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.
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 mainreasons
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 fanbase
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 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.
Wednesday, 9 July 2014
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.
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.
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.
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 isBling‘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!
Resident Evil's Next Movie May Be Its Last; Tentatively Titled The Final Chapter
Paul W.S. Anderson is currently working on the script with the intention of it being the series' final film.
Resident Evil: Retribution
Writing has begun on the sixth entry in the Resident Evil film series, but as its tentative title--Resident Evil: The Final Chapter--suggests, it might turn out to be the last, according to writer and director Paul W.S. Anderson.
Speaking with Collider, Anderson revealed that The Final Chapter
is the title he's currently using as he writes the upcoming film's
script. The title has not yet been finalized but could end up being
used, as he said, "It may be the final title, but that's what's written
on the front page of my script." Asked whether he's writing this with
the intention of making it the series' final film, he said, "That's
what's on the title page, it's Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, so absolutely."
Of course, as with video games, the movie industry is hesitant to let a franchise die when it's still making money.
And the Resident Evil movies, whatever the consensus might be on their
quality or merit, have made money: The most recent film, 2012's Retribution, grossed $240 million worldwide, the bulk of which was made overseas. Its predecessor, Afterlife, grossed nearly $300 million, but even with the decline, Retribution was still a moneymaker.
Anderson seems to be aware that continued success could derail plans for this movie to end the series. Referencing the Highlander
movies, he said with a laugh, "As Christopher Lambert famously said,
'There can be only one.' And then there were five of them."
Although 3D may not be as popular as it once was, Anderson indicated earlier this year that the next Resident Evil movie would be available in 3D. In the interview with Collider,
he talked about how it's important to begin considering 3D even in the
writing stages. "You cannot make a great 3D movie by just--it's not some
special sauce that you can sprinkle on," he said. "You make the dish
and then you make hot sauce on top--it doesn't work well like that."
"I
approach my films right from the inception, I kind of write action
scenes and pick out locations that I think and know--because I've done
so much of it--will translate very well into 3D," he said. "Then when we
build the sets, we build sets that I know will shoot well in 3D. It's
really, even from this point, 3D is something I'm definitely thinking
about. And I think it's one of the things that people really appreciate
about the movies that I'm involved with. Even if you don't like any
other aspect of them, I think the one thing that most people do agree on
is the 3D looks fantastic and that's really good news."
Anderson
went on to say that he has been approached to work on movies based on
other video game series, but he's been hesitant to do so. "I have been
offered other video games themselves," he said. "I think because I'm
probably so associated with Resident Evil, I think there's probably a
reluctance to make another video game movie and I will also kind of feel
that reluctance as well. That's the video game franchise I'm associated
with right now and that's really what I want to do and put all of my
energy into.
"And I'm very happy with the way
I've managed to alternate between doing video game-based movie and then a
historical-based movie or a piece of literature. I wouldn't want to do
video game movie after video game movie."
AJ Lee not expected to return to WWE any time soon
Don’t expect to see former WWE Diva’s Champion AJ Lee back any time soon.
After more than a month away from WWE, CM Punk announced during his visit to Wrigley Field last weekend that he and Lee were set to marry next month. The likelihood of Lee returning to WWE prior to the engagement is unlikely.
Despite being advertised heavily for the WWE’s current European tour—one of the most important tours of the year for the company—she won’t be joining the rest of the roster.
The 27-year old Lee was last seen on WWE programming April 7, as her 295-day Diva’s title reign came to a screeching halt, as she was abruptly defeated by the debuting Paige. Many expected a re-match to be scheduled for the following Extreme Rules pay-per view, but in Lee’s absence, her bodyguard Tamina instead received the title shot.
With Modi As Prime Minister, Hope For A New Start For India's Economy
The Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies are headed for a thumping majority in the 543-seat Indian parliament and Narendra Modi is India’s new prime minister-designate.
The numbers give Modi the hand to form a strong and stable government, freeing him from the challenge of aligning with capricious regional partners. The clear trends in the results sent the Mumbai Stock Exchange’s Sensex roaring past the 25,000-point mark by 10 a.m. in the morning.
The numbers for Modi and his National Democratic Alliance (NDA) indicate that the Nehru-Gandhi dynastic rule through the Congress Party has been stopped in its tracks. The family-led Congress has reigned for 54 of the 67 years of independent India. Most regional family-run parties too did not perform too well in the nation-wide election.
What Modi can achieve is still a question but the election of a strong, decisive government in Delhi can certainly change the national mood. The atmosphere has been somber recently after quarter-on-quarter of slow growth, rising inflation and increased public borrowing. A new, business-friendly government is virtually a new start for the economy.
Winning a grueling, five-week long, 550-million votes election is only the beginning as Modi will have his task cut out for him – reviving India’s sputtering economy by bringing about financial reform, creating jobs, giving incentives to the private sector and encouraging young entrepreneurs.
In recent quarters India, the so-called emerging markets giant, has been caught in a cycle of rising inflation and flagging growth. Trapped up in the worst post-liberalization economic phase, the country slowed from blazing, double-digit GDR growth rates to half that, around 5%, in recent years.
Retail inflation averaged 10 percent last year, as prices of daily essentials such as onions shot up and pinched India’s millions of poor who survive on less than $2 a day. Industrial production has steadily fallen in the past months. The rupee fell steeply against the dollar last year.
The new government needs no less than a magic wand to wave at the wheezing economy. Modi will have to immediately kick start the reform process in an economy that has been paralysed by an inept leadership and corruption scandals, such as those concerning the auction of 2G telecom spectrum which led to the jailing of the country’s telecom minister.
Modi has appeared in 3D hologram incarnations at election rallies in hundreds of locations across the country, promising ‘vikas’ or development to the masses and pledging to replicate countrywide the Gujarat model of economic growth, progress during his 12-year rule as the chief minister of that western state.
Meet Bollywood Star Priyanka Chopra, Guess Clothing's First Indian Spokesmodel
(Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for DIFF)
Priyanka Chopra is a name and face you won’t soon forget. A top Bollywood star who’s appeared in over 40 films, the former Miss World, 31, recently became the newest face for Guess — and the brand’s first-ever spokesmodel from India. Recently we sat down with the multi-talented actress and singer in New York City and discovered that, in addition to being one of the most staggeringly beautiful women we’ve ever met, she’s also the kind of laid-back, cool girl we’d hang out with every day if we could.
What does it mean to you to be the first Indian Guess Girl? I’ve always admired Guess’s iconic black and white ads, not to mention that all of the former Guess Girls are so timelessly beautiful. Being the first brown face for the brand, and having a role in changing the idea of what the girl next door looks like, is so incredibly humbling and makes me so proud.
Your skin is flawless. Can you let us in on a few of your beauty secrets? I apply Greek yogurt all over my skin, let it sit, and then rinse it off in the shower. It helps revitalize my skin and keep it soft. I also use coconut oil on my hair. My grandmother taught me that massaging coconut oil into your scalp increases circulation and helps your hair grow. I also change my moisturizer every 6 months. I kill my skin every day with super heavy makeup when I’m shooting, so I try to change moisturizers often because I think it’s important to trick your skin for optimal results. I love SKII products and La Prairie. I also take off my makeup every night before bed no matter how tired I am.
How is beauty different in India compared to the US? Do you find there is more emphasis placed on certain attributes here vs. there? I think women want to look and feel beautiful wherever they’re from. In India we use more natural beautifying methods, as well as oils and Ayurvedic products.
Music is also something you’re passionate about. Tell us about your latest single, an EDM version of the Bonnie Raitt classic, “I Can’t Make You Love Me.” Actually, Bonnie Raitt’s version of “I Can’t Make You Love Me” is one of the reasons I wanted to become a musician. When I was growing up, this song had such an impact on my life and really helped get me through many troubling times. And Bonnie’s vocals are incredible – you can literally feel her raw emotion when you listen to that song. That’s probably the reason why, after seconds of hearing the EDM demo of this song, I knew I had to record it for my album. It was fate…love at first listen!
Your first single, “In My City,” featuring will.i.am, was the theme song for the NFL Network’s 2013 season, but not everyone had a positive reaction to you in America. How did that make you feel? It was very hurtful when people called me a terrorist, as well as the other racist comments that were made. No one wants to be called names or hated by others because of the way they look…especially because many of these people didn’t know anything about me or where I came from. But with change growing pains should be expected, and I’m just so honored to be pioneering that change to some degree. The best way to silence the haters is to keep achieving.
I hope lots and lots of parents in the country read about how Venkataraman Ramakrishnan who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry this year could not clear either the medical entrance or the JEE – an examination which a late mathematics teacher of mine used to aptly call giant entrance.
The monstrous proportions the examination assumes in the psyche of the average Indian middle class parent – to this day – makes me sometimes wonder why we do not officially start calling it the giant entrance. At least the grind will then come with some humour.
Ramakrishnan’s statement nevertheless will come as a welcome straw to clutch on to for many a hapless eighteen-year-old trying to convince their parents about the futility of wasting time on trying for a medical or engineering seat when pastures greener – to them definitely – beckon.
Like I was 13 years ago, missing classes and getting an earful from my irate HoD almost every alternate week thanks to my parents’ obsession with making me don the white coat and the stethoscope. I failed – thank god for small mercies – but by then I had already ended up in a course, which I was told would help me in my (eventually non-existent) medical studies instead of English that I wanted to pursue. A Radhakrishnan with a Nobel Prize and a JEE failed stamp would have been such a saviour.
I have often wondered about the fixation since then. I mean most of my friends who killed the giant then do not seem to be any better or any worse placed in the world than me. Yet the single-minded pursuit of parents has definitely not ended, going by the advertisements in newspapers and the posters around IIT Delhi and Katwaria Sarai.
No number of 3 Idiots and Munnabhais can possibly change the Indian parent’s fascination with the degrees MBBS and BE and when I look around I actually long for the days when JEE was the only way in.
No I am not against private colleges in principle but simply that back then one at least had the option of not preparing seriously enough for the examination or simply dozing off during it to scuttle all parental conspiracies of harvesting a doctor or an engineer “in the family”. With no private colleges and banks yet to aggressively market educational loans, that was more or less the green signal to do whatever one wanted.
No such luck now. Pity. May be we could have had a few more Nobles otherwise. Or Pullitzers. Or Magsaysay. Or Booker. The works, you know…
But Katrina is not in Kabir Khan's next starring Salman Khan. The director explains why. Excerpts from an interview...
How is the chemistry between Saif Ali Khan and Katrina Kaif in your next film, Phantom? Amazing! Both enjoyed working with each other and it will show on screen. Kareena Kapoor visited the sets of Phantom and bonded with Katrina, her arch rival. Were you the mediator? Kareena came twice, during the Beirut and the Punjab schedules. She and Katrina were very comfortable in each other's company. The ‘Two actresses can never be friends’ perception is nothing but a myth. Few months ago, rumours were rife that Katrina and Ranbir had parted ways. Did it affect her work on the sets? Katrina is a family friend and very close to me. She and I discuss everything under the sun, professional andpersonal. But she is too much of a professional to let her personal problems affect her work. Whatever discussions happened, took place after the work for the day was over. Katrina and you have done three films together--New York, Ek Tha Tiger and Phantom--back-toback. We presume she is in your next film too, starring Salman Khan? No, she isn't. Why not? The role doesn’t suit her. Is it because Salman doesn't want to work with her? In an interview to Mirror (January 10), he said that he prefers to stay away from his exes... No, that is not the reason. He was not dating Katrina when they did Ek Tha Tiger. I think I've answered your question. With Phantom, you must be under a lot of pressure to repeat the success of Ek Tha Tiger, the film that redefined the numbers game? No. Films should be judged according to their budget. You can’t break records with every film (smiles). Imight feel that pressure when I begin my next film with Salman. Surely producer Sajid Nadiadwala would want to score a hat-trick with Phantom which follows in the wake of the success of Highway and 2 States? (Laughs) Then that pressure is on Sajid. His directorial debut, Kick, hits the theatres before my Phantom. Isn't Phantom S. Hussain Zaidi's (journalist and author) idea? Yes, Hussain initiated the thought. He happened to tell me about his next book and asked me if I would be interested in making a film on it. The premise was so exciting that I couldn’t wait for him to complete the book. I suggested that he and I start developing the book and the screenplay simultaneously. The book and the film will release around the same time. Buzz is, your price as a director has escalated to Rs 12-15 crore... I won’t answer that question with a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’. All I'll say is that it’s good that directors are finally getting paid well. I don’t know what I deserve (laughs). Maybe I am getting lesser than my worth, but I am happy.
Kabir with Katrina and Saif on the sets of Phantom
Pallavi Sharda refutes rumours that she has quit showbiz after the Besharam debut, is excited about playing a tamasha dancer and a real life murderer
Ranbir Kapoor’s Besharam lady vanished from the spotlight after the film’s debacle but Pallavi Sharda insists that the absence was not intentional. She had already started shooting for Bambai Fairytale and after the release of her debut film, she took off for a schedule in Gujarat. Plus, there was her charity work and first international project. The Indo-Australian actress will play Anu Singh, a law school graduate who was tried for the murder of her boyfriend Joe Cinque. Anu was found guilty of manslaughter after a trial which was chronicled in Helen Garner’s 2004 non-fiction book, Joe Cinque’s Consolation—A True Story of Death, Grief and The Law. “Our backgrounds are pretty similar since I’m an Indo-Australian who also went to law school but I’ve never wanted to kill anyone,” says the actress, who is the only Indian in the cast of the Australian film which is expected to roll this year. Will she meet Anu? “That’s the director’s call. Even Helen didn’t meet her. We are following the book closely. We may even go with the same title,” says Pallavi. Meanwhile, she’s wrapping up Vibhu Puri’s directorial debut which is the biopic of Shivkar Bapuji Talpade who constructed and flew India’s first unmanned airplane in 1895. The original aircraft, named Marutsakha, has been reconstructed for this period film and although Pallavi hasn’t flown in it yet, she describes the experience of sitting in it as “magical”. “It’ll transport you to another era,” says the actress who is playing a tamasha dancer from the 1890s, more involved in Talpade’s creative experiment than one would expect. “I’m Ayushmann’s (Khuranna) leading lady. It was a challenge to learn a form of dance very different from Besharam’s Bollywood jhatkas." Prod her on the Besharam experience and unlike her co-stars Ranbir Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh, who have since spoken out against the film, she surprises you by calling it a "positive experience" despite the bad reviews and dismal box-office performance. “Today people know me because of the film,” she says. “I was cast because the character’s personality and background was quite like mine. My parents are from Delhi and I’m a Punjabi too. But I’ve learnt not to have any expectations.” Did she re-connect with the Kapoors after the film’s release? “No, I haven’t. They are busy people. But I have fond memories of them. They are a nice, normal family and foodies like me. I caught Ranbir trying to smuggle mishti doi from the Bengali restaurant we’d gone to for lunch,” she laughs. The film's director Abhinav Kashyap has been working on a script. If he offered her another role would she accept, given the rumours about a brewing romance between them which lead to him allegedly extending her role at the cost of the script? “It’s entirely up to him. I’d love to work with Abhinav and the team again. Since I wasn’t giving many interviews, some people decided to put out their own content for the media. You just have to read the original script to know that my role wasn’t extended. These rumours were upsetting. He’s a family man and I sob every time I leave my parents in Melbourne. It was my dad who called to tell me that Abhinav and I were being linked but he knew there was nothing to it," she says. And what about rumours that she was all set to pack up her bags and quit Bollywood after Besharam? “I don’t think of myself as an actress stuck in one place but Mumbai is the home I come back to. Everything I own is in my apartment. I have fought hard to get where I am today. Why would I give it all up?” she asks, adding, “Acting is about being a character and living the moment. It’s far more fun than the acting we do in real life.”
Tiger Shroff and I are different, so there can’t be rumours about us
With no filmi background, 24-year-old Kriti Sanon was expectedly overwhelmed when director Sabbir Khan and producer Sajid Nadiadwala signed her for Heropanti within 10 minutes of her first screen test. “After the audition, Sabbir sir casually told me that we had to meet Sajid sir. On the way, he said, ‘Krits, you are going to sign the film’,” recalls Kriti, an electronics and communication engineer. The Delhi girl, who started as a model when she was 20, walked the runway before shifting to Mumbai. She did a few TV commercials and encouraged by the response, started looking at a career in films. It’s then that the Telugu project Nenokkadine came her way. “Actually, I was juggling both as they were being shot simultaneously,” she says. In Heropanti, Kriti plays Dimpy, debutant Tiger Shroff’s love interest. About her co-star, she says, “He is a very simple, shy and sweet boy; someone who is down-to-earth and respects people a lot. Since we were both new, we helped each other. Before the look test, Sabbir sir had told me that Tiger is an introvert, and I should try and make him open up. But I found him to be quite normal. Of the two of us, I am more talkative. We are two different individuals and that’s why we have this buddy bonding, which has become better with time. That’s also why there are no rumours about us.” Kriti confesses she doesn’t have too many friends in the industry. And the actress, who stays alone in the city, says her director has been a great support. “I have troubled Sabbir sir for everything — from the doctor’s number to the furniturewala’s number. Of course, I talk to my family 10 times a day. My mom keeps khabar of everything, so I don’t feel lonely,” she says. With the film nearing release, the youngster says she feels the pressure, but Tiger is facing it even more than she is since he is the star son. “People know him and can relate to him because of Jackie sir. I don’t have that connection with the audience right now. I will be more stressed when it releases, but I think only the performances will matter in the end,” she concludes. Heropanti, produced by Sajid Nadiadwala and presented by UTV Motion Pictures, releases May 23.
