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Here’s one pairing that is bound to create a lot of buzz. Two filmmakers who are as different as chalk and cheese – Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Madhur Bhandarkar- are coming together for an upcoming film.

We can tell you that if all goes well, Bhandarkar will direct a film for Bhansali, which is the Hindi remake of the 2002 Tamil blockbuster Ramana, written and directed by A R Murgadoss, who also made the superhit Ghajini.

About Ramana: the film was first made in Tamil at a budget of Rs 11.5 crore and starred Vijaykanth and Simran. Released during Diwali, it ran for 150-odd days in theatres, a lot judging by today’s standards. It was later remade in Telugu as Tagore, with Chiranjeevi in the lead and then in Kannada with Vishnuvardhan headlining it.

A source told us, “Bhansali has been wanting to make Ramana since quite some time. He was thinking about whom to pass on the mantle. It was recently that he zeroed down on Bhandarkar. Ramana is a very hard-hitting film and would suit Bhandarkar’s style of filmmaking.”

Reportedly, Bhandarkar has agreed in principle and the modalities are being worked out.

According to the source, an official from Bhansali’s company went with the offer to Bhandarkar’s office in Andheri last week. He even gave a DVD of Ramana to the director, who saw the film early this week and quite liked it.

The film would be Bhandarkar’s next after he completes Heroine starring Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor. While we repeatedly tried to get in touch with Bhansali and Bhandarkar, both remained unavailable for comment.

Meanwhile, we can also tell you that a couple of years ago there was buzz in trade circles that a Hindi version of the film was being planned -with Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai in the lead.

Ramana story

The leading man, Vijaykanth, decides to abolish corruption once and for all with the help of his students, who are now working in various government offices. The reason for this powerful decision is shown in flashback. Vijaykanth is a happily married professor.

One day, when he is out, the entire neighbourhood collapses due to faulty construction, and his wife and daughter lose their life in the incident. Vijaykanth rushes to the existing officials in the hope they will help him, only to find out they are corrupt and mere puppets in the hands of one industrialist who holds the reins. Vijaykanth’s decision is born out of disillusionment with the system.

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MUMBAI: The Warwick Business School, standing 130km from London, will have its second address in India. The headquarters in the UK may be in sparsely populated Coventry but the management institute is looking at bustling Delhi for its new campus.

Ever since India spoke of opening its doors to foreign universities, several top institutions have considered coming to its shores, but few have actually taken a step. The Schulich School of Business of Canada’s York University is building its campus in Hyderabad.

Most others have set up India offices that assist and attract prospective students, tap into the colleges’ alumni, build relations with large Indian conglomerates, run some short programmes for executives or act as research centres that collect raw material on an emerging economy and a maturing market called India.

None of that is what Warwick wants to do in India. Like the Schulich School, it is looking at advancing what it has already built in the UK. It is working with the Batra Group, headed by a family that sent many of its children to Warwick for an education.

“We have ordered a feasibility study for the project from a consultancy firm which is looking at several issues like the location to set up the school and other things that the project entails, including the areas that are important for the growth and development for this part of the world, for our Asia campus that will be located in India,” said WBS dean Mark Taylor.

The school’s core will be research, around which teaching will be designed. “What we will produce here will be the same as what we produce on the main campus,” added Taylor, an Oxonerian. “The school will not be a data collection centre that will procure data and transport a bag to the main campus,” said WBS’ associate dean Qing Wang.

Over a decade ago, Warwick was undoubtedly one of the finest schools in the UK to study business, but it has slipped not just in ranking, but also in students’ preferences. In 2009 came its low point when funding was cut based on a UK government Research Assessment Exercise, in which Warwick was trumped by both Cardiff and Manchester business schools.

Soon after, Taylor took the reins of the school and it swung back to a better place in global rankings. “It is important to keep the academic rigour high, bring in first-grade practitioners to teach and ensure that there is application of research,” said Taylor, who has been working to bring back the glorious days of Warwick.

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NEW DELHI: In India two months after being forced to skip the Jaipur Literature Festival, the novelist Salman Rushdie hit out at the Congress on Saturday, suggesting that his presence there was blocked because of “useless electoral calculations” and told Rahul Gandhi that “it did not work”.

The renowned author, who has been castigated by fundamentalist Muslim groups for his book ‘The Satanic Verses’, observed that blocking his presence in Jaipur “led the Congress party down the road” in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.

Participating in the India Today Conclave, he said India “deserves to be led by better leaders than is being now”. Referring to the controversy which surrounded the Jaipur festival in January and forced him to skip the event, he said, “What happened there is not Deobandi bigotry… It was pretty useless electoral calculations. It did not work, Rahul (Gandhi).”

“Indian electorate is smarter than these politicians… People can be whipped as in Jaipur Literature Festival,” Rushdie said, adding that 95% of Muslims were not interested in violence and that that would be true for Hindus too.

Rushdie, who spoke at a session with the theme ‘Liberty versus: I am what I am and that’s all that I am’, said the culture of “offendedness is growing” in India. Citing the opposition by fundamentalists to the late MF Hussain and other artists and writers, he said, “It seems every day there is a piece of bullying by groups of Muslims, Hindus… voices are being silenced… the chilling effect of violence is telling and it is growing in this country.”

Regretting the public apathy against such measures to silence free expression, the author contended, “People are asleep. You need to wake up.” He said that “freedom is not a tea party, freedom is a war… Freedom is not absolute, it is something which somebody is there to take away. If you don’t defend it, you will lose it.” On his presence in India again as promised by him two months ago, he said: “This seems normal that a writer of Indian birth who loves this country turns up to speak. This is normal. But it is abnormal that he is prevented. That danger is growing.” Talking about the stiff opposition by some fundamentalists to ‘The Satanic Verses’ written 24 years ago, the London-based writer said: “Who gives the people the right to attack me?”

He said he was extremely shocked that the writers who read from ‘The Satanic Verses’ at the Jaipur festival to express solidarity with him were not defended and were still in the danger of being prosecuted. He took a dig at the chief ministers of Jammu Kashmir Omar Abdullah and UP Akhilesh Yadav, besides Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan for not turning up at the event reportedly because of his presence.

“Some politicians suddenly discovered that they had ridiculously overcrowded schedules,” he said.

Rushdie hits out at Imran Khan

Salman Rushdie hit out at Imran Khan, describing him as a “dictator in waiting”. The former Pakistan cricketer-turned-founder of the political outfit Tehreek-e-Insaf withdrew from the conclave two days ago, saying “he did not dream of being seen with Rushdie for the immeasurable hurt he has caused to Muslims”.

“A British writer described Imran Khan as a dictator in waiting. I am happy that nobody else is protesting this time than Imran Khan. Imran is afraid of facing my bouncers. Imran knew that he would share the stage with me,” the Booker prize-winning writer said.

“Imran never read ‘The Satanic Verses’. Imran is not a liberal,” Rushdie said.

Rushdie, who returned two months after he vowed on Indian television that he would come back to India after being stopped from the Jaipur Literature Festival in January, said he had “not caused immeasurable harm to Mulsims”.

“Fanatics cause biggest harm to Islam. Immeasurable harm has been caused to Muslims by terrorists,” he said.

Rushdie said common people were more sensible than their leaders and 95% of Muslims in India were not in favour of violence and the things being said in their name.

Freedom of speech is a casualty of bigotry, Rushdie said.

“India always had tradition of accepting free speech. Every day there is a price for hooliganism by bigots,” he said, taking a dig at the “disgraceful vote-bank politics taking place in India”.

Rushdie said the ban on the import of ‘The Satanic Verses’ in the age of the internet was useless.

(Inputs from PTI IANS)

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NEW DELHI: Until a few months ago, Pakistani singer and composer Shiraz Uppal’s caller tune was the song “Rabba” from the Pooja Bhatt film Dhokha (2007). Now, one hears a prayer. Earlier this month, the Lahore-based musician announced that he would not be making music anymore as his religion forbids music.

After over a decade in the industry, Uppal has cut himself off entirely, even giving away all his instruments and recording equipment, save a guitar which was a gift from his late father. “He gave it to me in 1995. I’ve kept it as a memory of him,” says Uppal.

Uppal’s decision seems to fall into a pattern in Pakistan. In recent years, various singers and musicians have renounced their careers, either for personal reasons or in the face of threats from militant groups. UAE-based Pashtun singer Nazia Iqbal announced her retirement from music at a concert this January, reportedly to live as a “devoted Muslim woman”. She also announced her plans to open madrassas in Pakistan.

Ali Haider of “Purani Jeans” fame made the transition from pop to devotional songs and qawwalis in 2009. In fact, as early as 2001, Junaid Jamshed, a sensation in Pakistan in the late 80s and early 90s and known to his fans as JJ, too gave up his musical career for religious reasons. Now, he only sings religious naats and has taken to preaching.

There are other artistes who have been killed. A significant Taliban presence in north-west Pakistan has ensured a strong clampdown on music and musicians. Guns have been in constant battle with guitars. Singer and dancer Shabana from Swat was killed in January 2009, followed by Peshawar-based Ayman Udas who was murdered the same year, in what was said to be an honour killing. Pakistani newspapers suggest that singers Gulzar Alam and Gulrez Tabassum, known for their Pashto songs, too quit after threats from militants.

Uppal, however, clarifies his musical exile isn’t forced. “I am only doing this to make my Creator happy. For the past seven years, I had been having dreams about our Prophet. I took up reading the Quran Sharif and the Hadith seriously. It says that music is forbidden. So I decided to give it up. Music is not my destiny,” says Uppal, who considers A R Rahman his guru in music.

He has worked with Rahman for a song in an upcoming film, Boys. His opinion of Rahman and others in the music fraternity, he says, remains unchanged. “As far as music is concerned Rahman has been and always will be an inspiration. But in matters of religion, the only person to look up to is the Prophet,” he says. For now, he plans to put his MBA degree to use and possibly take up trading as a profession.

Many others don’t have a choice, though. Besides threats to singers, other artistes and those in the music business have suffered too. More than 20 stores selling music CDs were attacked by militants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and North Waziristan in November last year. In November 2008, The Lahore International Arts Festival was bombed. In 2007, Shoaib Mansoor’s critically acclaimed film Khuda Kay Liye was issued a fatwa. The film, among other things, features a young musician giving up his career after coming in contact with a radical cleric.

Singer Zeek Afridi, who lives in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region of Pakistan, has in the past received phone calls asking him to stop music production. Though he has continued, several others haven’t. “Haroon Bacha who sang Pashto songs left for the US after he was threatened. The overall atmosphere for business in general has suffered. If the government makes a platform for these artistes, things can get better,” says Afridi, who recently visited India to shoot a music video.

Singer Ali Hamza of the band Noori, is careful when he broaches the subject. He says that retirement decisions of singers like Uppal are not in the least discouraging. “It only motivates us to work harder. Pakistan has had a tradition of sufi singers and ghazal singers. There was serious censorship on music during the Zia era. But in the urban areas the mindset is changing. The music scene is growing. There is a promotion of underground artists with shows like Youth Records, and they are getting better by the day,” he says.

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