Do you aspire for an Oscar award?
I am not disappointed that I haven’t won an Oscar, but Rahman has. Unless I work in Hollywood I cannot get an Oscar. But I would be very happy if I bagged an Oscar for lifetime achievement like Satyajit Ray.
Who is your role model?
Sivaji Ganesan. He was the first step in my evolutionary growth.
What is more difficult – direction or acting?
Direction is a multidisciplinary job. A director has to concentrate on various things. But an actor just does his/her role. Direction is much more difficult.
Why have you never tried to convert your fan following into a political force?
People have used various ways to capture power. Cinema has also become an instrument to capture power here. Now TV channels have become an important tool. Every political party starts its own TV channel. One can do politics or social service without going through elections. EVR Periyar achieved much without plunging into electoral politics.
Who are the Hollywood and Bollywood stars you would like to work with?
Some things don’t happen even if we wish. I wanted to do one more film with Sivaji Ganesan but it didn’t happen. I wanted to act with Dilip Kumar. I wanted to act with Naseeruddin Shah and he acted in Hey Ram as Mahatma Gandhi. I would like to act with Woody Allen, William Hurt, Robert De Nero, and Clint Eastwood.
Throughout the world, Hollywood movies are copied…
If you see British TV serials of the 1970s and 80s, you’ll
understand where the inspiration for today's US TV serials came from. Hollywood has copied so much from French cinema. True Lies, a Hollywood blockbuster, was lifted from a French film. We are making Unnaipol Oruvan. But we have acknowledged the source: A Wednesday. But America is different. They’ve been aggressors; they conquered the land by force and now treat it as their own. The same attitude prevails in Hollywood.When did you become an atheist?
I don’t remember. You cannot remember when you started speaking. I did not become an atheist one fine morning. Periyar was not an avatar like Kali. He was a great man like Bertrand Russell. He played an instrumental role in my life. He initiated a process in my life that hasn’t ended yet.
Who is the most important woman in your life?
My mother. A mother’s love is unconditional. All others put conditions. I lost my mother when I was 24. I would like to experience that unconditional love through other women. But with sex there is a little confusion here. Every male faces this dilemma. There is a story about Lord Ganesha. He was worrying about not getting married. He placed his hand on his head with grief. The head had a bulge that reminded him of breasts. That reminded him of his mother. If we have a child with a protuberance in the head, we will admit him/her in a hospital. But we worship Lord Ganesha as a god.
Who is the next Kamal Hassan?
Nobody should meet my fate. I am a great fan of Sivaji Ganesan but I wouldn’t want to be regarded as the next Sivaji Ganesan. There is no need for another Kamal Hassan; the next generation should go beyond me.
How do you participate in the growth of your daughters?
I can allow them to access my experience. That's all. Their journey and vehicle are different. I can't give my wooden stick to someone who has a cell phone. The world has changed.
What kind of bonding did you have with Sridevi, your co-star in 27 films?
Many thought we were in love and would marry. But she was like a close relative. She still calls me Sir.
Nayakan was a milestone in your career. Tell us about Mani Ratnam.
Ours was an open house. Many artists would come and discuss many things. One of them was Subbu, alias Subramani. He used to come along with another person called Kitti. Both were good storytellers and I took them to director Bharathi Raja. I thought he was from a humble family and I didn’t know that he was the son of Rathnam Ayyar, proprietor of Venus Pictures. Later he became Mani Ratnam and started directing movies. When producer Muktha Srinivasan wanted to produce a film, I suggested Mani Ratnam's name. Two stories were suggested to me and I selected the Nayakan story.
On whom did you model the character of 'Nayakkar' in Nayakan?
I knew Vardaraja Mudaliyar personally and the character ‘Nayakkar’ was modelled on him.
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An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative
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With the help of The National Security Archive based in Washington DC, this magazine had published overwhelming evidence against Posada that included, among others, the bomb circuit diagram used to blow up the flight, the notes about how to assemble it and the fake passport used by Posada. However, those evidence in no way had pointed out that dreaded Posada was in any way used by the CIA for any sort of open or clandestine operations. It appeared then – to the untrained eyes – that CIA was only guilty of shielding him and nothing more. That at least provided CIA the much needed cushioning. This week, that cushion was pulled away and CIA stands naked. As friends and relatives of those killed aboard Cubana flight 455 mourn 33rd year of the disaster, the Washington based National Security Archive has released other chilling documents concerning Luis Posada and his aides and masters. These documents confirm that “the Company”–as CIA is sometimes called – had excellent ties with the terrorist and it took immense pain to keep these ties strong.
not as strong as the market is proposing at the moment. Going by fundamentals, India’s growth GDP is still expected at just 7 to 7.5%. Other economic indicators too have not recovered completely from the global meltdown. Even global cues are still on the lower side. All these mean that the fundamentals are yet to recover and the market movement that we see at the moment is more of hype than anything else. Under these circumstances (especially with the media bombardment of news that talks of huge returns made by various investors), no doubt it’s easy for anyone, who does not have a deep knowledge, to get carried away. But the truth is, that’s exactly what the retail investors must refrain themselves from at the moment.
is one true world champion that India has. After he became world champ in 2000, many Indians were attracted to the game. Now any Indian chess player receives a tremendous response at international events. Whenever a young player goes abroad to participate in an event, Vishy calls him or her up with his best wishes. Now Anand lives in Spain and when he won the world championships, even the Spaniards celebrated. 
and songs from across the subcontinent are liberally punctuated with references to the month of Shravan. These ditties extolling the magic and mystique of the rains (varsha, baarish, barsaat) spring forth from the fecund imagination of creative souls.
money spent on getting a premium listing on one of the matrimonial websites that have catapulted the traditional ritual of finding a life partner straight into the Cyber age. Shaadi.com and Bharatmatrimony.com have replaced the neighbourhood uncle and aunt who earlier performed the delicate dance of facilitating legalised mating. Of course, for the more popular newspapers, matrimonial ads are still a huge source of revenue. In fact, the matrimonial ads reveal more about India and Indians than all the other news pages put together. If you come across words like ‘innocent divorcee’ and 'early, decent’ marriage; rest assured that monetary transactions of substantive nature are lurking round the corner. Money is what the parents of the bride often cough up for the “happiness of the daughter.” People simply it dowry; scholars from JNU see no dialectical contradiction in raining fire and brimstone on ‘greedy capitalists’ and receiving a hefty dowry once they win a lottery called the Union Civil Services.
doesn’t matter if one has to walk, take a train or a bus and then walk again. They’ve simply got to be there, even if that means spending the night out in the cold under the open sky. It’s their faith that takes them everywhere. I’m thankful to Him for giving me the opportunity to marvel at something as grand as that. Even a man who earns as little as Rs 100 per day goes there and thanks Him. Just stand there and watch the crowds move towards the Sangam and you can’t believe your eyes. They don’t want to look at anything else, they don’t relate to anything else. The holy dip at Sangam is everything. This blind faith is how India survives in spite of the chaos all around us. One can just stand there and take pictures endlessly. 
he is the man who brought India’s first and last ODI World Cup. Standing on the Lord's balcony with the Prudential Cup, he showed to the world what India was capable of. ‘Paaji’ of Indian cricket gave an entirely new dimension to the sport. It is only because of him we see a brigade of fast bowlers emerging from every nook and corner of this country. Of course, how our IPL stars can forget this gentleman? He came up with ICL. To counter that move, BCCI came up with IPL. Thanks ‘paaji!'
by Rishi Vyas at the beginning of kalyug, approximately 5000 years back. A recent Oxford University study asserts that the ancestors of the British people were cannibals, as if calling them apes was not enough insult! Respect for creation and everything within it and beyond it, is characteristic of Indian culture. Our Vedic ancestors were descendents of Herculean beings who not only gave the world the knowledge of the material world but also the etheric world. Any serious practitioner of the subject of spiritual sciences would clearly see the devolution of mankind, which was anticipated by the Vedic Rishis hence they gave to the world tools as per the anticipated capacity of the beings who would inhabit this planet at different points of time – poetry, art, romance, economics, medicine, physics, chemistry, dance, music..........peace; you name it and they gave it.
energy and power for them. They naturally glorified the cow. What appears unique to India is the duality of attitudes towards, and treatment of, the cow. At an ideational level, the cow is highly venerated. The Aryans were a pastoral society. Cow, being a milch animal, was naturally valued. The celestial cow, the Kamdhenu, became the symbol of plenty and prosperity. The Aryans valued the cow for the milk. They also relished the cow as an item of ceremonial food. Early Vedic literature adduces evidence that the cow was also used as a sacrificial animal. Not only this. Different parts of the cow were differently valued and relished. Since the emergence of reactionary tendencies among a section of the Hindus, there is a conscious effort to suppress these references. The cow divided the society into two groups. One comprises those from the higher castes who swear by vegetarianism and venerate the cow. The other consists of the lower castes which eat the cow and is non-vegetarian. This section constitutes the majority among Hindus. One reason they are looked down upon is that they eat beef. Christians, Muslims and tribals are similarly considered lowly.
been by and large motivating investors to partly shift to gold as an investment class.” And why not? After all this is one such asset class, which has shown immense resistance to loss over the past two years, when there was carnage in the share markets the world over. For that matter even in India, while the BSE Sensex has offered only 19.82% return over the last 12 months, gold has returned nearly double (35.76%). The gold exchange traded funds too have returned a handsome of around 35%. And thus gold is the one, which is still glittering in the eyes of the investors despite the fact that the stock market is on an upswing at the moment. But it’s all for the investors and not for the traditional Indian buyers.
title to trouncing nine-time and defending champion Mike Russell to become the new World Professional Billiards Champion, Pankaj Advani has obviously picked the right cues. The undisputed king of the green baize in an exclusive interview with Satish Chapparike….
long way – from confinement of their home to the limelight of business and power. The dark period of women era, without any apprehensions, is currently witnessing a transition phase. Although this transition is quite slow and to some extent quite delayed too. The camouflage has been removed, if not by all then by the likes of Sonia Gandhi, Chanda Kochhar and a few others. Writing their own success story, these women have overcome many societal hurdles and made themselves a prominent figure in national as well as international circle. In a patriarchal Indian society, few women have not only achieved new milestones but also booked their slots in the world’s most esteemed magazine. Few weeks ago, a few Indian women, namely Sonia Gandhi, Chanda Kochhar and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw made it to the Forbes’ ‘The 100 Most Powerful Women’. Being featured in this globally recognised list is not only their personal achievement but is also a matter of pride for the whole country!