| No Images? Click here  On Thursday, I met with Urmila Matondkar, who has turned, as one journalist put it, "from abhineta, to neta" (LOL). While the actress looked resplendent, it only took a few live interviews with hyper-jingoistic news anchors for her to understand that the journey ahead is going to be anything but pleasant, as she must have been used to, while dealing with film journalists.As one of India's most crucial elections draw closer, Bollywood cannot remain far behind in the conversation. However, it appears that's exactly where the industry wants to be. Publicists in town are already warning journos to not ask politically-driven questions during the press tour of their films.Expect deafening silence.Meanwhile, India's sweetheart and actress extraordinaire Alia Bhatt has spoken about dealing with bouts of anxiety that leave her wanting to cry. Read about how she's handling that right here.It also appears that one of the Russo brothers, known for directing indie films such as the Avengers series, could be in town the coming week. Don't wanna hype y'all up or anything but I just might get you an interview with Joe Russo! Watch out.Love the newsletter, hate it? Send me a howler @aktalkies! Right at the onset, Matondkar is going after BJP's toxic Hindutva politics. In an interview with HuffPost, she said, "So many farmers are killing themselves, you tell me, is that even normal? Question that. Who are you to question my patriotism? Who are you to tell me what meat I should be eating? Who are you to tell me what my religion stands for?”But will Matondkar's approach work in Mumbai North, a constituency that has a large Gujarati population and has traditionally been a BJP stronghold? Local leader Gopal Shetty, notorious for a bunch of land-grabbing cases, will be a formidable competition for our Rangeela girl.  While a group of 103 independent filmmakers have come together to make an appeal to vote against the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, not a single filmmaker or actor from Bollywood has supported the campaign, despite some of the industry's biggest films being at the receiving end of the backlash orchestrated by the ruling party's offshoots.Sanal Kumar Sasidharan, who has mobilised support for the campaign told HuffPost that the mainstream actors and filmmakers aren't too comfortable openly voicing their criticism against the BJP because of fear of repercussions. More on the link below.  New to this email? You can sign up here.You can also follow HuffPost India on Flipboard.©2019 HuffPost India | Worldmark 3, FL 3, Aerocity, Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, Delhi 110037 |
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