Latest news with #Tandav
India.com
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- India.com
Inside Saif Ali Khan's Rs 800-crore Pataudi Palace, sprawls across 10 acres, with 150 rooms, pool, lush gardens; Used for…
Saif Ali Khan's ancestral home, The Pataudi Palace, is located near Gurugram in Haryana. Also known as Ibrahim Kothi, the palace has been passed from the last ruling nawab, Iftikhar Ali Khan, to his son, Mansoor Ali Khan. Iftikhar built this to marry the princess of Bhopal, Sajida Sultan. Mansoor was the last recognised titular nawab. His son Saif, who is the current patriarch of the Pataudi family, takes care of the 10-acre property. Do you know Saif Ali Khan's grandfather ran out of money? While constructing the Pataudi Palace, Saif's grandfather Iftikhar, ran out of funds. As a result, half of the palace has marble flooring, while the other half has cement flooring. Who designed Pataudi Palace? The Pataudi Palace, which is worth Rs 800 crore currently, was completed in 1935 by British architect Robert Tor Russell, who had also worked on designing Connaught Place in Delhi. He also designed Safdarjung Airport, National Stadium and several colonial mansions in Lutyen's Delhi. The Pataudi family uses the house. It has 150 rooms, numerous dressing rooms, bedrooms, billiard rooms, sprawling lush green lawns, swimming pool and a gorgeous fountain. They use the property for themselves, but also rents it out as a shooting location. Which movies have been filmed at Pataudi Palace? Several movies and series have been shot at Saif Ali Khan's Rs 800 crore Pataudi Palace. Do you know Ranbir Kapoor's superhit movie Animal was shot here. Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta's Veer Zara was shot. Even Saif's political drama series Tandav was shot at the Pataudi Palace. A few scenes from the Aamir Khan movie Mangal Panday were also shot here. His another film Rang De Basanti , directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra was also shot here. Not just Bollywood, Julia Roberts's Eat Pray Love also used Saif Ali Khan's Pataudi Palace. It was used as an ashram in the movie.
Hans India
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Hans India
Megha Ray performs Tandav for Mahadev on the 'Divya Prem: Pyaar Aur Rahasya Ki Kahani' set
Mumbai: Did you know actress Megha Ray performed Tandav for Mahadev on her first day on the set of "Divya Prem: Pyaar Aur Rahasya Ki Kahani". Recalling the experience, she revealed that it felt like she had entered a different world. Ray, who essays the role of Divya on the show talked about the deeply moving experience saying, 'On the first day of shooting for 'Divya Prem: Pyaar Aur Rahasya Ki Kahani', I got the chance to perform the Tandav in front of Mahadev, in a temple." Shedding further light on what the performance meant to her, she added, 'When I was dancing, I completely forgot there were cameras. I wasn't performing — I was experiencing something spiritual. It felt like I had entered another world. And honestly, I couldn't have asked for a more powerful beginning to this journey. Even now, when I think about it, I still get goosebumps.' She further shared how performing the Tandav brought back some of her beloved childhood memories. "I was so happy when I found out — it instantly brought back a childhood memory. I had always wished to dance in a temple, or in front of Mahadev someday. Dance has always been deeply connected to my soul, and with Mahadev being Nataraj, the cosmic dancer, it all just felt like a divine sign," Ray explained. The actress went on to add, 'I don't know what it is about this show, but I keep receiving signs — one after another. Honestly, I never used to believe in such things, but sometimes life surprises you in the most unexpected ways. It reminds you of the dreams you once had but forgot along the way. Dancing in front of Mahadev was exactly that moment for me.' "Divya Prem: Pyaar Aur Rahasya Ki Kahani" which also features Suraj Pratap Singh and Kavita Banerjee in the lead airs every day at 8:30 PM on Sun Neo.
Indian Express
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos unsure if launching in India with Sacred Game was ideal, says something ‘more populist' might have worked better: ‘If I did it all over again…'
Sacred Games was the first Indian original series that Netflix ever produced. Starring Saif Ali Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, the show was critically acclaimed, and largely seen as the conduit to a new era of bolder, more challenging programming. The series was based on the book of the same name by Vikram Chandra, and was co-directed by Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap. While it remains one of the most acclaimed series that the Indian streaming industry has produced, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said that it was perhaps not the ideal way to enter the Indian market. In an appearance on Nikhil Kamath's podcast, Sarandos admitted that the Indian market is a difficult one to crack, mainly because Indian consumers are inherently suspicious of subscription. Netflix has taken a more populist approach to programming in recent years, and has struck deals with the likes of TV mainstays Kapil Sharma and Ekta Kapoor. During the conversation, Sarandos spoke about Sacred Games, and suggested that it might have painted Netflix out to be too high-brow for the Indian consumer. Also read – Vikramaditya Motwane reacts to Saif Ali Khan trashing Sacred Games season 2, explains 'main reason' it didn't meet expectations Asked about India as a market, and the reality that Netflix doesn't have a significant share of it yet, Sarandos said, 'It took us a couple of years to get the product-market fit right. Our very first Indian original show was Sacred Games. And I thought, 'This is going to be great. People in India love movies. This is a TV show that feels as big as a movie, it has movie stars.' What's interesting about it is that it was very, very novel, but what I didn't understand that we were introducing a brand new kind of entertainment in a country the size of India.' He continued, 'For me, if I did it all over again, would I have done Sacred Games a couple of years later, and did things that were more populist (instead)? Maybe. But we knew that India was going to be a slower journey to get to where we wanted to get to. But it's a great prize, at the end of the day. The addressable market is growing in the next couple of years in India, so it's exciting.' Sacred Games was unofficially cancelled after two seasons. Kashyap said that plans for a third season were underway, but Netflix got cold feet after the controversy that erupted around Prime Video's Tandav. He told Mashable India, 'Vikram Motwane was driving Sacred Games. Ten days before I was supposed to go shoot Mukkabaaz, he asked me to come on board. I told him I was always interested, but they had a problem with me. Some local people had told them that I didn't have a female audience. It was my zone, and they eventually came around… A season three was supposed to come out, but they shut it down, Netflix would know why.' He also criticised Sarandos and Netflix in a social media post following the success of Adolescence, and said that the Indian branch of the streamer wouldn't dare greenlight something like it. 'Netflix India is a totally opposite sh**show. If they were pitched this, most probably they would have rejected it or turned it into a 90 minute film (that too seems like an impossibility because it doesn't have an ending that is black and white),' he wrote.
Indian Express
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Jewel Thief – The Heist Begins: How many times will Saif Ali Khan facilitate the destruction of Bollywood (after restoring it)?
Many years ago, Netflix announced a grand prequel series to SS Rajamouli 's landmark Baahubali films. A cast was assembled and paraded before the press in Singapore; the series was even given a title: Baahubali: Before the Beginning. It was filmed at Ramoji; people were taken on tours of the set. But the final show was deemed unworthy of Netflix's server space, and, in an admirable display of creative integrity, it was decided that the project be revamped before being shown to the world. A new creative team was brought on board, and the entire thing was redone with a different cast. Remarkably, even the 2.0 version failed to meet Netflix's high standards — we are, after all, talking about the same streamer that nodded in approval when presented with Jewel Thief: The Heist Begins — and the mega-budget project, on which hundreds of crores had already been spent, put out of its misery. Imagine how bad the Baahubali show must've been to be buried by a platform that thought stuff like Mrs Serial Killer, Maharaj and Nadaaniyan was fit for consumption. It isn't the only thing that Netflix has pulled the plug on, by the way. One of contemporary Bollywood's biggest unsolved mysteries — other than Amitabh Bachchan 's decision to distance himself from Brahmastra — revolves around the (completed) Abbas-Mustan project Penthouse. Nobody, not even cast member Cyrus Broacha, knows what happened to it. They even released promotional stills. The nation wants to know. The nation probably also wants to know why they couldn't just cancel Jewel Thief as well. The movie marks a full-circle moment for the Hindi film industry; one of those 'water finds its level' situations. And Saif Ali Khan would know exactly what's happening; he's been here before. Saif Ali Khan and Jaideep Ahlawat star in Netflix's Jewel Thief. He was, of course, the star of Netflix's first original streaming series out of India, Sacred Games. Those were the days. How full of hope we were. How excited Anurag Kashyap was. But then, only two years later, our favourite Nawab headlined the Prime Video show Tandav, which changed everything. While the show could've cratered the Andheri-Goregaon area through sheer terribleness alone, Tandav destroyed the streaming industry for entirely different reasons. What was once seen as a haven for ambitious storytellers, a place where everybody could get paid a fair wage for pushing creativity in the right direction, turned into a hopeless hellhole where ideas go to die. Which brings us to Jewel Thief, a movie that truly embodies the current state of the Hindi film industry. Not only does it take Jaideep Ahlawat — the single biggest star that Indian streaming has produced — and reduce him to a dancing meme, the movie seems to cater to the exact opposite crowd that Netflix was supposed to have cultivated. Jewel Thief isn't merely a reflection of the state that Bollywood finds itself in, it's a reflection of what Bollywood thinks of you, the viewer. You aren't capable of appreciating films like Masaan and The Disciple, it seems to be saying; heck, you aren't even capable of appreciating Gangs of Wasseypur or The Lunchbox any more. This what you deserve. It's like Kunal Kapoor's cop character in Jewel Thief. In a regular movie, he'd have been a laughing stock for his ineptitude. But because Jewel Thief surrounds him with a couple of actual morons, he seems smarter by comparison. That's how Bollywood works. That's how movies like Stree 2 and Chhaava get a pass. We've been so conditioned to accept absolute garbage, the minute we see something that displays the bare minimum of competence, we make it a mega-hit. Before joining hands with his son to destroy every last morsel of originality that this town had remaining, Saif went through a similar cycle in the theatrical space, not once but twice. He was, after all, a crucial part of generation-defining films such as Dil Chahta Hai and Omkara — these movies genuinely altered the course of the industry. But then, he also headlined Tigmanshu Dhulia's Bullett Raja and Sajid Khan's Humshakals. In Jewel Thief, he plays Rehan, a suave man who has been disowned by his dad for his career choices. You can't really blame uncle; no self-respecting middle-class Indian father would approve of their first-born becoming a 'chor'. Rehan is hired by Ahlawat's character to steal a priceless ruby, while Kapoor's scowling cop and his two cronies chase him across the globe. Gentleman thieves have a rich legacy in cinema; in recent years, the archetype was resurrected by the Netflix show Lupin, which itself was based on the character Arsène Lupin. Created as France's answer to Sherlock Holmes, Lupin also inspired a series of Japanese anime shows and films, which, interestingly enough, have counted Hayao Miyazaki and Takashi Yamazaki as directors over the years. All of this is to say that Bollywood's penchant for originality remains intact. Not to validate calls for a more 'rooted' Hindi cinema — 'rooted' is just code for 'misogynist' — but Jewel Thief is particularly unhinged, even by Bollywood's already unreal standards. Even though the movie is supposedly set in real locations, it looks like a fever dream (derogatory). Why, for instance, do directors Kookie Gulati and Robbie Grewal — wonder who was fired first — insist that the very recognisable Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles is in Turkey or something? Jaideep Ahlawat plays the antagonist in Netflix's Jewel Thief. Here's a movie that introduces its 'villain' with a scene in which he murders a dog. It's designed as an intimidation tactic, an arm-twisting manoeuvre to get Rehan to do his bidding. There's an unwritten rule in cinema that says 'don't kill dogs and children on screen'. Some lines simply cannot be crossed. Not a single audience member, regardless of their socio-economic background, would forgive an act this vile. To be clear, it's not that Hindi filmmakers have a disregard for rules. The bigger issue is their skewed idea of morality. They're convinced that murdering babies and innocent animals wouldn't bother us, because it doesn't bother them. This is why, in the last six months alone, we've seen infants being graphically killed in movies such as Marco and Emergency. To make matters worse, after killing his dog, the villain is promoted to a parallel lead for the next hour or so. Weirder still, he's a part of the dance number that plays over the end credits. Bollywood has been in trouble before, but it hasn't been in trouble this deep in about 25 years. They say that writers are underpaid, and yet they keep turning to the same six people for scripts. After being handed trash in return, they decide to go ahead and produce it. And when the trash project predictably implodes mid-production, they carry on. Serious introspection is necessary, you'd agree, when an industry that won't think twice before greenlighting movies like this keeps Neeraj Ghaywan in the lurch for a decade; that doesn't allow masterpieces by Dibakar Banerjee and Aamir Bashir to even see the light of day. Netflix actually abandoned the Banerjee project, but for it to produce a movie like Jewel Thief with our subscription money isn't all that different from taxpayer funds being used to erect public Wi-Fi towers that'll never work. Who are we kidding, thought; perhaps it's for the best that we don't get free Wi-Fi. All we'd do with it is watch Jewel Thief.
