Rajiv Vijayakar is the Entertainment Editor at South Asian Herald. He has been a journalist and critic for over 25 years and was part of the National Film Awards Jury in India in 2011 and 2015. He has authored four books, the latest of which, “Music by Laxmikant Pyarelal,” won the National Award for Best Book on Cinema in 2021. He also was on the 2025 jury for choosing the Indian entry for the Oscars.
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Surrounded by the hit Thamma and also the projected small-town success of Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat, and co-released with Bahubali—The Epic, one would have expected The Taj Story, a saga sans stars, to go unnoticed…
On October 31, half a century passed after S.D. Burman, that timeless composer and singer, achieved immortality. Born on October 1, 1906, his melodies were always known to be ahead…
On November 2, Shah Rukh Khan turned a young 60. My first of multiple Shah Rukh Khan interviews was in his make-up van in 1998 where he had promised me…
In the last 15 to 20 years, technology has brought in paradigm shifts (and usually major improvements) in all aspects of cinema—projection of visuals, sound, music, filmmaking, editing, visual effects…
Created by Raj & DK and written by them along with Suman Kumar with dialogues by Sumit Arora, The Family Man is directed by Raj & DK, with Suman Kumar…
Not that the predecessor, The Trial—Pyaar Kaanoon Dhokha was great. At most, it was an average and rambling fare, but as it left some areas unfulfilled, one expected the follow-up season to…
Si Nonna’s, the all-India Pizzeria chain, achieved a historic milestone this week by becoming India’s first pizzeria to receive the globally-recognized certification from the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN), founded…
Actress Parul Gulati has officially announced her next big project, Kis Kis Ko Pyaar Karoon 2 with comedy king Kapil Sharma. The film, set to release on December 15, marks a major…
Continuing the saga of South Indian stars in Hindi cinema: In the first part, we looked at heroes from the late 1950s to the 1990s. We now look at the…
Time was when in the 1980s, Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth (then spelt Rajnikant!) arrived with a bang in Hindi cinema with their respective blockbusters, Ek Duuje Ke Liye and Andhaa Kaanoon. The novel…
A script inspired by a real case dramatizes a bit on the way, but gets real at the end—this was a case that was dragged for 14 long years by…
He is one of the few legends active in my time who I missed interviewing. We met at the wedding of late composer Laxmikant’s granddaughter, conversed for a couple of…
A reporter, Alok (Ayushmann Khurrana), who makes reels gets involved with a tribe of betaals. So who are they? They are dead people blessed with immortality, who have morals, codes and…
Nestled deep within a beautiful valley of Kashmir lies the snow-covered, slow-paced city of Baramulla, where rumors and legends intertwine with reality. When a young boy mysteriously disappears, it sets…
Diwali has been becoming an increasingly prestigious occasion for cinema, especially Hindi cinema, which can be called the real pan-Indian one. Though many an older Hindi film must have released…
A lot of water has flown under the cinematic sea in 21 years. In that phase, technology has got a major boost, audience tastes have got modified and updated, and…
