iWorld
Holi at home? Stream these five Bollywood favourites on Tata Play Binge
Park the pichkaris and press play this festive week
NATIONAL: Bura na maano, Holi hai! Laughter rings out, plates of gujiya do the rounds and the streets brace for their annual drenching. This year brings a slight celestial twist: with the 3 March lunar eclipse in play, many regions will light the Holika pyre then and break out the colours on 4 March, though local calendars may vary. Either way, if the streets feel too crowded, Tata Play Binge has lined up a clutch of films where Holi is more than backdrop; it is turning point, metaphor and mood-setter.
Here are five festive staples to stream:
Sholay (1975)
No Holi playlist is complete without Holi Ke Din Dil Khil Jaate Hain. Ramesh Sippy’s classic stages the festival in Ramgarh before the mood is brutally interrupted. Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra’s Jai and Veeru, enlisted by Sanjeev Kumar’s Thakur Baldev Singh to stop Amjad Khan’s Gabbar Singh, deliver a scene that swings from jubilation to dread in minutes. It is Bollywood spectacle at full volume.
Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013)
If Holi had a millennial soundtrack, it would be Balam Pichkari. Ayan Mukerji’s coming-of-age romance lets Ranbir Kapoor’s Bunny and Deepika Padukone’s Naina drop their guards in a swirl of colour and confession. Kalki Koechlin and Aditya Roy Kapur add to the ensemble in a film where flirtation matures into something more fragile.
Raanjhanaa (2013)
In the bylanes of Banaras, Holi turns intense. Dhanush’s Kundan is hopelessly devoted to Sonam Kapoor’s Zoya in a story that fuses unrequited love with political churn. The colours here feel heavy, a festival reframed as emotional upheaval.
Kati Patang (1971)
Aaj Na Chhodenge Bas Humjoli keeps this Rajesh Khanna–Asha Parekh drama evergreen. Beneath the song lies a tale of reinvention and quiet longing, as a woman assumes a new identity to escape her past. The Holi sequence glows with romance, even as the plot simmers with secrets.
Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017)
Youthful and unabashed, this small-town romance pairs Varun Dhawan’s blustering Badri with Alia Bhatt’s self-assured Vaidehi. Holi becomes a flirtatious battlefield before the film pivots to questions of ambition and equality. It is bright, brash and keenly contemporary.
(Note: The cover image is AI-generated and meant for representational purposes only.)
iWorld
Meta warns 200 users after fake Whatsapp spyware attack
Italy-targeted campaign used unofficial app to deploy surveillance spyware.
MUMBAI: It looked like a message, but it behaved like a mole. Meta has warned around 200 users most of them in Italy after uncovering a targeted spyware campaign that weaponised a fake version of WhatsApp to infiltrate devices. The attack, first reported by Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata, relied on classic social engineering with a modern twist: persuading users to download an unofficial WhatsApp clone embedded with surveillance software. The malicious application, believed to be developed by Italian firm SIO through its subsidiary ASIGINT, was designed to mimic the real app closely enough to bypass suspicion.
Meta’s security teams identified roughly 200 individuals who may have installed the compromised version, triggering immediate countermeasures. Affected users were logged out of their accounts and issued alerts warning of potential privacy breaches, with the company describing the incident as a “targeted social engineering attempt” aimed at gaining device-level access.
The malicious app was not distributed via official app stores but circulated through third-party channels, where it was presented as a legitimate WhatsApp alternative. Once installed, it reportedly allowed external operators to access sensitive data stored on the device turning a simple download into a potential surveillance gateway.
According to Techcrunch, Meta is now preparing legal action against the spyware developers to curb further misuse. The company, however, has not disclosed details about the specific individuals targeted or the extent of data compromised.
A Whatsapp spokesperson reiterated that user safety remains the top priority, particularly for those misled into installing the fake iOS application. Meanwhile, reports from La Repubblica suggest the spyware may be linked to “Spyrtacus”, a strain previously associated with Android-based attacks that could intercept calls, activate microphones and even access cameras.
The episode underscores a growing reality in the digital age, the threat is no longer just what you download, but where you download it from. As unofficial apps become increasingly convincing, the line between communication tool and covert surveillance is getting harder to spot and far easier to exploit.
