Yo,Boys.I m Sing Song!!

On the surface, the Indian music industry seems peaceful enough, steeped in glamour, and a perfect blend of melodies. Look closer though and you'll see the rifts -- little fault lines that indicate a strain in the relationship between artistes and music companies.

And this strain has come to a head with the registration, of the Singers' Association of India, which aims to tackle the "problems faced by the industry today."

Problems? Isn't this the industry everyone wants to be part of -- an industry that has given us our Indian Idol, Abhijeet Sawant, our desi crooner Rabbi Shergill, and that is increasingly attracting global voices such as Trickbaby, Juggy D and Raghav, to name just a few?

It's also the industry where Pakistani artistes Junoon, Strings, Fuzon and, more recently, Jal and Ali Zafar, are finding a firm foothold as they release albums to an increasing fan following. A place for artistes to co-exist happily in, to live and let live?

Not quite.

This industry, which in the 1990s boasted of a turnover of Rs 1,150 crore (Rs 11.50 billion), now stands abysmally low at Rs 450 crore (Rs 4.50 billion). What's more, the notes and melodies are shaky, out of tune and discordant as the industry is plagued with controversies, discontent and a growing unrest between music companies on the one hand, and music composers, lyricists and singers on the other.

In other words, strip the music industry of its sheen and one finds a range of issues that need urgent attention. As well-known playback singer and television anchor Shaan  says, "It's easy to highlight the trends of the music industry, but that's the glamorous part." A brief pause and he adds, "Let's discuss the real story."

But what is the real story? Different versions rest with different parties. While music directors, singers and lyricists take a break from strumming their instruments to point fingers at music companies for mistreating them, the latter have their own ripostes. But whatever the disagreement, both sides agree that the issue of piracy that has eaten into the music industry and left it hollow.

Technology has advanced considerably and expanded the listeners' base, what with people downloading music at a low cost. Music is easily heard on radio channels, music videos are shown on television and people are happily listening to innumerable songs on their MP3 players. However, this is precisely what has led to a considerable decrease in the sales of the music albums.

Nobody, wants to buy music cassettes or CDs any more because they're happily downloading music off the Net, ( Yeah, even I do that!) this being one of the prime reasons why the industry has bled profusely in the past few years. But the damage is really heavy on the pocket. The industry has lost nearly Rs 450 crore to piracy.

But this is where the duet between IMI and musicians ends, with both parties opting for a solo track thereafter.

Take Singers' Association of India (SAI), the association started by playback singer Sonu Nigam  along with colleagues Alka Yagnik and Suresh Wadekar that, in the singer's own words, "is aimed at tapping the real issues that music companies fail to address."

What could possibly prompt Nigam, one of India's busiest playback singers, to make such a statement? Take for example, If you hear the hit song 'Kajrare' from the film Bunty aur Babli, it's called the Aishwarya-Amitabh-Abhishek song. No one calls it the Shankar Mahadevan-Alisha Chinai-Jaaved Ali song. It's such a wrong attitude, and that's what they are after changing.

I feel music companies need to aggressively market singers, encourage the non-film music market, give them their fair share of royalty and, essentially, "give singers due respect”.

As long as the issue of royalty remains unsettled, musicians will continue to be insecure. Music companies, need to have faith in their artistes, and the industry on the whole needs to be structured properly and give artistes their rightful share of money.

The controversies regarding royalty seem to be on the minds of almost everyone in the industry. What's more, with technology advancing so rapidly, musicians want a share of the pie on not just cassettes and CDs but also from radio and television channels that air their songs, from sites that allow people to download music, and from ringtones that are being downloaded at a rapid pace.

The industry orchestra isn't likely to serve up too many winners if this issue isn't sorted out some time soon.

Maybe the Singers Association will help mend the differences; maybe it'll fuel it further. Either way, making music isn't going to be fun for some more time to come.

I, Me, Myself..:))

Maybe cinema is all she knows. Maybe cinema is all she breathes. Maybe cinema is all she eats. Maybe cinema is all what her heart, mind and soul speaks.

She has no connections with the hot-shots of page3 parties nor has she received cinema through her genes. She is what she is: A normal (by birth, but abnormal by choice :P) teenaged girl who goes weak in her knees (or blushes for that matter ;) )when her crush smiles at her when passing by . But, when and how did cinema become such an integral part of her life is a question whose answer even she doesn’t knows!

Well, don’t stress too much on your little brains, the 'she', 'she', 'she' in the last two paragraphs is no one else but ME (yay!!) who runs this entertainment blog, Parde Ke Peeche as a hobby for the past 3 months. And by the word ”hobby” I mean, as and when I am free (which is very rare :/) or want some solace, I take to blogging and distribute filmy 'gyaan', focusing solely on hindi cinema.

I assume you guys, are a lot into western music and cinema, and must be wondering as to why only hindi cinema 'gyaan' on the blog. Well, I was never inclined towards weatern cinema. Dunno why…but that never interested me….as simple as that!

To tell you more about Parde Ke Peeche , well, I can’t exactly tell you what all things you should expect from it, but I can definitely tell you what all NOT  to expect! Film  reviews, music reviews, fashion trends, who-hit-whom-in which party, who-is-going out-with whom, which lipstick Sonam wore for her friend’s wedding, and all those kinda shitty gossip is exactly what you’ll not find here. And that is certainly the reason why Parde Ke Peeche is different from other entertainment blogs.

Through this journey of interacting with you guys, taking in all your criticism, suggestions and whatever you wish to give in, it will be my sincere efforts to keep you posted on the-never-heard-before stories ,in other words, the 'Parde Ke Peeche' incidents which most likely and hopefully you won’t find on your weekly glossy entertainment magazines.

Parde ke peeche, in its own way, would also celebrate the completion of 100 years of Indian cinema! CHEERS! ENJOY! and HAPPY READING! 

P.S. Any suggestions for future posts? Feel free to send in your suggestions and requests here or on my e-mail id: aanchal.srivastava20@gmail.com. Hope to hear from you soon :)

The Unsung Hero -- Nawazuddin Siddiqui...

In this series of posts, I’ll take the honour of introducing to you some of India’s ‘bestest ka bhi best’ actors who I feel truly define what acting actually is but yet not so celebrated ones. These actors are the rarest of the species of actors on earth yet we miserably fail to acknowledge their unending talent. Have you seen ‘Kahaani’? Yes? Then you must have unfailingly noticed  the cocky CBI agent Khan, who struts around scaring the hell out of local cops in Kolkota. yes, that’s Mr. Nawazzudin Siddiqui for you. to make you more familiar to this extra-ordinary actor, I have a series of articles I came across which  best describe him. Please, spare a read..it would be worth it!!

The mark of a good actor—Aseem Chhabra for Mumbai Mirror.

Nawazuddin is gifted with charm and a certain energy that helps him transform into diverse characters he plays on screen.

In Patang, he is Chakko — a wedding band singer in Ahmedabad — who resents his wealthy relatives and holds them responsible for his father’s death. In Chittagong, he is Nirmal Sen an idealist freedom fighter who has a hard time expressing his love for a colleague. In Dekh Indian Circus he is a poor villager, a mute man and father of two, who has to face his children’s disappointment when they realise he cannot take them on an outing to a circus. And in Gangs of Wasseypur, he plays the younger son of rural gangster who reflects the nervous energy of Freddie Corleone and also the aspiring confidence of Michael Corleone (The Godfather). These are the four faces of Nawazuddin Siddiqui — the terrific actor of indie Hindi cinema — that I have seen in the past two weeks. In a field packed with Bollywood stars who rarely take risks and play anything other than the one-note characters the audience want them to be, Nawaz is a rare actor, a human chameleon. . Nawaz, in the still from the movie,'Peepli Live'. Nawaz is in Cannes celebrating the world premieres of his two films — Gangs of Wasseypur and Miss Lovely, a rare achievement for an actor unknown on the world stage. But we are also witnessing the summer of Nawaz in the US. Patang and Dekh Indian Circus played the week before last at the Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival in Pittsburgh. And then I flew back from Pittsburgh to come home to the New York Indian Film Festival, where I saw three of Nawaz’s films — Chittagong, Gangs and also, one more time, Circus. And if these diverse rich performances of Nawaz were not enough, on Thursday a set of wire image pictures from Cannes showed the Miss Lovely team — dressed up, posing under a cloudy sky. Along with the film’s director Ashim Ahluwalia, and his other cast, I saw the dashing Nawaz — far from the life of his village near Muzzafarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, dressed in black suit, narrow tie and a crisp white shirt. That is Nawaz, the 38-year-old graduate of Delhi’s National School of Drama who seems to be in practically every film I see lately. When I met him last month during his Patang promotion trip to New York (the film opens here on June 15), he said he had 10 films waiting to be released in India including Reema Kagti’s Talaash. What is the mark of a good actor? To answer that question, one has to look at a person like Nawaz. He is unassuming, a bit shy at first. He has none of the arrogance that one sometimes sees in big stars. But his eyes sparkle and his smile is infectious. He is gifted with a lot of charm and there is certain energy in him that helps him transform into the diverse characters he plays on the screen. In a field packed with Bollywood stars who rarely take risks and play anything other than the one-note characters the audience want them to be, Nawaz is a rare actor, a human chameleon. And that may be one reason why people often do not remember him from his supporting roles in many of his films. This past week, as I would mention Nawaz’s name again and again to friends and strangers I met at the two festivals in Pittsburgh and New York, I would often be asked a question like this: “Remind me again, what films has he acted in?” And so I would start off by describing his character in Peepli Live, the earnest journalist who dies in the end, or in Kahaani, where he is the cocky CBI agent Khan, who struts around scaring the hell out of local cops in Kolkota. And then people would seem to remember him. But I know things will change if most of his 10 films open in India this year. I know people will be blown away by his relative small role in Dekh Indian Circus, especially a playful seductive scene between him and actress Tannishtha Chatterjee, who plays his wife. And I know people will smile watching Nawaz try to express his love to Vega Tamotia’s Pritilata Waddedar in Chittagong, as Shankar Mahadevan sings Bolo Na in the background. Soon it will be a festival of Nawaz in India as well!

Aamir Khan: Satyamev Jayate?

Aamir's alleged love child,'Jaan'.

A popular  Indian film magazine  had come out with the details of the alleged illicit relationship between Bollywood Actor Aamir Khan and British journalist Jessica Hines a couple of years back. 

It stated that Aamir met Hines on the sets of 'Ghulam'. They eventually landed into a live in relationship. Talking about her involvement with Aamir, she says she met the actor on the sets of Ghulam, having got late for her appointment with him and with only half-an-hour left to catch an international flight. There was instant chemistry between them; the interviewer says. "Something happened which is unexplainable and if you were writing a movie script, you would call it love. They continued meeting on and off till eventually they were living together. 

REKHA --- A Tragic And Untold Saga…………

Part-II [Failure in love life]

"I am in love with someone I haven’t met. It is a perfect image in my mind. I have had much more than love, such intense feelings overflowing and coming out of each hair and cuticle in my body. If it hasn’t happened in real, it has been so strong in my imagination."-- Rekha

Rekha and her late husband in happier times

1991:  Just a year after their marriage, Delhi-based businessman Mukesh Aggarwal  hanged himself from fan by tying a dupatta (supposedly of Rekha). He dealt in Niki Tasha kitchenette cooking ranges.

Rekha’s love life has been of national interest for three decades. Her marriages, affairs and rumours of affairs have consumed enough pages to fill a library. And Rekha has continued to stoke stories by seemingly carelessly dropped hints and dramatic looks in public places. But despite endless speculations and an unauthorised biography, the truth remains elusive. What is known is Rekha has had two failed marriages...

 In 1990, Rekha married Delhi-based industrialist Mukesh Aggarwal. A year later—while she was in the US—he committed suicide, after several previous attempts, leaving a note, "Don't blame anyone". She was pilloried by the press at that time, a period which one journalist termed as "the deepest trough in her life." She was on the verge of divorce when her second husband Mukesh Agarwal committed suicide.

The months that followed were harrowing—she was labelled a murderer and posters of her film Sheshnaag were defaced. But Rekha says she emerged stronger from the crisis: “I grew up then to become the eternal child that I am today. I have never questioned life again. I am absolutely, unconditionally open to anything.”

She was rumoured to have been married to actor Vinod Mehra in 1973, but in a 2004 television interview with Simi Garewal she denied being married to Mehra referring to him as a "well-wisher”.

REKHA --- A Tragic And Untold Saga…………

 [Part-I  Negligence of Paternity in Rekha’s life…….]

Rekha during her oath taking ceremony in the Rajya Sabha

15^th may,2012 : All eyes were on the newest entrant in the Rajya Sabha, who was to take the oath as member of parliament that day. Drapped in her trademark cream and gold kanjeevaram, scarlet lipstick on her lips, sans any heavy jewellery or makeup, was one of india’s most beloved actresses.When it was time for her to take the oath, this latest member of parliament introduced herself to the world as Rekha Ganeshan.

Yes,  it was the same Rekha who had won 2 filmfare best actress awards, a filmfare best supporting actress and a national award for her portrayal as the suave Umrao Jaan, in the Muzaffar Ali production by the same name and who to the hindi film industry is known as Rekha, just Rekha. Now wondering, what this certain Ganeshan has to do with Rekha, we need to go back half a century in her life.

Rekha in the daughter of telugu actress Pushpavalli and Gemini Ganeshan who was Ramaswamy Ganeshan by birth. This name might sound new to you but it is not to the tamil film industry...

 Ganesan’s dream was to become a doctor. In April 1940 he went to Tiruchilapalli to see T.R. Alamelu. Alamelu’s father proposed his daughter in marriage and promised him a medical seat after graduation. Ganesan immediately agreed and married Alamelu in June 1940. Alamelu lost her father and her elder sister within one month of her marriage. Ganesan's dreams of becoming a doctor shattered. There was no choice left for him but to find a job immediately as he was the only person to support his family.Much against Alamelu’s wishes Ganesan went to Delhi. In Delhi he met his uncle Narayanaswami who advised him to become a teacher. Finally, Ganesan worked as a lecturer in the Department of Chemistry, at Madras Christian College. Later on, he took up the job of a production executive in Gemini Studios in 1947, from where the title “Gemini” was added to his name. He received an entry to films from the casting department of the Studio itself. Despite being one of the most successful actors of Tamil cinema during his time, Gemini Ganesan's talents were not properly exploited and were mostly confined to "boy meets girl" romantic films.