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Ayesha Takia was born with an Anglo-Indian Muslim origin on 10^th April, 1986 in Mumbai and started acting by the time she was 18 and therefore, never enrolled for graduation. Her onscreen debut was a child artist for Complan alongside Shahid Kapoor with whom she later starred in three movies. She featured in two music videos: one with Falguni Pathak but the other one “Shake it daddy” made her popular.

Her debut movie was “Taarzan: The wonder car” and despite the disastrous performance of the movie, she won the Filmfare Best Debut award that year. Most of her movies have failed at box office, but her roles have stood out in almost all of them. Her moist powerful role till date remains in “Dor” where she played a young widow who wants to enjoy her life despite the death of her husband. She won much acclaim and awards for her role.

“Socha na tha” was supposed to be her debut movie but got delayed and by then, she was a two movie veteran. Her other movies include “Dil Maange More”, “Shaadi no. 1”, “Shaadi se pehle”, Salaam-e-ishq”, “No Smoking” and the most recent, “Sunday”. “No Smoking” was again alternative cinema and the movie drew positive reviews from critics.

Her long list of upcoming movies looks promising to change her track record and deliver a series of records.

Apoorva Lakhia is one of those Indian directors who have done most of their initial projects in Hollywood as an assistant director. He started his career as an assistant director in the movie “Kama Sutra: A tale of love” and then, left for Hollywood projects where he worked on movies like “The ice storm”, “A perfect murder” and “Addicted to love”.

Having earned exposure to great learning projects abroad, he came back to India to work as an assistant for Ashutosh Gowarikar’s Oscar nominated movie “Lagaan: Once upon a time in India”. His resume caught the attention and fancy of many producers and he finally got the big break in 2002 with “Mumbai se aaya mera dost” starring Bachchan Jr. His next movie saw the Big Bachchan joining the cast as he tried to remake “Man of fire” in Bollywood as “Ek ajnabee”. “Shootout at Lokhandwala” became his most successful box office movie and was a multi-star cast with both the Bachchans appearing together this time. This movie was based on the life of Bombay based underworld gangsters and is inspired from the real-life stories of Maya Dolas and Dilip Buwa.

The recent movie “Dus kahaniyaan” offered a bouquet of ten stories of which one named “Sex on the beach” was directed by Apporva Lakhia. The box office has high expectations from his next movie “Mission Istanbul” starring Vivek Oberoi, Sunil Shetty, Shriya Saran and Zayed Khan.

Sanjay Suri started his career as a model when he reached New Delhi and promoted brands like Gillette, Nilkamal Furniture and Times of India. He made his Bollywood entry with “Pyar Mein Kabhi Kabhi” with co-actors Dino Morea and Rinkie Khanna. His supporting role in the movie was highly appreciated even though the movie flopped.

Success at the box office eluded Sanjay despite power packed performances in all of his movies since “Pyar Mein Kabhi Kabhi”. His releases during that period included “Daman: A victim of marital violence” with Raveena Tandon and “Filhaal” and “Dil Vil Pyar Vyar”. All his roles established him as a great actor but the movies bombed. Another release of his, “Pinjar” with Urmila Matondkar was set on a story line during the Indo-Pak partition and earned critical fame but commercial success still remained a dream.

His success at the box office came with the movie “Jhankaar Beats” where he played the lead opposite Juhi Chawla and succeeded in wooing the audiences to the theatres. His movies and roles have always received great support even though the movie did not perform as well as expected. Among his recent releases like “My Brother..Nikhil” and “Bas ek pal”, he was again paired with Juhi Chawla but the movies did not click anywhere except in Mumbai.

Dia Mirza was born on 9th December, 1981 to a German-Bengali couple in Hyderabad. The actress retains a Muslim name though she practices Hinduism. She became Miss Asia Pacific 2000 after being a second runner up in the Miss India competition that year.

Dia gave up her graduation in Arts as she got busy with her modeling assignments and movies. Her Bollywood entry was far from a dream one as most of her movies were disastrous at the box office. Her first film was “Deewanapan” closely followed by “Rehna hai tere dil mein” opposite Madhavan and Saif Ali Khan. Her other projects were “Tumko na bhool payenge”, “Tehzeeb”, “Pran jaye par shaan na jaye”, “Dum”, “Stop”, “Tumsa nahi dekha”, “Kyun! Ho gaya na..”, “Blackmail”, “Parineeta”, “Dus”, “Phir hera pheri”, “Lagey raho Munnabhai” and a few others. Among these movies, “Dum” is the only hit movie with her as the female lead.

Her performance as a supporting artist was well appreciated in the movies “Dus”, “Parineeta” and “Lagey raho Munnabhai”. Besides movies, she has also featured in music videos like “Kajra Mohabbat wala” with Sonu Nigam. Her upcoming releases are “Naa Naa karte” and “Familywala”. Besides these, she is on the cast of 7-8 other movies.

Amrita Rao was born on 7^th June 1981 in Mumbai and did her schooling and graduation in Mumbai. She is a graduate from Sophia College in psychology. During her college years, she moved to modeling and promoted brands like Fairever Face Cream, Perk and Bru. These movies earned her calls from directors but she refused the offers in lieu of studies.

After graduation, she debuted in “Ab ke baras” opposite Aryan Babbar but the movie did not click. She re-appeared in Bollywood in the love story ‘Ishk Vishk” and her performance was very much appreciated and she was nominated as the Filmfare best female debutant and won the IIFA award as well. She appeared all set to step in the big shoes of Bollywood lead actresses with spectacular success in “Masti”, “Main Hoon Na” and “Vivah”. “Vivah” brought her back with her “Ishk Vishk” lead Shahid Kapoor and remains her most successful movie till date. She also earned a Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Award for her performance in “Vivah”.

Meanwhile she chose a few weak plots to work on like “Deewar”, “Vaah! Life ho to aisi”, “Shikhar”, “Pyare Mohan” and “My name is Anthony Gonsalves” which bombed at the box office and earned her poor reviews from the critic. Such poor selection of movies led her to no releases in Bollywood in 2007 but she starred in a Telegu hit “Athidhi” during this period.

Anubhav Sinha is a 42 year old veteran who has showed lots of promise and potential but is yet to hit homerun on the celluloid screen. Anubhav Sinha was born in Allahabad and did his early schooling in Allahabad and Varanasi before going on to become a mechanical engineering graduate from the Aligarh Muslim University. After trying his fortunes as an engineer, Anubhav realized his true dreams and started as an assistant director in 1990. Four years of experience served as an ideal launch pad for him to start as an independent director.

His talent was first appreciated with “Shikasht” and he got selected for a TV show “Sea Hawks” on UTV. The show went to don the TRP ratings for thirty five weeks across all the networks. Having conquered the silver screen, he went about establishing a niche for himself in the music video industry and worked on 75 music videos. Bollywood seemed to be the only hurdle left in India and with that goal set, he went about his business.

His first feature film “Tum Bin” released in 2001 with fresh faces as leading stars and remains one of the most appreciated romantic movies featuring newcomers in lead parts. Other works of his include “Aap ko pehle bhi kahin dekha hai”, “Dus”, “Tathastu” and “Cash”. None of these movies have been great money spinners yet but all of them have done considerable business at the box office. The critics have been very supportive of Anubhav appreciating his talent and class.

Ritesh Deshmukh was born on 17^th December, 1978 in Latur to Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh, present chief minister of Maharashtra. He completed his schooling and graduation in Mumbai before moving to New York to join the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute.

His Bollywood debut was in 2004 against Genelia D’souza in the movie “Tujhe meri kasam” which enjoyed moderate success at the box office. It was only in his third movie “Masti” that he became a known face and was established as a good comic leads in movies. He tried serious roles in movies like “Bardaasht” and ”Naach” but later decided to take comic roles rather than serious ones.

His popular movies which established his rank as a comedian and also, impressed the box office charts include “Kya kool hai hum”, “Mr ya Miss”, “Bluffmaster”, “Malamaal weekly”, “Apna Sapna Money Money”, “Hey Baby” and “Dhamaal”.  “Hey Baby” remains his most successful movie till date where he plays a Casanova who later changes completely after adopting a baby girl. He also appeared in Om Shanti Om. His future projects include “De Taali” and “Aladdin and the mystery of the lamp”.

He has won the best comedian award for his roles in the movie “Masti” and “Bluffmaster”.

Amisha Patel delivered three consecutive super hits including “Kaho Naa.. Pyar Hai” and “Gadar: Ek Prem Katha” and announced her entry in Bollywood. Both the movies did handsome business and Amisha was also shown thumbs up by the critics. She won the best debutant award for “Kaho Naa.. Pyar Hai” at almost all the award functions. She was also awarded a Filmfare Special Performance award for Gadar. But then, her magic touch was lost and she had to wait till 2006 for appreciation of her acting talent in the movie “Ankahee”. Another hit of hers was “Bhool bhulaiya” where she starred opposite Akshay Kumar. Meanwhile, she appeared in “Humraaz” as well which was turned out to be a hit.

Her long list of flops includes “Yeh Zindagi Ka Safar”, “Kya Yehi Pyaar Hai”, “The Rising”, “Mere Jeevan Saathi”, “Humko Tumse Pyaar Hai”, “Teesri Aankh” and “Aap ki khatir”. “Ankahee” worked as a straw to save her sinking career. The story was inspired from her ex-boyfriend’s real life and she played the role of his wife in the movie. She impressed in “Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd.” Where she played the wife of a man confused about his sexual preferences. Her current projects are “Thoda pyar thoda magic”, “Do lucky” and “Chatur Singh Two star”.

Before making her career in films, Amisha graduated from Tufts University and worked for Morgan Stanley.

Anant Mahadevan is an actor who later became a director. He started his career with the television serials and made his way up into the movies. He acted in serials like “The sword of Tipu Sultan” and then, went to feature in character roles in more than 50 Bollywood movies, the latest being “Eight by Ten” by Nagesh Kukunoor.

His career as a director began with the TV serial “Indradhanush” in 1989 but he had to wait till 2002 to get a break as a movie director. His first film “Dil Vil Pyar Vyar” with Madhavan, Jimmy Shergill and Sanjay Suri was highly appreciated though did not perform as expected at the box office. His later projects included a few movies with Emran Hashmi, Tusshar Kapoor, Jimmy Shergill and Shahid Kapoor like “Aksar”, “Aggar”, “Victoria no. 203” and “Dil maange more”.

Other movies in the pipeline include “Meeting se meeting tak” and “Anamika”. Anant will work with Akshay Kumar for the first time in Anamika though Ayesha Takia had worked with him earlier in “Dil maange more”.

Aftab Shivdasani was born in Mumbai on 25^th June, 1978 (he shares his birth date with his father) and did his graduation from H R College of commerce. Even during his school days, he was actively involved in movies and featured in various movies as a child artist. His earliest movies were “Mr. India”, “Shahenshah”, “Chaalbaaz” and “Insaniyat”.

His career as a senior lead artist started when Ram Gopal Verma gave him a break in his movie “mast” in 1999 opposite Urmila Matondkar. The movie did not do any wonders but he was awarded the Filmfare best debut award for his role in the movie “Mast”. After “Mast”, he appeared in many movies, most of which enjoyed moderate success at the box office though none of them went on to become a super hit. His much appreciated performances were in “Kasoor” where he played a negative role and won the award for best actor in a villainous role in 2002, “Awara Paagal Deewana”, “Hungama” and “Masti” where he played comic roles.

A few of his movies turned out to be a disaster at the box office which included “Mr ya miss” and the multi starrer “Jaani Dushman”. A common joke usually associated with Aftab’s movies is that he prefers singing a dream sequence in the movie with his opposite lead in the movie.

 Inflation has led to payment pressure which in turn has increased debt burden. People have to now cut their expenditures in different areas rather in some instances, to manage their position with the available funds; some have changed lifestyles as well. Credit counseling, thought not very popular is the need of hour to handle situation in a profitable manner.

If an individual has taken or is planning to take a debt burden, the process of explaining the impact of this burden is called Credit counseling. An individual is also explained the ways to address the debt burden and is showed a path to come out of it.  Regular interaction to understand an individual’s position and to gain his confidence to assure the required steps are taken is the key to the success of credit counseling. 

Debt, asking for regular service, is always a problem if it is unmanageable. In tough financial state, it often becomes hard to cope with the interest and repayments. Restructuring or changing of debt is required in such situations, to ensure the funds being placed and employed effectively. It also means starting a new debt to close the existing one.

Spending everything what is earned often makes financial state extremely tight as there is no margin for error if budget is planned in such a way. There is no backup in case something goes wrong. This results into postponing or sacrificing planned requirements to meet the contingency need. It is always wise to keep a margin in the budget for any immediate requirements. 

The position varies from individual to individual according to the circumstances that affect him/her, thus every case in credit counseling is unique and is seen in different light altogether. Proper understanding of the situation, helps in extending a helping hand to an individual to set things right and to get back on the track of financial adequacy.

Listing of real estate companies has brought a turnaround in the business and towards the perception about the sector. It has, for the first time highlighted the challenges the sector is facing. The urban planning is one of the major concerns this sector has to deal with. Economic growth forcing infrastructural development is an imperative. Reforms are required in Land acquisition because of saturation of good land bank in metros.

Real estate finance growth is for sure in terms of public and private equity and debt. High net worth individuals, mutual funds, close ended and PE funds, leads the markets currently in private equity space. Entry of global players in collaboration with national players in the industry may result in landscape change. Success in the emerging market bet on emerging trends and defining strategies accordingly.Urbanization today is driven by educated, professional workforce joined by rise in the middle class with higher disposable income, which is favouring the Indian developers. This would be the prime factor for a boom in the sector in year 2008. With nearly double digit growth in its GDP, India has an edge over other developing countries. All we need now is flexible government policies and reforms in the sector to offer an affordable housing in the country.

With a growth of over 8% in the last two years and an anticipated growth of over 7% in the coming 5 years, India being world’s fourth largest economy promises the demand of real estate outdistance the supply of real estate in all the major economic hubs of the country. There is a paradigm shift in terms of growth in real estate in metro cities. This boom would continue to gallop the Tier II and Tier III cities also, which would make them first preference of the realty players.

Over 150 million sq. ft space would be required by IT & ITeS by the end of 2010. With retail industry getting organized an additional 220 million sq. ft space would be required by then. Looking at the promising opportunities in the sectors international players and foreign direct investments inflow has been estimated over US $6 billion.

Developers are no more local players now, rather called as Pan India players, they have operations in all infrastructure verticals which has made Indian real estate sector one of the fastest growing sectors.  Construction and facility management put together with real estate makes this sector the second largest employment generator in the country which has linked more than 250 adjuvant industries like cement, brick and steel through back and forth links. Though there is an acute shortage of technical manpower in this sector, a unit increase in the sector has a multiplier effect and the capacity to generate five times higher incomes.

It was fast batting this time coupled with bowling which helped KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS defeat BANGALORE ROYAL CHALLANGERS……easily. This opening match of cricket’s richest tournament ever played ($2bn) got a breathtaking start with fireworks and lasers in the sky; acrobats, rockers, dancers and cheerleaders on the ground.

One thing which I think everyone forget to look at is the rule book which I am sure would surprise the players and the viewers equally since this new format of the game has some strange rules clubbed with it. Have a look:

8-MINUTE RULE: If the player is absent from the field for longer than 8 minutes, he shall not be permitted to bowl in that innings after his return until he has been on the field for at least that length of playing time for which he was absent. He shall also not be permitted to bat unless or until, he has returned to the field and/or his side’s innings has been in progress for at least that length of playing time for which he has been absent or, if earlier, when his side has lost five wickets. There are some exceptions to this rule.

LIMITED OVERS:  No bowler shall bowl more than 4 overs in an innings.

PRE MATURE MATCHES: If the innings of the side batting second is suspended (with at least 5 overs bowled) and it is not possible for the match to be resumed, the match will be decided by the Duckworth-Lewis method  “Par Score” determined at the instant of the suspension by the Duckworth-Lewis method. If the score is equal to the par score, the match is a Tie. Otherwise the result is a victory or defeat, by the margin of runs by which the score exceeds, or falls short of the Par Score.

NO BALL-FREE HIT: The delivery following a no ball called for a foot fault shall be a free hit for whichever batsman is facing it. For any free hit, the striker can be dismissed only under the circumstances that apply for a no ball (run out) even if the delivery for the free hit is called wide ball. Field changes are not permitted for free hit deliveries unless there is a change of striker.

TIMED OUT: If the incoming batsman has not taken guard to receive the next ball within 1 minute 30 seconds of the fall of the previous wicket, he shall be deemed out.

FIELD RESTRICTIONS: Fielding restrictions shall apply for the first six overs of each innings. During the restriction, only two fielders shall be permitted outside the circle. At the instant of delivery, there may not be more than 5 fieldsmen on the leg side. During the non Fielding Restriction overs, no more than 5 fieldsmen shall be permitted outside the fielding restriction area. In case of an infringement of these restrictions, the square leg umpire shall call and signal “NO BALL”.

BODYLINE BOWLING: A bowler shall be limited to one fast short pitched delivery per over. A fast short- pitched delivery is defined as a ball which passes or would have passed about the shoulder height of the striker standing upright at the crease. If a bowler delivers second fast short pitched ball in an over, the umpire, call of no ball.

BOWL OUT: Similar to a penalty-shoot out in football, if the game ends in a tie, a bowl-out will be adopted to decide the outcome of the game, as it happed in the India- Pakistan league game of T20 world cup, 2007. The bowlers will bowl from the same end. 5 minutes prior to the start of the bowl out, the captains shall toss a coin for the right to decide which team bowls first or second in the bowl out. The referee will supervise the toss in the normal manner. The captains shall nominate their five bowlers in writing to the referee prior to the toss. 

 SIGHTSCREENS AND ADVERTISEMENTS:  Sightscreens shall be provided at both ends of all grounds. Advertising shall be permitted on the sightscreen behind the striker, providing it is removed for the subsequent over from that end. Such advertising shall not contain flashing or flickering images.

 Cricket has evolved from an all white five day game to one-day game. It then transformed a part of it to the day and night games giving huge relief to the viewers and the players of course. Time changed and the whites were replaced by different colors on the field. With changing pace of the human thought and belief and to bring more excitement in the game a new format was introduced in the form of T20. 

All this happened in just a few decades. It may be called as evolution or degeneration, according to the viewpoint you hold, there is no denying of the fact that the game gained popularity, excitement and of course money.

Asian countries, particularly India & Pakistan have a huge population which considers Cricket as religion. This is the only factor that India Inc bank upon the crickets the most. It also has impacted the other sports in India though one may not agree largely on this. Here comes IPL with yet another form of the game- on the lines of English Premier League, though the idea was first materialized by Subhash Chandra led ZEE group when they introduced ICL last year. Was it successful or not that’s a different story.

With imported (Hollywood style) cheerleaders, dancing to the tunes of Bollywood, Stars from Bollywood and India Inc joining in the crazy Indian cricket fans, Bangalore is all set to kick-off the IPL- an Indian version of T20 Cricket.

In the next one and a half month approximately, IPL with a taste of Bollywood masala in it is going to present the most sought after gamble that would land the big tycoons from different industries, who have spent billions to have the teams and players of their choice, in sea. It may also have a positive outcome that may change the entire outlook of the game of cricket all over the world.

In an attempt to make it a look alike of professional sports models of baseball, basketball and football, IPL would try to switch the loyalty of an Indian cricket fan. Tendulkar bowled out by Brett Lee is never enjoyed in India at large, which may not be the case this time. As it happened in PHL, a Pakistani player beating Indian goalkeeper would result into CHAK DE, which no longer is the case. .

Has BCCI given birth to BHASMASURA, who may ruin the richest board of world cricket?

As the Olympic torch coming closer to complete its Indian leg, the series of protest, back-outs, unfoiling of plots to disrupt the relay as expected are coming true.

As more than 100 activists supporting Tibet cause, under the leadership of TIBETIAN YOUTH CONGRESS, tried to intrude into the CHINESE embassy in New Delhi today. Shouting and holding banners reading messages like “Free Tibet”, “Stop cultural genocide”, and “No Olympics in China”, the protestors also shouted HU JINTAO MURDABAD ( down with Hu Jintao). A timely action from Delhi police though nipped it in the bud.

Indian government has deployed more than 15000 policemen and personnel from Para Military forces to avoid any incident which disrupted the Olympic relay in London and Paris. The two-kilometer route of the relay has been turned into a highly protected area. In an effort to avoid leaving no stone unturned for the safe completion of the DELHI-LEG of the Olympic torch relay, the government has  cancelled the participation of over 2200 school children, for security reason, which was planned otherwise.

Security agencies are on high alert to arrest any attempt to disrupt the relay. In a significant development, THE INTELLIGENCE BUREAU has sent an alert about a few Chinese nationals who are in the capital to pose threat to the torch. More importantly, their names, hideouts, modus operandi and above all photographs have been identified and issued. They are suspected to have entered from Nepal to India. The Chinese government is equally worried about the relay and is in constant touch with its Indian counterpart.

 At home, after Bhaichung Bhutia- national football captain, Kiran Bedi- first female IPS offices, M. S. Gill- former election commissioner and sitting Sports Minister, Soha Ali Khan- Bollywood actress, it is Sachin Tendulkar who would be missing from the relay. Though his reason is fitness related, it is suspected that the Indian Olympic Association was not taken into confidence while taking this decision.

Gill also advocated that only the athletes and sportspersons should run in the Olympic relay, giving birth to yet another controversy, though in mild tone. The torch, currently completing its Pakistan-leg would be in Delhi late tonight. Looking at what happened in London and Paris, it would be an acid test for the Indian authorities.