Wednesday, May 30

Malaika Arora Not Paying Attention To Trolls

Actress Malaika Arora, who has been a target of several trolls, said she doesn't pay attention to them. “I don't pay attention to trolls and that is the best way to deal with them,” said Malaika.

Last week, she posted a collage of throwback photographs of herself taking a dip in the sea. She captioned it: “Summer Loving. Take me back.”

She received some unpleasant feedback from a few followers who trolled her for wearing a bikini while swimming.

She said, “This is an old picture from my trip to the Maldives last year. People seemed to have a point of view on my attire in the pictures. To all those people, I just have one question: What as per you is the appropriate attire to wear while swimming or diving in the ocean?”

To my knowledge, it is swimsuits that one uses the world over when considering water focused outdoor activities. If people think we should be wearing something else, please enlighten me.

Saturday, May 26

Geetanjali Thapa: Childhood Memories Influence One's Personality

National Award-winning actress Geetanjali Thapa, who plays the female protagonist Minnie in the forthcoming film ‘Biscopewala’, says a person's childhood memories influence and impact his or her personality as an adult in a huge way. The film 'Bioscopewala' revolves around the story of a girl who comes back to her roots and childhood memories of a 'Bioscopewala', who played an important role in her life to become the person she is.

Sharing an insight into her character in the film, Geetanjali said, "Minnie realises that somewhere the story of a 'Bioscopewala' influenced her to become a filmmaker.

"Without even realising she got her main influence for filmmaking from this man, who is old now, his story, his journey is unknown to her, she sets out on a journey to find that out as a filmmaker. I think this happens to all of us, where our subconscious mind gets influenced to become someone in our grown-up days, from our childhood memories. It shapes our personality."

The story of 'Bioscopewala' is an extrapolation of the famous story of ‘Kabuliwala’.

In our film, Minnie has grown up and has become a filmmaker in Paris and she comes back to her home and discovered the root behind her passion for storytelling lies in her childhood,” she added.

So, was there any such influence that Geetanjali had from her childhood? 

"My upbringing makes me the kind of person I am today. I cannot really specify one incident in that manner, but we had a teacher in school who used to encourage me to read books. Not really textbooks, but storybooks. There is a world inside stories, and I think that helped me to develop an interest in reading and narrating stories in whichever medium I do today," she said.

She says her first film never released. But meeting a few good people in Mumbai and going for auditions changed her life. Like many newcomers in the big city Mumbai, she also went through initial struggle.

“There are times when people said that I do not look Indian enough to be a part of Indian film industry, beyond one point. But hey, here I am,” said the actress from Gangtok, Sikkim.

Starting her career in 2012 with ‘I.D.’, the actress won a National Film Award for her work in “Liar’s Dice”. She also appeared in film like ‘Tigers’, ‘Trapped’ and ‘Kuchh Bheege Alfaaz’.

‘Bioscopewala’ features some of the finest actors of the film business -- Adil Hussain, Danny Denzongpa and Tisca Chopra. Geetanjali said going through an extensive workshop helped her to find a comfort level among all the actors.

Directed by Deb Madhekar, the film 'Bioscopewala' is releasing on Friday.

Friday, May 25

Raveena Tandon To Exhibit Her Wildlife Photography

Actress Raveena Tandon will showcase her wildlife photographs alongside the works of 75 wildlife photographers for a cause. Raveena, in support of Sarita Subramaniam and P V Subramaniam, is joining an organisation to help avert water crisis in wildlife sanctuaries.

The actress said, "Wildlife is my passion and capturing moments on camera is sheer thrill. The excitement and love for the forest and to conserve what we have on our beautiful planet with it's beautiful creatures, which man is slowly destroying, is what draws me to support and take up initiatives like Project Aquarius."

The exhibition titled H2PHOTO will begin at Jehangir Art Gallery from May 25 and will conclude on May 29. The proceeds from the sale will go towards installing solar pump sets at wildlife sanctuaries to help revive depleting watering holes.

Raveena said, "Conservation is absolutely the need of the hour as a lot of species are already extinct and we are on the verge of losing many more of these beautiful beasts to the war between man and animal."

"By destroying forests we are destroying the very base of mankind's existence as we are upsetting the whole ecological cycle. Every creature was put on this planet for a reason and human beings need to fulfill their purpose of existence by saving Mother Earth. We are in reality actually saving ourselves."

Sarita and PV Subramaniam have earlier raised funds to provide solar powered pumps to borewells that supply water to the watering holes at Bandipur Tiger Reserve in Karnataka.

They said in a joint statement that their new effort is for the water woes animals have in forests.

They said they felt touched by Raveena and the other photographers' spontaneous gesture of extending support to the cause.

Tuesday, May 22

Priyanka On A Visit To Rohingya Refugee Camps

Priyanka Chopra, who is also the global UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for Child Rights is in Dhaka visiting the Rohingya refugee camps.

The actress, who has worked with United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) for over a decade, promotes causes such as environment, health and education and women's rights among many others.

In November last year, Myanmar and Bangladesh signed an agreement to repatriate an estimated 700,000 Rohingya Muslims who fled a brutal Myanmar military campaign launched in August 2017.

Before visiting Dhaka, Priyanka was in London, where she attended Meghan Markle’s wedding to British Royal Prince Harry.