Alia Bhatt's former assistant arrested for allegedly cheating her of Rs 77 lakh

In a shocking breach of trust, Juhu police have arrested Vedika Prakash Shetty, the former personal assistant of Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt, for allegedly defrauding Bhatt of Rs.76.9 lakh. The fraud spanned from May 2022 to August 2024 and involved both the actress’s personal wallet and her company, Eternal Sunshine Productions Pvt Ltd. The complaint was lodged on January 23, 2025, by Alia’s mother, veteran actor-director Soni Razdan. A case was formally registered under sections pertaining to criminal breach of trust and cheating. Investigations led the Juhu police to initiate a nationwide manhunt for Vedika, who remained elusive for nearly five months. Finally, Shetty was located at her sister’s residence in Bengaluru earlier this week and promptly brought back to Mumbai on a transit warrant for further legal proceedings. Police allege that during her tenure from 2021 to 2024, Vedika prepared fake invoices and exaggerated expense claims—including travel, meetings, and logistical...

After 10 years, I'm stepping down as the Observer's film critic. Here are my top films from the decade | Mark Kermode

As I leave the post, I look back on how cinema has changed since 2013 and, below, pick a favourite movie from each year of my tenure – as well as a turkey

This week, I filed my final column as chief film critic for the Observer. I’m stepping down after exactly 10 years in the role, making way for the brilliant Wendy Ide to take over the reins and put her own inimitable stamp on the paper. A longstanding colleague and friend, Wendy is an exceptional critic and I look forward to reading her insightful and elegant reviews in these pages for years to come. In the meantime, looking back at my own experiences over the past decade, I’m struck by how much the moviegoing landscape has changed.

When I took over from the great Philip French in September 2013, Kathryn Bigelow was still the only woman to have won the Oscar for best director, having made history when she triumphed with her tense war drama The Hurt Locker in 2010. The Academy Awards have, of course, always been inherently ridiculous (remember: Citizen Kane didn’t win best picture, but Driving Miss Daisy did). For better or worse, however, this very American shindig tells us something about the way the mainstream film industry views itself. And since the first Oscars ceremony back in 1929, the Academy has overwhelmingly celebrated and prioritised white male film-makers. Yet in the past 10 years, things have at least begun to shift in encouraging ways.

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