Riz Ahmed becomes first Muslim and South-Asian male actor to win Emmy

Agencies
September 20, 2017

Los Angeles, Sept 20: British Pakistan actor Riz Ahmed became the first Muslim actor as well as the man of Asian descent to win an Emmy award at the TV's biggest night on Sunday and spoke about the "systematic issue of inclusion".

The actor took home the trophy for the outstanding lead actor in a limited series for "The Night Of", in which he plays, Nasir Khan, the son of a Pakistani cab driver from Queens who becomes a murder suspect.

Ahmed is the second Asian actor ever to receive the honour, following "The Good Wife" star Archie Panjabi, who won the supporting actress award in a drama series in 2010.

In his speech, he talked about the importance of the Innocence Project and the New York-based South Asian Youth Action organisation.

"I want to say it is always strange reaping the rewards of a story that's based on real world suffering, but if this show has shown a light on some of the prejudice in our societies, Islamophobia, some of the injustice in our justice system, then maybe that is something.

"I don't know if any one person's win changes something that's a systemic issue of inclusion. In this industry, that's something that happens slowly over time," he said in his powerful speech on stage.

Ahmed, 34, praised Ed Skrein's decision to step away from the part of an Asian character in "Hellboy" reboot to give chance to a more deserving actor.

Ahmed said it was important to represent cultural authenticity in roles and Skrein's example will lead to more awareness around the conversation.

Born in London to a British Pakistani family, Ahmed was initially known for his work in independent films, such as "The Road to Guantanamo", "Shifty", "Four Lions", "Trishna" and Mira Nair's "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" before his breakout role in "Nightcrawler" in 2014, alongside Jake Gyllenhaal.

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Agencies
June 17,2020

Mumbai, Jun 17: A lawyer on Wednesday moved a criminal complaint against 8 persons, including Bollywood superstar Salman Khan and producer-director Karan Johar, in a local court regarding the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

The court had fixed July 3 as the next date of hearing.

In his complaint filed in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, advocate Sudhir Kumar Ojha alleged that these eight persons forced Sushant to commit suicide under a conspiracy which, he pleaded, amounted to murder.

Others named in the complaint are Aditya Chopra, Sajid Nadiadwala, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Bhushan Kumar, Ekta Kapoor, and director Dinesh.

The complainant claimed that these persons did not let Sushant's movies get released under a conspiracy and the late actor was not even invited to film functions because of these people.

Ojha said that Sushant Singh Rajput's death had not only hurt the people of Bihar but the entire country.

He said the complaint had been filed under Sections 306, 109, 504 and 506 and Bollywood actor Kangana Ranawat had been listed as a witness in the case.

Sushant Singh Rajput had allegedly committed suicide at his Bandra flat in Mumbai on Sunday.

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News Network
April 10,2020

New Delhi Apr 10:  Actor Salman Khan on Friday thanked people for staying indoors and shared two pictures, first showing Bada Qabaristan's (graveyard) gate which has been closed due to lockdown and the second was of an empty street in Mumbai.

The actor thanked the people for listening to the guidelines and understanding the gravity of this situation amid the 21-day government-imposed lockdown in view of coronavirus outbreak. The tweet by 'Dabangg' actor came soon after the conclusion of Shab-e-Barat.

Shab-e-Barat is observed as a day of forgiveness or atonement in Islam and leads to congregations at graveyards and religious places.

The 54-year-old actor took to Twitter and wrote, "Wah! Thank u for listening n understanding the gravity of this situation the country is in. God bless n protect each n every 1.

Over the past few days, appeals were made to the Muslim community from several quarters to not venture out of their houses to pray on Shab-e-Barat in view of the COVID-19 lockdown.

Earlier, the 'Tiger Zinda Hai' star shared his lockdown experience in a video message with nephew Nirvaan and urged people to take the government's advisory of self-isolation seriously amid the rising cases of coronavirus in the country.

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News Network
April 8,2020

Mumbai, Apr 8: Bollywood superstar Salman Khan has started the process of transferring funds into the accounts of daily wage workers of the film industry, the Federation of Western Indian Cine Employees (FWICE) said on Wednesday.

The actor had recently pledged to financially support 25,000 daily wage workers who have been badly hit by the 21-day lockdown to contain the coronavirus spread in the country.

According to B N Tiwari, FWICE, President, Salman has made an initial payment of Rs 3,000 each to the daily wage workers of the film industry, starting Tuesday.

"We had given him the final list of 23,000 workers so far, who were in dire need of financial help. He is going to transfer money in installments as he doesn't want people to misuse it. He has transferred about Rs 3,000 to every worker yesterday and he will transfer money again after some time. We are thankful to him for helping our workers," Tiwari told PTI.

A source close to Salman said the superstar will continue to support the workers until the situation improves in the country.

"We have started the process from Tuesday. We will be giving sufficient money to workers monthly, we will also give money next month and if the situation is still the same, we will continue to financially help the workers till it doesn't return to normalcy," the source said.

FWICE said Yash Raj Films have also provided a financial help of Rs 5,000 to around 3,000 workers.

"Besides Salman, a lot of people from Bollywood have come forward to help the workers, including Ajay Devgn and Rohit Shetty, who have given Rs 51 lakh each. Boney Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor too have given money and there are few more who have offered financial assistance to the federation. We also received Rs 1.5 crore from the Producers Guild of India on Tuesday.

"The federation has received a total amount of Rs 3 crore from film industry people. We are yet to receive money from Netflix, which they had announced for daily wage earners and also from Amitabh Bachchan, who is going to provide ration to one lakh workers. He is going to provide coupons which we should receive in a day or two," Tiwari said.

He further said Bachchan's ration coupon for workers will also be given to other associations across the country, such as in Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Karnataka.

Tiwari said FWICE is in the process of making another list of needy workers and then they will begin the process of transferring money.

"The Rs 3 crore that the federation has received will be distributed among our five lakh workers in Maharashtra. We will start sending money from April 14 in phases. Those who haven't received any financial aid will be helped first. We are in the process of making a list of such workers for the same," Tiwari said.

"FWICE has also begun distributing ration to workers in suburban Andheri and Jogeshwari. So far we have distributed 5,000 packets of ration and we will give more, he added.

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