Talk of the town

With the ``Sawal Das Crore Ka'' controversy behind him, versatile actor Anupam Kher is now all set to make further inroads into television with a new serial for Doordarshan ``Mera Bharat Anupam''.

``It is a 26-episode travel series in English as well as Hindi and will be telecast every Saturday morning immediately after breakfast news,'' says Anupam. In English, the series is titled ``You, Me and India''.

While his children's show on SABe TV, ``Say Hello to Anupam Uncle'' has brought him immense popularity, ``Ret Ka Dariya'', a serial produced by his company and being telecast on Sahara TV has also been well received.

After introducing well-known director, Rituparno Ghosh to national audiences through the award winning film ``Bariwali'', Anupam has now finalised another Marathi script with a well-known director. ``I want to make small budget films in regional languages so that the talented directors can be introduced to national audiences,'' he says.

And as director too, he is going full steam ahead. ``I am directing a film entitled ``Om Jai Jagdeesh'' which is produced by Vashu Bagnani. ``Anil Kapoor, Fardeen Khan and Abhishek Bachchan are in the lead roles,'' reveals the unputdownable actor.

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There never is a dull moment in politics. After a temporary lull between Christmas and New Year, the tempo has picked up with affairs of the Samata Party -- a constituent of the NDA Government-- coming out in the open.

And Wednesday was not the best of days for the Samata Party. As the mercury dipped in the Capital, the political temperature rose within with six MPs raising the banner of revolt.

Incidentally, hours before the MPs led by Mr. Prabhunath Singh and Mr. Raghunath Jha made public their objection to the moves by the Union Agriculture Minister, Mr. Nitish Kumar, the latter was spotted at the residence of party leader, Mr. George Fernandes, where he was to welcome the entry of 10 MLAs from the erstwhile Congress. However, the timing got botched up and Mr. Kumar left the venue stealthily before correspondents there could react.

A little later the MPs staged a separate Press conference where they launched a broadside against Mr. Kumar for his efforts to bring the Janata Dal (United) on board. As parleys to sort out the mess did not bear fruit, Mr. Kumar left for Patna on Thursday morning ahead of the crucial party elections on Friday and ironically, was joined in the flight by a section of the MPs who revolted against him. Now, can it be called politics in transition.

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A handful of people might still be humming the popular ``Bhoomro, bhoomro'' number from ``Mission Kashmir''. But now they have a choice. Courtesy Archie's Music and Shehzad Roy, the 24-year-old guy who started singing only eight years ago and has recently cut his first album ``Teri Soorat'' which is all set to make an impression.

Roy's debut album makes for interesting listening. It contains eight wonderful tracks which are varied in theme and melody. Roy has produced the music along with Hawad Hyder. Simultaneously with the music album, the video of the title song ``Teri Soorat'' has also been launched. What's more, it is actually creating waves, promising better things for the upcoming singer in the days to come.

As Praveen Sethi, General Manager, Archies Music, puts it: ``With his talented, deep, clear voice, Roy has brought out the best in this album. The video is very attractively made, storyline as well as colour scheme is engaging.''

Roy, on his part, is maintaining a low profile, preferring to let his lilting ditties like ``Bewafa'', ``Kangna'' and ``Ja Ko Rakhey'' do all the talking, oops, singing for him. He has made the right choice, baby!

(Contributions by K. Kannan, K.V.Prasad and Ziya Us Salam).

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