MUMBAI: It’s the beginning of the week, and we bring some exciting updates from tinsel town to keep you entertained.

Alia raised the bar for herself: Meghna Gulzar

Filmmaker Meghna Gulzar says actress Alia Bhatt has raised the bar for herself in cinema with her role of Sehmat Khan -- the Indian spy -- in the movie Raazi.

"Alia performed quite challenging scenes in the movie. She would be trembling before you say action but the moment camera rolls, you see the performer in her taking over everything. She has raised the bar in acting for herself," Meghna told leading publication over e-mail.

The daughter of veteran lyricist-poet Gulzar, Meghna, who showed the India-Pakistan spy drama against the backdrop of the 1971 war through the film, admitted that Alia was her first choice for Sehmat and she could not see anyone except Alia playing the role.

"I could not see anyone else play this part. If she (Alia) had not done the film, I don't think I would have made it. Alia's vulnerability, fragility fitted the character which I imagined. I am grateful for the belief she had put into the character and brought it to life."

Besides Alia, Raazi which became the first female-led film (non-franchise) to earn more than 100 crore, also features actors like Vicky Kaushal, Alia's mother Soni Razdan and Rajit Kapur.

After having its world premiere on the small screen a few days ago, Raazi is now all set to premiere on Zee Cinema on Saturday night.

Indian film industry hails 'magnificent' Mary Kom

M.C. Mary Kom's latest victory, which has led her to become the first woman boxer to claim six World Championship gold medals, is a testimony to women power and an example of how age and motherhood have not stopped her from chasing her dreams, said Indian film fraternity members, hailing the "magnificent" athlete's feat.

Mary Kom on Saturday outclassed Ukraine's Hanna Okhota by a unanimous 5:0 verdict at the 10th AIBA women's boxing World Championships at the K.D. Jadhav indoor hall here on Saturday.

The star boxer, whose life had inspired the movie Mary Kom -- starring Priyanka Chopra -- courted congratulations galore from the actress, as well as celebrated names like Amitabh Bachchan, S.S. Rajamouli and Prosenjit Chatterjee.

Here's what they tweeted:

Amitabh Bachchan: Mary Kom, what a huge honour you bring to the country... Six times gold medalist world championship! CONGRATULATIONS! I ever value your boxing gloves that you gifted me! They are my gold medals.

Priyanka Chopra: Wow! Only you could do it!! What an achievement... Congratulations Mary Kom... It's a proud moment for the nation and you are and always will be my inspiration. Here's to magnificent Mary.

S.S. Rajamouli: Congratulations Mary Kom on winning the record sixth Gold in World Boxing Championships. You are a pride of the nation and certainly are an inspiration to many... Keep winning!

Anil Kapoor: With every win she has created a new chapter in history! An inspiration for us all. Her never back down attitude is awe worthy! Congratulations Mary Kom on the Gold! True champion! Always making India proud!

Shekhar Kapur: In a nation confused on the position of women in Society, Mary Kom becomes India's all-time great athlete. Man or woman. Superwoman. Or superhuman? At 35, mother of three Mary Kom has consistently beaten incredible odds to win sixth consecutive world boxing championships. Becoming one of the worlds most successful boxers. Her opponent was just 3 years old when Mary won her first championship.

Poonam Dhillon: Congratulations Wonderwoman Mary Kom. Magnificent sixth world cup title! Salutes. Truly amazing and historical.

Anushka Sharma: Congratulations champ! So proud to see you creating history, you are a wonder woman.

Arjun Kapoor: Congratulations Mary Kom for your victory! This makes us so proud.

Meiyang Chang: CHAMPION!!! And an unprecedented one.

Adnan Sami: Heartiest congratulations to Mary Kom for and becoming the first female boxer to win six World Championships... EVER!

Prosenjit Chatterjee: An extremely proud moment for Indian Sports. Heartiest congratulations to Mary Kom for winning a Gold in Women's World Boxing. It's a historic win and we all are proud of you.

Rahul Dev Official: Unstoppable! It's Mary Kom all the way! This six-time world champion is a mother of three! The only Indian woman to win an Olympic medal.   

Suchitra Krishnamoorthi: Mary Kom congrats and wow wow wow! What a woman. What a champion. What an inspiration. Salute!

Shreyas Talpade: This lady is unbelievable... actually unstoppable. She goes on and on winning one championship after another. More power to you Ma'am.

Kabir Bedi: Saluting magnificent Mary! Winning a sixth boxing world title - at age 35, after 3 children - is a truly towering triumph. Mary Kom is now the most victorious female boxer in history, and as successful as the greatest male, Teofilo Stevenson. Hail Mary!

Koratala Siva: Fabulous achievement.

Men must change mentality for women to feel safe: Farhan Akhtar

Actor-filmmaker Farhan Akhtar on Sunday -- the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women -- launched a short film She, which takes a look at the various forms of violence perpetrated against women. He says a safer environment for women will be possible when men change their mentality and behaviour.

Farhan's MARD (Men Against Rape and Discrimination), filmmaker Feroz Abbas Khan and Population Foundation of India (PFI) jointly released the three-minute short She online.

"For women to feel safe in our society, it is important that men change their mentality and behaviour. This short film She gives the other perspective - of how ignorant men are about this violence. It is imperative that men understand the humiliation that women go through. Only then will they truly make an effort to change," Farhan said in a statement.

Khan, the film's creative lead, added, "Men feel entitled to perpetuate violence against women. They feel it is their right. Director Ranjeeta Kaur exposes that entitlement in She."

PFI Executive Director Poonam Muttreja said, "Though more women are now finding the courage to speak out and report abuse, a large part of society still normalises such crimes, until it reaches the point of really heinous forms of violence. Men need to recognise that the everyday forms of violence and violation faced by women are no less harmful."

Big B buys machines for manual scavengers

Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan has fulfilled a promise he made to help manual scavengers by arranging machines.

"At the NDTV Cleanathon Banega Swachh India, seeing the inhuman plight of the manual scavenger, I had committed to buy 50 machines for them. Today I fulfilled that promise! 25 small individual machines and one large truck machine gifted to BMC," Amitabh tweeted early on Sunday.

In a letter dated 24 November, and addressed to the Manual Scavengers Association (MSA) and the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the actor said he wanted to do something to prevent manual scavengers from physically and manually going down the manholes and sewer drainages.

"My contribution was to prevent the dehumanising work of these scavengers and to give them the respect and dignity in society," Big B wrote.

The actor had committed Rs 50 lakh towards purchase of machines for the workers.

"I am donating a large machine to the BMC and with the balance funding, donating smaller machines to the individual workers," Amitabh said.

He has urged the BMC and MSA to give a report consistently on the right and correct usage of the equipment.

The actor has been actively working to help farmers as well.

Priyanka-Nick get pre-wedding bash from 'The Sky Is Pink' team

A pre-wedding party for actress Priyanka Chopra and her American singer beau Nick Jonas was organised here on the sets of her upcoming film The Sky Is Pink, before they left for Mumbai.

"Love, laughter and happily ever after to the beautiful bride-to-be," read a post on the official Twitter handle of Roy Kapur Films, which is producing the movie.

Priyanka, Nick, director Shonali Bose and producer Siddharth Roy Kapur are seen in the accompanying pictures, which also feature a cake with several candles and a bottle of Champaign. In one photograph, Kapur is popping the Champaign.

The cake reads, "Congratulations to our dear bride-to-be P.C.J."

The couple left Delhi for Mumbai late on Saturday ahead of their nuptials, which are reportedly set to take place between 29 November and 2 December in Jodhpur.

Preparations have been on in full swing, but the wedding dates have not been officially announced yet.

It's hard to define Arjun, Janhvi's relationship

Although actors Arjun Kapoor and Janhvi Kapoor are step-siblings who share the same father, but different mothers, their relationship is hard to define.

Since Janhvi's mother -- the great Sridevi -- died, the estranged siblings have begun bonding.

As Arjun said, this is the least he could do.

This Sunday's Koffee With Karan had Arjun playing the protective brother to an obviously vulnerable and painfully young sister. Arjun gave a very emotional account of why he chose to reach out to his father's daughters after their mother died.

This was a moment of great honesty in a talk show that routinely revels in subterfuge.

There is something genuine about Arjun. He seemed incapable of lying this evening.

When Karan Johar asked him if he was single, Arjun answered in the negative and also volunteered the information that he's ready for marriage.

We can now expect Arjun and his alleged lady-love Malaika Arora to make their relationship official.

The rest of the show had very little meat or heat to the chat. The siblings were heartwarming together. But that's about it. Beyond that, they had nothing to offer except giggles about Karan Johar's sexuality and Janhvi's ignorance about 'hook-ups' and other worldly things that men do with women.

There is something genuine and unspoilt about this sibling pair. Unfortunately, two innocent people together on Karan Johar's couch amounts to hearing the correct answers for more than an hour.

We wonder how Boney's first wife Mona and second wife Sridevi would have reacted to all this talk about the family coming together.

Not that anyone is asking them.

'Jind mahi' a special love ballad: Diljit

Singer-actor Diljit Dosanjh says his new track titled Jind mahi is a special love ballad.

"I feel lucky that my music has been loved by so many people and Jind mahi is a special love ballad. The entire team behind the song is extremely talented and the video was shot in London," Diljit said in a statement.

The song's video stars actress Banita Sandhu of October fame alongside him.

"I'm thankful to Banita to have agreed to be a part of the video. She is a talented young girl and she fits in perfectly well in the song," said Diljit.

It was shot in London earlier this year and the music was given by Manni Sandhu.

The Do you know singer is a popular name in Punjabi and Hindi film industries. He was last seen in the Bollywood film Soorma, which released in July this year.

Honoured that John entrusted me with '1911': Nikkhil Advani

Filmmaker Nikkhil Advani says he is honoured that actor-producer John Abraham chose him to helm 1911, which will tell the story of an iconic event in India's sports history.

"Totally honoured that John Abraham entrusted me to tell the story of 1911. Truly an inspiring story of an iconic event in our country's history. Wait for it," Advani tweeted on Monday.

John has joined hands with Advani's Emmay Entertainment and Bhushan Kumar's T-Series for the project.

In response to Advani, John wrote, "The honour is all mine."

1911 has been a dream project of sorts for John, who is a football fanatic himself. The movie, John had earlier told a publication, is a story of late Indian footballer Sibdas Bhaduri, who captained Mohun Bagan in the historic 1911 IFA Shield final when they defeated the East Yorkshire Regiment to become the maiden Asian team to emerge victorious in the competition.

John, a co-owner of Indian Super League (ISL) Guwahati franchise North East United FC, in a 2014 interview to leading publication, had not ruled out roping in some real football players for the project.

Backup can be your weakness, says Vicky Kaushal

Actor Vicky Kaushal, who is on a roll with the success of Manmarziyaan and Raazi, urged people to avoid having backup plans in their career.

According to Vicky, one should focus on one plan at a time and give 100 per cent to it.

"Being an engineer, I tore my job letter to give my entire attention to acting. Your backup can be your weakness, and thus to give those two-three per cent extra, I dropped my backup.

"Today everybody is giving 100 per cent to everything, but with backup, you will lose the motivation to put in those extra efforts," he said on the show Sapne Sach Hote Hain on Tata Sky Acting Adda.

The 30-year-old also asked people to overcome their fear.

Vicky said, "I was an introvert, I used to hate limelight. But you need to face your inhibitions. Face your inferiority complex. Over the years get control over your fear because fear keeps you alive and pushes you to do better."

After wooing the audience with his versatile roles, Vicky will now feature in upcoming films like Uri - based on the Uri attack of September 2016, and filmmaker Karan Johar's period drama Takht.

Wish to act in Bollywood films: Avitesh Shrivastava

Young singer-composer Avitesh Srivastava, son of actress Vijeta Pandit and the late celebrated Bollywood music composer Aadesh Shrivastava, says he is more interested in acting than playback singing in the Hindi film industry.

Avitesh, 21, launched his first single Main Hua Tera earlier this week.

As Main Hua Tera is an independent song, asked when is he planning to make his debut as a playback singer in Bollywood, Avitesh told a publication, "Music is my hobby and I want to collaborate more with international artistes in crossover musical projects.

"When it comes to our film industry, I wish to act in Bollywood films rather than playback singing."

Apart from music, the youngster has a keen interest in storytelling and performance. He even worked as an assistant director for films like Vishal Bhardwaj's Rangoon and Shoojit Sircar's Piku.

"I want to carry forward the legacy of my mother who was a very popular actress. If I am singing in Bollywood, I would rather playback for myself," he said.

Avitesh's song was released on Monday. According to Avitesh, it is not only a special occasion for his life as a debutant, but also because he is bouncing back after three years of his father's demise.

"I so wish my father was here to see my first music launch. Now I have to build my career and there is a certain amount of pressure I feel, which I am sure would have not faced if my father was standing next to me," said Avitesh, who lost his father to cancer on 5 September 2015.

Avitesh has always had an interest in learning both Western music and Indian classical. And to explore the music of the foreign world, he studied at the Hollywood Academy in Los Angeles.

His song is self-composed and is co-written with Kunal Verma, in collaboration with two-time Grammy Award winner Giorgio Tuinfort.

(Source: IANS)