Now You Know

Welcome to OTTplay Now You Know, one podcast that gives you all the trivia, lesser-known facts and even anecdotes of popular films and shows. I'm your host Nikhil.The new Star Wars spin-off to The Mandalorian, despite its slow start, concluded its first season with strong viewership ratings. Created by Jon Favreau, the series focuses on the bounty hunter, Boba Fett and is set after the events of the 1983 film Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi.  Temuera Morrison, who plays the titular character Boba Fett, in the new 2021 TV series, also played the role of Boba’s father Jango Fett in the film Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones released in 2002 The notorious bounty hunter and Boba’s mentor, Cad Bane, is modeled after The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly character, called ‘Bad’, played by Lee Van Cleef in the 1966 film. There are also very obvious similarities to Snake Walker, aka Frog Killer, from the 1979 film The Muppet Movie.  The Mandalorian and its spin-off, The Book of Boba did not use green screen or real locations. Instead, LED walls that are 20 feet tall are used as background projections. This technology is reportedly more convenient as it helps actors visualize the locations better than green or blue screens, and it also saves the hassle of moving the entire production crew to different locations Temuera Morrison has incorporated his Māori heritage and warrior spirit into the series through the Tusken Raiders, settled in the ‘sands of Tatooine’, depicted in the show. The New Zealander who is accustomed to the haka warrior dance is said to have paid homage to it as well in the series.  The dog droids shown in the first episode of the series are neither CGI rendered nor props created for the series. These are real robotic dogs created by Boston Dynamics called ‘Spot’ robots.  Similarly, the character Mayor Mok Shaiz, voiced by one of the show’s lead directors Robert Rodriguez, is not a CGI rendered character. Mok Shaiz is an animatronic creation similar to how Steven Speilberg created the Tyrannosaurus Rex in Jurassic Park, which remains the largest animatronic ever built.  Temuera Morrison's stand-in, referred to as Jimmy, performed several voices in the series, especially during the scenes involving the cousins of Jabba the Hutt called the Twins.  If you haven't watched this series yet, then do so streaming new episodes on Disney + HotstarWell that's the OTTplay Now You Know for today's episode, until the next podcast it's your host Nikhil signing out.Aaj kya dekhoge OTTplay se poocho

Welcome to OTTplay Now you Know, one podcast that gives you all the trivia, lesser-known facts and anecdotes of popular films and shows, I'm your host Nikhil.Denis Villeneuve’s blockbuster sci-fi space odyssey, Dune, received a whopping 10 nominations for the Oscars including Best Picture. Based on the trilogy of novels by Frank Herbert, Villeneuve has crafted a film with stunning visuals, vibrant music, and engrossing screenplay. The film’s star-studded ensemble adds to the overall quality of the film. Let's check out some trivia.  Director Denis Villeneuve declined the opportunity to direct the 2021 Bond film No Time to Die so that he can work on Dune - a project that has always been his dream. Similarly, music composer Hans Zimmer turned down the chance to reunite with Christopher Nolan for Tenet so that he can work on Dune as he has always been a fan of the novels by Frank Herbert. Denis Villeneuve told the Empire Magazine that it almost took a year to finalize the design for the giant Dune sandworm creatures. Every detail from skin texture, to how it opens its mouth, how it consumes food, and how it moves through the sand were all meticulously designed to give it a prehistoric look.  Pink Floyd’s iconic number Elipse, composed by Hans Zimmer, prominently features in the first full-length trailer of the film. This was a hat-tip to filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky's attempt at adapting Frank Herbert’s novel into a feature film in the 1970s, because the filmmaker intended to use the band for the film’s musical score.   The movie does not highlight the genesis of the Great Houses. However, their names are hints to their origin on Earth. For example, Bene Gesserit, the matriarchal order with superhuman abilities, get their name from the Latin term which means “well done.” Similarly, the Atreides family has its roots in the Minoan civilization from Greece. The civilization's intrinsic association with the bull-type mythical creature Minotaurus is explained through the frequent callback to the bull imagery and the suggestions that Paul Atreides’ ancestor was killed in a bullfight.  The helmets that were used by the Harkonnen soldiers were adapted from the head of insects.  The Police’s lead singer Sting was asked to come on board for a cameo/minor role in the 1984 Dune (directed by David Lynch). But in the new 2021 version, the character met with an unfortunate fate with it being completely omitted.  If you haven't watched Dune yet ,catch it streaming on Apple TV+, Google Play , Youtube.Well that's the OTTplay Now You Know for today's episode, I shall be back again with a brand new podcast pretty soon, until then it's your host Nikhil signing out.Aaj kya dekhoge OTTplay se poocho.

Welcome to OTTplay Now You Know, one podcast that talks about lesser-known facts, trivia and even anecdotes of popular films and shows. I'm your host Nikhil.Ice-Age has been by far one of the most well-loved animated franchises. With as many as five instalments, the films have been successfully drawing the old and young, alike. With The Ice-Age Adventures of Buck Wild releasing recently, here’s a list of trivia about the first 2002 film that charmed audiences worldwide.   The animators of the film found it difficult to draw like children for the images for the end credits, so they sought the help of their own children to get the job done. In fact, the picture that Sid draws of himself in the cave is done by three-year-old Will Shefelman, the son of Dan Shefelman the story artist.  Actor John Leguizamo decided to give a unique voice to his character Sid after watching a documentary about sloths. On discovering that sloths store food in their mouths, he decided to give Sid a voice that sounded as if someone was speaking with food in their mouth. He had initially come up with nearly 30 different voices for the character.  The character Scrat is a fictional creature created just for the film, a mixture of a squirrel and a rat, and is voiced by the first film’s director Chris Wedge even though the character has no dialogue. The decision to have no dialogue for Scrat was made for comedic effect.  However, in 2009 in Argentina, scientists unearthed fossils of a creature that largely resembles Scrat. It was eventually named Cronopio Dentiacutus, paying homage to the Ice Age character. Ice Age is the only film in the franchise that does not have the Twentieth Century Fox Animation Presents during its credits.  Although the logo was supposed to be made to look like ice, the plan was later scrapped. The bottom part of the ice logo features a trailer for the movie, but the movie itself carries the original 20th Century Fox logo.   In order to make the snowboarding sequences in the film appear realistic, animators who have experience with snowboarding were tasked to do the animation for Sid’s scenes with the snowboard.   Ray Romano might seem like the perfect casting choice for Manfred, but did you know that a whole list of Hollywood A-listers was considered for the part, that includes the names of Robert De Niro, Johnny Depp,  Bruce Willis, Pierce Brosnan, Nicolas Cage, Michael Keaton and Sylvester Stallone, among many others. The makers of the film had considered several actors in the role of ever-happy sloth Sid before they zeroed in on John Leguizamo. Some of the notable names in the list were Leonardo DiCaprio, Adam Sandler, Jerry Seinfeld, and Danny DeVito.  Denis Leary, who voiced the sabre-tooth cat Diego, confessed to Jay Leno in a 2012 interview that Diego’s character was initially written off from the film since he dies during the climax. But this treatment received extremely negative reactions when the children in the test audience got upset and burst into tears. Diego then, not only survived in the first film but has been a recurrent character in all the following instalments.  If you haven't watched this flick yet then do so streaming on Disney + Hotstar and Google PlayWell that's the OTTplay Now You Know for today's episode, I shall be back again with a new podcast until then it's your host Nikhil signing outAaj kya dekhoge OTTplay se poocho

Welcome to another episode of OTTplay Now you Know, one podcast that gives you all the trivia and lesser-known facts about your favorite shows and films. I'm your host NikhilAn American drama series, Billions has been developed by David Levien, Brian Koppelman and Andrew Ross Sorkin. The series premiered in 2016 and has undergone five successful seasons. The Showtime series is ending with the sixth and final season and narrates the story of hedge fund manager Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis). So if you’re a fan of engaging thrillers based on financial frauds, this one’s perfect for you. Let's kickoff some trivia.1.The characters of Rhoades and Axelrod may be fictional but are based on real-life people. Axe, who is supposed to be a mix of all hedge-fund personalities, started off as a dramatised version of Steven A Cohen (the co-founder of S.A.C. Capital, found guilty of insider trading and slapped with a fine of $1.8 billion). Rhoades, on the other hand, is based on Preet Bharara’s personality, the one who pursued Cohen.  2. Maggie Siff, who plays Wendy Rhoades in the series, consulted noted motivational speaker Tony Robbins. The actress also consulted professional dominatrices who guided her by showing her how to accurately and safely depict BDSM on screen. Talking about Wendy, Siff once said in an interview, “[she] is very unapologetic about who she is, the power she wields, and the influence she has.” 3. Taylor Mason (who is played by Asia Kate Dillon) joins Axe Capital as a nerdy finance analyst who is obsessed with mathematics. Kate Dillon is also the first non-binary character to appear in North America television.  4. Billions has always been praised by critics for its acute eye towards detail. However, imitation can often end up misrepresenting, as was pointed out by a billionaire himself to the show’s creator Brian Koppelman. As per the billionaire, no one with his dispensable income would travel by a G5 aeroplane, which he described as a “sardine can.”5. In order to inject authenticity into their narrative, the makers of Billions have featured several fine dining restaurants across New York, be it Barney Greengrass, Sparks Steakhouse or Emmy Squared. In fact, in one scene of the show, a character refers to the restaurant’s owner himself as an exceptional chef. 6.  Other than restaurants, several noted real-life people have also featured on the show as themselves, from the music band Metallica,  to Goldman Sachs CEO  David Solomon and entrepreneur and TV personality Mark Cuban. If you haven't watched this series yet, do so streaming on HotstarWell that's the OTTplay Now You Know for today, I shall be back soon with  another podcast, Until then its your host Nikhil signing out .Aaj kya dekhoge OTTplay se poocho.

Today, we will take a deep dive into a satirical science fiction film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence that has recently dropped on Netflix. I am talking about the 2021 movie Don't Look Up. The movie depicts the story of two astronomers attempting to warn society about an approaching comet that will demolish human civilization. Here are a few trivia about this movie you didn’t know. 1. The movie was filmed with lockdown restrictions in place. Hence, Jennifer Lawrence could not get a broken tooth fixed during the filming of Don’t Look Up, and her missing tooth thus needed to be added during post-production. On the other hand, Timothée Chalamet’s hair in the film was not supposed to belong. The director zeroed in on his long-haired appearance after interacting with him on a zoom call. 2. Leonardo DiCaprio’s facial hair in the movie is also not a wig that the actor wears. The make-up department incorporated real hair extensions into the actor’s beard to make it appear seamless. 3. Because pandemic restrictions inhibited movement, many of the actors could not be physically present on sets for make-up trials. Hence, Cate Blanchett brought her own wig for filming, and Rob Morgan had a stand-in set up for his trials because he was unable to be present for fittings.4. In one scene, the film references Ogilvy, who was an astronomer in HG Wells' War Of the Worlds. It is Ogilvy who first spotted the launch of the Martian invasion. 5. Another scene where the characters of DiCaprio and Lawrence visit the White House shows a painting of President William Henry Harrison. This is an allusion to the imminent danger that the US faces, with the comet threatening to obliterate all life on earth, because Harrison was famous for being a president for the shortest duration in the US before he passed away. If you haven't watched this movie yet, do so exclusively on NetflixWell, that's some lesser-known trivia about the movie ‘Don't Look Up’, I shall be back soon with a brand new episode until then it's your host Nikhil out of here.

The Matrix franchise redefined the sci-genre with revolutionary filming techniques and action sequences. The fourth film of the franchise, Matrix Resurrections, is releasing worldwide today, with  Keanu Reeves and Carrie Ann-Moss returning for this instalment reprising their roles as Neo and Trinity. Let's look into some trivia now!1. Lana Wachowski said that the narrative choice to get Neo and Trinity back into the sequel was actually triggered by the fact that she lost both her parents (who died five weeks apart) as well as a dear friend. Describing the two characters as the most important, Wachowski said that writing the parts helped her cope with grief. However, Lily Wachowski dealt with her parents’ loss differently and decided not to return to the franchise. 2. On February 4, 2020, the film began its production in San Francisco under the tentative title of “Project Ice Cream.” 3. The shooting schedules in San Francisco caused considerable harassment to city dwellers due to the damage caused to the buildings and street lights. Much like films such as Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) and Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), these producers also had to shell out $420,000 to the San Francisco Police Department so they could shoot in the city.4. This was also the first Matrix film that had a planned shooting schedule in Chicago, which happens to be the Wachowskis’ hometown. However, the expanding pre-production budgets for the film did not allow that and it was scrapped from their itinerary. 5. The roles of Tiffany’s (Trinity’s alter ego) kids in the film are essayed by the real-life children of Carrie-Anne Moss. 6. Keanu Reeves confirmed that the tandem leap (which also included Carrie-Anne Moss) from the 44 Montgomery Street building in San Francisco was done mostly without the help of special effects. The duo took over 20 retakes for the scene from the 43-floor building over a two-day schedule, with descender cables attached to them. That's the OTTplay Now You Know, I shall be back again with another episode soon. Until then it's your host Nikhil signing out.

For today’s Now You Know, we’ll be looking at the British black comedy series After Life, which has been written and directed by Ricky Gervais. The show, streaming on Netflix, sees the comedian play Tony, a journalist trying to grapple with the death of his wife Lisa from cancer. 1. Did you know that James Corden served as an inspiration for one of the characters on the show? Indeed, James the Recorder Kid is based on Corden, who has been a subject of many of Gervais’s jokes earlier. 2. Since Ricky Gervais himself is an animal rights defender, the fish fingers that were featured on the show were of the vegan variant. 3. The premiere episode features a disgruntled Tony deciding to offer his dog a can of baked beans after running out of dog food. He himself opts for vegetable curry in a can. In a later Facebook interaction, Gervais revealed that he had indeed consumed the vegetable curry during the filming of the scene.4. The character of Lisa on the show has a middle name, Jane, which also happens to be the name of Gervais’ partner of 30 years, Jane Fallon. 5. Ricky Gervais’ views on fatherhood are somewhat captured in the character of Tony. The actor-comedian has earlier admitted to being comfortable with not fathering a child. Similarly, Tony, in the series, reveals he isn’t keen on having a kid because he feels they are annoying. 6. The music of After Life was handpicked by Gervais himself, a creative decision that he hadn’t had before. So when you hear Bill Withers’ Lovely Day or Elton John’s Rocketman, be assured that Gervais has himself selected these tracks to feature on the show. If you haven't watched this series yet, then do so it's streaming on NetflixThat's the OTTplay Now You Know, I shall be back again with another episode soon. Until then it's your host Nikhil signing out.

Wes Anderson’s latest film, The French Dispatch, is a critically acclaimed anthology film that follows three different storylines about the fictional Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun and its French foreign bureau. The film features a star-studded ensemble for its three storylines. Let's  begin some trivia for you. 1. The film was originally intended to be a musical according to an article by Collider. It would have been a departure from the rock music Anderson usually adopts for his films, but the plan was ultimately dropped in favour of creating a signature Anderson film. 2. The movie is set in a fictional town called Ennui-sur-Blase which translates to Boredom-on-Apathy. Ironically it's in contrast with the film’s tone, pacing, aesthetic, and narrative.3. The fictional town of Enniu-sur-Blase was shot in France itself. IndieWire claims that the quiet town of Angouleme was Anderson’s choice of setting for Enniu-sur-Blase, as it was perfect for filming. 4. New York publication The New Yorker is allegedly Anderson’s inspiration for the publication in the film. The claims were made by none other than The New Yorker. The same article also claims that some of the characters are inspired by Anderson’s favourite journalists from The New Yorker.5. British actress Kate Winslet was rumoured to play a role in the film according to The Hollywood Reporter, but the actor has refused to confirm which role she was supposed to take on.6. Bill Murray finished shooting his scenes in just two days despite being one of the main characters in the ensemble, and the actor stayed back in France for a week longer.If you want to watch this flick, it's streaming on Google Play and Youtube. That's the OTTplay Now You Know for today, I shall be back again with another episode soon. Until then it's your host Nikhil signing out.

Loki is an American television series, based on Marvel comics, where Tom Hiddleston portrays the titular God of Mischief. This is the third TV series in the MCU after WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and the series takes place after the events of Avengers: End Game. Loki has won several awards including the People's Choice Award for The Best Show of 2021 and the Favourite Male TV star. The series has been nominated for numerous other awards as well. So, let's begin the trivia for this hit series then.1. In order to prepare to play Agent Mobius in the show, Owen Wilson did not read the comics. Instead, he roped in Tom Hiddleston to explain the show’s plot and the MCU to him.2. Marvel Comics writer and editor Mark Gruenwald must surely have had a difficult time in his career, considering he was tasked with maintaining continuity across the Marvel Universe. As a tribute to him, all Time Variance Authority agents in the Loki comics were made to look like Gruenwald. 3. Mr DNA from the iconic Jurassic Park film was the inspiration behind the animated mascot Miss Minutes. 4. The title of the Loki series shuttles between several different forms, which actor Tom Hiddleston explains as "integrating the disparate fragments of the many selves that Loki can be."5. The costumes of Sophia Di Martino, who plays Sylvie on the show, were altered to include concealed zippers. This was done so that the actress could nurse her newborn between takes. You can watch this series exclusively on  Disney + HotstarThat's the OTTplay Now You Know, I shall be back again with another episode soon. Until then it's your host Nikhil signing out. 

Tom Holland is returning for a third standalone Spider-Man film titled Spider-Man: No Way Home, which was released in theatres in India today. So here is some trivia on the second film in the trilogy, Spider-Man: Far From Home. Let's begin!1. Jeffrey Henderson, storyboard artist for the film, claims that Mysterio was originally the intended villain for the cancelled Sam Raimi film Spider-Man 4. Bruce Campbell, the Ash vs Evil Dead star and childhood friend of Raimi was supposed to play the role. In fact, Campbell had made cameo appearances in all three Raimi Spider-Man films.2. In a particular scene about 21 minutes into the runtime, which is also Tom Holland's favourite action scene from the film, takes place in Venice during  the Water Elemental attacks. Peter is shown to run across several poles where a few boats are docked. He later admitted that he regrets not heeding the advice of the stunt coordinator to wear shin guards.3. August 10th is shown to be his  birthday as per the passport. This is a reference to Spider-Man's first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15 which was released on August 10th, 1962.4. Jake Gyllenhaal is almost never seen wearing anything other than his full supervillain costume. It was recommended to him he wear something more comfortable for certain scenes, but as he genuinely liked wearing that suit he refused to wear anything else.5. The Dutch village that Peter wakes up in is called 'Broek op Langedijk', which means a low piece of land in a marsh-like area in ancient Dutch. It is in fact a real town in the Netherlands, famous for its historic architecture. However, the marketplace and the tulip field scenes were shot in the Czech Republic. Around two million digital tulips were created to depict the Dutch countryside. Even though not really appear in the movie, the tourist board of Broek was thrilled by the reference, and the place witnessed a sharp rise in American tourists after the film's premiere.6. Jake Gyllenhaal, who plays the villain Mysterio in the film, was originally cast to replace an injured Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man 2. However, Maguire healed in time from the injuries he suffered while filming Seabiscuit and returned for Spider-Man 2.If you haven't watched this spidey flick yet then do so, it's streaming on Netflix, Google Play, Apple TVThat's the OTTplay Now You Know for today, I shall be back again with another episode soon.. Until then it's your host Nikhil signing out.