Archive for August, 2008

Bollywood producer-director Ram Gopal Verma had challenged the viewers to watch his latest horror movie Phoonk all alone. An Indian filmgoer, Pavin Ponanna, 30, booked all 227 seats of a Banglore multiplex to watch the movie alone.

Disproving director’s claim, he declared, "I never felt scared, not even for a moment. I took just ten minutes to settle down."

Phoonk is the story of a happy family that was beset by evil forces of black magic all of a sudden. Ponanna is an advertising professional and he visited a temple strengthening his faith to experience the challenge. He also arranged for a doctor to be present in the multiplex for any emergency.  However, the tickets of the multiplex for an evening show cost him Rs 47,000 ($1,000).
 

It seems that Bollywood producers either are being hyper-experimental or lack the fresh ideas to make new films. That is why, the remake versions of Bollywood’s old classical movies made by director Shakti Samanta are being imitated by Pritish Nandy Communication. The PNC is about to make the trendy animation versions of Shakti Samanta‘s classics Howrah Bridge, Amar Prem, and Barsaat Ki Ek Raat.

By announcing about the venture, Pritish Nandi says, "This is my homage to one of the most underrated filmmakers of the country. When I met Mr. Samanta, he was so pleased to know his films would reach out to a new generation. Howrah Bridge is one of my favourite noire films. The magic of Sachin Dev Burman‘s music, the chemistry between Ashok Kumar and Madhubala and the seductive charm of Ashok Kumar’s baritone…all that I want to capture in animation form."

When Pritish was asked about the reason for choosing this particular segment leaving other classics made by Samanta such as Aradhana, Amanush, and Kati Patang, he uttered with ease, "I’ve chosen Howrah Bridge, Amar Prem and Barsaat Ki Ek Raat because they not only represent three phases in Shakti Samanta’s career but also three generations of superstars Ashok Kumar, Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan. Barsaat…is not one of Mr Bachchan’s better known films. So there’s an added excitement there of introducing a neglected AB film through animation."

Talking about the music aspect, Pritish told that though there is original music from these films but some of the originals will be remixed side by side. So, in a nutshell the movies are being copied in altered version of animations. The Bollywood directors have gone crazy to remake the original movies, although. This time it is in different form of animations.

Is there a scarcity of original ideas in the industry? Or, tempering with the old hits satisfies the envy of today’s film makers?

"What we’re doing is something different. We also have an animation version of Sholay", says Mr Nandy. Is it really so? How can you be different when you are copying the original story even though in a completely different form of multimedia – animation? Or, Mr. Nandy, do you consider this to be an experiment just to serve your ego? Anyways, it will be interesting to watch if how does Mr. Nandy  convert the dull background and action-free cinematography of the selected movies into funny and colorful animation.
 

This is hardly a week past the apple’s 3G iPhone launch in India and the market shows a poor response to this highly demanded gadget in west. The much hyped launch of the gadget could not convert the viewers into buyers. There are certain reasons for such a flop show of the much awaited instrument. Let’s take a look at the reasons which affected the sale of Apple’s 3G iPhone in India.

Unreasonably High Price

The most adverse feature of iPhone is that the company has priced the instrument at whopping amout of 31,000 rupees (712 dollars) at its 8 GB set, whereas the 16 GB version is available for Rs 36,100. The same phone with AT&T connection costs only $199 in USA for the base model. So, how does the company expect crowded queues for grabbing this gadget in India?

Video Recording Option Unavailable

The revolutionary iPhone does not provide the video recording option, which is one of the essential and favorite features to be included in mobile phones meant for Indian customers. The iPhone has a camera but not a video recording feature.

Locked Network

The iPhone is being sold by Airtel and Vodaphone with a locked Network. That means that the consumer has to stick to the very network provider and is not free to switchover to other mobile networks. But, consumer wants to have the freedom of switchover to other networks also.

Lack Of Bluetooth File Transfer

Bluetooth file transfers are very popular means of sharing files and images among the Indian youth. However, iPhone doesn’t let the user share the files over Bluetooth. It has a Bluetooth but that is only to be paired with a Bluetooth Headset.

Touchscreen Phones Not Popular In India

The touchscreen-only phones are not acceptable to Indians. India is a country where the SMSing is very popular so the users prefer the phones with additional keypad.

Texting/SMS Is The Hottest Mobile Feature In India

SMS is the most popular feature of the mobile sets in India. The SMSing is not comfortable with iPhone because it has only touchscreen option. It is rather more comfortable to use cheapest of the models with keypad to type SMS.

Value Added Services Are Not Popular In India

In the western countries, consumers burn money for value added services. But here in India people do spend money on mobiles but mainly on calling and sending messages.

So, with so many of limitations, how can anybody expect an iPhone to hit the Indian markets. So, there are required some basic changes in the iPhone, to suit the Indian customers. If changes not made, the competitive brands are already there to match the consumers demand.
 

Generally people believe that it is important to study hard to become a rich person. But, here we show you the people who were college and school dropouts, but became billionaires. Still good education is always a positive factor for being successful. There are millions of other dropouts who never became rich and only few of them became billionaire.

So, the fact behind success of these few dropouts is the combination of qualities they had. These special qualities include vision, determination, hard work, positive attitude, business sense, leadership and motivational skills. These traits are more important than having college degrees.

These are some of the winners who dropped their education but yet became billionaires.

Dhirubhai Ambani Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani (1932-2002) was born to a school teacher. He dropped the school and went to Aden to work and earn. There he worked as a gas-station attendant and then a clerk in an oil company. After serving there for 10 years, he returned to India and started a small business with small capital. By the time he died, he had established his company – Reliance Industries Ltd, a large business empire. Dhirubhai added a new chapter in the history of Indian stock market by bringing thousands of investors to the stock market. During the process, he had become one of the world’s richest persons. His sons, Mukesh and Anil now stand among the top 10 richest persons of the world.

Bill Gates William H Gates III ( October 28, 1955-), son of William H Gates II, Seattle attorney grew up in Seattle with his two sisters. The world’s richest man for long, until upstaged by the legendary investor Warren Buffett recently, is a computer whiz kid, entrepreneur, compassionate capitalist, top manager and so on. Bill started programming computers at a small age of 13. He entered Harvard University as a freshman in 1973, where he developed a version of the programming language BASIC for the first microcomputer  – the MITS Affair. Gates left Harvard to devote his qualities to Microsoft, the company which he founded in 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen. He stepped down as chief executive officer of Microsoft in January 2000. Then he also left the Microsoft in June 27, 2008. Now he remains as a part-time, non-executive chairman of the company. Today Bill Gates is one of the richest persons in world.

Gautam Adani Gautam Adani (1962-) owns one of India’s largest export and trading huses. He is the chirman of Adani Group and is one of the richest Indians with an estimated wealth of $6.7 billion. He is a college drop out at the age of 18 years and went to Mumbai to work in a diamond store. Later, he stepped up into his own business of diamonds. The Adani Group was established in 1988 in partnership with a meager capital of Rs 500,000. And, Adani Enterprises Ltd. is one of the fastest growing enterprises now. Today, Gautam Adani also owns two private jets.

Subhash Chandra Subhash Chandra is one of the richest persons in India. The founder of Zee TV and the Essel Group, dropped out of the school at an age of 12. He started his own vegetable oil and rice trading when he was just 19 years old. In October 1992, Subhash launched Zee Telefilms to supply content to Zee TV  – India;’s first Hindi Satellite Television Channel. He also came out with amusement park, Esselworld, laminted tubes (Essel Tubes) and set up world class facilities that prepared quality products at reasonable prices. He owns the wealth worth around $2.3 billion.

Li Ka-shing Li Ka-shing, one of the richest persons in Asia, has a net worth estimated at $18.8 billion. The Chairman of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings was only 12 when his family had to flee from China during the Japanese invasion in the country. His father passed away when he was only 15. Then, he had to drop out of school to support his family after the demise of his father in Hongkong. He took to work on his uncle’s shop selling watches. Soon, he established his own plastic manufacturing unit making high quality plastic flowers. Then, he also started real estate development, retail, power, electronics, telecommunication and ports.

Carl Icahn Carl Icahn, a billionaire financier with an estimated net worth of $ 1.4 billion left before completing graduation at New York University, School of Medicine. It remained good for Icahn not becoming a doctor. He is an activist investor leading a shareholder revolt at Yahoo and wants to sell out Yahoo to Microsoft.

Roman Abramovich Roman Abramovich started doing business in late 1980s when the economic reforms started taking place in Russia. Today, he is best known for owning the United Kingdom’s Chelsea Football Club. He has invested nearly $500 million into Chelsea Football Club since the year 2003, when he bought it. It turned the fortune of the London team in just 2 years. Abramovich also owns a private investment company Millhouse Capital. The net worth of his wealth comes around to $23.5 billion.

Ralph Lauren Ralph Lauren was so much enamoured of fashion that he used to work after his school to make money to buy suits. He got admission in the City College of New York to study business but dropped out. He even joined army for sometime and then he got job with Brooks Brother as a salesman. Then, he started a necktie business under the brand name ‘Polo’ in 1967. Very soon he became popular worldwide as a fashion designer and an impressive businessman. His wealth is estimated at around $3.8 billion.

David Geffen David Geffen, dropped out from the University of Texas in Austin. He started his career with working in the mailroom in a talent agency. His company signed on the popular artists such as Bob Dylan, The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt and Jackson Browne at the age of 28 in the year 1971. Then his company merged with Elektra Records in 1972. He is the founder of Geffen Records and Dreamworks SKG. In 1975, he became the vice chairman of Warner Brothers. He established Geffen Records in 1980. His wealth is estimated at $4.4 billion.

Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (1955-) was born in the United States to an  unknown Egyptian-Arab father. He was adopted soon after his birth. He dropped out of Reed College after one semester. When Steve was 21, he founded Apple Computer Co. in partnership with 26 years old Steve Wozniak. Steve is credited with revolutionizing the concept of home computers. The company introduced Macintosh in 1984. Also, Steve had a big role in building the World Wide Web. Steve is former CEO of Pixar Animation Studios. Apple is one of the most impressive company with rovolutionary brands like iPod and iPhone. Jobs got a listing in the Guinness Book of world records as ‘Lowest Paid CEO’ for working at an annual salary of $1. Though, he was gifted a $90 million jet by the company. Steve’s net worth stands at more than $5.4 billion.

Larry Ellison Lawrence Joseph Ellison (1944-) founded his company in 1977 with a meager amount of $2,000. He is the co-founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation. Ellison is a school dropout, who is one of the richest people in America today. He worked for the Ampex Corporation, where he worked for the project meant for CIA. He named it Oracle. Later, he had to reuse the name ‘Oracle’ for his company. His wealth is estimated at around $25 billion.

Andrew Carnegie The famous Industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) was the steel tycoon. His story of being rich is also one of the most famous among the Americans. He is a school dropout who worked as a bobbin boy in a textile mill at the age of 13 years. He is also famous for his donations of over $350 million to raise public education.

How vulnerable is India’s situation in Olympics? Where the countries like Jamaica with population as little as 28 lacs has won as much as 6 Golds, the more developed India with a total population of more than 12,000 lacs could obtain only 1 Gold medal in the Beijing Olympics. What a shame!

Who is to be accountable for such a poor performance at an international event? The one billion people! the concerned Ministry! or the Prime Minister of the nation! It seems that the leadership of the country is more concerned with retaining power than patronizing such ventures, hence the result is Olympics.

Who is your Ideal? You ask the question to a child or a youngster, the answer of  the most of Indians would be almost similar, a Bollywood Star, a Cricket Player or some big shot businessman. There is lack of ideal role models in India in fields like sports, politics, education, science and arts. And, that is evident from the Olympics Medal Tally every four years.

So, how can we blame the authorities? Yes, they are responsible for the diminishing moral values and strength of an average Indian. Only providing the world-class infrastructure and facilities will not solve the purpose, though all this is not yet available to an average Indian. There has to be someone, who can inspire and motivate the people of nation collectively, resulting into best performance by everyone, in every field.

Chinese are well motivated and hence they are at the top of not only the Olympics medal tally but in other fields also. Today, China is leading on every front say economic growth rate, business, manufacturing and exports, infrastructure development, arts, science as well as sports. Should we not learn from China?

How can Indians be contended with small achievements, when the rest of the world is progressing and leaving us behind?

No more than a week has passed when hot and sexy Mallika Sherawat was boasting that she is much sexier and hotter than the real ‘Anarkali‘. She is playing ‘Anarkali’ in yet to be released movie, Maan Gaye Mughall-e-Azam. Coincidently, Mallika was visited by a beautiful ghost of another ‘Anarkali’ of past – legendary actress Madhubala, who  played ‘Anarkali’ in the classical old film Mughal-e-Azam.

The Maan Gaye Mughall-e-Azam crew describes the incident surprisingly. As per the crew, Mallika suddenly ran out of her vanity van looking dazed. When she was asked for her bewildered situation, she revealed that she had just experienced the vision of yesteryears’ actress Madhubala in the van.

One of the unit member said, "Mallika was too stunned to react. She told us that she saw a ghost of Madhubala. It may sound unbelievable but this happened and there was no logic behind it. It could be Mallika’s imagination too because she imagined herself as Madhubala while shooting the spoof of song &border=0&rel=0&egm=0&color1=0x666666&color2=0xefefef' />

Dear Mallika, How do you find the joke? It was the ‘Anarkali’ of only a past movie, that scared you so much. Imagine! if the ghost of original ‘Anarkali’ comes across you to determine the sexiest lady between both of you, as claimed by you. What would be your situation?
 

The item girl-turned-actress Sherlyn Chopra seems to be under pressure to repay her loans. That is the reason why she is not even hesitating to compare herself with Mallika Sherawat. The actress revealed, "I am in debt. I have taken personal loans from banks, which is nearly five to six lakhs. I have to pay them back. I don’t have any money right know. So I am pinning all my hopes on my Bollywood career. I know how to reach the top and once I do it I will pay back all my debts.”

How would she achieve her target? would she resort to exposing or wait until performance-oriented roles knock at her door? She answered quiet comfortably, "I think, I am an entertainer and I don’t have any qualms about exposing. But, I need to maintain a balance between performance-oriented roles and the glamorous ones."

And when she was asked, if she is also going to walk on Mallika’s footprints she said confidently, "Comparing me with Mallika is like restraining my sex appeal. I am much more sexier than her. I think, her appearances are not bold enough and I can be far bolder than her. I target to be among the top actresses of the film industry in the coming years."

Hey you bold Sherlyn! on one side you don’t like to be compared with Mallika, and on other you claim to be much sexier and bolder than Mallika. Don’t you know, there have been many aspirers even earlier who portrayed the bold image to settle down in Bollywood. Where these girls are today? Perhaps, no one knows!
 

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Deepika would have definitely regretted her decision of dumping Yuvi as he portrayed amazing chemistry with Bips. Admiring Yuvraj, Bips accepted, "It was fun and Yuvi is a bundle of energy. It feels great working with him." Even the spokesman of Reebok mentioned that there was great chemistry between the actress and cricketer during the shoot.

"The chemistry between the duo is evident. And the combination looks classy not just in this ad campaign, but for the other sub-brands too. We will have the classic, rugby looks among others that will be revealed," he added further.

Though, it was John Abraham who was the first choice of the company for the campaign, since John and Bipasha are known for endorsing brands as a couple. But John cannot endorse Reebok as he is already associated with competitor Wrangler. Then, company opted a ‘Desi’ sports celeb. Hence, the criceket heartthrob Yuvraj Singh was roped in by the company for the advertisement.

Moreover, Yuvraj also seems to be quite impressed by hot and stylish Bips. He said, "It was great shooting with her. She made me very comfortable. She is very fun loving and nice to talk to."

So Bipasha ji, it looks like as if you are keenly distracting everybody, whosoever has any connection with Deepika. Is it your chosen way of taking revenge?

Finally, Apple’s 3G iPhone is all set to be launched in India on Friday, August 22. The phone is being launched in India barely after a month of its global launch. India is one of the only three countries to have multiple operators – Airtel and Vodafone. Other two countries are Australia and Italy.

The advanced iphone 3G with fast 3G wireless technology, GPS, support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, and the new App Store is the latest innovation of the most advanced phones. The iPhone 3G is going to present remarkable features in your hands as it combines three different products in one handset – an innovative phone, a widescreen iPod and an advanced internet device.

The phone delivers an incredibly fast speed of internet while you are on a run, though the 3G technology is yet to be launched in India. You can surf the web even during talking over the cellphone. The handset delivers push email, calendar and contacts readily available in your palm. While traveling in strange terrains, you can use the the iPhone to explore the geographical maps and locate your position. Doesn’t that make your travel more convenient and interesting? The App Store offers you an easy access to browse applications and you can even download them directly to your iPhone, some of them are entirely free.
 

  
You have new mobile features redefined in iPhone. Tap a number to make a call or hear the voicemail in any order with visual voicemails. It has rich HTML, email, Mapping with GPS and Safari – the most advanced browser ever on a mobile device.

So, have the pleasure of latest technology to act smarter while on the move.
 

Jade Goody, the celebrity of Big Brother fame and guest from United Kingdom exits from the Indian reality show Bigg Boss Season 2 on channel Colors. Her stay in the show got cut short after she was diagnosed with cervical cancer.

The organizers of the show revealed that Goody had gone for a test just before leaving UK. Now, she was informed by her doctor of the results over the phone. The call was aired with Goody in tears when she heard of the diagnosis.

The chief executive officer of the show, Rajesh Kamat said, "It is indeed an unfortunate development and we extend our full support to Jade in this difficult hour. She is a strong-willed woman who has emerged victorious from many battles. We sincerely hope she wins this time as well."

Shilpa Shetty, the host of Big Brother also expressed her support to Jade with whom she had an encounter in British show Bigg Brother for ‘racist abuse’ by Goody. Shetty said, "Life is so unpredictable and can so easily distract and derail you from your plans."

However, some people smell something more than the reason explained for Goody’s exit from the show. It was pointed out that the international format of reality show clearly states that every participant is required to undergo a medical and psychological test before signing the contract.

Amidst the doubts and fears, every Bigg Boss viewer including her inmates for a short duration, seem to be praying for Jade. In fact, it would be great to see her returning to the show once she recovers from this health problem.

The official contestants of bigg boss season 2

Raja Chaudhary(shweta tiwari’s husband(tv actress))
Zulfi Syed(model cum newbie movie star)
Ketaki Dave(comedian)
Rakhee
Monica Bedi (who can forget her- remember abu salem? )
Rahul Mahajan (BJP leader Pramod mahajan’s son)(official guide?)
Sambhavana Seth (tv actress)
Eshaan Kureshi (tv comedian)
Aliena Wadia (unknown ? )
Payal Rohati (movie star)
Debojit (reality tv singer/winner)
Ashutosh Kaushik (mtv roadies/dhaba owner )
Sanjay Nirupam (politician)
Not yet announced (to replace Jade Goody)