10 yrs on, SRK and team relive the 'Chak De!' journey

Agencies
August 8, 2017

New Delhi, Aug 8: With its message of patriotism, secularism and women's empowerment, "Chak De! India" continues to be a film for the times 10 years on, says the team of Shimit Amin, Jaideep Sahni and Shah Rukh Khan.

For director Shimit, story writer Jaideep and star Shah Rukh, this is one that will live on, and not just in their filmographies.

Born from Jaideep's anger at the apathy towards women athletes, the film tells the story of an unsung women's hockey team and their disgraced coach Kabir Khan seeking redemption in their world cup victory.

"The film is patriotic without being jingoist, it is cool without being frivolous, it is intense but not boring," Shah Rukh said.

"Chak De!", regarded as one of Indian cinema's most successful and loved sports films, was released on August 10, 2007.

Shah Rukh says he did the film, which he describes as one of the most special in his career, for his father.

"Shimit made it beautifully and I am glad that Adi (producer Aditya Chopra) thought of me as Kabir Khan. They waited for me for more than a year. The heart and the soul of the film are the young girls."

Due to his romantic hero persona, many thought he would not be able to pull off Kabir Khan's character, says Shah Rukh.

"It is one of the few films of mine which opened very poorly. I was really disturbed. My father used to play hockey. The only reason I did this film was because I could use something that my father had taught me. I was emotionally attached with the film. But it did really well after opening poorly."

He was so nervous about the film's future that he left for London. "It was a lovely film and I did not want to hear all that (negativity)."

Shimit says the team approached the story with idealism. "We felt it was a special film and something that would be made on its own. We believed in the idealism of what we were doing. We had this amazing sense that we were going to make the best film that we could. There was no calculation involved."

The director, who went on to make "Rocket Singh", says "Chak De!" did not impress viewers in a test screening. They realised they had a successful film only after its release.

Asked why they picked Shah Rukh for a role that involved no romance, the director says they wanted someone with a certain kind of grace and dignity. "Shah Rukh had that presence. He had that maturity. He also came from a middle class background. There were a lot of things that felt right about him. Adi pitched the film to SRK and he told us that it sounded very interesting to him."

Amongst Shimit's favourite moments from the film is Kabir Khan's "Yeh sattar minute" monologue.

"This was a sports film and we needed a motivational speech. It was exciting to see SRK act that part. He really killed it."

Another favourite scene is Kabir Khan's reaction when the team actually wins -- there are no tears, no hugs just a deep sigh as he turns away from the euphoria on the field.

The director says he is glad that they did not opt for a conventional ending.

"When you come to think of it, this is not a very 'filmy' moment. We had seen a Japanese coach react like that during Olympics. The idea behind the scene was that this person has given so much of himself that he no longer knows how to react.

"He had held himself together for this particular moment and then he just does not know. There is a separation that starts for him right at that moment. He realises that he is no longer a part of this game and has done his bit and it is now over."

For writer Jaideep, the story is a "piece of his heart" he shared with the world.

"As a writer I feel like 'Chak De!' is a piece of my heart which now belongs to everybody. There were things that we felt very emotional about and we wanted to say those things with the film," says the man who also wrote "Khosla Ka Ghosla" and "Company".

The writer says they were very careful in portraying patriotism in the film.

"Patriotism does not mean ignoring our own shortcomings and just going on praising ourselves. It is about seeing the shortcomings and rising above it. Patriotism does not mean criticising people who are different from us or the countries which are different from us."

It all started when he spotted an article about women athletes in the back page of a newspaper, a story, he says, that should have been on the front page.

"Women athletes have always been great. It is just that nobody knew about them. The more time I spent with them the more angry I became. They are not the first people that come to your mind when you think about national heroes. The whole motivation was to create a bridge between them and the rest of the country," Sahni says.

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Agencies
August 7,2020

Mumbai,  Aug 7: Unless Maharashtra Government consents to CBI investigation in the Sushant Singh Rajput's death case, it would be illegal, affecting the federal structure of the country, said actor Rhea Chakraborty's lawyer.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered and continued the illegality which was perpetrated at the hands of Bihar Police in connection with the case, he added.

"The Bihar Government transferred a case with which it had no jurisdiction to investigate, to CBI instead of the Mumbai Police which is the legal position. The Supreme Court is seized of the issue pursuant to the transfer petition filed by Rhea Chakraborty," said Satish Maneshinde Chakraborty's lawyer.

The Supreme Court has directed all parties to file their replies and Mumbai Police is directed to place the report of investigations, he added.

"Pending the said proceedings the CBI has registered and continued the illegality which was perpetrated at the hands of Bihar Police.

CBI being a premier investigative agency in the country should desist from taking any further steps pending the SC proceedings. Apart from the same unless the Maharashtra Government consents to CBI investigating the case ... it would be totally illegal and beyond any known legal principles, affecting the Federal Structure of the Nation," said Maneshinde.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the CBI that is probing high profile cases of Vijay Mallya and AgustaWestland cases will now investigate the Sushant Singh Rajput's death case.

The investigating agency has registered a case against six accused including Bollywood actor Rhea Chakraborty and others in connection with the Rajput's death.

The sources in CBI said that six accused in the case will be summoned soon for questioning and other persons will also be called for examining which was earlier examined by Mumbai police.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had earlier sent a recommendation to the Central Government for CBI investigation in the case filed in Patna based on the complaint of Sushant's father KK Singh against Rhea Chakraborty under sections including abetment of suicide on July 25.

Sushant was found dead at his Mumbai residence on June 14.

Days after Rajput's death, Rhea Chakraborty said she was the "girlfriend" of the 'Dil Bechara' actor while requesting a CBI inquiry in the case.

Chakraborty has also approached the Supreme Court for transfer of investigation to Mumbai in the FIR registered against her in Patna.

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News Network
January 19,2020

Mumbai, Jan 19: An FIR has been registered against actor Shabana Azmi's driver after the car they were travelling in met with an accident on the Mumbai-Pune expressway on Saturday afternoon, police said.

Ms Azmi's driver has been identified as Amlesh Yogendra Kamat.

According to the police, a complaint has been registered by Rajesh Pandurang Shinde, the truck driver whose vehicle was hit from behind by Ms Azmi's car.

"Due to rash driving by the driver, the car hit the moving truck on the Pune-Mumbai Expressway which resulted in the accident," the FIR copy read.

Soon after the accident, Shabana Azmi was immediately rushed to MGM Hospital in Navi Mumbai and was later shifted to the multi-specialty Kokilaben Hospital in Mumbai's Andheri.

According to doctors, she has suffered a head injury and slight damage to the backbone. Her condition is said to be stable, although, she remains under medical observation.

Her husband lyricist Javed Akhtar, who was travelling with her, escaped with a minor injury.

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News Network
February 6,2020

Los Angeles, Feb 6: U.S. silver screen legend Kirk Douglas, the son of Jewish Russian immigrants who rose through the ranks to become one of Hollywood's biggest stars, has died, his family said Wednesday. He was 103.

One of the last survivors of the golden age of cinema and the father of Oscar-winning actor and film-maker Michael Douglas, the Spartacus actor was renowned for the macho tough guy roles he took on in around 90 movies over a six-decade career.

"It is with tremendous sadness that my brothers and I announce that Kirk Douglas left us today at the age of 103," Michael Douglas said in a statement posted to Facebook.

"To the world he was a legend, an actor from the golden age of movies who lived well into his golden years, a humanitarian whose commitment to justice and the causes he believed in set a standard for all of us to aspire to."

Douglas was Oscar-nominated for his roles as a double-crossing and womanizing boxer in Champion (1949), a ruthless movie producer in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) and tortured artist Vincent Van Gogh in Lust for Life (1956).

But his only Academy Award came in 1995 -- an honorary lifetime achievement statuette "for 50 years as a creative and moral force in the motion picture community."

Douglas is survived by second wife Anne Buydens, 100, and three sons. A fourth child, Eric, died of a drug overdose in his 40s, in 2004.

"(To) me and my brothers Joel and Peter he was simply Dad, to Catherine (Zeta-Jones), a wonderful father-in-law, to his grandchildren and great grandchild their loving grandfather, and to his wife Anne, a wonderful husband," said Michael.

"Kirk's life was well lived, and he leaves a legacy in film that will endure for generations to come, and a history as a renowned philanthropist who worked to aid the public and bring peace to the planet."

Kirk Douglas rose to the heights of Hollywood from an impoverished childhood as the son of Jewish Russian immigrants.

He was one of the last survivors of the golden age of cinema, often portraying the macho and not-always-likeable tough guy in around 90 movies over a six-decade career.

With charming dimples and a cleft chin, Douglas was a renowned ladies' man but also admitted to being angry into adulthood because of his difficult New York childhood.

"I still have anger in me," he said in a New York Times article in 1988 after the release of his first autobiography.

"I think I'm loath to let it go because I think that anger was the fuel I used in accomplishing what I wanted to do; you see it in my films, you see it in imitations people do of me."

Screen legend

The role that perhaps immortalized him as a star was that of a rebellious Roman Empire slave turned gladiator in the 1960 epic Spartacus.

Douglas also produced the film, which took four Oscars. He won praise for listing in the credits the real name of Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, who was blacklisted for his Communist sympathies and wrote under a pen name.

There were Oscar nominations for his roles as a double-crossing and womanizing boxer in Champion (1949), a ruthless movie producer in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) and of tortured artist Vincent Van Gogh in Lust for Life (1956).

But his only Oscar came in 1995 as an honorary lifetime achievement award "for 50 years as a creative and moral force in the motion picture community."

Other major acting roles were as a French private in a botched suicidal mission in World War I in Paths of Glory (1957) and American Western legend Doc Holliday in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957).

"Often cast as a villain, amoral climber or self-obsessed grabber, Kirk Douglas took care to color his hard edges with suggestions of pain, wit and sympathy," says American Film Institute, which ranks him as 17th on its list of the greatest male screen legends.

In the 1970s he stood behind the camera, directing Scalawag (1973) and Posse (1975).

He also took up writing, penning his first autobiography The Ragman's Son in 1988 and following with around 10 other titles.

In the autobiography, Douglas writes: "I always worked in the theory that when you play a weak character, find a moment when he's strong. And if you're playing a strong character, find a moment when he's weak."

Tough childhood

Douglas was born in New York on December 9, 1916 to illiterate Jewish Russian immigrants, an only boy with six sisters.

He started out as Issur Danielovitch, later Izzy Demsky. It was tough, he recounted later, with the family poor, anti-Semitism rife and his distant alcoholic father forced to earn a living as a ragman.

"In a sense, I've always felt on the outside, looking in," he said in the New York Times article.

"It's my background, damn it. My father was an illiterate Russian immigrant, a ragman, the lowest rung on the economic scale."

His dream of a way out was through acting and he started in high school, eventually entering the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and changing his name along the way.

To survive he took jobs as a waiter, labourer and porter. In 1941 he hit Broadway but his budding career was interrupted by service in the Navy. After the war, he headed for Hollywood.

His romantic conquests were many, although he once said he had never counted, and included starls such as Rita Hayworth, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford and Ava Gardner.

Douglas' four sons followed him into cinema.

Oscar-winning actor and producer Michael and Joel were from a marriage to actress Diana Webster, whom he divorced in 1951.

Three years later he married Belgian-American Anne Buydens, having Peter and then Eric, who died in 2004 from an accidental overdose.

Douglas has also brushed death: he survived a helicopter crash in 1991 and a massive stroke in 1996 that nearly robbed him of speech.

Around the time of his 100th birthday in 2016, he attributed his remarkable longevity to his second marriage.

"I was lucky enough to find my soulmate 63 years ago, and I believe our wonderful marriage and our nightly 'golden hour' chats have helped me survive all things," he said in celebrity magazine Closer Weekly.

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