S P Balasubrahmanyam falls ill in South Africa

Johannesburg, Jan 19: Singing legend S P Balasubrahmanyam fell ill shortly after receiving the inaugural Lifetime Achievement award at a function here last night.

Balasubrahmanyam, 67, who was last heard in 'Chennai Express', sang a line each in 15 languages receiving the award at the International Indian Film Festival of South Africa (IIFFSA).

Although the nature of his illness was not disclosed, organisers said plans were being made for the singer to return home today. A dinner event, which was supposed to held tonight with him, has also been canceled now.

IFFSA is aimed at promoting cultural links among the Indian and South African film fraternity. Awards were made in various categories for regional language films from both countries.

Mohan Agashe won the Best Actor Award for his role in 'Astu' and Veena Jamkar the best actress award for 'Taapal'. South African Best Actor was John Henry Opperman in the Afrikaans film 'Musiek in die Agtergrond' (Music in the Background) and Best Actress Jay Anstey in 'Sleeper's Wake'.

Opperman said IFFSA was very significant in that the recognition of the unique Afrikaans film industry in South Africa by India confirmed that this community still had a major role to play in the country.

Awards were also made for the best short film, best documentary and best feature film in Each country, with a jury from India judging the South African films and vice versa.

'Lessons in Forgetting', directed by Unni Vijayan, won the best Indian feature film award and 'Verraiers' (Traitors) directed by Paul Eilers was named best South African feature film.

Supported by the National Video and Film Foundation of South Africa, IFFSA is set to become an annual event, said organiser Rajiv Terwadkar.

Comments

Add new comment

Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.

Brahmin Savarkar was non-veg eater; wasn't against cow slaughter: Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao

News Network

October 3,2024

Karnataka Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao reminded that V D Savarkar was not against cow slaughter as he himself was non-veg eater, PTI reported on Thursday.

"As a Brahmin he was eating meat, and he was openly propagating eating meat," said the minister at an event in Bengaluru.

Reacting to Gundu Rao's claim, BJP MP Anurag Thakur called Congress a "factory of lies" as he warned that India won't tolerate any disrespect towards Savarkar.

"By disrespecting Veer Savarkar they have shown that they don't respect freedom fighters. During the Congress government, Sardar Bhagat Singh was termed a separatist in textbooks...By making those who want to break the nation join the congress party, Rahul Gandhi is taking forward the ideology of 'tukde tukde' and he is a 'modern Jinnah' who speaks ill of the country abroad...," he said.

Meanwhile, a court in Maharashtra's Nashik district summoned Congress MP Rahul Gandhi earlier this week in a defamation case filed against him for his alleged objectionable remarks against the Hindutva ideologue.

The complainant, who is the director of an NGO, claimed he watched a press conference addressed by Gandhi in Hingoli and also a speech made by the Congress leader in November 2022.

He alleged that Gandhi, on the two occasions, by his words and visual representations knowingly harmed the reputation of Veer Savarkar and also tried to defame the latter's image in the society.

According to the complainant, Gandhi said "Savarkar is BJP and RSS jin" which was defamatory in nature.

Comments