ENTERTAINMENT

Madam Chief Minister’s trailer finally dropped today and it has been receiving polarising reactions on Twitter already. 

The serious political drama starring Richa Chadha in the lead, Akshay Oberoi and Manav Kaul is set to release on July 2020.

Written and directed by Subhash Kapoor, the film’s poster was released yesterday.

Richa Chadha plays the role of a shrewd politician with significant clout in Uttar Pradesh. The film follows her journey as she breaks multiple glass ceilings to become a prominent politician. 

Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma has shifted his base to Goa from Mumbai and has received criticism several times for his tweets and films. Earlier, he said to Suchitra Krishnamoorthy during a Twitter banter that he likes women's bodies and not their brains. When in an interview to an English daily, he was asked his stance on the same, he said that the same thing is mentioned in his book, Gun and Thighs, and he still maintains his statement.

He further added, "The brain does not have a gender. A woman can have it, a man can have it. The sexual aspect is very particular and specific. A woman has an extra thing which is her sensuality and which I admire."

An order from the Tamil Nadu Government now permits 100% occupancy in cinema halls across the state. This latest announcement comes a week ahead of the Pongal festival, when big theatrical releases are generally scheduled. While the government says that the permission has been granted owing to reducing number of daily cases, it is hard to miss that Assembly elections are due in a few months. 

After the pandemic had struck and the lockdown was imposed in March, with most films taking the OTT route, theatre owners were a worried lot. While cinema halls were permitted to screen for a 50% audience from November, it meant less patronage, given that there were hardly any new, big-budget films making it to the screens. 

The government’s decision to allow 100% occupancy comes following the appeals by theatre owners associations to grant permission for higher occupancy. The major beneficiary of this announcement would be actor Vijay’s film Master, which is salted for a January 13th, Pongal release. The film was to hit screens sometime in Summer 2020, but had to be postponed owing to the pandemic and there were even rumors of the film taking the OTT Route. 

A Tollywood actress has been held following a raid by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) at a hotel in Mumbai that also resulted in the seizure of 400 gms MD worth over Rs 10 lakhs.

According to reports, drug peddler Chand Mohammad was also caught red-handed, whereas, drug supplier Saaed is still absconding. 

The raid was reportedly conducted in a hotel at Mumbai's Mira Road. Further investigation in the case is underway.

With NCB in action, several celebrities have come under scanner over the past year. 

Kangana Ranaut committed grave violations of the sanctioned plan by consolidating three flats and covering floor space index (FSI)-free areas into habitable areas for her residence at Khar, the city civil court at Dindoshi observed while rejecting the actor’s plea for interim restraint on Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) from taking any action for demolishing all the modifications.

“I find that the plaintiff (Ranaut) being an owner of three flats converted these three units into one unit,” said the city civil court judge, LS Chavan, while rejecting Ranaut’s plea on December 17.

“She has covered the sunk area, duct area, common passage as per her own convenience and included FSI-free into habitable area. These are the grave violation of the sanctioned plan for which the permission of the Competent Authority is required,” the judge added in his order that became available on December 28.