Latest News |
- Apex court issues notice to centre on Radia-2G scam
- IT raids Katrina Kaif, Priyanka Chopra
- Foreign observers arriving in Bilaspur for Binayak Sen hearing
- China lauds Indian IT professionals
- Better set a precedent than follow, Yeddyurappa learns the hard way
- Four good films and profits – Bollywood gets 2011 kickstart
- Mila Kunis stands by her movies
- ‘Dil Toh Bachcha…’ explores child within every man
- I have lot of flaws: Reese Witherspoon
- Series a big lesson for batsmen before World Cup : Dhoni
| Apex court issues notice to centre on Radia-2G scam Posted: 23 Jan 2011 10:34 PM PST
The apex court bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and S.S. Nijjar also issued notice to the union home secretary on the petition filed by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL). The CPIL pleaded for the issuance of the notification for the protection of the whistleblower who brought the Radia case into public domain. Though there is provision for the protection of the whistleblower, it is limited only to the cases where the person has complained to the Central Vigilance Commission. |
| IT raids Katrina Kaif, Priyanka Chopra Posted: 23 Jan 2011 10:29 PM PST
The raids started around 7.30 a.m. simultaneously at 12 sites, including the residences of the two actresses in the western suburbs. Priyanka’s home in Versova, Andheri West, was raided. Also raided were the homes of their secretaries, their respective office premises and other locations, the official said. The IT department is investigating whether the two actresses have paid taxes proportionate to their known sources of income during the past year. Both Katrina and Priyanka are high ranking Bollywood actresses who work with top stars and leading film banners, besides endorsing top brands and participating in the major stage shows in India and abroad. The raids are still continuing.             |
| Foreign observers arriving in Bilaspur for Binayak Sen hearing Posted: 23 Jan 2011 10:25 PM PST
The EU delegation members who landed Sunday night in state capital Raipur amid protests of ‘Go Back’ by some local groups left for Bilaspur town Monday by car to attend the hearing. The high court is based in Bilaspur town, 110 km from here. Sen, 60, who is a People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) leader, was sentenced to life imprisonment by a district and sessions court in Raipur Dec 24 on sedition charges and his links with Maoist ideologue Narayan Sanyal. The court verdict has been widely slammed by human right activists in India and abroad who say he was victimised by the Chhattisgarh government for highlighting human right abuses. Sources say that eminent lawyer and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member Ram Jethmalani will be present before a division bench on behalf of Sen even as his party, which is in power in the state since December 2003, has strongly objected to the foreign observers’ presence. “Foreign observers have no role to play in Sen’s case, their arrival here is a direct interference in the Indian judiciary system. It has never happened in India that foreign observers attended court to monitor a case, it must be condemned in the strongest terms,” state BJP president Ram Sewak Paikra told IANS over phone. |
| China lauds Indian IT professionals Posted: 23 Jan 2011 09:38 PM PST
IT professionals from India are welcome to China “because they are very good”, said a Communist Party of China leader during an interaction here with Nitin Gadkari, the first BJP president to visit the country. Ding Xuexiang, member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China, Shanghai, told Gadkari that the Indian community in Shanghai was very enterprising and making a positive contribution to the rapid growth of the city. “We welcome IT professionals from India because they are very good,” Xuexiang said during a meeting with the BJP president and his party delegation. There are a large number of Indian professionals working in different fields in Shanghai and other parts of China. Gadkari observed that Shanghai was one of the most advanced cities in the world. He said he would tell the Shanghai success story to all the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief ministers and request them to emulate the Shanghai model of development and growth. Speaking at a reception hosted in his honour by the NRI community in Shanghai, Gadkari said young Indian professionals were doing a wonderful job abroad and the country was proud of them. He asked them to maintain links with India and help in which ever manner they can for the progress and development of India. Gadkari is accompanied by party general secretaries, Thawarchand Gehlot and Vijay Goel, joint organising secretary Saudan Singh, secretaries Arti Mehra and Laxman Kova and political associate Vinay Sasrabuddhe. |
| Better set a precedent than follow, Yeddyurappa learns the hard way Posted: 23 Jan 2011 09:11 PM PST
The legality or otherwise of Bhardwaj’s decision may also be decided by courts with unprecedented speed as compared to the number of years cases take to reach even a final hearing stage. But for Yeddyurappa the bitter lesson is already out – better set a precedent than follow one, particularly when it has been set by political rivals. Bookanakere Siddalingappa Yeddyurappa will turn 68 in a just about a month from now. He joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), from which his Bharatiya Janata Party largely draws its strength, as a teenager. However, as chief minister at the age of 65 he chose to emulate his Congress and Janata Parivar (family as various factions of Janata Party are called) predecessors in land allotment. There is no convincing explanation from either Yeddyurappa or his party on what made him follow the people whom he and his party had fought against all these years. The only defence that Yeddyurappa has offered ever since the land allotment row broke out in October-November last year is that he had done what his predecessors, who belonged to the Congress and the Janata Parivar, had done. A weak defence or somewhat unprecedented way of justifying one’s action, one might say. But Yeddyurappa has nothing else to bank on. At least that is what all his statements on the issue establish. He not only repeats that he had followed what his predecessors did but has ordered a judicial probe to prove he is right – that is if he had done any wrong, it is only because his predecessors also did wrong! In a way the probe is to establish that there is a precedent even if it is not the right one to emulate! The probe, by Justice B. Padmaraj, a retired judge of the Karnataka high court, will cover various land deals over a 15-year period from 1995 to Nov 2010. Karnataka had six chief ministers, including Yeddyurappa, during this period – H.D. Deve Gowda and J.H. Patel (both Janata Parivar), S.M. Krishna and N. Dharam Singh (both Congress) and H.D. Kumaraswamy (Janata Dal-Secular). Patel has since passed away. Yeddyurappa’s predecessors are hotly contesting his claim of following the precedent set by them. They assert that they did not allot residential and commercial plots to their kin, like Yeddyurappa has done – to his sons, daughter, son-in-law, sister, her daughter and son-in-law. They also insist that lands ‘denotified’ (freed from government control) were not bought at hugely lower than market rate by people who invested in business ventures of their relatives – like it has happened in the case of Yeddyurappa. Their argument, apparently, is Yeddyurappa has not followed the precedent they had set but has a set a precedent by favouring his kin in land allotment. Precedents have been flaunted by both BJP and Congress leaders to silence each other. Bhardwaj, a lawyer and a former central law minister, has cited several precedents to justify his decision to sanction Yeddyurappa’s prosecution. Yeddyurappa will continue to bank heavily on precedents as he fights off the demand for his resignation following the filing of criminal complaints against him in a Bangalore court Saturday. “Why should I? Has any one in the past resigned just because complaints were filed against them?” Yeddyurappa shot back. |
| Four good films and profits – Bollywood gets 2011 kickstart Posted: 23 Jan 2011 09:07 PM PST
“No One Killed Jessica”, the year’s first release Jan 7 that stars Rani Mukerji and Vidya Balan, is still going strong at the box office two weeks on and has grossed Rs.380 million ($8.3 million) so far. It has been co-produced by UTV Spotboy. The film by Raj Kumar Gupta is based on the murder of model Jessica Lall in 1999 by Manu Sharma, son of former minister Venod Sharma, after she refused to serve him a drink at a club in New Delhi. While Vidya triumphed with her non-glamorous and distraught portrayal of Jessica’s sister Sabrina, Rani’s unprecedented use of abuses as a journalist raised quite a few eyebrows. “The film is still going strong at the box office and people are really appreciating the content as well as the acting by both the actresses. The occupancy is still 83 percent,” Amit Awasthi, senior manager (programming and operations) of Spice Cinemas in Noida, told IANS. The second film, which promised to be a lot of fun, was comedy caper “Yamla Pagla Deewana” starring Bollywood’s Punjabi father and sons – Dharmendra, Bobby Deol and Sunny Deol. After “Apne”, the Deols once again struck a chord with the audience but this time in a funny way. Directed by Samir Karnik, the film also marks screen legend Dharmendra’s 50 years in the industry. Made at a budget of Rs.260 million ($5.6 million) and released Jan 14, it raked in Rs.230 million ($5 million) in the opening weekend and the first week fetched Rs.350 million ($7.6 million). ” ‘Yamla Pagla Deewana’ is a complete masala film with romance, drama, thrill and emotion. The Deol family has a good fan following that is pulling crowds to the theatres,” Yogesh Raizada, corporate head (cinemas) of Wave Cinemas, told IANS. Awasthi added: “The hilarious last 30-minute climax has audiences in splits and they are really enjoying it.” “Turning 30″, which released alongside “Yamla Pagla Deewana”, is also doing well at the box office. Starring Gul Panag and Purab Kohli, it is made at a budget of approximately Rs.25 million ($550,000) and it has so far collected around Rs.50 million (over $1 million). The movie is a light-hearted take on women either hitting a subconscious halt or turning a new leaf at the milestone age of 30. After a year-long hiatus, Bollywood’s ‘Mr.Perfectionist’ Aamir Khan returned to the big screen with “Dhobi Ghat”. Made with a budget of Rs.50 million ($1 million), the film is Aamir’s wife Kiran Rao’s directorial debut and also stars Prateik Babbar. This much-anticipated film also opened to good reviews Jan 21 and has grossed Rs.9.3 million (over $200,000) in the first two days. January ends with Madhur Bhandakar’s debut attempt at a romantic comedy with “Dil Toh Bachcha Hai Ji” starring Ajay Devgn, Emraan Hashmi, Omi Vaidya, Shruti Haasan and Shraddha Kapoor. The Hindi film industry failed to set the cash registers ringing last year despite big budget outings starring A-listers. With only five hits in “Dabangg”, “Golmaal 3″, “Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai”, “Peepli Live” and “Love Sex Aur Dhokha (LSD)”, Bollywood suffered a net loss of about Rs.3 billion ($66 million) in 2010. |
| Mila Kunis stands by her movies Posted: 23 Jan 2011 09:01 PM PST
The actress acknowledges some of her previous cinematic outings have not been commercially or critically successful, but believes the projects she has previously undertaken have helped lift her career to the point it is now at, reports contactmusic.com. “I stand by every movie that I did. I don’t regret any decision I made. Whatever I did, I always grew, whether as an actress or a person. And in my experience, you never know what movie is going to open what door for you. It’s always the ones you least expect,” she said. Though Mila has won rave reviews for her performance in “Black Swan”, she refuses to plot her career path from this point on but is glad she is able to select roles she enjoys, rather than having a need to work. “In this industry, it’s not like a game of chess, it’s more like a game of chequers, as I like to say. So you can’t think four or five steps ahead, because it’s impossible,” she said. “I’m in a position where you don’t have to work for the sake of working. I’m very lucky in a sense. So I can sit back and wait for a project I respond to and that I want to do. So it’s pretty much all I do. It’s just finding a project that you’re drawn to,” she added. |
| ‘Dil Toh Bachcha…’ explores child within every man Posted: 23 Jan 2011 08:52 PM PST
Starring Ajay Devgn, Emraan Hashmi and Omi Vaidya, “Dil Toh Bachcha Hai Ji” is the slice of life movie that talks about three men and their encounters with love. Shazahn Padmasee, Shruti Haasan and debutante Shraddha Das will play their love interests respectively. Naren Ahuja (Ajay) is in his thirties and is going through divorce. While nursing his broken heart following a failed marriage, Naren meets vibrant and bubbly June Pinto (Shazahn) and can’t stop himself from falling in love with this young girl. Milind Kelkar (Omi) is a naive poet and idealistic lover. He develops a liking for an ambitious and practical Gunjan Sarkar (Shraddha) who is determined to follow her dreams. But Abhay (Emraan), a charming casanova, is different. His mantra in life is money and women. But his life too takes a turn after an encounter with Nikki (Shruti), a modern girl who knows her needs and speaks her mind. He too experiences love, an emotion he had always stayed away from. According to director Bhandarkar, the film is a funny take on love, with real-life relatable characters, and shows to what extent people would go to achieve it or avoid it. Bhandarkar is known for making hard-hitting and realistic films like “Chandni Bar”, “Fashion” and “Jail” which garnered critical acclaim as well as box office success. “Chandni Bar”, starring Tabu and Atul Kulkarni, depicted hardships of women working in dance bars, while “Fashion” explored the glamorous but dark world of modelling. The film starred Priyanka Chopra in the lead. His last outing “Jail” put the spotlight on cruel realities faced by prisoners in jail. Although the film didn’t do well at the box-office, it was indeed applauded by critics. With “Dil Toh Bachcha Hai Ji”, Bhandarkar attempts to move away from serious cinema and take the audience on a laughter ride. However, the filmmaker is adamant that his stamp and signature style will be evident in the film. Just like his director, Emraan, known for playing edgy roles in “Murder”, “Gangster – A Love Story” and “Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai”, is trying comedy for the first time. Omi has expectations riding high because this is his second release after blockbuster “3 Idiots” and the actor admits this has been a challenging role for him as he plays a Maharashtrian and he had to ensure that his accent is perfect. Last year brought a mixed response for Ajay’s films. While “Golmaal 3″ and “Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai” and “Raajneeti” were hits, his home production “Toonpur Ka Superhero” and “Aakrosh” failed to impress the audiences. Ajay hopes to start the new year on a good note with “Dil Toh Bachcha Hai Ji”, which is the solo release this week. |
| I have lot of flaws: Reese Witherspoon Posted: 23 Jan 2011 08:44 PM PST
“It’s a long list. Shall I go alphabetically? A, annoying. B, belligerent… Yeah, I have a lot of flaws. There are parts of myself I could do without,” she said. One of the things the 34-year-old star admits is a flaw is her inability to stop overthinking things, reports contactmusic.com. “I ruminate a lot. I’m always in my head, thinking and thinking. Sometimes that can be counterproductive, so when I do put on my running shoes and go run it helps,” she said. |
| Series a big lesson for batsmen before World Cup : Dhoni Posted: 23 Jan 2011 08:30 PM PST
India lost the fifth and the last ODI by 33 runs, despite Yusuf Pathan smashing 105 off 70 balls as a last ditch effort and bringing India closer to the target of 268 runs. “It was a disappointing series for the batsmen. The bowlers were getting the wickets, and then getting the runs too. We did not perform as a batting unit” Dhoni said. “It was a good pitch, but we kept losing wickets. Most of us got out playing shots.” Asked whether he though India had a chance when Yusuf was batting, Dhoni said: “Yusuf can clear most cricket outfields in the world. The big learning from this game is to keep wickets in hand for the last 10 overs with a batting powerplay in hand and then we can cross any target no matter how much is the asking rate.” “This is a big lesson for the World Cup. Conditions at the World Cup will be very different, but the series gave us a chance to test youngsters as we were without some of our frontline batsmen. Dhoni also praised the spectators for their support. “Whenever we have come to South Africa, they have turned out in large numbers and supported us. They have been spectacular through the tour.” South African captain Graeme Smith said it was an “terrific” to sign out the series with a victory. “The wicket wasn’t easy – we thought 250-260 was a really good total. Yusuf started to middle a few and almost took it away, but we held on. We weren’t as aggressive as we wanted to be when Yusuf and Zaheer were going, but otherwise we were pretty good. “We have a really good chance at the World Cup. India have handled themselves very well in the series. The crowd have been special.” Morne Morkel, who won the man of the series award for taking 12 wickets in five matches, Man of the match Hashim Amla, who has been South Africa’s key batsman in the series and struck an unbeaten 116 Sunday, said the series has been a good preparation for the World Cup. “Things went well, the pitch was challenging initially. But we did well, we and (Morne) van Wyk. I am glad I managed to contribute handsomely in the decider. It was a extremely tight series, it was a nail-biter and a good preparation for the World Cup.” |
The Supreme Court Monday issued notice to the central government on a petition related to lobbyist Nira Radia and the 2G spectrum allocation scam.
Income Tax sleuths swooped on the office and residence of Bollywood megastars Katrina Kaif and Priyanka Chopra Monday morning in connection with alleged tax evasion cases, an official said.
An-eight member delegation of the European Union (EU) is expected to arrive in Bilaspur town Monday to attend a bail plea of rights activist Binayak Sen that is to be heard by the Chhattisgarh High Court.
The word precedent and its various forms will resonate across India in the coming days as Karnataka Governor H.R. Bhardwaj’s nod to prosecute Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa over corruption charges is hotly contested or defended.
After a dull 2010, Bollywood has started 2011 on a high note. Four much anticipated films – “No One Killed Jessica”, “Yamla Pagla Deewana”, “Turning 30″ and “Dhobi Ghat” – have opened to good reviews and profits at the box office.
“Black Swan” actress Mila Kunis “stands by” every movie she has ever made, not just those which have been critically successful.
They say men never grow up and filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar is exploring this pyche of men in a humorous way through his new romantic comedy “Dil Toh Bachcha Hai Ji” releasing Friday.
After losing the closely-fought ODI series 2-3 to South Africa, Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni Sunday said it was a “disappointing” performance by the batsmen throughout and called it a “big lesson” before the World Cup.| You are subscribed to email updates from Latest News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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