Mithun Chakraborty: Over the top promotions are not required

Mumbai: Veteran actor Mithun Chakraborty, who has spent more than three decades in the film industry, feels that movie promotions should not go over the top. "Promotions are required but over the top promotions are not required. It is necessary to tell people that a film is releasing. In our times we used to say that so-and-so film is coming through posters and today through you all (media), things have become quicker and faster. I feel doing everything over is not done," Mithun said.

The 61-year-old would be seen next in Sajid Khan's multi-starrer comedy film, 'Housefull 2' alongside Rishi Kapoor, Randhir Kapoor, Boman Irani, Akshay Kumar, John Abraham, Riteish Deshmukh, Shreyas Talpade, Asin, Jacqueline Fernandez, Zarine Khan, Shazahn Padamsee.

For this film, he has teamed up with both the younger and older lot of actors and he says, "I feel younger generation is energetic, I am in the middle, Rishi, Randhir ji came first, then I came in. But whatever it be we all enjoyed a lot while filming the movie. It is a fun film."

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The film is up for release on April 5.

The senior actor has worked across all genres be it drama or action or comedy all through his career span of 36 years, and has planned nothing fresh.

"I haven't thought of what I would do next. You are an actor and you have to do everything, as an actor you should not think about genre. Whatever I do, I give more than 100 percent," he said.

"I finished one Bengali film. Then this year I have this film ('Housefull 2') coming up and I am hearing some scripts... but nothing finalised yet," he added.

Mithun Da, as he is fondly called, made his acting debut with art house drama 'Mrigayaa' in 1976, for which he won his first National Film Award for Best Actor. Then he went on to deliver many hit films including 'Do Anjaane', 'Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan', 'Hamara Sansar', 'Amar Deep', and 'Surakshaa'.

Lately, he has been part of films like 'Guru', 'Heroes', 'Veer', 'Golmaal 3' and many others.

 

China thanks India for curbing Tibetan protests

New Delhi: China on Thursday blamed the Dalai Lama for stoking extremist views and thanked India for taking "effective and concrete" steps to curb protests by Tibetans during President Hu Jintao's visit.

Luo Zhaohui, Director-General of the Department of Asian Affairs, regretted the loss of innocent lives in and around Tibet but said Beijing opposed "pro-independence Tibetan activists".

Answering a query about the death of a young Tibetan protester in New Delhi on Wednesday, Luo said loss of innocent lives was always regretful.

"On the other hand, we look to emphasise that Dalai Lama and so-called pro-freedom Tibetan activists pushing extreme radical views by glorifying extreme behaviour is not consistent with Buddhism," Luo said.

Jamphel Yeshi, a 27-year-old Tibetan, died on Wednesday after setting himself ablaze to protest Hu's India visit for the BRICS meeting.

Luo said India recognises Tibet as a part of China.

He said it was "regretful" that Tibetan protestors created trouble for the Indian government.

The "Chinese side appreciates effective and concrete measures taken by government of India", he said.

Authorities clamped prohibitory orders banning the gathering of four or more people in the capital and arrested many Tibetans to prevent possible trouble during Hu's trip.

Answering queries, Luo said ties between India and China had witnessed growth and momentum due to institutional contacts and people-to-people ties.

On the border issue, he said the mechanism of meeting between special representatives of the two sides was making progress.

Luo said the two countries have been able to maintain peace and tranquility on the Line of Actual Control.

Ma Zhaoxu, Assistant Foreign Minister, said the BRICS meeting had been successful and added that India as the host country played a very important role in its positive outcome.

"It is fair to describe the summit as success," he said.

Manmohan Singh, Hu Jintao review bilateral ties

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday reviewed bilateral ties including the vexed boundary dispute and decided to continue dialogue to resolve outstanding issues.

At a brief ceremony at the Prime Minister's official residence, Hu and Singh also declared 2012 as the year of India-China friendship.

"The border issue was discussed and the two leaders agreed that Special Representative process should continue to find an amicable solution to the issue," an official said.

In the hour-long meeting, the two leaders expressed satisfaction that the two countries were on course in achieving the USD 100 billion trade target set for 2015.

Hu also assured Singh to facilitate access for Indian goods to Chinese markets, a move that would lead to reduction of the trade imbalances, officials said.

Singh invited Chinese investments in India, particularly in infrastructure and manufacturing sectors. The two leaders also decided to expand consultation to include West Asia, Central Asia and Africa, they said.

They unveiled a host of initiatives to bolster cultural and people-to-people contacts, including setting up of a media forum to promote better public perception of their bilateral relationship.

Singh and Hu noted that the goal of the Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) was to further strengthen mutual trust and to expand the strategic partnership of cooperation.

The SED was held last year when Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia met Zhang Ping, the Director of China's National Development and Reform Commission in Beijing.

World Bank chief should be selected on merit: BRICS

New Delhi: The five-nation BRICS group of emerging economies, representing almost 43 per cent of the world's population, on Thursday welcomed the candidatures of developing countries for the World Bank presidency, demanding that the selection should be through an "open and merit-based process".

"We welcome the candidatures from developing world for the position of the president of the World Bank. We reiterate that the heads of IMF and World Bank be selected through an open and merit-based process," leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa said in a joint statement after their one-day summit in New Delhi.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigerian finance minister and a former managing director of the World Bank, has gained the support of African leaders. Brazil has nominated former Colombian Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo, now a professor at Columbia University in New York.

Their candidatures are in direct opposition to Jim Yong Kim, a Korean-American health expert whose name was put forward by President Barack Obama last week.

The World Bank board would meet in April to select the new president to replace Robert Zoellick, who has been holding the post since July 2007.

The World Bank and its sister Bretton Woods institution, the International Monetary Fund, have been headed by an American and an European respectively as part of a so-called "gentleman's agreement" between the US and Europe since their founding after World War Two.

Leaders of the emerging countries empahasised that the selection of the World Bank chief should be on the basis on merit and not the nationality.

"The new World Bank leadership must commit to transform the Bank into a multilateral institution that truly reflects the vision of all its members, including the governance structure that reflects current economic and political reality," the BRICS leaders said in a joint statement called "Delhi Declaration."

The developing countries also called for ending the "outdated donor-recipient dichotomy" saying the multilateral institutions should work on the philosophy of equal partnership.

Air India employees call off strike

New Delhi: The strike threat by a major chunk of Air India's over 28,000 employees from Monday was called off on Friday with the ailing national carrier promising to clear all their salary and other dues by June. "We received their (strike) notice today. We have given them a payment schedule under which we will clear all the overdues by June. The strike has been called off," Air India CMD Rohit Nandan told reporters after a meeting with union representatives.

The notice for 'no pay, no work' agitation had been given by eight major unions of the airline, representing pilots, engineers and cabin crew among others, to protest the delay in payment of their salaries, productivity-linked incentive (PLI) and other allowances by over three months.

The union leaders and the management had held a marathon day-long meeting yesterday which had failed to yield any result. Both sides had decided to meet again on Friday. The unions had earlier sought the Prime Minister's intervention to resolve the crisis, failing which they had threatened to go on agitation from April two.

Earlier too, the management had promised a staggered payment schedule to clear the dues in the next two months, expecting that by then Air India would get funds through the equity infusion of Rs 4,000 crore announced in this budget.

The unions, however, had remained unsatisfied and had decided to go ahead with their protest action, saying they had not received any "firm" assurance on their dues.

Air India faces a whopping Rs 67,000 crore debt and has reported a loss of close to Rs 6,900 crore this fiscal. The airline was also facing an average operational loss of about Rs 10 crore daily.

IPL 5: Can Delhi shed the underachievers' tag?

Terming Delhi Daredevils as 'underachievers' will not be an overstatement, considering their performance in the last four years. They have always promised a lot, starting every season as one of the tournament's favourites, only to disappoint themselves as well as their innumerable faithful fans at the end. After reaching the semi-finals in the first two editions, Delhi let the contests slip through their fingers when they could have done much better. And their performance has gone downhill ever since. Finishing last among 10 teams in 2011 could be the worst result the franchise would have imagined. As season five is set to get underway, they are once again billed as one of the top contenders for the title. But will they deliver even this around? Only time will tell.

Name: Delhi Daredevils

Captain: Virender Sehwag

Coach: Eric Simons

Owner: GMR Group

Cost of the team: $84 million

Key players: Delhi's captain Virender Sehwag is undoubtedly their biggest trump card. Even if half-fit, Sehwag is still capable of demolishing the best attacks in the league. His opening partnership with the dynamic David Warner will set the tone for the side. And although they have quite a big pool of foreign players in their squad, selecting four from as many as 14 players will be a task in itself. Since Sri Lanka are playing England at home, both Mahela Jayawardene and Kevin Pietersen are set to miss the first two matches of the tournament. And the chances of Ross Taylor, the injured New Zealand skipper, to get fit anytime during the competition are also very slim. In that case, Sehwag may find himself alone if things don't go in his favour in the first few games. There is little to choose between Aaron Finch (Australia) and Gulam Bodi (South Africa). Both are equally exciting batsmen and can take the game away from the opposition in no time.

The allrounders Andre Russell (West Indies) and Roelof van der Merwe (South Africa), along with Irfan Pathan, will provide a balance to the side. Keep in mind, the ball is destined to go a long way if any one of them start flogging, especially in the late overs. The experience and guile of Ajit Agarkar combined with the speed of Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron will give a variety to Delhi's pace attack. Morne Morkel (South Africa) and Doug Bracewell (New Zealand) will slog it out for another seamer's spot, if needed by the team.

There will also be a two-way race for the wicketkeeper's slot. Both Naman Ojha and Puneet Bisht are quite good behind the stumps and are also very capable batsmen. But it's Ojha's six-hitting skill that may give him the nod ahead of Bisht.

Strengths: A big pool of foreign players and a good bunch of home-grown talent are the big plus for DD. They have plenty to choose from if things don't go right for them. The availability of players for specific roles makes them one of the favourites for this year's IPL. But their biggest strength is their skipper Sehwag who will once again be the key for them.

Weaknesses: Losing big contests, as they did in the first two seasons, has always been their problem. It will also be interesting to see what recipe will Eric Simons, who has recently been promoted to the head coach's job from the bowling coach, come up with as the South African ended his term with the Indian side on a disappointing note.

2011 performance: The last season was nothing short of a nightmare for the Delhi side as they were the wooden spooners. The team could only win four of their 14 matches. They flopped big time as a unit. The dreadful result also brought the much-needed changes to the overall set up of the team.

2012 prospects: As mentioned, the team management has ticked all the boxes correctly, with changing the core of the side, bringing more and better foreign players and also appointing a new coach. The only thing needed now is players should go out in the park and showcase their best skills. And if the positive intent of the team's think tank combines with the players' performance, then positive results are bound to come.