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UAE Moments
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- UAE Moments
Six Must-Read Books About Bollywood Cinema
Bollywood isn't just a film industry—it's a cultural force that influences millions across the globe. Whether you're a casual fan, a film student, or a pop-culture enthusiast, understanding the depth and evolution of Hindi cinema can be both fascinating and enriching. Here are six compelling books that explore the many dimensions of Bollywood, from its global influence to its cult classics. 1. A Bollywood State of Mind: A Journey Into the World's Biggest Cinema by Sunny Singh This insightful book blends personal reflection with critical analysis. Sunny Singh takes readers on a journey through the history and emotional impact of Bollywood films, highlighting how Hindi cinema has shaped generations both in India and abroad. It's a must-read for those looking to explore the psychological and cultural imprint of Bollywood. 2. Bollywood in Posters by S.M.M. Ausaja A visual treat, this book celebrates Bollywood's rich poster art heritage. Covering decades of cinematic history, Bollywood in Posters showcases the vibrant and evolving aesthetics of movie marketing in India. From hand-painted classics to digital designs, this book is perfect for film buffs and graphic design enthusiasts alike. 3. Sholay: The Making of a Classic by Anupama Chopra No list of Bollywood books would be complete without this deep dive into one of the industry's most iconic films. Anupama Chopra takes readers behind the scenes of Sholay, revealing the creative challenges, production dramas, and lasting legacy of this cinematic masterpiece. It's an essential read for anyone interested in filmmaking or the history of Indian cinema. 4. Networked Bollywood: How Star Power Globalized Hindi Cinema by Swapnil Rai An interdisciplinary exploration of how Bollywood megastars shaped the global ascent of Hindi cinema, from Raj Kapoor to Shah Rukh Khan. Rai reveals how these charismatic figures—through what she terms 'star switching power'—built production empires, influenced industry structures, shaped state policy and international diplomacy, and forged transnational distribution networks that transformed Bollywood into a truly global entertainment force. 5. In a Cult of Their Own: Bollywood Beyond Box Office by Amborish Roychoudhury In a Cult of Their Own: Bollywood Beyond Box Office by Amborish Roychoudhury is a witty, engaging exploration of Hindi films that didn't shine in theatres but found lasting fame afterward. Spanning 20 cult classics—think Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar, Chashme Buddoor, Gunda, No Smoking —the book blends the author's personal nostalgia with exclusive interviews with stars like Aamir Khan, Pankaj Kapur, and Deepti Naval, and directors including Rajkumar Santoshi. 6. This collection of interviews features contemporary Bollywood directors who are reshaping the industry. From Anurag Kashyap to Zoya Akhtar, Brave New Bollywood offers candid insights into the creative processes, struggles, and innovations behind today's most talked-about films. It's an inspiring read for aspiring filmmakers and cinephiles. These six books provide a multifaceted look at Bollywood—from its history and aesthetics to its stars and filmmakers. Whether you're looking for academic analysis, artistic inspiration, or behind-the-scenes stories, there's something on this list for every Bollywood lover.
Times
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Has Scarlett Johansson rescued the Jurassic Park movies?
Darwin was wrong: in the Jurassic Park movies it seems to be survival of the wheeziest. Ever since Steven Spielberg unveiled his theme park in 1993, the series has been in a process of slow devolution, as successive film-makers have sought to revive its constituent Spielbergian genomes — with a brief flurry of originality in the form of Chris Pratt and his amazing velociraptor-whisperer act. In Jurassic World Dominion (2022) the series reached a state of terminal inbreeding, featuring kidnaps, assassins, a Jason Bourne-style chase through the backstreets of Malta and a mysterious woman in a daringly asymmetric dress who seemed to have wandered over from one of the Mission: Impossible films. Instead of dinosaurs, the director seemed to clone every other blockbuster within a ten-mile radius.
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Death of the Movie Star Has Been Greatly Exaggerated
Do movie stars still exist? Film journalists, cinephiles, and producers have been debating this point for over a decade, declaring the movie star extinct. But throughout the 2010s, Hollywood leaned into intellectual properties and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, while original films starring A-list talents like Jennifer Lawrence ('Passengers'), Johnny Depp ('The Lone Ranger'), and Will Smith ('Gemini Man') flopped, and gradually everybody seemed to be lining up to pay their respects at the grave of the movie star. More from IndieWire '28 Years Later' Review: A Tender, Thoughtful, and Strangely Moving Sequel to One of the Scariest Zombie Movies Ever How 'Materialists' Finds True Love in New York City They've blamed the death on Hollywood's hunger for IP, the erasure of the mid-budget movie, and the rise of television. But many of these arguments miss the forest for the trees: We not only still have movie stars today, but stardom today is very similar to what it was in the Golden Age of Hollywood. The film industry is not post-movie stars, and big-name actors still influence audiences' viewing habits and films' financial success. Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, whose films 'Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning' and 'F1' are in theaters this summer, are widely considered the last 'true' movie stars, the few aged movie veterans still capable of reliably opening a film. But contrary to popular belief, stardom is not dependent on watertight box office potential — Katharine Hepburn, for instance, was considered box office poison for years. From 1935's 'Break of Hearts' until at least 'The Philadelphia Story' in 1940, her films consistently earned great reviews but poor attendance. Cary Grant also made many commercial failures while still a leading man, including George Cukor's 'Holiday' and 'Bringing Up Baby' (in which he co-starred with Hepburn). Cruise and Pitt might be movie stars, but they still have off days, like 'Rock of Ages' or 'Wolfs,' respectively. These actors certainly elevate the profile of their films and increase the likelihood that they'll make money, but financial security doesn't automatically determine who's a movie star. What makes an actor a movie star is their persona. When you watch Cruise hug the door of an airplane as it takes off in 'Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation,' you forget you're watching the character of Ethan Hunt. Instead, you're watching the carefully crafted screen persona of Tom Cruise, action hero, who will risk certain death if it means delivering cinema to his adoring fans. In 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported that Jason Statham, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, and Vin Diesel had unique contracts for their collaborations in the 'Fast and Furious' franchise that basically meant they couldn't lose fights. Statham's contract reportedly protected him from getting beaten up too much on screen, while Johnson and Diesel had people on set to monitor how many licks they got. Such contracts are nothing new in Hollywood, and many scholars of classic Hollywood will likely recollect the strict contracts studios had for their stars in that era. In the old days, stars — especially female stars — were put on strict diets, their names often changed, and they were usually given voice lessons to learn that classic Transatlantic diction. Control over a star's image went even further than that, though. Jean Harlow was forbidden by studio mandate from marrying, since producers at MGM didn't want to complicate her image as a sex symbol. Actors like Ava Gardner, Judy Garland, Jean Harlow, Marilyn Monroe, and Fay Wray were all contractually prevented from having children — some, according to lore, were forced to have abortions. Now, Hollywood studios no longer own their stars' images; they haven't since the early 1960s. Instead, actors control their own images, and they have teams of agents, publicists, and, sometimes, personal stylists on hand to do it. When Emily Blunt and Penélope Cruz became pregnant while making 'Into the Woods' and 'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,' respectively, they weren't dropped from the films — instead, the costume departments, stunt teams, and directors accommodated the actors and their pregnancies, reimagining complex sequences and altering costumes as needed. Actors today still rely on contracts, creative control over their productions, and agreements with producers to build and maintain consistent images. The 21st-century definition of brand image means that some movie stars get typecast — unless, like Emma Stone, Kristen Stewart, Anna Kendrick, and Jennifer Lawrence, an actor leverages their mainstream success to break the mold and make independent films. Some naysayers allege that the decline of film stars is due to social media, that having the increased exposure of celebrities' personal lives has made them seem less alluring. But these stars still have agents and publicists, and as such, major actors like Jennifer Lawrence, Zendaya, Tom Hanks, and Ryan Reynolds still have carefully cultivated images, the same way that Jimmy Stewart, Charlie Chaplin, Veronica Lake, and Rita Hayworth did. Some actors preserve the illusion (and their own privacy) by not being on social media at all, including Lawrence, Pitt, and Johansson, but they still engage with viral marketing, which includes everything from GQ and Vanity Fair's career breakdowns to eating spicy wings on 'Hot Ones.' The stars might be on TikTok now, but they're still stars. At Comic-Con 2017, 'Captain America: Brave New World' star Anthony Mackie famously said that there are no movie stars anymore. 'Anthony Mackie isn't a movie star,' he said. 'The Falcon is a movie star.' And Mackie is right that, increasingly, Hollywood has hitched its wagon to intellectual property over original ideas — and the stars have, too. Quentin Tarantino echoed these words in 2022, saying, 'It's these franchise characters that become a star,' rather than the actors playing them. In 2024, out of the 50 highest-grossing domestic films in the U.S. according to BoxOfficeMojo, 32 were IP-driven movies (i.e., remakes, reboots, or sequels) with huge stars in them, like 'Bad Boys: Ride or Die' starring Will Smith. Six films, like 'Wicked' and 'The Fall Guy,' adapted successful IP for the screen. Only 13 films in the top 50 were star-driven projects that didn't rely on IP, and even among that group, you can identify some, like 'Red One' or 'Argylle,' that seem like they're trying to astroturf a franchise. Others, like 'Anyone But You' and 'Bob Marley: One Love,' adapt material many are familiar with — William Shakespeare and the life of Bob Marley, respectively — which helps with brand recognition but means they're not wholly original works. Simply headlining a film these days does not make someone a movie star. But it's always been that way. Chris Evans, Brie Larson, and Chadwick Boseman all headlined movies that grossed a billion dollars worldwide, but those films were built around the brands, characters, and stories rather than the actors. It's telling that Marvel has recast both Captain America and Black Panther (passing the mantle onto Letitia Wright's Shuri) and still found box office success, but rather than recast a new Iron Man and replace its biggest star, Robert Downey Jr., the studio invited him back in a completely different role for 'Avengers: Doomsday.' Marvel didn't kill the movie star; they know the value of one as much as anyone else. The difference between a movie star and an A-list actor is a fine line. Timothée Chalamet, for example, straddles the line between movie star and character actor, choosing complex roles that require him to inhabit radically different characters and show off his range and acting chops. Yet when you watch 'A Complete Unknown,' you're not seeing Chalamet disappear into Bob Dylan. You're seeing Chalamet pretending to be Bob Dylan — the performance is as much about the actor as it is about the character. His character actor contemporaries like Tilda Swinton, Gary Oldman, Lakeith Stanfield, Paul Giamatti, and Toni Collette become whatever their roles require them to be. But Chalamet is still Chalamet, regardless of what costume or affectation he's wearing. He has a brand and an identity that shows through in all of his roles and that he carries with him to every single film, just like Meryl Streep or Tom Cruise. His films might not always make their money back, and he might not be hanging on the wing of a biplane, but his persona is what makes him a star. Best of IndieWire The Best Thrillers Streaming on Netflix in June, from 'Vertigo' and 'Rear Window' to 'Emily the Criminal' All 12 Wes Anderson Movies, Ranked, from 'Bottle Rocket' to 'The Phoenician Scheme' Nightmare Film Shoots: The 38 Most Grueling Films Ever Made, from 'Deliverance' to 'The Wages of Fear'
Telegraph
01-07-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
Why burnout in women spikes in their 30s and 50s – and how to get through it
Lynn Blades had been a highly successful executive coach for nearly two decades when life took an unexpected turn. In 2020, when the pandemic hit, while many of us sat back online and waited to see what would happen next, Blades' experience in digital global coaching meant her number of clients tripled. Within a year, her health had deteriorated so badly that her back ended up being held together with three-inch screws. 'I was in my late 50s, with a university-aged daughter, juggling a mountain of work, running the household, and propping up a husband neck-deep in his career as a film producer. It was organised chaos on a good day – and I was the one holding all the strings,' she says. Then in August 2021, Blades almost collapsed while out walking on Hampstead Heath. Within a couple of weeks, she could barely move and ended up having emergency surgery on her back. It transpired that two discs in her lower spine had deteriorated, causing the vertebrae to grind against each other. 'A few years before everything came crashing down, a specialist warned me I needed physical therapy,' she recalls. 'My spine was crying out for help. But I didn't listen. There was always a deadline, a duty, a demand louder than my own wellbeing. I wore my resilience like a badge of honour, powering through the pain, telling myself I was strong. Eventually, my body called time.' The price she paid as a result was major surgery. 'A titanium cage and three-inch screws now hold my spine together,' she explains. 'I spent six months on 1,800mg of nerve blockers, floating through life in a fog. It took nearly a year to feel like myself again.' Blades is not alone. According to Mental Health UK, 94 per cent of women reported experiencing high or extreme levels of pressure or stress in the past year, compared with 89 per cent of men. Suicide risk among female doctors, related to work stress and emotional burnout, is also significantly higher (76 per cent) than the general population. And women over the age of 55 lose more working days to mental-health issues than any other group in Britain, reports the most recent Health and Safety Executive's Labour Force Survey, with 53 per cent of professional women in leadership roles dropping out. The danger ages What's more, it seems, there are red alert ages for burnout. Women in their late 30s, with the pressure of young children and a full-on career, can struggle with overwhelm, while those in their mid-50s are stretched to breaking point while managing work, older children, ageing parents and menopause. Sadly, because many of us tend to normalise living in a hyper-state, the warning signs are passed off as simply 'having a busy life'. But doing it all is rarely sustainable, and often it's passed down through the generations. 'I see women who have grown up with female role models, like their mother, who put others first, worked hard and didn't prioritise rest,' says burnout expert and psychologist Jaime Jonsson. The reason behind this is that women often tend to be the main carers in the family, plus they often veer towards being people-pleasers. But ask yourself: do you want it modelled for your own daughters?' Blades also sees certain female traits playing out in the workplace. 'Women are conditioned to put their head down, go again, and then reward will come,' she says. 'I work with many senior female executives who have shattered expectations, but they are still riddled with impostor syndrome, or they believe asking for help is a sign of weakness. 'As a result, they suppress the anxiety, fear, and exhaustion that come with constant overachievement,' she adds. 'But emotions don't just disappear; they build up, creating an unbearable weight that can crush even the strongest among us.' The warning signs In her new book, The Quiet Burn, Blades speaks about the importance of self-care. But first, she says, it's crucial to understand burnout symptoms. These range from exhaustion, brain fog, irritability and insomnia to anxiety, heart palpitations, loss of appetite and emotional detachment from colleagues or family. 'Question your values, assess your purpose, work out your needs,' she advises. 'Then make sure they are aligned with how you are living. If you don't look after yourself, no one else is going to get the best version of you.' And while the pressures of a career can crush all aspirations for an unruffled existence, those who typically hurtle towards burnout tend to be mothers. At 36, Claire Ashley, a doctor and neuroscientist, was working ridiculous hours as a GP in a surgery with medically complex patients, while juggling two small children and a husband who worked away regularly. With no family back-up, she was forced to pay an extortionate amount for childcare, which not only stretched her bank balance, it also created crippling feelings of guilt around leaving her young children for hours on end. 'I felt like I was a failure at work and as a parent,' she admits. 'Emotionally, I was strung-out; physically, I was incredibly fatigued. I wasn't sleeping properly. I became quite cynical. And I'd either fly off the handle easily or burst into tears. Even so, I was still turning up for work every day and trying my best. I went into survival mode.' Ashley says she believed that no one was to blame but herself. 'I saw it as a 'me' problem,' she explains. 'I thought, you've worked so hard to become a doctor, just get on with it, you should be able to cope.' Then one evening, after a particularly long and stressful day, Ashley was on the phone to her husband and she had a panic attack. 'I'd never had one in my life before and it was a real shock,' she says. 'I completely lost control, shaking and crying and feeling like I was going to vomit. It took me a while to calm down, but once I did, I had the clarity to realise I'd reached breaking point.' The first thing Ashley did was speak to her boss. 'We had a frank conversation about my situation, and I told her I couldn't carry on in the same way. I was given support by NHS Practitioner Health, which is the service that looks after doctors with mental health problems, and, consequently, my hours at work were reduced. My recovery was slow but I've since put changes in place to prevent those stresses ever taking over again.' Ashley now works as a locum doctor, which means flexible hours and more control over her diary – and is an ambassador for Doctors in Distress, a charity which protects the mental health of healthcare workers. She has written a book, The Burnout Doctor, to help others in similar situations. 'Burnout is a term that's been around for a while now,' says Ashley, 'And knowledge around the topic is increasing. But there could be much more work done on how to effectively prevent burnout at an organisational level. People use the term burnout interchangeably with stress without the realisation that burnout is the end result of chronic stress. Once a person gets to this point, it is a serious and debilitating condition.' After Blades' own debilitating experience of burnout, she decided to make drastic changes. 'I knew if I didn't get my situation under control, there was every possibility it would kill me,' she admits. She looked long and hard at her approach to working and identified a number of red flags. 'Generally, women do not ask for what they want,' she says, 'Men do and are much more likely to be promoted on potential while women are promoted on attainment. This discrepancy in opportunity makes women feel invisible. When I was younger, I'd step in to take on the load hoping to be recognised, now I am not afraid of stepping out. Saying, 'No, I can't' isn't a sign of weakness, it shows we have the strength to choose what we really want to get involved in. It means you respect your boundaries and capacity.' Blades also understands that for women in their 50s, there are specific difficulties to overcome. 'Not only is the menopause throwing brain fog, hot sweats, sleepless nights and mood swings at us, there may be the pressure of teenage children or ageing parents in the mix.' And never imagine burnout is not a 'real' thing. As a neuroscientist, Ashley reveals the brain actually changes shape in burnout. 'The amygdala in the temporal lobe of your brain processes emotions, especially anxiety and fear. When a person reaches burnout, this section increases in size and becomes more emotionally reactive. When I was struggling, knowing this helped me to understand that my feelings weren't just in my head, my brain was literally being overloaded. It gave me the wake-up call to realise enough was enough, but above all, I was enough.' 'The Quiet Burn – The Ambitious Woman's Guide to Recognising and Preventing Burnout' by Lynn Blades 'The Burnout Doctor: Your 6-Step Recovery Plan' by Dr Claire Ashley
Telegraph
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
When was the last time you found a sex scene sexy?
Back in the day, the actress Greta Scacchi had something of a reputation for 'getting her kit off' on camera. That was the term we all used in the 1990s, and it wasn't so much sexist as highlighting a terribly British, jolly hockeysticks approach to sex. Come on, old thing. Last one to the marital bedchamber's a lemon, that sort of thing. The term popped back into my head this week for the first time in years. Scacchi, a very good actress as well as a paragon of soft-focus eroticism, has been back in the news, telling Radio Times that she finds modern sex scenes, 'the explicit rutting stuff' as she calls it, deeply unsettling. At the height of Scacchi's career – when she appeared with Tim Robbins in The Player, with Charles Dance in White Mischief and with Harrison Ford in Presumed Innocent – everything was very gentle, 'made to look beautiful and slowed down' as Scacchi said. Sex on screen at the time tended to be heralded by a bit of light jazz (often a saxophone) and conducted with tasteful arrangements of Egyptian cotton, the actor's modesty often artfully concealed. Was this good sex? Not exactly – it was inoffensive, and almost as laughable as the act itself, despite the general degree of decorum. Except we now know from the era that such scenes were not always very nice for those involved. While Scacchi was unscathed, there must have been plenty of actresses who had horrible experiences. Julia Roberts has always demanded that anything sexy be toned down, but few women have her clout. There is no doubt that any on-screen nudity from that era, no matter how convivial the circumstances, was all at the behest of a middle-aged director who was either fulfilling their fantasies or had an eye on the commercial big time. In the cold light of day, these old sex scenes feel like part of a wider power trip. Things have changed, as Scacchi points out, but the drift away from the fluffy loveliness of the 1990s has not been straightforward. You would imagine that in the wake of the Me Too movement sex scenes might not have much of a place in film and television, but this is not the case. Indeed, it often feels like there is more sex on screen than ever before, and that modern phenomenon, the intimacy co-ordinator, has their work cut out ensuring that sensitive thespians are entirely comfortable with making the beast with two backs. The end result is not neutered but often quite violent (think of Tom Hollander and Leo Woodall in The White Lotus or Emilia Clarke and Jason Momoa in Game of Thrones) which makes you wonder whether the majority of intimacy co-ordinators are, essentially, sado-masochists. Of course, they, as well as the directors and probably the actors, may well suggest that the end result is due to a sort of artistic quest, a search for emotional truth, but ultimately such scenes seem hardly less ridiculous than those carried out with soft-lighting and a burst of Kenny G. In the worst cases, the sex scenes of today veer dangerously close to pornography, which makes you wonder why the hell the actors agreed to do them in the first place. The truth is that most sex scenes are unnecessary, and it is not as if they are even serving the dirty mac brigade. I remember hearing stories of Channel 4's infamous red triangle; a warning given at the start of any programme during the mid-1980s that included risqué content, and a fillip for the lonely men of the nation (I imagine it was mainly men whose interest was piqued by the promise of a piece of mid-1970s Swedish arthouse erotica). Such needs are now pointless given that we can all seem the most extreme sexual acts on the internet. So is there ever any need for sex on screen? I would suggest that the old cliché about such shenanigans being 'integral to the plot' is only occasionally true, and usually the most effective sex scenes are not about sex at all. I dread to mention Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris (1972) because we now know that Maria Schneider was treated abominably by the director who had decided not to tell her what Marlon Brando was about to do with a tub of Lurpak. But if we set aside the fact that Schneider was essentially being forced into filming a simulated rape while an entire crew watched her, it is a very effective scene which shows the extent to which someone who is incredibly damaged (Brando's character Paul) will try and make someone as damaged as they are (Schneider's character Jeanne). Then there is its near-contemporary Don't Look Now (1973), Nic Roeg's masterpiece about a couple (played by Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie) who travel to Venice after their daughter's death. What we would now call something naff like 'the grieving process' is punctuated by supernatural sightings and the most famous sex scene in history which seems to last a lifetime. It is tasteful, but unlike the noodling of 90s erotica, it feels psychologically real, as two people remain unable to articulate their lingering pain through words. There was no such thing as an intimacy co-ordinator in 1973; and it is telling that Roeg remained friends with both actors. Above all, he managed to do the undoable – he made a film that was actually sexy. The intimacy co-ordinators of today with their dreams of 'explicit rutting' should go back to their day jobs.
