20 Years of Ek Aur Ek Gyarah EXCLUSIVE: “We used to provide different type of performance then,” recalls Ashish Vidyarthi

The pair of filmmaker David Dhawan and actor Govinda in the 1990s and early 2000s created a number of comedies that are remembered even today. Films like Raja Babu, Hero No. 1, Coolie No. 1, Saajan Chale Sasural, Deewana Mastana, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, etc, succeed in tickling our funny bone even today when we come across them on TV.

David Dhawan also brought the pair of Govinda and Sanjay Dutt together successfully in films like Haseena Maan Jayegi, Jodi No. 1 and Ek Aur Ek Gyarah.

Today marks 20 years for Ek Aur Ek Gyarah. Produced by Subhash Ghai’s Mukta Arts, the film saw Govinda and Dutt play two good-hearted conmen Tara and Sitara who are forced to run away from baddies Cobra (Ashish Vidyarthi) and Panther (Gulshan Grover) after entering their bad books. Tara and Sitara take temporary refuge in the bungalow owned by Major Ram Singh (Jackie Shroff) and his family. But they are soon required to face their demons in unexpected ways.

On the film’s 20^th anniversary, Ashish Vidyarthi, who played one of the baddies in the film named Cobra, told Bollywood Hungama while going down memory lane, “It (Ek Aur Ek Gyarah) was an extraordinary experience. When Ek Aur Ek Gyarah was being made, at that time we used to provide a different kind of performance. It had slapstick comedy, and the story moved ahead with this type of comedy.”

Highlighting the special requirements of baddies in such David Dhawan movies, he added. “You are a villain, but you also need to do comedy. All these films are close to my heart. Today when people come to me and praise my work for these films, I feel like, oh we did some good work back then. It’s a great feeling.”

Vidyarthi is also all praise for the experience of working with Govinda and Sanjay Dutt in the bygone era. “It was amazing,” he said. “I did a lot of films with them in that period. I also played Vitthal Kanya (in Vaastav) with Sanjay Dutt. There are lovely memories.”

Throughout his career, Vidyarthi has acted in hardcore serious films and at the same time not shied away from doing mindless comedies with the likes of David Dhawan. He tells us that doing diverse type of roles is important for him as an actor. “I always feel that every time an actor has to keep showing his different avatars. I am very happy that I am able to do that,” he said.

In a 20-year-old pre-release interview with Rediff, Govinda had spoken about the chances of Ek Aur Ek Gyarah working. He had said, “A lot depends on how Subhashji promotes the film and how the audience receives it. I would say David has recaptured the likable quality of his early films like Shola Aur Shabnam and Aankhen in Ek Aur Ek Gyarah. I think it will work. We have no more films on the floor. He kept re-working the script and re-editing the film. He is very sincere. You know, when I saw Shola Aur Shabnam and Aankhen, I did not anticipate that they would become such hits. They looked like B-plus projects.”

Also Read: EXCLUSIVE: Ashish Vidyarthi has a message for casting directors; says, “Main zinda hoon dost, don’t wait for me to die”

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How Gangs of Wasseypur ended the feud between Manoj Bajpayee and Anurag Kashyap

Ram Gopal Varma’s Satya (1998) turned out to be a turning point in Manoj Bajpayee’s career. His role as Bhiku Mhatre announced his big arrival in Bollywood. Similarly, years later, Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs Of Wasseypur (2012) brought another change to his career and his quirky character of Sardar Khan became immortal.

But not many people would know that before Gangs Of Wasseypur, there was a feud between Bajpayee and Kashyap and it ended because of the 2012 film.

Bajpayee revealed this during a conversation with Humans of Bombay. He said, “I got a call around 10:30 pm. That was the time I was about to retire for the day. It was a call from Anurag Kashyap, who I had not spoken to for many years. We had some conflict issues which had not been sorted out, but that one call kind of demolished all the issues.”

Sharing further, he added, “Anurag said he has something to offer to me and would I like to read it. So, he sent me his car, I went to his office, he read out the script to me. And I said, ‘Please order a red wine bottle.’ He ordered two bottles instead. We toasted and that is how Sardar Khan happened.”

Interestingly, Gangs Of Wasseypur helped a lot of actors get noticed, other than Bajpayee. These include, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Richa Chaddha, Pankaj Tripathi, Huma Qureshi, Jaideep Ahlawat, Rajkummar Rao, Vineet Kumar Singh, etc.

Bajpayee was last seen in the film Gulmohar, which also starred Sharmila Tagore, Amol Palekar, Simran and Suraj Sharma.

Also Read: Anurag Kashyap claims that he was fired from Tere Naam as he did not want Salman Khan to shave his chest

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Amitabh Bachchan cannot wait to get back to shooting

The process of healing after Amitabh Bachchan’s recent injury on the sets of Nag Ashwin’s Project K in Hyderabad, is taking longer than expected. “Even when the ribs are repaired, he won’t be allowed to shoot for a while,” says a close family friend. Mr Bachchan who will turn 81 in October, is raring to get back on his feet.

“He is getting extremely restless. It’s been three weeks since he has been advised complete bedrest. He’s done with his quota of binge-watching and reading. He wants to get back to shooting ASAP, which doctors have advised him against,” the family friend reveals.

It is likely that the mega-star, known to have suffered near-fatal accidents and illnesses in the past, would get back on his feet and resume shooting against doctors’ advice.

In an interview in the past Mr Bachchan had said this writer, “It is only when I am at work shooting that I feel a complete sense of being alive. There is something about the smell of a studio, the sound of the camera and that magical moment when the director calls, ‘Action’ that is indescribable.”

Also Read: Amitabh Bachchan resumes work already post rib cartilage injury, “There must be desire and effort to repair”

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Bhumi Pednekar: “What matters most is that we become conscious to protect our planet”

India today, like all global countries, is facing the deep impact of climate change. Be it debilitating water shortages or destructive floods or irregular rains, earthquakes or the rise in earth’s temperature and its consequent impact on rain cycles or the irreversible impact of pollution, everything is contributing towards ecological imbalance. The threat to humanity is widespread and is only becoming more and more each year. Actress Bhumi Pednekar has consistently and passionately advocated the conservation and protection of the environment and she has started a pan-India campaign called Climate Warrior, aimed at raising awareness about climate change and environmental conservation.

Climate Warrior is a concerted social media and online initiative that Bhumi uses to focus on awareness building and engage the people of our country to become more conscious of climate and environment-friendly life choices. It also highlights the work done by tireless environmental activists and citizen groups across India to bring about sustainable change to the environment.

Ever since her popularity began to grow, Bhumi has used her star power to regularly highlight issues related to environmental pollution, and conservation, as she feels strongly about the future of our planet. Bhumi is now the face of sustainability in India and the most influential voice for climate change in our country.

Bhumi says, “What matters most is that we become conscious to protect our planet. We are already in a crisis and the time to pay heed to this is now. There is a need for all of us to educate ourselves and be aware and conscious citizens who are looking to make a difference. We need to preserve the planet for our future generations.”

ALSO READ: Bhumi Pednekar on her role as UNDP’s First National Advocate, “I hope all the work I do goes towards making the world more equal in many ways”

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Game Changer: Ram Charan starrer ‘RC 15’ title announced on his birthday

The title of RRR star Ram Charan’s next has been announced. Celebrating his birthday on March 27, the makers of RC15 have announced the upcoming movie is titled Game Changer. Starring Charan in the lead role, the film is being directed by Shankar. The pan-Indian project, which is being made in multiple languages, has already created a lot of curiosity. It has brought together some top stars including Kiara Advani, Jayaram, Anjali, Sunil, Srikanth and Naveen Chandra.

“Game Changer it is!!!!” Ram Charan wrote on Twitter and shared a video for the title announcement.

Game Changer it is!!!! https://t.co/VYxWN6p9Hp@shankarshanmugh @SVC_official @advani_kiara @DOP_Tirru @MusicThaman #GameChanger pic.twitter.com/JlY1T1Emjt

— Ram Charan (@AlwaysRamCharan) March 27, 2023

This film will be a truly grand venture in every sense and fans and audiences will be in awe of the magic Ram Charan and Shankar will be unveiling on screen.  It is to be noted that RC15 is also SVC50. Since this is the 50th venture of Dil Raju’s Sri Venkateswara Creations, the producer is bankrolling it on a lavish budget, leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the film will be a landmark in Indian cinema.

Game Changer’s music is being composed by Thaman S, with lyrics by Ramjogaya Sastry, and Ananth Sreeram and dialogues by Sai Madhav Burra. Tirru is wielding the camera. Anbariv is handling the action choreography. It is produced by Raju and Shirish and presented by Smt Anitha.

ALSO READ: Ram Charan confirms his Hollywood debut; confesses “news will be out soon”

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Kareena Kapoor Khan encourages reading and foundational learning for young children: ‘We need to create an environment where children would love to learn’

Bollywood star and UNICEF India Celebrity Advocate Kareena Kapoor Khan on Sunday visited Mitha Nagar Municipal School in Goregaon (West), Mumbai, to promote foundational learning (in early grades) and to support the #EveryChildReading Movement in the state that will be launched in April 2023.

In her interaction with teachers and primary-grade children, Kareena Kapoor Khan took a keen interest to understand how children coped with learning during and after the pandemic. She underlined how important it is for children to learn early to read, write and count; and the importance of offering learning options in children’s mother tongue. She then engaged the children in a fun storytelling session where she read an interactive story to stimulate their imagination.

The National Education Policy 2020 highlights that the ability to reading with understanding, along with writing and performing basic operations with numbers is the ‘necessary foundation and an indispensable prerequisite for all future schooling and lifelong learning.’ The Government of India’s National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN) Mission aims to achieve the goal of universal proficiency in literacy and numeracy for every child by grade 3 by 2026-27.

As per National Assessment Survey, conducted in November 2021, more than 30 per cent of children in Grade 3 in Maharashtra cannot read small texts. By Grade 5, this number increases to 41 per cent of children not being able to read text appropriate to their grade level and to 43 per cent in grade 8.

Launched by the Education Department, Government of Maharashtra in partnership with UNICEF and Pratham Books in 2020, the reading campaign, Goshtiche Shaniwar (or Reading Saturdays) provides children with one storybook every week, to promote their emotional well-being, as well as support their language proficiency. Under the campaign, one story each in Marathi, Urdu, and English is being shared with students in grades 1-8 every Saturday. The campaign covered all the 36 districts of Maharashtra and reached over 1 lakh schools, 2.6 lakh teachers, and 31 lakh children.

“Today I met with young children and saw their immense enthusiasm to read and learn. As a mother, I understand the power of reading and storytelling that can inspire and motivate young minds, especially if it’s in a language that they understand well,” Kareena Kapoor Khan said.

“We need to create an environment where children would love to learn. School is one such space, and the learning environment at home is equally important. We need to make these spaces supporting and interesting for children to want to read. Teachers, parents, grandparents, can all help young children learn skills that will help them life-long.”

 

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Rajeshwari Chandrasekar, Chief, UNICEF Maharashtra said, “It’s essential that we focus on foundational learning and equip our children with the basic skills they need to succeed in life. This includes reading, writing, and basic numeracy skills. Through initiatives like the Goshtiche Shaniwar Reading Campaign and #EveryChildReading Movement, we can inspire every citizen in the state to play their role in ensuring every child reading.. With a strong foundation in place, children not only can enjoy the magic of stories but also unlock their full potential and thrive in the future.”

Zafrin Chowdhury, Chief, Communication Advocacy & Partnership, UNICEF India said, “We appreciate Kareena Kapoor Khan for taking the time for today’s visit and encouraging children to read with joy and all of us to support in providing children with a learning environment. UNICEF India greatly values the relationship with Ms. Khan as a Celebrity Advocate and her support in spotlighting children’s issues over the past decade.”

UNICEF works closely with the government at national and state level and provided technical inputs for the national guidelines for foundational learning developed by the Ministry of Education. In collaboration with the Government of India, UNICEF has supported the first ever foundational learning study conducted in the country in March 2022. UNICEF continues to provide technical support to state governments in developing and implementing their five-year plans for NIPUN Bharat, the Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Mission.

ALSO READ: Kriti Sanon, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Tabu starrer The Crew begins shoot

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Photos: Sonam Kapoor Ahuja snapped at VegNonVeg store in Bandra

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