Hero-heroine pay scale debate should not become a war: Deepika Padukone

Actress Deepika Padukone says the payment disparity between male and female stars in Bollywood is a concern but it should not become a cause for conflict.

The 28-year-old actress has had a dream run at the box office with back-to-back hits like Race 2, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, Chennai Express,Ram-Leela and the latest Finding Fanny recently.

Deepika says actresses are trying hard to change the irregularity in pay scale in the film industry. "If you comparing our pay scale with the men, then yes it is very less. If you are comparing what girls used to get before and what they are getting in the last one or two years then I can say that there has been a major shift and we are hoping and trying. But this is not a war," Deepika said in an interview.

The actress feels when people give more stress on monetary gains, the beauty of filmmaking is compromised in the process.

"At the end of the day we are all making movies because we all love films and we should not get into the space of negativity where we are discussing who is getting what amount of money. In that process we are loosing the beauty of film making. Money is the least important to me, fans' appreciation is the most important thing to me," she said.

Several of Deepika's films are part of the elite 100 crore club but the actress said she never signs a film keeping in mind its box office performance. "I don't choose films based on Rs 100 crores. If one does that then it is a wrong reason to do a film. For me box office at that level is not so important or rather I do not sign films for those kind of numbers.

"Like Ram Leela, we never thought that the film will make such business. I have got the Filmfare award and the film has made 100 crores as well. You have to choose films from your heart. And also awards are important to me. It is a sign of appreciation for your hard work," she said.

Deepika will be next seen opposite superstar Shah Rukh Khan in Farah Khan's Happy New Year. The duo have previously worked in Om Shanti Om and Chennai Express. Besides SRK, Deepika has worked with top stars of Bollywood like Saif Ali Khan, Akshay Kumar but is yet to work with Salman Khan.

When asked whether they will do a film in future, the actress said, "Films are all in destiny. You can't force a film to happen. People do ask me a lot why I have not worked with Salman Khan yet. Both of us would like to work with each other but every film has a time." 

Happy New Year is not 3 hours long: Shah Rukh Khan

Says Shah Rukh Khan, but adds that end credits will clock in at more than six minutes!

Trade reports recently claimed that Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Happy New Year, which went in for censor certification, had a running time of three hours and eight minutes. Three days ago, another report claimed that the film, which releases October 24, was three hours and four minutes long.

SRK puts those rumours to rest, saying, "It's a longish film, probably longer than maybe a Chennai Express, but not as long as one trade analyst (Komal Nahta) has mentioned. He has not seen the film so he does not know about it. It is not that long. HNY's runtime is less than three hours."

He further reveals that the end credits of the film run into six minutes because it features all the cast and crew members. "It's a very big film, hence it has many technicians, dancers and other crew members. At times, we see films with huge VFX and the credits go on and on in the end. Happy New Year has that many people who have participated in the film. When the VFX credits roll, we have almost 70-80 people and we put all of them in because Farah wants that. Actually, I might be wrong because the rolling credits might even be a little longer than six minutes. HNY is not a lengthy film like that and after all, it is entertaining the audience that matters", he concludes.

I would love to direct Amitabh Bachchan: Peter Webber

British director Peter Webber, best known for his Scarlett Johansson-Colin Firth starrer feature debut 'Girl with a Pearl Earring', says he would love to make a cross-cultural film with Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan.

"I would love to work to with Amitabh Bachchan. Who would not? He is a living legend. He is amazing and I would like to make a movie with him, which has elements of both India and England, basically a cross-cultural film. That would be interesting," Webber told in an interview.

The director is in India to judge the International Competition section at the ongoing Mumbai Film Festival with filmmakers Mahamat Saleh Haroun, Ritesh Batra and Ron Mann.
Webber said Bachchan and other Bollywood stars like Shah Rukh Khan enjoy huge popularity in England.

"There is a big Indian community in England, so we all know about Bollywood actors and they are really famous."

Webber is looking forward to watching some Bollywood films as he is not well acquainted with contemporary Indian cinema.

"I am not an expert on contemporary Indian films. I have not watched any but I am fond of the old era of Satyajit Ray and Guru Dutt's times. I like those movies. I am hoping to catch on some good Indian stuff now," the filmmaker said, adding that he would like to collaborate with Indian filmmakers.

As a part of the jury, Webber says he does not have any set criterion to mark the films in competition but will look for storyline and performances.

"I will see if a story is captivating enough, if it is told in an interesting manner and whether 
performances are great or not."

Webber, who mostly chooses history as his main subject in his films, will next direct 'Piano Tuner', based on Daniel Mason's acclaimed historical novel.

 It is set in 1886 and follows a piano tuner who receives a request by the British War Office to deliver a rare grand piano to a legendary British Officer in the remote jungles of northeast Burma.

Slave girl kept in cellar awarded $160,000 in UK court

LONDON: A deaf and mute girl smuggled to Britain and kept as a slave for almost a decade must be paid £1,00,000 ($1,60,000) by her captors, a court ruled on Wednesday.

Trafficked from Pakistan as a 10-year-old girl, the victim was repeatedly raped by Ilyas Ashar, 85, who along with his wife Tallat, 69, forced her to work as their servant.

She was discovered in the cellar of their five-bedroom house sleeping on a cot bed by investigators looking into allegations of money laundering.

Now in her 20s, she learned a form of sign language to testify at the trial last year.

"The money will in no way make up for what she went through over a number of years, but it will help her move on with her life and continue her inspiring recovery from these awful events," said Salford Chief Superintendent Mary Doyle.

"I believe today's outcome also gives hope to any victim of trafficking. It reminds us that there are people out there willing to bring people to this country purely to be exploited but, with the correct use of the law, the perpetrators can be brought fully to justice."

The court calculated the Ashars should pay the victim £101,300: what she would have been paid if she had earned the minimum wage working for the couple for 12 hours a day, every day since 2003 except for ten days off.

The two also must also pay back benefits to the state that they wrongfully claimed for the girl.

The victim, who cannot be named, could not read or write but was taught to write her name by the Ashars so that they could claim social benefits on her behalf.

Ilyas Ashar was earlier jailed for 15 years for rape, trafficking and benefit fraud, and his wife Tallat was jailed for five years for trafficking and benefit fraud.

Their daughter Faaiza Ashar, 46, was ordered to do community service after being convicted of benefit fraud.

At their earlier conviction, judge Peter Lakin said the Ashars had shown no remorse and were "deeply unpleasant, highly manipulative and dishonest people" who did not treat the girl as a human being. 

Australian naval base in lockdown, bomb squad called

SYDNEY: A naval base in the Australian state of Victoria is in lockdown and a resident of the base is in custody, with a police bomb squad heading to the scene to investigate unspecified "hazardous material", security officials said on Thursday.

An exclusion zone of 400 metres had been declared around a residential apartment at HMAS Cerberus, a naval training base on the Mornington Peninsula, 75 km (45 miles) southeast of Melbourne, Victorian police said.

Police took the security measures after a routine search of the apartment found a number of unspecified items on Thursday morning. A statement from the Australian Defence Force said "hazardous material" had been found, but gave no further details.

A bomb response unit and members from the arson and explosives squad were enroute, a Victorian police spokeswoman told Reuters.

The resident was understood to be in the custody of other naval officers, the spokeswoman added.
She declined to comment further on the items found in the apartment or the nature of the threat.

'Drunk' baby taken to hospital after breast feeding on drunk mom

BEIJING: A 3-month-old baby had to be rushed to a hospital and treated for "drunkenness" in Southwest China's Chongqing city. The child was brought to the hospital by its mother after she found his baby's face had turned red and hot, and she felt that he was developing high fever.

At the hospital, a doctor confirmed the baby had become drunk after feeding on breast milk. The baby's mother, Zhang Xin, had taken about half a liter of liquor at a party before nursing the hungry and crying baby, the China News Service said. The doctor said the baby must have been affected by the liquor consumed by the mother.

Breast feeding has proved controversial in certain Chinese provinces in recent months. Some businessmen in south China were reported to be paying high prices to drink milk directly from the breast of women who earned good income out of the venture.

Another controversy involved online sales of homemade "breast milk beauty soap" with sellers claiming that they were made from real breast milk taken from donors. Stalls on online Taobao website claimed the soap protects and whitens the skin of the users.

Some doctors reacted to the online advertising advising people not to trust the claims, and warning them that using such products might result in dangerous bacteria being transferred onto the skin of the users.

The public transport system in Jinhua city of Zhejiang province made news recently by creating a separate, curtained seat for breast feeding mothers. The Jinhua No.2 Public Bus Operation Company explained that women with babies will be given priority but the seat could be used by anyone if no breastfeeding mother was on the bus. 

Murky players emerge from within Hong Kong protest

HONG KONG: In the Hong Kong protests, not all is as it seems. From the shadows of the city's mass street protests, murky characters have emerged. Allegations have spread among protesters, the local media and online that triad gangsters, paid demonstrators, police pretending to be protest leaders, and even a stuntman feigning suicidal tendencies have arrayed themselves against the students and the Occupy Central movement.

Part of this is to do with rumors flying around in a continually changing situation, with no time for people to verify what they read or hear. But with the Chinese Communist Party in the background after taking control from Britain in 1997, Hong Kong citizens are ever ready to believe such claims of duplicity. 

Michael DeGolyer, a political economist at Hong Kong Baptist University, said there is a "wedge of distrust" within Hong Kong society because there is a coyness about who belongs to the Communist Party _ which does not officially exist as a party within the political system here _ while another section of society suspects there are foreign interests giving directions within this former colony. 

"There are rich grounds for suspicion from both the pro-democracy groups, or you might say the pro-American or pro-British groups, and the pro-government, or you might say the pro-Beijing groups, that they are not being honest about really who is encouraging them or giving them money or directing them," DeGolyer said. "This is not a society that is characterized by a huge degree of trust." 

This atmosphere of distrust has come to the fore during days of protests by students and Occupy Central, an alliance of pro-democracy activists, who are calling for genuine democratic reforms in this semiautonomous region. When police fired tear gas and pepper spray on protesters on Sept. 28, it caused an upsurge in support and brought tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents onto the streets. 

On Sunday afternoon, a man who wanted the protests to end climbed up to the top of a pedestrian walkway over a key road that has been at their epicenter and looked as if he might jump if student leaders didn't meet with him. He used a megaphone to berate protesters for stopping him from getting to work and his three children from going to school, and later brandished a box cutter. 

While he was still up there, rumors circled on social media and the pro-democracy Apple Daily reported that he was in fact a stuntman who had been hired to disrupt the protests. What purported to be his photo in the stuntman's register was circulated. 

But the Hong Kong Stuntman's Association denied on Tuesday that the stuntman, identified as Leung Siu Hung, was the man in question. 

"It doesn't look anything like him. He's much fitter," spokeswoman Rita Yeung said by phone. 

Police and fire crews had rushed to lay out two large inflatable cushions beneath him and some protesters tried to debate with him. No leaders came to meet with him and he eventually stepped down nearly five hours later. 

Later Sunday, amid division among protesters after Occupy Central had announced it was withdrawing from some areas, local television broadcasts showed Joe Yeung, identified as a protester, shaking hands with a police official and saying protesters would remove barriers from outside the office of the chief executive, Hong Kong's leader. Later on, internet users found out that Yeung was an auxiliary police officer and accused him of being part of a ruse. 

Yeung told The Associated Press by phone that he was both a part-time police officer and an Occupy Central supporter, and since Sunday's incident had handed in his resignation. He said he had made up his mind to resign from the police when he saw officers using pepper spray on the students the week before. 

Kevin Tam, a psychologist at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said people's trust in the traditional media had faded during the protests because "fact-checkers" on social media had alleged inaccuracies in their reports, and there was more information available on social media than in the traditional media, including videos. 

This "reinforces some preexisting concerns ... of the tight control of the government on information and that of course violates the core values of Hong Kong, we are used to have transparency, information can flow very freely," Tam said. "The concern has been there for a while because of course people understand what happens in mainland China." 

On the mainland, authorities can largely control the narrative on any outbreaks of unrest. 

After clashes broke out Friday when an angry mob tried to force pro-democracy activists from the streets they were occupying in the Mong Kok area, Hong Kong police and its security chief were forced to deny that they had any connection to criminal gangs suspected of inciting attacks on peaceful demonstrators. Online accounts and videos accused the police of standing by while protesters were beaten. 

"They can't drive us away with tear gas so they are trying to do it with gangsters," said protester Johnny Hui, 31, summing up a widespread belief among protesters that the Hong Kong government and police were colluding with triads. 

Photos circulated on social media of a call to "Blue Ribbon action" _ in reference to the blue ribbons some pro-government supporters wear _ and a price list for causing a disturbance. The maximum payment was HK$1,000 (US$103). The claims could not be independently confirmed, and calls to a telephone number said to be where one could claim a reward did not connect. 

On Saturday, the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily declared in a headline that "the police and triads join hands to clear the protests." 

At least eight of 19 people arrested were believed to have backgrounds linked to triads, or organized crime, police said. 

Tam, the psychologist, said unverified information had spread virally partly as a way for the public to express its anxiety amid a lot of uncertainty and powerlessness. 

People were also clinging to information that reinforced their existing beliefs and finding it hard to be objective and entertain other viewpoints, Tam said. "I think that is why there is a trend now on Facebook of defriending," he said. "That has not happened before."