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Off screen, I don't show skin: Lara
SUBHASH K JHA
IANS[ SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2004 02:50:36 PM ]
MUMBAI: She feels that inspite of being exposed to a lot of influences, the glamour and sizzle of the screen has not overshadowed her real life simplicity.
Lara talks about her upcoming releases, performances in item numbers, long time boyfriend Kelly Dorjy, and her relationship with rival Priyanka Chopra. Excerpts:
What sort of a person are you?
Though I've been exposed to a lot of influences I basically come from a traditional Punjabi family. That, I think, gives me an edge. I can be sensuous as well as the girl next door. I may have exposed my bellybutton in films. But in real life I've never worn a top that exposes my midriff.
Your item song Aisa Jadoo in Khakee was a rage...
Raj Kumar Santoshi handled it well. We shot for 12 hours a day over a period of five days. To maintain that level of energy over that period of time wasn't easy. But the response has been quite overwhelming. People have called from outside India because they want to hear my voice after seeing the song.
But those are Sunidhi Chauhan's vocals. As Jaya (Bachchan) jokingly said, "I can't wait to see you perform that song at the next public concert."
Weren't you apprehensive about doing an item song so early in your career?
I was. But the decisive factor was Raj Santoshi. I hadn't met him before. But he had a track record of successful item songs with Mamta Kulkarni in Ghaatak , Urmila Matondkar in China Gate and Lajja ; so it wasn't just an exploitative gimmick.
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Why Hindi films are dodgy about sex
February 23, 2004
Do you remember the time when a kiss between the hero and heroine in a film was always represented by two roses meeting or a setting sun?
Hindi films no longer shy away from the taboo subject of intimacy. Take the recently released Aruna Raje's Tum, which revolves around adultery.
The film showed Manisha Koirala in bed with her husband (Rajat Kapoor) and lover (Karan Nath) on different occasions. And the actors never looked more uncomfortable. The scenes lacked any chemistry or sincerity.
So while Hindi films may have brought sex out of the closet, they are still extremely uncomfortable about it.
Why do it if you are so nervous about it?
Koirala was just as uncomfortable in her previous film, Ek Chhotisi Love Story, a frame-to-frame copy of the Polish film, A Short Story About Love. Finally, a body double did the needful. Even Raveena Tandon and Nagarjuna seemed forced in an intimate scene in Agni Varsha.
Some films play safe by showing only dark outlines of the couple in bed like Parinda, Freaky Chakra and Maqbool.
This is not to mean that we need to show more sizzle on screen. The point is, why are our filmmakers trying to incorporate 'scenes' when actors don't seem to be ready for them? Sure, we should change with the changing times. But wouldn't it make better sense for filmmakers to make sure the actors are set to play the part convincingly rather than fumble through it?
Of course, there are those that take convincing to another level: Rahul Bose and Laila Rouass kissed so passionately in Dev Benegal's Split Wide Open that her tooth chipped. Naseeruddin Shah shocked viewers when he kissed Tara Deshpande with fervor in Bombay Boys.
There is also a Mallika Sherawat who proudly announces that 17 kisses in a film do not bother her, a Bipasha Basu who does not mind a bold Jism and a Jackie Shroff, who smooched without abandon in Boom.
Govind Menon's debut film, Danger, was promoted by its aggressive kissing scenes. The film had nothing more to offer. His second film, Khwahish, was promoted in a similar fashion. Ek Chhotisi Love Story was promoted as a sizzling tale, with billboards showing a boy skiing or playing golf off a woman's naked body.
Sure, sex is coming out into the open in the Hindi film industry. Filmmakers are also capitalising on the trend, the better to lure viewers. Most of them tend to handle intimate scenes erotically, rather than sensitively.
Which brings us to the audiences. Are we, the audience, ready for this boldness, considering sex has always been treated as taboo in India?
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Indian connection at the Oscars
By IANS
Though there is no film entry from India for the Oscars this year, people hailing from the country have managed to find a place.
Kish Sadhvani, founder and CEO of Kish Optics, a lens maker in north Hollywood, has been named winner of the 2004 Academy Award for Technical Achievement.
Besides that, this year's Oscars have another Indian connection.
This week's telecast of the 76th annual awards ceremony will boast of dazzling computer-generated graphics that were designed and executed by famed motion picture graphics' creator-producer Kyle Cooper, CEO of Prologue Films. Assisting Cooper's Los Angeles-based production team was a team of computer artists and engineers at Visual Computing Labs studios in Mumbai and Bangalore.
Visual Computing Labs is a Division of Tata Elxsi. It is among India's leading animation, visual effects and media engineering groups.
Cooper's imagery will include all of the international telecast's remarkable "liquid gold" opening and closing titles and credits, all titles and visuals used to introduce Oscar nominees and Oscar winners, the visuals used to introduce each programme segment, and transitional images between segments.
The VCL teams assisted Prologue Films in developing the visuals and movement for the "liquid gold," as well as prototyping various early design elements.
All of Cooper's specified design elements were sent to India digitally, via Tata high-speed Internet links, and all of VCL's executed work was similarly delivered back to Prologue Films digitally.
Cooper said: "The Tata team worked tirelessly, day and night, to provide everything that we requested. We were continually impressed with their creative excellence, with their ability to deliver seamlessly -- almost as though they were around the corner, rather than around the globe -- and with their hands-on attention in Los Angeles. We certainly look forward to working with them again."
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Tanushree crowned Miss India 2004
Mumbai: Twenty-year-old dusky beauty, Tanushree Dutta,
was crowned as Miss India-Universe in the prestigious
Femina Miss India Contest-2004.
A professional stage artiste, Tanushree has performed
in various shows in India and abroad. Currently,
Tanushree is pursuing her Second Year B.Com from Pune.
The glittering ceremony, held at the sprawling
Bandra-Kurla Complex, saw Laxmi Pandit (22), a
city-based classical dancer walking away with the Miss
India-World title.
An aspiring model, Sayali Bhagat (20), who is persuing
her bachlor of management studies degree, was adjudged
Miss India-Earth at the beauty pageant.
Tanushree also won the Pond's Miss Beautiful Smile,
while Lakshmi was crowned VLCC Miss Perfect 10 and
Miss Photogenic.
Significantly, unlike previous year's when Bangalore
held sway, this year all the three winners are from
Mumbai.
Prominent among the judges were actors Sanjay Dutt,
Fardeen Khan, Saif Ali Khan, actress Bipasha Basu,
Choreographer and Film Director Farah Khan playback
singer Sonu Nigam and fashion designer Ritu Beri.
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Lovers vs locals: No love lost
VAISHNAVI C. SEKHAR
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SATURDAY, MARCH 27, 2004 12:00:32
AM ]
MUMBAI: When the residents of Bandra Reclamation
recently got together to talk about their new
waterfront promenade, they decided to draw up a list
of do's and dont's for the area.
Top of the list of dont's was "indecent behaviour",
otherwise known as Cuddling Couples.
"We discussed it extensively," recalls Vidya Vaidya, a
member of Bravo, the residents' association, "but we
couldn't come to a consensus on what constituted
indecent behaviour." Some residents, especially the
older ones, felt that even handholding was
unacceptable in public, while others, like Vaidya,
felt that they had no business to intervene even if
couples were kissing.
For as long as anyone can remember, couples have been
canoodling on the city's waterfronts �from Marine
Drive, where they are spaced out on the sea wall with
remarkablemathematical precision, to Juhu beach, where
they seek private nooks away from the main chowpatty.
But every few years, the police round up couples for
"indecent behaviour", sparking off an outrage.
In the three new waterfronts in the city in the
prosperous western suburb of Bandra, this is a more
contentious issue as the promenades are regulated by
the local residents. "Frankly, when it goes beyond
hugging and hand-holding, it becomes embarrassing to
take our parents and children to the promenade," says
Jayanti
Shukla, a Reclamation resident. Bandstand resident
Shalini Vadra is only 30, but feels that to even look
out of the window in the evenings is difficult. She
adds that their waterfronts can't be compared to
Marine Drive or even the Worli Seaface, because those
promenades abut major roads not residences.
However, Arup Sarbhadikari, of the Bandra Bandstand
Residents Association, says there are no complaints
against couples, only "antisocial elements". "We're
not bothered about the lovers on the rocks, but we
don't want prostitution to flourish under the guise of
freedom," he says, adding that this was an issue
before the waterfront was developed into the promenade
it is today�paved, landscaped and guarded.
"The strong family presence makes it a very decent
area," he adds.
Even so, is moral policing justified when couples have
such little personal space in the city? Mumbai has one
of the lowest open space ratios in the world - 0.03
hectare per 1,000 persons - and extended families are
often cramped up in chawls and matchbox apartments.
"I'm forced to come here with my girlfriend because I
don't have anywhere else to go," points out a Santa
Cruz teenager, who lives in a small flat with his
parents and sister, "It costs me at least a few
hundred bucks to go to the cinema. It's either
Bandstand or a coffee shop."
The moral police might castigate such behaviour as
"westernisation", along with Valentine's Day, but as
Citispace member Neera Punj points out, the so-called
family-oriented Hindi movies are much more vulgar.
"These are human needs, to hold hands, to love
someone," she says.
Often people come from distant suburbs like Mulund and
Vashi to enjoy these spaces, suggesting there is some
parochial bias in the complaints. "This is a
middle-class area, with mostly families and senior
citizens. When outsiders come here, they cross the
line and it doesn't gel with the ethos of the place,"
says Shukla.
In a sense, as the waterfronts attract a cross-section
of a rapidly changing society - teenagers and
grandmothers, 'bais' and businessmen, insiders and
outsiders - they all collide in the same space.
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Bipasha molested at nightclub, John plays her real
life hero
Bipasha Basu and John Abraham in a file
photograph
MUMBAI: Model-turned-actress Bipasha Basu was molested
by an unidentified man at a nightclub in Juhu on
Friday night. The incident ended with her friend and
co-actor from their latest movie Jism, John Abraham,
thrashing the man.
The two had just walked into Rain around 11 pm when
the man reportedly walked up to Basu and molested her
before running for the door. Abraham gave him a chase
and a sound thrashing.
While confirming the incident to media, Abraham said:
‘‘I did beat the man who tried to mess around with
Bipasha. I taught him a lesson. I will do so with
anyone else who tries to do the same.’’
Eyewitnesses said Basu was so shaken up, she wept a
long time and was inconsolable. Actors Bobby Deol,
Fardeen Khan and Saahil Khan were also reportedly
present at the restaurant when the incident occurred.
No complaint was registered with police.
Reacting to the incident, another
model-turned-actress, Dipannita Sharma, also a close
friend and former flatmate of Basu, said: ‘‘It happens
to every girl, not just a famous or a pretty one.’’
‘‘I’ve lived in Delhi for five years and have
travelled by bus there. It’s a common occurrence in
Delhi,’’ she said.
‘‘It’s happened to me too,’’ says another
model-actress Nethra Raghuraman, ‘‘but it’s not
something I want to even talk about,’’ she added.
Raghuraman has been brave enough to slap the offender
once, while model Diandra Soares admits this a regular
occurrence. ‘‘I’ve had so many of these incidents
where I’ve beaten up so many people and it’s been
happening since I was in college,’’ she says.
Vidisha Pavate stays away from nightclubs and public
places. ‘‘I rarely go out without my husband or father
by my side,’’ she admitted. Pavate recalls how once
when she was travelling by an auto-rickshaw, a cyclist
riding in the opposite direction stuck his hand out
and touched her. ‘‘I could do nothing,’’ Pavate said.
‘‘By the time I realised what had happened he was
already gone.’’
‘‘The minute you confront them, they crumble. They
don’t know what to do anymore,’’ said Soares. ‘‘They
learn their lesson and they won’t try it again with
anyone else. Besides, you don’t need too much strength
to slap someone,’’ she said.
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With due respect, speak right
RASHMEE Z. AHMED
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 2004 10:52:36
PM ]
LONDON: In a clichéd – but possibly timely - reach for
a Top Ten league table of clichés, the
English-speaking world has just received its
first-ever list of the most "irritating" phrases in
daily speak.
At the end of the day, it's basically, like, a means
of going forward, with all due respect to a language
spoken by one billion people on the planet.
And those, ladies and gentleman, are some of the most
irritating clichés to infest the English language.
Or so says, the Plain English Campaign, which polled
India and at least 70 other countries for that
ultimate millennial cliché - an online unpopularity
survey of English as "she is spoke" and all the
pointless piffle that goes with 24-7, value-added
English language communication.
On Wednesday, the Campaign's John Lister told TNN the
world's first cliché-busting survey revealed an
important point – "cliches are very similar the world
over, be it India or somewhere else".
Lister's possibly rather clichéd extrapolation on the
linguistic state of the global village comes as his
Campaign insisted India and the world appeared
increasingly irritated by a bunch of corporate
clichés. These include: to be honest; 24/7; let's
touch base; value-added; ballpark figure; awesome;
move the goalposts, blue-skies (thinking).
Mixing metaphors like mad, Lister said the phrases
were "literary sludge" and threw up a barrier between
listener and speaker.
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Bollywood's sleazy season begins
Monday March 22 2004 19:07 IST
IANS
MUMBAI: Suddenly Bollywood is coming out with films
about men and women in their underwear, and even less.
Three decades ago actress Rehana Sultan had created a
furore by posing with her legs sprawled into a 'V' for
B.R. Ishaara's "Chetna".
Now, in Anurag Basu's "Murder", we see the
controversial Mallika Sherawat sunbathing semi-nude
with her co-star Asmit Patel.
Do "Murder" and its bare-backed heroine hope to revive
the era of the wanton seductress? And how far would
this provocative image take the film at the
box-office?
Karan Razdan who has so far had no luck as a filmmaker
is all set to unleash more skin show in his
suggestively entitled film "Hawas". The title was
earlier used by Sawan Kumar in a 1974 film where
yesteryear vamp Bindu played a nymphomaniac.
Until recently, lovemaking scenes in Hindi films used
to feature only the female actor in various states of
undress. Now, after the successful stripping of John
Abraham in "Jism", the male joins the female in
shedding clothes and inhibitions in two steamy
releases lined up for the next two weeks.
Even more interesting is the antecedents of the
directors behind the two films. "Murder" director
Anurag Basu and "Hawas" director Razdan have both had
successful innings on television.
Basu directed a number of Ekta Kapoor's most
successful soaps, including "Kyunkii Saas Bhi Kabhi
Bahu Thi", before he waltzed into movies with "Saaya"
last year. The frame-by-frame rip-off of Tom Shadyac's
"Dragonfly" bombed.
Basu has now borrowed Adrian Lyne's steamy film on
adultery, "Unfaithful", as the source-reference for
his second feature film. "Murder" is the story of a
bored wife who strays into a lustful liaison with a
sinister stranger.
Razdan, who was behind the successful detective serial
"Tehkikaat" on national television with the late Vijay
Anand in the lead, made his first film "Roshni"
featuring Milind Soman, Bikram Saluja and newcomer
Roshni last year. The film got into serious financial
trouble and was shelved for good.
Razdan then hit upon the magic formula - an
in-your-face sexiness wrapped in music songs and other
ingredients. Whereas "Roshni" found no takers, "Hawas"
found instant buyers all over the country. Razdan has
now moved on to another steamy triangle called
"Girlfriend" about a lesbian relationship.
Deepak Shivdasani, whose conventional love triangle
"Yeh Raaste Hain Pyar Ke" bit the dust two years ago,
is back in the reckoning with the tale of a prostitute
named "Julie".
Again, it will show a bare-backed actress (Neha
Dhupia).
Like his colleagues in the race, Shivdasani insists
"Julie" isn't a sleazy film. "It's a sensitive
depiction of a prostitute's life. I wouldn't want my
film to be treated as semi-porn."
But the film market, which is in the doldrums, would
insist on projecting films on provocative themes such
as adultery and prostitution as food for a lustful
mind.
Aruna Raje's "Tum" got itself into a tight budge by
refuting its raunchy image before release. The film's
publicist who was pulled up by leading lady Manisha
Koirala for focussing on the love-making scenes now
has the last laugh.
"The fact is the few who came to see the film didn't
do so to watch the performances or the direction but
for the skin show," says Manisha.
The general belief in the film trade is either a film
has to have big stars or naked bodies to get an
audience.
Hence this season at the movies is bracketed by
"Hawas" and "Murder" on one hand and the Shah Rukh
Khan opus "Main Hoon Na" on the other.
There're just no half-measures for the film trade this summer.
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Turn Dish: Get Sex, Breach Security
A Rs 3,000 DTH-friendly gadget beams porn TV. Has power to allow terrorists to escape security intercepts.
ROHIT BANSAL
NEW DELHI, MARCH 28: Direct to home (DTH) users of Zee Group’s Dish TV have access to porn on tap. A diskette-like conditional access module (CAM) costing Rs 3,000 in the grey market is finding its way into 1,50,000-odd bedrooms spread from rural Punjab to Central police outposts in Himachal Pradesh. Some prefer to rent the CAM at Rs 50-100 a night.
There is no cable operator in the middle, hence cops don’t spoil the party.
Some keep the Zee dish aimed at 93.5 degrees (INSAT 3A) and wire the company’s set-top-box to another dish costing Rs 500.
Government’s infocom and security officials said they know what’s happening. They pleaded that there are more important priorities. An official in the ministry of home affairs (MHA) said informal queries have been made from Zee whether the CAM available in the market can be run on the common interface slot (CIS) of the DTH’s set-top-box. A Zee spokesperson confirmed that it is. He claimed that Dish TV cannot control “innovative practices” and what individual subscribers do with the hardware that his company places at their disposal.
“Don’t blame me. It is for (the) government to device appropriate tools,” Dish TV managing director Jawahar Goel claimed.
This isn’t just about sex. Security agencies don’t have the tech to intercept text messages that a DTH provider can aim at individual subscribers. Once Pakistan has DTH platforms, terrorists can use this loophole and receive instructions and alerts over SMS.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chairman Pradip Baijal confirmed that DTH falls within his ambit, but added that his mandate is carriage not content. “Interconnect agreements, tariffs, the arrangement between different players...these are the issues where we have a role. I’m sure relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code should be taking care of other issues that you are referring to,” Baijal said.
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Deeply suspicious of DTH, those like Roop Sharma attacked Baijal. The president of the Cable Operators Federation of India complained that “the TRAI chairman shrugs off his responsibility on one pretext or the other.” An angry Sharma wanted the TRAI “dissolved” and a more responsible organisation take up the range of issues that DTH has thrown up: national security, taxation, and the fait accompli on conditional access.
“(I&B minister) Ravi Shankar Prasad claims there is no conditional access in India, but that’s what DTH is, isn’t it! Today, any housing society can buy one dish and distribute pornography to a close-user group,” Sharma warned.
DTH guidelines involve security considerations. An Indian satellite is mandatory. Entry of foreign nationals in the premises of the DTH operator has to be cleared by the I&B ministry.
The government has okayed two DTH platforms so far. Dish TV, owned by Subhash Chandra of Zee was soft-launched in October 2003. It’s been plagued by poor content and fears of Zee’s existing band of cable partners. Arch-rival Rupert Murdoch of Star has sewn up a 20:80 deal with Ratan Tata for a competing bouquet called Space TV. A third one from Prasar Bharti is on its way. Capacity availability on the existing INSAT platforms is an issue that ISRO is sorting out.
DTH involves buying a small dish that connects directly to the satellite from a consumer’s home. No cable operator is needed. The service provider can offer a range of premium services.
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No Mrs, mistresses in uttaranchal, says Cong
With opinion polls projecting a poor performance at the hustings, the Congress party has decided not to give tickets to the relatives of party leaders.
DEHRA DUN, DHNS:
No Mrs and mistresses in Uttaranchal, please! This is the new message of the Congress high command to the State party unit, which is still dithering on the selection of candidates for the five Lok Sabha seats in the State.
With opinion polls projecting a poor performance for the Congress at the hustings, the party has decided not to give tickets to the relatives of Congress leaders, who have opted out of the race for the Lok Sabha elections.
The name of high profile Information Minister Mrs Indira Hridayesh, a close friend of Chief Minister N D Tiwari, is now missing from the panel of candidates for the prestigious Nainital seat.
Initially, Mr Tiwari was himself keen to contest from Nainital but sensing the mood of the party high command, he tried to float the name of Hridayesh. But the high command did not like the move and subsequently her name was not included in the panel.
When contacted, Mrs Hridayesh told Deccan Herald that she was ready to contest elections when the party high command takes a decision in this regard. “I will contest if there is any directive from the party high command,” she said. But Mr Tiwari remained non-committal in this regard. Sources close to the chief minister said Mr Tiwari is unlikely to contest the elections as of now. Who will contest from Nainital? This is the big question haunting Mr Tiwari now.
On the other hand, PCC chief Harish Rawat has managed to include the name of his wife Renuka in the panel of prospective candidates from the Almora seat.
However, the party high command now finds itself in a piquant situation whether to consider Mrs Renuka Rawat, who has no political experience. Rawat has not only included his wife’s name but managed to include the name of his brother-in-law and State Agriculture Minister Mahendra Singh Mahra.
Similarly, former Union Minister Satpal Maharaj, who withdrew from the race from Pauri-Garhwal, wanted to propose his wife Amrita for the seat. However, he has now proposed the name of his close confidante and Tourism Minister Lt Gen T P S Rawat against BJP stalwart Maj Gen (retd) B C Khanduri from the place.
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Sushma a femme fatale?
Vijay Soni
Although Suresh Ram's sex scandal has faded away from people's memory, the mystery shrouding the torrid love affair remains unresolved. There are questions that still haunt those who knew what conspired during 1970s, both politically and in the lives of Suresh Ram and Sushma Chaudhary.
Was the sex scandal a cover-up to the larger scheme of things? Was Sushma a mere pawn, a victim or a greater beneficiary of largesse? Or, a femme fatale for whom Suresh Ram fell for?
It was August-September, 1978. 21-year-old Sushma Chaudhury, a student of Satyawati College, Delhi was introduced to 46-year-old Suresh Ram, son of the then Defence Minister Jagjivan Ram by some common friend. No one knows who these common friends were.
According to one version Sushma was a frequent hitchhiker and often used to take free rides to college. It is in this process, she met some influential people who introduced her to Suresh Ram.
A young girl then, Sushma was known for her beauty and was the talk of the locality. Ambitious, confident and upwardly mobile, she was out to make her mark.
"Sushma was stunningly beautiful. It's no surprise that Suresh Ram developed a fancy for her", says Ravinder Singh, a neighbour who runs a shop.
"The affairs of Sushma and Suresh used to be on everyone's tongue in those days. All knew it. Suresh Ram often used to come here to pick her up, often on ode-hours and sometimes drunk", recalls Ravinder Singh.
Suresh Ram, as sources close to his family claim was having an unhappy married life and found in Sushma, an easy emotional anchor. Their relationship grew stronger and as Sushma's relatives claim they got married. This despite the fact that Suresh Ram was already married and had not obtained divorce from his first wife.
"Jagjivan Ram had honorably accepted the marriage", says Kamlesh Chaudhary, sister-in-law of Sushma. And the couple was living along with Jagjivan Ram in his 6 Krishna Menon Marg official bungalow.
But there are questions that lingers. The bonding Suresh Ram and Sushma shared cannot be put above suspicion, this especially because of huge age-difference and difference in the economic status.
Neither was Sushma, brilliant by any account. Was then she used as an implant to serve Charan Singh's political design? Or it was Suresh Ram who was enamored by her charm?
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