Sampada Sharma

2 months ago | indianexpress.com | Sampada Sharma

Many years ago, Aamir Khan hinted that he was keen on making Mahabharat for the big screen. It wasn’t even an announcement but it prompted the trolls. The idea that a Muslim man wanted to make an epic that’s sacred for the Hindus was too much for the naysayers. On Tuesday morning, Aamir reiterated his thoughts and said that he would want to make multiple films on the epic as the story is so vast that it can’t be summarised in one film.

2 months ago | indianexpress.com | Sampada Sharma

Six years ago, Channel 4 decided to put together the great-granddaughter of Reginal Dyer, Caroline Dyer, in the same room as the grandson of one of the survivors of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Dyer was the man responsible for killing thousands of men, women and children when he ordered his troops to shoot at a peaceful gathering on April 13, 1919.

2 months ago | indianexpress.com | Sampada Sharma

A few months ago, when Jaya Bachchan was addressed as Jaya Amitabh Bachchan during a Rajya Sabha session, it ignited a heated debate. Jaya said that while she was extremely proud of her husband and his achievements, she found this address extremely patriarchal. The debate started because a few days before this exchange, Jaya had brought up the fact that the society likes to recognise a woman by her husband’s name, as if “they have no existence or achievements of their own.” Jaya is not that woman.

Mar 12, 2025 | indianexpress.com | Sampada Sharma

It was somewhere in the early 1990s that Aamir Khan got the nickname of ‘Mr Perfectionist’ from veteran actor Shabana Azmi. During an appearance on Kapil Sharma’s show, Aamir recalled that he was once visiting the actor at her house and when she asked how much sugar he wanted in his tea, Aamir gave a rather strange response. “What is the size of the cup?” After inspecting the cup, he asked “How big is the spoon?” It was after examining these two variables that Aamir calculated his answer.

Mar 7, 2025 | indianexpress.com | Sampada Sharma

‘What do we do now?’ Ten years ago, Reese Witherspoon gave a powerful speech at an event where she pointed out that in most popular films, at a critical juncture in the plot, a breathless and confused-looking woman turns to a man and asks him, “What do we do now?” Reese pointed out that this idea that a woman wouldn’t know how to handle a crisis was completely bizarre but she noticed that no one in Hollywood cared enough and they didn’t mind presenting women as distressed damsels.