Adnan Sami’s staff called ‘Indian dogs’ at Kuwait airport; Sushma takes note

Jun 25: Bollywood star Sushant Singh Rajput’s last movie “Dil Bechara” is getting a release on Disney+Hotstar on July 24.

With an aim to honour the legacy of the actor, the streaming platform is making the movie available to even the non-subscribers.

Rajput was found dead at his Bandra home on June 14 at the age of 34.

Billed as a soulful love story, “Dil Bechara” marks the directorial debut of casting director and Rajput's industry friend Mukesh Chhabra. The film is produced by Fox Star Studios.

“We are humbled to be able to play a small part in sustaining the legacy of a fine actor like Sushant Singh Rajput. In celebration of his life and his extraordinary work, 'Dil Bechara' will release directly on digital this July on Disney+ Hotstar; and will be available to all subscribers and non-subscribers across India. Our prayers and wishes to his family and loved ones,” Uday Shankar, President – The Walt Disney Company APAC and Chairman, Star & Disney India, said.

The actor had a long-standing relationship with the STAR & Disney India network, having started his career with the show “Kis Desh Mein Hai Meraa Dil” in 2008 to his Bollywood transition where he delivered some of his most memorable performances in “M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story” (2016) and “Chhichhore” (2019), both produced by Fox Star Studios.

Chhabra said he never imagined he would release the film without Rajput.

 “Sushant was not just the hero of my debut film as a director, but he was a dear friend who stood by me through thick and thin. We had been close right from 'Kai Po Che!' to 'Dil Bechara'. He had promised me that he would be in my first film.

"So many plans were made together, so many dreams were dreamt together but never once did I ever imagine that I would be left alone to release this film. He always showered immense love on me while I was making it and his love will guide us as we release it,” the director said.

“Dil Bechara” is the official remake of 2014 Hollywood romantic drama “The Fault in our Stars”, which was based on John Green’s popular novel of the same name. The Hindi adaptation of the movie was done by Shashank Khaitan and Suprotim Sengupta.

“Dil Bechara” will see Rajput in a leading role alongside debutante Sanjana Sanghi, and Saif Ali Khan in an interesting cameo.

The music of the film has been composed by AR Rahman and the lyrics are by Amitabh Bhattacharya.

“Dil Bechara” revolves around Kizie Basu (Sanghi) and Immanuel Rajkumar Junior or Manny (Rajput) and explores the funny, thrilling, and tragic adventure of being alive and in love.

Together Kizie and Manny embark on an on-off-up-down-sad and sweet profound journey into the heart of that crazy little thing called life. It teaches them what it means to feel truly alive and fall in love.

New Delhi, May 17: With the highest-ever spike of close to 5,000 cases in the past 24 hours, the COVID-19 count in India has crossed 90,000 on Sunday.

With an increase of 4,987 COVID-19 cases being reported in the last 24 hours, the count has reached 90,927, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The total number of active cases in the country stands at 53,946 today, while 2,872 deaths have been recorded due to the infection so far, with one patient having migrated. 120 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.

However, on the positive side, close to 4,000 patients have also been cured and discharged in the past 24 hours, taking the tally of cured patients to 34,108.

With 30,706 confirmed cases, Maharashtra remains the worst-affected by the infection in the country.

It is followed by Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, with 10,988 and 10,585 cases, respectively.
The national capital, with 9,333 cases, is also one of the regions which is badly affected by the infection.

Jul 3: China under President Xi Jinping has stepped up its "aggressive" foreign policy toward India and "resisted" efforts to clarify the Line of Actual Control that prevented a lasting peace from being realised, according to a report released by a US Congress appointed commission.

The armies of India and China have been locked in a bitter standoff at multiple locations in eastern Ladakh for the last seven weeks, and the tension escalated after 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a violent clash in the Galwan Valley on June 15.

“Under General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Xi Jinping, Beijing has stepped up its aggressive foreign policy toward New Delhi. Since 2013, China has engaged in five major altercations with India along the Line of Actual Control (LAC),” said a brief issued by US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

"Beijing and New Delhi have signed a series of agreements and committed to confidence-building measures to stabilise their border, but China has resisted efforts to clarify the LAC, preventing a lasting peace from being realised,” said the report and was prepared at the request of the Commission to support its deliberations.

Authored by Will Green, a Policy Analyst on the Security and Foreign Affairs Team at the Commission, the report says that the Chinese government is particularly fearful of India’s growing relationship with the United States and its allies and partners.

“The latest border clash is part of a broader pattern in which Beijing seeks to warn New Delhi against aligning with Washington,” it said.

After Xi assumed power in 2012, there was a significant increase in clashes, despite the fact that he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi several times and Beijing and New Delhi have agreed to a series of confidence-building mechanisms designed to mitigate tensions.

Prior to 2013, the last major border clash was in 1987. The 1950s and 1960s were a particularly tense period, culminating in 1962 with a war that left thousands of soldiers dead on both sides, according to the records of China's People's Liberation Army, the report said.

“The 2020 skirmish is in line with Beijing’s increasingly assertive foreign policy. The clash came as Beijing was aggressively pressing its other expansive sovereignty claims in the Indo-Pacific region, such as over Taiwan and in the South and East China seas,” it said.

China is engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in both the South China Sea and the East China Sea. Beijing has built up and militarised many of the islands and reefs it controls in the region. Both areas are stated to be rich in minerals, oil and other natural resources and are vital to global trade.

China claims almost all of the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have counter claims over the area.

Several weeks before the clash in the Galwan Valley, Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe called on Beijing to “use fighting to promote stability” as the country’s external security environment worsened, a potential indication of China’s intent to proactively initiate military tensions with its neighbours to project an image of strength, the report said.