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INDO-AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2007


39BUSINESS DESI

MarketWatch

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Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Indian Rupee 44.08 Pakistani Rupee 60.62 Bangladeshi Taka 68.98 Sri Lanka Rupee 108.76

Nepal Rupee 71.07

Currency Exchange Rates

1US $=

BSE SENSEX

12938.09-540.74(-4.01%)

KSE 100Index11180.02-196.10

KSE AllShare7457.80

NIFTY

3745.30-148.60(-3.82%)

BOMBAY SENSEX, 3:30 PM

Sensex Crashes 541 Points

BusiNessBUSINESS | TECHNOLOGY | MONEY | STOCKS

FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2007

DesiNewsINDOAMERICANNEWS | www.indoamerican-news.com

BY SURAJ MHATRE

SUGAR LAND – IITAlumni of Great-er Hous-ton (IIT-AGH) kicked offtheir 2007 lecture serieswith the first talk of theyear by Joseph Pally on Feb22, 2007.

Pally is a 1988 graduatefrom IIT Madras. He un-veiled the next generationof web application calledZCubes. Joseph Pally and

Parag Mathur demon-strated the capabilities ofZCubes web application tothe audience numberingmore than 60 people at Ma-dras Pavillion in SugarLand, Texas.

Today's generation is appropriatelycalled the multitasking generation orGeneration M. "How wonderful would itbe if the web could be as creative as thehuman mind; with an application thatlets you mix and match the best of theweb to suit your needs,” said Pally.

ZCubes allows you to create profes-sional web pages like photo albums bysimply dragging and dropping imagesfrom search programs such as Googleand Flicker or uploading your photosand enhancing them with special ef-fects. Place them anywhere, rotate

Web Technology @ IITAGHIITAGH’s first talk of the 2007 lecture series presents an innovative web application developed

by an IIT alumnus

them, add captions, draw on themand even handwrite to add thatextra personal touch. You can alsodrag and drop multiple videos fromYouTube and view them simulta-neously on a single screen whileshopping online.

E-cards can be jazzed up by cre-ating them in your own style in theZgreetings mode by choosing from agallery of backgrounds, adding ani-mations and clip art with a singleclick and adding fancy clipart or bydrawing something online with theZPaint functionality.

The handwriting toolhas built-in smoothing toautomatically smooth outuneven text to match yournatural handwriting inany language of choice.

ZCubes also makes iteasy to share your cre-ation. You can choosefrom several options suchas save to local disk, emailor publish your creationonline with appropriatetag names and appropri-ate security settings. TheZCubes virtual black-board is a teaching aid andcome in handy for makingquick notes during busi-

ness presentations.IITAGH activities include talks,

networking and social events,mentoring of college graduates fromsurrounding universities and teach-ing Math at the Lee High School.

There are over 1,000 IIT alumni inthe greater Houston area and thenumber is growing. The IITAGH is anon-exclusive organization that isopen to all.

You can learn more about ZCubesat www.ZCubes.com. For more infor-mation on IITAGH, visitwww.iitagh.org.

ZCubes President Joseph Pally demonstrating thecapabilities of the interactive web application at first of theIITAGH 2007 lecture series.

The stock markets gave a virtual thumbsdown to the Union Budget and the bench-mark BSE crashed 541 points to end belowthe 13,000-point mark on Wednesday inhighly volatile trading on selling by fundsand investors.

After plunging 678 points, the Sensexremained volatile and ended with a hefty lossof 540.74 points, or 4.01 %, at 12,938.09. Itcame below 13,000 points level and movedbetween 13,298.52 and 12,800.91 during theday.

In similar fashion, the National StockExchange index Nifty dropped by 148.60points, or 3.82 % at 3,745.30. It moved be-tween 3,893.40 and 3,674.85 points.

Major negative factors for the marketwere the budgetary proposals including ahike in dividend distribution tax, a 25 %dividend distribution tax for mutual fundsand liquid mutual funds, imposition of tax onemployees stock option plan (ESOP) and nochange in the corporate tax.

Selling pressure gathered momentum asthere was no concessions in corporate taxand securities transaction tax, brokers said.

Petroleum Secretariesof Pakistan and

India : AhmadWaqar (L)and S.B.

Tripathi (R)

India-Pakistan Agree to Share Gas,But Differ on Cost

40 INDO-AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2007


BUSINESS DESI World Briefs

India RetailIndia-PakistanAgree toShare Gas

Big Blast for Space Mission

Car Giants to BuildIndian Plant

Unfriendly Protests Greet Wal-Mart in India

Argos in Indian Franchise Venture

Siemens Secures a Contract of $750 Millionin Pakistan GSM Network

DELHI – A visit to India by Wal-Mart executives has sparked protestsby small shopkeepers worried about itsplans for a tie-up with Bharti Enter-prises.

Communist protesters werebriefly arrested after theymarched on government buildingsin Delhi, waving placards saying“Save small retailers”.

Wal-Mart vice-chairmanMichael Duke is in Mumbai fortalks with Bharti bosses and gov-ernment representatives.

Wal-Mart and Bharti are plan-ning a joint venture for cash-and-carry.

A statement from Wal-Martsays Mr Duke is visiting India “tolearn more about the market first-hand and to further explore the whole-sale cash-and-carry business”.

The protestors burned an effigy rep-resenting Wal-Mart near the office ofKamal Nath, the Indian commerce andtrade minister.

India’s retail industry is worth

about $300 billion a year and has at-tracted the interest of international re-tailers.

A spokesman for India FDI Watch,which tries to limit the growth of foreign

retailers in India, says Wal-Mart’s entrythreatens large numbers of jobs.

“Around 40 million people depend onthe retail sector and these people’s live-lihoods will be ruined if Wal-Mart ispermitted to enter India's retail mar-ket,” he said.

Small retailers fear that they will lose business

INDIA – The Argos retail name is tobe taken to India through a franchise

deal with two of the country’s leadingstore chains.

Argos will license its brand and prod-uct catalogue for use in retail outlets inIndia, with the first due to open inMumbai later this year.

Argos, which is part of the HomeRetail Group, said the deal would give ita “foothold” in a fast-expanding market.

Several other British retailers includ-ing Mothercare have used the franchisemodel to enter India.

Argos is teaming up with Indian firmsShopper’s Stop and Hypercity Retail In-dia to launch the Hypercity Argos retailconcept.

As well as providing its own cata-logue, Argos will offer IT support andadvice on developing sales through theinternet.

India is seen as one of the world’s mostuntapped retail markets

CHENNAI – Renault and Nissan are join-ing forces with India’s Mahindra & Mahindrato build anew $900illion carplant in thecity ofChennai ,M a d r a s .Mahindra,I n d i a ’ sf o u r t h -largest carfirm, willown 50% of the venture with its partners con-trolling the rest.

Production is expected to start in 2009 andthe plant will ultimately be able to turn out400,000 cars a year.

Foreign firms have flocked to India becauseof the economy’s strong growth and low costs.

Both Ford and Hyundai have alreadyopened plants in Chennai.

Mahindra sees its future in themainstream car market

ISLAMABAD – India andPakistan moved a step closer tobuild the $7 billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline asthey reached an understandingto share natural gas to beimported from Iran, but theyfailed to arrive at a consensuson transportation costs andtransit fee.

Pakistan’s petroleumsecretary Ahmad Waqar saidthe two nations have agreed toreceive 60 million standard

cubicmetersof gasperdayandshare30mil-lionstan-dardcubicmeters

each in the first phase.The remaining volumes

would be shared in the nextphase of the project. Theunderstanding was reached ata bilateral meeting attended bypetroleum officials of India andPakistan while Iran attended itas an observer.

The two sides have notfinalised the route of the 644miles long pipeline. For secu-rity reasons, Pakistan hasproposed three routes andsuggested a coastal route whichincreased the length of thepipeline within Pakistan by163 miles.

Petroleum SecretariesAhmad Waqar (L) of

Pakistan and S.B. Tripathi(R) of India

INDIA – Space program got a nearly Rs 900crore hike in Budget outlay. Space experts saysthis is one of the largest hikes in recent timeswhich will lift the space sector to higher orbits.

While the amount earmarked last year wasRs 2,997 crore, it has shot up to Rs 3,860 crorethis year. An important aspect of the spacebudget was that it has given a push to themanned space program by allotting a sum of Rs50 crore for this project.

Experts says “Indian manned mission spaceprogram has been envisaged as a national effortwith Isro playing lead role to develop an autono-mous orbital vehicle to carry a two-membercrew to the low earth orbit and safely returnthem to earth.”

The program was approved by scientists,including cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma in No-vember 2006, and is awaiting the formal greensignal of the Center.

MUNICH – Siemens is to extendthe GSM network of TelenorPakistan in a contract thatcould be worth $750 millionover three years, the Germanelectronics concern an-nounced in Munich.

Siemens Networks is tocombine with Finland’s Nokiain the contract for Pakistan’ssecond largest provider of mo-bile phone services.

After the rollout phase, Si-emens will operate the GSMnetwork, focussed on thesouth of the country. The corenetwork throughout the coun-try is also to be modernised.

From securing its GSM li-cence in 2004, Telenor Paki-stan, a subsidiary of TelenorASA, has grown rapidly, se-curing an additional 2 millionclients in the three months of 2006

Nokia and Siemens building two GSM / GPRS /EDGE networks in Pakistan for mobile telecoms

operator, Telenor

alone. Telenor ASA is active in Thai-

land, Malaysia and Bangladesh.



41

Big Fat Indian WeddingExtravagant spending with Bollywood glamor has made the Indian

wedding industry a $11 billion business

A classical dancer performing at the Elephanta Caves Festival nearMumbai.

BY MEENAKSHI

REDDY MADHAVAN

BALI: The back-drop could be theVersailles Palace or theEgyptian pyramids,Udaipur's Lake Palaceor a beach resort in Bali.A young couple, deckedout in clothes drippingwith pearls and crys-tals, on which sweat-shop workers havelaboured for a year,pledge their eternalcommitment to each other.Witnessing the event is amulti-starrer cast of specta-tors—political bigwigs,transnational tycoons, filmstars, socialites and models.

Welcome to the Big Fat In-dian Wedding — an event thatis no longer just about the alli-ance between two families andtwo people, but an exercise inbranding, in recreating yourimage. It's the ultimate in PR— offering networking withthe powerful, rich and famous,international media coverage,jetset glamour and glitter, adeafening statement aboutyour wealth and status, and abuzz that crores worth of ad-vertising space would neverget you.

Celebrity chefs and Bolly-wood's most-sought-after setdesigners were also flown in.Each night saw a speciallythemed decor— ArabianNights for the mehndi, Indo-nesian for the wedding cer-emony and Manhattan for thepre-wedding cocktails anddinner. Fountains in the

shape of giant lotuses lined the redcarpet walkway, and spectacularfireworks lit up the Balinese sky.

Such weddings are, of course,too important and too complicatedto be left to parents or even run-of-the-mill wedding planners. Only atop-notch event management com-pany will do. One phone call and itall begins to fall into place. Uh, wemean one phone call and lots andlots of money—the commissioncharg-ed is often 10 to 15 per cent ofthe entire cost. Says Samit Garg,CEO of E-factor, the company thathandled the Lohia wedding,smugly: "We have the unfortunatereputation of being the most expen-sive wedding planners in India.”

The Big Fat Indian Weddinghas its critics, of course. "It's theworst global export of India," ad-man Suhel Seth exclaims. "It's ob-scene and vulgar. We need to getguest control back, and weddingswhere people can actually get to seethe bride and groom. It's not a stylestatement, it's a stature misstate-ment, which lacks all finesse andstyle. Getting Bollywood stars toyour wedding shows an appallinglack of pedigree.

Not many Indianscan afford to sign upBollywood stars, orfly off to Bali, but theycan at least adapt afew big ideas to theirmore modest bud-gets, and outdo theirneighbours in lavish-ness. Much to the de-light of the weddingindustry, spending isup, even among themiddle classes, on de-cor, makeup, fashion,

photography and entertainment.The Indian wedding has become aburgeoning industry, estimated at$11 billion a year, and growing at25 per cent annually. And this doesnot count jewellery sales, whichare growing at 7% annually, andare projected to reach $280 billionby 2015.

The scent of money in India'swedding industry is attractiveenough to have drawn even man-agement school graduates into thisfast growing market. Like JairajGupta, a graduate of BITS Pilaniand IIM, Calcutta, who drifted intowedding planning with the launchof his website, shaadionline.com,which started as an online wed-ding store, and then gradually be-came a planning portal. Guptacharges a flat fee of about Rs 2.5lakhs for organising weddings,which means that even well-offprofessional couples can seek outhis services. But listen to what hethinks is reasonable. "Within fiftylakhs, you could have a decentbudget wedding," he says casually,leaving us somewhat slack-jawed.Outlook

Chatwals enjoying their big fat wedding in Jaipur.

Society



Business News

Mumbai Diamond JewellersWelcome Import Cut in Budget

MUMBAI – While diamondjewellery makers have wel-comed customs duty cuts in theunion budget for 2007-08tabled in the Lok SabhaWednesday, corporate Indiahas deplored employees stockoption plan (ESOP) beingbrought under the tax regime inIndia’s financial and entertain-ment capital.

Finance Minister P. Chida-

mbaram’sannounce-ment of acut on cus-toms dutyon polisheddiamondsand roughsyntheticstones was welcomed by dia-mond jewellery makers in themetropolis.

Diamonds attract

NEW DELHI – FinanceMinister P. Chidambaram allo-cated $ 100 million for thepreparations of the 2010 Com-monwealth Games for the fi-nancial year 2007-2008.

Of this amount, $ 70 millionhave been allocated to Delhigovernment and the rest toMinistry of Sports and YouthAffairs to get the infrastructureready for the first Common-wealth Games that India wouldhost from Oct 3-14.

Chidambaram also provided

$ 100 Million for CommonwealthGames Preparations

$ 1 million for the 2008 Com-monwealth Youth Games to beheld in Pune from Oct 12-18.

The finance minister pro-posed a five-year tax holiday totwo-, three- and four-star ho-tels in the national capital ter-ritory of Delhi for the games.

Convention centres with asitting capacity of not less than3,000 will also get tax holiday ifthey are completed and beginoperation between April 2007and March 2010.

Source: Indo-Asian News Service

JAIPUR – The JSW Group,part of the $4 billion O.P. JindalGroup, is setting up a $ 1 billionlignite-based thermal powerproject in Barmer district ofRajasthan.

Chief Minister VasundharaRaje unveiled the foundationstone of the thermal powerplant in Barmer.

Raj West Power, a wholly-owned subsidiary of JSW En-ergy (JSWEL), would set up a1,000 MW lignite based pitheadpower project in Barmer dis-trict, making Raj West Powerthe first independent powerproducer to set up a project inthe state’s power sector.

Lignite has been chosen asthe primary fuel for the projectand the entire fuel requirementof the project of about 7.0 mil-lion tones per annum, is pro-posed to be sourced from thelignite mines at Jalipa andKapurdi, located near theproject site. Speaking on theoccasion, Sajjan Jindal, chair-

Jindals to Set up $ 1 Billion PowerProject in Rajasthan

man Raj West Power, said, “In-dia is currently on a growthpath and power is a vital com-ponent not only for businessbut also for personal use. Ourproject represents the JSWGroup’s pioneering spirit tohelp create a vibrant new Indiaand I am certain that Raj WestPower will play an integral rolein the rapid economic develop-ment of Rajasthan”.

The company also plans eco-logical development of the areaaround the mining zone.

JSWEL is a part of the $2billion JSW Group with diver-sified business in steel, power,ports and aluminium.

Jindal said, on its part tomeet the growing energy de-mand of the country, JSWEL isembarking on a capacity ex-pansion programme and plansto set up 3,000 MW power gen-eration capacities by 2010 indifferent geographical regionsat an estimated investment ofalmost $ 3 billion.



43

BollywoodHungama

Houston’s #1 Bollywood Portal | Music | Masti | Maaza

Aamir to Choose His Heroine

The second heroine of AamirKhan’s forthcoming movie hasstill not been finalized.

After completing his homeproduction Taare Zameen Pe,Aamir Khan will begin shootingfor the Hindi remake of Tamilhit Ghajini. The Hindi versionwill be directed by A.R.Murugadoss, who directed theTamil movie.

Recognizing Rajju!

Speechless!

Director Ram GopalVarma’s Nishabd tells the storyof an intimate relationship be-tween an older man and hisdaughter’s friend.

Starring Amitabh Bachchanand newcomer Jiah Khan,Nishabd is said to be based onVladimir Nabokov’s controver-sial novel Lolita. WhileNakobov’s novel is about a 44-year-old man fantasising abouta precocious 12-year-old girl,Varma’s Nishabd is about a 60-year old married man’s ro-mance with an 18-year-old girl.

Amitabh plays a wildlifephotographer in the film whoseartistic vision is triggered offwhen he sees Jiah in the watergetting all wet. Jiah too is ob-sessed with him. When he tellshis family about his feelings forthe teenager, all hell breaksloose.

Through this film, Varmatries to state that age has noth-ing to do with love. Attractionbetween two people can exist,irrespective of age.

The novel has been twiceadapted into a film — StanleyKubrick in 1962 and AdrianLyne in 1997.

Remember the thin mannamed Rajju who playedLangda Tyagi’s [Saif Ali Khan]best friend in one of the bestfilms of 2006 — Omkara?

Deepak Dobriyal was thename of the man and he waseasily considered to be one ofthe best finds of the year goneby. As a man who gets engagedto the character played byKareena Kapoor only to loose heron the day of his marriage to herlover Ajay Devgan, Dobriyal wassimply perfect in the way heplayed the rustic character.

That’s the reason why he wasawarded with “Special Jury Rec-

Deepak Dobriyal (right) with Saif AliKhan in Omkara

While Ayesha Takia has al-ready been finalized to play oneof the leading ladies, PriyankaChopra and Kangana Ranautare reportedly under consider-ation for the role of the secondheroine. Reports have it that di-rector Murugadoss has left thedecision to choose the film’s hero-ine to Aamir.Neither Priyankanor Kangana have worked withAamir so far.

Of the film’s two heroines, onewill play a model and the other, amedical student. Aamir will playa man in love with a model. Heloses his memory after an injurywhile trying to save her fromgangsters. Thereafter this am-nesiac protagonist avenges thekillers with the help of a medicalstudent.

ognition” at the recently con-ducted Filmfare Awards in theweekend gone by. And no, for achange there were no eyebrowsraised when his name was an-nounced in the middle of thoseindustry folks who matter!

“My marriage has been thebest thing that hashappened to me. My lifewas directionless for a while.Marriage has given me apurpose”.



C

Karan Johar is taking his newly discovered role as Bollywood'sacademic ambassador very seriously. The director was last weekinvited to lecture 500 students at New York University and says theresponse was "overwhelming". "The subject was Bollywood and itspopular culture. It isn't so much about what I said to them as whatthey asked me. I suddenly realised how far Bollywood was reachingout. They no longer ask questions about the song-and-dance aspectof Bollywood," Karan told IANS.

"The western hemisphere is waking up to the vast possibilities ofour cinema. And it's amazing to hear how much insight the Americanstudents could provide me about my cinema. I think the time forBollywood has arrived now."

Apparently, Karan is now being booked for Bollywood lectures inseveral cities in the US. "I enjoy these interactive sessions. And I don'tmind talking on our cinema as long as it doesn't interfere with mymain work, which is making movies. In any case making movies andtaking them to the maximum number of people go hand in hand."

Next month, Karan will lecture on his favourite topic to studentsat Harvard."That's as academic as it gets," he laughed.

From NYU to Harvard, Karan isBollywood's Brand Ambassador

Entertainment

Bollywood Actress Priyanka Chopra andDirector/Producer Karan Johar



45Profile

From Parineeta to Munna in Amrika - the Woman behind the Glitzy CostumeBetween reading the script sent to her by Nikhil Advani’s production company, award winning costume designer Subarna Ray takes out time

to talk to IAN heartily about her projects, colleagues and obstacles.

Dressing up the stars: Top left: Sanjay Dutt in Parineeta, Center:Vidya Balan and Raima Sen look stunning as Rajeshwari and Nandini;Top Right ; Saif Ali Khan in Parineeta; Below : Subarna Ray at anaward ceremony

BY BIDISHA ROY

For Subarna Ray, one ofIndia’s ace costume designers,the year 2006 was one of the mosteventful years. Her impeccablework in Vidhu Vinod ChopraProductions’ Parineeta awedviewers and critics alike for itsauthenticity, yet keeping up theBollywood spirit of glamor andglitz to ensure an aesthetic coor-dination between the creativewriting of Sarat ChandraChatterjee and the creative vi-sion of director Pradeep Sarkar.While Sarat Chatterjee’s Devdaswas criticized for its overdonecostume of Aishwarya Rai’s Paroand Madhuri Dixit’s Chandra-mukhi, Subarna’s work in

Parineeta was noticed and ap-preciated for its tone that kept upwith the era of the movie. Theresult — in 2006, Subarna re-ceived the most prestigiousApsara Critics Awards for cos-tume designing in Parineeta,that was followed by the popularZee Cine Awards, then the IIFAAwards, followed by another op-portunity to work with producerVidhu Vinod Chopra as a cos-tume designer in Lage RahoMunna Bhai, Eklavya and thenew promo for Munna BhaiChale Amrika.

Eklavya also brought herback to work with AmitabhBachchan, whom she holds ingreat revere. “Can you believethat Mr.Bachchan actually pat-ted my head while I was hem-ming his jacket for Rin?” Sheswoons in her interview withIndo American News. “And, healways speaks to me in perfectBengali,” she gushes.

Born and raised in Calcutta,Subarna got into the entertain-ment industry while in college.Although she started working asa programming executive for ZeeTV, her passion for designing

made her take up an alternativecareer as a costume designer formusic videos, commercials andTV series. “My ex-brother-in-law(actor) Prasenjeet Chatterjee en-couraged me to get into costumedesigning full time.” This re-sulted in getting into interna-tional films like Nightfall withDavid Carradine, BBC moviesMary Seacole: The Real Angel ofCrimea and Victorian Values,German movie Shadows of Timeand then Bollywood.

While in Mumbai, she teamedup with filmmaker PradeepSarkar and designed the cos-tume for Amitabh Bachchan intwo of his commercials—Rin andCadbury’s. She managed tomake the superstar look like ashopkeeper in the Cadbury’sPappu Paas ho Gaya commer-cial and won his confidence tosuch an extent where he let herhem his long white jacket whilehe was in it.

In a recent interview,Amitabh Bachchan praised thecostume of his upcoming feature“Eklavya: The Royal Guard”which was co-designed bySubarna and fashion designerRaghavendra Rathod who hailsfrom Rajasthan. “He (Rathod)designed for the males andbrought so much authenticity to

the film. He also gave me ideasfor the female characters andbriefed me about the Rajasthanifolk costumes in details,”Subarna reveals, while gener-ously appreciating her colleague.

Subarna says that her bestfriend Vidya Balan lets her ex-periment new designs on her—the simpleton Lolita in Parineetawas transformed to an urbanradio jockey in Lage RahoMunnabhai to an ethnicRajeshwari in Eklavya!

While receiving the Zee CineAwards on Subarna’s behalf,Vidya herself acknowledged hercontribution in her acceptance asLolita in Parineeta — the moviegot both Bollywood debutantesenormous recognition, severalawards and very hectic schedule.

She just returned fromBenaras where she was shooting“The Untitled Pradeep SarkarFilm” with Abhishek Bachchan,Rani Mukherjee and JayaBachchan under the banner ofYash Raj Films. “Its not done yet.We have to go to Australia withDada (Pradeep Sarkar) for thelast two song sequences.”

What next? “I am reading ascript that Nikhil Advani’s pro-duction company sent over. Its aperiod piece to be directed byVikramaditya. I really enjoy do-

ing period pieces. It makes me domy research and I love it. But,”she says with a mischievoussmile, “I am really keeping myfingers crossed for the filming ofMunna Bhai.”

That means working againwith Sanjay Dutt, she blushesand giggles like a school girl atthe mention of his name. “I washis fan since my childhood. And Ican’t believe, now I get to workwith him,” she gushes. “He(Dutt) is one guy who looks out-standing in a dhoti as well as abright linen shirt or knittedsweater. So its always alwaysfun to design for him. He looksperfect in every attire.”

So is Sanju baba really a per-sonification of Munna as he ismade out to be by his cast andcrew? “Totally,” she reiterates,“he is so cool and such a nice guy.”

Although she would like tolaunch her own label someday,Subarna does not plan to evergive up costume designing.“There is so much challenge tocostume designing. We work inharmony with the art directorand cameraman and alwayshave to keep in mind the continu-ity and shot breakdowns. Fash-ion designers are not so used tothe concept of continuity and pro-duction demands of a film.”



Amitabh Bachchan+Income Tax =Eik Dastak

Entertainment

Monsoon Wedding’s woman Vasundhara Das would be seen on thesilver screen once again.

Titled Eik Dastak, the film was completed 2 years back. Directed byShekhar S Jhaa, the film is based on the lives of income tax officers whorisk their lives and fight against wrong deeds, unearth scams and earnrevenue for the country.

The Income Tax department may be giving sleepless nights toAmitabh Bachchan and his fans but here’s one person who is attemptingto change the department’s image.

Forty-year old director of the film, Sudhanshu Shekhar Jha is anAdditional Commissioner of Income Tax by day

Its mostly 16-18 hours of work for Shekhar these days while commut-ing between his office in Kalyan, home in Thane and studios in Andheri.But he is not complaining.

“My job is my profession and this is my dream. So, when you have adream you definitely find time and energy to fulfill it. And somehow whenI reach the studio, I get energised. So, its not much of problem,” says he.

Shekhar himself has written the story, screenplay and dialogues of thefilm which is based on his experience of 16 years of service.

Recently the I-T department has been getting lot of negative publicityfor many starry reasons and Shekhar belives his film will change manyperceptions. “I think my film will change the face of the department. Anybureaucracy is known to be faceless. We are not supposed to side withanyone, be it a politician or a film star. This faceless bureaucracy doesnthave a mouth to speak in the public. So, may be this is an attempt to tellpeople that look we are not the way you think us to be. We are ratherimpartial,” says Jha.

Apart from Das, others in the cast are Amit Behl, Murli Sharma, YatinKaryekar, Narendra N Jha and Pankaj Thakur. Sukhwinder Singh givesthe music.



47

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