English Entertainment
Dia Mirza on women’s safety at the &Privé Soirée
MUMBAI: At the recently held &Privé Soirée, an IP of &PrivéHD, Bollywood Actresses Dia Mirza and Swara Bhaskar along with National Film Award Winner Documentarian Anand Patwardhan introduced the film Weinstein: The Inside Story. A riveting discussion about a story which led to the #MeToo revolution in entertainment industry and how women are possibly worst to their own gender who experience sexual harassment.
A gripping conversation between Swara Bhaskar, Dia Mirza and Anand Patwardhan about how important it is for women to come together to take a stand during such revolution
Dia Mirza says “I have been accused of all kinds of things, from being asexual to being unattractive, to being difficult, to everything. Every possible word has been used to describe my behaviour, but it never altered my idea of how I needed to conduct myself. The reason why #MeToo and #TimesUp has gathered momentum is because women recognized the power of supporting each other. I think more and more women who identify and support their own gender will help in changing the narrative.
On being asked, about the right balance between the safety and freedom, Dia shared, “I think it is important to be responsible about your own safety and allow yourself to pursue what you want.” Swara Bhaskar added, “Sometimes the whole onus of being safe falls on women in a way we become restrictive. And for me a way to do that is to claim and not back down. I will claim the spaces which are deemed unsafe in an intelligent way. I love this slogan, “women unite, take the night” Reminiscing the shoot days, Swara shared one of her experience about overcoming her fears, “When we were shooting, I saw this alley in Delhi on our last day of the shoot. I asked the director if we can take a shot of me walking down the road alone, and he could put wherever he want in the film and we were able to do it. The director placed it at the very end of the film, that is the aim we should have. Don’t restrict yourself, go out wherever, just be intelligent. We have to claim and fight for our safety”
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
