Category: News

DUBAI: Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor has replaced Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as the brand ambassador for a leading Indian jewellery company.

Sonam will take the place of Aishwarya, who had been connected to Kalyan Jewellers as a brand ambassador for three years. Amitabh Bachchan and his wife Jaya continue to be the ambassadors for the leading jewellery chain. Sonam, 30, will endorse Kalyan’s exquisite range of gold and diamond jewelry.

‘We would like to thank Aishwarya Rai Bachchan for augmenting the product propositions of brand Kalyan over the last 3 years and helping Kalyan in establishes itself as a leading national brand’. ‘We welcome Sonam Kapoor and are confident that her status as a style icon and popularity will strengthen future product campaigns of Kalyan Jewellers.’said Ramesh Kalyanaraman, Executive Director, Marketing and Operations.

Honey Singh, 33-years-old Indian pop star who have been disappeared for about 2 years is back now with a bang. There were news about Honey Singh that he’s in rehab but Honey denied all these rumors and revealed the real reason of this absence.

Honey Singh, real name Hirdesh,told: ‘The last 18 months were the darkest phase of my life, and I wasn’t in a state to talk to anyone. I know there were rumours that I was in rehab, but I was in my Noida house throughout. The truth is I was suffering from bipolar disorder. It went on for 18 months, during which I changed four doctors, the medication wasn’t working on me and crazy things were happening. I must confess that I was bipolar and an alcoholic, which aggravated the condition.’

Soon to be seen in Punjabi film Zorawar, the singer-turned-actor revealed that for a year he did not respond to the medication. ‘At one point, I thought I would live in this darkness forever. I had cut myself off from everyone. I didn’t come out of my room, forget stepping out of the house. I had a beard and I didn’t get a haircut for months. For someone who has performed in front of a crowd of 20,000, I was scared of facing 4-5 people. That’s what bipolar disorder does to you,’ he said in the interview.

He further added that ‘Nothing like that ever happened. During my low phase, a lot of people visited my place, including Bhushanji (Bhushan Kumar of T-Series). I got calls from Shah Rukh bhai, too. Recently, I met him at a show and we were chatting about films and music. He is amazing, he’s not just a great actor, but also a superb personality’

“In that phase, I wrote 50-60 poems. They are like khuli shayari, so I can’t make them into songs. One night when I couldn’t sleep in spite of popping sleeping pills, I wrote and composed a song called Rise and Shine, after seeing my mom break down. She is the only reason I am here today,” he said. We wish him health and prosperity ahead and hope that soon he’ll show up with some great ‘Yo Yo’ type songs to rule our hearts again.

The story goes that Hrithik Roshan turned into a scared rabbit, when Kangana Ranaut started hinting that he was her ex. Roshan Jr felt that she would name him in one of her interviews and sent a legal notice to her through his lawyer Deepesh Mehta saying, that she has been tarnishing his image so much that it amounts to defamation. We hear, the notice ran into six pages.

A source says in that notice, Roshan told her that she should call for a press conference and render an apology to him, spelling out that she had not hinted at Hrithik Roshan as her “silly ex”. Else he would make all her correspondence to him public. Ranaut realised that this was nothing but blackmail. She was not going to take this lying down. The ‘Tanu Weds Manu’ actress retaliated with a legal notice through her lawyer Rizwan Siddiqui with a 21-page reply, charging him with intimidation and threat under sections of the Indian Penal Code.

The ‘Queen’ actress’s argument was that she had not taken his name per se anywhere, so how can it be termed as defamation? A very anxious and uptight Roshan has been calling up his close friends in the industry and informing them what his ‘Krrish 3’ co-star has done to him.

For those who’ve come in late, the Roshan-Ranaut mudslinging match began, when Ranaut was asked by a section of the media if it was true that Roshan had got her ousted from ‘Aashiqui 3’. The fiery actress replied, “Yes, many lame rumours are doing the rounds, even a dumbass can tell where these rumours are coming from! I don’t know why exes do silly things to get your attention. For me, that chapter is over and I don’t dig graves.”

The equation between the ‘Kites’ co-stars got uglier when Roshan shot back on Twitter, “Ther r more chances of me having had an affair with d Pope dan any of d (Im sure wonderful) women d media has been naming. Thanks but no thanks”.

And then, Ranaut being Ranaut, shot back on another media platform, saying, “I respect the other person’s opinion. It’s very likely that a person can have a different perspective of the same situation or rather the past. But then, stick to your stand. Don’t contradict yourself and slyly pursue people, spy on them and chase them. So, we sign and seal the deal and then move on.”

Rare and Unseen Childhood Pictures of Most Famous Bollywood Celebrities

We bring to you most popular Bollywood stars and some interesting pictures of their childhood, probably never seen pictures

Alia Bhatt looks so cute!

Shah Rukh Khan seems one of the most adorable kids of his time. It is also said that SRK’s son AbRam looks similiar to Shah Rukh

Ranbir Kapoor with his father Rishi Kapoor

Deepika Padukone with her father Prakash Padukone
Hrithik Roshan

Katrina Kaif

Salman Khan

Salman seems naughty in his childhood picture

With incoming warmer weather, the presence of snakes is bound to slither upward as many snakes come out of hibernation, experts say. Snakes are ectothermic, or cold-blooded, so they rely on the environment to regulate their body temperature. Snakes, along with other forms of reptilian life, go through a hibernation-like period during the winter months called brumation, according to LLLreptile.com.
Exotic Animal Park, said it doesn’t have to be cold for snakes to start their brumation. Most snakes will start to hibernate when the days become shorter after Daylight Saving Time ends in November. Ectothermic creatures can’t control their body temperatures, so they have to burrow underground. Once early spring comes around the busiest time of the year for many snakes they start to travel. Females are looking for food to prepare for mating later in the year. Snakes will travel further in order to attain food, and lots of baby snakes born in the fall are now more prominent and will travel, as well.
Forthman said there are 85 different subspecies of snakes around Bexar County, and only four of them are considered dangerous/venomous. Forthman said the four main venomous snake types to be wary of are the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, the Western Cottonmouth or “Water Moccasin,” the Broadband Copperhead and the Texas Coral Snake. Remember: “Red Touches Yellow, Kills a Fellow.”
To keep snakes away from a home, make sure that habitats aren’t developing for the snakes. That means tall grass, rock piles, brush piles and other forms of debris should be removed from the vicinity of your home or backyard. Insects and rodent populations also should be controlled by people living in areas that wish to keep snakes away, as this will reduce their food supply, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife.
Some other things to keep as far away as possible from the home are wood piles, trash dumps and livestock pens. Overturned boats, tarps and similar objects are also potential shelters for snakes. Holes in the main home should also be covered or filled to ensure snakes cannot get into the home, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife.
Forthman said snakes are lot less harmless than most people think. Most snakes will only harm you if they are threatened. “Snakes would rather flee than fight,” Forthman said. He added that snakes are good for the environment, as they kill off rodents and other vermin.

This being your Bollywood debut as an artiste, how did the transition come to be?

Everything in my life happened because there was a whisper in my heart. I trained to be a doctor, but I followed my heart in wanting to be an artiste. Vivek Kumar, Rhythm’s director, read the film’s synopsis to me. What I loved about the story was two things: the story follows a group of friends, pursuing their careers, but equally passionate about performing. Rinil Routh’s character, Avantika, aspires to take on performing like me after she watches me at a concert in the film. The same happened in my life. I attended a concert of Jimmy Page, and seeing him, aspired to be like him. The film’s message of following one’s heart won me over.

You also make a cameo appearance in the film. How was the experience of shooting for it different from shooting for music videos?

Shooting for the two songs were similar to how we shoot for our music. But the part where I play Avantika’s mentor was challenging, as I had to get into character. However, it all fell in place after a few takes

Your hit single with Junoon, ‘Sayonee,’ created wonders with audiences. Are any of Rhythm’s songs expected to receive similar status?

I think the song ‘Yaaron’ that I did with Sunidhi Chauhan is a powerful song. Also ‘Kaise Bolu’ is equally nice. They are modern but possess the Sufi touch.

This year being Junoon’s 25th anniversary, can we expect the band to have its own film soon?

I think so. I really enjoyed working with Vivek. So I think this might just be the next step for me.

Baywatch’ antagonist was initially set to be a man but the makers decided to change the gender of the character after meeting Priyanka Chopra.

The Bollywood star will make her Hollywood movie debut as villainous Victoria Deeds in the Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson-starrer. Priyanka is excited to play a negative character in the Hollywood project, a reboot of the hit ’90s show of the same name. “It is so much fun to play a negative character because you have the liberty to go out of your comfort zone and do anything. Victoria is a very mean character,” Priyanka told PTI in an interview over phone from Montreal, Canada. “It (the role) was initially written for a man and they were talking to me for another part. But after the director met me, they thought I would be better as a villain and then they changed the character to be a female,” said the actress.
The star, whose earlier negative roles were in Bollywood movies ‘Aitraaz’ and ‘7 Khoon Maaf’, will be seen taking on the Rock and his squad in the Seth Gordon-directed film. “It was really exciting that they changed the role for me. You have to be a very strong character to take on ‘The Rock’ and entire lifeguard squad. They will be six whereas I am alone. It looked very cool to me,” she said.

The actress already made her successful international debut last year with American TV show ‘Quantico’, whose second season she is currently shooting. Priyanka, 33, will be next seen on the big screen in the role of a tough cop in Prakash Jha’s ‘Jai Gangaajal’, which releases on March 4.

Happiness is one of the most important things in life, yet it’s also one of the hardest to study.

Psychiatrist Robert Waldinger is the director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, one of the longest and most complete studies of adult life ever conducted. Waldinger described some of the secrets to happiness revealed by the study in a recent TED talk.

The study followed two cohorts of white men for 75 years, starting in 1938:

268 Harvard sophomores as part of the “Grant Study” led by Harvard psychiatrist George Vaillant

456 12- to 16-year-old boys who grew up in inner-city Boston as part of the “Glueck Study” led by Harvard Law School professor Sheldon Glueck

The researchers surveyed the men about their lives (including the quality of their marriages, job satisfaction, and social activities) every two years and monitored their physical health (including chest X-rays, blood tests, urine tests, and echo-cardiograms) every five years.

They came away with one major finding: Good relationships keep us happier and healthier.

In his TED Talk, Waldinger pointed out three key lessons about happiness:

1. Close relationships:

The men in both groups of the Harvard study who reported being closer to their family, friends, or community tended to be happier and healthier than their less social counterparts. They also tended to live longer. By comparison, people who said they were lonelier reported feeling less happy. They also had worse physical and mental health, as defined above.

A 2014 review of dozens of studies published in the journal Social and Personality Psychology Compass suggests that loneliness can get in the way of mental functioning, sleep, and well-being, which in turn increases the risk of illness and death.

2. Quality (not quantity) of relationships:

It’s not just being in a relationship that matters. Married couples who said they argued constantly and had low affection for one another (which study authors defined as “high-conflict marriages”) were actually less happy than people who weren’t married at all, the Harvard study found.

However, the effect of relationship quality seems to depend somewhat on age. A 2015 study published in the journal Psychology and Aging that followed people for 30 years found that the number of relationships people had was, in fact, more important for people in their 20s, but the quality of relationships had a bigger effect on social and psychological well being when people were in their 30s.

3. Stable, supportive marriages:

Being socially connected to others isn’t just good for our physical health. It also helps stave off mental decline. People who were married without having divorced, separating, or having “serious problems” until age 50 performed better on memory tests later in life than those who weren’t, the Harvard study found.

And other research backs this up. A 2013 study in the journal PLOS ONE found that marriage, among other factors, was linked to a lower risk of mild cognitive impairment and dementia.

All of this suggests that strong relationships are critical to our health.

Society places a lot of emphasis on wealth and “leaning in” to our work, Waldinger said. “But over and over, over these 75 years, our study has shown that the people who fared the best were the people who leaned in to relationships, with family, with friends, with community.”

Air pollution kills more than 5.5 million people around the world each year, with over half of those deaths occurring in fast-growing China and India, researchers said Friday. And the number of premature deaths will continue to climb in the years ahead unless more aggressive measures against pollution are adopted, scientists warned the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in the US capital.

“Air pollution is the fourth highest risk factor for death globally and by far the leading environmental risk factor for disease,” said Michael Brauer, a professor at the University of British Columbia’s School of Population and Public Health in Vancouver, Canada.

Air pollution ranks behind high blood pressure, diet and smoking as the fourth greatest risk factor for fatalities worldwide, according to the Global Burden of Disease study, done by the Institute for Health Metrics.

“Reducing air pollution is an incredibly efficient way to improve the health of a population,” said Brauer.
China and India account for 55 percent of yearly global deaths from air pollution. Some 1.6 million people died of air pollution in China in 2013, while India saw 1.4 million deaths. In China, burning coal is the biggest contributor to poor air quality — and pollution from coal was found to have caused 366,000 deaths in 2013, said Qiao Ma, a PhD student at the School of Environment at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.

She projected that air pollution will cause anywhere from 990,000 to 1.3 million premature deaths in 2030 unless more ambitious targets are introduced.

“Our study highlights the urgent need for even more aggressive strategies to reduce emissions from coal and from other sectors,” said Ma.

In India, the main culprit was burning wood, dung and biomass for cooking and heating. “India needs a three-pronged mitigation approach to address industrial coal burning, open burning for agriculture, and household air pollution sources,” said Chandra Venkataraman, professor of Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, in Mumbai, India.
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According to the World Health Organization (WHO) air quality guidelines, pollution should be restricted to a daily particulate matter of 25 micrograms per cubic meter.In February, Beijing and New Delhi typically see daily levels at or above 300 micrograms per cubic meter – or 1,200 percent higher than WHO guidelines, researchers said. More than 85 percent of the global population lives in areas where the World Health Organization Air Quality Guideline is exceeded.

Top 15 Richest Actors In The World

Acting is a feast or famine type of job, until you make it big. Then, it is a feast type of life that includes mansions, sports cars, expensive vacations, and more. While most actors have more money than most non-celebrities, there are those who are astoundingly rich. Here is a list of the 15 richest actors in the world.

1) Jerry Seinfeld

Jerry Seinfeld is the richest actor in the world with a net worth of around $820 million. This is largely due to his success in his self-named comedy, “Seinfeld”. Although he was paid many millions as the creator, writer and star of the show, he made hundreds of millions from the syndication rights, after the show ended. He keeps himself busy (and makes a little extra money) through personal appearances, stand-up comedy, voice work, and other roles in movies and television. He is married with 1 daughter and 2 sons.

2) Shah Rukh Khan

Shah Rukh Khan or SRK is a Bollywood actor who is worth around $600 million. He has been in more than 80 movies and is the co-chairman of the motion picture production company, Red Chilies Entertainment. In addition, he is co-owner of the Kokata Knight Riders, an Indian cricket team. He is a stage show performer and a frequent television presenter.

3) Tom Cruise

Cruise is an American filmmaker and actor. He has been nominated for and has won several Golden Globes and Academy Awards and is Hollywood’s highest paid actor. He is also well known for his high profile marriages to actresses Nicole Kidman and Katie Holmes. He has a net worth of $470 million.

4) Johnny Depp

Johnny Depp is an award winning actor, as well as a producer and musician. He began his career on the television series 21 Jump Street, in the 1980’s. He has been in many movies since then, including Platoon, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland, and The Pirates of the Caribbean series. His estimated net worth is $450 million.

5) Tyler Perry

Tyler Perry is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, author, songwriter, and playwright. He specializes in the gospel genre and is best known for creating and performing his “Madea” character. He has created several shows and is currently in a partnership with Oprah Winfrey and her OWN network to bring scripted television to the network. His net worth is approximately $450 million.

6) Jack Nicholson

Jack Nicholson is an American filmmaker and actor with over 60 years of experience. He has been in a number of classic movies, including One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Shining, Terms of Endearment, Chinatown and A Few Good Men. He is one of the only two actors to be nominated for an Academy Award in every decade from the 1960s to the 2000s. He is estimated to be worth approximately $400 million.

7) Arnold Schwarzenneger

Arnold is known for his roles in such movies as Terminator, as well as in the Expendables, but he is also known as a great businessman and politician, serving as Governor of California. His success in acting and in business has helped him amass a net worth of approximately $400 million.

8) Jackie Chan

Jackie Chan is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist, producer, singer, stuntman, and film director. He is known for his fighting style seen in over 150 films since the 1960’s. His net worth is approximately $390 million.

9) Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks is an American actor and filmmaker known for such roles as Big, Forrest Gump, Cast Away, and Saving Mr. Banks. In addition, he has done voice work in the Toy Story series and The Polar Express. He has been nominated for numerous awards and as won several for his roles in “Forrest Gump” and Philadelphia. He is one of the highest-grossing actors in film history and has a net worth of approximately $390 million.

10) Bill Cosby

An American actor, stand-up comedian, author, and activist, Bill Cosby is a very well-known entertainment figure for both his work and his recent legal issues. He started as a comedian before he got a starring role in I Spy during the 1960’s. Fat Albert was a character he developed during his stand-up routines and he created, produced, and hosted the show of the same name. The Cosby Show, which he produced and starred in, was one of the most popular and successful situation comedies in TV history. His net worth is estimated at $380 million.

11) Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood is an actor, producer, director, musician, and even a politician. He was in Westerns during the 1960’s and was the star of five Dirty Harry films in the two decades after. He has directed and produced box office blockbusters including Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby and Gran Torino. His net worth is valued at $370 million.

12) Keanu Reeves

Keanu Reeves is best known for his roles in Speed, which co-starred Sandra Bullock, and The Matrix, where he played the character Neo. He’s a highly sought-after actor and is very selective about which film projects he takes on. With a net worth of around $350 million, he can certainly afford to pick and choose.

13) Adam Sandler

Adam Sandler is an American comedian, actor, film producer, screenwriter, and musician. He was a Saturday Night Live cast member and has starred in numerous movies, most of them being comedies. His film and television production company has produced a number of films and he developed the 2007 sitcom, Rules of Engagement. His net worth is approximately $340 million.

14) Sylvester Stallone

From his roles as Rocky to Rambo to Expendables, Sylvester Stallone has seen a very long career as an actor, director and producer that has helped him build a net worth of approximately $275 million.

15) Will Smith

Will Smith is a great actor who has starred in a number of movies, including Independence Day, Bad Boys, and Men in Black, as well as others. His high profile marriage to Jada Pinkett Smith has made them one of the “power couples” in Hollywood. His net worth is placed at $250 million.