Latest news with #Gujarati
Time of India
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Kiran Kumar recalls Salim Khan being kind to him during early days of his career and Salman Khan's super stardom: 'It's very rare to find a family like them...'
Kiran Kumar fondly remembers Salim Khan's pivotal role in launching his Bollywood career, acknowledging his early guidance and support. He attributes Salman Khan's success to the family's strong values instilled by Salim. Kiran recalls expressing his gratitude in a unique way, thanking Salim's image on a hoarding after a party, showcasing his deep respect. Veteran actor Kiran Kumar recently opened up about the immense impact legendary screenwriter Salim Khan had on his early career. In a candid and heartfelt chat, he reflected on the kindness shown by Salim during his formative years in the film industry and offered rare praise for the entire Khan family—especially Salman Khan , whose superstardom, Kiran believes, is rooted in the family's values and collective good karma. In a chat with Kunickaa Sadanand on her YouTube channel, Kiran revealed that his father, veteran actor Jeevan—famous for playing Narad Muni—shared a close bond with Salim Khan. On Salim's suggestion, Kiran was sent to boarding school to learn discipline. After returning to Mumbai, his ties with the Khan family remained strong. Though he had made a name in Gujarati cinema, it was Salim Khan who gave him his break in Hindi films by offering him a small but meaningful role. Reflecting on his bond with the Khan family, the actor called Salim Khan his "guardian angel," sharing that he would often visit him for coffee and guidance. He also recalled being cast in Auzaar, the directorial debut of Salim's son Sohail Khan , and noted that he has worked in several films alongside Salman Khan as well. He also went on to praise the entire Khan family, calling them exceptional and grounded despite their fame. He credited Salman Khan's superstardom to the family's collective good karma and highlighted Salim Khan's values as the foundation. 'Salman has a golden heart,' he said, adding that much of the credit rightfully goes to Salim Khan. Kiran admitted he never found the right moment or courage to thank Salim directly for all the support he had received. But in a memorable, if unconventional, gesture, he once expressed his gratitude in a drunken state. Recalling the night, he shared that after a party, around 2:30 AM, he passed by a Being Human store featuring a hoarding of Salman and Salim Khan. Overcome with emotion, he got out of his car, sat on the store's steps, and thanked Salim Khan's image on the hoarding—his own heartfelt, if slightly inebriated, tribute to a man he considers his guardian angel.
Indian Express
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
‘Drunk' Kiran Kumar sat on the road at 2:30 am in front of Salman Khan's Being Human: ‘Was pretty high, thanked Salim Khan'
Stories of legendary screenwriter Salim Khan's generosity aren't rare. In a recent interaction, veteran actor Kiran Kumar spoke about Salim Khan, of the screenwriting duo Salim-Javed, being kind to him during the early days of his career and offering him roles in his films. Kiran didn't just appreciate Salim but also sang praises for the entire Khan family, calling them humble and welcoming. Speaking to Kunickaa Sadanand on her YouTube channel, Kiran shared that his father, Jeevan, known for playing Narad Muni in 1950s films, was friends with Salim. Kiran recalled how it was on Salim's recommendation that his father sent him to a boarding school, where he learned discipline. After returning to Mumbai, Kiran continued his association with the Khan family. He acted in many Gujarati films, but when he wanted to transition to Hindi films, it was none other than Salim who offered him a small role in one of his films. Speaking about it, he said, 'Salim saab is my guardian angel. I would often go and meet him over coffee. When his son Sohail Khan made his directorial debut with Auzaar, I acted in his film. I have acted in many films with Salman also.' He added, 'It's very rare to find a family like them. Every member of that family is terrific and the superstardom of Salman Khan is because of the good karma of the whole family, and Salman himself has a golden heart, and the credit goes to Salim Khan.' Kiran admitted he never mustered the courage to thank Salim Khan for all the favours he had done. But one night, while drunk, he found his own unique way of showing gratitude. Sharing the incident, he said, 'Salim Khan has done a lot of favours for me. One day I was coming from a party and I was pretty drunk. On the way, I saw a hoarding of Salman Khan and Salim Khan outside the outlet of their brand Being Human. I was pretty high. It was 2:30 am in the morning, I got out of my car and I sat on the stairs of the store and I thanked Salim Khan's hoarding.'
The Wire
12 hours ago
- Politics
- The Wire
Paper Leaks, Ignored RTIs, 'Ambiguity': Why Aspirants Are Questioning the UPSC
New Delhi: Across the country, numerous young Indians are brought up with the aspiration to one day join the "services". Exams conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) – the government's primary and most prestigious gateway for recruitment into coveted Union government jobs – are ones people spend years of their lives preparing for. But for many, those dreams have been coloured by the murky realities of the way exams have been conducted. 'We're on the streets now, questioning the very UPSC we once dreamed of serving,' says Dev, a former aspirant who joined a protest against what many like him call the 'inefficiency' of the UPSC. Dev is not alone in his disappointment, anger and anguish with the UPSC. Several other aspirants, their parents and their educators have raised questions and even protested, like the one on June 28 in New Delhi's UPSC preparation capital – Old Rajinder Nagar. On June 11, when the results for the civil services preliminary exams were announced, voices usually buried under the weight of preparation books and previous years' question papers were suddenly out in the open. A flood of unanswered grievances and serious allegations of fraud have washed up the shore of the UPSC. To understand these allegations and issues, The Wire spoke with several aspirants and educators in the race to reach the top ranks. Answer keys and ambiguities The recent protest in Delhi was a display of the myriad grievances students had. One of the protestors, Shivam Singh, told The Wire that the results were 'strange'. Singh was not the only aspirant who said this. Other current and former UPSC aspirants said that stranger trends were unravelling in the prelims results. For instance, Singh said that the 'triplet controversy', which came to light right after the 2025 prelims results, was shaking the faith of aspirants. Many aspirants noticed that three consecutive roll numbers – often corresponding to candidates seated in the same room and row – were in fact the ones selected for the 'mains'. This, many alleged, was indicative of widespread cheating within certain centres. To fill a total of 1,105 vacancies, on June 16, 2024, about 13.4 lakh students took the UPSC prelims exam at 79 centres across India. In 2023, a total of about 13.3 lakh students had applied – the number is going up each year. Only a minute 0.2% of those who give the exam make the cut. Disgruntled candidates said that the organisers of this exam – one of the most competitive in India – must clear the air if any ambiguities arise. Another issue raised was about reports of a paper leak just a day before the preliminary examination, on May 24, 2025 were published by a Gujarati newspaper. The report alleged that leaked question papers were available for purchase for Rs 30,000 in Rajkot, Gujarat. The exam was to be held on the next day, May 25. Surprisingly enough, Gujarat has had the highest number of candidates to qualify the prelims – 300 candidates from the state, the highest ever, qualified for the mains. Kajal Chatterjee, an aspirant from Kolkata who attempted the exam recently, was astounded by this sequence of events. 'There are staggering anomalies in question papers. This year at least eight to 10 questions were vague and ambiguous, where there can be no one correct answer. This, they [other aspirants also protesting] said, leaves enough room for arbitrary selection of answers, while dropping others options,' she told The Wire. Chatterjee also highlighted how three answers in the 2024 preliminary examination's final official answer key were wrong. 'This means by the time a candidate moves to court to challenge the key, the results have already been published. Some candidates are now civil servants! They have literally marked the wrong answers as correct,' she argued. Abhishek Sundar, a candidate from Karnataka, pointed out yet another flaw within the system: the delayed release of answer keys, which delays the prospect of raising issues in case of inaccuracies. 'UPSC does not release their official answer keys until the final selection process is over; this makes the answers key useless... since the final merit list stands published by then', he lamented. No Right to Information Behind viral YouTube videos alleging fraud in the exam and "forwarded many times" WhatsApp messages, online campaigns and viral tweets are aspirants who have filed RTIs and lodged complaints to bring the UPSC's attention to visible irregularities. Saurabh Abhishek gave his last attempt at the exams recently, and is feeling defeated. Not because of his result, but at the obliviousness of India's oldest competitive exam conducting agency. To prevent inaccuracies from meddling with the futures of other candidates, Abhishek filed an RTI application, which The Wire has accessed, to try and get a response from the UPSC. In his RTI application, Abhishek raised requests to obtain the details of his own marks in the exam conducted on May 25, the cut off for the same exam, the official answer key for the exam, a copy of his OMR sheet, and the number of correct and incorrect responses in his answer sheet. If the Commission chose not to provide these details, Abhishek, from Bihar, also requested them to state the reason for this. To his requests, the UPSC has responded with a simple 'no'. The commission stated that the declaration of the final result was yet to be completed, so no information could be shared. Abhishek's RTI was filed on June 19, more than a week after the results were declared. 'What stops them from sharing the details of the result? Even state commissions share copy of OMR sheet right after people appear for the exam. What stops them from being transparent, that too in a qualifying exam, the marks of which won't even be considered for the final merit list?' asked Abhishek. Others agreed with Abhishek when he added, 'When discrepancies in NEET are taken seriously, even to the CBI level, what is wrong when we are just seeking our own answer sheets?' Another candidate from Jammu, Dr Himanshi Guleria, also lodged a complaint using the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS). In her complaint, she emphasised various problematic aspects such as ambiguous questions with unclear or multiple valid answers, transparency gaps, delayed release of the official answer key and the lack of a grievance redressal mechanism to contest ambiguities or resolve concerns about evaluation methods. Speaking to The Wire, Guleria shared how the whole process made candidates totally powerless, with no access to the answer keys and mechanisms to question the process, and no clarity about their performance for an entire year. 'Each point makes a difference, each mark makes a difference, we are stuck in a void of ambiguity with this. We need more clarity and the right to obtain details of our own performance,' she said. To her complaint, the UPSC responded that questions as well as answer keys of objective-type question papers were prepared by a team of experts and reviewed by another team of experts and the OMR answer sheets were evaluated as per procedure. The response also said, 'The Commission drops ambiguous question(s) (if any) from evaluation on the advice of experts. As regard the excessive difficulty in CSAT it is informed that General Studies Paper-II is qualifying in nature and Questions and answer keys are prepared by subject experts keeping the syllabus in mind. Moreover, as per the practice of the Commission the answer keys and cut-off marks of the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination is uploaded on the Commission's website only after the entire process of Civil Services Examination is over i.e. after declaration of final result' and dismissed the complaint. Despite the dismissal of the complaint, Guleria also runs an online petition regarding the same issue. Uncertain, unresolved In Rajasthan's Jaipur, Mukesh Pukhraj is an educator and a mentor for scores of candidates who wish to compete for India's toughest competitive exam. While Pukhraj continues to teach all those who reach out to him, he too believes that the exam system has become obsolete and is in dire need of pragmatic, logistical changes. Pukhraj also highlighted the way question papers were being framed. 'You need to look at the questions in the CSAT exam, this exam tests aptitude, but the comprehension questions were ambiguous and numerically extraneous. Even faculties at coaching institutes were rendered inept at solving them. Then what aptitude are these exams testing?' he asked. Amit Khilor, another educator from Gurgaon who has been coaching hundreds of students for almost a decade, believes that the Commission's recruitment system has become massively flawed and absolutely chance based. Khilor said, 'It is time that certain reforms are made. What good is it doing to anyone when answer keys are withheld for a year? Who gains and what? Question papers have actively wrong questions. There are long term structural problems in the constitutional body and certificate frauds like Puja Khedekar are just the tip of the iceberg,' Khilor alleged. Pukhraj and Khilor said that there is mounting discontent and dissatisfaction among candidates primarily because their allegations and apprehensions are not being clarified, addressed or even acknowledged by the Commission. Recently, on March 28, the Parliamentary Standing Committee in its 145th Report stated that UPSC's delayed disclosure 'undermines transparency and fairness' and can demoralise candidates. The report said, 'This delays candidates' ability to challenge potential errors before advancing to the next stage, undermining transparency and fairness. Such a practice can demoralise candidates and raise concerns about the validity of the examination.' Yet, the results were delivered a whole year later, amid rising allegations of ambiguity and deaths by suicide of candidates, who waited a whole year to be failed, like many others.
India.com
a day ago
- Entertainment
- India.com
Most profitable Indian movie of 2025; has no superstar, yet beats Aamir Khan's Sitaare Zameen Par, Vicky Kaushal's Chhaava, Ajay Devgn's Raid 2, film is…
The year 2025 has been great for Indian films, but in this shining year, the condition of Bollywood was somewhat dull. While South and other regional industries generated huge profits, most Bollywood films proved to be flops. So far this year, only three Hindi films have been able to make profits: Chhaava, Raid 2, and Sitaare Zameen Par. Out of these, only Chhaava proved to be a bigger hit at the box office. On the other hand, low-budget Odia and Gujarati films have created history. And have left everyone behind in terms of profits. Pushpa 2 was also forced to bow down to these regional films. Which is the most profitable film of 2025? According to Koimoi reports, the Odia film Bou Buttu Bhuta has made a huge impact at the box office. This film has been made on a budget of barely 2 to 3 crores. At the same time, the film earned 14.38 crores. In this sense, the film made a profit of up to 667%. After which, it became the highest profit-earning film of 2025. Which Gujarati film made it to the top 3 most profitable films? Gujarati film Umbro has also done wonders. Made on a budget of Rs 4 crores, this film has earned Rs 14.68 crore and has made a profit of 367% and has now become the third highest profit-earning Indian film. Superstars were left behind Although this year, many big blockbuster movies have been released. These include Akshay Kumar's Kesari 2, Ajay Devgn's Raid 2, and Aamir Khan's Sitaare Zameen Par. These movies have also earned profits, but they have not been able to make it to the top 10 list of highest profit-earning Indian movies.
Time of India
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Gujarati films are now exploring a range of genres: Yukti Randeria
Yukti Randeria; (Below) With Mallhar It has been a good year for Yukti Randeria so far. The actress was appreciated for her performance in All the Best Pandya, which did well at the box office, and also shared screen space with Supriya Pathak in Auntypreneur. Yukti, who has also done Gujarati films like Vanilla Ice Cream (2024), Kahi De Ne Prem Chhe (2023) and Saiyar Mori Re (2022), says, 'While we knew we had made a good film, the exceptional box office performance of All the Best Pandya left us overjoyed. This was my second film opposite Mallhar (after Vanilla Ice Cream), and I am glad that audiences like our onscreen chemistry. He is an amazing co-star. Also, Rahul Bhole and Vinit Kanojia are very chilled out directors and know how to bring out your best performance.' 'I am not in a rush to sign new projects' Talking about her upcoming projects, Yukti says, 'I have completed shooting for an upcoming film, which will release next month. Also, I have signed another interesting film and we will start shooting soon. There are a lot of offers, but I am prepared to wait for good roles. I am not in a rush to sign new projects.' She adds, 'I want to do thrillers and crime dramas. I am also keen to explore a period drama and play characters that challenge me. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like One Click, Zero Threats McAfee Learn More Undo As an actor, the best part is when you get to play a role that is very different from how you are in real life. You get to create a new world, which is exciting. It feels great to see so many Gujarati films doing well at the box office this year. It shows that the audience is now trusting us more. I feel one of the reasons for that is that we are exploring more genres now, which has ensured variety. I feel fortunate that I have been a part of films like All the Best Pandya and Auntypreneur this year. You always want to do films that have good storylines and offer something refreshing for the audience.' Yukti with the team of Auntypreneur 'Supriya Pathak made me feel very comfortable' Yukti was also appreciated for her performance in Auntypreneur, which was a multi-starrer. She says, 'Bey Yaar was among the first Gujarati films that I watched and so, when I got an opportunity to work with Abhishek Jain and Pratik Rajen Kothari, I was excited. I learnt a lot just by watching Supriya Pathak on the sets. She's so natural in front of the camera and has such amazing screen presence! She is a very humble and kind person and made me feel very comfortable. '
