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 Juhi upset with airline for damaging her tanpuraBollywood actress Juhi Chawla was left disappointed when she was denied a chance to carry her tanpura (music instrument) as cabin baggage in a flight from Sydney to Melbourne recently.
The actress, who was in Australia to promote her forthcoming release ‘I Am’, is taking music lessons these days and is quite devoted to it. So, she wanted to keep the instrument safe with her, but the airline insisted on tagging it as fragile, and keeping it with the rest of the baggage, said a source, but didn’t name the airline.
Juhi agreed, but she was upset to find a big hole in the instrument after the flight.
‘Juhi was very attached to her tanpura and was very upset to see it damaged. Nevertheless, she took it like a sport and continued with the promotion bit,’ added the source.
Onir’s ‘I Am’ will release in India April 22.
Juhi Chawla joins as associate producer for ‘I Am’
Juhi Chawla has come on board for filmmaker Onir’s ‘I Am’ series as an associate producer along with her husband Jai Mehta and two of her friends.
She also features in one of the four short films in the series.
‘Let me give you the most wonderful news possible for ‘I Am’…Juhi joins in as associate producer to release ‘I Am’. She was so excited after seeing ‘I Am’ that Juhi along with husband Jai Mehta, and friends Sangeeta and Anish Modi has joined in as associate producers (sic),’ Onir posted on his Twitter page Wednesday.
‘I Am’ is a series of four short films, each of which is 20-25 minutes long. The four tales include ‘I Am Omar’, ‘I Am Abhimanyu’, ‘I Am Megha’ and ‘I Am Afia’.
Juhi had first turned producer with superstar Shah Rukh Khan and filmmaker Aziz Mirza when they jointly launched production company Dreamz Unlimited. They had produced films like ‘Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani’, ‘Chalte Chalte’ and ‘Asoka’ under the banner, which was later shut down.
With ‘I Am’, Juhi is re-entering production. Onir has earlier directed Juhi in two films – ‘My Brother Nikhil’ and ‘Bas Ek Pal’.
Juhi on the learning curve
Actor Juhi Chawla's learning how to sing while Nana Patekar's taken up his passion for shooting. Educationist Nita Ambani's rediscovering the pleasure of bharatnatyam. What's age got to do with pursuing a dream...
Nana Patekar's enjoying his new avatar as a shooter. He wanted to pursue the sport a long time ago but he didn't have the money then. When he could afford it, he didn't have the time. Nana has a bit of both today, he says, the reason why he's able to fulfill a long-cherished dream. "I feel like a 14-year-old," he says excitedly, having qualified for the Nationals after just five months of training.
There's really no age to pursue your interests, it seems. Whatever be their age, Mumbaiites are increasingly getting down to chasing their dreams. Nana adds, "If Rabindranath Tagore could do it after the age of 70, we all can. It's up to the individual to be determined and focused."
Dance had always been her passion. However, pre-occupied with family and her educational initiatives after marriage, Nita Ambani has come back to bharatnatyam after 20 long years. Now, it's one hour of practice every day for her.
Actress Juhi Chawla had started taking singing lessons during her pregnancy. "It was something I'd wanted to do for a very long time," she says. "Today, along with my film commitments, I'm keeping my music interests alive."
Time-management plays a crucial role when you are looking to do two things at a time, says model Aditi Govitrikar Lakdawala. Along with her modelling commitments, Aditi has been balancing kathak lessons. "If you want to do something, you just have to make time." She also plans to learn Spanish and has even bought a guitar.
Making the leap becomes difficult especially when you are in a completely alien territory. Dhara Mehta, a 45-year-old housewife, recently completed a computer course along with the college students in her batch. "I didn't even know the basics while most of them seemed so well-versed. I was a bit slow compared to all of them. There were times when I could sense the smirks."
Very often she felt like opting out, but couldn't because she had to "prove a point" at home! Dhara has her certificate laminated today.
Why is it that those looking to pursue their talents a little later in life are viewed as offbeat? "Even looked upon as silly," says an angry 43-year-old S K Nagpal, a businessman, who has done a course in photography and is now planning to enroll into film-making.
It's not like all are able to complete what they set out to do. Like 48-year-old Mahesh Soman who enrolled for an MA three years ago. "It's difficult to concentrate. Besides, there's no time." But, he won't give up. "Just give me another year and see what I do!"
Manisha, Juhi in a Pakistani film
Bollywood stars, especially actresses have always been popular in Pakistan. For a change, they are going to cast the Bollywood actresses in their own film. Manisha Koirala and Juhi Chawla are going to play the lead roles in a new film that is being made in Pakistan. Well known Pakistani director Khalil Rana is going to direct the film.
The film has been named ''Pyas''. The rest of the cast consists of Pakistani stars. In recent times, only one Pakistani actress made her appearance in Bollywood films- Zeba Bhaktiar who had acted in the film ''Henna''
Reality bites, Gudiya's story to become film
Mumbai, Oct 12 The dramatic story of an armyman's 'widow' being re-married and pregnant with her second husband's child when the first husband returns from a Pakistan jail is ready to be filmed by ad-maker Prabhakar Shukla.
The traumatic dilemma of Gudiya, prisoner of war Mohammed Arif and her second husband Taufiq is perhaps more intense than any screen triangle. And Divya Dutta is all set to play the role of the young woman in Shukla's film. But, considering the shabby and sensationalistic way real life stories have gone in our cinema, is the young director simply trying to cash in on a personal tragedy?
Shukla defends his creative cause stoutly.
"To me, there can be no cinema without an entertainment, social or educational value. Without one or the other of these values you cannot hope to get an audience for your film. As for real-life characters getting a raw deal in our films, you've the example of Shekhar Kapur's "Bandit Queen" which portrayed a real-life character so sensitively that the audiences accepted the truth as cinematic truth.
"Even social reality has to be presented in an entertaining manner. There'll be no songs or anything in my film. But the issue has to be entertaining. Otherwise who would want to sit through it? What really inspired me about Gudiya's story was the truth about gender discrimination underlining her plight. A man can marry four times but a woman can't ask for a divorce even once. Does human emotion have no value for the law? I've studied the law and respect it. My father is a lawyer."
Gudiya's story is more cinematic than cinema. Shukla laughs, "Real life is so strange. But in this case one peculiar thing happened. The people involved in Gudiya's case said nothing against her. But the public felt great wrong had been done to her."
Shukla is very happy with actress Divya Dutta who will play Gudiya. "She fits the role perfectly. Because she has no fixed image she just blends into the character."
Adds Divya, "I fell in love with the idea and my character of Gudiya the minute I heard about it. Though I'm playing the lead in a majority of my forthcoming films (except Yash Chopra's "Veer-Zaara" where I've a small but significant role) no other film is so directly inspired by real life. I was totally moved by Gudiya's plight, her vulnerability and her helplessness."
Divya, who has earlier done remarkable work in Pamela Rooks' "A Train To Pakistan" and Mahesh Manjrekar's "Pran Jaye Par Chawl Na Jaye" intends to meet the real-life Gudiya before shooting begins in about a month.
"It's so funny. But while I was shooting Gurdas Maan's film with Juhi Chawla in Chandigarh everyone kept calling me Gudiya. It was almost like a premonition."
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