Entertainment

The President reopens the newly upgraded Olympus building

Published

1 year ago

05/02/2023

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on Saturday officially reopened the Olympus building following a significant modernisation and upgrading project of the cinema and theatre. The building was renovated and modernised as part of the administration’s policy on providing avenues to promote the creative skills and talent of the youth.

The project was funded by the government and a “High Impact Community Development Project” grant from the government of India. Improvements made to the theatre building include the installation of a retractable motorised screen, a modern digital projector, new surround sound and lighting systems, a control room, and the addition of practise rooms and changing rooms.

The upgrades to the theatre also include a more spacious café, a backyard stage for small events and concerts, and ramps for wheelchair accessibility. Olympus was opened 64 years ago, in 1959, and paved the way for developing the music, motion picture, and performing arts industries.

First Lady Fazna Ahmed, High Commissioner of India to the Maldives, Ministers and entertainment industry stakeholders attended the ceremony.

Source(s): President Office.

Entertainment

Music sensation Yohani’s first trip to Maldives

Published

1 year ago

29/10/2022

By; Fathimath Lauza.

Manike mage hite mudle nara hangum yave avilevi….’ There are few individuals who do not know what this melody is. The delicate and excellent song of the melody has been memorized.
This is one of the melodies that brought coolness and delight to everyone’s hearts and associated everybody around the world with music.
The cherish melody, sung by Sri Lankan artist Yohannes De Silva, has been tuned in to more than 200 million times on YouTube. She is right now in Maldives .This is her first music performance in Maldives. Yohani is the uncommon visitor of the Chanacha music show. Yohani does not have a place to a melodic family. But since childhood he played music and sang. His mother to begin with instructed him to play a melodic instrument.
Her guardians have organized and backed her music career. In 2016, she made her possess YouTube channel whereas practicing melodies by different craftsmen. YouTube was her to begin with major stage amid the lockdown.
“Everybody had to remain at domestic and had nothing to do. I thought I’d sing a cover melody,” she said. She said she never thought the song would ended up so well known whereas sitting on the couch at domestic. There’s no particular arrange or procedure behind the song’s victory. Everybody was impressed by Yohani’s wonderful voice, expert articulation and lovely melody.
Before working full-time within the music industry, Yohani worked within the corporate segment. This may shock numerous individuals. But she had a master’s degree in bookkeeping. But indeed whereas considering in a totally distinctive field,she doesn’t turn absent from music. “When I was examining in Australia, I would go domestic after lesson and sing a melody and record it,” she said.
She is as of now working for a major Indian record label. She lives in Mumbai, India, singing for huge Bollywood stars. No one would have thought that a vocalist from a South Asian nation like Sri Lanka would gotten to be a world prevalent star.

Entertainment

2022 Mid-Autumn Festival Gala: A family feast for Chinese worldwide

Published

2 years ago

11/09/2022

MNN

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, is celebrated by millions of people on the 15th day of the eighth month on the Chinese lunar calendar. This year, the day falls on September 10.

The Mid-autumn festival is not just about family reunions. It’s also about the joy of harvesting, romance and the harmony between humans and nature.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a synthesis of seasonal customs in autumn, and most of the festival elements it contains have ancient origins. An essential part of the festival celebration is moon worshipping. In ancient agrarian societies, people believed that the moon’s operation was closely related to agricultural production and seasonal changes, so the Moon Festival became a critical ritual activity.

Since ancient times, there have been many legends about the moon in China. For the Chinese, the moon is symbolized as being holy, pure and noble. Over tens of thousands of poems describing the moon have been recorded.

There are many interesting stories explaining the origin of the festival. The story of Chang’e and Hou Yi is the most widely accepted. Long ago there was a beautiful lady, Chang’e, whose husband was a brave archer, Hou Yi. But one day she drank a bottle of elixir that made her immortal to honor her husband’s instructions to keep it safe. Then she was separated from her beloved husband, floating up into the sky, and finally landing on the moon, where she lives to this day.

In modern times the festival has evolved to the point where eating mooncakes has become a custom throughout China. Folk customs feature a series of festive activities such as moon viewing with families, guessing lantern riddles, carrying brightly lit lanterns, performing dragon and lion dances and more.

CMG’s Mid-Autumn Festival Gala

Presented by China Media Group (CMG), the annual gala, also known as Qiuwan in Chinese, began at 8 p.m. Beijing Time on September 10 and lasted over two hours, presenting a creative and excellent extravaganza to audiences from all over the world.

The gala was divided into three chapters, started with Kunqu Opera and Pingtan (a regional musical/oral performance art). It presented a unique “Suzhou-style Mid-Autumn Festival” show with the cultural characteristics of waterfront towns south of the Yangtze River.

The gala featured an all-star cast. In Jiyang Lake Park at Zhangjiagang of Jiangsu Province, the main venue, Chinese stars including Li Yugang, Huang Ling and Na Ying staged various styles of songs. Among the many moon-themed songs were new renditions of traditional Chinese poetry of the great poets of the past.

Shenzhou-14 taikonauts Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe spent the first ever “Mid-Autumn Festival in Space” on China’s space station. The three taikonauts recorded an exclusive video for the gala, sending their Mid-Autumn wishes and a “lucky star” to the Chinese people worldwide.

As an annual event that unites Chinese people worldwide, CMG’s Mid-Autumn Festival Gala has attracted widespread attention from domestic and international media since its official announcement.

Over the Moon – CGTN’s Mid-Autumn Festival Live Show

On the day of the festival, CGTN also brought the “Over the Moon – Mid-Autumn Festival Live Show” to global audiences to showcase the vigor and charm of traditional Chinese culture from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.

The Live Show strung together a series of featured programs including “The Chat Room”, VIBE’s Mid-Autumn special edition, Mid-Autumn Night in Dunhuang, and CMG’s Mid-Autumn Festival gala.

For thousands of years, the full moon and the family reunion have been the consistent themes of the Mid-Autumn Festival, along with sipping tea, reciting poems, talking about different traditions in various countries, enjoy the “moon” and even interacting with “the jade rabbit” in the XR virtual scene and travel through ancient and modern times to celebrate the festival; the six-hour live show featured some of the best Mid-Autumn Festival programs and videos produced by CGTN using advanced audiovisual technology.

Source: CGTN

Entertainment

‘Life is just like a golgappa’: Bollywood announces ‘Forrest Gump’ remake

Published

2 years ago

10/08/2022

MNN

The adaptation promises to take people through India’s history in the same way Gump stumbled through and influenced major US events like the Vietnam War, and will keep several iconic scenes from the original.

One of India’s biggest stars is banking on a remake of Hollywood feelgood hit “Forrest Gump” to revive the fortunes of Hindi-language Bollywood, after a string of weak box-office showings.

Aamir Khan’s “Laal Singh Chaddha”, an adaptation of the 1994 US classic starring Tom Hanks, hits cinemas on Thursday ahead of India’s 75th independence celebrations.

Khan, 57, admitted that he initially put off reading Kulkarni’s script, uncertain it would be possible to adapt such a “cult classic”.

“It’s like saying we are remaking ‘Mughal-e-Azam’ and ‘Mother India’. It’s not a wise thing to do,” he said, referring to two Indian classics.

“But when I heard the script, I understood he’s done it. It was a moving experience for me. I really loved it. The moment I heard it I wanted to do this.”

Bollywood star Kareena Kapoor, 41, who plays Singh’s lifelong friend Rupa, based on Robin Wright’s Jenny Curran, said the plot was “timeless” with a love story at its core.

“I wondered how they would play around with such an iconic film,” added Naga Chaitanya, a Telugu-language star from the southern film industry “Tollywood” who plays Bala, an adaptation of Gump’s shrimp-fishing Vietnam comrade Bubba.

“But the way they have conceived the film for Indian cinema is unique.”

Box of golgappas

The adaptation keeps several iconic scenes from the original — which netted six Oscars, including for Best Picture — such as a floating white feather, ping-pong playing and lots of running.

But there are several changes, with Gump’s “box of chocolates” line becoming “Life is just like a golgappa. Your tummy might feel full, but your heart always craves more.”

Golgappa is a popular Indian snack, while the second half of the saying — “you never know what you’re gonna get” in the original — draws from a common Hindi phrase.

The film promises to take people through India’s history in the same way Gump stumbled through and influenced major US events like the Vietnam War.

This could irk Indian right-wing critics who have already called for a boycott of the film because of comments made by Khan in 2015 that were deemed to be “unpatriotic”.

Khan, the star of megahit “Dangal” (2016), and screenwriter Atul Kulkarni were coy in sharing what Indian historical settings would be featured.

Kulkarni would only say that his script was a “beautiful story about a beautiful country called India through a beautiful person called Laal Singh”.

Disappointing takings for other Bollywood A-listers have cast a pall over an industry still recovering from Covid-19 lockdown losses when many in movie-mad India turned to streaming giants like Netflix and Disney+ Hotstar.