Manisha Koirala saves Miss Nepal pageant

Though its biggest sponsor Dabur Nepal abandoned Miss Nepal, Nepal's oldest and best-known beauty pageant, Bollywood diva Manisha Koirala threw her weight behind the once beleaguered contest, appearing as a judge at the grand finale. The 41-year-old actor, who held India's Hindi film industry under her sway in the 1990s, was easily the biggest celebrity at the show held at the Army Club in Kathmandu.

 

She had a simple question for the 15th contestant, Bishnu Chemjong, asking if it was better to be kind or to have integrity. A flustered Bishnu said a person who was kind had integrity as well.

 

At the end of the nearly three-hour show which, however, did not have a swim suit round out of deference to conservatives, Manisha was heard saying she was impressed with the 19 contestants, especially with the five finalists, any of whom could have become the new Miss Nepal. The silver crown studded with rubies finally went to Malina Joshi, a confident business management student from Sunsari in southern Nepal, thanks to her answer to the ... 

 

The 23-year-old replied that women were already ruling the world with their perseverance and dedication. Once known as the Dabur Vatika Hidden Treasure Miss Nepal pageant, the contest this year was a pale shadow of its former self with Dabur Nepal pulling out after suffering years of obstruction from the women's wing of the Maoist party.

 

Though the protesters said they wanted the pageant to stop because it degraded woman and displayed them as commodity, the anger was actually directed towards the Indian multinational company's subsidiary since they allowed dozens of other beauty contests to be held without any disruption.

 

After Dabur Nepal's pullout this year, the organisers, the Hidden Treasure, roped in Nepal Lever as the new sponsor and the pageant was repositioned as the Lux Hidden Treasure Miss Nepal 2011. However, though the funding and gifts for the winners decreased, there were no protests and the media trained its spotlight as one on the contest.

 

Last year, several media organisations had blacked out the show due to a fallout with Dabur Nepal after it stopped advertising with them. This year's contest had an Eid gift for the Muslim community with the first Muslim contestant winning an award. Madina Begum was crowned Miss Perseverance.

Celebs & their pets

I have four dogs. Animals can immediately sense when you are sad. Whenever I get depressed, my dogs come to me to give me company. It is not that I do not trust humans. To be honest I trust my animal friends more. The best way to see the trust of a person is through your bad times," SRK revealed.

 

Like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Koena Mitra too has got seven puppies at her home. They all belong to toy breed and she got them from exotic counries.

 

Koena has named them Cookie, Jerry, Jiggy, Missy, Fluffy etc

 

Salman Khan with his pet dog Myson, who died of heart ailment while he was shooting for 'London Dreams'

 

Stay away from Fardeen Khan's dogs. They are named Tiger and Gunda!

 

Esha Deol's pet pooch is called Piccola

 

File photo of Rekha with her pet dog Pisti. After Pisti's death, Rekha adopted another pet dog Shiva.

 

Shreyas Talpade has two pet labradors - Don and Knight

 

Manisha Koirala with her two Persian cats - Mischief and Morgan.

You are sure gonna love Tusshar's dog, for his name is Whiskey!

Bollywood's Lost and Found Stars

2011 has been a year of blockbusters, (South) remakes, sequels and comebacks.
While many successful actresses of the 90 are making a comeback in films, there are a few others who have suddenly come up after missing in action from B-town and that cannot exactly be called a ‘comeback’.
These are stars who were lost but have, now been found and are back on the Bollywood bandwagon.

Zayed Khan

 

If you are surprised why Zayed Khan is in the list, try to think when the last time you saw him in a full fledged role was. After making slight cameos in films like ‘Blue’ and ‘Anjaana Anjaani’ Zayed is finally back as the ‘hero’ with ‘Love Breakups Zindagi’.

Chitrangada Singh

 

Chitrangada stormed her way into the film scene with movies like ‘Hazaaron Khwahishei Aisi’ and ‘Kal: Yesterday and Tomorrow’ she disappeared, and totally, from Bollywood for 3 years. She made a not-so-great comeback with ‘Sorry Bhai’ in 2008 but this year, she raked in some great reviews with the film ‘Yeh Saali Zindagi’ early this year. With a number of projects in hand, Chitrangadha seems to here to stay.

 

Tabu

 

Tabu has not been quite active in Bollywood since2007. She acted in the movie ‘Toh Baat Pakki’ which came and went without much notice. Post the film she acted in a couple of South Indian movies. This year, however, she has signed a number of Hindi movies which should ensure that we see her around more often.

 

Shefali Shah

Shefali Shah has acted in only in a handful of films but her films have always been tasteful and she has been lauded for each of her roles since ‘Satya’. Her last outing, ‘The Last Lear’, though it fetched her a National Award, was not noticed as much. She came back in the real sense with this year’s release ‘Kuch Love Jaisa’. Though the film did not perform well at the box-office, her fresh look in the film was raved about.

Manisha Koirala

 

 Manisha Koirala, a top actress of the 90’s acted in the 2010 dud “Ek Second Jo Zindagi Badal De’ and has not really acted in a major film since 2007. She got married to Nepali businessman, Samrat Dahal last year and not much of her was heard since. This year, she acted in the film, ‘I Am’ and her sensitive portrayal of a Muslim woman was beautiful and praise-worthy. Manisha will also be seen in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s film ‘My Friend Pinto’ later this year.