But the outspoken actress lashed out at the masses calling them 'hypocrites'. Mamta Kulkarni, reveal industry insiders, is still as bold and outrageous as ever.

And she has moved to Dubai . However, what surprised us was the fact that the girl, who made Ranaji famous in Karan Arjun, still owns three spacious flats in Sky Anchorage Apartments in Andheri.

What's more, the actress has no intentions of disposing them off in the near future either. A source close to Mamta revealed that the actress is rather possessive of her property in Mumbai.

"She sends about Rs 90,000 to the Sky Anchorage society every year for maintenance. Over and above that, she pays up to Rs 51,000 as property tax.

The money is shelled out by her boyfriend Vicky Goswami , who she lives with in the UAE ," said the source. Mirror has learnt that Mamta and Vicky have recently sent Rs 8,75,000 to the society that plans to start redevelopment soon.

The couple even made nominations for their Andheri property. "Mamta has nominated her sister as the caretaker.

This just goes to show that Mamta and Vicky are still very much together," added the source. During the 1990s, Mamta Kulkarni was part of several blockbusters including Rakesh Roshan's Karan Arjun, Sabse Bada Khiladi, Aashiq Awaara and Krantiveer.

However, after Rajkumar Santoshi's China Gate failed at the box office and the actress accused the filmmaker of having made indecent advances, her Bollywood career took a downturn. Acting offers dried up and she shifted in with her boyfriend Vicky in Dubai (less)

Junaid and his college (HR college) club had put up the match together aimed at sending a message that disability was no handicap. “I had asked dad when he would be free for this match and he gave me the date May 1.

But he got some work and hence could not make it here, it’s ok,” Junaid told PTI. A star-studded team from Bollywood included Aamir’s close friend Salman Khan and his brothers Arbaaz and Sohail, sis Arpita Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Esha Kopikkar, Aftab Agnihotri, Prateik Babbar, Atul Kulkarni, TV actors Dilip Joshi and Disha Vakani.

Posted in (less)

Like doing a cameo in a Cuban tourism commercial. It was a random gesture that Khan did at the request of a local filmmaker.

A source reveals, "Salman was shooting in Havana , when a filmmaker walked up to him on the set and asked if he could do a shot for his film promoting local tourism. He thought Salman's global appeal would be a huge asset for the project.

" After getting his consent, the filmmaker quickly got his crew to the set where Salman was shooting and took a few shots of the actor smiling and waving to people around. The source adds, "Salman did it because he felt like it.

He checked the footage they had shot and okayed it on the spot." Actors promoting tourism - Amitabh Bachchan is the brand ambassador for Gujarat Tourism - Aamir Khan is the face of the Atithi Devo Bhava campaign, which promotes tourism in India - Preity Zinta was appointed the brand ambassador for Himachal Pradesh Tourism in November 2010 - Celina Jailty was chosen to represent the land of the Pharaohs by becoming the face of the Egyptian Tourism Authority in 2007 - Shah Rukh Khan was enlisted by Mamta Banerjee to revive West Bengal's flagging economy by becoming its brand ambassador of tourism (less)

Celina gave birth to twin boys in Dubai Saturday, and the mother and children are doing well healthwise, according to the actress' husband, hotelier Peter Haag. They have named their twins Winston and Viraaj.

Lara delivered a baby girl in January and she has been spending time with her bundle of joy, named Sara. However, she is already back to reading scripts.

"Back to hearing scripts and making decisions. Exciting things to look forward to! On another note, nothing smells better than a Johnson's Baby," Lara wrote on Twitter last month.

The actress-producer, married to tennis ace Mahesh Bhupathi, was extremely excited about her pregnancy; her face had a glow every time she stepped out confidently with her baby bump. Actress Aishwarya Rai, who chose to keep away from the shutterbugs during her pregnancy, is also busy doting upon her daughter, born in November 2011.

The four-month-old daughter, said to have been named Aaradhya, is keeping Aishwarya occupied and work has taken a backseat for the actress. The former beauty queen has visibly put on post-pregnancy weight and would have to shed it off before she gets back to the cameras.

Her husband, Abhishek Bachchan, says she is happy playing mom for now and would only return to work when she feels like it. "When she wants to come back is completely her decision.

..

as and when she decides, when she sees a script she is inspired by - the decision is entirely hers. Currently she is very happy doing what she is doing," Abhishek said recently.

Other B-Town actresses who became moms recently include Sonali Kulkarni and Rituparna Sengupta. While Sonali is married to corporate figure Nachiket Pantvaidya, Bengali actress Rituparna who already had a son with childhood sweetheart Sanjay Chakrabarty gave birth to their daughter in July last year.

Shilpa Shetty, married to London-based Raj Kundra, is preparing for her D-day. She announced her pregnancy on Twitter in December 2011, calling it the "most beautiful phase" of her life.

While on one side, she is busy adhering to doctor's instructions, Shilpa is also looking forward to the forthcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) season, starting April. She hopes to cheer for her team Rajasthan Royals, wearing an XXL size jersey of the team.

Actress Antara Mali, best remembered for films like Naach and Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hun , is also said to be expecting her first child. She is married to fashion editor Che Kurien.

Tweet (less)

Abhay Deol and Farhan Akhtar have been nominated in best performance in a supporting role, male, while Kalki Koechlin has been nominated in best actress in supporting role, female. Musical trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy have been nominated for music direction, while Javed Akhtar for best lyrics for "Khaabon ke Parindey".

The film has also been nominated in the best story category. Other nominations include technical categories.

Milan Luthria's "The Dirty Picture" has bagged 13 nominations including best actress for Vidya for playing southern sex symbol Silk Smitha. Other nominations include best picture, best direction, best performance in supporting role male for Emraan Hashmi and Naseerudding Shah.

Naseer has also been nominated in the best actor in a negative role category. "The Dirty Picture" has also bagged nomination for best story, best lyrics and best playback singer male for Kamaal Khan for "Ishq Sufiyana".

Kamaal Khan will vie for the winner's trophy with Ash King for "I love you", Rahat Fateh Ali Khan for "Teri meri", Mika Singh for "Subha hone na de" and Mohit Chauhan for "Nadaan parindey". Singer Shreya Ghoshal has bagged two nominations for her songs "Teri Meri" and "Ooh la la".

In best performance in the leading role male category, Hrithik will be competing along with Amitabh Bachchan for "Aarakshan", Salman Khan for "Bodyguard", Shah Rukh Khan for " Don 2 ", Ranbir Kapoor for "Rockstar" and Ajay Devgn for "Singham". The nominations of best performance in a leading role female include Priyanka Chopra for "7 Khoon Maaf", Kareena Kapoor for "Bodyguard", Mahie Gill for "Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster" and Kangna Ranaut for "Tanu Weds Manu".

Those competing in best performance in supporting role female are Parineeti Chopra for "Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl", Swara Bhaskar for "Tanu Weds Manu", Sonali Kulkarni for "Singham" and Divya Dutta for "Stanley Ka Dabba". The nominations for best performance in a negative role include Irrfan Khan for "7 Khoon Maaf", Boman Irani for "Don 2", Vidyut Jamwal for "Force" and Prakash Raj for "Singham".

"We at IIFA take pride in announcing the nominees for IIFA Awards 2012 which celebrate the best work done by the Indian Film Industry over the last year," Sabbas Joseph, director, Wizcraft International Entertainment said in a statement. "We are thoroughly pleased with the nominees a result of the film industry's secret ballot; and we hope the audience will make a worthy choice in deciding the winners of this year's IIFA accolades," he added (less)

. The whole year round, we hear of movies and stars going to, being selected for, and winning awards at various global festivals - but I'm not sure most of us, the writers included, quite understand the comparative relevance or magnitude.

At some subconscious level, we club all "international" recognition at the same plane, including most of the media..

. Forget the media, our industry doesn't have a clue! That whole market works in a certain way; they don't have a clue how it works.

Right. So you're being talked about in the Cannes context.

What's the big deal? What exactly is Cannes about? It's very simple. There are four official sections, which are the competitive ones and the ones where movies are selected on merit (it's rather complex for a layperson to understand).

And there's a common award across all the four categories, which is the Camera d'Or. First-time filmmaker, kisi bhi category mein, Camera d'Or ke liye eligible hota hai, which is the first-time filmmaker award - jo Salaam Bombay ko mila tha, which changed Meera's life.

So these are the four categories. And then there's the Market - the Marche du Film.

For the Market, anyone can go. A random Kanti Shah can also go to a Market.

All he has to do is pay money for it, and book a screening, to sell the film. So India se jo filmein jati hain, hamesha Market mein jaati hain (laughs), which is simply a paid screening.

And we keep saying 'It's been selected for..

.' Yes.

..

'It's been selected for'. And the Red Carpet people go to, which we make so much fuss about, is sponsored by some brands which support the festival; like Chivas supports it, L'Oreal supports it.

..

So that appearance is that kind of a thing. What you're saying is they're not going as 'film people' in their own right? They're not; they're going as brand ambassadors.

There's a slot for L'Oreal, or Chivas, whosoever they bring, will walk. And they use it for their advertising.

Cannes never uses those pictures. You'll never find it on the Cannes sites.

So yahaan pe kya hota hai, anybody who's going to Cannes, we say, they are walking the Red Carpet. Red Carpet toh, hamare IFFI (International Film Festival of India) mein bhi hota hai (laughs).

Carpet ka colour red hota hai! It's all a media thing. Officially, India se, pichle nau saal mein - iss saal chaar jaa rahi hain - aur ek Udaan gayi thi.

Aur kabhi koi film hi nahi select hui hai! Officially. Films have been selected by filmmakers of Indian origin or something to do with India, like Chatrak gayi thi, by a Sri Lankan filmmaker, but shot in India.

Partly funded by an Indian. So those kinds of things have happened.

But a very Indian film has hardly ever gone there. So there's no correlation between big money, superstars, and recognition at such events, right? Hum log bohot kam paison mein banate hain.

Gangs of Wasseypur studio-funded hai. If I'm directing, I get funded by the studio.

If I am producing, newcomers, they don't get funded by the studio. Because of our various festival things, today I don't need a studio to fund an independent movie.

I get money from Germany, from France. Like Peddlers, they made it with money on Facebook.

We just put it out that we need partners, giving 10 lakh each. In two days, we had the money that we needed.

So, the movie has become a fund. So that when it goes to Cannes and gets sold, they get returns.

And they get a co-producer credit. It's like how Reliance started.

That's the only way. Go to like-minded people who want this kind of cinema, to give you money, so that you can keep making this kind of cinema.

I don't need a studio, I don't need a star. We're making a film called Lunchbox; Germany gave us 100,000 Euros.

I have learnt this the hard way and we have consistently been delivering. Because we are representing India on the international platform, with a regularity over the last four years - we have been at every festival.

If you look at Cannes, out of the four films selected, three are ours. Udaan was also ours.

So the maximum representation is going from us. They trust us.

Now we are doing co-production - the man who made No Man's Land, we are co-producing his next film. The Brazilian government is announcing a co-production, which I am co-producing, for a Brazilian filmmaker in Columbia, which is co-produced by Oscar-winning Walter Salus.

And I co-produced Michael Winterbottom's Trishna . Now any international film coming to India, they want to work with us.

What happens is, most of the festivals, distributors don't want to deal with Indians. Because the first question Indians ask is kitna doge? That's the only question they know how to ask.

Inka diaspora ka market hai na. So then this is the biggest year, in that sense, if you're saying four.

..

Yes. This is the biggest year so far for India in the history of Cannes, because itni filmein ek saath kabhi nahin gayin.

Jab Ray ki film jaati thi, toh ek Ray ki jaati thi, ya ek Mrinalda ki gayi thi. This time, we have Gangs Of Wasseypur, parts one and two, if you count them as two, otherwise it's one.

So there's Gangs of Wasseypur, Peddlers, Miss Lovely, and Kalpana restored, Cannes Classic mein. Kalpana jo Martin Scorsese ne restore ki hai, the Indian film of Uday Shankar, 1948 mein jo bani thi.

Yeh print kho gaya tha jo bahar ke aadmi ne sponsor kiya hai (laughs), and actually if you see, there's a guy that nobody in media is talking about, is Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Raj Singh Dungarpur's son, ad filmmaker, who's become part of the restoration process, who found Kalpana. He's the one who is funding the restoration of the next Hitchcock film, from his own hard-earned advertising money.

He's become part of the organisation. Whose achievement the media has completely skipped.

Nobody knows. Shivendra Singh Dungarpur has gone ahead and done something nobody's doing.

He's restoring old Indian classics. He's got Satyajit Ray's Ghatak, they're all being restored because of this one man's effort.

He's doing something incredibly great. Media doesn't know what restoration is, media doesn't know how it matters, media doesn't know what it takes, how it is done in this one place in Italy.

Media doesn't know these things. They'll ask him, 'achha aap restoration kar rahe hain.

..

aap Scorsese se mile?' (laughs). There is a power hierarchy in the industry? Absolutely.

It's always been there, in any industry. It's everywhere.

Yes, but this is seen as a very loosely structured, organic, symbiotic activity..

. Yeah, it is, but the hierarchy, it is in the very nature of our country.

It's like growing up, you know, you talk like that. If your boss' son comes around, he's treated differently.

When a girl is looking for a groom, what matters is whose son it is, what's his surname, which family he belongs to, rather than what does the groom do? It holds true in every walk of our life. Because if we were not like that, we wouldn't have, you know.

..

If you see, every politician's son often ends up taking the same portfolio his father did, in this country. And he becomes eligible simply by being his son.

So that's the country we live in. So why crib if it happens in cinema? Yeah.

Cinema mein it's just more obvious and every day in the papers. But it's in every walk of life.

You go anywhere. So with somebody like you, whose dad is not there to give you a foothold in the industry, how much longer does it take to make your own niche? In today's time, it might not take long if you have talent.

When I came into the industry, your survival depended entirely on what you were doing and what you were achieving. Today, the monies are different, there's a huge amount of money in television, people get employed very easily.

And the hunger dies out easily. We were starving for a long time, hence that passion and the drive was much more.

Today, the drive is immediately controlled with substance. The money flows in very quickly.

..

? Money flows in very quickly, the material satisfaction comes in very fast. So that, hunger is not sustained long enough, that material cannot satisfy it.

You mean they get they get the first BMW and they've arrived..

. They get the first car, the first house, very soon, and then they live for the EMIs.

The EMIs take over their lives. Somehow that sustenance or hunger is not there anymore.

And the passion today, be it cinema, be it anything, is about what one can do with a form, but the fact is, 90% of them actually don't have anything to say. They have already decided the form and they're trying to fit into the context.

Especially television? Especially television. They are thinking from, 'this is an established format, and what do I do within those five different genres, to fit into it.

' You're like, ok, 'I also have a story like this back home, I'll put that story.' But it's essentially the same story.

So people have less to say today. But there is money also available for new ideas.

..

Today the money is available, and today technology has made making a film cheaper. Today, people are making films in 10 lakh, 2 lakh, 5 lakh.

The whole indie movement, which is actually not at the surface right now. People don't know about it right now because none of it has so far broken through.

But there's tons of films being made, at such low costs. One film that broke through in the very small indie festivals was Kshay, which is trying to release on the 15th of June.

But made for 15 lakh, 10 lakh, 20 lakh, very powerful films. People are shooting on small go-pro cameras and everything, with actors who are working for free, with 3g and 4g the short film format, there's a huge movement there.

People are making these incredible short films, which they are watching among themselves, and this whole lot of new generation, college students, who are always on YouTube , are passing those films around. I'm just waiting for it to explode.

It will explode. The moment it becomes, uhh, broadband, free flow broadband to everywhere, it will break through.

Where's the money in it? There is right now no money it. Tomorrow, with broadband, the guy who'll create content will be king.

Abhi unhone piracy band karva diya, now they will slowly start making revenue out of it. Because of piracy they could not add revenue to it.

People will start paying, and they are minuscule amounts. For small amounts, 30 bucks, short films you can watch for 10 rupees, so with that, in volume, there'll be more people downloading it and keeping it in their digital libraries.

It's affordable prices. The price of a small Coke bottle.

Today most of these alcohol brands, and all the brands that are not allowed to advertise, they used music earlier, to advertise themselves - surrogate advertising. Now they're using these short films.

If you see, all of them. You go on the site of any of these alcohol brands, they have these short films, using the brand, and they spread it out.

So there's a different kind of a democracy that will start operating there. But most of the Bollywood industry is not thinking about that.

There's a new audience being formed, which will not want to go to a theatre, and (will) watch the film on their laptop. And world over they have already started catering to that audience.

In India, they have just begun, and people who have begun are these tech savvy guys who've got nothing to do with creativity. Which is why it's not working, because there's a big gap there, a big chasm.

They have created formats, they've created platforms, but they don't know how to access these creative people. You were recently asked that you make very dark cinema, and you replied that when you go international, people tell you that you make very light cinema, and you should go darker! That's a very relative thing na, it's extremely relative.

Because people often ask me, why do you do this kind of work? My thing is aap bahar jao, toh aam baat hai, log realistic cinema banate hain. Ham log itna zyada fantasy world create karte hain, ki uske comparison mein I start to seem like too dark and too real.

But if you actually compare it to too dark and too real, then you'll suddenly find a kind of softness in my films! I even use music..

. There's a frequent argument one hears, which essentially is that without the five song sequences and the whole melodrama, it's not really Indian.

..

this is 'Indian cinema', so why should we ape the West? So the moment you're making a 'realistic movie'..

. .

..

yeah, it becomes aping the West . Matlab, someone tell me, the realistic movie is set in India, it is shot India, it's about India.

How can it be aping the West? Does that argument, that we should actually celebrate our song and dance model of cinema, hold? We should! I'm saying we should. But we should not negate what the other things are.

Today, what Marathi and Tamil cinema have achieved, it is much more than what Bollywood can achieve. There are more Marathi films in a year, that you can talk about, which are represented internationally, than Hindi.

There's a whole new wave in Marathi led by these two boys - Girish Kulkarni, the actor/writer, and Umesh Kulkarni. Mainstream doesn't hear about it.

Marathi people are very proud about it. There's a whole lot of new wave in Tamil.

These Madurai filmmakers..

. my first card in Wasseypur.

..

my film is dedicated to the Madurai triumvirate. People have changed Tamil cinema, worked against the system.

Bala, Amir Sultan, Rasi Kumar, Vetrimaran - who's won the National Award, they've made the most extraordinary films in the last two years, and at the national level people don't even know about it. Kumar Raja, who won the National Award for best debut filmmaker - his film never went outside Tamil Nadu.

These are the people who are changing things, and they're also very cut off. So when international scouts come looking for films from India, they never reach Chennai.

And those guys also don't understand international festivals. How will that change? See, things are changing.

Till now, distributors have had this very interesting formula of discovering which film will work, based on who's in it. That's very easy - film mein Akshay Kumar hai, film ki utni opening lagegi.

So there's a whole lot of journalists and trade people whose survival depends on this system. Now, a Vicky Donor, Paan Singh Tomar works, they suddenly don't know how to do, what to do, because they can't judge a script.

They can't judge a film without knowing who's in it. So they feel threatened, so they have to keep that philosophy sustained.

So they keep sustaining that, and they are supposed to be the experts..

. Ok, so non-star movies working - that will change the equilibrium? Yes.

It'll change the equilibrium. New media houses coming in, new TV channels coming in, they want a voice from the film industry who's an 'expert', so they often get these same people.

So these same people are brought in, and they keep sustaining the philosophy. Koi progress hoga hi nahin.

'Great opening'. Today a common man on the streets talks about 'iss film ki itni opening lagi thi'.

Nobody talks about content any more. A man on the streets knows iss film ne sau karod kamaye, toh film automatically great ho gayi.

So common aadmi jab yeh baat karne lag jata hai, it becomes even more difficult for the other kind of cinema to survive. Whereas in Tamil Nadu, most of the films that have changed things have not had stars, and have been declared hits in the sixth or seventh week.

Marathi cinema does not have a star system. It's only content that sells.

The director has become the star - people start trusting a director, ki iski film aayegi. That is quintessential Hollywood , in a sense.

..

Yeah, quintessential European, Hollywood, everywhere. The director is the man who makes the film.

Usmein the only way you can survive is consistency, and frequency. For me, the only method to survive was ki consistently ek ke baad ek film banate jaao, saal mein ek-do release honi zaroori hai.

If I'm not directing, I should at least be producing a film, so then, I'll be on (less)

..

B and C grade types. I feel sad for Payal because she is a talented girl who could do much better.

Unfortunately with her exposing this thing, she has not got the backing that she should have got from women," Kashmira told PTI. Rohatgi has levelled allegations on the talented director of Love Sex Aur Dhokha of taking advantage of her on the pretext of casting her in his next film.

"I didn't meet Payal. But Payal is not that kind of a person who would lie about something like this.

But unfortunately our industry has seen this trend where Mamta Kulkarni came up with something like this and she had to leave. Nobody wanted to work with her again," Kashmira said.

"But the way she (Payal) has said or the way she has put it..

.unfortunately I don't know the people she has dragged in.

So I don't know if they are those kind of people. I don't know why Payal would do this.

..

she should have just said a No and moved on and not met the person again," she said. All these allegations have led to a war of words with other filmmakers like Anurag Kashyap and Sudhir Mishra coming in defence of Dibakar.

"They say people do it for publicity..

.I doubt if any women would do this.

I feel sad," Kashmira said (less)

There is Shweta Bharadwaj setting the mood in "Settin Zhala", along with Naseeruddin Shah , Atul Kulkarni, Kay Kay Menon and Ravi Kishan. The audience will also get to see Ritu Jain and Naseer shake a leg to the songs.

"My movie is a masala entertainer. The item songs were not incorporated in the movie; they were always a part of the movie.

I didn't have to twist and turn the story of the movie to fit them in. Naseer saab, Atul, Kay Kay and Ravi have done a fantastic job.

They have moved and how!" says an excited Hriday. "Setting Zhala" is sung by Sonu Nigam , Amit Kumar and Yashita, while "Badmast" is sung by Daler Mehndi and Mamta Sharma.

"We thoroughly enjoyed working on this movie along with Hriday," says Lalit Pandit, music director of the movie. "You'll see me sing and dance, and that too to an item number.

When you see it, you'll know what an item we all are in the movie," says Atul. Produced by MAASK Entertainment Pvt Ltd in association with Filament Glo (India) Pvt Ltd, "Chaalis Chauraasi" is releasing on January 13, 2012 (less)

Filmmaker Farah Khan is the show's biggest fan. Every year when the show begins, the director hosts a dinner at her home and only fans of the reality show are invited to this party.

Watching the show with BB devotees is an event at the Khan home. Here she picks 10 people she wants to see on the show.

And explains why in her inimitable tongue-in-cheek manner. Read on.

..

Bappi Lahiri Bappida's a fabulous entertainer and good fun. It will be nice to know how others react to him and how much jewellery and if his own wardrobe will be allowed inside the BB house.

Kim Sharma She will be fun. Kim is a livewire and very straight-forward.

Forget tolerating nonsense, she doesn't even tolerate normal things in life. Kim will be one firecracker inside the house.

Abhijeet (singer) He should be sent to the BB house because he will irritate everyone in the house so much that they will all get together and resort to violence. It will be fun to watch murder happen in the BB house for the first time.

Deepak Parasher I would love to see Deepak back in BB if only for his nighties and knitted hair bands which became a fashion statement after he first wore them on the show. I miss those long nightgowns he used to wear.

I remember that Rakhi Sawant had named him 'Nightywale Baba'! Barkha Dutt I would like to send NDTV's anchor to keep her out of our television for some time. She can keep grilling the BB inmates inside and when they all start fighting Barkha can hold a discussion and debate on why they fight right inside the house -- live! Madhur Bhandarkar He can then make a movie on the inner workings of BB.

Madhur will have a ready made set, cast in the form of 12 BB inmates, free cost of production and 28 cameras. The best of all is that Madhur will finish his film in half the time he normally takes to make a film and then he will also win the National award for it.

Barbara Mori If Claudia could learn Hindi in the BB house in one week, so can Barbara. The BB house is the best place to learn Hindi.

The Hindi classes are not only for free but you end up getting paid for learning Hindi. Mamta Kulkarni I want to bring Mamta back from her hibernation.

She is a full firebrand and was on the scene much before Rakhi Sawant came into the line. She is very outspoken and blunt and can teach Rakhi some tricks on coolness.

It will be good to find out where she is. Saahil Khan We always need one muscled boy / eye candy dude types inside the house.

Upala KBR (writer of this piece) Because for the next six months she will write stories of what actually went in inside the house. I will be voting for Upala every week so she can stay in there.

Courtesy: Mid-Day.com (less)

He had to forego his seat of power in this connection as everything was available on tape. Though Mr.

Tiwari denied everything. Shyam Bahadur Singh, the JDU member of legislative assembly of Bihar who had defeated Shahabuddin from Ziradei, Siwan in Bihar, embarrassed the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar by dancing with bar girls at his official residence in Patna.

The MLA, who is in his fifties and had organized a ?mahadalit? rally ahead of impending assembly elections in Bihar, threw the caution to winds and gyrated with skimpily clad dancers on the occasion. Sources from Patna say that the legislator was drunk and hence could not understand the implications of his actions in full public view, especially when everything was being recorded.

Ironically, the dancers had been arranged at his residence for the entertainment of dalits, who were scheduled to gather there for the ?mahadalit? rally. However, the legislator was wise enough to go for a public apology through the electronic media.

He apologized to people for his indiscretions and promised never to indulge in such acts in future. However, the analysts feel that the damage was done and JDU would find it hard to convince the people in next assembly elections in the state.

Though Shyam Bahadur Singh went too far in his discretions but it?s nothing new in Indian politics. Though not in a similar manner but earlier, too, bollywood hotties like Koena Mitra, Mamta Kulkarni, etc, are said to have performed at parties hosted by Bihar politicians in the State.

Even Lalu Yadav had once likened the roads of Patna to that of cheeks of Hema Malini. Though he did not mean any wrong to the veteran actress.

In fact, what he meant was that if voted to power, the roads of Patna would become as smooth as Hema Malini?s cheeks were.Then who can forget the indiscretions of Narayan Dutt Tiwari during his governorship in one of the southern states.

In fact, the media reports had blamed the veteran politician of indulging in sexual acts with a number of women sent to him by his agents from different parts of the country. He had to forego his seat of power in this connection as everything was available on tape.

Though Mr. Tiwari denied everything.

-- k k rai Send comments: 0comments (less)