New Delhi, March 1 (IANS) Many cinema halls around the country have decided to create a stadium-like atmosphere by screening live the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches.

The matches, from March 12 to April 25, will be played in India after being held in South Africa the last time. The matches will be screened in multiplexes as well as on single screens.

“It is a new and exciting offer. Usually the traditional method is to show films in theatres, so this is something innovative,” UFO Moviez India CEO Rajesh Mishra told IANS.

UFO Moviesz is a digital satellite cinema network that will facilitate the live showcase of matches in cinema halls.

Mishra revealed that many multiplexes warmed up to this initiative because not many big budget films are releasing during the period of the IPL.

“IPL has become a strong property. On top of that, no big budget film is releasing during this period. So, screening matches will be beneficial for the halls because no major film shows will be affected and they (theatres) will have something to fall back upon for sustenance,” he added.

Amit Awasthi, manager (programming and operations) of Spice Cinemas, told IANS: “We have eight screens and no big films are releasing during the IPL. So we thought it will be good to experiment and see the response by screening the matches.”

Industry sources say there will be benefits of watching cricket matches in cinema halls.

It will be a high definition live event, there will be uninterrupted advertisement-free viewing, 33 percent more image as well as the stadium atmosphere.

Around 800 screens around India, including close to 65 in Delhi and surrounding areas, are expected to screen the matches.

Multiplexes like Cinemax, INOX, Fame and PVR among others gearing up for this new offering.

As far as the ticket prices are concerned, halls have decided to keep them equivalent to movie ticket prices.

“We are not increasing the ticket prices. People would have to pay what they pay for films,” said Yogesh Raizada, corporate head (cinemas) of Wave Cinemas.

“We are planning corporate and marketing tie-ups to increase our profits. We won’t put any pressure on ticket prices,” he added.

“We will decide something between Rs.400-500 for the tickets,” said Rohan Doshi, in-charge of bulk bookings, Cinemax.

So are they expecting a good response?

“Its an experiment. We don’t know what to expect but I’m sure we won’t suffer losses even if we don’t make heavy profits,” said Awasthi.

Cricket fans are excited too.

“We now experience the feel of a stadium without being in the stadium. I am planning a bulk booking for all my friends so that we can watch the matches together,” said Shantanu Roy, a banker.

Port-of-Spain, March 1 (IANS) Trinidad and Tobago has invited India to invest in the country, saying that the Caribbean nation is a fertile market as it provides a gateway to Latin America.

“T&T is not just a market, it is a fertile spot for investment and it is a gateway to Latin America. India has a lot to offer,” said Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Lenny Saith.

He said that the recent Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) held here Nov 27 – 29, 2009 had “raised T&T’s profile in the world” and also hailed the new dynamism in relations between New Delhi and Port of Spain.

The Indian delegation to the CHOGM was represented by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Saith underscored this point at a reception hosted by Indian High Commissioner Malay Mishra at his residence here Friday night. The reception was held in honour of Saith for being one of the 14 international recipients of the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman in New Delhi last month.

“This is not an exclusive award for me. It is for the people of Trinidad and Tobago. It is an honour to receive it,” Saith told a gathering, which included President George Maxwell Richards and his wife Jean Ramjohn Richards.

Others at the function included Caribbean Airlines chairman Arthur Lok Jack; AnsaMcL Group chairman Norman Sabga; Minister of Trade Mariano Browne; Minister of Information Neil Parsanlal; former Public Service Commission chairman Ken Lalla and Minister of Social Development Amery Browne.

Speaking on the occasion, the Indian high commissioner said: “We meet here to celebrate the bestowment of Indian honour to Saith as a respected member of the Indian diaspora. Saith continues to serve T&T with distinction and selflessness.”

Saith’s forefathers were among the 148,000 Indians who were brought here between 1845 and 1917 to work on sugar and cocoa plantations.

(Paras Ramoutar can be contacted at paras_ramoutar@yahoo.com)

A quarter century ago sitting amid designer chaos of paintings and sketches in various stages of completion in his Cuffe Parade apartment in then more-tolerant Bombay, painter Maqbool Fida Husain had a telling response to a question about being Indian.

“I am not an Indian merely because I was born here but because India’s cultural exuberance made an artist out of me,” Husain, then 70 and already firmly perched on his formidable reputation as one of India’s greatest painters, had said. As India today debates his decision to give up his Indian nationality and choose to be an honorary citizen of Qatar, it is much more about Husain ceding ground to the lunatic rightwing fringe than just a change of passports.

It is perhaps unfair to expect a 95-year-old painter, who faced real physical danger from bigots before he left India in 2006, to fight a battle for loftier ideals. But an unintended consequence of his renouncing Indian citizenship could be to embolden the very lunatic fringe that the liberal India ought to challenge.

It is true that Husain has led his peripatetic life more in the mould of a detached world citizen than a constricted Indian nationalist but he has frequently let it be known that at his core he remains Indian. While he does not have to live in India to assert his cultural identity, the circumstances under which he has chosen to disengage ends up undermining a lot of what he stands for.

His choice of Qatar to forsake his Indian nationality is a conspicuously bad judgment if his intention was to make a larger philosophical statement about artistic freedom. Qatar may be a marginally more moderate regime in a region notorious for its unabashed suppression of great many personal freedoms, but it is no shining example that can be held up as a counter to India. At best it is erroneous and at worst it is egregious for him to take this step. If it was about expressing profound personal anguish at being practically hounded out of India, an artist of Husain’s stature could have chosen many other clearly more democratic countries.

Despite his well known quirks such as moving about unshod and fraternising with sections of society that the elites in India wince at the mention of, Husain has for decades been a much sought after presence in the rarefied circles anywhere in the world. To that extent his decision was obviously not influenced by any consideration of being in the proximity of royalty or movers and shakers as he is in Qatar and elsewhere. It is not right to second-guess his motivations other than concerns about personal safety at an age where a minor fall in the bathroom could prove devastating. However, somewhere along the line strongly felt emotions at having been let down by his home country would have played a significant role.

Husain has seen enough life, certainly way more than his detractors, to know that the kind he has chosen comes with its own intrinsic hazards. While he may not have anticipated the hazards of the kind he had to eventually confront, he ought to have been conscious of something approximate. Without minimizing his genuine sense of loss, it is possible to argue that Husain may also see this turn of events as a fitting twist to a gloriously eccentric life.

Husain understood before anybody else the value of creating stories and idiosyncrasies over and above his resplendent talent. He recognized very early that people are drawn to the superficial first and then perhaps to something more substantial and deeper. Trimmings are a great way to lure people in. They want the art as much as the artist. So while there may be equally talented painters in India, there is none quite like Husain in creating irresistible folklore about his art. A fine recent example of that attribute was Husain painting a silvery white Arabian stallion.

On balance, Husain’s decision should be of grave concern in so much as it bolsters the lunatic fringe, which may not be just a fringe, that uses his exile as a triumph that can be replicated in many similar instances. This is particularly because Husain knows well that as complex multicultural, multi-religious and multilingual societies go India is still easily one of the most tolerant. That alone is a worthwhile India, which he called culturally exuberant, to return to.

(1.03.2010-Mayank Chhaya is a US-based writer. He can be contacted at m@literateworld.com)

Washington, March 1 (IANS) President Barack Obama has chosen the son of an Indian migrant couple from Bihar to help bridge the cultural divide in US relations with Muslims inside and outside America’s borders.

As Obama’s new special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Rashad Hussain, both a Quran scholar and an ardent North Carolina Tar Heels basketball fan, will be the face of the president’s new approach to engage the Islamic world.

At a time when the US is fighting two wars in Muslim nations, changing perceptions will take time, says Hussain, 31.

“The challenge is to continue to communicate that this is a long-term process,” Hussain told the Washington Post. “Sometimes the challenge becomes that people want to focus exclusively on the political issues, issues that this administration is working very diligently to solve.”

Hussain’s father, a mining engineer, moved from Bihar to Wyoming in the late 1960s. A few years later, during a visit to India, he married Hussain’s mother, now an obstetrician in Plano.

“A lot is made about American misperceptions about Muslim communities, but there’s a lot of misperceptions that Muslim communities have about the US,” he told the Post.

To counter such misunderstandings of Muslim culture, Hussain cited his wife, whom he said “breaks down a lot of the misperceptions of women in Islam”. Isra Bhatty, a Yale Law School student currently on a Rhodes scholarship, wears the hijab and is an epic Chicago Bears fan.

After the 2008 election, Hussain was recruited to the White House counsel’s office where he has worked on national security and new media issues, and helped inform the administration’s Muslim outreach efforts.

Ben Rhodes, Obama’s chief foreign policy speech writer, sought Hussain’s counsel last year as he drafted the president’s Cairo address.

Hussain told the Post his advice concerned the contributions Muslims have made to American society and the context behind some of the religious passages.

Hussain travelled in the Middle East after Obama announced his appointment during a Feb 13 videoconference at the US-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar.

His approach, Hussain was quoted as saying, will be to emphasise to Muslim countries what “America stands for” through joint projects in health, education and science.

“It’s clear that we’re not going to agree on every single issue,” Hussain said. “Our job will be to try to maximise our areas of agreement and work through our areas of disagreement and come to the best policy.”

Bangalore, March 1 (IANS) Various agencies have begun revisiting laws and updating data on high-rise buildings in Bangalore to prevent a repeat of the Carlton Towers fire tragedy that claimed nine lives.

There is no clear estimate of the number of high-rise buildings in the city although the fire department has issued the No Objection Certificate to around 1,500 such buildings in the last 10 years.

Buildings of 15 metre high or those with ground floor plus four floors are treated by the Bangalore authorities as high-rise buildings.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (Greater Bangalore City Corp) does not have the precise number of such buildings. “We are updating our records,” said a BBMP official in the wake of the fire at the seven-storey Carlton Towers Tuesday.

Of the around 500 people at the Carlton Towers at that time, six jumped to death and three died of asphyxiation.

Preliminary probe by the fire department, the electricity department, BBMP and police indicates that cable wires caught fire resulting in thick, pungent smoke engulfing several floors.

With two of the three fire exits locked and the building poorly ventilated, people panicked and six occupants jumped to escape from top floors resulting in their death.

“It is very, very sad that people lost their lives. If only we had been alerted soon after the fire was noticed, we could have saved many lives,” Director General of Police and head of Karnataka fire and emergency services Jija Hari Singh told IANS.

On plans to prevent recurrence of such incidents, she said: “We are revisiting laws and acts to determine what can be done.”

Under the existing laws, the fire department cannot inspect buildings on its own. Its responsibility ends with providing NOC for occupation of the buildings after inspecting them to assess compliance with fire safety measures.

Asked whether the department planned an audit of all high-rise buildings in Bangalore, Jija Hari Singh, a 1975 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, said: “We are looking at all possibilities, at what action be taken as prevention of loss of life is priority.”

The fire department and other civic agencies will have a tough task on hand if other high-rise office and commercial complexes have also not followed safety measures, like Carlton Towers.

“It was full violation (in Carlton Towers),” D.G. Chengappa, director of fire services, told IANS. “A major violation was the locking of two exits, leaving only one for people to move to safety.”

Over 60 people have bought space in the Carlton Towers, built in 1999.

A probe by the fire department after Tuesday’s fire showed that none of the fire safety measures were in place, Chengappa said.

The fire department has received requests from only two or three high-rise buildings to inspect them for safety measures, Chengappa said. “People avoid inspection by fire department.”

Another problem is that illegal buildings do not seek NOC from the fire department before occupation. “There are a number of such constructions,” Chengappa said.

A BBMP official who did not want to be named said the problem were the alterations carried out after the buildings were completed.

“There will be any number of instances where major alterations are carried out after getting certificate from us that the building is as per approved plan,” the official said.

Only a periodical mandatory inspection of all high-rise buildings by various agencies would deter people from making drastic changes ignoring safety needs, the official suggested.

The government has promised to come out with a plan once it knows the full story of the Carlton Towers tragedy.

Hopefully, periodical checks of the safety measures in place will be the top priority as the city continues to witness brisk activity in both commercial and residential property sectors.

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)

Riyadh, March 1 (IANS) India and Saudi Arabia signed the Riyadh Declaration late Sunday night to put their seal of approval on rapidly growing ties that are moving towards a strategic partnership covering security, economic, defence, technology and political areas and including joint combat of terrorism.

The ‘Riyadh Declaration – A New Era of Strategic Partnership’ was signed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz at a ceremony at the Al Rawad Palace here.

“The two leaders reviewed the status of implementation of the historic Delhi Declaration signed in 2006, and expressed their satisfaction at the steady expansion of Saudi-India relations since the signing of the Delhi Declaration,” the new declaration read.

“They re-emphasised the importance of full implementation of the Delhi Declaration through exchange of visits at ministerial, official, business, academia, media and other levels.”

The Delhi Declaration, signed during the historic visit of King Abdullah to India in 2006 as the chief guest on India’s Republic Day, had charted out a new path of cooperation between India and Saudi Arabia across a range of fields including security, bilateral trade and investment, culture, science and technology.

According to the new declaration, keeping in view the development of relations between the two countries, and the potential for their further growth, the two leaders decided to raise their cooperation to a strategic partnership covering security, economic, defence and political areas.

“The two leaders reiterated their mutual desire to develop as knowledge-based economies based on advances in the areas of information technology, space science and other frontier technologies,” it stated.

The two leaders renewed their condemnation of terrorism, stating that it was global and threatened all societies irrespective of race, colour or belief.

“The two sides agreed to enhance cooperation in exchange of information relating to terrorist activities, money laundering, narcotics, arms and human trafficking and develop joint strategies to combat these threats,” the declaration stated.

Manmohan Singh – whose visit here marked the first by an Indian prime minister after 28 years – and King Abdullah also called for preservation of Afghanistan’s sovereignty and independence.

“They supported the efforts of the people of Afghanistan to achieve stability and security, protected from exploitation by terrorist organizations, while upholding the values and principles of the constitution of Afghanistan,” it stated.

Washington, March 1 (IANS) President Barack Obama’s doctor has given him an excellent bill of health but has obliquely asked him to cut down on those cheese burgers he sneaks off to eat once in a while.

“The president is in excellent health and ‘fit for duty,’” Dr. Jeff Kuhlman, a Navy captain and physician to the president wrote in his report after Obama’s first check-up Sunday. “All clinical data indicate that he will remain so for the duration of his presidency.”

The doctor did recommend Obama change his eating habits a bit. “Recommend dietary modification to reduce LDL cholesterol below 130,” Kuhlman wrote.

The report – made publicly available as Americans want to know the state of health of their chief executive – lists Obama’s LDL level at 138. LDL, or low-density lipoprotein, is what’s known as “bad” cholesterol, according to the American Heart Association.

“Cool” Obama had a resting heart rate of 56 and a blood pressure reading of 105-62. Kuhlman noted that the 48-year-old president should keep up his efforts to stop smoking. Obama’s medications include nicotine replacement therapy.

The 6-foot-1-inch president weighed in at 179.9 pounds with his shoes and workout attire on.

His body mass index (BMI) is 23.7. According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, that’s in the upper end of the “normal” weight range. “Overweight” begins at 25.0.

The White House said Obama’s doctor recommended his next physical take place in August of next year, when the president turns 50.

Washington, March 1 (IANS) “My Name Is Khan” has set a new all-time career record for Shah Rukh Khan by becoming the Bollywood star’s top-grossing film in North America with total sales of $3,635,000 after 17 days of release.

The film Sunday surpassed Khan’s old record of $3,597,372 for 2007′s “Om Shanti Om” and continues to play in 119 theaters across the US and Canada in its third week of play.

On Feb 22, after only 11 days of release, “My Name Is Khan” also became the highest grossing film ever for director Karan Johar beating the $3,275,444 of 2006′s “Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna” which starred Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Rani Mukherjee, Preity Zinta and Abhishek Bachchan.

A week earlier, with a Sunday sale of $761,000, “My Name Is Khan” recorded the highest one-day gross ever for any Hindi-language film in North America.

The film’s Feb 12-14 opening weekend sales of $1,939,000 was again a new record for a Hindi film beating the $1,764,131 of 2007′s “Om Shanti Om.”

With an estimated four-day opening weekend figure of $2,275,000, it was the fastest Hindi film ever to break the $2,000,000 mark. It beat the previous record of 5 days set in December by “3 Idiots” which grossed $2,149,227 in its five-day opening over the Christmas holiday weekend.

In North America, “My Name Is Khan” was distributed by Fox Searchlight and marketed by Box Office Guru.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)

Vancouver, March 1 (IANS) Canadians in red (wearing their maple leaf symbol) broke in celebrations from coast to coast on the last day of the 21st Winter Olympics after the hosts clinched the ice hockey gold by beating arch rivals United States.

The host victory also brought the curtain down on the 17-day sports extravaganza, with colourful ceremonies at the BC Place here Sunday night.

The rivalry between Canada and the US in ice hockey is as intense as the India-Pakistan rivalry in field hockey. The whole nation was charged before the Sunday finals. But when Sidney Crosby scored the winner to seal the match 3-2 for Canada in extra time, revelries broke across the nation. Fans waved flags. Cars honked. Bars overflew with celebrants as the nail-biting final ended in gold for the hosts.

Major downtown streets in Vancouver, Toronto and other cities were jammed by sport lovers. Crowds chanted the national anthem ‘O Canada’ and ‘Sid the Kid’ after hockey hero Sidney Crosby scored the winner.

There were major traffic disruptions inn Toronto, as thousands of revellers thronged the famed Yonge Street – the largest street in the world – in the heart of Canada’s biggest city.

There could not have been a better ending to the sporting mega show which began sadly with the tragic death of young Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvitti in an accident.

Closing the ceremonies, IOC chief Rogge congratulated the Canadians for their “outstanding job’ of the hosting the event which drew more than 5,500 athletes and officials from 84 nations.

Attended by International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and thousands of people, the closing ceremony was marked by a show of riveting performances by artists, including belle dances, from around the world.

In the end, the Olympic flag was passed over to the Russian city of Sochi which will host the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Despite their loss to the hosts in ice hockey, the US finished at the top of the medal tally with 37 medals, including nine gold, five silver and 13 bronze. Germany came second with 30 medals, including 10 gold. Hosts Canada finished third with 26 golds. However, Canada topped in the tally for gold medals, clinching 14 in all.