Katy Perry Edits her ‘Dark Horse’ Video After Muslim Complaints. More than 60,000 people signed a Change.org petition vilifying the pop diva’s latest “Dark Horse” video for “portraying blasphemy” and urged YouTube to take the clip down. The issue was that Perry’s on-screen love interest was seen wearing a pendant on which ‘Allah’ was written in Arabic (you can see the pendant at left in the photo above). The video was quickly edited and now features a newly photoshopped scene of the suitor appearing without the offending necklace. (New York Daily News)
Superwoman Raps for ‘Gulaab Gang.’ If you’ve been following YouTube sensation Lilly Singh — aka Superwoman — on Facebook recently, you’d know she’s all over India meeting and greeting tons of awesome celebs. But that’s not all. She’s also lent her empowering voice to a soulful rap collaboration called Mauj Ki Malharein for Gulaab Gang, a film based on female empowerment that replaces the traditional Bollywood musical with songs encompassing revolutionary Hindi poetry. The film stars Madhuri Dixit and Juhi Chawla, and is slated to release on March 7. Check out the touching track below: (UrbanAsian)
It should be noted that the film Gulaab Gang is not without controversy. Sampat Pal, the founder of the real-life Gulabi Gang, says the filmmakers have used her life story without her permission.
“I challenge Madhuri Dixit to show this movie on March 7 without my permission,” Pal recently told The New York Times.
A Cancer Survivor Has Sharp Words for Bollywood. Manisha Koirala, a Bollywood actress and cancer survivor, is speaking out about how the disease has historically been portrayed in Hindi cinema. She says:
In our films, they show that if you are suffering from cancer, then you have to die. Nobody has till now shown that you can deal with cancer and you can also survive for 30 to 40 years.” (Unitezz)
The ‘Boss’ is Always Right. Akshay Kumar took to his Facebook page this week after discovering that some of his fans were being scammed with false promises of landing jobs on his films. Read his full message below. (Akshay Kumar Official)
India Sprouts Wedding Detectives! As if finding a match online wasn’t difficult enough, you now have to worry if the person you’ve fallen for is catfishing you. Sites like Shaadi.com and Bharat Matrimony have triggered a new parallel industry in which some Indian families have been turning to private investigators to investigate potential suitors. (BBC)
