A R Murugadoss slams Priyadarshan-led National Awards jury, calls it biased

April 10, 2017

Mumbai, Apr 10: The 64th National Awards have found itself in controversy since the announcement took place few days back. One of the most surprising winners was Akshay Kumar, who won the best actor award for ‘Rustom’ and social media went berserk over the superstar's maiden win.

muruThe jury of the awards was led by Priyadarshan, who has directed Akshay in numerous films, and this frequent collaboration was attributed for Akshay’s award as they felt that several other performances of the year like Manoj Bajpayee in ‘Aligarh’, Aamir Khan in ‘Dangal’ and Shahid Kapoor in 'Udta Punjab' among others were far more deserving.

However, Priyadarshan had defended the ‘biased’ accusation against him by saying that Amitabh Bachchan and Ajay Devgn had also won National Awards when their respective frequent collaborators Ramesh Sippy and Prakash Jha were heads of the panel, but no one questioned it at that time.

One of the few celebrities to have expressed ‘disappointment’ over the awards was ‘Aligarh’ director Hansal Mehta, who later clarified that it was his personal views and not directed against anyone else.

Popular South filmmaker A. R. Murugadoss, who had films like ‘Ghajini’, ‘Holiday: A Soldier is Never Off Duty’ and ‘Akira’ in Bollywood and several other hits down South, was very vocal about his views on the awards and took to Twitter to call the jury partial and biased.

Incidentally, Murugadoss had directed Akshay in ‘Holiday: A Solider is Never Off Duty’ which was a hit at the box office.

Coming from Murugadoss, who is a man of few words, the comment does come as a surprise.

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Agencies
March 7,2020

Mumbai, Mar 7: A 'farm-to-fork' themed restaurant 'He-Man' situated on National Highway in Haryana's Karnal -- franchised by veteran Bollywood actor Dharmendra -- has been sealed for building law violations, officials said on Saturday.

The Karnal Municipal Corporation sealed the franchise outlet on Friday for not furnishing the change of land use (CLU) certificate and illegal constructions, an official said.

The restaurant is located on National Highway 44 on the outskirts of Karnal, some 150 km from here.

The franchise was given to Delhi-based businessman Pramod Kumar.

"After the success of my restaurant Garam Dharam Dhaba, I am now announcing a farm-to- fork themed restaurant 'He-Man'," Dharmendra had announced on Instagram after its launch on Valentine's Day.

Karnal Deputy Commissioner Nishant Yadav said the action was initiated as the restaurant owner did not respond to MC notice on the issue.

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News Network
April 2,2020

Mumbai, Apr 2: Ramayan, the over three-decade-old TV series based on Hindu mythology, garnered 170 million viewers in four shows over the last weekend in its new avatar, the BARC said on Thursday.

This catapulted the Ramanand Sagar production as the highest watched serial in the Hindi general entertainment space ever, the Broadcast Audience Research Council said.

The show was relaunched last Saturday amid the gloomy times of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and a lot of thrust laid by the government machinery to popularise the series.

BARC's chief executive Sunil Lulla said the numbers notched up by the series was a bit surprising and called the move as a brilliant one by the Prasar Bharti.

He said eventually, we will also see advertisers flock the series which will be running for a few more days.

The inaugural show of the series on Saturday morning had 34 million viewers glued to their TV sets watching and enjoyed a rating of 3.4 per cent, while a telecast the same evening had 45 million viewers and a rating of 5.2 per cent.

The show bettered its performance on Sunday, with 40 million and 51 million people watching it in the morning and evening telecasts, respectively.

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News Network
July 2,2020

Mumbai, Jul 2: The Mumbai police have summoned noted filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali for questioning in connection with the Sushant Singh Rajput suicide case. According to several reports, casting director Shanoo Sharma too might be questioned in connection with the star’s death.

Reports also state that Kangana Ranaut and Shekhar Kapur, who are not directly involved with the investigation, are likely to be asked to record their statements.

The development comes days after the cops had asked for the details of SSR’s contract with Yashraj Films. The MS Dhoni actor had starred in Shuddh Desi Romance and Detective Byomkesh Bakshi, which were backed by the banner. He was supposed to team up with YRF for Paani, directed by Kapur, but the movie was on hold due to creative differences between the Mr India helmer and the production house.

Sushant died by suicide on June 14, leaving his near and dear ones in a state of shock. Following his demise, fans alleged that several Bollywood biggies had tried to sabotage his career as he was an ‘outsider’, reigniting the nepotism debate.

SSR, who hailed from Patna, made an impact in the TV industry before entering Bollywood with the sleeper hit Kai Po Che. He impressed fans with his performances in PK and Shuddh Desi Romance, consolidating his standing in the industry. It was, however, MS Dhoni that established him as a bankable star. Chhichore was his last theatrical release before his death. Drive, backed by Karan Johar, released directly on Netflix. His last film Dil Bechara is slated to release on Disney+ Hotstar on July 24.

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