Mumbai, Sep 18 (IANS) Preity Zinta found a perfect mini version of herself in her niece Maya for a role in "Ishkq In Paris". Preity had initially launched an online search for a young girl with a dimpled right cheek, who could play her younger version in "Ishkq In Paris". But she found a young Preity in her own family! Maya, who is Preity's brother's daughter, flew from Los Angeles to Paris to shoot for the film. "Maya is very young, so she didn't really care much about acting. For her, it was more of an adventure. She was more than excited to be part of her aunt's film. From the professional point of view, she was extremely nice to work with," director Prem Raj said in a statement. "Ishkq in Paris" is not just Preity's comeback film, but also marks her foray into film production. It will release Nov 2.

Mumbai, Sep 18 (IANS) Condemned Pakistani terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab has addressed a mercy plea to the president, nearly three weeks after the Supreme Court upheld his death penalty for the Mumbai terror attack, an official said here Tuesday. "His mercy petition, addressed to the president, has been received from the Arthur Road Central Jail authorities and is lying with the state home department," said an official from the Maharashtra home department. The exact date when Kasab filed the mercy plea or its contents are not yet clear, nor is it known when it will be forwarded to the union home ministry by the state government. On Aug 29, the Supreme Court dismissed Kasab's plea challenging his conviction and death sentence awarded in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack case. A copy of the apex court verdict was handed over to Kasab in the jail last week. Ten Pakistani gunmen, including Kasab, had created mayhem in south Mumbai for 60 hours from Nov 26, 2008 and left 166 people, including foreigners, dead. While Kasab was nabbed alive by police, his nine associates were shot dead at various locations by the combined security forces.

Mumbai, Sep 18 (IANS) Snapping a nine-day rally, a benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed 46 points down Tuesday due to selling pressure in oil and gas, IT and healthcare stocks and weak global cues. The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 18,514.72 points, closed 18,496.01 points, 46.30 points or 0.25 percent down from its previous day's close at 18,542.31 points. The Sensex closed 78 points higher Monday on the back of the Reserve Bank of India's decision to cut the cash reserve ratio and the opening up of the retail and aviation sectors to foreign investment last week by the government. The Sensex touched a high of 18,580.48 and a low of 18,469.51 points in intra-day trade. The BSE midcap index was up 55.69 points, while the smallcap index was 49 points high. The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange closed 0.18 percent down at 5,600.05 points. On the sectoral front, the BSE oil and gas index was down 100.61 points, while IT index was down 32.69 points and health care was down 16.08. The major Sensex gainers were BHEL, up 5.44 percent at Rs.225; SBI, up 3.59 percent at Rs.2,150.65; Gail India, up 3.01 percent at Rs.387.90; Jindal Steel, up 2.64 percent at Rs.404.95; and Infosys, up 1.45 percent at Rs.2,599.65. The main losers were Wipro, down 3.79 percent at Rs.369.60; TCS, down 3.02 percent at Rs.1,300.40; Hindalco Inds, 2.13 percent at Rs.114.75; RIL, 2.11 percent at Rs.855.20; and NTPC, down 1.51 percent at Rs.166.45. Asian markets closed in red. Japan's Nikkei closed 0.39 percent down, while Shanghai's composite index closed 0.91 percent lower. Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed 0.27 percent down. At closing bell here, European markets were in red. France's CAC was down 1.15 percent and so was Germany's DAX, down 1 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 was trading 0.81 percent lower.

Pune, Sep 18 (IANS) Anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare Tuesday admitted to differences with Arvind Kejriwal and other members of the India Against Corruption (IAC) group on various issues. The 75-year old Hazare reiterated that he would not launch a political party to fight corruption. "However, Kejriwal is free to launch a political party if he wants," Hazare told the media, emerging from a meeting with a few prominent social workers in Pune. Asked if he would support candidates put up by Kejriwal's party, Hazare said: "Our destination is common, only the paths are different." Hazare announced he would soon embark on a nationwide tour to create awareness on corruption and revive the anti-graft movement which has been floundering in recent months. Indicating a growing rift within the anti-corruption movement he launched nearly two years ago, Hazare has cast his net wide to include prominent personalities with a clean image to join or advise his campaign. Of the 35 top social personalities he has invited, he had meetings with half a dozen Tuesday in Pune. He will meet more people in New Delhi Wednesday. Some of them are Prakash Amte, Abhay Bang, Girish Prabhune, Suniti S.R., Medha Patkar, Vishwambhar Choudhary, Surekha Dalwi, Ulka Mahajan, Bhau Torsekar, Narendra Dabholkar, Jaywant Matkar and Avinash Dharmadhikari. While many have responded positively to the invitation, a few have cited prior commitments to keep away from Hazare for now. Hazare's declaration that he would neither contest elections nor form a political party effectively threw cold water on a 'referendum' by IAC, the results of which were released Monday. According to IAC, its week-long survey attracted 737,041 respondents of whom 561,701 (76 percent) favoured a political party while the rest were against the idea.

Mumbai, Sep 18 (IANS) A benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed 41 points down Tuesday due to selling pressure in oil and gas, IT and healthcare stocks. The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 18,514.72 points, closed 18,501.63 points (provisional), 40.68 points or 0.22 percent down from its previous day's close at 18,542.31 points. The Sensex touched a high of 18,580.48 and a low of 18,469.51 points in intra-day trade. The BSE midcap index was up 56.05 points, while the smallcap index was 52.74 points high. The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange closed 0.18 percent down at 5,599.85 points. On the sectoral front, the BSE oil and gas index was down 101.02 points while IT index was down 32.81 points and health care was down 27.10. The major Sensex gainers were BHEL, up 5.32 percent at Rs.224.75; SBI, up 3.91 percent at Rs.2,157.30; Gail India, up 2.75 percent at Rs.386.90; Jindal Steel, up 2.64 percent at Rs.404.95; and Infosys, up 1.42 percent at Rs.2,598.90 The main losers were Wipro, down 3.70 percent at Rs.369.95; TCS, down 2.93 percent at Rs.1,301.55; Hindalco Inds, 2.13 percent at Rs.114.75; RIL, 2.12 percent at Rs.855.15; and Cipla, down 1.57 percent at Rs.363.80.

Mumbai, Sep 18 (IANS) Sajid Nadiadwala was here Tuesday named the new president of the Association of Motion Pictures and Television Program Producers (AMPTPP). The filmmaker, the youngest president of the body, says his first mission is to stop piracy. Nadiadwala will now preside over the association as chairperson and ex-officio member of all committees framed and working on different agendas. "This is a big responsibility that has been bestowed upon me by my seniors in the industry, so I will try my best to deliver on it," Nadiadwala said in a statement. "There are many issues that we have to look into - the most significant among them is piracy. It's something that I will look into very seriously in my new role as president of AMPTPP," he added. AMPTPP is a prominent trade body representing film and television producers, at both national and international levels. Nadiadwala, 46, has produced films like "Judwaa", "Heyy Babyy" and "Housefull 2", and is now gearing up to don the director's hat for "Kick". "The council members felt that it is the right time to elect a dynamic young leader like Sajid Nadiadwala, who has knowledge of world cinema, as its president. The governing council is sure that AMPTPP will achieve all its goals under his able leadership," said Rajat Sengupta, CEO, AMPTPP.

Mumbai, Sep 18 (IANS) Pooja Bedi has a new family member - a little Shih Tzu pup. And her daughter Aalia has named the pet Gaga, after international pop star Lady Gaga. "My 14-year-old daughter Aalia is a human encyclopaedia on Lady Gaga! Hence little one's been named Gaga," tweeted Pooja. She also posted a picture of the puppy wearing a neck band with 'Gaga' written over it. The puppy has been gifted to Aalia by the 42-year-old's reported new beau, Akashdeep Sehgal, better known as Sky. "Sky presented my daughter with this adorable Shih Tzu," she had earlier posted. Pooja and Akashdeep became thick friends while they were participants on reality show "Bigg Boss" last year. -*- Shabana misses Mona Kapoor on her birthday Shabana Azmi received lots of birthday wishes as she turned 62 Tuesday, but there was something amiss. She was missing the late Mona Kapoor, ex-wife of Bollywood filmmaker Boney Kapoor. Mona died earlier this year after battling multiple organ cancer for about five months. "So early in the morning and so many birthday wishes already... Thank you all from the bottom of my heart," Shabana tweeted. "Miss you Mona. You were always the first to wish me," added the acclaimed actress. -*- Bipasha Basu back in action, shoots for 'Aatma' Actress Bipasha Basu, who was recently taken to a hospital after suffering exhaustion and viral fever, is back to work. She has begun working on "Aatma". However, she feels it will take a while before she can work full throttle. "Today (Monday) I started shooting for 'Aatma' again. Still not got my usual energy back! Need to take it easy for a few days and spring back to work post that," the 33-year-old tweeted. "Aatma", directed by Suparn Verma, stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui opposite Bipasha.

Mumbai, Sep 18 (IANS) A benchmark index of Indian equities markets was ruling 55 points down Tuesday in late afternoon trade due to selling pressure in oil and gas, metal and consumer durable stocks and weak global cues. The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 18,514.72 points, was trading at 18,486.95 points, 55.36 points or 0.30 percent down from its previous day's close at 18,542.31 points. The Sensex touched a high of 18,580.48 and a low of 18,480.96 points in intra-day trade. The BSE midcap index was up 51.64 points, while the smallcap index was 47.24 points high. The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was also ruling 0.17 percent down at 5,600.20 points. On the sectoral front, the BSE oil and gas index was down 111.47 points while metal index was down 46.18 points and consumer durable index was down 25.28. The major Sensex gainers were BHEL, up 3.84 percent at Rs.221.60; Gail India, up 2.63 percent at Rs.386.45; SBI, up 2.55 percent at Rs.2,129.15; Jindal Steel, up 2.28 percent at Rs.403.55; and Infosys, up 1.63 percent at Rs.2,604.30. The main losers were Wipro, down 3.67 percent at Rs.370.05; Hindalco Inds, down 2.64 percent at Rs.114.15; TCS, 2.57 percent at Rs.1,306.45; RIL, 2.48 percent at Rs.852; and NTPC, down 1.83 percent at Rs.165.90. Among other Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei was down 0.39 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng was trading 0.27 percent lower. Shanghai's composite index was down 0.91 percent. The European markets were also in red. France's CAC was down 1.08 percent, while Germany's DAX fell 1.13 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 was trading 0.72 percent lower.

Mumbai, Sep 18 (IANS) Megastar Amitabh Bachchan says Anurag Basu's "Barfi!", which tackles a sensitive love story of a deaf and mute boy and an autistic girl, says the movie is a beacon of change in Indian cinema. "Indian Cinema, its films, directors, actors, technicians going through a magical phase of a change over ... such exciting times," tweeted the 69-year-old veteran. "Barfi!" has Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra in lead roles, with southern actress Ileana D'Cruz making her Bollywood debut in a key part. Big B can't stop praising the entire cast. "Ranbir Kapoor a masterful brilliant performance... Priyanka, simply unbelievable, and Anurag Basu's extraordinary making... In 'Barfi', the lovely Ileana d'Cruz in her debut for Hindi film... such a mature and balanced performance, many congratulations," he added.

Mumbai, Sep 18 (IANS) Actress Malaika Arora Khan, who began her tryst with showbiz as a video jockey on MTV, says she can never leave the small screen behind. "Television is my first love. I have been on television forever and I will continue to do so. I really enjoy myself on television," the 38-year-old said here. Malaika, who is a successful item girl in Bollywood with songs like "Chhaiya chhaiya", "Munni badnaam" and "Anarkali disco chali" to her credit, reveals that she has a special interest in dance shows. "I have been a part of television all my life and the shows that I do are very close to my heart, because I love dance. Every time there is a dance-related reality show, I am part of it," Malaika said. But this time, the former "Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa", "Nach Baliye" and "Zara Nachke Dikha" judge, has taken on the mantle of judging "India's Got Talent 4". "This is the first time I am doing a show like 'India's Got Talent', I have never done a show like that where I have to actually judge different kinds of talents," added Malaika, who will share the judges' panel on the show, with filmmaker Karan Johar and actress Kirron Kher. The new season of "India's Got Talent" goes on air Sep 22 on Colors.