DailyOh! Did Rishi Kapoor buy Filmfare award for Bobby? Is coronavirus a biological weapon?

Hey there,

Had a good weekend? We hope you did. Did you get to watch the Filmfare Award ceremony? If you missed out, you haven’t missed much, we say. But if you have missed out on the controversy that the awards have created, you certainly have missed a lot. And that is no problem because we will tell you all about it.

So, Gully Boy (2019) got 13 awards, including Best Actor (Ranveer Singh) and Best Actress (Alia Bhatt). That looked like the movie was being (over)compensated for losing out on the Oscars.

People said there were better films that have not been awarded. The biggest controversy, however, was over Ananya Panday being given the award for the Best Female Debut for Student Of The Year 2. The 21-year-old, who once said her dad Chunky Panday had to struggle because he never was on Koffee With Karan, soon became the butt of jokes on social media. We wonder if she has been seeing all the jokes being cracked on her ‘achievement’. That must be hurtful.

Now, this isn’t the first time that the awards have come in for criticism. There have always been these allegations that the awards can be bought. Salman Khan had even called the awards 'stupid' at one point. Watch it to believe it.

Khan, however, didn’t say the awards could be bought. But an industry insider did.

Who?

Chintu.

Yes, Rishi Kapoor said that he paid Rs 30,000 to buy an award in 1973. Wondering where he said it? Well, he wrote about it in his autobiography, Khullam Khulla: Rishi Kapoor Uncensored. The film that released in 1973 was Bobby. Rishi also admitted, quite khullam khulla, in an interview that the award he bought was a Filmfare black lady, for Bobby.

Before we take the story forward, let us tell you that the book is called Khullam Khulla after the song in Khel Khel Mein (1975). You can listen to the song, here:

And this is why Kapoor could never respect awards. In one interview, he said, “I use trophies as doorstops in my home.” Aren’t the trophies too big to act as doorstops? Maybe he didn’t actually do it. Maybe he just said it to convey how irrelevant awards were for him.

Now, we all know Rishi Kapoor can be savage with his words. In 2015, after Parineeti Chopra won the Style Icon of the Year award, Kapoor said, “I couldn’t believe it when they gave an award to Parineeti Chopra for losing weight. Will they give me one for gaining weight?”

Ouch!

Now, we can’t say if that hurt Parineeti more than how this is hurting Ananya. But Bollywood and controversies go hand-in-hand. Another controversy that struck Bollywood over the weekend had link with politics. In the lead were Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat and actor Sonam Kapoor. Okay, let’s end the suspense.

So, it all started when at an event, Mohan Bhagwat said that divorce cases are more prevalent in "educated and affluent" families at the moment as education and affluence bring arrogance along, which result in families falling apart. This comment miffed Sonam, who tweeted,

Sonam has many stupid statements to her credit, but Bhagwat did beat her in the stupidity contest. You can read Bhagwat’s detailed statement here.

But talking of divorce, you know they keep talking about rising divorce rates in India, but that we are nowhere close to divorce rates in other countries? No, we are not suggesting a competition there, just saying.

Actually, India has the lowest divorce rate in the world. Out of 1,000 marriages, only 13 result in divorce. This translates into a divorce rate of less than 1 per cent. The US has a divorce rate of 46 per cent. While the divorce rate in India is low, it is certainly rising. Over the past two decades, the rate has doubled. Even if you do not believe Bhagwat’s reasoning, you would still think divorce rates are rising across the world due to more education and more women coming out of homes to join the workforce. That is mostly true.

But in Britain, divorces between heterosexual couples have fallen to the lowest levels in about a century. Okay, Britain has had to undergo Brexit, and The Divorce of the century, from Europe, probably made up for Britain's falling divorce rates. Wondering why? Partly due to the problems in processing applications. You can read more about it here.

And we thought only we delayed work fearing filling forms. Here, people are putting up with people to avoid paperwork.

Jokes apart, we hope people stay happy in their relationships. We also hope they don’t unnecessarily suffer through relationships. You know some relationships can truly become a pain. We have said so much about divorce now — yes you got that right — divorce is our Word Of The Day.

Divorce comes from the Latin word ‘divortium’ which means separation. It is also equivalent to the word “divort” or ‘divortere’. ‘Di’ means apart and ‘vertere’ means to turn to different ways. When people turn to different ways, after being married, they are divorced. Also, turning to different ways can lead to divorces. There can be many more reasons too, like turning too much towards someone. That’s when we begin to suffocate people. 

And even as the country was debating all these controversies and Bhagwat's divorce comments, came the news that the Supreme Court has fixed a new date for the execution of the December 16 gang rape and murder convicts. Now, it's March 3. If there are no other legal remedies the four men try to avail, then they will be hanged till death on the set date. All executions in India happen by hanging.

You're wrong if you thought so.

While hanging by rope is the most common method to execute someone, the law allows death by shooting in cases related to the armed forces if the court martial hearing the case deems it fit. We do not know of any case where such a death sentence was carried out in India but the provision certainly exists.

Anyway, let’s change track. Let’s talk about what the world is talking about. We mean, most parts of the world — coronavirus. Remember we told you about Hong Kong running out of toilet paper? Oh, did you miss it?

No worries. Read it here.

A lot many people have been wondering how the virus spreads and a lot many explanations have also been offered. (Photo: Reuters)

We told you about that on February 6. And, it seems, the situation has only worsened since then. In the latest report from Hong Kong, armed robbers stole hundreds of toilet rolls. According to reports, a delivery man was threatened by three knife-wielding men. The men took away toilet rolls worth over $130 (Rs 9,277). The amount may look small for a robbery, but then, desperate situations see desperate action.

Authorities in Hong Kong have assured people that there is no supply shortage, but we guess the problem has compounded because people are hoarding. 

You know Japanese emperor Naruhito has cancelled his birthday event this year because of the virus. Naruhito’s birthday is on February 23 and he will turn 60. You may think who wants to celebrate birthdays at that age. But we say, why not? There should be no age bar to celebrations. Only an age bar to who can enter a bar.  

In any case, Japanese emperors are only supposed to give birthday addresses. The fear is that when a lot of people gather to hear the emperor’s address, they can transmit the virus from one to the other.

But this is not the first time the address has been cancelled. It happened in 1996 too. That year, Naruhito’s father Akihito was the emperor. That year, there was no coronavirus. No other virus too. Not in Japan at least.

That year, however, there was a hostage crisis at the official residence of the Japanese ambassador in Peru. Fourteen members of the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) took hundreds of high-level Japanese diplomats, government and military officials hostage. There were also Peruivan guests there. These people had gathered at the embassy to attend a party, which was part of the birthday celebrations of Akihito. You will be shocked to know how long these people were kept as hostages — 126 days — from December 17, 1996 to April 22, 1997. The crisis ended when Peruvian forces stormed the premises through a tunnel dug beneath the residence. While one Peruvian hostage and two Peruvian military personnel were killed, all 14 members of the MRTA were killed.

That must have been such a harrowing experience for the hostages.

But we were telling you about how the coronavirus has led to the cancellation of a birthday event.

A lot many people have been wondering how the virus spreads and a lot many explanations have also been offered. But yesterday, someone shared extracts from a book on Twitter, and that has left many shocked.

Read this to know what we mean:

A page from The Eyes of Darkness by Dean Koontz.

The book, The Eyes of Darkness, was originally published in 1981. Dean Koontz’s book was actually a work of fiction. He talked about a biological weapon called Wuhan-400 being developed by a Chinese scientist, outisde the city of Wuhan! The similarities between Wuhan-400 and coronavirus are uncanny to the point of bringing us out in a cold sweat.

Over the past few days, we have been telling you a lot about the virus. But so far, we haven’t really told you what you can do to prevent it. Here’s the answer — wash your hands. Actually, wash your hands frequently. Wash them with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand rub. This will help eliminate the virus if it is in your hands.

If you cough or sneeze, cover your mouth. And then wash your hands. If you have used a tissue to cover your mouth, discard it. Discard it in a way that others don’t come in contact with it. But then too, wash your hands. A little bit of hygiene, that's all.

That we guess would be all for today.

We will meet you tomorrow with lots more on the coronavirus and more on other topics too.

Till then, stay safe, happy and healthy.

Also read: Love Aaj Kal: Aaj ya kal, love is confusing but never this annoying