Upodcast- Bollywood Edition

• The challenges of critical praise vs audience appreciation
• The state of streaming Indian content and its challenges
• The topic of terrorism and how it can be triggering
• (I also spend some time requesting "A Gentleman" sequel)

• Global politics
• The horror's of casteism in India  
• The mistakes of Ra.One 
• Why he didn't cast Muslim actors in Mulk

This episode we’re talking to Parineeti Chopra who is starring with Akshay Kumar in this week’s Hindi release Kesari.

Kesari is about The Battle of Saragarhi in 1897 between Sikh soldiers of the British Indian Army and Pashtun Orakzai tribesmen.

Parineeti’s debut was in 2011 with Ladies vs Ricky Bahl and her career has seen some ups and down which we discuss in our chat.
We talk and about her likeability as an actor, if she pushes back against that image and if that sense of familiarity can turn toxic. We also talk about why she wanted to be part of Kesari and the sudden prevalence of historical movies being made in India lately.

If you like our chat do subscribe and review us on iTunes. And for all our new listeners check out our other show called The Khandaan Podcast by searching on iTunes or by clicking here.

Made in Heaven is the new Amazon series from Excel Entertainment. Written by Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti, this critically acclaimed miniseries follows two wedding event planners in glitzy, high society Delhi as they battle their personal demons while simultaneously serving as front row audience to some of the most deep-rooted problems facing Indian society. It’s rich people behaving badly - in a recognizably Indian way.

This episode features two interviews: one with Reema Kagti and another with co-creator Alankrita Shrivastav, where we spoke about the challenges of long form narration, the democratization of streaming platforms and how to create content when freed from the shackles of Box Office and censorship. Keep an eye out for a teaser from our Khandaan channel where the hosts reviewed Made in Heaven (available now!)

You can find these really cool talks and more on our Upodcast Bollywood Edition feed, along with all our interviews with Bollywood celebs. Do subscribe if you haven’t yet.

Timeline
01.20 Interview with Reema Kagti
19.05 Teaser for Khandaan’s review of Made in Heaven
20.40 Interview with Alankrita Shrivastav

Shownotes:

Reema Kagti Director of Talaash Interview Upodcast

On this episode of Upodcast Bollywood Edition we talk to director Shelley Chopra Dhar about her about the first commercial female queer love story in Hindi cinema, Ek Ladki Ko Dekha To Aisa Laga.

We speak about the marketing of the movie, the challenges of making a movie as a first time director surrounded by veterans as well as the challenges of making a queer love story. We also get into some spoilers about key images and themes.

Ek Ladki Ko Dekha To Aisa Laga is currently playing in UK theaters , it stars Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, Anil Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao and Juhi Chawla and is directed by Shelley Chopra Dhar.

You can watch the trailer by clicking here.

Our awesome theme song was created by mash up king Dj Shai Guy!

Follow him on Bombay Funkadelic Facebook page or twitter so you can attend his unforgettable Bollywood parties all around the UK as well as his awesome mash up mixes that are regularly featured on BBC Asia.

Together with Josh Hurtado and Omar Ahmed, we discuss the line up for this year's London Indian Film Festival.

The 9th edition of the Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival,  runs at 15 cinemas, across London, Birmingham and Manchester, from 21st June to 1st July, with 27 films, including features and short films, in competition. It is the largest South Asian film festival in Europe.

Buy your tickets via this website, at respective cinema box offices: http://londonindianfilmfestival.co.uk/

We catch up with Asim Abassi director of the Pakistani film Cake releasing in UK theaters on the 29th of March.
Asim talks to Asim if there is an actual revival of Pakistani cinema, claiming a cinematic identity and “gola-ganda” cinematography.
Subscribe to our new feeds and share if you like what you hear!
If you haven't seen it yet, click here for the trailer for Cake!

This week’s episode is filled with tons of goodies! We speak to the amazingly talented Richa Chadha about Fukrey Returns which is the Hindi theater release from last Friday. I do keep mistakenly calling the movie “Fukrey two” which is not the name of the movie- my bad! We talk about: Shooting and fun on […]

This episode we speak to the luminescent Mahira Khan about her movie releasing in theaters today, Verna. We recorded the interview last week, before the controversy surrounding the release became big news, but glad to hear everything seems to be sorted out and people can go out and watch the movie everywhere. Mahira talks about: […]

British-Pakistani director Sarmad Masud’s t MY PURE LAND is this week’s Upodcast Review and it was also announced as Britain’s selection for submission to the Academy Award® in the category of Foreign Language Film . Based on true events, My Pure Land has been described as a Pakistani western, to break it down for our […]

This is one from the secret Upodcast vault! We spoke with the wonderful Taapsee Pannu during the release of Naam Shabana but never managed to post the episode. Since we talk a little about Judwaa 2 and the release is around the corner, what better time to than now to put our conversation up! In […]

This week’s Upodcast review is for Hotel Salvation (Mukti Bhavan) which came out last year in India, has been cleaning up awards at film festival and now is getting a UK release through the BFI. We are joined by the always-entertaining Shah Shahid from the Splitscreen Podcast and Blankpage Beatdown. This episode we talk about: […]

We spoke to Shubhashish Bhutiani, director of Hotel Salvation (Mukti Bhavan), at the London Indian Film Festival just before his UK festival premier. The movie is releasing this week through the BFI in the UK so it was the perfect time to post this interview. We talk about: Opening night at LIFF How to get […]