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Bhumi Pednekar goes the extra mile for her spot boy
Being in the enviable position that she is as a popular actor, Bhumi Pednekar recently made sure that she used her position to empower her spot boy, Upendra Singh. She has helped him start his own vanity van business, which he wanted to for a long time. And of course, the first one he made was for her!
When we reach out to Bhumi to know more about this sweet gesture, she reveals, “Upendra ji has been with me since the last 4 years. I literally started my career with him and he is like family. When we were shooting for Saand Ki Aankh (2019) and travelling, we were discussing things and I asked him why doesn’t he start his own business? He said he had considered building vanity vans as an option, but wasn’t sure how to begin this. He always wanted to start something of his own for his children. I gave him a pep talk about it and asked him to think it through, and see what can we do to work towards it.” Bhumi supported him financially, too.
Upendra says, “Maine vanity van ke business ke baare mein kaafi time se socha hua tha, par jab Bhumi didi ne mujhe motivate kiya iss idea ke baare mein, tab maine apni company shuru karne ka decision liya. That’s what I have thought to do in the future. Main hamesha didi ka naam lunga ki unke support se maine apna business aur apni pehli van taiyaar ki. I thank her from the bottom of my heart, and pray to God that whichever film she does, becomes a super hit.” The colourful van, with stained glass and pink walls, has been customised with Bhumi’s initials, who adds, “I honestly feel that everyone should get opportunities in life. And Upendra is someone I cannot survive without and whatever little I can do for him, I’ll keep doing. He has now started a company called Akash Vanity (Akash is his son’s name).” “I am proud of him and hope that what started off with one van, goes up to 100 because he is such a genuine guy. It feels like a personal victory to see him grow in life. I have supported him in whatever way I can. He will be working on more vans and he is looking at renting them out to production houses,” she says.
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Radhika Bhirani
There’s a time for everything. When 20 years ago, Kabir Khan explored a facet of Indian history for a documentary, it left in him a germ for a feature film on the subject. But that he was able to bring it to fruition so many years later in the newage web series format, is something that he has found creatively satisfying. And this has been possible due to the sheer liberality of time and content that comes with the platform.
Happy that he has been able to revisit The Forgotten Army on Amazon Prime Video and tell it in a new form, backed by new technology, Kabir tells us, “Web series have a longer shelf life. They aren’t judged by how many people see it in an opening weekend. You can watch it after 100 or 200 days.
Also, it gives you a wider scope to be more true to history. In mainstream cinema, sometimes you end up simplifying history and facts, whereas, in an original series, you can be more authentic to details.”
The stories of Kabir’s feature films — be it Kabul Express (2006), New York (2009) or Phantom (2015) — take a leaf out of reality in one way or another. In his latest project, he has dug into history — a subject that he believes is important to tell and one that never goes stale.
“History is always relevant. It’s always a good time to pick up subjects from history and narrate them, as there’ll always be something relevant for the country,” he says, adding that it’s not something filmmakers have been doing too much.
Having said that, Kabir has a word of caution. “There has to be an understanding of history from the right perspective. Sometimes, history is told through a very strong perspective, which may be not correct for that period. You can’t see what was happening 500-600 years ago from today’s perspective... that leads to a certain distortion of facts. And that’s what we’ve to be aware of and be responsible towards.”
Being politically correct is also important, avers the director, stressing that “you’ve to be correct to what your politics are”.
The Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015) director explains, “Every filmmaker will ultimately reflect his or her politics in their films. I’ll not unnecessarily think about, ‘Oh if I do this, it’ll be better for that... and therefore corrupt my own politics for it’. I don’t subscribe to that, and I won’t end up making something which doesn’t reflect my ideologies.”