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- Exclusive coverage on Asia's business, economies and politics | Cancel anytime. Offer exclusive to the above link. Terms are subject to change. Above discount open to new subscribers only. |  | Exclusive Nikkei data analysis points to slow but significant change in India's prolific film industry Bollywood superstar Deepika Padukone, playing a headstrong 14th-century Hindu queen clad sumptuously in red brocade and gemstones, commands dozens of women to follow her into a pit of fire in the finale of the 2018 blockbuster "Padmaavat." Padukone's character called for self-immolation rather than submission to an invading army and provoked vigorous debates around the portrayal of a woman's agency. But the film was a milestone for women in Bollywood: "Padmaavat" was the most expensive movie made with a female lead, it was massively successful at the box office, and it catapulted Padukone into a league of superstardom seldom held by women anywhere in the world. "Usually the big action movies or dramas or big historicals are on the back of a male superstar," Padukone, whose international stardom put her on the Cannes Film Festival's eight-member jury last year, told Nikkei Asia in an interview. Read the full story here. |  | Bipartisan senate proposal would enable president to ban social media app In recent years, officials of social media app TikTok and its Chinese parent ByteDance have worked hard to make friends in Washington, splashing out millions of dollars on lobbyists with ties to both major U.S. political parties. This week, the limits of that strategy have become clear. On Tuesday, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill that would give the president authority to shut down foreign-owned apps like TikTok on national security grounds, and the current occupant of the White House, Joe Biden, signaled he would support it. Read the full story here. |  | Amid opposition and historical baggage, president eyes foreign investment During a breakfast meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. told corporate executives about the reserves his heavily indebted country has sitting in commercial and government banks. "We need to find a way to make that money work for us," he said to the assembled guests, among them representatives of Morgan Stanley and Sequoia Capital, as he made his case for his country's first sovereign wealth fund. "The sovereign wealth fund would be a good idea to leverage what assets the government has," Marcos said according to a statement from his office. Read the full story here. | If you no longer wish to receive information like this, unsubscribe here. 1-3-7, Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 100-8066, Japan
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