A top White House official hosted US non-governmental groups who face tough new Chinese security laws, a high-profile statement of concern as Xi Jinping arrived in the United States.
White House National Security Advisor Susan Rice met several representatives from among the universities, businesses and rights groups that would be forced to register and report to the Chinese security services if the draft law enters into force. "Today's discussion focused on concerns that the draft legislation would further narrow space for civil society in China," the White House said in a statement that came hours after the Chinese leader landed in the United States.
Sources familiar with Rice's talks said it included some organisations that receive US government grants. The controversial draft law looks set to be yet another area of contention when Xi meets President Barack Obama at the White House on Friday for a summit designed to strengthen ties.
"I think the president will make that clear," a senior administration official told AFP, describing the draft law as "deeply troubling" and its impact "very unfortunate." "We are going to find some opportunities to speak out on that issue and also find an opportunity to meet some of the stakeholders involved." The Obama-Xi summit has already been beset by arguments over cyber hacking and China's increasingly assertive land grabs in the South China Sea.
"Our concern with the law is profound," said the official. "First of all it is very broad, it gives a huge role to the ministry of public security, not the ministry of civil affairs that used to manage these groups. "I have heard a number of these groups saying that they are having to question whether they will remain in China, whether they will curtail their activities in China or whether they will cancel plans to establish a presence in China." The White House said the legislation could hinder services to the Chinese people and "constrain US-China people-to-people exchanges."
A Saudi Arabian prisoner, believed to be the bodyguard for Osama Bin Laden, has been sent home from Guantanamo Bay after more than a decade behind bars, said the Pentagon.
According to ABC News, Abdul Shalabi was arrested in December 2001 by Pakistani forces and was transferred to Guantanamo Bay the following month. The US defence department has said that the 39-year-old was a member of al Qaeda and a longtime bodyguard of Bin Laden.
The US defence department also said that he received specialised combat training for his role as a suicide operative in an aborted component of 9/11 attacks on the US.
More people around the world have died while taking selfies than from shark attacks this year, according to media reports.
In 2015 so far, at least 12 people have been killed in selfie-related incidents worldwide compared to eight from shark attacks.
Recently, a 66-year-old Japanese tourist died, and his travel companion was injured, after falling down the stairs while attempting to take a selfie at the Taj Mahal. Four of the selfie deaths this year, like the Japanese tourist, were caused by falling.
The next leading cause of deaths involving selfies was being hit or injured by trains, either because the individual was trying to get a photo with a train or because the photo they wanted involved getting on dangerous equipment, was reported.
Earlier this month, a 19-year-old boy in the US died after accidentally shooting himself in the throat while taking selfies with a loaded gun. In contrast, 74 unprovoked shark attacks have occurred this year, by the Global Shark Attack File's count, eight of which were fatal.
Also, despite at least 22 shark encounters along the US East Coast this summer, only one shark attack death has occurred along an American coastline so far this year, and that was in Hawaii, according to 'www.weather.com'.
According to records, it was the only shark attack death in the US since December 2013. Selfie-related dangerous incidents have led Russian government to start a campaign urging residents to take safe selfies.
In Denver, Colorado, the Waterton Canyon, a wildlife park was shut down after tourists kept getting too close to bears in their attempts to take selfies. Disney themes parks have also banned the use of selfie sticks over safety concerns.
Zerodium, a cyber security firm, has offered up a US $1 million bounty for anyone who can expose a zero-day exploit that can jailbreak iOS 9 devices. The firm, which gathers exploit details and countermeasures and then distributes them it to it's clients, has put out a call for "exclusive, browser-based, and untethered jailbreaks for the latest Apple iOS 9 operating system and devices," it said in a blog post on Monday.
Jailbreaking an iOS device is term that refers to exploits that bypass Apple's security restrictions to give users root access. allowing them to install apps from a third party. “Eligible submissions must include a full chain of unknown, unpublished, and unreported vulnerabilities/exploits (aka zero-days) which are combined to bypass all iOS 9 exploit mitigations including: ASLR, sandboxes, rootless, code signing, and bootchain,” Zerodium's iOS 9 Bug Bounty page says. This means the company only wants exploits that can be triggered remotely, just by the iOS user visiting a web page, for instance, or reading a text message.
While iPhone jailbreaks are not new, even Zeridium admits their OS security systems have come a long way. Due to the increasing number of security improvements and the effectiveness of exploit mitigations in place, Apple's iOS is currently the most secure mobile OS. But don't be fooled, secure does not mean unbreakable," its blog post staunchly states. As such, the company has set aside a total of US $3 million towards it's Million Dollar iOS 9 Bug Bounty program. Each individual or team that submits a valid entry can be paid a one million dollar sum, which includes Zerodium acquiring the rights to resell said exploit. The program is open till October 31 2015, or until the entire amount has been paid out to the winning cybersecurity teams.
The national selection committee, headed by Sandeep Patil, picked a young India A squad full of IPL performers for the upcoming one-off warm-up T20 tour opener against the touring South African side scheduled to be played at the Air force Ground in Palam on September 29.
The selection committee, however, did not name any captain for the match.
While most of the 12-member side played at the India 'A' level, the newest entrants are leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal of Royal Challengers Bangalore, left-arm spinner Pawan Negi of Chennai Super Kings and one of last season's finds Hardik Pandya of Mumbai Indians.
The average age of the team is around 25 with the senior most being Kings XI Punjab and Railways pacer Anureet Singh at 27 and the youngest being chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav of KKR.
Former India U-23 captain and T20 specialist Suryakumar Yadav also made the cut. Mayank Agarwal, after a good time for India A in the List A games, was an automatic selection.
The only questionable selection in the squad was Punjab's Manan Vohra, who has not done anything either for Punjab in domestic cricket or Kings XI Punjab in IPL to warrant a place in the side. In the 10 T20 matches that Vohra played last season, not for once did he cross the individual score of 40.
Seeking to attract overseas investments, the Reserve Bank will soon come out with a draft paper on liberalising external commercial borrowings (ECB) norms, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said here today.
Besides, he said, the government is also planning to remove various conditions and restrictions to make the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy more progressive and make the country an attractive investment destination.
"We are in close discussions with RBI. We have had a few discussions in the last few weeks, and very shortly, based on mutual discussions between the Finance Ministry and RBI, the Reserve Bank will be putting out a draft paper for liberalisation of certain ECB norms," Das said while addressing an Assocham conference.
The liberalised ECB norms would be finalised after inviting comments from stakeholders, he said, adding the norms would be relaxed keeping in view the overall external position and monetary stability.
ECB has implications for monetary stability as it adds to the country's overall external debt and future repayment liability.
"Very short time will be given for suggestions (by stakeholders). Just to ensure we have not lost out on any point, it will be our effort to liberalise ECB... without causing any harm to essential inherent financial and monetary stability of India. We will, to the extent possible, liberalise various norms so that funds are available to corporates and other investors in India," he added.
Referring to FDI, Das said the government is looking at further reforming the foreign investment regime.
"The next area we are looking at is with regard to FDI reforms... new sectors have been opened up and sectoral caps have been liberalised, but there is a lot more to do," he said.
The FDI policy has various conditions and restrictions, he said.
"The effort is to make FDI policy simple and progressive.
I won't be able to spell out details because it is work in progress," he added.
The NDA government has relaxed FDI policy norms in various sectors, including defence, insurance, construction, medical devices and railway.
Its 'Make In India' drive is aimed at making the country a global investment hub.
The government, Das further said, will continue to take policy initiatives without waiting for the 2016-17 Budget.
"In terms of priority and direction of government policy in coming months and weeks, as we go to the Budget... it's not the case that the government will wait for the Budget.
Policy initiatives is round the clock, a 24x7 exercise and it will continue. The government will initiate a series of reform measures from time to time," he said.
Wind turbine manufacturer Suzlon has said that it has bagged contracts from SMEs and public sector undertakings (PSU) to supply 50 turbines of 2.1 MW each in various parts of the country.
"Suzlon has been awarded orders for a combined capacity of 105 MW from a mix of SME and PSU customers, on turnkey basis, in this quarter," the company said in a statement.
Under the contracts, Suzlon will install a total of 50 turbines of 2.1 MW product platform in the key windy states, it said.
Suzlon will supply its multi-megawatt S95-90m, S97- 90m, S97-120m turbines and will leverage on its turnkey wind solutions expertise to oversee the project operations from start to end, the statement further said.
The projects will be located across Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
"We continue to have a strong focus on the Indian market as it offers a favourable renewable energy environment.
We will leverage our manufacturing facilities across India and continue to partner with our clients to contribute towards renewable energy portfolio," Suzlon Chairman Tulsi Tanti said.
He added, "We are confident that our business will add value to the energy security needs of our country." The company said that many of these orders have been placed by SMEs for captive usage thus enabling them to freeze their long term captive power cost and incur substantial savings.
Explosives were recovered on the down Falaknuma Express at Howrah station on Wednesday morning.
As many as six cylindrical objects containing explosives were placed inside two abandoned bags which were found in the general compartment of the train. GRP and RPF officials rushed to the spot and informed the West Bengal CID.
The Bomb Disposal Squad immediately reached the Howrah station and took the abandoned bags to a deserted area near platform one. The area was cordoned off and one cylindrical object was defused. The remaining five are still to be defused.
Forensic officials have also reached the spot to determine the nature of explosives. Meanwhile, the railway authorities have begun an investigation into this case.
Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with US President Barack Obama next week, the two countries have decided to further deepen their security and economic cooperation and increase bilateral trade five-fold to $500 billion.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj co-chaired the first India-US Strategic and Commercial Dialogue that ended with the important takeaway of a joint statement on combating terrorism, reinforcing commercial ties and securing access to US inward investment and technology.
The dialogue also helped the two countries move towards the goal of making their ties the defining relationship of the 21st century and increase bilateral trade from $100 billion to $500 billion a year.
Kerry said the US-India relationship is a "bright spot on the international landscape and is one of the most important bilateral relationships in the world."
"President Obama and our entire administration are strongly committed to this relationship, to this friendship.
And President Obama looks forward to meeting with Prime Minister Modi next week in New York," he said at a joint press conference with Swaraj after the meeting here yesterday.
Briefing about the meeting, he said, "We have concluded a very significant Memorandum of Understanding on energy security, climate change, and clean energy." "We have renewed our joint commitment to maritime security, international law, and the peaceful resolution of disputes in the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean regions," he said, adding that the two countries will implement measures to deepen their cooperation against international terrorism, which has claimed too many lives in both the nations.
Swaraj said the joint statement reiterates commitment of the two countries on common approach against terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Haqqani network and the D-Company.
"We (India and the US) reiterate that the threat posed by al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, D-Company (Dawood Ibrahim), Haqqani network and other regional groups undermines stability in South Asia. And we call to Pakistan to bring to justice the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack," Swaraj told reporters.
"We (India and the US) strongly condemn the July 27, 2015 terrorist attack in Gurdaspur, Punjab, and August 5, 2015 attack in Udhampur," she said of the terror assaults in India which were carried out by terrorists based in Pakistan.
Swaraj said the joint statement states that the two countries are determined to fight terrorism to the end.
In response to a question, Kerry said the two countries are committed to bringing all their efforts together in this fight against terrorism.
"It is clearly one of the most fruitful, one of the most productive bilateral relationships that I have the privilege to work on," Kerry said.
"We shared our strategic priorities, interests, and concerns on issues of mutual interest, including security and counter-terrorism, confidences in India's Act East policy, and the US rebalance in Asia," Swaraj said.
She said the two sides also talked about creating new substantive underpinnings to deepen bilateral engagement, including in the fields of defense, security, cyber, energy, climate change, science and technology, space, health, and other areas of economic development.
"Our effort in this discussion was that to look at each and every issues from the perspective of enhancing the relationship," Vinay Mohan Kwatra, Ministry of External Affairs Joint Secretary Americas, told reporters yesterday.
While there were differences on many well-known issues between the two sides, he said effort was essentially to engage in a manner that strengthens the ties rather than differences holding down the progress of the relationship.
Market access issues, agricultural products and textiles continued to get discussed, he said in response to a question.
There was also a broad reference to WTO as well, he said.
When asked about the quest for economic reforms raised by the Americans, he said the process of reform in India is something that the country does for its progress.
It was also decided to elevate the US, India, Japan trilateral partnership to the ministerial level and hold its first meeting next week on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
Asked whether the Dialogue was aimed at countering China's growing influence, Swaraj and Kerry said the Communist giant did not even figure in their bilateral discussions.
"China did not even figure in our conversation," Swaraj said.
"This is a dialogue to deepen and strengthen our bilateral cooperation, our bilateral ties and this dialogue has not been charted to create wider influence in any part of the world or China," she said.
Kerry, in response to a question, said "this meeting has nothing to do with China. We made no mention of China in this conversation."
Shah Rukh Khan is considered the best when it comes to on-screen romance, but the superstar says his kids are the ones, who make him understand what true love is.
The 49-year-old actor, who is father to three children, Aryan, 18, Suhana, 15 and two-year-old AbRam, often shares his admiration for them on micro-blogging site Twitter said the kids are his love guru.
My kids make me realise, 2 lov someone completely is 2 not possess them. Giving them freedom 2 exist & b happy even without u, is true Lov.
The Happy New Year star is currently working on Rohit Shetty's Dilwale, which marks comeback of Bollywood's favourite on-screen couple of him and Kajol.
The actor, who is busy with the last schedule of the film in Hyderabad, makes it sure to have a video call with his youngest one AbRam even which he tweeted.
Good day at office & good nite at play.Now 2 get my littlest 1 on a video call & c him do his Lion impression. Life for today is done.Growl!
Parth Samthaan broke a million hearts when he decided to quit Kaisi Yeh Yaariyan after the first season. We were the first ones to tell you that Parth might make a suprise exit from the show and he did. Soon enough, Parth took the Internet by a storm when he posted a suited picture of himself on Instagram, adding that there's some 'good news' coming round the corner.
With that, Parth's fans went beserk and everyone started speculating what the good news actually is. Here are the possibilities.
Back to KYY?
There were many who predicted that Parth's exit would cause a drop in the show's TRPs. They weren't wrong. Although the channel started shooting for their second season without Parth, with a new face, the anticipation levels could hardly match up to what it was last time. Reason? Parth wasn't around. But as soon as his Instagram post went viral, there were speculations that the TV star is getting back to Kaisi Yeh Yaariyan again. Music to your ears, right? But well, that's not happening anytime soon. So this is ruled out.
Bigg Boss 9?
He's possibly the most recognised TV star at the moment and also the strongest contender to be on Bigg Boss 9. Says a source, "The makers are trying to cajole him to come on board. His popularity will be an added bonus for the show and people would love to watch him on the show and see how he is in real." But the deal hasn't been sealed yet. While the modalities are being worked out, there's a huge possibility that the actor will be a part of Bigg Boss this year.
What Parth has to say!
He didn't clarify what the 'good news' meant. But in an interview to a leading daily, Parth broke his silence on his stance to stay away from the small screen. He even turned down a few offers including Hawa Hawai. Talking about the same, Parth confirmed, "“I was offered a few Bollywood projects at the same time. It was for my personal growth that I chose to opt out of the TV show." So is a Bollywood career already underway? Has Parth signed his big ticket Bollywood debut? We're waiting for the confirmation, Parth!
Godrej Security Solutions is eyeing over 40% increase in turnover from home safe products to Rs 170 crore for this year helped by innovative products launches.
"We are looking at Rs 170 crore turnover this year from our B2C business (business to customer)... We are seeing 35-40% growth in the home safe products. It is a niche product segment so we plan to push sales through disruption...launching innovative products," Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd.
Associate Vice President Mehernosh B Pithawala told reporters.
Home safe products accounted for Rs 120 crore in Godrej Security Solutions' turnover in the previous year.
Overall, Godrej Security Solutions is looking at Rs 860 crore turnover this year as against Rs 750 crore in the previous fiscal.
Pithawala added that penetration of home safe products in India is just 2%.
The company also launched a personal locker for everyday valuables priced at Rs 6,499. The products will be sold through modern trade electronic retail stores such as Vijay Sales and Croma.
The company has initially launched 'Goldilocks' product in 15 cities but it plans to start selling across India in the next few months.
"We also plan to sell it overseas but not this year. Right now we want to focus on the domestic market. We are looking at selling one lakh
'Goldilocks' safes in the remaining six months of this fiscal," he added.
Godrej Security Solutions will also launch more variants of the products later this year and next year.
Director Jon Watts has revealed that Spider-Man is a 15-year-old high school boy in the upcoming reboot of the film starring Tom Holland as the wall-crawler.
The film is slated for July 2017 release, reported Aceshowbiz.
"There are only so many times you can kill Uncle Ben. I love the idea of making a coming-of-age high school movie. We're really going to see Peter Parker in high school and get deeper into that side of it. He's just 15 now," Watts, 34, said.
The new Spider-Man played by Holland, 19, will be the youngest one who has ever hit the big screen, and Watts is in awe of his parkour skills.
"Tom was pretty perfect. He's very athletic. He can actually do a backflip! If he didn't already capture the spirit of the character, with that on top the kid is Spider-Man."
Holland's Spider-Man will make an appearance in upcoming Captain America: Civil War scheduled for May 2016 release.
Telecom operator Uninor has changed its brand name to Telenor, the name of its parent company. The company has also decided to extend the call drop reimbursement offers to all calls made from its network, in a move to position itself as "the most affordable service provider" in the country.
"The brand change is a reflection of our commitment to India and our mass market consumers as we promise to offer superior value in meeting their evolving needs through affordable, easy to use and fair means. To our 3,500 employees in India, it marks an important name change,"
Telenor Group Head of Asia Region Morten Karlsen Sorby said.
It has changed its tag to 'Ab life full paisa vasool' from 'Sabse Sasta'. Telenor said the company has taken a strong customer-centric approach through initiatives like compensation for call drops.
"We take responsibility for a call drop as we commit quality service to our customers. Hence, we are extending call drop reimbursements to all calls -- local, STD and ISD.
Earlier, it was being offered on local calls only," Telenor India CEO Vivek Sood said.
The Norway-based Telenor entered India through a joint venture with Unitech Wireless, which was branded as Uninor.
Unitech has now completely exited from the operations and last year, the Telenor group increased its stake in the Indian entity to 100 per cent.
Earlier this month, the company had changed the name of the company from Telewings Communications Services to Telenor (India) Communications.
The Telenor group has mobile operations in 13 markets in the Nordic region, Central and Eastern Europe and in Asia.
Telenor India operates in six circles -- Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh East and West and ranks fourth in revenue and customer market share.
"We will continue to offer the most affordable services and deliver innovative solutions like call drop reimbursement and customised product offers. The customer wants us to be fair," Sood said.
Western Railway will provide Mumbaikars with special trains between Chruchgate and Virar on the night of 27th September to facilitate Ganpati immersion.
These special trains will halt at all the stations.
The schedule of the four pairs of special trains are as follows:
Down Direction:
1st special train will depart from Churchgate at 01.15 hours & reach Virar at 02.47 hours.
2nd Special will depart from Churchgate at 01.55 hours & reach Virar at 03.30 hours.
3rd Special will depart from Churchgate at 02.25 hours & reach Virar at 04.00 hours.
4th Special will depart from Churchgate at 03.20 hours & reach Virar at 04.55 hours.
Up Direction:
1st special will depart from Virar at 00.15 hours & reach at Churchgate 01.45 hours.
2nd Special will depart from Virar at 00.45 hours & reach Churchgate at 02.17 hours.
3rd Special will depart from Virar at 01.40 hours & reach Churchgate at 03.12 hours.
4th Special will depart from Virar at 02.55 hours & reach Churchgate at 04.30 hours.
As shocking as it can be, Ajay Devgn and Kajol's video has gone viral on Xvideos.com, a popular porn site. No, it isn't any intimate video we're talking about. Rather, it's a video of one of their songs from one of their earlier films which found its way to the porn site.
The two actors who have been married for over one and half decades now have hardly filmed any intimate scene in any of their films. So it's shocking that one of their songs was uploaded on a porn site. The song, in point is Ajnabi Mujhko Itno Bata from Pyar Toh Hona Hi Tha.
Although it's not known how the song ended up being uploaded on the porn site, this piece of news won't go down well with the Devgn couple.
The 2015 Emmy Awards slipped to a record low of 11.9 million total viewers as it faced a stiff competition from the Sunday Night Football. The Fox award show netted a rating of 3.6 in the key 18-49 demographic, which is down 14 percent from last year's 4.2, reported The Wrap.
The 2014 awards show, however, was aired on NBC on a Monday in August, not competing against TV's top primetime broadcast.
Even though it did not register record ratings, the 67th Emmy Awards accounted for more than 1 million tweets, which were viewed over 188 million times.
The most social minute on the platform came after Viola Davis won the Emmy for lead actress in a drama, with 12,601 tweets being sent.
Davis, who received the honour for How To Get Away With Murder, became the first African-American woman to win in the category.
Hits and flops are a part of any actor's career but Imran Khan feels people have been too harsh on him for his failed outings while overlooking his successes. The 32-year-old actor made a successful Bollywood entry with 2007 film "Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na" but after that it has been a mixed run for him at the box-office.
While "I Hate Luv Storys", "Delhi Belly" and "Mere Brother Ki Dulhan" did well, films like "Luck", "Kidnap", "Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu", "Break Ke Baad" and "Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola". Before Imran took a two-year sabbatical to take care of his pregnant wife, his two ventures "Gori Tere Pyar Mei" and "Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbai Dobaara!" tanked.
The actor said he finds it weird that the hits he has delivered with first time directors are conveniently forgotten but the blame of the flops comes to him. "I have never felt I quite got my due. I have often felt that in my career I have done good films, hit movies but the credit somehow goes to the director and people say 'he made him act' or to the promotions. But when a film flops the responsibility is mine and somehow all the flops that I had, have been with big directors so I feel 'You are such established directors and all the blame is on me!' When I have given hits with first time directors then the credit goes to the producers. This has been a trend throughout my career. There is a strange perception about me," Imran told PTI.
He, however, believes things are changing with his latest outing "Katti Batti". The actor said he finally feels accepted by the audience, thanks to the "positive" response he has got from the viewers for his performance in the romantic-comedy, which once again has garnered mix reviews. "Katti Batti", co-starring Kangana Ranaut, opened last week and though the movie got divided opinions, Imran is unperturbed.
"We knew about the divided opinion while going in the movie. I was ready for polarised reactions. But 'Katti Batti' is very important for me. I wanted audience and the industry to see that I am good. Suddenly for me to hear praise about my work is huge... For people to say that we didn't like the film but Imran's work is good, that is huge for me. This is better than anything that I have got in my career."
The actor said he was "over confident" about "Katti Batti" despite being away from the screen. "I was not under confident about the return with 'Katti Batti'. I was over confident as I knew what we were doing. I have realised whenever I have felt wrong about a film, it has flopped. I would not share my opinion with my directors thinking they are senior and have better knowledge but with time I realised that I should follow my guts."
Having been in a 13-year-old relationship with his now wife, Imran said he could understand the ups and downs between the lead couple in "Katti Batti". "I understood Maddy. Having gone through those ups and downs in my real relationship I knew the character and I knew I could bring a lot to him. There was so much I could relate to. Audiences understand when you are being honest, that's why my character connected with them."
Imran blames his image of an unsuccessful actor to his own reluctance in riding the self-promotional bandwagon. "I don't play the PR game. I do miss the comfort of a good PR where only good things are written about you and not the bad things. I find myself in a position where I am defending a seven-year-old flop. People say your 'Kidnap' tanked. This makes me feel 'It is so old. Please move on.' "But I realise I have my inhibitions about this. I am a shy person. I can't hang out with people in industry or make friends. I know you have to be friendly with the media. Actors call editors when something bad is written about them but I can't do this."
When asked if Kangana's current formidable standing in the industry affected their working relationship or forced any changes in the script, Imran said, "When we started working Kangana had given two flops 'Revolver Rani' and 'Ungli' after a hit 'Queen'. While I was sitting on hits like 'Mere Brother Ki Dulhan' and 'Delhi Belly' but that did not change any dynamics so why would her success bring any change." Many suggested that "Katti Batti" is Imran's re-launching vehicle, especially with Kangana's screen time being less than his in the movie. Imran, however, denied the perception. "We never really thought in that way. We were just making a film that we all liked. It was not meant to re-launch me. Strangely, people think I never had a success after 'Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na'. My other successes are easily forgotten."
Neil Gaiman's fantasy novel Neverwhere is heading to TV. The Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence is behind the adaptation.
Neverwhere was initially a BBC Two miniseries in 1996, created by both Gaiman and Lenny Henry, and starring one Peter Capaldi, reported Deadline.
Neverwhere, which later became a novel, was most recently a BBC radio drama broadcast in 2013. The star-studded voice cast included Benedict Cumberbatch, Anthony Head, James McAvoy, Natalie Dormer, Christopher Lee, David Harewood and Sophie Okonedo.
Lawrence will direct and executive-produce the new TV adaptation.
The story is an urban fantasy when Richard Mayhew encounters an injured girl named Door on the street one night, he decides to help her despite his fiancee's protests.
Upon doing so, he ceases to exist on Earth and becomes real only to the denizens of "London Below", whose inhabitants are generally invisible and non-existent to the people of "London Above".
He loses his house, his job and nearly his mind as he travels London Below in an attempt to make sense out of it all, find a way back and help Door survive as she is hunted down by hired assassins.
