Here’s a shocker for you guys. A fashion designer is now an artist, at least for the purpose of income tax. This is the ruling of Bombay High Court in respect of Tarun Tahiliani on his Rs 83.9 lakhs income from foreign sources in 2000. That’s because according to Section 80 RR of IT Act of 1961 a resident of India who is either an author, playright, musician, actor, artist or even a sports person is eligible for exemption to the tune of 75% of his income from foreign sources. Well, if that’s the law, you can’t really blame the courts for saying that a fashion designer also needs to be considered as an artist, though some of us wouldn’t really agree with that either.

Posted on June 18th, 2010 under India calling. Tags: Bollywood, exemption, films, Hollywood, Income, Salman, shows, Tahiliani, Tarun, tax. Comments: 6

People managing AIFA have to be either absolutely naive or heartless or quite possibly both to hold their award ceremony in Colombo at this point of time when Tamils in India are really pissed off with Rajapakse and his govt for the atrocities they have committed on Tamil minorities and their unofficial policy of treating them as second rate citizens. To say the very least, it is highly inappropriate of the film industry to do this. From what we can make out this decision was taken without any forethought or vision.

Posted on June 4th, 2010 under India calling. Tags: awards, Big B, Bollywood, IIFA, Kamal Hassan, Rajapakse, Rajnikanth, Salman, SRK. Comments: 7

The kind of support SRK has drummed up in the last few days is not exactly to his credit. What his supporters have failed to appreciate is that what he said was absolutely inadvertent and at the spur of the moment. After having said this when Shiv Sena picked up those lines there was no way he could’ve retracted his statement without losing a lot of face not just in the country but abroad as well. And losing face means losing money as his movie My name is Khan is due for release shortly, which is anathema to a businessman like him. Pertinent to mention that Shahrukh’s Red Chillies Entertainment is also involved in this movie. Secondly, if he really wanted Pakistani players to play in IPL he would’ve bid for them in the auction but he didn’t.

Posted on February 5th, 2010 under India calling. Tags: Amir, Bollywood, Cricket, IPL, My name is Khan, player, Shiv sena, SRK. Comments: 12

The basic difference between India and Pakistan is not religion alone. The basic difference is the perception of identities of it’s citizens of these two countires by these very people. When Indians talk of Pakistanis they are actually referring to Pakistanis only and not Muslims whereas when Pakis talk of Indians they imply Hindus. That’s the basic difference between the people of the two countries. More often than not during debates on TV channels we see the Paki speakers invariably switch from talking about Indo-Pak relations to Hindu-Muslim relationship or lack thereof. By extension since Islam is so deeply ingrained in their psyche they see the problem as being a Hindus versus Pakistan issue whereas this is not the case. As a result there is no meeting ground for the two of us.

Posted on January 17th, 2010 under Best Articles, India calling. Tags: Bollywood, India, Movies, nuclear, Pakistan, Terror, terrorist, war. Comments: 12

Unlike the main protagonist of the movie Rancho and Hari (in the book) you cannot really succeed in life without being cunning. You have to have a bit of everything. Calibre as well as cunningness. In a way you have to be like the character of Chatur in the movie who was shown as a meritorious and hardworking student who could not see someone else succeed at his cost. Chetan Bhagat is exactly like him. Like in the movie Chatur does everything possible to succeed and be recognized at the same time Chetan too has ensured that his name will always be associated with 3 Idiots for good or bad for all times to come courtesy this smart controversy created by him. Rest assured that his next book will be sold at a much higher price than the stupid ten lakhs that he got for this one.

Posted on January 8th, 2010 under Feelings, India calling. Tags: 3 Idiots, Amir, Bhagat, Bollywood, Chetan, movie, Rancho, success. Comments: 9

Bal Thakeray had to do what he did. There was just no option left for him. His own protege Raj Thakeray was running away with his Marathi Manoos agenda. And it was working for Raj like the way it originally worked for Bal Thakeray with the result that Raj was being talked about as the new Bal Thakeray. How could he allow another Bal Thakeray to take his place in his own lifetime? Also, he was getting increasingly desperate what with his own son whom he chose over the more popular Raj proving to be quite a dud as far as taking control of the Sena and its future was concerned. Unfortunately, he chose the wrong occasion and the wrong person to reinvent his own ideology. Sachin Tendulkar was the wrong person to be picked for this exercise. Not only is he a thoroughbred gentleman but he’s also an absolutely non political icon whom the entire country adores. But it was not to be. In his exuberance to make amends for wrongs of the last few years when he allowed Raj Thakeray and his MNS to hijack his own agenda Bal Thakeray has shot himself in his own foot. Sachin may have said those few words as a proud Indian but they have triggered a sequence of events which have some far reaching implications. Here are some of them.

Posted on November 17th, 2009 under India calling. Tags: Amitabh, bal, BJP, Bollywood, Congress, Cricket, MNS, Movies, Raj, Sachin, Shiv sena, Thakeray. Comments: 5

I was so horribly wrong when I wrote this post on Cash for Votes scam in our parliament and the sting operation conducted by CNN IBN Rajdeep Sardesai is for sale!! in Nov 08. Its not just him who is up for sale most of the news channels and newspapers are up for sale too. Rajdeep Sardesai did nothing which is not done by the media houses. And I’m not talking about a stake sale in their respective companies. I’m talking about the news content which they carry. Yes, it has been proved beyond doubt now that indeed they do sell their space for money. As luck would have it there were quite a few elections in 2009. First it was the Lok Sabha polls and then state assembly elections in not one but four states. Not too forget many other sources like numerous movie releases, book launches etc etc. And they are all sources of good unaccountable money for our media houses.

Posted on November 16th, 2009 under India calling. Tags: BJP, Bollywood, CNN IBN, Congress, media, money, Movies, NDTV, Times Now. Comments: 4

Whether the promise of work by Madhur Bhandarkar impinged upon the freedom/willingness to have sex on the part of Preeti Jain is a question which needs to be answered. Another question which she needs to answer is whether she liked what she did with him or not? In other words whether she enjoyed the whole activity or not? I know I’m being very crass here but these are relevant questions. And I’m pretty sure she would not have done it sixteen times with him if she did not like it. Fact is that all this technical stuff is rather misleading. It can confuse the hell out of not just us but judges, lawyers and linguistic experts as well. What is in fact not confusing is the fact that she was just ‘using’ her body to get work in return.

Posted on November 14th, 2009 under Feelings, India calling. Tags: Bhandarkar, Bollywood, court, Madhur, Movies, Preeti, rape, role, Sex. Comments: 13

KJo has apologized. It’s Mumbai and only Mumbai, we know now. Well, in my opinion these so called Bollywood bigwigs should stop embarrassing themselves in this manner. I remember it was Anil Kapoor initially who made ridiculous statements like Jai Maharashtra, Jai Mumbai, while at the Oscar ceremony where Slumdog Millionaire won the Oscar for Best Picture. I really wonder what was so great about the city or the state as far as this movie was concerned. If anything, it was the other way round.

Posted on October 5th, 2009 under India calling. Tags: Anil Kapoor, apologize, Bollywood, KJo, MNS, movie, Raj, wake up sid. Comments: 7