Posts Tagged ‘New Delhi’
Written by admin on 20 February 2010
New Delhi, Feb 20 – Acclaimed designer Bhanu Athaiya, the first Indian to win an Oscar for designing costumes for the film ‘Gandhi’, has released a book on her journey in the film world.
The book ‘The Art of Costume Design’ was released by filmmaker Kumar Shahani at The Ashok Hotel here Friday evening. It has been recommended by none other than Richard Attenborough.
Attenborough, in a message from London, said ‘it was important to document the landmark work done by someone with such knowledge, vision and passion’.
He recommended the book to film lovers, filmmakers and designers.
Recalling his association with Athaiya, Attenborough said: ‘It took me 17 long years to set up ‘Gandhi’, my dream film, and 15 minutes to make up my mind that Bhanu Athaiya was the right person to create the many hundreds of Indian costumes that would be required to bring it to the screen.’
The book, divided into nine chapters, spans the designer’s early days in Kolhapur, arrival in Mumbai, her meetings with Raj Kapoor and Guru Dutt, the magic of jewellery in movies, trend-setting costumes and the awards and accolades won by the designer.
‘I was born in a 300-year-old ancestral house in the heart of Kolhapur. My family belonged to a learned Pandit lineage. The family book traces my ancestors’ history to 2,000 years,’ Athaiya writes.
Athaiya began her career in costume design in 1953. Over the next 56 years, she built an extraordinary body of work that defined the aesthetics of costume design in Hindi cinema.
She gave Waheeda Rehman the iconic look in ‘Guide’, dressed Mumtaz in ‘Brahmachari’ and Zeenat Aman in ‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram’. She has a repertoire of 130 films and has worked with filmmakers like Raj Kapoor, Guru Dutt, B.R. Chopra, Yash Chopra, Dev Anand and Ashutosh Gowariker among others.
In the book, Athaiya recounts her life story and her deep passion for creativity in design – taking the reader on a fascinating journey, beginning with the classic look of the black and white era, moving to the age of technicolour typified by box-office hits like ‘Sangam’, ‘Ganga Jumna’ and ‘Waqt’; and then to her more contemporary work in ‘Lagaan’ and ‘Swades’.
Recalling her association with Raj Kapoor, Athaiya writes: ‘One day Nargis decided to take me to R.K. Studio to introduce me to Raj Kapoor. We travelled to Chembur in her car. As we entered the spacious studio, the first thing I noticed was a huge Shiva statue. Then the car took a left turn and moved towards a small cottage, which was Raj-saab’s private cottage. At that time, work on ‘Shri 420′ was in progress and I was asked to design costumes for actress Nadira, who was playing a vamp…I gave her an unconventional look.’
It marked the beginning of her long association with Raj Kapoor.
The book culminates in the story of the Oscar for the costume design of ‘Gandhi’.
Athaiya’s work has been shown at the Festival of India, New York, and she has received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the South Asian International Film Festival in 2005. She was honoured with the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.
After her formative years in Kolhapur, Athaiya graduated from the J.J. School of Arts, Mumbai, where she won a gold medal. Later she went to France to study art, culture and cinema.
Tags: New Delhi
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Written by admin on 20 February 2010
New Delhi, Feb 20 – Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal Saturday said he would try and build consensus among all the state governments to implement the Right to Education Act, which will be notified from April 1.
‘Our aim is to implement the Right to Education Act from April 1 and for this, I will talk to every state government,’ Sibal told reporters here.
The minister said he would discuss the matter with Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit Monday.
Tags: New Delhi
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Written by admin on 20 February 2010
New Delhi, Feb 20 – A bright morning greeted Delhiites Saturday but cool winds and temperatures below average ensured that the chill continued in the capital.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the minimum temperature recorded early Saturday was a notch below average at 9.7 degrees Celsius.
‘The temperatures have been below average over the past few days and the chill has remained because of the cool north westerly winds blowing through the capital,’ an IMD official said.
On Friday too, the minimum temperature was a notch below average at 8.6 degrees Celsius and so was the maximum at 24 degrees.
The maximum temperature Saturday is expected to hover around 25 degrees Celsius.
Tags: New Delhi
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Written by admin on 20 February 2010
New Delhi, Feb 20 – After playing mother and wife, popular actress Supriya Pilgaonkar wants to play an adulteress on screen, but says it doesn’t seem possible because of the limited roles offered to women her age.
‘Everyone wants to make a character of my age a mother. There’s no experimentation. I would love to play a detective or an adulteress, but who will give it? Not on the small screen and not even in films,’ Supriya, who has been acting for 25 years, told IANS.
‘I am not even talking about playing the lead roles differently – but in every show or film, there are many characters. Still we are not given any different roles than a mother. Actually, the problem is very few people want to see a change and very few people have the courage to present it. Roles for us are very limited,’ she rued.
The 52-year-old, who was in the capital Thursday for the launch of her new show on STAR Plus, ‘Sasural Genda Phool’, says TV content is highly driven by viewers’ demand.
‘I have been lucky to choose my roles, but still I feel that everybody is doing what the viewers want. They see only what the viewers want; it’s not balanced. TV is becoming one-sided entertainment : whatever people like, give them that – that’s every channel’s mantra.
‘But to build their sensibilities, we should give the viewers something extra. I feel channels should attempt something different and people need to respond to it to encourage channels to keep trying things instead of following one set pattern,’ she said.
Supriya, who is married to actor-director Sachin Pilgaonkar, has been earlier seen in serials like ‘Tu Tu Main Main’, ‘Kadvee Khattee Meethi’ and ‘Radha Ki Betiyaan Kuch Kar Dikhaayengi’. Supriya has also done films like ‘Awara Paagal Deewana’ and ‘Aetbaar’.
In ‘Sasural Genda Phool’, which focuses on the modern Indian bahu, she plays ‘badi maa’ – a character who stays at her in-laws’ house even though her husband stays away. Supriya feels the show breaks away from the regressive portrayal of women on screen.
‘A lot of shows have been regressive in between. I did ‘Tu Tu Main Main’ and it was very successful – it portrayed today’s bahu. After that, the characters started becoming regressive. Now we are trying to bring the modern bahu back to the screen,’ she said.
The actress will be seen on the big screen in ‘Jaane Kahaan Se Aayi Hai’ as Riteish Deshmukh’s mother. The film is being produced by Nikhil Advani and directed by Milap Zaveri.
Tags: New Delhi
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Written by admin on 19 February 2010
New Delhi, Feb 19 – The Supreme Court has advised those in power to ensure that there should be no trace of arrogance and vanity while discharging their official duty.
A bench of Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice A.K. Patnaik gave this counsel to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), while also rebuking it for dismissing one of its head constables Angad Das arbitrarily.
‘People in power and authority should not easily lose equanimity, composure and appreciation for the problems of the lesser mortals. They are always expected to remember that power and authority must be judiciously exercised according to the laws and human compassion,’ said the bench Thursday.
‘Arrogance and vanity have no place in discharge of their official functions and duties,’ the bench said while restoring Das’s original punishment of compulsory retirement with all pensionary benefits and gratuity.
The CRPF June 14, 1996, imposed the punishment of compulsorily retirement on Das, serving in the 51 Battalion in Jammu and Kashmir, on the ground that he obtained the job using a false birth date certificate.
Following the order for his retirement, Das wrote a mercy plea to the authorities begging that he should not be retired and instead be awarded any other punishment.
In his plea, he said that if he is forced to retire, his entire family including his five daughters, would be ruined and would be forced to begging.
He also argued that his birth certificate was not false but was issued to him by the block development officer (BDO) and the panchayat authorities.
Irked by Das’s mercy plea, the CRPF authorities treated it as his appeal against his punishment of compulsory retirement entailing all retirement benefits like pension and gratuity etc and ordered his ‘removal from service’, depriving him from all terminal benefits.
Das appealed in the apex court. The apex court regretted the attitude of the authorities, saying: ‘The appellant had sent a very polite letter of request to the additional deputy inspector general of police praying that his request for re-employment be kindly considered because he has enormous responsibility of educating and marrying his five daughters. The prayer was made with folded hands and touching his feet. The letter reflected pinnacle of humility’.
The apex court said no provision of law permits the authorities to treat a letter of request for re-employment as an appeal.
‘The DIG (Police) has no power or authority to enhance the sentence of the appellant. We fail to comprehend how such an innocuous and polite letter of request seeking re-employment on compassionate ground can ever receive such an unwarranted and arrogant reaction. The order is wholly arbitrary and illegal,’ the apex court said.
Tags: New Delhi
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Written by admin on 19 February 2010
New Delhi, Feb 19 – Shyam Saran, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s special envoy on climate change, may have quit the government job Friday, despite his expected elevation to minister rank, because of much-talked about differences with Minister of State Enviroment Jairam Ramesh, knowledgeable sources said.
Highly placed sources said Saran and Ramesh are known to have differing recommendations for India’s negotiating stance at formal and informal negotiations in international forums. Members of India’s climate changes negotiating team told IANS that Saran had been against the decision to announce a reduction in carbon emissions intensity before the Copenhagen summit last December.
Saran felt that this was an ace that India should keep up its sleeve at the negotiating high-table. But Ramesh reportedly worked out an agreement with the other BASIC countries (IChina Brazil and South Africa) that they would make the announcement and use this to pressure the rich countries to make significant cuts, the sources said.
‘There were also significant differences whether Kyoto Protocol should continue. Saran was adamant on its continuation while Ramesh was more flexible,’ a climate change negotiator told IANS.
Saran, a former foreign secretary, however, refused to entertain questions on whether there were other reasons for his decision to quit, although the Prime Minister’s Office had told him that he would be elevated to minister of state rank in the environment ministry.
With India positioning itself as a proactive player in the climate change discourse, Manmohan Singh was keen to assign Saran more responsibilities to carry forward the country’s climate diplomacy, said PMO sources. Saran was instrumental in the drafting of several of the eight missions under India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
‘I had indicated well in advance to the Prime Minister’s Office that March 14 would be my last working day. This is not something new. That’s all there is to this,’ Saran told IANS.
PMO officials said the decision to make Saran a MoS (minister of state) had been taken because Shiv Shankar Menon, who was three years junior in foreign service, took charge as the National Security Advisor (NSA).
Menon, who retired as foreign secretary in July last year, was appointed the NSA in January.
‘Since Saran was a key negotiator in India’s climate change diplomacy and enjoyed the prime minister’s mandate, (so) the elevation was natural,’ said the official.
A release from the PMO said, ‘Shyam Saran, special envoy of the prime minister for Indo-US nuclear issues and for climate change, has been permitted to demit office with effect from March 14.’
Tags: New Delhi
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