Latest news with #Chaitanya
Hindustan Times
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Naga Chaitanya reveals he taught wife Sobhita Dhulipala driving on a racetrack, shares who he admires more than her
By HT Entertainment Desk | Written by Ananya Das Jun 28, 2025 04:36 PM IST Actor Naga Chaitanya has spoken about how he spends time with his wife, Sobhita Dhulipala, when they are both in Hyderabad. Speaking with Man's World India, Chaitanya said that they then share breakfast and dinner together. On Sundays, the couple watch a movie, orders in, and goes for a walk. He also shared that he taught Sobhita Dhulipala driving, that too on a racetrack. Sobhita Dhulipala and Naga Chaitanya tied the knot last year. Chaitanya also shared how Sobhita and he take turns in planning vacations. "She's into reading, I'm into racing. But we're both creative people. We take turns planning holidays. One time it's her lead, the next time it's mine," he said. Chaitanya recalled the time when he taught Sobhita how to drive on a racetrack with "no pedestrians, no pressure". He added that "once she started driving, she didn't want to stop". When asked which person he admires the most, he said, "a lot of people" and then listed his top three--"my dad and my mom and I put my wife as number three". Chaitanya is the son of Nagarjuna and Lakshmi. About Chaitanya and Sobhita's personal lives, career Chaitanya and Sobhita got married on December 4 last year. The ceremony was held at the iconic Annapurna Studios in Hyderabad in the presence of close friends and family members. He confirmed his relationship with Sobhita in August last year by sharing photos of their engagement ceremony. They dated for some time before tying the knot. He was previously married to actor Samantha Ruth Prabhu. The duo got married in 2017. They announced their separation on social media in a joint statement in October 2021. Chaitanya was last seen in Thandel, a Telugu romantic action thriller film directed by Chandoo Mondeti. It also starred Sai Pallavi. Fans saw Sobhita last seen in Love, Sitara, directed by Vandana Kataria. It also features Rajeev Siddhartha. The film released on ZEE5 last year.
Hans India
8 hours ago
- General
- Hans India
Jagannath Ratha Yatra celebrated with devotion at NSU
Tirupati: Under the aegis of the Odisha Chair at the National Sanskrit University, Sri Jagannath Culture and Chaitanya Philosophy Research Centre organised a grand Jagannath Rath Yatra on Friday. The event witnessed vibrant participation from students, faculty and devotees. Chief guest Rupeswar Chaitanya Prabhu, Vice-President of ISKCON temple, Tirupati, graced the occasion and spoke on the spiritual significance of the Rath Yatra. He prayed for Lord Jagannath's blessings upon the university and its well-wishers. University Registrar Kadiyam Venkata Narayana Rao ceremoniously placed the deities on the chariot, expressing the university's commitment to promoting Indian culture and spiritual knowledge through Sanskrit education. He invoked Lord Jagannath's grace for the university, Andhra Pradesh, and the entire nation. Academic Dean Prof Rajanikant Shukla encouraged students and the public to participate with devotion and receive divine blessings. Dean of Students' Welfare Prof S Dakshinamurthy Sarma further highlighted the grandeur of the Rath Yatra. Odisha Chair Director Dr Gyanaranjan Panda explained that the Jagannath Research Centre helps students explore the unique traditions of Lord Jagannath and Chaitanya philosophy. He remarked that just like in Puri, the Rath Yatra is celebrated with equal fervour here. The procession, starting from the university's Jagannath temple, passed through key streets of Tirupati before returning, spreading spiritual joy. The event was attended by University Finance Officer Prof Radha Govinda Tripathi, Odisha Chair Advisor Prof G Sankara Barayana, Chief Warden Prof P Venkata Rao, G Seetha Mahalakshmi and others.
Hindustan Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Smita Singh: 'Unlike Hollywood, screenwriting here has always been director-led'
What was your childhood like? Screenwriter Smita Singh (Courtesy the subject) My father is from Madhya Pradesh, and my mother has roots in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. My father was in the army, so I have been all over during my childhood. Growing up in the 1980s with an army background meant visiting militarized zones and travelling with people who were carrying AK-47s and guns all the time. Punjab and Kashmir are where I spent most of my childhood. As a child, I did a lot of reading and watched a lot of movies. Why and when did you think of becoming a writer? Growing up in an army unit meant that my sister and I did not go out and interact with other people much. Everyone is from a different age group and different backgrounds. Some don't have their families along. So, it was a pretty solitary childhood which created a lot of time and space for reading. Also, being articulate, being able to express myself in words, became a priority for me. I thought of getting into FTII, but it was too much – I didn't know how to do it. So, I finished my graduation from MP, which was my father's last posting, and then took up a Mass Communications course in Delhi, which I did not even finish. I did marketing jobs, back-end hotel jobs, sales – for a while, I was lost in Delhi. Then I got this job of transcribing interviews for Doordarshan, where I spent long hours going through interviews. Then I worked with Midi Tech, where we used to work on documentaries for National Geographic and Discovery. At this time, I was working in non-fiction, but I found that there were scripts online. I spent hours reading thousands of scripts, and that's when I thought this was something I wanted to do. I wanted to write for films. Then, much later in life, in 2012, I went to FTII. How did Mumbai happen? In 2006, I got married and moved to Bangalore. It was difficult to work there because I didn't know the language. So, from 2009 to 2012, I stopped working, and all I did was watch films. I turned my house into a mini film library. I would watch even the very obscure films from all over the world. I watched films and read a lot of scripts. In 2012, I felt ready to go to FTII, and I enrolled there. It was at FTII, where I developed the script for what eventually became Raat Akeli Hai. So, Tulsea, a talent management firm, came there for Campus Recruitment. Chaitanya (Hegde), who heads Tulsea, read the script and really liked it, and told me that Tulsea would like to represent me. That, for me, was a big step because I thought, now I know somebody who can introduce me to the industry. And they did it wonderfully. When I came to Bombay in 2014, Tulsea introduced me to lovely people like Shakun (Batra) and Kannu Behl. I also did a writing gig for Kannu. He discusses a lot, we talk a lot, sometimes the stories don't go anywhere, but I had a lovely time working with him. Then I also developed something with Gattu (Abhishek Kapoor). But then, about a year in, I felt that I didn't have the patience for it. I feel that I can't be someone's typist, you know. I can't be sitting there, writing down what someone is thinking. And I am pretty sure that people who worked with me realized that as well. But the writing gigs I did in my first year in Bombay did not really work out, and I got bored. Around that time, Vikram Motwayne read Raat Akeli Hai. He gave it to Anurag (Kashyap), who called to meet me. At that time, he was editing Bombay Velvet. He really liked the script and told me that he wanted to make it, but then again, a year went past like that, and nothing happened. Then my script got selected for Mumbai Mantra, and I had to pitch it to 70 producers, which was part of the deal of the Mumbai Mantra thing. That's where Honey Trehan read the script and liked it. So, I sold the script to Honey and Abhishek (Chuabey), who run Macguffin Pictures together. Now, around the same time, Vikram (Motwayne) was getting into Sacred Games, and since they had read my script, they thought that both Sacred Games and my film share the cop universe in some way, and called me to come on board. So, I was interviewed by someone at Netflix and got the job to work on Sacred Games. A scene from Sacred Games (Ishika Mohan Motwane/Netflix) Sacred Games was your first release. Tell me what it was working on the first Netflix Original of India. Initially, I thought I was only hired because I was a woman, and they just wanted to satisfy their DEI (Diversity, Equality, Inclusion) policy. And I was very conscious of that. Sudip (Sharma) was there for a little while before he moved on to work on Patal Lok because he could handle only one of those projects. Then there was Vasant Nath in the Writer's Room along with me, and Varun (Grover) was the lead writer on it. Now, funnily enough, at FTII, what they do is, they stop the course for some time and get a person who teaches you to write for TV. Vinod Ranganathan was that person in our course. So, he came, and he was telling us about Netflix and digital and all that. He told us we should break our stories into 100 episodes, and we were like, 'What is he talking about?' We just wanted to get on with our film scripts and make films. So, initially, we wrote him off. But suddenly, I was very into what he was saying. He taught us how to break down a story into 100 episodes, what milestoning is and all of that. It was one of the most intense exercises, probably the most writing I ever did. I picked up Girls Hostel or Ladies Hostel – which eventually became Khauf – to write as a drama, not as horror. Now, when I started working on Sacred Games, and when I read Vikram Chandra's book, my FTII learning appeared to me, and I thought, 'This is how you do it'. So, I was a trained writer, but that was not an asset. Because the others came from a different way of writing. We don't have a tradition of learning to write in this country. We don't have a studio system like in Hollywood where writers are churning out episode after episode week after week. In fact, a lot of Hollywood movies are adaptations of novels or plays. They have a hundred-year-old tradition of screenwriting. But here, it has always been mostly director-led. The director would get some people and tell them to write something, then many times, the director himself would get into writing. Then, for dialogues, they would hire someone else. For me, coming from FTII, it was quite different. I was a little impatient with reinventing the wheel. Writers here have not sat in a Writer's Room, they have never done it in a structured way. I'd say, it wasn't that pleasant for me. In terms of our social and political concerns, Varun and I were on the same page. But it was the nuts and bolts where it was difficult for me. A lot of the writing process was push and pull. For the other two writers, it was also a bit difficult that they were getting notes from an entity (Netflix) other than the director. For me, it wasn't new because getting notes from the BBC or National Geographic was normal in my earlier work. But in terms of excitement, the project was great for me. We broke down episodic beats together, worked on the structure. So, I thought, anything was possible after Sacred Games. Did the credit on Sacred Games help you make what you wanted to?Sacred Games helped me get Midnight's Children. The project never happened, but we wrote it. It was with Vishal (Bharadwaj) ji. There was him, Minty Tejpal, Sabrina Dhawan and I in the Writers' Room. It was a great room. That project did not happen, but during that time, Vishalji read my script of Raat Akeli Hai and introduced me to Aparna (Purohit) at Amazon. So, she came on board, and then Honey (Trehan) and Abhishek (Chuabey) at Macguffin became Executive Line Producers. Honey has a great sense of drama, and he understood my script immediately. The script was already written, though I had been tinkering with it, and the film was then produced by RSVP. 'I picked up Girls Hostel or Ladies Hostel – which eventually became Khauf– to write as a drama, not as horror.' (Courtesy Prime Video) Till recently, a writer would never be able to lead anything in cinema. But now, with the role of the 'Creator' on shows, they can. How was your experience creating Khauf and transitioning from a writer to a writer-creator? I think, before I could do it with Khauf, Sudip (Sharma) was the only one who was a pure writer turned into a creator. Now, with me, there were concerns that there was no Writers' Room. People found it difficult to believe that I could write it all by myself. And I was very clear that I wanted to write alone. I had experienced Writers' Rooms previously, and I definitely did not want to walk that path. For me, way more important than the money or the credit for the show was writing alone. I really wanted to be left alone as a writer. Of course, there is a time when I'd open doors and invite opinions and feedback. In fact, I hired as a creative consultant, one of the most critical minds I knew from FTII, Professor Ashwini Mallick. I trusted him to be very objective about this. He helped me with the initial assessment along with one person at Amazon. We started off in 2020, then Covid hit, my parents were in the ICU and all of that. I asked Amazon if they wanted to get a big director, a big name to lead the project after I was done writing it, but then I realized, why would a big director come and work if I am the creator? So, I thought of leading the show myself. That tells me you believe in the auteur theory. Do you? Well, I do. But it's important to know where that belief is coming from. If I am seeing a woman, sitting by the window, biting into an apple, it's important to know where the image is coming from. If a director tells me this image, and I am writing according to his mind, he is the author, or auteur, of that, and I have just written that. But if every single image forming a narrative is coming from my mind, then I author that story. It's like asking if I believe that the author is the auteur of his novel. He always is, isn't he? Yes, I understand that cinema is more expansive and diverse as a medium. And a lot of the fights between writers and directors originate in this. It's the battle of authorship. How do you define success as a screenwriter? When you work with any material, there is a lot of thinking, a lot of struggle in the process of understanding it and finding your way with it. But there is a moment when you find the answers. Let's say you are struggling with a character arc, and then suddenly you think that this character has to kill someone, and only then will his arc be complete – that is the moment when you win. And nobody can take it away from you. When you have tortured yourself enough, for 16-20 hours a day sometimes, and then when you narrate it to someone, and their jaw drops, that, I think, is success as a screenwriter. Which films and filmmakers have influenced you the most? I didn't even know who Fincher was, and then I once got a DVD and watched Zodiac. Since then, I have watched that film at least twice every year. I can quote every dialogue. It has scenes that are insane, they are art. The film breaks the barrier between the audience and itself. I feel I am part of its scenes. Then Polanski, of course. I don't know why I loved Polanski's and Woody Allen's films so much. I know there is something odd about that. But even before I knew about their lives, I have enjoyed their work. I have seen Woody Allen's work innumerable times. I have seen every Woody Allen film. Same with Polanski's work. I have seen each of his films. I quite like John Carpenter's work as well.
Mint
21-06-2025
- Science
- Mint
AI didn't take the job. It changed what the job is.
Over the past few weeks, I've been on the road. Parbhani, Pune, Chennai, Jaipur. In small-town labs and factory floors, I saw jobs that still exist, but don't look like they used to In Parbhani I met Dr. Chaitanya, who runs a 24-hour diagnostics lab above a heart clinic. He told me he's failed to detect cancer before—not out of neglect, but because he was worn out. Now, when something doesn't feel right, he runs the slide through a machine. It doesn't get distracted. It doesn't get tired. It caught leukaemia in a boy whose report looked normal at first glance. In Jaipur I spent time inside Wipro's factories. I met Chandni—just out of college, far from home—running a CNC machine built for someone twice her size. The platform was raised to fit her. Sensors pause the line if she skips a step. She's not fighting the machine. She's learning to work with it. And then I came back to Bengaluru. Over the weekend, I caught up with a few junior engineers—entry-level coders, recently let go. We sat in a noisy café near HSR, talking about layoffs. Some of their friends—older, with fatter salaries—had been let go, too, from well-known names on Outer Ring Road. Most of them hadn't told their families yet. Someone joked their severance would go into a 'detox trip". But the silence after that said more. Also read | Mary Meeker's AI report: Decoding what it signals for India's tech future I kept thinking about all of it. From Parbhani to Jaipur to Bengaluru, I've seen AI reshape work—but in such unsettling ways. In some places, it keeps people going. In others, it shuts the door. And I've come back with questions I can't truly answer. Who gets to stay in the game? Who gets to rewrite their role? And who just disappears? *** We've spent years asking the wrong question. It's never been just 'Will AI take jobs?" That's the headline version—the one that misses what's actually unfolding on the ground. What I've seen is something slower and harder to name: jobs are shifting shape. The work still exists, but it doesn't look like it used to. Doctors don't just rely on training—they rely on machines to catch what their fatigue might miss. Factory workers aren't lifting metal—they're supervising systems. Engineers aren't writing code—they're managing what the agents spit out. In some places, people are being lifted. In others, pushed out. This isn't about replacement. It's about redefinition. And not everyone is getting the chance to adapt. *** In Parbhani, Dr. Chaitanya isn't trying to be some AI-era pathologist. He just doesn't want to miss a sign of cancer again. He bought the scanner not because anyone sold him a pitch-deck future, but because he was tired. Because late at night, after hours of non-stop samples, the eyes slip. And he knows what that costs. The machine doesn't replace his judgment – it just doesn't lose focus when he does. In Jaipur, Wipro didn't automate Chandni out. They built the floor to fit her. She's running a CNC machine designed for someone taller, stronger—but they raised the platform instead. Her job wasn't taken. It was made possible. She oversees the system now. And when she sends money home, there's no debate anymore about whether girls can handle mechanical work. Also read: Indian companies lag in workforce upskilling amid AI disruption, job cuts And then there's Bengaluru. The coders I met had barely started. A few months in, then gone. Not for bad performance. Just… gone. Their work was handed to tools they weren't trained to supervise. Their seniors—some drawing seven-figure salaries—were asked to leave too. One of them said most of his severance would go into a detox trip. We all laughed. But it didn't feel funny. Same tool. But in Parbhani, it buys time. In Jaipur, it makes the job possible. In Bengaluru, it ends it. **** There's something I've been noticing everywhere lately—in factories, hospitals, GCCs, even small startups. Someone in the room knows how to work with the AI. Not just use it, but shape it. Prompt it right. Catch when it's wrong. That person sets the tone for how work flows. And then there's everyone else. Trying to keep up. Hoping they're not left behind. It's not just a skill gap. It's who gets the confidence to speak up. Who gets the permission to push back when the machine's answer doesn't feel right. Who gets to set the rules for how AI shows up—and who's left cleaning up after it. One founder told me straight: 'We're not hiring another ops exec. We're hiring someone to manage the agents." The job still exists. It just looks different now. And the person who knows how to talk to the machine gets to decide how everyone else works around it. That's the shift I can't ignore. It's not about mass layoffs. It's about brutal sidelining. Not fired. Still on payroll. But it is no longer in the loop. *** I keep coming back to something Andy Grove once said. Intel was stuck in the memory chip business, losing ground fast. Grove turned to CEO Gordon Moore and asked, 'If we were fired, and the board brought in someone new, what do you think they'd do?" Moore said, 'They'd get us out of memories." Grove paused, then said, 'Then why don't we walk out the door, come back in, and do it ourselves?" And that's what they did. They walked back in and changed the company. Also read: Microsoft envisions a web driven by AI agents. What will it look like? What stayed with me wasn't the decision itself—it was the mindset. They gave themselves permission to reset. Same chairs. Same table. Just a different way of thinking. Most people I meet don't get to do that. In every workplace I've visited lately—factories, hospitals, GCCs—there's always someone who gets to reframe the game. The person who speaks up, shapes the tool, sets the tone. Everyone else is just trying to stay in the room. Or figuring out the exit. *** I asked Dr. Chaitanya if he ever worries AI will take over his work. He didn't hesitate. 'I just don't want to miss what matters," he said. 'Let the machine help with the rest." Chandni said the same thing, in different words. 'If it helps us do the work better, why fear it?" Neither of them were trying to protect their turf. They just wanted the tools to hold up when it counted. When they're tired. When something's easy to miss. When a mistake can't be undone. They weren't talking about AI as a threat. They weren't talking about it as the future. They were talking about the work—what it asks of them, what it gives back, and what they still want to hold on to. ***** So yes, people will need to learn. New tools, new ways of working, new habits. That's always been part of work. But before any of that, they need a little space to figure things out. To ask questions without sounding slow. To try, to fumble, to not know right away—and not be punished for it. Because the bigger risk isn't that AI takes your job. Also read: Why AI is central to the new browser wars It's that you're still in the role, still showing up every day—but slowly pushed out of the decisions. Not because you can't contribute. But because no one gave you the chance to learn how. And by the time you notice what's changed, the work has already moved on—without your voice in the room. Pankaj Mishra is a journalist and co-founder of FactorDaily. He has spent over two decades reporting on technology, startups, and work in India with a focus on the people and places often left out of the spotlight.
Hindustan Times
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Naga Chaitanya says he's no longer ‘obsessed' with brands; internet points out he wears ₹41 lakh Audemars Piguet watch
Director Sekhar Kammula's Dhanush, Nagarjuna, Rashmika Mandanna and Jim Sarbh-starrer Kuberaa released in theatres this Friday to a good response. Naga Chaitanya sat down for a promotional interview with his dad Nagarjuna and Sekhar to discuss the film. Talking about working with Sekhar for their 2021 film Love Story, the actor claimed he's no longer 'obsessed' with brands as he was before working with the director. (Also Read: Smitten Naga Chaitanya watches wife Sobhita Dhulipala stuff her face with dosas at Akhil Akkineni's wedding) Chaitanya claimed in the promotional video that Sekhar's ideologies have rubbed off on him, stating, 'When I first met you and worked with you in Love Story, I remember being obsessed with brands like any other young guy. But once I saw you and your friends, I saw the simple life you lead. They know what they want, they know what their happiness is. What else does anyone need? I really observed all of you, you and your gang have saved me a lot of money. I realised I just need to focus on what's needed.' This made Sekhar crack a smile as he replied, 'I am really so happy. Once you question yourself, there's no pressure.' However, people on X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube seemed not to buy Chaitanya's claim of leading a 'simple life'. One person pointed out, 'Meanwhile: Shekar kammula wearing us polo shirt.' Another wrote, 'Buddy owns some of the most luxury cars in the world. Had 2 dream weddings at an expense in which a middle class family will live one generation. His wear designer clothes and shoes. Which expense exactly did he cut? I wonder!' Some even noticed he had expensive watches on both his wrists, writing posts like, 'Telling all this casually wearing an @AudemarsPiguet Royal Oak offshore on the wrist,' and 'Says bro with two watches in both hands?' The Royal Oak chronograph Chay wears is priced at ₹41 lakh. For the unversed, Chaitanya worked in Sekhar's last film, Love Story, which also starred Sai Pallavi. He played a marginalised caste man who falls for a woman battling childhood trauma. The film was released in 2021 and received good reviews.
