Love Letters to the Movie Business

Saaya Vaidya

Bhumika (1977)

Usha (Smita Patil), the granddaughter of a famous courtesan, is taken to Bombay by the much older Keshav (Amol Palekar) to audition as a singer. Soon, she gains stardom as an adolescent actor.

Luck By Chance (2009)

In Zoya Akhtar’s directorial debut, Vikram (Farhan Akhtar) comes to Mumbai to become a film star and befriends actress Sona (Konkona Sen Sharma), whom he eventually starts dating.

The Artist (2011)

For Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), it is an accidental meeting with silent film star George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) that sets off a chain of events and puts her in the spotlight.

The Dirty Picture (2011)

Inspired by the life of B-grade film legend Silk Smitha, the movie follows the ups and downs of her career and personal life.

Saving Mr Banks (2013)

Walt Disney has been pursuing the film rights to Pamela "P. L." Travers’s Mary Poppins stories for 20 years after promising his daughters that he will produce a film based on the books.

Hail, Caesar! (2016)

Joel and Ethan Coen’s film follows Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin), who works at Capitol Pictures and is responsible for fixing the lives of Hollywood stars by covering up their shenanigans from gossip columnists.

Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood (2019)

In Quentin Tarantino’s ninth film, set in the final years of Hollywood’s Golden Age, actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) struggle to attain success and fame.

Chhello Show (2022)

Although this is not about making movies or the movie business, director Pan Nalin’s film is very much about the magical spell movies cast upon audiences.