No filter, just amazing natural light ☀️ also chirping birds make me 😊
It’s been strange, while we all struggle to keep ourselves safe from this virus – my family and I have found refuge in books we thought we’ll never get the time to read. These days what we do is, we share our monthly reads on our family group. I’ll also be putting up a few interesting ones from our Kapoor-Ahuja Quarantine Reads here, hoping you guys get a chance to read them as well 📖📚🔖
I’m reading 50 Greatest Short Stories. Compiled By Terry o’brien
Dad is nose deep into Rakesh Maria’s Let Me Say It Now.
Anand is currently very interested in Devdutt Pattanaik’s My Gita.
Rhea has just begun A Girl and Her Greens: Hearty Meals from the Garden by April Bloomfield.
Anand’s mom is reading The Secret by Rhonda Byrne.
My mom is giving The Forest Of Enchantments by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni a read.
Anand’s dad is juggling a bunch of books including Ikigai, Little Book of Hygge and The Art of Simple Living by Shunmyo Masuno.
Happy Reading!
Goa state of mind. #throwback #ihls 📸 @akankshagajria #2009
Happy happy birthday anamiks, you know you mean the world to me.. love you so much! you’re the most brilliant, creative and kind person I know and those particular traits together are a rarity. I will never get tired of wearing your beautiful creations because I know they are made with love and joy. Have the best day with your family and gorgeous boys @anamikakhanna.in
Happy happy birthday vaishu, you’re my brother and I love you . @vaishnavpraveen
Lockdown evenings be like…… 😂 also guess the face pack.. 😌
It’s Anand’s birthday in a week, and I’m stoked! Starting today, for the next seven days—I’m going to be guessing some of his all-time favourite things. Beginning with a relatively easier one (🤞), sneakers! I have mentioned a few more than just seven here, only to cover my bases! 😜
I hope I’ve gotten these right, otherwise, I’m in trouble haha. @anandahuja How’d I do? 😃
Also, here’s a bonus question – If you had to choose between me and your sneakers, who’d you choose?
(I suggest you think carefully before answering this one) 😂
#HappyBirthdayAnand #BirthdayWeek #EverydayPhenomenal #BirthdayCountdown #Sneakers Also thanks @henryvinoth and @aabhineet for the help!
Cravings 🧁 🎂 🍰
Thank you @anaitashroffadajania for tagging me.. I love this black and white picture . It represents my love for India and Indian creativity. I was proud to wear @rimzim__ for my press meet in Cannes.
Anand’s favourite foods had to be a topic in itself haha. Cannot even begin to explain how much I miss going to restaurants and hogging with you @anandahuja ! But this will have to do for now. I’m pretty sure about my answers, so I hope I’m right. Love you! 💕
#EverydayPhenomenal #HappyBirthdayAnand #4daystogo #Birthday #BirthdayWeek #Foodie
Up next, are some of Anand’s most favourite musical artists. This one was a little tricky because he’s into a lot of genres. So I’m just going to try my best here haha.
Now, anyone who knows him knows that he’s a hip-hop fanatic; but to me, it came as a pleasant surprise to know that he’s into Indian classical as well (in a big way). I think his varied choices in music is what makes him so interesting! @anandahuja can’t wait for the 30th! 💕
Let me know if you guys like the same artists as well! 😃
@2pac
@thenotoriousbig
@nas
@aliciakeys
@madstarbase
#HappyBirthdayAnand #BirthdayWeek #EverydayPhenomenal #BirthdayCountdown #Music #IndianClassical #Hiphop
Happy happy birthday Anand sir! Thanks for changing everything in my life. Forever indebted to you, for having the confidence in me . Also cannot wait to eat with you again.. 😂❤️ @aanandlrai Varanasi, India
Can’t believe it’s been 10 years of this magical film already! I want to thank the entire team of I Hate Love Stories for making the journey fun, exciting and effortless!
@dharmamovies @imrankhan @punitdmalhotra @karanjohar @apoorva1972
Sitting at home, I’m obviously missing my crew, being on the set and getting ready. If you guys also miss going out, meeting your friends and dressing up (and if you want to pay a visit to your nice clothes and shoes haha) – I have an interesting idea for us.
So I’m going to be posting a few of my iconic looks (also easy to execute), for you guys to recreate.
It’s a fun lil game, where you guys get to dress up, add your own twists to these challenges. My first look is a classic one, a white shirt with blue jeans and a red lipstick. Recreate it, play around, and don’t forget to have fun with it! Out of all the entries that I get, I’ll personally choose a few of my faves and repost them! Here are some ground rules –
1) Put up a picture of your look.
2) Tag me.
3) Use the hashtag, #TakeTwowithSonam
Remember, the deadline is Monday. Hope you have fun styling this weekend!
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#TakeTwowithSonam #StyleEdits #PersonalStyle #IconicLooks #DIY #Fashion2020 #stylecontest
Anand’s 5 favourite cities! I’m fairly confident about this one; over the years we’ve had several chats about places that feel like home, and the ones that are memorable to us. I’d say our choices are pretty similar, for different reasons of course—so I hope I’ve got these right, @anandahuja ! I love you, and I’m so excited for your birthday. 💕 🎂
#EverydayPhenomenal #HappyBirthdayAnand #5daystogo #Birthday #BirthdayWeek#Delhi #Mumbai #Japan #NewYork #London
My work makes me travel a lot and while at it, I like to steal little pockets of time to visit museums and galleries. In the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing some artists who I admire and whose work I love.
The first artist has to be someone who left an indelible impression on Modern Indian Art, Amrita Sher-Gil. What I love most about her work is the earthy colour palette, which evokes such a strong sense of warmth. She adopted this colour palette after travelling across India, getting acquainted with our people and our traditional wall art.
Another of my favourite elements from her art is how she portrayed the female body. While Sher-Gil’s interpretation of the female body was sensuous, it was also vulnerable, strong and empowering.
I was very young when I first came across her work; back then I loved her portraits—solely because they looked beautiful. However, I’ve come to admire how, at a time when artists painted the aristocrats of the society, she was unafraid to show unfiltered India. She believed in showing India and its women as is: raw, developing and imperfect. One of the most progressive women of her time, Sher-Gil’s art was a representation of the strong empathy she had for her Indian subjects.
Sher-Gil created most of her masterpieces only a couple of years before she passed away at the young age of 28. She was a woman of great substance, and continues to be aclaimed as one of the most gifted artists of pre-independent India.
My personal favourites of Amrita Sher-Gil’s work are the Group of Three Girls and the Portrait of a Young Man. Do let me know yours!
#AmritaShergil #IndianArtists #ThreeGirls #NGMA #ArtandCulture #ArtistsofIndia #ArtLegends
There are so many things I love about Anand, and his adorable quirks and hashtags have to be one of them. Over the years, I have seen him use some really amusing hashtags—but these have to be my top 3. I love you @anandahuja and all the eccentric things you say and do haha. Hope you enjoy this small present.
P.S – These stickers will soon be available for you guys to use, so watch out for these!
#EverydayPhenomenal #BallIsLife #GreatLikeWhoa #Gifs #InstagramGifs #HappyBirthdayAnand #3daystogo #Birthday #BirthdayWeek
I’m sorry that it took me this long guys! But SO many of you sent in your entries, and frankly, just choosing a few was almost impossible. Each and every look was beautiful! These are my three favourite—I absolutely love each one of them. They’re so different from one another, yet work so wonderfully.
And a very special shoutout to all the men who participated, THANK YOU! You’re all fabulous. I was hoping men would participate, but I didn’t have high expectations 😅 I’m so pleasantly surprised!
Also very excited to see what you all do for the second challenge of #TakeTwowithSonam
P.S. Do check the #TakeTwowithSonam highlights to see my top 15 looks 😊
For those of you who don’t know, in the beginning of my career, I AD’d with a director for almost 5 years. In a space that was largely dominated by men, I got a glimpse of what it means to be a woman in an otherwise man’s world. It is not easy. Later, when I went on to act in films, one such film that hit home was Neerja. I read her story, I read the script, I did my research – Neerja was a badass. She was courageous, she was strong, she was also emotional and sensitive. Looking at these women and reading about them, I cannot help but look up to them. Another inspiration of mine has to be Fatma Begum! She was a leader in so many ways. Largely responsible for pulling the film industry out of its patriarchal ways, she was also unafraid to try news things and experiment. Right now, as Rhea and I lead AK Films, there are 1001 issues and roadblocks that we face, quite a few of them because we are women. Stories like Fatma’s gives me hope and encouragement. Rhea and I have never shied away from speaking up about the issues we faced while making Veere, but the fact is that that is just the tip of the iceberg. I just want to thank and show my respect to Fatma Begum, for paving the way for women to become actors, scriptwriters, producers and directors. Thank you for doing what you did back then, so that we can do what we are doing right now. No amount of words can describe the respect I have for you, thank you for being a feminist, thank you for not being afraid, thank you for taking risks, and thank you for establishing a platform for actors like myself to even exist today. Guys, if you don’t know about her, I urge you to look her up, read about her, be inspired. We NEED more women like her! 💖
P.S – While curating this, my team and I faced several roadblocks in terms of finding correct information. If, by any chance, any of you can reach out with more credible sources that can help us in understanding such icons in a better way, do let us know. 🙂
#FatmaBegum #IndianCinema #FirstWomanDirector #Feminism #Feminist #Inspiration #HindiMovies
This is the most awesome collaboration.. @motwayne @anuragkashyap10 @anilskapoor it’s gonna be epic on many levels… #akvsak @netflix_in
I landed in London yesterday, and in the evening I rummaged through my old bookshelf (that I missed SO much!) and found some gems. I remember reading some of these in the beginning of my career, and some as recently as a year ago. They’ve provided me with such great insight into language, dialogue and rehearsal, and taught me so much about vulnerability, expression and realism. Wouldn’t trade these for the world! Also, while I skimmed through them again, I remembered what a genius Satyajit Ray was!
“Sound, as we know, brought the cinema closer to nature. It also did something else. By introducing the spoken word, it took away some of its universality and introduced an element of regionalism.” – Satyajit Ray
#cinema #johnwillet #michealgaine #satyajitray #bertoltbrecht #johngeilgud #sonamreads
I don’t know how you guys feel, but I’m blown to bits! When I read about Nadia, I was stunned. Being an actor, I know how important our physical health and appearance is. There’s a reason why most actors today don’t perform their own stunts. Even now, physical combat is seen as something that only men are supposed to do in films. Running on trains and fighting the enemy or even working the whip – these are seen as things the “hero” does to win. Many say that she was better at stunts than most male actors of the time! Added to all of this is the fact that from Australia she came to India, learnt the language, learnt the craft and made a name for herself here. It’s amazing how she challenged the norm back in the ‘30s and ‘40s, and decided to risk it all by doing her stunts herself. So inspiring and courageous. A true legend, in my opinion!
#WomeninFilm #FearlessNadia #HistoryofFilm #StuntsinBollywood #BollywoodHistory #FeministsofBollywood #FeministActors
How many times have you watched a great film, and walked out thinking, “Wow, what a film, could not have imagined anyone else for this part!”? I know I have, multiple times. We often credit the director, actors, producers and writers for a brilliant film, and rightfully so. But who we conveniently forget are the casting directors—the ones who help bring our favourite characters to life.
Nandini has often admitted that the meatiest roles for her to cast are the supporting characters; they’re also the ones we fondly recall. Remember MC Sher from Gully Boy? Or the spot-on cast of Made In Heaven? We have Nandini to thank for that.
More often than not, women who are not actors, directors or producers don’t get their due. There are various superstars behind the scene who are responsible for your favourite actor’s success today. I don’t know Nandini personally. But my sister, Rhea, has worked under her at the beginning of her career. And, she only has fantastic things to say about her. I hope I can bring more such women to fore in the coming weeks!
@nandinishrikent
#NandiniShrikent #CastingDirectors #BollywoodCasting #IndianCastingDirectors #BollywoodFilms #WomeninFilms
