Bollywood Masala Mix
Kabir Bedi is an Indian international actor who began his career in Bollywood, worked in Hollywood, and became a star in Europe.
Kabir Bedi was one of three children that was born into a Punjabi family in India, that had devoted itself to India's fight for independence from British colonial rule. His mother, Freda Bedi, later converted to Tibetan Buddhism. His father, Baba Phyare Lal Bedi, was an author and philosopher. Kabir went to school at Sherwood College, Nainital.
In the James Bond film Octopussy, he played the villain Gobinda who battled Roger Moore from start to finish.
In Europe, his greatest success was Sandokan, the saga of a romantic Asian pirate during British colonial times; an Italian-German-French TV series which broke viewership records across Europe.
For over a year, Kabir starred in The Bold And The Beautiful, the second most-watched television show in the world, seen by over a billion people in 149 countries.
As a stage actor, Kabir has performed Shakespeare’s Othello as well as a mad historical Indian king, "Tughlaq"; and a self-destructive alcoholic in "The Vultures". In London he also starred in "The Far Pavilions", the West End musical adaptation of M. M. Kaye’s novel, at the Shaftesbury Theatre.
Kabir has acted in over 60 Indian Bollywood films. In the historical epic Taj Mahal: An Eternal Love Story, Kabir starred as the Emperor Shah Jahan. Other starring Bollywood roles include Raj Khosla’s "Kuchche Dhaage", Rakesh Roshan's "Khoon Bhari Maang" and "Main Hoon Na". He also had his own cinematic talk show on Indian TV, Director's Cut, a 13-part special series interviewing the country's leading directors. He paired with Hrithik Roshan in Kites, with Govinda Ahuja in Showman, and with Akshay Kumar in Blue.
In Italy, Kabir starred in a prime-time Italian television series, "Un Medico In Famiglia", on RAI TV, the country's biggest broadcaster.
His extensive roles on American television – primetime and daytime, series and mini-series – include Hallmark’s African epic "Forbidden Territory", and Ken Follett’s "On Wings of Eagles" and also "Red Eagle". He played Friar Sands in "The Lost Empire", for NBC. Kabir also played roles on Dynasty, Murder She Wrote, Magnum P.I., Hunter, Knight Rider and Highlander: The Series amongst others.
Kabir played pivotal roles in Columbia Pictures "The Beast of War", a film on the Russian war in Afghanistan, directed by Kevin Reynolds, as well as the acclaimed Italian film "Andata Ritorno", by Marco Ponti, winner of the prestigious David di Donatello Award..
Kabir is a voting member of the Oscars Academy (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences)
He is based in India, and lives on Juhu Beach, Mumbai.
In summary, Kabir’s career spans three continents, three decades in three performing mediums: film, television and theatre.
Kabir Bedi is a firm supporter of freedom in Burma and has become an official Ambassador of the Burma Campaign UK.
Bedi married three times and has three children, Pooja, Siddarth and Adam. He was married to the late Protima Bedi, an Odissi dancer, and their daughter Pooja Bedi was an actress in Hindi films and now is a magazine/newspaper columnist. Their son Siddarth who went to University in the USA had a long history of schizophrenia and committed suicide in 1997 at age 26.
As his marriage with Protima began to break down he famously started a relationship with the late Parveen Babi. They never married. He later married British born fashion designer Susan Humphreys and their son, international model Adam Bedi, made his debut in Bollywood with a thriller, Hello? Kaun Hai!. This marriage ended in divorce.
In the late 1990s, Bedi married TV & radio presenter Nikki Bedi. They had no children and divorced in 2005. Most recently, Bedi has been linked to a London-based woman, Parveen Dusanj.
Amid the escalating tension between India and Pakistan, netizens turned to past and recent patriotic films to dig out memorable dialogues, the most recent being from "Uri: The Surgical Strike,” based on the surgical strikes that India conducted on terror camps in Pakistan in 2016.
The Indian Air Force's air strike on terror camps in Pakistan, which was in retaliation to the February 14 Pulwama terror attack, led to social media speculations that a "Surgical Strike 2" could be made.
From wars to fighting social evils and telling heroic tales of sportsperson – various shades of patriotism have been depicted on the big screen through a stream of films in recent times. The narrative shall continue through 2019 and beyond.
"D-Day,” "Baby" and "Phantom" are some films that have brought alive stories of counter-terrorism operations, mostly inspired by real life. And these have found a resonance with the audience.
As the treatment and subjects around patriotic films evolve, there is a greater influx of stories themed on combating terrorism, celebrating the country's glorious achievements and talking about social issues.
Army-based films like "Border,” "LOC Kargil,” "Lakshya" and "1971" have been celebrated in the past.
This March 21, the audience can look forward to "Kesari,” on the 1897 Battle of Saragarhi in which 21 Sikhs of the 36th Sikh Regiment (now the 4th Battalion of the Sikh Regiment) of British India, defended an army post against more than 10,000 Afghan and Orakzai tribesmen.
Even "Lagaan" and "Swades" director Ashutosh Gowariker is looking forward to evoking the patriotic fervor again with "Panipat" on the battle of Panipat.
There will also be a yet untitled biopic on Kargil war hero Vikram Batra. It will front actor Sidharth Malhotra.
A newly announced project is "Major,” on the life of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, a National Security Guards (NSG) commando who lost his life while fighting terrorists at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai in 2008.
Actor-producer John Abraham, who has already trodden the path of patriotic films with titles like "Madras Cafe,” "Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran" and "Satyamev Jayate,” is set to pack a punch with "Romeo Akbar Walter" and "Batla House" – both films inspired by real-life events.
John had earlier said the intent of his films is when the audience walks out of the theatre they should get the feeling: "'Wow, I am proud to be an Indian. This is cool that India did this. I didn't know this.'"
Women-led films like "Neerja,” "Raazi" and "Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi" have held the flag of patriotism high as well in recent times, as has an actor like Akshay Kumar who has lent a new meaning to 'patriotic cinema' by dabbling in films like "Rustom,” "Baby,” "Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty,” "Toilet: Ek Prem Katha,” "PadMan,” "Gold" and will next be seen in "Kesari" and space drama "Mission Mangal.”
There are heroic stories from the sports field too. “83,” starred by Ranveer Singh, will narrate India's historic victory in the 1983 Cricket World Cup. A film on badminton star Saina Nehwal is in the works.
to promote parties
Operation Karaoke by Cobrapost had its reporters posing as representatives from a public relations company and meeting actors, singers, dancers, and TV stars through their managers to allegedly strike a deal ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Addressing a press conference, Cobrapost editor-in-chief Aniruddha Bahl said the sting revolves around 36 celebrities agreeing to post messages on their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts to help create a favorable environment for certain political parties in the run-up to the elections.
The celebs, most of them second rung TV and film stars, agreed to tweet content on various issues to be provided to them before posting the same on their social media pages to make it look like their own, he alleged.
"They would defend the government even on controversial issues such as rape and fatal accidents such as bridge collapses. They were even willing to sign a dummy contract for endorsement of products to disguise the real nature of the proxy political campaigning that they were willing to do," Bahl said.
According to Cobrapost, the party in question was, in most cases, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and the Congress in some instances. Many celebrities agreed to share their PAN number and banking details but most preferred cash, he claimed.
The media portal has put out a series of tweets with videos of the celebrities caught in the sting. Actor Sonu Sood released a statement where he alleged that his conversation with outlet's representatives was "wrongly reproduced and projected".
"This is a clear case of sabotage. The editing has been tampered with and only certain elements of the conversation have been used and projected in the wrong light," he said.
The actor said it is regular for brands, political parties and corporates to use celebrities' social media platforms for promotions. He promoting them is not wrong as long as one believes in the product and the ideology.
"With reference to the contract, I had also clearly stated that I want everything to be officially put on paper as that is the regular protocol," he added.
According to Cobrapost, most of the celebrities did not blink an eye before saying Aye to the proposition, asking for a fee ranging from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 50 lakh per message.
"Some even quoted a fee of Rs 20 crore for an eight-month contract, and almost none of them said no to black money when we told them a bulk of their fee would be paid in cash," the outlet claimed.
Representing a fictitious PR agency and taking on aliases, Cobrapost reporters approached these celebrities asking if they would be willing to promote a political party discreetly on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
In a statement on the sting, Cobrapost said some of the celebrities tweeted without having been paid any money to "show their eagerness".
Some celebrities turned down Cobrapost's offer to promote a political party on social media.
"When we approached Vidya Balan, Arshad Warsi, Raza Murad and Saumya Tandon with our proposition, these celebs chose to go by their conscience and straightaway refused to play ball," it said.
Apart from Jackie Shroff, Anupam Kher, Sonu Sood and Vivek Oberoi, those who agreed to tweet for money included names such as Shreyas Talpade, Sunny Leone, Shakti Kapoor, Ameesha Patel, Tisca Chopra, Rakhi Sawant, TV star Pankaj Dheer and son Nikitin Dheer, Puneet Issar, Rajpal Yadav, Minissha Lamba, Mahima Chaudhary, Rohit Roy, Aman Verma, Koena Mitra and Rahul Bhat among others.
Singers Daler Mehndi, Mika, Abhijeet Bhattacharya and Baba Sehgal, choreographer Ganesh Acharya and comedians Rajpal Yadav, Raju Srivastava, Krushna Abhishek and Vijay Ishwarlal Pawar (VIP) were also part of the list.
TV actor Hiten Tejwani, whose name also figures in the list along with wife Gauri Pradhan, told PTI, "All I can say that we haven't taken any money. They wanted to give us money and made a sting out of it. They are showing half conversations the accusations are fake as the Cobra Post."