John Lang represented Rani Laxmibai in her legal battle against the East India Company to prevent the British from annexing her kingdom of Jhansi. Rediff.com's Archana Masih on a maverick Aussie who spent 22 years in India and became a friend in its dark days of bondage.
Singing doyen Lata Mangeshkar, who turns 86 today, September 28, looks back at her glorious singing career with Subhash K Jha.
Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi talks about the Bihar polls with M I Khan/Rediff.com
Shah Rukh Khan turned 25! we are not kidding, he actually completed 25 years in Hindi film Industry.
'We used to have beautifully crafted, witty and touching duets which taught the genders how to speak and romance each other.' 'Where else would we get the genius of Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle from?'
Following is the full text of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the 73rd Independence Day.
'Alia is brighter than me. I am extremely happy and proud that without her father's help, she has had a successful journey. People didn't think that a girl who was danced to Radha (a hit song in Student Of The Year) could do such serious acting as well.' Mahesh Bhatt, in a candid chat.
Shobha Deepak Singh, whose association with the legendary Kishori Amonkar, spanned 35 years, shares her memories of the musical genius.
Senior officers admit the BJP's revival, and the mainstreaming of the Hindutva narrative that has accompanied this political shift, have complicated communal relations within the army.
'I may not indulge in chest thumping to express my patriotism every day.' 'I may be cynical about many things happening in our country.' 'I may not roar Bharat Mata Ki Jai at the top of my voice. But I still love my country, just as one loves one's parents with all their weaknesses.' 'Does that make me any less of a patriot?' asks Shobha Warrier.
Showbiz shaadis that made headlines in 2014.
'My final destination is to buy a house in Los Angeles, which means you are such a big star that the whole world knows you!' But for now, Kushal Paul is happy with his Sa Re Ga Ma Pa win.
Yesteryear's heart-throb Shashi Kapoor will get the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke award for his contribution to Indian cinema. On this occasion, we reproduce Dinesh Raheja's nostalgia piece on the actor here:
25 years on, we see how these actors have fared.
Nitesh Sonawane did not let his disability come in the way of his musical dream. In fact, he made it his strength.
Photographs tell us so much about the person!
'If Haider petitions the court and the government for legitimate rights it is called minority appeasement, but when Hardik orchestrates violence he is lionised, romanticised and given huge media space that ends up both legitimising and oxygenating his movement, no matter how contrary it is to the Rule of Law,' argues Shehzad Poonawalla.
'Generations pass by, but those fighting for justice are still not seeing the end to so many cases.'
Here's what happened at the Sultan trailer launch!
'My biggest challenge was getting into the head of the character.' Aamir Khan talks about his big release, PK.
Sukanya Verma revisits Gulzar's Ghalib and finds Barsaat, and Free Love!
When it comes to the winning strike rate, Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal has emerged victorious on eight of every ten seats it contested while only one of the every three Bharatiya Janata Party candidates managed to win.
It is time to reset expectations as government will move with alacrity on social policy, not on economic reforms.
The actress released her statement recently, deriding irresponsible reporting of the incident.
The incomparable Mohammed Rafi would have turned 93 today, December 24. Raju Bharatan salutes the legend.
'The spread of barbarity in Muzaffarnagar's villages makes administrative complicity so very evident that your government is rightly alleged to be imitating what the Modi-led administration did in Gujarat in 2002,' Mohammad Sajjad tells UP Minister Azam Khan.
'In today's India very few would, of course, stand Basavanna's test. This led Professor Kalburgi to not only take on casteist and conservative forces in general, but also some powerful conservatives among Lingayats.' 'Conservatives found him polarising and some researchers disagreed with his speculations while admiring his scholarship, but he posited that culture studies and historians have to perforce join the dots, speculate, interpret, interpolate, extrapolate and take leaps to make progress even if some of them later turn out to be wrong.' Shivanand Kanavi salutes Professor M M Kalburgi, the scholar who was assassinated in Dharwad on Sunday, August 30.
Incidents of arson, firing and vandalism were reported from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Punjab as protesters agitated against the dilution of the SC/ST Act.
Bollywood's Badshah turns 50 on November 2, and it's time to celebrate his life and movies.
Will the Aam Aadmi Party repeat its magic or are Delhi voters going to reprimand it for party chief Arvind Kejriwal's maverick 49-day chief ministership in the upcoming state assembly elections? Search for the answer led me to party ideologue Yogendra Yadav, who appears to have some justification and back-of-the-envelope calculations to suggest that his party stands a chance, despite rival Bharatiya Janata Party's surge in other recent state polls.
'By resorting to divisive issues, the BJP is giving the impression that even if it is voted to power it won't do anything new to give Bihar a facelift. It will repel voters with the belief that the BJP can't do anything without communal polarisation as its core ideology. This is sad and unfortunate,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
Sumedha Raikar-Mhatre examines the Marathi film industry, which annually produces around 190 dissimilar films that requires an investment of Rs 400 crores.
Mrinal Pande remembers Rajendra Yadav, one of the most prolific fiction writers and thinkers of Hindi literature in the recent times, who passed away on Monday.
The ordinary life lived in Pakistan is rarely a part of Indian imagination. This is this gap that Pakistani television serials have succeeded in bridging, says Mohammad Asim Siddiqui.
Prince William and Princess Catherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, collected quite a few Mumbai hearts on a hot two days in April.
How many of these have aged well?
Giving up cricket isn't easy for a cricketer especially when you are the son of a cricket legend.
Samuel Stokes made India his home and participated in the freedom struggle. He was the only American to be imprisoned for sedition; the British CID maintained a special file on him.
