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AGNI -II MISSILE

Indian scientists again proved their talent by successfully tested the nuclear capable Agni-II missiles from a defense base in Orissa. This surface-to-surface as missile with a strike range of up to 2,000 km was testing-fired in this morning from the Wheeler’s Island near Dhamara in the district of Bhadrak. It was a user trial conducted by the Army and scientists from Defense Research and Development Organization and the aim of this test was to give the army confidence to fire the missile on its own without the help of defense scientists. This missile after three successful trials by DRDO is ready for production. 20 meters long Agni II missile is a part of India’s Integrated Guided Missile Development Program and it can be fired from both rail and road mobile launchers. It takes only 15 minutes for the missile to be readied for firing.

ABOUT AGNI -II MISSILE

Agni-II is the medium range ballistic missile. It has a range of 2,000–2,500 km. It was developed due to the security challenges from China and Pakistan. India started work on Agni-II in 1997. This missile is 20 m in length with a diameter of 1.3 m in the first and second stages, and it can be fitted with 150 or 200 kT yield nuclear warheads, in addition to chemical, high-explosive, and sub munition versions. The main strength of this missile is its relatively high accuracy, especially at close range, due to its combination of an internal guidance system, a Global Positioning Satellite system, and radar correlation. This missile was first tested on 1999 from Wheeler’s Island in the Bay of Bengal. The test was conducted from a rail car launcher. In 2001, the Agni-2 was tested from a mobile launch vehicle (TEL). At that same year, approximately five Agni-2 missiles became operational and 10 missiles yearly are produced from 2001. This missile always be in a ready-to-fire mode and can be launched within 15 minutes. Agni-II missiles are used by 555th Missile Group of the Indian Army. Today, 2,000 km range version of Agni-II missiles were successfully tested from a defense base in Orissa.

INTERNATIONAL INDIAN FILM ACADEMY (IIFA) AWARDS

All the people are waiting for the announcement of this year IIFA awards . IIFA award ceremony is the biggest award ceremony that brings Indian cinema to the world. This award ceremony is organized by “International Indian Film Academy” for their effort to promote Indian Cinema globally. It is designed by India’s first and premier event management and entertainment agency”Wizcraft International Entertainment Pvt. Ltd”. Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan is the brand ambassador of IIFA. This big celebration is held on every year since 2000. This celebration of Indian Cinema consisting of fun-filled activities that bring the fans close to their favorite stars and highlight of this ceremony are that honors the best of Indian cinema. Moreover, it is the only award ceremony where the entire film industry votes for the nominated films, which are then opened for the public for voting worldwide. There is various categories IIFA Awards ceremony including Best Movie, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Art Direction, Best Action, Best Background Score, Best Cinematography, Best Choreography etc. The first IIFA award ceremony was held in 2000 in London at The Millennium Dome. After that these award ceremonies are held in various places around the world including Yorkshire, Dubai, Amsterdam, Singapore, Johannesburg, Genting Highlands, Sun City and London. The last event was held at Bangkok, Thailand in 2008. In this event, Bollywood film “Chak De India” won the best film award. Shah Rukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor are selected as a best actor and actress. Shimit Amin for a best directions, A.R. Rahman for best music director, Shaan for a best male playback singer, Shreya Ghoshal for best female playback singer was also a winner of IIFA 2008 awards. The 10th edition of IIFA awards will be held in Macau from 11th June to the 13th June 2009.

10th EDITION OF IIFA AWARDS

The 10th edition of IIFA awards will be held in Macau located on the southeast coast of China from June 11 to 13th June 2009. This mega ceremony would be hosted by a tourist resort in Macau named Venetian Macau. Macau is rich with textile industries, electronics and toys and a notable tourist industry, and it makes Maca as one of the richest cities in the world. Venetian Macau resort is considered as the Las Vegas of Asia, and it has 3,000 rooms and leisure spots and also housed a 1.2 m sq ft retail space. However, hope that this mega event would open the doors for Indian tourists and visitors to explore this tourist resort. Hope that Abhishek Bachchan and Ritesh Deshmukh will be hosting this award ceremony. Moreover, expect that over 500 celebrities including Slumdog Millionaire actors will be attending this mega ceremony. In 10th edition of IIFA awards, along with the award ceremony, it also includes world premieres of Indian films, various film festival activities, FICCI IIFA Global Business Forum and IIFA Fashion Extravaganza. In this edition, another two special awards like ‘Best of the Decade’ and ‘Green IIFA’ are also included. ‘Best of the Decade’ will be given for the five popular categories of Best Film, Director, Actor, Actress and Music Composer. ‘Green IIFA’ will be presented to a film personality who has been working in the area of creating environment awareness. The winners of the technical award’s categories and the nominees of this edition of IIFA Awards have already been announced. Bollywood film “Jodhaa Akbar” won 5 awards in technical category including best background score, best costume design, best editing, best art direction and best make-up. Another hit film “Ghajini” won 3 awards in best action, best sound recording and best visual / special effects. Best Film category in the nominaltion list include the films “A Wednesday”, “Dostana”, “Ghajini”, “Jodhaa Akbar”, “Race” and “Rock On”. Also the nominees list includes Sharukh Khan and Aamir Khan for the Best Actor nomination for their roles in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Ghajini respectively. Best actress category nomination list includes Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra and Asin and best director category includes A.R. Murugadoss for “Ghajini”, Abhishek Kapoor for ” Rock On!!”, Ashutosh Gowariker for “Jodhaa Akbar”, Neeraj Pandey for “A Wednesday!” and Madhur Bhandarkar for “Fashion”. Musical genius A.R.Rahman appears twice in the nomination list for the Best Music Director categories for his music for the flims “Jodhaa Akbar” and “Ghajini”. Now all people waiting for the result of 10th edition of IIFA awards, which will be announced on the night of the ‘IIFA Awards 2009′ that will be held on June 13, 2009 at the Venetian- Macau.

IIFA AWARD WINNERS

The winners of 10th edition of IIFA awards were announced on 13th June in Macau. Bollywood’s famous director Ashutosh Gowarikar’s historic love film “Jodhaa Akbar”, bagged 10 awards including best film, best director, best actor to this edition of IIFA awards. This film’s director Ashutosh Gowarikar was selected as the best director and Bollywood’s heartthrob Hrithik Roshan was selected as the best actor for his performance as Akbar in this film. Oscar-winning musician A R Rahman won the best music director award for the same film and the famous lyricist Javed Akhtar won the best lyricist award for his song ‘Jashn-e-Bahara’ and also Javed Ali gained best playback male singer award for the same movie. This film faced tough competition from the films like ‘Ghajini’, ‘A Wednesday’, ‘Dostana’, ‘Rock On’ and ‘Race’. Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra won the best actress award for her power-packed performance in the film ‘Fashion’ directed by Madhur Bhandarkar. Actor Arjun Rampal won best supporting role actor award for his performance in the film ‘Rock On’. Kangana Ranaut won best supporting role actress award for her performance as a troubled supermodel in ‘Fashion’, Akshaye Khanna won the best negative role for ‘Race’, Neeraj Pandey gained the trophy for best story for his film on terrorism ‘A Wednesday’. He also won the technical award of the best scriptwriter for the same film. Actor Abhishek Bachchan won the best actor in comic roles for his gay act in Karan Johar’s ‘Dostana’ and his wife Aiswary Rai won the award for outstanding achievement by an Indian in international cinema. The winners of the awards are in the following,

Best Actor in a Leading Role - Male : Hrithik Roshan - Jodhaa Akbar

Best Actor in a Leading Role - Female : Priyanka Chopra - Fashion

Best Director : Ashutosh Gowariker - Jodhaa Akbar

Best Actor in a Supporting Role- Male : Arjun Rampal - Rock On!!

Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Female : Kangana Ranaut - Fashion

Best Actor in a Negative Role : Akshaye Khanna - Race

Best Story : Neeraj Pandey - A Wednesday!

Best Debutant Star - Male : Farhan Akhtar

Best Debutant Star - Female : Asin

Outstanding Achievement by an Indian in International Cinema : Aishwarya Bachchan

Best Actor in a Comic Role : Abhishek Bachchan - Dostana

Best Music : A R Rahman - Jodhaa Akbar

Best Lyrics : Javed Akhtar - Jashn-E-Bahara (Jodhaa Akbar)

Best Playback Singer - Male : Javed Ali - Jashn-e-Baharaa (Jodhaa Akbar)

Best Playback Singer - Female : Shreya Ghoshal - Teri Ore (Singh is Kinng)

Lifetime Achievement Award : Rajesh Khanna

Style Diva : Bipasha Basu

Director of the Decade : Rakesh Roshan

Style Icon of the Decade : Hrithik Roshan

Star of the Decade - Male : Shahrukh Khan

Star of the Decade - Female : Aishwarya Bachchan

Music Director of the Decade : A R Rahman

Best Dailogue : Manu Rishi - Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!

Best Screenplay : Neeraj Pandey - A Wednesday!

Best Choreography : Farah Khan - Desi Girl (Dostana)

Best Cinematography : Jason West - Rock On!!

Best Sound Editing : Ghajini

Best Sound Recording : Ghajini

Best Action : Ghajini

Best Sound Recording : Resul Pookutty and Amrit - Ghajini

Best Song Recording : Purple Haze - Rock On!!

Best Action : Peter Heins and Stun Siva - Ghajini

Best Visual / Special Effects : Prime Focus - Ghajini

Best Editing : Ballu Saluja - Jodhaa Akbar

Best Make-up : Madhav Kadam - Jodhaa Akbar

Best Art Direction : Nitin Chandrakant Desai - Jodhaa Akbar

Best Costume Award : Neeta Lulla - Jodhaa Akbar

Best Background Score : A R Rahman

Best Sound Re-recording : Leslie Fernandes - Race