Ajmer Sharif Dargah authorities unhappy with film stars

July 24, 2012

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The Ajmer Sharif Dargah is famous across the world as it is believed that no prayer at this dargah goes unanswered. Needless to say, people keep frequenting the shrine. More so, our film stars, whose fate changes every Friday, with every release. But the frequency of such visits by stars has left the religious heads fuming.

Mazaar pe CD rakh ke jaana galat hai

Dargah Dewan Zainul Abedin Ali Khan, the hereditary Sajjada-nashin of Khwaja Moinuddin Hasan Chishty, believes that "a holy place must not be used as a platform for anything that is forbidden and against Islamic law". Khan issued a statement on Sunday stating, "Dance and films are taboo in Islam. Cinema today, in general, is promoting obscenity, which is a major reason behind the rapid degradation of moral values in the society. Film stars come here repeatedly to seek blessings for their films and, in the process, promote their film through the media. Such kind of promotion of their work at the religious place is highly intolerable."

When contacted, Khan clarified his statement and said, "Film stars aayein. Dus ki jagah 100 aayein, humein usse koi matlab nahi, par apni film hit karaane ke liye woh dargah aate hain, aur mazaar pe CD rakh ke jaate hain, woh galat hai. Ab uss film mein kya hai, kya nahin, woh hamey kya pata? There could be a rape scene or other obscenity that they've shown to make the film a hit, and then they come here to seek blessings for such a movie and promote it - this is highly objectionable. Khwaja ji filmein hit karaane ke liye thodi baithe hain?"

The religious head of the dargah has called upon Islamic intellectuals and Ulemas to pay urgent attention to the issue. "It is surprising that Islamic intellectuals are quiet on this issue. They should express their views as strongly as they do in other cases," he said.

Referring to Himesh Reshammiya's visit in a burqa and Katrina Kaif donning a skirt during her visit in the past, Khan said, "Why don't these stars go to Shankarcharya Math or to a gurudwara before the release of their movie? Yahan aakar publicity ke liye woh yeh sab karte hain. Woh ashleelta ko paros rahe hain religious jagah pe."

However Qutubuddin Sakhi, the Khadim at the Dargah, disagreed with Khan. "Be it a commoner or a celebrity who is visiting the dargah to pray for his/her well being - nobody comes here for sheer publicity. Those who are announcing the ban have no authority to say so. It's their personal grudges against khadims. The Dargah Dewan's statement is nothing but a gimmick to earn publicity. Bollywood celebrities have been coming to to pray and seek blessings of Khwaja Saheb since the past 23 years and none of them came here to get publicity."

Dua se kaarobar chale, usmein kya kharabi hai?

The religious heads at an equally famous dargah, Delhi's Hazrat Nizamuddin said that the Dargah Dewan is trying to mislead people in the name of Islam. "To say that stars or directors and producers are using the holy place for commercial purposes and for degrading moral values, is completely wrong," said Nizamuddin dargah in-charge Syed Afsar Ali Nizami.

He explained, "Yeh toh Baba ka darbaar hai, yahan aane ke liye kissi ko koi manai nahi hai. Dua ke liye log yahan aate hain, aur jinki dua qubool hoti hai woh baar baar aate hain, ismein commercial angle dhoondna aur usse highlight karna galat hai. If these stars believe that after paying their regards at Ajmer Sharif or at Hazrat Nizamuddin, their wish gets fulfilled in terms of a box office success then there is nothing wrong in it. Kissi ka karobaar chal raha hai Baba ki dua se toh usme kharabi kya hai?"

"Iss sab ka Islam se koi matlab nahi. Islam alag hai, dargah alag hai. A masjid is for Muslims, but a dargah is open for all. Anyone can come and seek blessings at a dargah. Agar woh Islam ke mutabik chalenge toh uss hisaab se toh bahut cheezein hain jo nahi honi chahiye. Muslim women can't show their face, but that's no longer the case. Similarly, Islam says that music is bad, but we have qawwali nights inside the dargah," said Afsar, asking why the Ajmer Sharif religious head is objecting now, after so many years. "Kitne saalon se yeh film waale Ajmer Sharif ja rahein hain. In fact, movies like Namastey London have been shot inside the dargah. If they were so worried about the commercial misuse of the holy shrine, then how come they allowed movie shoots inside?"

Sab ko dargah jaane ka aur dua lene ka haq hai

Veena Malik, who visited the holy shrine with Ashmit Patel said, "It is wrong to discriminate like that. Actors bhi insaan hote hain, unko Ajmer Sharif aane se ban karne ka kya matlab hai? Sabko dua lene ka poora haq hai. Agar koi apni salamati ke liye dua karta hai toh ismein harz kya hai?" While Ekta Kapoor said, "We pray for various mannats, how can anyone stop people from coming to the dargah?"

"Every human seeks God's blessings for some or the other reason. Tell me one person who selflessly goes to him and does not ask for his blessings? If someone visits a dargah with or without any reason, it's because of his belief in the divine authority. It's unfair to impose a ban on celebrities. I will request the dargah authorities to withdraw such a ban, which is absolutely unfair," added Esha Koppikhar.

Recently, actress Divya Dutta had also visited the dargah while she was shooting for a movie in Jodhpur, but the actor chose not to comment on the objection by the dargah officials. She said, "I have never gone to the dargah for movie promotions. I haven't even read the news so I cannot comment, but all I can say is that I have always visited the dargah for only personal reasons."



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News Network
June 18,2020

New Delhi, Jun 18: Actor Priyanka Chopra Jonas on Thursday paid tribute to the Indian soldiers who were killed in clashes with Chinese troops in Ladakh's Galwan valley.

The 'Fashion' actor who is currently living in America with her singer husband Nick Jonas took to Twitter to extend support to the families of the fallen soldiers.

"My heart goes out to the soldiers and their families. May God give them the strength to cope with this irreparable loss," she tweeted.

Twenty Indian soldiers were killed in a violent face-off with Chinese troops on Monday at Galwan Valley in Ladakh.

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News Network
January 10,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 10: Eminent Carnatic vocalist and playback singer K J Yesudas, who has enthralled music aficionados across the world with his profound and mellifluous voice for the last six decades, turned 80 on Friday.

People from various walks of life, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and luminaries of music and film world besides socio-cultural personalities, wished the legendary singer, popularly called as 'gana gandharvan' (the celestial singer) by his fans, on his birthday.

Regional newspapers came out with special pages and television channels with exclusive programmes as a tribute to the singer, who has recorded over 80,000 songs in various genres in almost all languages of India including about 25,000 film songs, Carnatic bhajans and devotional songs.

Besides Indian languages like Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Kannada, Bengali, Odia, his voice gave life to songs in Arabic, English, Latin, and Russian during a career spanning over six decades.

Yesudas, whom the country had honoured with Padma Vibhushan in 2017, is the recipient of eight national awards, 25 Kerala state awards, five state awards of Tamil Nadu and four of Andhra Pradesh.

"On the special occasion of his 80th birthday, greetings to the versatile K J Yesudas Ji. His melodious music and soulful renditions have made him popular across all age groups. He has made valuable contributions to Indian culture. Wishing him a long and healthy life," Modi tweeted.

The Left veteran also shared a photo of the veteran singer along with the tweet.

Meanwhile, Yesudas this morning visited the Mookambika Temple at Kollur in Udupi district of Karnataka along with his family, a practice he has been following for the last four decades.

Draped in the traditional Kerala style kasavu mundu and shawl, 'dasettan', as he is known among his hardcore fans cutting across ages, Yesudas offered prayers along with his wife Prabha and sons and performed special poojas at the Goddess Saraswathi temple.

Hundreds of music buffs gathered at the shrine to wish the octogenarian singer.

Considered as one of the best playback singers in the country, Yesudas had begun his music career in the tinsel town with the Malayalam song "Jathi bhedam matha dwesham" in the year 1961 and sang in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films among other languages.

Yesudas's foray into Bollywood saw him recording various memorable hits, including "Jab Deep Jale Aana" and "Gori Tera Gaon Bada Pyara".

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coastaldigest.com news network
August 3,2020

Mumbai, Aug 3: In a significant statement, Mumbai Police chief Parambar Singh on Monday said that actor Sushant Singh Rajput was “emotionally disturbed” after the death of his ex-manager Disha Salian.

“When he saw his name being linked to Disha Salian’s death on social media, he was emotionally disturbed. He had met Disha Salian only once, he even asked his advocate who she was,” Singh told reporters in Mumbai.

According to him, Sushant Singh Rajput was conscious about what was appearing about him on social media.

Singh also rejected allegations that Mumbai police had not sealed the Bandra duplex flat where the actor ended his life.

“The flat was sealed on June 14 itself (the day of the suicide), the next day, on June 15, forensic teams and doctors visited the flat. Only after that, the flat was unsealed,” Singh said.

The police chief also ruled out that a party was held in the flat on June 13 evening. “We have the CCTV footage of June 13 and 14,” he said.

On the quarantining of Bihar IPS officer Vinay Tiwari in Mumbai, Singh said that he does not have knowledge of this. “The BMC should have knowledge of this. They look into quarantine issues, we do not,” he said.

Singh said that the investigations are ongoing and so far 56 statements have been recorded. “We are in touch with experts, doctors,” he said.

On the bank accounts, he said that during their investigations it has come to light that Rs 4.5 crore was there in the form of deposits.  “We have recorded the statement of his current chartered accountant, former chartered accountant, we have checked the bank statements, ledger,” he said, adding that investigations are still underway.

According to the FIR filed by Sushant Singh Rajput’s father Krishna Kumar Singh in Patna, his son’s money was swindled by his girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty and her family members.

“The Mumbai Police is investigating the case thoroughly, from all possible angles, including his family members, friends, doctors and others, besides the details of the financial transactions of Sushant’s bank accounts,” Singh said.

To a query on the name of a prominent Maharashtra politician being dragged in social media, Singh categorically said that the investigations have not shown any such thing.

Singh also said that the Mumbai police had “initially recorded” the statement of the family members. “The statements of father and sisters were recorded on June 16,” he said, however, added that they have not responded to requests later on.

He said that the Mumbai Police has extended all cooperation to the family. “Sushant Singh Rajput’s sister and brother-in-law met our joint commissioner of police. They wanted to go to the Pune bungalow in Pawna area. An assistant commissioner of police accompanied them,” he said.

Who is Disha Salian?

Disha Salian hails from Karnataka’s coastal district of Udupi. She was born in 1992 into a business family background. She reportedly migrated to Mumbai with her family at an early age. 

After completing her education, she worked in the Times of India Group for more than three years. She went on to become the celebrity manager at Media Vantage.

Apart from Sushant, she had great links with many popular celebrities like Bharti Singh, Alisha Panwar, and others.

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