Top lyricists ‘shocked’ to see names in credits for ‘PM Modi’ movie

Two senior Bollywood lyricists, Javed Akhtar and Sameer, said on Friday they were “shocked” to find their names in the credits on a poster of an upcoming film on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Both denied having written songs for the movie, which is due for release on April 5, before Phase I of the Lok Sabha polls.


The trailer of the movie, titled ‘PM Narendra Modi’, and produced by actor Suresh Oberoi, Anand Pandit, Acharya Manish and Sandip Singh, was released on Thursday. On Friday morning, Akhtar tweeted, “Am shocked to find my name on the poster of this film. Have not written any songs for it!”

Sameer told TOI, “This is the first time in the history of our cinema that I think this is happening. Javed sahab rang me today and both of us were shocked at finding our names on the poster. More surprising is that none of the crew members are reachable. Neither the producer nor the director are answering calls, or their phones are switched off. Even team assistants are not available. We must know who put our names against songs we haven’t written.”

Producers of Modi film ‘go incommunicado’

One of the composers, Hitesh Modak, confirmed to TOI that he has given music for the film. However, when TOI put forward the lyricists’ denials, he disconnected the line. The phone was switched off afterwards.

The film features Vivek Oberoi in the lead and is directed by Omung Kumar Bhandula, who had earlier directed the Mary Kom biopic. The Oberois were not available for comment. A woman who picked up the phone at Pandit’s Juhu address first said he was not home and then denied it was his number. Another lyricist whose name figures on the poster, Prasoon Joshi, did not answer calls or text messages.

Sameer said he also contacted a senior officer at T-Series, which is releasing the music. According to Sameer, that officer too knew little about the source of information. “We are perturbed and will have to take some sort of action,” he said.

Meanwhile, the NCP’s cultural wing has submitted objections to the biopic’s release to the Pune district collector stating that the film’s release will amount to the violation of the election code of conduct. The wing hopes that the objections would be forwarded to the Election Commission of India (ECI) for appropriate action. NCP’s Babasheb Patil told TOI the ECI should ban release of the trailors on TV and social media. On March15, the Goa unit of the National Students’ Union of India had urged the ECI to ban the film’s screening in theatres during the 48-hour silence period.


Javed Akhtar

Zakir’s Dubai aide who gave ₹79cr held in laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate told a special PMLA court on Friday that controversial preacher Zakir Naik’s company, Harmony Media Private Ltd (HMPL), received Rs 79 crore from the Dubai-based Global Broadcasting Company (GBC) and the money was used to produce speeches and reach a wider audience through Peace TV. The investigating agency on Friday arrested the “director” of GBC, Abdul Najmudin Sathak (61), alleged to be a close aide of Naik, and accused him of actively aiding him in money-laundering.


Sathak, a jeweller in Dubai, has been in India since January 2018. Seeking his custody, ED counsel Hiten Venegaonkar said while the agency believed GBC’s source of funds was under a cloud, Sathak in his January 2018 statement had claimed the company’s revenues were generated out of donations received from corporations owned by the crown prince of UAE or his family or other donors.


‘Mumbai, Pune flats among ₹193cr assets’
The probe against Zakir Naik has found undisclosed assets worth over Rs 193 crore, including booking 20 flats in Mumbai and Pune, besides bank deposits. The ED said Naik organised “dubious donations” and used them to buy properties, like nine flats in Fatima Heights and Aafiyah Heights in Mumbai worth over Rs 13 crore and 11 flats in Engracia in Pune. P 6

It was Naik who controlled UAE firm: ED

“It, therefore, appears that UAE and other Emirates funded Peace TV and content production for the channel for reasons beyond pious activity. Sathak is a direct player in the matter... He avoided clearly coming out with specific details on the business model, revenue sources, and nature and mode of funding of GBC, which runs Peace TV,” ED said. ED submitted that both companies, GBC and HMPL, were controlled by Naik. “The accused (Sathak) was merely a front. The company received donations… transferred to HMPL in the guise of business transactions. He has knowingly assisted Naik in layering and receiving the proceeds of crime,” ED said.

Special judge M S Azmi sent Sathak to ED custody until Wednesday. “Various details with regard to transactions are required to be gathered, which are essential for the investigations,” the court said. Referring to the Rs 79 crore, ED said the money was received from 2005-06 to 2015-16. It said that Rs 9 crore given as advance was still pending with HMPL and Sathak never bothered to demand the money. It said this strengthened the case that both companies were indirectly owned by Naik. ED also raised suspicions on Sathak’s claims that GBC (worth Rs 70 crore) was sold to a UK national, a technocrat, in 2017. It said that to avoid arrest Sathak came to India in December 2017 and entered the country by land from Nepal. Sathak’s defence claimed he had arrived in Chennai to attend his son’s wedding and had gone to Nepal to procure labour for his Dubai business. The ED claimed that Sathak also had a personal business relationship with Naik and invested 35 million dirhams (Rs 66 crore) in his real estate venture in Dubai.

New Nigerian fraud through olx

+234 807 330 7259 from this number I have received WhatsApp messages for purchasing items of olx, and asking my bank details. This Nigerian person said

Am Day Jonathan from USA Maryland wanting this item for my newly setup orphanage in Jalandhar, in India, which I will make payment via bank to bank to bank transfer into your account and I will offer you 24,000 rs including the shipment cost to my orphanage home.Let me know if you are okay with the deal before proceeding my friend.

So send me your bank account details including your ifsc code and email address so as my bank to send a copy of receipt to you too after making payment okay my friend.

Full name :

Bank name :

Acct no :

Ifsc code :

Email address :

Then I checked isd code found that this person from Nigeria, and asked him you are doing fraud, as soon as I sent this message he blocked me. Be aware. 

MONEY IS ALMOST A NEGATIVE VALUE IN OUR FAMILY

MONEY IS ALMOST A NEGATIVE VALUE IN OUR FAMILY

  er   Pallavi Sharda, 25, is an Australia-born
Indian, who harboured the dream of being in Bollywood right from her childhood. She is emotional and reacts quickly, though she tries to maintain a straight face, being trained as a lawyer. She is extremely close to her academic and independent family, but considers her brother her soulmate without whom she would often feel morose even as a kid. She just wants to make her parents proud and be able to hold her head high and is extremely proud that she bagged her role in the upcoming film Besharam purely on merit. She is naturally happy but has a tendency to get into contemplative phases, where she will stare into space all by herself. Her parents always gave her a lot of space and respect and allowed her to take her decisions by herself. She loves baking for people and is known as the Bandra chaiwalli. She talks to Bombay Times about her Indian-Australian upbringing, her observation on her co-star Ranbir Kapoor and how the Indian-Australian issues were sensationalised by the Indian media. Excerpts:
Tell us about your background? We are Saraswat Brahmins. My father is originally from Punjab and my mother from UP, but they both grew up in Delhi. They are both engineers from IIT and are now professors in Australia. Their romance was like 3 Idiots as my nanaji was a professor at IIT and my father was his junior, who fell in love with his daughter on the campus and married her. My mother’s family had migrated to the US and my father loved adventure and travel and moved to Australia, just after my brother was born. Even though my father was really sought after, he was always an academic soul. Money is almost a negative value in our family. Three years later I was born in Perth and grew up in Melbourne. My brother and I were also academically inclined and I finished school at 16, as I skipped a year due to a double promotion. I finished my double degree in Law and BA within four-and-a-half years instead of six, as I wanted to just come to India to be a part of Bollywood. From the time I could enunciate that word from my childhood, I had only dreamt of being a Bollywood actress.
Tell us about your life as an Australian Indian? I learnt Bharatnatyam since the age of three. Most parents would drag their kids to class. In my case, I would be dragging them to take me to class. I am a dancer before I am anything else. I grew up on Madhuri and Sridevi. After Lamhe, I was always known as Pallu the dancer. I later started teaching dance while studying. We learnt Hindi watching films. When you live abroad, you are more in touch with your roots. The Indian community is close-knit, your functions revolve around the same set of people and you have exposure to different Indian cultures. In Australia, I was the heralding Indian woman carrying my Indian culture everywhere. On my casual clothes day, I would wear a lehenga choli to school and would often wear a bindi to McDonalds.
How did you bag a role with a big star like Ranbir Kapoor? I have always been extremely independent. I travelled to Chennai alone at the age of 10 to learn dance at Kalakshetra. I went to school in Chennai for six months as that was my dad’s condition for allowing me to go to Chennai. I was this absurd child who regretted not being born in India and the Bollywood fantasy was too much inside me. Now I think it’s got balanced out as I live here. My mom, unlike other NRIs, would come to India three times a year being the head of South Asia relationship for her university and I would come with her. I travelled every nook and corner of the country. But the Bollywood dream never left me. I would watch films and come home and feel morose as I wanted to be a part of them. I had told everyone and, when I finally came, no one was surprised as it was inevitable. During my law internship, I only remember emailing production houses in India during my lunch hour. I was crazy and knew I had to do it, as I would otherwise regret it for the rest of my life. I just wanted to dance in films. I was 21 when I first came here. I did a bit of theatre and was a lead actress in Vaibhavi Merchant’s musical Taj Express due to my dance. I did a small film called Dus Tola with Manoj Bajpayee. I did not want to become a famous actress, I just wanted to work. I also did a small role in Love Breakups Zindagi and an Australian film. I always knew that I am hardworking, passionate and knew dance, but did not know how to navigate my life in Bollywood. Abhinav Kashyap met me at a screening and two months later I got a call to audition for Besharam. He told me, ‘It’s a fair game. You audition. If you are good, we take it forward.’ It’s rare to be made to feel that way and I respect him because of the way he believes in merit. After several rounds of audition, I was selected.
How was the experience of working with Ranbir? I was so ecstatic on my way back after being selected in a Ranbir film that I put on blasting music in my car. I had never dreamt of walking a red carpet. My dream had only been to be in a khet dancing, wearing a salwar kameez with a hero singing to me. Ranbir is very supportive and a fabulous actor. He was really focused on the set and just remained in his character. I would observe him on what he would do between shots. For instance, there is a scene where there is tension between our characters and he had to be a bit awkward and fidgety. Between shots, he kept playing with a piece of paper to remain fidgety.
Is Melbourne back to being safe for Indian tourists and students? I remember when I came to Mumbai, I said, ‘Namaste aunty’ and they made me feel I had said something so tacky. I was considered backward and I called my mom to say, ‘You made me a villager.’ But I still do that, as it reminds me of my roots and makes me feel nostalgic about the way I grew up. In Melbourne, I could be so Indian and Australian at the same time and have no qualms about my heritage. What was carried in Indian media was sensational. My mother would hold a Diwali dinner for all the Indian students in our house and would provide pastoral care to them as they were immigrants. So when I heard about this disharmony, where I had grown up in so much harmony and been given the freedom to live as an Indian-Australian, it bothered me and I went back to see if it was true. If you have a sudden jump in the number of immigrants in any society, there are issues, but those are only teething problems. It is peaceful today. Melbourne is a multicultural place. I was the ambassador for Australia last year, as the High Commission felt I stood for Indian culture, having been a young leader in many walks of life and a role model to Indians in Australia through my dance. I am known within the Indian community there. I went home this time in May and the reaction of the Indian public was so overwhelming. I cried meeting all my uncles and aunties. I knew that it was the dandiya nights and the chana jor garam nights they had organised that had made me realise how much I loved Indian dance and music. And that is probably how I have been able to play the role of Tara in Besharam, who is a very Indian girl who never left India.

Pallavi Sharda

Pallavi Sharda

Pallavi with her parents and brother

We miss Sanju a lot:Apoorva Lakhia

    Sanjay Dutt was extremely tense before surrendering himself to the authorities in May, but that did not stop the actor from living up to his professional commitments. Just two days before his arrest, the actor completed the dubbing for Zanjeer from his home itself.
    Director Apoorva Lakhia says that Dutt’s commitment to his work, even at that crucial moment, had left his team dumbfounded. “When the verdict was first announced, he assured us that no matter what happened, none of his films would suffer. And he lived up to his word. It was awesome just to watch him go about doing his work despite the storm,” says Lakhia.
    Dutt plays Sher Khan, a role essayed by the late Pran in the original. Lakhia adds, “I still remember when we offered him the role of Sher Khan, he was so excited. He has portrayed it with full passion. The entire team wanted him to be there during the release of the film. We miss Sanju a lot.”
    Priyanka Chopra says, “I’ve been a huge fan of Sanju sir. He has been an integral part of the film, adding his own brand to the character. I wish him and his family strength and courage.”
    Zanjeer, produced by Reliance Entertainment, Puneet Prakash Mehra, Sumeet Prakash Mehra and Flying Turtle Films, releases September 6.

Apoorva Lakhia

Sanjay Dutt in Zanjeer

I don’t think I can be a part of Golmaal again: Sharman

I don’t think I can be a part of Golmaal again: Sharman

    Bombay Times met Sharman Joshi on the set of War Chod Na Yaar in Rajasthan where he spoke on on various topics, the most prominent being his relationship with Rohit Shetty’s Golmaal franchise. Owing to date issues, the actor was replaced by Shreyas Talpade in Golmaal Returns. Given the popularity of the franchise, we asked if Sharman would want to go back to the comic series. He said, “Golmaal is not the kind of genre I wanted to continue doing. I don’t have an issue with comedy, but as an actor, I had already explored that particular space in the first film. It wasn’t exciting for me anymore. Every project that I pick should pose a new challenge for me. I don’t think I can be a part of Golmaal again. I had fun shooting for it but I want to do something else now. Rohit is a big director. If he chooses me to be a part of a new project I will be more than honoured.”

Sharman Joshi

Kiran Rao calls Avantika Bahurani

Kiran Rao calls Avantika Bahurani

    For the longest time, everyone spoke of how the Bachchan parivaar addressed their daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as bahurani. They also affectionately referred to her as pari (fairy) on occasion. Now, we have another bahurani in BTown. Kiran Rao, Aamir Khan’s wife calls Avantika Malik, Imran Khan’s wife as bahurani. 
    When Kiran visits Imran’s residence, the first thing she asks the domestic help is whether bahurani is around. And Avantika loves it.

Avantika Malik

Kiran Rao