The headlines this evening from the Indian Express.

With consecutive failures such as Laal Singh Chaddha, Raksha Bandhan and Shamshera, and mounting pressure to score at the box office, there is concern, questions and scepticism in Bollywood. Are unreasonable budgets of Hindi Films the reason for these projects failing? Is the industry bankrolling poor scripts? Do star fees need reassessment? To answer these questions, Justin Joseph Rao, who writes on entertainment for The Indian Express, joins host Anant Nath Sharma in this episode of 3 Things.

Episode Notes:
Alia Bhatt in conversation with Anant Goenka - https://indianexpress.com/audio/express-conversations/ep-36-alia-bhatt/8069675/

Sky-rocketing star fees, low box office returns: Amid a spate of flops, Bollywood needs content correction - https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/bollywood/sky-rocketing-star-fees-low-box-office-returns-spate-of-flops-bollywood-needs-content-correction-8086579/

The headlines this evening from the Indian Express.

Since the '3 Things' podcast is on a break, we are sharing a recent episode of 'The Sandip Roy Show' which is also produced by Express Audio.

In 1952, the cheetah was officially declared extinct in India. Now, the animal, albeit a different subspecies, might be set for a comeback – not in the wild, but to Kuno National Park, Madhya Pradesh. Wildlife conservationists in India, though, are in no rush to welcome the cheetah home. In this episode, eminent conservationists Ravi Chellam and Prerna Bindra join host Sandip Roy to discuss the scientific, logical and ethical concerns around this move, and most importantly, whether the Asiatic lion will be paying the price for it.

We hope you enjoy the show and here's the link for the entire catalogue of 'The Sandip Roy Show': https://indianexpress.com/audio/the-sandip-roy-show/

The headlines this evening from the Indian Express.

India's economy has grown a lot in the last 75 years, but how has that growth been compared to other nations? What are the areas that really need attention? And what are the measures that we should be looking at to figure this out? To answer these questions, Udit Misra, who writes on the economy for the Indian Express, joins host Shashank Bhargava in this episode of 3 Things.

The headlines this evening from the Indian Express.

First, Indian Express' Deep Mukherjee joins host Utsa Sarmin to talk about the death of a 9-year-old Dalit boy in Rajasthan's Jalore district after being beaten up by his upper caste teacher for drinking water from his pot.

Second Indian Express'Associate Editor Shubhajit Roy discusses India's concerns over Yuan Wang 5, a Chinese vessel docking at Sri Lanka's Hambantota port and how that may affect New Delhi and Colombo's relationship.

Third, we give an update on the attack on Salman Rushdie whose 1988 book "The Satanic Verses" attracted death threats and a fatwa against the author.

The headlines this evening from the Indian Express.

On the 75th anniversary of India’s independence, we bring you a special episode in which we ask three people — a political scientist, an economist, and a filmmaker — about what they think is worth celebrating on this occasion. Host Shashank Bhargava is joined by Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Jayati Ghosh, and Saeed Akhtar Mirza as they answer this question, and share their anxieties about contemporary India, and what gives them hope.

About the guests:

Pratap Bhanu Mehta is one of India’s leading political scientists, Contributing Editor at the Indian Express, and the former vice-chancellor of Ashoka University. Jayati Ghosh is a leading development economist, and teaches at the University of Massachusetts. Saeed Akhtar Mirza is an author, filmmaker, and one of the pioneers of the 'New Wave' progressive cinema in India.