The Week That Was

Saumesh Thimbath

Film'fair' Awards 2014

Bhaag Milka Bhaag was back in the limelight when the Filmfare Awards 2014 was announced today. Farhan Akthar won Best Actor, Rakesh Om Prakash Mishra won Best Director while the movie was adjudged the Best Movie of the Year. Prasoon Joshi bagged the Best Lyricist award for the song 'Zinda', Dolly Ahluwalia took home Best Costume Designer award and Acropolis Design won Best Production Design award taking the tally to a total of six awards. Deepika Padukone, in all fairness, was selected the Best Actress for her role in Goliyon Ka Rasaleela Ramleela. The Lunchbox came second to Bhaag Milka Bhaag in terms of number of awards,  winning Best Film (Critics), Best Debut Director for Ritesh Batra and Best Supporting Actor award for Nawazuddin Siddiqui.

End of an Era

Tollywood wore a pall of grief over the death of one of the industry's stalwarts, Akkineni Nageshwar Rao on 22 January. Akkineni Nageshwar Rao, ANR as he is fondly called, has a history of over 70 years in Telugu film industry. ANR, along with NTR, formed the backbone of the industry for over three decades. He was the recipient of Dada Saheb Phalke Award and Padma Vibhushan. The film industry closed down for a day on 23 January, the day of his cremation.

The Return of the Queen

The news of Aishwarya Rai's return to films after childbirth was the biggest news in Kollywood this week. It has been reported that Aishwarya would make her comeback in a Tamil film to be directed by Mani Ratnam. Though no official confirmation of the news is yet to come from the actress or the director, many news portals have carried the news. Aishwarya made her film debut with Mani Ratnam's Iruvar in 1997. She has subsequently acted in Mani's Guru and Raavan. Aishwarya and her husband Abhishek Bachchan are known to be very close to the director from South who has chipped in earlier to save their careers, which gives credence to the news.