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(CNN)Bollywood star Irrfan Khan, known internationally for his roles in "Life Of Pi" and "Slumdog Millionaire," died Wednesday, his representatives confirmed. He was 53. "It's saddening that this day, we have to bring forward the news of him passing away," read a statement from Khan's PR agency, Hardly Anonymous Communications. "Irrfan was a strong soul, someone who fought till the very end and always inspired everyone who came close to him." Khan, one of India's best-known and most beloved actors, revealed in March 2018 that he had been diagnosed with a rare neuroendocrine tumor -- an abnormal growth that begin...

Khan, was previously diagnosed with a neuroendocrine tumour in 2018 and underwent extensive treatment in London. He recovered well enough to shoot what would turn out to be his last film “Angrezi Medium..." After a brief stint in television, Khan made his film debut with a cameo in 1988 with Mira Nair’s Oscar-nominated “Salaam Bombay.” He returned to Indian television for the next decade. He shot to global prominence playing the lead in Asif Kapadia’s BAFTA winner “The Warrior” in 2001. His major breakthrough in Indian cinema was in 2004 where he played Macbeth in Vishal Bharadwaj’s “Maqbool” and the...

Sushil Kumar has become the first ever man to win India’s $1 million grand prize on its version of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.” The story closely resembles that of the inspirational 2008 Academy Award winner “Slumdog Millionaire.” Kumar, from the poor East Indian town of Bihar, is employed as a computer data entry operator and earns barely enough to get by. He shared that he grew up without as much as a television set, as his family could not afford one. His win has made him a national icon who gives hope to millions of India’s poor that...

The poverty-stricken father of "Slumdog Millionaire" child star Rubina Ali plans to become a millionaire himself-by selling his 9-year-old daughter. In a bid to escape India's real-life slums, Rafiq Qureshi put Rubina up for adoption, demanding millions of rupees worth 200,000 British pounds ($295,560). As he offered the deal to the News of the World's undercover fake sheik this week, Rafiq declared: "I have to consider what's best for me, my family and Rubina's future." Rafiq tried to blame Hollywood bosses for forcing him to put his daughter up for sale.

Just saw it, and in my opinion it is a vastly over-hyped, thinly-disguised Muslim apologetic. Coming from Hollywood, what else would you expect?

Worth linking since the story’s already out there and it comes from a reporter at a major paper who seems to have witnessed it herself. Even so, especially after TV Newser and HuffPo uncritically posted the John Gibson “bright blue scrotum” smear, I’m erring on the side of out-of-context until there’s a full write-up. Bobby Jindal was ‘pitiful,’ Helen Thomas tells film crew, right before making a ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ crack

One would think a novelist would understand the concept of “creative license.” But not Salman Rushdie. He’s offended that Slumdog Millionaire contains scenes that (gasp) aren’t realistic. The Indian-born author recently told an audience at Atlanta’s Emory University that the Academy Award-winning film “piles impossibility on impossibility.” Rushdie, who gained more fame for hiding than he ever did for writing, spent years cowering in a closet after Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwah against him in 1989. The author of “The Satanic Verses” was in a tizzy that the...

Is India ready to accept Slumdog Millionaire? 14 Jan, 2009 We’ve been reading the following lines in newspapers, TV, net etc almost everyday – ‘The world has given its verdict on Slumdog Millionaire , now it awaits India’s reaction’. Slumdog Millionaire is all set to release in India on January 23 and while the world is raving about it, is Mumbai ready to see its underbelly being exposed in the most brutal way on the big screen that too by a British director? Anil Kapoor who is also a part of the film reacted, “ Slumdog Millionaire has captured the...