Deepa Mehta, LLD (Hindi: दीपा मेहता) (born 1 January 1950 in Amritsar, Punjab, India)^[2] is a Genie Award-winning Indian-born Canadian film director and screenwriter, most known for her Elements Trilogy, Fire (1996), Earth (1998), and Water (2005); among which Earth was submitted by the Indian government for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and "Water" was submitted by Canada for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, making it Canada's first non-French Canadian film to receive a nomination in that category. She also co-founded Hamilton-Mehta Productions, with her husband, producer David Hamilton in 1996.

Early life and education[link]

Mehta was born in Amritsar in Punjab, India, though her family moved to New Delhi while she was still a child, and her father worked as a film distributor.^[1] Subsequently, Mehta attended Welham Girls High School, a boarding school for girls in Dehradun ^[3] and graduated from the University of Delhi with a degree in philosophy.^[4]

Career[link]

After completing her graduation, Mehta started making short documentaries in India, and in time she met Canadian documentarian Paul Saltzman, who was in India making a film and whom she was to later marry and migrate with to Canada in 1973. Once in Canada, she embarked on her film career as a screenwriter for children's films, she also made a few documentaries including,At 99: A Portrait of Louise Tandy Murch (1975).^[1] In 1991 she made her feature-film directorial debut with Sam & Me (starring Om Puri), a story of the relationship between a young Indian boy and an elderly Jewish gentleman in the Toronto neighbourhood of Parkdale. It won Honorable Mention in the Camera d'Or category of the 1991 Cannes Film Festival. Mehta followed up with Camilla starring Bridget Fonda and Jessica Tandy in 1994. In 2002, she directed Bollywood/Hollywood, for which she won the Genie Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Mehta directed two episodes of George Lucas' television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. The first episode, "Benares, January 1910", aired in 1993. The second episode was aired in 1996 as part of a TV movie titled Young Indiana Jones: Travels with Father.

Mehta also directed several English-language films set in Canada, including The Republic of Love (2003) and Heaven on Earth (2008) which deals with domestic violence and has Preity Zinta playing the female lead. The film premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival.^[5]

Elements trilogy[link]

Mehta is best known for her Elements Trilogy, Fire (1996), Earth (1998) (released in India as 1947: Earth), and Water (2005), which won her much critical acclaim.^[6] Some notable actors that have worked in this trilogy are Aamir Khan, Seema Biswas, Shabana Azmi, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, John Abraham, Rahul Khanna, Lisa Ray, and Nandita Das. These films are also notable for Mehta's collaborative work with author Bapsi Sidhwa. Sidhwa's novel Cracking India, (1991, U.S.; 1992, India; originally published as Ice Candy Man, 1988, England), is the basis for Mehta's 1998 film, Earth. Mehta's film, Water, was later published by Sidhwa as the 2006 novel, Water: A Novel. All three films have soundtracks composed by A. R. Rahman.

[edit] Midnight's Children

Mehta is currently collaborating on the screenplay for Midnight's Children with the novel's author, Salman Rushdie.^[7][8] British-Indian actor Satya Bhabha will play the role of Saleem Sinai^[9] while other roles will be played by Shriya Saran, Seema Biswas, Shabana Azmi, Anupam Kher, Siddharth Narayan, Rahul Bose, Soha Ali Khan,^[10] Shahana Goswami^[11] and Darsheel Safary.^[12] The film is scheduled to be released in 2012.^[13]

Personal life[link]

In Canada she met and married filmmaker Paul Saltzman whom she divorced in 1993. The couple have a daughter, author Devyani Saltzman. Her daughter is an acclaimed author, curator and cultural critic.

Mehta is currently married to producer David Hamilton.^[14] Her brother, Dilip Mehta is a photojournalist and film director, who directed, Cooking with Stella, which he co-wrote with Deepa.^[4]

Filmography[link]

• Sam and Me (1991)
• Camilla (1994)
• Fire (1996)
• Earth (1998)
• Bollywood/Hollywood (2002)
• The Republic of Love (2003)
• Water (2005)
• Heaven on Earth (2008)
• Cooking with Stella (2008) (co-director)
• Midnight's Children (2012)^[7] - based on the novel by Salman Rushdie
• Komagata Maru (TBA) based on Komagata Maru incident

Awards[link]

• Doctor of Laws, University of Victoria, 2009 ^[15]

See also[link]

• Women's Cinema

References[link]

• Beard, William; Jerry White (2002). "Deepa Mehta as Transnational Fimmaker". North of everything: English-Canadian cinema since 1980. University of Alberta. ISBN 0-88864-390-X. http://books.google.com/books?id=iLNhHWfarosC&pg=PA270&dq=%22Deepa+Mehta%22+-inpublisher:icon&cd=3#v=onepage&q=%22Deepa%20Mehta%22%20-inpublisher%3Aicon&f=falsehttp://books.google.com/books?id=iLNhHWfarosC&pg=PA270&dq=%22Deepa+Mehta%22+-inpublisher:icon&cd=3#v=onepage&q=%22Deepa%20Mehta%22%20-inpublisher%3Aicon&f=false. 
• Levitin, Jacqueline; Judith Plessis, Valerie Raoul (2003). "25 An Introduction to Deepa Mehta: Making Films in Canada and India". Women Filmmakers: Refocusing. UBC Press. ISBN 0-7748-0903-5. http://books.google.com/books?id=bxO38D-I1UoC&pg=PA273&dq=%22Deepa+Mehta%22+-inpublisher:icon&cd=4#v=onepage&q=%22Deepa%20Mehta%22%20-inpublisher%3Aicon&f=false. 

External links[link]

• Deepa Mehta at the Internet Movie Database
• Hamilton Mehta Productions

Shabana Azmi
Shabana Azmi at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, 2006
Born	(1950-09-18) 18 September 1950 (age 61) Hyderabad, Hyderabad State, India (now in Andhra Pradesh, India)
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1972–present
Spouse	Javed Akhtar

Shabana Azmi (Hindi: शबाना आज़मी, Urdu: شبانہ اعظمی; born 18 September 1950) is an Indian actress of film, television and theatre. An alumna of the Film and Television Institute of India of Pune, she made her film debut in 1974 and soon became one of the leading actresses of parallel cinema, an Indian New Wave movement known for its serious content and neo-realism.^[1][2] Regarded as one of the finest actresses in India, Azmi's performances in films in a variety of genres have generally earned her praise and awards, which include a record of five wins of the National Film Award for Best Actress and several international honours.^[1][3] She has also received four Filmfare Awards.

Azmi has appeared in over 120 Hindi films in both mainstream and independent cinema, and since 1988 she has acted in several foreign projects. In addition to acting, Azmi is a social and women's rights activist, a Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Population Fund (UNPFA), and a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament.^[4] She is married to Indian poet and screenwriter Javed Akhtar.^[5]

Early life and background[link]

Shabana Azmi was born in a Muslim family. Her parents are Kaifi Azmi (an Indian poet) and Shaukat Azmi (a veteran Indian People's Theatre Association stage actress),^[4] both of whom were members of the Communist Party of India. Her brother, Baba Azmi, is a cinematographer. Her parents had an active social life, and their home was always thriving with people and activities of the communist party. It was not unusual for her to wake up in the morning and find members of the communist party sleeping about, from a previous night's communist social that ran late. Early in childhood, the environment in her home was inculcated into her a respect for family ties, social and human values; and her parents always supported her to develop a passion for intellectual stimulation and growth.^[6][7][8]

Azmi did her schooling at the premier girl's school, Queen Mary School, Mumbai. She completed a graduate degree in Psychology from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, and followed it with a course in acting at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune.^[4] She described the reason she decided to attend the film institute, saying, "I had had the privilege of watching Jaya Bhaduri in a (Diploma) film, Suman, and I was completely enchanted by her performance because it was unlike the other performances I had seen. I really marvelled at that and said, 'My god, if by going to the Film Institute I can achieve that, that's what I want to do.'" Azmi eventually topped the list of successful candidates of 1972.^[9]

Career[link]

Azmi graduated from the FTII in 1973 and went on to sign on Khwaja Ahmad Abbas' Faasla and began work on Kanti Lal Rathod's Parinay as well. Her first release, however, was Shyam Benegal's directorial debut Ankur (1974). Belonging to the arthouse genre of neo-realistic films, Ankur is based on a true story which occurred in Hyderabad. Azmi played Lakshmi, a married servant and villager who drifts into an affair with a college student who visits the countryside. Azmi was not the original choice for the film, and several leading actresses of that time refused to do it. The film went on to become a major critical success, and Azmi won the National Film Award for Best Actress for her performances. Upperstall.com described her work in the film as "an outstanding psychologically penetrating performance very different from those seen normally till then in mainstream Hindi cinema", and famous independent filmmaker Satyajit Ray commented, "In Ankur she may not have fitted immediately into her rustic surroundings, but her poise and personality are never in doubt. In two high pitched scenes, she pulls out the stops to firmly establish herself as one of our finest dramatic actresses".^[10]

She went on to receive the National Film Award consecutively for three years from 1983 to 1985 for her roles in movies, Arth, Khandhar and Paar. Another film Godmother (1999) earned her another National Film Award, taking her tally to five.

Azmi’s acting has been characterized by a real-life depiction of the roles played by her. In Mandi, she acted as a madam of a whorehouse. For this role, she put on weight and even chewed betel. Real life portrayals continued in almost all her movies. These included the role of a woman named Jamini resigned to her destiny in Khandhar, and a typical urban Indian wife, homemaker and mother in Masoom.

She also acted in experimental and parallel Indian cinema. Deepa Mehta’s 1996 film Fire depicts her as a lonely woman, Radha, in love with her sister-in-law. The on-screen depiction of lesbianism (perhaps the first in Indian cinema) drew severe protests and threats from many social groups as well as by the Indian authorities. Her role as Radha brought her international recognition with the Silver Hugo Award for Best Actress at the 32nd Chicago Film Festival and Jury Award for Best Actress at Outfest, Los Angeles.^[4]

Some of her notable films include Shyam Benegal's Nishant (1975), Junoon (1978), Susman (1986), and Antarnaad (1992); Satyajit Ray’s Shatranj Ke Khiladi; Mrinal Sen’s Khandhar, Genesis, Ek Din Achanak; Saeed Mirza’s Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hai; Sai Paranjpye’s Sparsh and Disha; Gautam Ghose’s Paar; Aparna Sen’s Picnic and Sati ; Mahesh Bhatt’s Arth; Vinay Shukla’s Godmother. Her other films include the commercially successful Manmohan Desai's Amar Akbar Anthony, and Parvarish and Prakash Mehra’s Jwalamukhi. Azmi starred in Hollywood productions such as John Schlesinger’s Madame Sousatzka (1988) and Roland Joffe’s City of Joy (1992).

Azmi debuted on the small screen in a soap opera titled Anupama. She portrayed a modern Indian woman who, while endorsing traditional Indian ethos and values, negotiated more freedom for herself. She had also participated in many stage plays, and notable among them include M. S. Sathyu’s Safed Kundali (1980), based on The Caucasian Chalk Circle; and Feroz Abbas Khan's Tumhari Amrita along with actor Farooq Sheikh, which ran for five years. She toured Singapore on an assignment with the Singapore Repertory Theatre Company, acting in Ingmar Bergman’s adaptation of Ibsen’s A Doll's House, which was directed by Rey Buono. Pointing out the differences in all these media, she once remarked that theatre was really the actor’s medium; the stage was actor’s space; cinema was the director’s medium; and television was a writer’s medium.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[link]

In the initial stage of her career, she was linked to film director Shekhar Kapur.^{[citation needed]} She married Javed Akhtar, a lyricist, poet and Bollywood scriptwriter^[5] on 9 December 1984, making her a member of the Akhtar-Azmi film family.^[11] It was Akhtar’s second marriage, the first being with Bollywood scriptwriter, Honey Irani.^[12] Indian actresses Farah Naaz and Tabu are her nieces.

Social activism[link]

Shabana Azmi has been a committed social activist, active in supporting child survival and fighting AIDS and injustice in real life.^[13][14] Azmi has voiced her opinion on a variety of issues. Initially, her activism drew skepticism and was dubbed by some as a publicity gimmick. However, she proved her critics wrong and used her celebrity status to emerge as a high-profile social activist.

She had participated in several plays and demonstrations denouncing communalism. In 1989, along with Swami Agnivesh and Asghar Ali Engineer, she undertook a four-day march for communal harmony from New Delhi to Meerut. Among the social groups whose causes she has advocated are slum dwellers, displaced Kashmiri Pandit migrants and victims of the earthquake at Latur (Maharashtra, India). The 1993 Mumbai riots appalled her and she emerged as a forceful critic of religious extremism. After the 11 September 2001 attacks, she opposed the advice of the grand mufti of Jama Masjid calling upon the Muslims of India to join the people of Afghanistan in their fight by retorting that the leader go there alone.^[15]

She has campaigned against ostracism of victims of AIDS.^[13] A small film clip issued by the Government of India depicts an HIV positive child cuddled in her arms and saying: "She does not need your rejection, she needs your love". In a Bengali film named Meghla Aakash she played the role of a physician treating AIDS patients.

She has also given her voice to an HIV/AIDS education animated software tutorial created by the nonprofit organization TeachAIDS.^[16]

Since 1989, she has been a member of the National Integration Council headed by the Prime Minister of India; a member of National AIDS Commission (of India); and was nominated (in 1997) as a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament. In 1998, the United Nations Population Fund appointed her as its Goodwill Ambassador for India.^[13]

Selected filmography[link]

She has acted in more than one hundred Hindi films, both in the mainstream as well as in parallel cinema. Several of her films have received attention in the international arena, including at the Norwegian Film Institute, the Smithsonian Institution and the American Film Institute. She has appeared in a number of foreign films, most of which have won international acclaim, including John Schlesinger’s Madame Sousatzka, Nicholas Klotz’s Bengali Night, Roland Joffe’s City of Joy, Channel 4’s Immaculate Conception, Blake Edwards' Son of the Pink Panther, and Ismail Merchant’s In Custody.

• Ankur (1974) - Laxmi
• Nishant (1976) - Sushila
• Fakira (1976) Geeta / Neeta C I D Police Inspector
• Shatranj Ke Khiladi (1977) - Khurshid
• Amar Akbar Anthony (1977) - Laxmi
• Junoon (1978) - Firdaus
• Swami (1978) -
• Sparsh (1980) - Kavita
• Arth (1982) - Mrs. Pooja Inder Malhotra
• Masoom (1983) - Indu D. Malhotra
• Mandi (1983) - Rukmini Bai
• Shart (1986)- Kiran Dutt
• The Bengali Night (1988) - Mrs. Sen
• Madame Sousatzka (1988) - Sushila
• City of Joy (1992) - Kamla Pal
• In Custody (1993) - Imtiaz Begum
• Son of the Pink Panther (1993) - Queen
• Fire (1996) - Radha
• Saaz (1997) - Bansidhar (Bansi) Vrundavan
• Side Streets (1998) - Mrs. Chandra Bipin Raj
• Earth (1998) - voice of older Lenny
• Godmother (1999) - Rambhi
• Makdee (2002) - Makdee
• Tehzeeb (2003) - Rukhsana Jamal
• Morning Raga (2004) - Swarnlatha
• 15 Park Avenue (2005) - Anjali "Anju" Mathur
• Waterborne (2005) - Heera Bhatti
• Umrao Jaan (2006) - Khannum Jaan
• Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. (2007) - Nahid
• Loins of Punjab Presents (2007) - Rita Kapoor
• Sorry Bhai! (2008) - Mother Gayatri
• It's a Wonderful Afterlife (2010) - Mrs. Sethi

Awards and honors[link]

National Awards[link]

Azmi has received the National Film Award for Best Actress five times, making her the overall most-awarded actor in the function:^[4]

• 1975 - National Film Award for Best Actress, Ankur
• 1983 - National Film Award for Best Actress, Arth
• 1984 - National Film Award for Best Actress, Khandhar
• 1985 - National Film Award for Best Actress, Paar
• 1999 - National Film Award for Best Actress, Godmother

Filmfare Awards[link]

Winner:

• 1978 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Swami
• 1984 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Arth
• 1985 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Bhavna
• 2006 - Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award

Nominated:

• 1975 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Ankur
• 1981 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Thodisi Bewafaii
• 1984 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Masoom
• 1984 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Avtaar
• 1984 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Mandi
• 1985 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Sparsh
• 2003 - Filmfare Best Villain Award for Makdee
• 2004 - Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award for Tehzeeb

International awards[link]

• 1993: Best Actress award for Libaas in North Korea
• 1994: Best Actress award for Gautam Ghose’s Patang at the Taormina Arte Festival in Italy
• 1996: Silver Hugo Award for Best Actress for Fire at the Chicago International Film Festival^[4]
• 1996: Outstanding Actress in a Feature Film, for Fire in L.A. Outfest^[4]

Other awards[link]

• Azmi won the award for Best Actress (Hindi) at the Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards (BFJA) for Ankur in 1975, Paar in 1984, Ek Pal in 1987, and Godmother in 1999. She won the Best Supporting Actress (Hindi) award for Tehzeeb in 2003.^[17]
• 1998: Star Screen Award Best Supporting Actress for Mrityudand.
• 2004: Zee Cine Award Best Actor in a Supporting Role- Female for Tehzeeb.
• 2005: Star Screen Awards - Best Performance in an Indian Film in English for Morning Raga

Honours and recognitions[link]

• 1988: Awarded the Padma Shri from the Government of India.
• 1988: Yash Bhartiya Award by the Government of Uttar Pradesh for highlighting women’s issues in her work as an actress and activist.
• 1994: Rajiv Gandhi Award for "Excellence of Secularism"
• 1999: Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image, Significant Contribution to Indian Cinema.^[18]
• 2002: Martin Luther King Professorship award by the University of Michigan conferred on her in recognition of her contribution to arts, culture and society.
• 2006: Gandhi International Peace Award, awarded by Gandhi Foundation, London.^[19]
• 2007: She was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate in Art by Chancellor of the University Brandan Foster by the Leeds Metropolitan University in Yorkshire^[20]
• 2009: She was honoured with the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award ^[21]
• 2012: Awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India.

Notes[link]

References[link]

• India’s 50 Most Illustrious Women (ISBN 81-88086-19-3) by Indra Gupta
• Holt, Julia; Phalke, Shubhra; Basic Skills Agency. Shabana Azmi. London : Basic Skills Agency, 1995. ISBN 1-85990-022-4.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Shabana Azmi

• Shabana Azmi at the Internet Movie Database
• Shabana Azmi NGO in India
• One on One - Shabana Azmi - interview on Al Jazeera English (video, 25 mins)
• Time: Shabana Azmi
• Indian American Arts Council
• Article from the Village Voice
• EveryOne campaign brand ambassador: Shabana Azmi
• Shabana Azmi on Twitter

Nandita Das
Born	(1969-11-07) November 7, 1969 (age 42) New Delhi, India
Occupation	Actress, director
Years active	1989, 1996–present
Spouse	Soumya Sen (2002–2009) Subodh Maskara (2010–present)

Nandita Das (born 7 November 1969) is an award-winning Indian film actress and director. As an actress, she is known for her performances in Fire (1996), Earth (1998), Bawandar (2000), Kannathil Muthamittal (2002) and Aamaar Bhuvan (2002). As a director, she is known for her directorial debut Firaaq (2008), which has won a number of national and international awards. She has been awarded the Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Government of France for her work.^[1]. Nandita Das was the first Indian to be inducted into their International Women's Forum's hall of fame.

Early life[link]

Das was born in New Delhi to noted Indian painter, Jatin Das, an Oriya Hindu Kayastha (Karanam or "Karan"), and a Gujarati Jain mother named Varsha who is a writer.^[2]

She went to Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, Lodhi Estate in New Delhi. She received her bachelor's degree in Geography from Miranda House (University of Delhi) and Master of Social Work from the Delhi School of Social Work.^[3]

Career[link]

Acting[link]

Nandita Das started her acting career with the theatre group Jana Natya Manch. She taught at the Rishi Valley School.

She is best known for her performances in Deepa Mehta films Fire, Earth alongside Aamir Khan, Bawander (directed by Jagmohan Mundhra) and Amaar Bhuvan (directed by Mrinal Sen). Das has acted in films in ten different languages: English, Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Marathi, Oriya and Kannada. The movie star Suganya provided Das' speaking voice in the Tamil classic Kannathil Muthamittal.

Das narrated the children's audiobook series Under the Banyan, and Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography by Charkha Audiobooks The Story of My Experiments with Truth. She has also lent her voice to the children's television series, Wonder Pets as the Bengal Tiger.

Directing[link]

In 2008, she completed filming her directorial debut, Firaaq.^[4] Firaaq is a work of fiction, based on a thousand true stories and is set a month after the Gujarat carnage in 2002. It is an ensemble film that interweaves multiple stories over a 24 hour period, as the characters from different strata of society, grapple with the lingering effects of violence. The film traces the emotional journeys of ordinary people - some who were victims, some perpetrators and some who chose to watch silently. The film's stellar cast includes Naseeruddin Shah, Raghubir Yadav, Paresh Rawal, Deepti Naval, Sanjay Suri, Tisca Chopra, Shahana Goswami and Nowaz.

The film won top honours at the Asian Festival of First Films 2008 in Singapore, where it won the awards for "Best Film", "Screenplay / Script", and "Foreign Correspondents Assn. Purple Orchid Award for Best Film".^[5][6] The film has also won awards at other international film festivals, including the Special Prize award at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival in Greece, the Special Jury Award at the International Film Festival of Kerala, and the Best Editor award for the film's editor Sreekar Prasad at the Dubai International Film Festival.^[7] It will be released in India on 20 March 2009.^[8] The film also won an award at the Kara Film Festival. Das said that the film "gave a voice to so much that remains silent".^[9]

Personal life[link]

In 2002, Das married Saumya Sen.^[10] The couple began Leapfrog, an advertising organization geared towards making socially conscious ad films.^[11] The couple divorced in 2009.^[12] After dating Subodh Maskara, an industrialist based out of Mumbai for a couple of months, she married him on January 2, 2010 and moved to Mumbai.^[13][14] Das and Maskara had a baby boy named Vihaan on 11 August 2010.^[15]

Philanthropy[link]

Das gives talks around the world about the impact of her films and the need for powerful social movements in India. She spoke at MIT on 12 April 2007 after a screening of Fire.

She also speaks to campaign for child survival, against AIDS, and violence against women.^[16] She was appointed as the chairperson of the Children's Film Society of India in 2009.^[17]

Awards and honours[link]

2000 45th Filmfare Awards

• Won - Best Debut - 1947 Earth

2001 Santa Monica Film Festival

• Won - Best Actress - Bawander

2002 Cairo International Film Festival

• Won - Best Actress - Amaar Bhuvan

2002 Tamil Nadu State Film Awards

• Won - Special Prize - Kannathil Muthamittal

2005 Cannes Film Festival

• May 2005 - Das served as a Member of the Jury at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival

2006 Nandi Awards

• Won - Best Actress - Kamli

2008 Asian Festival of First Films

• Won - Best Film - Firaaq
• Won - Best Screenplay - Firaaq
• Won - Foreign Correspondents Association Purple Orchid Award for Best Film - Firaaq

2008 Government of France

• Won - Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

2009 International Film Festival of Kerala

• Won - Special Jury Award - Firaaq

2009 Thessaloniki International Film Festival

• Won - Special Prize (Everyday Life: Transcendence or Reconciliation Award) - Firaaq
• Nominated - Golden Alexander - Firaaq

2010 Filmfare Awards

• Won - Special Award - Firaaq

Filmography[link]

Actor[link]

Director[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Website
• Nandita Das at the Internet Movie Database

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Nandita Das

• Interview 2003
• Interview 2006
• Nandita Das @ SPICE
• EVERYONE campaign of Save the Children India

Salman Rushdie
Rushdie at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival Vanity Fair party
Born	Ahmed Salman Rushdie (1947-06-19) 19 June 1947 (age 65) Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India (now Mumbai, Maharashtra, India)
Occupation	writer
Nationality	British
Ethnicity	Indian[1]
Alma mater	King's College, Cambridge
Genres	Magic realism Satire Postcolonialism
Subjects	Historical criticism Travel writing
Spouse(s)	Clarissa Luard (1976–1987) Marianne Wiggins (1988–1993) Elizabeth West (1997–2004) Padma Lakshmi (2004–2007)
Influences This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (December 2011) Günter Grass Gabriel García Márquez Italo Calvino Vladimir Nabokov James Joyce Jorge Luis Borges Thomas Pynchon Mikhail Bulgakov Franz Kafka Saul Bellow Christopher Hitchens
Influenced This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (December 2011) Zadie Smith Homi K. Bhabha Taslima Nasrin Christopher Hitchens

Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (Hindi: अहमद सलमान रुशदी (Devanagari), احمد سلمان رشدی (Nastaʿlīq);  /sælˈmɑːn ˈrʊʃdi/;^[2] born 19 June 1947) is a British Indian novelist and essayist. His second novel, Midnight's Children (1981), won the Booker Prize in 1981. Much of his fiction is set on the Indian subcontinent. He is said to combine magical realism with historical fiction; his work is concerned with the many connections, disruptions and migrations between East and West.

His fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), was the centre of a major controversy, provoking protests from Muslims in several countries, some violent. Death threats were made against him, including a fatwā issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, on 14 February 1989.

Rushdie was appointed Commandeur dans Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France in January 1999.^[3] In June 2007, Queen Elizabeth II dubbed him Knight Bachelor for his services to literature.^[4] In 2008, The Times ranked him thirteenth on its list of the fifty greatest British writers since 1945.^[5]

Since 2000, Rushdie has "lived mostly near Union Square" in New York City.^[6] In 2007 he began a five-year term as Distinguished Writer in Residence at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, where he has also deposited his archives.^[7] In May 2008 he was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.^[8]

His latest novel is Luka and the Fire of Life, published in November 2010. Earlier the same year, he announced that he was writing his memoirs.^[9]

Early life and family background[link]

The only son of Anis Ahmed Rushdie, a University of Cambridge-educated lawyer turned businessman, and Negin Bhatt, a teacher, Rushdie was born in Bombay, India, into a Muslim family of Kashmiri descent.^[10][11][12] He was educated at Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai, Rugby School, and King's College, University of Cambridge, where he studied history.

Career[link]

Copywriter[link]

Rushdie's first career was as a copywriter, working for the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather, where he came up with "irresistibubble" for Aero and "Naughty but Nice" for cream cakes, and for the agency Ayer Barker, for whom he wrote the memorable line "That'll do nicely" for American Express. It was while he was at Ogilvy that he wrote Midnight's Children, before becoming a full-time writer.^[13][14][15] John Hegarty of Bartle Bogle Hegarty has criticised Rushdie for not referring to his copywriting past frequently enough, although conceding: "He did write crap ads ... admittedly."^[16]

Major literary work[link]

His first novel, Grimus, a part-science fiction tale, was generally ignored by the public and literary critics. His next novel, Midnight's Children, catapulted him to literary notability. It significantly shaped the course that Indian writing in English followed over the next decade, and is regarded by many as one of the great books of the last 100 years.^{[citation needed]} This work won the 1981 Booker Prize and, in 1993 and 2008, was awarded the Best of the Bookers as the best novel to have received the prize during its first 25 and 40 years.^[17] Midnight's Children follows the life of a child, born at the stroke of midnight as India gained its independence, who is endowed with special powers and a connection to other children born at the dawn of a new and tumultuous age in the history of the Indian sub-continent and the birth of the modern nation of India. The character of Saleem Sinai has been compared to Rushdie.^[18]

After Midnight's Children, Rushdie wrote Shame (1983), in which he depicts the political turmoil in Pakistan, basing his characters on Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. Shame won France's Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger (Best Foreign Book) and was a close runner-up for the Booker Prize. Both these works of postcolonial literature are characterised by a style of magic realism and the immigrant outlook that Rushdie is very conscious of as a member of the Indian diaspora.

Rushdie wrote a non-fiction book about Nicaragua in the 1980s, The Jaguar Smile (1987). The book has a political focus and is based on his first-hand experiences and research at the scene of Sandinista political experiments.

His most controversial work, The Satanic Verses, was published in 1988 (see section below). Rushdie has published many short stories, including those collected in East, West (1994). The Moor's Last Sigh, a family epic ranging over some 100 years of India's history was published in 1995. The Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999) presents an alternative history of modern rock music. The song of the same name by U2 is one of many song lyrics included in the book, hence Rushdie is credited as the lyricist. He also wrote "Haroun and the Sea of Stories" in 1990.

Salman Rushdie presenting his book Shalimar the Clown

Rushdie has had a string of commercially successful and critically acclaimed novels. His 2005 novel Shalimar the Clown received, in India, the prestigious Hutch Crossword Book Award, and was, in Britain, a finalist for the Whitbread Book Awards. It was shortlisted for the 2007 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.^[19]

In his 2002 non-fiction collection Step Across This Line, he professes his admiration for the Italian writer Italo Calvino and the American writer Thomas Pynchon, among others. His early influences included James Joyce, Günter Grass, Jorge Luis Borges, Mikhail Bulgakov, and Lewis Carroll. Rushdie was a personal friend of Angela Carter and praised her highly in the foreword for her collection Burning your Boats.

In 2012, Salman Rushdie became one of the first major authors to embrace Booktrack--a company that synchronises ebooks with customised soundtracks to create an immersive reading experience—when he published his short story In the South on the platform.^[20]

Other activities[link]

Rushdie has quietly mentored younger Indian (and ethnic-Indian) writers, influenced an entire generation of Indo-Anglian writers, and is an influential writer in postcolonial literature in general.^[21] He has received many plaudits for his writings, including the European Union's Aristeion Prize for Literature, the Premio Grinzane Cavour (Italy), and the Writer of the Year Award in Germany and many of literature's highest honours.^[22] Rushdie was the President of PEN American Center from 2004 to 2006.

He opposed the British government's introduction of the Racial and Religious Hatred Act, something he writes about in his contribution to Free Expression Is No Offence, a collection of essays by several writers, published by Penguin in November 2005.

Salman Rushdie having a discussion with Emory University students

In 2006, Rushdie joined the Emory University faculty as Distinguished Writer in Residence for a five-year term.^[23] Though he enjoys writing, Salman Rushdie says that he would have become an actor if his writing career had not been successful. Even from early childhood, he dreamed of appearing in Hollywood movies (which he later realised in his frequent cameo appearances).

Rushdie includes fictional television and movie characters in some of his writings. He had a cameo appearance in the film Bridget Jones's Diary based on the book of the same name, which is itself full of literary in-jokes. On 12 May 2006, Rushdie was a guest host on The Charlie Rose Show, where he interviewed Indo-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta, whose 2005 film, Water, faced violent protests. He appears in the role of Helen Hunt's obstetrician-gynecologist in the film adaptation (Hunt's directorial debut) of Elinor Lipman's novel Then She Found Me. In September 2008, and again in March 2009, he appeared as a panellist on the HBO program "Real Time With Bill Maher".

Rushdie is currently collaborating on the screenplay for the cinematic adaptation of his novel Midnight's Children with director Deepa Mehta. The film will be called Midnight's Children.^[24][25] While casting is still in progress, Seema Biswas, Shabana Azmi, Nandita Das,^[26] and Irrfan Khan are confirmed as participating in the film.^[27] Mehta has stated that production will begin in September, 2010.^[28]

Rushdie announced in June 2011 that he had written the first draft of a script for a new television series for the U.S. cable network Showtime, a project on which he will also serve as an executive producer. The new series, to be called The Next People, will be, according to Rushie, "a sort of paranoid science-fiction series, people disappearing and being replaced by other people." The idea of a television series was suggested by his U.S. agents, said Rushdie, who felt that television would allow him more creative control than feature film. The Next People is being made by the British film production company Working Title, the firm behind such projects as Four Weddings and a Funeral and Shaun of the Dead.^[29]

Rushdie is a member of the advisory board of The Lunchbox Fund,^[30] a non-profit organisation which provides daily meals to students of township schools in Soweto of South Africa. He is also a member of the advisory board of the Secular Coalition for America,^[31] an advocacy group representing the interests of atheistic and humanistic Americans in Washington, D.C. In November 2010 he became a founding patron of Ralston College, a new liberal arts college that has adopted as its motto a Latin translation of a phrase ("free speech is life itself") from an address he gave at Columbia University in 1991 to mark the two-hundredth anniversary of the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution.^[32]

He took on Facebook over the use of his name in 2011. He won. Rushdie had asked to use his middle name Salman, which he is most recognised by. He described his online identity crisis in a series of messages posted on Twitter, among them ""Dear #Facebook, forcing me to change my FB name from Salman to Ahmed Rushdie is like forcing J. Edgar to become John Hoover" and "Or, if F. Scott Fitzgerald was on #Facebook, would they force him to be Francis Fitzgerald? What about F. Murray Abraham?" Messages such as these were then circulated online. Facebook eventually relented and allowed him to use the name by which he is universally known.^[33][34]

[edit] The Satanic Verses and the fatwā

The publication of The Satanic Verses in September 1988 caused immediate controversy in the Islamic world because of what was perceived as an irreverent depiction of the prophet Muhammad. The title refers to a disputed Muslim tradition that is related in the book. According to this tradition, Muhammad (Mahound in the book) added verses (sura) to the Qur'an accepting three goddesses who used to be worshipped in Mecca as divine beings. According to the legend, Muhammad later revoked the verses, saying the devil tempted him to utter these lines to appease the Meccans (hence the "Satanic" verses). However, the narrator reveals to the reader that these disputed verses were actually from the mouth of the Archangel Gibreel. The book was banned in many countries with large Muslim communities. (12 total: India, Bangladesh, Sudan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Thailand, Tanzania, Indonesia, Singapore, Venezuela and Pakistan)

On 14 February 1989, a fatwā requiring Rushdie's execution was proclaimed on Radio Tehran by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of Iran at the time, calling the book "blasphemous against Islam" (chapter IV of the book depicts the character of an Imam in exile who returns to incite revolt from the people of his country with no regard for their safety). A bounty was offered for Rushdie's death, and he was thus forced to live under police protection for several years. On 7 March 1989, the United Kingdom and Iran broke diplomatic relations over the Rushdie controversy.

The publication of the book and the fatwā sparked violence around the world, with bookstores firebombed. Muslim communities in several nations in the West held public rallies, burning copies of the book. Several people associated with translating or publishing the book were attacked, seriously injured, and even killed.^{[note 1]} Many more people died in riots in some countries. Despite the danger posed by the fatwā, Rushdie made a public appearance at London's Wembley Stadium on 11 August 1993 during a concert by U2. In 2010, U2 bassist Adam Clayton recalled that "[lead vocalist] Bono had been calling Salman Rushdie from the stage every night on the Zoo TV tour. When we played Wembley, Salman showed up in person and the stadium erupted. You [could] tell from [drummer] Larry Mullen, Jr.'s face that we weren't expecting it. Salman was a regular visitor after that. He had a backstage pass and he used it as often as possible. For a man who was supposed to be in hiding, it was remarkably easy to see him around the place."^[35]

On 24 September 1998, as a precondition to the restoration of diplomatic relations with Britain, the Iranian government, then headed by Mohammad Khatami, gave a public commitment that it would "neither support nor hinder assassination operations on Rushdie."^[36][37]

Hardliners in Iran have continued to reaffirm the death sentence.^[38] In early 2005, Khomeini's fatwā was reaffirmed by Iran's current spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a message to Muslim pilgrims making the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.^[39] Additionally, the Revolutionary Guards have declared that the death sentence on him is still valid.^[40] Iran has rejected requests to withdraw the fatwā on the basis that only the person who issued it may withdraw it,^[39] and the person who issued it – Ayatollah Khomeini – has been dead since 1989.

Rushdie has reported that he still receives a "sort of Valentine's card" from Iran each year on 14 February letting him know the country has not forgotten the vow to kill him. He said, "It's reached the point where it's a piece of rhetoric rather than a real threat."^[41] Despite the threats on Rushdie, he has publicly said that his family has never been threatened and that his mother (who lived in Pakistan during the later years of her life) even received outpourings of support.^[42]

A former bodyguard to Rushdie, Ron Evans, planned to publish a book recounting the behaviour of the author during the time he was in hiding. Evans claimed that Rushdie tried to profit financially from the fatwa and was suicidal, but Rushdie dismissed the book as a "bunch of lies" and took legal action against Ron Evans, his co-author and their publisher.^[43] On 26 August 2008 Rushdie received an apology at the High Court in London from all three parties.^[44] A memoir of his years of hiding, Joseph Anton, is due to be published 18 September 2012. Joseph Anton was Rushdie's secret alias.^[45]

Failed assassination attempt and Hezbollah's comments[link]

On 3 August 1989, while Mustafa Mahmoud Mazeh was priming a book bomb loaded with RDX explosives in a hotel in Paddington, Central London, the bomb exploded prematurely, destroying two floors of the hotel and killing Mazeh. A previously unknown Lebanese group, the Organization of the Mujahidin of Islam, said he died preparing an attack "on the apostate Rushdie". There is a shrine in Tehran's Behesht-e Zahra cemetery for Mustafa Mahmoud Mazeh that says he was "Martyred in London, 3 August 1989. The first martyr to die on a mission to kill Salman Rushdie." Mazeh's mother was invited to relocate to Iran, and the Islamic World Movement of Martyrs' Commemoration built his shrine in the cemetery that holds thousands of Iranian soldiers slain in the Iran–Iraq War.^[36] During the 2006 Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared that "If there had been a Muslim to carry out Imam Khomeini's fatwā against the renegade Salman Rushdie, this rabble who insult our Prophet Mohammed in Denmark, Norway and France would not have dared to do so. I am sure there are millions of Muslims who are ready to give their lives to defend our prophet's honour and we have to be ready to do anything for that."^[46] James Phillips of the Heritage Foundation testified before the United States Congress that a "March 1989" [sic] explosion in Britain was a Hezbollah attempt to assassinate Rushdie that failed when a bomb exploded prematurely, killing a Hezbollah activist in London.^[47]

[edit] International Guerillas

In 1990, soon after the publication of The Satanic Verses, a Pakistani film entitled International Gorillay (International Guerillas) was released that depicted Rushdie as plotting to cause the downfall of Pakistan by opening a chain of casinos and discos in the country. The film was popular with Pakistani audiences, and it "presents Rushdie as a Rambo-like figure pursued by four Pakistani guerrillas".^[48] The British Board of Film Classification refused to allow it a certificate, as "it was felt that the portrayal of Rushdie might qualify as criminal libel, causing a breach of the peace as opposed to merely tarnishing his reputation."^[49] This effectively prevented the release of the film in Britain. Two months later, however, Rushdie himself wrote to the board, saying that while he thought the film "a distorted, incompetent piece of trash", he would not sue if it were released.^[49] He later said, "If that film had been banned, it would have become the hottest video in town: everyone would have seen it".^[49] While the film was a great hit in Pakistan, it went virtually unnoticed in the West.^[49]

2012 Jaipur Literature Festival events[link]

Rushdie was due to appear at the Jaipur Literature Festival in January 2012.^[50] However, he later cancelled, and indeed cancelled his complete tour of India citing a possible threat to his life as the primary reason.^[51][52] He investigated police reports that paid assassins had been hired to kill him and suggested the police might be lying.^[53]

Meanwhile, the police, on the advice of officials, sought Ruchir Joshi, Jeet Thayil, Hari Kunzru and Amitava Kumar. They fled from Jaipur after reading excerpts from The Satanic Verses at the Jaipur Literature Festival. In India the import of the book is banned via customs. However, reading from an existing copy of the book is not illegal.^[54]

A proposed video link session between Rushdie and the Jaipur Literature Festival was cancelled at the last minute^[55] after the government pressured the festival to stop it.^[53] Rushdie returned to India to address a conference in Delhi on 16 March 2012.^[56]

Knighthood[link]

Rushdie was knighted for services to literature in the Queen's Birthday Honours on 16 June 2007. He remarked, "I am thrilled and humbled to receive this great honour, and am very grateful that my work has been recognised in this way."^[57] In response to his knighthood, many nations with Muslim majorities protested. Parliamentarians of several of these countries condemned the action, and Iran and Pakistan called in their British envoys to protest formally. Controversial condemnation issued by Pakistan's Religious Affairs Minister Muhammad Ijaz-ul-Haq was in turn rebuffed by former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Ironically, their respective fathers Zia-ul-Haq and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had been earlier portrayed in Rushdie's novel Shame. Mass demonstrations against Rushdie's knighthood took place in Pakistan and Malaysia. Several called publicly for his death. Some non-Muslims expressed disappointment at Rushdie's knighthood, claiming that the writer did not merit such an honour and there were several other writers who deserved the knighthood more than Rushdie.^[58]

Al-Qaeda has condemned the Rushdie honour. The Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri is quoted as saying in an audio recording that Britain's award for Indian-born Rushdie was "an insult to Islam", and it was planning "a very precise response."^[59]

Religious and political beliefs[link]

Rushdie came from a Muslim family but says that he was never really religious. In 1990, in the "hope that it would reduce the threat of Muslims acting on the fatwa to kill him," he issued a statement claiming he had renewed his Muslim faith, had repudiated the attacks on Islam in his novel and was committed to working for better understanding of the religion across the world. However, Rushdie later said that he was only "pretending".^[60]

His books often focus on the role of religion in society and conflicts between faiths and between the religious and those of no faith.

Rushdie advocates the application of higher criticism, pioneered during the late 19th century. Rushdie called for a reform in Islam^[61] in a guest opinion piece printed in The Washington Post and The Times in mid-August 2005:

What is needed is a move beyond tradition, nothing less than a reform movement to bring the core concepts of Islam into the modern age, a Muslim Reformation to combat not only the jihadist ideologues but also the dusty, stifling seminaries of the traditionalists, throwing open the windows to let in much-needed fresh air. (...) It is high time, for starters, that Muslims were able to study the revelation of their religion as an event inside history, not supernaturally above it. (...) Broad-mindedness is related to tolerance; open-mindedness is the sibling of peace.

Rushdie supported the 1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, leading the leftist Tariq Ali to label Rushdie and other "warrior writers" as "the belligerati'".^[62] He was supportive of the US-led campaign to remove the Taliban in Afghanistan, which began in 2001, but was a vocal critic of the 2003 war in Iraq. He has stated that while there was a "case to be made for the removal of Saddam Hussein", US unilateral military intervention was unjustifiable.^[63]

Paul Auster and Rushdie greeting Israeli President Shimon Peres with Caro Llewelyn in 2008.

In the wake of the 'Danish Cartoons Affair' in March 2006—which many considered an echo of the death threats and fatwā that followed publication of The Satanic Verses in 1989^[64]—Rushdie signed the manifesto 'Together Facing the New Totalitarianism', a statement warning of the dangers of religious extremism. The Manifesto was published in the left-leaning French weekly Charlie Hebdo in March 2006.

In 2006, Rushdie stated that he supported comments by the then-Leader of the House of Commons Jack Straw, who criticised the wearing of the niqab (a veil that covers all of the face except the eyes). Rushdie stated that his three sisters would never wear the veil. He said, "I think the battle against the veil has been a long and continuing battle against the limitation of women, so in that sense I'm completely on Straw's side."^[65]

The Marxist Catholic critic Terry Eagleton, a former admirer of Rushdie's work, attacked him for his positions, saying he "cheered on the Pentagon's criminal ventures in Iraq and Afghanistan".^[66] However, Eagleton subsequently apologised for having misrepresented Rushdie's views.

At an appearance at 92nd Street Y, Rushdie expressed his view on copyright when answering a question whether he had considered copyright law a barrier (or impediment) to free speech.

No. But that's because I write for a living, [laughs] and I have no other source of income, and I naïvely believe that stuff that I create belongs to me, and that if you want it you might have to give me some cash. [...] My view is I do this for a living. The thing wouldn't exist if I didn't make it and so it belongs to me and don't steal it. You know. It's my stuff.^[67]

When Amnesty International (AI) suspended human rights activist Gita Sahgal for saying to the press that she thought AI should distance itself from Moazzam Begg and his organisation, Rushdie said:

Amnesty ... has done its reputation incalculable damage by allying itself with Moazzam Begg and his group Cageprisoners, and holding them up as human rights advocates. It looks very much as if Amnesty's leadership is suffering from a kind of moral bankruptcy, and has lost the ability to distinguish right from wrong. It has greatly compounded its error by suspending the redoubtable Gita Sahgal for the crime of going public with her concerns. Gita Sahgal is a woman of immense integrity and distinction.... It is people like Gita Sahgal who are the true voices of the human rights movement; Amnesty and Begg have revealed, by their statements and actions, that they deserve our contempt.^[68]

Personal life[link]

Rushdie has been married four times. He was married to his first wife Clarissa Luard from 1976 to 1987 and fathered a son, Zafar (born 1980). His second wife was the American novelist Marianne Wiggins; they were married in 1988 and divorced in 1993. His third wife, from 1997 to 2004, was Elizabeth West; they have a son, Milan (born 1999). In 2004, he married the Indian American actress and model Padma Lakshmi, the host of the American reality-television show Top Chef. The marriage ended on 2 July 2007, with Lakshmi indicating that it was her desire to end the marriage. In 2008 the Bollywood press romantically linked him to the Indian model Riya Sen, with whom he was otherwise a friend.^[69] In response to the media speculation about their friendship, she simply stated "I think when you are Salman Rushdie, you must get bored with people who always want to talk to you about literature."^[70]

In 1999 Rushdie had an operation to correct ptosis, a tendon condition that causes drooping eyelids and that, according to him, was making it increasingly difficult for him to open his eyes. "If I hadn't had an operation, in a couple of years from now I wouldn't have been able to open my eyes at all," he said.^[71]

Bibliography[link]

Novels[link]

• Grimus (1975)
• Midnight's Children (1981)
• Shame (1983)
• The Satanic Verses (1988)
• The Moor's Last Sigh (1995)
• The Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999)
• Fury (2001)
• Shalimar the Clown (2005)
• The Enchantress of Florence (2008)

Collections[link]

• Homeless by Choice (1992, with R. Jhabvala and V. S. Naipaul)
• East, West (1994)
• The Best American Short Stories (2008, as Guest Editor)

Children's books[link]

• Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1990)
• Luka and the Fire of Life (2010)

Essays and non-fiction[link]

• The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey (1987)
• "In Good Faith", Granta, 1990
• Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism, 1981–1991 (1992)
• "The Wizard of Oz: BFI Film Classics", BFI, 1992.
• "Mohandas Gandhi." Time, 13 April 1998.
• "Imagine There Is No Heaven." , extracted contribution from Letters to the Six Billionth World Citizen, a UN sponsored publication in English by Uitgeverij Podium, Amsterdam. The Guardian, 16 October 1999.
• Step Across This Line: Collected Nonfiction 1992–2002 (2002)
• "A fine pickle." The Guardian, 28 February 2009.
• "In the South." Booktrack, 7 February 2012

Awards[link]

• Aristeion Prize (European Union)
• Arts Council Writers' Award
• Author of the Year (British Book Awards)
• Author of the Year (Germany)
• Booker Prize for Fiction
• Booker of Bookers for the best novel among the Booker Prize winners for Fiction awarded at its 25th anniversary (in 1993)
• The Best of the Booker awarded to commemorate the Booker Prize's 40th anniversary (in 2008), winner by public vote
• Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France)
• English-Speaking Union Award
• Honorary Patron, University Philosophical Society, Trinity College, Dublin.
• Hutch Crossword Book Award (India)
• India Abroad Lifetime Achievement Award (USA)
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize (Fiction)
• Kurt Tucholsky Prize (Sweden)
• Mantua Prize (Italy)
• James Joyce Award – University College Dublin
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology Honorary Professorship
• Chapman University Honorary Doctorate – Doctor of Humane Letters
• Outstanding Lifetime Achievement in Cultural Humanism (Harvard University)
• Premio Grinzane Cavour (Italy)
• Prix Colette (Switzerland)
• Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger
• St. Louis Literary Award – Saint Louis University
• State Prize for Literature (Austria)
• Whitbread Novel Award (twice)
• Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award for Children's Fiction
• University of Liège Doctor honoris causa

See also[link]

• Blitcon, British literary conservatives
• Censorship in South Asia
• International PEN
• List of fatwas
• The Butterfly Hunter
• The Satanic Verses controversy

Notes[link]

1. ↑ See Hitoshi Igarashi, Ettore Capriolo, William Nygaard

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Salman Rushdie

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Salman Rushdie

• Salman Rushdie official website
• Appearances on C-SPAN
  • In Depth interview with Rushdie, 5 December 2010
• Salman Rushdie on Charlie Rose
• Salman Rushdie at the Internet Movie Database
• Article archive at Journalisted
• Works by or about Salman Rushdie in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Salman Rushdie collected news and commentary at Al Jazeera English
• Salman Rushdie collected news and commentary at Dawn
• Salman Rushdie collected news and commentary at The Guardian
• Salman Rushdie collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Contemporary writers: Salman Rushdie. British Council: Arts
• Jack Livings (Summer 2005). "Salman Rushdie, The Art of Fiction No. 186". The Paris Review. http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5531/the-art-of-fiction-no-186-salman-rushdie. 
• New York Times special feature on Rushdie, 1999
• Critical Studies on Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children Indian Literature: A Critical Casebook

v t e Works by Salman Rushdie Novels: Grimus (1975) Midnight's Children (1981) Shame (1983) The Satanic Verses (1988) The Moor's Last Sigh (1995) The Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999) Fury (2001) Shalimar the Clown (2005) The Enchantress of Florence (2008) Story collections: East, West (1994) Non-fiction: The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey (1987) Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981–1991 (1992) Homeless by Choice (1992) Step Across This Line: Collected Nonfiction 1992–2002 (2002) Plays: Haroun and the Sea of Stories (with Tim Supple and David Tushingham) Midnight's Children (with Tim Supple and Simon Reade) Children's books: Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1990) Luka and the Fire of Life (2010) Anthology: The Vintage Book of Indian Writing (co-editor)

Preity Zinta
Zinta at the International Film Festival of Marrakech (2011).
Born	(1975-01-31) 31 January 1975 (age 37) Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India
Occupation	Film actress
Years active	1998–present
Partner	Ness Wadia (2005–09)

Preity Zinta (pronounced [ˈpriːt̪i ˈzɪɳʈaː]; born 31 January 1975)^[1] is an Indian film actress. She has appeared in Hindi films of Bollywood, as well as Telugu, Punjabi and English language films. After graduating with a degree in criminal psychology, Zinta made her acting debut in Dil Se.. in 1998 followed by a role in Soldier the same year. These performances earned her a Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut, and she was later recognised for her role as a teenage single mother in Kya Kehna (2000). She subsequently played a variety of character types; her film roles along with her screen persona contributed to a change in the concept of a Hindi film heroine.^[2]

Zinta received a Filmfare Award for Best Actress in 2003 for her performance in the drama Kal Ho Naa Ho. She went on to play the lead female role in two consecutive annual top-grossing films in India: the science fiction film Koi... Mil Gaya (2003), her biggest commercial success,^[3] and the star-crossed romance Veer-Zaara (2004), which earned her critical acclaim. She was later noted for her portrayal of independent, modern Indian women in Salaam Namaste (2005) and Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006), top-grossing productions in overseas markets.^[4] These accomplishments have established her as a leading actress of Hindi cinema.^[5][6] Her first international film role was in the Canadian film Heaven on Earth, for which she was awarded the Silver Hugo Award for Best Actress at the 2008 Chicago International Film Festival.^[7]

In addition to movie acting, Zinta has written a series of columns for BBC News Online South Asia, is a social activist, a television presenter, and a regular stage performer. She is the founder of the production company PZNZ Media and, along with ex-boyfriend Ness Wadia, a co-owner of the Indian Premier League cricket team Kings XI Punjab. She is known in the Indian media for publicly speaking her mind and openly expressing her opinions, and consequently has sparked the occasional controversy.^[8][9] These controversies include her being the only witness not to retract in court her earlier statements against the Indian mafia during the 2003 Bharat Shah case, for which she was awarded the Godfrey Phillips National Bravery Award.

Early life and background[link]

Zinta was born into a family from Rohru in Shimla district, Himachal Pradesh.^[1] Her father, Durganand Zinta, was an officer in the Indian Army.^[10] He died in a car accident when she was 13 years old; the accident also involved her mother, Nilprabha, who was severely injured and consequently remained bedridden for two years. Zinta called the tragic accident and her father's death a significant turning point in her life, which forced her to mature rapidly.^[11] She has two brothers; Deepankar and Manish, a year older and a year younger respectively. Deepankar is a commissioned officer in the Indian Army, while Manish lives in California.^[12]

Zinta, who describes herself as a tomboy as a child, has emphasised her father's military background as having a lasting impression on how family life was conducted. He asserted the importance of discipline and punctuality to the children.^[13] She studied at the Convent of Jesus and Mary boarding school in Shimla. Although she confesses to loneliness in the boarding school, she noted that it was compensated by her finding a "... perfect set of friends" there.^[10][14] As a student, she developed a love for literature, particularly the works of William Shakespeare and poetry.^[10] According to Zinta, she enjoyed schoolwork and received good grades; in her free time she played sports, especially basketball.^[11]

Upon graduating from the boarding school at age 18, Zinta enrolled at St Bede's College in Shimla. She graduated college with an English honours degree, and then started a graduate programme in psychology.^[15] She earned a postgraduate degree in criminal psychology, but later took up modelling.^[10] Zinta's first television commercial was for Perk chocolates, the result of a chance meeting with a director at a friend's birthday party in 1996.^[10] The director persuaded Zinta to audition for the spot, and she was selected. Afterwards, she appeared in other catalogues and commercials, including one for the soap Liril.^[11][15]

Acting career[link]

Early work (1997–99)[link]

In 1997, Zinta met film-maker Shekhar Kapur when she accompanied a friend to an audition, and was asked if she would audition too. Upon seeing her audition, Kapur insisted that she become an actress. She was originally scheduled to make her screen debut in Kapur's Tara Rum Pum Pum opposite Hrithik Roshan, but the filming was cancelled. Kapur later recommended her for director Mani Ratnam's movie Dil Se...^[15][16] Zinta often recalls that when she joined the film industry, her friends teased her that she would typically "wear white saris and dance in the rain", thereby motivating her to play different parts.^[10][16]

Zinta commenced shooting for Kundan Shah's Kya Kehna, whose release was delayed until 2000.^[17] The delay of another film, Soldier, meant that her first release was Dil Se.. (1998) opposite Shahrukh Khan and Manisha Koirala.^[16] She was introduced as Preeti Nair, a middle-class Delhi girl and Khan's fiancée. The film was considered an unusual launch for a newcomer, as her role called for only 20 minutes of screen time.^[17] However, she was eventually noticed for her role, particularly for the forthright character she played.^[11] Her scene with Khan, in which she asked him, "Are you a virgin?", became well-known, and her portrayal earned her a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress.^[17] She played her first leading role in the action-drama Soldier (1998), a commercial hit of the year.^[18] She won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut for her performance in both Dil Se.. and Soldier.

Zinta next acted in two Telugu films, Premante Idera (1998), opposite Venkatesh; and Raja Kumarudu (1999), opposite Mahesh Babu. She followed with the leading role in the thriller Sangharsh, alongside Akshay Kumar. The film, based on The Silence of the Lambs (1991),^[19] was directed by Tanuja Chandra and written by Mahesh Bhatt. Zinta portrayed the character of Reet Oberoi, a CBI officer who falls in love with a captured killer played by Kumar. The film was not a box-office success, although Zinta's performance was appreciated by critics.^[11]

Breakthrough (2000–02)[link]

Zinta's first role in 2000 was in the drama Kya Kehna, which unexpectedly became a box-office success.^[20] The film addressed themes of single parenthood and teenage pregnancy, and gained Zinta wider recognition from the public as well as film critics.^[11][17] Her portrayal of Priya Bakshi, a teenage single mother who fights social prejudice, earned her several award nominations, including her first nomination for Best Actress at the Filmfare Awards. India Today reported that Zinta belonged to a new breed of Hindi film actors that breaks away from character stereotypes.^[17]

Later that year, Zinta starred in Vidhu Vinod Chopra's drama Mission Kashmir alongside Sanjay Dutt and Hrithik Roshan. Set in the valley of Kashmir during the Indo-Pakistani conflicts, the film dealt with the topic of terrorism and crime. Zinta's role was that of Sufiya Parvez, a TV reporter and Roshan's childhood love. A review in The Hindu said about her performance, "Preity Zinta is her usual cherubic self and lends colour to the otherwise serious proceedings".^[21] It was an economic success, becoming the third-highest grossing film of the year in India.^[22]

In 2001, Zinta earned positive reviews for her role in Farhan Akhtar's National Film Award-winning Dil Chahta Hai. Depicting the contemporary routine life of Indian affluent youth, it is set in modern-day urban Mumbai and focuses on a major period of transition in the lives of three young friends (Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan and Akshaye Khanna).^[23] Zinta starred as Aamir Khan's love interest, Shalini. Dil Chahta Hai was popular with critics, some of whom noted it broke new ground by introducing a realistic portrayal of Indian youth. The film was a moderate box-office success in India; it performed well in the big cities but failed in the rural areas, which was attributed by critics to the urban-oriented lifestyle it presented.^[24][25] Rediff.com wrote of Zinta that she "... is beautiful and vibrant, wavering between endearingly naive and confused".^[26]

Three more 2001 releases featured Zinta, including Abbas-Mustan's romantic drama Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, which was released after a one-year delay due to the trial of producer Bharat Shah. This film was one of the first Bollywood movies to address the controversial issue of surrogate childbirth.^[27] Zinta essayed the role of Madhubala, a golden-hearted prostitute hired as a surrogate mother. Initially reluctant to play the part, she eventually accepted it at the directors' persuasion and, to prepare for it, visited several bars and nightclubs at Mumbai's red-light areas to study the lingo and mannerisms of sex-workers.^[28] She received a second Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Filmfare Awards for her performance, of which reviewer Sukanya Verma wrote, "Preity Zinta, who clearly has the meatiest part of all, makes the best of it. Her transformation from the cocky and unabashed prostitute to a sensitive and warm person is amazingly believable."^[29]

In 2002, Zinta collaborated once again with director Kundan Shah, as the protagonist in the family drama Dil Hai Tumhaara, alongside Rekha, Mahima Chaudhry and Arjun Rampal. Although the film did not succeed at the box office, her portrayal of Shalu, an adopted daughter craving love, was critically acclaimed. Taran Adarsh from Bollywood Hungama noted, "... Preity Zinta, in an author-backed role ... steals the show with a sterling performance. Her scenes with Rekha (second half) and Alok Nath (pre-climax) are simply outstanding. Here's a performance that is sure to win accolades from the junta and critics whole-heartedly."^[30]

Success (2003–07)[link]

Zinta was the female lead in India's three highest-grossing films of 2003: The Hero: Love Story of a Spy, Koi... Mil Gaya and Kal Ho Naa Ho.^[31] The Hero, co-starring Sunny Deol and Priyanka Chopra, is a patriotic drama about a spy network involving terrorists and an Indian army officer. Zinta played the part of Reshma, a villager who falls in love with the officer and becomes part of this network. The film, involving stunts never seen before in the cinematic history of Bollywood, became the most expensive Hindi film ever produced at the time.^[32][33] Despite being the third highest-grossing film of that year, it failed to recover its production costs at the box office.^[31][34] She next starred in Honey Irani's directorial debut, Armaan, alongside Amitabh Bachchan and Anil Kapoor. This drama is set in a hospital and follows the travails of its personnel and its principal, Dr. Akash, who struggles arduously to sustain the institution financially. Zinta played Akash's schizophrenic wife Sonia Kapoor, a role written specially for her and which she liked because it let her "give vent to all [her] frustrations".^[35] The film received predominantly positive reviews, and Zinta was particularly praised.^[36] Khalid Mohamed called her a "peppy scene-stealer, achieving her manic mood swings dexterously."^[37] For her performance, she received nominations for Best Performance in a Negative Role at different award ceremonies, including Filmfare.

Rakesh Roshan's science-fiction film Koi... Mil Gaya, about a developmentally disabled young man, followed. Co-starring with Rekha and Hrithik Roshan, Zinta played the role of Nisha, a young woman whom Roshan befriends. She received another Best Actress nomination at the Filmfare for the role. The movie was a financial and critical success and became the most popular film of the year, as well as Zinta's highest-grossing movie, with a domestic total of Rs 425 million;^[31] it won the Filmfare Award for Best Movie, among others.

Zinta's final release of 2003 was Kal Ho Naa Ho, a drama set in New York City. It was directed by Nikhil Advani and written by Karan Johar, co-starring Jaya Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan and Saif Ali Khan. The film was received favourably by critics and became India's second-biggest hit of the year after Koi... Mil Gaya. It also did well internationally and became India's top-grossing film of the year overseas, earning over Rs 750 million worldwide.^[38][39] Zinta played the role of Naina Catherine Kapur, an insecure and angry young Indian-American woman who falls in love with a man who has a fatal heart disease. She won several awards for her performance, including the Filmfare Award for Best Actress. Derek Elley of Variety wrote, "Zinta, who's been carving a growing following the past three years or so, has never been better, definitively moving from juve roles to a charismatic young woman with her sexy, assured Naina."^[40]

In 2004 she starred as TV journalist Romila Dutta in Farhan Akhtar's war drama Lakshya, alongside Hrithik Roshan. The film was based on the historical events of the 1999 Kargil Conflict; Zinta's character was modelled after TV journalist Barkha Dutt, the only female reporter assigned to the story. The film was a critical success, yet her performance received mixed reviews; Namarata Joshi of Outlook likened her to "a teenybopper trying to do a TV newsreading skit for her college fest" and Rediff.com concluded, "Zinta has quite a good role and a good deal of footage in the film, and she does a fairly decent job of it without ever being spectacular."^[41][42] Later that year, Yash Chopra cast her opposite Shahrukh Khan as the female lead in the love saga Veer-Zaara, the top-grossing Hindi film of that year in both India and abroad, with revenues of over Rs 900 million worldwide.^[38] The film, which relates the love story of an Indian officer, Veer Pratap Singh, and a Pakistani woman, Zaara Haayat Khan, had a strong international release, including a screening at the Berlin Film Festival, and won several Best Movie awards at major Indian award functions.^[43] For her portrayal of Zaara, a role which required her to master the fine nuances of Urdu language, Zinta received her fourth Filmfare Best Actress nomination.^[15] Variety hailed her as "the most interesting young actress of her generation," writing that she "is her usual lively self as the willful Zaara."^[44] Veer-Zaara was Zinta's second highest-grossing film and third major success in two consecutive years. It marked the beginning of her work with Yash Raj Films, one of the largest production houses in Bollywood.^[45]

In 2005, Zinta appeared in two movies. Her first release was the folk comedy Khullam Khulla Pyaar Karen, co-starring Govinda, a production that had been delayed since 2002. The film garnered negative reviews and poor box office returns. Zinta's role was small, and was not well received.^[46] She next starred opposite Saif Ali Khan in Siddharth Anand's comedy-drama Salaam Namaste. Produced by Yash Raj Films, it was the first Indian feature to be filmed entirely in Australia and went on to become the year's highest-grossing Bollywood production outside of India, earning Rs 570 million internationally.^[38] The film tells the story of a contemporary cohabiting Indian couple and their subsequent struggle with an unexpected pregnancy. Zinta played the female protagonist Ambar Malhotra, a single modern young woman who leaves India to make her own life in Melbourne. Salaam Namaste received mostly positive reviews, and Zinta's performance earned her nominations for Best Actress at a number of award ceremonies. Taran Adarsh referred to her as "terrific" and argued that she gave "her most accomplished performance to date".^[47] The New York Times noted, "She is cheerleader-homecoming queen-fraternity sweetheart pretty, so even when her characters are being unkind it's hard not to like her."^[48]

Zinta at the Jaan-E-Mann and UFO tie-up party (2006).

Zinta received further success in 2006, starring in Karan Johar's drama Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna with an ensemble cast including Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Rani Mukerji and Kirron Kher. The film became one of the biggest box-office hits in India, earning Rs 458 million, and grossed over Rs 480 million abroad, the biggest Bollywood success of all-time in the overseas market up until then. It was her fourth overseas top-earner in four consecutive years.^[4] The film tells the story of two unhappily married couples in New York, and an ensuing extramarital affair. Zinta played the role of Rhea Saran, an ambitious fashion magazine editor. She described the role as an attempt to shed her vivacious public image.^[49] The Indian Express concurred that this was successful: "The lady has not just looked glamorous but she has walked with poise, sat with grace, smiled with composure and spoke with calmness. Who would have thought that the bubbly girl could so skilfully shed her age-old tag and walk away as the don't-mess-with-me lass. So all those who are in search of the peppy Preity, well guys you've dialed the wrong number this time."^[50]

She then starred in Shirish Kunder's romantic musical Jaan-E-Mann, a story set in the United States about two men, played by Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar, who love the same woman. The film opened to mixed reviews from critics and its eventual box-office profit was poor.^[51] Zinta played the role of Piya, the cynosure of two men. She was mostly criticised for taking a role of minimal importance, though her performance was generally well-received.^[52] Raja Sen labelled her role an "ornament throughout," but further stated that she "comes vividly alive in the film's last scene, a moment that makes you lament why filmmakers today don't let the babyfaced actress have more fun instead of forcing her to sob copiously. She doesn't have much to do in Jaan-E-Mann, but looks appropriately attractive."^[53] Zinta said that the film was a great relief after the more emotionally intense Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, as Jaan-E-Mann was "easy, happy and much more simple".^[54]

In 2007 Zinta portrayed a British Pakistani woman, Alvira Khan, in her third project with Yash Raj Films, Shaad Ali's comedy Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, alongside Abhishek Bachchan, Bobby Deol and Lara Dutta. The film was a critical and commercial failure in India.^[55][56] Several critics panned her performance; The Times of India described her as "too plastic" and Rediff.com concluded, "From accent to emotion, Preity is plain and simple insufferable in this film."^[57][58]

New career prospects (2007–present)[link]

In 2007, following the failure of two of her commercial releases, Zinta began working with art film directors, and turned towards neo-realistic movies, known in India as parallel cinema.^[59] She acted in her first English film, Rituparno Ghosh's The Last Lear, as a struggling film actress opposite Amitabh Bachchan. The film premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, and was received well. Later reviews in India were approving, with Rajeev Masand writing, "Preity Zinta gets through her scenes competently, never allowing her cute-as-a-button image to take away from the impact she makes here as a conflicted, mature woman."^[60] Zinta said about her first art film, "I did think with art films that they don't pay you, they don't feed you, but I was wrong, and I'm so happy to be here."^[61]

Zinta next starred in Samir Karnik's Heroes (2008), a road movie about two final-year film students who, as a part of their assignment, travel a thousand miles across North India to deliver three un-posted letters written by army personnel who lost their lives during the 1999 Kargil war to their families. The story unfolds the journey of these students in three chapters and follows how they meet and are inspired by the families of the soldiers. Zinta is featured in the first chapter as Salman Khan's war widow, Kuljeet Kaur, a woman who becomes the sole breadwinner of the family and single-handedly raises her son. In preparation for the role, Zinta attended Anupam Kher's acting school, "Actor Prepares", to learn the dialect and mannerisms of a Punjabi woman.^[62] The film was released to a mixed critical reaction, but her performance received rave reviews; Anand Singh of Hindustan Times wrote, "Karnik is merely interested in wringing tears the old-fashioned way, and not in starting a debate. He succeeds—mainly because Preity Zinta brings to a role a gravitas and dignity that is seen on the faces of ordinary women—this may be her coming of age as an actress."^[63]

By April 2008, Zinta had completed shooting for Jahnu Barua's drama Har Pal. In the same year she played the leading role of Chand in Deepa Mehta's Canadian film Heaven on Earth, a Punjabi language mystical drama based on the true story of a young Indian woman who, post an arranged marriage to a non-resident Indian man from Canada, migrates to Toronto and becomes a victim of severe domestic abuse. Expressing her desire for "a new kind of acting challenge", Zinta described Mehta as one director she was longing to work with in order to fulfill it.^[59] To prepare for the part, she read and watched several books and documentaries on domestic violence. As the film was to be shot entirely in Punjabi, a language that was totally alien to her, she learnt it in a crash course of fifty days.^[64] She was emotional during the making of the film: "I never knew a character would effect me so deeply. I've become completely withdrawn and introspective... I can't snap out of the character."^[65] She eventually called it her most challenging project, as it helped her "shed everything that Preity Zinta was about."^[66] Heaven on Earth was first screened at several film festivals and, upon release, garnered career-best reviews for Zinta. Her performance earned her the Best Actress (Silver Hugo) award at the 2008 Chicago International Film Festival, for "her strong yet subtle performance as a woman struggling to keep her dreams despite brutal realities."^[7] Among other awards, she was acknowledged with Best Actress nominations at several award functions in Canada, including the Genie Award by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, and the Vancouver Film Critics Circle.^[67]

Following Heaven On Earth, Zinta took a two-year sabbatical from movies, later explaining that she had chosen to focus on her work with her cricket team.^[68] In 2011 she launched her own production company, PZNZ Media. She is set to star in the first film produced under the banner, Ishkq in Paris, a romantic comedy directed by Prem Soni. An Indo-French collaboration, the film will have Zinta portraying a half-Indian half-French Parisian woman and will co-star several Indian and French actors. Zinta's role required her to learn French and follow a strict diet and fitness regime, for which she hired the services of celebrity trainer Tracy Anderson.^[69][70] Ishkq in Paris is slated for release on 21 September 2012.^[71]

Other work[link]

Column writing[link]

In 2004, Zinta joined a group of South Asian commentators for BBC News Online. She expressed joy at participating in the project, saying, "I am pretty outspoken and have my own view on every subject. So it will be a good platform for me to air my views."^[72] Her first column, "The changing face of Bollywood", published in January 2004,^[73] discussed the evolution of Bollywood in the past decade. The column became one of the site's ten most read stories of the day. In her second column, "Odds stacked against Indian women", Zinta analysed the eve teasing phenomenon in India, and criticised those who practice it.^[74] She wrote, "Incidences like these take away a woman's dignity, her space and her freedom ... why the state is so helpless in protecting the women. Why should women feel unsafe in a country which had an internationally revered woman prime minister?" The column caught the attention of readers worldwide, and she received thousands of e-mails about it.^[75] It was applauded particularly by women for its stand against abuse of Indian women.^[75] Her third column, "The darkness that all actors fear", was a more personal column and dealt with her stardom, fans, insecurity and fears as an actor.^[76] Her fourth and final column, titled "Facing death in Sri Lanka and Thailand", described her two near-death experiences in late 2004.^[77]

Stage performances and television presenting[link]

Zinta performing at the Temptation 2004.

Zinta has taken part in several stage shows and world tours since 2001. Her first world tour, a series of concerts called Craze 2001, was performed across the U.S. alongside Anil Kapoor, Aamir Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Gracy Singh. The show faced early cancellation due to the 11 September 2001 attacks, and the team prepared to return to India as soon as possible. However, the shows continued successfully in Canada.^[78] In 2002, she participated in the show From India With Love in the UK, along with Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Shahrukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai. It took place at two outdoor venues, Manchester's Old Trafford and London's Hyde Park, with over 100,000 spectators.^[79] Zinta's largest world tour was in 2004, when she joined a group of stars (Shahrukh Khan, Rani Mukerji, Saif Ali Khan, Arjun Rampal and Priyanka Chopra) in the Temptation 2004 tour. Showcased in over 22 countries across the world, it became Bollywood's most prominent international concert.^[80][81] In 2006, Zinta was part of the Heat 2006 world tour, along with Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan, Sushmita Sen and Celina Jaitley.^[82] The Unforgettable Tour (2008) saw Zinta performing with the Bachchan family and Ritesh Deshmukh in a 40-day show staged in 11 cities across North America, Europe and the Caribbean.^[83]

In 2011, Zinta made her television debut as the host of the show Guinness World Records – Ab India Todega on Colors Channel.^[84] An Indian version of Guinness Book of World Records, the show premiered on 18 March to an audience measurement of 3.3 rating points, which made it occupy the 7th position on the chart of celebrity-driven reality shows on Hindi entertainment channels.^[85] In a four-star review for Hindustan Times, critic Rachana Dubey wrote, "Preity is a riot. She’s vivacious and knows exactly when she needs to be serious and when she can crack jokes."^[86] Later that year, Zinta started hosting the celebrity-based chat show Up Close & Personal with PZ, shot at her own penthouse in Mumbai and broadcast on the newly-launched channel UTV Stars. The first episode aired on 3 September.^[71]