SCOOPS: Alia Bhatt opens up on her one-year long Kathak training, Harshvardhan Kapoor changes his name

The first song from Kalank, titled Ghar More Pardesiya, is out. Alia Bhatt has garnered great response for her look and dance in the classical track that has captured the essence of Ramayan. Towards the climax of the number, one sees a Kathak jugalbandi between Madhuri Dixit-Nene and Alia, after which, the Gully Boy heroine completes the melody. For the song, Alia underwent extensive training in the dance form to get her moves right. She says, “I learnt Kathak for around a year. I would have lessons every day before we shot the song. Then, I danced to the choreography and practised it for about two-and-a-half months. Just two days before we were filming Ghar More Pardesiya, I went to Pandit Birju Maharajji, who helped me learn the expressions that I needed to lip-sync on the track. His guidance has helped me a lot.” Incidentally, the Kathak exponent is Madhuri’s guru and has choreographed her in Kaahe Chhed (Devdas, 2002) and Jagaave Saari Raina (Dedh Ishqiya, 2014).

— Nayandeep Rakshit

Very often, numerology is said to play a key role in actors’ fortunes. Many stars have altered the spellings of their monikers and movies to woo Lady Luck with success. Now, another rising B-Town actor has resorted to this science of numbers and changed the way he spells his name. Anil Kapoor’s son Harshvardhan Kapoor is now Harsh Varrdhan Kapoor. He hasn’t had a great run at the movies, with both; his debut Mirzya (2016) and second outing, Bhavesh Joshi (2018), failing at the box office. Harsh has already altered his name on social media and now, it remains to be seen if this changes the game for him.

Total Dhamaal continued to hold well in its fourth weekend. The Ajay Devgn-Anil Kapoor-Madhuri Dixit-Nene-starrer touched the Rs 150 crore mark on Sunday (March 17).

Interestingly, the adventure comedy has emerged as Ajay’s second biggest hit, after Golmaal Again (2017), which netted Rs 205.50 cr at the national box office. 

Talking about the Indra Kumar directorial, which also starred Riteish Deshmukh, Arshad Warsi and Jaaved Jafferi, veteran trade analyst Taran Adarsh said, “Total Dhamaal continues to find favour in mass circuits. The comic caper gathered speed on the fourth Saturday and Sunday, even though screens/shows have been reduced (sic).”