The Culture Secretary of the United Kingdom Oliver Dowden has suggested that each episode of The Crown should begin with a disclaimer stating that the show is not factual.
“It’s a beautifully produced work of fiction, so as with other TV productions, Netflix should be very clear at the beginning it is just that,” Dowden said in an interview. “Without this, I fear a generation of viewers who did not live through these events may mistake fiction for fact.”
He added that will write to Netflix this week to express his view.
The fourth season of The Crown follows the life of the royal family during the late 1970s and the 1980s, which means many of the main characters’ real-life counterparts are still living. Charles and Princess Diana’s rocky married life and the Charles-Diana-Camilla love triangle is one of the main storylines in the season. It is pertinent to add here that the creators of the show have clarified that creative liberty has been taken while making the show. This season also shows Margaret Thatcher’s years in office as prime minister.
Meanwhile, Dowden is not the only one who thinks that The Crown should be classified as a work of fiction. Earl Spencer, brother of the late Princess Diana, has also said that he believes the series should warn viewers that it takes artistic license with actual events.
“I think it would help The Crown an enormous amount if, at the beginning of each episode, it stated that: ‘This isn’t true but it is based around some real events,’” Spencer had said in an interview.
Season 4 of The Crown is now streaming on Netflix.
After Yashraj Mukhate’s ‘Woh Rashi Thi’, Rajkummar Rao’s Paneer Tikka in a retro style beat is going viral on social media.
The song Paneer Tikka has been made into a rap by composer Mayur Jumani. Rao said the dialogue in the film Ludo, where his character is telling the menu very fluently. The new composition is catchy and has gone viral on social media.
Ludo is a multi-starrer Netflix movie directed by Anurag Basu. Apart from Rao, it also features Pankaj Tripathi, Abhishek Bachchan, Aditya Roy Kapur, Sanya Malhotra and Fatima Sana Sheikh in the lead.
Female-led drama The Queen’s Gambit, set in the 1960s chess world, has become Netflix’s most popular limited scripted series ever.
In a statement, Netflix shared that “some 62 million households watched the show in its first 28 days”. The seven-episode series is ranked in the top 10 most watched on Netflix in 92 countries, including first in 63, the company added.
More fun facts related to The Queen’s Gambit:
♕ The series made the Top 10 in 92 countries & ranked #1 in 63 countries
♕ The novel has entered The New York Times bestseller list, 37 years after its release
♕ Google searches for “How To Play Chess” have hit a nine-year peak
The Queen’s Gambit follows an orphaned female chess prodigy, Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy), who struggles with drug addiction as she rises to become one of the world’s best players. But there is so much more to this incredibly fast-paced series that has proven to be the best binge-watch Netflix has produced in a long time. A riveting watch it will leave you with reasons to love it and to be inspired by it for days, months after.
1. You will feel like you can do anything
The feeling of utter inspiration after watching Beth defeat world champions at chess will make you either want to order a chess set or feel like you can achieve anything you set your mind to. Why? Beth is an orphan after she survives a car crash in which her mother passes away and there is no record of her father after her mother leaves him. Her mother dies in an attempted suicide, which could’ve taken Beth’s life but she escapes unharmed.
We then follow Beth on her journey as a brilliant chess prodigy, taught by the janitor, Mr Shaibel (Bill Camp) in an orphanage and watch her become addicted to antidepressants, which were apparently legally handed out to children in the 1950s to help them become calm and easy to handle; and to chess – a board which not only relaxes her but makes it easier for her to sleep at night.
She grows up fighting her inner demons, adopted by a family in which the father leaves, and raised by a foster mother who loves her but passes away as well. And chess becomes her ultimate solace and one that she uses to reach the heights of success. To see her grow from a child who had nothing to a woman who slays chess grandmasters in Russia leaves one with the feeling that they can conquer the world – and play chess.
2. You will appreciate your closest and best friends
In the middle of the series, you see Beth becoming lost in her drug addiction, her uneasy arrogance that she can only defeat grandmasters with the help of her pills and her lack of confidence in being with the guy that she likes. What gets her through her darkest times are her friends – and what’s amazing is that her friends are actually her former rivals – the men she defeated to get to where she is. It becomes obvious near the end that she is nothing without them and you know that warm, fuzzy feeling everyone gets from a cheesy romance movie? You will get it but it will be because of the best kinds of friendships- the ones that cheer others on, even if they are getting what you wanted all along.
3. You will marvel at the setting – and the clothes
Make no mistake – the chessboard style patterns you see on most of the clothes that Beth is wearing were deliberate and there is no woman who would not be drooling over her black and white dress that she wears for the tournament in Russia. The thoughtful costume designs and the settings of the scenes make it one of the most beautiful series to watch – from the hallowed hallways where the chess finale happens – to the retro home where Beth lives with her foster mother – are all a wonder to watch. You will be transported to the 50s and the 60s in every scene, with every leather jacket and loud wallpaper, with the waves in their hair and the even by the way they walk – every character does justice to their roles and what we are left with is a true delight in seven episodes.
The Queen’s Gambit is among Netflix’s more culturally resonant programmes of recent years. Netflix, in a blog post, also shared that since the series’ debut in October, searches for chess sets on eBay are up 250 percent, and Walter Tevis’s 1983 novel that inspired the series has returned to bestseller lists. And there is zero doubt that it deserves to be where it is. A must watch for all.
An Indian state on Sunday asked police to investigate Netflix series A Suitable Boy after a member of the country’s ruling party objected to scenes in the series, in which a Hindu girl kisses a Muslim boy against the backdrop of a Hindu temple.
The series, based on an English novel by one of India’s leading writers Vikram Seth, follows a young girl’s quest for a husband in the backdrop of newly independent India (1951). It is directed by celebrated Indian filmmaker Mira Nair.
“It has extremely objectionable scenes that have hurt the feelings of a particular religion,” Narottam Mishra, the interior minister of the central state of Madhya Pradesh, said on Twitter.
“I’ve directed police officers to get this controversial content tested” to determine “what legal action can be taken against the producer-director of the film for hurting religious sentiments”.
He later said: “For objectionable scenes in the web series A Suitable Boy, an FIR has been lodged against Monika Shergill (Vice President Content, Netflix India) and Ambika Khurana (Director, Public Policy at Netflix) associated with the management under Section 295 A (willfully hurting religious sentiments) in the Civil Lines Police Station of Reeva.”
वेब सीरीज ‘A Suitable boy’ में आपत्तिजनक दृश्यों के लिए #OTTPlatform#Netflix के प्रबंधन से जुड़ीं मोनिका शेरगिल और अंबिका खुराना के खिलाफ रीवा के सिविल लाइंस थाने में धारा 295 ए (धार्मिक भावनाओं को जानबूझ कर ठेस पहुंचाने) के तहत एफआईआर दर्ज की गई है। pic.twitter.com/84A4ZlLz6Y
— Dr Narottam Mishra (Modi Ka Parivar) (@drnarottammisra) November 23, 2020
Gaurav Tiwari, a leader of the youth wing of India’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which also governs Madhya Pradesh, has filed a separate complaint against Netflix and warned of street protests by Hindus if the series is not taken off the platform. He also accused the show and streaming platform of promoting ‘love jihad’ – a term radical Hindu groups use to accuse Muslim men of converting Hindu women by marriage.
A Netflix India spokesman declined comment on the police complaint.
It is pertinent to mention here that the six-part series was officially commissioned by BBC Studios and produced on a budget of £16 million making it one of the most expensive BBC series ever made. Netflix is the exclusive distributor of the series for all global territories, except continental North America and China. It released on the streaming platform on October 23, 2020.
Social media commentators say the scope for creative freedom is narrowing in India, especially when it involves any depiction of Hindu-Muslim relations.
Many Indians took to Twitter demanding a boycott of Netflix, which sees India as one of its most promising growth markets, but where its shows have faced legal challenges.
Last month, a unit of India’s Tata conglomerate withdrew a jewellery advertisement featuring a Hindu-Muslim family celebrating a baby shower, following threats to one of its stores and wide criticism on social media.
Earlier this month, the Indian government announced rules to regulate content on video streaming platforms including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Walt Disney’s Hotstar.
Just when I thought I was done with Bollywood films for this year, given how terrible this year’s releases have been, Ludopopped up as I was scrolling through Netflix. The film had just released and was already trending in the top ten on Netflix Pakistan.
Featuring an ensemble cast of Pankaj Tripathi, Aditya Roy Kapur, Abhishek Bachchan, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Rajkummar Rao, Sanya Malhotra, Rohit Suresh Saraf and Pearle Maaney, Ludo is a tough film to describe considering the multiple storylines running side by side. On one hand, you have Akash (Kapur) and Shruti (Malhotra), who are trying to cover up a sex tape before Sanya gets married to the man of her dreams, while on the other you have Bittu (Bachchan), who just came out of jail and ends up running into a little girl who kidnapped herself so her parents would pay attention to her. Then you have Alu (Rao), who runs a restaurant and dances to Mithun’s disco moves when he is stressed. He deeply loves his childhood crush Pinky (Shaikh), though she is married with a baby.
Akash and Shruti
On the surface, the characters have nothing to do with one another but their fates are all connected through Sattu Bhaiya (Pankaj) who is the resident gangster. As the leads try to sort out the problems in their lives, they end up getting entangled with one another in a very messy web controlled by Sattu Bhaiya. He manages to run everyone’s lives even while lying on a hospital bed.
Sattu Bhaiya
Written and directed by Anurag Basu, Ludo is a highly entertaining and enthralling watch. It keeps you gripped with its twists and turns and has been masterfully directed. A movie like this, which has multiple plotlines and characters, each with a different, distinct story, running side by side, could have easily fallen apart. But Basu holds it all together skilfully.
Though it is slightly longer than average films these days, you will not feel yourself getting bored at any point – there is enough drama, comedy and romance to keep you hooked.
Alu and Pinky
All the leads gave brilliant performances though it was Pankaj who blew me away with his acting and expressions. Despite being a gangster, you couldn’t help but like his character all because of how Tripathi brought it to life.
Bittu
The cherry on top was the songs and background music, which perfectly complemented the theme and mood of the film. I have been listening to Aabaad Barbaad and Hardum Humdum on repeat.
The Current starts its day with a morning mood to engage followers and find out what they are interested in. This is done via a ‘This or That’ poll and the winner has to compete in the same category the next day. It is mostly done over a week’s time and we found out a lot about our followers – and Pakistanis – based on what they vote for.
The Current has compiled a few fun polls it did on its Instagram account.
Professor VS Berlin: What would you like to be?
Professor wins with 67%.
Who is your favourite female anchor?
We put this poll the whole week and got our winner. Can you guess who that was?
ARY’s Maria Memon won the vote beating the likes of Sana Bucha, Meher Bokhari and Asma Shirazi.
Favourite male anchor
Waseem Badami is clearly the winner beating all prominent news anchors of Pakistan.
“If you have a complaint about not being loved or appreciated in this marriage, I suggest you take it up with the people who arranged it”.
The line that says it all. In the fourth season of Netflix‘sThe Crown, there is zero doubt that you will be reminded of someone you know or have heard of, who is currently suffering in an arranged marriage. Which is why when Prince Charles (Josh O’ Connor), the future king of England complains about his arranged marriage to his incredibly sad wife Princess Diana (Emma Corrin), it really hits home.
The Crown shows the engagement interview given by Diana and Charles which was truly cringeworthy (because of Charles)
The Crown, a series on the popular streaming site Netflix, is based on the lives of the ruling royal family in England. It follows the life of Elizabeth II, who is the current ruling Queen of England, her journey as Queen and also gives insight into the private lives of the royals. Although it is based on true events, the producers have said that artistic license has been taken while filming the series.
The most-awaited royal story was the one of Prince Charles and the iconic Princess Diana and the depiction of the two in season four does not disappoint. You will literally watch this season with your phone in hand, googling to see if the events that made you cringe are actually true – and be shocked and saddened that they indeed are.
Diana and Charles’ wedding was a fairy tale – one that even if you weren’t old enough to see it when it happened, there is zero doubt that you have seen images of how perfect it actually was. Their divorce shook the world and Diana’s death had everyone mourning. There was and most likely will never be a more iconic and charming royal than Diana. Pakistanis, in particular, are drawn to her even more after seeing pictures of how much she enjoyed visiting Pakistan with a handsome Imran Khan and his then-wife Jemima Goldsmith.
SPOILERS AHEAD
This was the first time I learned about how Diana had an eating disorder and was bulimic. After Googling, I discovered that she had spoken about it in an interview, about how after marrying Prince Charles, eating a lot of food and then throwing up somehow became therapeutic for the emptiness she felt in her life. The series shows how a very young Diana gets married at the age of 19 years in a whirlwind marriage to a prince who is in love with someone else. Prince Charles had been seeing a married woman – Camilla Parker-Bowleswho he is currently married to – and continued to see her after he was married. Charles wanted to marry Diana and thought she was sweet, but not before she was ‘approved’ by his ‘ex-girlfriend’ Camilla. According to Google, Camilla had approved Charles’ marriage to Diana, thinking she could control her in the future but hadn’t realise how popular Diana would become.
Camilla Parker Bowles invites an engaged Diana to lunch – while she was having an affair with Diana’s fiance
We are also introduced to a Diana who tries very hard to make Charles happy – and a Charles who tries somewhat but is unable to let go of his affair. What makes one hate Charles even more in the series is that it’s not that the dull and arrogant Charles doesn’t have the capacity to love – he loves Camilla so much he tells Diana after years of their marriage that if she hurts Camilla, she hurts him – but that he loves the wrong person. He can’t stand how popular and loved Diana is, how she shines, how people love her and how wherever she goes – excitement follows. He is not strong enough to let her shine – and in turn, his lack of compassion for her – ruins her life.
There was a time when they were happy. The real life dance of Charles and Diana shows a happy time
Discussions about the royal family being the first and ultimate joint family began soon after people finished the season – discussions about how arranged marriages can ruin lives and how people need to spend time together to find out if they really get one another. If Diana had not been so young and had grown into her personality and understood what she wanted out of life, maybe she would not have picked Charles or been besotted with the thought of marrying a prince. Maybe Charles, who gave into his family’s pressure of marrying a girl who had a similar background as him, would’ve held strong and said he wouldn’t marry if he couldn’t marry whom he wanted. But it seems painfully obvious that Charles was pressured into marrying Diana and Diana fell for the fairy tale love story that Charles represented.
It’s true. Princess Di did a dance with singer Billy Joel for Prince Charles’ birthday
What’s more painful is to see how Diana tries to make Charles happy. She knows from day one that Charles has not left Camilla – even goes out for lunch with Camilla (yes, that’s true!) – and tries her best to make her marriage work. In two very painful parts of the season, Diana plans a dance with the famous rockstar Billy Joel, for Charles’ birthday and after seeing the performance, Charles tells her how horrified he was to see her performance and how she made his birthday about her (she did do a performance for him on his birthday at the theater, that is also true) and then for their wedding anniversary she tries again and films her singing a song for him with a live orchestra (wasn’t very good and also true). He makes fun of her both times, showing that no matter what she tried, nothing was going to work.
We all have that one friend or family member stuck in a marriage that is not of their choosing. Having issues with in-laws is so common that it’s scary at times. Diana also has a difficult time with her in-laws and tries to reach out to her mother-in-law, the Queen who is very distant from her. Charles’ sister, Princess Anne, also resents Diana for being more popular than her and they too, don’t seem to get along. The only person who does seem to like her is her father-in-law Prince Philip but near the end, that also changes. So we see Diana fairly alone throughout the series, clinging onto her children to feel whole. Until it seems she can’t do it anymore.
Last scene showing a very unhappy Diana
The ending scene of the series finale is one of a family photo being taken for Christmas and Diana is standing at the edge of the photo, away from the others. The camera zooms into her, showing how alone she is and I didn’t have the heart to Google if the picture was real – because it so obviously must be. What is more devastating is that it feels like such a big loss. We know that Diana finally breaks free and most likely, finally finds happiness and then dies in a fatal car crash. She never really gets her fairy tale and as we see people around us going through the same, we feel the same pain. Maybe if they break free – if she had broken free earlier – they might be happier.
Despite being such a difficult season to watch, season four is the best season so far. Other than the stellar performances given by both Connor and Corrin, the role of Britain’s first female Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is played so brilliantly by Gillian Anderson that it is a true pleasure to watch. She literally captures the essence of one of England’s most controversial rulers and it is a delight to watch the minute she comes on screen. The minute you see Thatcher on screen, you can’t wait to see what she will do next. And you also cannot help but compare.
Gillian Anderson was absolutely perfect as Britain’s Iron Lady PM, Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher, raised to be brilliant by her father, supported by her husband who is totally at ease with his wife’s success, pushes her to be the absolute best that she can be – the leader of a superpower for eleven years. The support she gets and her own brilliance make her shine in ways that have changed the course of history. And then we see a parallel with Diana – a woman absolutely phenomenal in her own right – but pushed down by the people around her, never realising her full potential.
Makes one think how different life can be if you can manage to convince yourself that you need some iron from the British PM famously called the Iron Lady and also realise that it is finally time to break free before it is too late, like the tragedy that was Diana.
Weeks after Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry announced that his ministry is all set to launch Pakistan’s first OTT (over-the-top) platform, Emax Media has announced that it will be launching the country’s first Urdu OTT platform. Called UrduFlix, the platform will offer original and exclusive content in Urdu worldwide.
According to a press release, “UrduFlix will provide viewers with access to original Urdu films, series, documentaries, cartoons, and Urdu-dubbed Turkish dramas.” It will also offer already popular dramas and films to its subscribers.
Talking about the launch of the platform, Farhan Ghauhar, founder of UrduFlix said: “We are excited to announce the launch of Pakistan’s first Urdu OTT platform that will have a recognisable connection to our unique entertainment offerings.”
“With the on-demand streaming culture on the rise around the world, we want to play our part in putting Pakistan and Pakistani content on the global market as well, and compete with international players,” he added.
An OTT media service is a streaming media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms, the companies that traditionally act as a controller or distributor of such content.
UrduFlix is expected to launch in mid-January 2021.
More than two decades after her death, Princess Diana’s ill-fated entry into the British royal family is the main storyline in the long-awaited fourth season of the hit Netflix drama The Crown.
Emma Corrin, a 24-year-old actress little known until now, immerses herself in the role of the young Diana, capturing her soft voice and timid gaze from under a heavy fringe.
But the actress admitted in an interview with The Sunday Times that she felt a “huge amount of pressure” to pull off the role in the new season, which starts on Sunday.
Diana is shown as a naive teenager who quickly becomes lonely in the role of Prince Charles’ fiancee and rollerskates around Buckingham Palace to pass the time. Even before their unhappy marriage, she begins cycles of bulimia: binge-eating and then purging herself of food.
Diana Spencer had just turned 20 when the couple married in 1981, while Charles was 32. As heir to the throne, since reaching his 30s, he had faced pressure to marry to ensure succession.
Despite having doubts, he agreed to propose to Diana but did not sever ties with his long-time lover, Camilla Parker-Bowles. Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997 and Charles subsequently married Parker-Bowles in 2005.
While the previous series depicted Charles as a sensitive and misunderstood boy, as Diana’s husband he is seen as cold and unfaithful, complaining to Camilla that she is “so weak, so fragile”.
The breakup of their marriage due to infidelities and Diana’s confessional television interview was scandalous at the time and is making headlines even today.
The BBC has pledged to hold an independent investigation into how its journalist Martin Bashir persuaded Diana to take part in the sensational interview in 1995. Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, claims Bashir showed faked documents to persuade Diana to take part in the interview, where she famously complained “there were three of us in this marriage so it was a bit crowded.”
The love triangle is one of the main storylines in the fourth season, which covers the late 1970s and the 1980s.
The scriptwriters also dramatise a notorious incident that year in which a 33-year-old man, Michael Hagan — frustrated at being unemployed and separated from his wife — broke into Buckingham Palace and entered the queen’s bedroom.
The queen, who kept her legendary sang-froid, is again played by Olivia Colman, the British actress who won an Oscar for The Favourite in 2019. In the fifth series, she will hand over the role of the older queen to 64-year-old Imelda Staunton, known for playing the cruel Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter films.
The US actress Gillian Anderson plays Margaret Thatcher, the imperious first woman to head the British government, in a season dominated by strong female roles.
A critical and popular success, The Crown was first broadcast in 2016 and has won numerous awards, including three Golden Globes and 10 Emmy Awards.
A total of 73 million people have watched at least one episode of the series, Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s joint chief executive and chief content officer, said in January.
Netflix has announced that it has renewed the trending Emily in Paris for a second season. The announcement came via a fictional memo sent from Emily’s place of work, Savoir, by her dry boss Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu).
“Despite her overconfident manner and lack of prior experience in luxury goods marketing, she has nonetheless managed to charm some of our hard-to-impress clients during her short time at Savoir,” reads the note. “Call it Bonne chance, or American ingenuity —I’m leaning towards the former— her results are impressive.”
“We love having Emily in Paris! But please don’t let her know that.”
The series, despite its problematic and stereotypical portrayal of French people and culture, dominated the Netflix Top 10 list for weeks and continues to trend at number six on Netflix Pakistan.
Emily in Paris follows Emily (Lily Collins), a bright, vivacious and a tad bit annoying marketing executive from Chicago, who unexpectedly finds herself in Paris for a new job. She is tasked with revamping the company’s social media strategy. Emily’s life in Paris is filled with intoxicating adventures and surprising challenges as she juggles winning over her work colleagues, making friends and navigating new romances.
Season one of the series ended on a cliffhanger, as Emily finally got together with her dreamy neighbor Gabriel (Lucas Bravo) after he almost left town with his girlfriend.
