BREAKING NEWS: India successfully test-fires Agni-V missile for the sixth time. The missile launch has been conducted from the APJ Kalam Island, off the coast of Odisha. The nuclear-capable Agni-V is an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of over 5,000 km.
After launching Swadeshi Samriddhi SIM cards, yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali has launched a new messaging application called Kimbho. It seems to be aimed at giving competition to the most popular messaging app WhatsApp owned by Facebook.
At the launch, Patanjali mentioned that the Kimbho App is already available for downloads at Google Play Store.
After Reliance Jio giving competition to foreign companies in India, another techno revolution is on the cards from this week. WhatsApp has been downloaded by more than a billion people on Google Play Store. Whether Kimbho can come anywhere near to that humongous figure, remains to be seen.
Kimbho is a Sanskrit word, meaning “How are you?” or “What’s new?” The app’s logo shows a seashell with a green-coloured round chat design around it; similar to WhatsApp. Kimbho’s tagline is ‘Ab Bharat Bolega’.
This week, Sreetama Karmakar became the 20th student (in just nine years) to interview me for a Thesis / Dissertation. Feels good that I’ve been able to help gen next entering the media. :):)
Max Clifford, the world’s most scandalous publicist once called Dale Bhagwagar“the PR to go to in India.” So what made Clifford praise and refer another publicist? A little case study about this public relations professional from India reveals a lot.
Often termed the King of Spin, Dale Bhagwagar undoubtedly tops the list as the most famous PR experts the Indian entertainment industry has ever witnessed. He is most probably the highest paid publicist and the guy behind the glamour, glitz and media hand-handling for a huge number Bollywood celebrities.
He has looked after the media for more than 200 film stars including Hrithik Roshan, Shilpa Shetty, Priyanka Chopra, Govinda, Vivek Oberoi, the evergreen Dev Anand, and films such as the Shah Rukh Khan starrer Don and Farhan Akhtar starrer Rock On!!
That’s not all! Dale has handled the PR for around 40 movies starring actors such as Amitabh Bachchan, Anil Kapoor, Anupam Kher, Arjun Rampal, Bipasha Basu, Bo Derek, Boman Irani, Jackie Shroff, Jesse Metcalfe, John Abraham, Kabir Bedi, Kareena Kapoor, Karishma Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Manisha Koirala, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Padma Lakshmi, Prakash Raj, Preity Zinta, Rahul Bose, Rani Mukerji, Raveena Tandon, Rekha, Saif Ali Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Shabana Azmi, Sharman Joshi, Shriya Saran, Sunil Shetty, Sunny Deol… and the list goes on and on.
Well known as Bollywood’s only PR guru, this award-winning publicist from Mumbai is also a master with handling controversies and crisis management for actors. For this, he has been quoted in each and every prominent Indian media, apart from some of the topmost international publications and news television channels such as BBC World, CNN, Sky News, The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, Daily Mail, New York Times and The Washington Post.
Dale has spearheaded Shilpa Shetty’s PR during her Big Brother win and also handled the media for a full 20 names who have participated in the reality show’s Indian counterpart Bigg Boss; best known for being hosted by megastar Salman Khan.
All this and more makes the guy a master of masters. No wonder, a simple Google search in his name brings up thousands of results.
Wake up my fellow Bollywood PRs. And do it like Dale does. 😉
1 Press Release / 24 hours / 40 links for my PR client Preetisheel Singh. Covering leading outlets The Times of India (and no, Dale never does Paid News. NEVER), Mid-Day, Times Now, Zoom, Santa Banta, Koi Moi, Yahoo, Bollywood Dhamaka, Bollywood Hungama and The Quint. And this without the help of UNI, PTI, IANS or Reuters.
There was a time political parties would break media offices and bash journalists. But times are a changin’. According to a new law passed by Maharashtra Government, violence against a media person or against premises of a media institution is now a cognizable and non-bailable offence.
Such cases will be required to be investigated by a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) and will carry a prison term of 3 years and a fine of Rs 50,000. Plus, media persons and media institutions can recover compensation for any medical expenses or physical damage to their movable or immovable property.
The otherwise ‘smart player’ of the Bigg Boss House, Amar Upadhyay, broke down last evening on the show.
Since day one, Amar has been strong in the House, but when Akashdeep Sky Saigal asked him about his mother, his eyes went moist.
During the conversation, Amar told the inmates how he was once shooting for a film in Manali, when his mother called and he couldn’t speak to her.
Later, when he returned her call, the director called him for another shot, and he couldn’t speak to her again. After a while, in the midnight, a family member called him and conveyed a bad news. Amar rushed out from Manali, but it was too late. By the time he reached home, his mother had passed away.
We thought nothing could make Amar sad or cry on Bigg Boss. But as the actor went back in time, he was full of tears.
Throughout the entire season of Bigg Boss 5, if one has missed anything it’s the trademark ‘Secret Room’, where a participant is kept in alienation, with a special privilege to watch others in action inside the House.
Though Season 5 is nearing its finale, celebrity publicist and Bigg Boss specialist Dale Bhagwagar, says its not too late to introduce the ‘Secret Room’ even it is for two-three days. “This could escalate the drama manifold and give the privileged contestant in the room an insight about who is his/her real friend and who is not,” ideates Dale.
The Bollywood publicist, who has earlier handled the media for maximum number of controversial celebrities on reality shows including Shilpa Shetty (Big Brother), Ashmit Patel, Rakhi Sawant, Kashmera Shah, Sherlyn Chopra, Diana Hayden (Bigg Boss), has also spoken to contestants Juhi Parmar, Shakti Kapoor and Mahek Chahal before the show rolled this year, and is officially handling Amar Upadhyay during Season 5, and Pooja Misrra for a specific period after she completed her second innings on the reality show.
Asked who could be the best bet for getting into the Secret Room at this final stage, Dale says, “It could be anyone from Akashdeep Sky Saigal to Juhi Parmar to Siddharth Sid Bhardwaj. Its obvious, that the other Housemates will gossip about any contestant who goes, least realizing that he/she can come back and beat the daylights out of them just before the finale.”
About the Secret Room:
The Secret Room is a special room near the Bigg Boss House. There are times when Bigg Boss directs a Housemate to this room, while other Housemates are given the impression that the person has been evicted or has left the House for good. The Housemate kept in isolation, is given access to past episodes of the show as well as the privilege to secretly watch what is going on in the House. Equipped with all this knowledge, when the Housemate re-enters the main House, all hell breaks lose.