Amitabh Bachchan spreading awareness about Coronavirus to Priyanka-Nick enjoying Holi - Here are the newsmakers of the week

Bollywood had a rather troublesome week as Coronavirus wreaked havoc. From ‘Sooryavanshi’ getting postponed to ’83 trailer launch event being cancelled and ‘Angrezi Medium’ having a re-release – Coronavirus affected many Bollywood films. Hence when it came to spreading a word of caution about the pandemic, UNICEF decided to rope in a Bollywood celebrity. This week, Amitabh Bachchan shot for a video to raise awareness about Coronavirus. But despite the health scare, Bollywood celebrities took some time out to enjoy the festival of Holi. Here’s a look at the newsmakers of the week.

As a precautionary measure against Coronavirus, several states announced to keep theatres shut till March 31. Had ‘Sooryavanshi’ released on March 24 as announced earlier, it could have affected the box office collection of the film. The cop drama has now been postponed indefinitely. An official statement from the team read, “Sooryavanshi is an experience that we have created for you with over a year of dedication and hard work, and the response we received for its trailer was nothing less than electrifying and made it clear that this film truly belongs to its audience... We have been as excited as you are to present the film to you and your family, but due to the recent outburst of the COVID - 19 (Coronavirus), we, the makers, have decided to postpone the release of your film Sooryavanshi, keeping in mind the health and safety of our beloved audience... And therefore, Sooryavanshi will be back for you just when the time is right... After all, safety comes first... Until then, keep the excitement alive, take good care of yourself and stay strong... We shall pull through this.”

Government of India and UNICEF roped in Amitabh Bachchan to raise awareness about COVID-19. The actor has shot a message for the prevention of the disease. "Getting set to advocate the preventions necessary about CoVID 19, ... this is for UNICEF, and the Health Ministry of GOI .. the message should be out soon .. Be safe .. be careful," Big B shared on Twitter. The veteran actor also penned a special poem on Coronavirus.

‘Baaghi 3’ director Ahmed Khan landed in trouble for his statement that Kangana Ranaut starrer ‘Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi’ wasted money and that the makers faced losses. Kangana’s sister Rangoli Chandel slammed his statement on social media and pointed out that ‘Manikarnika’ had earned a weekend collection of Rs 45 crore while Ahmed’s recent directorial, ‘Baaghi 3’, earned Rs 49 crore in the same time. Hence the difference was not much, Rangoli stated. Ahmed later issued a statement saying that Kangana is a female Baaghi and that he wants to work with her, if she approves the script.

Rohit Shetty’s statement that no one would pay attention to Katrina Kaif in an action scene which has Akshay Kumar, Ranveer Singh and Ajay Devgn as well as a blast, didn’t go down well with several social media users. While netizens were trending #ShameOnYouRohitShetty on Twitter, Katrina defended his statement, “I feel a comment made by Rohit Sir has been taken out of context and is been entirely misunderstood. I am referring to the comment as reported that Rohit Shetty said, ‘No one would look at me in the frame, as there are three boys there and a blast happening”’, this is not what was said. “I mentioned that I had blinked in the shot, and Rohit sir said, ‘there are four people together in the frame and a bomb blast happening, no one will notice you BLINKING.’ Even, inspite of that, we still did one more take. I share a very warm equation and friendship with Rohit sir and have always enjoyed our discussions on everything from cinema to my character and, more importantly, he has always been there as a friend for me. This has been taken entirely taken out of context.”