Sonu Nigam goes unrecognised as street musician

Chennai, Jan 15: Superstar Rajinikanth on Tuesday called for neutrality in journalism and urged media outlets to report the truth.

Addressing an event organised by Tamil magazine ''Thuglak' in Chennai, the superstar-turned-politician said that the country needs a journalist like the late Cho S Ramaswamy, who helmed the publication for decades.

"The times, politics and society are going bad. In such a scenario, the media had a huge responsibility towards the people," he said.

Some television channels are biased towards political parties, Rajinikanth said. He added that media, critics and journalists must report the truth impartially.

Comparing true news to milk and fake reportage to water, Rajinikanth said people will not be able to distinguish between the two if they are mixed.

"Only journalists need to tell which portion is milk and which is water...write the truth and don't make a lie seem like truth," he said, amid applause.

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.

New Delhi, Jun 2: Actor Anushka Sharma on Tuesday exhorted people to maintain hygiene and advised to stop open defecation in a bid to avoid coronavirus spread.

As the country is grappling with the coronavirus crisis, the 'PK' actor has joined the initiative with the Swachh Bharat Mission, which aims to tell the people that the contagion can be curbed through strict sanitation process.

"When women all over the country had decided that they would educate everyone on the lesson of close the door, shun the disease, no one had thought that their initiative would turn into such a huge wave!," the actor was seen saying in a video posted in the official Twitter handle of Swachh Bharat I #IndiaFightsCorona.

"Today, in the time of coronavirus pandemic, we all have to again remember and remind others about the lesson of cleanliness," she added.

"If we take care of cleanliness around us, by not defecating in the open, we will keep ourselves healthy and India clean. We will become strong to fight against any kind of disease," the 32-year-old star said.

The 'Sultan' actor noted that by stopping defecating in open and closing the toilet door at all times can be a solid measure to drive the disease out of the country.