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FMCG major HUL, known for launching starlets popularly known as ''Liril Girls'' through advertisements for its lemon soap, is now charting a different strategyto tap family audience, keeping in tune with changing times.
Liril soap, which was recently relaunched, is now targeting a wider audience with the brand tailored to appeal to the entire family a change from the earlier times, when the likes of Karen Lunel, Preity Zinta, Tara Sharma and Deepika Padukone were made the face of the brand focusing on the youth segment.
While HUL did not respond to queries, the firm''s advertising agency Lowe Lintas said the change in strategy was prompted by the evolution that the market has undergone.
"In the last decade or so, freshness has become generic to the personal washcategory and, lime and lemony fragrances are being used by any and all brands. Clearly, the consumer and the market has moved on," Lowe Lintas Executive Director Joseph George told PTI.
"We also decided that in order to broad base its appeal (and fortunately our proposition allowed us to do so), we should make the brand appeal to the entire family," he added.
The idea was to leverage Liril's premium heritage and find a new consumer benefit in skin cleansing to make the brand relevance to its audience once again, he added.

This is Chiranjeevi. That is needless to tell anyway. He hosted Iftar today for his Muslim friends on a grand scale. He was clothed in traditional Dubai Sheik style with the request of his friends. Indeed, wearing variety costumes in not new for Chiranjeevi. He did that several times while acting in movies. But this is a ‘political get up’ as many politicians tend to clad.

Kamna Jethmalani started her career in Telugu with lady director B.Jaya's "Premikulu". Later she acted in Yagnam, Samanyudu and several other movies. At present she is doing Suresh Productions'movie in the making "Bendu Apparao". D.Ramanaidu is the producer and EVV Satyanarayana is the director. Allari Naresh is donning hero's role while Meghana and Kamna are playing the female leads.The thing to reckon with is that while other heroines are sportingbikinies nowadays to attract the audience as well as the producers and directors, Kamna is still stuck in the old school of bellybutton exposure.

Heroine Genelia took much care in keeping her body intact right from the first flick "Boys" to the latest one "Ready". Lately she is said to have felt that she would look more glamorous, if she puts on some more weight and started working on that. In her forthcoming flick with Ramcharan "Orange" in Bommarillu Bhaskar's direction, she would be seen in this new look.Whatever the reason might have been, in her recent release Ileana looked a bit stout and similarly Trisha in "Shankham". Seems our heroines are on a 'putting-on' spree, while Bollywood heroines are craving for zero size figures.

Heroine Aarthi Agrawal made her debut in to films with K. Vijay Bhaskar directed movie "Nuvvu Naaku Nacchav" with Victory Venkatesh as the hero. Later she acted with all the top heroes and earned name as a good actress. It was rumoured that she had an affair with hero Tarun, once attempted suicide and also that she jumped from top of her house etc.Suddenly she got married and went to America to settle there. Recently she returned back from America and started acting in films again. She is said to have told a reporter in an interview that she intends to earn a name like the all time great actress late Savithri. The startled reporter said to himself " how can this generation heroines be compared with 'mahanati' late Savithri. Does Aarthi new anything at all about Savithri?"

Speaking about her marriage, charming girl Charmi told " I took after my mother's looks. So startling is the similarity that if anyone looks at my mom's photo when she was 19, he would definitely think that it's mine. Though we are Punjabis, I was brought up mostly in Mumbai.In Mumbai too we used to live in the area where Sikhs were in plenty. For that reason our customs and traditions are follwed very strictly in our house. When I was about to enter the cine field, there was a lot of discussion in our house. My parents put on a conditionfor allowing me to join films. No matter with whoever I might act in films, but I shall have to get married traditionally to a Sikh groom. " Is't true Charmi..?

Veteran former Chief Minister and Rajya Sabha member Nedurumalli Janardhan Reddy got a surprising call from the Congresshigh command on Wednesday afternoon.
The political circles in the state were agog with rumours that the Congress high command might consider his candidature for the Chief Minister’s post again. NJR had the experience of running the state in the past and therefore, knows ins and outs of administration. Perhaps, the high command might be taking it into consideration.
But the fact is that he has become too old to run the administration and he cannot even talk coherently, though his brain is still very sharp. Probably, the high command might take his opinion in deciding the candidature of Jagan, sources say.

Whenever the late chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s convoy made its way from his camp office in Begumpet to the Secretariat, policemen used to pass on messages to their colleagues posted ahead on the route that ‘‘Charlie Mike’’ (code word for the CM) had passed a particular junction. In the wake of the chopper crash in which YSR was killed, the State police is considering the possibility of adopting a similar drill to track down a VVIP chopper every few minutes. To be in constant touch with the pilot and the VVIP, the department intends to set up ground stations in all districts with very high frequency (VHF) and high frequency (HF) networks. Top police sources told Express that since helicopters do not fly at very high altitudes, it is possible for pilots to communicate with the police much like they do with the Air Traffic Control (ATC). Pilots communicate with ATC through VHF and HF sets every four minutes.Simultaneously, police officials will also be writing to the Ministry of Civil Aviation to let them have a special antenna atop the VVIP chopper. The antenna receives signals even in interior areas and helps those on board to stay in touch with the rest of the world via a satellite phone.Days after the crash, police officials went on a sortie to test in what conditions satellite phones work. When they flew over dense forests and interior areas, they found that the satellite phone was not receiving signals.

The Congress high command is all set to bring down curtains on the power transition issue after sending clear indications that the choice for a long term successor in thestate has been narrowed down to the issue of popularityversus seniority."The high command wants to use the situation to send a message to all Congress leaders across the country that performance alone cannot be a measure and loyalty to the party and high command would be the single most important thing," the sources said.
A senior Congress MP who did not want to be identified said the party high command was in fact surprised at the popularity of YSR. "The high command always had a soft corner for YSR, but never thought YSR was so popular. His untimely death made him even more popular. Now they want to regain the lost grip over state politics by installing a person who not only dances to their wishes, but also bluntly keeps the party in the forefront of all political activity," the MP said.
The sources said that the party leadership had made it abundantly clear to political advisor K V P Ramachandra Rao yet again onSunday that henceforth the high command would have a major say in issues of governance and power will not be vested in an individual like YSR. "That the Congress party will have a say in running the government has been made abundantly clear to KVP during his interaction with the AICC functionaries. The YSR style of functioning will not be encouraged and the party is supreme and not an individual," an AICC source said.
The sources said though AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi was keen on promoting young leaders in the country, the party high command wanted to make it certain, through proper checks and balances, that the Congress party's agenda always remained on top.With Union minister S Jaipal Reddy backing out of the race and PCC president D Srinivas and Rajya Sabha MP K Keshav Rao falling under their own weight, the political stalemate within the Congress is sure to end once chief minister K Rosaiah meets AICC chief Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday.

Velu Prabhakar has made a Tamil film 'Kadal Arangam’ which is almost nude film. When film went for censor certification, only 20% of the film was remained after censor cuts. Velu Prabhakaran went to court and the film is releasing with some suggested changes .Director could convince the court that every aspect of nudity in shown in aesthetic sense but not in vulgar manner.
Now the same film Telugu rights are bagged by Suresh chowdary. Preeti and Shirley are the female leads in the film who acted absolutely nude for this film. So the film will hit the Telugu screens very soon.

Ace Vamsi's forthcoming comedy thriller Fashion Designer s/o Ladies Tailor, a sequel to his super hit Ladies Tailor (1985), will go on floors in November, once its lead actor Ravi Teja completes his portions in ongoing Sambho Siva Sambho, a remake of the Tamil super hit Naadodigal.Fashion Designer s/o Ladies Tailor, produced jointly by Nallam Srinivas, Sada Sivuni Ravi and M.L. Kumar Chowdary, is penned by Tanikella Bharani, who wrote the dialogues for the original. The pre-production work is in progress.

Only God and our Superstar know one thing for now… That’s about his next project after Shankar’s ‘Yanthram’. Everyone is building speculations and is trying to knot each and every single string they get to spin a story.
Meanwhile birdies had it that director P. Vasu had narrated the outline of his Kannada project ‘Aptha Rakshaka’ to our superstar. ‘Aptha Rakshaka’ is the sequel of ‘Aptha Mithra’ (Chandramukhi in Telugu). After hearing the outline itself it’s heard that Rajini appreciated the director for the fine script. But just don’t jump into a conclusion that our Superstar will be signing up for ‘Chandramukhi’ part 2!
Sources say that Rajini had called the director after a week’s timeand confessed that his call sheet is full for the next 2 years… Alas what a sad news! Birdies from the side of the director say that P. Vasu will be approaching Mammootty for the sequel.
Hmmm…That’s a clever choice we say!

For all those who do not know, Daggubati Rana is the grandson of movie Moghul D Ramanaidu. He is making his debut with the movie “Leader” and this is being directed by the maverick movie maker Sekhar Kammula of ‘Happy Days’ fame.
Rana is pairing up with not one or two but a total of three beauties in his debut film. Now, sources reveal that Rana has already signedthree more movies.
These flicks seem to be in pre-production stage. Further details of the movie are awaited. Will he be the new leader in the circuit needs to be seen.
Wishing the tall and handsome actor the best in his future ventures!!!

In a shocking development, over 40 girl students of acollege at Rajahmundry in East Godavari made a suicide attempt unable to bear with the harassment by the college principal.
The girls were immediately rushed to the hospital and are stated to be out of danger.
The girls alleged that the principal was harassing them with abusive gestures. The girls said the principal misbehaved with every girlstudent in the college and harassed them with sexual proposals.
Alerted by this incident, some of the students and residents of thearea caught hold of the principal and beat him up before handing him over to the police.
Meanwhile, the Minister Manikya Varaprasad, directed the officials of the department to take stringent action against the principalresponsible for the incident. He also directed the police to register a case against the principal.
The Minister also directed the officials to submit a detailed report about the incident.

If recession has been busy playing with lives and ruining them, here is one more that has been taking lives without any remorse. This is the Swine Flu epidemic which has been spreading in India like wildfire and already, it has gobbled up quite a number of lives across the nation.
Apparently, there is a Myth that by 2012, about one-third of the population will be wiped out due to the flu and what seemed like a myth is slowly turning out to be a reality. So far, there is no vaccine and no proper medication that has been introduced to combat this and the means to prevent it also have not been that effective. Doctors, nurses, IAS officers and many others are becoming victims of it and finding no other way other than death in many cases.
While the pharma companies are said to be busy working out ways and means since this would be better revenue getter, the fix is on over the authorities who are yet to be equipped with the infrastructure to handle such an epidemic. Only time will tell if the 2012 myth will become a reality or not.

The big eyed sweet girl Swathi has been known for her sweet smiles and also some exceptional performances in her movies. She has already made her mark in the Kollywood circuit and news has arrived that now she has been roped in for two big ventures.
One of them happens to be with none other than Vikram and other one is with Jai, her co-star in ‘Subramaniapuram’, the hit movie.
Vikram’s movie is being directed by the famous Selvaraghavan and Swathi from her end is said to be quite happy over the selection.
She said that her preference has been for quality oriented scripts and performance driven roles.
All the best for this one Swathi!!!

The Magadheera guy Ramcharan Teja has made it clear that he does not want to go on a vacation right now. So we wanted to know if the leading lady of the film shares the same thought. When asked, the pretty Kajal Agarwal is reported to have said that she does not need long holidays.
For her a one or two day break would just do fine. She says that the few days in between her shooting schedules is all she needs to charge herself up. The actress also adds that she is not much into long holidays. What a bunch of dedicated and sincere actors we have who just love their work. Kajal will soon be arriving with the new movie‘Ganesh’ alongside handsome hero Ram this month.

The family of Dr.Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, who perished in the chopper crash at Nallamala, will get Rs.1 crore asinsurance payment from Reliance Money.Similarly, insurance amounts of Rs 1 crore each would be given to the families of the special secretary, Mr P. Subramanyam, and the chief security officer, Mr Wesley, who died in the crash along with YSR.Families of the pilot, Group Captain S.K. Bhatia and the co-pilot, Mr M.S. Reddy, are eligible for insurance payment of Rs 2 crore each as their licences were also insured.According to AP Aviation Corporation officials, Reliance Money will also pay Rs 11 crore to the state government as insurance claim for the Bell-430 helicopter that was completely smashed up in the mishap.“We have already submitted insurance papers to Reliance Money which in turn agreed to pay Rs 18 crore as insurance amount,” said Mr.K.V. Brahamananda Reddy, managing director of the corporation.“The kin of the dead will get Rs 7 crore very shortly.”The state government bought the helicopter in 1998 for Rs 38 crore. The corporation pays Rs 80 lakh as premium for the insurance of the helicopter as well as travellers.Earlier, each person was eligible for Rs.10 lakh insurance amount. Last year, the corporation enhanced it to Rs 1 crore.Meanwhile, senior representatives of Bell Helicopter, Mr Herrold Barrentin and Mr George Johnson, came to Hyderabad from US on Tuesday and inspected the wreckage.Mr Singh Dev, head of the company’s India wing, and Mr Sanjay, a senior DGCA official, also interacted withthe officials of Andhra Pradesh Aviation Corporation which maintained the helicopter.
--DC

Hyderabad-based production house Geeta Arts, maker of Bollywood blockbuster ‘Ghajini’ starring Aamir Khan, is planning to remake its latest Telugu movie – Magadheera – in Hindi.Confirming the development, Allu Sirish, executive producer of Magadheera, told Business Standard that, “Keeping in view the potential of the multiplex-driven Hindi film market, we are planning to remake this Telugu money spinner in Hindi with an estimated budget of Rs 45 crore. We are currently in talks with the league of top eight actors in Bollywood, including Hrithik Roshan and Aamir Khan, for the role of the protagonist in this sword and sandal genre film.” Sirish, however, declined to comment on when the Hindi version will go to sets.Magadheera, a film made on the theme of reincarnation, which begins 400 years ago with a love story between a princess and a warrior andends in the contemporary world, has set an all-time box-office (BO) record down south, grossing nearly Rs 80 crore worldwide (Rs 65 crore gross collection including Rs 55 crore producer/distributor share in Andhra Pradesh alone). The film, made with a budget of Rs 42 crore, was released on July 31, 2009, with 500 prints and in 1,250 screens across the world.The earlier record was held by Rajnikant-starrer 'Sivaji', which grossed Rs 65 crore in Tamil Nadu (producer/distributor share of Rs 40 crore). In Hindi, Ghajini holds the all-time record with Rs 200 crore worldwide gross collections with the producer/distributor share being 40 crore, breaking the previous BO record of Rs 70 crore (producer/distributor share Rs 45 crore) by Sunny Deol’s ‘Gadar’.Sirish said the production house, had set up a 24-member team to tackle the physical form of piracy, besides roping in five software engineers and ethical hackers to tackle Internet piracy. “We are now in the process of nailing some of the pirates of the Internet,” he said.“Lavishness, huge star cast including Tollywood megastar and Prajarajyam Party founder Chiranjeevi’s son Ramcharan Teja and Hollywood-style graphics in Magadheera unlocked the market potential and brought back the old school glory of the film industry. We are now in the process of dubbing this movie in Tamil with plans to reshoot some sequences with the local star cast and release it by this year end,” said the 23-year-old, who is set to take the reins of Geeta Arts from his father Allu Aravind, producer, next year.On Geeta Arts’ future projects, which has produced 29 films till date including Prathibandh, Aaj Ka Gunda Raj, Gentleman and Ghajini in Hindi, Sirish said the production house would produce another sword and sandal movie titled 'Badrinath' with his elder brother Allu Arjun. “The film, with an estimated budget of Rs 35 crore, will be directed by VV Vinayak and will go on floor from February 2011,” he added.-business-standard

Earlier only the film makers used to rush to sign up Namitha for their films. Now even the political parties are trying to rope her in. The hot lady has such a huge fan following that political parties are reportedto try to bank in on her popularity.
It is said that a prominent political party in Tamil Nadu approached her for campaigning. The sexy seductress, however, is reported to have politely declined the offer. She is reported to have said that she is extremely busy with her filmy projects and does not have time for politics right now. Well does that mean that the future holds some promise...?

rajnikanth’s new film Robo is now more than 90 percent complete. Director Shankar is now planning the climax fight. The film is being made on a lavish budget and will have mind boggling graphics.
Rjnikanth pairs up with Aishwarya Rai in the film. Even though the shooting will come to an end shortly, the film will take another six to eight months to hit the screens.The reason for the delay is the elaborate graphics work like 3G, CG and EFX effects. Shankar promises world class graphics work. Robo may be released in the summer of 2010.

Usually, the prime job of an anchor in a television channel is to have a good voice, a gift of gab and the ability to keep the program busy with her energy.However, it is now being said that many TV anchors have been focusing on something else – their figure and body shape.Sources from the channels say that the anchors have been working out regularly to look sexy and while this is a good thing, it is being said that the focus has been more on that rather than trying to work out on the vocal skills.On the other hand, the home audience says that there seems to be a lot of increase in the glamour and oomph factor of the anchors but the real thing of talking needs further improvement, they add.