Sivakarthikeyan is basking in the success of his recent home production, Thaai Kizhavi, which is doing well at the box office. The film’s cast and crew met for the success meet, where Sivakarthikeyan shared a note of gratitude for his wife Aarthy. He said that Aarthy takes care of his finances and has been instrumental in his success.

He continued, “Thaai Kizhavi is a tribute to every sister, every mother and every homemaker, who, no matter what the income is, try to keep it somehow and save money.”

It is directed by Sivakumar Murugesan. The film crossed the ₹50 crore mark globally in 10 days of release.

Meanwhile, Sivakarthikeyan married Aarthy on August 27, 2010. The couple tied the knot in a traditional ceremony in Chennai before he entered the film industry. They have been together for 15 years and have three children.

His debut was in 2012 with the film Marina, and he also played a supporting role in the Dhanush-starrer 3 the same year. His life turned around in 2013 with the box office successes of Kedi Billa Killadi Ranga and Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam. He went on to deliver successes in Doctor, Don, and Amaran.

On the work front, he was last seen in Sudha Kongara’s Parasakthi.

Flipperachi, the Bahraini rapper who gained popularity in India after his track FA9LA featured in the spy thriller Dhurandhar, will no longer be performing at the upcoming UN40 Music & Beyond Festival in India due to the ongoing situation in the Middle East.

Flipperachi, the Bahraini rapper who gained popularity in India after his track FA9LA featured in the spy thriller Dhurandhar, will no longer be performing at the upcoming UN40 Music & Beyond Festival in India due to the ongoing situation in the Middle East.Sharing the update on Instagram, Saregama India announced that the artist will not be able to travel for the event this weekend.

Festival organisers confirm cancellation

In a statement posted online, the organisers said, “In light of the current situation in the Middle East and Bahrain, Flipperachi will not be able to perform at UN40 this weekend. While we were excited to have him on the lineup, the circumstances make it difficult for him to travel at this time. We continue to look forward to an amazing weekend of performances and unforgettable moments at UN40.”The post also noted that although fans will miss the rapper on the lineup, the festival will still feature several performances and experiences across the weekend.

UN40 festival to be held in Bengaluru, Mumbai show also cancelled

The UN40 Music & Beyond Festival is scheduled to take place at the NICE Grounds on March 14 and 15. The event will feature a lineup of artists including Himesh Reshammiya, Talwiinder and Raja Kumari, among others.Flipperachi was also scheduled to perform in Mumbai on March 13 at the Phoenix Marketcity. However, the event listing on District.in currently shows the show as cancelled. The rapper has not yet issued a separate statement regarding the Mumbai performance.Earlier, while announcing the show, Flipperachi had expressed excitement about performing in India. “India has shown me incredible love, and Mumbai is a city I’ve always wanted to perform in. The energy, the people, the culture, it all feels very familiar. This show is going to be loud, emotional and unforgettable. Mumbai, get ready,” he had said. Flipperachi’s track FA9LA became widely popular among Indian audiences after it was used as the background score for Akshaye Khanna’s entry scene in Dhurandhar. The high-energy track quickly gained traction on social media and music platforms, emerging as one of the standout musical moments from the film’s soundtrack.

Actor Kareena Kapoor has offered her perspective on the working hours and shifts in the film industry for female actors after they get married and become mothers. Kareena has spoken about the matter months after actor Deepika Padukone demanded 8-hour shifts so that she could be with her daughter, Dua. Speaking with Hollywood Reporter India, Kapoor stressed the importance of defining parameters right from the start of a project.

Last year, a row emerged over Deepika’s demand for an 8-hour shift following her exit from Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Spirit and Nag Ashwin’s Kalki 2. She exited Spirit after her demands weren’t met. Vyjayanthi Movies announced that she was no longer a part of the Kalki 2898 AD sequel. In their statement, they had said that they decided to part ways with Deepika after “careful consideration,” adding that a film like Kalki deserves a higher level of “commitment.”

Later, speaking with CNBC-TV18, Deepika had said that “male superstars” have been doing an 8-hour shift for years, but it “never made headlines.” Deepika reacted when she was told she was facing a lot of pushback for her decision. She had said, “By virtue of being a woman, if that’s coming across as being pushy or whatever, then so be it. But it is no secret that a lot of superstars, male superstars, in the Indian film industry, have been working for eight hours for years, and it’s never made headlines…A lot of them only work for eight hours Monday to Friday. They do not work on weekends.”

The film delves into the grey areas of justice and truth, encouraging audiences to reflect rather than offering easy answers, according to the press release. Daayra tells a story that will compel viewers to reflect on society and its institutions. With filming now complete, the film has entered the post-production phase.

Good cinema is going through a deep struggle, said Vishal Bhardwaj. This was the case in the pre-OTT era and even now, with filmmakers taking their projects to streaming platforms and being told the film should be released in theatres first.

The casualty of this is “cinema of the heart and sensibility”, added the director. Twenty years ago, it would have been easy to raise money for films such as his own Haider, Vikramaditya Motwane’s Udaan and Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur that were released in theatres and celebrated by discerning audiences.

Not any more.

“Now you won’t be able to raise money for them. Now there is a straight demarcation, ‘This is the subject, take it to OTT’ and OTT people say, ‘No, we don’t want it, release it in theatres first, then we will take it here’. Good films are getting beaten in the process,” Vishal told PTI.

What is needed is a “revolutionary step”, and we don’t know when that will happen and whether it will be through a film or a new medium, he said.

The current theatrical landscape, Vishal went on to explain, is difficult for filmmakers, with his contemporaries and directors he admires now telling their stories on streaming platforms.

“We are in a very strange and difficult phase of filmmaking. I think it’s global… The films to be made for theatres have taken a totally new turn,” Vishal said.

Referring to his contemporaries — Anurag, Dibakar (Banerjee), Shriram (Raghavan), Vikramaditya and Imtiaz (Ali) –he said most are working for OTT. And even if they do make films for theatres, it doesn’t always work.

“… It’s so sad. I don’t remember Vikram’s last film in theatres. I am Vikram’s fan. I am Dibakar’s great fan, they make great cinema,” Vishal added.

According to the director, theatrical movies faced a challenge in the past with the advent of satellite television. Then, the gap between a film’s release in theatres and its arrival on TV would be five to six months. Today, a film is released in theatres and is on some OTT platforms eight weeks later.

“If you want to make films for theatres, you have to look at yourself from a new perspective. By doing all that, how do you still keep yourself alive in that film is a challenge. In between, OTT platforms were making originals, but that’s also now less… Good cinema is going through a deep struggle, which is always the case anyway,” the filmmaker said.

“To make people go, ‘I want to see it now, I don’t want to wait for eight weeks’, to create that lure, you have to do all kinds of things. What is happening is, the ones who are getting defeated are the cinema of the heart, cinema of the sensibilities,” he said.

The days following the release of his 2003 film Maqbool, starring Irrfan Khan, Pankaj Kapur, Tabu and Piyush Mishra, were great for directors, Vishal said.

“Around 2004-2005, and before the pandemic, it was the golden period. You could make anything, you could release anything, people used to come to theatres for films like Haider. Gangs of Wasseypur becomes a cult… Khosla Ka Ghosla, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye, Udaan…”

The filmmaker, who most recently released Shahid Kapoor and Triptii Dimri-starrer O Romeo, said the advent of OTT, rising ticket prices and the shortening gap between the theatrical window and the films’ arrival and other such factors have led to the dip in theatrical business.

“I was in Delhi, and a few of my friends were going to watch my film. So they said, ‘Give us ₹6,000, we are going to watch your film’. They were three. I said, ‘Why 6,000? They said, ‘You don’t know, the ticket price is ₹1,900 rupees per seat in that (hall)’. Everyone must be having their reasons, the theatres, and the infrastructure of the theatres, the taxes, or whatever.”

“People say they will watch it on OTT. But there is so much content available on OTT, not just Indian, but globally, there is so much available. We need a revolutionary step, and we don’t know when that will happen and whether it will be through a film or a new medium?”