Taapsee has four films - two each in Hindi and Tamil

"I just feel I've been wholeheartedly accepted in both the industries. Sometimes when you're popular in the south, Bollywood may not work out and vice versa. But I think I've been lucky," Taapsee told IANS.

She admits her Bollywood career took off quickly, but she "never expected it".

"I also never expected my first Tamil film 'Aadukalam' to win six National awards. Bollywood has responded as well as the south did when I debuted four years ago. Post my Tamil film debut, I was flooded with offers. I think the same fate is repeating with Bollywood," she said.

Taapsee made her Hindi debut with 2013 hit "Chashme Baddoor". She currently has "Baby" and "Agra Ka Daabra" in her kitty. In Tamil filmdom, she's awaiting the release of "Vai Raja Vai" and "Muni 3".


The actress was busy working on four projects in 2014, but she didn't even manage to have a single release.

"The release of a film lies in the hands of a producer," she said, adding that the work she did last year was "creatively satisfying".

"I may not have had a release in 2014, but it was an eventful year because of the kind of work that was offered to me. That's precisely why I didn't worry too much about the release of these films because I knew I had the best in hand. I also learnt that you need a lot of perseverance and patience in this profession," she added.

For Neeraj Pandey-directed "Baby", Taapsee underwent special training in the Krav Maga Israeli form of martial arts, while for "Agra Ka Daabra", she plans to visit Uttar Pradesh to research her character.

With such diverse roles in her Hindi films, Taapsee agrees Bollywood has offered her meatier characters.

"Since I know Hindi, I've realised how easy and interesting it is to work in Bollywood. Not knowing the language becomes a bigger challenge and that's what I face in the south. This is one of the limitations why we (Hindi film actresses) don't get interesting characters there. But all that is slowly changing. The roles I play in 'Vai Raja Vai' and 'Muni 3' are proof to it," she said.

Although she plays a brief role in "Vai Raja Vai", it has shades of grey, quite contrary to the bubbly roles she's played so far.

"Muni 3" took a toll on Taapsee, "physically as well as mentally".

"To spend nearly two years of my life on this project itself was very challenging. The role I play in the film required a lot of physical strength. And it doesn't necessarily have to be action, but the conditions we shot in and everything I had to do for this character," she said.

"I've done a lot of underwater sequences. During peak summer time, I was dragged along the sand and we shot under very strenuous conditions," she added.

But it's "Baby" that Taapsee is really excited about for it has given her an opportunity "to step into the shoes of a man".

"It's a privilege for female actors to perform stunts in a male-dominated industry, and to be doing it in a full-length action film is very special. I consider myself as one of the 'guys' in 'Baby'.

"This role made me do all that's expected out of a hero. It's one of the reasons why I wanted to be part of this project because it's not going to sideline me as a heroine," she said.

Read More

Aamir Khan's 'PK' has been given huge thumbs up in Pakistan.

The film, which has been helmed by Rajkumar Hirani, has not only grossed over INR300 crore in India, but has gotten rave reviews and repeat visits in the neighboring country and is expected to cross Rs15 crore there, the Dawn reported.

Manager Marketing from Distributor Club (PVT) Ltd for the country, Hassaan Rizvi said that the main reasons for the movie's success are Hirani and Khan, with another factor being Pakistan presented in a positive light.

The Pakistanis are loving Khan's loveable depiction of the unaware, inquisitive alien, and a fan, who claimed to have watched the film 3 times already, said not only it stars Khan, the film also "addresses the theist question in such an effective manner. With religious extremism on the rise in both India and Pakistan, 'PK' is an excellent film that deals with such pressing issues."

According to the Indian Express, the film may as well become the first Indian movie to cross INR600 crore worldwide.

Read More

Aus vs Ind, 4th Test

The series is out of bounds but Indian cricket is all set to enter a new era under the feisty Virat Kohli, whose leadership would be put through a trial by fire when the visitors seek redemption in the fourth and final cricket Test against Australia starting on 6 January.

Down 0-2 in the series, India have already lost the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after the third Test in Melbourne ended in a draw. Besides, India were dealt quite a shock when skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni chose to quit Test cricket altogether.

Virat Kohli, India's newest full-time Test captain. AP

This led to Kohli's elevation as captain and it would be interesting to see how the outspoken and flamboyant batsman, who has scored three hundreds in the series so far, handles the pressure of leading the side and salvage some pride in the series.

As such this is India's sixth consecutive Test series loss playing overseas, a run that stretches back to the England tour in 2011.

It is only the second time in their long history that India have suffered such embarrassment —the first stretching from their debut Test in England in 1932 to their maiden tour of West Indies in 1955. However, when the first ball is bowled in Sydney, future and not history will be on the visitors' mind.

Read More

Mexico Works More Than Any Other OECD Nation, Survey Finds

Mexicans work the longest days and Belgians the shortest, according to a study of 29 industrialized countries released by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on Tuesday.

The stereotype of a laid-back "manana" culture was turned on its head by the OECD's "Society at a Glance" study, which showed Mexicans toil for 10 hours a day on average in paid and unpaid work, such as household chores. Belgians work just seven, an hour less than the average in most other OECD countries.

The study is based on surveys of people between the ages of 15 and 64 in 26 OECD member countries plus China, India and South Africa.

The surveys required people to say what they were doing every five minutes or so over the course of the day. The poll covered people in retirement or on days off from work, meaning the averages are skewed by countries with more generous holiday allowances or earlier retirement ages.

In Mexico, where tens of millions toil in an informal grey economy, low-paid workers often take only a handful of days off a year and work until they are elderly. A typical Belgian, on the other hand, will take several weeks of holiday a year and enjoy early retirement at around age 60.

On the basis of paid labor only, Japanese work the most, spending just over six hours a day at work on average, followed by South Koreans and then Mexicans. The Danish spend the least time -- less than four hours a day --in paid employment.

Looking at unpaid work, the OECD found Mexicans spend the most time doing housework, at more than three hours a day, and South Koreans the least -- one hour and 19 minutes a day.

Much of the time counted as unpaid work was spent cooking, where Americans spend the least time at half an hour per day and Turks spend the most time at a full 74 minutes.

The Paris-based organization said the value of unpaid work in the 25 countries studied amounted to the equivalent of one third of gross domestic product in the full OECD bloc.

Read More

India's Divorce Rate Rising

NEW DELHI -- In a crowded courtroom on the city's outskirts, the once unthinkable is reality: dozens of couples – rich and poor, educated and barely literate – seek divorce for reasons as varied as domestic violence to a simple inability to live together.

Just a decade ago, divorce was a dirty word in socially conservative India. The fear of social isolation, a sense of duty to extended families – who likely arranged the marriage in the first place – and financial dependence put nearly unbearable pressure on couples to stay together.

But as the economy has boomed, the rigid boundaries governing traditional Indian life are beginning to fall, especially among the growing urban middle class. Dating among twentysomethings is growing popular, love matches (as opposed to arranged marriages) don't provoke the family scandals they once did and divorce is no longer out of bounds.

"All of a sudden it seems everyone I know is getting divorced," says 28-year-old Mohit Dutt, who last year filed for divorce from his wife of six years after "exhausting every possible way to save the marriage."

"I know at least a dozen people around me who are either there or getting there," Dutt said.

The country maintains no statistics on divorce, and the numbers are not staggering by Western standards – anecdotal reports say one in every 100 Indian marriages is now likely to end in divorce, compared to about half in the United States.

But the low rate is largely because most Indians still live in villages, where divorce remains a taboo that can destroy a family's reputation and leave a woman an outcast for the rest of her life. "It's still an urban phenomenon," says divorce lawyer Hasan Anzar, "but a really fast growing one."

In the 1980s, New Delhi had two courts that dealt with divorce. Today there are 16. A new Indian matchmaking website Secondshaadi.com, or second marriage, now targets divorcees and widowers. A search on it throws up thousands of divorcees, most in the 25-to-35 age bracket.

Still, family courts here remain geared toward persuading couples to work it out. A watercolor of a happy family hangs behind the chair of Judge Deepa Sharma, who urges nearly every couple to visit the court's in-house marriage counselor.

"Our main thrust is to unite parties," she says. "We try to explain to them what the consequences of divorce are."

A woman in her early 20s says she wants out of her barely year-old marriage because her husband refused to move out of his parents' home, where she was treated badly. She comes from a modest background – her father a poorly paid government clerk – and she has only a high school education, but she is definite about one thing: She wants her freedom.

"I can only start my life again if he lets me go," she says, as the judge unsuccessfully tries to persuade her to give her marriage another try.

A well-to-do couple in their mid-40s is asking for divorce because they have "differences of opinion" they just can't work out. They say their teenage daughter understands their desire to split.

Under court rules, the petitioners cannot be identified.

A generation ago, women had little choice but to stay in bad marriages. Most would not have received any support from relatives.

"Women, especially now, have little tolerance for bad marriages, for parental interference in their marriage. They have more economic independence," says Iti Kanungo, a court-appointed marriage counselor.

This doesn't mean the decision to divorce is an easy one.

Indians spend enormous amounts of money on marriages, most of which are still arranged between families. Finding the right home for a son or daughter is a matter of great family prestige. Ending a marriage is often not just about a couple going their separate ways but of two families, sometimes with business or political ties, disentangling themselves.

The shame of a divorced son or daughter also makes it harder for parents to find suitable matches for other children.

But that is changing too. "There still isn't complete acceptance of divorce but increasingly families feel that there isn't enough dishonor if your daughter is being mistreated," says Geeta Luthra, a senior divorce lawyer in the Indian capital.

Perhaps in response to such social churn, the federal government is considering a law that allows couples to end their marriage citing "irretrievable breakdown." While it's not clear when or if Parliament will pass the legislation, it's a definite breakaway from the current, more stringent, divorce laws, guided by religious family law.

Hindus, who form nearly 80 percent of the country's population, can seek divorce for adultery, insanity, abuse, impotence, desertion or the uniquely Indian grounds that their spouse is a leper or "renounced the world" to enter a religious order. A divorce by mutual consent requires a cooling-off period of six months.

Dutt says ending his marriage brought him both sadness and relief.

"I still don't think divorce should the easiest thing," he says, "but at the same time I'm glad it's not a taboo anymore."

Read More

Saif Ali Khan declines to buy an IPL team

Some of his Bollywood peers own one. But Saif Ali Khan says he has moved on from his dream of owning an Indian Premier League (IPL) team since he`s "not a billionaire" and wants to focus on acting and production instead. "We were at one point considering getting involved (in IPL), but now I think it`s quite a blessing in disguise that we didn`t, you know. It was far too expensive," Saif told IANS in a casual chat in his hotel room in the capital. Shah Rukh Khan owns an IPL team, so do Shilpa Shetty and Preity Zinta. But Saif has stayed away. "When other people got involved, it was a more reasonable idea than when we were going to get involved. You see, I am not a billionaire. Compared to three or four years ago, last year was not something that was working for us in that way," says Saif. "And now I feel it`s all for the best because I`d like to concentrate on films and film production rather than divert my time and give so much and not be sure I`m getting back 100 percent. It`ll take a long time to make something like that work," he added, sipping water out of a wine glass. His association with cricket, however, goes a long way. After all, he is the son of Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, former cricketer and erstwhile royal. The actor has also been rubbing shoulders with current skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni in commercials for Lay`s chips. Now there`s an all new Lay`s Flavour World Cup 2011 campaign and Saif was here to unveil the same, as its endorser. So is he planning to catch any match live during the upcoming ICC World Cup starting Feb 19? "Oh! I`d love to go and watch it live. Can you get me a ticket?" the 40-year-old asked childishly before confessing he really wants to watch a match between "India and Australia" live during the tournament. Sporting a trimmed Zappa moustache minus the goatee, which is his new look for Prakash Jha`s Aarakshan, the actor was visibly jet lagged after the completion of his new year vacation in Gstaad, Switzerland, with beloved Kareena Kapoor. Asked how he was taking his graduation from actor to producer, Saif said: "It seems like a natural way to go after years of working for other people. "We`ve learned a lot from other production houses like Yash Raj (Films) and Dharma (Productions). I`m really grateful to them. Now it`s time to do things on your own," added the actor who successfully produced Love Aaj Kal (2009) and is currently providing support for his spy thriller Agent Vinod under his banner Illuminati Films. Any particular scripts that Saif the producer is looking at? "I think all sorts of...the same kind I`d look at as an actor. Anything from a weird kind of offbeat film to Agent Vinod," he said visibly engrossed in the trailer of Aamir Khan`s Dhobi Ghat on a giant screen hung in his room. But will he star in all his productions? "Not necessarily at all, but probably initially. That`s the whole idea. If we make more than one movie a year then I`d like to work with other people also and the same goes for my production people," he said, stretching himself on a chair. Asked if he was looking at rolling out a particular number in a year, Saif responded: "No. Nothing like that. I`d imagine that would be pretty dangerous. Ideally, we should be making two films a year with various budgets from big to small." Saif's other future projects include Race 2 and another home production Cocktail, a love triangle to be directed by Homi Adajania.

Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan has declined to buy an Indian Premiere League team, saying he’s not a billionaire. According to the reports, Khan says he has moved on and not owning an Indian Premier League (IPL) team, since he is ‘not a billionaire’. Earlier, it was being said that Saif would be joining the league of Shah Rukh Khan, Shilpa Shetty and Preity Zinta, who own an IPL team. Saif said, “We were at one point considering getting involved (in IPL), but now I think it’s has been a blessing in disguise that we didn’t. It was far too expensive.” The actor, who is dating Bollywood diva Kareena Kapoor said, “When other people got involved, it was a good idea to get involved then. I am not a billionaire.” He said further, “And now I feel it’s all for the best because I’d like to concentrate on films and film production.”

Read More

Shahrukh Khan: No IPL team possible in Kolkata without Sourav Ganguly

Kolkata Knight Riders' owner and Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan on Monday said he would try and find a role for Sourav Ganguly in his IPL team after the former India skipper remained unsold. Ganguly, who led KKR in the last edition, was left red-faced as none of the 10 franchisees showed interest in buying him at the two-day auction in Bangalore. 

"I would love it, I would love Sourav to be an integral part. You don't have a team in Kolkata without him. So, I will speak to Dada when I get back," Shah Rukh said. The fans of Ganguly on Sunday burnt Khan's effigies in Kolkata protesting his exclusion from the team. 

Shah Rukh refused to speak on why other teams ignored the former India captain.  "I don't think I should be commenting on the nine other people. There are 350 to 400 players. There are 10 teams with think-tanks varying in hundred of numbers, the permutations and combinations. I don't think any of us can comment really on who should pick who? I don't think we have the right to do that. 

"Auction is actually a chance like. It is very difficult to be completely confirmed on what you do in the auction. So things go wrong, kind of money you have, which players come first, so lots of decisions have to be made," he said.

Read More

Fine is impossed on sreesanth for misbehaviour

Sreesanth, the India fast bowler, has been fined 10% of his match fee for breaching the ICC Code of Conduct during the fourth day's play at Newlands. Sreesanth pleaded guilty to committing a Level 1 offence, relating to "abuse of cricket equipment or clothing, ground equipment or fixtures and fittings."

Sreesanth kicked the boundary after two appeals in the same over were turned down by the umpire; the on-field umpires Simon Taufel and Ian Gould, the third umpire Brian Jerling and the fourth umpire Shaun George subsequently reported the matter to match referee Andy Pycroft. No hearing was required as Sreesanth accepted the decision and pleaded guilty.

It was a frustrating day for Sreesanth who went wicketless in his 24 overs while Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher and the tail stepped up to overcome the loss of early wickets and put South Africa in control by stumps. Sreesanth, the India fast bowler, has been fined 10% of his match fee for breaching the ICC Code of Conduct during the fourth day's play at Newlands. Sreesanth pleaded guilty to committing a Level 1 offence, relating to "abuse of cricket equipment or clothing, ground equipment or fixtures and fittings."

Sreesanth kicked the boundary after two appeals in the same over were turned down by the umpire; the on-field umpires Simon Taufel and Ian Gould, the third umpire Brian Jerling and the fourth umpire Shaun George subsequently reported the matter to match referee Andy Pycroft. No hearing was required as Sreesanth accepted the decision and pleaded guilty.

It was a frustrating day for Sreesanth who went wicketless in his 24 overs while Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher and the tail stepped up to overcome the loss of early wickets and put South Africa in control by stumps.

Read More