'I wish I had done Andhadhun. I wish I had done Varun Dhawan's role in Badlapur. I wish Rajkummar Rao ki aadhi career meri hoti.'
The Learjet 45XR aircraft, which was carrying Ajit Pawar and four others from Mumbai, crashed near Baramati airport at 8.48 am on Wednesday.
Ranveer Singh opts out of Farhan Akhtar's Don 3. Syed Firdaus Ashraf tries to piece together the puzzle.
In O'Romeo, Shahid Kapoor plays dreaded gangster Hussain Ustara, whose life has been touched upon in S Hussain Zaidi and Jane Borges' book Mafia Queens.
Ajit Pawar granted Rediff an interview in Baramati at 6 am. Why? 'To be a successful politician one needs to sleep less, and I never sleep for more than 4 hours' Ajit Pawar told Syed Firdaus Ashraf as Hitesh Harisinghani/Rediff captured the encounter on his camera.
'Whether we like it or not, we have been separated by the Meiteis and therefore we have put up our demand for a separate administration in the form of a Union territory with legislature.' 'For us lasting peace is the achievement of our demand.'
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut says he is undergoing treatment for serious health issues and has been advised to avoid public interaction.
'We have given riot-free Maharashtra in our 18-month rule.'
'Many senior Bangladeshis feel Bangladesh will fall into anarchy if the Jamaat becomes an important part of a future government or has disproportionate influence in the government.'
'Both Rahul and Modi are the same in the way they run their parties. Modi too wants faceless people and so does Rahul Gandhi.'
'Critics say the political leadership abandoned the army chief or did not back him. I disagree. 'Military leaders are trained to take decisions when given a free hand.' 'This was a clear go-ahead from the prime minister to the army chief.'
'Established filmmakers want to go with the sequels of earlier hit films like Housefull 5 or Mastiii 4. They don't want to come up with fresh ideas. This is pure laziness.'
'If you want to force the press into blacking out the Opposition's views or colour the news to your own liking, we will not do so.' 'We stand by freedom of expression. It is our Constitutional right. We stand by our Constitutional right.'
'Kashmir needs to be divided and we need the land of Panun Kashmir in Kashmir.'
'This daylight robbery of elections is happening in the commercial capital of India, Mumbai city, so you can imagine what they will do to win elections in the interiors of India.'
Avatar: Fire And Ash is visually stunning and emotionally engaging, offering strong performances and thrilling action, notes Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
Dhurandhar's most dangerous idea is that Director Aditya Dhar envisions an Indian state run by a deep state -- an intelligence machinery not accountable to Parliament, courts, or voters. A future political system where unelected officials decide when Indian democracy is 'fit' to function, observes Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
Gustaakh Ishq feels like a cinematic revival of everything we once loved about Urdu story-telling, observes Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
'I don't want to be called a new Indian voter when I am an old Indian voter.'
'The worst part is that after the attack on December 9, the Dehradun police refused to register an FIR for the murder.'
'Jan Suraaj Party was the BJP's 'B' team. It is proven now.' 'You have seen their performance and it proves that they only worked to dent Opposition votes by working for the BJP.'
'If a common man wants to buy an air purifier for Rs 10,000, then he will have to shell out Rs 11,800 with 18 percent GST.' 'If he is charged GST at 5 percent the same air purifier will cost Rs 10,500.' 'This saves a one time amount of Rs 1,300 -- and that too just to breathe clean air.'
Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon 2 may be a comedy filled with chaos, but in its indirect way, it speaks about a time when the Constitution mattered more than one's religion and when the idea of India was larger than personal hate, observes Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
As the year draws to a close, Rediff's Senior Contributor Roshmila Bhattacharya takes a look at the hits and misses, the highs and lows, the newsmakers and the dealbreakers in alphabetical order.
'Trump had done a deal with the current regime minus Maduro. The current regime is giving Trump entry into Venezuelan oil. They are obeying him and doing whatever he says.' 'They are happy because they have saved their heads by sacrificing only two, Maduro and his wife. Thousands of Venezuelan military leaders would have been jailed or killed in American action had Maduro stayed in power.'
'We are not AI. We are allowed to break, and rebuild.'
'There is no substantive basis for Bangladesh-Pakistan relations. The only real link they can have is mischief, with Pakistan's intelligence agency using Bangladesh to create trouble along our eastern borders.'
'MGNREGA was about a guaranteed right to work.' 'The new law does not guarantee employment at all.' 'It removes everything that made MGNREGA a legal guarantee.'
'Even today illegal foreign immigrants live in Assam and their names might be on the voters list. This we can get rid of only by doing SIR.'
'IndiGo is fooling the country and the government has succumbed to it.'
Syed Firdaus Ashraf hopes that Nishaanchi will be a blockbuster like its trailer.
'The natural barrier that is Aravalli, you are demolishing it, then who will stop the desert?' 'In future, I predict that people will roam around with oxygen cylinders in Delhi because they won't be able to breathe.'
If the Thackerays don't save a Marathi school in their backyard, who will, wonders Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
'The implementation of the judgment has largely been left to the discretion of the very executive authorities it sought to restrain.'
The actor will soon star in and as Mrs Deshpande, directed by Nagesh Kukunoor.
'It makes law-making on the part of the state governments much more difficult and throws up bottlenecks as governors are not acting on bills.'
'Even as the Supreme Court's anti-punitive demolition judgment nears its first anniversary, no formal contempt proceedings have been initiated either by the Supreme Court or any high court against officers or demolition squads who have acted in violation of it.'
'When you compare Bihar's poverty from its earlier times, then there is a huge difference. Things have improved a lot. And migration has played an important role in reducing poverty.'
'The BJP only talks of Kashmiri Pandits when elections are held.'
A seasoned politician and two-term Member of Parliament, Dr Shakeel Ahmad, who has served as a Union minister and senior Congress leader, resigned from the Congress party, marking the end of his decades-long association with an organisation that his family has been part of for three generations. In an interview with Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff he speaks why he quit the party.
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