Entertainment this week: Calm down, says Gauhar Khan to politicos

The Begum Jaan actress Gauhar Khan says people in politics should calm down. She was answering a question about moral policing in India. She feels that the country is going backwards and there is too much intolerance.

"I wonder if as a country, India is moving backward in the name of moving forward. There is too much of intolerance,” she said in New Delhi on Friday.

Talking about crime against women, she said, there should be stricter laws to prevent crime against women. "If the government can't make stricter laws, crime against women won't stop. Yes, certain things have changed in the past 70 years. Women are more vocal now. But if you consider the overall scenario, the mindset of certain sets of people need to change," she said.

Maatr shows harsh reality without any gloss: Raveena

Her latest movie, Maatr, is about a gang-rape incident and actress Raveena Tandon says the movie shows the plight of women in the country without any sugar-coating.

The revenge thriller has been directed by Ashtar Sayed and written by Michael Pellico.

Raveena says she and the makers of the movie were committed to stay true to the subject and wanted to steer clear from commercialising anything.

"In our country, there is a rape happening at some place everyday. This film shows the harsh reality. There is no sugar-coating," said Raveena.

The actress says since films made on such subjects are often unrealistic, it is important to make movies that shock people so that they understand the ordeal of a victim.

"Statistically, it (rape) is on the rise and it doesn't seem to come down. So, obviously there is some system that is failing to protect the girls and women in the country. Something needs to be done."

Maatr, which released on Friday, shows a mother's fight for justice and how she takes matters in her own hands to seek revenge from the perpetrators.

Though the film has not received good reviews and has been criticised for showing too much blood and gory, she defended this revenge film by saying that the film does not endorse the idea of taking law and order in one’s own hands, it instead conveys the urgent need to curb this crime.

Aamir Khan, Kapil Dev get Dinanath Mangeshkar Award

Actor Aamir Khan and cricket icon Kapil Dev will receive the 75th Master Dinanath Mangeshkar Awards, at a ceremony in Mumbai on April 24.

Khan will be honoured with the Vishesh Puraskar for Best Film Dangal, and Kapil Dev for his outstanding contribution to Indian Cricket.

Other awardees include legendary actress Vyjayanthimala Bali, who will be honoured with Master Dinanath Vishesh Puraskar for her achievements in Hindi cinema.

"Various awards will be given to personalities who have contributed extraordinarily in the field of social service, literature, drama and music etc," Avinash Prabhavalkar of Hridayesh Arts said in a statement.

The event will be organised by Master Dinanath Smruti Pratishthan and Hridayesh Arts.

He is not your son: HC quashes lawsuit against actor Dhanush

The Madras High Court on Friday allowed the plea of Tamil actor Dhanush for quashing an elderly couple's lawsuit claiming that he was their runaway son and seeking maintenance.

After hearing both the sides, Justice PN Prakash of the court's Madurai bench rejected the couple's submissions and said their statement was false as claimed by the actor.

The counsel for the couple said they would appeal against the order. The couple, R Kathiresan (65) and Meenakshi (53), had moved the Melur judicial magistrate court claiming that Dhanush was their son.

They claimed Dhanush was their third son and also sought a monthly maintenance of ₹65,000, saying they were in a very poor financial position. They had submitted that Dhanush was a school boy when he ran away to Chennai to get into the film world. They could not trace him then and recognised him while watching a movie.

However, the actor denied the submissions. A medical report was filed last month in response to the court's directive for medical verification of Dhanush's identification marks in the wake of the couple's claim. Earlier on March 2, the High Court had stayed the Melur magisterial court proceedings.

Moushumi Chatterjee gets BFJA lifetime achievement award

Veteran actress Moushumi Chatterjee has received the lifetime achievement award, while actor Ashish Vidyarthi was honoured for his contribution to Indian Cinema at the 80th Bengal Film Journalists' Association (BFJA) awards.

A galaxy of seasoned directors – Kaushik Ganguly, Shiboprasad Mukherjee-Nandita Roy, Aniruddha Roychowdhury, Srijit Mukherjee and Goutam Ghosh were honoured with best direction trophies for their works at a function in Kolkata last night.

"With the BFJA award not taking place in the past couple of years, we included all the representative works during the time (2014-16)," a BFJA spokesman said promising that the award will be an annual occasion from now on.

The oldest association of film scribes in the country, the BFJA was founded in 1937.

Bengali film superstar Prosenjit Chatterjee was given the best actor award for his role in Sankhachil, while Rituparna Sengupta was given the best actress crown for her role in Rajkahini along with Paoli Dam for Natoker Moto. Prosenjit shared the honour with actor Chiranjeet Chakraborty for Chotushkone.