Alia Bhatt made an appearance at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Saudi Arabia. During the closing ceremony, she had a chance to interact with Spider-Man star Andrew Garfield. Fans are calling their meeting a crossover event.

In the viral pictures, Alia can be seen wearing a strapless gown in a shade of grey with purple floral embroidery, while Andrew Garfield was clicked in a black suit.

alia bhatt & andrew garfield my heart 🫶ðŸÂÂ�¼ðŸ¥º pic.twitter.com/zVLdp36FHe

— 🌙 (@softiealiaa) December 9, 2023

Alia Bhatt made an appearance at the Red Sea Film Festival on December 7. She showcased two distinct outfits during the event and even delivered a dialogue from her film Gangubai Kathiawadi, which is directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

Meanwhile, on the work front, Alia will next be seen in Vasan Bala’s Jigra. As per reports, the film also stars The Archies actor Vedang Raina and Sobhita Dhulipala. The film is slated to hit the cinemas on September 27, 2024.

Sofia Coppola has a way of masterfully portraying isolation that you can almost feel off the screen. Joining her catalogue of lonely female characters from The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation and Marie Antoinette is Priscilla. Based on the late singer Elvis Presley’s ex-wife, the film starring Jacob Elordi and Cailee Spaeny, follows the life and times of Priscilla Presley and her extraordinary relationship with the King of Rock n’ Roll. On a roundtable interview attended by Filmfare, Sofia Coppola opened up about Priscilla, working with Elordi and Spaeny and more.

Opening up about the art of bringing loneliness to the big screen, Sofia Coppola revealed that she could relate to Priscilla. She said, “That period in her life felt so isolating. She seemed to be living this fairytale life. She had this beautiful life with Elvis Presley. It all seemed like a dream but the reality was that she was left at home. He didn’t take her with him and she wasn’t allowed to have friends or work. She struggled with that and it’s very understandable how that must feel. I can imagine and relate to how that might be. I tried to show that in the quiet moments of her alone.”

Talking about the juxtaposition of the character’s scenes alone and the scenes with Elvis, Coppola added, “I also tried to show the contrast there. When Elvis is home his house is full of energy and excitement. When he’s gone, she is alone and is expected to be fulfilled by that. She feels she can’t complain or tell anybody because he wants everyone around to be positive. So I could really feel her struggle from what she wrote in her book and I tried to find a way to bring that out with the actress. The editing and the sound are a big part of that. You feel the energy change when she’s alone and when she’s with him. You can tell.” 

The director revealed that she was clear about the kind of representation she wanted for both Elvis and Priscilla. Offering a peek into her conversations with Elordi and Spaeney, she said, “They both did a lot of research. Caliee met with Priscilla and spoke with her. She got a lot of her voice quality from those conversations. For me, it was more important for them to have the essence of the character. I didn’t want it to be an impersonation, especially with Elvis. I made it clear with Jacob and we worked on his voice and movements. I didn’t want it to feel like a caricature. It helped that they learnt a lot about them but put that aside and focused on their human aspect and saw them as a couple in a relationship and not think too much about how the world saw them. I think they did a good job of making them human and turning them into multidimensional characters. It is definitely challenging. They needed to feel real instead of just public figures.”

The film which arrives a year after Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis starring Austin Butler, aims to uncover an untapped side of Elvis’ love story with Priscilla who was only 14 when she first met the music icon at a party. They tied the knot in 1967 and separated in 1973.

Priscilla is set to release in theatres on December 15, 2023.

The Constitution’s Article 370, which gave Jammu and Kashmir its special status, had “led to separatism”, Union Home Minister Amit Shah told Rajya Sabha today, hours after the Supreme Court backed the Centre’s move to scrap the Article four years ago.

“There are other states with more Muslim population than Kashmir. Then why only J&K was suffering from terrorism? It was because Article 370 led to separatism,” Mr Shah said, pointing out that top court, in its judgment today, said the Article was temporary in nature, meant only to ease Jammu and Kashmir into being a part of India.

The court’s order vindicated the government’s stand, said Mr Shah, who was the one to announce the revocation of the Article 370 and splitting of Jammu and Kashmir in August four years ago.
Even so, the Congress, he said, was not happy with the court’s verdict.

“Today, the Congress said in its press conference that the Article 370 was scrapped in an incorrect way. Even after Supreme Court verdict, they are saying that they don’t agree to this,” Mr Shah said.

The Congress, he said, had committed mistakes for 40 years. “They expect that the mistakes of 40 years will be rectified in Modi’s four years. But they are right, one should always aim high,”he said.

He also blamed Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first Prime Minister, for Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.

“If there was no untimely ceasefire (during the war with Pakistan), there wouldn’t have been a Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. Our country was winning, had he (Nehru) waited for two days, entire Kashmir would have been ours,” he said.

If there was no untimely ceasefire, there wouldn’t have been a PoK. Our country was winning, had he (Nehru) waited for 2 days, entire Kashmir would have been ours

“People say if not for Nehru, there would have been no Kashmir. People who know history, I want to ask them, Hyderabad faced a bigger problem, did Nehru go there? Did Nehru go to Lakshadweep, Junagarh or Jodhpur? He only used to go to Kashmir and even there he left the job unfinished,” he added.

The government’s move to mainstream Jammu and Kashmir has ensured that the lives of people there have improved, the minister said.

“Kashmiris don’t listen to people who talk about terrorism and separatism, they now listen to talks of democracy… Before 2014, thousands used to attend the funerals of terrorists. Does anyone see anything like that now? This happened because we made a provision, that their last rites will happen at the spot they were killed,” he added.

“Stone-pelting cases have come down because we brought a rule that if anyone has a stone-pelting case against them, no one from their family would be eligible for a government job,” he said. The government, he added, has handed young people laptops to young people who were carrying stones. “We are close to a terrorism-free Kashmir,” he said.