Prakash Raj alleges political involvement in MAA elections

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Prakash Raj alleges political involvement in MAA elections

Actor Prakash Raj, who was defeated by Vishnu Manchu in the recent elections of the Movie Artists Association (MAA), has alleged foul play by the Manchu family in the elections.

He also suggests that there was political involvement in the way the elections were held.

In his recent tweets, Prakash Raj had alleged that a representative of Andhra Pradesh’s ruling party – the YSRCP was present at the MAA elections, who had helped Vishnu’s panel to mislead everyone during the elections.

Prakash Raj went further and questioned the Election Officer Krishna Mohan, on why he has been silent on the happenings. “#MaaElections2021 .. dear Election officer Krishna mohan garu .. this is just the beginning.. give us the CC footage.. we will let the world know what happened.. how the elections were conducted #justasking”, Prakash Raj’s recent tweet reads.

“We already appealed for the CCTV footage from the voting booth. You fail to give us an explanation, sir. Here are proofs that YSRCP representative, Samba Siva Rao was there at the booth on the day of MAA elections. We need answers”, Prakash Raj said.

Prakash Raj also shared the details regarding the criminal charges filed on Samba Siva Rao earlier. Prakash Raj questions Manchu Mohan Babu and Manchu Vishnu, who were spotted with him at the polling booth on the day of elections.

Ever since the topic of MAA elections began, Prakash Raj and his panel members had issues with the members of Vishnu’s panel. As Prakash Raj felt that the elections were compromised, he had questioned the poll officials earlier.

Twitter study on 7 countries confirms right-leaning skew except in Germany

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Twitter study on 7 countries confirms right-leaning skew except in Germany

In a continuing study on the effects of machine learning (ML) on public conversation, Twitter has confirmed that its algorithms amplify right-leaning political content.

“In six out of seven countries – all but Germany – tweets posted by accounts from the political right receive more algorithmic amplification than the political left when studied as a group,” Twitter blogged.

“Right-leaning news outlets, as defined by the independent organisations, see greater algorithmic amplification on Twitter compared to left-leaning news outlets.”

Since 2016, Twitter users are able to choose between viewing algorithmically ordered tweets first in their home timeline or viewing the most recent tweets in reverse chronological order.

“An algorithmic home timeline displays a stream of tweets from accounts we have chosen to follow on Twitter, as well as recommendations of other content Twitter thinks we might be interested in based on accounts we interact with frequently, tweets we engage with, and more.

“As a result, what we see on our timeline is a function of how we interact with Twitter’s algorithmic system, as well as how the system is designed.”

The new research is based on tweets of elected officials of House of Commons members in Canada, the French National Assembly, the German Bundestag, House of Representatives in Japan, Congress of Deputies of Spain, House of Commons in the UK, and official and personal accounts of House of Representatives and Senate members in the US, as well as news outlets, from April 1 to August 15, 2020.

The study was conducted by Ferenc Huszar (Twitter, University of Cambridge), Sofia Ira Ktena (now at DeepMind Technologies), Conor O’Brien (Twitter), Luca Belli (Twitter), Andrew Schlaikjer (Twitter), and Moritz Hardt (UC Berkeley).

The questions probed were:

How much algorithmic amplification does political content from elected officials receive in Twitter’s algorithmically ranked Home timeline versus in the reverse chronological timeline? Does this amplification vary across political parties or within a political party?

Are some types of political groups algorithmically amplified more than others? Are these trends consistent across countries?

Are some news outlets amplified more by algorithms than others? Does news media algorithmic amplification favour one side of the political spectrum more than the other?

Tweets about political content from elected officials, regardless of party or whether the party is in power, do see algorithmic amplification when compared to political content on the reverse chronological timeline.

T20 World Cup: Namibia restrict Ireland to 125/8

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T20 World Cup: Namibia restrict Ireland to 125/8

A clinical bowling performance helped Namibia restrict Ireland to 125/8 in the 11th match of ICC Mens T20 World Cup 2021 at Sharjah Cricket Stadium, here on Friday.

After winning the toss and opting to bat first, openers Paul Stirling and Kevin’O’Brien gave Ireland a flying start. The duo played attacking cricket and took Ireland to 55-0, their highest powerplay score of the tournament so far.

Bernard Scholtz finally provided Namibia the much-needed breakthrough by dismissing dangerous Paul Stirling (38 off 23 balls), who lofted a catch to Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton in the deep in the 8th over. Jan Frylinck then got rid ‘f O’Brien, who was into a risky shot, with Michael van Lingen taking the catch.

The loss of openers in quick succession slowed the run rate as Ireland reached 71 after ten overs, with eight wickets in hand.

If the first ten overs belonged to Ireland, Namibia dominated the later part of the innings. The Namibian bowlers bowled with complete control and didn’t give any freebies to Irish batters. It was Frylinck and Wiese who did the damage with the ball, taking five wickets between them as Namibia restricted’Ireland’s innings to 125/8 in 20 overs.

Brief scores:

Ireland 125/8 in 20 overs (Paul Stirling’38, Kevin O’Brien 25; Jan Frylinck 3/21, David Wiese 2/22) against Namibia.

Symptoms and treatment of water bubble problem!

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Father-son duo Akhil-Nagarjuna set to storm the screen

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Father-son duo Akhil-Nagarjuna set to storm the screen

Akhil Akkineni is currently enjoying his success, as his recently released romantic comedy ‘Most Eligible Bachelor’ has become quite a big hit. The young and promising actor is all set to share the screen alongside his father Akkineni Nagarjuna in their upcoming thriller.

‘Garuda Vega’ director Praveen Sattaru is helming Nagarjuna’s upcoming movie ‘The Ghost’. There are reports that the makers of ‘The Ghost’ are keen to rope in ‘Hello’ actor Akhil for an important role, to share the screen with his father. An official confirmation regarding the same would be out anytime soon.

Bollywood actress Gul Panag is on board to play the female lead alongside Nagarjuna in ‘The Ghost’, while Anikha Surendran might be chosen to play the love interest for Akhil, who is to join the team soon. ‘The Ghost’ is a joint production venture of Narayan Das Narang and Puskur Ram Mohan Rao.

On the other hand, Nagarjuna’s movie under Chaitanya Krishna’s direction, which is titled ‘Bangarraju’ is to feature his other son Naga Chaitanya alongside Nagarjuna. So, both ‘Bangarraju’, and ‘The Ghost’ have created much hype, as both movies feature Nagarjuna with his sons.

‘Babloo Bachelor’: Amusing, but only with bits of hilarity:Review

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‘Babloo Bachelor’: Amusing, but only with bits of hilarity:Review

Film: Babloo Bachelor (running in theatres)

Duration: 135 minutes

Director: Agnidev Chatterjee

Cast: Sharman Joshi, Pooja Chopra, Tejashri Pradhan, Aakash Dabhade, Rajesh Sharma, Neeraj Khetripal, Sumeet Gulati, Asrani, Beena Bhat and Raju Kher.

‘Babloo Bachelor’ is a simple romantic drama with a hackneyed premise. Nevertheless, it is executed with earnestness. Set in Lucknow, ‘Babloo Bachelor’ is the story of Ranvijay aka Babloo, a zamindar’s son who basks in his father’s glory. A simpleton and a writer of sorts, Babloo in his endeavour to find “the perfect bride” has rejected many proposals.

Very soon, the best matchmaker of Lucknow, Premanand Tiwari (Asrani), is roped in to find a perfect match for Babloo, who by now is tainted as the eternal bachelor.

At 35 and under duress, Babloo is introduced to Avantika (Pooja Chopra), an ambitious young woman who confesses to him that she had five boyfriends in the past. Babloo agrees to marry her, despite her confession, after being convinced by his best friend Chotu (Aakash Dabhade) that having affairs is a norm in modern times.

It does not take long for Babloo to fall head-over-heels with Avantika. But a few days before the wedding, Avantika confesses to him that she is not interested in settling down with an unambitious man and requests him to call off the wedding.

Once again, the heartbroken Babloo finds himself asserting that he is jinxed to remain a bachelor all his life. A few months later, at his cousin’s wedding, he chances upon Swati (Tejashri Pradhan), an aspiring actress who takes advantage of Babloo’s naivety and forces him to marry her. How she does not allow him to consummate the marriage forms the crux of the tale.

Director Agnidev Chatterjee’s oeuvre seems to be mounted on an outdated and perfunctory script packed with high-handed dialogues mouthed by Babloo’s dad (Rajesh Sharma) and frivolous ones by Chotu and Babloo’s uncle (Manoj Joshi).

Treated in a lighter vein, the plot, though focused, lacks the seriousness to connect emotionally. The comic scenes appear to be amateurishly handled and the resultant humour appears trite and forced.

On the performance front, the actors delivers their part with sincerity. Sharman Joshi, as the middle-aged, dejected Babloo, fits the bill perfectly. He brings a comedic heart to the character, who seems to prefer staying in his comfort zone.

He displays a subdued nervousness, which is in contrast to selfish and mean streaks of the characters played by Pooja Chopra and Tejashri Pradhan’s selfish and mean streak. Pooja and Tejashri deliver their parts competently, but their scenes with Sharman lack chemistry on-screen.

Aakash Dabhade and Sumeet Gulati (who plays his cousin) are over-the-top, loud and stereotyped in their roles, but they are relatable. Given Asrani’s talent, in a minuscule part, he is short-changed by the script.

The songs, despite being loud, are melodious and well-picturised, considering the film’s moderate production values. The numbers ‘Kasam’, ‘Aye Meri Zindagi’, ‘Jiya Nahin Lagta’, ‘Banna Banni’, ‘Jealous’ and ‘Tum Ho’ mesh seamlessly into the narrative, bringing relief to the staid storytelling.

Overall, ‘Babloo Bachelor’ is a mildly funny but sweet film that will make you smile.

Bengali thriller ‘F.I.R. No. 339/07/06’ set to release on OTT

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Bengali thriller ‘F.I.R. No. 339/07/06’ set to release on OTT

Bengali film ‘F.I.R. No. 339/07/06’ starring Bonny Sengupta, Ankush Hazra, Falaque Rashid Roy and Ritabhari Chakraborty is digitally releasing on Friday after a theatrical stint.

After a theatrical release on October 10, the Joydeep Mukherjee directorial ‘F.I.R. No. 339/07/06’ is now available on ZEE5.

Mukherjee said: “The film reflects a society where a situation may not always be black and white.”

It is a story about Raghunathpur, a small village in Birbhum, which is run by two powerful men from two rival political families. Things come to a sudden stupendous halt when key members of Mishra and Samaddar’s gangs are found dead one after the other, under mysterious circumstances. This naturally propels the rivalry between Mishra and Samaddar to an altogether different point, as they suspect the other party to be behind it and a police investigation begins to uncover the truth and the murderers.

Actor Bonny Sengupta added: “‘F.I.R. No. 339/07/06’ is a great film with an engaging plot. It was a treat to play this character which was challenging and gratifying in equal parts.”

Speaking about the world digital premiere, Manish Kalra, Chief Business Officer, ZEE5 India, shared: “‘F.I.R. No. 339/07/06’ is a striking edge-of-the-seat thriller which will keep you glued to the screen from start to end and we are happy to bring this experience to your home”.

Instagram launches new effects to edit, perform with music on Reels

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Instagram launches new effects to edit, perform with music on Reels

Facebook-owned Instagram on Friday launched three new effects to help users edit Reel based on music and provide on-screen lyrics.

These new features – SuperBeat, Dynamic Lyrics and 3D Lyrics – will give creators easy ways to combine music and AR effects on Reels.

“People want to make entertaining & fun Reels but often don’t have the time to spend editing. Today we’re launching three new effects, which will help them by automatically making edits to their Reel based on music and providing on screen lyrics,” the company said in a statement.

To use these features, a user just needs to open Reels Camera on Instagram and open the effect tray/gallery. Users will need to select the effect and can even use the music picker to select a song.

Meanwhile, the company recently announced the launch of Collabs, a “new way to co-author” feed posts and Reels on the platform.

The new Collabs feature will allow two accounts to co-author a post or Reel. The post or Reel will appear jointly to each user’s followers and will share the same comment thread, as well as view and like counts.

Instagram said that collaborating is a huge part of how people connect on the social media platform. “With ‘Collab’, you can invite a collaborator to your Feed Post and Reels and so they can share the content with their followers,” the company noted.

Pawan, Rana aim to recreate ‘Gopala Gopala’ magic in ‘Bheemla Nayak’

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Pawan, Rana aim to recreate ‘Gopala Gopala’ magic in ‘Bheemla Nayak’

Despite being a remake, Pawan Kalyan and Rana Daggubati-starrer ‘Bheemla Nayak’ has managed to top the list of the most-anticipated Telugu movies. Pawan Kalyan and Rana Daggubati’s collaboration is one reason behind the hype around this movie.

The makers of ‘Bheemla Nayak’ released a picture from the sets from where Rana and Pawan Kalyan are shooting for a short schedule. The picture features Rana Daggubati and Pawan Kalyan, who are seen chilling together on the sets in the middle of the shots.

Though the picture looked like a casual pose from the sets, the stars seem to be recreating the ‘Gopala Gopala’ movie poster. ‘Gopala Gopala’ is a movie in which Pawan Kalyan and Rana’s uncle Venkatesh Dagguabti had acted together, and created much hype at that point.

A poster featuring Pawan and Venkatesh had created a magical hype at that point in time. Now that Rana and Pawan are to share the screen together, they seem to have worked on re-creating ‘Gopala Gopala’s most hyped pose.

‘Bheemla Nayak’ is all set to get a formal wrap soon, so as to enter into the post-production phase, so the team is working hard, to wind up the talkie part soon. ‘Bheemla Nayak’ is the official remake of the Malayalam movie ‘Ayyappanum Koshiyum’.

‘Bheemla Nayak’ is directed by Sagar K. Chandra, while S.S. Thaman is the music composer. Bankrolled under Sithara Entertainments, the movie stars Nithya Menen as the female lead opposite Pawan Kalyan.

Qantas to launch new Sydney-Delhi route in Dec

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Qantas to launch new Sydney-Delhi route in Dec

Australia’s flag carrier Qantas on Friday announced its plans to launch a new route from Sydney to Delhi in December with three return flights per week, building to daily flights by end of the year.

The plan is subject to discussions with the Indian authorities to finalise necessary approvals, according to the company’s announcement on Friday.

If approved, it would be the first commercial flight for Qantas between Australia and India in almost a decade, reports xinhua news agency.

The flights would initially operate until at least late March 2022, with a view to continuing if there is sufficient demand.

Flights from Sydney to Delhi would operate via Darwin, while flights from Delhi to Sydney would operate non-stop.

The new route is among an array of movements as Qantas and Jetstar gear up for accelerated border opening.

Qantas flights between Sydney to Singapore will resume on November 23 this year, four weeks earlier than scheduled, operating three days per week.

Jetstar will fly from Melbourne and Darwin to Singapore from December 16 this year.

Qantas flights between Sydney to Fiji will be brought forward to December 7 with four return flights a week. Jetstar flights to Fiji will resume on December 17.

Flights from Sydney to Johannesburg will resume on January 5, 2022, three months earlier than scheduled with three return flights a week.

Flights from Sydney to Bangkok will resume on January 14, 2022, more than two months earlier than scheduled with five return flights a week.

Jetstar will also resume flights from Sydney to Phuket on January 12, 2022, more than two months earlier than scheduled with three return flights a week.

Flights to Honolulu, Vancouver, Tokyo and New Zealand are still scheduled to commence from mid-December this year, with other destinations to restart in the new year.

Due to the current border policy, all these flights are limited to Australian citizens, permanent residents and their immediate families and parents, but Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said he expects tourists from Singapore, South Africa and India to take advantage of these flights once borders reopen to international visitors.

He also hailed the scraping of hotel quarantine for arrived international travellers by the state of New South Wales (NSW).

“The decision by the NSW government to join many cities from around the world by removing quarantine for fully vaccinated travelers means we’re able to add these flights from Sydney much earlier than we would have otherwise,” said Joyce.

For domestic routes, Qantas and Jetstar are also preparing to ramp up capacity between Melbourne and Sydney as quarantine-free travel is set to resume between Australia’s two largest cities.

With all these decisions, the group’s 22,000 employees, who were stood down in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, will be able to return to work in December.

“This is the best news we’ve had in almost two years and it will make a massive difference to thousands of our people who finally get to fly again,” Joyce said.

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