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Daily Mail
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Movie star Shefali Jariwala dead at 42: Stunned fans and celebrities pay tribute
Indian actress and model Shefali Jariwala has died at just 42 years old, triggering an outpouring of tributes to the Bollywood star. Jariwala reportedly died at Bellevue Multispeciality Hospital in Mumbai on Thursday night after suffering cardiac arrest, according to Indian news outlets. She rose to fame in the early 2000s after her starring role in the popular music video, Kaanta Laga by DJ Doll. Jariwala also starred in Indian films such as Mujhse Shaadi Karogi, Shaitani Rasmein, and Hudugaru. She gained a following for her tenure on the reality TV show Bigg Boss 13. The series is based on Big Brother and is popular in India. Grieving family, friends and fans have shared their heartbreak at the loss, with actor Aly Goni writing on X, 'Shocked and saddened to hear about Shefali Jariwala's sudden demise. Life is so unpredictable. Rest in peace [heartbreak emoji].' Rapper Mika Singh posted a photo of Jariwala on Instagram, captioning the photo, 'I'm deeply shocked, saddened, and feeling a heavy heart… Our beloved star and my dearest friend has left us. Still can't believe it. 'You will always be remembered for your grace, smile, and spirit.' He concluded the post by writing, 'Om Shanti,' which translates to 'peace.' Fans have taken to social media to honor Jariwala, with one writing, 'The OG baddie, the first one to start the remix pop revolution in India. Shefali Jariwala. Very sad to see her go away so soon. Classy and beautiful soul. Om Shanti.' Others have shared her famous appearance in the Kaanta Laga music video in the wake of her passing, with a fan writing on X, 'This is socking and heartbreaking [heartbreak emoji].' Jariwala last posted to her Instagram account just one week ago, sharing a video of herself getting ready for her over three million followers. Text over her video read, 'It's time for us to start living life like everything is working out in our favour.' 'Let me give you a secret - It is working out in your favour.' Fans rushed to the comment section to express their shock, with one comment reading, 'A heartbreaking reminder of how fragile life truly is. 'Everything we build, everything we dream, everything we love, it can all vanish in a moment. So while you still can, live fully, love deeply, and don't wait for tomorrow to find your happiness.' 'Shocking news,' another added. Jariwala was known as the 'Kaanta Laga' girl, but had also risen to prominence for her reality TV tenure. She starred on the Big Brother spinoff, Bigg Boss 13, and became a fan favorite. The winner of her season, Sidharth Shukla, a popular Indian actor and television host, died in 2021. Jariwala's last post on X was a photo of the two, captioned, 'Thinking of you today mere dost.' The actress is survived by her husband, Parag Tyagi. Tyagi is an actor known for films such as Ruler, Phhir, and Sarkar 3.
BBC News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Sholay: Bollywood epic roars back to big screen after 50 years with new ending
Sippy Films Fifty years after it first exploded on Indian screens, Sholay (Embers) - arguably the most iconic Hindi film ever made - is making a spectacular return. In a landmark event for film lovers, the fully restored, uncut version of Ramesh Sippy's 1975 magnum opus will have its world premiere at Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival in Bologna, Italy, on Friday. This version includes the film's original ending - changed due to objection from the censors - and deleted scenes. The screening will take place on the festival's legendary open-air screen in Piazza Maggiore - one of the largest in Europe - offering a majestic setting for this long-awaited cinematic resurrection. Crafted by writer duo Salim-Javed and featuring an all-star cast led by Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Jaya Bhaduri, Sanjeev Kumar and the unforgettable Amjad Khan as Gabbar Singh, Sholay draws cinematic inspiration from Western and samurai classics. Yet, it remains uniquely Indian. The 204-minute film is a classic good-versus-evil tale set in the fictional village of Ramgarh, where two petty criminals, Jai and Veeru (Bachchan and Dharmendra), are hired by a former jailer, Thakur Baldev Singh, to take down the ruthless bandit Gabbar Singh - one of Indian cinema's most iconic villains. When it first released, Sholay ran for five uninterrupted years at Mumbai's 1,500-seater Minerva theatre. It was later voted "Film of the Millennium" in a BBC India online poll and named the greatest Indian film in a British Film Institute poll. Half a million records and cassettes of RD Burman's score and the film's instantly recognisable dialogues were sold. Sippy Films The film is also a cultural phenomenon: dialogues are quoted at weddings, referenced in political speeches and spoofed in adverts. "Sholay is the eighth wonder of the world," Dharmendra, who plays a small-town crook and is paired up with Bachchan in the film, said in a recent statement. Shooting the film was an "unforgettable experience," Bachchan said, "though I had no idea at the time that it would become a watershed moment in Indian cinema." This new restoration is the most faithful version of Sholay, complete with the original ending and never-before-seen deleted scenes, according to Shivendra Singh Dungarpur of the Film Heritage Foundation. In the original version, Gabbar Singh dies - killed by Thakur, who crushes him with spiked shoes. But the censors objected. They balked at the idea of a former police officer taking the law into his own hands. They also found the film's stylised violence too excessive. The film faced unusually tough censors because it hit the theatres during the Emergency, when the ruling Congress government suspended civil liberties. After failed attempts to reason with them, Sippy was forced to reshoot the ending. The cast and crew were rushed back to the rugged hills of Ramanagaram in southern India - transformed into the fictional village of Ramgarh. With the new, softened finale - where Gabbar Singh is captured, not killed - in place, the film finally cleared the censors. The road to the three-year-long restoration of the epic was far from easy. The original 70mm prints had not survived, and the camera negatives were in a severely deteriorated condition. But in 2022, Shehzad Sippy, son of Ramesh Sippy, approached the Mumbai-based Film Heritage Foundation with a proposal to restore the film. Sippy Films Sippy Films He revealed that several film elements were being stored in a warehouse in Mumbai. What seemed like a gamble turned out to be a miracle: inside the unlabelled cans were the original 35mm camera and sound negatives. The excitement didn't end there. Sippy Films also informed the Foundation about additional reels stored in the UK. With the support of the British Film Institute, the team gained access to archival materials. These were carefully shipped to L'Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, one of the world's premier film restoration facilities. Despite the loss of the original 70mm prints and severely damaged negatives, archivists sourced elements from Mumbai and the UK, collaborating with the British Film Institute and Italy's L'Immagine Ritrovata to painstakingly piece the film back together. The effort even uncovered the original camera used for shooting the film. Sippy Films Interestingly, Sholay had a rocky start when it first hit the screens. Early reviews were harsh, the box office was shaky, and the 70mm print was delayed at customs. India Today magazine called the film a "dead ember". Filmfare's Bikram Singh wrote that the major problem with the film was the "unsuccessful transplantation it attempts, grafting a western on the Indian milieu". "The film remains imitation western - neither here nor there". In initial screenings, audiences sat in silence - no laughter, no tears, no applause. "Just silence," writes film writer Anupama Chopra in her book, Sholay: The Making of a Classic. By the weekend, theatres were full but the response remained uncertain - and panic had set in. Over the next few weeks, audiences warmed up to the film, and word of mouth spread: "The visuals were epic, and the sound was a miracle…By the third week, the audience was repeating dialogues. It meant that at least some were coming in to see the film for the second time," writes Chopra. A month after Sholay hit screens, Polydor released a 48-minute dialogue record - and the tide had turned. The film's characters became iconic, and Gabbar Singh - the "genuinely frightening, but widely popular" villain - emerged as a cultural phenomenon. Foreign critics called it India's first "curry western". Sholay ran for over five years - three in regular shows and two as matinees at Mumbai's Minerva. Even in its 240th week, shows were full. Sholay hit Pakistani screens on April 2015, and despite being 40 years old, it outperformed most Indian films over a decade old - including the 2002 hit Devdas starring Shah Rukh Khan. As film distributor Shyam Shroff told Chopra: "As they used to say about the British Empire, the sun never sets on Sholay." Why does Sholay still resonate with audiences, half a century later? Amitabh Bachchan offers a simple yet profound answer: "The victory of good over evil and… most importantly, poetic justice in three hours! You and I shall not get it in a lifetime," he told an interviewer. Asia Film Bollywood India
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
New York Indian Film Festival Highlights Include Shyam Benegal and James Ivory Tributes: What to See
The 25th anniversary edition of the New York Indian Film Festival — one of the nation's leading showcases of independent Indian cinema — unspools at New York's Angelika through Sunday, June 22. Officially opening Friday, June 20 with Raam Reddy's 2024 Berlinale selection 'The Fable,' the festival includes Anurag Kashyap's intense Hindi-language thriller 'Kennedy' as the Centerpiece on June 21. Kashyap will also host a master class on the challenges facing Bollywood and the future of independent cinema in India. More from IndieWire Apple TV+ Signs First-Look Film Deal with North Road's Chernin Entertainment 'You Kind of Have to Fight for More Room': Melissa Barrera Says Diverse Casting Has Net Effect on Productions There's also a tribute to late, great Indian filmmaker Shyam Benegal, with a 4K restoration of his 1976 landmark 'Manthan,' about India's White Revolution and revived by the Film Heritage Foundation. As part of a program of films honoring master storytellers, the New York Indian Film Festival will also screen Dev Benegal's 2024 short for The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 'An Arrested Moment.' The film explores Oscar-winning director James Ivory's fascination with Indian art and culture. Ivory established Merchant-Ivory with his creative and personal partner Ismail Merchant, the Indian film producer who died in 2005. Early indie films made out of India from the director/producer pair include 'The Householder,' 'Shakespeare Wallah,' and 'Bombay Talkie' before they transitioned famously to adapting classic, canonical English-language novels. 'An Arrested Moment' plays June 22 with Taira Malaney's documentary 'Turtle Walker,' which explores the population of enigmatic sea turtles living along the coasts of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. This year's New York Indian Film Festival actually kicked off on Thursday, June 19 with the North American premiere of 'Tanvi the Great,' which marks Anupam Kher's first directing effort in two decades; the political and personal epic, about a young woman confronting her father's military legacy, premiered at the Cannes Market earlier this year. Kher has worked as a lauded actor on Indian productions since the early 1980s, best known for his onscreen performances and acting school (he previously directed 2002's 'Om Jai Jagadish'). Robert De Niro surprised Kher with an appearance at the Angelika screening. Kaushal Oza's directorial debut, the coming-of-age film 'Little Thomas,' closes the festival, and it follows an only child in 1990s Goa trying to help his parents give him a baby brother. Other highlights include Aditya Kriplani's fiction-and-reality-blurring fame critique 'I'm Not an Actor' with 'Sacred Games' star Nawazuddin Siddiqui; an LGBTQ double feature for Pride Month' with the gay romance 'Riptide' followed by the short 'IYKYK'; Nikhil Mahajan's climate change tale 'The Tiger,' about the struggle between human and tigers in a remote village; and much more. See the full schedule and buy tickets via New York Indian Film Festival's official website here. Best of IndieWire Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie Nicolas Winding Refn's Favorite Films: 37 Movies the Director Wants You to See
Daily Mail
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Director Danny Boyle admits Slumdog Millionaire 'would never be made today' unless Indian filmmakers were at the helm
Director Danny Boyle has admitted that Slumdog Millionaire 'would never be made today' unless Indian filmmakers were at the helm. The producer, 68, reflected on the 2008 movie which he directed as he said him and the team in Mumbai who shot the scenes were 'outsiders'. The film was a loose adaptation of the novel Q & A by Indian author Vikas Swarup and followed the story of teenager Jamal (Dev Patel) from the slums of Mumbai. He becomes a contestant on the show 'Kaun Banega Crorepati?' and when interrogated under suspicion of cheating, he revisits his past, revealing how he had all the answers. Danny told The Guardian: 'Yeah, we wouldn't be able to make that now. And that's how it should be. 'It's time to reflect on all that. We have to look at the cultural baggage we carry and the mark that we've left on the world.' 'We made the decision that only a handful of us would go to Mumbai. We'd work with a big Indian crew and try to make a film within the culture. But you're still an outsider. It's still a flawed method. 'I'm proud of the film, but you wouldn't even contemplate doing something like that today. It wouldn't even get financed. Even if I was involved, I'd be looking for a young Indian film-maker to shoot it.' The moviemaker has recently stepped back into the director's chair to helm the new horror 28 Years Later - written by Alex Garland - 23 years after the pair's first film 28 Days Later hit cinemas. He recently admitted it was a 'nightmare' filming naked zombies for new horror movie. Danny has revealed they needed to take extra care not to have 'naked' actors on the set because they had strict rules in place to protect the film's child star Alfie Williams. Speaking to PEOPLE, Danny explained: 'I mean, if you're recently infected [with the zombie virus], you'd have some clothes, but if you've been infected for a long time, the clothes would just disintegrate with the way that you behave. 'We never knew that [about rules governing nudity on set when there's a child present] going in, it was a nightmare.' Danny went on to explain the work-around they came up with, adding: 'Interestingly, because there was a 12-year-old boy on set, you're not allowed for anybody to be naked, not really naked, so they look naked, but it's all prosthetics ... 'So it's like: 'Oh my God,' so we had to make everybody prosthetic genitals'.' Danny revealed he was keen to push boundaries with the elements of nudity and gore in the film and he's glad studio bosses were supportive of his plans. He told Variety: 'I think one of the wonderful things about horror is that you're expected to maximize the impact of your story. Everybody wants to do that with a drama, with the romance, whatever. 'But with horror, it's obviously gonna be brutal, some of it. What we loved was setting it against an innocence that's represented by the various children in it, and also the landscape, the beauty of the landscape, the nature. 'Having those two forces stretches your story as far as you can go, if you maximize them. That was our principle and the studio was supportive of that, of course they were.' On Thursday critics weighed in on the new zombie horror movie. A follow-up to the 'great' 2002 film 28 Days Later, Boyle and Garland assembled a star-studded cast including Harry Potter star Ralph Fiennes, 62, and fellow Brit Aaron Taylor-Johnson, 35, for their latest endeavor. Two decades on from the original which saw a deadly virus plague London, the new movie finds a group of survivors living on the secluded island of Lindisfarne. Boyle and Garland's new project has received a heap of positive reviews from critics following early screenings. Rotten Tomatoes for instance have handed the movie an impressive 94 percent critic approval rating after rounding up the thoughts of more than 91 film reviewers. The Daily Mail's Brian Viner was incredibly impressed after watching the series' latest gory installment, dubbing the movie the 'best post-apocalyptic horror-thriller film I have ever watched'. Brian wrote: 'With the terrifying and electrifying 28 Years Later, director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland have delivered the best post-apocalyptic survivalist horror-thriller film I have ever seen. Which sounds like limited praise, yet it's a much more crowded field than you might think.' Robbie Collin in The Telegraph also handed 28 Years Later a rave review, with the critic scoring the 'terrifying' horror movie five stars out of five. 'Garland employs a strain of peculiarly British pulp humour - very 2000 AD, very Warhammer 40,000 - to undercut the ambient dread,' Collin wrote. 'And flashes of Arthurian fantasias and wartime newsreel footage (as well as a pointed double cameo for the now-felled Sycamore Gap tree_ serve as regularly nudges in the ribs as he and Boyle ty with the notion of a 21st century British national myth.' The film too received five stars from The Times critic Ed Potton, who hailed Jodie Comer's 'impressive as always' performance. The journalist wrote: 'Is this the most beautiful zombie film of them all? It's hard to think of another that combines such wonder and outlandishness with the regulation flesh-rending, brain-munching and vicious disembowelment.' The BBC 's Caryn James gave the highly-anticipated film four stars out of five as she dubbed Ralph Fiennes's performance 'scene-stealing'. '28 Years Later is part zombie-apocalypse horror, part medieval world building, part sentimental family story and - most effectively - part Heart of Darkness in its journey towards a madman in the woods,' she wrote. 'It glows with Boyle's visual flair, Garland's ambitious screenplay and a towering performance from Ralph Fiennes, whose character enters halfway through the film and unexpectedly becomes its fraught sole'. Empire also awarded 28 Years Later four stars out of five, with journalist Ben Travis writing: '28 Years Later is ferocious, fizzing with adrenaline. The mainland thrums with a pervasive sense of immediate danger; when the infected arrive (and, do they arrive), it is breathlessly tense.' Reviews in The Guardian and The Independent were slightly more critical however, with journalists scoring 28 Years Later with three stars. Peter Bradshaw wrote in The Guardian: 'A little awkwardly, the film has to get us on to the mainland for some badass action sequences with real shooting weaponry - and then we have the two 'alpha' cameos that it would be unsporting to reveal, but which cause the film to shunt between deep sadness and a bizarre, implausible (though certainly startling) graphic-novel strangeness.' While The Independent 's Clarisse Loughley wrote: 'Even if 28 Years Later feels like being repeatedly bonked on the head by the metaphor hammer, Boyle's still a largely compelling filmmaker, and the film separates itself from the first instalment by offering something distinctly more sentimental and mythic than before.' 28 Years Later has become the best horror ticket pre-seller of 2025, with the film expected to gross around $30million in its first weekend. 28 YEARS LATER - THE REVIEWS The Daily Mail (FIVE STARS) Rating: With the terrifying and electrifying 28 Years Later, director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland have delivered the best post-apocalyptic horror-thrill I have ever seen. The Times (FIVE STARS) Rating: Jodie Comer is impressive as always in the latest instalment of the post-apocalyptic series The Telegraph (FIVE STARS) Rating: This transfixingly nasty zombie horror sequel, starring Jodie Comer and Ralph Fiennes, is Danny Boyle's best film in 15 years The Evening Standard (FIVE STARS) Rating: Jodie Comer, young Alfie Williams and Ralph Fiennes have a monsters' ball in this supercharged third outing for the 28 Days Later series BBC Culture (FOUR STARS) Rating: Alex Garland and Danny Boyle have reunited for a follow-up to their 2002 classic. It has visual flair, terrifying adversaries and scene-stealing performance from Ralph Fiennes. Empire (FOUR STARS) Rating: The sequel we needed is both the film you expect, and the one you don't. There's blood, but also real guts and brain and heart - visceral cinema soaked in viscera. The Guardian (THREE STARS) Rating: This tonally uncertain revival mixes folk horror and little-England satire as an island lad seeks help for his sick mum on the undead-infested mainland. The Independent (THREE STARS)
Forbes
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Netflix Global Top 10: 3 Indian Films Rank For Second Consecutive Week
Four Indian films, including the latest digital release and box office blockbuster Jaat, have made it to the Netflix global top 10 this week. The film featuring Sunny Deol and Randeep Hooda released on Netflix and secured the spot on Netflix's list of most-watched non-English films for the week ending June 8. The Hindi film Sikandar, Tamil film Retro and third film in Telugu movie HIT 3 made it to the weekly list from Netflix for the second consecutive week. The new digital release Jaat became the fourth most-watched non-English film on Netflix for the week ending June 8. One Hindi, one Telugu and one Tamil film ranked on the list for the second week in a row. Among these was Salman Khan's Sikandar which stood at the ninth rank. Directed by Telugu filmmaker Gopichand Malineni, Jaat recorded 4.1 million views and million watch-hours on Netflix in just three days after it landed online on June 5. It registered 10.3 million watch-hours during this time. Jaat was the most-watched film in seven countries including India, Mauritius, Bahrain, Maldives, Oman, Pakistan and UAE. It also made it among the top ten in 17 countries. Jaat marks Malineni's Bollywood debut which revolves around a brave but eccentric man (Deol as Jaat) and his chance encounter with a Sri Lankan immigrant (Hooda) in India. The film gathers immoral cops, ruthless women and corrupt politicians to complete the world of populist cinema based in hinterlands of India. AR Murugadoss's return to Hindi cinema landed on Netflix on May 25 and was the third most-watched non-English film on the platform in its debut week. In its second week, Sikandar recorded 1.6 million views and 3.5 million watch-hours. It also ranked among the top ten most-watched films in eleven countries across the globe. Murugadoss, who previously made Aamir Khan's Ghajini (2008) and Akira headlined by Sonakshi Sinha and Anurag Kashyap, cast Salman Khan in the titular role of Sikandar for his film. Khan's character is a former Indian king - Sanjay Rajkot aka Sikandar. Rashmika Mandanna (Pushpa fame) plays his wife in the film. Bahubali actor Sathyaraj and Prateik Smita Patil play the antagonist in the movie. The film also stars Sharman Joshi, Kajal Aggarwal and Anjini Dhawan, in important roles. Netflix Global Top 10: HIT The Third Case A poster of 'HIT The Third Case'. Wall Poster Cinema Sailesh Kolanu's Telugu film HIT The Third Case had its Netflix premiere on May 29 and became the sixth most-watched non-English film on the platform. It registered 2.7 million views and 7.1 million watch-hours in its second week on Netflix. HIT The Third Case also ranked among top ten most-watched films in 13 countries around the world for the week ending June 8. Last week, it was the fourth most-watched non-English movie on Netflix. HIT: The Third Case (HIT 3) revolves around a murder spree that a ruthless cop from the homicide team is investigating. Nani and Srinidhi Shetty play the lead roles in the film which also stars Adivi Sesh and Karthi. Suriya's Retro retained its position of seventh most-watched non-English film worldwide on Netflix. After making the debut last week at the seventh slot, Karthik Subbaraj's Retro registered 2.1 million views and 5.9 million watch-hours in its second week. The film stars Suriya and Pooja Hegde in lead roles along with Jayaram, Nassr, Prakash Raj and Juju George. Retro released in theatres in April and opened to mostly positive reviews. Directed by Karthik Subbaraj, the film made global gross collections of nearly $10 million in its first weekend alone. Before it retained a position on Netflix global top 10 list of most-watched non-English films this week.
