I'm genuinely a dream come true: Shah Rukh Khan

Agencies
October 26, 2019

New Delhi, Oct 26: Shah Rukh Khan has always counted his blessings and the Bollywood superstar wants people to have faith in the power of dreams, just as he did.

The 53-year-old Delhi-born actor was all nostalgic in his city. He was here for the closing ceremony of the city's iconic cinema complex, PVR Anupam. India's first multiplex, PVR Anupam closed for renovation on Thursday night.

"Some of the things that you don't think about will happen to you and they are the best things of life. You just don't know it yet. I don't want to show off but I'm genuinely a dream come true.

"I'm a lower middle-class boy without his parents bound to the city of glamour and become a movie star. The world has showered me with their love. This happens in only dreams but I never thought of it. I haven't believed it, I am still that Delhi boy," Shah Rukh said.

The actor said he never thinks of himself as a star in Delhi but sometimes has to behave like one.

"It bores me to be a star that way. I love my job and promise to everybody that as Ajay Bijli and Sanjeev Kumar Bijli keep on making cinema theatres, I'll keep on making movies to fill them," he added.

The actor said it was his life's dream to own a theatre in a five-star hotel.

"This was the business I wanted to do, I didn't think I'll become a movie actor," he said.

Asked when was the first time he saw himself on the big screen, Shah Rukh said it was the rushes of 1992 film "Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman", directed by Aziz Mirza, at Mumbai's legendary RK Studios.

"I found myself so ugly. I had such bad hair. I was doing such bad acting in front of Nana Patekar, Amrita Singh, and Juhi Chawla. I took the late 4.15 am flight ticket that our producers used to get for us at 25 per cent off and went to the airport, thinking I can't work in films.

"Aziz and Juhi convinced me that it's not that bad. The final cut would be better. Just like Ajay Bijli lied and got 'Yes Boss' to play at this theatre, those two lied to me. I never looked better, I looked just the same," he recalled.

The actor said he used to stand outside PVR Anupam hoping to manage a ticket.

"I used to roam around on the roads like guys do... My wife Gauri used to live here in Panchsheel. I have roamed around this place a lot to impress her. When I had to really woo her, I borrowed my uncle's Vespa (scooter)."

Shah Rukh said he is fortunate to be so loved, especially by the people of the city.

"I remember initially one of the big things for me was 'Main Dilliwala hoon, dilwala hoon' ('I am a Delhiite, I have a big heart). Even today whoever meets me, it's still the same.

"My team asks me, 'You know him?' I say 'I don't but I'm related to him 100 per cent somehow'. Because everybody treats me like their own," he said.

The festival of Diwali begins Friday and the actor said he is in the city to enjoy some family time, but will be rushing back soon as the culture of Mumbai's Diwali parties is an important part of his life.

"I've got my little son (AbRam) here. I feel the way Dussehra, Diwali and Holi are celebrated in Delhi, they aren't celebrated anywhere else. Or maybe it's because I feel that way."

Shah Rukh said he feels the most nostalgic when he visits his late parents' resting place.

"Whenever I sit in a plane from Mumbai to come to Delhi, I have one thought in my heart that my mom and dad are here. I visit them in their graveyard late at night. When they say I've become a Mumbai person, I don't know how to express it... But as much as I can leave Delhi, Delhi can't leave me because my parents are here. The biggest memory for me is here," he said.

"Sometimes when I give it a miss or become lazy, I pray from afar because parents will understand. Going and seeing them whenever I come here is the most nostalgic (feeling) for me," he added.

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News Network
May 25,2020

New Delhi, May 25: Sending out good wishes on the auspicious of Eid, actor Sara Ali Khan on Sunday shared a priceless childhood throwback picture, along with her picture from the current days.

The 'Simmba' star put out the cute picture on Instagram where she is seen clad in a pink hijab, while on the other hand, the second picture features the younger Sara as she is seen sporting a black dupatta while she tries to imitate the younger self.

Along with the picture, she wrote," Eid Mubarak," and urged people to stay safe by staying at home and urged them to stay positive amid the COVID-19 outbreak with "#staysafe #stayhome #staypositive."

The post on the photo-sharing platform garnered more than one lakh likes within an hour of being posted.

Lately, the 'Kedarnath' star has been keeping her fans updated on her quarantine activities by sharing pictures and videos of her quarantine activities.

Earlier, Sara took a trip down the memory lane and reminisced her graduation day by sharing throwback pictures from the ceremony.

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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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News Network
June 16,2020

Mumbai, Jun 16: The International Space University (ISU) in France has paid homage to Sushant Singh Rajput in a statement, saying the news of the actor's death was "deeply saddening".

Rajput was found dead in his Bandra apartment on Sunday.

According to an official, Mumbai Police found out during the probe that the 34-year-old actor was under medication for depression.

The official Twitter handle of ISU on Monday tweeted how Rajput was supposed to visit the campus last year but was unable to due to scheduling conflict.

"We are deeply saddened by the dramatic news on the death of well known Indian actor Sushant Singh Rajput. Mr Singh Rajput was a believer and strong supporter of STEM education and was following ISU on social media.

"He had even accepted an invitation to visit ISU's Central Campus in the summer of 2019 but other agenda priorities prevented him from travelling to Strasbourg," the statement by the university read.

ISU paid condolences to Rajput's family and friends, saying the actor's memory will "remain among his thousands of followers across India and all over the world".

Rajput had enrolled at Delhi Technical University (DTU) in 2003, which was then known as Delhi College of Engineering, but left the course to pursue his showbiz dreams.

Even after leaving the four-year degree course, he remained fascinated with science and had a deep interest in astronomy.

As part of his research for the film "Chanda Mama Door Ke", he also visited the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 2017.

Rajput had stayed in NASA to train for his role as an astronaut for the film, which was eventually shelved.

The actor also owned Meade 14" LX600 telescope.

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