakkar’s husband Rohanpreet Singh lost his personal belongings, including a diamond ring, an iPhone and cash from his hotel room in Mandi, Himachal Pradesh. The singer is yet to release an official statement about the same but the probe is underway. Reportedly, the police is currently investigating the robbery case. In a statement, Mandi Superintendent of Police Shalini Agnihotri said, “Personal belongings, including cash, iPhone, smartwatch, and a diamond ring of Punjabi singer Rohanpreet Singh were stolen from a hotel in Mandi where he was staying. A case has been registered and the investigation is on.” On May 14, Rohanpreet had found his valuables missing from his room which he had kept on his side table. He soon informed the hotel management and filed a police complaint. ‘Our love is our strength’ Britney Spears had recently announced that she was expecting her first child with her husband Sam Asghari but in an unfortunate turn of events, the singer suffered a miscarriage. Britney took to her social media account on Sunday and announced her miscarriage with a heartbreaking note as she said, “We lost our miracle baby.” The note read, “It is with deepest sadness we have to announce that we have lost our miracle baby early in the pregnancy. This is a devastating time for any parent...Our love for each other is our strength.” Akshay tests Covid positive Rahman’s debut film Le Musk to premiere at Cannes XR Rohanpreet in trouble... Britney Spears & Sam Asghari ESCAYPE LIVE WEBSOLUTE FUN A serious take MAY 18: CYBER HELL ON NETFLIX In this feature-length documentary, director Choi Jinseong tells the story of two college students, a group of journalists and the cybercrime police officers who chased down the Nth Room, an online criminal network of sexual exploitation. Crafted from interviews, archives, animation and reenactments, the film reveals how the girls were coerced into uploading explicit materials of themselves to Telegram chat rooms, for which ringleaders charged fees in cryptocurrency for tens of thousands of users to access. MAY 20: PANCHAYAT SEASON 2 ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO The sequel of this hilarious drama will reveal the story as it moves ahead from the point where Abhishek (Jitendra Kumar) and Rinki (Pooja Singh) bump on to c m y b Thriller, documentary and drama, here are the top OTT releases for this week each other, generating a spark. The storyline of this new season will dive deep into the hilarious and innocent world of Panchayat and traverse through myriad layers of romance, drama and the formidable woman power (Neena Gupta) in the terrains of Phulera. MAY 20: ESCAYPE LIVE ON DISNEY+ HOTSTAR This is a social thriller following the lives of everyday Indians stuck in their common lives, trying desperately to make it big online through a massively popular live-streaming app’s promise of instant fame and money. The story follows the lives of individuals connected to a fictitious live-broadcast app called Escaype Live. The cast includes Siddharth, Jaaved Jaaferi, Shweta Tripathi, Swastika Mukherjee and others. Akshay Kumar, who had tested positive for Covid-19 in April last year, has tested positive for the virus once again. Akshay took to Twitter to inform everyone. He also mentioned that he would not be able to attend the Cannes Film Festival this year. Akshay wrote, “Was really looking forward to rooting for our cinema at the India pavilion at #Cannes2022.”