Tere Bin Season 2

After the remarkable success of the drama series Tere Bin, its producers — Abdullah Kadwani and Asad Qureshi of 7th Sky Entertainment — have announced, with a fair degree of glee and pride, that its Season 2 is in the offing! Kadwani gushed with emotion on Twitter: “The exceptional performance of our lead Wahaj Ali and Yumna Zaidi and Murtasim-Meerub’s magical on-screen chemistry have played a pivotal role in making Tere Bin a masterpiece, which has touched the hearts of billions of viewers and has been appreciated worldwide.” He used the word ‘masterpiece’ twice in the tweet. Time for us to look up its meaning in the dictionary?

Win for Jemima

Congratulations to the makers of the film What’s Love Got To Do With It? for winning in no fewer than four major categories at the National Film Awards in the UK! The winners are: best director (Shekhar Kapur), best screenplay (Jemima Khan), best supporting actor (Asim Chaudhry) and best British film. The movie is one of the most critically and commercially successful cinematic ventures to have come out of the United Kingdom in the last year. And its success has a lot to do with… again… love.

The Stranger

No, it’s not the title of an Albert Camus novel. It can be the title of a story that actress Mehwish Hayat has recently told a journo. She narrated: “I met this guy a few years ago at Athens airport. He was originally from Lahore and did not know me. We talked a lot. He was very handsome, so I told him he should give modelling a shot. He listened to me and started film school in New York. We’re still friends. A total stranger I met is now an actor because of me. That’s magical, no?” Interesting. Sounds like the life-changing advice her character doled out in the recently released Teri Meri Kahaniyaan.

Gold and Bold

Tom Holland seems to have settled down in life because he sounds cock-a-hoop about his amorous rapport with fellow actor Zendaya. Why do we say this? Check out what the Spiderman star said in a recent interview: “I’m lucky that I have someone like Zendaya in my life. It’s interesting being in a romantic relationship with someone that is in the same boat as you. You can share your experiences and all that sort of stuff — and that’s worth its weight in gold.” To be honest, Zendaya is wafer-thin and doesn’t weigh much. But we know what you mean, Tom H.

To Get Her

Is Mahira Khan too busy to say ‘yes’ to showbiz ventures? Or is she just like that, ie not readily accessible? We don’t know. Actor Mikaal Zulfiqar has an opinion on the matter. He was on a talk show where he was asked if he hosted a chat show who he would not like to invite. He replied, ‘Probably Mahira Khan’. The reason: apparently, he has approached her for many a project, but she’s ‘hard to get’. Hmmm... well, easy to get isn’t a good virtue to have either, no?

In Vogue

Bollywood diva and yesteryear heartthrob Rekha may be 69 years of age (what? she doesn’t look it!), but she still looks as stunning and full of beans as she was, let’s say, when she made Silsila with Amitabh Bachchan. Her gorgeous appearance on the July cover of Vogue Arabia is testimony to our claim. In a statement related to her photo shoot, the actress articulated, “It is incredibly heartening to see how the young talent resonate with me when so many of my colleagues have been long forgotten by this new generation.” Well, that’s because they ain’t Rekha.

Published in Dawn, ICON, July 16th, 2023