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| Jai Ho to be screened in LS |
| Saubhadro Chatterji / New Delhi Jul 24, 2009, 00:54 IST |
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After the Budget, it’ll be time for some Bollywood entertainment in Parliament. The Lok Sabha secretariat has arranged for a special screening of Danny Boyle’s highly-acclaimed film, Slumdog Millionaire, on August 3 for the MPs.
But the icing in the cake will be the presence of its Oscar winners—music director A R Rahman, lyricist Gulzar and sound engineer Resul Pookutty—at the special screening. This will be the first time when Rahman and the two other Oscar winners will be felicitated by Parliament for their achievement. The three had won the much-coveted US Oscar awards on February 23. The Congress, meanwhile, had used Rahman’s award winning tune, Jai Ho, as its campaign song during the run-up to the Lok Sabha election.
“As per the information available to us, A R Rehman and Resul Pukutty will be present during the special screening in Parliament. We are inviting Gulzaarsaab too,” Lok Sabha secretary-general P D T Achary told Business Standard on Thursday.”We will felicitate them before the film is screened.”
It was actually Pookutty’s idea to bring the Oscar winners to Parliament. When Achary contacted Pookutty, currently stationed in the US, about the secretariat’s plan to show the film for the Parliamentarians, Pookutty suggested bringing Rahman there. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi are expected to be present at the function.
The Lok Sabha secretariat had shown films for the MPs earlier as well but this will be the first time when a commercial film will be screened because of its worldwide fame. Last year, the secretariat screened Shyam Benegal’s Bose: the forgotten Hero for the MPs. Benegal is currently a nominated MP of the Rajya Sabha.
Earlier, stalwarts like Lata Mangeshkar (then a Rajya Sabha member) had performed at the special programme held on 50 years of Indian independence in 1997. A few years ago, shehnai maestro Bismillah Khan was also felicitated by the Parliament.
Will Rahman perform like Khan or Mangeshkar? Achary doesn’t see much hope: “He is not coming with his musical troop. We can’t ask him to sing just like that.”
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