Australia's former cricket star Shane Warne, who likens his turbulent personal life to a soap opera, has been won over by a new musical play based on his antics on and off the field. Warne is the subject of "Shane Warne: The Musical", which opened in his home-town of Melbourne and takes a light-hearted look at his life, including notorious text messages to and from female admirers, his infidelities on tour, and the well-publicised break up of his marriage to wife Simone.
It's not everyday that one gets to direct the man, who directed the brilliant Dil Chahta Hai. But Abhishek Kapoor does just that in Rock On!, in which Farhan Akhtar makes his acting and singing debut.
'Gujarat is number one in public relations and marketing. Gujarat's PR is strong, it washes like a strong washing soap... The third phase is ours. It is our family and household elections, let him come there... Banaras and UP have taken on the challenge.' Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav tells Rediff.com contributor Neeta Kolhatkar how he plans to keep Narendra Modi at bay.
With viewers rallying behind mythological stories like Ramayana and Mahabharata, broadcasters like Star Plus, NDTV Imagine and Zee TV, among others, are hoping to generate at least Rs 150-200 crore (Rs 1.5 billion to 2 billion) from advertisers in the next one year, accounting for about 10-12 per cent of the total advertising revenue generated between the top six general entertainment channels. Till recently, soaps, dramas and thrillers were attracting advertisers and viewers
The railway ministry is in talks some consumer goods companies which are keen to advertise their products like soap, shampoo and perfume on train tickets. "The modalities are being worked out for dispensing perfumed tickets. To begin with, it may be introduced for monthly tickets and then for other select categories," said a senior railway ministry official.
TVs, air conditioners, washing machines, inverters, refrigerators, electric fans and cooking appliances may become cheaper
From a family sharing a single towel for a year and using just a pair of bedsheets annually. . . the bed and bath soft furnishing range has a come long way in India. "Towels and bedsheets are no longer perceived as 'commodities', they are now viewed as fashion products", said Rajiv Merchant, CEO, Domestic Division, Creative Portico, branded player in bed and bath soft furnishing.
Surfing for some decent entertainment on the idiot box can be quite a struggle. Like I keep discovering every time I have the remote control all to myself.
With Bharti Airtel making it to the list of top-ten advertisers of the year, cellular phone service providers as a category have overthrown fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) products such as toilet soaps and shampoos to emerge as the top advertising category on television in 2007.
It's not easy replacing a popular character. But Sukriti Khandpal has not done too bad for herself. The actress, who replaced Shilpa Anand as Dr Riddhima in Dill Mill Gayee, is doing ver well for herself.
From apparel, healthcare products and furnishings to consumer items like soaps, private labels are making their presence felt in a variety of retail items. Though private labels are late entrants, they are catching up fast. In the last couple of years, private labels have seen unprecedented growth with the entry of retailers such as Future Group, Shopper's Stop and Vishal Megamart.
From a wild card entrant on Season 2 of Comedy Circus, Juhi Parmar, popular for her soap Kumkum, along with her partner VIP beat Kamya Punjabi and Rajiv Thakur to win the hilarious reality series.
A few years ago Mehreen Jabbar took a trip back home to Pakistan -- a visit required for her green card application process. Jabbar had worked for nearly 13 years producing and directing soap operas for Pakistani television, often while living in New York. During the visit, her father handed her an outline of a film script based on a true incident.
It cannot be a comedy -- the jokes are terrible. It may have qualified as an action film, since it involves the underworld. But there is really no action to speak of here. Can we put it in the Drama category? Well, the film has drama, yes. But it's the type that makes you want to pull your hair apart.
'Maharashtra has 34,000 active cases, of which 24,000 are asymptomatic, and hence need no medicines but are under quarantine.' '9,500 cases are showing mild to severe symptoms.' 'While 1,200 are seriously ill, only 200 of them are on ventilator support.' 'Let those claiming that the situation in the state has gone out of control, look at these numbers objectively before damaging the state's reputation for political gains.'
Trishna is back in Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki after a long gap to create havoc in the lives of the Agarwal family. Mita Vashisht, the actress who plays Trishna, tells Rajul Hegde about her comeback and why she thinks Balaji Telefilms rock!
Gautami Kapoor, on the latest developments going on, on the sets of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.
If Pakistan is today on the brink, the blame should be squarely put on the US and the other Western nations.
Wipro Technologies, which runs the global IT business of the IT-to-soaps conglomerate, is looking to increase its business from Japan and the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. It sees a strong demand for intellectual property (IP) in areas such as semiconductors, System on Chip (SoC) and Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC) design coming from Japan and the APAC region, which is emerging as the new growth engine of the world.
Calling out the high real interest rates -- the differential between the policy rate and headline inflation -- as an impediment to investment, the SBI report said the RBI can cut rates by 0.35-0.50 per cent at its next policy announcement.
Wipro Limited, the $5 billion software to soaps major, has reported a 25 per cent increase in its net profit for the first quarter of the current fiscal as against the corresponding period of last fiscal. The topline has increased by 43 per cent.The net profit has smarted up to Rs 908 crore (Rs 9.08 billion)for the first quarter, while the topline has moved to Rs 5,967 crore (Rs 59.67 billion).
In a recent survey conducted by Lifebuoy soap and research body AC Nielson ORG MARG, Lucknow has been ranked sixth on city cleanliness.
'The facilities here are neat and clean; proper hygiene is maintained.' 'This is better than what we had expected in India.'
Competition-induced consumer awareness creates a virtuous circle of greater corporate responsibility
'Infectious disease is a given of humankind. There will always be another around the corner.'
Inflation has zoomed to a high of 11.42 per cent for the week ended June 14, 2008, against 11.05 per cent in the previous week.
Yash Pandit tells us how he became Lakshya in Star Plus' Kyun Ki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.
This summer, infact the first half of this year has been quite dry with hardly any hits.
Remember Jhalak Thakkar, the lady who had replaced Neha Devi Singh as Bhoomi in Saarthi? After Saarthi went off air in February, Jhalak took a short break. It seems the actress is back in a new yet-to-be-named show.
'The social distancing vaccine.' 'And the mask vaccine.' 'If you adhere to these two vaccines and go and meet people in a well-ventilated room -- not in an enclosed, non-ventilated, room -- you are probably going to be okay.'
Television star, Shweta Salve speaks about her recent photoshoot for Maxim, where she posed in a bikini.
Televsion actress Kritika Kamra returns to the small screen after a two year hiatus with Reporters.
Karenjit Kaur: The Untold Story of Sunny Leoneis too boring to celebrate her, too dull to criticise, says Sukanya Verma.
As the market grows young, old brands go under the knife. In 1897, a young man named Ardeshir Godrej gave up law and turned to making locks. He went on to make safes and security equipment, and toilet soap from vegetable oil. He wouldn't have imagined that one day the business that started after his name would grow into a conglomerate with over Rs 7,000 crore (Rs 70 billion) in revenues, or that one of its top executives would wear long, red-streaked hair.
'If this is how the audience likes me, I will continue doing it.'
Prithviraj's new film is like a telly soap. It could have been a good film if it had been well-edited.
Thanks to India's increasingly open economy, no one there seems to want much from the West any more.
'What motivated us was that a lot of people, especially youngsters, had a negative image about India.'
Forget crosswords. If you really want to boost your brain power, eat dark chocolate, consume cold meat and have plenty of sex, if possible every day.
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