The actor and founder of Makkal Needhi Maiam says it is now the moment for people from all sections to come together in the fight against fascism

'I can write a book about Kamal Haasan. No, make that three books.'

The latest updates from the Tamil film industry.

Several celebrities congratulated Haasan on social media including superstar Rajinikanth.

Kamal is the second Tamil actor after Sivaji Ganesan to be awarded this honour.

'With passage of time, Kamal did move away from the humdrum of commercial cinema, using it only as a peg to launch a new concept or new technology, as no other actor/film-maker has done in Indian cinema.'

'With passage of time, Kamal did move away from the humdrum of commercial cinema, using it only as a peg to launch a new concept or new technology, as no other actor/film-maker has done in Indian cinema.' N Sathiya Moorthy assesses the career and politics of movie legend Kamal Haasan on his 70th brthday.

'I was completely in awe of him. After the shot was okayed, I would quickly run back to my chair and sit quietly till I was called again.'

'Kamal has surfed and navigated a lot of tidal waves, manoeuvring the peaks and troughs, combining rare intelligence and commonly available intuitions to overcome unimaginable crises all his life.' 'There is no looking back at the past, for his only motto has been 'Tomorrow belongs to us'!'

'Here is a man who's always pushing the envelope regardless of the repercussions.' 'That's the frenzy of a genius at work.'

'It was my job to read out their lines to the actors and make sure they spoke them with the right diction, accent and pronunciation. If you look at my photographs from the Sadma set, you will always find me with a file in hand, even when I am in my costume. While Kamal and Sridevi were diligent about their Hindi dialogue, Silk Smitha, while always respectful, was not too interested in her lines or my instructions.'

'I prefer to remain grounded, constantly aware of my imperfections and my duty to improve.' 'Hence, after considerable reflection, I feel compelled to respectfully decline all such titles or prefixes.'

'It was my job to read out their lines to the actors and make sure they spoke them with the right diction, accent and pronunciation. If you look at my photographs from the Sadma set, you will always find me with a file in hand, even when I am in my costume. While Kamal and Sridevi were diligent about their Hindi dialogue, Silk Smitha, while always respectful, was not too interested in her lines or my instructions.'

California's Attorney General Kamala Harris on Wednesday scripted history as she won the U.S. Senate seat from the state, becoming the first Indian-American to reach the feat.

Indian-American Kamala Harris, who scripted history by winning a Senate seat, has said she would open a battlefront against President-elect Donald Trump's anti-immigration policies

News of the death of veteran music executive Andre Harrell hit the industry hard with many artists, former colleagues, fans and friends expressing their grief on social media Friday night, May 8, into Saturday. Harrell founded Uptown Records and hired Sean “P. Diddy” Combs as an intern, later promoting him to vice president of A&R. […]

Tributes to revered music executive Andre Harrell, who helped launch the careers of Mary J. Blige and Sean Combs, poured out on social media.

Learned counsel for the petitioner has inter alia submitted that the petitioner, who is a lady has been behind bars for almost 05 months. Further, a perusal of the FIR in question clearly reveals that no specific allegations have been levelled against her. It is thus very evident that she has been arrayed as an accused only because she happened to be the wife of the main accused - Navjot Singh. It has been further contended that she is confined in the Central Jail, Patiala, where one COVID-19 positive case too has been found. Hence, she be granted the concession of regular bail due to the prevailing outbreak of COVID-19 and also because the trial is unlikely to conclude in the near future.

Of lately, Kerala was shocked after the news of the ace filmmaker and Kerala State Chalchithra Academy Chairman Kamal being accused of sexual harassment surfaced. The serious allegations were made by a young actress of Mollywood, who complained that he had

Kamal Haasan, the Ulaganayakan of the Tamil film industry recently had a live interaction with the talented actor Vijay Sethupathi, on social media. The duo's live chat was an absolute treat for their respective fans and cine-goers, who are hoping to

Kamal Haasan, the senior actor is all praise for Vijay Sethupathi, the supremely talented actor. To the uninitiated, the Ulaganayagan and Makkal Selvan had recently had a live chat on social media. During the chat, Vijay Sethupathi asked Kamal Haasan a

Kamal Haasan, the Ulaganayagan, recently had an chat with the talented actor Vijay Sethupathi through social media. Interestingly, the online interaction of the actors was titled as 'Thalaivan Irukkindran'. To the uninitiated, Thalaivan Irukkindran is the title of Kamal Haasan's upcoming project,

Indian 2, the upcoming Kamal Haasan-Shankar project is one of the most awaited projects of the Tamil film industry. The project has been making headlines lately, post the unfortunate accident that happened on the sets, in February 2020. Rumours which suggest

The deadly Novel Coronavirus is spreading rapidly in the country with a ratio of 500 patients per day. Tamil Nadu has so far reported 5409 COVID-19 positive cases, in which almost half of them are in Chennai- the capital of the

Actor-politician Kamal Haasan has been trapped in a controversy yet again, and this time it's related to poet-composer Sri Thyagaraja. He commented that Sri Thyagaraja was 'begging in praise of Lord Rama'. Well, this comment has affected many.

Kamalu was briefly on the roster but never saw game action. He was released after the alleged assault.

Kamal Ravikant was in a dark place. After four years of pouring his heart, soul, and money into his tech startup, it blew up. He lost everything – including himself. In a moment of desperation, a vow deep within came to the surface: to love himself. Though it was a bit of a foreign concept, he set out to undo the misery in his head through the lens of love. The practice Kamal formed became the self-published book: Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It. It sold over a half a million copies and is now newly expanded. In our conversation Kamal shares his ruthlessly practical way he unwound the negative thoughts and more importantly, made it last. In our conversation we explore: Mindset as a practice, including the 7 minute meditation Kamal uses to break old mental patterns Kamal shares his advice in getting unstuck, including giving yourself time to simply live Our brain is a monkey gone bananas. Pain, joy, loneliness, love are a universal part of the human condition such that no matter our individual circumstance we are all trying to tame it. and much more… Enjoy! FOLLOW KAMAL: instagram | twitter | website Listen to the Podcast […]

The post 10 Breaths Back to Love with Kamal Ravikant appeared first on Chase Jarvis Photography.

At Myntra, Kamal was heading different verticals including logistics, operations excellence and the training function, where he built the in-house logistics team and scaled it to include more than 3500 people, spread across 80 plus towns and delivering over 100,000 packets a day.

The group brings experts and policy makers together

The group brings experts and policy makers together

The Democratic presidential candidate criticized the president for saying there were “people on both sides” of the exoneration of the men wrongly accused of raping a jogger.

The Fox Nation host got plenty of criticism for her tweet about the Democratic presidential candidate — including from fellow Fox-ers.

Netizens celebrate as Kamal Haasan crosses 6 million mark on Twitter  DNA India

The group brings experts and policy makers together

The coronavirus relief bill from Harris, Sanders and Markey would give direct payments to people making up to $120,000, with $2,000 per child.

(From left) Kamal Sidhu, Purab Kohli, Dino Morea, Maria Goretti, Cyrus Sahukar, Mini Mathur, Cyrus Broacha, Luke Kenny. Location Courtesy/The Bombay Canteen; Pics/Rane Ashish

When video killed the radio star in the 1990s, we were not complaining. Our eyes were glued to the TV as cable television made its debut. We had heard our rock and pop idols on FM, and now, we had them, in our living rooms. MTV had landed, followed by Channel V. Along with them came a glam and chatty species called VJs. On them we pinned our hope for a favourite song, crushed on them, and sought fashion wisdom during our fumbling teenage years. Suddenly, we had new pin-up stars.

At a reunion of India's first set of VJs at Lower Parel's The Bombay Canteen, we saw model-VJ from MTV and Channel V Kamal Sidhu; the brain behind Channel V Luke Kenny; mad-hatter MTV VJ Cyrus Broacha; crush-worthy Channel V VJ Purab Kohli; model-actor with dear dimples Dino Morea; MTV's effervescent Mini Mathur; MTV's Mr Comical Cyrus Sahukar and MTV VJ-turned-food TV host Maria Goretti.

Madness ensued, with a whole lot of laughter and wisecracks. There were blows below the belt but not a brow was raised. For us, the '90s kids, they were the epitome of cool. It's true that we saw them in a different light — some of them are now parents — but they are just as charming.

Launching with the '90S
Kamal: I think I speak for everyone when I say, without the '90s, we wouldn't have had a career.

Mini: I was doing TV much before music television arrived. At that time, all of it was based out of Delhi, and only fiction came out of Bombay. But the music channels made it all cool.

Cyrus S: There were a handful of these networks in operation. It was a great time to be in and we got away with murder.

Luke: One of the things that happened was that the 18 to 24 demographic was created. That's the demographic for youth programming even today. Once 2000 rolled in, the concept of the TV anchor was born, but the VJ had died.

Kamal Sidhu makes a point as Purab Kohli listens in

Kamal: While the role of the VJ was fairly new to India, around the world there were VJs we were exposed to. In Canada, we had a local music channel, which didn't allow MTV to enter the country. There was Downtown Julie Brown (who hosted Club MTV from 1987 to 1992). On the show, the light switch went on, with the camera going up her legs and under her skirt, while she went, 'Waba Waba Waba Downtown Julie Brown'. She was among the real pioneers. When MTV launched in Asia, we beamed shows from Hong Kong. And, then, we launched in India with a party at the Taj Mahal Hotel [in 1992] in Mumbai. It was called The Bombay Blast Weekend. It received a lot of backlash, I remember, because the riots (Babri Masjid) had just happened.

Where i want to be: Vjing
Maria: I used to watch Kamal and Danny [McGill] VJ, and, suddenly, I was one of them. I didn't know what I was getting into until I did. The thing about VJing in the '90s was that it let you be who you wanted to be. I was lucky to be part of something I loved. Today, everyone wants to be something more, so, a lot of people get nudged out of television. MTV put Indian VJs on air and that changed something. It was now damn cool to be Indian; there was no need to have an accent. I didn't realise I was cool but apparently, I was.

Purab: I joined Channel V as a host for a travel show, and, gradually, when other slots opened, I started VJing too. There was a serious naiveté back then and VJing wasn't thought of as a stepping-stone to other things.

Cyrus Sahukar tells a story to Luke Kenny

Cyrus S: We were all there with the knowledge that this where we want to be.

Behind the scenes
Purab: There were times when we shot close to five episodes a day. It was intense. Sophiya [Haque], Laila [Rouass] and Meghna [Reddy] would do their own make up, write their own shows and select their own music. There was a transition, when I came in 1999 to Channel V. There was one show where we were asked to write and select songs. We would run it by Luke.

Cyrus B: Luke? Was everything right?

Purab: Yes!

Cyrus B: Luke himself didn't know what his designation was.

Purab: He would approve songs and that was our process.

Maria: Producers hated it when VJs would get together because that meant no one would be working. Once a year, we did a show together for Christmas or New Year and that would be a blast. I miss all of us working together — miss the travelling, the early morning flights, sleeping at airports because we had missed our plane. When I look back I realise that what I did was part of history.

Music then, music now
Luke: What do I think of the indie music scene? It's very niche, and some of the musicians have a chip on their shoulder. But, that aside, what business are they doing? Few manage to get paying gigs, and whoever turns up to support, comes, has a drink, pays R300 and then doesn't buy the album. How does it help the artist? I have been consulting with Channel V recently, and we are trying to go back to the model where the music channel only plays music, and supports indie acts by giving their originals air time.

Cyrus Broacha monkeys around as Dino Morea greets Kamal Sidhu

Kamal: I remember they would send us pop music videos at the Hong Kong office. And most of them were bad. We had to consciously decide to help some artists with their videos. And then Rahman and acts like Indus Creed came in, and the videos changed.

Luke: Kids today love their pop as they did back in the '90s.

Kamal: It was more authentic back then.

Luke: That's because the labels saw a market and invested in it. No one sees a market in today's indie scene.

Cyrus S: They were competing with an international kind of space and knew that spending money on videos was requisite. Everybody was trying to match international standards.
Kamal: And then everything got homogenised into one game plan — the Bollywood game plan.

The '90S role model
Dino: I landed in Bombay in December 1997, looking for opportunities and I remember sharing a room, not even a flat, with a girl who wanted to be a model too. Back in Bangalore, I remember seeing Kamal. I was in college and had to go meet a photographer. There she was, shooting for some perfume or cosmetics ad, and I was like, "Whoa!" Models were these superstars then. I did stare at her.

Kamal: Did I stare back at you?

Dino: (Laughing) I don't think you noticed me.

Sinking into reality
Kamal: A big change from the '90s, well, is that reality television came about, for better or worse.

Luke: One of the earliest reality shows to come was Channel V's Popstars, from which [girl band] Viva emerged. History rewrote itself in that decade with reality television.

Cyrus B: There was also MTV Bakra, which started towards the end of 1999.

Kids with an edge
Kamal: I think it was the time of the Asian liberation. Everything was booming. Also, it was a time for adjustment. Parents of '90s kids looked at people like us and questioned our place as role models. They said, we need to control the remote control.

Luke: No, there was no parental control at all.

Purab: I think it was because those kids were the first movers into the globalisation space.

Cyrus S: Even I used to come home and watch TV. It was a time when I had a VCP, not even a VCR.

Luke: Do you know why those kids had an edge over today's? Because they didn't have these. (Points to a mobile phone).

Maria: I think it was because there was a more organic interaction between people. The communication was real, which I don't see today. These days, it's about the phone. My kids just asked me why they don't have the blue tick on Instagram. Everyone is looking into their phones. We have become tech-savvy but have lost a bit of the soul. (Snapping her fingers). It's now all about reaching a place and changing the game.

Your fav music video of the '90S was?
Luke: Pretty Child by Indus Creed
Cyrus Sahukar: Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice
Dino: Can't Touch This by MC Hammer
Kamal: Anything by AR Rahman
Maria: Freedom by George Michael
Mini: All Sukhbir and Lucky Ali videos

When author turned filmmaker Ram Kamal Mukherjee decided to make the big switch he knew that it wouldn't be a cakewalk.Now with his second Hindi film Season's Greetings he emerges as a confident story teller, who can intrigue audience with simple and thought provoking narrative. In an exclusive chat with Midday he talks about his films and beyond...

Probably you are amongst few film journalist from Bollywood who have successfully switched from print to movie making. Was is a pre planned transition?

It might sound like a 'cakewalk' but unfortunately it was not. I had to go through the grind. After my tenure as Editor in chief of a film magazine. I co-produced a finite series Bin Kuch Kahe for Zee TV with director Rajshree Ojha. It was a learning experience for me. During that time, I realized that I would like to make films. But never in my dream I had imagined that I will become a director. In fact it was Esha Deol who literally forced me to become a director with Cakewalk. She said, "It's your vision, and you are doing everything that a director does. I think you will be a good filmmaker!" Esha stood by me and my production house like the Rock of Gibraltar.

You have been a senior journalist, with almost 20 years experience. Did any of your industry friends help you? Or did you approach them?

No. I didn't approach anyone. I wanted to make a film on my own terms and condition. I knew that once I achieve in making a decent movie, industry will support and stand by me. Cakewalk broke all possible records. It became India's first short film to be premiered in a satellite television Cineplex with Colors, the first look was launched in London by Hema Malini, the music rights was acquired by Zee Music, the film was acquired by Viacom18, I was invited at the BBC studios in London for live chat show, it got selected at 21 film festivals and won at 17 film festivals. It also become India's first short film to be premiered at Inox Insignia one of the biggest theatre chains in India. The film was promoted in 6 major metro cities in India and Dubai. We treated it like a feature film, and I give credit to my team and my friends from media and film industry.

Your second film Season's Greetings seems to have created a much bigger news. With United Nation Free and Equal and legends like Amitabh Bachchan endorsing the film it seems to be one of the much awaited movie of this year on OTT?

I am thankful to Mr Bachchan for being so gracious, he spoke so beautifully about the film in his video message. My film is a tribute to the legendary filmmaker Riruparno Ghosh, and I am grateful that Lillette Dubey maam and Celina Jaitly Haag who agreed to be a part of this venture. It was Celina who connected me with the United Nations Free and Equal, and I had to organize special screening for them in Geneva. It took almost two months to bring them on board as our social cause partner. This wouldn't have been possible without our friend and well wisher Charles Radcliffe. Zee5 had initially decided to release it on March but now due to Corona pandemic we had to reschedule everything. But I am glad that we released on April 15, and the film has become the most watched short film on Zee5. The film got selected at seven prestigious international festivals including Cardiff International Film Festival. It won Best Director Jury award at Rajasthan International Film Festival this year. I am eagerly waiting to show the film to all. This film also marks the debut of young and talented actor Azhar Khan. The film deals with LGBTQIA issue in a very subtle manner. The film has been selected at the prestigious Kashish Film Festival 2020 in Mumbai, Asia's largest LGBTQIA Film Festival. I am glad the film is getting appreciated by all, my film celebrates love beyond gender.

Director Ram Kamal Mukherjee with lead cast Celina Jaitley and Lillette Dubey in Season's Greetings

How does it feel when your film gets thunderous applause from media and film fraternity?

I feel blessed. When veterans like Khalid Mohamad, Shoma Chatterji, Nandita Puri, Ananth Mahadevan, Taran Adarsh, Rajeev Masand and Suman Ghosh writes about your film, its a reassurance. But I would like to thank my team for making this possible. My producers Aritra Das and Shailendra Kumar, my associate producers Mohammad Jameel and my wife Sarbani Mukherjee. You might dream big, but you need a producer who will stand by your vision. And of course Celina Jaitly who worked like a team member all the way from Austria in the middle of lockdown crisis. She would manage her household responsibilities and maintain all her work commitment. She interacted with all leading media over Instagram and Skype, she gave telephonic and email interviews. She actively pushed the film on social media. Lillette Dubey maam though she is not on any social media platform, she would record her bytes for channels and send. Her daughter Ira Dubey would record her interview on phone and we would give those bytes to electronic and web media. Azhar Khan supported us from Pune, while Shree Ghatak in Kolkata went all out to spread the word. My singers Sayani Palit and Jaan Kumar Sanu did radio chats and facebook live performance of the song. It was very tough to promote a 47 minute film in the middle of lockdown. But we all need to keep reinventing ourselves.

In a span of two years you have managed to direct almost five films. That's a decent number...

After Season's Greetings, I wanted to make a short length Bengali film. That's when the idea of Rickshwala came to my mind. I am launching Avinash Dwivedi in as the protagonist in the film. It was a tough project for me. We had to do workshops and shoot in the bylanes of North Kolkata in summers. Avinash gave his blood and sweat for this film. Rickshawla already won Best Actor and Best Director at 13th Ayodhya International Film Festival this year. Then we made Broken Frame, which is based on my fiction Long Island Iced Tea. Yet again I was fortunate enough to work with extremely professional and talented actors like Rohit Bose Roy and Ritabhari Chakraborty. The film deals with martial issue and infidelity. After that, I made Shubho Bijoya with Gurmeet Choudhury and Debina Bonnerjee, which is a romantic film loosely based on O Henry's classic A Gift of Magi. Now I am working on my first full length feature film Binodini Dasi, a biopic on Bengal's famous theatre actress. My first attempt to make a period drama.

Ram Kamal Mukherjee and Esha Deol receiving Society Iconic Award for Cakewalk from Ramesh Sippy, Kiran Sippy and Krishika Lulla

Do you feel that any of your skills as a journalist comes handy when you are donning the hat of a director?

Yes it does! My writing skill helps me in fine tuning my screenplay and dialogues, my editing experience helps me in keeping the scenes precise and save the cost of extra shifts and shoots. My photoshoot experiences helps me in visualizing a character, their costume, hair and makeup. And my nose for news, helps me in creating content that people would like to see on screen. I guess we all use our past experience to enhance our future endeavors.

You have penned five books and directed five movies in a span of three years. You are extremely active on social media, you also conduct special classes for film students and talk shows with celebrities. How do you balance every act?

Huh! Now that you have spelled it, I am feeling breathless. But frankly speaking, I have learnt multitasking from Hemaji (Malini) She inspires me a lot. I think if we can focus on our work then we can distribute our time evenly. Now that we are locked down for almost 40 days, I will be finishing the draft of my Bengali film, work on the story board and first look. I am also working on two non fiction with leading publishers, so my research and drafting is on. I am also working on my Hindi feature film, which will hit the floor by 2021. I don't like to waste time. Even when I am not doing something, I am watching a film or a series. The hunger should never die. And now with lockdown and quarantine, we all have learnt how to multitask, because when you are pushed to the edge then you either learn to fly or you die.

Why do you call Season's Greetings a homage to director Rituparno Ghosh? And how is it different from any other tribute?

Well, this is a different kind of homage to any director. Mostly when we pay tribute, we tend to either make a biopic or remake classics. But I thought of giving him a tribute through multiple ways. Suchitra Bhattacharya was Ritu da's favorite author, veteran Tagore vocalist Suchitra Mitra acted in his film Dahan, so I decided to name Lillette ji's character Suchitra. Celina's character Romita was Rituparna Sengupta's name in Dahan, which was a popular novel written by Suchitra Bhattacharya. The house where they stay is called Utsab, which was yet another film by Ritu. The househelp is Chapala inspired from his film Aarekti Premer Galpo (he acted), where he played a transgender filmmaker and enacted life of theatre actor Chapal Bhadhuri. Transgender actor Shree Ghatak plays the role of Chapala in my film.

There is a sequence between Lillette and Celina where they talk about fragrance of a particular perfume, which is inspired from Aparna Sen and Debasree Roy's kitchen scene from Unishe April. Lavish display of food and characters talking over dinner table has been Rituparno's favourite narrative style, which is a part of preclimax sequence.

Tagore music and Maithili language is yet another aspect which Rituparno had often used in his films. Infact there is a portrait of Tagore used in the film from Balmiki Pratibha, which was prominently used as a metaphor in his film Ashukh. Then references like Banalata pishi is from Bariwali, Abhirupa is again Rituparno's character name from Chitrangada.

Rabindranath Tagore's song Gahana Kusum Kunj Majhe, was used in his film Abhohoman, which has been recreated in the film by singers Jaan Kumar Sanu and Sarbani Mukherjee.

In a scene we see Suchitra is reading Devdutt Patnaik's novel Shikhandi. That's again referring to Rituparno's film Chitrangada, a character from Mahabharata. In fact we have also shown the exterior of Rituparno's house Tasher Ghar in Kolkata which only very few people will relate. There are shots of Ardhanarishwar, that depicts the presence of bisexuality since vedic age.

The entire character graph of boy child Chapal undergoing sex change and becoming Chapala also talks about his films like Memories of March and Chitrangada. But none of it is underlined, everything is subtle. You need to be a Rituparno fan to appreciate or understand. The scene where Romita talks about unexpected rains and letters from her mother is a fleeting reference to his film Tithli.

And of course the climax that would jolt you as an audience, and will remind you of Rituparno in a much prominent way.

In fact the first day and first shot of the movie between Celina and Azhar was shot in Grand Hyatt Presidential suite. After the shot the manager came to meet me. He said, "It's irony that Rituparno had shot Sob Charitro Kalpanik scene with Bipasha Basu and Prosenjit in the same room!" We knew that Rituda is blessing us from the word 'action'!

This film marks return of Celina Jaitly after motherhood, why did you opt for her since she was away and settled in Dubai?

I wouldn't have taken effort if she would habe settled in Mars or Moon, but to not consider an artist for geographical reason in an archaic thought. I knew that she would be my perfect Romita, for three reasons, she never got an opportunity to play a role like this. She shared a very close bonding with her parents whom she lost recently, and she has been associated with LGBTQIA movement for last two decades. I remember Celina broke down before shoot. She went to severe depression and I guess this film was her fulcrum to spring out of the situation. Ritu da once mentioned, every artist comes with their own qualities, as a director you need to utilize that aspect and mould them into your narrative.

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Actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan on Monday re-imagined India for the "post-COVID world" and suggested measures across different sectors, including an "epidemic preparedness budget" for the health sector.

"While there are concerns, it's worth praising how this crisis is setting a precedent with state governments coming together and co-operating with each other as well as with the Centre. I sincerely hope this becomes a norm and help overcome perennial battles like the water crisis, pollution, migrants' woes, women's safety, communal violence, healthcare etc," Haasan said on his Twitter account.

"The last full-scale war India fought was almost half a century ago, but poor healthcare is an everyday war leading to 1.6 million deaths annually. Yet, year after year our Defence budget overshadows the healthcare budget," Haasan stated and added that it's a "pity that India continues seeing Defence as a more newsworthy proposition compared to healthcare".

He suggested that India needs to earmark an "epidemic preparedness budget with immediate effect".

"We are under threat a lot more from within than from outside our borders. Our priority towards Health needs to be reimagined with a handsome budget to match," Haasan said.

The Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) President later went on to talk about the Agriculture sector and said that India requires a 'Green Plus' revolution that firstly converts part of our agricultural land for an allied enterprise like processing, logistics, etc.

"Secondly, we need to accelerate productivity maximization on a war footing. Boosting agro based MSMEs will help retain youth in the sector and build a sustainable and prosperous future for farming. This will also solve the problem of seasonal lack of work for farmers," Haasan said.

He also suggested bringing India's vast informal sector into the formal fold.

"Bringing India's informal workers under the formal fold must become the biggest national exercise that the government needs to undertake in the near future. Other than boosting the morale of this segment and paving way for its growth, it will also mean enhanced tax collection, a lot of which can be ploughed back to improve infrastructure and offer welfare to the same workers," Haasan said.

"There is also a need to change our outlook towards the vast majority of women who toil their lives away under the status of 'housewife'. Women engaging in housework must be accorded job status. They have little or no savings and a Universal Income Guarantee will give a boost to their savings. Savings always help during any kind of crisis," he added.

Haasan even suggested correction in income inequality and poverty alleviation.

He added, "COVID-19 has shown us that poverty still remains India's most critical challenge. In a crisis, the rich will take a hit but they will not starve to death. Our leaders must learn to integrate the poor man's life in how they plan the running of the country. Relief measures are mere afterthoughts."

In conclusion, Haasan said, "It's time we reinvent the word superpower, India's pipe dream for decades. Let's be a universal thought leader, to put it in parlance a Vishwa-Guru and for all the right reasons."

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Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever

Kamal Haasan turned a year older on 7 November.

As part of Kamal Haasan's birthday celebration, the statue of his mentor K Balachander was unveiled at the new RKFI (Raaj Kamal Films International) office in Alwarpet.