A 1,000 weeks on, DDLJ's romance with Bollywood lovers continues

New Delhi: It tugged at the heartstrings of the young, middle-aged and the old alike when it released way back in 1995. Even a thousand weeks after its run at the box office, Shah Rukh Khan-starrer romantic drama 'Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge' (DDLJ) continues to be "cherished" by youths, who consider it an "ideal love story".

When the film, debut-directed by Aditya Chopra, released Oct 20, 1995, it came as a refreshing change as well as a clutter breaking and trend-making entertainer with all ingredients of a Bollywood masala potboiler -- love, romance, comedy, action, melodrama, thrills, songs and dance -- put together cohesively to tell a story of the victory of true love.

DDLJ has a simple story -- a fun loving London-bred Punjabi boy Raj meets an NRI simpleton Simran (Kajol) during an European holiday. Love blossoms between them, but winning over the girl's conservative family is not a cakewalk for the hero, who then makes every effort to take his 'dulhania' (bride) with him

Such was the film's effect that most young girls felt love was all about 'finding their Raj', boys idolised SRK's ways of fighting his way to get the love of his life, while the picture perfect family scenes reflected the fun and frolic of a typical Punjabi household -- whether it was Amrish Puri's strict yet loving father's character, Farida Jalal's emotional motherly act or Anupam Kher's goofy portrayal of the boy's 'Pops'.

Muskan Agarwal, a 21-year-old, says "everything about the movie rocks".

"Its filmy dialogues, beautiful outdoor shooting locales to superhit songs...it's great that the movie is completing 1,000 weeks. They should still make movies like DDLJ," said the Bollywood fanatic.

The film's songs like "Tujhe dekha toh ye jaana sanam", "Mehndi lagaa ke rakhna", "Ruk ja oh dil deewane" and "Mere khwabon mein jo aaye" continue to be played even today.

For 22-year-old Ranjeet Rajotia, the chemistry shared by SRK and Kajol -- one of Bollywood's best onscreen couples -- in DDLJ, surpasses their pairing in all their other films.

"SRK and Kajol have worked together in a lot of blockbusters but DDLJ will always be recognised as their best work till date," Ranjeet said about the film, which won 10 Filmfare Awards, including best film, best actor, best actress and best director at the 1996 edition of the ceremony.

Produced by the late Yash Chopra, the film this year started its 20th year of uninterrupted run at the iconic Maratha Mandir cinema hall in Mumbai and it now holds the record of the longest running film in the history of Indian cinema.

While the youngsters have already seen the film enough times, watching it on the day it completes its 1,000 weeks is special in its own way for them.

"Can't wait to watch 'DDLJ' at Maratha Mandir. I really want to blow whistles when SRK fights on screen and hoot when Kajol turns around during the famous 'palat' moment," said Meghna Mathur, who was perhaps only a year old when the movie released.

The theatre is fully booked for the special milestone screening, Manoj Desai, managing director, Maratha Mandir, told IANS.

DDLJ even appealed to those who aren't particularly fond of Bollywood entertainers and prefer sci-fi Hollywood movies.

Said Gopal Rathore: "I'm not into Bollywood movies but DDLJ is something I've always cherished. It's an all-time classic. It's always good to watch an ordinary couple go through extraordinary lengths to be together in the end."

A lot of emotional viewers ended up shedding tears during the movie, and it hasn't been any different for the new generation.

"When I first saw 'DDLJ' it made me cry. After watching the movie, almost every girl started expecting some Raj to walk into her life and love her the same way that he did in the movie, at least I did," said Ashra Sachdeva.

There are many unforgettable aspects of the film -- the plush yellow mustard fields, the Swiss cow bell, SRK's 'Senorita' and 'Bade bade shehron mein choti choti baatein hoti rehti hain" dialogues, Kajol's pristine white salwar suit and the famous climax, where Kajol runs towards her bruised lover, who's already aboard a moving train.

Gushes Ria Malhotra, a 26-year-old: "The scene was repeated with SRK and Deepika Padukone in 'Chennai Express', but nothing can beat the charm of DDLJ, where a father tells his daughter to go and live her life to the fullest with the love of her life."

People really do hear you differently than you hear yourself.

Do you outwardly cringe when hearing your voice on a recording or video?  Ever wonder why your voice sounds completely different on a recording than it does in your head? Well, you’re not alone, according to this video by SciShow, you’re not crazy for think that either; our voices actually do sound different in our heads.

The truth is, when you’re hearing your voice recorded, it’s the same thing that everyone else hears when they hear you. The reason your voice sounds completely different when you hear it in your head is due to a number of reasons. Largely because, when you’re hearing yourself speak, you’re actually hearing your voice being conducted to your ears by the air around you, you’re hearing your voice traveling through all of the parts of your ear, and you’re hearing the sound bouncing off all of the fleshy goodness inside your head. 

So what you’re hearing on that recording is pure, unadulterated, you. Oh, and that embarrassment that you feel when you hear yourself is definitely normal too.

And just incase you weren’t weirded out already, did you know that plants are also listening?

The true story of Bollywood’s undercover female makeup artists

 

Sexism in Bollywood is old news. Male stars get screen time and lengthy monologues; women get dances in skimpy clothes.

But until last week, much of the world didn’t know how deeply entrenched—and official—the discrimination really is. The Supreme Court of India lifted a 60-year-old informal ban on women working as makeup artists in the film industry.

The Cine Costume Makeup Artists and Hair Dressers Association had imposed the rule to allegedly safeguard the interests of its union of artists. In the same bylaw, men were stopped from taking hairstyling as a profession—a craft reserved for the women. This archaic clause was put in place to ensure equal opportunities for men and women.

But some people didn’t like that style. Quartz interviewed two of them—Charu Khurana and Namrata Soni—to peel back the layers on the industry they fought to change.

Backed by the National Commission for Women, Khurana formally filed a petition of protest in 2012. Lured by high-quality special makeup effects in Hollywood films, the Delhi-bred artist spent a year training at the Cinema Makeup School in Los Angeles in 2009. Since then, she has worked on several advertisements, Hindi films such as Raavan, and Tamil and Telugu films.

Soni trained in London, and has worked with India’s biggest production houses on films such as Main Hoon Na, Om Shanti Om, Kaal and Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna.

Charu Khurana

When I went to Mumbai after finishing my makeup course in Los Angeles, I found out about this weird law. Clearly, it was unconstitutional, and at the back of my mind, I thought that the union could not actually hinder any woman’s fundamental right to earn a living by practicing a profession of her choice.

But, when I approached them for a membership card, they refused to give me one. What was shocking in my case was that they wouldn’t even enroll me as a hairdresser because my domicile wasn’t Mumbai all these years. I had my bank account statements from Delhi, but they wanted a voter’s identity card or a ration card issued in Maharashtra.

I had spent all my savings on my makeup training; my family wasn’t financially strong; and I wasn’t getting any kind of membership to work. So I settled for working behind the scenes.

I couldn’t be seen as working as a makeup artist, so I would be doing all the work in the vanity van, or in the hotel room, while a man would represent my work on the sets. I would share my credits, and my salary with that man to be my face on the set.

I did a couple of projects like that because my only means was whatever little I was making off by working off the sets. By then, the union had started threatening me that as a woman, I should keep away from makeup.

On my second film with Kamal Haasan—which was a remake of A Wednesday and it was called Eenadu—I was fined Rs25,000. They called it a donation. I thought, ‘Fine. I would pay.’ Forty days of shooting had been done, and only the last part of the film was left. I thought I should just pay it off so that the project can keep going.

But the real setback came on the set of another Tamil film, Alex Pandian, where I was working with a top actor, Anushka Shetty. These men from the union came on the set and forced me to boycott the film. They turned off the lights and generators, and the production was stopped for three to four hours because they wanted me to leave. That was really humiliating.

Some 200 people are employed on a film, and there is a lot of money at stake. For the producer to lose those over three hours of shooting is a waste of money, time and talent. He might lose on the artist’s dates.

But then, I hadn’t committed any crime. I was doing my job, which I was good at. Since my membership card was rejected, I had a permission letter from the Maharashtra federation to work, but the Tamil Nadu union would not even accept that. Finally, I had to boycott the film and fly back home.

On any film, 90% of the people employed on a film are men—from cameramen to spot boys to directors of photography. If the crew is of 200 people, there are hardly 12 or 15 women—the lead actress, a few junior artists and dancers. So why were the women being stopped?

My crew supported me that the law was unethical and archaic—but they had no time or strength to fight this out the legal way because it wasn’t affecting them personally. The only person it was affecting was I, and women makeup artists like me.

I was battling with the Maharashtra state commission, but no action was being taken. There was a lot of slow-moving paperwork and red tapism. Things were not shaping up the way I wanted them to. Then, I went to the National Women Commission in Delhi. The whole thing took three years to take the shape I wanted it to.

There was a lot of paperwork moving to and fro the union and the commission, but the union would not respond. So finally, last year, we took the matter to the Supreme Court. Charu Wali Khanna actually drafted my case, and she introduced me to Jyotika Kalra, who was my lawyer. They understood the genuineness of my case. Jyotika knew I wasn’t employed for two whole years, so she didn’t charge me a penny for the case. She bore all the expenses. We would wonder why no woman challenged this rule for almost 60 years.

For actresses, too, it was too much of a stress because the comfort level they enjoy with a female makeup artist is not the same as a male. In Bollywood songs, they would be wearing skimpy clothes, and for them to get a full body makeup or a tattoo done is not always comfortable. Even if I was the one doing the makeup behind the scene, often in between shots, the touchup needs to be done right there on the set. They can’t rush back to the van or the hotel room.

The paradox is how the rule is twisted around for male workers. In South India, men can be both hairdressers and makeup artists. In Maharashtra, though you can be only one of the two, it is only in the books for the men. For 50 years now, Amitabh Bachchan has a male hairdresser and a male makeup artist. When it comes to hairstyling for men, they think it is not a major job, but they are wrong. Hairstyling requires wig work, beard work, fake mustaches—all these fall under it. Shah Rukh Khan has never had a female hairdresser, too.

This is the main reason: makeup is a higher paying craft than hairdressing. They don’t want women to earn higher salaries than men. The investment in makeup is also much more because products expire, more consumable, less durable. They just wanted women to not enter the profession.

Namrata Soni

Every single woman makeup artist in Bollywood has faced discrimination. I have been in the industry for around 11-12 years, and it was much harder at that time. It has always been hard.

I tried fighting this in 2004. But there were very few supporters. Other than Farah Khan, nobody else came out in support. We couldn’t do anything because the union was very volatile and violent at that point. People working in the association were—let’s just say—scary. I tried, but when they shut the door on my face and said they were never going to give me a membership card, I told myself, “Let them do what they want. It is 2005 and I live in a free country where I am allowed to choose my work. I don’t need a union card.”

I have been fined hundreds of times, but I have never paid a penny, or allowed the production house to pay, because I don’t think I was doing anything wrong.

They have a bylaw that men can’t work as hairdressers, but that was the most sexist bit: men were hairstyling, while women were being harassed on sets. I have worked like a dog. Every two years, I would invest whatever I would earn on upgrading my skills as a hairstylist and makeup artist. If a man has even an iota of talent, he would get where I have.

They should ask why are Bollywood directors and actors hiring us? It’s only because we are talented. For Om Shanti Om, the union guys told Farah Khan to hire a male makeup artist for the prosthetic work I was doing. Farah told them if you can find someone who can deliver what this girl can for my film, I would replace her. They had no answer.

The first two years in the industry, I would be scared that the union was going to come after me and I better hide in the van. But since the last 10 years now, I have a screw-these-people attitude. I am living in a freaking free country.

I even refused to get a man to represent my work on the sets—which the union had asked me to do. I would rather train someone who is actually going to learn something than have someone sitting on the set, holding a mirror, a puff and a sponge.

The union is a bully—and they bully those who they can get away with bullying. They gave us a hard time by segregating the job of a hairdresser and a makeup artist. Were they saying that a director cannot be a producer or an actor cannot be a director? They cannot bully those guys. They will bully the underdogs, and they are not going to stop doing that.

Now they have turned around and said that for the next 10 days, they are going to keep admissions open for makeup artists. So basically, after 10 days, they are going to close the application. Why? Why should this application ever close? Are you telling me, two months later, if a woman wants to become a member of the union, this whole issue is going to come up again?

 
Basically, they are going to keep coming up with such stupid rules so that they can harass women.

WWE SummerSlam 2014: 5 reasons why Brock Lesnar vs John Cena is 'Bad for Business'

 

WWE is all set to bring their next pay-per-view installment, SummerSlam, for the fans and it will be headlined by a blockbuster match between Brock Lesnar and John Cena. On paper, there won’t be anything bigger than this that the company could give their fans as both Cena and Lesnar are multi – platform superstars who could fit in any poster or merchandize that WWE would produce to market the pay-per-view. Though this match is best if SummerSlam is isolated from the whole WWE Universe, there are many flaws in the booking if we see it from a wider angle. So here is a look at some of the reasons why Cena vs. Lesnar at SummerSlam is bad for business.

#5 Lesnar being the streak ender

At WrestleMania, Lesnar just shot himself into the stars when he ended Undertaker’s two decade long streak.
 There aren’t many heights that Lesnar can scale in the business right now and this makes him a crucial part in putting youngsters over.
Any wrestler who defeats Lesnar would find himself in a great position in the business and Cena was never the right candidate to explore this possibility.
Just like Lesnar, Cena is at the epitome of the business right now and defeating Lesnar wouldn’t do him any good or bad. At the same time, a youngster being in that position would be a future investment for the company rather than wasting the golden goose on the Cenation leader.

#4 Possibility of match being botched

Once all the buildup is over, these two superstars would have to prove themselves in between the ropes with the limelight beamed on to them.
The capacity to which Cena can wrestle is a main trolling topic for the Internet fans. Cena has had many good matches in the past with his brawling skills but cannot be trusted to carry his opponent throughout an entire match of such significance.
Lesnar on the other hand has flourished with the monster gimmick but looking back on the two matches that he had this year raises concerns. The first one against Big Show only had destruction and Lesnar barely had time in between the ropes.
Also the match he had with Undertaker was considered as one of the worst ones in the streak which make matters worse when thinking about how the match would turn out.  

#3 Brock being over as a face

The fifty-fifty reaction that Cena gets from the WWE Universe has been a big headache for the creative team. Almost everyone that feuded with Cena got a warm response from the WWE Universe no matter what his alignment was.
This was one of the main reasons why Cena’s feud with Bray Wyatt fell flat as Bray was the face in the mix when he was supposed to be the evil monster who wanted to stop the warrior.
From the looks of it, WWE is using the same formula to book Lesnar against Cena.
The reaction Lesnar got on Raw and how the fans chanted his name when Cena was in the ring suggest that Lesnar might end up being the face in the feud which is not an apt title for a man who had a lot of heat after WrestleMania.

#2 Against the expectations of fans

At the start of the year, the fans wanted to see the lights of Cesaro, Roman Reigns or Daniel Bryan being part of the main event at the big pay-per-views.
Bryan did just that at WrestleMania and was supposed to carry all the way to SummerSlam if it wasn’t for his injury. Reigns meanwhile got a good push after the Shield breakup but didn’t get the match that he wanted which was a main event with Hunter.
Cesaro meanwhile is lost in the midcard right now and him finding a place in the match card is still up in the air. These expectations of the fans were on the hopes of seeing WWE book the pay-per-view on basis of merit that popularity.
The slowly changing fan base wants to see good in ring action instead of two established names delivering an average match which is just what the WWE will give them at Summerslam.

#1 Possibility of title going to a part timer

Remember CM Punk? Well for the ones who don’t, he was a main event talent in the WWE who wrestled regularly throughout the year and got sick with the way WWE pushed part timers and gave them all the limelight.
If Batista winning the Royal Rumble was one of the catalysts for Punk’s exit, the fans are going to see Lesnar in Batista’s spot if he gets non deserving title win which will affect the product adversely.
This year, WWE gave special attention in keeping the title on superstars who could wrestle week in and week out.
Lesnar would be an entirely different champion who might not even show up for weekly episodes. If Lesnar doesn’t win, this makes him look weak after despite a lot of momentum which puts WWE in an awkward situation. 

Rs 40 LAKH FOR KIDNEYS LOST IN BOTCHED-UP OP

  Rs 40 LAKH FOR KIDNEYS LOST IN BOTCHED-UP OPJul 15 2014

15 years after a surgery went horribly wrong, court asks clinic to compensate the patient...
Shanti Manik, who lost her only kidney during a botched hysterectomy at Navjivan Maternity Home, was saved by her mother, who donated one of her kidneys

The state consumer commission on Monday ordered a Vile Parle maternity clinic to pay a 56-year-old patient Rs 40 lakh in compensation 15 years after doctors wrongly removed both her kidneys without her family's consent. In 1999, Shanti Manik, then 41, was admitted to Navjivan Maternity and Surgical Home for a simple hysterectomy procedure but ended up with her kidneys removed.

After removing her uterus and ovary, doctors told the family they had detected a tumour, before calling a general surgeon from Borivali and removing the tumour, without realising it was attached to her kidney. They did not even take the family's consent.

Complicating the case was the fact that Manik had a horseshoe kidney, a condition where both the kidneys fuse and become one organ.

Due to this, she was briefly left with no kidney and had to be shifted to a bigger hospital for immediate dialysis. Thankfully, her 70-year-old mother stepped in to donate her kidney.

Manik has had to live on medication ever since. Her medicines cost Rs 15,000 a month.
She further has to undergo dialysis twice every week, which costs Rs 1,350.

“Luckily my mother-in-law came to our rescue,“ said her husband Vishnu, 64. “But even after the surgery, Shanti developed various posttransplant complications and was put on immuno-suppressant drugs along with other medicines for the rest of her life.“

Manik's family then approached the consumer forum, which found gynaecologists Hira Shah, Neha Shah, Manohar Motwani and general surgeon Dinesh Bhagat guilty of negligence. The forum ruled the doctors did not perform simple diagnostic tests that would have shown there was no need for the kidney to be removed.
“While my wife was still on the operation table the doctors informed us there was a tumour attached to her ureter,“ said Vishnu. “They called a surgeon and removed the mass. Much later, they came and told me my wife had only one kidney since birth, which had now been removed with the tumour.“


Manik's lawyer Shirish Deshpande said if the clinic had bothered to conduct proper tests before performing the procedure they would have known the tumour was attached to the kidney. “Worst was that they did everything in such a haste when the tumour was not malignant,“ said Deshpande.

During proceedings, more than four experts testified in Manik's favour, saying the clinic should have performed a mandatory abdominal sonography before operating on Manik, based on which the court found the clinic guilty.

The court also observed that every single penny demanded by the Maniks was well accounted for and deserved. The court awarded Rs 7,81,474 to the Maniks for medical expenses and Rs 12,07,500 as compensation with 9 per cent from the date of filing the suit, besides Rs 10,000 as litigation costs.

 

Hard-Drive-Sniffing Dog Helps Fight Child Porn

A golden labrador like this one is helping Rhode Island police catch child pornographers.

Thinkstock

View Caption +#1: A Soldier's Best Friend

Rhode Island state police have a new weapon in their fight against child pornography -- a golden Labrador with a nose for computer hardware. New police dog Thoreau, who was given to the Rhode Island Internet Crimes Against Children task force by neighboring Connecticut state police, spent five months receiving specialized training on how to get the scent of hard drives, thumb drives, and other computer gear.

VIDEO: Dogs Have Feelings, Too

The task force has a special interest in finding such devices, as they're usually small enough to be hidden far out of sight by child pornogaphers. Dogs like Thoreau can join in on a search warrant, catching by scent well-hidden things an officer might miss.
So far, Thoreau has already helped secure an arrest warrant on a suspect who had stashed a thumb drive filled with child porn deep within a metal filing cabinet.
"If it has a memory card, he’ll sniff it out," Thoreau's round-the-clock handler, Detective Adam Houston, told the Providence Journal. Thoreau will, of course, expect a yummy treat after all of his sniffing delivers the illicit goods -- that's how he was trained.

Dogs Deployed Nationwide After Boston Attack

The Connecticut program where Thoreau learned his trade is actually several years old, and was launched to help the state's computer crimes investigative unit. The program currently trains more than 60 dogs, who learn how to sniff out bombs and bodies as well as hard drives. They're often sent out to help law enforcement agencies around the country.
Thoreau and dogs like him are a welcome addition to police efforts to fight a multi-billion-dollar child porn industry populated by traffickers who have grown increasingly savvy about hiding their dark world from view.

Up Next

6 Shocking Things About Chimps

Kriti Sanon replaces Priyanka Chopra as Akshay Kumar’s heroine in Singh is Bling!

 

Oops she did it again! After replacing Piggy Chops for a cola brand endorsement, the Heropanti actor has replaced her once again in the Akshay Kumar starrer

Kirti Sanon is riding high on the success of her debut film Heropanti and the pretty dame has bagged her second film already! The leggy lady will next be seen opposite Akshay Kumar in Prabhudeva’s Singh is Bling. Reports did rounds that Priyanka Chopra was being considered for the role but perhaps due to differences with Akshay Kumar, PeeCee refused to work in the film.

Prabhudeva went on to cast the 23 year old newcomer so as to make a fresh pair out of Akki and Kirti! We will have to wait for Singh is Bling‘s release to find out how the audience responds to this new onscreen jodi but we can say for ourselves that we like how things are going!