Veteran journalist Shekhar Gupta, in his latest, no-nonsense opinion, openly named who's who of Bollywood and their alleged politics during award shows. Shekhar recalled a few instances where certain Bollywood biggies got miffed over receiving no awards or nominations.
The above-mentioned incident took place in the year 2012, at Screen Awards when Shekhar Gupta was the CEO of the organisation in question.
Shekhar, in his piece, claimed how he had to end up going to the Ek Tha Tiger actress' vanity van and plead her because she threw last-minute tantrums. Recalling their encounter, Shekhar stated how the actress had a breakdown while saying that she is always called at award shows but is never given one. Well, that's when they had to invent the 'popular choice award' category. "In 2012, when Katrina Kaif was to perform, paid fully in advance, she threw a tantrum minutes before her performance as she wasn’t being given any award. I was taken to her vanity van to plead with her," wrote Shekhar.
He added, "Katrina was all dressed and painted up to perform. And then, the outburst. Why do they always call me but give me no awards? I said that was never the deal, you have a contract to perform. But by now, tears were streaming down her face, taking much of the make-up in their wake. Again, we invented a popular choice award."
In a conversation with Film Companion South, the ‘logistical considerations’ of Paani were brought up, as well as its ‘expensive’ budget. Ultimately, the film went unmade, but after Sushant’s death in 2020, Shekhar Kapur said that he will dedicate the film to the late actor, if it ever sees the light of day.
He said in the FC interview, “Moviemaking is like climbing a mountain. When you’re climbing a mountain, you’re roped to other people. If you tug too hard, they’ll fall, or they don’t want to come up with you, they’ll make you fall.”
He continued, “So, select your team very carefully. And it’s not their fault. Not everybody wants to climb Mount Everest. Somebody could have ambitions of wanting to make a really good film with me, but they can say, ‘Hey, I can go to Pali Hill and do it. Why do I need to go all the way to Mount Everest?’ But I want to make the film because I want to go to Mount Everest. Often, that is where the conflict comes. The ambitions are different. It’s nobody’s fault, everybody is doing it for some reason. Only the director, or the composer, or the actor, they might have that ambition to break bounds. The producer can say, ‘I’m fine where I am. I’ll take you to a point, but not beyond that’.”
I know a lot of people hate Shekhar Gupta and the print here but was wondering why. I know he has made some stupid and controversial posts before, like the one he made in which he implied Rihanna was paid to say in support of farmers, but overall I have felt his content to be pretty much unbiased.
He tends to blame both BJP, AAP, Cong, etc. I have seen some people say he supports the Modi govt. in a biased way. Most of his videos are not even about national politics and cover geopolitics more. And he has criticized Modi govt on their implementation of farm laws(though yes, he did say in support of the farm laws which is more about him being a capitalist imo), he criticized Modi and Delhi govt both on pollution in Delhi, Modi govt on Pegasus, etc.
Just before the new winter session of Parliament starts, Stressing that his duty to uphold his Journalist values required impartiality in his role as journalist, Shekar a neoliberal centrist journalist told Friday that he would weigh all pros and cons of any new govt. bill before lifting PM's balls and sucking his dick .
“Look, as journalists, we swore a solemn oath to deliver unbiased, partial news, and I intend to abide by that precisely as we use our platform to scrutinize the facts and then determine exactly how we can make the govt. look right—and indeed, if—we will storm into the PM's office, hoist the delighted Prime Minister aloft, and regale him with spirited rounds of ‘Jai Shree Ram,’” said Shekhar editor-in-chief of The Clint.
“Unlike some of my liberal colleagues, I understand my solemn role in this situation is to examine all the information at hand before passing judgment. Then, and only then, can we know whether it’s a reasonable course of action to deploy some form of Saffron lube while repeatedly stroking PM's privates. Until then, it would simply be irresponsible to comment on whether or not we will import some fancy toys from LA to celebrate the passing of new bills that lessen the freedoms of this country's citizens".
Before our representative could ask him more questions Shekhar left the room stating that he has a meeting with a certain Skin Doctor a Vaidya who will introduce him to param Anand through the means of some ancient Tatva.
