Hamar (help·info) is a town and municipality in Hedmark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Hedmarken. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Hamar. The municipality of Hamar was separated from Vang as a town and municipality of its own in 1849. Vang was merged back into Hamar on 1 January 1992.

The town is located on the shores of lake Mjøsa, Norway's largest lake, and is the principal city of Hedmark county. It is bordered to the northwest by the municipality of Ringsaker, to the north by Åmot, to the east by Løten, and to the south by Stange.

The municipality (originally the town) is named after the old Hamar farm (Old Norse: Hamarr), since the medieval town was built on its ground. The name is identical with the word hamarr which means "rocky hill".

The coat-of-arms shows a Black Grouse sitting in the top of a pine tree on a white background. It was first described in the anonymous Hamarkrøniken (The Hamar Chronicle) written in 1553.

Between 500 and 1000 AD, Aker farm was one of the most important power centres in Norway, located just a few kilometres away from today's Hamar. Three coins found in Ringerike in 1895 have been dated to the time of Harald Hardråde and are inscribed Olafr a Hamri.

Ravi Kishan Shukla (born July 17, 1971), popularly known as Ravi Kishan, is an Indian film actor, voice actor and television personality, who works in Hindi cinema and Bhojpuri cinema. In 2006, he participated in Bigg Boss, the Indian version of Big Brother.

Ravi Kishan was born in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh.

In June 2008 he was awarded the Most Popular Actor award at ETV Bhojpuri Cinema Samman 2008 function.

Popular reality shows like Big Boss and more recently Ek Se badhkar Ek have brought him to the front line of top Indian television actors. In 2008, he started co-hosting the celebrity dance-based reality show Bathroom Singer, Ek se badhkar ek - Jalwe sitaron ke on Zee. Ravi Kishan also hosted a Reality show, Raaz Pichhle Janam Ka, on ndtv Imagine for two seasons. Ravi Kishan has worked with legendary directors like Shyam Benegal and Mani Rathnam in the year 2010. A film starring Ravi Kishan, Jala Debh Duniya Tohra Pyar Mein, produced by American film company PUN Films, was shown in the India Pavilion at the [Cannes Film Festival] 2010.

Krushna Abhishek is an Indian film actor and a stand up comedian. He is also a dancer in numerous dance reality shows, including, Nach Baliye (Season 3) (2007) and Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa (Season 4) (2010). As a stand up comedian, he made name after he participated in successive Comedy Circus seasons, Comedy Circus 2 (2008) and was a wild card entry in Comedy Circus 3 (2009) with Sudesh Lehri, apart from Comedy Circus Ka Jadoo (2010) and Jubilee Comedy Circus (2011).

Born in Mumbai, India, he is the nephew of the famous Hindi film actor, Govinda. His cousins are actresses Ragini Khanna and Soumya Seth.

He made his film debut with Yeh Kaisi Mohabbat Hai (2002), and went to act in films like Hum Tum Aur Mom in 2005, Jahan Jaaeyega Hamen Paaeyega (2007), and Aur Pappu Pass Ho Gaya in the same year. Later he shifted to Bhojpuri films. He played the lead in the TV series, Sautela (Doordarshan) in 2007.

He participated in various seasons of stand up comedy show, Comedy Circus, including, Comedy Circus 2 (2008), Comedy Circus 3 (2009), where he was a wild card entry in Comedy Circus 3 (2009) with Sudesh Lehri, Comedy Circus Ka Jadoo (2010) & was the winner of Jubilee Comedy Circus (2011) with Rajiv Nigam .

Nirmal Pandey (1962 – 18 February 2010) was an Indian Bollywood actor, who was known for his role Vikram Mallah in Shekhar Kapur's Bandit Queen (1994), for portrayal of a transvestite in Daayraa (1996) for which he won a Best Actor Valenti award in France, Train To Pakistan (1998) and Godmother (1999).

He was supposed to watch his latest film Lahore on 22 February 2010 at a special screening with Humorist R. K. Laxman and Music Maestro MM Kreem. Lahore, scheduled to be released in 19 March 2010, would prove to be Pandey's last film.

Born in Nainital, Uttarakhand, Nirmal Pandey was educated at Almora and Nainital. He graduated from the National School of Drama, Delhi.

After leaving the National School of Drama he moved to London, with a theatre group, Tara, performing plays like Heer Ranjha, Antigone, and has acted in around 125 plays. After doing two small roles, he first got noticed in Shekhar Kapur's Bandit Queen (1996), thereafter he received positive reviews for films like, Amol Palekar's Daayra (Square Circle) (1996), Train To Pakistan (1998), Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin and Hum Tum Pe Marte Hain. He also acted in movies like Laila, 'Pyaar Kiya Toh Darna Kya', 'One 2 ka 4' and 'Shikari' and acted in several television serials, including Hatim, and Princess Dollie Aur Uska Magic Bag (2005) (Star Plus).