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Indian Express
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Emiway Bantai's prophet gave him a superstition to protect against evil eye: ‘Nothing can touch them, except death'
Indian rapper Emiway Bantai has just entered the vlogging sphere on the internet as he shared the first episode of his new vlog series on YouTube. The Bangalore-born, Mumbai-based artiste can be seen praying on the balcony of his luxurious Dubai apartment at the start of the video as he invited his fans for a sneak peek into his daily routine and practices. He is a new entry into the growing list of celebrities who have turned to vlogging recently, including Archana Puran Singh, and Farah Khan. The video has been titled Day 2 Day episode-1, clearly indicating that Emiway is going to continue with this new video series. As mentioned before, he starts his day by praying on his balcony, which overlooks the Persian Gulf and the sprawling skyline of the city. After finishing up his prayers, the rapper talked about his habit of eating kalonji (nigella seeds) and how his prophet has advised him that 'whoever eats kalonji, nothing can touch them, except death.' He was presumably talking about evil eye and curses here. He said that the drink made with nigella seeds, ginger and turmeric helps him with his immunity. ALSO READ: 'India's obsession with Eminem needs to stop': Kr$na talks about Indian hip-hop and his mixtape 'Yours Truly.' The rapper then took out his laptop and put one of his songs on export before hitting the gym. He said, 'I will put it on export now, and I will listen to it while working out in the gym and think of what else I can do with the song. The one that I am working on right now is called 'Paisa'.' He added that he has been following the same routine for the last six months but decided to relax for last four days. He then got ready to hit the weights and shared the number of health supplements he takes before he starts his gym routine, including a pre-workout drink, creatine and an EAA protein supplement. In some subtle shots scattered across the video, Emiway showcased his lavish home and some of the amenities that it comes with, including a fancy self-operational door lock. The rapper then shared some highlights from the gym and the beach, where he did some cardio to end his workout. He ended the day with working on some music at his home studio set-up, dinner comprising of meat, eggs and corn, and some more praying. Interestingly, Emiway has been making a lot of noise lately, as the rapper's last released single was a tribute song for Sidhu Moosewala to honour his upcoming birth anniversary. Emiway's last studio album came out in 2023 and was titled 'King of the Street'.
Time of India
19-05-2025
- Automotive
- Time of India
India 100% ready to host F1 races again: Kush Maini
Kush Maini is no stranger to long odds. Just a few years ago, the Bangalore-born racing driver nearly quit due to lack of funding. Today, he's signed with Alpine as a test and reserve driver for the 2025 season—the first Indian to secure a role in Formula 1 in 13 years. In an interview with ET's Himani Kothari, the 24-year-old—who's still competing in Formula 2 as well—says India is '100% ready' to host a Grand Prix again and believes his presence on the grid could help make it happen. Mentored by racing legend Mika Häkkinen, Maini is pushing to prove himself on track—and off it, as a symbol of India's growing motorsport ambitions. Edited excerpts: You're the busiest of all reserve drivers because you also have F2 . How are you managing both? Alpine have trust in me and they've seen me drive the F1 car in private testing. But my F2 duties come before F1 right now. In terms of [my role in] Alpine, I'm there for whatever help they need. However, I still have to prove myself in F2. F2 hasn't gone exactly the way I would have wanted it to, even though we've shown flashes of speed and promise. I've been given a chance for another year in F2, and my main goal is to fight for the championship. I know the F1 guys, the engineers and other crew. I could be almost next in line if my performance improves. Have you had a chat with Alpine about getting a free practice session? That's one of the goals as a reserve [driver] and Alpine are very open but, in the end, F1 is a performance sport . They have full trust in me, but I do have to show the world what I can do. I have a great team in F2, and I feel very positive going forwards. Live Events The last Indian Grand Prix was held over a decade ago, and it's also been a while since an Indian team competed in Formula 1. Do you think the absence of a home GP has been an impediment to your F1 aspirations, particularly in terms of getting sponsors? Yes, it has. But [Netflix docu-series] 'Drive to Survive' has helped and it is getting bigger. But let's just say we could do more as a country to help racing. Cricket, obviously, is huge in India, and rightfully so: we're really good at it. And there's a lot of us that are very good at it. But the reason we got very good at it was the accessibility, the training the athletes got and the infrastructure, which just isn't there for racing yet. So it's a lot harder for us. And again, racing is a very expensive sport. If you go to a sponsor and say: 'you can be on my cricket bat or on my F1 car, I think they would choose cricket'. An Indian Grand Prix would help a lot [in changing this] and winning an F1 race in India is also one of my dreams. I would choose it a thousand times over a Monaco. I think my reaching F1 properly [with a seat] can definitely help bring the India GP back. Have you not seen an increased interest from sponsors of late? There is. This wouldn't be possible otherwise. I remember in 2021, after Covid, I was going to stop racing because we ran out of sponsors and money. There are some companies that kept my dream alive -- JK Tyre has been with me from the start; TVS really helps a lot; and obviously Alpine -- and without them, I wouldn't be where I am. But I just feel as a country, we could do more--not just for me, but for everyone who's trying because there's a lot more drivers taking interest now but it's very tough compared to other sports. How was racing at the Buddh International Circuit… I did the X1 Racing League there for fun and we won. I have the lap record there in the BMW. My first ever formula car race was in the JK Tyre Championship at Buddh where I finished dead last. So some interesting memories. But it's a world class track, I love it. The long straights offer amazing overtaking opportunities into a very tight breaking zone. Do you think India is ready to host an F1 race? 100%. We were ready 15 years ago and we did it really well the first time around. But, again, the people organizing it need to have some knowledge of racing – it's an elite sport. I think we can do anything we want with the right leadership and right organisation. How has the Indian motorsports scene evolved since you first started in terms of race attendance or the overall following of the sport? I see more people getting into it. I see more Indians at Grand Prix like Bahrain etc. It's definitely growing, but it's growing slowly in a sense. The Grand Prix coming back to India would really help. But I feel a little more exposure, a little more help from the country would really help. On the racing infra in India… Indian racers still need to go to Europe, they can't develop their skills here. There's no proper series here. So, there's still a long, long way to go, but, and I feel we could speed it up. You started with karting early on, how did that happen? I started karting when I was seven. I just wanted to beat my brother (Arjun Maini, also a racing driver). He was winning everything and getting all the attention. So I was a jealous little kid, and I wanted to beat him. (laughs) The first three years -- from 7 to 10 years old -- I was quite bad. Wasn't winning anything. I was an athlete in school, used to run and play different sports, whereas Arjun was just focused on racing. And then when I was 10 years old, I won my first race. That's when I started taking it more seriously, and I started to really get into it and make sacrifices for it. And then at 12, I left for Europe. When people ask me when did you start karting, I say seven, but, actually, the real karting started when I moved to Europe. Favourite F1 driver of all time… Mika [Häkkinen]—not just because he's my mentor—and Kimmy [Räikkönen], both are big heroes of mine in their respective years. Senna is obviously someone I've never seen live, but he's inspired me a lot. And on the current grid: Lewis [Hamilton]. What has working with Mika been like? He was always confident about you reaching F1... Mika believes in me probably the most, which is so refreshing because it's Mika. I have a debrief with him after every race, and I see him in some races. When I had a chat with him on how Jeddah went--where we faced some issues that were out of our control, even though the pace, the car setup, the driving was all on point--he gave me some advice on how to how to tackle the problem and how to get the result we want. He gave me some setup ideas as well, and questions to ask the engineers. It's this kind of stuff that's priceless. His belief in me never wavers even if mine does sometimes, and he truly believes in me. And, I think, when the stars align, I can be the quickest out there. Alpine are not having a great season so far… We saw what they did last year towards the end and how they picked up… they're a very capable group of people who know what they're doing. I really believe we're going to see a repeat of last year. Have you had a chat with Flavio [Briatore]? We have had a few chats here and there, he's always very nice to me. He's obviously a very busy guy, and I'm busy with F2. I only go to the F1 paddock after my F2 race gets over. And on weekends where races don't clash, I'm properly on reserve duties. I'm sure I'll spend more time. You're been in an F2 car, in Formula E and now F1. How do you quickly learn and adapt to different cars and what are the key differences? F1 is just an entirely different world--even compared to F2. It's mad how quick it is and the amount of stuff you can manipulate while you're inside the car. Imagine you're playing a videogame with just two controls where you just hit and punch versus 15 where you get to do so many different things. That's the difference between F2 and F1. Changes that take probably 30-40 minutes in F2 and require four mechanics on your car can be done in F1 with the push of a button. You can tweak the balance a lot, the debrief is much more in-depth. F1 is much more predictable than an F2 car because it's just engineered so much better. So F1 is very interesting, very fun, very quick. But F2 still helps prepare you for F1 to some extent. In my first test in an F1 car, I was just already so comfortable [because of F2 experience]. Formula E was very interesting. Basics remain the same but the way you can go quick obviously changes. For example: breaking hard in F1 might work but it doesn't in Formula E. So you have to adapt to these things. But honestly, I welcome the challenge because the more you adapt, the more versatile you become as a driver, and that helps in situations like driving in the rain, managing grip, tyre management etc. How do you manage race-day nerves Nervousness isn't really a bad thing in my opinion. It shows that you still care about what you're doing, that it's important to you. I don't think it'll ever go away, and the day it does go, maybe that's the day I should stop. But you can use nerves for a negative outcome or a positive one. Through a lot of work over the years, I'm starting to shift that into the positive where it can actually help your performance instead of making it worse. Economic Times WhatsApp channel )
