Bollywood news on September 16

Sharing the photo on her Instagram story, Sanjay Dutt's wife Maanayata Dutt wrote, "Enroute life." (Photo: Maanayata Dutt/Instagram)

A lot has been happening in the Hindi film industry, especially in the past few days. Kiara Advani recently grabbed eyeballs with the quirky first teaser of her new film Indoo Ki Jawani. And on Wednesday, the makers will release the movie’s first song “Hasina Pagal Deewani”. If the short clip is any indication, the first track will most likely be an upbeat, lively number that will give us a broader glimpse of Indoo’s life. The dramedy also features Aditya Seal and Mallika Dua in pivotal roles. It has been directed by Abir Sengupta and bankrolled by Nikkhil Advani and Bhushan Kumar.

Meanwhile, MP and actor Jaya Bachchan made heads turn as she responded to Ravi Kishan’s statement about the film industry’s relationship with drugs. During a session on Tuesday, Jaya urged the government to come out and support the film fraternity and not believe in everything they hear about Bollywood. She said, “I was really embarrassed and ashamed that yesterday (September 14) one of our members in the Lok Sabha, who is from the industry, spoke. I am not taking names. It is a shame. People who have made a name in this industry have called it a gutter. I completely disagree and I really disassociate. At a time when the financial situation is in a depressing state and employment rate at the worst levels, in order to divert the attention of people, we are being flogged by social media and there is no support from the government. I think it is very very important that the government must support this industry and not kill it. Just because there are few people, you cannot tarnish the image of the entire industry.”

In an earlier statement, Ravi Kishan on Monday had spoken about the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) investigation in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case and said, “Drug addiction is in the film industry too. Several people have been apprehended. The NCB has been doing very good work. I urge the central government to take strict action against the culprits soon. Give them a befitting punishment and bring an end to this conspiracy by neighbouring countries.”

Jaya Bachchan’s statement was lauded by her colleagues in the film industry. Director Anubhav Sinha, Taapsee Pannu, Sonam Kapoor, Farhan Akhtar, Atul Kasbekar among others took to Twitter to support the actor-politician. Sinha was one of the first ones to congratulate Bachchan on social media and tweeted, “My greetings to Jaya ji. Those who don’t know can see, this is what having a spine looks like.” Taapsee retweeted the Thappad filmmaker’s tweet and responded with a post of her own which read, “For we have always stood by the initiatives, causes and awareness campaigns. It’s time for payback. Hitting the nail on its head and how ! Yet again a woman from the industry spoke up. #Respect.”