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Friday, January 23, 2009

Rahman notches up 3 Oscar nominations

Continuing his spectacular run, A R Rahman today became the first Indian to get three Oscar nominations for his score in British-Indian movie Slumdog Millionaire, which was also nominated for seven other categories, including best film and best director.

Rahman has been nominated for Best Original Score and the numbers ‘Jai Ho’ and ‘O Saya’ have been shortlisted for the Best Original Song. Close on the heels of the dual-language film winning four Golden Globes, including one for Rahman, earlier this month, Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy have been shortlisted for best director and best adapted screenplay categories, respectively.

The film also won nominations in picture, cinematography, sound mixing, sound editing and film editing. The nominations were announced at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Samuel Goldwyn Theatre by Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker. The awards will be announced on February 22 at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre.

This is the first time that an Indian has won more than one nomination in the history of Oscars. Reacting to the nominations, Rahman said: “I did not think it will get there. God has been really kind. And I have to really thank all the people for their prayers and their good wishes.

“Something good is happening and I am really happy about it,” he said, adding there is a kind of optimism in the film and so much of positive vibes as you leave the movie hall.

Co-director Loveleen Tandon said: “We have proved everyone wrong. It's a crazy feeling beyond words. Ten nominations is something unbelievable.” She said Rahman’s work has been awarded and the “world has finally woken up to his talent”. In the original score category, Rahman will compete with Alexandre Desplat (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), James Newton Howard (Defiance), Danny Elfman (Milk) and Thomas Newman (WALL-E). Rahman will compete with Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman (‘Down to earth’ from WALL-E) in the original song category. Gulzar has penned the lyrics of ‘Jai Ho’ and Maya Arulpragasam ‘O Saya’.

The romantic periodical The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, starring Brad Pitt, topped this years Oscar race with a whopping 13 nominations. The films in the race for best picture are Milk, Frost/Nixon, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Reader.

Those nominated in the best director category along with Boyle are David Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Stephen Daldry (The Reader), Gus Van Sant (Milk) and Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon).

Monday, January 19, 2009

Ban directors from other boards: CLB on Satyam scam

The government has approached the Company Law Board (CLB) with a request that all former directors of scam-hit Satyam Computers should be banned from becoming directors in other companies in India.

“One of the provisions in the Companies Act under section 388B(1)(a) is that if CLB finds that directors have not discharged their responsibilities properly, they can be banned from becoming directors in any other company,” said a senior official in the ministry of corporate affairs.

The request was in a petition filed January 9.

The CLB is understood to be waiting for responses to be filed by all nine directors — B Ramalinga Raju, Rama Raju, Ram Mynampati, Mangalam Srinivasan, Krishna Paleppu, Vinod Dham, M Rammohan Rao, V S Raju and T R Prasad — by February 20 on Raju's disclosures.

This development explains why many former Satyam directors have started resigning from other company boards.

Former cabinet secretary TR Prasad has already resigned from the boards of GMR Infra and Taj GVK. Professor M Rammohan Rao stepped down as Dean of the Indian School of Business, the BEL board and a government panel. Vinod Dham resigned from Sasken.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Rahman wins Golden Globe for Slumdog Millionaire

Music maestro A R Rahman, who became the first Indian to win the prestigious Golden Globe Award, dedicated it to the "billion people of India," as British Director Danny Boyle's Mumbai-based saga 'Slumdog Millionaire,' bagged four prizes at the ceremony today. A Mumbai underdog's rags-to-riches story, 'Slumdog Millionaire', swept all the four categories it was nominated for, winning the best director award for Boyle, the best music score for Rahman, best screenplay for Simon Beaufoy and also in the category of best drama.

Rahman, who won the coveted prize for his music score 'Jai Ho' in the film, thanked the director and his fellow musicians in Mumbai and Chennai, besides the "billion people from India".

"Unbelievable..! I thought, I would not win, so anyways thanks to the almighty God for bringing me here... Danny Boyle, Fox pictures, all my musicians in Chennai, Mumbai,.. and the billion people from India," he said while accepting the award.

Director Danny Boyle bagged the best director award, while Simon Beaufoy won the best screenplay award for the film that starred Bollywood actors Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan and British Indian Dev Patel.

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who was at the ceremony to represent India, introduced the film to the foreign audience with 'Slumdog' actress Frieda Pinto. It is also the first Golden Globe for 52-year-old Boyle, who is expected to be among the favourites at next month's Oscars following the phenomenal success of the film at award circuits.