Actress Priyanka Chopra seemed to really mean business when she said she would follow good cinema wherever it took her. Chopra, who has been making waves in the United States with her TV show Quantico and upcoming film Baywatch, recently turned to regional cinema in India. In the Marathi film Ventilator, the 34-year-old actress sings a song titled Baba, dedicated to her father who passed away in 2013. Chopra has always been vocal about her close relationship with her father and tweeted the song saying, "#Baba..My first Marathi song.. Forgive me if there are any mistakes...this one is all heart". Meanwhile, in an interview with the Hindustan Times, Chopra said she has been making a concentrated effort to dispel myths in Hollywood about the Indian film industry, and would love to see more Indian talent being represented in movies in the West. – Sonali Kokra
Salman Khan supports Hillary Clinton
Just days out from the United States presidential elections, Bollywood superstar Salman Khan has joined the growing list of celebrities to supporting Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Khan, 50, has always been reticent about taking a stand on political issues in the past. On Saturday, Khan tweeted a photo of Clinton and wrote: "Hope you win. May God give you the strength to follow the constitution and human values. All the best. "HillaryClintonforpresident". While Clinton might not know who Khan is, she does remember Amitabh Bachchan. In one of her leaked e-mails, Clinton asked trusted aide Huma Abedin, "What's the name of the famous older Indian actor we met a few years ago?" to which Abedin replied, "Amitabh Bachchan". – Sonali Kokra
Meryl Streep gets award for lifetime achievement
Meryl Streep will get the Golden Globes lifetime achievement award at the annual ceremony in January, organisers have announced. Streep, a three-time Oscar winner, will be presented with the Cecil B DeMille award in recognition of her 40 years in the industry. "She has always taken roles with strong female leads, creating art by showing vulnerability and portraying truth on the big screen. "Simply put, she is a trailblazer, having paved the way for women in television, film and stage," Hollywood Foreign Press Association's president Lorenzo Sofia said. Streep's most-recent film was the 2016 comedy Florence Foster Jenkins, in which she plays a rich, elderly American with no talent for singing but having big ambitions. The 67-year-old actress won Oscars for her performances in The Iron Lady, Sophie's Choice and Kramer vs. Kramer. She has received 19 Oscar nominations during her career. – Reuters
Unheard David Bowie vocals to be aired on BBC2
Previously unheard vocals and footage from David Bowie's Lazarus project will be aired for the first time in a BBC2 documentary covering the last five years of his life, according to a report in The Guardian. David Bowie: The Last Five Years will revolve around the singer's final projects – his last two albums, The Next Day and Blackstar, and musical Lazarus, which recently transferred from Broadway to London. Bowie died on January 10, two days after Blackstar's surprise release. The documentary will be broadcast in January as part of a series of programmes to coincide with what would have been his 70th birthday. – The National staff
Sabash Naidu filming to resume in January
The filming of upcoming trilingual comedy Sabash Naidu, which had to be stopped briefly owing to actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasan's leg injury, will resume in January. Haasan fractured his leg after he slipped and fell at his home in July. The team had made plans to resume shoot from December but Haasan is not completely fit and so the shoot has been pushed until after the Christmas break. Sabash Naidu, a spin-off on Haasan's Balram Naidu character from Dasavatharam, is being simultaneously shot in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi. The film also stars Ramya Krishnan, Shruti Haasan and Brahmanandam in important roles. – IANS
Freddie Mercury to be played by Rami Malek
Rami Malek is set to play late singer Freddie Mercury in the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, based on the band Queen, reports Variety magazine. Malek, 35, recently won the Best Actor Emmy for cyber series Mr. Robot, and has also had recurring roles on 24, The Pacific and has been in all three films in the Night at the Museum series as King Akhmenrah. Bryan Singer, who directed X-Men: Apocalypse and The Usual Suspects, will direct the biopic charting the life of the late British singer and New Regency and Fox will co-produce the film. Bryan Singer confirmed the news on his Instagram account with a photograph of the Queen band members and confirmed his and Malek's involvement as well. The script is written by Anthony McCarten, who penned The Theory of Everything. – The National staff
Indian acting trio film talk show segment together
Bollywood actors Ajay Devgn, Sanjay Dutt and Abhishek Bachchan were spotted shooting for Sajid Khan and Riteish Deshmukh’s chat show Yaaron Ki Baarat at the weekend. The trio, who are good friends off the screen have great on screen chemistry and as they haven’t been featured in a film together, audiences are looking forward to seeing their friendship on the chat show. Devgn, 49 said: “It was a lot of fun. Though we three came here but technically we are five friends meeting after a long time.” Khan added: “It was Yaaron Ki Barat which turned into Yaadon ki Barat as we recalled many old memories.” Abhishek, 40, thanked the makers of the show for inviting them. The episode will be aired on November 6 on Zee TV. - IANS