Faking It

Talk about the shallowness of trolls. Ever since Mathira has begun to look a little different (who looks the same all their lives anyway?), they have been after her, alleging she has had plastic surgery. Taking part in a podcast recently, the famous model and VJ said it was after she met with an accident in Dubai that pushed her to stay in bed for weeks, that she started to look different. As for those who are calling her fake, she has this to say to them, “I’m not fake. You all have a fake personality.” Spot on, girl! They don’t know: life ain’t a fake walk.

Brother, Hair It Comes

Here’s an interesting little story about brotherly love. Danyal Zafar, younger sibling of Ali Zafar, dyes his hair — burgundy. This unleashes a barrage of comments about his… wait for it… masculinity. Big brother notices the brouhaha on socials and jumps in to support the young lad. He writes, “Yo Danyal, I will get upset with you if you cut your hair or dye [it] black…. Gotta kill these concepts of masculinity from [the] stone ages.” He doesn’t stop there and advises him to dye the hair pink for the next shoot and have a “fuchsia-coloured jacket” to go with it. Yo, Ali Z, nice colour scheme!

‘Time To Fly’

They say Sunny Deol is pretty picky-choosy.

Unlike many other actors of his generation (say Anil Kapoor), he doesn’t do more than a handful of films in two to three years. But it seems things have changed for him. For him, it’s been 38 years in the industry as a performer. Talking to a journo, the angry, not-so-young-man of Bollywood has reportedly said, “This is my time to fly and float as an actor and not struggle to keep an image alive.” Sunny D, never knew you had an ‘image’.

The Return of Prem

All you Salman Khan fans who think that his Prem character in Sooraj Barjatya’s films (Main Ne Pyar Kiya, Hum Aap Ke Hain Kaun) brings the best out of his acting talent (if that exists), well, guess what — the next Prem film is in the offing. At the premiere of a movie titled Unnchai the media asked Sooraj B if he has any plans of bringing back his favourite actor in the same role. He said yes, to which Salman K added that this time round he will also make sure that the character gets married. Hold on a sec! Marriage, at his age? We thought the character would appear as a prem guru.

The First Time

Netflix is creating history of sorts. For the first time, it is going to have a live, unscripted performance on the streaming platform. What kind of a performance? Well, it’s going to be a stand-up act by none other than Chris Rock. The comedy special will hit the airwaves in 2023. We think it’s a fantastic idea. However, since it involves Chris R, and bearing in mind Slapgate, we feel he needs to wear protective gear, have a bunch of bodyguards around him, and preferably a solid, transparent podium in front of him. There are many Will Smiths lurking in the shadows of the stage.

Direction Jealousy

Once members of the pop band One Direction broke up, as it usually happens, they went solo. Without a shadow of doubt, after the Pakistani origin Zayn Malik, it was Harry Styles whose solo persona caught fire — not only have his songs been big hits, but his acting career too has taken off. This hasn’t gone down well with one of his former bandmates, Louis Tomlinson. Last week, he opened up about the situation, conceding that Harry S’s success bothers him and that Harry “fits the mould of a modern star.” Well, Louis T, there’s a saying in Urdu, ‘Hasad mat kar, mehnat kar [Don’t feel jealous, work harder]’.

Published in Dawn, ICON, November 20th, 2022