Arastu Zakia

Father, Friend, Filmmaker

[Mohak Mangal @mohakmangal]

In 1997, this man was the ABVP National Secretary and was just about to join the Bharatiya Janata Party. There was a paper leak in Odisha and there was a major protest. This man participated in them. He was beaten by the police.

"We staged a protest against the Odisha government, in front of the secretariat. Around 1,500 students joined us there. While the protest was peaceful, the police charged against the activists. He was badly beaten up at that time. He had a few fractures too."

Who is he? Mr Dharmendra Pradhan. Imagine that Dharmendra Pradhan was protesting against paper leaks in 1997 and was beaten!

There is an amazing Indian Express article about him. Linked below. The irony? One of the interviewees says:

"under Pradhan's regime, the students will have more scope for dissent. "It is natural for students to be anti-establishment."

[TheLiverDoc™ @theliverdoc]

🇮🇳

[chiku @va_nshbaba]

Holy algorithm pull

[Shilpak. @ugach_kahitarii]

I keep on revisiting Udaan so many times.

It's the best "coming of age" Indian film ever produced.

Motwane's finest ❤️

[Sukhada @appadappajappa]

'Home is not where you are born; home is where all your attempts to escape cease'

— Naguib Mahfouz

[Maheshwer Peri @maheshperi]

An Open Letter to the Citizens of India:

Dear Proud Indian,

There is a man sitting at Jantar Mantar, in the heart of our capital, who has not eaten in over two weeks. His name is Sonam Wangchuk. You know his face. You cheered for him in a theatre once, when a character inspired by his life taught a fictional college that learning matters more than rote memorization, that curiosity matters more than fear. We hero-worshipped that story and made Aamir Khan a hero. And the real hero is in his brink, fasting, dying.

He is not fasting for himself. He sat down in solidarity with young people demanding accountability after this year’s exam paper leaks harmed futures of millions of students.

Millions. Think of that number not as a statistic but as millions of individual mornings: a student waking up early, preparing for months, walking into an exam hall trusting that the system in front of them was fair. That trust was broken. Wangchuk is asking, with his own body, that someone be held responsible for breaking it.

Eighteen days without food is not normal. It is a body slowly consuming itself. It is a heart working harder with less to work with. Reports already describe his health failing, his weight dropping sharply, other young protesters at his side collapsing and being carried to hospitals.

The government’s silence continues, as if a man’s life were a negotiating tactic rather than a life.
We cannot afford that silence. Education is not a side issue in this country. It is the only bet we are making on our future. India’s demographic dividend is at risk.

A leaked exam paper is not a clerical failure but a crack in the foundation of that dividend. Wangchuk understood this decades before most of us did, and he is paying for that understanding with his body right now.

So this is not a call to take a side in a political fight. It is a call to remember that a citizen’s conscience does not require permission from a party symbol. Ask about him. Say his name. Ask your representatives, your neighbours, your own families, why a man who has given his life to Indian education is entering his eighteenth day of hunger in the shadow of our Parliament while the country changes the channel.

A nation does not need to agree on every demand to agree that a human life should not be the price of being ignored. We owe him that much attention. We owe ourselves that much spine.
With hope that we are not too late.

A fellow citizen

[Satish Acharya @satishacharya]

What kind of 'terrorist' fasts for 16 days to attract govt's attention?
What kind of 'anti-national' puts his life at risk to make education minister accountable?

It's shocking to see that this govt isn't even responding to Sonam Wangchuk's near-death situation. #SonamWangchuk

[Arastu Zakia @arastuz]

So much to learn for everyone navigating the business of making films!

[Kunal Kapoor @kapoorkkunal]

Couldn't find the work I was excited about. So I decided to write it. Three scripts.

An action, a romance, a comedy. All finished.

Now the hard part. Finding the right people to build them with.

Meanwhile, idea number four is already refusing to leave me alone.

[Aaditya Aanand @biased_human]

Two things are happening right now. People are doom scrolling 4-5 hours a day. Brains are rotten, foggy and fried. People cannot sit with a hard problem for 10 minutes.

People are using AI for everything. They cannot write a simple email without ChatGPT. They can't do basic math. They can't think independently. Let's see how these two feed each other.

The more you scroll, the more your brain rots. More your brain rots, more you need AI for basic stuff. More you use AI, less your brain works. Less your brain works, more it craves low effort dopamine.

So you scroll more. Brain rots further. You depend on AI even more. It is a self serving loop and it is accelerating. Please break this loop or you are doomed.

Zombies aren't coming. They are already here, scrolling endlessly.

[justine @justinemach_]

an idiot in motion goes further than a genius at rest

[Shivam Vij @DilliDurAst]

In the AI age, it is a pleasure to read poor English, incorrect grammar, awkward phrasing. Few things make us more human than our imperfection. We stutter. We stammer. Typos are our signatures. We forget spellngs. We don't always cross our t's and dot our i's.

I long to read imperfect yet human prose on social media, in articles, Op-ads, research notes, think-tank reports and so on.

Friends, Romans, countrymen, give me your broken English!

[Reads with Ravi @readswithravi]

I’m in love with this sentence:

“One of the most underrated skills you can learn is the ability to ignore your mood and stick with the plan.”

[CinemaRare @CinemaRareIN]

A mother scarred by abuse, Zoya aids another woman, both striving for dignity and freedom.

Hindi short film #Riha (2024) by @arastuz, now streaming on @ZEE5India.

Ft. #InduSharma @ashwathbhatt13 #VaraRaturi & #AhadKhan.

[Poulomi Das @PouloCruelo]

Statement from 50 journalists and film critics condemning the censorship of SATLUJ and its removal from ZEE5 less than 48 hours after release.

We call for transparency, due process, and stand in solidarity with the film's makers.

[Vir Das @thevirdas]

Richard Nixon was alive to see a movie called All the presidents men. It covered him and his scandal. He had to watch it win multiple awards. Watched multiple songs, movies and to shows parody him. I firmly believe the powerful people of this time who ban content, the journalists who serve, will live to see the art made about them and this time. Witnessing how history will remember you and being powerless to change it, will humble all at the end.

[Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan]

Possible corruption and cheating aside, hilarious that the Trump administration were allegedly pushing hard to reinstate a player who is a literal birthright citizen. His pregnant mother gave birth to him on a visit because the airline wouldn’t let her board her return flight.

[OptaJoe @OptaJoe]

1 - This is the first time in World Cup history that three different players have scored 7+ goals in a single edition of the tournament

🇫🇷 Kylian Mbappé: 7 goals
🇦🇷 Lionel Messi: 7 goals
🇳🇴 Erling Haaland: 7 goals

Legendary.

[Akash @akispeaks]

And that's how a streaming platform should be...it should act like a streaming platform, not for or against certain type of movies.

You may agree/disagree to the politics of makers, actors, and anyone associated with the film/series. But that shouldn't stop them from releasing it, otherwise it becomes part of the problem it was trying to solve at the first place.

[Ram Gopal Varma @RGVzoomin]

The horrible disease that all of us in the film industry suffer from , is instead of honestly telling the story we truly like , we always tell what we think the audience will like 😳

[Dokter Gooners @DokGooners]

🚨📣 Vozinha mengenai apa yang dia ucapkan ke Messi seusai pertandingan:

"Aku menghampirinya, dan bahkan sebelum aku sempat bicara banyak, dia langsung memelukku dan berkata: 'Kerja bagus. Kau kiper yang sangat hebat. Rakyatmu pasti sangat bangga padamu.' Mendengar hal itu dari sosok seperti Leo sungguh sangat berarti bagiku."

"Aku berterima kasih dan menjawab: 'Terima kasih, Leo. Kau yang terbaik.' Lalu aku meminta baju pertandingannya, dia tersenyum dan berkata: 'Tentu saja. Akan kuberikan padamu di lorong ganti.' Momen seperti ini akan selalu aku ingat seumur hidup." ❤️🇨🇻🇦🇷

Sungguh keindahan sepak bola dan kerendahan hati dua sosok luar biasa! ✨🤝