Latest news with #Vasanth
News18
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- News18
Rukmini Vasanth joins Rishab Shetty in Kantara: Chapter 1
Agency: PTI Last Updated: New Delhi, Aug 8 (PTI) Actor Rukmini Vasanth is set to feature alongside Rishab Shetty in 'Kantara: Chapter 1", the makers said on Friday. Vasanth made her acting debut in 2019 with the Kannada film 'Birbal Trilogy Case 1: Finding Vajramuni". She later went on to star in projects such as 'Baanadariyalli", 'Bagheera", and her latest film 'Ace", where she acted alongside Vijay Sethupathi. Slated to release in theatres worldwide on October 2, the pan-India movie from Hombale Films is the prequel to 2022's National Award-winning 'Kantara", it is written, directed and fronted by Shetty. Production banner shared the news with a post on its official Instagram handle. It featured the poster from the film featuring Vasanth. The 28-year-old actor will essay the role of Kanakavathi in the film. 'Introducing @rukmini_vasanth as 'Kanakavathi' from the world #KantaraChapter1. In cinemas #KantaraChapter1onOct2," read the caption of the post. The story of 'Kantara" was set around a small community living in the woodlands of Kaadubettu in the southern coastal state of Karnataka. 'Kantara", which was mounted on a reported budget of Rs 16 crore, went on to earn over Rs 400 crore across the globe. It won the National Award for Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment and earned Shetty his first best actor National Award at the 70th National Film Awards. PTI ATR ATR ATR view comments First Published: August 08, 2025, 12:00 IST Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Mint
02-08-2025
- Mint
A language can be enjoyed even without understanding it
It looked and smelled like many other Indian markets. I could smell the jackfruit and guava, ripe and intoxicating. Women sold strands of white jasmine flowers and pink lotuses. A man was hawking a pile of multicoloured 'Jockey" briefs of questionable provenance. The orange-yellow mangoes, a little longer and more lissome than I was used to, looked like the genuine article however. A goat nibbled at flower garlands strung around the front of a three-wheeler till the irate owner delivered a kick to its rear end. It all felt very familiar, yet I felt a stranger in my own country. I understood nothing anyone was saying around me. In the bustling marketplace of Trichy everyone seemed to speak Tamil. Even the signs were mostly in Tamil. The usual smattering of English that is part and parcel of Indian metropolises was largely missing, except for an occasional store sign. Vasanth and Company promising 'quality and trust" when it came to appliances, the mustachioed Mr Vasanth beaming at us from a billboard. Even the colas had different names from the ones I was used to. Now I could choose between Kalimark ice-cream sodas and Bovonto colas but I would have to choose blindly. The storekeeper was all smiles but could not understand my queries. Having just visited the Rockfort temple, my forehead was smeared with sacred ash and I sported a tilak. I must have looked somewhat local. An elderly lady came up and asked me for help with something. I just smiled foolishly. At first it felt a bit disconcerting as if cast out to sea without a life-jacket. As a writer I am used to eavesdropping on conversations around me wherever I am. I tape interviews and select the clips that would move my narrative forward. There is power in that. Here I was flailing, understanding neither head nor tail of the conversations in the market, at restaurants, in bars. In hindsight that should not be so unusual in a language soup like India. India recognises 22 official languages. But the People's Linguistic Survey of India estimated in 2012 that there were at least 780 languages in India, putting it in the top 5 countries of the world, alongside Papua and New Guinea and Nigeria, when it came to linguistic diversity. Some Indian languages are mind-bogglingly ancient. The Great Andamanese, for example, are descended from the first migrants from Africa some 70,000 years ago. Their language still retains archaic structures long lost even in the mother continent. For example, they divide the body into seven parts and prefix nouns and words with monosyllables that indicate the relevant part. Linguist Anvita Abbi says for the rest of us, blood is blood. But the Great Andamanese need to know where the blood is coming from. Blood from the forehead is a different word than blood from inside from internal bleeding. Cultural activist Ganesh Devi talks about how Indian languages had a richer palette of colour terms which started disappearing after synthetic colours were created in the 19th century. Even today Gondi has more colour terms than Hindi, he says. This linguistic diversity should fill us with pride; instead it often scares us. Some politicians think India would be more united as a country if everyone could rally around one official language like Hindi. States that don't speak Hindi resent any whiff of imposition of Hindi on them whether as first, second or third language, fearing it's really Hindi by the backdoor. Language has become a means to rouse passions and mobilise voters. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee hopes to do that, kicking off her 2026 election campaign earlier this week in Rabindranath Tagore's Bolpur, claiming that Bengali-speakers are facing discrimination in other parts of India. WhatsApp forwards are popping up, offering quick linguistic tests to tell Bangladeshis from Bengalis from this side of the border. Who calls water pani and who says jol? Who calls salt lobon and who calls it noon? Oddly as some linguists point out in the middle of these charged debates both pani and jol share Sanskrit roots. But the meanings of words, their antiquity, their etymology can all be used to divide people into 'them" and 'us". Recently, a Bengali journalist for a Bengali publication asked Bengali superstar Prosenjit Chatterjee a question in Bengali at a press meet in Mumbai. Chatterjee, who knew the journalist well, wondered smilingly why she was asking the question in Bengali given that the event was happening in Mumbai. In these language-sensitive times, the clip went viral. Chatterjee was immediately pilloried for allegedly disrespecting his mother tongue. He had to issue an official statement to explain that he was just trying to be sensitive to the linguistic preferences of everyone around him, requesting people to not read anything more into it. In Trichy, words for me were suddenly leached of meaning. At first I felt as if I needed an interpreter. But slowly as I got used to the noise around me I realised what a relief it was to just experience a city without trying to eavesdrop on its conversations. I didn't have to make sense of the words. I could just listen to the soundscape of the city. At the Ranganathaswamy temple in Srirangam, as a flock of parrots suddenly took flight, I could listen to their squawks echoing around the candy colours of the gopuram. Lakshmi, the temple elephant, gently harrumphed as she took currency notes from devotees. As I walked into the sanctum sanctorum of Andal, the only female saint of Tamil Vaishnavites, I came upon a group of elderly women singing together. They stood in a cluster, their white hair glowing, their saris, parrot green, teal blue, deep purple, almost iridescent in the lamp-lit darkness of the temple, their voices rising and falling hypnotically while the priest's little bell tinkled. I could not understand a word they were singing but I could have listened for hours. Later my writer friend Sudha Tilak told me those were verses from the Tiruppavai by Andal, songs of love, devotion and food. In one, Tilak said, Andal writes about her akkara adisil, a porridge made of rice and ghee, describing it as having 'golden ghee that would melt and run down from the palms to the elbows." I understood none of this when I heard the women singing but it didn't matter. The sweetness still came through. Instead of listening for the meaning I could just listen to the sound of the words the way one feels a piece of fabric, its texture, its colour, its sheen. It was oddly liberating to listen to a collage of sounds of a city without reaching for a dictionary to figure out its meaning. Raw sound has its own beauty. Later on that same trip I walked into an old Danish fort museum in Tharangambadi or Tranquebar. It had a modest little museum. Danish weapons, documents and ancient Tamil sculptures were just piled haphazardly around. In one corner was a giant whalebone weathered white by the sun. A man asked me what it was. He spoke no English or Hindi. I spoke no Tamil. Whale, I said hesitantly. He looked confused. Big fish, I said somewhat incorrectly. That was no help either. For a moment we were stuck on either side of the language divide. Suddenly I had a brainwave. I opened my notebook and drew a cartoonish whale. Oh like with a spout of water, he pantomimed. I drew a spout as well. He chortled and brought over his wife and children to admire my creation. And we beamed at each other because somehow despite having no language in common we had managed to be on the same page. Cult Friction is a fortnightly column on issues we keep rubbing up against. Sandip Roy is a writer, journalist and radio host. He posts @sandipr.
Time of India
29-07-2025
- Time of India
3 burglars who stole gold, valuables from political party functionary's house in Bengaluru, arrested
Bengaluru: Jayanagar police have arrested three burglars who stole over 1kg of gold from the house of a political party functionary. The gang, consisting of Raghu alias Pepsi Raghu, 25, from Raghuvanahalli; Jai Deepa alias Jangli, 25, from Nayandahalli; and Mithun alias Milky, 24, from Tyagarajanagar; was apprehended after they stole gold ornaments, silver, cash, and other valuables. The leader of the gang is Raghu, and the trio has been involved in more than 11 cases and were arrested in the past. The burglary took place at the house of TS Vasanth Kumar Bhavani, a resident of 6th Main Road in Jayanagar 5th Block. Vasanth, in his complaint to Jayanagar police, stated on July 20, around 4.30pm, he locked the house and went to the airport to drop his son. They returned around 8pm to find the front door ajar. Upon entering the house, they found all the almirahs in bedrooms open. He stated valuables worth Rs 1 crore, including more than 1kg of gold, silver articles, a wristwatch, and Rs 50,000 in cash, were missing. Police inspector Deepak R and his team swung into action. Based on clues from CCTV footage, the team traced the miscreants in the Turahalli forest area along with the stolen valuables on July 22. The police recovered 1kg of gold ornaments at the spot. They recovered 50 grams of gold ornaments which they had given away. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 5 Books Warren Buffett Wants You To Read in 2025 Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List Undo During interrogation, police learned the scooter used to visit Vasanth's house was stolen from Basavanagudi three months ago. The recovered stolen property is worth Rs 78.5 lakh. A senior officer said 80 per cent of the property has been recovered. You Can Also Check: Bengaluru AQI | Weather in Bengaluru | Bank Holidays in Bengaluru | Public Holidays in Bengaluru The wristwatch worth Rs 3 lakh was found in a stack of clothes and household articles on the floor. The gang identifies locked houses during the day and commits burglaries at night. They identified Vasanth's house minutes after it was locked. They target houses with gardens so that neighbours or commuters don't hear the noise while they break the doors using tools. They have largely committed burglaries in south Bengaluru, including in Banashankari, Konankunte, JP Nagar and Subramanyapura. The gang uses the money from stolen goods for a lavish lifestyle.
The Hindu
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Screenwriter Vasanth Maringanti discusses quitting his software job to write ‘Uppu Kapurambu' and ‘Subham'
'Writing is a full-time job; not everyone takes to it with the intention of becoming a director,' says Vasanth Maringanti. Vasanth is the screenwriter of Telugu indie films Cinema Bandi and Subham. His next work, Uppu Kapurambu directed by Ani IV Sasi and starring Keerthy Suresh and Suhas, will stream on Amazon Prime Video from July 4. Cinema Bandi was a charming story of villagers trying their hand at filmmaking when they chance upon a high-end camera. A one-line idea from director Praveen Kandregula and Vasanth, along with Praveen and co-writer Krishna Pratyusha, turned it into an uplifting comedy drama. The recently-released horror comedy Subham, produced by Samantha Ruth Prabhu, was written by Vasanth in collaboration with filmmaker Raj Nidimoru, and explored the possibility of women being possessed while watching television soaps. In between all the laughter, the narrative worked as a commentary on gender dynamics. 'I would observe how my grandmother and others were emotionally drawn towards serials. I exaggerated that situation in a work of fiction,' Vasanth explains. Graveyard woes Uppu Kapurambu emerged when Vasanth read a news article about the lack of graveyard space in a region. 'I lead a boring life, so I try to make my stories far more interesting,' Vasanth says with a laugh, during this interview in Hyderabad. 'I wrote Uppu… in a month and a half, my fastest yet. More than just a story, how people react to a situation interests me.' Screenwriting was a natural progression of Vasanth's interest in writing. He wrote short stories in school and remembers finding a diary from 1997 in which he had penned a two-page story titled 'Dracula'. Growing up in Kakinada, like many youngsters in the Telugu states, he too studied engineering. While in college, he wrote, 'The Day After My Death,' on a whim. 'It was a bad book,' he says with a chuckle. 'I approached a store that prints wedding cards and asked if they would publish it if I paid them. Nearly 150 copies were printed and I circulated them among my family and friends.' Vasanth worked as a software engineer for 14 years with five leading MNCs. Simultaneously, he began blogging. 'All through that time, I wanted to quit,' he says. 'Writing was my escape and during that period, I wanted to assess if people enjoyed reading what I wrote. The feedback I received for my blogs helped me understand that.' He also worked on a book which was rejected by several publishing houses. A chance conversation with actor-director Anish Kuruvilla through Facebook served as a turning point. 'Anish showed interest and said the story could be an interesting film. He was kind enough to talk to me about the basics of screenwriting,' he recalls. The first step Vasanth began reading books on screenwriting and watched movies to understand screenplays. In 2017, Praveen Kandregula, then an aspiring filmmaker, made an enquiry for screenwriters in Bengaluru via social media. 'A friend suggested my name. Incidentally, Praveen and I were working in the same city and lived two kilometres apart. He narrated the one-line story of Cinema Bandi and I sensed it would not only be entertaining, but also garner critical acclaim. That is how my journey in cinema began.' Cinema Bandi streamed directly on Netflix during the pandemic. Six months later, Vasanth quit his job. 'I began getting calls from industry folks for screenwriting, but my full-time job was a limitation.' The decision to quit a well-paying job was not easy. He credits his wife for holding the fort until he found his footing in cinema. 'She is a mobile phone app developer; we have two children and it was not easy for me to let go of an assured monthly salary.' Test of patience Vasanth had grown up admiring the works of writers Mullapudi Venkataramana and Yandamuri Veerendranath, as well as writer-directors Bapu and Jandhyala. Now working on the screenplays of two new films, Vasanth says the most challenging aspect of being a screenwriter is to have the faith and patience until a screenplay is approved and a film goes on the floors. The recognition for Subham motivated him to explore writing further. 'Samantha's name being associated with the film and a theatrical release has meant instant recognition for all of us. The other day at a store, the owner introduced me to his wife and daughter as 'Subham writer', and they told me how much they enjoyed the film. It made my day.' As to the pertinent question of whether screenwriting pays bills, Vasanth pauses and answers, 'Initially it is not easy, but after one or two projects, it definitely gets better.' He also adds that direction is not in his scheme of things, at least for now. 'Many writers turn directors either for monetary reasons or when they think their stories are not being transformed accurately on screen.' Writing is what he set out to do and he is happy in that pursuit.
Time of India
28-06-2025
- Time of India
Case filed after four stray dogs poisoned to death in Adibatla: One survives with timely care; FIR registered under BNS, PCA Act
HYDERABAD: An FIR was registered at the Adibatla police station after five stray dogs were allegedly poisoned in Sri Sri Aerocity, Adibatla. The incident, which came to light on June 21, resulted in the death of four dogs, while one survived after receiving timely veterinary care. The complaint was filed by R Dinesh Vasanth, a resident of the area. According to the FIR, Vasanth came down from his apartment around noon on June 21 and discovered a dog lying dead, with signs of foaming at the mouth and loose motion. He reported that three dogs died earlier under similar circumstances, raising concerns of intentional poisoning by unidentified individuals. Based on his complaint, the police registered a case under Section 325 of the BNS, 2023, which treats poisoning of animals as a cognisable offence punishable with up to five years of imprisonment, a fine, or both. The case was also filed under Section 11(1) of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act, 1960. You Can Also Check: Hyderabad AQI | Weather in Hyderabad | Bank Holidays in Hyderabad | Public Holidays in Hyderabad The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India was alerted to the case and worked with the complainant to ensure swift legal action. A post-mortem was conducted on one of the deceased dogs. "It's important that such incidents are reported promptly," said Sinchana Subramanyan, Cruelty Response Coordinator at PETA India.
