'As I watched Sacred Games, I kept flinching at the thought of all the thorns poised to lodge themselves in the sides of the thin-skinned,' says Mitali Saran.

'I want to tell the singers of our country that they should not be another Rafi, Kishore, Lata, Asha or Mukesh,' Latajiji tells Subhash K Jha.'Be yourself. Learn dedication to the craft from us, but do not imitate us.'

'It is the best feeling in the world to give back to your family what you have earned,' Tiger Shroff tells Subhash K Jha.

'That only a certain Mumbai story -- look at Salaam Bombay and Slumdog Millionaire for other examples -- gets made when an international audience is as much a target as the desi viewer, should invoke questions of representation,' notes Vikram Johri.

It won't be easy for the half-British diva to step into the Desi Girl's sandals, feels Subhash K Jha.

'I greet all my friends, Hindu or Muslim, with "Jai Shri Ram".'

'Aaradhya is constantly singing and dancing at home, sometimes to my songs, sometimes to her father's and her grandfather's songs.''It's a normal household.''We're trying to keep the atmosphere around Aaradhya as normal as possible,' Ms Gorgeous tells Subhash K Jha.

Mulk tells Indian Muslims they have to ensure that their children don't get involved in jihad, and at the same time tells Hindus not to doubt the patriotism of Indian Muslims, notes Syed Firdaus Ashraf.

Shah Rukh and Gauri Khan, reveals Subhash K Jha, are looking at other directors for their daughter's debut.

'He was a poet at heart and a saint by nature.'

'The very idea that Kamal Haasan would retire from active acting for active politics is as ridiculous as to suggest that Lataji would give up singing to weave handloom dupattas for destitute girls in Muzaffarpur,' declares Subhash K Jha.

Sreehari Nair introduces you to three promising movies coming up.

'Mulk questions the very principle, of good-Muslim exceptionalism.''That, of course, we adore Abdul Hamid, A P J Abdul Kalam and Bismillah Khan and if only more Muslims were like them.''Anubhav Sinha sticks his neck out to say that these are no exceptions.''Most Muslims are like them. It is the terrorists who are exceptions,' says Shekhar Gupta.

'While censorship of any sort is anathema to the creative spirit, political correctness has become more and more the norm rather than the exception,' notes Uttaran Das Gupta.

'Khaitan's film will continue to invite comparisons with Manjule's, but the fact that it is out there for viewers to see is perhaps a greater tribute to the original than is conveyed by the cautious desire to remake it,' says Vikram Johri.

'It started as a kind of joke. Now I think it has gone far enough.'

Favourite movie homes, comparing Amitabh-Shashi's beds in Kabhi Kabhie and discovering the truth about Salman Khan's 1990s chartbuster...All in Sukanya Verma's Super Filmi Week.

'He took a lot of crap from a person who feels she knows how to direct a film.'

To say Aretha ticked all the boxes when it came to voice technique is like calling Cristiano Ronaldo an efficient footballer, says Kanika Datta.

2018 will be Varun's weakest year at the box office, notes Subhash K Jha.

Politics, favouritism and poor taste in cinema have contributed to embarrassing choices for the Oscar race in the past.This little gem from India needs the love, emotional and financial support from the government as well as the Indian film industry, argues Aseem Chhabra.

'Stree's allegorical approach doesn't interfere with its need to endear and entertain.''Important ideas of empowerment and item songs as well as chills and chuckle coexist to fulfil its objective of thoda hasao, thoda darao,' says Sukanya Verma.

A meeting with the head of Zee TV, film-maker Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi, would never be forgotten.'He asked me to leave the show, and the country.''When I refused, he asked his staff members to push me out of the room.''Men like Alok Nath feel empowered to misbehave with women because they have the tacit backing of powerful peers.'

As electric they are on silver screen, Deepika Padukone and Alia Bhatt aren't quite chat show meat, feels Sukanya Verma.

Will Nana Patekar's role be deleted from Housefull 4? Will Subhash Kapoor lose the Jolly LLB franchise? Is Anu Malik's career in limbo?

Gajraj Rao's performance in Badhaai Ho is the finest by an actor in a Hindi film this year, applauds Sreehari Nair.

'Thugs is smarter than a lot of 'nationalistic' movies,' notes Rohit Sathish Nair.

Aseem Chhabra salutes the late Italian Master and his cinema.

Will Priyanka start a family? Or does she have some career aces up her sleeve?Longtime Rediff.com contributor Aseem Chhabra, author of <Priyanka Chopra: The Incredible Story Of A Global Bollywood Star, predicts PeeCee's next moves.

'Even when he moves beyond his traditional repertoire, he sticks to a template that does not take him too far from the viewer's gentler emotions,' notes Vikram Johri.

'We have worked hard to make a big epic homage to a man, scholar and politician, who is misunderstood.'

'Kader Khan could be horribly intimidating, impossibly silly, achingly human and, sometimes, all at once.''I was drawn to his magic and magnetism even when I didn't know he was behind it,' recalls Sukanya Verma.

Why were two of 2018's critically panned films awarded?! exclaims Aseem Chhabra.

Why do Hindi cinema superstars flounder in their fifties, asks Vanita Kohli-Khandekar.

'Deeply flawed, Sacred Games and Mirzapur come nowhere close to representing the diversity of stories from this country,' says Vikram Johri.

'This is a movie made with this gaze fixed on its immediate well-wishers, while at the same time it squints hard looking for those swaying back and forth on the fence,' notes Rohit Sathish Nair.

'Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga is a step backward for the portrayal of female camaraderie in our movies,' argues Sreehari Nair.

The 91st Annual Academy Awards was anything but boring, feels Aseem Chhabra.

91वें वार्षिक अकेडमी अवॉर्ड्स का कोई भी पल बोरिंग नहीं था, असीम छाबड़ा का कहना है।

What is it like to be a woman in a male-dominated profession like a police officer, asks Adrija Shukla.

'In the new Bollywood, where success can translate, like a chain reaction, into gains in related fields, mere appearance on the screen is no longer a guarantor of fame,' says Vikram Johri.

While Pa Ranjith proved yet again to be the salt of the earth in his land mafia film, Zoya Akhtar took a haphazard route to make something that was hardly rooted in Asia's biggest slum, feels J Jagannath.

Unlike his The Lunchbox, Ritesh Batra's Photograph fails to engross us, feels Ritwik Sharma.

'When we walk around wearing Batman t-shirts, buy posters of Green Lantern and collect little vinyl figurines of Hulk, such actions remind us that these heroes deal with the realities running rampant in our own lives,' says Kumar Abhishek.

'Mard Ko Dard Nahin Hota is exactly why Hindi cinema needs more film-makers who know a South Indian language,' notes J Jagannath.

Why Ajay Devgn will play football... Did Mahesh Bhatt fling a chappal at Kangana...Breaking Bollywood news from Subhash K Jha.

'This film is a product of a dangerous trend to take just a sprinkling of truth, mix it with free-flowing speculation and present it as historical facts,' says Manavi Kapur.

The recently released poster Mental Hai Kya is like an abuse aimed at those who are fighting a disorder that demands support and social understanding, says Tarun Vijay, the former BJP MP.

'When so many noted universities -- including the likes of Harvard and the University of California -- are spending their resources on studying the world of GoT, it is fun to assess whether this fictional universe conforms with the laws of our real universe,' says Kumar Abhishek.

'What we have is 'masala redeemed' as opposed to just 'masala resurrected',' argues Sreehari Nair.