Bollywood Award Ceremonies

Today, Bollywood is cursed by epidemic of award ceremonies. These ceremonies are used as platform for tieing superstars with production houses. But, now we have atleast 5-10 big award ceremonies and each award is given to strengthen business connection or satisfy the ego of ruling bollywood families.

Starting from the 1950's, Filmfare Awards continue to remain the Big Daddy of Indian film awards - probably because no other award has the might as big as that of Times of India behind it. Long before the Filmfare nominations became the subject of nationwide debate and controversy, it was more of an exercise in bonhomie than any serious competition between actors. Anil Kapoor was given a prize for Beta, which was announced (by Dimple Kapadia) without opening the envelope! . It is one of the most blatantly rigged prizes in the history of film awards.This angered Aamir Khan (in the running for Jo Jeet Wohi Sikandar) so much that he has boycotted the awards ever since!

We have now IFFA award each year (not staged in India) and only bollywood films are in contest with the brand name of Indian film federation awards. No regional language films other than pure commercial bollywood flick can enter the competition. And they call it Indian film awards. A real tribute to diversity of India.Hail Preetesh Nandy!!!

News/Scandel/Controversy: Akshay Kumar has rejected the best popular actor award that he received at the Nokia 15th Annual Star Screen Awards. However, Akshay came with his wife to attend the award function. But, later on when he was presented the Best Popular Actor award he refused to accept it saying that he had watched Ghajini recently and he felt that Aamir Khan, the 'Ghajini' star had done a lot better than him or any other Bollywood actor this year. He said that he believes that Aamir Khan should have won the award irrespective of the fact that he attends award functions or not. It was done by him deliberately either to show true face of awards or as he was not given best actor award for 'Singh is King'. Award for the Best Actor went to Hrithik Roshan, 'Jodha Akbar' star as he attended the award function just in nick of time. Other wise, the prize of best actor would have fall in the laps of Akshay Kumar. It would also be ridiculous for sponsors for presenting best actor award to Akshay in front of Hrithik for 'Singh is King'. To satisfy ego of AK, the sponsors presented him the award of Best popular actor. He just nominate his award to the fellow who does not give damn to the award ceremonies. The point to note here is that it was not critic award for acting but was given for popularity among audience. How can one present his popularity to other which solely depends on fans...

One more article about truth behind award ceremonies is here.

Bottomline:In the end, Bollywood Award Ceremonies are all about loving your sponsors.

Think Global and Act Local

Remember-Globalization causes loss in diversity.

An individual in masses learn when he has single choice or no choice. Otherwise, if anyone learn for the sake of knowledge,the future belong to that individual. He/She is termed as intellect in the society. Intellect learn to adapt and evolve for future. Thinking is affected by cultural heritage and inheritance. For better future, the man will travel far from his home land to other places.

There was stagnation prior to colonization. Only trade and clashes of civilization brings us together. With the growing economies, U.S.A. and U.K. were two primary nation prevailing in the power game. They attract man power from all over the world. Europe is new model as Indian subcontinent for diversity.

Nationalism to internationalism are coming in scene with constant exchange program between scholars and MNC's. Mobility factor of capital as well as labor came with the industrial revolution. Revolution in transport and communication has lessened the distances between human across the world. Global villa dream is coming true.

Bottomline:Think Global and Act Local is new Corporate Mantra.

What is wrong with Media?

Jean Cocteau once reportedly said "Mirrors should reflect a little before throwing back images". Cocteau would have replaced 'mirrors' with 'media' had he been alive after looking at the homogeneity with which global media - print, electronic, independent - represent any event today, thereby often masking the 'truth'.

India is a country of paradox or paradigm. The relief work in bihar floods was well covered by media. Citizen Journalist and Zindagi Live on IBN7 were only two programs worth watching these days. IBN7 is first Indian media company to start official blogs for journalist and editors. This step is worth welcome.

A phrase is much popular in India: "Fame makes everyone an expert in everything."

Our media reports only these experts on any issues. Drama, Tantrum and TRP ratings play huge role in content of news channel. The English news channel are much better in content and mode of presentation. NDTV 24x7 provides quite balanced coverage of news. Hindi news channel like Sahara Samay, Zee News, IBN 7, India TV, Star News, Aaj Tak and Jain TV are worse in the news coverage and presentation. While Star news give quite a lot of coverage to entertainment package of comedy and India TV preaches jingoism message.Jus check the idiotness of one news channel over here. They don't voice lost cause but serious attention is given to religion, cricket and bollywood.

A death at Agartala must have same effect like a death in other part of India. Sadly, it is not. Media Circus in 14 year old Aarushi and servant Hemraj's murder was really a cause to worry. Considering the kind of questions being asked, over and over and over by the media to person at verge of death or loss of relative in an accident, my personal favorite---'How does it feel'?

Example: The experiment conducted in CERN will cause 'Doomsday' was such a cheap prank (When the LHC is switched on, could it "create a shower of unstable black holes that could 'eat' the planet from within;) but it became a super-breaking news across channels in India.

Crap and over hyped events are produced on the name of fast coverage. Sensational news and random heading of breaking news can make you crazy enough. 24 hour coverage of national news (i.e. entertainment) exist only in India. CNN and BBC are 24 hours channel but international coverage of news is taken there. I was smirking that Indian media is one sensationalized. But then I checked out CNN:"Bush hugs bikini-clad US Olympians".

The Hindi media also erupt in a series of poetic headlines in all situations. "Twenty20 ke sher / Twenty overs mein dher" and "Chhe sau run banane wale chhihattar mein chhitraaye".Link of the match;

People must get what they need not what they want.
I have taken these haunting lines from here"Therefore, the news of an Indian winning an award at Berlin Film Festival needs to be reported, the Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights to Dr. Binyak Sen should be seen and, definitely, the voice of Kashmir should be heard.It’s precisely then there could be a balance between what the audience ‘want’ and what the ‘media’ perceives, because perception in itself is formed out of judgment that is routinely based on surveys and rating. But the mere outline of their ‘research’ is faulty because the mass at large is already blinded that they themselves don’t know what they doing. Since their opinions and perceptions are formed out of ideas and judgment that are routinely formed by the ‘spectacle’ of cinema and television, it gives rise to parochialism; often due to the reiterations of the images projected and opinion transferred through dialogues, as also interviews and text bombarded in terms of superlatives not to mention faux “ Breaking News” blurbs.The word 'Exclusive' and 'Breaking news' have lost their significance due to constant repeatable use at every hour.Even,Images,ads and videos are created and seen more from the point of view of consumerism than as an expression of ideas.So many breakdowns, in so short a span of time.

Interestingly, ‘Idol-worship’ continued to be an important part of the culture: socially and politically, where the ‘matinee’ idol embodied an important place in the minds and heart of film lovers. This ‘spirit’ has continued to grow and today in the age of satellite boom the media has populated the images into a state of fetish (Like offering prayers when their superstar is sick, and the media reports it as breaking news). While a win by a film director, at an important film festival, in the competitive section of the festival goes unreported. This type of fetish is seen across India."

Bottom lime:Look guys, beyond the media roller-coaster of champagne and chappals every human life is priceless. Also Read this covergae about our media achievements in 2008.

Unity in Diversity

Rahul Basu rightly reviews the book 'India after Gandhi' in these lines. I really liked them for clear construction of his thought on such a vast topic. "It has become fashionable to deride and denigrate Nehru and Nehruvian socialism and secularism. But it is the Nehruvian ideal, the cliche of 'unity in diversity' that has precisely seen the country through the shocks of more than half a century. It was precisely Nehru's insistence that every culture, every language, every religion, every creed, every caste would have its own place in the Indian polity that, illogically enough, has kept the country together. There has never been an overarching dominant culture to which all others have had to defer. India might be predominantly Hindu, but by no means is it a Hindu Pakistan. "

We need to understand that the cliche “Unity in Diversity” goes beyond the words. Our rich cultural heritage and diversity extends well beyond language and variety in indian cuisine. Cultural, Linguistic, geographical and wildlife diversity of the region gives a rough idea about it.India is so diverse that one life time is not sufficient for anyone to know what exactly it is. The beauty of it lies in diversity. Just imagine how we will be if we were of the same religion, same caste, same color and ofcourse in a tiny country but we aren't and gifted with vast country, different cultures and ofcourse languages. If we all look same in our way of living, race, color and region then aren't we missing a chance to explore this so many wonderful ways of living.

Indians are intelligent enough and our centuries practiced tolerance for diversity has equipped us with strong skills of adaptation. The diversity is mind boggling to foreigners not only in terms cultures & food but the psyche of the people as well. The difference in the south itself is apparent in the way the society has evolved in the last 60 years of independence, where Kerala has taken strides in the social front and rural infrastructure way better than most of the northern states… Karnataka, AP and Tamilnadu have been successful in the new age industries of IT and biotech. Gujjus and marvaris are predominantly business oriented. Among the troops, there is more representation from punjab, haryana, himachal, UP, MP, bihar, rajasthan. Still, Diversity shouldn’t be sacrificed for the sake of a unifying identity.

Amalgam of ethnicity and races against Indian background. It is Melting Pots: Mosaic [Hybrid Culture and Religion]. India as new model for both bio and ethnic diversity. Place of birth of 4 major religion: Hindu, Jainism, Buddhism & Sikhism. Muslim and Christian are fairly adopted here.Jews were given shelter when they were bashed all over the world. Business, Invasion, Settlement and adaption to provide rich heritage. Indian subcontinent is well diverse in each aspect of culture. India, amidst her diversity still stands incredible to the world because she has the ability to evolve while retaining her uniqueness.

Only Europe can match its diversity but not quality. Look at Europe. It got split into small little countries because of the language and culture differences. And today, amazingly they are uniting again, under the flag of EU. It makes economic sense.

Let me end the topic with few quotes:

Rene Dubos -"Human diversity makes tolerance more than a virtue; it makes it a requirement for survival".

Jimmy Carter -"We have become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic of different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes and different dreams".

Helen Keller - "Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much".

Mikhail Gorbachev "Peace is not unity in similarity but unity in diversity, in the comparison and conciliation of differences".

Brutual Murder of Mr.M K Gupta

This year ends with a sad note about one of our alumni being killed by political mafia. Mr. Manoj Gupta (Civil 1979) was Class I executive engineer of PWD dept. in UP, near Kanpur. He was killed by local mafia and BSP MLA for refusing to donate Rs. 50 lakhs for celebration of birthday on 15 Jan for chief minister, Mayawati. Due to political fallout, the birthday party (for which Rs.1,000 crores were collected) has been canceled. It is a great loss to our IT-BHU community. We are planning to take action on legal, political and media front. An information page is posted on our website by Pramod Joshi, 1979 batch.

http://www.itbhuglobal.org/chapters/geo/delhi/archives/2008/12/manoj_gupta_79.php

Additional links:

1) Mayaʼs claim falls flat: no engineer behind killing

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/mayas-claim-falls-flat-no-engineer-behind-k.../403547/

2) Mayawati cancels birthday celebrations

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1216934

3) Slain engineerʼs son declines Maya's compensation

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1216935

4) 32 torture marks on murdered UP engineer

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1216620&pageid=0

5) Rattled Maya reads out riot act to partymen

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Rattled_Maya_reads_out_riot_act_to_partymen/articleshow/3897843.cms

6) Rahul plea on engineer at odds with ally

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1081227/jsp/nation/story_10307906.jsp

Please flash this news to all our Alumni and appeal them for a protest. The form of protest could be signature campaign to the Honorable Governor of UP and The Honorable President of India. Please do the needful at the earliest. looking forward to your kind reply and help.