Gali Nagaraja Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma scared the wits out of people with 2003 film “Bhoot” and he’s set to repeat the feat with “Bhoot Returns”. He reveals he has shot the 3D movie at a haunted house.
Varma chose a house in Mumbai for the shoot. The first owner of the house had committed suicide in the premises. The current owner willingly gave the house to Varma for the shoot with a promise of not giving out the address of the house in the movie or the media.
Vigilance officials searched 34 places in Tamil Nadu Saturday, after filing two cases against two IAS officers and a group of state officials for irregularities in quarrying.
The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) said it had conducted a detailed inquiry to probe largescale irregularities in granite quarrying in Madurai district over the past several years.
According to DVAC, a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered against IAS officers N. Mathivanan and C. Kamaraj and other state government officials.
Security has been tightened in Guwahati and in upper Assam following two consecutive bomb blasts which critically injured a man who was carrying a grenade, police said Saturday.
Militants exploded a grenade at Digboi town. A man carrying the explosive suffered serious injuries. Four others were also injured.
Police said the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) may have hired the person – Robin Rajbongshi, who works at a guest house – to lob the grenade at security forces.
However, it exploded while in his pocket.
Fashion designer Ritu Kumar says filmmaker Deepa Mehta’s inputs for costume designs for wedding sequences in “Midnight’s Children” came to her aid in a big way.
“Deepa has helped in the costume department and provided inputs on how the designs should be. Deepa and I sat to discuss about costumes where she gave her invaluable inputs which were greatly helpful,” said the veteran designer.
Though Kumar is known for her wedding couture lines, this is not her first movie work.
As many as 81 members of the US House of Representatives have introduced a resolution supporting a call to the Justice Department to begin collecting comprehensive data on hate crimes committed against Sikhs.
Introduced in the wake of the Aug 5 shooting at a Sikh gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, the resolution honours the contributions of the Sikh-American community to the United States and condemns the string of attacks against Sikhs and their religious institutions over the past year.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday said that the conclusion of the 11th Plan with 7.9 percent growth was “commendable”.
Speaking at a Planning Commission meeting Saturday, the prime minister said the growth was laudable for a period “which saw two global slowdowns”.
He said that the 12th Plan targets has been brought down from 9 percent to 8.2 percent, with agricultural growth at 4 percent.
The prime minister said that poverty declined twice as fast between 2004-05 and 2009-10 than it did in the previous 10 years.
If you are entering Shimla and your vehicle is not registered in Himachal Pradesh, you will have to pay a ‘green tax’ from Saturday.
The tax imposed by the Shimla Municipal Corporation came into effect from midnight at all entry points to the town on all class of automobiles, both commercial and private, Corporation Commissioner M.P. Sood told IANS.
The tax, in line with that in Manali town, is expected to raise Rs.6 crore annually.
As anti-American protests over an anti-Islam video spread to some 20 nations across the Muslim world, the US sternly warned them to stop the violence, but Google declined to block the offending clip.
Calling YouTube clips from the film “Innocence of Muslims” as an “awful Internet video that we had nothing to do with,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked the nations to act and seek justice against those attacking its diplomatic missions, or else the United States will.
Heavy rains continued to batter the state capital for the second consecutive day Saturday. The weather department has predicted wet days till next week.
Rains began here midnight, a day after the city recorded its heaviest downpour – 150 mm plus of rains in a single day – in the entire monsoon season this year.
The weatherman says the conditions would “more or less” be the same for the next two days, owing to a low pressure area over central Uttar Pradesh and the passing of a monsoon trough line over Lucknow, Shahjahanpur and Azamgarh.
A group of armed criminals looted cash and valuables from passengers on a train in Bihar’s Rohtas district early Saturday, injuring four people who tried to resist them, police said.
The robbery took place on the Howrah-New Delhi Express in Rohtas, about 200 km from Patna.”The incident took place between Gaya railway station and Sasaram,” police said.
“Armed criminals boarded the train before Sasaram railway station and stopped the train by pulling the emergency chain
at an isolated place and looted cash and valuables,” said a police officer.
Ali Musa Gilani, the son of ex-Pakistani prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, was granted interim bail by the supreme court Friday shortly after his arrest in a drug scam.
He was arrested outside the apex court while he was on his way to attend the hearing of his case involving the illegal sale of the drug ephedrine in 2010.
Musa Gilani is accused of pressurizing the health ministry in 2010 to allocate ephedrine quotas to two pharmaceutical companies. The court was hearing the case Friday.
The two-day old strike by staff of the state-run bus services in Karnataka was called off late Friday bringing relief to the people, transport minister R. Ashoka said.
Normal bus service across the state would resume Saturday, Ashoka told reporters after over five hours of talks with striking employees’ leaders.
K. Sudarshan, former chief of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), died of a heart attack in Raipur in Chhattisgarh early Saturday, an official said here. He was 81.
He is survived by a brother.
Sudarshan had been ailing for sometime and was under the care of an attendant.
According to Vikas Telang, an official of RSS headquarters, Sudarshan had gone for his usual morning walk Saturday and later returned to the RSS headquarters in Raipur.
Some RSS volunteers noticed that Sudarshan had fallen down while meditating in his room, said Telang.
India went down to Iran 71-83 on the first day of fourth edition of the Asia Cup basketball here Friday.
India did well to hustle the daylights out of Iran for a better part of the first half, but in the process many of their mainstays ran into foul trouble and the team eventually lost out 71-83 in a Group B game of the 4th FIBA Asia Cup.
Vishesh Bhriguvanshi and Amrit Pal Singh – with Rikin Pethani playing a solid role under the defense glass – were the leaders of the surprise Indian package in the first half scoring 13 points each, but had also copped three personal fouls apiece.
Millions of people across Karnataka were stranded Friday, as state-run bus services remained crippled for the second day owing to indefinite strike by about 110,000 employees of various transport corporations in the state over steep wage hike and other demands.
In cities and towns across the state, especially in Bangalore, Mysore, Mangalore, Hubli, Belgaum and Gulbarga, thousands of intra-state and inter-state passengers had a harrowing time in finding alternative modes of transport.
Air Kerala, the state government’s proposed airline, would start operations with five leased aircraft flying to the Middle East, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said here Friday.
“The Middle East is the place where we have our people in large numbers and the need of the hour is to come to their help by operating flights with budget fares to suit the common man. Hence, we will start operations to the Middle East countries with five leased aircrafts,” Chandy told reporters at the Emerging Kerala investor meet.
Southern actor Prithviraj Sukumaran, who makes his Bollywood debut opposite Rani Mukerji in “Aiyaa”, claims to be her biggest fan.
“You all say you are big fans of Rani, but I will vouch for the fact that there is probably a bigger fan of Rani here right now, probably of all of Rani’s films. I watched all her films and it is a great honour for me to be a part of a film that has Rani in it,” the 29-year-old said here Thursday at the launch of the music of the film.
South Indian films are known for their crazy content but Prithvi says “Aiyaa” is the craziest film he has ever worked in.
Actress Priyanka Chopra, who is looking forward to Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor wedding, says that she is ready to settle down, but is unable to find her Mr. Right.
“From the age of four I have been waiting to get married. I am ready for it. My mom, dad are also ready but the only problem is I am not getting Mr. Right. So that is a technical problem,” Priyanka told reporters Thursday when asked if she is planning to settle down too.
Priyanka, who has turned a singer, was talking at an event to unveil her first single “In My City”.
Mr. Mohammed Ismail Husain, Senior Congress leader and Convener, Minorities Department of Congress Committee in a press note stated that Mr. Tarun Gogoi’s attempt to attribute the illiteracy of the Muslims responsible for the increase in their population is not logical and it is condemnable. By blaming the Muslims for his weakness, he has tried to avoid his responsibility. In this way, he has opened a new channel for discussions.
Urdu Academy has announced its awards to Urdu writers and poets.
Prof. S.A.Shukoor, Director of Urdu Academy in a press conference told that Urdu Academy had called for Urdu writes and poets to submit their writings.
He also disclosed that Urdu teachers have been selected for the awards. A function will be held on 24th September at Madina Education Center to distribute awards. He told that 5 awards would be given from every district.
No application has been received from Srikakulam District for the award.
In order to commemorate the strike of Telangana employees last year, a dharna programme was staged at Gunpark near Assembly yesterday.
Prof. Kondandaram, President, Telangana Political Joint Action Committee, Mr. T.Harish Rao TRS MLA, Mr. Venkat Reddy, Congress MLA, Dr. Nagam Janardhan Reddy, Presidetn, Telangana Nagara Samithi, Mr. Swami Goud, President, Telangana N.G.O’s JAC, Mr. Vithal, Mr. Devi Prasad and others attended the Dharna programme.
Govt. of A.P. is contemplating to approach Supreme Court against High Court’s judgments through which the G.O. issued by the Govt. is set aside. High Court ordered to implement the new rules of admission from the next academic year.
Mr. N.Kiran Kumar Reddy convened a meeting with the officials of higher education. He issued instructions to deal with private Engineering Colleges severely.
Mr. Damodhar Raja Narasimha, Dy. C.M. told the officials to deal with private engineering colleges, severely.
Actress Priyanka Chopra, who unveiled her debut international music single ‘In My City’ last night, says she wants to sing in Bollywood movies someday and would like to lend her voice to veteran actress Rekha.
Priyanka’s first international single ‘In My City’, featuring rap artiste and Black Eyed Peas singer Will.I.Am, will have her crooning in English.
“I would like to be the voice for Rekhaji,” Priyanka said.
—PTI
Several Jammu and Kashmir separatist leaders were placed under house arrest here Friday ahead of a protest against the film “Innocence of Muslims”, a trailer of which was uploaded on YouTube.
Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, Muhammad Yasin Malik, Shabir Ahmad Shah and Muhammad Nayeem Khan were placed under house arrest in this state summer capital. Protests against the film, which depicts Prophet Mohammed in a poor light, were planned for the afternoon after Friday prayers.
A senior Chinese general has urged the army not to be slack and be prepared for any possible military combat. The remark comes amid rising tensions between China and Japan over some disputed islands.
Efforts should be made to ensure that the military is capable of resolutely performing its duty to safeguard the country’s national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity whenever it is needed by the Party and the people, said Gen. Xu Caihou, vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission.