FWICE's SHRADHANJALI TO LATE SHRI DHARMESH TIWARI

The Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) had organized a Shradhanjali for its federation's departed President, Late Shri Dharmesh Tiwari in presence of his family. Seen in attendance at the ceremony were Ashwini Chaudhary, Abbas-Mustan-Hussain, Ashoke Pandit, Zarina Wahab, Gajendra Chauhan, Rita Bhaduri, TP Aggarwal, Shagufta Ali, Sudhir Pandey, Mahendra Verma, Anjan Shrivastav, Kamlesh Pandey, Ashish Rego, Dilip Pithwa among others. The ceremony which was held in Filmistan Studios, Goregaon, was a peaceful one with people walking in, offering their prayers, sharing their memories of Dhamesh ji and a two minutes silence was also observed. Well known singer-composer Sanjeev Kohli also sang bhajans. In the end, Dharmesh ji's wife and daughter thanked everyone who extended their support by making their presence felt at this time of need.

Aamir Khan launches ‘My Marathi’

Noted actor, who is also the chief donor of My Marathi project released the book for Communicative Marathi for Beginners’ Level 1 at the University of Mumbai

Bollywood superstar, Aamir Khan on Wednesday launched the book, My Marathi, a Communicative Marathi for Beginners’, Level 1, at the University of Mumbai. The book is an initiative of the Department of German, University of Mumbai and Granthali, a respected name in the Marathi publishing business since 1974.

Expressed his joy at the endeavour undertaken by the University of Mumbai and Granthali, Aamir, who is also the chief donor of the My Marathi project, said, “I want to congratulate all the people who worked together to bring out this book. I am very happy that this book has been released. It will prove extremely helpful to many people like me who do not know the language.”

My Marathi uses the latest integrated communicative techniques for teaching Marathi to non-native speakers. Aamir is also the chief donor of the My Marathi project. Five more books of upto Level 6 will be released in the future.

Aamir also added, “I am surprised that the Maharashtra government never thought of doing something like this to popularise the Marathi language. I am also surprised that the University of Mumbai’s Department of German spearheaded this project and not the Department of Marathi.”

He also expressed hope and said, “I am sure the ministry of culture can take huge steps to carry out more such projects in Maharashtra.”

The book was released in august presence of Dr. Rajan Welukar, Vice Chancellor, University of Mumbai and the guest of honour was Mr. Michael Siebert, Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany. One set of My Marathi consists of a textbook, a workbook and a free audio-visual DVD for Beginners’ level Marathi for non-native speakers (Anyabhashak) and Rs. 1,250 is the printed price made available for in just Rs. 1,000/-.

My Marathi has been authored by renowned writers, Suhas Limaye, and Jaywant Chunekar and is published by Granthali. “Granthali is very proud to publish this book and it will help Anyabhashak. The book will serve as a guide and prove to be a good counselor for the Anyabhashak who are interested to learn communicative Marathi,” said Mr Sudesh Hinglaspurkar, Trustee, Granthali.

According to Dr Vibha Surana, Head, Department of German, University of Mumbai, though there is a lot of political rhetoric about the use of Marathi in Maharashtra, if a non-native speaker wants to learn Marathi language, there are no structured courses to take the learner from the beginners to the most advanced stage of language proficiency.

“This social lacunae is the genesis of the two year old innovative Marathi Language Teaching Project at the Department of German, University of Mumbai. It undertakes to modernize the teaching of Marathi to non-native speakers using the integrated communicative approach used for German language teaching, prepare Teachers’ Training modules to use this new method, offer Teachers’ Training for Communicative Marathi, network to proliferate such courses in Maharashtra and globally,” she added.

Today, if one wish to learn any foreign languages – German, French, Spanish or Japanese – there are standardized, structured courses with uniform content for each level, which take the learner systematically right from the beginners to the most advanced stage of proficiency in that language. “For mastering a language generally about 700-800 hours of classroom teaching in about 6 levels are required. However, if one wishes to learn an Indian language such standardized courses and content are not available,” Dr. Surana pointed out.

With My Marathi books quality content for teaching material (textbook, workbook and DVD) has been prepared. A part-time Certificate Course in Communicative Marathi is starting at the Department of German.  Teachers’ Training shall also commence soon.

“Teaching of Indian languages needs to be revolutionized,” said Dr. Surana adding that if substantive funding is available similar projects would be undertaken for Hindi and other Indian languages in the future.

The book, My Marathi, is an initiative of the Department of German, University of Mumbai and Granthali and will be available at all the major bookstalls as well as on the online platform – Flipkart.com and Amazon.com. “We are glad that Aamir Khan took the initiative to finance this prestigious project and became the chief donor. At Granthali, we continue our dedicated service for the cause of promoting reading habits by keeping alive the literary movement to educate and empower the readers,” asserted Mr Hinglaspurkar.

Established in 1974 by a group of people from different professions, Granthali's success has largely because of its ability to change with the times, according to him. “Granthali is a unique publishing venture and has earned a place for itself as a Reader’s Movement in Maharashtra. Supporting this innovative Marathi language Teaching Project in promoting our four decade old literary movement financially will help us” Mr Hinglaspurkar appealed.

Richa Chadha Turns Singer

​From the time she stepped in the industry, Richa Chadda has left no stone unturned to showcase her acting prowess. What with the versatile characters that she played in films like Oye Lucky Lucky Oye, Gangs Of Wasseypur or Fukrey. We now learn that the actress is showing quite an interest in the field of entertainment. Richa recently spoke about her love singing and how she looks at giving it a serious try in Bollywood movies. Not many know that Richa took her singing aspirations seriously, so much so that she went ahead and even took up a formal training for four months. Considering that Bollywood is a land of opportunities, how could Richa be left behind in pursuing​ her dreams and aspirations as a singer? Quite recently, she teamed up with good friend and musician Sneha Khanwalkar as she recorded her first solo number, which will even be used on Khanwalkar's show that airs on a popular music channel. So don'​t be surprised if news arrives that Richa cuts her own album​ someday​.

Raja Natwarlal Song Launch 'Flip Your Collar Back'

Emraan Hashmi performing on his new song 'Flip Your Collar Back' and also Humaima Malick and Director Kunal Deshmukh at the launch yesterday night at JW Marriott, Juhu.

Sony Entertainment Television’ s Mai Na Bhoolungi comes to a dramatic end!

Engaging the viewers to their high voltage storyline, the popular television series Mai Na Bhoolungi which airs on Sony Entertainment Television comes to an end.

The show which was based on a  psychological thriller format has entertained the viewers with  its crisp story line and engaging content throughout. Keeping in line with the flow of the concept we will see a dramatic end to the show. The last episode of the show will see the biggest twist in the tale in the storyline which will have the viewers glued to their television screen, followed with an action packed fight sequence between Aditya and Neeraj leading to the death of one of them.

Catch the final episode of this interesting episode of Mai Na Bhoolungi tomorrow at 8pm

only on Sony Entertainment Television.