Latest news with #Pushkar
Time of India
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
'Jamtara' actor Anshumaan Pushkar reveals if he ever lost a role because of social media metrics
'Jamtara' fame actor Anshumaan Pushkar revealed if he had ever lost a role because of social media metrics. During an exclusive conversation with IANS, Pushkar shared that he has, in fact, lost a role due to a lack of numbers on social media. Speaking to IANS, he shared, "I don't take it personally. If a producer or director prioritizes numbers over talent, that's their prerogative. It doesn't mean the chosen actor is any less talented. Abhishek Bachchan hails Aishwarya & Aaradhya|'My daughter does not use social media' When asked if, according to him, social media presence is more important than acting skills in today's time, Pushkar nodded, saying, "You can't compare yourself to someone like Ranbir Kapoor , who already has a massive fan base. For actors like us, casting sometimes hinges on Instagram numbers. That's how marketing works now-it's data-driven. But I don't resent it. It's just part of the system." Furthermore, he shared his opinion on the stereotype that actors from small towns only fit in rural or rustic roles. Pushkar revealed that his mindset is changing. Giving an example of Kangana Ranaut, late Sushant Singh Rajput, and Pankaj Tripathi, he added, "They've all come from small towns and have played every kind of role. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like American Investor Warren Buffett Recommends: 5 Books For Turning Your Life Around Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List Undo It's about potential and public acceptance. Once the audience embraces you, anything is possible." Pushkar, who was recently seen as Badaun in Rajkummar Rao's gangster drama" Maalik" also shared if constantly playing grey shades had limited his scope to play positive leads? Denying it completely, he said, "Characters are characters-grey or white. In Agrahan, I played a deeply emotional, loving man. In another film, I played a socially invisible character-someone unnoticed but deeply human. So, the industry has offered me a good mix. Maybe it's my voice, my emotions, or something else, but I've been given both intense and subtle roles. And I'm open to all kinds of work." "Maalik" got a theatrical release on 11 July, opening to mixed reviews.
Hindustan Times
10-07-2025
- Hindustan Times
XAT 2026 registration begins today at xatonline.in, special rewards for day 1 applicants
XLRI-Xavier School of Management will begin the online registration-cum-application process for the Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) 2026 today, July 10. Eligible candidates can apply for XAT 2026 up to December 5 on XAT 2026 registration begins today at XLRI has launched a first-of-its-kind initiative to reward early applicants (those who register on day 1) with personalised support and exclusive access to the XAT ecosystem. Candidates who register today, July 10, will be eligible for: 1. Live Interactive Sessions with XAT Convenor, XAT team, and XLRI students (XAT toppers). This includes two exclusive and enclosed online question-and-answer sessions — one tentatively in the last week of July and another in the first week of August. Each session will feature the XAT 2026 Convenor, the XAT exam team and XLRI students. Two hundred randomly selected day 1 applicants will be eligible for it. XLRI said during these sessions, aspirants will be able to: a) Engage directly with XAT exam Convenor, XAT team, and XLRI students (XAT toppers) b) Learn preparation strategies and test-taking tips c) Get queries answered first-hand from the XAT team Also read: Four IITs, 3 IIMs, AMU on UGC's defaulter list for non-compliance of anti-ragging norms 2. Private Telegram Mentorship Community: In this, 100 unique day 1 applicants will be invited to join a private Telegram group moderated by XLRI students and the XAT Team. The students and the XAT tem will tentatively remain active in: a) Second week of August (1-hour session) b) Fourth week of August (1-hour session) In this platform, applicants can: a) Post questions and receive responses firsthand b) Get help with prep strategies Also read: IIM Rohtak hosts special session on armed forces and 'Operation Sindoor', Lt Gen Pushkar urges students to dream boldly Speaking on the initiative, Prof. Rahul Shukla said, 'Over the years, we have seen that the most remarkable journeys don't always begin with loud certainty, but with quiet clarity.' 'This year, we want to walk alongside the aspirants from Day 1 — not just as an exam body, but as a community that believes in their potential.' Candiates can visit the XAT 2026 website for more details.
The Hindu
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Limited series: Understanding the web show drought in Tamil cinema
In the first half of 2025 alone, more than half a dozen Hindi web shows have made noise on streaming platforms, from popular returning titles like Paatal Lok Season 2 andPanchayat Season 4 to fresh attempts like Dabba Cartel, Khauf, Black Warrant, and more. A slate like this would be a dream come true for Tamil cinema, where only Suzhal: The Vortex Season 2 remains the sole notable long-form entry this year. This isn't an exception, but a continuation of a familiar trend over the last few years. Banking on the success of titles like Suzhal: The Vortex and Vilangu in 2022, streaming platforms doubled down in 2023 with almost a dozen web series releases in Tamil. Of them, only Ayali and Sweet Kaaram Coffee got considerable eyeballs, and in 2024, only six Tamil titles got any recognition from viewers. What are the obstacles to making a series in Tamil? Is there a hesitancy among Tamil filmmakers towards long-form? Can a few experiments change the game? Are Tamil storytellers hesitant to embrace the longer format? First and foremost, the consolidation of power in a star-driven industry is a concern for series-making. Producer SR Prabhu believes that only when stars allow producers to spearhead projects could the longer format become an add-on mission. Producer G Dhananjayan bluntly asserts that big stars wouldn't do web series 'because they don't want to be seen continuously.' It affects their star aura, he says. But the issue isn't limited to big names only. After all, in Tamil, even stars apart from the Big 4 category haven't gotten a notable web series in their repertoire; the daring Vijay Sethupathi might have played a Tamilian in Farzi, but he is yet to make a straight Tamil series. Director Pushkar, of the Pushkar-Gayathri duo, believes that more stars like Aishwarya Rajesh (who acted in his series Suzhal) will begin to see value in the format over the next few years, when it becomes apparent how some stories cannot be told in the theatrical format. 'Look what a bunch of actors like Manoj Bajpayee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Rajkummar Rao have done in Bollywood. As with cinema, experiments will happen on smaller stories. First, you'll have certain kind of actors coming in. Then you'll have certain stars coming in, and then the big stars will come in.' Pushkar points out how HBO took 10-12 years to get the big stars, or how Netflix couldn't get many big stars except Kevin Spacey when they began making original series. The exhaustive process to pitching For now, even if a Sethupathi takes a leap of faith in the format, streaming platforms continue to wield the control to greenlight projects. Firstly, producers don't have a lot of say in how a project gets shaped in a streaming platform, because, as Dhananjayan (who worked as Head of Tamil content for a platform) says, OTTs prefer not to work with a third-party producer. 'They just want a line producer to execute the project.' This means that the platforms retain control over the production and post-production of a series. The process to get a project greenlit sounds exhausting. 'Firstly, directors won't get two-to-three hours to narrate their pitch; they get two hours at most. Then they receive their feedback, write and send the script, and if approved, translate the script to English so that it goes to the next level,' says Dhananjayan. The endless process of approvals, Dhananjayan says, are where writers struggle a lot. 'It goes level after level, and everyone needs to approve it without making any changes. Meanwhile, the director or writer struggles financially to maintain the film's office and the writers' room.' Even then, there is no certainty if an approved project could see the light of day. A project Dhananjayan approved in 2020 is yet to find a streaming window. 'Changes are made to the script, budget discussions keep happening, and then the production happens for a year, following which they take a year more for post-production. Even during post-production, they keep editing and changing the material.' If such is the process within a streaming platform, how are Hindi titles being released one after the other? 'Because with Hindi titles, the teams in Mumbai can relate to the language immediately and make a decision. Here, local teams might help, but even then, it's slow. The Mumbai team usually has to approve, and they see only the subtitled version. How will they connect with the nuances of South India?' says Dhananjayan. A series writer's block While the hangups with the streaming ecosystem are real, there's another problem: a lack of writing expertise in series form. Prabhu blames the lack of studio set-ups for this. 'Tamil industry, particularly, is dominated by directors, not writers, which is why the concept of writers' room isn't popular here,' he says. Dhananjayan, on the other hand, believes local storytellers are yet to cultivate these skills because they don't understand the difference it shares from a traditional movie script. 'Historically, we are all equipped to tell a story in two hours, but the longer format requires multiple stories with a lot of layers and characters building on a story.' The structure of a teleplay isn't as simple as a screenplay. 'In a web series, every 23–24 minutes, they need a peak, a climactic scene. Most people are struggling to write stories that run for 250 minutes across 10 episodes, each 25 minutes long. They can write a 250-minute story, but it won't have something engaging every 20–30 minutes,' says Dhananjayan. Pushkar echoes this. 'In a film, you will have to go from the first act to the second act, and then you will have a midpoint. That's where the story takes a turn; now, a series needs a lot of that. In a series, you start an episode with what it is about, but you don't resolve it in the end; instead, you continue to the next episode. So the techniques differ,' says the Suzhal maker. Bloated narratives and experiments with formats A couple of weeks ago, filmmaker Karthik Subbaraj aired his desire to re-render his latest Suriya-starrer, Retro, as a limited series, an attempt he believes would find support from Netflix. The director revealed that he has many exciting footage from the film that didn't make the final cut. Filmmakers releasing extended cuts isn't new, and so you might wonder if this is just a way to sell all that extra flab that was left out in the theatrical cut. But Karthik has asserted he isn't merely inserting deleted scenes; he hopes to restructure the narrative into a series in which 'the emotions will be deeper and the action more detailed,' as he told Galatta Plus. This chimes with a recent pattern in Tamil cinema, in which films feel 'over-written' or rushed, as if they could not do with a minute more on the run-time. The RJ Balaji-starrer Sorgavaasal comes to mind: the crime thriller had immersive world-building and many promising primary characters, but the director seemed to struggle to fit everything within the stipulated runtime. There have been several narratives in recent years—such as Viduthalai: Part 2, Kingston, and Retro—that make you wonder if a series format would have been better suited them. This feels especially true when you look at a Black Warrant in Hindi, which is what Sorgavaasal could have been like. Or when a Mobland from the West reminds you of a recent beached whale that is presumed to be the result of a five-hour film being cut into a 163-minute potboiler. Pushkar agrees that certain films, like Retro, could be translated into a series. 'Karthik understands the series medium well, and each chapter in Retro could be very well made into an episode because they are written with a structure. He also has these bookends for each chapter, and so I understand why he wishes to do it.' Interestingly, Anurag Kashyap's Gangs of Wasseypur films were released as a mini-series on Netflix in the US and Canada; these regions are used to such experiments, like Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight, which even Karthik had mentioned to Netflix when he wanted to release his previous film, Jigarthanda Double X, as a series. But there is an example of a film being released as a series in India. Originally shot as a film, it was re-edited as a series, and both versions were released simultaneously on a streaming platform. The fascinating case of 'Taish' That title is Bejoy Nambiar's Taish on ZEE5, a great case study to comprehend Karthik's attempt. Firstly, Taish happened in the early days of the OTT boom, when films could release in theatres without sealing a streaming deal. Bejoy didn't have to convince streamers because no streaming deal was struck when he tried this experiment. 'That's what freed us up. I was working as an independent producer, and we were looking to release this film theatrically. However, since the pandemic hit, we were trying to figure out an online sale for the film. During one of the trial shows of a preliminary cut of the film, a Netflix representative said if this would have worked better as a series.' The thought stuck with Bejoy. 'I bounced the idea with my editor, and we thought we could try and see if we could edit a series version. So we didn't have anyone to impress or convince. It was an experiment that we were trying, and it kind of worked out.' The filmmaker could then pitch the project as both a film and a show to ZEE5. 'The COVID setback helped us look at the film from a different perspective and see what more we can do with it,' he says. It's notable that ZEE5 was open to Bejoy's unique pitch; after all, this platform seems to be the sole exception in a market that seldom wishes to experiment with form. You would be surprised to know that the platform telecasts movie versions of their popular shows, like Ayali, on their television channel. A filmmaker's stubbornness to keep his material intact and ZEE5's openness to look at a film pitch as a series got us Vilangu. Raghavendra Hunsur, Chief Content Officer, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd, states that the success of Vilangu has boosted their commitment towards long-form narratives in Tamil. 'We've seen a growing interest among Tamil audiences in episodic storytelling, particularly when narratives carry cultural nuance and emotional depth. We also remain open to format innovation and experiments like Taish, where a narrative was presented both as a film and series, reflects our willingness to reimagine storytelling structures to best serve audience preferences,' says Raghavendra. The long-form streaming space is in its infancy in southern India. Even if experiments grab headlines, real change could emerge only when writers see potential in the format. After all, experiments like Retro, a material suitable for two contrasting formats, are rare, and the economics of having two versions of the same product on the servers might prevent it from becoming a trend. That said, platforms need to be open to such unique pitches and invest in regional storytelling. 'What's needed here is a stronger commitment to regional cinema,' says Dhananjayan. 'In Hindi, they release 12 originals a year. That's one per month. If they have that kind of commitment in Tamil, things will move faster. Right now, there's no such structured push. That's what's really missing.'
India Today
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- India Today
Black, White and Gray creator says show is about us, not about its characters
Sony LIV's latest crime thriller 'Black White and Gray - Love Kills' broke the mould of conventional storytelling by adopting a mockumentary format rarely seen in Indian OTT space. Set against a backdrop of fractured truths and morally grey characters, the show stands out not just for its form but also for its emotionally resonant narrative. In a candid conversation with India Today Digital, the show's creator-producer, Hemal A Thakkar, opened up about the process, the inspiration, and the real intentions behind the storytelling used in the Mockumentary FormatWhen asked how the idea of the mockumentary format came about, the creator credited long-time collaborator Pushkar Sunil Mahabal, who is also the co-producer of 'Black, White and Gray - Love Kills'. He said, 'The mockumentary format was actually Pushkar's idea. He had been watching a lot of documentaries around that time and felt inspired to create a crime story using that style.''What excited me was how he cracked not just the format but also a compelling storyline to go with it. From there, we began developing the show bit by bit. It was a truly thrilling process, watching an intriguing idea grow into a full-fledged narrative,' he more fascinating is that this entire process unfolded virtually. Thakkar explained that it was during the pandemic they developed the project. And that too, just over Zoom calls and phone conversations. 'That period, despite its challenges, gave us the focus and momentum to shape the story in a unique and powerful way,' he told characters that aren't just Black or WhiteadvertisementIn a world where audience perception often swings between extremes, 'Black, White and Gray' dared to dwell in the grey. The show revolves around a high-profile case of serial killings set in Nagpur 2020. Thakkar mentioned taking inspiration from the contradictions people carry in them. The grey and a side of minute cynicism.'The first step was acknowledging that all of us, in real life, are morally grey. We've seen it, especially during times of crisis, how we all carry contradictions within us. That was a big part of Pushkar's writing. His sharp, often cynical, observations about people brought a lot of clarity to how we shaped these characters,' he Thakkar mentioned that Mahabal 'had a very clear understanding of how flawed, shameless, and complex human beings can be and that honesty helped us create characters who are deeply real.'However, they were sure that the show would strike a chord on the basis of 'authenticity'. It was the 'how' that they weren't sure of. Fortunately, they played their cards right and the audience loved every colour - Black, White and Gray, quite an understanding of this, Thakkar said, 'Deep down, we all know we aren't purely black or white. We make choices based on convenience, emotion, and self-interest. The show simply holds up a mirror to that.'No real-life incidents, just real emotionsadvertisementFor those who have watched 'Black, White and Gray' on SonyLIV, despite the grounded realism, they know that the story wasn't inspired by a specific event. Instead, it came from a more universal to the creator, there wasn't any one real-life incident that sparked it. The story really came from Pushkar's imagination. 'These are stories that disappear from public memory quickly. But sometimes, the most random, ordinary day can turn into something life-altering.'Blurring the lines between truth and fiction wasn't easy. And, choosing a mockumentary wasn't just a stylistic call - it was deeply intentional. Thakkar discussed what drew him to the format was the reality of media the trailer of the show here: He said, 'The mockumentary gave us a way to show how biased and fragmented our perception of truth has become. It also lets us present a simple story through multiple perspectives, each shaped by ego, agenda, and emotion. The beauty of this format is that it blurs the line between fiction and reality, allowing the audience to experience the same confusion and doubt that the characters feel. It made our storytelling deeper and much more layered.'advertisementBeyond the suspense and emotional arcs, the show also questioned how we, as viewers, interpret the world. Thakkar said, 'The show isn't just about the characters, it's about us. We're the ones forming biases, often without even realising it. We follow a narrative, believe in something, and repeat it until it feels true, without ever questioning where it came from.'Challenging the status quo in OTT storytellingAt a time when viewers are bombarded with glossy romances or cookie-cutter thrillers, 'Black, White and Gray' offers a breath of fresh air.'This show aims to go beyond that. It tries to connect with the audience's heart and mind, not just with technical finesse but with storytelling that feels rooted in our lived reality. And since we're creating content for an Indian audience, we made sure the narrative felt culturally relevant.''Too often, we end up copying Western formats and losing the essence of what Indian viewers actually care about. But audiences are smart; they're not just looking for a shift, they're looking for meaningful stories. They want to invest their time in content that respects them, engages them, and leaves them thinking. That's what we've tried to do with 'Black, White and Gray'.''Black, White and Gray - Love Kills' doesn't just tell a story - it challenges the audience to reflect on their own perceptions, their own biases, and their relationship with the truth. It's not a show that gives easy answers, but rather one that dares to ask uncomfortable questions in a format that feels deeply relevant in today's media landscape.
Hans India
15-05-2025
- General
- Hans India
CM to lift curtains on grand Saraswati Pushkaralu today
Hyderabad: Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy will be inaugurating the Saraswati Pushkaralu at Saraswati Ghat at Triveni Sangam in Kaleshwaram, Jayashankar Bhupalpally district on Thursday. After the inauguration of this Pushkar Ghat, the Chief Minister would take part in bathing at Kaleshwaram Triveni Sangam. Along with the Chief Minister, ministers would also participate in these Pushkaralu. The Endowment Department has made extensive arrangements for this rare Saraswati Maha Pushkaralu, which comes once in 12 years. The Pushkar Snanam will start at 5:44 am on Thursday with the Sankalpa of Toguta Ashram, Madhavananda Saraswati Swamiji. Yagas will be performed every day from 8:30 am to 11 am. A special Saraswati Navratna Malaharati is held at Saraswati Ghat every day from 6:45 am to 7:35 am. Temporary tent city has been set up for those who take a Pushkar bath. Along with this, art and cultural programmes are organised every night. The Saraswati river is considered to be the 'Antarvahini' (invisible river) flowing at the Kaleshwaram Triveni Sangam. This Pushkaram is performed for 12 days from the time Jupiter enters the Gemini sign (Gemini). Jupiter is the god of knowledge, education and spirituality. Jupiter is also known as the Guru. The Guru changes his sign once a year. It takes 12 years to enter a new sign after leaving one. The sign in which it moves is auspicious for them. This year, Jupiter will enter the Gemini sign at 10:35 pm on May 14. In Indian Sanatana Hindu traditions, Pushkar bathing is an unwavering and great devotional belief. It is a scientific belief that worshipping water, which is the basis of life, is a means of salvation. That is why every year a Pushkaralu is given to each river to show the importance of water to all living beings. When Jupiter enters each of the twelve zodiac signs from Aries to Pisces, pushkaralus are given to each of the rivers in India. When Jupiter enters Gemini, pushkaras begin for the Saraswati River. It is clarified in the Kaleshwara Khandam that the Saraswati River originates where two living beings meet.
