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Showing posts with label bollywood movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bollywood movies. Show all posts

Sunday, December 04, 2011

Evergreen Actor Dev Anand Dead: Bollywood Star Dies In London At 88

dev anand
Dev Anand
NEW DELHI — Bollywood star Dev Anand, a charismatic and flamboyant Indian film fixture for more than a half-century, has died of a heart attack in London, his family said Sunday. He was 88.

Famed for his roles in dozens of movies, including "Jewel Thief" and "Guide," the veteran actor, director and producer was working up to the last minute, with a new script in the works.

Anand lived and died on "his own terms," his nephew and renowned film director Shekhar Kapur said in a posting on Twitter. "He was working one minute. Sat down and smiled. And was gone the next. So much to learn."

Anand died of a heart attack Saturday night in a hotel in London, where he had gone recently for a medical checkup, the family said.

India's prime minister joined Indian film stars and officials in lauding Anand's achievements and expressing sorrow for his death.

"Dev Anand was a great artist who entertained generations of cinema lovers over five decades," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a statement. "He was an embodiment of long passion for acting and filmmaking. I join millions of his fans in mourning his death."

Born on Sept. 26, 1923, as the son of a Punjab lawyer, Anand studied English literature and law, eventually moving in his early 20s to India's film capital of Mumbai, then called Bombay, where he pursued a love of acting.

Known for his good looks, melodious voice and success in romantic leads, Anand was considered a superstar within just a few years of his 1946 screen debut in the Hindi-language film "Hum Ek Hain."

Others in his family followed, with his brothers Chetan and Vijay also winning praise as film producers, screenwriters and directors.

Dev Anand also began producing in 1949, and made his directorial debut in 1971 with the popular hippie cult film "Hare Rama Hare Krishna."

Never giving up the career, Anand released his latest film, "Chargesheet," just a few months ago and was reportedly working on another script when he died.

On his birthday in September, the upbeat actor told the Press Trust of India that he still had more to offer.

"My life is the same, and I am at a beautiful stage at 88," he reportedly said in the interview. "I am as excited as I was in my 20s. I have so many things to do," including a sequel to his 1971 film that he had titled "Hare Rama Hare Krishna Aaj."

Anand was given several prizes during his career, including lifetime achievement awards by Filmfare in 1993 and Screen Videocon in 1996. His 2007 memoirs, titled "Romancing With Life," underlined his belief in making films that were socially relevant.

Also known for social work, Anand dabbled in politics in the 1970s, launching a short-lived political party and leading other film stars in opposing then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's "Emergency" regime, which gave her the power to rule by decree.

"With his death, an era has come to an end. For a career spanning more than five decades, Dev Anand gave us films which will stay entrenched in our minds for years on," Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said in a statement carried by Press Trust of India. "He was truly a multifaceted performer as an actor, director and producer."

Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan said in a posting on Twitter that Anand's death "leaves a void never perhaps to be filled again."

Prize-winning British-Indian novelist Salman Rushdie lamented in a post: "I grew up watching your films. Sorry to say goodbye."

Anand's family plans to cremate his body in London on Tuesday or Wednesday.

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Friday, December 02, 2011

YouTube gets its biggest makeover ever

youtube
YouTube

(Mashable) -- We already knew about YouTube's redesign, which tech-savvy readers have been enabling for the past 10 days. As of now, however, the new YouTube is available to everyone.

Unlike parent company Google, which tends to roll out redesigns over a period of days, YouTube pressed the button and switched the homepage for every user worldwide at 4:30 p.m. ET Thursday.

So what's the change all about? One word: channels. The world's most popular online video service now sees itself as a descendent of cable TV, with millions of channels rather than hundreds -- and it's doing its darndest to encourage you to use it that way.

The first new thing you'll see is an "add channels" button in the top left-hand corner of the page. Under that you'll find your top 10 favorite channels, which you can "pin" to the top of the page.

"The future of the YouTube experience has channels at the center of it," says Margaret Stewart, director of User Experience at YouTube's headquarters in San Bruno, California. "It's a container for all the world's video, and it needs to be the best home for that."

YouTube is also tweaking the colors of its logo and adding a soft gray background to the videos. In a sign that the service is becoming more integrated with its parent company -- and that more employees are going back and forth between San Bruno and the Googleplex in Mountain View -- Stewart says the redesign includes "subtle alignments with Google's visual style."

Part of that process, naturally, includes integration with the Google+ social network. But YouTube is also making it easier to post videos on Facebook and Twitter, too. And the channel change also came to YouTube apps on platforms other than the web. For example, it just became a lot easier to access YouTube channels on your Xbox.

There are four new channel templates that content creators can use, including one template designed for networks (with prominent featured content) and one for bloggers (with the most recent content first). Executives and designers at the company emphasize that this just the beginning of the redesign; more channel-focused changes and channel templates are coming soon.

Read up on the new YouTube user manual, and let us know in the comments: Has the strategy worked? Will this make you use YouTube channels more?



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Wednesday, November 09, 2011

A Bollywood film allowed after removal of the Tibetan flag

Tibetan flag
Tibetan flag
AFP - A Bollywood film was allowed in India after the removal of a scene in which appeared the flag of Tibet region of China where people claim real autonomy and religious freedom, said Wednesday The Times of India . To ensure the dissemination of his film Rockstar in cinemas in the country, the director Imtiaz Ali has cut a scene showing a Tibetan flag waved by fans as the main character, a singer played by actor Ranbir Kapoor, sings "Saada Haq" (Our right).


The scene was filmed in the Norbulingka Tibetan monastery, McLeod Ganj, a town in the foothills of the Himalayas Indian, near the residence of the Tibetan government in exile and the Dalai Lama. "Ali has made the cuts" required by the Indian Council of censorship, the Times said its director, Pankaj Thakur. Excerpts from the film are uncensored, however, available on the Internet. Imtiaz Ali has denied any "controversy" policy, saying he wanted to address the issue of individual freedom.

Tibet is a constant source of friction between India and China. India hosted the Dalai Lama when he fled Tibet after a failed anti-Chinese uprising of 1959. The Dalai Lama calls for genuine autonomy for the roof of the world, but Beijing continues to regard it as a dangerous "separatist". The many Tibetans living on Indian soil have announced that they take to the streets to protest the censorship of Rockstar. "It is extremely troubling that so gross violation of freedom of expression occurs in the largest democracy in the world," responded the Internet Dorjee Tseten, the association's "Students for a Free Tibet."

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