29122022-LSTC-01.qxd 12/28/2022 10:49 PM Page 1 c m y b TRIBUNE Surveen Chawla and Prajakta Koli team up for horror series Unseen Step out Yami Gautam is currently holidaying in the mountains of Himachal Pradesh. She has dropped pictures and videos from her outing on her Instagram handle. LUDHIANA | THURSDAY | 29 DECEMBER 2022 Setting internet ablaze LOOKING BACK2022 Prajakta Koli Spooky connection M ANY national and international controversies became part of our daily lives in 2022. Here’s a list of top news makers of the year… WILL SMITH SLAPS CHRIS ROCK AT OSCARS This will go down in the history of Academy Awards as one of the most controversial acts. The Will Smith slap-gate incident was highly condemned but it also highlighted Jada Pinkett Smith’s fight with Alopecia. Memes were flying left, right and centre. Nicole Kidman’s reaction to this matter was duly noted. Jacqueline Fernandez & Sukesh Chandrashekar POSTER OF KAALI Surveen Chawla Filmmaker Leena Manimekalai shared the poster for her film Kaali on social media, which sparked a controversy. The depiction of Maa Kaali smoking a cigarette in this poster offended people’s sensibilities. The poster also showed the star portraying the Goddess, holding a trishul in one hand and the LGBTQ pride flag in the other. Many complaints were filed against the filmmaker but she stood her ground. JOHNNY-AMBER DEFAMATION TRIAL 3 Monkeys will be the last film of Tunisha Sharma There was so much drama in this case that a two-part documentary, titled Johnny vs Amber, is announced to give an insight on what went wrong in Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s marriage. The trial was made public and Virginia civil jury ruled in favour of Depp, after finding out that Heard had not only made false and defamatory statements but that she’d done so with “actual malice”— a higher threshold for cases involving public figures. Jurors concluded Depp should receive more than $10 million. CONMAN SUKESH’S LINK WITH B-TOWN Bollywood actresses Jacqueline Fernandez and Nora Fatehi came under the scanner of ED when Rs One more time… and disappointing news that at such a young age she took a drastic step without thinking about her mother and others in the family. Today’s generation at times don’t think much, but taking such a step is never right. We worked with her in the movie and we cannot believe, having known her, that she could take such a step.” 3 Monkeys stars Arjun Rampal in the lead and is said to be the Hindi adaptation of popular series Money Heist. Unplanned wedding Simon Cowell has opened up about his plans to enjoy a ‘spontaneous’ wedding day with wife-to-be Lauren Silverman. He has been in a relationship with 45-year-old Lauren since 2013 and they announced their engagement at the beginning of this year. Media reports earlier this year suggested that the cou- THE KASHMIR FILES From Will Smith slapping Chris Rock to furore over Deepika Padukone’s saffron bikini in Pathaan, here are events that made headlines in 2022 The cast of Prime Video’s upcoming series, titled Unseen, has announced. Surveen Chawla, Prajakta Koli, Priya Bapat and Pranay Manchanda will be a part of the series. Touted to be horror thriller, it is produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani’s Excel Entertainment. Unseen is the tentative title and shooting will commence soon. It will be directed by Raghav Dhar. Pranay Manchanda will also be playing a significant role in this women-centric series. Unseen will release in the second half of 2023 and will have more seasons to offer in future. Akhtar’s Excel Entertainment has a great line-up for 2023 from Fukrey 3, Jee Le Zaraa and Unseen. Tunisha Sharma, who was seen in the lead role as Shehzaadi Mariam in Ali Baba Dastaan-E-Kabul, allegedly died by suicide on December 24 on the sets of the show. She was just 20. Tunisha was also a part of several films. Her last project was Abbas-Mustan’s film 3 Monkeys. Abbas Alibhai Burmawalla of the Abbas-Mustan duo attended Tunisha’s last rites on December 27 and confirmed the news. Abbas said, “It is very sad WILL SMITH SLAPS CHRIS ROCK ple, who share an eight-yearold son named Eric, was set to tie the knot in London over the summer, but this failed to materialise. Reportedly, Simon is planning to have an almost unplanned wedding instead, saying he will whisk Lauren down an aisle at the drop of the hat rather than plan an overthe-top ceremony. — IANS AAMIR KHAN IN LAAL SINGH CHADDHA 200 crore extortion case against conman Sukesh Chandrashekar came into the open. The controversy didn’t die down the entire year. Both the actresses were summoned by ED multiple times and most recently, Nora Fatehi filed a complaint against Jacqueline alleging that the latter made defamatory allegations against her for “malicious reasons” and to destroy her career. The case is still on while Jacqueline has been granted bail. RANVEER SINGH’S NUDE SHOOT Ranveer Singh set the internet on fire by going naked for the photoshoot of an international magazine. It all started when Ranveer shared the pictures on his Instagram handle. Sitting on a Turkish rug, lying naked on it, striking different poses, the actor looked comfortable in his skin but sure made many raise eyebrows in the country. Few went A STILL FROM BESHARAM RANG on to register a case against the actor for obscenity. THE KASHMIR FILES VS IFFI JURY In the month of November, The Kashmir Files landed in a controversy because the IFFI jury head, Nadav Lapid, an Israeli filmmaker and India’s guest at the festival, called the film a ‘vulgar propaganda film inappropriate for an artistic competitive section’. Many had asked for Nadav’s apology but he stood by his words. The filmmaker was later on backed by other jury members of IFFI. BOYCOTT TREND FOR LAAL SINGH CHADDHA The impact of boycott trend was witnessed by Bollywood when Aamir Khan-starrer Laal Singh Chaddha failed at box office in India, although the film did great in foreign countries. The film is an Fatehto go on the floors Jacqueline Fernandez Jacqueline Fernandez has signed another film, titled Fateh. She will be playing a significant role opposite the titular character of Fateh played by Sonu Sood. The shooting will be starting by midJanuary and the makers plan to wrap it by April. The film was first announced in December 2021 by Zee Studios. It will be directed by Abhinandan Gupta. Sonu is producing Fateh in partnership with Zee Studios. The actor has been involved in every aspect of the project. It is about digital scammers and hacking. Sonu has consulted several ethical hackers to keep things authentic. Sonu said, “The story interested me. It is one of the most crucial subjects that need our attention. I am extremely excited to bring this thought-provoking story to the audience.” c m y b Sonu Sood AMBER HEARD & JOHNNY DEPP official adaptation of 1994 American film Forrest Gump. Aamir returned to the silver screen after almost four years. The scale of the film, its Rs 180 crore budget and Aamir’s stardom meant much was expected of the film but due to the boycott calls, it only made Rs 69.92 gross India collection. PATHAAN SONG ROW The latest film to receive a backlash from the boycott Bollywood brigade is Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone-starrer Pathaan. People objected to Deepika’s saffron-hued bikini in the song Besharam Rang and within no time, ‘ban the film’ started trending. While the makers chose to remain silent, SRK indirectly addressed the row as he talked about the “narrowness of view” plaguing social media during the inaugural session of the 28th Kolkata International Film Festival. Cholas are back Mani Ratnam’s magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan-2 teaser out After the grand success of Mani Ratnam’s magnumopus Ponniyin Selvan 1, the makers are back with the second installment. Taking to Twitter handle, Lyca Productions dropped a teaser of the film along with a release date. Sharing the video, they wrote, “Let’s get those swords in the air as we await the 28th of April 2023!” Helmed by Mani Ratnam and music composed by AR Rahman, the film stars Vikram, Trisha Krishnan Karthik Sivakumar, Jayam Ravi and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in the lead roles. The teaser features Aditya Karikalan (Vikram), Arulmozhi Varman (Jayam Ravi), and Vandhiyathevan (Karthi). Arulmozhi is seen wandering among numerous monks, while Karikalan is shown furious as he stands in front of a statue of Kali. The film is all set to release on April 28. Ponniyin Selvan-Part 1 was a cinematic adaptation of author Kalki Krishnamurthy’s Tamil novel of the same name which was released in the form of a series during the 1950s. It marks the third collaboration of Aishwarya with South Indian actor Vikram after their critically acclaimed film Raavan in 2010. In the film, Aishwarya played the dual roles— Queen Nandini, the princess of Pazhuvoor, who is on a mission to seek vengeance, and Mandakini Devi. The film was released in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam worldwide. ANI