Come celebrate the 25th anniversary of the very iconic Dil Chahta Hai! Let's peek into this sunny, golden, aspirationally emotionally open world inhabited by Akash, Sid, Sam, Shalini, Tara, Pooja, and Deepa! There will be much discussion of 2000s fashionz too.

Forgive us for forgetting about Deepa, the deeply relatable queen of unrequited love. Way back in 2006, a friend challenged fellow writers to name a Hindi film character who should have a blog, and OBVIOUSLY it's her. https://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/2006/10/aaaaakaaaaash-dot-blogspot-dot-com.html

Want to talk about Sid some more? Beth did a whole essay https://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/2010/05/this-is-one-sid-whos-already-awake.html

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Beth is @bethlovesbollywood on Bluesky

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Our logo was designed by London-based artist Paula Ganoo @velcrothoughts on Instagram https://www.art2arts.co.uk/paula-vaughan

(This episode contains spoilers!)

We are always curious to see what Akshaye Khanna and Sunny Deol are up to these days so we watched Ikka (2026), a courtroom drama on Netflix. Although we watched it for them, the only actor worth watching turned out to be Tillotama Shome, who we didn't even know was in the film. Ha!

Did you watch Ikka? What did you think?

Subscribe to Filmi Ladies on Spotify

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or Apple Podcasts

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@filmiladies on Instagram

Pitu is @pitusultan on Instagram

Beth is @bethlovesbollywood on Bluesky

Email us at filmiladies at gmail

See our letterboxd for everything discussed on this podcast. https://boxd.it/qSpfy

Our logo was designed by London-based artist Paula Ganoo @velcrothoughts on Instagram https://www.art2arts.co.uk/paula-vaughan

It's the 20th anniversary of Omkara! Does this movie belong to Saif's evil Langda Tyagi? Absolutely! But we are also excited to discuss Omi, Kesu, Dolly, Indu, and Billo! Tell us what you think!

Our friend Vikas Raheja and his guest discuss Omkara as their #1 Indian film of 2000–2025 in this episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/my/podcast/e48-the-5-best-indian-movies-of-the-21st/id1724615125?i=1000739198605&l=ms

Subscribe to Filmi Ladies on Spotify

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or Apple Podcasts

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@filmiladies on Instagram

Pitu is @pitusultan on Instagram

Beth is @bethlovesbollywood on Bluesky

Email us at filmiladies at gmail

See our letterboxd for everything discussed on this podcast. https://boxd.it/qSpfy

Our logo was designed by London-based artist Paula Ganoo @velcrothoughts on Instagram https://www.art2arts.co.uk/paula-vaughan

Have you ever heard anyone say they don't like Sunil Dutt? No, you haven't coz it's not allowed. We shine a spotlight on his acting career, directorial work as well as his specific "brand". There is also a Venn diagram of "decent, green flag men." Movies discussed are Humraaz (1967), Bhai Bhai (1970), Reshma Aur Shera (1971), and Ganga Aur Suraj (1980).

Look at Beth's screengrabs of Ganga aur Surag to see how the sparkle contest between the two leads lands squarely in Shashi's favor. And also how fun Aruna Irani and Reena Roy are! https://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/2009/11/reshma-aur-shera.html

Subscribe to Filmi Ladies on Spotify

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or Apple Podcasts

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@filmiladies on Instagram

Pitu is @pitusultan on Instagram

Beth is @bethlovesbollywood on Bluesky

Email us at filmiladies at gmail

See our letterboxd for everything discussed on this podcast. https://boxd.it/qSpfy

Our logo was designed by London-based artist Paula Ganoo @velcrothoughts on Instagram https://www.art2arts.co.uk/paula-vaughan

We watched Priyadarshan and Akki's latest venture - Bhooth Bangla (2026) and had several thoughts about bhoots, haunted havelis, bad wigs, demons, bats and horror comedies as a genre.Subscribe to Filmi Ladies on Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/7Ib9C1X5ObvN18u9WR0TK9 or Apple Podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/filmi-ladies/id1642425062@filmiladies on Instagram Pitu is @pitusultan on InstagramBeth is @bethlovesbollywood on BlueskyEmail us at filmiladies at gmailSee our letterboxd for everything discussed on this podcast. https://boxd.it/qSpfyOur logo was designed by London-based artist Paula Ganoo @velcrothoughts on Instagram https://www.art2arts.co.uk/paula-vaughan

Just a catch-up episode where we discuss movies and tv shows we are watching or plan to watch. Beth discusses Alpha and Single Salma, and Pitu discusses Disclosure Day and America's Sweethearts. What are you guys watching?

Subscribe to Filmi Ladies on Spotify

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or Apple Podcasts

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@filmiladies on Instagram

Pitu is @pitusultan on Instagram

Beth is @bethlovesbollywood on Bluesky

Email us at filmiladies at gmail

See our letterboxd for everything discussed on this podcast. https://boxd.it/qSpfy

Our logo was designed by London-based artist Paula Ganoo @velcrothoughts on Instagram https://www.art2arts.co.uk/paula-vaughan

Love and cherry blossoms are in the air! Our actors Sadhana, Asha Parekh, and Joy Mukherjee x2 fall in love, hijinks, and misadventures in Love in Simla (1960) and Love in Tokyo (1966).

Subscribe to Filmi Ladies on Spotify

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or Apple Podcasts

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@filmiladies on Instagram

Pitu is @pitusultan on Instagram

Beth is @bethlovesbollywood on Bluesky

Email us at filmiladies at gmail

See our letterboxd for everything discussed on this podcast. https://boxd.it/qSpfy

Our logo was designed by London-based artist Paula Ganoo @velcrothoughts on Instagram https://www.art2arts.co.uk/paula-vaughan

It's a new series, fully embracing the RETRO LADIES we are at heart! (Some of these people should have been in our superstars series the first time through, and we beg their forgiveness.)Where better to start than Meena Kumari, one of the great queens of all time? We look at Azaad (1955), Sharada (1957), Aarti (1962), and—finally—Pakeezah (1972), with the latter two forming the bulk of our discussion. Other episodes centered on Meena Kumari's work: • Merry Meena, focused on her light-hearted roles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ2tuaYv05U (this also contains a long discussion of the burden of the moniker of Tragedy Queen)• Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8cuCJMPvKE• Parineeta https://youtu.be/TNop2Hiu1ic?si=w_WMuMh55dD2Yyb1• Dil Apna aur Preet Parai https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtdKK1LkcN8• Mem Sahib (in the Shammi Kapoor episode) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WiKPVP9iPASubscribe to Filmi Ladies on Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/7Ib9C1X5ObvN18u9WR0TK9 or Apple Podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/filmi-ladies/id1642425062@filmiladies on Instagram Pitu is @pitusultan on InstagramBeth is @bethlovesbollywood on BlueskyEmail us at filmiladies at gmailSee our letterboxd for everything discussed on this podcast. https://boxd.it/qSpfyOur logo was designed by London-based artist Paula Ganoo @velcrothoughts on Instagram https://www.art2arts.co.uk/paula-vaughan

To mark our 200th—yes TWO HUNDREDTH—episode, we chose a film that celebrates cinematic history. Harishchandrachi Factory is a Marathi film about the making of the very first feature film in India, and it's a peculiarly light-hearted approach to an event with massive consequences.

Dadasaheb Phalke is portrayed as a less crabby Willy Wonka, surrounded by people who mostly say yes, easily, to all his whims. This film is missing much commentary on the significance of Phalke's work beyond "it was the first feature film" and spends no energy investigating anything juicy—what was it like to undertake such a project as a person of color in a subject area of the British empire? what sacrifices were made to appease investors? what was it like to shoot on location?—but it's a very enjoyable presentation of time period and a group of people that all of us movie-mad folks should know more about.

Watch Harischandrachi Factory on Daily Motion. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6i80j6

Watch Raja Harishchandra on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyFm3WvVGCc

Subscribe to Filmi Ladies on Spotify

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or Apple Podcasts

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@filmiladies on Instagram

Pitu is @pitusultan on Instagram

Beth is @bethlovesbollywood on Bluesky

Email us at filmiladies at gmail

See our letterboxd for everything discussed on this podcast. https://boxd.it/qSpfy

Our logo was designed by London-based artist Paula Ganoo @velcrothoughts on Instagram https://www.art2arts.co.uk/paula-vaughan

So much to say about Maa Behen! Madhuri, Triptii, and Dharna portray wily, crafty, endearing, complicated, entrapped, strong, powerful, confusing ladies in this character study of what it means to be a woman in our world.

This episode is spoiler-free until we issue a warning at 24 minutes in!

Subscribe to Filmi Ladies on Spotify

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or Apple Podcasts

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/filmi-ladies/id1642425062

@filmiladies on Instagram

Pitu is @pitusultan on Instagram

Beth is @bethlovesbollywood on Bluesky

Email us at filmiladies at gmail

See our letterboxd for everything discussed on this podcast. https://boxd.it/qSpfy

Our logo was designed by London-based artist Paula Ganoo @velcrothoughts on Instagram https://www.art2arts.co.uk/paula-vaughan