Shaikh Ayaz

Last year, Covid-19 halted film productions and shuttered cinema halls. As new models of entertainment hit the shelves, we look at what they might mean for Hindi cinema of the near future.

53 episodes long, Shyam Benegal's Bharat Ek Khoj successfully brought Jawaharlal Nehru's The Discovery of India to TV screens during the golden age of Doordarshan.

The Anand Bros were once the toast of Bollywood. Vijay Anand's films, in particular, have endured and even enjoyed a revival in recent decades. On his 87th birth anniversary, Vaibhav Anand opens up about his legendary father's movies, music and legacy.

Every month, the TV We Used To Love series will rewind to the Doordarshan shows of 1980s and 90s, an era remarkable for its rich television. We are starting with the late Jaspal Bhatti's ten episoder Flop Show, a witty send-up of the great North Indian middle-class archetypes.

As the tough year draws to an end, the story of OTT (over-the-top) has only just begun. Here's what makes the digital platforms so savvy and how they are shaping the future of Indian entertainment.

In Bollywood, you cannot become a star if you don’t have a bit of Dilip Kumar in you. From Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan down to Aamir Khan, Govinda and Shah Rukh Khan, Kumar’s influence can be felt in every generation of stars who came after him.

From public grief over deaths (Sushant Singh Rajput, Rishi Kapoor and Irrfan Khan) to Bachchan's battle with Covid and Kangana Ranaut's endless controversies, a quick round-up of 2020's cinematic ebbs and flows.

What is so special about regional cinema? Why has Mollywood Nights replaced Bollywood Nights? We can answer that by paying paeans to what is so special about Lijo Jose Pellissery's cinema.

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Aditya Chopra's meditation on love and NRI culture, is the longest-running Hindi film. But the Shah Rukh Khan-Kajol starrer's rigid patriarchy and submissive female characters have not stood the test of time.

Thithi, Ee. Ma. Yau and Mukti Bhawan turn a comic lens towards death and loss, offering instead lessons on life's boundless appetite for absurdities.

There's so much to Amitabh Bachchan, that it's difficult to cover everything about him. So, instead of a sweeping panorama of his five decades in cinema, we cut straight to Prakash Mehra's Zanjeer, a film that gave Hindi cinema a new star – an 'Angry Young Man', if you will.

On Rekha's 66th birthday today, here's our ode to the Umrao Jaan star's enigmatic life and how a movie-obsessed India looks at her, with awe and oodles of mystery.

With roots in Pakistan, Punjabis such as the Kapoors, Dev Anand, Balraj Sahni and Sunil Dutt dominated 50s Bollywood. As Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor's ancestral home in Peshawar is all set for a facelift, we look at Bollywood's relationship with our neighbour-cum-foe.

She is Hindi cinema’s greatest playback singer and even today, though she playbacks ever so rarely, Lata Mangeshkar’s melodious voice, as Dilip Kumar rightly put it, resides in all of us.

A grey-shaded hero and adulterous heroine, 1965 classic Guide was ahead of its time. Starring Waheeda Rehman and Dev Anand, it's an unusual tale of love, jealousy and betrayal and ultimately, a journey of a tourist guide mistaken for a spiritual guide.

Kangana Ranaut has been baying for nearly every Bollywood's denizen's blood. But recently, Jaya Bachchan finally stood up to defend her industry. This, however, wasn't the first time the doyenne has spoken her mind.

As Asha Bhosle turns a year “younger,” a look at her legendary musical journey, the famed rivalry with elder sister Lata Mangeshkar, the men in her life (O.P Nayyar and RD Burman) and her love for cooking.

Revisiting Bawarchi, you can see how the film rests on Rajesh Khanna's inherent charm and even feeds off from his manic energy that was on full display previously in Anand.

Music Director RD Burman is noted for introducing Western and retro beats into his music, making his work rebellious for its time.

This time, we list the timeless dramas – that most quintessential of Bollywood genres that Indians are a sucker for.

Along with the more popular Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Sai Paranjpye and Gulzar, Basu Chatterjee, who died today at 93, is often called the father of middle of the road cinema, a genre whose gifts include Chhoti Si Baat, Chitchor, Rajnigandha and Baton Baton Mein.

We look at 10 Bollywood love stories that have thrown some of the most memorable cinematic images our way.

Dev Anand, Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra and Mithun Chakraborty have acted in dozens of timeless classics. But these are not those movies. Today, we explore some of the most astoundingly bad films headlined by these A-listers, especially in the winter of their careers.

According to critics, the 1990s was lousy. But at the turn of the millennium, things got only worse. Just when all hopes were lost, miraculously, thanks to the emergence of a new breed of indie actors and directors, Bollywood veered towards a seismic shift whose legacy shapes it even today.