Trend blazer

‘Sports stories inspire people’

Actor Farhan Akthar said, “Sports stories are easier to understand and they also inspire  people.” The actor has played the role of legendary Indian sprinter Milkha Singh in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.

Farhan talked about how cinema on sports is emerging as a trend, he said, “We always look up to sporting icons and sporting legends over the time that we have had, to bring their stories onscreen. There is a lot I think, for children especially, to learn about a character and life and it also helps to re-invent you and to deal with failure.” He feels sports stories always inspire people in general. “They’re not very complicated so it gets easy for people to learn life lessons from sports.”

The actor was present at the launch of sportswear brand D:FY along with Anil Kumble, Ritesh Sidhwani, Saqib Salim, Rhea Chakraborty and Nidhhi Agerwal. He is gearing up for his next film The Sky is Pink opposite Priyanka Chopra.

‘Girl in the City was part of my journey in my initial days of acting. I would definitely say it has turned out to be a milestone.

It has been a very important part of my career. I have been recognised as the girl in the city and that says a lot.’

—Mithila Palkar

Portman to direct biopic

Actress Natalie Portman has signed a deal to direct and star in an untitled biopic about the identical twin sisters who wrote advice columns as Abigail Van Buren and Ann Landers.

The Lander sisters, who were born in 1918, had the Dear Abby column which was launched in 1956 by Pauline Esther Friedman in the San Francisco Chronicle. Esther Pauline Friedman had won a contest in 1955 to take over the Ask Ann Landers advice column in the Chicago Sun-Times. Both used straightforward styles in dispensing common sense advice. The competing columns led to the sisters having a bitter professional rivalry that lasted the rest of their lives. Portman, who made her directorial debut in 2015 with Israeli drama A Tale of Love and  Darkness, will play the sisters.