'Love yourselves. Embrace all that this life has in store for you, let your heart be as deep as the deepest ocean and as wide as the farthest horizon.' Beautiful words from Shah Rukh Khan.
Indians in countries like the United States, China, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Egypt, Israel and South Africa celebrated the day with hoisting of the national flag and singing of patriotic songs.
Pop sensation Psy brought the house down 'Gangnam Style' as Incheon laid out the red carpet for over 13,000 competitors from 45 countries with an exhilarating opening ceremony to launch the 17th Asian Games at the main stadium on Friday.
Kanu Behl's Titli is one of the best films from India in recent years, says Aseem Chhabra from the Zurich film festival.
'It's very expensive for a girl to become an actress. I remember I was nominated at all the award shows for Tanu Weds Manu, and conscientiously, like a new actress, I attended all of them and I was bankrupt by the end of it! I had to find a costume stylist, a hair stylist, a makeup stylist...!' Ronjita Kulkarni/Rediff.com gets inside Swara Bhaskar's mind.
Kailash Satyarthi, co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, in front of packed crowd made a rousing speech asking every person to come together and set our children free. He honoured those who came before him and also said that he accepted this honour on behalf of all the martyrs and activists in India. Here's the transcript of his moving acceptance speech.
'The beautiful valleys dotted by standing trees, white rocks and gushing streams were an instant respite for our sleep-deprived eyes.'
'To be complimented for a fantastic performance after just viewing the trailer! This never happened to me before.' 'If you have given a party a mandate for five years, stop blaming it for everything under the sun.' 'My kind of films do not make stars. Now we, the actors, after years of struggle, have created a parallel industry where we have made a name for ourselves. But stars we are not nor can we be.' 'For a boy coming from a remote village of Bihar at the Indo-Nepal border where no transport was available to commute to the nearest town, even coming to Delhi and then Mumbai and finally watching himself on the silver screen was a huge thing!'
'Kejriwal's way of working is 'my way or the highway'. If you don't say Kejriwal zindabad then you will be thrown out of the party.' 'I feel Kejriwal is a very darpook (frightened) man. When he lost in the Lok Sabha elections his strength disappeared and he started compromising.' Aam Aadmi Party rebel Pankaj Pushkar speaks out.
Simanta Roy Buck finds out why Indian-American singer-songwriter Zoya Mohan bought a one-way ticket to Mumbai.
Eight years ago Subhashini's husband Colonel Vasanth was martyred fighting militants in Kashmir. Today, she offers hope to widows of army jawans who lost their lives in the line of duty.
Saurabh Shukla, one of our finest character actors, on his life and movie career.
'She adds value to life in many commendable ways. Apart from her many contributions to our consumer products business and Godrej Properties, she dedicates her energies and resources to charity, to philanthropic causes and most of all how she has managed her time as a wife, mother and entrepreneur brilliantly,' says Adi Godrej.
'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.'
'It all runs on sugar-coated lies. If I like something, I will want to believe it.'
'As the night wore on, we could hear insects, see fireflies and slowly, the stars took over the naked sky.' 'For those of us who spend the largest part of our lives in a cement jungle and wake up to machine sounds, this was music.'
In Muthuvel Karunanidhi's passing, Tamil Nadu has lost the last of its Titans.
Deven Verma passed away into the ages on December 2. We re-publish an interview done with the veteran actor.
Rahul would know that fealty can be a fickle thing, and that if the Congress bucks the trend and actually wins the next national election, selfies with him would find their way from phones to walls, replacing those taken with Modi.
On Hrishikesh Mukherjee's 91st birth anniversary on September 30, we bring back excerpts from a Rediff interview with the brilliant filmmaker, just after the release of his last film, Jhoot Bole Kauwa Kate.
In the piece below, Roy's stepdaughter Trisha Ahmed, a second-year student at Johns Hopkins University, recounts the father she remembers and the attack she's trying to forget.
'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.'
'...But my strong suit will not be dancing,' Kal Penn tells Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com, in the concluding part of the interview.
The Sochi Winter Olympics are meant to be Vladimir Putin's crowning achievement as Russian leader but are in danger of becoming a symbol of his country's problems.
'Asked which Dilip Kumar films were among her favourites, she said she had seen not a single movie of his until that time. This became a sensational issue. She did not mean to offend Dilip Kumar. There was not a bone of diplomacy in her and she never acquired that calculating attitude even at the cost of some of the roles that she would eventually lose.'
'People, who think Sunny Leone comes with baggage, are all humbug. She has made people look at the porn industry with a lot of respect.' Gautami Kapoor on husband Ram Kapoor, Sunny Leone, and her new TV show, Tere Sheher Mein.
Here are Aseem Chhabra's picks -- 'films that mattered to me, entertained me and will stay with me through the year.'
'I want to leave behind the bank stronger and better than when I took over.'
Siddhartha Kaul, president of SOS Children's Villages International that has been involved in earthquake relief work in Nepal, speaks to Rashme Sehgal.
'When you are half decent looking, you want to look like yourself, especially in your first project. But it was important to do justice to the role, especially when it is such a big project. I don't want to play the lead and look like a hero. I am open to do character roles, what is the harm in it?' Dangal actor Aparshakti Khurrana looks ahead in life.
What is it about the charm of the Northeast and its mountains that it takes prisoners?
"When you feel you can't fight it, just go with it." said Robert De Niro's commencement speech to students graduating from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts!
Winners of the 2016 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year.
'If a Delhi University professor's rights can be violated so easily, then think about what the rest of the population, with even lesser means, has to suffer under the State.'
'Smita Patil was the reason I got into films. She kept telling me to get into films but I said I was happy doing theatre, I don't like films. Today, when I look back, I don't think I disliked films. Maybe I thought who would take me in films? I think it was a complex.' Nana Patekar looks back at his life.
They say that cinema is a reflection of society. If that is true, what kind of society are we living in, asks Paloma Sharma.
Director Anil Sharma gives us an insight into the Deol men, and other Bollywood Greats.
India'sstartups have a good beginning but will they survive competition is a big questions which needs immediate attention.
Rediff.com reproduces the 1997 feature about Laxman, his passion for crows, and of course, his genius.
Over Dosas in Mumbai, Oscar winner Megan Mylan tells Vaihayasi Pande Daniel why she chose India and girls empowerment as the subject of her new documentary.
