Netflix on Tuesday confirmed the streaming giant will continue its association with Vikramaditya Motwane, Anurag Kashyap and writer Varun Grover for the second season of “Sacred Games”.
The streaming giant in a statement, said they carried out an independent investigation and are satisfied with the results.
Kashyap and Motwane, who co-directed the hit series, have been under fire for their alleged inaction in the sexual harassment allegations against former Phantom Films partner Vikas Bahl by an employee, a charge they both have denied.
The production house was dissolved last month after allegations resurfaced against Bahl in the wake of #MeToo movement in India. The case dates back to an incident that took place in Goa in 2015.
Whereas, Grover was anonymously accused of sexual harassment, a claim he has categorically denied. In multiple statements, he has said that while he supports the movement, he wants to clear his name for his mental health. There has been no response from the anonymous account after he asked for closure.
“After an independent investigation, the results helped inform Netflix’s decision to continue with Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap on season 2 of Sacred Games,” Netflix said.
“Netflix will continue to work with Varun Grover on season 2 of Sacred Games,” it further said.
The company said it will collaborate with its production partners “to ensure and maintain a safe and respectful working environment”.
Actor Ajaz Khan has been granted two-day police custody after he was presented in a Mumbai court by the Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) for possessing a banned narcotic substance.
The former Big Boss contestant was arrested by the Mumbai police’s ANC on Monday night in possession of eight tablets of ecstasy.
In 2016, he was arrested and released on bail on charges of sending obscene pictures and lewd messages to a beautician who had offered him a business project proposal.
Khan participated in the seventh season of Bigg Boss. Later, he also appeared on Comedy Nights Bachao, Box Cricket League and Comedy Nights with Kapil. He has also worked in big budget regional films like Rakht Charutra, Dookudu and Temper. It was his stint at Bigg Boss 7 that made him a known face among the TV audiences.
He was last seen in director Puri Jaganaadh’s Telugu film Rogue in 2017.
Actor Kalki Koechlin says #MeToo movement could lead to “collateral damage” but it is an absolute necessity to sanitise working spaces.
The #MeToo movement has rocked the film industry with several names such as Nana Patekar, Alok Nath, Sajid Khan, Vikas Bahl and Mukesh Chabbra, among others being called out for their behaviour and alleged sexual harassment of their female colleagues.
“A lot of people are collateral damage. One of my films is not in MAMI while another project is on hold. These are the things we have to accept… But it’s a necessary thing right now. Things need to be fine tuned and changed and if it makes us more sensitive then it’s good,” Kalki told agencies.
The actor’s close friends and associate — Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap — have been accused of inaction; an allegation which they strictly deny, when an employee of their now dissolved production house Phantom Films spoke about sexual harassment by Bahl.
Kalki said the the current mood of the film industry is of introspection with the aim to create a safer place for women to work.
“All of us are introspecting. The result is only going to be a cleaner, safer environment at work. It’s a time to introspect and think how can we implement those things. I’m doing a play and my director sent me a contract on sexual harassment.
“So developments like these are good. It means we will be sensitised, how to behave, if we are feeling uncomfortable, we would know who to complain to, what to do and all of that. It’s a productive time in terms of the change,” she added.
Kalki will next be seen on Eros Now’s web series “Smoke”.
The crime-thriller premiered at MIPCOM, Cannes under the ‘Made in India’ category. The 11-episode series will stream from October 26.
Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s niece, Karuna Shukla, will be contesting from the Congress party against incumbent Chief Minister Raman Singh from Rajnandgaon assembly constituency which goes to polls on November 12.
Clarifying her stance on leaving the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shukla said: “Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani had established the BJP. However, the party has lost its ideologies and culture. Keeping these things in mind, I left the BJP after being associated with the party for 32 years.”
She further attacked the Raman Singh-led Chhattisgarh government, alleging that the Chief Minister has not done anything for the welfare of the people of Rajnandgaon despite being a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from there.
“Dr Raman Singh has served as Chhattisgarh Chief Minister for 15 years and as the MLA of Rajnandgaon for last 10 years. However, he has not done anything for the betterment of people. So, the Congress president has sent me to fight for the people of Rajnandgaon.”
On Monday, the Congress announced a list of six more candidates including Karuna Shukla, for the first phase of the state polls. The party had announced a list of 12 candidates on October 18.
The state assembly elections are scheduled to be held in two phases, November 12 and 20. The results will be announced on December 11.
Comedian and actor Rosie O’Donnell has confirmed her engagement to girlfriend Elizabeth Rooney.
However, Rosie, 56 – who went public with her relationship with the 33-year-old in November 2017 – said they have not decided any wedding date. “This is a long time in the future. We both decided that that would be best,” O’Donnell had said in an interview with a magazine.
Talking about the 23-year age gap between the two, Rosie said “Elizabeth doesn’t seem to care.”
“I keep telling her I’m too old for her. But she doesn’t seem to care,” the former ‘View’ co-host joked. “She’s like, ‘I was in the Army! I put my life on the line every day you think I don’t know who I want to date?’ I’m like, ‘Alright I guess that’s true.’ She has a lot of good points.”
Rosie was earlier married to Michelle Rounds, who died in September 2017 of suicide. The pair, who shared a five-year-old daughter Dakota, divorced in 2015. O’Donnell also shares four children with ex-wife Kelli Carpenter-O’Donnell.
Dutch DJ Martin Garrix has won the top spot in DJ Mag’s “Top 100 DJs”, for third year in a row.
The 22-year-old producer is the third artiste to top the list thrice, behind fellow Dutchmen Armin van Buuren and Tiesto.
Garrix was the youngest DJ to nab number one slot in 2016 and retained the title in 2017.
Garrix was awarded the trophy by DJ Mag managing director Martin Carvell on stage at the Amsterdam Arena, which took place during the Amsterdam Dance Event.
The DJ first came in limelight in 2013, courtesy his EDM track “Animals”, and went on to work with EDM artistes like Afrojack and David Guetta, as well as mainstream pop stars Usher for 2015’s “Don’t Look Down” and Bebe Rexha for “In the Name of Love” in 2016.
American actor Julia Roberts, known as the queen of rom-coms, feels that she has had too much life experience to convincingly star in a rom-com now.
While promoting her upcoming drama thriller series ‘Homecoming,’ she said that unless she gets the role of a parent, there is no “rom-com-ing.”
The 50-year-old said, “There came a point in my career where people thought I had turned on romantic comedies, which I love them, I love to be in them, I love to watch them,” Roberts explained. “But sometimes, they just don’t work at a certain point of life experience,” a leading daily quoted her statement.
In her upcoming drama series, Roberts will play the role of Heidi — a former caseworker at a government facility that helped soldiers transition back into the world as a civilian, who has now left her life behind and is haunted by paranoia, conspiracies, and memories she didn’t know existed.
Roberts built her career starring in some of the most enduring romantic comedies of the modern film era like ‘Pretty Woman,’ ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’ and ‘Notting Hill.
Kim Kardashian thinks that marrying Kanye West has affected her independence.
The American television star featured on ‘The Alec Baldwin Show’ on Sunday. Opening up about her relationship with West, Kim said, “I think being with a man like Kanye, you have to learn how to be a little bit not-so-independent.”
“I’ve always been so independent and working, and (had a) schedule, and when you get married and have a husband that has their career and then have kids, your independence, you have to let it go,” the Keeping Up with the Kardashians reality star added.
The Hollywood couple tied the knot in May 2014. Kim and Kanye share three children, namely, daughters North (5), and Chicago (8 months), as well as son Saint, who will be turning 3 on December 5.
1) Make pro-active disclosure by Pvt bodies compulsory
Central government through DoPT should issue an order to cover all Public-Private-Partnerships PPPs, sports-bodies, cooperative-societies and other such bodies affecting lives of millions to be directly under RTI Act to avoid usual ex-party stay-orders by courts on CIC-verdicts obtained after much effort. Several division-benches of the Supreme Court have repeatedly endorsed the bitter fact of ex-party stay-orders followed by regular adjournments to be a lacuna of our justice-delivery-system.
The RTI Act can also be considered to be applied to private companies having turn-overs over some stipulated amount especially for those related to consumer products or services. For rest, others provision of pro-active disclosures of certain basic information may be made compulsory on websites.
Even the Central Chief Information Commission in a media-interview indicated that the Central Information Commission is deliberating on a mechanism for pro-active disclosures by private entities involved in public-work. The statement came after it was noted in a CIC-verdict that even though four million candidates appear every year for examinations conducted by Institute of Banking Personnel Selection IBPS, it is not a public authority under the RTI Act.
Many aspects of day-to-day life like banking and telecommunications are presently dominated by the private sector with a lot of malpractices to mint money. Even cooperative-giant IFFCO gifting properties worth hundreds of crores to its office-bearers out of profits minted through annual fertiliser-subsidies worth tens of thousands of crores is not a public authority under the RTI Act.
– Madhu Agrawal
2) Better but not ideal
Data released by the Income Tax Department showing an appreciable rise in a number of tax-payers and those in slabs above Rs 1 crore per annum may be better than earlier years, but is not at all realistic with just 81344 individuals in a country of more than 135 crores. Data like in earlier years reveals that maximum Income Tax and Tax-Deducted-At-Source TDS comes from salaries class that too with a large share from government-employees. It is also noteworthy that more than half of Income Tax collected comes from two states. Best is to replace Income Tax by Expenditure Tax so that tax may come from expenses made from both white and black money.
The Income Tax Department should study models of tax-system from countries with highest honesty-index like New Zealand, Denmark, and advanced countries like the US where tax-returns are voluntarily filed in a realistic manner. New-to-be introduced the Income Tax Act to replace half-century old Act of 1961 should incorporate features so that people may pay Income Tax cheerfully and voluntarily rather than under panic of tax-authorities. India should be turned gradually in a cashless country targeting bigger transactions rather than ordinary people.
Maximum cash-withdrawal limit from banks for an individual should be fixed at Rs 96,000 per month to be gradually reduced to Rs 48,000 per month. All expenses above Rs 1,000 may be compulsorily made through banks. All payments including part-payments above Rs 20,000 towards sale-purchase may be made compulsorily through banks. All purchases of long-lasting items in costlier versions like even TV sets, refrigerators, cars may require PAN-card, and be reported to Income-tax Department to match luxury expenses with disclosed income.
GST system should be drastically overhauled so that GST-bills not demanded by the customers may not be sold to avail Input-Tax-Credit ITC. For this GST rates should be 10 and 30 per cent abolishing even zero per cent slab with ITC-system applicable only for trade-purposes, abolishing it from service and manufacturing sectors and service-sector coming under 10 per cent GST-slab. For commodities attracting cess, additional GST-slabs in multiples of 100-percent may be there. All traders in GST-network may be compulsorily equipped with card-swapping machines and required to give an invoice without being asked for by customers.
– Subhash Chandra Agrawal
3) Harassment needs strict law
Every woman in our country has faced harassment in her life at one time or the other. Hence, it’s time that the government brought laws clearly defining the boundaries of what is permissible and what is not. Shaming others to gain fame and publicity should be discouraged. When courts are there, using the media to settle scores should be discouraged. Time to move on is important. As the Winston Churchill saying goes, “You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks.”
Just because Bollywood film actor Nana Patekar is doing social work, the police cannot arrest him on molestation charges on Tanushree Dutta, a film actress. Tell me, what social work is he doing? Ask him to do the social work Mother Teresa was doing taking care of lepers. Every person in this work has a dark side too. One should not go on appearances. Today, women are not at all safe in our country. Money also plays an important part. If you have the money, you will not be arrested if you bribe the police.
– Jubel D’Cruz
4) Religion Traders
Yes, now the election campaign has started in a real sense — without the Ram Temple issue, the election campaign is incomplete. On one hand, standoffish BJP ally Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, hoping to make a splash at its rally and to ratchet up pressure on the Modi government, accused the Centre of exploiting the Ram Temple issue for political purposes and forgetting its promise to build the Temple. On the other hand, by demanding an ordinance and legislation for construction of the Ram Temple, the paradoxical RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat did a preemptive strike on Shiv Sena. Why till today Shiv Sena and RSS were mum on this matter? The Elections are coming near, so they recognise Shri Ram? Why does RSS talk about politics while they claim to be a social-cultural organisation? Why are they enchanting Ram Mandir issue while the case is in court? It is really ironical that despite twirling and swiveling this issue over and over again, they still think they can coalesce people on this vexed issue. People should understand that these so-called Hindus are not Religion Protectors but Religion Traders. I would rather suggest them to ask the government about unemployment, which is at its peak; they should also question that why our economy is derailing day by day if they are really concerned about the Hindus and the Hindu religion.
– Q Qasmi
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
We face a number of problems ahead in the making of a smart city. Both Navi Mumbai and Mumbai have all the credentials to become one. In India, many major cities have the best chance to become a smart city if they are able to complete the yardsticks to make one with concerted efforts. There is no clear indication of the target or the completion dates for different projects either in the report or in the illustrated project details extensively publicised in the newspapers. It is known, however, that the Smart City Project has a five-year time frame ending 2022.
The Smart City Project has many interesting features, which include parks and wastewater management systems, pedestrian plaza, smoking zone, cycle sharing system, footpath development, restoration of 56 water bodies, bicycle lanes, multi-level car parking, smart classrooms, conversion of SVL (sodium lamps) to LED (light emitting diodes) lights, parking management, pedestrianized streets and solid waste management. The investment is estimated over Rs 1,000 crores through Centre-State partnership and raising funds from other sources including international multilateral funding agencies. It is time to raise balance amount through other state agencies to make up the leeway in funds management.
The city needs a major revamping of the sewerage and stormwater drain systems besides infrastructure for the collection, treatment, recycling and disposal of solid wastes and de-congestion and pedestrianisation of the hundreds of km of city roads. It is a herculean task to cut short the potholes and craters on the highways, freeways, flyovers, and main roads. All this cannot be accomplished with available funds. Therefore, the Smart City by itself is not and cannot be about making Shanghai out of Mumbai in five years.
The smart city project would smarten the selected cities. This clarification of its scope is not to diminish the project’s importance. Many component projects confine the smartening to one sub-project segment or geographical area but serve as models for easy replication at other locations without having to re-invent the wheel.
The term smart is meant to convey that smart cities are made capable of collecting and analysing vast quantities of data to automate monitoring resource usages, improving service quality, and make real-time decisions on many aspects of the city management. The purpose of the project is served by the inclusion of an integrated command control centre that can monitor traffic signals, city surveillance and manage the smart transport system. This is indeed an important facility of immense value.
The expectation from a smart project is different for each city according to its prevailing level of civic development. The installation of information technology constitutes one part, but for most Indian cities, smartness implies the basic modernisation.
There are a lot of expectations from the Smart Cities concept coming to India. Many of the proposed smart cities in India lacks basic infrastructure and the decision to include them is defeated with the drawbacks particularly like the lack of drinking water and other amenities. With increasing urbanisation and the load on the rural land, the government has now realised the need for cities that can cope with the challenges of urban living and also be magnets for investment. The announcement of ‘100 smart cities’ falls in line with this vision.
A ‘smart city’ is an urban region that is highly advanced in terms of overall infrastructure, sustainable real estate, communications, and market viability. It is a city where information technology is the principal infrastructure and the basis for providing essential services to residents. There are many technological platforms involved, including but not limited to automated sensor networks and data centres. Though this may sound futuristic, it is now likely to become a reality as the ‘smart cities’ movement unfolds in India.
(This is the first part of the Diary and the latter part will continue tomorrow.)
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
