| Why is Baba Ramdev, the yogi who is a self- proclaimed follower of Mahatma Gandhi, all set to launch a political party? Sonia Sarkar meets him to seek some answers | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The sprawling 45-acre campus near Roorkee has a different hum these days. On the face of it, it looks just the same — the 10,000-odd daily visitors who go to the scenic ashram continue to line up for Baba Ramdev's yogic and ayurvedic solutions to their many problems. But there's a quiet buzz on the campus. Meetings are being held and strategies planned. And it's not just the state of the body that the yoga guru is worried about. What's keeping Ramdev busy is the state of the nation. The next general election is four years away. But preparations are already afoot at Patanjali Yogpeeth, as the ashram is called, for the race to Parliament. Ramdev, who recently announced that he would float a political party, has been holding closed-door meetings with rich donors from Britain, the United States and Canada on the strategy of his yet-to-be-named outfit. In daily sessions with his devotees — ranging from doctors and lawyers to teachers and homemakers —Ramdev has been urging them to take up honest politics. And ashram insiders hold that billions of rupees are being donated by his followers to set his political ball rolling. "The stage is all set," says Ramdev. "Mere pass vote bhi hain, aur note bhi (I have both votes and notes). Each one of my followers has been donating sums ranging from Rs 11 to Rs 1,100 for this political party. Some are even contributing more. What else do you need to enter politics," says the confident 57-year-old Hindu ascetic seated on a sofa with his legs folded under him. Some years ago, Ramdev — who grew up in Haryana as Ramkishan Yadav — was just one of the thousands of saffron-robed preachers in India. A popular television programme — in which he advocates the benefits of yoga with practical demonstrations — changed all that. Overnight, the Baba — who said he had remedies for everything from obesity and falling hair to cancer and Alzheimer's — had become a household name in India. Ramdev, who runs a multi-crore industry that produces medicines made with natural ingredients, is now looking beyond his empire. And he is convinced that his party will turn the country around. Ramdev says he will field candidates for all 543 Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 election, though he himself will not be in the fray. True saints don't crave power and money, he stresses. The idea, clearly, has been gestating within him for long. "Anyone who has followed me for the past 15 years knows that I always intended to cleanse the existing corrupt political system," he says. He has his numbers all worked out. The swami's 300 lakh disciples worldwide, he says, will be his support base. He expects the participation of some 10 lakh people who have registered themselves as members of the trusts he runs. And two lakh devotees have already been trained to take an active part in the political campaigning. Not everybody is convinced that the arithmetic will add up. Politicians are downright sceptical of his campaign. "He can daydream about his success but he should not mistake his huge fan following for yoga as his vote base," says Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Prakash Javdekar. Communist Party of India (Marxist) central committee member Nilotpal Basu is more cynical. "I wonder why someone like Ramdev who claims to be a saint has plans to join politics," he says. Basu fears that he may "use" religious sentiments to garner votes. "We have seen in the past that these godmen take an interest in politics for all the wrong reasons. Nothing can convince me that Ramdev will be an exception." Ramdev is not greatly bothered about the criticism that his announcement has evoked. Earlier this month, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad — a former follower— derided Ramdev's political ambitions, saying that he had gone "berserk". Ramdev, who taught Prasad yoga to help him cure his high blood pressure and blood sugar problems, says the remarks don't trouble him. "I don't need a character certificate from him, nor do I need any advice on whether to join politics or not," he says. It will be a while before his manifesto is written, but some subjects are clearly very close to Ramdev's heart. Let the liberals baulk at the death sentence — Ramdev has no qualms about executing wrong-doers. "For both corruption and crime, there will be just one punishment — death," he pronounces. "Lawyers and judges who are members of my political party are also convinced that the age old Indian Penal Code needs to be replaced by more strict laws for eradicating all evils from this country," says the self-proclaimed follower of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel. His other priority is to turn India into a wealthy nation. He wants to bring Indian black money stashed away in Swiss accounts back to India. "We will recall all currency in circulation and issue a new one — all unaccounted for money should be brought back to the country." While his political campaign is expected to evolve over the coming months, Ramdev has already started talking like a seasoned politician. The one getting the brunt of his attack now is Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. "He is the representative of a particular person and not of the people at large," he says. His prime minister, he claims, will be different. "My candidate would be someone who is honest, hard working and above all, brave." Ramdev has some harsh words for the Congress too. "If the Congress takes the credit for whatever little development that we see in the country today, it should also take responsibility for the increasing poverty, illiteracy and poor health conditions that reflect the lives of 80 per cent of the people," he says. The Congress in turn is equally scathing about Ramdev's political advent. "He should know that politics is a far more serious and difficult game than practising yoga," says Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari. The swami, it seems, will have no dearth of money for his campaigns. Apart from his devotees' donations, his own empire has not been doing too badly. His three charitable trusts — Divya Yog Mandir, Patanjali Yogpeeth and Bharat Swabhimaan — which provide medicinal and ayurvedic health care through services and products have an annual turnover of Rs 170 crore. Ramdev has also acquired a 750-acre island off Scotland and 99 acres of land in Houston in the United States. The first, he says, is a gift from a Scottish couple of Indian origin, and the second has been presented to him by his American trustees. His supporters believe that it's not money, but Ramdev's ideas that will usher in a new political climate. But Tiwari would like to voice a word of caution. "He should know that politics offers both bouquets and brickbats. When he gets the latter, he should not take refuge in the name of a saint," he says. But right now it's bouquet time for Ramdev. He has four years to go before he starts feeling the thorns. | Sleeping with the enemy Their parties may not see eye to eye, but a new generation of political leaders is cutting across party lines to work on important socio-economic issues. Radhika Ramaseshan on the rise of Indian Parliament's bonhomie brigade | |
It was a quintet that seemed to have little in common. Wharton-minted Sachin Pilot was from the Congress, and Supriya Sule, heir apparent to Sharad Pawar, from the Nationalist Congress Party. Baijayant "Jay" Panda, born into a business family and armed with a double degree from Michigan Technological University, belonged to the Biju Janata Dal, while Congressman Madhu Goud Yaskhi was a lawyer who divided his time between the United States and Andhra Pradesh. Then there was Shahnawaz Hussain — not quite as "cosmopolitan" as the rest, but he had an engineering diploma from Bihar's Supaul and Delhi's ITI. And he was from the Bharatiya Janata Party. What connected the group was a report that they pored over in the Central Hall of Parliament. It said that a little under half of India's population was poorly nourished. "This was an issue that transcended party lines. We thought that if we had the will and dedication, we could work on it and interface directly with civil society," says Panda, 45. There's a new buzz in Parliament these days — and that's multi-partisanship, or simply working together. Some issues — at least to a clutch of members of Parliament (MPs) — are bigger than party affiliations. "Every party has good MPs who will rise above its confines and address serious issues," says Hussain. The change is palpable to the 41-year-old parliamentarian, whose entry into politics was through the BJP in the choppy Babri mosque-Ram Janmabhoomi era. By his admission, the political establishment has rarely been as sharply divided as it was then. And he has seen bipolar politics since 1999, when he marked his debut in Parliament. But it was his return to the Lok Sabha in a by-election in 2006 (he lost his seat, Kishenganj, in 2004) that unlocked a whole new world for him. In the seven years that passed, Parliament looked transformed. The 14th Lok Sabha had a record number of young MPs — constituting about 10 per cent of the total. "They were not apolitical. But remarkably, they engaged on national matters with their peers across parties without carrying any baggage," Hussain says. One of the outcomes of that was the group that was set up to campaign against malnutrition. This was Parliament's first informal cross-party initiative. Part activist and part supervisory, it gave the MPs space to take slightly unconventional positions on issues without flouting party lines. The core group of five has since drawn more than 20 MPs, mostly in their 30s and 40s. "We laid the ground rules. We will not allow party politics to interfere with our working. At the same time we will be an effective pressure group," says Yaskhi. More and more young MPs are hoping to sit together to thrash out issues that confront the nation. Congress MP Milind Deora is going to head a body set up by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry on global warming. The group is still taking shape and Deora plans to include members from across parties. The multi-partisanship approach is evident in the field trips that the malnutrition group undertakes every three months to the states. The unwritten rule is that nobody should embarrass the government of the day. "The idea is to co-operate. In Bihar, (chief minister) Nitish Kumar asked his officials to give us a detailed presentation. He helped us every which way," says Panda. When press conferences are called, they are anchored by a member who does not belong to the party ruling that state. For instance, in Bihar Panda took the floor while in Maharashtra Sule took a back seat. Though Parliament has always had a few members who've nurtured friends across parties, the trend is on the rise now. Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav — from the Congress and the Samajwadi Party respectively — can be spotted texting each other in Parliament. The camaraderie is not just restricted to professional issues. On the personal side too, many of the MPs maintain friendly ties, despite their warring parties. Last month, when BJP MP Tathaghat Satpathy hosted a party, outfitted with a bar, a band and fusion food, Milind Deora held the guests in thrall with his guitar riffs. Sule and Kanimozhi of the Dravida Munetra Kazhagam are inseparables. Anurag Thakur, the 36-year-old BJP MP from Hamirpur, jettisoned the partisan politics he knew while growing up as Himachal Pradesh chief minister Prem Dhumal's son to embrace friends from across the board. Thakur is now planning a treat for Mohammed Azharuddin (Congress), Kalikesh Singh Deo (BJD), Kirti Azad (BJP), Jayant Choudhury (Rashtriya Lok Dal) and others in Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh shortly when he hosts the first MPs XI versus Media XI match outside New Delhi. So enthralled is Thakur with the social world he has entered that he skipped the first day of the BJP's national council meet in Indore in March to attend his buddy Congress minister Jitin Prasada's marriage. But despite the blossoming friendships, it's not always easy to keep politics out. When the malnutrition group visited Jhambukhandan village in Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh earlier this week, Neeraj Shekhar, a 42-year-old Samajwadi Party MP, took gentle digs at Yaskhi. They were talking to villagers, sitting on charpoys, when a wizened old man began to hold forth on the Socialist leaders of yore, Ram Manohar Lohia and Baleshwar Dayal, saying that the villagers owed everything they had — from education to health — to them. Shekhar, son of former Prime Minister Chandra Shekar, smiled and nudged Yaskhi to say, "See, 45 years later, people talk about Lohia and not your Sonia Gandhi." Yaskhi feigned deafness as the duo dipped their chapatis into the daal to sample the food that was served to village children as a mid-day meal. The cross-party verdict was the food was "wholesome". For many of the young MPs, the exercise is also opening up aspects of India that are often curtained off for visiting VIPs. When the team reached the next stop at Sangesri in Rajasthan, Jyoti Mirdha of the Congress baulked when she walked into a childcare centre that had been spruced up for the visitors but had little else to show. There was no hot meal; instead packaged multi-grain powder was spooned sparingly into a bowl of water to serve up a tasteless congealed mess to a room full of bawling kids with distended bellies, yellow skins and gnarled limbs. Mirdha, 34, the granddaughter of Rajasthan's Jat icon Nathu Ram Mirdha, believes that issues such as malnutrition have to be looked at in the context of development. For her, nutrition is not just about food but about water. "Food security makes no sense without water security," she holds. And that's where the environment comes in. "We think of economics in numbers. But the poor will not separate ecology from economics," she says. "When an entrepreneur sets up a unit, the environmental costs are not factored in because the environment comes for free and, therefore, is up for abuse. It's time to quantitatively evaluate the environment because we have to return to Nature what we take from her. The planet's total gross domestic product (GDP) is equal to the services provided by Nature," she says. One of the reasons the MPs can work together is the fact that the issues they take up are universal. It will be difficult for the young MPs, for instance, to form groups on issues such as Maoism, economic reforms or communalism. But on global warming, malnutrition and other such subjects on which there is unanimity that something has to be done, it is easier for them to work together. The question, however, is how far these MPs can take their work. In the final analysis, will their efforts merely translate into finely crafted reports? The MPs don't think so. "We met the Prime Minister, the Opposition leader and Sonia Gandhi. The Prime Minister has a six-month review meeting with states on terrorism. We demanded a similar one on malnutrition. We suggested an awards system to make district collectors accountable," says Panda. For Shekhar, who represents his father's political fief Ballia in Uttar Pradesh, the spin-off from the nutrition project is the "hope and belief" that if it is replicated in his home state, "something positive" will happen to its political culture. "I grew up seeing every party leader in my house because my father had several friends. Now politics in Uttar Pradesh is so vitiated that a Samajwadi MP or MLA will get no work done from the Mayawati government. I will suggest that there be multi- partisanship at least on development," he says. Politics or not, most of the young heirs and heiresses believe they are rewriting the rules of engagement in Parliament and outside without allowing ghosts from the past to haunt their relationships. Sule, whose father racheted up a campaign to deny Sonia leadership of the Congress because of her "foreign origin", wants to bury the past. "It's all so lovely, let's keep it lovely and not let past shadows darken it," she says. From across the parties, several young voices would say Amen. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100411/jsp/7days/story_12326451.jsp | The new F-word Ayesha Siddiqui thinks Shoaib Malik dumped her because she is fat. That may or may not be true but size definitely matters, finds Smitha Verma | |
Ayesha Siddiqui must be having the last laugh now. Cricketer Shoaib Malik's newly divorced wife — whom the Siddiquis said he dumped because she was fat —should be feeling vindicated. For fat or not, she has won this little battle against the Pakistani player, and his would-be Indian bride, Sania Mirza. Delhi-based homemaker Meenu Varma empathises with Siddiqui. A pretty face, she was always chided by her friends and family for being overweight. Varma received numerous marriage proposals, but with a rider to lose weight. "I felt like an outcast," says Varma, who eventually had to lose 25kg before she could tie the knot. Even now, her weight is not behind her. "I constantly worry that my husband would lose interest if I pile on any more kilos," she says. Fat is the new F-word in the world today. All around, a campaign is building up against those who are seen to be overweight. Fat people say they are discriminated against in all spheres of life. A recent survey says that they are not spared even at the workplace. A management graduate from a reputed institute in Delhi knows that well. Her weight came in the way whenever she went for a job interview. "I would wonder how my good grades and aptitude could fail me every time," says the 37-year-old Los Angeles-based motivational speaker. After numerous interviews and subsequent denials, she was shown the mirror by a friend. Having led her teen years in denial, "fat" sounded like an abuse to her. "I felt the wind being knocked out of my lungs," she says. So she put herself through a rigorous regimen to bring down her weight from 97 kilos to the 56 that she now weighs. Numerous surveys by slimming institutes, airlines and social networking sites stand testimony to the growing seclusion of obese people. In a recent poll conducted by Skyscanner, a flight booking portal, more than 75 per cent of people voted in favour of a "fat tax" for obese passengers. Some airlines already charge excess weight fees for overweight fliers. At the workplace too, overweight employees say they are victimised. A recent poll conducted in London of 2,000 people, including 200 recruiters, endorses that. A quarter of the respondents in the survey said they would turn down candidates purely because of their weight and one in 10 admitted they had already done so. Overweight people lose out in the workplace because employers assume they will be lazy, the study revealed. Of course, not everybody is willing to accept that the fat get the flak. "If there are two prospective candidates with equal talent, the decision will be based on the personal aptitude of the individual and not on weight," says Abhay Dange, general manager, press and corporate affairs, BMW India. Supriya Dhanda, a senior HR professional at a leading telecom company, adds, "Weight could be on our mind only from the perspective of health concern for an employee." But people who are overweight have a different story to relate. Usha Singh, a marketing professional from Mumbai, says, "I was rarely asked to make a client presentation or given important accounts to handle," says Singh, who later quit the firm to join her family business. According to international guidelines, if your body mass index (BMI) — the ratio of your weight in kilograms to your height in metres squared — is between 25 and 30, you are overweight, and obese if it's more than that. However, the Indian health ministry's guidelines — revised in 2008 — say that any adolescent or adult with a BMI of 23-25 is considered overweight. Sandeep Sachdev, winner of reality TV show Biggest Loser Jeetega, has his own story to tell. The show in 2007 put participants on a strict diet and exercise regimen for four months and the winner was determined on the basis of the maximum weight lost. Sachdev, who initially weighed 125kg, lost 30 kilos on the show. "It was important for me to lose weight as I wanted to join the entertainment industry," says the aspiring actor who is at present a celebrity trainer with Fitness First, a chain of gymnasiums, in Mumbai. According to a survey by a weight loss clinic, nearly one in two people confessed to leaving out pictures from their "fat days" on social networking sites. And what's surprising is that fat is such a subjective term that the threat of putting on weight can give nightmares to those with sculpted bodies as well. Filmstars such as Bipasha Basu and Vidya Balan have not been spared either. Basu, who felt outraged when a newspaper described her as "fat", went on with a vengeance to lose weight and launched her own series of fitness DVDs last month. The reason, says psychiatrist Sanjay Chugh, is society's growing dependence on looks. "Our society mirrors trends in the West with a latent period of five years," says Chugh, who has counselled many overweight people on the verge of depression. "Rejection is the biggest fear of an overweight person," he says. And rejection can come from discrimination at the workplace or relationship imbalances, he adds. According to clinical nutritionist Ishi Khosla, fat reflects a person's poor health choices. "People consider you a social outcast if you are fat," says the director of Whole Foods, a retailer of natural and organic foods. And excess kilos — along with the trauma of being overweight — can lead to psychological problems. Khosla says she often meets young men and women who "need psychological counselling more than a diet chart". The increasing significance of weight has led to the growth of the fitness industry, estimated at worth around Rs 2,900 crore with an annual growth rate of 15 per cent. "It's not just about weight loss," says Vandana Luthra of the weight loss chain VLCC. "There is a lot of psychological turmoil that an obese person goes through ranging from shame, frustration, guilt to low self esteem, lack of confidence, victimisation and hopelessness," says Luthra. The growing rejection faced by overweight people in matrimonial alliances led Aditi Gupta and Megha Singhal in October 2008 to start a marriage portal called overweightshaadi.com. The portal so far has over 2,000 members and new members are added every day. "In the regular matrimonial sites fat people are rarely given a second look. At least on my site, people will come with an open mind," says Aditi Gupta. The website's services have led to a dozen weddings, and many more are in the pipeline. "The popularity of the website should show how fat people are treated in society," says Gupta. Indeed, fat is the new outcast. As Shoaib and Sania tie the knot, Ayesha Siddiqui would feel that more than ever before. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100411/jsp/7days/story_12326498.jsp
| New kids on the block The next generation of star children is moving into the limelight, says Sushmita Biswas | |
Luv Sinha, the 26-year-old son of veteran actor Shatrughan Sinha was, until a few years ago, just another star son who'd occasionally be spotted with his father on film sets or accompanying him to award ceremonies. Now, after the release of his debut film Sadiyaan, an Indo-Pak love story set during the Partition, he's already learning how to keep his fans happy and to sign autographs with a flourish. "Being the son of such a successful father obviously means there's a huge amount of expectation. But I am just going with the flow and my priority is to establish myself as an actor," he says with just the right mix of confidence and modesty. It's a similar story for Luv's younger sister Sonakshi, 22, who's shooting for her debut film Dabangg produced by Arbaaz Khan. Sonakshi's sizing up for a dream debut because she's playing a lead role in the movie opposite macho star Salman Khan. The young star-in-the-making first came into the limelight as a model for Calcutta-based designer duo Dev and Nil at the Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai last year but now she's aiming to make it big in the movies. "Right now, I am focused on my celluloid career and I want to give my best shot," she says.
Turn the camera on 22-year-old Shraddha Kapoor, the eye-catching daughter of Shakti Kapoor. Though her debut film Teen Patti starring Amitabh Bachchan and Ben Kingsley, didn't do well at the box office, she's already reaching out for bigger celluloid dreams. "I am getting offers from big production houses but I am not on a signing spree," she says. Can any star kid not be bitten by the Bollywood bug? We've seen many generations of Kapoors and two Bachchans amongst others. Most recently Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor kick-started their careers with to-die-for debuts. Now the Nextgen of Bollywood star kids are determinedly making their presence felt in the industry. And the newcomers are not making debuts in tailor-made home productions but in films made by other high-profile directors. Says Luv: "I want to go through the same difficult route taken by scores of other first-time actors and not debut in a home production. My priority is to prove my ability first and establish myself as a credible actor."
It's not just Luv, Sonakshi and Shraddha who are making a fast start in the industry. There are other hopefuls like Narmmadaa Ahuja, the daughter of Govinda who's waiting for her big break. She doesn't mind being called Bollywood's next glam doll and has already added extra alphabets to her name in the hope that they'll bring her luck. Currently, she's scheduled to start working on a romantic comedy the shooting of which will begin around the middle of the year. And though she doesn't want to divulge too many details about her debut film she says: "The film is at a pre-production stage — the final draft of the script is getting ready." But, even for these kids who know their way around the industry, it's a tough world out there. So how do you survive when there are other actors vying for a share of fame, glory and the big bucks? Says Shraddha: "To keep up the hype and the tempo even in your second film is also very important. The fact that one is a star kid will not help in today's industry if you are zero in your acting capabilities." (Shraddha has multiple links in the industry: actress Padmini Kolhapure is her aunt and her mother Shivangi is Lata Mangeshkar's niece). Of course, these children start with plenty of advantages. For one, they know and understand how the industry works. Says Leena Yadav, director of Teen Patti: "Unlike rank newcomers, these kids instinctively know about films because they have grown up in film families. That makes a director's job somewhat simpler. Also today's star kids have a sense of integrity and are willing to slog for hours to give that perfect shot." There's obviously plenty of support from home too. Says Shraddha: "I discuss all my projects with my parents. My father is extremely patient and understanding and advises me to be honest and grounded in order to achieve success." Adds Narmmadaa: "I always look up to my father as my mentor as he's very supportive about my work. Being in the film industry for so long, he knows what is right and wrong and advises me accordingly. He is a protective father and at the same time respects my decisions. Narmmadaa is considering following in the father's footsteps in more ways than one and would like to do comedy. "My father has a great sense of wit and humour and I love all his comedy films. Though I am open to all kinds of cinema, it will be a challenge to do films in the comedy genre," she says.
Similarly, Aditya Narayan, son of singer Udit Narayan chose to make a debut in the recently released horror film Shaapit rather than in a conventional romantic film. He says: "I see myself as an entertainer first so whether it is a horror or a comedy I am game for anything engaging that comes my way." Besides acting, Aditya has sung three songs in Shaapit. Aditya was first spotted by music director Kalyanji when he was a child and started taking music lessons under him. He began his singing career in the film Akele Hum Akele Tum as a child artist. Not long afterwards, he first faced the camera as a child artist in Subhash Ghai's film Pardes. After that he took a long break to complete his studies and in 2007 he took to anchoring the music reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge on Zee TV. He says, "Music comes easily because that's what I knew right from childhood." But he doesn't want to make a career out of playback singing. Instead, his priorities are clear. He confesses that comparisons with his father are bound to arise in the field of playback singing "considering the body of work my father has done and the fact that he is a sheer genius in that field." Therefore, Aditya chose to test different ground and took to acting. The fact is that Bollywood is also changing in many ways and that's helping these youngsters. The new crop of directors is willing to work with new talent and smaller movies cannot always afford the likes of the Khans and the Kapoors. Says director Vikram Bhatt who directed Aditya Narayan in his movie Shaapit: "It is easier to work with new faces than to wait for the availability of established actors. There are some subjects which require bigger names and some which don't." Aditya recalls that both he and his director shared a great rapport while shooting the film. He says: "As a teacher Vikram is fantastic and I am still learning the craft from him. He enacted every scene to us and was patient enough to listen to all our suggestions." For some, the offers are coming in thick and fast. Shraddha says, "Even before my movie Teen Patti released I was flooded with offers. At present, I am still reading scripts and in no hurry to prove myself." And if all goes well, Shraddha will be doing Sanjay Leela Bhansali's next film. On the other hand, Aditya Narayan is already working in Vikram Bhatt's next film and a reality show for television at the end of this year. As for Luv, he is eager to start work on a home production soon.
So, in an industry obsessed with superstars what works for these star kids? "Patience is important but luck too is a factor for success," says Luv. Agrees Aditya: "I don't expect my father to recommend me just because I am his son. I am here to work hard just like any other newcomer and if I have the ability I will succeed." Even if they don't get their parents to put in a good word or two for them, it definitely helps to know everyone who matters in the industry. Luv, for instance, shared screen space with veteran actresses like Rekha and Hema Malini in his debut film. The latter who plays his onscreen mother has fond memories of the younger Luv and adds: "With great parents like Shatrughan and Punam Sinha, he surely has a bright future in this industry." Also, the parents are actively involved in crafting their offspring's strategic moves. Luv and Sonakshi's mother Punam Sinha who's accompanies her daughter to the sets confirms: "We want to create the right buzz before the film's release. At this point of time, as parents we want her to maintain a very low-profile and just work on her strengths as an actor." But nobody — even the most confident star kid — can take things for granted. Though these youngsters grew up in film families, they have all taken proper acting and dancing lessons before taking their first steps in this industry. So while Narmmadaa completed a four-months acting course from the London Film Academy and is currently taking a dance course under Shiamak Davar, Shraddha is a trained Odissi and Kathak dancer and honed her acting skills under acting guru Barry John in Mumbai. And Luv completed his degree in Mass Communication from Webster University in the US and has taken acting lessons from Roshan Taneja in Mumbai. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100411/jsp/graphiti/story_12321266.jsp | The right move Settling down in Mumbai was the beginning of a new dream for television star Sujata Segal | |
The move from Delhi to Mumbai in 2004 was life-changing for me in many ways and has perhaps been the biggest turning point for me so far. I landed in Mumbai with nothing at all in my kitty but today this city has given me a meaningful platform in terms of my profession. One thing has led to another and I have enough on my plate to keep my career on an upswing. Looking back, I actually got my first break in Mumbai with an advertisement for a cough syrup. There was no looking back after this and I bagged a role in the television serial Siddanth, in which I played the role of an activist. Kaisa Ye Pyar Hai is my second serial and in it I am playing the role of a possessive mother. It was director Anurag Kashyap who was responsible for giving my career a spin. He encouraged me to audition for Yuva, my debut film. I was, and still am, nervous about facing the camera despite the fact that my grandmother Zohra Segal is a veteran actress and my mother is a dancer. After Yuva, in which I played the role of Ajay Devgan's elder sister, many other doors opened up for me in the entertainment industry. Movies including Black Friday and Soni Razdan's Nazar followed. They were great experiences. In between my television stint and my first film, I did go through dry spells with little work. Those were frustrating times but in a way they helped me get a better grip on life. Currently, my serial Love Ne Milla Di Jodi is also on air and I hope that other good roles — in films and television — will come my way. (As told to Hoihnu Hauzel) With fame always comes the pressing need to look good both on-screen and off-screen. Therefore, these newcomers are not wasting time because they know that the spotlight is always trained on them. So while Sonakshi is sweating it out in the gym to have a leaner body, Narmmadda is also a fitness freak and is very careful about what she eats. She says: "I am a follower of Iyengar Yoga and my exercise schedule consists of a balance of yoga, free-hand exercises, Pilates and jogging." However, everybody knows that success can be fickle and it definitely isn't guaranteed even to the best known names. Says Narmmadaa: "With so many newcomers in the horizon it is indeed difficult to carve a niche. The trick is not to be carried away by the glam and the gloss and to keep your feet firmly on the ground. I have learnt from my father that one should not rest on one's laurels and it is sheer dedication towards your work that will surely work in your favour." | ||||||||||||||||
| Style princess | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fashion designer Masaba Gupta makes a difference with innovative elements and bold colours in her designs, says Susmita Saha | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Couturier Masaba Gupta is just 21 years old and yes, she still has five months of college left to finish. But the stylish daughter of cricketer Vivian Richards and actress Neena Gupta already has three seasons of fashion week tucked under her pretty belt. Masaba, which means princess in Swahili, broke into the world of couture last year with Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) Spring/Summer 2010, making her debut in the Gen Next category with her collection titled Kattran or scraps of fabric. Inspired by women labourers, her flamboyantly choreographed show had models sashaying down the catwalk flaunting spunky ensembles like dhotis, jumpsuits and pyjamas in spice colours like paprika red and turmeric yellow. "I love the way women who toil through the day sport mismatched clothing and yet manage to look funky," says the spirited designer.
The Indo-Western line Kattran stood out in a sea of creations by newbie designers for its use of Indian weaves such as ikat, and textiles like silk and jute on edgy silhouettes of dhotis and cropped waistcoats. Her take on fresh fashion earned her the Most Promising Designer Award along with a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh from Inter National Institute of Fashion Design. According to style ace Wendell Rodricks, who was also a mentor for Gen Next designers, the budding couturier has been a revelation to the fashion fraternity: "I knew we had a future fashion star on our hands when I first saw the sketches of Masaba's graduation collection last year." The collection went on to win all the major awards at SNDT Women's University, Mumbai, where Masaba's currently enrolled for a degree in fashion and apparel design.
Backed up by an award-embellished resume, the three-season-old designer is already retailing from eight stores across the country including Aza and Zoya in Mumbai and Delhi, Fuel, Studio re and Sattva in Mumbai and Nautanky in Ahmedabad. "In fact there were scores of buyers from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait who expressed an interest in my designs post Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WLIFW), Autumn Winter 2010," she says. Indeed, her introduction to the Capital's fashion brigade at WLIFW has been a memorable one. Her latest line titled Fitoor (an insanely overwhelming emotion) had models sporting bold striped saris with pockets, angrakhas, Indian style gowns and much else. The designer confesses to have considered the functional aspect of a sari while introducing the pocket detailing. She has often seen women being uncomfortable with the entire sari, handbag and cell phone routine and wanted to make things simpler. To jazz up her collection, Masaba has used a lot of glossy fabrics like velvet and silk and bold statement shades that contrasted sharply with her white striped saris. Agrees Rodricks: "I think that is her strength. To make creative, wearable clothes with a defined colour statement.
Clearly natural fib-res are a hit with the young style aficionado and hence there's an abundance of the ikat weave, and silk and handloom cotton in all her creations. "I had to sustain my love for textiles through expert guidance and that is where Jaya Jaitly, president of Dastkari Haat Samiti, held my hand," she says. When Masaba started off on her own she was hard-pressed to find weavers who could translate her designs on ethnic fabrics. Getting in touch with Jaitly took care of that as her NGO Dastkari Haat Samiti had a resource pool of almost 1,500 crafts people, including ikat weavers from Orissa. Jaitly, who was present at the Fitoor show, says Masaba's creations bore a stamp of Indianness and she loved the way the designer used stripes and pockets in the sari. In between her debut show at LFW Spring/Summer 2010 and WLIFW, Masaba managed to squeeze in a season of Summer/Resort 2010 at LFW as well. The designer broadened her creative repertoire in her resort collection at LFW which included a women's line called Chhalni (sieve) and a menswear collection called Litmus Test for the first time. Masaba has been living her designer dreams for quite some time now. But she found her true calling only after several false starts that included everything from professional tennis to modern dance. Speaking of her failed tennis exploits, the fashion fiend candidly admits that she wasn't really good at the game: "It was too late to hit the national circuit and I wasn't enjoying it either." In fact, Masaba had miraculously managed to fit in some time to study music in London too, before zeroing in on fashion as a career. "I really didn't like that and even designing happened by accident," she says. A friend had sat for an entrance exam to study fashion and she, too, hopped on the bandwagon. Says mother Neena Gupta, who proudly flaunts her creations: "I could feel she had a thing going for fashion by the way she used to put together separates and instinctively knew what would work." "Everything fell into place after that," says the new kid on the fashion block, who now has her own label and a place in the design firmament. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| RAMP PHOTOGRAPHS BY JAGAN NEG http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100411/jsp/graphiti/story_12321274.jsp |
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