Amid grand applause from elite stars and celebrities at the annual ITA awards in Mumbai, Bollywood cinematographer Attar Singh Saini (43) walked up to receive the award in the "The Best Videography" category for the TV serial Kashmir in 2003. Since then, he has never looked back.

Hailing from a village in Haryana, Barota near Sonepat, today Saini is one of the most sought cinematographer in Mumbai. He has done 10 films as director of photography, remained jury member at the ITA awards in 2004 and 2009, done over 700 episodes of TV serials in addition to scores of ads and corporate films.

In Panchkula on a personal visit, Attar Singh Saini along with his wife Gitanjali shares his dedication for the profession with us. "All the credit for my achievements go to my elder brother Dr Satbir Singh Saini, who insisted that I try for the Film Institute, Pune, after college," he says.

And it was no mean task either, with only six seats in the open category. He adds, "Seven days of interview at the FTTI were a delightful experience. Later, I completed my post-graduation at the institute with a specialistion in cinematography and left for Mumbai in 1991," says Attar Singh.

Rest, as they say, is history. "I worked in close association with Shah Rukh Khan during the shooting of the film Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa. Seeing his punctuality and talent, I had predicted his future. Now he's a superstar. But at a function recently, even though I avoided contact, he caught hold of me and said - you are the real star maker," he shares.

He has also worked in close association with Anil Kapoor, Emran Hashmi, Arshad Warsi, Sajid Khan, Ritesh Deshmukh, Himesh Reshamia, Bipasha Basu, Boman Irani et al. Three of his films Chocolate, Dhana Dhan Goal and Dil Diya with Anil Kapoor, John Abraham and Emran Hashmi, respectively, in lead roles, won rave reviews for cinematograpy.

Bollywood actor Anupam Kher admits that playing the role of Adolf Hitler in the upcoming film My Friend Hitler would be challenging. Addressing media persons in a press conference, Kher said, "For me... I already have an image, I am a known actor, so it will be doubly hard work for me to take away that image, and an actor likes taking challenges," said Kher.Actor Neha Dhupia would be playing the role of Eva Braun, Hitler's lover, and said she is very excited to work with Kher.

"I am really looking forward to working with Anupam Kher, and it'll be educative. I'll learn things on the set everyday. We are going to be doing some workshops together to make sure that we get it right on screen," said Dhupia.The director of the film, Rakesh Ranjan Kumar, said that the film would be released in both the Indian and international cinemas.He added that Hitler was the most successful loser of the twentieth century and he wants to interpret the reasons for that. "As a leader, he was successful. But I want to show why did he lose as a human being, what were the problems, what were the issues, what were his intentions," said Kumar.Kumar also said that Kher and Dhupia are the actors best suited for their roles, as both of them bear resemblance to the characters they are playing. — ANI

Hollywood couple Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds are planning to renew their marriage vows to celebrate their second wedding anniversary later this year. 

"They have already sent out invites for the ceremony, which will take place on their wedding anniversary," said a spokesperson of Scarlett Johansson.

"Like their wedding, it's going to be an intimate ceremony with only a handful of family members and close friends. 

Ryan is close to Scarlett's family, including her twin brother Hunter and her younger sister Vanessa, who lives near Scarlett and Ryan's house in New York," he added. The couple tied the knot in September 2008. — IANS

Teen sensation Miley Cyrus will be relieved of her bothersome tutor when she graduates from high school.The 17-year-old actress is followed around the world by a private tutor to ensure that she keeps on top of her studies and she cannot wait to finish her education, as she is in a hurry to work in Hollywood without permission.

"I'm graduating (soon), I mark my school differently. Most people do semesters, I do it by movies or tours. At the end of my next movie is when I'm done with school. I'm a little bit of a workaholic. My teacher threatens my work permit. She's like, 'I will not sign it if you don't do (work)!" Cyrus said.

The Hannah Montana star also admits that her teacher even nags her showbiz pals, including teen sensation Justin Bieber.

"She got on to Justin the last time we were at (TV talk show) Good Morning America. She's like, 'Is your teacher here, Justin? Have you done your school today? Do you need me to sign your permit?' I was like, 'You're embarrassing me in front of the Biebs!' My little sister was mortified," Cyrus said. — PTI

Hollywood actress Demi Moore is all set to go public in a memoir with details of her three marriages and show business career spanning three decades. HarperCollins said on Monday that it had bought world rights to a memoir by the actress that will cover her life and career. The book, as yet unnamed, is scheduled for release in 2012.

Business news website Crain's New York.com quoted unnamed publishing industry executives with knowledge of the deal saying HarperCollins had agreed to pay more than $2 million for the book.

HarperCollins spokeswoman Tina Andreadis declined to comment on the reported price tag. Moore, 47, has starred in a list of movies including Ghost, Indecent Proposal, and A Few Good Men,"as well as some widely panned films such as Striptease and G.I. Jane.

Moore was once one the highest paid actresses in Hollywood and in 1991 controversially appeared naked and pregnant on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine. — IANS

In a time when Punjabi cinema is growing bigger and better with each release, its sibling Haryanvi cinema is lost in the world of big budgets, glamorous faces and star names. But here's a breather, or call it a new beginning.

The Haryanvi cinema takes its first big leap with the movie Muthbhed - a planned encounter that tries to cover all that has been missing till now. Produced by Kumar Mangat and Sanjay Sharma, the movie has actor Mukesh Tiwari aka ‘Jagira’ from China Gate and singer Poonam Jhawar as lead pair. "It’s an attempt to raise the confidence of those who had been associated with Haryanvi cinema and encourage youth from the region to find a career through this. The idea of investing in Haryanvi film seemed like a joke to most but I suppose after Muthbhed, the perception changes," says Sanjay Sharma, co-producer and the negative lead of the movie.

The film, which is an action drama, based on the youth and crime connection is the first multicrore-budget movie. And a first for Mukesh Tiwari as well, "It was a good experience working on this movie as the efforts and intentions put into it are good. If you compare to Bollywood, it wouldn't be fair. Cinema is cinema, whether Marathi, Bengali or Haryanvi."

Playing a college mislead to a path of crime and ending up encountered, Mukesh didn't face much difficulty in understanding the Haryanvi culture. "I have done regional cinema with Telugu and Tamil movies. Its not a language but dialect so getting Haryanvi dialogues right wasn't a big deal." So was the case with Poonam Jhaveri, who plays a gaon ki gori in the movie. "I had to learn the dialogues but it wasn't very difficult. The subject is very contemporary and so it was easily adaptable."

With all the essential elements of a masala movie, it has an item number too picturised on but of course, Poonam. "The song is such a relief in the fast pace movie. I am sure it will become a big hit with the audience," says the Marwari girl.

The movie also highlights the cultural richness of Haryana, shooting in the interiors of the state like Sohana to tourist places like Pinjore. The movie is scheduled to release in September this year.

As for the lead pairs plans beyond promoting regional cinema, Mukesh is busy shooting for Golmaal 3 and another Rohit Shetty movie while Anees Bazmi's No Problem is ready for release. Poonam, though plans to try out more Haryanvi movies if good scripts come by.

nehawalia@tribunemail.com

The casual wear brand Numero Uno has unveiled a new collection of canvas footwear for men and women. This exciting collection of canvas footwear has on offer, both high top and low top styles, in racy colors and contemporary designs.

This collection of trendy canvas shoes provides a combination of exceptional comfort with fashionable styling. If you are mad about funky fashion, show off your elegant side with these retro cool canvas shoes!

Numero Uno's range of "Canvas Footwear" for men and women is casual, versatile and maintenance free. This collection is crafted from durable canvas uppers that enable ventilation and sweat absorption making it an ideal choice of footwear for this season. It is constructed on rubber high traction outsoles with an overlaid toe that provides extra protection and style. With a snug and supportive fit and cambreel lining the soft padded insoles provide excellent arch support while the padded collar delivers ankle support.

This fashionable and easygoing range of canvas footwear embodies all facets of quality, fit and design and will add zing to your wardrobe. Trendy and stylish, this range is available in stunning colours like red, black, grey, pink, khaki, navy, denim, and brown and is priced between Rs 699 and Rs 899 for men and between Rs 499 and Rs 699 for women. This collection is available at all Numero Uno exclusive stores and leading multi brand outlets across the country. — TNS

Gucci, Armani, Valentino, Hugo Boss, Diesel, Oxydo, Levis, Polo D&G, Versace, Prada ... do these brands take your attention to the new range of clothing in the market? Wait a second because we are actually talking about the latest trendy spectacles available in the city.

Not only a new hairdo or updating your wardrobe but even choosing the latest spectacle frame is the trend these days as spectacles no longer just aid one's vision but they reflect an individual's personality as well. Gone are the days when sunglasses only meant Ray Ban.

Out of the several styles, shapes, colours and sizes of spectacles, rectangular shaped plastic glasses are the most preferred these days. Ranjeet Singhal, owner of Kumar opticians-22 says, "Thicker rectangular glasses are much in demand these days with red, blue and pink temples (stick) attached to the rim". Modifications are introduced in the rectangular frames to avoid the routine look, such as half frames (Supra), rimless (no rim), full frame (full Rim).

Ranpreet Singh, owner of Weldon Opticians-17, says, "It's the youth (age group 15-35 years) who go for coloured frames to accessorise them with their outfit. Those above the age of 35 like to stick to the conventional black and brown frames. And individual choice matters too".

Besides the style quotient, the plastic frames which have flooded the market, provide

comfort over the metallic frames which are heavy and their attached nose pads cause rashes and leave scares during summers. The plastic frames contain titanium element which makes it lighter than the normal ones, protecting from injury and lays minimum stress on the nose.

You think if you buy Armani or Levis its one and the same thing? Not actually because a branded pair differs from a designer pair as it includes Levis, Rayban, Disel, named after the brands. But the designer wear includes Armani, Tommy, named after the designer and is made exclusively on demand. The range for branded ones starts from Rs 2500 onwards. The designer wears range starts from Rs6000 and go up to Rs 35000. According to Samrat Arora, owner of AroraSons Optics-22, "branded spectacle frames have style appeal, better finishing, great in quality (Virgin material) are easy to handle, most importantly they have guarantee period (24 months) and offer warrantee (12 months) normally.

Just when the lecture on trigonometry is on, perhaps there's an itch to draw the crooked flower. A careless scribble, random cartoon, flowers, unfocussed drawing, a sketch, casual shape, an abstract figure….just doodle it!

During the lectures, in between the rough margins, last page of the school notebooks, during the telephone conversations; for some, it's a reflex action on spotting just a spare pen and a rough paper.

For others, it's teamwork. Laughs Charvi Batra, fourth-year, UIET student, "Almost our entire gang does it together. When the lecture is too boring to handle, what we do is draw a cartoon with big nose or something like that. Sometimes it's also a caricature of a teacher or on what he's saying. Then the paper is circulated around the entire class for everyone to comment." She adds, "So far, we haven't been caught."

The custom's not restricted to casual flowers or circles. A few indulge in subject-oriented doodling as well. Shares Priya Sharma, research student, PGI, "When I was in school, I remember doodling even the electro magnetic waves during the physics classes apart from the usual funny faces and things like that. During school days, it's quite automatic for students to take to it." Favourable studies on the past time, in applied psychology being just an added advantage. Adds Charvi, "Basically it's propelled by the boredom of the lecture. There's nothing else you can do that time." For those behind the benches, it's an interesting parallel to taking notes.

According to certain schools of thought, doodles can be remarkably effective in judging your sub-conscious. Kanica Sachdev, B. Com student, GCG, shares, "I take to doodling when I can't focus, am bored or just want to get reorganised. There are times when it's therapeutic especially when the final sum of little scribbles comes out to a beautiful large collage."

Let alone sarcastic caricatures, did the teachers ever take nicely to even the beautiful flowers adorning notebook margins just while the lecture is on? Neha Chawla, lecturer, GCG-11, shares, "So far, I've never caught someone doodling in my class, perhaps because I teach literature and that is anyways interesting. But if I did, I'd probably just show it to the whole class." Yeah, she's done her share of scribbles too. "As a child in school we'd make caricatures of the teacher especially during those long and taxing science lectures."

The social networking site communities, blogs on the subject, websites dedicated to the art, are just a pointer in the direction. Take a pen, take a paper and just let your hand do the drawing!

manpriya@tribunemail.com

The 'almost' legitimate student art form is as historical as eternal. Etymology has it; the word doodle first appeared in the early 17th century to mean a fool or simpleton. Any definition invariably describes the word "as an aimless scribble, especially while preoccupied elsewhere."

The word encompasses all possible shapes, stick figures, and marginalia, including an abstract scribble. The activity, generally associated with backbenchers, has been just as popular with the erudite and the scholarly. John Keats is said to have drawn flowers in his notebooks during lectures.

Says Dr KL Garg, Sector-17 based psychiatrist, "Just by itself, all that the activity denotes is sheer lack of attention on the student's mind; the major cause anybody indulges in it. It's an absolutely natural diversion, rather signifies an artistic bent of mind."

Children who have a regular bedtime do better academically; claims a new study, giving another reason why parents should ensure their children go to bed early and at the same time every night.

Researchers at SRI International, an independent American research institute in California, found that children who had fixed sleep timing are likely to perform better at reading, languages and maths than those who had erratic sleeping habits. The scientists also found that the earlier a child went to bed, the better they performed at school, a publication reported.

The study of 8000 children, aged four, concluded that those who had less than the recommended 11 hours of sleep each night fell behind in their studies. Dr Erika Gaylor, an early childhood policy researcher who led the study, said: "Getting parents to set bedtime routines can be an important way to make a significant impact on children's emergent literacy and language skills." "Paediatricians can easily promote regular bedtimes with parents and children, behaviours, which in turn lead to healthy sleep."

Scores for receptive and expressive language, phonological awareness, literacy and early math abilities were higher in children whose parents reported having rules about what time their child goes to bed. Children who had an earlier bedtime also had a predictive of higher scores for most developmental measures, they found.

Dr Gaylor said the data also disclosed that many children were not getting the recommended amount of sleep, which may have negative consequences for their development and school achievement.

The scientist recommended parents set an appropriate time for their child to go to bed so they received sufficient levels of sleep. Parents, she added, should also interact with their child at bedtime using routines such as reading books or telling stories. A previous study also emphasised the importance of an early bedtime and consistent bedtime routine for children. It reported that children with a bedtime after 9pm took longer to fall asleep and had a shorter total sleep time. The findings of the latest study, the largest of its kind, was to be presented at a sleep conference hosted by the Associated Professional Sleep Societies. — PTI 

The conventional picture of a library goes like scores of books stacked together in countless shelves, index running into infinite rows and columns; where locating a book is as much of a science as reading it!

State library, Sector 34, makes it to the description yet stands detached from its ilk: Courtesy, space. Neeru Naresh Gupta, library head, doesn't miss the point either, "For readers there's lots of open space here. Rather our library easily accommodates 200-250 readers at a time, it's almost always occupied."

She adds, "There's a proposal to extend it up to the fifth floor, that's already in blueprint. And there're certain online facilities in the pipeline, like an online book index along with suggestion and feedback system where members can mention the books they need."

Till the five floors happen, the building extends up to the first floor, including the basement. Put together, it's a collection of half-a-dozen sections, beginning with the magazine. Shares the librarian, "We get as many as 70 kinds of magazines, some niche ones, on a range of subjects from religion to fashion."

Each floor, every compartment has new arrivals shelves proudly displaying titles outside. As for the crowd, there's a healthy mix 'n' match, mish and mash of almost every age group. Says Suman, librarian, "Though generally students come here, there are quite a few retired personnel, housewives, and even working women."

Children's section stands out from the otherwise sober interiors with Disney and Mickey adorning the colourful walls, red plastic chairs spread out round the room, little shelves of books, Cinderella, sleeping beauty posters, bean bags and the like…there's a wise specky monkey at the centre, holding a book as if watching over!

Over to just the opposite; the circulation segment, the reference section. There's an eerie feeling, inevitably accompanied by journals, thesis, research papers, placed in life-size racks. At times, members carry an electric mobile lamp to locate through the corridors of racks, browse through the sections containing 'How to get a job in the USA' to 'China looks at the World'. Shares Anju Gupta, in charge of the section, "We have as many as 90,000 books. Out of these we have quite a collection of biographies and cook books."

Outside, the new arrival section stands firm, announcing the latest additions.

Men and women are greatly influenced not only by what their friends think of their potential fling or relationship partner, but also by the opinions of complete strangers, says a new study. "We might think that searching for mates is a process best done individually, that we can best gather the appropriate information by ourselves. But humans, like many other animals, also pay attention to the preferences of others," said Skyler Place, a researcher in Indiana University's Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and lead author of the study.

The concept of 'mate choice copying', where an individual copies the mate selections of others, has been widely documented in other species, particularly birds and fish, and has recently been looked for in humans as well.

For the current study, 40 men and 40 women each watched video of eight speed-dating interactions. Speed dating involves sessions in which men and women have numerous "mini dates," each date lasting about three minutes. After every date, the men and women checked a box on a card noting whether they would like to see the other person again.

 The students were asked to predict whether they thought the dates were successful as part of the study. The researchers then looked at how the participants' own desires to become romantically involved with the individuals going speed-dating changed based on what the participants thought happened on the speed-dates. The men's interest in the women generally increased after watching the videos but it increased significantly more if their male peer in the video appeared to be interested in the women and if the men were considered as attractive or more so than the study participant. — ANI