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Archives for April 2018

Salman Khan meets Mehbooba Mufti in Kashmir

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(IANS) Superstar Salman Khan and producer Ramesh Taurani, who are currently busy here with the shoot of the third instalment of the “Race” franchise, met Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.

Salman and the film’s team reached the picturesque Sonamarg hill station in the state for a two-day shooting schedule of Remo D’Souza directed movie “Race 3”.

A photograph of their meeting was shared by Taurani on his Twitter account.

“We thank Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti for welcoming us in Kashmir for the final lap of ‘Race 3’ with Salman Khan,” Taurani tweeted with the image, in which he has posed with Mufti, Salman and the actor’s bodyguard Shera.

Besides Salman, “Race 3” will also feature Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Jacqueline Fernandez, Daisy Shah and Saqib Saleem. The film scheduled to be released coinciding with the Eid festival on June 15.

Survival in Bollywood sans PR: An actor-writer opens up

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(IANS) PR or “pyaar” — Manurishi Chadha’s mind space keeps oscillating between what’s more gratifying — getting recognition through the charted public relations route or the pure love that he gets for his acting and writing credentials from the audience once in a while walking the streets like any other common man.

“Main toh bina PR ke zinda hun (I’m surviving in the industry without PR)” is how Chadha responded to an interview request by IANS.

It’s a tightrope to walk on. More so at a time when PR managers are trying to decide, drive, curb and control any word that goes out about a film and its talent.

“I came to Mumbai with a wish to do good work, to build an identity and gain popularity. Quite a lot of work is happening, but the popularity is a little less. People say do PR… But the heart and mind are not in sync about what is this PR? How does it happen? To what extent does it happen? How much does it cost?

“I don’t get the right answers, and PR gets left behind… Then suddenly, I come across people who express heartfelt praise. I feel content and forget about PR. This has been going on since ‘Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!”,” Chadha, 47, said.

To many Bollywood buffs, Chadha can be best remembered for his role as the hilarious Bengali from “Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!” or Anni from “Phas Gaye Re Obama”. But there’s a lot more to his oeuvre.

He worked in the Delhi theatre circuit before shifting to Mumbai to pursue his Bollywood dreams back in 1999. Initially, he assisted actor-director Rajat Kapoor and waited to get good roles.

In the meantime, he started writing songs for TV shows and even worked as a third dialogue writer. But an introduction to Dibaker Banerjee, who helmed “Oye Lucky…” changed life for Chadha.

Apart from roles in “Mithya”, “Ek Chalis Ki Last Local”, “Mixed Doubles”, “Band Baaja Baaraat”, “Ankhon Dekhi”, “Happy Bhag Jayegi”, “Phas Gaye Re Obama” and the latest “Nanu Ki Jaanu” — which he has also written — Chadha has put his writing talent to use for “Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!”, “Aisha”, “Yeh Saali Zindagi”, “Kya Dilli Kya Lahore” and “Tubelight”. His upcoming films include Rishi Kapoor’s “Rajma Chawal” and Govinda’s “Fryday”.

When “Phas Gaye Re Obama” came in 2000, it was after 10 years of working in Mumbai that Chadha found himself featured on a movie poster.

“There are people who say ‘Work will take you where you want to reach’. So I concentrate on work and realise that I am surviving without PR whether it is with good, bad, hit, flop films, at least I am working.

“I work with new directors, and I also write dialogues for filmmakers like Kabir Khan and Leena Yadav.”

Chadha may seem ignorant about PR, but he admits it hurts when filmmakers are made to shell out oodles of money on publicity, and still as a writer and actor, he is not given visibility.

“When you ask, the answer hurts. They respond politely that we sent in your name to publications, channels and online portals, but the media doesn’t want the writer or supporting actor. I quietly assimilate this bitter truth and return to work. My work is my habit, and popularity is a desire… I believe desire must not exceed your habit.

“When I see that actor-writers who are notches better than me also just doing their work, it gives me strength.”

Filmmakers in India keep cribbing about a dearth of good writers. Is that true or is there just a dearth of opportunities for new talent?

“Filmmakers crib when they don’t get good stories. The truth is there are good stories, there’s talent but there’s a lack of platforms where new writers can take their fresh approach and treatment to a script and present it to good filmmakers.

“Secondly, I feel mostly people don’t crib because if a star says ‘yes’ to a script, there’s hardly a need for a story (hahaha). So, it’s tough to decide whether there’s a lack of opportunity for new talent of filmmakers are not ready only to tell new stories. But I know there are truly hungry talented people waiting for one good producer, one good director and good writer to meet each other.”

Asaram convicted in rape case

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(IANS) Self-styled godman Asaram Bapu was on Wednesday convicted by the Jodhpur Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe Court for raping a minor girl in his ashram here in Rajasthan in 2013.

The judgement in the case was pronounced by SC/ST cases special judge Madhu Sudan Sharma inside the Jodhpur Central Jail, where Asaram Bapu is lodged.

He has been convicted under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act and the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act.

The court is likely to pronounce the quantum of punishment later. The 77-year-old godman could face upto 10 years of jail.

The charge-sheet against Asaram Bapu and four other co-accused Shiva, Shilpi, Sharad and Prakash was filed by the police on November 6, 2013 under various sections of the Posco Act, Juvenile Justice Act and IPC.

Informed sources said the court also convicted Shilpi (warden of the Ashram) and Sharad while Shiva and Prakas have been acquitted in the case.

Asaram Bapu is facing trial in two sexual assault cases: one here in Rajasthan and the other in Gujarat.

The final arguments in the case were completed in the Jodhpur court by Special Judge Sharma on April 7.

Asaram Bapu was arrested in 2013 on the complaint filed by a teenage girl from Uttar Pradesh’s Shahajahanpur. She had accused him of raping her at his Jodhpur ashram in August that year.

Asaram was brought from Indore and jailed in the Jodhpur Central jail.

The victim, was a Class 12 student at his Chhindwara Ashram in Madhya Pradesh. She was raped by Asaram in his ashram during her stay in Manai village on the outskirts here.

He was earlier denied bail by the Supreme Court.

Amjad Ali Khan, Anupam Kher get Master Deenanath Mangeshkar Award

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(IANS) Sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan, veteran playback singer Asha Bhosle and veteran actor Anupam Kher were among the prominent personalities who were conferred the ‘Master Deenanath Mangeshkar Smruti Pratishthan Awards’ on the occasion of his 76th death anniversary here.

Bhosle was conferred the award for life achievements, while Anupam was acknowledged by a Special Award honouring his contributions to cinema and theatre, at a glittering function presided over by Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari in the Shanmukhananda Hall late on Tuesday.

Besides, Dhananjay Datar was awarded for social entrepreneurship, the Vagvilasini Award went to poet Yogesh Gaur for literature, Shriram Gogate Award to Rajiv Khandekar for journalism, Mohan Wagh Award to ‘Ananya’ as the Best Drama of the Year, the Asha Bhosle Award for social work to Mery Behlihimji of the Central Society of Education for the Deaf.

“I feel blessed and humbled receiving this award. For musicians of India, especially for me, this is the greatest and most prestigious honour of my life. The legendary Master Deenanath Mangeshkar gave the revered Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle (Mangeshkar), Usha Mangeshkar and Meena Khadilkar (Mangeshkar) and Pandit Hridayanath Mangeshkar to the music world,” Khan said on the occasion.

Bhosle said: “This award is really special for me as it is in my father’s name. But more than that, I feel honoured as it has been conferred upon many stalwarts over the years. I feel blessed.”

The pre-eminent Mangeshkar family has been celebrating Master Deenanath Mangeshkar’s death anniversary since the past 75 years, and it became public in 1988 with the awards ceremonies.

“In memory of our father, whose monumental contributions as a singer, musician and stage artiste have inspired people of Maharashtra and India, the Mangeshkar family organises the annual awards ceremony to honour legends from different fields,” said Hridayanath Mangeshkar.

The awards night, organised jointly with Hridayesh Arts, included a classical programme with a kathak performance by exponent Birju Maharaj and Saswati Sen, thumris rendered by Ajoy Chakraborty and Anindo Chatterjee on the tabla, in the presence of a large number of celebrities from the entertainment world and the extended members of the Mangeshkar family.

Youth falls to death from closed Delhi pub

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An unidentified youth died after falling from a pub, closed in the sealing drive, on the fourth floor of a building here on Tuesday, police said.

The incident in Hauz Khas village in south Delhi occurred at 12 noon and came to notice when a loud thud was heard by some passers-by, police said.

“Within few seconds, a crowd assembled at the place and found a youth lying on the road and pools of blood spread all over the place,” said an eyewitness.

The incident created a tizzy in the area which had 20 odd pubs.

The youth, who appeared to be in his mid-20s, fell from a pub called ‘Village Deck’, which, according to sources, was shut after the MCD sealing in October last year.

Some passers-by captured the incident on their mobile phones and a girl was seen approaching people to inform the Police Control Room.

“Taking the sensitivity of the place, a police team, along with Crime Branch officials, dog squad and forensic experts reached there within 15 minutes after the incident,” a police officer said.

A police team has taken CCTV footage of nearby buildings to ascertain whether the youth fell accidentally or committed suicide.

“We have found a wallet from his pocket containing cash. There was no identity card found from the deceased,” the official said.

He also added that police team recovered some injections on the top of the building as well as from the deceased’s pocket.

Police officials believe that the youth might have gone on the building to take injections of some drugs.

Kerala woman confesses to poisoning parents, daughter

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A woman was arrested here on Tuesday night after she confessed of killing her parents and her nine-year-old daughter by poisoning them in a gap of four months this year, police said.

Police cracked the crime after a 13-hour-long questioning of Soumya, 28.

Soumya was taken for questioning when she was convalescing at a state run hospital near here after being admitted for nausea and indigestion – incidentally the same symptoms that her parents and her elder daughter suffered before they died.

While her mother died on March 7, her father passed away on April 13, her daughter died on January 31. However, following a complaint from a relative, the body of the child was exhumed after rat poison was found in the viscera of her parents.

According to police, Soumya however denied of any role in the death of her one year old daughter in 2012.

Incidentally this incident happened in the home village of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and it was only after his intervention did the police speeden their investigation.

The woman was separated from her husband and according to police, her motive was that her parents and child were “impediments to her wayward life”.

Filmmakers in India at mercy of moral police: Indian American filmmaker

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He wove a film, “Unfreedom”, with lovemaking scenes, depicting lesbian relationships, Islamophobia and religious fundamentalism, and it was banned by the Indian censor board in 2015. Indian-American filmmaker Raj Amit Kumar is appalled by the lack of freedom filmmakers have in India and wonders how much self-censorship they have to do in the face of the industry’s “moral police”.

The censor board’s reason for keeping “Unfreedom” away from the big screen was the fear that the film would “ignite unnatural passions and incite rapes and communal violence in India”. However, now the movie has an avenue to reach audiences on online streaming giant Netflix.

When the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), then led by Pahlaj Nihalani, banned the film, the first thought that came to Kumar’s mind was: “How will I make my cinema in India?”

“It hit me hard: How much of self-censorship Indian filmmakers must be involved in so they do not have to face this. We do not even have a basic human right to freedom of speech and expression in India when it comes to cinema!

“Is that how we should keep making films in India — that we should first think what the censor board will approve and our films should be limited to those boundaries? It became very clear how subservient Indian filmmakers have been to the moral police of Indian cinema for seven decades,” he added.

Last year, the film was under review by CBFC, which wanted Kumar to cut crucial elements from the movie in order to be shown to the Indian public.

Later, Kumar appealed to the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT), which too banned the film.

A campaign was also run by the makers for a year during which they did around 100 screenings of the film in India and in the US, among other countries. Following this, the film was released internationally by Netflix.

After Nihalani was replaced by Prasoon Joshi as CBFC Chairman, did Kumar try to get a censor certificate again?

“No, I did not,” said Kumar.

He believes that the idea that a new jury or a new chair will bring any change to censorship in India is “only laughable”.

“It is ridiculous to frame censorship in India like that and hope for ‘improvements’ (when people in the board change)… It is all ridiculous and a sham that is against our basic human right of freedom of expression,” he said.

Kumar believes that, at this point, the very existence of the censor board needs to be addressed.

“Not that the people in it should be changed, but the censor board (as an) institution needs to be abolished and thrown in the garbage. How can you expect someone to be put in the job of censoring, and them not doing that job? The existence of that job itself is wrong, no matter who does it and at what levels of leniency,” he added.

Can platforms like Netflix, which are devoid of censorship, be called a boon for the cinema lover?

“By boon, if you simply mean helpful, then yes. Something is better than nothing. But by boon, if you mean a Godsend, a blessing, an alternative, then no,” said Kumar.

“Regardless of people being able to see it online, the key question is still that we should not see anything as an alternative to freedom of expression. It’s the most basic human right that we need to have, and we should not divert our attention from that,” he added.

“You can’t come and say, hey look, you have freedom of expression on Netflix but not in cinema theatres”.

Besides the critically lauded actor Adil Hussain, the film also features veteran actor Victor Bannerjee, Bhavani Lee, Preeti Gupta and Bhanu Uday.

Asaram Bapu found guilty in rape case

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Five years after charges of rape were levelled against Asaram Bapu, the Jodhpur Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe Court on Wednesday convicted the self-styled godman along with others accused in the case.

The judgement in the case for raping a minor was pronounced by Judge Madhusudan inside the Jodhpur Central Jail, where Asaram is lodged.

He has been convicted under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) act.

He is facing trial in two sexual assault cases: one here in Rajasthan and the other in Gujarat.

(Ians)

India investing: Art of connecting the macro to the micro

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Author H. Jackson Brown Jr once remarked: “Opportunity dances with those already on the dance floor.” For global investors and businesses, India in the 21st century is that very dance floor — but we must hasten to add that the investment opportunities here come with a unique set of challenges.

Creating a business out of an opportunity that appears attractive at the macro level may be beset with challenges at a micro-level. Essentially, the country’s large market size in any sector presents a compelling investment opportunity, and yet the average return available per user may challenge the viability of the business model.

With rising incomes, immense growth opportunities will emerge in the coming decades across telecom, aviation and other such infrastructure sectors. The consumption of goods and services is expected to rise to levels approximating those of more developed markets such as China and the US.

Take, as examples, the case of optical fibre cable and airline seats per capita. The optical fibre cable (much needed for 5G technology deployment) kilometres per capita in India is currently at 0.09 vis-a-vis China’s 0.87 (as per CRU). In 2014, the annual airline domestic seats per capita in India stood at 0.08 vis-a-vis 2.59 in the US (as per the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, or CAPA).

Bridging of the gaps in these infrastructure sectors is the opportunity investors must set their eyes on. Despite the low airline domestic seats per capita, CAPA maintains that, in terms of tickets sold, India is the third-largest and fastest-growing domestic aviation market in the world. This gives one an idea of the business opportunity. With the expected increases in incomes in the foreseeable future, these opportunities will only become more attractive.

Despite a large aggregate market size, the lower per capita income in India leads to a low revenue per user. This phenomenon poses a challenge for prospective businesses. Vodafone presents an interesting case in this regard. In fiscal 2016-17, of its total global subscriber base of 341.7 million, 209 million were in India (about 61 per cent). Yet, revenue earned here was 6.16 billion euros, or just 12.9 percent of its total global revenue of 47.6 billion euros.

In a business such as telecom that requires significant capital expenditure, a low average revenue per user is a real challenge. The fact that the large subscriber base can deliver value in the future as the average revenue per user grows cannot compensate for the fact that sustaining businesses in the short to medium term can be confounding.

This apparent paradox of an attractive business from a macro perspective beset with challenges at the micro level, is not unique to just the telecom sector in India. This is a challenge that businesses in general face in a country that has a large aggregate economy, but low per capita income.

The key to success for business in India is determined by the ability of an investor to circumvent the divide between an opportunity at a macro level and the ground-level challenges. Strategies to succeed should revolve around both sides of the balance sheet. From an asset perspective, businesses need to potentially bundle services and products so that customers are willing to give the company a larger share of their wallet.

For example, for a telecom business this could mean offering connectivity and entertainment as a package, a trend that is currently emerging. A second strategy could be to acquire the assets of or merge one’s assets with another similar company to create economies of scale, a strategy Vodafone has adopted.

On the liability side of the balance sheet, businesses can innovate through prudent capital structure management to generate access to relatively inexpensive debt. Global interest rates are still at historic lows despite the recent rate hikes in the US. The global financial investor base is awash with liquidity and hence willing to provide high quality businesses attractive borrowing terms. A high-quality company in India can create a moat around its business by borrowing for the long term at relatively low interest rates and reap long-run benefits.

India does present a unique set of opportunities and challenges for global investors and businesses. That said, it is a major economy and in the years to come is projected to have one of the highest growth rates globally. One estimate is that the India’s will be the third-largest economy globally by 2050. A global business searching for growth will need to have significant market presence in India. We would advise patience and a differentiated strategy for success.

(Ians)

You live only once, Nobody is Hopeless

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Speaking to Nasheman correspendance with Vanessa George,
Who runs his very own recovery home all by himself, we had a conversation with him which gave us an insight of what a recovery home is and what society calls “hopeless cases” really need.

Cecil George was an addict himself who had given up hope and in those days used to beg people for 25 paisa to buy toxic substances. In 1991 September 24th his sponsor encouraged him to get into recovery and keep his head on his shoulders, from then there was definitely no turning back. In 2013 a family helped him start a small recovery home as they were happy with his work and because their son was suffering from addiction too. He said he mainly opened a recovery home because he had a bad past and only people who have gone through the sickness would understand, identify and help another suffering addict. He said there are negative as well as positive effects, first thing is you cannot guarantee that anyone would get okay as it depends on the person but we do follow a 12 step program which if followed honestly and vigorously will lead to success and growth, the sky would be the limit. Cecil has given talks in colleges and in places like Bangalore, Hubli, Hassan and a lot of places overseas.
His motive to get through the day is that he remembers where he comes from and how his life changed in recovery, he begged people just to get a high but today he helps people who have no hope for a future at least to have big dreams and a bright future. He would like to tell today’s youth and families that nobody is a hopeless case and this is a killer disease just like cancer and diabetes, unfortunately in India people do not understand it and they think addicts are criminals or bad people, he urges parents to identify the sickness and deal with their children accordingly because nobody is a hopeless case.

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