Miss Venezuela Stefania Fernandez won the Miss Universe 2009 beauty pageant held in Nassau, Bahamas. The 18 year old Fernandez who is of Russian, Ukrainian, Galician and Polish origin bested young women from 83 countries. Miss Australia Rachael Finch and Miss Puerto Rico Mayra Matos Perez shared the first runners up title with the the title of second runner-up went to Miss Kosovo Gona Dragusha.

Fernandez who enjoys tennis and swimming inherited the coveted Miss Universe crown from fellow Venezuelan Dayana Mendoza who won the competition in 2008. The Latin American nation of 20 million people could very well become the beauty capital of the world. Venezuela has won five Miss Universe titles, five Miss World and four Miss International crowns more than any other country in the world.

Shooting of ace director Mani Ratnam's new film Ravana,' which is scheduled to be held in Khireshwar village near Malshez ghat on Ahmednagar-Kalyan road, about 90 km from the city, from August 28, has ran into trouble as the forest department, Ottur range in Pune rural, has registered complaint against the villagers for illegally erecting two sheds, and dumping materials used for erecting sets on forest land without obtaining permission.

However, director Mani Ratnam has not been booked in the case as he cannot be held liable for the acts done by the villagers as the local coordinator of the film did not obtain permission on time to use the forest land for shooting, said sub-divisional forest officer Sadashiv Raut on Friday.

"The forest department had handed over some parts of the land surrounding the Pimpal-Joga dam to the irrigation department, Pune, in 1992. As per the law, the land remains a reserved forest. The dam water is used for irrigation. Besides this, no other activity is allowed in the reserved forest areas unless permission is obtained from the competent authority," Raut told TOI.

He added: "Mani Ratnam had visited the village sometime back and had decided to shoot a part of the film here as the location had resemblance with the ancient setting he had in mind for the film. Ratnam is presently shooting in Kerala."

Raut said, at the behest of a local film coordinator, the villagers had constructed temporary sheds and had filled potholes on an unsurfaced excess in the forest. "The materials required for shooting was transported in vehicles and dumped on the forest land illegally," Raut added.

The incident came to light after deputy conservator of forest S B Shelke inspected the forest on August 13 and 14, following a tip-off.

Range forest officer B B Jadhav and forester G M Jadhav has filed a complaint against "10 to 14" villagers for allegedly committing an offence punishable under sections 26 (a) (acts prohibited in such forests. Makes any fresh clearing) of Indian Forest Act, 1927 and 2 (restriction on the preservation of forests or use of forest land) of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.

The complaint which was registered on August 14 was made public on Friday as the action taken by the forest department had disappointed the villagers.

Raut has identified four villagers as Ravindra Bhutte, Pathare, Waghle and Mozad (full names not known). The identity of the other villagers has not yet been ascertained.

Meanwhile, the film coodinator deposited a fine of Rs 16,000 after the forest officials seized a truck, a JCB machine and four trolleys. The coordination has also sought permission from Shelke to conduct 13 days of shooting at the rate of Rs 15,000 per day, and has also given a security deposit of Rs 10,000 which may be forfeited if they cause any wrongful loss to the forest land, Raut added.

The forest officials has also reported the incident to the court of judicial magistrate first class at Junnar as per the procedure.

The stars of the film, Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Govinda and other film personalities will visit the village for the shooting.

When all the film makers these days are coming up with short and specific films, Ashutosh Gowariker on the other hand seems very content about his long and elaborate films. What’s Your Raashee?, his latest flick, is once again a three hour-long tale, wherein the film will have 13 songs. In the current scenario where even the multiplexes favour films with two-hours of running time, Ashutosh doesn’t seem to be bothered at all.

According to him the length of the film has nothing to do with its success and if that is the reason then films like Lagaan and Jodhaa Akbar wouldn’t have done well at all.

The film is based on a well-known novel Kimball Ravenswood, by Madhu Rye. The story is about a groom and his rendezvous with 12 prospective brides. According to Ashutosh it was not an easy job to picturise all the characters and tracks from the original novel. With the permission of the author the entire novel was modified to make a film out of it.

Well with three and a half hours of reel, it looks like Hurman Baweja has to struggle really hard to find out all about the 12 avatars of his ex-flame Priyanka Chopra.

The world knows that Salman Khan mentored Katrina Kaif and acted as her godfather for her in Bollywood. But the truth is that Ayesha Shroff, actor Jackie Shroff’s wife did all the hard work to pave Katrina's way into the industry. Like many other celebrities in the tinsel town Katrina has completely forgotten Ayesha and never bothered to keep in touch with her.

After remaining silent for years Ayesha has revealed some of Katrina's unknown secrets. Biggest of all Katrina Kaif's real name is Katrina Turquotte. Since the English surname was difficult to pronounce they changed it to Kaif after even thinking of naming her Katrina Kazi. Ayesha added that the name on Katrina's passport when she came to India was Katrina Turquotte.

Katrina always maintained that her Kaif surname was due to her Kashmiri father but Ayesha did not give much weight to her claim. Ayesha also revealed that she was the first person to make Katrina aware of Bollywood and it was only later that she came in contact with beau Salman Khan [^]. Ayesha though is a shade upset as Katrina never acknowledged her role and did not even bother to keep in touch with her.

They are being held today at the NCPA, 1 pm onwards, the grandeur of the venue providing an admirable platform for the prestige of the awards. And the presentation itself being made in the distinguished presence of union ministers and MPs, the presidents of the MRCC and MPCC, and Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan.

Preceded by a grand entertainment extravaganza in which Hrithik Roshan and Priyanka Chopra will perform among several others, to be shown later on Sony TV, on September 6, at 8 pm.

There are 12 awards in all and they are meant to honour achievers who are a part of India’s progress into the 21st century. Which, in a way, is a salute to the passion and energy of the recipients for keeping alive Rajiv Gandhi’s dream of a progressive India. “He was the architect of modern India,” says Sapra, “and the awards ceremony is synonymous with India’s future.”

Strangely, Sapra had only one meeting in his political career with the former prime minister. “It lasted two minutes and was at the Shanmukhananda Hall in 1988,” he says regretfully. “After that, we lost Rajivji forever.”

Sapra was an impressionable young NSUI office bearer then. But Rajiv Gandhi must have impressed him greatly. For when he became the Mumbai Youth Congress president in 1995, Sapra felt he had the “responsibility and position” to do something that would keep alive the vision of his beloved leader.

He thought up the awards, Sunil Dutt told him to name them after Rajiv Gandhi, and the first presentation ceremony was held at the August Kranti Maidan on December 28, that year. “That was the 110th birth anniversary of the Congress,” recalls Sapra. “But since then, the awards are held on August 19th, the eve of Rajivji’s birth anniversary.”

That is how it has been, and the categories for the awards have risen over the years to number 12 in all now. They are given to personalities in Education, Sports, Industry, Journalism and Entertainment (Best Actor and Actress), and also to a Global Indian, a Super Achiever, a Young Entrepreneur, a Woman Achiever, a Child Prodigy, and to somebody in the Social Field.

Past recipients have included such eminent Indians from diverse fields as Mukesh Ambani, Kapil Dev, Anna Hazare, Adi Godrej, Sachin Tendulkar, Shah Rukh Khan, Sania Mirza, Aishwarya Rai (Bachchan), Sant Singh Chatwal, Dhanraj Pillai and Anand Mahindra among many others.

This year, the awardees include Times Group MD Vineet Jain for Industry, Olympic shooter Abhinav Bindra for Sports, Narendra Jadhav for Education, Ramesh Chandra Agarwal for Journalism, Bollywood actors Shahid Kapoor and Katrina Kaif for Entertainment, while Sam Pitroda (Global Indian), G Madhavan Nair (Super Achiever), Rajashree Birla (Social Field), Rohit Kochhar (Young Entrepreneur), Krushnaa Patil (Women Achiever) and Avika Gor (Child Prodigy) complete the list. According to Sapra, “They have all done something for the country that will make the younger generation emulate them... just as we are all enjoying the fruits today of Rajivji’s enterprise then.”

Alongwith a trophy, the recipients are presented a copy of the book Rajiv’s World by Sonia Gandhi, which is not available anywhere in the world. Sapra discovered he did not have copies to give this year. “I was disheartened,” he says, “so I wrote to Madam Sonia Gandhi, and she sent me copies out of her stock!”