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‘GDP will not define the leadership in Asia’

When Bill Emmott arrived in Tokyo in 1983 as a correspondent for The Economist, he got his first major assignment wrong. A trial had found Japan’s ex-Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka guilty of accepting bribes and sentenced him to four years in jail. “I wrote a story saying what a watershed this could prove, which is just what it wasn’t,” recalls Emmott. Tanaka won a huge election the next year. Chastened, Emmott went on to build a deep insight into the affairs of the world’s second biggest economy, publishing over the years seven books on Japan. He has now expanded his field of inquiry to include Asia’s two other powerhouses in his latest book, Rivals: How the Power Struggle between China, India and Japan Will Shape Our Next Decade. Emmott, 51, served as the editor of The Economist for 13 years — on his watch, the magazine’s circulation more than doubled to 1.1 million. He left his job two years ago to write full-time. Emmott is a member of the US think-tank, the Trilateral Commission. Editorat- Large AJIT SAHI interviewed Emmott over two sittings in New Delhi. Affable, given to precision and not dithering, Emmott spoke with the clarity of a journalist, not an academic. Excerpts:

Photo: Shailendra Pandey
There is an overwhelming consensus that India is on the rise. You puncture this picture by saying China will stay far ahead of India on virtually every front for decades. Is India destined to play second fiddle to China?
Yes, India’s economy is likely to be smaller than China’s for a very long time. China is so far ahead that it’s unpredictable if and when this might ever change. But as India’s economy develops, it will only be second fiddle to China in a technical sense — in that its economy will be smaller. But in all the senses that matter — international power, influences around the world, interdependences with other countries, soft power or cultural power, hard power or military power — India will, more and more, be a force to reckon with. Whether China’s economy is 20 percent or 40 percent or 100 percent larger will cease to matter because India will be increasingly more capable.

China’s GDP is three times India’s. Its foreign exchange is six times higher. It is far ahead on FDI, exports, overseas investments, health and education. Yet, you write that both can play the role of Asian leaders.
Leadership in Asia is not going to be defined by who has the largest GDP. For leadership you do need economic size and a degree of openness to trade and capital flows that produce interdependence. But then political will and persuasive powers with other countries — what Joe S. Nye of Harvard University calls “soft power” — can be just as important as either hard military power or the ‘sticky power’ of economic weight. I think India will be a match for China in terms of soft power; its sticky power will increase; its hard power is already substantial, particularly in naval terms. So I don’t think it’s true that China is going to be the dominant country of Asia.

Ram Gopal Varma to re-remake Sholay!
R. Venkatesan Iyengar, 13 May 2008, Tuesday

Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag’, Sholay’s remake, was a disaster. But that hasn’t deterred the irrepressible director from announcing that he would attempt another remake of the immortal classic ‘Sholay’. Let’s hope this one gives us something to smile.

ONCE BITTEN twice shy. Well, that may be true in anyone’s case, but not in Ram Gopal Varma’s. After dishing out an eminently forgettable remake – ’Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag’– of the timeless classic ’Sholay’, Ram Gopal Varma (RGV) is at it again.

The irrepressible director, who gave us such memorable movies like ’Shiva’ (Telugu) and ’Satya’ (Hindi), has recently said that he would once again attempt remaking ’Sholay’ and ensured this time he would do his homework well. In February this year too, RGV had said in an interview, “Yes, I agree ’Aag’ was a special flop. The reason I didn’t speak is because there was nothing to say. I went into a phase of introspection. I now feel I was making films lately with a certain frivolous even callous attitude. I was also making press statements for effect, for shock value. I decided to keep quiet for a while. High time I stopped talking stupidly.”

Maharashtra to waive 25% entertainment tax for IPL
13 May, 2008, 0002 hrs IST,Girish Kuber, TNN

MUMBAI: Cheerleaders, live music, Bollywood bimbettes and little bit of cricket. The scintillating IPL might have redefined the Indian entertainment scene but the Maharashtra government considers it as ‘serious cricket’ and hence worthy of entertainment tax exemption. The benevolent state government, not withstanding its financial worries, suo motu has decided to waive 25% entertainment tax for the IPL thereby giving away revenue of at least Rs 8-10 crore per year.

Top officials from the state’s revenue ministry, who didn’t wish to be identified, informed ET about the state’s munificence. Mumbai will host 10 matches including two semi-finals and one final. As per the Bombay Entertainment Duty Act 1923, any show, musical, performance that’s organised with an intention of making profit need to pay entertainment tax to the state government.

Usually, the government levies entertainment tax on test matches and one-day internationals. However, often the tax is waived off following requests from the BCCI or respective state associations. “But in this case, the direct beneficiaries are private industrial houses or Bollywood stars who own teams, so there is every reason to charge entertainment tax,” a top functionary of the Congress-NCP government confided with ET.

‘Mere paas Ma hai’

Poonam Saxena , Hindustan Times

Guess what? The Hindi film mom is no longer the archetypal white-clad widow, plying her beloved son with the gaajar ka halwa that she made with her own two hands (come to think of it, how else could she have made it? With her own two feet?).

Best is yet to come

For a young restless generation, Saif Ali Khan is the ultimate dude ~ cool and sexy. He represents quality and class, something none of the other top ranking heroes can match, writes Derek Bose

Two blockbusters within one month, Race and Tashan, have suddenly upset the power structure in Bollywood. Shah Rukh Khan still leads the pack, but he does not have Aamir Khan and Salman Khan snapping at his heels any longer. The race to the top is now being run, not by the Khan trinity, but by a quartet comprising Hritik Roshan, Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan and of course, Shah Rukh.
The dark horse in this grouping is Saif. Many may however, believe otherwise. After Dil Chahta Hai in 2001, Saif’s career has been on an upswing and clearly, he does not require a Race or a Tashan to be counted among the frontrunners. Several films of late ~ from Ek Haseena Thi and Hum Tum to Parineeta, Salaam Namasate, Being Cyrus and Omkara ~ have firmly established that he has matured, both as an actor of substance and as a bankable star. Race and Tashan have merely consolidated Saif’s position as a safe box-office bet.
On the other hand, it may be argued that Saif desperately needed these two films at this stage of his career and he has got lucky. He is 38 now and for far too long has been part of a crowd, usually functioning (to quote him) as the “third wheel in love triangles”. Like most of his films, Race was a multi-starrer, but it is his spirited act as the ruthlessly greedy and scheming brother that stands out against a rather laid-back Akshaye Khanna and the jaded Anil Kapoor. Similarly in Tashan, it is the crackling on-screen chemistry he shares as a no-brainer with Kareena Kapoor that has been the talk of town and in many ways, proved more of a crowd-puller than the combined presence of Akshay Kumar, Anil Kapoor and others.
These back-to-back hits hold added significance for Saif because he does not have a major release (barring Kunal Kohli’s kiddy caper Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic) in the near future. This was clearly his last chance to match the score of Bollywood’s other blue-eyed boys ~ Shah Rukh (Chak De! India and Om Shanti Om), Hritik (Dhoom 2 and Jodhaa Akbar) and Akshay (Heyy Baby and Welcome). As for people like Aamir Khan (Taare Zameen Par) and Ajay Devgan (U, Me Aur Hum), it will be quite some time before they would be able to measure up to this double-barreled record. Small wonder, Saif is today in a position to turn down a Rs 30 crore offer on the specious ground that he does not sign a film without going through its bound script!
It has taken Saif 16 years to reach this stage where he is able to take a stand and call the shots. Even when he was not as demanding, many filmmakers accused him of arrogance and an attitude problem ~ an obvious reference to his princely background ~ if only to keep their distance. Rahul Rawail almost sabotaged his career by dropping him from what was supposed to be his debut film, Bekhudi (with Kajol) in 1992. Most people did not take him seriously because he came across as a blue-blooded brat who did not really require a career to survive. The fact is, far from throwing his weight around, Saif had to actually labour hard for more than a decade just to be accepted by Bollywood.
To make matters worse, when he started out, there was absolutely nothing about him to mark him out as hero material. At age 22, standing a little above 5 ½ feet and looking pale and skinny, he did not have a hope in hell to take on the likes of Sunny Deol and Sanjay Dutt, the then ruling hunks of Bollywood. His Hindi was anglicized (an obvious hangover from his Winchester College days in England) and he spoke with a pronounced rasp, faintly close to the baritone of his father, the legendary Nawab Mansoor Ali Khan of Pataudi. From his mother, yesteryear heroine Sharmila Tagore, he inherited a face that made him the butt of many Bollywood jokes. It looked as though Sharmila’s face was pasted on his. A lady editor who wrote derisively about the resemblance ended up with the furniture in her office being smashed by an angry Saif who barged in, allegedly to “assault” her. The incident became a court case and after that the media politely started calling him the “man with a funny face”.
Nevertheless, there were a few patronizing filmmakers like Umesh Mehra (Aashiq Awara), Ravindra Peepat (Aao Pyar Karein) and Harry Baweja (Imtihaan), who, out of respect towards the family, stood by Saif and gave him work during those initial years. But there is a limit to being over-indulgent, especially when all these solo-starrers were bombing at the box-office. Mehra, in fact, persisted with him for a second time with Yaar Gaadar, opposite Somy Ali. Lawrence D’Souza also tried him twice with Dil Tera Deewana and Aarzoo. But nothing seemed to work. From routine romances, Saif switched to doing comedy (Vikram Bhatt’s Bambai Ka Babu) and socials (Kundan Shah’s Kya Kehna). Still, he remained at a loose end.
Simultaneously, a strange thing happened. All films in which he was paired with another hero as the second or third lead, started doing remarkably well. Yash Chopra figured this out early on when he pitched Saif against Aamir Khan in Parampara in 1993. The very same year, Umesh Mehra pulled off another hit, Pehchan with Saif and Sunil Shetty. Then came the Saif-Akshay Kumar series, beginning with Naresh Malhotra’s Yeh Dillagi, Sameer Malkan’s Main Khiladi Tu Anadi, Guddu Dhanoa’s Tu Chor Main Sipahi… In between, Milan Luthria paired him with Ajay Devgan to produce another hit, Kachche Dhage while Sooraj Barjatya got Salman Khan to share screen space with him in Hum Saath Saath Hain. In fact, looking back now, it would be hard to identify a single mainstream hero (or heroine) with whom Saif has not worked.
The double-hero films Saif did during the nineties were as inconsequential as his solo starrers, except that they worked well commercially. There was really nothing about them to distinguish himself and all he was left with was to bask in the reflected glory of their success. The credit of course, was hogged by the first lead and by immediate extension, the heroine. The odd part is that Saif did not ever grudge being relegated to playing second fiddle to the main hero.
The turning point came in 2001 when Farhan Akhtar’s Dil Chahta Hai brought about a dramatic change in Saif’s approach to work and confidence level. Much as it was also a multi-starrer, the way he stood up to the equally high-powered performances of Aamir Khan and Akshaye Khanna, revealed a new resolve in him at proving himself as a serious actor. From then onwards, every character he played has been strongly etched and fleshed out, be it the spooky hotel guest with a penchant for cigarettes in Darna Mana Hai or Preity Zinta’s bumbling suitor in Kal Ho Na Ho, the manipulative conman who betrays his girl in Ek Hasina Thi or the carefree, flirtatious cartoonist in Hum Tum.
There were some disappointments also, such as Line Of Control (LoC) and Eklavya, but those were few and far between. By 2005, when he played a cool and refined Shekhar Roy (opposite Sanjay Dutt) in Parineeta he was on a strong footing and thereafter, it became clear that he was anxious to extend his repertoire with a variety of off-beat roles. Films as diverse as Being Cyrus, Omkara, Salaam Namaste and Tashan bear testimony to a healthy appetite for taking risks and more importantly, his in-born talent that has remained untapped for so long.
Today, if Saif is in such demand, it is for these reasons. He has come to be regarded as the most visible face of a resurgent Bollywood, a cinema that is at once bold, exuberant and bursting with raw energy. But more than anything else, here is one mainline actor who is constantly experimenting, reinventing himself, breaking new ground… For by now, pushing the bar has become a habit for him.

Bright Lights and Big Money in India’s New Cricket League

By SOMINI SENGUPTA
NAVI MUMBAI, India — With an infusion of bling, Bollywood and go-go boots, a new cricket league is trying to spin off India’s colonial inheritance into a money-making symbol of a brash, emerging nation.

Whether the Indian Premier League, as it is called, will ultimately succeed in cultivating a loyal fan base at home, challenging cricket’s world order and globalizing the game of the former British Empire remains to be seen. Already, it has upturned many conventions of an erstwhile gentleman’s game, drawn corporate sponsorships from multinational firms selling everything from cellphones to real estate and, with salaries comparable to the English Premier League of soccer, lured some of the top names in international cricket, including players from India’s traditional rivals, like Australia and even Pakistan.

The game itself is a fast and furious brand of cricket called Twenty20 — referring to 20 overs per team — in which games are played in about three hours. In contrast to the leisurely, ritualistic five-day matches played by men in white, this form of cricket is a loud and powerful display of batsmanship geared to grab eyeballs on prime-time television, and sponsored by Adidas (and Nike and Reebok).

Bollywood is just one part of Indian cinema: Nandita Das

Nandita Das has been called a filmstar ‘with a social conscience, more keen to talk about women’s empowerment and human rights than participate in the glamour of Bollywood.

Das gets candid on her directorial debut ‘In Such Times, her controversial choice of film roles in ‘Fire’ and ‘Bawandar’, an emotional visit to Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the Tsunami, and the honour of being a juror at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.

Q. So when most people around the world think of Indian cinema, I guess you know, automatically Bollywood springs to mind. As an Indian actress, though, you don’t seem to want any part of the Bollywood, sort of you know, saccharine sugarness, do you think that’s true?

I’m not size zero: Kareena
6 May 2008, 0000 hrs IST,JAYA DRONA ,TNN

Kareena Kapoor hardly steps out alone these days.

Boyfriend Saif Ali Khan ensures that he’s there with Bebo everywhere, all the time. So even when she came to the city to perform at a private party over the weekend, he was there. He first waited for Bebo backstage, then in his room and finally in the hotel lounge.

Now, how does Bebo explain Saif’s all-pervasive presence? “Saif does one film at a time and I do around five. I’m a workaholic and am constantly on the go. There’s work happening in my life always but his life is different from mine.” Is she implying that Saif isn’t a workaholic? “Not that, it is just that he, on principle, does just one film at a time,” she answers. Saif’s one film or Kareena’s five, nothing stops Saif from wearing his heart on his sleeve – from his tattoo to cutting his hand to show how much he loved her to accompanying Kareena to all events?

Saif walks out of Farhan Akhtar’s film

Vajir Singh, Hindustan Times

Mumbai, May 06, 2008