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News:
Fardeen Khan released on bail
Remand of Bharat Shah, 2 others extended
Raveena -- A Real Life Crusader
Manisha Koirala: Stripping for a cause?
Daler agrees to change words, Raza academy calls off agitation
Ajay -- Out Of Debt
Cinematic barrier Dr Rachel Dwyer
Peddler caught with Fardeen names Bollywood bigwigs
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Fardeen Khan released on bail
MUMBAI: Film actor Fardeen Khan, held on the charge of possessing cocaine,
was on Thursday released on bail on personal bond of Rs 20,000 by a special
court which also asked him to deposit his passport and report to the
Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) daily till May 18.
Special judge M S Keny asked Fardeen not to leave the city without the
permission of the court. He was also ordered to furnish solvent surety of Rs
20,000 and deposit Rs 10,000 cash.
In case Fardeen needed passport to go abroad, he has to make a formal
application to the court which may consider his plea, the judge noted.
The judge, however, warned Fardeen that if he violated bail conditions, the
NCB was free to approach the court for cancellation of his bail.
The judge observed that at the time of arrest Fardeen was about to buy one
gram of cocaine from a drug peddler but the transaction had not
materialised. The drug was recovered from Nasir Abdul Karim Shaikh who was
seated in Fardeen's car and not from the actor's possession, he noted.
Investigation with regard to Fardeen was over and hence no purpose would be
served by keeping him in custody, the judge noted.
Fardeen, son of film maker Feroz Khan, was arrested on May 5 under the
Narcotic Drug and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) when he was about to
buy one gram of cocaine from Nasir Shaikh. Nasir was also held for carrying
nine grams of cocaine. NCB later arrested the main supplier Tony Gomes.
The trio were remanded to NCB custody till May 18
Top
Remand of Bharat Shah, 2 others extended
MUMBAI: Film financier Bharat Shah, producer Nasim Rizvi and his assistant
Abdul Rahim Allah Baksh, charged with developing links with the underworld
to target Bollywood personalities for personal gains, were on Thursday
further remanded to judicial custody till June 11.
The trio were produced before designated judge A P Bhangale who directed the
prosecution to prepare a list of documents and seized articles.
The prosecution has claimed that the film Chori Chori Chupke Chupke was
produced by Rizvi and financed by Bharat Shah at the instance of
Karachi-based gangster Chhota Shakeel. The 1800-page chargesheet against the
trio relies upon the recorded telephone talks between Shakeel and the
accused.
Prosecutor Jimmy Madon informed the court that investigations were still
continuing and absconding accused were yet be traced. He said the
prosecution would file supplementary chargesheet on the next occasion.
The judge directed the court receiver to move the court for further orders
for disposing the property of Tarun Shah, secretary of accused Bharat Shah,
who has been reportedly absconding since January this year.
Tarun Shah's flat in Gamdevi area of south Mumbai was attached to compel his
appearance before the court. The judge had also appointed senior police
inspector of Gamdevi police station to act as court receiver and attach the
property.
The inspector Thursday filed a report of perishable items lying in the flat
which had been destroyed in keeping with the court's order.
Top
Raveena -- A Real Life Crusader
Raveena Tandon claims to have got over the heartburn caused by the
controversy surrounding her National Award win and is determinedly looking
at the positive side of things. Besides the fact that it won her the
National Award, Raveena is happy to have done Daman because it deals with a
social issue -- the physical assault on women within marriage.
Ask her if she has known any battered wives in real life and Raveena says,
"Yes, once I went at four o'clock in the night to pick up a friend of mine
whose husband had beat her up. I went in my nightie! It's so sad when these
kind of instances happen even in educated families."
Top
Manisha Koirala: Stripping for a cause?
The unconventional babe known for her spicy copy and her super duper looks
is set to have most people questioning her deeds again! She will strip in
her next film, Abhay opposite Kamal Haasan. You may bring your eyebrows back
into position now, for Manisha does not believe in doing so unless the role
demands it.
So, the stripping or rather the changing scene will be incorporated since
the character that Manisha plays is supposed to seduce Kamal. The first time
she does so on screen, Manisha, we're sure, would not be too 'diplomatic'
about the situation! But, it makes us wonder what certain 'diplomatic'
circles would have to say about that!
Top
Daler agrees to change words, Raza academy calls off agitation
he Raza Academy called off its agitation against pop singer Daler Mehndi on
Wednesday after he and the music company, marketing his new album "Nabi buba
Nabi", promised to change the lyrics in the song and the music video.
The Academy had launched an agitation demanding immediate withdrawal of the
video from music channels and change the words "Nabi, Ali and Madina", in
the song which it said hurt the sentiments of Muslim community.
"It had hurt sentiments" of a section of the community.
Daler said the song only had 'sufiyana' essence in it and the words were
used in the song with "full respect".
Mehndi and music company Universal Music India Ltd (UMIL) agreed to change
the video and the lyrics of the title song as "it had hurt sentiments" of a
section of the community.
"We have decided to change the words "Nabi, Ali and Madina", in the album,
Daler Mehndi and UMIL said in a statement in Bombay on Wednesday.
Top
Ajay -- Out Of Debt
The year 2000 was terrible for Ajay Devgan. Both his releases, Deewane and
Raju Chacha, hit the box office iceberg and sank deeper than the Titanic.
After a terrific 1999 (when he had Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, a National Award
for Zakhm and even his indifferent films like Kachhey Dhaagey and Hogi Pyar
Ki Jeet were raking in the moolah), there was some erosion in the Devgan
brand equity last year. Especially in Bollywood where the 'You are only as
good as your last hit' is more than just a catchy phrase. Meanwhile, there
were also rumours of a growing financial crisis.
But today, Devgan has grittily crawled out of the trough. He claim to have
knocked off most of the debts incurred by the huge losses suffered by the
hugely-overbudgeted Raju Chacha which he had produced. This he has managed
largely by signing films left, right and centre. Fortunately for Ajay, this
compulsion has actually turned to his advantage! Because he now has five
major films on hand with better banners than he has ever had before. Ajay's
deep into Ram Gopal Verma's Company, David Dhawan's Hum Kisise Kam Nahin
(opposite Aishwarya), Rajkumar Santoshi's Lajja (in the role which was
supposed to mark the reunion between Santoshi and his onetime fave, Sunny)
and Mahesh Manjrekar's Tera Mera Saath Rahen. The latest reports have it
that he has also bagged J P Dutta's next, whispered to be titled Kargil.
With such an impressive line-up, Ajay ko phir se successful hona hi tha.
Top
Cinematic barrier Dr Rachel Dwyer
Terminology is a real problem with Indian cinema. 'Bollywood' is hotly
contested - is it a derogatory term or should one stick to this term that
has international recognition? Is the language of this cinema Hindi or Urdu?
(No easy answer: many films were classified as Urdu by the censor boards
even in the 1960s.) Is there a divide between 'art' cinema and 'commercial'
cinema and where does parallel cinema fit into this division? Unhappy with
these terms, I have recently walked into a further controversy.
At a party in Chennai a couple of weeks ago, hosted by Rajiv and Latha
Menon, attended by several members of the Tamil film industry, film
historian Theodore Baskaran expressed his anger to me that writers on cinema
(he didn't include me although he could have) call Tamil cinema 'regional',
whereas Hindi is accepted as the national cinema. I was already well aware
of the serious issues of language politics in India, in particular the issue
of the national language, but I hadn't thought about how this would spill
over into the film world where the national nature of anything in Hindi
would also be contested.
I began to think more about how the cinema made in the designated national
language would differ in other ways from cinema made in other languages of
India.
In a panel on cinema at FICCI this weekend, Shyam Benegal approached this
topic from another angle, drawing attention to the composite culture
depicted in Hindi cinema. He reminded us that other cinemas make films that
show a local, actual culture. Later that evening I went to a screening of
Mani Ratnam's Alaipayuthey and thought about the features which
distinguished it from a Hindi film. I know many people in Mumbai have yet to
see this wonderful film (since the sub-titled version has not been shown
here yet). Its well-written script depicts the problems faced by a young
couple in reconciling their families to their marriage and to their own
problems in dealing with the realities of marriage once the honeymoon is
over.
The only Tamil films I have seen are the dubbed or subtitled movies of Mani
Ratnam, Rajiv Menon, Priyadarshan and Shankar, so I don't know if the
striking features I noticed were unique to this film or are part of a wider
trend. The narrative parts of the film are mostly shot on location in the
Chennai suburbs, in middle-class housing and on the suburban trains and
buses. (The songs, which are only loosely integrated into the film, are
mostly shot in exotic locations - the Andamans - or in beautiful parts of
rural India.) The couple is not glamourised: Shalini seems to be wearing no
make-up and Madhavan looks like a handsome boy-next-door. They wear jeans,
T-shirts, saris and live in an aesthetically designed, although half-built,
flat.
The heroine has a profession - she's a doctor - whose parents struggle to
pay her fees and even the richer boy has to work setting up a computer
company to make a living. Although the story takes melodramatic twists, they
are presented in a convincing and realistic manner, a film of the lives of
ordinary people, living ordinary lives in an ordinary city. One could
imagine a Hindi treatment of this story in which the couple would be
glamorous, one unbelievably rich, one miserably poor, there would be a
tearful family reconciliation at the end, and costumes would be designer
outfits. Or would they?
I am reminded of one of the most acclaimed films of recent years, Ram Gopal
Verma's Satya, a very Mumbai film, and wonder why there have not been more
'commercial' films which locate themselves in specific places and
incorporate elements of realism into the conventions of the Hindi film.
Perhaps it is seen as too risky, limiting the audience for the film.
This takes me back to a theme of the FICCI panel, discussed by Subhash Ghai,
Amit Khanna, Rajiv Pant (Sony) and Yash Chopra, where they said it was time
for Indian cinema to reach out beyond the NRI audience in Europe and North
America. When people who have never seen a 'commercial' Indian film before
see modern films, I find it is these rooted films - Satya, Kandukondein
Kandukondein and Roja - which appeal the most. While 'art' films have their
own audiences, the western audience is ready for 'commercial' cinema - to
enjoy song and dance, to watch subtitles, but they want a good story and a
'real' India, rather than the utopian fantasies of the average 'commercial'
film.
Dr Rachel Dwyer is senior lecturer in Indian Studies at SOAS, University of
London
Top
Peddler caught with Fardeen names Bollywood bigwigs
Naseer Abdul Karim Sheikh, the peddler caught selling cocaine to actor
Fardeen Khan, has opened a Pandora's box. And Bollywood is hanging on to his
every word. For, even as the industry waits with bated breath to see if
Fardeen is bailed out on Tuesday, Sheikh is reported to have mentioned names
of at least five Bollywood bigwigs, including a well known siren, a prima
donna past her prime and a music director who are regulars among the
"sniffers".
Fardeen, though, by all industry accounts was not a "regular" - his father
Feroze Khan was not even aware that he sniffed on occasion. However, less
than 24 hours before his bail hearing comes up, questions are being raised
about the delay in conducting the mandatory blood test on Fardeen. He was
taken for the test just minutes before he was produced at the residence of
Judge Kene on Sunday.
According to experts, cocaine has a tendency to be washed out of the system
within 24 hours, particularly if helped along by antidotes which then
prevent cocaine from showing up in the blood tests. There are whispers about
several breaches on the part of the NCB who may have allowed visitors to
call on Fardeen. Moreover, he was fed pizzas from Dominos and also Baskin
Robbins ice-cream prior to being produced before the judge, a courtesy
normally not shown to ordinary accused.
These breaches have been taken note of amid reports that the test might have
come clear and the NCB might find little to hang on Fardeen. However, this
presumption contradicts with the NCB's demand for custody until May 18 on
grounds of "possession", which is different from consumption. NCB
authorities believe the extended custody will help them establish the facts
since Fardeen is now seen as both a possessor and user. On the other hand,
this stand flies in the face of the fact that the NCB, by director Ajay
Ubale's own admission, had kept a watch on Fardeen's movements for at least
eight days prior to nabbing him early Saturday morning. Yet they delayed a
medical test that could have boosted their case for extended custody.
Meanwhile, Naseer has reportedly told the police that he regularly supplied
cocaine to Bollywood stars. Fardeen is supposed to be the person who got
Naseer in touch with all his clientele. Apparently she was making a hefty
commission on the deals.
According to a source, Naseer told the NCB that the demand would pick up
whenever big bashes were thrown by Bollywood. The rates would then go up
from Rs 2,500 to even Rs 3,000 per gram.
Top
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