Tag: KAMAL

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India News Politics

‘Kamal Won’t Leave Congress’

Congress leaders Digvijaya Singh underscored Kamal Nath’s longstanding commitment to the Congress, tracing his political trajectory from its ranks, and dismissed rumours of his departure…reports Asian Lite News

Amid speculation surrounding senior Congress figure Kamal Nath’s potential shift to the BJP, his party peer Digvijaya Singh emphasised on Sunday that Nath’s political roots are firmly entrenched in the grand old party, indicating he’s unlikely to defect.

Singh underscored Nath’s longstanding commitment to the Congress, tracing his political trajectory from its ranks, and dismissed rumours of his departure.

Referring to Nath as a stalwart within the party, Singh highlighted his extensive roles within the Congress hierarchy, including chief minister, union minister, AICC general secretary, and MP Congress chief. Singh also lauded Nath’s resilience, suggesting he wouldn’t succumb to pressure from investigative agencies like the ED, I-T, or CBI.

“I spoke to Kamal Nath on Friday, he was in Chhindwara. A person who started his political journey and stood with the Nehru-Gandhi family when Indira Gandhi was sent to jail, do you think he will ever leave Congress and the Gandhi family?”

He concluded by affirming that Nath’s continued allegiance to the Congress serves as the strongest rebuttal to any conjecture about his potential defection to the BJP.

‘I will inform media first’

Kamal Nath on Saturday told the media that if he were to take a decision in this regard, he will inform the media first.

“Why are you all getting excited? It is not about denying. I will inform you all if there is something like that,” Kamal Nath said.

Congres MP Nakul Nath removed ‘INC’ from his social media bio, giving further momentum to the rumours that he is going to join the BJP.

Furthermore, Nakul Nath, the lone Congress MP from Madhya Pradesh, who was supposed to continue his meeting with party workers in his family bastion Chhindwara from February 14 to 18, stopped the meeting and left for Delhi along with his father.

All these sequences gave rise to the speculation that Kamal Nath, considered close to the Nehru-Gandhi family, is likely to end his decades long association with the grand old party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

On February 10, IANS had reported that a rift between Kamal Nath and former AICC president Rahul Gandhi erupted following the party’s loss in the assembly election in November last year.

Sources had then also claimed that a deal between Kamal Nath and the BJP that was “derailed” due to some reasons, was “brought back” on track again with several top leaders from the BJP having supported the same.

However, seasoned politician with over 40 years of experience, Kamal Nath left the political watchers guessing.. Though all is not going well between Rahul and Kamal Nath, the latter was regularly visiting to meet Sonia Gandhi. Kamal Nath’s frequent visits to meet Sonia were also being viewed as the leader racing for the Rajya Sabha seat from Madhya Pradesh.

Recently when Kamal Nath invited Congress MLAs for a dinner at his residence in Bhopal, it was seen as his power show to obtain the Rajya Sabha seat. However, two days later, the party nominated MP Congress treasurer Ashok Singh for the Upper House of the Parliament. That probably had disappointed Kamal Nath, who wants to retain his bastion Chhindwara.

Sources in the Madhya Pradesh Congress still believe that Nakul Nath may join the BJP but not Kamal Nath, citing latter’s decades long association with the Congress and his personal bonding with the Nehru-Gandhi family.

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India News Politics

Kamal May Step Down As MP Congress Chief

All India Congress Committee general secretary (Org) KC Venugopal was also present at the meeting, sources informed…reports Asian Lite News

Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath is likely to step down as the Congress state president in the wake of the party’s drubbing in the Assembly elections, sources said on Tuesday. According to sources, the former CM, who met the Congress high command in the national capital on Tuesday, was directed to appoint a new state president.

Arriving in the national capital on Tuesday, the Congress’s state chief met the party’s national president Mallikarjun Kharge and MP Rahul Gandhi at the former’s residence. All India Congress Committee general secretary (Org) KC Venugopal was also present at the meeting, sources informed.

Madhya Pradesh polled for 230 assembly seats in a single phase on November 17 and the results, along with those of three other states — Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Telangana — were declared on Sunday, December 3.

Addressing a press conference on Sunday, as the final stages of the vote count pointed to a landslide win for the incumbent BJP, the Congress state chief said, “We accept the mandate of Madhya Pradesh voters in this democratic contest. We will fulfil the role of the opposition.”
The stalwart Congress leader also congratulated the BJP on their thumping victory, defying the pollsters who predicted a tight contest and a win for the grand old party.”I congratulate the Bharatiya Janata Party and hope they will fulfil the responsibilities of the people who have given them this mandate,” Nath said at the press conference.The BJP, which had been battling close to 20 years of incumbency, won a resounding mandate bagging 163 seats while the Congress finished a distant second at 66 seats.

Madhya Pradesh has been a BJP stronghold for the last twenty years, barring a 15-month tenure of the Kamal Nath-led government after the Congress came to power in the 2018 polls.In the last assembly elections, the Congress emerged as the largest single party with 114 seats while the BJP trailed closely with 109 seats. The Congress eventually came to power, with Kamal Nath taking oath as the chief minister.

However, that was before a political upheaval rocked the state in 2020, after then-Congressman Jyotiraditya Scindia, along with 22 loyalist MLAs, switched over to the saffron camp.The Congress government fell after being reduced to a minority and the BJP formed the government in the state, with Shivraj Singh Chouhan returning as chief minister. (ANI)

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Bollywood Films

IIFA 2023: Kamal honoured with Outstanding Achievement Award

Ajay Devgn’s ‘Drishyam 2’ got the Best Film trophy and the honour for Best Director went to R. Madhavan for ‘Rocketry: The Nambi Effect’…reports Asian Lite News

After sweeping the technical awards at IIFA 2023, ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ continued its winning run on Saturday night, with Alia Bhatt getting Best Actor in a Leading Role (Female).

The film’s producer, Jayantilal Gada, received the award on Alia’s behalf, as the actor’s maternal grandfather, Narendra Razdan, is reportedly not well.

Ajay Devgn’s ‘Drishyam 2’ got the Best Film trophy and the honour for Best Director went to R. Madhavan for ‘Rocketry: The Nambi Effect’.

Hrithik Roshan, meanwhile, bagged the trophy for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his turbo-charged performance in ‘Vikram Vedha’, which also starred Saif Ali Khan.

‘Vikram Vedha’ is an official Hindi remake of the Tamil film with the same title, which featured R. Madhavan and Vijay Sethupathi in the lead roles.

Hrithik said in his acceptance speech: “I have lived with Vedha for many years now. It began right here in Abu Dhabi. I gave my first shot as Vedha here … it feels like life has come full circle to me. Vedha helped me unleash the madness inside me … Thank you universe and thank you Vedha for helping me discover that madness and helping me discover the strength to hold that madness.”

Celebrated actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasan received a standing ovation when he was honoured for Outstanding Achievement in Indian Cinema. Singer and music composer A.R. Rahman gave the award to Kamal, who was applauded by all present, starting with Salman Khan.

Accepting the golden trophy, Kamal expressed his gratitude and said: “I grew up in cinema … I came here when I was three and half. … You have been kind enough to allow me to survive till this stage … I’m very thankful and humbled.” Kamal started as a child artiste in the 1960 Tamil film ‘Kalathur Kannamma’.

Senior actor Anil Kapoor also received an award — for Performance In A Supporting Role (Male) for his part in ‘JugJugg Jeeyo’.

Fantasy drama ‘Brahmastra: Part One – Shiva’ and ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ were the big winners. The awards that went to ‘Brahmastra: Part One – Shiva’ included the ones for Best Playback Singer (Shreya Ghoshal, female, and Arijit Singh, male) and for Best Supporting Actor (Female) for Mouni Roy.

Late Bollywood actor Irrfan Khan’s son, Babil Khan, won the Best Debut (Male) award for the film ‘Qala’, and shared it with Santanu Maheshwari, who starred in ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’. Khushali Kumar won Best Debut (Female) for ‘Dhoka Around the Corner’.

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Bollywood Films Lite Blogs

Kamal happy over emergence of ‘Indian cinema’ cuts across language barriers

The 67-year-old star, who started as a child artiste when he was all of six, has been acting for more than five decades…writes Durga Chakravarty

At a time when Hindi has been at the centre of a controversy over whether it should become India’s link language, Tamil superstar Kamal Haasan, who had once called Hindi “still a little child in diapers”, said here on Thursday that the conversation is not needed as the country’s “diversity is our strength.”

The actor, who was in the national capital to promote the Tamil action thriller ‘Vikram’, said: “We should be proud that we have people speaking different languages but communicating with each other in English. There’s nothing wrong with it. The British robbed us of many things, but they left us something which we can encash now.”

The auteur, who’s back from the 75th Cannes Film Festival, underlined the strength of India’s linguistic diversity: “Why are we making it our weakness? We have so many languages and we have learned to live with them. We have so many cuisines. Our diversity is our strength. We should be proud of it rather than being ashamed of it.”

The 67-year-old star, who started as a child artiste when he was all of six, has been acting for more than five decades. He has worked in several languages, including Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and Hindi, where he has been a part of a number of acclaimed films such as ‘Sadma’, ‘Ek Duuje Ke Liye’ and ‘Saagar’.

He’s happy therefore about the emergence of an ‘Indian cinema’ that cuts across language barriers. Why did it take us so long to call it ‘Indian cinema’?

Kamal, who likes to be referred to as an “Indian actor”, said: “I hope it happens in every field. You call it Indian language instead of calling it Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi or Bengali. It’s our language. I cannot speak it but there are millions who can speak it. Like 80 million people speak Tamil, that’s a lot of people bigger than a country.”

Over the years, the box office has seen regional language movies such as the ‘Baahubali’ franchise, and more recently, ‘Pushpa: The Rise’, the ‘KGF’ franchise and ‘RRR’ leaving Hindi films far behind in the competition for eyeballs. What is Bollywood doing wrong?

“Nothing wrong,” the superstar was quick to reply, adding: “Some of them are very talented.”

He explained: “It’s like the National Awards, which are given by (a jury of)12 people. But the audience, millions of them, also give awards. The fact that an actor doesn’t get a National Award doesn’t make him a bad actor. It doesn’t make him an actor who is doing something wrong.

“It’s just that he didn’t get the right opportunity, the producer, to do it. The same applies to filmmakers when they want to make a film — the right production, the right distribution, the right publicity, these are all important factors. All these are coalescing now, thanks to technology, communications, YouTube, media — everything has grown. So, we are able to reach out to a lot more people, instead of shouting ourselves hoarse to get national attention.”

‘Vikram’, which is being backed by Kamal Haasan production house, Raaj Kamal Films International, is scheduled for a June 3 release. Besides the superstar, the Lokesh Kanagaraj film has Vijay Sethupathy and Malayalam actor Fahad Faasil playing the lead characters, with music scored by Avinash Ravichander.

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Bollywood Lite Blogs

Fahad to be the villain of Kamal Haasan

South Indian Mega star and Makkal Needhi Maiam president Kamal Haasan is playing the hero in the movie…reports Asian Lite News.

Malayalam Super Star Fahad Fazil is always selective in handling his roles. Fahad who is part of several hit movies is all set to play the role of a villain in Super director, Lokesh Kanakaraj’s new movie, “Vikram”. This will be the third Tamil movie in which Fahad Fazil is acting after “Vellaikaran” and “Super Deluxe”. He has also played the villain character in the Telugu movie “Pushpa” in which Allu Arjun played the hero.

South Indian Mega star and Makkal Needhi Maiam president Kamal Haasan is playing the hero in the movie.

Lokesh Kanakaraj is a new generation director of Tamil Nadu who has directed hit movies like “Kaithi” starring Surya’s brother Karthik and “Master” in which Ilayadalapathi of Tamil Nadu, Vijay played the hero.

“Vikram” is the 232nd movie of Super star Kamal Haasan who has several hit movies to his credit and was once the heartthrob of South Indian movies. He has also done several experiments playing the character of women in the movie “Avaishanmukhi” and in the movie “Dasavatharam”, he played ten roles in a single film.

Anirudh Ravichander will be the music director of the movie and the film is produced by Rajkamal Films International (RKFI). The shoot is likely to commence from the middle of May.

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