By Jilawatan

Lonesong Street and A Stranger Called I author Pritish Nandy presented his new book Again at Mumbai’s Crossword Thursday night and longtime fan and friend Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was there to support the journalist and poet.
And he needs it! The author of Again told reporters that if people don’t read poetry it’s because publishers aren’t doing their job! “You cannot judge a reader. It is the writer and publisher’s job to persuade the reader to take to reading. If your book is not being read, you better chase or change the publisher,” he told PTI.

“I think everyone should read and write poetry. Poetry is living. It is discovering yourself. If you have not written poetry, it means you have not discovered yourself. We need to go beyond the boundaries of academia. Poetry should attempt to discover a connect with the people. It should be fun and should not be just for examination purpose as done in schools,” he added.

By Jilawatan

New Delhi-Indian movie baron Pritish Nandy hoped to spend this spring in Calcutta shooting Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, a coming-of-age film set in the early 1940s. He planned to raise enough money to have a robust budget and envisioned stirring scenes shot in the grubby slums where Mother Teresa once ministered to the destitute.

The movie, which translates to “Master, Wife and Servant,” was to be the remake of a Bollywood classic, the story of a wide-eyed peasant who moves from the country to a rich family’s mansion. “We were looking at a $12 million (all figures U.S.) budget, a lot of money,” said Nandy, a one-time newspaper journalist and politician.

Trouble was, even with Nandy’s good track record making films that make money, he couldn’t find a bank willing to lend him the $6 million he needed for his film.