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Pink Villa
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Pink Villa
Tourist Family OTT release: 5 interesting facts to know about Sasikumar and Simran's film before watching it online
Tourist Family dropped on JioHotstar today, June 2. With Sasikumar and Simran in key roles, the film promises more than just scenic visuals. It's a slice-of-life journey filled with unexpected turns. From laughter to emotion, the movie delivers it all. But before you stream it on OTT, here are five interesting facts that make this Tamil family drama a must-watch. 1. Director made his debut at 24 Abishan Jeevinth made his directorial debut with Tourist Family at just 24. What makes this even more impressive is that he had no experience as an assistant director. His creative journey began on YouTube, where he ran a channel called Thug Lightu. He shared videos about friendship, exams, and love. In 2019, he directed a short film titled DOPE. A year later, his short film Nodigal Pirakatha went viral, crossing millions of views. 2. Abishan wanted to create Thenali 2 The idea for Tourist Family began with the director's wish to make a sequel to Thenali. While it drew inspiration from the Kamal Haasan -starrer, the story soon found its own path. The film shifts focus to a Tamil family fleeing Sri Lanka during a financial crisis. It blends emotion and humor while exploring their struggle to survive and rebuild a life. 3. Heart Beat fame Yogalakshmi's debut Tourist Family marks Yogalakshmi's first appearance in a feature film. Before this, she was known for her role in the series Heart Beat. The show helped her gain recognition on the small screen. Now, a sequel to Heart Beat is also available for streaming on JioHotstar. 4. Highest-grossing movie of Sasikumar's career Tourist Family has become the biggest box office success of Sasikumar's career. At a press meet, the actor shared that the film has outperformed his previous hits like Sundarapandian and Kutti Puli. It reportedly collected around Rs 2.5 crore on its opening day. That figure, he noted, matches the full run earnings of some earlier films. 5. Rajinikanth and SS Rajamouli praised the film This is one of those rare moments when stars like Rajinikanth and SS Rajamouli publicly shared their personal reviews after watching a film. The movie also received praise from Suriya, Sivakarthikeyan, Nani, Prabhudeva, and many others. With so many celebrities talking about it, imagine the kind of impact this film must have made.
Pink Villa
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Pink Villa
Who is Abishan Jeevinth? Meet Tourist Family director as his film crosses Rs 56 crore at Tamil Nadu box office
Tourist Family has emerged as a box office success despite releasing alongside films like Retro and HIT 3. The movie has completed 25 days in theaters and continues to run successfully. While much has been said about the film's cast, today let's shift the spotlight to the director of Tourist Family as he brought this story to life. Who is Abishan Jeevinth? Abishan Jeevinth hails from Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu. According to a report by Filmibeat, he did his schooling in a local institution and moved to Chennai for his college education. Then, Abishan pursued a in Visual Communication at Loyola College. He does not come from a film background and there is very little public information about his family or close friends. The young filmmaker reportedly started his creative journey as a YouTuber. He gained attention through his channel Thug Lightu, where he posted content about friendship, exams, and love. His passion for storytelling eventually led him to make short films. In 2019, he directed his first short film titled DOPE. A year later, he released Nodigal Pirakatha, which became a huge success with over 2 million views on YouTube. Abishan Jeevinth's big break Abishan faced several hurdles before making it to mainstream cinema. While he was in his final year of college, a film project he planned was cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak. However, his big break came with Tourist Family. The movie was inspired by Kamal Haasan's classic Thenali and focused on a Tamil family escaping from Sri Lanka during an economic crisis. With this film, Abishan transitioned from short films to the big screen. Abishan's personal life At the promotional event for Tourist Family, director Abishan Jeevinth surprised everyone by proposing to his longtime friend Akhila Ilangovan. He emotionally expressed his gratitude to Akhila for supporting him throughout his journey. He also praised his mother for being a strong source of inspiration. The proposal took place in front of a live audience and quickly went viral on social media. Tourist Family box office day 25 On Day 25, the Sasikumar and Simran starrer reportedly added around Rs 1.20 crore, pushing its total collection to an impressive Rs 56.50 crore at the Kollywood box office. As the movie approaches the end of its theatrical run, it remains to be seen how much more it will add to its overall earnings. Disclaimer: The box office figures are compiled from various sources and our research. The figures can be approximate, and Pinkvilla does not make any claims about the authenticity of the data. However, they are adequately indicative of the box-office performance of the films in question.
New York Times
10-02-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
When It Rains, It Pours
Gail Collins: Bret, we've spent so much time agreeing about President Trump, it's been great — at least for argument's sake — that you can come up with specific presidential actions where you're now pro-Trump. While I tend to irrationally object to every single thing he does. Well, maybe not so irrationally. But today, tell me how you feel about the latest sweeps to save money by shutting down humanitarian aid overseas and offering buyouts to the entire C.I.A. work force. Bret Stephens: I'm not pro-Trump. He scares me. There are days when I wake up and think: If this goes on like this for four years, or even four months, we're going to be living in an unrecognizable republic — one in which lickspittle Republican legislators and cabinet members rubber stamp every crazy Trump idea, federal court decisions are simply ignored by the executive branch, Elon Musk creates a Department of Personal Efficiency (DOPE) that tracks and scores your every move, and a booming economy keeps a majority of voters indifferent to the collapse of civic and constitutional norms. We saw that model play out in the early years of Vladimir Putin's dictatorship in Russia and Recep Tayyip Erdogan's rule in Turkey. Gail: I do like that Elon Musk idea — not the actual agency, just the part about calling it DOPE. Bret: But today I'm in the mood to provoke our readers a little. And the truth is I just don't disagree with every single policy of Trump's. With regards to U.S.A.I.D., I've always had my misgivings about the way the United States delivers aid, often via self-dealing contractors to corrupt countries, and often making our supposed beneficiaries more corrupt and less self-reliant. As for the C.I.A., it's not going to be abolished in this presidency or any other. Though I'm a little surprised to hear so many liberals spring to the agency's defense. That said, the way the Trump administration has essentially tried to shutter U.S.A.I.D. overnight, stranding employees, cutting off critical health-care programs and getting blocked by courts, is reckless, capricious and cruel. We need to rethink and reform aid delivery, not destroy it. The same goes for all the other agencies and programs to which Musk is taking a hatchet instead of a scalpel. Gail: Pretty hard to argue with reform-not-destroy. Although it definitely depends on the character of the so-called reformers. Bret: The federal government isn't some tech start-up where you move fast and break things. Gail: You know I never argue foreign policy, Bret, but when Trump announced that he thought the United States should take over Gaza and 'own it,' that struck me less as an issue of international affairs than another deeply scary sign that our president is … just nuts. Bret: Other than the fact that the United States will not own Gaza, I have no idea what Trump meant by it — and I'm not sure he does, either. But I also think it's smarter to view some of his wilder utterances not as serious policy proposals but as entry points to negotiation. I'm glad Trump seems like he won't countenance Hamas's survival as the ruling regime in Gaza. And I don't think it's wrong to ask a dependent dictator like Egypt's Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who failed to prevent Hamas from arming itself to the teeth before the war, to not wall out Gazans while the area is rebuilt. Gail: As I said, not doing foreign policy. Let's move back home. Bret: The larger point is that Trump is asking for fresh thinking about a conflict where all the supposed solutions have been tried and failed. And he's insisting we think anew about what the government does and how it operates abroad and at home. For instance, what is there to say about the Department of Education after 45 years of failing to improve educational standards? Gail: The Department of Education has a lot of responsibilities, and if you want to argue that it's failing on some, feel free. But the missions are themselves so important. Some agency has to keep an eye on student loans, which in their worst forms bankrupted recipients who were totally misled about what they could expect to gain from a very expensive, definitely useless-to-borderline-crooked program. I'd go on here, but since it would take 60 senators to abolish the department, I'm just adding this to all the government services Trump is going to try to ruin rather than improve. Bret: Gail, if it were up to me I'd get the government out of the business of student loans entirely. We have driven generations of students into debt on the dubious promise that a college education is the right choice for everyone. Meanwhile, decades of federal investments in K-12 education, and bad brainstorms like George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind Act yielded pathetic results, especially for minority children. If liberals want to regain their traditional polling advantage over conservatives on education, they need to have an idea that's more than just about throwing more billions of dollars at the problem. Gail: We've have to continue the education discussion over this new year. Let's talk cabinet appointments. Trump has been getting pretty much what he wants. But the Republican majority in the House and Senate is so narrow, the House especially, that I can't imagine them always sticking together when Congress has to begin its regular business. Do you agree? And where do you think we'll see the first break? Bret: The G.O.P.? They're not going to break. If they're willing to confirm cabinet picks like Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., then they'll go along with absolutely anything. That's what scares me: Congress has ceased to think of itself as a coequal branch of government, and congressional Republicans have turned themselves into footstools for the president. That means Democrats need to get their act together for the midterms. But if their central strategy is to just wait for the country to turn on Trump, I don't think they'll get very far. What's your advice to them? Gail: Well, there are plenty of issues to run on. On global warming, the Republicans are betraying generations to come by embracing the 'Drill, baby, drill' theory of energy policy. Tax cuts for the rich don't make sense to most Americans, and they reduce revenue to shore up programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and, yes, education. Bret: It's not for me to tell Democrats what they should run on. But I'll never tire of suggesting what they should run from. They need to make a clean, loud, vocal, convincing break from the most progressive fringes of their party. Bail reform. Drug decriminalization. Defunding of police. De facto open borders. Sanctuary cities. Biological males in girls' sports. Identity politics — including the excesses of D.E.I. All this stuff has left the Democratic brand politically radioactive. Gail: You don't have to be in a fringe to want to make sure everybody who's arrested but not yet convicted of anything should have an equal opportunity to stay out of jail until their trial. And I don't think most Democrats are pressing for de facto open borders. As we were saying earlier, there's a difference between wanting to make something better and wanting to get rid of it. Bret: People would be alive today in places like Waukesha, Wis., if easy bail hadn't let dangerous people return to the street. Democrats also need to replace incompetent progressives with competent liberals, especially at the municipal and state level. That may at last be happening with San Francisco's new mayor, Daniel Lurie, who's pledging to clean up the downtown after years of decline. I wonder if it might happen at the state level, too. Any thoughts about whether Kamala Harris should run for governor? Gail: I would like to see how Harris does in a race where she has to compete in a tough open primary to get the nomination. She was a mediocre presidential candidate because the job got dumped on her at the last minute, but she never struck me as dim or inept. Bret: Dim? I wouldn't know. But inept? Beyond inept. If California thinks that what it most needs is more high-tax, high-regulation, high-cost, low-delivery governance of the sort that every year drives hundreds of thousands of taxpayers, along with some of its most valuable companies, from the state, then she's the perfect candidate. Democrats need a different state to model a different kind of governance. Like Kentucky, or North Carolina, or hey, Kansas, which has a Democratic governor, Laura Kelly, who believes in balanced budgets, immigration enforcement — and the right to choose. She's in her second term. On a cheerier note, Gail: the Super Bowl. Who knew? Gail: Hey, I always did like Philadelphia, but given the recent election saga, I can't say I was in the mood for another whopping, nothing-but-despair-for-the-losers outcome.
