Fahadh Faasil dreams of becoming an Uber driver in Barcelona post retirement: ‘After people are done with me'
Fahadh Faasil's dream Uber run
Fahadh was asked if he still dreams of driving an Uber in Barcelona, and he replied, 'Absolutely. We were in Barcelona a few months ago. So, yeah, of course. It'll only happen after people are done with me, you know? I mean, jokes apart, but just to drive someone from one place to another. At least, witnessing someone's destination, I think that's a beautiful thing. I still do that every time I get a chance. That's my time. Not just driving, you constantly engage yourself in things you love doing, be it a game or sport or watching TV. I think it helps in the way you look at things.'
He was referring to a statement he made in an interview with IE in 2020 when he said, 'As of now, there is nothing else that I would enjoy doing other than being an Uber driver. I would love to drive people around. I tell my wife (Nazriya Nazim) that as a retirement plan, I wish to move to Barcelona and drive people across Spain. She loves this plan.'
Recent work
Fahadh was last seen in the hit Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu films Aavesham, Bougainvillea, Vettaiyan and Pushpa 2: The Rule. Maareesan, directed by Sudheesh Shankar and co-starring Vadivelu, was released in theatres on July 25. He also has the Malayalam films Odum Kuthira Chadum Kuthira, Karate Chandran, and Patriot in Malayalam lined up, apart from Don't Trouble The Trouble in Telugu.
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Time of India
37 minutes ago
- Time of India
Urvashi, Vijayaraghavan bring laurels to Malayalam
1 2 Kochi: The National Film Awards for the year 2023, declared on Friday evening, brought cheers to the Malayalam film industry. Senior actors Urvashi and Vijayaraghavan won the awards for the best supporting actors for their performances in the movies 'Ullozhukku' and 'Pookkalam' respectively. Ullozhukku, directed by Christo Tomy, also won the award for the best Malayalam movie. Urvashi shared the best supporting award with Gujarati actor Janaki Bodiwala (Vash) and Vijayaraghavan shared the award with Tamil actor M S Bhaskar (Parking). It is the first time that Vijayaraghavan is winning a National Film Award while it has been the second national honour for Urvashi as the best supporting actor. Mohandas won the award for the best production designer for the movie '2018: Everyone is a Hero'. Midhun Murali won the award for best editor for 'Pookkalam'. M R Rajakrishnan won the special mention of the jury for the re-recording of the Hindi movie 'Animal'. Sudipto Sen, the director of the movie 'The Kerala Story', which triggered controversy in Kerala, won the award for the best director. Under the non-feature film category, the Malayalam documentary 'Nekel-Chronicle of the Paddy man', directed by M K Ramdas, won the special jury mention. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 5 Books Warren Buffett Wants You To Read in 2025 Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List Undo CM slams award for 'Kerala Story' Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan congratulated Malayali artists who won honours in the National Film Awards. The awards to Urvasi and Vijayaraghavan enriched Malayalam cinema, he said. However, he criticised the jury for choosing the controversial film 'The Kerala Story' for awards and said the awards were an insult to Kerala. Without mentioning the name of the movie, Vijayan said, "The jury has disrespected the esteemed tradition of Indian cinema, which stands for religious harmony and national upliftment, by choosing for awards a film built on lies, aimed at defaming Kerala and spreading communalism. This is part of the Sangh Parivar agenda to use cinema as a weapon to implement their divisive agenda. We strongly protest this action. Every Malayali and believer in democracy across the country should raise their voice against this injustice. We must unite against the politics that turn art into a tool for promoting communalism." Award for 'Kerala Story' unacceptable: Oppn leader Opposition leader V D Satheesan said the awards to the film The Kerala Story was unacceptable. He said the film's sole intention was to spread religious hatred. "BJP and Sangh Parivar, who are implementing divisive politics, are trying to gain political advantage by spreading false information about Kerala. This will not succeed," he said.
The Hindu
39 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Telangana's surrogacy scam: The business of selling babies
The Secunderabad railway station in Telangana is a noisy transit hub. Thousands of people enter and exit the concourse every day. Ad jingles in Hindi, Telugu, English, and Bengali, about the various medical procedures offered by hospitals across the city, blare over the din. Billboards outside the station feature smiling couples with babies. The city, along with Hyderabad, is a significant hub for medical tourism in India. In August 2024, after having done some research, Sonam Singh and her husband Akshay travelled to Secunderabad from Kuharwas village near Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan for an in vitro fertilisation (IVF) procedure. They rented a house near the railway station and began searching on the Internet for hospitals nearby. Near the railway station, they found the Universal Srushti Fertility Centre, which promised them an 85% success rate for an IVF procedure. The hopeful couple met the owner, Pachipala Namratha aka Athaluri Namratha, 64. 'The test results showed that we were medically fit to conceive,' says Sonam, speaking over the phone from Kuharwas. 'But the doctor insisted that we opt for surrogacy. She told us that it was safer and more reliable. She also assured us that the clinic would use our sperm and egg, and also handle all the paperwork and legalities.' While an IVF procedure can cost anywhere between ₹2 lakh and ₹6 lakh per cycle, Namratha told the couple that surrogacy would cost them ₹30 lakh. She asked Sonam and Akshay to transfer half the amount through their bank account and pay the remaining in cash, supposedly for the surrogate. Convinced, the couple made their first payment on August 16, 2024. According to the First Information Report filed by Akshay, Namratha also promised the couple that 'a healthy child [would be] delivered... after DNA confirmation.' Nearly a year later, on June 5, Sonam and Akshay were handed a baby at Lotus Hospital in Visakhapatnam. However, the couple grew suspicious when Namratha's clinic refused to perform the DNA test. They took the infant to the DNA Forensics Laboratory in Vasant Kunj, Delhi. To their shock, the results showed that the baby was not theirs. When they returned to Secunderabad to confront Namratha, she had disappeared. Sonam and Akshay approached the Gopalpuram police in Secunderabad, which investigated the matter and uncovered a baby-selling racket. The police booked Namratha under Sections 61, 316, 335, 336, and 340 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Act, 2023, which deal with criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust by carriers, forgery of documents, and related offences. They also booked her under Sections 38, 39, and 40 of the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021, which deal with prohibitions, punishments, and penalties related to surrogacy practices. Sourcing surrogates According to the Gopalapuram police, Universal Srushti Fertility Centre has cheated at least 15 couples. Promising these couples a baby through surrogacy, it has charged them between ₹20 lakh and ₹30 lakh each, and handed them babies not related to them. It has also furnished falsified documents, say the police. An investigation has revealed that the clinic paid commissions to smaller centres for referrals of potential surrogate mothers and women who wanted to undergo abortions, forged medical reports, and operated without proper licensing. According to the police, an agent called Dhanasri Santoshi struck a deal between a couple from Assam and the clinic. They say the Assamese couple's baby was given to the couple from Rajasthan. The police have arrested the couple from Assam on charges of selling their baby. 'Instead of getting ₹15 lakh, the couple from Assam got ₹90,000 for selling their baby,' says a police officer. The baby has been moved to foster care at Shishu Vihar, a childcare centre under the Women and Child Welfare Department. The police add that they have discovered a disturbing pattern in how surrogates are sourced. The sealed medical facility in Secunderabad is surrounded by lodges and bed-and-breakfast rooms. These lodging facilities were used to house women. A police officer says, 'The agents would approach vulnerable women, particularly those seeking abortions, and offer them money to continue their pregnancy so that they could take the baby later. These newborns would then be passed off as children conceived through surrogacy. This is how people were misled into believing that the babies were biologically theirs.' In at least four known cases in Telangana, women were not paid at all and completely abandoned post-delivery, the officer adds. On November 26, 2024, a woman engaged as a surrogate by a couple died after falling from the ninth floor of a building in Raidurgam in the western part of Hyderabad. According to the police, the victim and her husband, both natives of Odisha, were given accommodation by Rajesh Babu and his wife at their residence. When Rajesh allegedly tried to sexually assault the 26-year-old woman, she tried to escape through the balcony and slipped and died. She was purportedly brought to the city through middlemen for surrogacy for ₹10 lakh, say police reports. Donors in queue As the police widened their probe, they raided a facility operating under the name, Indian Sperm Tech, near Secunderabad East Metro Station, located about 400 metres away from the fertility clinic. They found 17 sperm donors and 11 egg donors waiting in queue at the facility. 'The women donors were brought from Delhi, and the men from Andhra Pradesh and other parts of Telangana. The sperm donors, mostly aged between 22 and 30, were paid ₹1,000-₹1,500 per sample. The men were in need of quick cash,' says a police officer who led the raid. L. Shiva was among the people arrested by the police in the midnight raid. Shiva, 35, from Vizianagaram, brought egg and sperm donors and connected them to the hospital. Another broker who was arrested hails from Indore in Madhya Pradesh. One of the egg donors caught in the raid was a 30-year-old resident from Baksa, Assam. Indian Sperm Tech, reportedly headquartered in Ahmedabad, had allegedly set up the sperm collection unit in Secunderabad without a valid license. 'It is a diagnostic centre,' says an officer from the District Medical and Health Officer's office. 'They collect sperm samples, freeze them, and send them to Ahmedabad. The processed samples (isolated and concentrated to select the healthiest sperm) are then returned with reports and sold to clinics across Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh. The place has been operating for two years without registration.' In trouble before It is a typically busy weekday afternoon on St. Johns Road in Secunderabad. But just a short turn away from this arterial road, the noise fades. A narrow bylane, about 20 feet wide, is almost hidden in plain sight. Two old gates, one swung wide open and the other barely ajar, lead into it. Two policemen sit here, silent witnesses to what the North Zone police uncovered. The building of Namratha's clinic has been sealed and the clinic shut down, following an investigation that exposed the baby-selling racket running under the guise of fertility treatments. 'The hospital operated only on the first two floors. The rest were empty,' says one constable. The two floors were filled with equipment required for childcare and fertility treatment. Rajesh Ravi lived here for 16 years before moving closer to the city centre. He is shocked by the revelations. 'You live somewhere for over a decade and you think you know your neighbourhood. I found nothing suspicious. The only time we were mildly inconvenienced was when too many patients came and there would be many cars on the street,' he says. Rajesh says there was a police case involving the same place about 10 years ago. 'No one talked about it much because back then, news on social media did not reach us as fast as it does now,' he says. 'We knew what was happening here,' says Manu, a lawyer who lives across the street of the four-storied Rushi Test Tube Bab Cent. While the name in English has missing letters, the name in Telugu etched beneath it reveals the complete name — Srusthi Test Tube Baby Centre. 'This place was sealed five times earlier. But eventually things got back to 'normal'. This time I think it is serious and she (Namratha) will not be allowed to carry on the business.' The Telangana Medical Council says Namratha was involved in a surrogacy scandal in 2016. A U.S.-based couple, who had used the clinic's services, had discovered that the child born to them through a surrogate was not biologically related to them. 'Following a police case and court hearings, we suspended the doctor's license for five years, with a lifetime ban on conducting surrogacy procedures,' says Dr. G Srinivas, Vice-Chairman of the Council. Yet, when the suspension period ended, the doctor returned, seeking to have her license reinstated. 'We refused. She was still involved in a court case, and our rules are clear on that,' Dr. Srinivas adds. A stringent law As surrogacy has become an increasingly popular option for couples grappling with infertility, Indian law has become more stringent to ensure that the practice remains ethical and free from commercial exploitation. What once operated in legal grey zones is now bound by clear rules, thanks to the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021. Under the Act, only altruistic surrogacy is permitted in India. This means a surrogate mother cannot be paid for carrying a child, except for her medical expenses and insurance coverage. Commercial surrogacy, any arrangement involving monetary compensation or profit, is banned and is a punishable offence. According to the Act, all surrogacy procedures must take place at clinics registered under the Act and authorised by the office officially designated as the State Appropriate Authority. . These clinics must comply with strict medical standards and ethical norms. Any attempt to bypass the law, whether through brokers, unregistered clinics, or financial inducements, is considered a criminal offence, punishable with imprisonment of up to 10 years and fines reaching ₹10 lakh. Fertility specialists say the Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Regulation Act, 2021, and the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021, have brought much-needed order to what was once a loosely regulated and, at times, opaque system. Dr. Preethi Dayal, who runs the Preethi Fertility Centre in Jangaon district, says prior to the enforcement of the ART law in January 2023, 'many centres operated without oversight. You could bring in any random donor, collect the sample, and proceed with checks or documentation. But we are now bound by very strict protocols. Every donor must be sourced only through a registered ART bank, which keeps Aadhaar-linked records of every sample, though the identity is never disclosed to either doctors or patients.' She adds that the new law mandates comprehensive screening of all donors, including genetic testing, and imposes tight eligibility criteria based on age and health. 'There is no room for ambiguity now. Everything has to be documented and traceable.' Dr. Preethi also points out that, legally and ethically, all third-party donor procedures must be conducted with confidentiality. 'Patients are never informed about the identity of the donor. The child born through surrogacy belongs legally and emotionally to the intended parents. That is the framework we follow,' Dr. Preethi says. To reduce the risk of human error, the doctor says many IVF clinics have now adopted the RI Witness system, a high-tech safety protocol that tracks every sample using barcode verification. 'Every patient is given a barcode-linked card. Before processing a sample, we scan the card in the system. If there is any mismatch, the entire hospital is alerted,' she says. While many corporate hospitals have already adopted this system, Dr. Preethi says smaller or less-regulated clinics may not yet have the infrastructure or the will to comply. 'Some centres are still conducting 10 to 15 IVF cycles a day. Without safeguards like the RI Witness system, the chances of mix-ups increase,' she says. Additional reporting by Naveen Kumar Names have been changed to protect privacy
Indian Express
2 hours ago
- Indian Express
National Film Awards: ‘12th Fail' is best film, Massey-Shah Rukh and Rani win best actor awards
Vidhu Vinod Chopra's 12th Fail, which captures a young man's journey to become an IPS officer, was adjudged the best feature film at the 71st National Film Awards for 2023 announced on Friday. The film's lead actor, Vikrant Massey, shared the best actor award with Shah Rukh Khan, who won for his double role of a father and a son in the action film Jawan. This is Shah Rukh's first National Award in his glittering multi-decade career. The award for the best actress in a leading role went to Rani Mukerji for her portrayal of a mother fighting for her children in Mrs. Chatterjee V/s Norway. This is the prolific veteran's first National Award as well. Mukerji, 47, said: ' For me, this award is also a validation of my 30-year body of work, my dedication to my craft with which I feel a deeply spiritual connection…' The jury, headed by filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker, praised Massey's performance as one with 'raw honesty and emotional depth'. Gowarikar also said Shah Rukh's first national award 'after such a long and prolific career' was 'historic'. Massey, 38, said it was a dream come true moment for him. 'It is a privilege to be sharing my first National Award with an icon like Shah Rukh Khan,' he said. While best direction went to The Kerala Story by Sudipto Sen, Karan Johar took home the award for 'best popular film providing wholesome entertainment' for Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani. Asked about the award for The Kerala Story, which had sparked controversy, Gowarikar said: 'It's a difficult topic, and to convey that with this kind of clarity is something that we as a jury felt was the need to applaud.' The film also won best choreography for Dhindhora Baje Re, choreographed by Vaibhavi Merchant. Meghna Gulzar's Sam Bahadur, a biographical war drama on the life and times of India's first Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, won 'best feature film promoting national, social, and environmental values'. Shilpa Rao won best female playback singer for Chaliya from Jawan and P V N S Rohit won best male playback singer for Premisthunna from the Telugu film Baby. Sachin Sudhakaran won best sound design for Animal. The Ranbir Kapoor-starring film shared the award for best music direction (Harshavardhan Rameshwar) with the Tamil film Vaathi (G V Prakash Kumar). While the Sanya Malhotra-starrer comedy Kathal: A Jackfruit Mystery won best feature in Hindi language, the award for best screenplay was shared between Baby (Telugu), Parking (Tamil) and Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai (Hindi). The Telugu film Hanu-Man, a pan-Indian hit, bagged the awards in the best film in AVGC (animation, visual effects, gaming & comic) and best action direction categories. The awards for the supporting roles, both actor and actress, were swept by non-Hindi cinema. While the former was shared by Vijayaraghavan for Pookkaalam (Malayalam) and M S Bhaskar for Parking (Tamil), the latter went to both Urvashi for Ullozhukku (Malayalam) and Janki Bodiwala for Vash (Gujarati). The winners were chosen from a total of 332 feature film entries, 115 non-feature film entries, 27 book entries, and 16 critics' entries.
