Another Mumbai slumkid Sunny Pawar basks in Oscar glory for the film Lion

February 28, 2017

Mumbai, Feb 28: Mumbai slumkid and “Lion” star Sunny Pawar basked in the limelight at the 89th Academy Awards ceremony where he won accolades from the audience having some of the world’s greatest actors after re-enacting a scene from “The Lion King” with host Jimmy Kimmel. The seven-year-old was selected from 2,000 children across schools in India to play the role of the young Saroo Brierley.

oscarsA Class 3 student of the Air India Model School where he is good in studies, Sunny and his younger brother and sister, live with parents Dilip Pawar, a former government office sweeper, and home-maker mother Vasu, in a slum in Kalina in the Western suburbs, near the airport.

Despite his humble background, Sunny zoomed through auditioning rounds in Mumbai and Pune to land a plum role in the blockbuster Hollywood biographical film “Lion’, sources close to his family and the production house said.

“Sunny was selected from around 2,000 talented children in a hunt in schools all over India, culminating in the final auditions held in Mumbai and Pune some one-and-half year ago. He fitted the role perfectly,” a source said.

Sunny is cast in the role of a young Saroo Brierley, who was stranded in a train which catapulted him hundreds of kms away from home to busy Kolkata. There, he ekes out an existence on the footpaths, before a young Australian couple adopts him. The elder version of Saroo was played by Dev Patel in the film.

Though he could barely speak English, Sunny’s bubbly, charismatic presence more than made up the communication shortcomings, with the cooperation of the entire film crew.

“Film director, Garth Davis had to put in a lot of efforts with Sunny during the shooting in India and Australia. For instance, he used sign language to make Sunny understand the dialogues, enact the sad or emotional scenes,” said the source.

The first half of the film, mostly hogged by the little Sunny, is in Hindi and he delivered the dialogues with ease and finesse.

But on the sets – his shooting schedules spanned over three months in Kolkata and Madhya Pradesh in India, and Melbourne, Tasmania in Australia – he was accorded ordinary treatment.

“No pampering of any sort, no special treatment in any manner. After all, he was playing a very emotional role and was required to keep that demeanour,” the source explained.

But, he chilled out a lot with his on-screen mother, Nicole Kidman, who he also taught to play cricket, and with his on-screen father, David Wenham. Some of those scenes finally figured even in the released film.

At the shootings, Sunny was accompanied by his father and translator Rahul to interact with the production team and others.

Sunny has become the most popular child star of the awards season.

Close on the success of “Lion”, “Love Sonia” featuring Sunny and another Mumbai girl Frieda Pinto is ready for release later this year.

“However, he has not exactly been swamped with offers from Bollywood. But that is because he has remained extremely tied up with ‘Lion’ and ‘Love Sonia’ and was away from the country for several spells,” the source said.

It is not known when Sunny will return home, but he can surely expect a Lion’s welcome!

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News Network
July 12,2020

Mumbai, Jul 12: Veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan and his son Abhishek have tested positive for Covid-19, according to separate tweets by the two. The 'Sholay' actor shared the news about his positive status on his Twitter handle on Saturday and said he has been admitted to Nanavati hospital here where he is being kept in an isolation ward.

Shortly afterwards, Abhishek Bachchan also confirmed the news and revealed that he and his father both had "mild symptoms."
The Big B said he has been shifted to hospital, and the other family members and staff have undergone tests for the virus. However, the results are awaited.

The 77-year-old actor also requested those, who have been in "close proximity" to him in the last 10 days to get tested for COVID-19.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan among others wished the "iconic star" a quick recovery to the 'Gulabo Sitabo' star.

"Dear Amitabh ji, I join the whole Nation in wishing you a quick recovery! After all, you are the idol of millions in this country, an iconic superstar! We will all take good care of you. Best wishes for a speedy recovery! @SrBachchan @juniorbachchan#AmitabhBachchan #COVID," Health Minister tweeted quoting Amitabh Bacchan's tweet.

Abhishek Bachchan too tweeted shortly afterwards. "Earlier today both my father and I tested positive for COVID 19. Both of us having mild symptoms have been admitted to hospital. We have informed all the required authorities and our family and staff are all being tested. I request all to stay calm and not panic. Thank you."

Former Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis wished the senior Bachchan a speedy recovery.
A slew of filmstars and celebrities including Kailash Kher Sonam Kapoor, Sonu Sood, Paresh Rawal, Pariniti Chopra Adnan Sami, Mahesh Babu etc were among those who wished the Bachchans a speedy recovery.

Mumbai, reported a total positive COVID-19 cases of 91457 with 22,779 active COVID-19 cases, with 5,241 people succumbing to the deadly infection so far, according to the Municipal Coroporation of Greater Mumbai.

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News Network
March 26,2020

Washington, Mar 26: American media personality Kylie Jenner has donated 1 million USD to fight against the COVID-19 outbreak.
Dr Thais Aliabadi shared the same in an Instagram post on Wednesday, "One of my patients, a beautiful Living Angel just donated $1,000,000 to help us buy hundreds of thousands of masks, face shields, and other protective gear which we will have delivered directly to our first responders, as too many masks at hospitals are disappearing before making their way onto the faces of our front line heroes."

According to Page Six, a representative for Jenner confirmed that the 22-year-old star has made the contribution, and said, "I can confirm that she did make the donation."
Now, thanks to Jenner's generosity, Aliabadi will be able to disperse the hundreds of thousands of various necessary essentials needed to combat the dissemination of COVID-19.
The doctor issued huge gratitude and thanks to the Kylie Cosmetics founder and said that she has "never felt more blessed to be a doctor."
Dr Aliabadi was on-hand to deliver Jenner's daughter, Stormi, according to TMZ.
Kylie reciprocated the doctor's kind words by replying to Dr Aliabadi's thank-you post, she wrote, "I love you! and thank YOU for all the love and care you put into everything that you do! You're an angel on earth."
Last Week, Jenner pleaded in an Instagram post, "The coronavirus is a real thing, "I listened to the Surgeon General this morning... he definitely encouraged me to come on here and talk to you guys."

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News Network
April 16,2020

New Delhi, Apr 16: Actor Salman Khan on Thursday put out a sharp message to the "jokers" who were flouting government-imposed guidelines and venturing out during the ongoing lockdown, putting at risk countless lives to the deadly coronavirus.

In his characteristic 'Bhai' style, Salman also appealed to people to not attack doctors, nurses and police personnel who are in the frontline of the battle against COVID-19.

In a 10-minute hard hitting video shared on Instagram he begins with a "Hello, namaste, salaam, sasriyakaal, Kem Cho' in typical TV reality show 'Big Boss' style and goes on to say 'Zindagi ka Bigg Boss' has begun with the entire country staying in lockdown mode at home.
He said he had taken a two-day "chhutti" (leave) but "This corona, COVID-19 has given everyone a 'chutti'."

Khan said he was staying at his farmhouse in Panvel near Mumbai with his family including his mother, two sisters their children and some other people who had come to visit.

In the video he said that he had sent a friend to get rations for the family from a village around five kilometres away. He recounted that the police stopped him and in the process, his friend took off the mask to speak to the policeman who reprimanded him and asked him to put the mask back on. Salman said that he too chided his friend for doing such a thing.

"Don't go out, don't do social gatherings, stay with your family, the government has said if you are doing namaaz, do it at home, do pooja at home..." the actor said, adding that those who had a wish to kill their families should step out.
"Go out get your ration, nobody is stopping you, go nearby but wear your masks, your gloves, go alone," the actor said underlining that the government has assured that everybody will get ration.

The actor said that whoever does not understand a coronavirus positive patient's pain is anti-human.

He pointed out that doctors, nurses and policemen are putting in long hours to curb the spread of coronavirus and urged people to respect their work and stay inside.

The actor said policemen would not have taken action and hit people if they followed guidelines and stayed inside. "If you weren't going out with friends, police wouldn't have hit you. Do you think police are enjoying it?," he asked.

"Doctors and nurses are working to save your lives and what do you do? You started pelting stones at them? Those who have been diagnosed with coronavirus, are running away from the hospitals. Where are you running? Towards life or death?," he questioned in his video.

The 'Dabangg 2' star appreciated the efforts by the frontline warriors and said, "the virus that started in China is over in China now, but because of a few jokers, the whole of India will sit at home for a long time."

The 54-year-old star said that he was aware of many people who wouldn't come out of their homes earlier but have started doing so since they've been asked to not go out.

"You are putting everyone's lives at risk," the Bajrangi Bhaijaan actor said.

Salman concluded by urging people to respect the work of the doctors, nurses, police personnel and those who work in banks, take care to ensure that the disease does not spread further and pray that it does not come to a situation where the military has to be called in to stop people from doing the wrong thing.

Filmmaker Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri took to Twitter to shared the video message. "Very well said @BeingSalmanKhan I hope wisdom prevails everywhere," he tweeted.

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