Yangon (Burmese: ရန်ကုန်; MLCTS: rankun mrui, pronounced: [jàɴɡòʊɴ mjo̰]; also known as Rangoon, literally: "End of Strife") is a former capital of Burma (Myanmar) and the capital of Yangon Region. Although the military government has officially relocated the capital to Naypyidaw since March 2006, Yangon, with a population of over four million, continues to be the country's largest city and the most important commercial centre.

Yangon's infrastructure is undeveloped compared to those of other major cities in Southeast Asia. Yangon has the largest number of colonial buildings in Southeast Asia today. While many high-rise residential and commercial buildings have been constructed or renovated throughout downtown and Greater Yangon in the past two decades, most satellite towns that ring the city continue to be deeply impoverished.

Yangon (ရန်ကုန်) is a combination of the two words yan (ရန်) and koun (ကုန်), which mean "enemies" and "run out of" respectively. It is also translated as "End of Strife". "Rangoon" most likely comes from the British imitation of the pronunciation of "Yangon" in the Rakhine dialect (Arakanese) of Burmese, which is [rɔ̀ɴɡʊ́ɴ].

Shamshad Begum (born April 14, 1919) is an Indian singer who was one of the first playback singers in the Hindi film industry.

Begum was born in Amritsar, Punjab. She was a big fan of K.L. Saigal and watched Devdas 14 times. She earned 15 rupees per song and was awarded 5,000 on the completion of the contract on Xenophone, a renowned music recording company.

Sometime back, a controversy erupted in the media, when several publications gave the false news of her death, before it was clarified that the Shamshad Begum who died in 1998 was Saira Banu's (Dilip Kumar's wife) grandmother with the same name. The singer has been living with her daughter Usha Ratra and son-in-law in Mumbai, ever since her husband Ganpat Lal Batto died in 1955. Recently, she celebrated her 89th birthday at her elder sister's house and now she stays at - Hiranandani Gardens, Powai, Mumbai She was conferred the Padma Bhushan in 2009.

Begum made her debut on radio on Peshawar Radio in Lahore on December 16, 1947, captivating the hearts of her listeners with the enchanting depth of her voice. Shamshad was very much conscious of her not so beautiful face and she never posed for any pictures and not many people saw her pictures anywhere. Until the end of the 1970s, nobody knew her face at all, though everybody could recognise her melodious voice as it was used by the great maestros like Naushad Ali and O. P. Nayyar. Even today, her songs from the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s are popular and continue to be remixed by music directors.

Viluppuram Chinnaiahpillai Ganesan Manrayar, commonly known by his stage name Sivaji Ganesan (1 October 1927 – 21 July 2001), was an Indian stage and film actor active during the latter half of the 20th century and was one of the most respected film actors in India. He was well known for his versatility and acting skills with numerous roles depicted on screen. He progressed from a stage actor since his childhood to the filmdom with such an authority that the Tamil cinema considered as the golden era. In a career spanning close to five decades he has acted in nearly 300 films in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi.

Ganesan was the first Indian film actor to win a "Best Actor" award in an International film festival, the Afro-Asian Film Festival held in Cairo, Egypt in 1960. Many leading South Indian film actors have stated that their acting was influenced by Ganesan. He was also the first Indian actor to be made a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Ganesan is remembered as the iconic figure of Tamil cinema. He is referred to as "The Marlon Brando of Indian Cinema". From Parasakthi onwards, he has won the President's Award for more than 12 times. During end of his career, Ganesan was conferred the highest and the most prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award for his contribution to Indian cinema in 1997. In spite of his celebrated film career, his short stint in politics became a futile attempt.

Hans Florian Zimmer, German pronunciation: [hans ˈfloːʁi̯aːn ˈtsɪmɐ]; (born 12 September 1957) is a German film composer and music producer. He has composed music for over 100 films, including award winning film scores for The Lion King (1994), Crimson Tide (1995), Gladiator (2000), The Last Samurai (2003),The Dark Knight (2008), and Inception (2010).

Zimmer spent the early part of his career in the United Kingdom before moving to the United States. He is the head of the film music division at DreamWorks studios, and works with other composers through the company which he founded, Remote Control Productions.

Zimmer's works are notable for integrating electronic music sounds with traditional orchestral arrangements. He has received four Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, a Classical BRIT Award, and an Academy Award. He was also named on the list of Top 100 Living Geniuses, published by The Daily Telegraph.

Zimmer was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. As a young child, he lived in Königstein-Falkenstein, where he played the piano at home, but had piano lessons only briefly as he disliked the discipline of formal lessons. He moved to London as a teenager, where he attended Hurtwood House school. In an interview with the German television station ZDF in 2006, he commented: "My father died when I was just a child, and I escaped somehow into the music and music has been my best friend."