Friends Forever

Who says showbiz people can’t be genuinely chummy with each other? Check this out: the trailer for Humaima Malick’s upcoming series Jindo has got everybody filled with high expectation, including people from her fraternity (or sorority). Noor Bukhari is one of those who wrote on Instagram, “Wow, this is next level Humaima Malick. No one can match you, you are one and only.” In reply, the star of The Legend of Maula Jatta exclaimed, “Two actors can be best friends too. You are my inspiration, a fine woman with a beautiful soul. Thank you senior, I love you.” Awww… isn’t that sweet. The response could have been equally effective without the pointed adjective ‘senior’, though, no?

THE ADVICE

Social media has given a voice to everyone. This is the democratisation of opinion. No matter what age bracket you belong to, you can speak about anything. For example, the young Bilal Abbas Khan has come up with these important pearls of wisdom to lead, as the media has put it, a blissful life. “Make your health a priority. Take your prayers seriously. Talk to the people you trust and be around only those who genuinely care. Stay very far away from judgemental people and close to like-minded people. This can be a miracle for you, in case you need it.” Good advice. Ignore it, in case you don’t need it.

MAHIRA’S NEW LINE

Pakistan’s very own screen sweetheart, Mahira Khan, is now venturing into designing clothes. She has just launched her label ‘M by Mahira’ and, from the feedback coming in to the first monochrome line, it seems to have received a positive response from both critics and buyers. So well done to her! If the film industry is once again in the doldrums, peeps got to find alternative avenues to express themselves creatively (or make money). But Mahira K must also, surely, have an eye on her own future prospects. You can only remain a sweetheart for a certain age and the press from the younger lot is also there. So if others don’t dress you, dress others.

THE FIVE VERSUS THE NEW

Salman Khan has some guts, like literally — he works out regularly. He feels he and his contemporary actors are still relevant — for sure he lives in La La Land. Recently, the Bollywood A-lister was at an event where he was asked about the younger generation of actors. He articulated his answer thus: “All of them are hard-working. All are very focused. But the five of us are not going to give it up so easily — Shah Rukh, Aamir, me, Akshay and Ajay. We will make them run for their money. We are not retiring anytime soon. Our films also work and so we hike our fees. Seeing that, they [young ones] also increase their fee even when their films are not working.” Salman K, if they do that, it shouldn’t bother you. You keep making them run… for their money.

KING’S ARGUMENT

Last week, the whole of India was abuzz with the news of the inauguration of the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) attended by a big number of Indian and Hollywood celebs. Ironically, while videos of the razzmatazz and flashy happenings from the event went viral, one of the clips that got tongues wagging like crazy was the ostensible heated argument that took place between Shah Rukh Khan and his wife Gauri. Things aren’t still clear whether it was a verbal showdown or just a high-pitched discussion because there was too much noise where the two were standing. Also, we couldn’t spot Priyanka Chopra near the couple.

BITTER TWITTER

Actress Hillary Duff’s husband Matthew Koma, a musician, has been suspended from the social networking website Twitter. The reason is that, after Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow won the skiing collision trial against Terry Sanderson which fetched her just a single [symbolic] dollar, he impersonated the actress through a meme on Twitter. This did not go down well with those who run the app, so they permanently suspended his account. We feel Matthew K should not have gone down that slippery slope.

Published in Dawn, ICON, April 16th, 2023