The elections to the state legislative council are being held today. What has surprised the observers is that large scale distribution of money, gifts and liquor to woo the voters.
Even in the graduates’ constituency, the voters are being wooed by contestants with cell phones, liquor, silk saris and money. In some cases, the candidates are reportedly paying up to Rs. 4,000 for a single vote.
The sale of liquor has also gone up considerably over the last few days. The contestants have lifted stock in huge quantities and stored it at secret locations for distribution amongst voters.
2007/11/14 0:27:25 The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited has launched a new service ‘minimobi.tv’ for the people of Andhra Pradesh. The new service offers TV on demand on your cell phones. The service is being offered on GSM phones and a total of 13 channels will be provided for viewing.
BSNL will charge 150 rupees per month for the service. NDTV, Aaj Tak, ETV, TV9, MAA TV, Cartoon Network etc. Customers also have the option of watching one channel for 24 hours by paying just 10 rupees. The services can be availed by simply sending an SMS to ‘MYTV’ to 55447 to download minimobi.tv.
2011/6/1 3:00:20 Veteran actress Silk Smitha, who once ruled the silver screens with her sex appeal, has commits suicide long back. But, her death still remains a mystery. While some agrees that she died by falling from the roof of an apartment some others argue that she commits suicide due to problems in her life. However, her life story inspires Bollywood producer Ektha Kapoor who is now making a film in Hindi ‘The dirty picture.’
Bollywood hot beauty Vidya Balan is enacting Silk Smitha’s character in this movie. Despite knowing that, the story has some adults scenes Vidya Balan has signed the film. Naseerudhin Shaw, lip-locks specialist Imran Hasmi and some others have played important roles in this movie. Director Milan Ludria is taking every precaution to avert leaking of hot scenes from the location. Hence, he has banned cell phones with cameras in the location. However, he has released this hot still of Vidya Balan to please the media and audiences.
Krishna Vamsi has shown a lot of humor in his new film Chandamama. He has made the heroes to do a lot of comedy and it has come out very well.
In a take off on the present craze of people to speak on their cell phones all the time, he shows a character speaking on the phone all the time in the movie. The character is shown speaking on phone wherever he is, right from the beginning to the end.
It may have missed many, but Krishna Vamsi definitely wanted to convey his displeasure on the bad habit of people talking on their cell phones all the time, with least concern for the people around them.
2011/9/4 10:26:18 The East Zone team of Commissioner's Task Force on Sunday busted a racket involved in betting on India-England one day series matches.
According to police, the police generated actionable information after making sustained efforts and conducted raid and apprehended one cricket betting organizer by name Anil Kumar Agarwal, who was running cricket betting racket. He was accepting cricket betting amount directly and indirectly over cell phones from his house at Jambagh. Police also seized net cash of Rs 43,000, one television set, six cell phones and other incriminating materials from his possession.
Police say that Anil Kumar, a collection agent in Sree Lakshmi Chit Fund located at Koti, was facing financial problems and started cricket betting racket to earn easy money. He collected contact numbers of some known and unknown punters and contacted them over their cell phone in Hyderabad and running cricket betting in an organized manner. The arrested accused along with seized material was handed over to Afzalgunj Police Station for taking further action. (INN)
Bollywood's hottest couple Abhishek Bachchan-Aishwarya Rai refused to represent LG as brand ambassadors for all their products across-the-board.
The company had made them an eye-popping offer.
Reason? He didn't want to be even remotely unfaithful to another cell-phone manufacturing company.
A source close to the Bachchans said: "LG was very keen to have Abhishek and Aishwarya to endorse their entire range of products across the line. It was a tempting and lucrative offer.
"LG's range of products included cell-phones and Abhishek is already endorsing Motorala cell phones. So he had to decline the offer. But he has received a letter from the company saying they would love to have him and his wife as brand ambassadors any time they so wish."
The Abhishek-Aishwarya pair won't be seen in any advertisement at the moment, but they are coming together in Mani Ratnam's next venture that goes to the floor as soon as Abhishek returns from Miami after filming Karan Johar's home production, 'Dostana'.
The film is being directed by Tarun Mansukhani and also stars Priyanka Chopra and John Abraham.
At the moment Abhishek is working 20 hours a day to wrap up Rakeysh Mehra's "Delhi 6", which completed a two-month schedule in Jaipur and is now being shot in Mumbai.
2011/12/3 16:00:00 The City Police on Saturday arrested two persons for allegedly accepting cricket betting.
On a tip off, the Shahinayatgunj police raided a house in Chudi Bazar and arrested Venu Gopal Sharma and Anil Kumar Kabra. According to police, the accused were found organising and accepting cricket betting.
Besides net cash of Rs 59,500, police seized three laptops, 30 cell phones, three landline phones, three walkman tape recorder, two calculators, two keyboards, one recording system cell phone kit, on television set, one printer, and other items.
Police investigation revealed that the accused Venu Gopal Sharma took a pent house on the fourth floor of a house at Chudi Bazaar and used the same to run his betting racket. He also employed Anil Kumar Kabra and Sunny Kumar. He was accepting bets for the ongoing one day series of India-West Indies over phone.
The case was investigated by Shahinayatgunj police sub-inspector K Srinivasulu under the supervision of Inspector G Guru Raghavendra. (INN)
A mobile phone suddenly burst into flames with a loud band. The mobile was kept for charging and suddenly is exploded. Similar incidents were reported from several places in Andhra Pradesh. The latest incident is from Tirupathi.
A cell phone that was kept for charging exploded with a big bang. All the cell phones are of Nokia make. The company is investigating and has recalled the batteries of a particular series but now it has come to light that batteries from other series are also exploding all of a sudden.
Telangana, YSR Cong flags fly high in by-elections
2012/3/21 2:59:50 The Telangana Rashtra Samithi won four out of seven seats in the recently held by-elections who results were announced on Wednesday.
The TRS candidates emerged victorious from Kollapur, Station Ghanpur, Kamareddy and Adilabbad. However, the TRS lost the Mahbubnagar seat to BJP by a margin of over 1,800 votes. Former minister Nagam Janardhan Reddy, who resigned from the TDP and post for the Telangana cause, won the Nagar Kurnool seat with a thumping majority. As expected, the YSR Congress party won the Kovvur seat with a huge margin.
In Kovvur of Nellore district, N Prasanna Kumar Reddy secured 73, 867 votes while his nearest rival N Chandramohan Reddy of TDP got 50,380 votes. The Congress party stood third with 41,343 votes. The victory margin was 23,496 votes.
The Mahbubnagar seat went to BJP with its candidate Y Srinivas Reddy securing 39,272 votes against his nearest rival S Ibrahim of TRS who got 37,377 votes. Congress candidate M Prakash got 27,308 votes while TDP candidate got 17,506 votes. The margin has been 1897 votes.
Former minister Nagam Janardhan Reddy won the Nagarkurnool seat as an independent candidate with a majority of 27,327 votes. He secured 71,001 votes while Congress candidate Damodar Reddy got 43,676 votes and M Janardhan Reddy of TDP got 18,608 votes.
The TRS candidates won remaining four seats with a huge majority. In Kollapur, TRS candidate and former minister Jupalli Krishna Rao got 58,107 votes to win the seat with a margin of 15,024 votes. The other candidates - P Vishnuvardhan Reddy of Congress got 43,083 votes and Chandrasekhar Rao of TDP got 35,287 votes.
In Station Ghanpur, TRS candidate T Rajaiah secured 81,279 votes against his nearest rival Kadiam Srihari who got 48,641 votes. R Pratap of Congress got 28,965 votes. The victory margin has been 32,638 votes.
TRS candidate Jogu Ramanna of TRS won the Adilabad seat with a margin of 31,396 votes. While Ramanna got 59,452 votes, Ramchandra Reddy of Congress got 28,056 and P Shankar of TDP secured 21,249.
Gampa Goverdhan of TRS won from the Kamareddy seat with a whopping majority of 44,465 votes. He got 75,699 votes while Congress candidate P Rajireddy got 31,234 votes and M Venugopal of TDP got 17,839 votes. (INN)
2008/6/1 0:26:19 The TRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao won the Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat by a slender margin of a little over 15,000 votes. The congress candidate T Jeeva Reddy gave him a tough fight and literally scared KCR by leading over him in the first six rounds of counting.
KCR may have retained the seat but the margin of victory has come down drastically. He won the seat once by over two lakh votes and by over one lakh votes respectively. The low margin of victory should come as an eye opener for KCR and it is now time for introspection for the poor show.
2008/6/2 1:53:26 The fledgling Lok Satta party of Jayaparkash Narayan may not have won any seats but it has put up a decent show. The party’s candidate in Khairatabad polled a creditable 58,407 votes.
The TRs was relegated to the third position. The party managed to polls just 54,134 votes despite the fact that it fielded a minority candidate and the constituency has a very high percentage o minority votes. Vishnuvardhan Reddy, son of P Janardhan Reddy won the seat with a record margin of 1,96,269 votes riding largely on the sympathy wave following th3 sudden death of his father PJR.
It is well known that Vidya Balan is playing the role of Silk Smitha in a movie titled ‘The Dirty Picture’.
Director Vinu Chakravarthy who discovered Silk Smith and introduced her toe films and established her as a hot actress says that Vidya Bala is not the right person to play the role.
Vinu says that Vidya is unfit for the role. He said that someone like Aishwarya Rai or Deepika Padukone would suit the role better.
2012/2/3 12:02:39 YSR Congress Party has appointed minority cell conveners of six districts. The names were announced by the Party State Minority Cell in-charge at a press conference here on Friday.
KSSB Noor Baba was nominated Minority Cell convner of Ananthapur, while SA Karimulla (Kadapa), SMD Safiq (Kadapa city), S Noorulla (Tirupati), Sayyed Gousuddin Muqtar (Nizamabad) and Mohamad Farooq Ali (Medak).
Names of the other districts would be announced shortly, he said. (INN)
South's siren of yesteryears, Vijayalakshmi aka Silk Smitha, is back to set the silver screen on fire again. 'Thangathamarai' (Golden Lotus), her last movie in Tamil is all set for a gala release later this month, 11 years after she committed suicide.
The film had completed shooting in 1995, but financial problems prevented its release. A year later in 1996, she killed herself by hanging after losing money trying her hand at production.
Silk, whose real name was Vijayalakshmi, was born in Eluru in Andhra Pradesh. Burdened by poverty, she left home and landed with her aunt in the then Madras, the hub of south Indian cinema. Vijayalakshmi then assumed the name Smitha. She got her first major break in 1979 in Vandichakram' (wheel).
The film brought her not just critical acclaim, but a new title Silk after the name of the character she portrayed in the movie. That was the birth of Silk Smitha, south's first original sex siren. The item girl continued her dominance throughout the 1980s and acted in close to 200 films in Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada and Hindi languages.
"Those were the times when an item number from Silk was a must recipe for box office success," remembers an industry source. Another notable performance of the star was in the Tamil film Moondram Pirai, remade in Hindi as Sadma starring Kamal Haasan. The story, screenplay and direction of the new film Thangathamarai is by Tirupati Rajan, who introduced Silk to the cine world.
2008/6/2 1:50:50 The by poll results show that the TRS bagged 7 assembly and two parliament seats. The congress bagged 6 assembly and one Lok Sabha seat. The TDP bagged five assembly and one Lok Sabha seat.
But the real picture is totally different. A total of 45,44,272 votes were polled in the by polls. The congress party stood first by poling 15,45,056 votes. The TRS stood second with 14,25,035 votes and the TDP stood third with 12,92,961 votes.
If this is broken down in terms of leads in the 40 assembly constitutes, then the congress is clearly ahead in 18, the TRS in 14 and the TDP in 8.
2007/11/19 4:04:19 Silk Smitha is a well-known name in the eighties and nineties. The younger generation of today may not relate to her but she regaled a generation of fans with her sexy looks and hot item numbers.
What Mumaith Khan is doing today, Silk Smitha did it long time back. Her song ‘Baavalu Sayya’ is still fresh in the minds of movie enthusiasts and Smitha fans in particular.
A Tamil film with Smitha in the lead is now being released. She acted in the movie just before her death by suicide. The film titled Thanga Thamari (Golden Lotus) will be released shortly. A dubbed version will also hit the screen in Telugu.
2011/12/20 8:50:01 Shimla, Dec 20 (IANS) Reduction in import duty on raw silk has severely hit the domestic industry, impacting the livelihood of over 9,000 farmers engaged in sericulture in Himachal Pradesh, a government official said here Tuesday.
The silk prices have not fallen due to fluctuations in the international market. However, in the central government 2011-12 budget, the import duty on raw silk was reduced to 5.15 percent from 30 percent, thereby adversely impacting the prices of silk cocoons during the autumn crop this year, an industries department spokesperson told IANS.
More than 9,000 farmers are directly involved in cocoon cultivation in the state, mainly in lower hills of Bilaspur, Mandi, Kangra, Una, Hamirpur and Sirmaur districts.
He said the silk cultivation was also not encouraging as the Central Silk Board has not offered any participatory proposal to provide the minimum support price (MSP) to cocoon producers.
'At present, there is no proposal to give MSP to the silk cocoon producers in the state,' Industries Minister Kishan Kapoor told IANS.
The other states involved in sericulture are Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
Congress legislator Rajesh Dharmani, who belongs to Ghumarwin assembly constituency in Bilaspur district, a hub of cocoon cultivation, said the central government was ready to provide MSP to silk farmers but state governments, expect Karnataka, refused to accept the centre's proposal.
The central government has proposed to share the MSP on 80:20 percent basis with the states.
He said silk farmers in the state are distressed due to want of suitable price for their produce. 'The state is facing tough competition from China, which is marketing raw silk at much lower rates in the Indian market,' Dharmani added.
Can Vidya's kanjeevaram look revive hand-woven saris?
2012/2/16 1:27:17
New Delhi, Feb 16 (IANS) The charm of handspun saris like the benarasi, kanjeevaram and chanderi has almost faded, but designers like Sabyasachi Mukherjee and Ritu Kumar feel that actresses - Vidya Balan in particular - can play a key role in reviving the traditional Indian six-yard wonder.
While most B-town actresses step out in gowns, designer dresses and even saris made of net, georgette and chiffon, Vidya flaunts ethnic weaves and fabrics, helping her stand out.
"I think there are just a few actresses who are trying kanjeevaram saris and the list includes Vidya Balan, Rekha and some veterans. I want young girls to understand that dignity makes them better stars rather than exposing their body," Mukherjee, whose creations are dominated by ethnic Indian weaves, told IANS.
He feels Vidya's newfound fame can single-handedly bring hand-woven saris back in vogue.
"I feel proud that Vidya chooses my creations for most of her events. Keeping her success rate in mind, I'm sure she will bring back the hand-woven sari era. For me, Western wear is not a sustainable market as it lacks mass appeal because most Indian girls are voluminous. Western clothes are good for a multiplex audience, not for a simple Indian girl. It's time to make pan-India clothes," he said.
He is right as the leading ladies of Indian cinema play a major role in starting a trend. Rani Mukerji's colourful kurtis and pyjamas in "Bunty Aur Babli" or Kareena Kapoor's t-shirt and patiala salwar in "Jab We met" were instantly copied by the masses.
Now Vidya is creating a stir with her traditional sari look.
Designer Ritu Kumar, known for promoting hand-woven fabrics, feels that synthetics today dominate the fashion world.
Just like Mukherjee, she too feels that with the help of Bollywood, things can change.
"Nowadays synthetics have became an important part in every woman's wardrobe and the kanjeevaram is sidelined. I hope with Vidya Balan reviving hand-woven and khadi textiles, a new trend will emerge in the form of kanjeevaram and silk saris. The Indian figure looks best in traditional Indian saris and it's very important for girls to realise that," she said.
It is felt that the influence of Western markets is so strong that girls prefer stepping out in the Little Black Dress (LBD), free-flowing gowns and maxi dresses. Some try Indian wear, but the choice of fabric is restricted to net, georgette and chiffon.
As the demand for traditional saris has declined, many weavers in India have been forced to change their profession or are living in penury. Kumar feels awareness should be created about dressing up in hand-spun saris.
"Be it silk or cotton, as long as it is woven, it's classic. These saris are simple, time-tested and increasingly rare, and this makes it more special. People are not aware of the options in hand-woven textiles that have the potential to look as glamorous as Western wear. They can be plain, zardozi, gota patti, phulkari, bandhni or leheriya."
"I think chanderi, silk, benarasi and kanjeevaram need attention in today's time," she said.
During the making of "3 Idiots", Aamir Khan gifted a chanderi sari to Kareena Kapoor, which was made by handloom workers of Chanderi village in Madhya Pradesh. According to Kareena, Aamir wanted her to have the sari because she is a style icon and she should promote the work of these handloom industries.
"During the promotion of '3 Idiots', Kareena chose to wear a chanderi black sari. The whole idea was to create awareness about that dying fabric. I believe that even a small contribution by these ladies can make a huge difference in uplifting such skills as people follow them," said designer Samant Chauhan.
Kanjeevaram and chanderis also grabbed the attention of Hollywood personalities like Noami Campbell and Oprah Winfrey who wore it during their respective visits to India.
"Bollywood divas are followed by commoners in every walk of life and if they can imitate the Western line, why not an Indian line? I still remember the day when Hollywood supermodel Noami Campbell walked for one of my shows in Mumbai; she deliberately wanted to wear a black chanderi sari and she did that gracefully. So, yes, a small effort can add value to people's mindset," concluded designer Madhu Jain.
Mumbai, April 20. (PTI): Actor Aishwarya Rai arrived with her mother Brinda at the Bachchan residence 'Prateeksha' here at 2:10 pm today for her marriage with Abhishek Bachchan.
She came in a grey Mercedes car decorated with roses and white flowers. The car pulled right into 'Prateeksha' and a posse of security guards surrounded the vehicle, so that the waiting media could not get a glimpse of the bride.
Orissa's 'Pata' saris for Aishwarya :
Sonepur (Orissa), April 20. (PTI): The wedding of film stars Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai in Mumbai today has an Orissa connection -- three saris for the bride were designed and woven at Sonepur, one of the places where the state's magnificent 'Pata' saris are made. They were woven by master craftsman Chaturbhuja Meher, who was honoured with a Padmashri award in 2005.
"We have supplied such saris in the past to the Bachchans. Jaya Bachchan purchased few of them in the past," Meher told PTI. "I often hold exhibitions in Mumbai where film stars are invited," Meher said, adding he had established contacts with the Bachchan family through such events. Meher said, he contacted the family after learning of the wedding and orders for the saris were placed by Bachchans.
Aishwarya is supposed to wear a maroon bridal Sonepuri sari, locally known as 'Radhakunja', that had taken three months to weave, he said. The saris were delivered to 'Prateeksha', Amitabh Bachchan's residence in Mumbai, he said.
Shooting for Naan Kadavul, the film directed by Bala with Arya in the lead is in the cans for a very long time and is slowly getting chiseled up. This film had required Arya to have long locks and beard which have assumed an unkempt appearance now as they have not witnessed a scissors for a very long time. Reliable sources reveal that Bala had asked the actor not to make public appearances.
But as Arya is a vivacious person who likes to travel around, is finding it very difficult to remain underground for a long time. He was spotted a couple of times in Anna Nagar area with a rugged look. When there is some sign of somebody recognizing him, he immediately leaves the place. Meanwhile when a few co-artists from the film tried to photograph him with their cell phones, Bala hit the roof with his temper. It is said that he does not want even a small bit of information about the film to get leaked and is very keen on maintaining the mystery quotient intact for 'Naan Kadavul'.
Silk Smitha ruled the roost in Tollywood as the hottest sex symbol. She was the undisputed number one items girl in her time. She committed suicide at the height of her popularity owing to a field love affair with a doctor. Producer Tirupathi Raja was making a film titled 'Thanga Tamari' with Silk Smitha in the lead role.
The story is about a girl from a forward caste girl who falls in love with a backward class boy.The censor committee felt that the film could foster trouble as it talks about castes and communities. But Tirupathi Raja now wants to send the film to the review committee. He is confident that the review committee would clear the film.
Veteran actress Silk Smitha, who once ruled the silver screens with her sex appeal, has commits suicide long back. But, her death still remains a mystery. While some agrees that she died by falling from the roof of an apartment some others argue that she commits suicide due to problems in her life. However, her life story inspires Bollywood producer Ektha Kapoor who is now making a film in Hindi ‘The dirty picture.’ 
YSR Congress Party has appointed minority cell conveners of six districts. The names were announced by the Party State Minority Cell in-charge at a press conference here on Friday.
