Baying for Bengal

Suspension spree: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is in no mood to turn a blind eye to irresponsible government officials. Many senior officials from the public works department have recently been suspended or transferred for negligence. And, in the past week, three officials were suspended for inconveniencing the chief minister. Two were suspended after the CM got locked in a lift at the state secretariat in Bhopal, while the third one faced his wrath after mosquitoes and an overflowing water tank kept him awake in the Sidhi circuit house. Interestingly, these three suspensions came much faster than those related to negligence in executing public works | Illustrations by Jairaj T.G.

Colourful family: The family of former prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao is now a converging point of different political hues. Rao lived and died as a Congressman. His grandson, N.V. Subhash, is currently an active member of the Telangana unit of the BJP. In a surprising move, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi has announced that Rao’s daughter, Vani Devi, will be the party’s candidate for the upcoming Telangana legislative council elections. Generation gap: it’s a thing!

God’s ambassador: The Uttar Pradesh Braj Teerth Vikas Parishad has found its brand ambassador in actor-turned-politician Hema Malini. The council is responsible for developing a pilgrimage circuit that is of high priority for the state government. Malini’s appointment is logical, given that she is a BJP MP from Mathura, which is at the centre of this circuit. But she has been more of an absentee MP. Not so long ago her constituents put up posters asking if anyone had seen their “missing MP”. While Malini took to social media to label the ambassadorship a “great honour”, her constituents are hoping that they will see a little more of their MP, if only in the name of God.

Water power: Kate Winslet says she almost died while shooting a seven-minute underwater sequence for Avatar 2. “God, it’s just wonderful,” she said. “Your mind completely drifts off. You can’t think about anything, you can’t make lists in your head, you’re just looking at the bubbles underneath you.... My first words [when I resurfaced] were, ‘Am I dead?’” Avatar 2, directed by James Cameron and co-starring Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington and Vin Diesel, is scheduled for a 2022 release | Getty Images

A don’s tale: Actor Dhanush will be seen next in a Netflix film called Jagame Thandhiram. The film, directed by Karthik Subbaraj, revolves around the life of a nomadic gangster. The action thriller spanning Madurai and London also stars Aishwarya Lekshmi and Game of Thrones actor James Cosmo. The film is one of the first big Tamil blockbusters to premiere on a major OTT platform. The date of release has not yet been announced | Getty Images

Footloose and free: A video of nine-year-old Aaradhya Bachchan dancing with parents Aishwarya and Abhishek at the pre-wedding ceremony of Shloka Shetty, Aishwarya’s cousin, has gone viral. Jiving to ‘Desi Girl’ from Dostana, Aaradhya was met with loud cheering from the audience, and afterwards, a warm embrace from her mother. Pictures from the function are inundating the web | AFP

Something about Osho: Spiritual guru Osho has never been more in demand. After the 2018 documentary on him, Wild Wild Country, became a hit, there were rumours that filmmaker Shakun Batra would make a film starring Aamir Khan as Osho. Now, it has been announced that Ritesh S. Kumar will helm a project on the cult figure, with actor-MP Ravi Kishan playing the lead. According to Kishan, one of the reasons he was chosen was because his “eyes are very similar to his (Osho’s)” | AFP