HEROINE ALL THE WAY

We have to give credit to television and film actress Hira Mani for keeping it real. The actress — whose first appearance in a movie Jinn Mahal came in the shape of the leading female role in one of the three parts in the trilogy Teri Meri Kahaniyaan — has said that now that she’s worked on the silver screen, she’s been able to show her “versatility” and that “one can’t be a heroine their whole life.” Noble thought. Wait, Hira M, you were a heroine up until now?

PRIDE OF FEUD

Sometime in the past, actress and director Sakina Samo had something not so favourable to say about film star Resham getting the President’s Pride of Performance award, which, obviously, did not go down well with the latter. She doesn’t seem to have moved on. Recently, in an interview, Resham labelled Sakina S’s remarks ‘hypocritical’. And the way she used the word clearly showed her dislike for the senior artist’s opinion. We say, guys, you only live once. Just live in this mediocre world of glitz and glamour the way everyone else lives… and be friendly

NOOR, WHO?

TikTok star Jannat Mirza told a very interesting story to a morn­ing show host. According to her, ace filmmaker Syed Noor’s man­­a­ger called her to know whe­ther she’d like to work in his film. She said she didn’t know who Noor sahib was. At that point, the director came to the phone and, realising that she actually didn’t know him, asked her to Google him. Not only did she look him up on the net, she asked her parents about him. Fortunately, they were better informed than Jannat M. Then she called Noor sahib back, apologised… and now she’s working in his forthcoming movie… Dear researchers and film analysts, such is the state of Pakistani showbiz.

FAKE MAQSOOD

Social media has a lot of downsides, one of which is that there are phoney accounts running in the name of famous people. One such person is writer Anwar Maqsood. Since he’s known for his witty one-liners, apparently there are fake Twitter accounts using his persona. His son Bilal Maqsood has rightly made an appeal to all admirers of Anwar M to report fake handles of his father because it can put the writer in danger. One must admit that some of the fake accounts are quite funny though. And maybe the real issue is that the accounts take political positions against Anwar Maqsood’s bent.

BIOPIC INNOCENCE

In 2021, Indian actress Shilpa Shetty’s husband, businessman Raj Kundra, was jailed for 61 days in a pornography case. Rumour has it that a biopic on him, focusing on that particular period, is now being made. Raj K himself will produce it. Not just that, he will also look after other important aspects of the project, including scripting and casting. We think, since he has oodles of moolah on him, he can do anything with it. If you have money, you can turn a saint into a villain and a villain into a… villain.

THE SPLIT

Another couple bites the dust! Supermodel Bella Hadid and art director Marc Kalman had been going out for two years. News is that they have now broken up. While details of the split are sketchy, it’s been reported that Bella H is undergoing treatment for Lyme disease — a type of arthritis. She hasn’t been feeling well lately. Her PR team has rejected the allegation that she has an alcohol issue (which reminds us, her sis Gigi H has a marijuana problem), and that she’s in rehab. Well, we’re sure that’s true. We think Bella H shouldn’t bottle things up. She should be an optimist and see the glass of life as half full.

Published in Dawn, ICON, July 30th, 2023