I'm crazy about Indian culture, says French composer

mangalore@coastaldigest.com (Agencies)
September 11, 2014

New Delhi, Sep 11: Does Finding Fanny music sound different to your ears? It's the result of the creativity of French composer and multi-instrumentalist Mathias Duplessy, who composed for the film sitting in Paris.

Mathias Duplessy"I love to work here (in India), the people here are great and the (entertainment) industry is growing fast. I'm crazy about Indian culture and also because quality of work is so important to people here," Duplessy, who has worked on Indian films in the past too said in an interview on phone from Mumbai.

He was in the entertainment capital of India recently to talk about the tunes he has created for this week's release "Finding Fanny", a movie about five oddballs on a road journey.

To create the "Finding Fanny" song "O Fanny re", he collaborated with Sufi singer Mukhtiyar Ali, who has penned the song. They don't understand each other's language but their love for music brought them together to create the songs which are 'desi' at heart but European in their sound and feel.

Sample "Shake your bootiya" and "Mahi ve" from the Sony Music album to know what that means.

"Finding Fanny" fell into Duplessy's lap via director Homi Adajania, whom he had met four years ago.

"I felt a lot of passion in him about his story and characters, and I came down to Goa from Paris to understand the locations. It has a very Portuguese feel to it.

"So I took inspiration from Portuguese, Italian and French music of the 1960s and 1970s to create tunes for the film," said the composer, who enjoys working with filmmakers who are contributing to the new wave of Indian cinema.

Duplessy, who's popular for knowing how to play as many as 40 instruments, has earlier contributed to Indian films like "A Fakir of Venice", "Mumbai Cha Raja", "Peepli Live" and "Delhi in a Day".

He believes the "evolution of cinema" has created a "big chance" for global music artists to use their expertise in India.

"For long, people used to think there's only the Bollywood style of music in India. But gradually, there's this another face of cinema that's coming up and it's encouraging a new way of thinking," said Duplessy, who has grown up listening to the tunes of Zakir Hussain and Ravi Shankar, and has composed for animated movies, theatre and dance shows the world over.

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News Network
April 4,2020

New Delhi, April 4: Extending a helping hand to curb the spread of coronavirus, superstar Shah Rukh Khan and wife Gauri Khan have offered their personal office space in Mumbai for quarantine purpose for children, elderly and women.

The information was tweeted by the official Twitter handle of BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) on Saturday that thanked the couple for the gesture.

"Stronger together. We thank Shah Rukh Khan and Gauri Khan for offering their 4-storey personal office space to help expand our quarantine capacity equipped with essentials for quarantined children, women and elderly, Indeed a thoughtful and timely gesture!" the tweet read.

Earlier the 54-year-old superstar and his group companies had pledged to donate to a number of relief funds, including the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-CARES) fund and the Maharashtra Chief Minister's Relief Fund to combat the coronavirus.

The 'Devdas' actor had taken to Twitter on Thursday and shared that his companies -- Kolkata Knight Riders, Red Chillies Entertainment, Meer Foundation, and Red Chillies VFX -- are taking several initiatives to support the relief efforts.

The Padma Shri awardee also announced that his initial efforts will be focused on three cities -- Mumbai, Kolkata and New Delhi, "with the realisation that this is a start and we stand ready to contribute in whichever way possible going forward".

Meanwhile, India's tally of coronavirus positive cases rose to 2,902, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday.

Out of 2,902 cases, 2,650 are active cases and 184 have been cured or discharged or have migrated. The total number of deaths reported due to the disease rose to 68 on Saturday.

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News Network
June 19,2020

Mumbai, Jun 19: Actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s memories will continue to be celebrated as Instagram has memorialised his account, adding “remembering” to his bio.

Rajput, 34, known for films like "Kai Po Che!", "MS Dhoni: The Untold Story", "Chhichhore", was found dead in his Bandra apartment on Sunday, sending shockwaves in the film industry and elsewhere.

Days after his untimely demise, Instagram added “remembering” to his account bio and memorialised it as a place to remember the actor’s life.

According to the photo-video sharing website, no one can log into a memorialised account. The posts the deceased person shared, including photos and videos, stay on their page and are visible to the users they were shared with.

Also, once the account is memorialised, no one will be able to make changes to any of the existing posts or information.

The actor’s last post on the social media platform was a tribute to his late mother on June 3.

Rajput’s death is being investigated by the Mumbai Police and so far statements of over 13 people, including actor’s family members and close friends, including actor Rhea Chakraborty and casting director Mukesh Chhabra, have been recorded.

The police have also sent a letter to Yash Raj Films seeking details of the contracts it had signed with him.

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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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