Hungry for news

nIf you thought that the television news channel market in India is overcrowded, think again. A real estate and construction company in Delhi has roped in Arup Ghosh, the former NDTV anchor and Sahara news channel’s former chief, to launch a bouquet of national TV channels. Though Ghosh admits that he’s readying to launch a “news, entertainment and infotainment channel” and a couple of news channels for a large company in the capital, he refuses to divulge details. “Our uplinking licence application is being processed by the government and we want to be low key for a while,” he says. Meanwhile, Ghosh’s own consultancy company, Network 1, has also bagged a TV project in Sharjah that is being backed by a Pakistani national.

Villain turns poet

You may remember him as the patriotic inspector Saleem in the movie Sarfarosh. But that apart, actor Mukesh Rishi has always been the villain in Hindi films. The ‘bad man’ of Bollywood, who is 88 films old, has become quite a regular in Hindi potboilers. But what Rishi is really excited about now is his debut in Punjabi films. In Waaris Shah, based on the story of the legendary poet from Punjab, Rishi plays Waaris Shah’s guru Maqdoom Baba. “I play a revolutionary whose passion for music gets him into trouble with the king,” says Rishi. But perhaps what he is more thrilled about is the fact that a song is being picturised on him for the first time in his film career.