Bollywood star Alia Bhatt is homeward bound. The actress has shared a series of photos from the set of her first Hollywood production, Heart of Stone, thanking her co-stars Gal Gadot and Jamie Dornan, director Tom Harper as well as the crew.
"I will be forever grateful for the love and care I received and I can’t wait for you all to see the film," the acclaimed actress posted on Instagram, with one photo of her hugging Gadot. "But for now ... I’m coming home baby."
Production for the film, a spy thriller for Netflix, began earlier this year. While there are no plot details yet, the film is planned as a female spin on popular spy franchises, including Mission: Impossible and James Bond.
Wonder Woman star Gadot, who was the first big name to be signed, had earlier revealed her character's name: Rachel Stone.
Bhatt is reportedly playing the role of an Indo-American intelligence operative, named Maya Singh, in the film.
Last month, the actress, 29, announced she was expecting her first child with husband, actor Ranbir Kapoor, 39. The couple got married in a glamorous ceremony in Mumbai in April, attended by the who's who of Bollywood.
With Heart of Stone, Bhatt joins a growing list of Bollywood stars making their mark in Hollywood. While Priyanka Chopra is the most recognisable name among international audiences, her peers have also been cast in major roles in Hollywood productions in recent times.
Actor and director Farhan Akhtar recently made his debut in the hit Disney+ series Ms Marvel.
In 2017, Deepika Padukone played one of the leads in Vin Diesel's action franchise film xXx: Return of Xander Cage, while actor Ali Fazal was cast opposite Judi Dench in the period film, 2017's Victoria & Abdul. Fazal, who also starred in the 2015 hit Furious 7, was also in Kenneth Branagh's starry mystery film Death on the Nile, which also features Gadot.
South Indian superstar Dhanush will soon be seen in the Russo brothers' action thriller The Gray Man, alongside Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans and Ana de Armas, scheduled to be released on Friday, July 22 on Netflix.
'Manmarziyaan' (Colour Yellow Productions, Phantom Films)
Director: Anurag Kashyap
Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Vicky Kaushal
Rating: 3.5/5
The specs
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On sale: Now
Price: From Dh1.05 million ($286,000)
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Tori Amos
Native Invader
Decca
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
