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• Why Twitter isn't quite my character at all

  Broadcast On October 1, 2017

  These days when everyone, from Modi and Trump, Hollywood and Bollywood actors, authors and journalists and hundreds of million more, is on Twitter I’m often asked why I’m not. With nearly 350 million people ...

• When the elderly are, in fact, the young ones

  Broadcast On April 3, 2000

  ... is hampered by his consistent failure to secure a confirmed position in the test side. In these circumstances Bollywood might well tempt him. So when the audience believe that it has they are not accepting ...

• When man is the problem

  Broadcast On January 23, 2004

  ...  I often think it is a Bollywood image we like to propagate. It appeals to us but frequently we don’t abide by it.” I lapsed into silence. If you think about it, we see a woman’s identity not in ...

• To our politicians – please stop!

  Broadcast On April 26, 2008

  ... Pathan and Brendon McCullum. Unless, of course, you’re a hypocrite. Actually, I’m afraid that’s what it is: hypocrisy. Bollywood indulges in crude and lascivious behaviour but you ...

• The second Mr. Seshan

  Broadcast On March 4, 2012

  ... with dismissal if urgent steps aren’t taken to protect journalists. In Bihar, in a speech reminiscent of a Bollywood bully or a Chicago hoodlum, he warned the Nitish Kumar government against trampling ...

• Singapore Sling

  Broadcast On September 30, 2003

  ... drive down Oxford and Regent streets simply to say they’ve seen them. Guess what? Little India in Singapore is not dissimilarly decked out at the moment. Although these are more influenced by Bollywood ...

• Sharmila Tagore for Christmas and Sanjay Dutt for New Year’s eve

  Broadcast On December 18, 2000

  ... defer to her judgement. Her answer was Sanjay. Saajan and Sadak had been recently released and Sanjay was a much sought after Bollywood star. I knew little of this which is why I suppose I was sceptical. ...

• Sachin, Kajol and the butt of their jokes

  Broadcast On July 26, 1999

  ... I looked at him as I asked the first question I could see he was trying hard to suppress a smile. With Kajol, however, my luck ran out. “When she burst upon Bollywood she took the industry by surprise” ...

• Next time you visit London, go to a play

  Broadcast On June 5, 2016

  ... Salman and Aamir. Hollywood and Bollywood produce stars. The theatre creates actors. And I have no doubt which is the greater and more admirable entity. Sadly, stars are better paid and better known. ...

• Mee Raqsam is a modern masterpiece

  Broadcast On August 30, 2020

  I’m not a film buff. If someone praises a movie I might make an effort to catch it but there are more good films I miss than I get to see. That’s as true of Hollywood as it is of Bollywood or any other ...

• Mangal Pandey – a fantasy

  Broadcast On August 18, 2005

  ... the film should not have been called Mangal Pandey. The result is a film that’s undoubtedly entertaining and better than most Bollywood products but liable to be trashed as history or biography because ...

• Maharana Pratap Road is there, so let Akbar Road stay

  Broadcast On May 22, 2016

  ... of his justice. The critical facts of his life eloquently testify to his secularism. He married a hindu Rajput princess popularized by Bollywood as Jodhabai. He created his own religion, attempting to ...

• KISS AND TELL

  Broadcast On December 20, 2004

  ... would have the right to sue for damages. The only thing is they would have to prove their case, not simply assert it. In this instance Kareena and Shahid say the pictures are false and Bollywood ...

• Kapil da jawab nahin

  Broadcast On May 8, 2000

  ... did he agree? Were those real tears? Let me start by assuming the emotion was put on. Theoretically it could have been but then Kapil would have to be an actor – not a simple Bollywood product but ...

• Health workers: The soldiers of our times

  Broadcast On September 13, 2020

  ... tricolour, his funeral is broadcast on television and a grateful nation will honour him with medals and citations. In due course, Bollywood will romanticise his memory.   Nothing of the sort happens ...

• Are we Peeping Toms?

  Broadcast On March 16, 2005

  ... love but a middle-aged man embarrassing himself as a young siren egged him on. Ashok tells me that India TV plans to similarly expose other Bollywood and television stars. In fact earlier they showed ...

• Anyone for a Singapore Sling?

  Broadcast On September 24, 2001

  ... But then I often do.  Even Bollywood films leave me crying. This time, however, so was everyone else. Consequently it became a tough choice to pick the winner.  After all, which is the more ...

• A ‘donation’ that will be returned

  Broadcast On October 30, 2016

  ... soldiers on our borders, who are prepared to lay down their lives, have demanded a ban on Bollywood films with Pakistani actors. That simply isn’t true. As far as I know, not a single officer or jawan ...

• A rewarding encounter with a WCC

  Broadcast On February 19, 2001

  ...  Several of Bollywood’s bright and best would do well to take heed of Anand’s words. It would be indiscreet, even invidious, for me to name them. My colleagues and crew, however, would have no such ...

• A long overdue correction

  Broadcast On April 10, 2000

  ... had developed the discretion of a Jeeves, the sympathetic banter of an old granny and the sartorial style of a minor bollywood actor. Of course he still sulked, hated to return money and is a terrific ...