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BACK in the seventies she was the original Dream Girl who set hearts afire with her looks, her performances and her dances.
But, she says, "I am not doing TV for a living. I want to concentrate on a few quality roles. One of my favourite roles is in Jai Mata Di. I am really blessed to have be doing it. It’s not acting, it’s bhakti." As if to prove how enamoured she is of the role, she recently gave a stunning dance performance on the banks of River Ganges at the Triveni Ghat at Rishikesh. The three-hour-long programme which had Hema dancing in various reincarnations of Goddess Durga regaled over 30,000 people who cheered her on heartily and she had to give encore after encore. "It’s amazing how mom can still hold an audience breathless," was all that daughter Esha could utter in wide-eyed astonishment. |
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Shaker Shekhar’s back Just when you thought that the show had run out of celebrities and Shekhar Suman had lost out on steam, Sony Entertainment Television has bounced back with an all new Movers & Shakers.
Now a big brand on television, Movers & Shakers has become a kind of a household name with viewers all across the country sitting in front of their sets at 10.10 p.m. night after night. With a spanking new set designed by Samir Dil Se Chanda, the show is featuring an array of guests like Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla, Tabu, Jackie Shroff, Jeetendra, Ekta Kapoor and Diya Mirza. So stay tuned as Shekhar Suman takes centre stage all over again. Music to the ear For the lucky winners
it’s something to sing about. When she first
participated Though Kaisa Yeh Jadoo (Magnasound), the eight-track debut album, may have been a gift for winning the mega finals, Bela’s talent shines through in no uncertain terms. And why not? The 18-year-old has already won the Nargis Dutt Puraskar and the Susheelsneh Purasker for her gifted voice. Says Sonu Nigam, host of Sa Re Ga, "Bela is one of the most gifted singers I have come across." It is not surprising that Bollywood’s music directors are feverishly inking song contracts with Bela. That’s what dreams are made of. Cats on the prowl They are three glamour girls — slick and beautiful detectives out to bust crime with style. For Careena, Amrita and Tanya crime-fighting is not just a career but a mission that often puts their lives on the line.
Starring three top models — Miss India Nafisa Joseph as Careena, Miss India Karminder Kaur as Amrita and leading model Malini Sharma as Tanya — C.A.T.S. is a taut series of one-hour episodic stories of action, mystery, suspense and beautiful bodies. Missing people, crimes, murder plots, extortions, con jobs... the girls investigate everything, even going undercover to get to the bottom of things. They work for a mysterious millionaire, Charlie, who remains behind the scenes — in fact, so behind the scenes that even that the girls have no choice but to implicitly trust his judgement, and sink their teeth into every new challenge. If you have seen Charlie’s Angels and enjoyed VIP on AXN, chances are you will fall for these C.A.T.S. as well. Wooing Indian children For over four months that it has been aired, the channel has picked up a decent amount of viewership among English — speaking children and now Nickelodeon is turning India-specific.
TV for me is an idea we created just for India. It will provide kids with the contemporary kid-centre programming creating an Indian context that parents can trust," says Tuchman, who was in Delhi recently to launch the programming. Considering the fact most overseas channels are turning India-specific, it remains to be seen if Nickelodeon will be able to notch up the kind of young viewership it is hoping for. — Mukesh Khosla |
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A
quarter of a century later, today, Hema Malini is out to
wow viewers once again. But this time on television. In
fact ever since she decided to act in serials there has
been a veritable queue of producers trying to make her
sign on the dotted line.
There are a whole lot of new celebrities
and the same amount of mirth as Suman shoots from the
mouth virtually non-stop.
in Zee’s Sa Re ga in
1995 she stood second in the children’s section. Two
years later she bagged the first prize. In 1998 she won
the mega finals of the contest. And now she has an album
to her name.
C.A.T.S. on Sony
Entertainment Television every Friday at 8 p.m. is an
adaptation of America’s favourite Charlie’s
Angels.
"Our philosophy is to put
children at the centre of the universe. We strive to
provide respectful, non-violent empowering entertainment.
We have a kid-just approach," says Bruce Tuchman,
General Manager of Global Network Ventures, Nickelodeon.
Nickelodeon’s TV for Me is about the dreams
and ambitions of kids captured on camera. The themes are
simple which Indian kids can relate to. The series has
programme like Nick India, Nick Kathakali and Nick
Elephant featuring Indian children.