All posts tagged: Zeeshan Ayyub

‘Assi has the least cheese’: Anubhav Sinha defends his ‘uncompromising’ film, says 1.2 mn viewers braved its ‘disturbing’ reality | Bollywood News

‘Assi has the least cheese’: Anubhav Sinha defends his ‘uncompromising’ film, says 1.2 mn viewers braved its ‘disturbing’ reality | Bollywood News

Published by Webster

It’s been nearly a decade since the world saw a different side of Anubhav Sinha with his courtroom drama Mulk, which took on entrenched communalism head-on. Since then, he has gone on to make films like Article 15, Thappad, Anek, and Bheed, each engaging with the social and political anxieties of our times. It is fair to say that, across these years of balancing what one might call a cinema of conscience, he may have arrived at a certain creative equilibrium with his latest, Assi. A courtroom drama of sorts, the film deals with the subject of rape with a starkness that is often unsettling, at times even heavy-handed, but undeniably urgent in what it seeks to confront. The decision to place a younger generation at the centre of trauma, and to interrogate ideas of vigilante justice while also examining the patriarchal structures that underpin them, makes it a film that demands attention. In a spoiler-filled, post-mortem conversation about the film, Sinha speaks exclusively to SCREEN about key scenes, the balance between artistic integrity and …

Anubhav Sinha on the ‘disgusting’ challenge of filming Assi’s graphic opening

Anubhav Sinha on the ‘disgusting’ challenge of filming Assi’s graphic opening

Published by Webster

Anubhav Sinha and Taapsee Pannu’s new film Assi takes the conversation on gender, from their last outing Thappad (2020), much forward. It’s also a more authentic and evolved courtroom drama than their first collaboration, Mulk (2018). In this exclusive interview with SCREEN, Sinha breaks down Assi, the challenge of depicting sexual assault sequences, how he evaded the inherent male gaze, and rounding up another stellar ensemble cast. Assi starts with some graphic scenes of sexual assault. Was it a challenge to bring them to screen? I had no idea what I was going to do with it. I wrote it over two hours at dusk. By the time I got up, it was night. I was disgusted with myself. I mailed it to my co-writer Gaurav Solanki, thinking he’d say it’s very bad. But he said it’s lovely. That’s how it evolved. It was instinctive. We didn’t design it. I really had to go into the depths of my evil to get to that point. That shot where the camera is under the car is …

Zeeshan Ayyub: It’s unfortunate that people react to anything; social media platforms have given users unlimited power

Zeeshan Ayyub: It’s unfortunate that people react to anything; social media platforms have given users unlimited power

Published by Parlour News

Amid the controversy surrounding Manoj Bajpayee-starrer Ghooskhor Pandat and the Supreme Court’s direction to change the film’s title, actor Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub has weighed in on the growing culture of online outrage. Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub on his recent visit to Lucknow (Photo: Deep Saxena/HT) “It is unfortunate that people are reacting so strongly to anything and everything,” says the 42-year-old, adding that social media platforms have handed people “unlimited power” and such protests, uproars and trolling often mirror overreactions amplified by internet culture. “People have started believing that (social media) is the entire world, but it’s not. It’s just a phase,” he adds. While Zeeshan agrees that creative freedoms in cinema are increasingly under pressure, the actor doesn’t dwell on the near-constant backlash. “Initially, these things used to shock us. Now it’s more like, lo phir kuch ho gaya. Isse kadwahat zaroor aa jaati hai. But if you take it too seriously, you won’t be able to work,” he opines, adding, “As creative people, we will keep doing our bit, and those who want to …

Zeeshan Ayyub opens up about interfaith marriage, growing up with a Hindu mother and Muslim father: ‘It wasn’t difficult’ | Bollywood News

Zeeshan Ayyub opens up about interfaith marriage, growing up with a Hindu mother and Muslim father: ‘It wasn’t difficult’ | Bollywood News

Published by Webster

“Ours was a child marriage,” Bollywood actor Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub joked while speaking about his marriage to theatre actor Rasika Agashe. In a recent interaction, Zeeshan opened up about his interfaith marriage to Rasika and shared how it came naturally to him, as his parents, too, belonged to different religions. While his mother is a Brahmin Hindu, his father is a Muslim. Speaking to Shubhankar Mishra, Zeeshan spoke about getting married soon after finishing theatre school. “We got married right after passing out from NSD. It was my first successful love story. I thought this was the first time a girl has said yes to me, before she understands me fully, let’s rope in and get married to her.” When asked about his interfaith marriage to Rasika and whether religious differences ever affected their relationship, Zeeshan said that love made everything seamless. “Love takes care of everything. It was not difficult. When it comes to cultural differences, it was easy for me as my mother is a Hindu Brahmin and since childhood, we would sit …

‘Will Not Defend It’: Tere Ishk Mein Actor Zeeshan Ayyub Calls Raanjhanaa’s Story Problematic | Bollywood News

‘Will Not Defend It’: Tere Ishk Mein Actor Zeeshan Ayyub Calls Raanjhanaa’s Story Problematic | Bollywood News

Published by Parlour News

Last Updated:December 03, 2025, 21:20 IST Zeeshan Ayyub, who appeared in Raanjhanaa and Tere Ishk Mein, calls former’s story problematic, saying aggression in one-sided love shouldn’t be glorified. Raanjhanaa is now available in two versions: the original film and the version with an AI-altered ending. Aanand L. Rai’s Raanjhanaa enjoyed an amazing box office run, only to face backlash years later as viewers began to feel that the film glorified stalking and harassment under the pretence of love. Now, the same fate is being faced by Tere Ishk Mein, the only difference is that it’s happening in real time for the Dhanush and Kriti Sanon starrer. Zeeshan Ayyub, who had a pivotal role in Raanjhanaa and has a cameo appearance in Tere Ishk Mein, spoke to The Sheroes TV about how the key character in Raanjhanaa (played by Dhanush) is indeed problematic. The actor said, “I did not defend it (the film) then, nor will I do it now. I saw a lot of people coming up with arguments to defend what’s portrayed in it. …

‘Aggression in one-sided love is not to be celebrated,’ says Zeeshan Ayyub as Tere Ishk Mein grows at the box office | Bollywood News

‘Aggression in one-sided love is not to be celebrated,’ says Zeeshan Ayyub as Tere Ishk Mein grows at the box office | Bollywood News

Published by Webster

While director Aanand L Rai’s Raanjhanaa (2013) enjoyed box office success and acclaim upon its initial release, and faced backlash for its glorification of stalking and harassment under the pretence of love only years later, the heat that its spiritual sequel Tere Ishk Mein is receiving in real time underscores that a change in mentality among the masses may indeed be possible. Marking the reunion of Aanand L Rai, Raanjhanaa’s writer Himanshu Sharma and the 2013 film’s lead star Dhanush, Tere Ishk Mein opened to widespread negative reviews for its seemingly regressive narrative, which many felt romanticised toxic masculinity. The movie features Kriti Sanon as the female lead. In the meantime, actor Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub recently admitted that Raanjhanaa, in which he played a key role, was indeed a problematic movie. “I did not defend it (the film) then, nor will I do it now. I saw a lot of people coming up with arguments to defend what’s portrayed in it. But I won’t. It (what was portrayed in Raanjhanaa) was problematic, and the film …