City Lifestyle
Shimla crowd goes hysterical to watch Hrithik shooting ‘Bang Bang’
SHIMLA- Bollywood mania is the word that’ll suit as a depiction of the scene that recent shoot of ‘Bang Bang’, which is an official remake of the Tom Cruise-Cameron Diaz starrer, ‘Knight and Day‘, has been creating in Shimla for the past couple of weeks. May be, Hrithik Roshan was the better reason for the crowding of the Shimla Mall. Well, no one likes to miss a chance to see celebrity actors along with the making of an action scene with all its crew, cameras, and equipments used in high budget Bollywood movies, especially when it comes from a giant production house like Fox Star Studios.
However, a few guys were luckier than others; especially those who owned the roofs and small teashops that lured the director. They cashed lacs of bucks for the shoot, while Shimla MC is charged Rs. 50,000 a day for allowing the shooting.
Here is a Video Clip if you think you should have not missed it
Most of the shoot was that of action scenes on the high roof of Gaindamal Hemraj and adjacent buildings with some fight scenes in the alleyway behind mall.
The crowd behaved hysterically, and for a while, it appeared stupid watching people trying to push into the crowd, and stand on their toes for hours on the highest spot they could find, and all that just to watch retakes of the same scene dozens of times, and, most, ignoring the rain in Shimla’s harsh winters.
For hours, the crowd, which continuously kept growing all day, stood still, making occasional noises. That’s a huge lot of motivation to tolerate so much, and that is just to watch actors and crew-members doing their job.
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The presence of the stuntman, who was looking a perfect duplicate copy of the hero, puzzled many in the crowd. The crowd chased the actor to the van, and it cheered everytime they observed a movement at the door of the van hoping that the actor would come out to and they would get a closer look, may be, an autograph. For their disappointment, he jumped right into the car, which picked him exactly from the first doorstep of the van. The crowd rushed after his car, chased it for a little while, and then dispersed. The smartphones, tabs, digicams, were all out of pockets, focused on capturing anything the crowd could capture.
However, that sounds as unfair, rude assessment of the whole social mechanics at work. The crowd was not just that of young guys and filmy girls; old and young, poor and rich, everyone made the crowd, and they all shared the same charm that mostly Indian folks have for witnessing a movie shoot and actually get an opportunity to see Bollywood celebrities, whom they always saw either on screen or in the media. It’s a huge satisfaction to have this experience in the routine life of any average Indian citizen.
Psychologically, entertainment, under the stressful modern lifestyle, is a necessary evil. Sometimes, it’s the best device to kill time, escape the stress, and other times, it’s a dive into the ocean of creativity, and most, the emotional vent that the correlation of real life inspirations and the reconstruction of human the emotions bring about.
But a few spectator weren’t happy; the monkeys, who sat puzzled on nearby building, and viewed all this jumping and fighting as a sort of nuisance. They viewed it all with an insecurity. After all, it was an encroachment over the roofs that usually they rule, but, luckily, it was momentary.
That was about charm of a celebrity film shoot, but there are a few other issues regarding the management of crowd and the discriminatory criterion followed for allowing events on Shimla Ridge that pertain to the domain of District Collector, and these issues will be discussed soon on HW.
City Lifestyle
HPTDC’s Online Service for Ordering Food for Takeaway and Home Delivery Launched
Shimla-An online facility to place orders of food was launched by the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation on July 21, 2020. It was informed by the HPTDC, Managing Director Kumud Singh. She said the Corporation has introduced a facility to place an online order of food for takeaway and home delivery at its selected properties.
“The public can place orders for a variety of tasty, hygienic and healthy cuisines at their homes by placing online orders,”
she said.
Consumers can place online food orders at these properties by visiting its website (www.hptdconwheels.in). Currently, the orders can be placed from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM. The HPTDC staff has been imparted special training to take all necessary steps for prevention of COVID-19, she said. The food is prepared by trained Chefs of the Corporation in safe and hygiene environment, she added.
She informed that this service has initially been started at Hotel Peterhof Shimla, Goofa Ashiana Restaurant Shimla, Hotel Kunzam Manali, Cafe Monal Kullu, Cafe Raviview Chamba and Cafe Satluj Rampur. She said that this service will be extended to other properties in a phased manner.
Photo: Himachal Watcher
City Lifestyle
Fursat Se- Shimla Based Cultural Community to Plant 550 Trees on 550th Birth Anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev ji
Shimla-On the occasion of 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Devji, Fursat Se, a cultural community based in Shimla plans to plant 550 trees. The founder of Fursat Se, Amrita Bhasin, is working towards creating safe spaces for promotion of art, literature and open dialogue through the medium of events.
“We invite 550 people (&more) to pledge and plant one tree each and help us initiate a Green Movement by the people and for the people,”
She said.
Anyone interested in this, can pick a local tree sapling and plant it in allowed areas of the neighborhood and pledge to take care of it, and send the information on the same with a picture and hashtag #TreeTalesIndia to Fursat Se. For pledging, volunteering and becoming a part of this initiative you can contact them, and Fursat Se will share the pictures from their social media handles.
The initiative is organized by Fursat Se- A Cultural Community in association with- Swach Himalayas, a Himachal based NGO started by Savitoj Singh, that works towards spreading awareness about various environmental issues, undertakes initiatives like regular visits to old-age homes, orphanages through numerous community driven events and Unbox Himachal valley- a Himachal based start-up by Shivee Sirmauri, working towards empowerment of rural women by providing employment opportunities and reviving old cultural handicrafts.
City Lifestyle
Himachal’s fitness enthusiast shines at Indian TV Reality Show
Shimla: Sachin Sharma, a handsome man of 26, is currently a person who stands in contrast to Himachal Pradesh’s ill-famed youth struggling with drug and substance abuse – a crucial issue that has sounded an alarm in the State. Sachin is the one who joined a gym at the age of 19 – an age at which teenagers are struggling to escape from the jaws of drug/substance abuse, especially Heroin (Chitta).
Sachin, born in a middle-class family of Deha village, Theog, Shimla district, recently appeared in what could be called India’s first fitness reality show “Indian Fitness League.” It wasn’t a bodybuilding show, but the challenge was to undertake tasks designed to check who is the fittest. Sachin was the only one from Himachal to have made through the auditions. He was selected as one of the 40 fittest people of India. He earned the special attention of the hosts of the show as well as among other competitors.
The next episode of the TV show would be telecasted on October 6 on Discovery Sports at 4 PM.
To know more about him, Himachal Watcher interviewed him (Watch Video). We found that his story is inspirational in its own way:
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Far from ill and unhealthy habits, he doesn’t smoke, doesn’t drink or take anything that would toy with his physical and mental fitness. He definitely doesn’t take steroids. Since last seven years, he has followed a strict discipline in diet and habits. He didn’t compromise with his studies either. He completed his schooling from Dayanand Public School in Shimla.
In 2018 he completed his post graduation in Masters of Business (MBA) from Himachal Pradesh University and had procured a placement for himself too.
He wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth so placement did matter for him. His father Mohan Lal Sharma and mother Subhadra Sharma are both serving with the Crime Investigation Department (CID), HP, as Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) and Head Constable respectively. It wasn’t easy to manage an additional expenditure of Rs. 15,000 – 20, 000 on his protein diet for seven years.
At this point, his decision-making ability was put to test. He had to choose one of the two: job placement and passion for fitness. He listened to himself and decided to seek a career in the fitness industry.
Though Sachin’s body is in good shape, he isn’t actually a bodybuilder. He is a fitness enthusiast, who has trained without a professional trainer or a mentor. He made ample use of YouTube to learn. He didn’t take up fitness as his passion because he was inspired by someone. He was his own inspiration.
He first received an opportunity to get on a stage at annual Mr. Himachal competition. Later he won the Maruti Suzuki Devils Circuit held in Chandigarh.
Now, after his tremendous performance at the IFL, Sachin has received sponsorships and was inducted in the TG Athlete group. Opportunities in the fitness industry have begun to appear before him. He believes that someday, he would extend support and guidance to other fitness enthusiasts of the state, which he could hardly receive for himself.
He is an idol for the youth of Himachal, especially because fitness is an antonym to drug/substance abuse and indiscipline. In the majority of cases filed under the Narcotics, Drugs & Psychoactive Substances (ND&PS) Act, the accused are reported to be between 20-25 years. A couple of days back Shimla Police arrested a 22-years-old local boy with a packet of Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) stamps.