दीपिका पादुकोण का थ्रोबैक Video हुआ वायरल, हाथ में ग्लास लिए, बोलीं- ऐ आया पुलिस...

बॉलीवुड एक्ट्रेस दीपिका पादुकोण (Deepika Padukone) इन दिनों काफी सुर्खियों में है....

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Farmers' stir live: Tractor set on fire at India Gate

Pro-farmer organizations are observing Karnataka bandh today to protest against the farm bills. Pro-Kannada organizations have also extended their support to the bandh. Stay with TOI for all the latest updates.

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Five sixes in an over is amazing: Rahul Tewatia

Rahul Tewatia, who smashed five sixes in an over to help Rajasthan Royals beat Kings XI Punjab in an incredible IPL match, said he always kept believing that he could achieve the feat despite struggling initially in his innings.

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Airtel vs Jio vs Voda: Biggest gainers & losers

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Sharad meets Uddhav; allies say usual business

A day after a meeting between the Sena’s Sanjay Raut and BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis set the grapevine abuzz, NCP president Sharad Pawar met chief minister and Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday.

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Global coronavirus death toll passes one million

More than one million people have died from coronavirus, according to an AFP toll, after the deadly disease emerged less than a year ago in China and swept around the globe. The pandemic has ravaged the world's economy, inflamed geopolitical tensions and upended lives, from Indian slums and Brazil's jungles to America's biggest city New York.

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Pak to buy homes of Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar

The provincial government in Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has decided to purchase the ancestral houses of legendary Bollywood actors Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar to conserve the historic buildings which are in dilapidated condition and facing demolition threat. The Department of Archaeology in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province has decided to allocate sufficient funds for purchasing the two buildings, which have been declared as the national heritage and lie in the heart of Peshawar city, an official said.

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Google Meet may no longer be free from Oct

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Times Top10: Covid tally past 6m, but a slowdown?

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Manoj Bajpayee says it's unfortunate how migrant issues have been sidelined by news channels

Actor Manoj Bajpayee says he wanted to channel the nostalgia and pride of migrants for their home in Bambai Main Ka Ba, his hit Bhojpuri rap highlighting the plight of people who leave their native places to move to big cities in search of employment.

Bajpayee, one of the finest contemporary actors in Hindi cinema with films such as Satya, Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 1 and Aligarh to his credit, said it is sad that migrants issues are not highlighted enough by news channels.

The politically-charged song, written by Dr Sagar and directed by Anubhav Sinha, gave Bajpayee the chance to combine the medium of rap with his first language, Bhojpuri, to talk about issues that bother him.

The actor, who hails from Belwa village in West Champaran, Bihar, said he wanted the rap to reflect the pride he has for his birthplace.

"Rap is a great way to protest, to express your anger. I improvised a lot while performing. The most important thing that I tried to bring was that whatever anger you want to show, you also show the pride, the pride of the village I come from," the actor told Press Trust of India in a telephonic interview.

Days after the coronavirus-induced lockdown came into effect in March, lakhs of migrants and daily wagers landed on the highways, walking, cycling or hitchhiking to their home states hundreds of kilometres away as living in cities became impossible due to lack of work.

The images of their long walk home in the face of tragedy and death shook the nation and hit the headlines in the national and international media but their issues have now disappeared from the news, something that the actor finds unfortunate.

"It's sad that migrant issues and their problems have been sidelined by the news media. They should talk about it. There should be discussions and debates so that these things don't happen again.

"Migrants leave their home in search for a better life in the big city but they end up living a pathetic life," Bajpayee said, emphasising the need for job creation in small towns.

The 51-year-old actor said headlines today don't reflect questions related to the growth and the development of the country.

"From 5 o'clock till 10 o'clock, you are reading things and seeing things which are completely not relevant to the country or its growth and development.

"In the name of journalism, what we are seeing is nothing but a mockery of journalism. I hope we start talking about something that's relevant and matters to the common man," he said.

Bajpayee said he added a tinge of nostalgia in his performance that comes from his love for his birthplace, while a lot of it already existed in Dr Sagar's lyrics, which have been composed by Anurag Saikia and translated into English by senior journalist Sankarshan Thakur.

"I am a proud Bihari, village person and farmer's son. I sincerely feel blessed I was born in that place. I am proud of the culture, language and upbringing that I had. I give a lot of credit for my performances to the place I come from.

"It has contributed a lot in making me the actor and the person I am today. The nostalgia does not just come from the lyrics but also from the way I have performed the song," the National Award winner added.

Asked about the lack of good Bhojpuri content in mainstream media, Bajpayee said he always wanted to do something in the language but actors have to depend on other creative people for such collaborations.

"When Anubhav offered this to me, I immediately said yes. This is my mother tongue, my first language. The response to the song has been encouraging. It gives me hope about future projects."

The actor also believes the grammar of the visual medium is gradually changing with people from small towns and from places like Poorvanchal, UP and Bihar, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh coming to the industry.

"They come to this industry with their stories and experiences. When they start putting out their stories, people relate to it. And that''s why the local becomes global.

"In the last 20-21 years, the storytelling has changed because of these people who came from their own strong cultural background and they tried putting out their stories and cultural experiences."

Bajpayee, meanwhile, is enjoying one of the most creatively fertile phases of his career with back-to-back projects.

"I am always buzzing with ideas. If I get more challenging stuff, I will throw myself into it because I love this art. This is the first time in my entire career that 365 days of my life are given to people. I don't have any dates left. I am scared of reading more scripts because if I like something and I can't do it, it will give me stress," he said.

Bajpayee, who is now looking forward to the second season of The Family Man, promised a "more intense and thrilling" follow-up chapter to the popular Amazon Prime Video series.

While The Family Man should be ready by December, Suraj Pe Mangal Bhaari, a Zee Studios production, will see the actor in a comedic avatar.

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Former Dharmatic Entertainment producer Kshitij Ravi Prasad claims NCB forced him to implicate Karan Johar

Kshitij Ravi Prasad, a former executive producer for Dharmatic Entertainment, who was arrested yesterday, told a Mumbai Court that the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) asked him to implicate Karan Johar and others working at Dharma Productions of consuming drugs.

This claim has been denied by Deputy Director General (South West), Mutha Ashok Jain, who said the questioning was conducted in a "professional manner," reports The Indian Express.

The NCB told the court they had seized “roll joint believed to be remains of smoked ganja” from Prasad's house. The agency also said the producer had made bank and cash payments of around Rs 3500 to purchase marijuana between May and July. It said Prasad is indirectly connected with accused Anuj Keshwani, from whom commercial quantity of a contraband was confiscated.

However, Prasad's lawyer Satish Maneshinde said his client, who produced before a magistrate court in Mumbai via video conferencing, had been "harassed and blackmailed" into making a statement. He added that his client's statement was recorded by NCB's Mumbai head Sameer Wankhede, during which "various patently false claims were inserted despite his (Prasad’s) protests."

"The NCB officers apart from Sameer Wankhede were courteous to Kshitij and provided him with a comfortable sleeping arrangement. The next morning when his statement recording resumed, Kshitij was categorically informed by Sameer Wankhede in the presence of several other officers, that since he was associated with Dharma Productions, they would let him off if he implicated Karan Johar and some others, falsely alleging that they consumed drugs. Kshitij refused to comply with this despite the pressure being mounted on him as he did not know any of these people personally and did not wish to falsely implicate anyone," Maneshinde said.

Wakhende called this a routine practice of the accused to make such allegations. NCB's Deputy DG Jain said Prasad's claims were untrue and the agency did not have an intended target than what the investigation reveals.

While seeking Prasad's custody, the NCB referred to Ankush Arneja's statement where he had said to have supplied hashish to Prasad through accused Sanket Patel. Patel, arrested and eventually granted bail, allegedly told the NCB that he delivered hashish to Prasad's house in Andheri on a dozen occasions between May and July this year.

In Prasad's remand application, the NCB stated that it is integral to find out whom Prasad was delivering drugs to in Bollywood. The agency told the court that Prasad was uncooperative and sought his custody till 5 October.

Maneshinde said Prasad told the court he was asked to sit on the floor during the interrogation as Wankhede put a shoe near his face. After spending 48 hours in custody, he said Prasad was "extremely fatigue and shaken". The lawyer sought permission for Prasad to speak to a lawyer or a family member.

 

Maneshinde further said Wankhede told Prasad that in exchange for a phone call, he should sign a statement prepared by them, which could be retracted later. Wankhede also allegedly told Prasad that if he did not sign the statement, he would not be able to access a lawyer or family. He claimed that Prasad signed the statement under duress.

 

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Trump paid $750 in US income taxes in 2016, '17

Donald Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency. In his first year in the White House, he paid another $750. He had paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years — largely because he reported losing much more money than he made.

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A laugh here, a sigh there: Remembering SP Balasubrahmanyam's unique musical style

It’s the beginning of a tender, young love and the couple’s hands graze each other. They are dizzy-headed, in a kerakkam, as they’d say in Tamil. Who else but SP Balasubrahmanyam — all of 65 when Vetri Maaran’s Aadukalam (2011) was being made — could make you feel that sizzling chemistry with a voice heavy with love, yet light with playfulness? The music was by a boy he adored, GV Prakash Kumar, whom he first saw as a child in his uncle AR Rahman’s studio, where he would keep running away from the mic instead of singing ‘Chikku Bukku Rayile’.

Prakash is still in awe of how SPB lent his unique charm to ‘Ayyayo Nenju’. It was a song very close to the singer’s heart, because it also featured his son SPB Charan, and went on to win many awards. “That’s his trademark, right, he always manages to introduce a little laughter here and there to add flavour to a song. It’s all him,” recalls Prakash.

This anecdote comes from a time when you can visualise the songs you like by simply YouTubing them. But decades before that, SPB helped you see songs even as you heard them. Remember ‘Siriya Paravai Siragai’ from the 1985 Andha Oru Nimidam, a whole 26 years before Aadukalam? At 4.50 minutes, just when the song is about to conclude, there’s this burst of laughter, before the song moves to a positive note. Kamal Haasan, as always a great song actor, aced that laugh on screen. Did the music director tell him to laugh this way? Did he know this is how the actor would lip sync? How did he know to laugh to a set musical metre?

As kids, my cousin and I could go back and forth, rewinding and fast-forwarding the tape on our National Panasonic 543 so that we could go land at that exact minute. Years later, we saw that smile on Doordarshan during Oliyum Oliyum when they played the song.

(Also read on Firstpost —SP Balasubrahmanyam was a lesson in decoding tradition while keeping with the times)

In 1997, when satellite television had entered homes, and with it, film songs, most saw first hand what SPB managed with ‘Thanga Thamarai Magale’ from Minsara Kanavu. The song went on to fetch him a National Award too. Director Rajiv Menon remembers the recording. “It was a high-pitch song and SPB was not very happy with his output. We tried reducing the pitch and the song died. Suddenly, he decided he would sing in high pitch and looked up at the ceiling and sang. The paper with lyrics was pasted there, and a suspended mic caught all the action. He’d always tell me I made him scream for his food.”

‘Thanga Thamarai’ had a different kind of kerakkam, distinctly one-sided, and was a mix of love and admiration for a girl who had no clue about the boy’s feelings.

A lot has been written about how SPB had the ability to sound like the top actors of his time, but one could go on and not tire. He sounded like Kamal, drenching songs with love, grief and playfulness, and revelled in his famous disco numbers too. ‘Annatha Aadaraar’ and ‘Unna Nenachu’ are examples of exuberance and a broken heart, both picturised on Kamal and sung by SPB. It almost felt like SPB knew how Kamal would introduce a half-smile somewhere, and he sang its musical equivalent.

For Rajinikanth, Tamil cinema’s angry young man, he sounded appropriately more mature, and gave him probably his best love song in ‘Kaadhalin Deepam Ondru’, from Thambikku Entha Ooru (1984). There’s also a ‘haah’ at the 1.36 mark. The famous Rajini introduction songs need an SPB.

For Karthik, SPB was playful and passionate in turns. In Kizhakku Vaasal (1990), he sang ‘Pachamala Poovu’, where Karthik serenades a goddess-like Revathy with a certain reverence; later, in ‘Paadiparandha kili’, he’s full-throated in grief, his heart broken after he realises the girl he loves is to be married to someone else.

SPB was the voice that nudged Meenakshi Seshadri towards Prabhu’s love in K Balachander’s Duet. His songs for Prabhu were filled with the good-naturedness and wholesomeness that the actor’s characters were known for.

Mohan would not have been ‘Mike’ Mohan but for SPB’s voice. Most remember Mouna Ragam (1986), but there’s also Udhaya Geetham (1985), among a whole lot of other 80s hits, with its chartbusters, one of which also lent SPB the moniker ‘Paadum Nila’. The songs for Mohan defy listing, hit after hit after hit, in so many genres. So many memorable love songs down the ages.

There are also a tiny bouquet of songs where SPB sang for himself on screen, most famously ‘Mannil Indha Kaadhalindri’ in Keladi Kanmani (1990), which rang in 30 years of its release this year.

The singer with a voice that traversed so many emotions was also a great voice actor. Not many know of how much life he lent to Kama Haasan’s Tamil films that were dubbed into Telugu, or vice-versa. Indran Chandran and Sippikul Muthu came alive for Tamil audiences thanks to SPB; he did the same for over 150 films of Kamal, including Dasavatharam, when they travelled from Tamil to Telugu. His voice bond with Kamal was one for the ages, with people often getting confused as to who was speaking.

SPB, the singer, took over every other talent of his, one of which was acting. A film that brought together the actor, the singer and the expression king in one scene is Manadhil Urudhi Vendum (1987). He plays a doctor who has to kick off a smoking habit. He fondly looks at a cigarette, absorbs its scent with intensity and a smile, and then sings a ‘mangalam’, usually sung at the conclusion of a classical Carnatic concert, to signify the end of a relationship. Luckily, for us, he never sang a mangalam for his bond with his listeners.

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