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‘Taehyung was so passionate': Award-winning director recalls how BTS' V got rid of IU's MV scene, cut his hair and enlisted the next day

‘Taehyung was so passionate': Award-winning director recalls how BTS' V got rid of IU's MV scene, cut his hair and enlisted the next day

Indian Express08-06-2025
BTS member Kim Taehyung has always had a knack for acting, and it's no secret. Back in the day, he kicked things off with the historical K-drama Hwarang alongside fellow Wooga Squad member Park Hyung Sik, and years later, stormed the MV scene with IU's Love Wins All. The K-pop idol then enlisted in the military and is now just days away from his comeback. At the Muju Film Festival on June 6, Concrete Utopia director Uhm Tae Hwa, who recently bagged the Best Director award, opened up about working with the star and said he'd love to team up with him again, even if it means creating an entirely new role just to fit him.
Also read: BTS' V replies to fan's countdown post: 'You waited… now what?'; from solo concerts to FESTA and art exhibits, here's what's next for the K-pop stars
While speaking to Editor-in-Chief Joo Sung Chul, Um Tae Hwa revealed they shot the entire music video in just two days. He recalled how the Winter Bear crooner filmed his entire scene while also helping the crew and the director himself, cut his hair right after, and left for the military the next day. During the conversation, the host asked the director if he was aware of Taehyung's comeback from the military, and Uhm said he was and had even sent him a personal message. The host then mentioned how fans have been urging the director to cast V in a movie, to which Uhm replied, 'If Taehyung were willing to do it, I'd be so grateful. I'd love to work with him—even if I had to make up a role just to ask him.' (Translated via Allkpop)
He added, 'We only filmed for two days. He left the next day. That's how much he wanted to do it. He was very passionate. That's when I realised he had a real desire to act. I'm not joking—it would be amazing if we could work together again.'
Also read: BTS' RM, V, Jimin and Jungkook to greet fans at designated locations post-discharge; BIGHIT says, 'Refrain from visiting'
The director was asked to share a story about the K-pop idol, something he witnessed and found unique about him. He replied that Taehyung was very involved on set and was never the kind of celebrity who just did things for the sake of doing them. Originally, the final scene had the two characters (IU and V) crowd-surfing in wedding dresses while singing. But the team was running out of time, and everyone was worried. Trying to shoot it was causing a lot of stress, yet the director wanted to keep the scene badly. 'As a director, I really wanted to film that scene. I thought it would enhance the emotional impact. So I kept trying to make it work until the very end.'
That's when the singer came and spoke to him. 'He said, 'Instead of this, how about we film another, better scene?'' Uhm recalled. 'He talked me into it, and he was right; we didn't have enough time. If we had stuck with my idea, we might not have had time to film the other important scenes. Everyone, including the audience actors, was stressing over how to do that scene,' He continued. 'Then Taehyung turned to them and said, 'Everyone, I got rid of that scene!' And everyone cheered.'
IU and BTS' V's post-apocalyptic dystopian saga Love Wins All dropped on January 24, 2024, as the lead single from IU's sixth Korean EP, The Winning. The song, and especially the music video, scored a perfect all-kill on South Korean music charts and was hailed as the MV of the season, even debuting at number 25 on the Billboard Global 200. V shot his scenes just a week before his mandatory military enlistment, viewing the project as a parting gift to ARMYs before heading off. In the MV, V and IU escape from a cube-like object in their wedding dresses. IU's character is shown with a hearing impairment, communicating with V through sign language, while V's character is visually impaired.
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Ganesh idols: Immersed in ecological uncertainty
Ganesh idols: Immersed in ecological uncertainty

India Today

timean hour ago

  • India Today

Ganesh idols: Immersed in ecological uncertainty

(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated August 18, 2025)In a small workshop in Hamrapur village, 60 kilometres from Mumbai, Nitesh Daur stands quietly amid neat rows of white Ganesh idols. Crafted from Plaster of Paris (PoP)—a lightweight, detail-friendly material—the statues have been his livelihood since 2005. 'If I shut down this business, what will I do?' asks the 35-year-old father of two. 'I have no other skills.'advertisementDaur's anxiety stems from a long-running legal battle over the environmental impact of PoP idols, the genesis of which can be traced to a 2005 PIL by the late rationalist Narendra Dabholkar's Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti. On January 30, this year, the Bombay High Court issued an interim order, directing civic bodies across Maharashtra to enforce the Central Pollution Control Board's (CPCB) 2020 guidelines banning the immersion of PoP idols—even in artificial tanks—during the Maghi Ganeshotsav (January-February).The rationale: PoP's adverse effects on aquatic ecosystems. The result: a swift crackdown by municipal bodies and police. On June 9, the court modified its order, allowing the manufacture and sale of PoP idols—so long as they aren't immersed in natural water bodies. A CPCB expert panel has also clarified that its 2020 guidelines were advisory, not mandatory. The partial reprieve has given idol-makers like Daur some breathing room ahead of this year's main Ganeshotsav, which begins in late August and is the most popular festival in Maharashtra. Then, on July 24, came further clarity. The court ruled that PoP idols under 6 feet in height must be immersed only in artificial water tanks, while taller idols may go into natural water bodies. The court also directed the state government to ensure local bodies strictly implement these amended norms and to provide enough artificial tanks for immersions. Additionally, the state was told to form an Expert Scientific Committee within a month to explore ways to recycle and reuse PoP and examine eco-friendly methods for faster dissolution. These directions will remain in force for all immersion-based festivals till March 2026. Accordingly, the state government has issued comprehensive guidelines for the immersion of PoP idols. Even so, not everyone is mollified. Naresh Dahibavkar, president of the Brihanmumbai Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Samanvay Samiti, welcomes the relief but warns of uncertainty ahead. 'This is only an interim order,' he says. 'Next year, the issue will be back in court.' He wants a 'permanent solution' to the issue of immersion of large idols—installed by more than 3,000 Ganesh mandals in Mumbai alone. Environmentalist Harshad Dhage, a petitioner in the case, too notes the 'temporary' nature of the reprieve. Emphasising the need to strike a balance between faith and sustainability, he says, 'This is not a fight against festivals, but against pollution.'HUBBUB AT THE HUBFor decades, idol-making has been the lifeblood of Hamrapur and neighbouring villages like Kalave, Johe, Tambadshet and Dadar in Pen taluka of Raigad district. Anchored by Pen town, the region is the nucleus of Maharashtra's Ganesh idol industry and even got the Geographical Indication (GI) tag in 2023. Across the taluka, some 250,000 people are said to be employed in the Rs 200-crore industry, collectively shipping out millions of clay and PoP idols each year, not only in India but to diaspora communities as far afield as the United States. Mumbai alone hosts some 12,000 public Ganesh mandals and over 200,000 household idols—most of them made from PoP and sourced from this Ganesh worship in Maharashtra was a modest, private ritual, with small, hand-crafted idols made from local clay. But in the 1890s, nationalist leader Bal Gangadhar Tilak elevated the festival into a public spectacle—an instrument of anti-colonial solidarity. Pen's transformation into an idol-making hub gathered pace in the 1950s, propelled by its location between Mumbai and Pune, and the availability of clay. A crucial shift came when local sculptor N.G. 'Rajabhau' Deodhar experimented with PoP, initially to embellish decorative images with finer detailing. Cultural cues added fuel. In V. Shantaram's 1959 film Navrang, an imposing 11-foot Ganesh idol made of PoP commanded the screen and was later immersed ceremoniously, foreshadowing a trend toward ever-larger images of the deity in households and mandals. The material proved easy to mould, light to transport and ideal for mass production. By the 1980s, Pen housed more than 500 workshops crafting idols from both clay and PoP, according to Shrikant Deodhar, Rajabhau's nephew and a fourth-generation sculptor. In the 1990s, outlying villages, with their cheaper land and abundant labour, joined the fray. In Hamrapur, farmlands long eroded by saline ingress have given way to gleaming bungalows—quiet monuments to the prosperity the idol trade has brought. In this belt, artisans are organically initiated into the craft as January court order, however, had sent tremors through the region. Many workshops suspended work entirely. 'We lost three critical months,' says Jagdish Patil, president of the Shri Ganesh Murtikar Utkarsha Mandal, representing about 600 workshops in Hamrapur. 'We usually produce around a million idols every year. This time, it may drop to 800,000.' THE PoP VS CLAY DEBATEadvertisementThe economics is unforgiving. Most manufacturers take loans to buy raw materials. For, while wholesale buyers settle dues post-festival, vendors supplying PoP, paint and coir insist on advance payments. 'Customers are fewer this year. There's confusion and fear,' says Neeraj Naik, an idol-maker in Hamrapur. In a neighbouring workshop, sculptor Kunal Patil gestures at a half-finished idol. 'One person can make 10-15 PoP idols per shift. Clay? Maybe two or three,' he is a key factor—while the retail rates of clay and PoP idols vary widely depending on the market and locality, a one-and-a-half-foot tall clay idol typically costs around Rs 3,000, compared to Rs 2,000 for a similarly sized PoP idol at the lower end of the product line. Patil and others maintain that PoP idols are not just more durable and cost-effective but more aesthetically consistent. 'Clay idols are fragile—even a damp garland can cause them to flake, which many consider inauspicious,' says Mahendra Kamble, a distributor who supplies Hamrapur idols to Dombivli, an extended suburb of Mumbai. 'If I sell 1,000 idols, barely 150 are clay. This means people prefer PoP.'advertisementBut traditionalists and environmentalists contest that logic. 'PoP doesn't dissolve, and broken parts of these idols later wash up on the shore,' says Mumbai-based clay sculptor Vasant Raje. 'This is vitambana (sacrilege) of our religion.' Raje points to the iconic 20-foot clay 'Girgaoncha Raja', installed every year in Mumbai's Girgaon neighbourhood, as proof that size isn't a bone of contention, i.e. PoP, is made by heating gypsum to remove water, resulting in a powder that hardens when mixed with water. A 2023 study on the Tapi river, which runs through Maharashtra's northern edge, found a clear correlation between PoP idol immersion and degraded water quality. The paints often contain toxic metals like lead and cadmium. PoP itself may take months—or even years—to dissolve, raising water hardness and harming aquatic life. Wildlife biologist Anand Pendharkar notes that the material clogs the burrows of fish and crabs and damages mangrove roots. 'It has affected the breeding of Bombay duck, sponges and other marine organisms,' he says. The annual use of PoP across the state is about 4,500 tonnes, with Mumbai alone accounting for 675 tonnes, notes the 2023 study. Gradually, other states, like Goa, are banning the import and sale of PoP Ganesh doubts persist about how viable a large-scale pivot to clay would be. Today, just about 20 per cent of the idols made in Pen taluka are clay-based. The supply chain isn't ready. Nor is the workforce adequately trained, say those in the PoP idol industry. Some stakeholders call for a middle ground. 'The issue has to be seen from the prism of employment,' says Dhairyashil Patil, a Rajya Sabha MP of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and former MLA from Pen. 'Even chemical industries pollute. Yet, we don't call for them to be banned. We ask for them to be regulated.' For now, the idol-makers of Hamrapur and nearby villages sculpt on, tracing divine forms in drying plaster, uncertain what shape their future will to India Today Magazine- EndsTrending Reel

3 upcoming K-Dramas starring Fight For My Way's Park Seo Joon and Kim Ji Won: Bloodhounds 2 to Waiting For Gyeongdo
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time2 hours ago

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3 upcoming K-Dramas starring Fight For My Way's Park Seo Joon and Kim Ji Won: Bloodhounds 2 to Waiting For Gyeongdo

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HEYOON: I try to write from a place hoping it'll connect with a lot of people
HEYOON: I try to write from a place hoping it'll connect with a lot of people

Hindustan Times

time2 hours ago

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HEYOON: I try to write from a place hoping it'll connect with a lot of people

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