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Mumbai, March 1 (IANS) Oscar-winning sound engineer Resul Pookutty says he was inspired to start his own NGO as he was inundated with requests for financial help after he won the Academy Award.

“Over the last one year, so many things happened in my life. I received a huge number of letters from across the country, seeking financial help because many people thought that A.R. Rahman and I have won billions of rupees along with the Oscar, which was false because Oscar awards don’t have prize money attached to it,” Pookutty told IANS.

“I thought may be this is my time to give it back to society, however little I can,” he said.

The Resul Pookutty Foundation focuses on the health needs of the underprivileged and has tied up with a hospital in Kochi.

Asked about the aim of his foundation, he said: “Resul Pookutty Foundation has initiated a huge health programme along with Lakshmi hospital in Kerala. We are giving 300 free surgeries, including open heart surgeries.”

The project was launched Feb 7 and Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan donated Rs.11 lakh to the foundation.

“It is to my surprise that Mr.Bachchan donated that money and I am very thankful to him,” said Pookutty, who won an Oscar for his work in “Slumdog Millionnaire”.

Bachchan is closely linked to the Resul Pookutty IIFA Foundation Scholarship for economically backward students as well.

“It actually started off with a very personal conversation with Mr. Bachchan, when he once came to felicitate me…You know they wanted to felicitate me at IIFA awards; so I suggested if they can start a scholarship in my honour and he readily agreed. And he initiated with IIFA to launch the Resul Pookutty IIFA Foundation Scholarship for economically backward students.

“We are beginning to give this scholarship in the 2010 IIFA edition…The film industry has given me love, affection and freedom to do what I wanted to do. It is my responsibility as an Indian to give back to the industry, in whatever little way I can,” Pookutty said.

(Dibyojyoti Baksi can be contacted at dibyojyoti.b@ians.in)

London, Feb 28 (IANS) Hollywood actress Anne Hathaway says she finds it easy to befriend her co-stars on movie sets.

The actress says she likes to strike up a close rapport with her co-stars, reports celebrifi.com.

“I’m very friendly with everyone. One of my closest friends is Emily Blunt, who I met on the set of ‘The Devil Wears Prada’. We instantly hit it off and have become really close. She’s just about my best friend. She’s such a delight and a wonderful girl,” said Hathaway.

London, Feb 28 (IANS) Sir Anthony Hopkins has blasted socialite-heiress Paris Hilton, calling her a “soulless machine”.

The Oscar-winning Welsh actor believes socialites are taking over Hollywood and said he thinks the hotel heiress is stupid, reports contactmusic.com.

“I went into a shop to buy my wife some clothes and they had this big plasma screen on with these women on the catwalk. I thought, ‘God almighty, what have we become?’ These girls – anorexic, walking like machines, no soul,” he said.

“You look at fashion magazines and you think, ‘What are we living in?’ You look at the red carpet, Paris Hilton, you know, these people and you think, ‘Is there anything going on up there?’,” he added.

The 72-year-old legend also admitted it might be because he was getting old that the world had started to frustrate him.

“It’s the androgyny of it… the androgyny of the human soul. I don’t think people think any more. But maybe I’m just old,” he said.

New Delhi, Feb 28 (IANS) The first formal talks between India and Pakistan since the Mumbai attacks threatened to blur the distinction between fact and fiction as far as 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed was concerned.

The Indian side was shocked and outraged at Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir, a veteran diplomat well regarded in India, describing India’s detailed evidence against Jamaat-ud-Dawa ideologue Saeed glibly as “literature rather than evidence” last week.

Peeved Indian officials reacted by letting it on that such utterances showed a certain casual approach on Islamabad’s part to India’s concerns over cross-border terror.

It’s not that Bashir did not realise the damaging import of his words as he quickly corrected himself later in a nationally televised press conference, saying he did not mean to be “dismissive” of Indian concerns. But the damage had been done. Who knows better than diplomats that words can make or mar a relationship in diplomacy?

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Will Nirupama Rao go to Islamabad?

The foreign secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan have been greeted with cynicism on both sides. A Pakistani newspaper damned the exercise in a rather dramatic way: “meaningless talks end in a meaningless way”. In India, the general impression was that although a small beginning has been made, the ties remain frosty.

But there is more to it than meets the eye.

Informed insiders say that for all the Indian denials about future talks, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao is likely to take up her counterpart’s invitation to visit Islamabad some time in March-April, before the leaders of the two countries meet for the SAARC summit in Thimphu. It’s premature, in other words, to write off the Feb 25 talks as a failure.

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New-look climate team

India will have a new-look team when global climate negotiations resume in Bonn this summer. But the look has not been determined yet, and there is furious lobbying going on to be part of it.

The prime minister’s special envoy on climate change, Shyam Saran, has already resigned from his post, and senior member of the team Chandrashekhar Dasgupta has publicly stated he will not be part of the team any more. This gives Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh virtually a free hand to constitute the negotiation team.

But apart from senior bureaucrats in his ministry, it is not yet known whom Ramesh will choose. Insiders say he may ask veteran scientist M.S. Swaminathan to play a more active role.

But negotiations at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change entail hours of sitting through closed door meetings where every comma is fought over and the architect of India’s Green Revolution in agriculture may not be up to that, former members of the team point out.

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Patil getting there

She may not have the same appeal and pull as her predecessor A.P.J. Abdul Kalam who earned the sobriquet of the ‘People’s President’ but Pratibha Patil is slowly getting there and aggressively wooing the press.

Ahead of the budget session of parliament, Patil held a special dinner for senior scribes at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Though she arrived late and did not mingle with journalists, many were just happy to be in the Presidential Palace to enjoy a meal with her.

It does not stop there. Patil now hopes to meet up with over 100 women journalists on March 8 on the occasion of International Women’s Day. Women’s groups around the world choose different themes each year to reflect global and local gender issues. Now many are wondering if Patil is going to choose any particular cause.

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Didi’s favourite

A feverish guessing game is on as to who is Mamata Banerjee’s closest confidant in the Trinamool Congress. If you thought it was the firebrand Sudip Bandyopadhyay or other leaders like Kalyan Banerjee or Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, you are wrong.

It is Mukul Roy, minister of state in the ministry of shipping, who has quietly worked his way up, say insiders close to Didi.

Roy rose up the ranks, especially after he did a good job running down the Left Front government on the alleged ‘muder conspiracy’ to bump off Didi in October. He is currently a Rajya Sabha MP and is expected succeed Banerjee in the railway ministry if she becomes the next West Bengal chief minister in 2011.

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Dancer trio at Delhi dos

Kuchipudi dancer Raja Reddy and his two wives, Radha and Kaushalya, are fast turning socialites. They are almost everywhere – at book launches, award ceremonies, art shows and soirees in the capital.

According to friends close to them, it lends glamour to an event to see a dashing dark Indian ‘raja’ walk in with his two wives. The event also adds a special charm, especially at literary dos peopled by foreign writers and expats where India is either sold as a land of Maharajas, princes or snake charmers or “slumdog millionaires”.

The trio is in complete harmony with each other even when they share a drink or shake a leg at parties.

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Tharoor on board

When the list of ministerial delegates for the prime minister’s Saudi Arabia visit was being finalised, there was a bit of a tug of war for the minister of state slot, with both Shashi Tharoor and his predecessor E. Ahamed – both MPs from Kerala – keen to be on board.

Ahamed, who is now minister of state for railways, had been in charge of the Gulf region when he was in the external affairs ministry and has been a regular visitor to the area.

Till the last moment, the suspense was killing as to who would accompany Manmohan Singh who has taken along with him cabinet ministers Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and Murli Deora.

However, Tharoor finally emerged the winner, accompanying the prime minister to the country’s largest oil supplier since Indira Gandhi went there way back in 1982.

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Who sets Pakistan’s agenda?

Indian diplomats were not expecting a long-winded diatribe by the soft-spoken Pakistan foreign secretary at a nationally televised conference. With the Indian side publicly declaring that terrorism topped the agenda, Salman Bashir held forth for around 90 minutes on Kashmir and how Pakistan was a bigger victim of terrorism.

Pakistan has suffered 100 Mumbais, he said, giving detailed statistics about more than 5,000 Pakistanis who have died in over 1,000 terror attacks in the last two years.

This victim narrative didn’t impress India. On the contrary, Indian officials hit back by telling select journalists that this is what happens when men in khaki set the agenda.

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Sharma hunts for seat

Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, whose term as a member of the Rajya Sabha from Himachal Pradesh is coming to end in about a month, is a worried man. He is desperately looking for a nomination from Haryana.

Sharma has been in politics of Himachal Pradesh for almost three decades but has not won an assembly or parliamentary election. His elevation as a cabinet minister in UPA-II (he was minister of state in UPA-I) came as a surprise to many and put him almost on the same pedestal as his party senior Virbhadra Singh.

Congress sources say Sharma is on a massive drive and has sought the support of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in securing his Rajya Sabha nomination and has also talked of his familial connections with the state.

Last heard, Sharma also attended the wedding of Chief Minister’s son Deepender Singh Hooda last week in Jaipur.

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What makes Antony upset?

Usually ebullient and unfazed, Defence Minister A.K. Antony is said to be extremely upset on two counts, especially after the union budget.

He is cross, first, at the minute rise in the defence budget for 2010-11, especially with his concerted push for modernisation of the forces and, secondly, at the fact that the armed forces have returned a whopping Rs.7,000 crore allocated to it for purchasing arms and other equipment in the current fiscal.

“The minister has nothing to say,” an aide said. This was in sharp contrast to the last three years, when Antony had happily welcomed the budgetary allocations.

For the record, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has allocated Rs.147,000 crore for defence in 2010-11 against Rs.141,703 crore in the current fiscal.

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CJI is KGB!

Why is Chief Justice of India (CJI) K.G. Balakrishnan reluctant to put his office under the ambit of the transparency law – the Right to Information Act? Cynics offer an interesting explanation.

They attribute it to the acronym of his name – KGB, the erstwhile Soviet Union’s fabled intelligence and secret service organisation!

Nevada (US), Feb 28 (ANI): BAFTA nominated Freida Pinto, after spending four months in Israel, has finished the shooting of “Miral”, which will be released later this year, according to reports.

Pinto, 25, plays Miral, a girl raised in a Jerusalem orphanage in 1950s, with story spanning several decades. Shot in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in Israel, other cast of this poignant historical drama film includes Oscar nominated Willem Dafoe (Shadow of the Vampire), Alexander Siddig (The Boundary), and Hiam Abbass (The Syrian Bride).

Directed by Oscar nominated Julian Schnabel (Before Night Falls), written by Rula Jebreal, produced by Oscar nominated Jon Kilik (Babel), cinematography by BAFTA nominated Eric Gautier (Clean), music by Olivier Daviaud (L’homme de la lune), and edited by Oscar nominated Juliette Welfling (Le scaphandre et le papillon), it chronicles efforts to establish a Jerusalem orphanage after the creation of Israel in 1948.

Indo-American statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, said that it showed that India’s rich cinematic talent was in high demand not only in Hollywood but also in various other filmmaking centers of the world. Dance and drama tradition went back to ancient times in India and sage Bharata codified the rules in his treatise Natya-sastra, Zed, who is chairperson of Indo-American Leadership Confederation, added.

Freida Pinto is said to have also completed her shooting for romance film “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” (Woody Allen), which was filmed in United Kingdom and is about a family, love lives of its members and how they try to solve their issues. She reportedly unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of Bond girl Camille in “Quantum of Solace” (Marc Forster). (ANI)

Mumbai, Feb 28 (IANS) Bollywood stars Amitabh Bachchan and Vidya Balan were cited as best actor and best actress respectively at the star-studded 55th Filmfare Awards ceremony here late Saturday.

Bachchan won the award for his role in “Paa”, while Vidya Balan claimed the trophy for her role in the same movie. As Bachchan was not present in the ceremony, Vidya Balan took the award on his behalf.

Hosting the gala night were Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan and Saif Ali Khan, whose one liners had the audience in splits. Their on-stage chemistry was much appreciated by the Bollywood stars present at the ceremony at the Yash Raj Studios.

“3 Idiots” was declared the best film, while Rajkumar Hirani claimed the best director award for the movie.

A.R. Rahman won the best music director for “Delhi 6″.

Mohit Chauhan won the award for the best male playback singer for the song “masakali” from the movie “Delhi 6″, while the female playback singer honours were shared by Kavita Seth and Rekha Bhardwaj.

While Kavita was awarded for the song “Ik tara” from the movie “Wake Up Sid”, Rekha won the trophy for the song “Genda phool” from the movie “Delhi 6″.

Among the other highlights of the evening was a tribute to legendary pop singer Michael Jackson by Bollywood actor Shahid Kapoor, who charmed the audience with his perfect dance moves.

London, Feb 27 (IANS) American singer Rihanna is calling on her fans to help choose a name for her new perfume.

The “Umbrella” hitmaker is set to follow in the footsteps of other celebrity perfumers including Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Jennifer Lopez by launching her first fragrance later this year, reports dailystar.co.uk.

After initially naming the scent “Route 22″, the singer has decided to reconsider the title.

Rihanna has now asked her loyal followers to contribute their suggestions via rihhanadaily.com to help find a suitable name for the new fragrance.

London, Feb 27 (IANS) An advertisement featuring socialite Paris Hilton has sparked controversy in Brazil and a government official for women’s affairs has called for removing the commercial due to its sexist undertones.

In the advertisement, Hilton is seen sexually rubbing a can of beer on herself in an office building as passers-by stare at her antics, reports dailystar.co.uk.

Despite being fully clothed throughout the ad, officials at Brazil’s Women’s Secretariat revealed that the authorities have received several complaints about the “sensual nature” of the campaign.

“It’s an ad that devalues women – in particular, blonde women,” said a representative.

“The problem with the ad isn’t lack of clothing, but its sensual nature. A woman in a bikini on a beach isn’t necessarily sensual, it depends on the context,” he added.

London, Feb 27 (IANS) Pop queen Madonna has roped in Aussie star Abbie Cornish to play the lead in her new film “W.E.”

The Material Girl’s new film tells the story of the relationship between Britain’s King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor – as Wally Winthrop, a woman who is obsessed with the Duchess of Windsor’s life.

The “4 Minutes” hitmaker,who will be directing the film, had revealed that she wanted British star David Tennant to play the monarch, but is said to have changed her mind, reports contactmusic.com.

Madonna has previously directed 2008 film “Filth and Wisdom”, which starred Richard E. Grant and Eugene Hutz, although she has served as a writer on documentary “I Am Because We Are”.

The film’s preliminary release date is 2011.

London, Feb 26 (IANS) Hollywood star Sean Penn became a real-life hero after he personally saved two people in Haiti who had got trapped in a building following a small aftershock.

The Oscar winner, who’s on a rescue mission in the earthquake hit Caribbean nation, found an orphaned child and a woman badly injured in a collapsed building.

The 49-year-old star – who runs the Jenkins-Penn Haitian Relief Organisation – drove with his 19-year-old daughter Dylan to rescue them, reports contactmusic.com.

After Penn managed to free the pair, he personally drove them to the University of Miami hospital camp in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince. He waited for both the woman and child to be treated for their injuries and later took them back to his home as they had nowhere else to go.

London, Feb 26 (IANS) Brad Pitt, who raises six children with partner Angelina Jolie, took his eldest girls, Zahara, five, and Shiloh, three, to the Bonpoint collection of children’s boutiques in Paris for a shopping trip and spent $10,000 on the younger girl’s choice.

“Zahara chose very girlie outfits, but Shiloh only wanted items from the boys’ collection, which is in another boutique across the street,” femalefirst.co.uk reported.

The kids were allowed to pick their own items, and Shiloh opted for boys’ outfits rather than girlie clothes.

“Shiloh had absolutely no interest in the pretty dresses or skirts.”

Brad splashed out $10,000 on the entire Spring/Summer 2010 Bonpoint boys’ collection for Shiloh.

London, Feb 27 (IANS) Pop star Lady Gaga’s topless photo on the cover of Q magazine has been banned by several leading stores in the US.

The “Poker Face” hit maker walked out on the recent magazine photo shoot after bosses at the publication refused to let her strike a controversial pose in a desperate bid to address rumours she is a hermaphrodite, contactmusic.com reports.

Bosses at Q eventually rearranged the shoot and the final pictures show Gaga posing topless in just a pair of leather trousers.

But despite efforts to tone the images down, some stores across the US, including bookstore Borders, have refused to stock the publication unless it is placed in a sealed cover, according to QtheMusic.com

The place that provided us Street parties, Gisele, the most scant of trunks as well as a particular mode of epoch, tutoring, contains a hitch with what needs to be in the midst of Paris Hilton’s bashful presentations for the duration of a prolonged era.

Brazil’s Secretariat meant for Women’s Affairs has raise objections against an ad for Devassa alcoholic drink, casting the heiress, wherein she places in the casement of an workplace edifice as well as creates a center of attention for fascinated expressions from casual observers on the boulevard underneath — in addition to a photographer in consideration of what is supposed to be a zoom lens—seeing that she squirms around grasping a canister of lather.

Furthermore Paris isn’t nude or something, or else dressing in a swimming suit prepared of beer spume. She’s completely dressed in petty black clothing. The woman dresses in little when she consumes her Carls Jr. burgers! On the contrary ostensibly it may well be supposed as disgusting to ladies, mainly flaxen females. “The problem with the ad isn’t a lack of clothing, but its sensual nature,” states Eduardo Correia, a presenter for the confidential supervisory body bureau Conar.

London, Feb 26 (IANS) Singer Chris Brown has urged people to forgive Tiger Woods for his infidelities, saying the golfer deserves a second chance.

Woods is in the midst of a raging scandal after reports of his sexual relations with several women surfaced.

The sports star apologised for his behaviour at a press conference earlier this month and now Brown, who was embroiled in his own scandal after he was convicted of attacking girlfriend Rihanna last year, has called on the public to overlook Wood’s affairs and concentrate on his golfing skills, reports contactmusic.com

“I think it’s cool (that Woods apologised). I think people always deserve a second chance. I know my fans gave me a second chance,” said Brown

“Whatever his personal life is, and this goes for me and him, his personal life is his personal life. Nobody has the right to place judgment on anybody else’s personal life, if they’re not directly involved with them. He plays golf, that’s what people love him for. They don’t love him for the other stuff they’re talking about,” he added.

London, Feb 26 (ANI): Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Stella McCartney were among those who paid their final respects to fashion designer Alexander McQueen.

The supermodels were joined by his family for the service that took place at St Paul’s Church in Knightsbridge, west London.

Moss struggled to hold back tears as they paid their respects.

Mourners pulled out all the stops to remember the outlandish clothes guru with a suitably fashionable funeral.

Kate wore five-inch Christian Louboutin stilettos, a simple black dress and stole, while Naomi, 39, remembered her pal with a fitted jacket and quirky hat.

Socialite Daphne Guinness, 42, went even further in a billowing black cape, full lace veil and towering heel-less shoes.

McQueen’s father, Ronald, and his five siblings were also among the mourners at the late fashion designer’s private funeral.

“The mourners went all out to pay tribute to Lee, who was totally fashion-mad. I’ve never seen such an amazing selection of clothes. It looked more like a catwalk than a church,” the Daily Star quoted an onlooker as saying.

“The effort they all made showed just how much he meant to everyone in the fashion world,” the onlooker added. (ANI)

London, Feb 26 (ANI): British jazz-pop singer Victoria Hart has opened up about how she signed a 1.5million pound record deal and then ended up becoming a stripper.

Hart, who had been working as a singing waitress in London restaurant The Naked Turtle, had become an overnight sensation after performing for actors George Clooney and Brad Pitt at the Cannes Film Festival.

She signed a record deal, sang alongside some of the world’s top artists and was told she’d be as big as The Beatles.

But it was not so, as after signing the deal, she was dumped by her record label, left broke, homeless, thousands of pounds in debt and heartbroken after her long-term love left her.

‘I had nothing left. I was terrified and things seemed to be getting worse and worse,’ the Mirror quoted her as recalling.

‘I was living with my boyfriend, doing fewer gigs in smaller venues and I felt trapped. From getting paid 20,000 pounds for a half-hour slot playing piano, I was suddenly doing gigs for a few hundred quid.

‘Going from all the hype back to where I’d started spoiled it. Then me and my boyfriend split and I was devastated. I was left to pay all our bills and soon I was thousands of pounds in debt,’ she said.

In order to pay off her debt, she moved in with her parents.

‘It was awful because I’d lived on my own since I was 16, working and making my own money,’ she said.

‘It felt like I was accepting I’d failed. As they’d just moved back, they were living in a two-bed flat, and I had to share a bed with my little sister.

‘As mortified as I was, my dad paid off my debts. I was so grateful but vowed to pay him back,’ she revealed.

And then as she began to sink into depression, Hart turned to stripping in a desperate move to repay her debts and get her life back on track.

‘Going to the club that first night was so scary,’ she recalls.

‘I got the train out of London and my hands were sweating – I felt so sick. When I got there they told me to dance for a bouncer to see if I was good enough.

‘I took all my clothes off – it was scary but I managed to get through it. I’m a performer so I just thought of this the same way and blocked off my nerves, the way I’ve always done when I’m singing,’ she revealed.

Hart met an old friend who worked as a stripper in a club called The Cave in Chelmsford, Essex.

‘I asked her what it was like and she agreed to take me along. I was so scared and felt sick on my way there, I couldn’t believe what I was doing,’ she said.

‘But once the first dance was over, I thought I might as well carry on.

‘Before long I was working there three nights a week, 300 pounds a time. The girls were great, you would never dream they worked in a place like that.

‘And the men weren’t as awful as you’d think. Maybe it was because the club was out of London, but it felt quite safe. I felt like I was acting and the men didn’t give me any hassle,’ she said.

As Hart settled into work as a stripper, she lied to friends and family because she knew how horrified they’d be if they knew the truth.

‘I told everyone I was working in a bar in London, the hours were really long and I made great tips. As the cash built up and I gave more and more back to my dad, I started to feel happy again,’ she explained.

Soon her plans seemed to be coming together, and after paying her father back, she moved into a flat with friends and was setting up gigs and preparing to relaunch her music career.

She was planning to quit stripping within weeks, when she was caught.

‘Then it happened. I’d been caught and the fact I was a stripper was in the papers. I was warned the day before and collapsed to the ground,’ she said.

‘I had to tell my parents before they read it and I was terrified. The worst thing was my 21st birthday was the next day. My dad was so angry he wouldn’t come to my party, but Mum came for moral support.

‘I was so mortified and ashamed of myself.

‘Dad had to listen to sleazy comments from work colleagues – I’ve never felt so guilty in my life. I thought they’d never forgive me.

‘But thankfully, after a few awful months, things are getting back to normal with them. And I’m really excited about my future again, although this time I don’t want overnight success, I’ll work steadily for it,’ she said.

Now Hart is hoping to put together an all-girl jazz band.

‘I have so many ideas. I want to do my own thing, but build it up slowly so I can enjoy making music,’ she said.

‘I’ve swallowed my pride and I’m happy to start again from the beginning. I’m only 21 so there’s plenty of time to do it ­properly now, my way,’ she added. (ANI)

New Delhi, Feb 26 (IANS) Oscar-winning British actor-filmmaker Ben Kingsley is all praise for Indian women directors Nandita Das and Leena Yadav. But he now wants to make his own film in India instead of doing more Bollywood movies.

“I’d like to make a film of my own in India, (but) you are not going to see me in a mainstream Bollywood film,” Kingsley, 66, who stars as a mathematical genius in Yadav’s “Teen Patti”, told IANS over phone from London.

“I do intend to hopefully produce and star in my own film in India. We are having some progress on that. Rather than creating offers, I am creating my own work in India which to me is very satisfying,” he added.

Drawing a similarity between director Yadav and Lord Attenborough whose film “Gandhi” was based in India and fetched Kingsley an Oscar, he said: “All good directors have one particular quality in common.

“Both Yadav and Attenborough have a deep respect and obsession for actors. This is where they are not different. They are remarkably similar. I think their manner on the set is excellent.”

Kingsley has teamed up with Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in “Teen Patti” that tells the story of two genius mathematicians who apply the formula of probability on the card tables. However, he regrets he couldn’t shoot in India.

“I was hoping that my scenes might be in India, but all my scenes were in the UK. (But) It did give me an opportunity to work with the best in Indian cinema and to see the rhythm of work… It was a kind of delightful experiment in perhaps re-entering the Indian subcontinent after being away for too long.”

In real life, the Hollywood veteran is not so good at cards.

“I am always asking people to remind me of the rule. I always pick up a card in my hand and say, ‘what does that mean?’ So I completely give the game away.

“I do recall that as a child at school, learning my multiplication tables that I did the fastest in the class which got me prizes at school for being a little boy extremely quick at mathematics.”

“Mathematical patterns in life and science do fascinate me, but I haven’t kept company of mathematicians, but it is something that I find attractive.”

He says he loves working with women directors.

“I find a female director does things in a way, which is an exception. Now you have another great Indian film director – Nandita Das. That’s another female director. I like female directors. They have a different picture of life and they use the camera in a different way. They tell stories in a different way.”

He worked with Spanish director Isabel Coixet in “Elegy” and Kari Skogland for “Fifty Dead Men Walking”.

“I’m looking forward to working with more. I’d like to work with her (Nandita Das) as an actor and also as a director.”

About Indian films, he said: “You have very distinct styles of cinema. You have your popular Bollywood movies which are loved by the massive Indian diaspora. When I was travelling recently in London, my driver was Indian. I asked him if he had seen ‘Brick Lane’, ‘After The Rain’, ‘The Namesake’, ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. He said we don’t watch these films when we sit down together and as a family… what we can watch together are the Bollywood films.

“So your filmmaking is perceived in different ways in the Western world. One is for the Indian diaspora, which we call mainstream Bollywood. Then there are other new films that are coming out of India. They have great popularity among Western audiences.

“Among the Western audience I would say ‘Brick Lane’ is popular and I would say ‘The Namesake’ by Mira Nair is popular. Mira Nair has an interesting following in the world,” he said.

London, Feb 26 (IANS) Singer Rihanna’s rumoured boyfriend Matt Kemp has spoken out about his new-found fame since he was linked to the singer, insisting he finds his celebrity status “overwhelming”.

“It was a little overwhelming. I don’t consider myself a model. I guess you get used to it (fame),” femalefirst.co.uk quoted him as saying.

The baseball player, who has been offered a string of modelling offers since he was linked to Rihanna, admits he is baffled about his newly-raised profile.

London, Feb 26 (ANI): Socialite Paris Hilton’s beer commercial has been deemed too hot for television by Brazil’s Secretariat for Women’s Affairs.

The ad shows Hilton, 29, in a short black dress preening and rubbing a can of Devassa beer on herself, to the delight of onlookers watching through her window.

Even though the ad may not initially appear very explicit, Brazil’s regulations say beer commercials cannot treat women as overtly sensual objects.

“It’s an ad that devalues women – in particular, blonde women,” the Telegraph quoted a spokeswoman for the Women’s Secretariat who said it had received numerous complaints.

Eduardo Correia, a spokesman for the regulator Conar, which has opened three separate investigations into the campaign, said many Brazilian beer ads feature women in bikinis – but a key difference is that those are set on the beach.

“The problem with the ad isn’t a lack of clothing, but its sensual nature,” Correia said.

“A woman in a bikini on a beach isn’t necessarily sensual; it depends on the context,” he added.

Conar is a private agency that cannot legally force a company to remove an advert.

But Correia said that in 23 years of existence, Conar has conducted more than 7,000 investigations and not one of its recommendations has been ignored.

Grupo Schincariol makes Devassa, which can also be translated as “naughty”, and Devassa’s “Bem Loura” beer, meaning “Very Blond”, also features an Internet campaign with Hilton wearing lingerie and high heels. (ANI)

London, Feb 25 (IANS) Pop star Lady Gaga is teaming up with Italian designer Giorgio Armani for her “Monster Ball” world tour.

The designer has created bespoke costumes for the concerts, which will stay true to the “Poker Face” singer’s eccentric style, reports contactmusic.com.

“We hear Lady Gaga’s music everywhere we go, it is like a soundtrack of our times. In addition to her formidable songwriting skills, she is a modern fashion phenomenon,” said the designer’s fashion house, in a statement.

One of the outfits is a hooded one-piece with a lobster-like effect on one sleeve while another is a blue body suit with pointed shoulders.

Gaga recently also revealed she felt “honoured” when Armani agreed to dress her for the Grammy Awards.

They created custom pieces for her to wear on the red carpet and during her performance at last month’s ceremony, including a lilac and silver space age, solar system-inspired stiff-skirted gown.