Rajdeep Sardesai's 2014: The Election That Changed India, will make him a ton of money, says Shreekant Sambrani, but admits he is more interested in knowing whether the book lives up to its title.
'He was not even 15 when he showed skills at captaincy.' 'Now that he is the captain, I keep telling him not to expect from others what easily comes to him.'
To look for lessons from Nehru's life to find a way out of the Congress' quagmire is probably futile, says Rahul Jacob
In the final part of his interview with Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com, journalist Rajdeep Sardesai says the Congress lost the election in 2011, the year of Anna Hazare.
'I am very sure that Rajnikanth, a patriot and a spiritual person, will not do this movie which is about a tyrant, killer and murderer,' BJP leader H Raja tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com
'Dev Patel and I hung out together to get to know one another. It's very important to understand your co-star before you begin a project.' Devika Bhise gets ready for The Man Who Knew Infinity.
'Feeling claustrophobic and humiliated by the manner in which the Congress vice-president was treating him, he started toying with the idea of floating his own party.'
In this special series, we re-visit great Hindi film classics. Today, we look back at Amitabh Bachchan and Nutan's 1973 film Saudagar.
Princess Jahanara, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan's daughter, was a paragon of virtues: well-educated, well-versed in statecraft, even-tempered, beautiful. Although she was on the side of Dara Shikoh in the succession battle, it says much for her stature that after Shah Jahan's death, she was made the chief lady of the court by Aurangzeb and accorded every respect.
'If Indira Gandhi's Emergency proved anything at all, it established that India would be governed, to the extent it can be governed, democratically or not at all,' says Inder Malhotra.
'From the beginning (I have told her) "Whatever it may be -- you are losing or winning -- on the ground you're not going to cry!" She never cried.' '"I don't want you to project that you are a loser. You are a winner".' Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com speaks to Leela Raj about her famous daughter, now in the West Indies for the women's T20 World Cup.
By deeming October 31, Sardar Vallabhai Patel's birthday as Rashtriya Ekta Diwas, the BJP has rightly made amends for the short shrift that the great leader received at the hands of the Congress. By the same token, the BJP cannot be seen as being petty towards Indira, a leader who despite her flaws, did render yeoman service to the nation, says Vivek Gumaste.
One of India's greatest actors -- someone who acted in 14 Satyajit Ray films -- doesn't get good movie roles anymore.
'Modi's victory is his own victory. Now what he has done thereafter, it seems to me, leads us to believe that he was a bit too prolific with his promises.' 'One achievement of Modi's I will praise is that he has put the fear of God among his ministers and officials.' 'Indira Gandhi's sentiment of controlling everything, centralising power in to her hands is the quality that persists in Modi' Veteran journalist Inder Malhotra casts his experienced gaze on one year of the Modi Sarkar.
'I have been a part of more than a dozen films as a cinematographer but this was the smoothest shoot of my life. There was not a single day, when I wondered how a particular shoot would be done.' Meet Running Shaadi director Amit Roy.
Many of the industrialists profiled in the book are no longer riding the wave of success.
He was ready even to take on Germany's collective guilt over the Holocaust
Bestselling author James Altucher tells you how to get a braingasm.
'It would not be incorrect to say that the Chinese-Pakistani strategy of containing India began in the aftermath of the 1965 war.'
Who was Mohammad Azharuddin? More crucially, *what* was he? Those are precisely the questions that, as the end credits roll after 132 minutes of run-time, remain unanswered, feels Prem Panicker.
'Even apart from the Bengal famine, there was a great deal more bloodshed and deceit than I was prepared for.' 'Almost every one of the acquisitions was won by extreme extortionate methods and what came out was that these relatively honest officers found themselves doing very dishonest things.'
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'Both resisted cruel white rule through non-violence. But Mandela's is a singular story. He never lost faith in his ideals and goal even when he was in prison for many years,' Anant Singh, who produced the Mandela biopic, tells Rediff.com's Arthur J Pais.
'Aditya Chopra says the only time Shah Rukh acts is when he laughs' 'I never realised this, but when I see him, I realise that he has never laughed.' 'So I asked him why doesn't he laugh.' 'He said he didn't know, that he never thought about it.'
'Every Ali obituary I read made the point that he 'transcended his sport' -- a reference to the many battles he fought with America even as he fought in America.' 'What the obituaries leave out is that Ali equally transcended the boundaries of geography and of information -- as witness the Chennai teen who assimilated that most mobile of fighters through still images shorn of context.'
Ajinkya Rahane opens up on the slot he likes to bat at, Virat Kohli's captaincy and India's record against spin
Five young women are getting ready to circumnavigate the world.
'The biggest advantage for India was its seasoned and experienced political leadership who had spent decades struggling against the Raj and had spent years behind bars.' 'Not a single prominent leader of the Muslim League spent one day in jail.' 'Gandhiji, Nehru and Sardar Patel were intelligent, shrewd men with their hands on the popular pulse.'
'Khadi is my passion. The only idea behind this start up is to promote and popularise khadi.'
Former Delhi chief minister and Kerala governor Sheila Dikshit, speaking for the first time after her gubernatorial resignation, tells Kavita Chowdhury there is a need for Parliament to codify rules for governors if they are required to demit office with a change in the central government. Edited excerpts
A documentary on football and a biography of Jesus make Roopa Unnikrishnan mull over the lessons organisations can learn from honest outsiders.
B S Prakash talked to a number of professionals, some already a part of the PM's team and others outside, as to what Narendra Modi's success and stature means for their careers or their dhanda.
'The Kashmiri wants freedom, the dignity that comes from it and the intellectual versatility that flows from the combination of the two,' says political historian Siddiq Wahid.
'We wanted to make a true coming-of-age story since all of us have been through adolescence.' 'Most people are afraid of commenting on what these boys go through behind closed doors.' 'We just wanted to bring out that truth. People know what adolescents do, but they do not know how they do it.'
Rediff.com gives you a look at newbies in the Council of Ministers
Entrepreneurship hasn't been a cakewalk for him, says Sinha.
In some ways, Elon Musk's vision is even bolder and more transformative than that of Steve Jobs, says B S Prakash.
'It used to sound very strange.' 'That the same child who used to sing Jana Gana Mana the loudest in class, who celebrated August 15 and 26th January with such fervour and who has always nurtured the desire to make India a better nation being called desh drohi.' 'It was very painful.'
'Without doubt, Narasimha Rao confronted huge challenges. Yet, in the very brief period I saw him at the closest of quarters, I have to say that he was simply magnificent. A lifetime of circumspection gave way to courage.'
'What was predictable, but entirely missed by Modi's strident critics, is that the excessive and intemperate demonisation of Modi allowed him to assume his own metaphor -- the underdog, the martyr, the marginalised,' says Dr Aseem Shukla.
