Jaipur girl Koyal Rana crowned 51st Femina Miss India

Jaipur girl Koyal Rana was Saturday crowned Femina Miss India 2014 at the 51st edition of the beauty pageant here. The first and second runners-up were Jhataleka Malhotra from Mumbai and Gail Nicole Da Silva from Goa respectively. The trio was selected from the top five finalists of the fbb Femina Miss India 2014 that also included Lopamudra Raut and Nikhila Nandgopal. Miss India 2013 winners Navneet Kaur Dhillon, Sobhita Dhulipala and Zoya Afroz were on stage at the Yashraj Studio to handover the titled to the winners. Tinsel town stars Shahid Kapoor and Shradhha Kapoor added glamour to the ceremony, which was judged by actors Abhay Deol, Jacqueline Fernandez, Vidyut Jamwal, Aditi Rao Hydari, Malaika Arora Khan along with ace fashion designer Manish Malhotra, singing sensation Yo Yo Honey Singh, Miss World 2013 Megan Young and World Champion Boxer Vijender Singh. Mika Singh set the stage afire when he belted out his popular number "Agal Bagal" from "Phata Poster Nikla Hero" and his brand new song "Party toh banti hai" from Amitabh Bachchan's ready to release "Bhoothnath Returns". Honey Singh also took to stage and wowed the guests at the finale, which hosted by actor Riteish Deshmukh, who kept the audience in splits with his wit and humour.

The highpoint of the evening was Bollywood actress Sonakshi Sinha's tribute to former beauty queen Zeenat Aman, who was later felicitated with a trophy at the finale by the "Dabangg" actress.

Girl killed by father, brother for marrying ex-brother-in-law

LAHORE: A married girl was shot dead by her father and brother in the name of ‘honour’ in the Islampura area on Saturday.

The police said accused Muhammad Ashraf and his son Akhtar had nursed a grudge against Humaira, daughter of Muhammad Ashraf, after she married her ex-brother-in-law, Amjad. Humaira was sitting in her lawyer’s car and waiting for recording her statement under Section 164 CrPC when Ashraf and Akhtar allegedly shot her dead.

Pak girl gangraped to avenge brother’s elopement

The girl submitted an application to the police and an FIR of kidnap and rape has been registered

A Pakistani girl was allegedly kidnapped, forcibly married twice before being gangraped and stripped naked to avenge her brother’s elopement with a woman from the same village in Punjab province.
Sanaullah, 22, had allegedly eloped with the daughter of a man, who belongs to the Mallah caste, of the same village in Chiniot district after the families refused to marry them.
The girl’s family called a Panchayat which ruled that Sanaullah’s sister would have to marry Zahid Ali, brother of the girl who had eloped, the Dawn daily reported today.
After the decision of Panchayat, accomplices of Zahid kidnapped Sanaullah’s sister from her house, held ‘nikah’ with her and divorced her after five days, the report said.
Later, the victim was forcibly married to Zahid’s cousin Noor Ahmad.
Some days later, four members of Zahid’s family gangraped her and subjected her to torture.
“They stripped her naked, tied her with a tree in the village and called her parents to get their daughter back in return for their girl. The family got her back a month after her alleged kidnapping,” it said.
The girl approached the Magistrate at Lalian tehsil who ordered her medical examination and registration of case.
Chiniot District Police Officer Munir Zia said a Panchayat had forced the victim to marry Zahid to avenge the act of her brother in February but neither she nor her family approached the police for registering a case.
The girl submitted an application to the police yesterday and an FIR of kidnap and rape has been registered.

Did Alia Struggle With Her Tamil Girl Avatar?

Alia Bhatt, who sported a de-glam look in her second film Highway, may not be "constantly fashionable" but she says there is nothing wrong in being fashion conscious.

The actress made her debut as an upmarket glamorous girl in Student of the Year. "I am closer to my second character. But I don't think it's shallow to care about clothes and make-up. Every girl likes to dress up. I didn't really begin to care about my looks until I started acting. Now I enjoy dressing up. But I am not constantly fashionable. There are days when I am in pyjamas at home," she said in an interview.

Excerpts from the interview:
Q. Which is closer to the real Alia, the shallow clothes horse in Student Of The Year or the sensitive pained girl in Highway?
A. I am closer to my second character. But I don't think it's shallow to care about clothes and make-up. Every girl likes to dress up. I didn't really begin to care about my looks until I started acting. Now I enjoy dressing up. But I am not constantly fashionable. There are days when I am in pyjamas at home.

Q. Not looking good is not an option for you?
A. You think so? (laughs) In that case I'll have to be more careful about my appearance.

Q. How do you rate yourself in 2 States?
A. I haven't seen the film. But I love my character in 2 States. She is very different from the girls that I've played in my first two films. She is strong and mature. Which I am at times. At other times, I am not. But the emotions in 2 States were all new to me. I may be speaking too soon. But the director Abhishek Varman is absolutely fantastic.

Q. Will you live up to the audience's expectations in 2 States?
A. Expectations will always be there. But I can't be thinking about that all the time. Only when the film is out, then all the anxieties will sink in. But I still feel I am too new to raise too many expectations. I am okay with failing.

Q. That's Mahesh Bhatt's daughter speaking?
A. My father was the most excited after seeing Highway. He told me he couldn't sleep after seeing my performance. To me that's very personal triumph. My father's approval means a lot to me. Actually, my entire family's approval means a lot to me. But my father's approval means a little more since he is a fantastic filmmaker and can separate Alia the daughter from Alia the actress.

Q. Maybe you bring out the fantastic side of all your directors?
A. Nooooo, that's giving me too much credit. The novel 2 States was so good. We could easily go wrong in the screen adaptation. I hope people don't feel so. Because we’ve worked genuinely hard to keep the spirit of the novel intact in the film.

Q. Which was harder in 2 States - playing a South Indian or playing a wife?
A. Speaking Tamil was really hard for me. Fortunately, I didn’t have to play the Tamil girl in a loud caricatural way. She is a city girl. She can be from any part of the world. The Tamil side of her comes out when she’s speaking to her parents. I didn't have to learn too much Tamil. (IANS)

Afghan President Hamid Karzai's baby girl born in Gurgaon hospital

 

President Hamid Karzai made a brief visit to Gurgaon to meet his wife and newborn daughter at the Fortis Memorial Research Institute.

GURGAON: Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai made a brief visit to Gurgaon on Wednesday to meet his wife and newborn daughter at the Fortis Memorial Research Institute.

The child was born on Tuesday morning. "The baby girl was born around 9.30 am on Tuesday. Both the mother and her baby daughter are doing quite well," Afghanistan's ambassador to India, Shaida Mohammad Abdali, said in an emailed response to TOI.

Abdali said the president paid a very short visit to the hospital during his brief transit stay in New Delhi before going to Colombo on Wednesday. "Both the president and the first lady enjoyed a few moments together with their newly born baby-daughter," the ambassador added in his email.

There was no official statement from the hospital. Sources said Karzai's wife was admitted to the hospital earlier this week. She was accompanied by her family members and relatives. The sources said Karzai stayed with the family for around 20 minutes. The first lady is likely to be discharged by Friday evening, the sources added.

On choosing Gurgaon as the place for the delivery of their third child, Abdali said, "The president's two other beautiful children were born in Afghanistan. In this case, however, due to some predictable medical complication, the specialized doctor in Afghanistan advised that the baby be delivered in India given the availability of specialized medical facilities and personnel."

Abdali thanked New Delhi for its support. "We're thankful to the hospital's excellent medical staff for their superb services, as well as to the hospital's management team. And we're grateful to the Indian government for their continued support with everything, including facilitating the hospitalization process."