Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Filmmaker Yash Chopra receives ‘Legion d'Honneur'
"It is truly a joy to be awarding this medal to the master of Indian cinema, Yash Chopra. He has a truly universal form of art and the man is a mark of artistic distinction," French Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont said.
"The French government has recognized his outstanding achievement in the world of Indian cinema," he added.
The director, who has produced and directed many landmark films in his career spanning almost five decades, has joined the league of Indians like film director Satyajit Ray, sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, melody queen Lata Mangeshkar and actor Amitabh Bachchan in being honored by the French government.
The ambassador pinned the medal on Chopra on behalf of President Nicolas Sarkozy at an official ceremony at the French embassy.
Chopra said, "I thank President Sarkozy for considering me worthy of this honor. This will be a cherished memory and will be with me forever. Fifty-six years back, I used to walk barefoot in Punjab with dreams that I will become a big man some day. But it is only one person who made my dream possible - my brother, guardian and friend B.R. Chopra.
"He brought me to Mumbai and taught me everything. And if there is someone who I am missing today, it is he. He could unfortunately not be here because he is unwell."
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Labels: achievement, Bollywood, Bollywood film, French, French Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont, French government, india, Indian cinema, legendary Bollywood filmmaker Yash Chopra, New Delhi
Friday, July 4, 2008
Rakhi Sawant - ‘Kashmera Shah made me famous by playing my role'
Bollywood's celebrated item girl Rakhi Sawant loves publicity of all kinds - positive or negative. And she doesn't mind even if it comes from her rival Kashmera Shah."Whether she loves me or hates me, she has made me famous by playing my role," Sawant told IANS on telephone from Mumbai.
Shah apparently played an item girl named Rakhi who aspires to become an actress in a musical called ‘City of Dreams' held in Mumbai recently.
But the ‘Jungle' girl maintained that her role had no resemblance to Sawant.
Sawant, however, asserts that it was undoubtedly a character inspired by her life.
"Kashmera definitely played Rakhi Sawant's role in that play. It was entirely based on me," said Sawant, who has just won a reality dance contest, ‘Yeh Hai Jalwa'.
"But even if it wasn't Kashmera, somebody else would have surely played the role," Sawant added.
Asked if she would ever play a role based on Shah's life, she remarked, "No, never! I would never play any such role."
She added, "Kashmera is such a girl that you befriend her and then she would backstab you.
She never talks anything positive. I associate only negativity with her."
Sawant's remarks are a continuation of the war of words between the two Bollywood item girls.
Shah had recently said of Sawant, "I love to hate her and I hate to love her."
Sawant and Shah's rivalry goes back to Sony TV's reality show ‘Big Boss', where the two were participants. They started off as good pals but their relations soured during the show. The duo accused each other of maligning their image to gain sympathy votes.
Their relationship only worsened during reality dance show ‘Nach Baliye 3', in which they even took personal potshots at each other.
Rivalry apart, Sawant is currently basking in the happiness of finally winning ‘Yeh Hai Jalwa'.
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Labels: Big Boss, Bollywood, Bollywood Item girl, famous, Kashmera Shah, mumbai, Nach Baliye 3, publicity, Rakhi Sawant, reality dance contest, Sony TV's reality show, Yeh Hai Jalwa
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Film industry loses $39 billion to piracy annually
This startling revelation was made by Ron Summers, president of U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC), at the recent Ficci-Frames global convention on media and entertainment in Mumbai.
He said the global revenue share of the Indian film industry was only two percent of the total annual gross income of Hollywood, primarily because piracy usurped a good chunk of the Indian film revenue earned from the domestic and international markets.
"Apart from adopting effective legal measures to preempt piracy, efforts should also be made to extract maximum value proposition from the entertainment content. The best way to do it is by cashing in on the technological advancement witnessed globally in electronics," the USIBC president said.
Noted Bollywood filmmaker Yash Chopra admitted that it would not be possible to root out the external market force of piracy, which has entrenched itself too deeply over the years.
"But we can't afford to resign ourselves to this fact. We must identify measures to mitigate the hold of this force over the market. We must understand the enormous potential of the digital media and try to get value out of it.
"We have to beat pirates in their own game. But to be able to do this, we need the help of the regulatory bodies," Chopra said. According to the secretary in the Information and Broadcasting ministry, Asha Swarup, the only way to tackle piracy was to ensure tight security in the supply chain.
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Labels: annual income, Bollywood, filmmaker Yash Chopra, Hollywood, Indian entertainment industry, Indian film industry, piracy, USIBC president
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
‘Doctor panicked my family by saying I'm a walking time bomb'
"The doctor panicked my family by saying I'm a walking time bomb, that it's a miracle I was still alive. He gave me six months more to live. I hated the man. I never wanted to see him again. The doctor said, 'Within six months your family will find you dead in a hotel room.' That was my reality check," Adnan told IANS. T he now stunningly slim singer and music composer Adnan Sami says he realized the seriousness of his weight problem when a doctor announced that he has only six months to live. "The doctor panicked my family by saying I'm a walking time bomb, that it's a miracle I was still alive. He gave me six months more to live. I hated the man. I never wanted to see him again. The doctor said, 'Within six months your family will find you dead in a hotel room.' That was my reality check," Adnan told IANS.
He lost 85 kg (187 lbs) of his 200 kg (440 lbs) and the singer intends to lose at least 40 more in the coming months.
"I was living in denial for years, not facing up to the fact that I was obese. When wellwishers would warn me, I'd brush them off as being melodramatic. Would you believe, when I was in university I was sporty. I was the captain of my squash team.
"Surprisingly, I didn't become breathless while singing, though I did become asthmatic."
He says he resorted to food to cope with his divorce with first wife Zeba Bakhtiar, who played the title role in "Henna".
"When I went through my divorce, I was devastated by the end of the marriage and I lost custody of my son whom I completely adored. I began to look to food for emotional sustenance. It soon became a habit, even when I put my life together, the habit remained. I was gaining weight constantly.
"Food became an addiction. Soon my weight became an obstruction in my life. But surprisingly most of my faculties were in order. I did have a high blood pressure though. But that's a genetic problem."
Adnan's last meal before the dieting began?
"It was a huge porterhouse steak with mashed potatoes with butter and a huge New York cheese cake to top it all on June 6, 2006.
I ate it all on my own. Then I just gave up the food. And now I hate the sight of fatty food."
He has turned a vegetarian also.
"I'm allowed to eat any kind of meat, but I just don't feel like. I'm on a high-protein diet - no bread, no rice, no sugar and no oil.
My meals are salad for lunch and a bowl of daal with no seasoning in the night. For snack I've popcorn without butter. And I can have as many diet drinks as I want."
Adnan heaves a sigh of relief.
"I've got my sleep back. I had reached a point where I couldn't lie down flat on my back. It was so ironical. I'd be staying at the most beautiful presidential suites in the world and I couldn't use the damn beds! I had to sit upright and doze off. At the tail end of my obesity I was using a walking stick and a wheelchair to remain mobile. I had for gotten how to balance myself on my own two feet. It was a nightmare. I'd walk in constant fear of losing balance. Believe me there's no nobility in immobility."
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Image and Article source: News India Times
Article taken from the issue: 4 Jan 2008
Labels: adnan sami, Bollywood, obesity, singer
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