Suraj Panwar wins silver in men's 5000m race walk, boxing challenge ends at Youth Olympic Games
Buenos Aires, Oct 16: Suraj Panwar clinched a silver in men's 5000m race walk event to open India's medal account in athletics at the Youth Olympic Games but country's boxing challenge ended with quarter final defeat of Jyoti Gulia, here.
Panwar won the stage 2 competition by clocking 20 minutes and 35.87 seconds on Monday night but finished second overall.
In a new format, there are no finals in track and field (with the exception of 4km cross-country) in the Youth Olympics and each event is held twice, with results from both rounds counting towards the final standings.
The 17-year-old Panwar had finished second in the first stage in 20.23.30s, behind Patin Oscar of Ecuador.
Oscar, who finished second in Stage 2, won the gold with timings of 20:13.69s and 20:38.17s.
Panwar's total time of 40:59.17s was over seven minutes slower than Oscar's 40:51.86s. Puerto Rico's Jan Moreau finished third to claim the bronze.
This is India's first athletics medal in this edition and third overall. Arjun (men's discus throw) and Durgesh Kumar (men's 400m hurdles) had won a silver each in the inaugural edition in 2010.
"It's a great feeling. I am very happy to have won a medal. I had put in a lot of hard work for the Games. It is my first medal for India," Panwar said after winning the silver medal.
"My next target is to better my performance here and win a medal in the senior level also," he added.
India's boxing challenge though ended at the very first hurdle after former world champion Jyoti (51kg) lost her quarterfinal bout to Italy's Martina La Piana.
Gulia was the lone Indian boxer to qualify for the Games owing to her world title and lost in a unanimous 0-5 verdict to the Italian on Monday night.
The 17-year-old Indian from Haryana was expected to do well at the event given that she was coming off a gold medal winning performance at the Silesian Open in Gliwice, Poland last month.
India's maiden and only set of medals in the Youth Olympics' boxing competition came in the inaugural edition of 2010.
Shiva Thapa and Vikas Krishan delivered a silver and a bronze medal respectively, which remain India's best performance. While Shiva won his silver in the 54kg category, Vikas finished with a bronze in the 60kg division.
In 2014, the best that India managed in boxing was Gaurav Solanki's fourth-place finish. Solanki (52kg) won the gold medal in this year's Commonwealth Games.
Meanwhile, archer Himani was eliminated from the women's individual recurve event after losing her 1/8 match 4-6 to American Catalina Noriega.
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It’s not a marketing gimmick: Vipul Shah on making ‘The Kerala Story 2’
Mumbai (PTI): Filmmaker Vipul Shah says he felt compelled to make a sequel to "The Kerala Story", his controversial 2023 movie about religious conversion, as he wanted to expose a "much larger evil" that extends beyond Kerala and across the country.
The sequel, titled “The Kerala Story 2: Goes Beyond”, hit theatres last week amid a huge controversy. The film depicts the stories of three Hindu women from different states who defy their families to marry Muslim men and are subsequently forced to convert.
Shah, who has co-written the film and produced it through the banner Sunshine Pictures, said there was no pre-planned franchise strategy after the first film, which earned over Rs 300 crore at the box office and won two National Awards.
“There was no plan to make even ‘Kerala Story 2’. But after ‘Kerala Story 1’, we started getting lots of stories, I realised that there is a much larger evil persisting not just in Kerala but across the country and we’ve to tell this story because it is much bigger and different than what happened in ‘Kerala Story 1’ and that's why we decided to make part 2.
"It was not like a marketing gimmick that, ‘Let's make part two, it's a good brand, let's take it forward’. No, nothing like that,” Shah told PTI in an interview.
While the first part, which was also based on the religious conversion and radicalisation of young women, was directed by Sudipto Sen, the follow-up is helmed by Kamakhya Narayan Singh.
Asked if there will be a third part of the franchise, Shah said there are no concrete plans yet.
“But if there are compelling stories coming our way, some new facts will come to light, maybe we will want to tell that story. But as of today, there is no plan,” he added.
While the creative process of making the sequel was “intense and passionate”, the release has been anything but smooth.
After its trailer was released online, the movie was labelled as hate propaganda by many on social media and in political circles.
Last week, a single bench of the Kerala High Court stayed the film’s release for 15 days. Shah subsequently moved a division bench in appeal, which set aside the earlier order, clearing the way for the movie’s release.
"We all knew the release would be a very big challenge. We had to go through a lot of scrutiny, first on social media, then through court. What's upsetting is that in this noise, the real subject which you reach out to people sometimes gets clouded. You don't want that, you want people to understand the reality of the subject. And look at it from a point of view that there are so many girls whose lives are getting lost.”
With the sequel now running in theatres, Shah claimed that theatre owners in Kerala and Tamil Nadu have been receiving threats to pull the movie.
In Kerala, activists of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) staged protests outside theatres screening the film, saying they would not allow its screening as it allegedly depicts the state in a bad light.
“It is very disturbing news, some people are threatening the theatre owners in Kerala and Tamil Nadu... they are violating court orders by threatening theatre owners to stop showing the film.
"It is a violation of my right, it is a violation of the order of the court. I would urge both the governments and the chief ministers to take stringent action. Even if they don't agree with the film, it's fine, but that doesn't mean that they will not protect my right,” the producer added.
Though Shah has been making hard-hitting titles like “The Kerala Story” and “Bastar”, he said he has not abandoned commercial cinema.
He recently wrapped “Governor”, starring Manoj Bajpayee, and is gearing up for “Hisaab” with actor wife Shefali Shah and Jaideep Ahlawat.
“Since I made ‘Bastar’ and ‘Kerala Story’, people started thinking that I’ve decided that I will only make this kind of film. It is not true though. I’ll be making all kinds of films. That is what makes me creatively happy and I’m going to continue to do that,” said the producer, who has directed mainstream films like “Aankhen”, “Namastey London”, “Waqt” and “London Dreams”.
Shah said "Hisaab” is about a bank robbery, and he is looking to release it theatrically in June-July.
“I always wanted to make a unique bank robbery. It is unique, funny, and intelligent, just like ‘Aankhen’, which had three blind guys robbing bank. But this is extraordinary, far more believable, real and something like this has never been made in India,” the producer said.
