Bollywood's Biggest Grossing Debuts

Did you know that on evaluating the earnings of Bollywood movies, with adjustments for inflation and other factors in place, Uday Chopra (and you have no idea of the tortures yet to come if you don't know yet that he is learning film-making at UCLA) makes it to the list of actors whose debut stands among the all-time biggest grossers? Did you know what special recognition Sooraj Barjatya of Rajshree has, talking of big-earners? His first serving...

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The Shantaram Movie : Another Good Film That'd be Never Made

We have previously talked about how a movie on Raag Darbari would be awesome (and why it would unfortunately never get made). The same can be said about Shantaram, a book that has more twists, surprises and adventure than around ten movies combined. It is a thinly veiled roman a clef by the author, and it makes us wonder - Gregory David Roberts has lived a more colourful life than any of us can hope to have. And that is why this book makes...

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Music for the Soul

Despite being a self-proclaimed atheist I find my favorite genre of music to be Sufi devotional. It is not surprising considering the staple diet of such songs that I have grown up on. Though not strictly Sufi, here is a small list of Indian devotional/spiritual songs that are my favorites. 1. Madari (Coke Studio Season 1) MTV has, over the years, produced several seasons of Roadies and Splitsvilla and depicted our generation as that of hormone-junkie dumber-than-thou individuals. However, Coke Studio (along with Sound Tripping) absolves MTV...

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8 Awesome Teachers in Hindi Films

Ever since the time of Dada Sa'ab Phalke, films have influenced generations (we are not debating in whether a good or bad way) by molding their habits, their lingo, their behaviour and attempting to infuse the values of family and awesome violence. Here's to using the occasion of Teacher's day for listing our favourite on-screen teachers 8. Naseeruddin Shah as Amar Verma in Sir Half of the lists that we make here on Filmistani won't...

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Chitrakatha : A Love Letter to Indian Comic Books

We are all huge comic book fans at Filmistani, and have more than once put forward a case for films to be made on Indian comic books. And so it is our pleasure to present an interview with the creator of 'Chitrakatha', an upcoming documentary about Indian comic books featuring the legends who have enriched the lives of multiple generations - Before reading further, and to know further about this project please go through this Rough-cut teaser...

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