Bonding with Bond

If director Vishal Bhardwaj has his way, Ruskin Bond would be a Bollywood number. The children’s writer, whose works were earlier adapted into cinema by Bhardwaj, is once again providing fodder for a Hindi film. The two artistes have old ties. Bhardwaj’s film The Blue Umbrella was based on a Bond short story. The director has turned Bond’s Susanna’s Seven Husbands into a Priyanka Chopra starrer called Saat Khoon Maaf, to be released shortly. The new venture, however, is under wraps, with neither of the two willing to talk about it. But the Landour-based writer is not complaining about his links with the industry. “I don’t mind Bollywood. I enjoyed working with Bhardwaj. The only time I get upset is when someone tries to murder the English language,” says Bond. Bhardwaj had better invest in a Wren and Martin.

Yankee doodle

Hemingway is dead, long live Hemingway. Indian-American writer Akhil Sharma would be doffing his cap to that. The author of An Obedient Father, which won the 2001 PEN/Hemingway award, is in Calcutta for the book fair and can’t thank the American writer enough for showing him the way. “I have learnt from Hemingway how to retain a sense of dignity in an undignified situation. As an immigrant I’ve often felt powerless, foolish, ludicrous and unimportant. But my reading of Hemingway taught me to be brave and honest in the most difficult situation,” he says. Since the theme of this year’s fair is Americanism, quite a few people would appreciate Sharma’s sentiments.

Show ’’ tell

Say Bangla TV, and you think of Chaitali Dasgupta, one of the first anchors on Doordarshan. Dasgupta, who met a host of celebrities — from musicians and authors to actors and filmmakers — on television has penned her memoirs. Called Chaitali Keyar Katha the book offers readers glimpses of her life in Doordarshan. “I have also written about my associations with celebrated artistes,” she says. Her father-in-law, filmmaker Hari S. Dasgupta, and her husband, Raja Dasgupta, also a filmmaker, feature prominently in the book. But the autobiographical work, we are told, is just the beginning. A new book — with undisclosed chapters of her life — is also on the anvil. It’s an encore for the anchor.

Name game

The bard needs to do a rethink — Karan Johar tells us there’s lots in a name. His new film, starring Imran Khan and Kareena Kapoor and directed by Shakun Batra, is stirring up a minor storm over its title. Some in the industry have been referring to it as Short Term Shaadi, but Batra can’t stand the name. “Please don’t create problems for me by calling it Short Term Shaadi even as a tentative title — the director is going to kill me,” Johar has been saying. After all, no one wants a short term shaadi between the producer and his director.

Cal call

Anupam Kher is looking eastwards. The Bollywood stalwart, who acted in a biographical play in the city, is planning to open a branch of his acting school in the City of Joy. The school, which he started six years ago in Mumbai, has branches in Chandigarh and Ahmedabad, as well as a branch in Britain. Deepika Padukone, Mugdha Godse, Nikhil Dwivedi and Gauhar Khan are just some of the stars to have trained with his school. Apart from the school, the word is that Kher might be interested in working with Tollywood, if the film sounds promising. Considering his last brush with Tollywood resulted in Rituparno Ghosh’s Bariwali, his fans are eagerly awaiting the next step. If nothing else, it may spark a new school of thought.