ITV

Tag: Farooque Shaikh

  • NBA and Skechers spotlight Indian hoop dreams in Hoop Nation Season 2

    NBA and Skechers spotlight Indian hoop dreams in Hoop Nation Season 2

    MUMBAI: When basketball meets bars, stories soar beyond the court. The NBA, in collaboration with Skechers, has launched the second season of its lyrical docuseries Hoop Nation, a four-part chronicle of resilience, rhythm and real-life hoop dreams from the far corners of India. Streaming now on NBA India’s Youtube channel, Hoop Nation Season 2 weaves slam dunks with sick beats, profiling underrepresented basketball voices from Kashmir to Kerala, Kolkata to Mumbai all with an assist from India’s rising hip-hop stars. This season is presented by Skechers, whose performance-driven basketball shoes make a prominent on-court cameo.

    The episodes spotlight:

    .  Ishrat Akhter, an international wheelchair basketball player from Baramulla, Kashmir

    .  Deepak P. Babu, a devoted fan and mentor from Alappuzha, Kerala

    .  The Lao family, a father-daughter duo championing basketball in Kolkata’s Indo-Chinese community

    .  Farooque Shaikh, a Nagpada-based coach shaping Mumbai’s next generation of ballers

    And who’s soundtracking their journeys? Straight Outta Srinagar, ThirumaLi, EPR Iyer and QK hip-hop artists whose original verses narrate these ballers’ lives with lyrical punchlines and sonic swagger.

    “Hoop Nation Season 2 embodies the spirit of basketball in India, a game that unites, inspires and drives change,” said NBA India Country HeadRajah Chaudhry. “Skechers shares our mission of taking the game deeper into India’s cultural and sporting fabric.”

    Skechers CEO of South Asia Rahul Vira added, “This isn’t just about footwear; it’s about fuelling the fire in every Indian baller. With Hoop Nation and the ACG Jr. NBA program, we’re enabling both inspiration and access.”

    The Skechers x NBA partnership also powered the ACG Jr. NBA India’s largest school basketball initiative. The 3v3 format tournament touched 4,000 plus players across 500 plus schools last year, with Skechers as official kit partner.

    From court-side storytelling to grassroots development, the initiative underscores a first-of-its-kind collaboration in the region, one that puts culture, community and comfort at the centre of the game.

    Whether you’re vibing to SOS’s Kashmiri verses or QK’s Mumbai flow, Hoop Nation 2 brings more than basketball, it brings belonging. And in the process, it reaffirms that sport, like music, hits different when it tells the stories that matter.

    Catch the docuseries now on the NBA India Youtube channel and follow for more behind-the-scenes action and product drops. Because whether it’s a crossover or a cross-rhyme, India’s hoop dreams are dribbling in style.
     

  • ‘Children of War’ releases in India and Bangladesh

    ‘Children of War’ releases in India and Bangladesh

    NEW DELHI: ‘Children of War’, a chilling tale of the freedom movement in (then) east Pakistan for creation of a free Bangladesh and its effect on the common people, will be released simultaneously in India and Bangladesh.

     

    However, the version released in Bangladesh is dubbed in Bengali, according to producer Soumya Joshi Devvrat.

     

    The only other time an Indian film had simultaneous release in these two countries was that of Goutam Ghose’ Bengali film ‘Moner Manush’ which was based on the life of Lalan Fakir and had a Bangladeshi co-producer.

     

    Asked why the film has one song in Bengali while the others are in Hindi, she said it was because the song tells a story of emotions of the people at the time.

     

    Loosely-inspired by the unfinished biography of Banga Bandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who led the Mukti Bahini, the film was released in India and Bangladesh in 450 screens.

     

    Inspired by the biography, Devrat and her husband Mrityunjay who has directed the film researched several documents and also met some Indian Army veterans. She says that as several documents on Bangladesh were not available in India, they had to be procured from the United Kingdom.

     

    The movie begins in March 1971 and covers a period of nine months showcasing the atrocities and the crude inhumane methods adopted by the military of West Pakistan. With the support of the Americans and the Chinese, the Pakistani soldiers go on a rampage killing and raping hundreds of thousands of people across the region.

     

    She reveals that the choice to follow three separate stories during the Bangladesh War was a deliberate decision to give a wider picture of what happened before the Indian Army stepped in, as taking a linear story would not have done justice to the story about the birth of a new country.

     

    Thus, the narrative follows the story of a boy, his sister and his father’s word, a liberal patriotic journalist who is forced to take to arms, a war child’s search for acceptance, and the atrocity of the Pakistani army which raped over 400,000 women and killed millions of people. As the film progresses towards its climax, the three stories begin to intertwine with one another.

     

    The film stars Riddhi Sen, Rucha Inamdar, Victor Banerjee, Farooque Shaikh, Indraneil Sengupta, Raima Sen, Tilotama Shome, Rupa Ganguly, and Pavan Malhotra in a powerful negative role.

     

    The film has music by Ishaan Chhabra with songs by Sidhant Mathur. Cinematography is by Fasahat Khan with editing by Apurva Asrani. 

  • Noted lyricist Shahryar passes away

    Noted lyricist Shahryar passes away

    MUMBAI: Lyricist Shahryar, known for having immortalised himself with songs like ‘Dil cheez kya hai aap meri jaan lijiye‘, ‘In aakhon ki masti ke mastaane hazaron hain‘ from Umrao Jaan, passed away on Monday after battling lung cancer. He leaves behind three children, two sons and a daughter.

    Shahryar had received India‘s highest literary award, the Jnanpith Award in 2008. The 75-year-old poet was known to have written heart touching lyrics for all of Muzaffar Ali‘s films like Umra Jaan, Gaman and Anjuman.

    Talking about the passing away of Shahryar, Farooque Shaikh, said, “This is a big loss to the world of Urdu literature. Shahryar Sahab wrote the lyrics for four of my films, Gaman, Umrao Jaan, Anjuman and Faasle and each of them was a masterpiece. I met him several times during the 1980s and more recently at his son‘s residence in Mira Road when he came over to Mumbai for cancer treatment.‘‘

    Born on 16 June 1936 in village Anwalla in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, Shahryar received his early education at Bulandshahr and then studied at Aligarh Muslim University. He was appointed as a lecturer in Urdu at Aligarh Muslim University in 1986 and served until 1996 when he retired as chairman of the Urdu Department of the University.

    In 1987 he received the Sahitya Akademy Award in Urdu for his poetry collection ‘Khwab Ka Dar Band Hai’.

  • PVR Pictures’ Shanghai release date deferred

    PVR Pictures’ Shanghai release date deferred

    MUMBAI: The release date of PVR Pictures’ Dibakar Banejee-directed Shanghai has been postponed. Earlier, the film was to release on 26 January 2012.

    The makers have postponed the release because Karan Johar has decided to release his Hrithik-Roshan-starrer Agneepath on the same day.

    The political thriller has been inspired by a mid-1960s book, ‘Z‘, written by Greek writer and diplomat Vassilis Vassilikos. The book was first translated on the big screen through an eponymous French film released in 1969.

    Shanghai stars Abhay Deol, Emraan Hashmi, Kalki Koechlin, Prosenjit,
    Farooque Shaikh and Supriya Pathak.

  • Sahara overhauls Samay Mumbai, adds 22 infotainment shows

    Sahara overhauls Samay Mumbai, adds 22 infotainment shows

    MUMBAI: Samay Mumbai, Sahara India Pariwar’s news channel, is adding infotainment content and will don a new look to give it a Mumbai-centric feel.

    In a major revamp, the channel will be launching 22 infotainment shows.

    The new shows, to be telecast outside the channel’s cyclic Hindi and Marathi news bulletins, will be presented by celebrities and focus on the daily lives of the people of Mumbai.

    The shows catering to all age segments will be interactive and participative in nature with a specific Mumbai-centric focus.

    The bouquet includes a series of talk shows giving voice to topics that are very centric but still untouched; career shows directed towards Mumbai youth; lifestyle shows presenting latest in Mumbai’s lifestyle, health and fitness shows; documentation shows to bring forward the culture and heritage of Mumbai.

    The channel has roped in Farooque Shaikh, Jayant Kriplani, Nauheed Cyrusi, Cyrus Sahukar, Sonali Kulkarni, Anurag Kashyap, Kitu Gidwani and Carol Gracias to host local interest programmes on the channel.

    “The channel will cover news and current affairs of Mumbai extensively and at the same time, will focus on the primary concerns of Mumbaikars, bringing into light the issues ranging from governance, infrastructure and development. It will involve the people of the city to communicate, participate and put their points of view across,” the company said.