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Anupama Chopra

Anupama Chopra is the editor and founder of Film Companion.

Articles by Anupama Chopra

Why doesn’t India have an award even half as prestigious as the Oscars?

We make more films than any other country in the world. Yet, trying to create a world-class prize for cinema is the stuff of black comedy, says Anupama Chopra.

At the Oscars, protocol is strictly obeyed. Artists show up to applaud their peers. These are moves rarely seen at Indian awards. (AMPAS via Getty Images)

lifestyle

Updated on Aug 03, 2023 02:00 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

Playing by new rules: Anupama Chopra on streaming platforms and stories of women

‘Bollywood continues to discriminate, but streaming platforms are thankfully making more room for women — on screens, behind the scenes and in boardrooms too.’

Kartik Aaryan and Kriti Sanon in Shehzada. In the mainstream, male stars whose films tank continue to get big paydays. Women in this position seldom do.

lifestyle

Updated on Aug 12, 2023 03:36 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

A rebel storms the screen again: Anupama Chopra on Gulmohar

Sharmila Tagore plays Kusum, an elegant, wise, defiant matriarch, in the new film. It’s the ideal role for an actress who has always, inspiringly, done things her way.

Sharmila Tagore as Kusum, seen here with Manoj Bajpayee, who plays her son Arun.

lifestyle

Updated on Mar 11, 2023 02:02 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

Maar daala: Anupama Chopra looks back on courtesans that lit up our screens

Eyes that mesmerise, lips that spout poetry, hearts full of yearning... tawaifs return in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s new series, drawing from cinema’s best.

A poster for Bhansali’s upcoming Netflix series Heeramandi, which traces the lives of six courtesans in pre-Independence India.

lifestyle

Updated on Aug 12, 2023 04:02 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

Are OTT platforms changing streams, asks Anupama Chopra

February has a dazzling, star-studded line-up. But will big-ticket projects edge out quieter narratives, lesser-known names?

Raj Nidimoru says Shahid Kapoor was cast in Farzi because the project started out as a film with that actor. ‘Volumes in OTT are very high. One can’t have only stars,’ he adds, reassuringly.

lifestyle

Updated on Aug 10, 2023 05:18 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

A new blow for Bollywood: No Hindi film in India’s Top 5 earners of 2022

Movies made in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, even English feature among the year’s top five grossers in India. The first Hindi film, Brahmastra, comes in at No. 6.

lifestyle

Updated on Aug 10, 2023 05:49 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

What will stardom look like in 2023? Kannada superstar Yash provides clues

His is a story of talent, humility, vision, perseverance, ambition and lots of hard work. We need more dreamers and doers like him, says Anupama Chopra.

‘My vision is, let me work with people who are hungry and passionate. (Not) people who are looking at my box-office numbers,’ says Yash, seen here in a still from KGF 2.

lifestyle

Updated on Dec 24, 2022 07:04 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

Behind the scenes, at the roundtable, with Anupama Chopra

It can be heartache fixing a date. Even the seating can become controversial. But it’s worth it to have the best talent all in one place, excited to talk about the magic of filmmaking.

Anupama Chopra at a roundtable in Chennai with Gautham Menon, Prithviraj Sukumaran, Kamal Haasan and SS Rajamouli. (Courtesy Film Companion)

lifestyle

Updated on Dec 10, 2022 09:51 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

Great expectations: Anupama Chopra on how films now depict pregnancy

Indian cinema has typically deified mothers and ignored pregnancy. That’s changing, with hope for even-realer tales to come

In the recent release Yashoda, Samantha Ruth Prabhu plays a surrogate battling sinister forces in the luxurious prenatal facility to which she has been taken.

lifestyle

Updated on Nov 26, 2022 12:52 AM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

No fireworks, no fizz in Bollywood this Diwali, says Anupama Chopra

The festival face-off used to be a spectator sport. Now it’s a contest of bland vs bland, with sloppy storytelling all around.

Both Akshay Kumar’s Ram Setu and Ajay Devgn’s Thank God feel like endurance tests. They’re symptoms of a deeper malaise in Hindi cinema.

lifestyle

Updated on Nov 04, 2022 03:04 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

When demi-gods show the way: Anupama Chopra on Kantara

Rishab Shetty’s new Kannada film is primal, authentic. And its blend of folklore and masala just shattered the language barrier in real time.

Actor-writer-director Shetty plays Shiva, an impulsive villager. The plot makes room for love, comedy, family drama, and trauma overcome with a bit of divine aid.

lifestyle

Updated on Oct 21, 2022 02:11 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

Rebuild, reboot, rethink Hrithik: Anupama Chopra on Vikram Vedha

Roshan’s character, Vedha, is maniacal yet charismatic, violent and unhinged. It’s an astonishing pivot from his lover-boy image.

In an interview in 2019, Roshan described to Chopra what the early years of his career felt like. ‘I was running fast because there was a dog after me. It’s very recently that I started to look back and the dog was not there,’ he said.

lifestyle

Updated on Oct 08, 2022 12:21 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

Critic’s choice: Anupama Chopra lists her favourite responses to bad reviews

Online, there are anonymous threats and accusations. Offline, there are implications of bias. But every now and then, a filmmaker or actor will take it in their stride in amusing ways. One such instance was literally a scream.

When Anupama Chopra bumped into Ram Gopal Verma after giving his film, Agyaat, a bad review, he didn’t say hello. He just “looked at me, screamed, and ran in the opposite direction. It was hilarious,” she says.

lifestyle

Updated on Sep 24, 2022 06:24 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

Finally, a price correction begins in Bollywood

As films led by superstars continue to flop, A-listers are taking pay cuts and there is talk of budgets going towards storytelling instead, says Anupama Chopra.

‘Amid a series of flops — most recently, Laal Singh Chaddha and Raksha Bandhan (above) — a leading producer tells me that star prices have dropped by up to 35%,’ Chopra says.

lifestyle

Updated on Sep 09, 2022 06:34 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

Private jets, Biserli baths:Anupama Chopra on the escalating A-lister’s wishlist

As moviestars look to outdo one another, demands are ballooning. Some want an entire food truck on set, even when they’re fasting. Others will only travel via Boeing, not Airbus.

Production houses are having to deal with the kinds of demands we gaped at agog in the showbiz mockumentary 30 Rock, featuring the likes of spoilt-brat star Tracy Jordan and his eccentric entourage.

lifestyle

Updated on Aug 27, 2022 03:58 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

It’s big change that’s needed in Bollywood, not big bucks, says Anupama Chopra

The ₹150-crore Shamshera is built on a story that gives way in the first hour, leaving its lead, the talented Ranbir Kapoor, floundering. Meanwhile, small gems continue to hook audiences, including Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi films made on tiny and even crowdsourced budgets.

Rajat Kapoor’s RK/Rkay is a witty and whimsical take on making movies, on questions of authorship, destiny and free will. The film crowdsouced its <span class='webrupee'>₹</span>2-crore budget, with about 800 people contributing between <span class='webrupee'>₹</span>100 and <span class='webrupee'>₹</span>50,000 each.

lifestyle

Updated on Jul 30, 2022 03:19 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

Add to watchlist: Anupama Chopra picks 2022’s best films on streaming so far

At the half-year mark, a look at rare gems, indie releases, regional hits and little films that could, and did.

Malayalam film Hridayam is about growing up and coming to the understanding that despite the heartbreak, the missed opportunities and failures, it is glorious to be alive.

lifestyle

Updated on Jul 16, 2022 07:17 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

SRK and the art of spreading the love

Even in a mediocre film, there is a specific kind of joy that Shah Rukh delivers. The world could do with more of that, says Anupama Chopra.

SRK at Davos. When Shah Rukh Khan stretches his arms out in that signature pose, it feels like he is embracing the world, Chopra says.

lifestyle

Updated on Jul 01, 2022 10:46 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

What makes a movie too long, asks Anupama Chopra

There is no science to film duration. But even a good idea stretched too far will snap, as a new crop of filmmakers is finding out.

The new Kannada release 777 Charlie, a heart-rending tale of a man bettered by his dog, is let down by its runtime of 2 hours and 45 minutes.

lifestyle

Updated on Jun 18, 2022 08:01 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

Joyland is a gem from across the border, says Anupama Chopra

Pakistan’s first film to make the official selection at Cannes is a tragic tale of desire, freedom and repression. It deserves a bigger audience than just festival-goers.

Filmmaker Saim Sadiq describes the film about a conservative Lahore family as a call for empathy. It observes the acute loneliness of both men and women and the toxic patriarchy that subjugates everyone.

lifestyle

Updated on Jun 04, 2022 06:36 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

French dispatch: Notes from a busy week at Cannes

More than 12,000 people are at the festival this year. It’s a breath of fresh air amid the pandemic, and a reminder that cinema remains our constant, says Anupama Chopra.

Crowds ring a red carpet at Cannes as Viola Davis, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Elle Fanning, Eva Longoria and Katherine Langford arrive at a premiere. (AFP)

lifestyle

Updated on May 20, 2022 04:37 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

Bollywood is learning about the perils of vanity, says Anupama Chopra

It started with artists buying the spotlight, then believing they‘d earned it. The level of delusion and hubris tends to be proportional to the mediocrity of the work. Meanwhile, films from the South continue to top Hindi charts and set new records.

Tiger Shroff in Heropanti 2. The film has opened to a lacklustre response, even as the dubbed-in-Hindi Kannada movie KGF: Chapter 2 continues to rake it in.

lifestyle

Updated on May 07, 2022 01:07 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

It’s too much testosterone. Take it down a notch, say Anupama Chopra

KGF: Chapter 2, RRR, Pushpa: The Rise, Sooryavanshi... I hope the hyper-masculine heroes of recent hits, bashing and bathed in blood, don’t become the new industry standard, Chopra says.

Allu Arjun in Pushpa: The Rise. “Pushpa isn’t a flower. It is fire,” he says in the film.

lifestyle

Updated on Apr 22, 2022 02:51 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

Bollywood could do with some of Rajamouli’s secret sauce: Anupama Chopra on RRR

There is a ferociousness and flamboyance to the filmmaker’s vision that the Hindi film industry needs more of. He doesn’t rest on past glory; there’s effort in every frame, Chopra says.

NTR Jr and Ram Charan in RRR, a film about a friendship between two freedom fighters in the 1920s.

lifestyle

Updated on Apr 08, 2022 04:07 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

Drive My Car: Japan’s first film up for a Best Picture Oscar is exquisite

The movie explores the bond between a widower and the woman hired to drive him around Hiroshima. 'It's a quietly devastating meditation on grief. Make time for it,' says Anupama Chopra.

Drive My Car, starring Hidetoshi Nishijima and Toko Miura, is based on a short story by Haruki Murakami.

lifestyle

Updated on Mar 26, 2022 05:19 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

Sanjay Leela Bhansali a rare auteur still true to his roots, says Anupama Chopra

His latest film, Gangubai Kathiawadi, celebrates elements of Hindi cinema that are at risk of being lost.

Alia Bhatt in the song Dholida. Bhansali stages songs like set-piece highlights, Chopra says.

lifestyle

Updated on Mar 12, 2022 04:37 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

And the Oscar may go to... Bhutan, says Anupama Chopra

Pawo Choyning Dorji’s debut Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom is a tender portrait of a country and people in transition

The protagonist Ugyen, seen here with the titular yak, dreams of migrating to Australia and becoming a singer.

lifestyle

Updated on Feb 26, 2022 03:47 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

Finally, a new age dawns for the Indian actress, says Anupama Chopra

It’s thrilling to see streaming platforms treat age an asset to be celebrated, rather than something to be camouflaged, and to see stories created for women across varied age groups.

‘The love affair between the camera and us has gone on for a very long time. All that’s left to prove now is how many different roles you can handle,’ says Madhuri Dixit, seen here in her upcoming streaming show, The Fame Game.

lifestyle

Updated on Feb 11, 2022 10:16 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

Mix it up; cinemas can’t thrive on a single flavour, says Anupama Chopra

Stories that are urban, high-concept and mid-budget should not be destined for streaming alone. They deserve to be seen on big screens too.

Taapsee Pannu’s new film, Looop Lapeta, based on the action thriller Run Lola Run, is being released on Netflix on February 4. Shakun Batra’s Gehraiyaan is headed for a direct-to-streaming release too. ‘I hope this demarcation between films fit for theatres and films fit for streaming doesn’t become the norm,’ says Anupama Chopra.

lifestyle

Updated on Jan 29, 2022 12:51 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

Why masala movies from the south are storming the Hindi box office

Dubbed versions of films such as Pushpa: The Rise are topping the charts. They’ve got all the elements of the traditional Bollywood blockbuster: gangs, fights, songs, sibling rivalry, love angles. They’re the kind of mass entertainer Bollywood rarely makes anymore, says Anupama Chopra.

Allu Arjun in the Telugu film Pushpa, about the explosive rise of a criminal in the sandalwood smuggling underworld. The dubbed version, released in mid-December, was one of the biggest Hindi hits of 2021.

lifestyle

Updated on Jan 14, 2022 08:43 PM IST

ByAnupama Chopra

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Anupama Chopra

Anupama Chopra is the editor and founder of Film Companion.

We make more films than any other country in the world. Yet, trying to create a world-class prize for cinema is the stuff of black comedy, says Anupama Chopra.

‘Bollywood continues to discriminate, but streaming platforms are thankfully making more room for women — on screens, behind the scenes and in boardrooms too.’

Sharmila Tagore plays Kusum, an elegant, wise, defiant matriarch, in the new film. It’s the ideal role for an actress who has always, inspiringly, done things her way.

Eyes that mesmerise, lips that spout poetry, hearts full of yearning... tawaifs return in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s new series, drawing from cinema’s best.

February has a dazzling, star-studded line-up. But will big-ticket projects edge out quieter narratives, lesser-known names?

Movies made in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, even English feature among the year’s top five grossers in India. The first Hindi film, Brahmastra, comes in at No. 6.

His is a story of talent, humility, vision, perseverance, ambition and lots of hard work. We need more dreamers and doers like him, says Anupama Chopra.

It can be heartache fixing a date. Even the seating can become controversial. But it’s worth it to have the best talent all in one place, excited to talk about the magic of filmmaking.

Indian cinema has typically deified mothers and ignored pregnancy. That’s changing, with hope for even-realer tales to come

The festival face-off used to be a spectator sport. Now it’s a contest of bland vs bland, with sloppy storytelling all around.

Rishab Shetty’s new Kannada film is primal, authentic. And its blend of folklore and masala just shattered the language barrier in real time.

Roshan’s character, Vedha, is maniacal yet charismatic, violent and unhinged. It’s an astonishing pivot from his lover-boy image.

Online, there are anonymous threats and accusations. Offline, there are implications of bias. But every now and then, a filmmaker or actor will take it in their stride in amusing ways. One such instance was literally a scream.

As films led by superstars continue to flop, A-listers are taking pay cuts and there is talk of budgets going towards storytelling instead, says Anupama Chopra.

As moviestars look to outdo one another, demands are ballooning. Some want an entire food truck on set, even when they’re fasting. Others will only travel via Boeing, not Airbus.

The ₹150-crore Shamshera is built on a story that gives way in the first hour, leaving its lead, the talented Ranbir Kapoor, floundering. Meanwhile, small gems continue to hook audiences, including Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi films made on tiny and even crowdsourced budgets.

At the half-year mark, a look at rare gems, indie releases, regional hits and little films that could, and did.

Even in a mediocre film, there is a specific kind of joy that Shah Rukh delivers. The world could do with more of that, says Anupama Chopra.

There is no science to film duration. But even a good idea stretched too far will snap, as a new crop of filmmakers is finding out.

Pakistan’s first film to make the official selection at Cannes is a tragic tale of desire, freedom and repression. It deserves a bigger audience than just festival-goers.

More than 12,000 people are at the festival this year. It’s a breath of fresh air amid the pandemic, and a reminder that cinema remains our constant, says Anupama Chopra.

It started with artists buying the spotlight, then believing they‘d earned it. The level of delusion and hubris tends to be proportional to the mediocrity of the work. Meanwhile, films from the South continue to top Hindi charts and set new records.

KGF: Chapter 2, RRR, Pushpa: The Rise, Sooryavanshi... I hope the hyper-masculine heroes of recent hits, bashing and bathed in blood, don’t become the new industry standard, Chopra says.

There is a ferociousness and flamboyance to the filmmaker’s vision that the Hindi film industry needs more of. He doesn’t rest on past glory; there’s effort in every frame, Chopra says.

The movie explores the bond between a widower and the woman hired to drive him around Hiroshima. 'It's a quietly devastating meditation on grief. Make time for it,' says Anupama Chopra.

His latest film, Gangubai Kathiawadi, celebrates elements of Hindi cinema that are at risk of being lost.

Pawo Choyning Dorji’s debut Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom is a tender portrait of a country and people in transition

It’s thrilling to see streaming platforms treat age an asset to be celebrated, rather than something to be camouflaged, and to see stories created for women across varied age groups.

Stories that are urban, high-concept and mid-budget should not be destined for streaming alone. They deserve to be seen on big screens too.

Dubbed versions of films such as Pushpa: The Rise are topping the charts. They’ve got all the elements of the traditional Bollywood blockbuster: gangs, fights, songs, sibling rivalry, love angles. They’re the kind of mass entertainer Bollywood rarely makes anymore, says Anupama Chopra.

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