Kalmadi dirty face of Indian sports: Pargat

New Delhi:  Barely 48 hours before the Hockey India elections, Pargat Singh on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on IOA chief Suresh Kalmadi, calling him the "dirty face of Indian sports" who is desperate to maintain control over the game's administration by interfering in the much-awaited polls.

The former India captain, in fray for the President's post in the elections on Wednesday, said Kalmadi is backing an 83-year-old Vidya Stokes for the job as he is only concerned about keeping his control and least bothered about the sport.

"The reason they violated the government's guidelines (on age limitation) is to field an 83-year-old lady (Stokes). Kalmadi just wants a rubber stamp. If they (the present ad-hoc HI office bearers) are elected, it won't be called Hockey India, it will be called Hockey Kalmadi," he said.

"Kalmadi is the dirty face of Indian sports. He is a destroyer. He talks of the Olympic movement but he has destroyed the Olympic institution. Such dirty people should be thrown out of sports," said Pargat.

"The Kalmadi group has a habit of poking its nose in every sports federation. Their modus operandi is to set up a parallel body in every federation and then take the matter to the court. They have a battery of lawyers to fight their case," the former India full-back added.

Pargat also accused Kalmadi of fielding his own personal office staffs in the HI polls.

"A member of Kalmadi's personal staff, Manoj Bhore is a voter from Hockey Maharashtra. So, you can imagine what is going on. He has made a mockery of the system. He just wants to capture hockey," he said.

He also said that the present office-bearers of HI have no right to reject government's assistance as it is the prerogative of the elected house.

"Who are they to tell they don't want government's assistance, it is the house to decide. What is their authenticity? If the government's recognition is not there, how can the Indian team participate in international tournaments?" Pargat asked.

"They should keep in mind that it is not their personal team, it is a national team," Pargat stated.

"In the last two years, the government has given Rs 13 crore to hockey but nobody knows where this money has been spent," he added.

Pargat said he decided to foray into hockey's administration only to revive the national game, which is in a mess for the past two years.

"Enough is enough. For the last two years hockey has suffered. There were only divisions within the game but I will do whatever is possible to unite hockey," Pargat said.

"If you don't bring positive faces, how will you promote hockey? If good faces come, money will automatically come into the game.

"I don't have financial power like them, neither do I have the muscle power but what I have is a noble intention. The government is open to sit and discuss. If I get elected I will do whatever is best for the sport," he said.

"I have a plan for hockey's development. I want to bring in a coaching system, umpiring system, short and long-term planning will be there, a proper domestic structure will be set up. A calender will be there and every aspect of the game will be looked after," Pargat added.

Vinayakudu remade in Tamil as Vinayaga

Vinayakudu, one of the biggest hits in 2008 , is being remade in Tamil as Vinayaga. The movie also saw a sequel as Village Lo Vinayakudu. Now ace director Balasekaran is wielding the megaphone in Tamil version. The director has given a number of hits, which include Love Today, Kadhal Sugamanathu.


The storyline of Vinayakuda is a different one with a fat man falling in love with a beautiful girl. Having met only online, the girl is shocked by the guy’s appearance when they meet in person. Though she lets him know that she finds him unattractive and unacceptable the plot further unfolds with different circumstances bringing them together and gaining different perspectives. The proceedings of the story form rest of the plot.


Newcomer Krishnan and Sonia are playing the lead roles, which was played by Krishnudu and Sonia of Happy Days fame. The movie also has comedian Santhanam and Poonam Kaur in important roles.


The movie is in its final stages of making and will be released soon.

Nagarjuna next film titled as Gaganam

The team of Nagarjuna’s latest Telugu movie has announced the final title of the film in a media briefing in Hyderabad. They have settled onGaganam as the title of the movie. Radha Mohan is directing the movie, which is being produced by Dil Raju under the banner of Sri Venkateswara Creations. The movie also has a Tamil version, which has been produced by Prakash Raj.

The title Gaganam has been chosen based on the audience reaction. Payanam and Wanted are the two other names, which were also considered as a title of the movie. Payanamhas been chosen as the title of the Tamil version of the movie.

The lead actor Nagarjuna, Prakash Raj, director Dil Raju, Brahmanandam, Bharath Reddy, Poonam Kaur, Sana Khan, and Rishi were present at the media briefing.


Actor Nagarjuna informed that the movie is a complete entertainer although the still and the title looks like a thriller. He said, “The title is liked by his younger son Akhil and he posted about it on his Twitter account. The audience also gave most response to this title”.



The movie has reportedly used the latest technological addition in the filmmaking, the RED cameras. The camera is handled by cinematographer Guhan.

The post-production work of the movie is going on and dubbing is almost complete. The director is planning to have a Vijaya Dasami release of the movie in October.

India tour may hamper Ashes preparation: Ponting

Australia skipper Ricky Ponting fears that the forthcoming tour of India in October may hamper their preparation for the Ashes series commencing in November 25 at Brisbane. 

Ponting said ideally Australia should not have played on dry and flat Indian pitches in the run-up to the five-match series against arch-rivals England at home. 

"If you were trying to sit down and map out your perfect preparation for an Ashes series or a home series it probably wouldn't be playing two Test matches in India," Ponting said. 

"But you don't live in an ideal world. That's the way international cricket is these days," Ponting was quoted as saying by 'The Australian'. 

Australia play two Tests - in Chandigarh (October 1-5) and Bangalore (October 9-13) - followed by three one-dayers during their India tour. 

Talking about Australia's three-wicket defeat against Pakistan in the second Test at Leeds, Ponting admitted that he had misjudged the batting conditions after winning the toss. 

"We were definitely playing catch-up from stumps day one. That's my responsibility, to get those sorts of things right and make those decisions," Ponting said. 

Australia were bowled out by Pakistan for just 88 - their lowest total in 26 years - on the first day of the second Test at Headingley, which also ended Pakistan's 15-year wait for a Test win over Australia.

Four Ways IPv6 Will Save the Internet

To address issues with the current IP protocol in use (IPv4), and to add features to improve the protocol for the future, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) hasintroduced IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6). Let's look at a few ways that IPv6 will come to the rescue and save the Internet.

1. More Addresses. IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses rather than the current 32-bit addresses allowing for an exponential increase in the number of available IP addresses. Network routing experts have been aware of the limitations of IPv4 addressing since the 1980's--before most of the world even knew the Internet existed, and before the Web became ubiquitous.

With 32-bits, IPv4 only allows for approximately 4.3 billion IP addresses. Since every Web-connected device--server, desktop, notebook, smartphone, tablet PC, and more--must have an IP address, and since the Web has exploded in countries like China and India, the world is rapidly approaching the end of the available IPv4 addresses.

With 128-bits to use for creating unique addresses, IPv6 is capable of an insane number of IP addresses far exceeding the demands of today's Internet and Web connected devices. Rather than 4.3 billion address limitation of IPv4, IPv6 has enough addresses that every single person on the planet could have billions upon billions assigned to them personally.

2. Backwards Compatible. IPv6 is backwards compatible with IPv4 so that different networks or hardware manufacturers can choose to upgrade at different times without disrupting the current flow of data on the Internet. Given the world's dependence on the Internet and Web for news, commerce, public safety, national security, and more this is an important feature of IPv6.

Eventually, all IPv4 equipment will be replaced by attrition and IPv6 will be the only address protocol in use. But, that could take decades, so backwards compatibility will be crucial for the foreseeable future.

3. Better Security. IPv6 was designed with encryption and authentication in mind. IPsec is an optional security component of IPv4, but in IPv6 it is mandatory. With IPsec each individual data packet is encrypted and authenticated, making many of the malicious attacks plaguing the Internet today impossible--or at least substantially more difficult.

4. Better Performance. Changes have been made to the way IP packets and headers are formed, and to the way IPv6 routers process the packets to improve performance--resulting in fewer missed or dropped packets, and more reliable and efficient connections. With more people and devices sharing the Internet, and higher demands for VoIP (voice over IP) and video streaming, performance will be more critical than ever.

It has been coming for more than two decades, but the IPv4 address crunch is beginning to get very real. Expect to see a spike in IPv6 adoption in the near future.

Motorola Milestone XT720 in India Now

Folks over at FoneArena have reported that Motorola is silently launching its Milestone XT720 in India. The device, which is apparently available at least in Bangalore as of now, is priced at Rs. 30,000. Motorola, however, is yet to officially announce the launch of this one.

Note that Motorola already has a "Milestone" on sale in India which is known as the Motorola "Droid" elsewhere. We are talking about another Milestone here - the XT720. This phone does have similar hardware to the existing Milestone including a 3.7-inch screen, 8 megapixel camera, (up from 5 megapixel on the Milestone), 720p HD video recording. This one, however, comes sans the slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The XT720 comes with Xenon flash - probably the first Android handset to sport one. The XT720 also comes with an HDMI port supports HSDPA, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It currently comes loaded with Android 2.1 - a stock version at that. So, those of you who were waiting for the Nexus One and were disappointed that it never came to India now have another chance at getting a stock Android phone.

While the specs do sound quite contemporary, you might be somewhat let down by the 600 Mhz processor ARM Cortex A8 processor. Here's an advertisement of the XT720


We tried contacting Motorola to check the veracity of the reports regarding the XT720's purported arrival to India. Our efforts were, however, met with statements like "Stay Tuned" and "We cannot say anything about it right now" as Motorola's corporate communication Arati Mukherjee put it. Another of our sources has hinted at an official launch of the phone by the first week of August.

India's $35 tablet--how low can it go?

India on Thursday unveiled a prototype tablet computer that would sell for a mere 1,500 rupees, or $35, with the price possibly dropping even further as R&D efforts continue.

Kapil Sibal, the country's Minister for Human Resource Development, showed off the super-cheap touch-screen device in New Delhi as part of a push to provide high-quality education to students across the country. The tablet also comes with a solar-power option that could make it more feasible for rural areas.

The Linux-based computer at first glance resembles an Apple iPad and features basic functions you'd expect to see in a tablet--a Web browser, multimedia player, PDF reader, Wi-Fi, and video conferencing ability. It has 2GB of RAM (but no hard disk, instead using a memory card) and USB ports and could be available to kids from primary school up to the university level as early as next year.

Students from several branches of the Indian Institute of Technology co-designed motherboards for the computer, which the ministry would like to see dropping to $20 and possibly getting as low as $10.

Sibal called the as-yet-unnamed device India's answer to MIT's famed OLPC laptop aimed at children in developing nations, which started off five years ago with a projected cost of $100, but ended up going for $200. In May, Marvell Technologies announced that it would partner with the OLPC foundation to create the hardware for a proposed OLPC tablet, currently named the XO-3, that would go for around $100.

But while the extremely low price of India's newly unveiled tablet is generating much hoopla, the gadget still faces hurdles before it lands in the public's hands.

"This is just a prototype," education expert Zubin Malhotra told Newsxlive. "We need to find people who will be able to manufacture these devices at these price points and continue to develop them going forward."

The tablet is part of a larger initiative aimed at improving India's educational system through technology. Nearly 8,500 colleges in the country have already gotten broadband connectivity, according to the Ministry for Human Resource Development, and some 500 Web-based and video courses are available for upload on YouTube andother online portals, with more in the works.

Special Olympian wants to make pasta for Sachin Tendulkar

Vincent Menezes, a 20-year-old slow boy, studied at SPJ Sadhana School. He began his school life with the Convent of Jesus and Mary School. But as the school does not take in slow children after the fifth standard, Menezes spent his final five schooling years at Sadhana, learning bakery, cookery and housekeeping.

Today, Menezes works for a restaurant at Grant Road, and is waiting for a break to work in a leading five-star hotel in south Mumbai.

“I love making pastas, my speciality is pink pasta. I mix white sauce with mari-mara sauce, which gives it a pink look and makes it tasty. Among pastries, I like to bake sponge cakes,” he said.

Menezes learnt to play cricket at the maidan near the French Bridge, Opera House. Throughout his childhood, he spent evenings playing the game with his friends. Their encouragement made him serious about cricket.

“My friends encouraged me, and asked me to play in school. I did, and when my teacher saw me, he gifted me my first bat. In 2007, I participated first time in the Special Olympics, playing cricket for India,” Menezes said.

He has only one idol — Sachin Tendulkar. He watches television only when Tendulkar is playing. According to him, there is no other cricketer like Tendulkar. And given a chance, he will cook his favourite pasta for his idol.

“I admire Tendulkar. I like his straight drive the best,” he said. “I only watch cricket on television when he plays.” With a bashful smile, he added, “I want to meet Tendulkar once and I want to make pink pasta for him.”

Menezes won a bronze medal at the Special Olympics in Shanghai — his first ever trip abroad. “It was my first flight abroad. It was nice, but I did not like the Chinese food. I ate only rice and noodles with mushroom and chicken,” he said. “However, I liked their ground. I enjoyed playing cricket and was happy to be a part of the Indian team that stood third at the Special Olympics.”

Spinners set up India's victory

Bangladesh may have moved from the cool climes of England to hot and humid Sri Lanka, but they don't seem to have left at customs the habit of wasting scintillating starts by the openers. They collapsed from 81 for 1 to 100 for 4, and then lost their last six wickets for 12 runs. While the first setback was mostly self-inflicted, it was Virender Sehwag's canny spin bowling that ran through the lower order. In reply, Gautam Gambhir didn't look a million dollars, but made a satisfactory return to the side, scoring 82 to see India through to a bonus point.

Sehwag's 17-ball effort for 4 for 6 was the joint second-cheapest four-wicket haul in ODIs, behind Phil Simmons' 4 for 3 against Pakistan in 1992. Before that, though, Bangladesh displayed a few of their usual failings. Not surprisingly it all began with Mohammad Ashraful.

Imrul Kayes and Tamim Iqbal, as they did through the tour of England, got Bangladesh off to a flier. They treated Praveen Kumar and Zaheer Khan with contempt at the top of the innings. Cut, drive, the odd edge, and 35 were up in the third over. Tamim then got carried away and hit at one he wasn't close enough to. Suresh Raina came up with a diving catch, but Kayes carried on the good work.

It was impressive that, though he was beaten consistently in Zaheer's next two overs, Kayes kept his head, ending a spell of 11 straight dot balls with a punched boundary. Runs slowed down, mostly because Ashraful exaggeratedly kept leaving deliveries outside off. There was not much in the pitch or the bowling, and Ashraful's over-cautious approach hurt Bangladesh. There was not one single taken in the first 10 overs.

Kayes kept Bangladesh going with back-to-back boundaries off Nehra in the 12th over, but Ashraful was about to make his inevitable mistake. Soon after he managed one boundary, he attempted to go from first gear to fifth, and heaved Nehra to the only man on the square-leg boundary. Kayes made his mistake in Nehra's next over, being too slow in pulling a sharp bouncer. Shakib Al Hasan got a wicked straighter one from Harbhajan Singh, which could well have been intended to be an offbreak.

The pitch had started offering turn now, and Harbhajan and Ravindra Jadeja were tough to get away. From 100 for 4, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah, both of whom survived close lbw calls, took Bangladesh to 155, when madness struck again. Jadeja finally got his reward with a flat delivery that caught Mahmudullah's edge.

Immediately after, Sehwag was introduced. He bowled with lovely flight, slight drift, and mixed straighter ones in as well. Mushfiqur bat-padded a flighted delivery that jumped at him from outside off. MS Dhoni saw that and brought on Rohit Sharma too, who got a lucky break, with Naeem Islam given out caught behind when it seemed the noise came from his bat hitting the ground.

In the next over Sehwag destroyed the tail. Suhrawadi Shuvo was fooled by the straighter one, Shafiul Islam swept all over an offbreak, and Syed Rasel was castled by another straighter one. Sehwag still had one ball left in what could have been a three-wicket maiden. Dhoni's choice of ends for bowlers was good: with a wind blowing across the ground, Sehwag and Harbhajan bowled from ends where they could get drift.

India looked good for a bonus point for most parts of their reply, except for a few anxious moments when Shakib removed Virat Kohli and Rohit in two deliveries to reduce the chase to 80 for 3. It would have amounted to something for Bangladesh had Tamim, at third man, hung on to a simple offering from Gambhir, a blow that would have made it 93 for 4. It could well have been the inadequate flood lighting that Lasith Malinga spoke about at work.

That drop apart, Gambhir batted well, working hard, running hard, putting behind the occasional play-and-miss, and scoring mainly through nurdles and chips. Along with Virender Sehwag, he provided India a brisk start. India were 37 in the seventh over when Sehwag edged one outside off.

Gambhir then settled down for a hard-working innings, and Mashrafe Mortaza and Syed Rasel did their bit in making him work. His most flashy shot of the innings was when he danced down the track and drove Mortaza through covers to reach 21 off 27, taking India to 46 in the ninth over. Post the supper break, Shafiul Islam and Shakib too kept the batsmen honest.

After Shakib's double blow in the 15th over, Gambhir nearly let Bangladesh back in when he played a weak upper-cut off Shafiul. Tamim got under it, but never looked confident during that attempt. Gambhir was 48 then. By the time he finally got out, India needed only 10, with nearly 20 overs to go.

Eleventh IIFA awards kickstarts today

The 11th International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards will kick off here today, but without the presence of the Bachchans and other prominent Indian film personalities.

Conducting the IIFA in Sri Lanka has been seen as hurting the Tamil sentiments back in India.

The run-up to the event has seen an open threat being issued to Bollywood stars from the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce. The chamber has decided not to screen films of actors who choose to attend the function.

The IIFA is seen as Bollywood''s most coveted ceremony, but big names like Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor, Rajnikant and Kamal Haasan have opted to skip it.

However, stars like Vivek Oberoi, Lara Dutta, Bipasha Basu and Boman Irani are among those who are attending the event.

Mandira Bedi, Chunky Pandey and Javed Jaffrey will host the event that will see big stars performing on stage.

Salman Khan and Sri Lankan beauty and Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez, besides Hrithik Roshan, Suniel Shetty, Lara Dutta, Riteish Deshmukh, Dino Morea and many others will perform and attend the gala event.

A charity cricket match will also be played between the Indian celebrities led by Hrithik Roshan and Suniel Shetty and Sri Lankan cricketers led by Kumara Sangakkara in support of UNICEF’s Cricket for Children project.

The event will also showcase the works of various Indian and Sri Lankan designers.

Nokia Dual SIM Mobiles

As for the C2, it happens to be a "real" dual SIM phone where both the SIM cards would be active. The first SIM card on the Nokia C2 sits underneath the battery and the second is 'hot-swappable', a feature unique to Nokia. This means the second SIM card can be removed and inserted when the phone is on. Apart from being dual SIM, the C2 will also offer its users a wide range of information covering healthcare, agriculture, education and entertainment via Nokia's Ovi Life Tools, as well as the email account for the developing world, Ovi Mail. In addition to Ovi Mail, it also supports Nokia Messsaging - making the C2 a very capable entry level phone. It has an FM radio and music player and guess what? It can take microSD cards of up to 32GB!

Nokia also took the wraps off the Nokia Bicycle Charger Kit, an alternative charging solution built especially for people with limited access to electricity.

The estimated retail prices of the new Nokia mobile phones, before taxes and subsidies, are:

• Nokia C1 (C1-00) - EUR 30 (Rs. 1,700)
• Nokia C1 (C1-02) - EUR 35 (Rs. 2,000)
• Nokia C1 (C1-01) - EUR 39 (Rs. 2,200)
• Nokia C2 (C2-00) - EUR 45 (Rs. 2,500)

The Nokia C1 (C1-00) is expected to ship in the third quarter of 2010, with the Nokia C1 (C1-01) in the early fourth quarter, and the Nokia C1 (C1-02) and Nokia C2 towards the end of the fourth quarter 2010.

Nokia Dual SIM Phones

As for the other two members of the C1 family, they are single IM devices (C1-01 and C1-02) and are Nokia's most affordable devices offering microSD compatibility supporting up to 32GB of memory.

Nokia C1-01

Both new devices boast of color screens, web browsing over GPRS and access to Nokia web services such as Nokia Messaging. The C1-01 has a VGA camera and is capable of video recording as well.

Nokia C1-02

Nokia Announces Inexpensive Dual SIM Phones

Nokia C1 and C2 are expected to be priced between 30 to 45 Euros (Rs. 1,700 to 2,500)

World's largest phone maker Nokia has been famous for not making dual SIM phones. Well, not any longer! The company has announced a bunch of low-cost phones, including dual SIM handsets, starting at EUR 30. These new devices are slated to arrive on sale later this year in Africa and Asia.

The four new devices launched belong to Nokia's low cost C-Series of handsets. Out of these, two are dual SIM handsets while two are single SIM solutions. The C2 and the C1-00 are the dual SIM handsets.

Along with the C2, three new single SIM phones under the C1 name have been announced. As mentioned earlier, one of the C1 phones is a two-in-one dual SIM phone. The C2 is expected to go on sale by the fourth quarter of 2010.

The most affordable of the Nokia C1 trio (C1-00) is priced at EUR 30 and is the first Nokia mobile phone to feature a 2-in-1 double SIM solution. This phone can take in two SIM cards but only one would be active at any given point of time. Users can switch from one SIM to another with the flick of a switch. The C1 offers users a standby battery time of up to six weeks, the longest ever for a Nokia mobile phone, especially useful in those parts of the world where access to electricity is limited. The utilitarian nature of the phone is highlighted by the presence of a flashlight that can help people wade through darkness should he be in one of the remote corners of the planet where there is no electricity. The entire C1 range comes with color displays, FM Radio and a standard headphone jack.

High price for comedy

Comedians in Telugu films might be triggering uproarious laughter among audiences but they are leaving their producers in tears through their off-screen antics. Tollywood sources said that producers are at their wits’ end with comedy actors such as Bramhanandam, Ali, Sunil, Venumadhav, and Raghubabu charging nothing less than Rs 1 lakh a day. They are said to be the reason behind the producers’ council’s demand for stars to cut their wages. “It is not the heroes who are a bane but these comedians and character artistes,” said a source. It may sound incredible but Bramhanandam reportedly charges Rs 3 lakh per day now and turns up for the shoot only for four hours.

This comedian is a ‘villain’ as far as producers are concerned, since he also demands that food from star hotels be served to him on the sets. He is also notorious for not turning up for shoots on time, charging extra for promotions and not dubbing for the movie until the complete payment is made. “His rates are exorbitant,” says Natti Kumar, a producer who plans to convince others too to ban the comedian unless he stops charging per day. “He works between 11 am and 5 pm, sleeps for two hours in between and gives us nightmares with his culinary demands. We have decided not to hire Bramhandam hereafter,” he adds. Interestingly Bramhanandam claims that he hiked his pay to reduce the rush of producers who want to cast him in their films. “I recently increased my remuneration as too many people want to do films with me.”

It is not Brahmanandam alone who charges per day. Thirteen-year-old comedian Bharat charges nothing less than Rs 50,000 per day. Actors Raghubabu, Kota Srinivasa Rao, and Hema supposedly charge Rs 1 lakh per day. “These comedians are also highly undisciplined,” says Mohan Vadlapatla, member of the Producers’ Council Committee that is drafting cost cutting measures in Tollywood. “The only way out is to refuse the existing comedians a role and encourage new talent,” he says. The council is likely to bring in a regulation banning charging on a daily basis and enforcing 12 hours work per day.

However, comedians refute the allegations and say that it is the ‘demand’ of the artiste that decides remuneration. “Remuneration of these actors is a small factor,” says AVS, comedian and general secretary of Movie Artistes’ Association. “It is lack of planning in the script that is increasing the production cost. It is unfair to blame actors.”

Comedian Raghubabu who reportedly takes Rs 1 lakh also denies that he fleeces producers. “My dad was an actor and we produced about 70 movies,” he says. “I have made films too. We totally understand the troubles of the producer and don’t trouble them.”

Ballaya, Chiru, Venki, Nag set to play T20

Movie Artistes’ Association (MAA) which had successfully organised cricket matches earlier with Tollywood stars on several occasions,is once again getting ready to hold a match on June 13 at Lal Bahadur Stadium in Hyderabad. Four top heroes of the Telugu film industry Balakrishna, Nagarjuna, Venkatesh and Chiranjeevi would compete with each other for the ‘T-20 Tollywood Trophy’, with their teams.

MAA president Muralimohan says, "We are going to organise this cricket match to construct an own building for MAA and to help old and poor film artistes. Besides cricket matches, there will be programmes to entertain the audiences on June 13 between 9 am and 11 pm. Almost all the prominent artistes would take part in this match. The event would be coordinated by the Rhythm.

We will also take up an ‘anti-piracy’ run at the stadium on the occasion."

Balakrishna says, "We are happy to take part in the cricket match. This time, the matches would not be very casual but will be held with a perfect sportive spirit. Teams would be selected on May 15 and the dress launch would be made on May 30."

Maa Stars Tollywood T20 Teams Logos

Balayya Lions

Chiranjeevi Cheetahs

Nagarjuna KIngs

Venky Warriors

NTR voiceover for RRKK

NTR has given voiceover Dil Raju’s 12 May release featuring Ram, Priya Mohan and Bindu Madhavi. This film is directed by Srivas (Lakshyam fame). Arjun (Gentleman fame) plays a vital role. This is Keeravani’s 200th film. Dil Raju is also producing a movie titled Brindavanam with NTR as hero.

Windows 7 Jumps Ahead of Vista

Janco Assocoiates, a management consulting firm, has released data regarding Browser and Operating System Market Share. While the tale regarding the browsers looks familiar, when it comes to the Operating Systems, there is a major revelation.

Windows 7, in just seven months since its release, holds 14.8 percent of the OS market. This takes the number of people using Windows 7 more than the number of people using Vista, the older OS from Microsoft.

Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis quips, "There are now more users of Windows 7 than Vista. That is a major factor in their improved record earnings. The last OS that was accepted as quickly in the market was XP. Vista's market share has peaked and is in the process of being decommissioned in most enterprises." Janulaitis added, "The last six months have been a mixed bag for Microsoft. While they have good news on the OS front, their browser market share has fallen to the level that it was in 1998."

As for the browser market, Microsoft continues to lose its grip. Internet Explorer lost 3.7 percent of its market share. Firefox is stable with its share at a steady 17.8 percent. As for Google (Chrome and Google Desktop), accounts for a decent 5.4 percent of the share. The top five browser market share rankings are: Microsoft's IE 67.73 percent; Firefox 17.88 percent; Google (Desktop & Chrome) 5.40 percent; Mozilla 1.36 percent; and Safari 0.98 percent.

Another ‘Naan Kadavul’

Off-beat films have of late become a trend in Tamil cinema. Toeing the line of ‘Ram’, ‘Pithamagan’, ‘Kattradhu Tamizh’ and ‘Naan Kadavul’ is ‘Naan Sivanagiren’, a film directed by K Gnanasekar.

Besides wielding the megaphone, Gnanasekar is also taking care of story, screenplay and dialogues departments. Udhay Karthik, a new face is debuting as the hero with Varsha starring opposite him in female lead.

Sources say the film is about the protagonist taking the job of Lord Shiva to destroy wrongdoers. “Punishing a wrong doer isn't a sin for they can be adored as Gods. The hero assumes himself as Siva,” they say.

Saying the film will be very racy, sources add: “You can see some unexpected things in Naan Sivanagiren.” K Gokul is handling the camera while K S Manoj composes the music for the lyrics penned by Na Muthukumar, K Nishanth and V K Gnanasekar. C K is producing this film under the banner M N Creations.

Shriya wants to shine more

After sizzling in glamourous roles, Shriya Saran now says she would like to establish herself as a talented actress by playing characters that have enough scope to display her acting skills on screen.

“I am careful and choosy now. I am waiting for a meaty role which would give me opportunity to prove myself. Doing glamorous roles alone is of no use,” says the actress, who is currently shooting in Switzerland for a Telugu film.

On her forthcoming movies, she says, “I am currently acting opposite Ravi Teja in ‘Don Seenu’. I am there opposite Arya in Kollywood’s ‘Chikku Bhukku’. I have recently completed Deepa Mehta’s ‘What’s Cooking?’.”

Thanking the support from her family, Shriya says, “But for the encouragement from my family members, I would not have made a mark for myself in movies. I am thankful to God for gifting me such a nice family.”

Nitin under JD’s direction

News that’s a fodder for the trade pundits and movie gossipers! Lover boy Nitin will work under the direction of JD Chakravarthy.

Making his mark as a director with action flicks like ‘Homam’ and ‘Siddham’, JD is back behind the camera to direct Nitin for a movie that is made for ‘Aavaham’ producer Prasanth Burra’s Sardhak Movies.

Nitin after a series of average grossers is desperately in search of a super hit. Other members of the cast are yet to be known but sources say the movie will be made in USA. They say the story needs an American backdrop and hence the shooting will be done there

Sources also say that JD is concentrating on music and hence music will be given priority in the movie. JD’s movies as an actor have always had best of music, for example, ‘Money’, ‘Gulabi’, ‘Anaganaga Oka Roju’ and many others. It’s obvious he wants to include the best of music under his direction. All the best JD!

RGV from Web Page to News Page

What’s Ram Gopal Varma up to these days? Besides being good at home turf, direction, the director is also an avid blogger. Sources say he is now going to start writing a column in a leading Telugu daily!

With a series of hits like the ‘Money’ series, and a couple of other action flicks, RGV slowly transported himself to Bollywod from Tollywood. With his unique style of handling crime in celluloid, RGV got his trademark designed. Being a hit among the movie buffs, RGV started his own blog that received enormous response from his fans. He is also highly active on social networking site Facebook.

News is that, select articles from his blog will appear in a column of a leading Telugu daily. RGV’s views have always invited controversies, to which he says, nothing is unintentional and he speaks what his mind speaks. So now that his words are going to see life in paper, let us hope, controversies are at bay!

BCCI requests Australia for Tests

In its quest to maintain India's No.1 Test ranking the BCCI has sent a proposal to Cricket Australia to convert the seven-match ODI series in October to two Tests and three ODIs. India had climbed to the top spot in 2009, after drubbing Sri Lanka 2-0 at home, and then retained the ranking by fighting back to level the two-Test series against South Africa in February.

"We've got an open mind on it but it's being discussed and that could be the road down which we will go," a CA spokesman told the Australian on Tuesday.

This is not the first time the Indian board has intervened to change the original itinerary of a proposed tour. Earlier this year Cricket South Africa had agreed to a compressed tour of two Tests and three ODIs, replacing the original five-match ODI series. India's change of mind came in the wake of ascending to the No.1 Test ranking for the first time, and they were eager to preserve it.

According to the ICC's Future Tours Programme, India were scheduled to play only a handful of Tests in 2010, an aberration the BCCI is desperate to correct. So far this year, India have played four Tests but are lined up to play three in Sri Lanka in July, and then another three at home against New Zealand at the end of the year.

Asked if the BCCI had indeed formally requested the Australian board, N Srinivasan, the Indian board's secretary did not deny or confirm the news, saying he would be issuing a press release soon on the matter. CA were more forthright and positive about the development.

"One of the thoughts going through our heads is that we've got an Ashes series coming up and all we've got between now and then is two Tests against Pakistan in England during July," the spokesman said. Australia host England in November and are keen to avenge the 2009 Ashes defeat.

"Playing Tests in India in October may not be a bad idea because it gives us another chance to have another reasonably contemporary Test experience under the belt."

Pune_IPL_team

The new IPL team of the Sahara India will be known as ‘Sahara Pune Warriors’ as the corporate house unveiled the name and logo of its franchise at a grand ceremony here on Saturday.

The team will make its debut in the 2011 season along with the Kochi franchise.

Speaking on the occasion Subrata Roy, Chairman Sahara Group said, “It is a moment of great pleasure for us to present the identity of the Pune IPL team for the people of the city and cricket enthusiasts across the world.”

“We have just started journey and in the short span the support and affection received from the people here is very heartening and makes me feel that Pune is my second home”.

Announcing various measures of financial assistance for Pune district, Subrata Roy said the Sahara Group was committed to promoting young talent in the city and also have plans of setting up of an International Sports Academy at its Amby Valley project in the vicinity.

The home matches of the Pune IPL team will be played at the MCA stadium currently under construction about 25 kms from the city.

Darling Movie Review

Movie Name Darling (3.75/5) Banner Sri Venkateswara Cinechithra Producer B.V.S.N. Prasad Director Karunakaran Music G.V. Prakash Photography Andrew Story Karunakaran Dialouge Swamy Lyrics Ananth Sriram Editing Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao Art Ashok     Choreography Kalyan Action Peter Heins Star Cast Prabhas, Kajal, Prabhu, Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam, M.S. Narayana, Aahuthi Prasad, Srinivas Reddy, Prabhas Seenu, Raja Sridhar and others.

Prabha (Prabhas) alias prabhas is the son of lawyer Hanumanta Rao (Prabhu). His junior Nisha(Shraddha Das) expresses her love for Prabhas. He refuses to accept it. Failed in her love, she tries to commit suicide. Her father (Mukesh Rishi), a big don, brings him to his place through his professional goons. He warns to kill him if he doesn't love his daughter. To escape this torture, Prabhas lies to him that he is already in love with his childhood pal Nandini (Kajal Agarwal), who stays in London. Believing his fake story, the don releases him. Fact is that, Prabhas has a childhood friend Nandini staying in Switzerland. Her father Viswanath (Ahuti Prasad) and Prabhas' father are very good friends. Viswanath, Hanumantha Rao and many of their old pals meet together and Nandini too is present there. Prabhas starts to meet her. What events take place between Nandini and Prabhas, do they really love each other or not forms the rest of the story. This film reveals the affection that exists in a childhood friendship. The bond between a father and a son is shown in a very affectionate way. Sensible humor without any vulgarity is a rarity these days. This film has great and clean comedy to entertain the audience. Karunakaran is famous for his sensible touch of sentiments. Credit goes to the director for the beautiful narration of the story.  Scenes in Switzerland have great scenic beauty. The fake story of the hero to escape from the villain is a novel and humorous idea. And there enters the girl in the second part of the film, very similar to his description to the villain. This increases the audience interest towards the film. At last we have a summer breezer film for the story starved telugu audience. The director must be congratulated for the well narrated film and providing a hit for Prabhas as well. Action:- Prabhas:- Gave a great performance in the lead role. Improved expressions and dance moments add to his performance. Kajal Agarwal:- Nice character as Nandini, it involved her sensible and glamorous performance. She gave great performance.  Prabhu:- Tamil actor, director Prabhu performed as the father of Prabhas. The bond of father and son is well performed by the two actors. Prabhu's performance proves to be an added attaraction. Other character actors like Chandramohan, Ahuti Prasad, Mukhesh Rushi, Tulasi, Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam and  others did justice to their characters. Technical Department:- Music:- by G.V. Prakash is an added high light. All songs are well tuned. Back ground music too is well composed. Direction:- Karunakaran's films are known for their love, sentiment oriented stories. He succeeded in making a well performed love story with action oriented hero Prabhas.

RRKK releasing on May first week

Producer Dil Raju’s upcoming Srivas directed Rama Rama Krishna Krishna, starring Ram in the lead role, has been scheduled to grace the screens during the first week of May, the makers informed. The audio of the film was released recently by Jr. NTR at Durgam Cheruvu, Hyderabad.

At present the re-recording works are going on. A song is left to be completed and it would be canned in a few days. Ram plays the role named Ramakrishna. Bindhu Madhavi and Priya Anand are the heroines. The film has music by MM Keeravani. Dil Raju said that the film has all the elements to entertain all sections of the audiences.

Sehwag out of World Twenty20

Indian opener Virender Sehwag has suffered a shoulder injury which will rule him out of the ICC World Twenty20 beginning in the West Indies on April 30. Sehwag has been advised rest for three to four weeks and has been replaced by Tamil Nadu batsman M Vijay in the 15-man squad, the BCCI said in a statement.

The BCCI statement, however, did not mention how or when Sehwag sustained the injury. Sehwag played all 14 IPL league matches for Delhi Daredevils, scoring 356 runs at an average of 25, his last appearance being on April 18. He was deemed fit when included in the World Twenty20 squad so it's likely the injury occurred during Delhi's IPL campaign.

The blow is similar to the one India suffered before the 2009 ICC World Twenty20. Sehwag had sustained a shoulder injury during the 2009 IPL in South Africa, shortly before the World Twenty20 was due to begin. He travelled with the squad to England but was not able to play a game and India were eliminated without winning a game in the second round.

His replacement, Vijay, has been in aggressive form for Chennai Super Kings, scoring 417 runs, including a century, at an average of 38. He has been India's back-up opener for Tests and ODIs as well.

Salman refuses Abhishek's film

It’s not an admission many leading stars would make, but 45-year-old Salman Khan is no longer reluctant to admit that he can’t be expected to play a young boy any longer. Recently, he turned down Ahmed Khan’s assistant Abhishek Dogra’s film as he felt he was a bit too old for the role.

Abhishek met Salman at his residence at Galaxy Apartments, Bandra to narrate the story of his film. The meeting lasted for an hour-and-half. After Abhishek finished his narration, Salman said he wouldn’t do his film and suggested that he cast a younger actor instead.

A source says, “While that’s what he said, it could have been that Salman actually refused Abhishek’s film because it is a three-hero project and he didn’t want to share too much screen space with two other actors.”
However, Abhishek didn’t leave completely empty handed. “Salman suggested a different ending to the script and the aspiring filmmaker agreed that it made for a far better climax than what he had envisaged. Abhishek is incorporating Salman’s input.”

But while he won’t be working with Salman in this film, Abhishek is keeping his fingers crossed for the future. “I’m earnestly looking forward to work with Salman one day. But I must say I don’t know how to thank him enough for his extremely valuable input to my script.”