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Time of India
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
After Ajay Devgn and Saif Ali Khan, Mani Ratnam defends Deepika Padukone's reported demands amid her exit from Sandeep Reddy Vanga's Spirit: ‘It's a rightful demand'
Deepika Padukone 's rumoured exit from Sandeep Reddy Vanga 's much-anticipated pan-India film Spirit has stirred a storm online. While unconfirmed reports claim the actor made several "unprofessional" demands, including an 8-hour workday, a Rs 20 crore fee, profit-sharing rights, and refusal to deliver dialogues in Telugu, many in the industry are now stepping up to back the Pathaan star. Mani Ratnam backs Deepika Veteran filmmaker Mani Ratnam, who previously directed Deepika in Ponniyin Selvan II, has come out in strong support of the actor. Speaking to us about the backlash she's receiving, he dismissed the criticism as unwarranted. 'I think it is a rightful demand,' Ratnam told News 18. 'I'm glad she's in a position to ask for it. I think as a filmmaker, you will take that into consideration when you cast. It is not an unreasonable thing to ask, but an absolute necessity. You have to acknowledge that, understand it and work around it.' Ajay Devgn, Saif Ali Khan echo similar views Earlier, Ajay Devgn also weighed in on the reported 8-hour shift clause that Deepika allegedly insisted on. Drawing attention to work-life balance and motherhood, he defended the idea. 'It's not that it's not going down well with people,' he said. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Pensando em trocar de sofá? Couro é a escolha certa! Fiori Sofás Saiba Mais Undo 'Most of the honest filmmakers will not have problems with it. And apart from this, being a mother and working for eight hours, most people have started working eight-nine hour shifts.' On the other hand, Saif Ali Khan said, "I hate coming home and seeing the kids already asleep. That's not success. Success is being able to say, 'No, I need to go home now to catch that half hour with them."' Triptii Dimri steps in as Deepika exits Following reports of Deepika's exit, the makers of Spirit officially announced Triptii Dimri as the new female lead opposite Prabhas. This marks her second collaboration with director Sandeep Reddy Vanga after the blockbuster Animal. Meanwhile, Deepika, currently seen in Kalki 2898 AD, has yet to release an official statement regarding her departure. Deepika Padukone and Tiger Shroff at Mumbai Airport Sandeep Reddy Vanga reacts to script leak In what appeared to be a cryptic response to the controversy, director Sandeep Reddy Vanga took to Twitter to express frustration over an apparent script leak. Without naming names, he alluded to betrayal and questioned the intentions behind the fallout. 'When I narrate a story to an actor, I place 100% faith. There is an unsaid NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) between us. But by doing this, you've 'DISCLOSED' the person that you are…. Putting down a younger actor and ousting my story? Is this what your feminism stands for?' he posted. Check out our list of the latest Hindi , English , Tamil , Telugu , Malayalam , and Kannada movies . Don't miss our picks for the best Hindi movies , best Tamil movies, and best Telugu films .
New European
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New European
Ari Aster's Eddington is not the great Covid movie we've been waiting for
Towards the bottom of the list in seriousness but nonetheless significant has been the poor cinematic creations it spawned. Filmmakers made insipid diary-like responses – Luca Guadagnino (Fiori, Fiori, Fiori!) and Alice Rohrwacher (Four Roads) both contributed to this woebegotten genre. One of the better ones was Chinese filmmaker Lou Ye's An Unfinished Film, which showed in Cannes last year, a hybrid documentary lumbered with an unprepossessing title. The Covid-19 pandemic kept us apart and then brought us together. Then, after brief moments of solidarity with others and of celebration when the vaccine emerged, came the side effects. It divided us as communities, created mental health crises, educational shortcomings and uncertainty, increased alienation and fostered an environment where conspiracy theories grew like pustules. Meanwhile, studios delayed the release of films, and shot films with visible social distancing protocols in place. The content was not great and the industry suffered as theatres shuttered and viewing habits skewed towards streaming even more than they had previously. An honorable mention must go to Rob Savage's Host, a horror film about a seance, filmed in the midst of the pandemic and taking place on a Zoom call. Inspired by a prank that went viral, it was a great example of an improvised solution to terrible conditions. But arguably, the best response had already come years before the virus arrived, with Steven Soderbergh's 2011 disaster movie Contagion. Cannes itself was cancelled by Covid in 2020 and had the next year's edition moved from its regular slot by two months. The festivals which took place in the shadow of the virus featured strict protocols of daily spit tests – the Lord knows the environmental costs of disposing of all that cinephile saliva – and there were distancing measures, temperature checks and masks to be worn everywhere. Unlike in the US, such measures were relatively uncontroversial. I visited Bergamo a few months after it had become one of the first hot spots in Europe with eye-watering mortality rates. God help you if you didn't wear your mask there. The devastated community policed itself strictly and with little wiggle room. Now we're past the pandemic and no longer constrained by its fears or protocols, we can look back on it as a period of recent history. Ari Aster's Eddington, which premiered at Cannes this week, is the first major Hollywood film to be set during the pandemic and to use it as a motivating theme and backdrop. The film is set in a New Mexico town in May 2020. The lockdown has only just begun and for many places such as this county, the pandemic is something that still feels remote. Joaquin Phoenix plays a local sheriff, Joe Cross, who is rubbed up the wrong way by the new protocols which he is supposed to be enforcing, but with which he refuses to comply, partly due to his asthma, partly out of boneheaded stubbornness. At home, Joe's wife Louise (Emma Stone) is recovering from a mental health problem and this situation is worsened by the enforced stay of his mother-in-law, Dawn (Deidre O'Connell), who divides her time berating them and rabbit-holing into conspiracy theories. Things deteriorate further when Sheriff Joe – the name has to be a sly reference to anti-immigrant Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio whose infamy was a brief fart on the winds of history – decides to join the mayoral race to unseat Mayor Ted Chavez, a local bar owner, played by Pedro Pascal, who once dated Louise. So with major Hollywood star power, a talented and visionary director (Aster has directed the excellent horror films Hereditary and Midsommar), could this be the first film to really nail the experience of the Covid period? Unfortunately, the answer has to be a resounding no. In his last film Beau Is Afraid, Aster depicted anxiety by making a panic attack of a movie. So here, in his new film and in order to depict cynicism, divided society and a post-truth world, he makes a deeply cynical, divisive and fact-phobic film. Everything is rotten in the town of Eddington, even people who want to change the system. Reformers like Mayor Chavez are hypocrites with their own financial agendas. White Black Lives Matter protestors are ridiculed for their narcissism and guilt. Aster might claim to be even-handed but his targets – white liberals alongside bigots and nutso conspiracy theorists are not so much low-hanging fruit as windfall. The story is chock-a-block with plot, and references everything from Amazon delivery vans to Mary-Taylor Greene, gun enthusiasts to TikTok, Pizzagate to 9/11. Someone even mentions the fact that the Titanic didn't really sink. Wow. This goes deep. I saw this video on YouTube. Austin Butler wanders into the film as a guru, dressed like Jared Leto at his most messianic, using numerology to unmask pedophile plots, and wanders out of it again. Meanwhile, as protests become riots, Joe becomes increasingly unhinged in his mayoral campaign, using his office and vehicle to campaign. Conflicts soon escalate into murder and gun battles that resemble Call of Duty, or a season finale of the Fargo TV series. This is the America of MAGA, though Trump isn't mentioned. The madness is so self-evidently linked to him, it hardly seems necessary. One can certainly feel the paranoia, confusion and boredom-inspired madness of lockdown, but Covid itself hasn't really arrived and so the anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers – such as Joe – are initially more credible. And this perhaps gets to the heart of how difficult it is to make a film about Covid. That spiky Corona is microscopic so what's to see? And masks look stupid. They're fiddly and obscure the landscape that most entranced John Ford: the human face. Conspiracies are more compelling from a plot point of view than scientific, fact-based explanations. They are, after all, plots. Plus a maverick individual, like Sheriff Joe, occupies a sacred role in the American mythos. He's Gary Cooper in High Noon, Shane in Shane, standing for the rights of the individual even if it means standing against progress and pesky social distancing. Even as he descends into something like psychosis and Covid itself asserts its invisible grip, as an audience we follow him and might even cheer him as it morphs into a latter-day Rambo figure. American cinema celebrates rogue individuals even as it might ostensibly condemn them: think of Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, or Harry Callaghan in Dirty Harry. In fact, that latter character could well sum up the misanthropy that runs through Ari Aster's film: 'That's one thing about our Harry. He doesn't play any favourites! Harry hates everybody.' That's the thing about our Ari too. He hates everybody: liberals, conservatives, antifa…
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
New York-native shooting champion returns home with gold
ENDICOTT, NY (WIVT/WBGH) – An Endicott native returned home from a national shooting competition with golden hardware. Albert Fiori competed, and won a gold medal in the national trap shooting competition in West Palm Beach last week. Fiori has competed in Olympic style parashooting events before. Fiori was first diagnosed with an auto-immune disorder and nerve disease a few years ago. Over 100 athletes competed, and had to shoot a total of 250 targets in the qualification round just to make it into the finals. Fiori made it to the finals and took home first place in the 'senior trap' division of older competitors. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
