Sonam ki shaadi is the next best thing to happen to the internet after Virushka and Taimur. The Indian internet is having a collective orgasm looking at the pictures of drop-dead gorgeous celebrities dancing in their designer dresses and washboard abs. The most fashionable diva of Bollywood is getting married. All eyes are on the A-list stars and, of course, the much-in-love couple. 

While Jacqueline Fernandez and Varun Dhawan dance away their blues, Swara Bhaskar looks stunning in Indian wear. Karan Johar poses with a half-smile which he claims is the new pout. Our Insta feeds are full of Sonam, Swara Bhasker, Anil Kapoor, Karan Johar, Janhvi and Khushi Kapoor, and anybody who is somebody in Bollywood or its extended family. 

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Amidst all this, you spot a shy Anand Ahuja manoeuvring through Bollywood celebrities who are cheering him on, for he is the star of the show today. Anand is an affluent businessman, the owner of a successful fashion label, but unlike the Kapoors, he is not used to living his life in the limelight. Being a second-generation Bollywood family, the Kapoors are well settled in their celebrity status now. And Sonam, of them all, takes to the camera like fish to water (even if there is some struggle, it doesn’t show) – she is chirpy, she is goofy, she is living her Punjabi wedding. 

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Dancing with her henna-ed hands flung in the air, she pulls in her groom by the arm, egging him on to shake a leg. Anand obliges with the characteristic awkwardness of a groom aware of all eyes on him. Maybe he is not a dancer, maybe he is just shy. It’s difficult to miss, the awkwardness, especially when contrasted with Sonam’s exuberance. You instantly identify with Anand. He is all of us at a family function when you don’t know your relatives well enough to go crazy on the dance floor but you have to oblige them because they force you to. 

“I got you baby…” #SonamKiShaadi #everydayphenomenal @sonamkapoor @anandahuja

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If you have been to any Indian wedding, you know all too well how it works. Ask any friend who has recently been married and he will confess he still sees the wedding photographers in his dreams asking him “Sir, smile pleeese.” He is still using BoroPlus on the corners of his lips that cracked under the weight of the obligatory shaadi ka ladoos that were stuffed into his mouth by the chachis and mamis he never knew existed. 

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We have seen the mehndi, sangeet and shaadi looks of almost everybody from the Kapoor clan. We know what Janhvi, Khushi, Shanaya, Arjun Kapoor wore, but we have forgotten what Anand flaunted. It’s almost as if he is a best man at his own wedding. It’s Veere di wedding and Sonam is the veera while Anand the best friend. 

Sorry Anand, the Indian public will always be obsessed with Bollywood and we are no different. Considering the vivacious charm of Sonam Kapoor, we are sure you don’t mind. WE wouldn’t. 

Of course, it doesn’t matter because the couple is very much in love and they are two sensible individuals who have handled their relationship in a very mature fashion. As a matter of fact, Anand’s shy awkwardness is as disarming as Sonam’s childlike exuberance. It’s a perfect match.

Ranveer Singh just keeps getting better. He can play a boy-next-door as convincingly as a brutal sultan, and he can do it effortlessly. His insane portrayal of tyrant Khilji is undoubtedly one of the best cinematic performances in the Hindi film industry so far. The actor confessed that playing the menacing character of Khilji was emotionally draining for him. He talked about how he had to go to a dark place within himself to find the essence of Khilji. And the results were there for all of us to see – Ranveer’s Khilji was fascinatingly terrifying. 

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Supporting him perfectly was Jim Sarbh, who played Malik Kafur, the slave confidant to Ranveer’s Khilji. Sarbh beautifully played his part of the smitten slave swooning over his sultan. Nothing captures their chemistry more sensually than the song ‘Binte Dil’. Ranveer’s uninhibited passion in the song is unmatched in Bollywood. 

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The actor shared a behind-the-scenes footage of ‘Binte Dil’ and it just goes on to show how well he knows his craft. 

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While Mr Bhansali is seen helping Ranveer with the technicalities of playing with fire in a bathtub, the actor takes it from there and makes the scene his own. 

Even Bhansali is left in awe of Ranveer’s craft.

Here’s the complete video. As Mr Bhansali says, “Ranveer, kya karta hai iss gaane ka…wah wah…”

The last time I sat in awe looking at Sridevi was in a movie theatre that was playing ‘English Vinglish’. Strutting around the streets of New York in her crisp cotton sarees, she made all of us cry with her emotional speech at the end of the movie. I couldn’t believe she was the same Sridevi who had made us laugh our hearts out with her Charlie Chaplin act, two decades ago when I had first seen ‘Mr India’ as a young child. She was also the same Sridevi who had raised temperatures as she danced to ‘Kaate Nahi Kat Te’ in her blue chiffon saree in the same film.

That was it. Sridevi could be anything. She could be a diva one moment, she could be a goofy entertainer the next. 

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Her solid-coloured chiffon sarees found much favour in mainstream cinema, and we saw the likes of Raveena Tandon and Madhuri Dixit setting the screen on fire in numbers like ‘Tip Tip Barsa Pani’ and ‘Dhak Dhak’ respectively. Much of our childhood awakening about the art of seduction happened through these chiffon sarees. 

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With over 300 films to her credit, Sridevi had built a legacy – she was the country’s first female superstar. She was the female lead who could act, dance, make people laugh and fall in love at the same time. No one else could pack in as much talent and versatility as Sridevi did. From her energetic “Mere hathon mein nau nau choodiya hain” to the seductive “Har Kisi Ko Nahi Milta”, Sridevi was an effortless entertainer and charmer. She was the one who lit the screen. 

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While her quietly brilliant performance in ‘Sadma’ won her critical acclaim and placed her alongside the likes of serious actors like Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil, her comic timing in movies like ‘Chaalbaaz’ and ‘Mr India’ made her a people’s favourite. 

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Here was an actress who was not afraid to look silly onscreen, who could contort her face into a hundred comical expressions, who was a refreshing respite from the conventional actress typecast either as a seductress or as a virgin mary. She was Miss Hawa Hawai, she was the unapologetically chirpy sassy female character – the bumbling reporter who managed to stand out in a movie that had a hero who could make himself invisible and a villain who was etched straight out of your craziest nightmare. 

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And yet, Sridevi managed to make her presence felt and the song ‘Hawa Hawai’ was immortalised as one of the most iconic moments of the eighties. In striking contrast to this had been her portrayal of a human snake in ‘Nagina’, fighting against the fearsome sapera, played by another class actor Amrish Puri. Her directors remembered her as a humble and diligent actor, one who after a day’s shoot enquired if she could leave for home.

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In her films, Sridevi stood her own. In a male-dominated industry, she could overshadow even her male co-stars and was often paid as much as them. She left us too soon, and as the industry tries to grapple with the loss, we think Ms Hawa Hawai will forever remain the “Khwabon ki shehzadi” who ruled the hearts of her fans. Bollywood has lost its chandni.

When in an interview for Film Companion, Anupama Chopra tells Ranveer Singh he comes across as essentially the same person he was 5 years ago when she had interviewed him after his first film ‘Band Baaja Baaraat”, Ranveer lets out a coy smile, widely unlike the shrewd Khilji he just wrapped up playing. Eight years in the industry, half a dozen hits, multiple awards, a crazy fan following, and whirlwind romance with the doe-eyed woman of Bollywood – Ranveer Singh has had a fairytale start to a shining career and the first words that come out of his mouth are “I have been blessed.”

He tears up just a little when he says, “I never lose sight of that one big thing that happened to me…the only thing I ever wanted to do, wanted to be, was a ‘Hindi film hero’ and here I’m doing it…it’s the greatest gift ever, and I am thankful for that every day.”

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In that moment of raw emotion, which is not actually rare when it comes to Ranveer, you can see it’s the same simple-minded Bittoo Sharma from ‘Band Baaja Baaraat’ telling Shruti Kakkar he is just happy to be with her, no matter what the circumstance. He is flawed, he is human, he is wavering, but he is real and he is middle class as hell. He is grounded enough to see his flaws and he is honest enough to admit them.

He may have played to perfection the savage khilji with a mad obsession for every ‘nayab cheez’ but he’s still the humble Bittoo Sharma of ‘Band Baaja…’ who’s just thankful his dream of becoming an actor has come true.

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The actor has the nation eating out of his hands over his explosive portrayal of Alauddin Khilji in Bhansali’s ‘Padmaavat’ and yet he lacks the airs of a star who is at the peak of his career and has just delivered one of the many incredible performances of his career. When the interviewer hints about bringing the interview to a close, because his PR has probably given a 20-minute limit, Ranveer responds with a child-like frankness: “But why are you letting me go?” He tells Anupama he doesn’t want to go; this is the first time he is speaking about the movie and he would very much like to go on. That’s Ranveer Singh for you, redefining what being a Bollywood star means.

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That capacity to be completely candid and devoid of a starry ego is what makes Ranveer win. He doesn’t try to create a personality that will match his success – that is probably the reason he can carry even the most outrageous of clothes without an iota of sartorial prudence; that is also the reason he can get into a character without bringing the obsessive need to let his personality shine. They say the true mark of a great actor is the capacity to completely annihilate the self, to be able to become the character they play.

Therein comes the proud Peshwa from ‘Bajirao Mastani’, the quiet rogue from ‘Lootera’, even the smooth Ricky Behl, the adorable middle-class Bittoo Sharma from ‘Band Baaja Baaraat’, and eventually, the menacing Khilji from ‘Padmaavat’.

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Whether you’ve watched Padmaavat or are still waiting for Karni Sena’s Khilji-esque anger to fade away, you know one thing – that Ranveer Singh is the best thing about the film. There is as much of Khilji in Ranveer as there is Ranveer in Bhansali’s Khilji. Talking to Anupama Chopra about how he prepared himself to play the menacing sultan onscreen, Ranveer said he had to channelise his inner demons. The demons that have the potential to come out and the demons that he had already allowed at some point in his life. In an industry where actors don’t even talk about their exes, Ranveer is scandalously honest.

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He is sassy, he is smooth, he is goofy and he doesn’t care. Because he is too busy living his dream. He is too busy creating the characters he plays that he cannot dwell more on the star that he is. That is when hits and misses stop hitting you like they usually do. Like many of us, he is the starry-eyed boy who grew up on Hindi films and imagined himself somewhere on the larger-than-life silver screen. The screen where stalwarts like Amitabh Bachchan and Dev Anand created iconic memories, the screen where Shah Rukh Khan’s Raj serenaded Kajol as Simran in the icy slopes of Switzerland. Ranveer is living a childhood fantasy that is part of our growing up experience and is so universal in appeal that most of us probably have, at least, once imagined ourselves living it. 

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Like he says, “There is no great a gift to be able to go to a film set and perform in the capacity of an actor.” What might seem to be a clichéd statement is anything but that in Ranveer’s case. It is not, because the evidence is right there in his characters. When you witness his raw energy onscreen, even in the films that have been written off, you sense the passion that comes from absolutely loving what you do.

The process really is his prize, and Ranveer Singh is busy chasing the Bollywood dream, one Khilji at a time.