Category: LifeStyle

LAHORE –  Commentator and former cricketer Ramiz Raja has announced he is venturing into film-making.

Ramiz addressed media today about his movie that it will explore the topic of eliminating terrorism through cricket.

The commentator said he has already cast renowned Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt for the movie, but the lead female actor is yet to be announced.

Ramiz expressed hope to include Mahira Khan and Katrina Kaif in his movie.

“Actresses like Mahira Khan and Katrina Kaif have immense talent, it is my wish to cast them in the movie,” he said, adding that it is still a suspense who will be the heroine in his movie.

The movie will have action, suspense and spice, he added.

WEB DESK-LOS ANGELES-Lindsay Lohan has not converted to Islam but has made the decision to learn as much as she can about all the major religious faiths.

The ‘Mean Girls’ star sparked speculation she had become a Muslim after changing her profile on Instagram to read ”Alaikum salam”, an Arabic greeting which translates to ”and unto you peace”, and deleted all previous images she had uploaded to the photo sharing site.

Now, it has been revealed that Lindsay – who was baptised as a Catholic as a child – is not following any specific religion but has made the decision to learn as much about different faiths from around the world as she can so she can be enriched by all the different teachings.

A friend of the actress told the New York Post newspaper: ”Lindsay is educating herself on different cultures and their practices to be able to better understand the people and communicate.”

Lindsay has been intrigued by Islam and the faith’s holy book the Quran since 2015, and was seen with a copy of the text when she was doing community service in Brooklyn, New York, back then. In recent months, the 30-year-old beauty has spent a lot of time in Turkey visiting Syrian refugees and admitted last year she was intrigued by Islam because is a ”spiritual person”.

Lindsay said: ”I’m a very spiritual person and I’m really open to learning. We all believe in something and at the end of the day it all ties to a god or a spiritual adviser.”

Lindsay’s mother Dina Lohan has also talked about her daughter and other children’s interest in different cultures, insisting they have had that instilled in them by her.

Dina – whose other kids with her ex-husband Michael Lohan are Michael, Jr, Ali and Dakota – said: ”I have raised my children to be compassionate and to educate themselves on a global level – to learn about different cultures and their practices and to respect them!”

LOSANGELES –  Web Desk- Kim Kardashian returned to the spotlight on Friday, making her first public appearance since her Paris robbery at a makeup event in Dubai.

At The Masterclass Dubai, Kim appeared alongside makeup guru Mario Dedivanovic, where she shared her beauty secrets, but avoided answering any questions related to her difficult few months.

Tickets to the event reportedly cost $1600, and around 300 people attended at the MusicHall in the city. According to E!, things got off to a rocky start, thanks to eager fans who couldn’t wait to get a glimpse of Kim.

“Literally everyone was pushing, shoving, shouting, and throwing tantrums,” an insider told the news outlet. “It was so sad and tiring to go through all that. They had one lady trying to keep a line and people in control in a hall full of 300 angry girls.”

More: The Location Where Kim Kardashian And Kanye West “Played Poor” Has Been Revealed

After arriving on the stage, Kim is said to have joked, “Let’s hope Mario does a good job.” The reality star then explained that she hasn’t been wearing makeup for the last four months.

The look demonstrated on Kim by Mario was a ‘classic, dewy look with soft sultry eyes’. “They did laugh about the whole major contouring in the past, and they refuse to use that look,”

“They talked about this new look, and Kim is loving this natural look. She enjoys the raw look and she will keep this natural look unless on the red carpet.”

More: Limo Company Owner Arrested Over Kim Kardashian Robbery Released Without Charge

Kim appeared to have a great time at the event and later shared on twitter: “Such a fun day today! I felt so much love here in Dubai, thank you guys for coming out to Mario’s Master Class!”

Lahore-The Department of Jewellery Design and Gemological Sciences at Pakistan Institute of Fashion and Design, Lahore Pakistan is conducting a two weeks workshop on ‘Stone as a Material and Stone as a Concept’ with Patricia Domingues, a German-based contemporary jeweler.

Patricia Domingues is the winner of Talente and Mari Funaki Award for Contemporary Jewelry: she brings to the workshop a thoroughly intuitive sensibility of encountering and thinking with materials. Her own work, which also addresses geological processes and their core qualities of shift, time and values activates the theme of workshop.

The workshop aims to be a guiding and experimental process for students from 5th and 7th Semester to come into contact with hard and soft stonesand other materials such as clay, plaster as both thought processes as well as a medium to awaken individual language and instinctual reactions when handling and encountering diverse materials.

Students also undertook a site visit to Khewra Salt Mines with Patricia Domingues, along with selected faculty members in the Jewellery department to explore materials in the context of geological processes and time. The intensive two weeks workshop is the first of its kind in Jewellery Department at PIFD to expose students to intuitional ways of processing materials, especially gemstones, marbles and using diverse tools, including lapidary machines. Some of the materials will also be further realized into wearable jewellery pieces to understand their relationships with the human body. The workshop will culminate into an exhibit display and presentation by the students on 5th December in PIFD.

KARACHI- AZAUJ MATRIMONIAL MATCHMAKING SERVICES organised its bi-monthly matchmaking meetup for its esteemed patrons at Jharoka Hall, Arena Club over hi-tea.

A large number of families participated in the event with their male and female suitors. The event was designed to provide them with multiple choices under one roof, saves them from wastage of time, financial implications and emotional stress which such meetings set up at homes under traditional matchmaking system usually cause.

Many renowned brands, including Stylo Shoes, Habitt, Interwood, Panache Vivre, and Obaid Sheikh Designs etc partnered with Azauj to make this event a great success. They set up their stalls and through different fun-filled activities and lucky draws, interacted with the participants and gave them many gifts.

Participants at the event also received a sweet treat when the famous cake bakery, Look ‘n’ Cook baked a special cake to commemorate Azauj’s first anniversary.

At the event, CEO Azauj Dr. Sadia Saleem Cheema also announced the launch of Azauj’s matchmaking website. She invited the participants to use this website and look for their suitable matches online in an efficient, safe & secure and credible environment.

Azauj matrimonial matchmaking service has pioneered arranging bi-monthly meetups and matchmaking events in Lahore, Karachi and London in order to cater to its international network. Its meetups have been receiving positive response since finding a suitable life partner is a huge problem faced by almost every Pakistani household in and outside Pakistan.

Azauj’ (meaning: the spouse) is an innovative matchmaking service currently working in Pakistan, UK, US, Canada and Australia. About this initiative, CEO Azauj Dr. Sadia Cheema says, ‘We are out to bring a revolution in the lives of Pakistani communities living across the globe by carefully, slowly and meticulously reforming the process of traditional matrimonial matchmaking. Our solution is a hybrid of human and algorithmic matchmaking customized according to our social and cultural norms/needs. We also have the support of the Provincial Govt. of Punjab for our cause through the cooperation and assistance of the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB).’ The World Bank-funded global initiative, WomenX is also supporting Azauj through training and mentoring.

Azauj has been designed in a way that it goes beyond commercial motives and also has a positive social spill over. It serves as an equalizer providing both women and men equal opportunities of reaching out to suitable matches.

Ms. Sarah Tariq, a participant said that initially she had no desire to avail Azauj’s services, however, she was curious to know how Azauj was different from the rest of the services. “After attending this meetup, my thoughts about matrimonial matchmaking service providers have totally changed. What Azauj is doing is indeed revolutionary. Meeting its team is itself a great experience. They are well educated and well connected professionals. They know how sensitive this issue is and what is expected of them in terms of maintaining client’s privacy, trust and value for money,” Sarah said.

Another participant, Syed Shahid said, “Times have changed and now many people listen to their children’s preferences and encourage their participation in the procedure to ensure better matchmaking. However, traditional matchmaking system still lags far behind. It’s slow, old fashioned and stressful. I appreciate Azauj for introducing proper matchmaking events in Pakistan. Its meetups provide us opportunities to meet many suitors and their families under one roof. We hold one to one conversations with other participants and decide on spot if we wish to proceed further. It definitely saves our time and other resources. I support Azauj meetups and am looking forward to the next event.”

To change the mindset of general public towards the matchmaking procedure, Azauj engages with its members by organizing bi-monthly meet & greet events and seminars under the banner of ‘Azauj Social’ in Lahore, Karachi and London. Noted personalities, professional motivational speakers and life coaches are also invited who speak on different matchmaking and marital issues, stress management, self-development and mindfulness.

LAHORE-The Black Friday shopping rush created a mess on the main roads of posh areas like Gulberg where some arteries had to be closed to control the increasing traffic chaos.

Though a western tradition, which, following Thanksgiving – fourth Thursday of November – is considered a day opening the Christmas shopping season but it seems to have arrived in Pakistan with a bang.

Almost all the big outlets offered discounts and the people, especially women, rushed to the fashion outlets in huge numbers, creating traffic jams on the roads. However, to some people it was a day of joy and shopping at reduced rates. For others, it was struggle to reach home after office hours while it was a nerve-racking experience for police.

“We are not here to reject or celebrate any western or eastern tradition. We are here to shop at reduced rates. Who cares about the cause if one can enjoy the result?” said Muhammad Ajmal, a shopper at the Liberty Market.

“One cannot object to celebrations or rate cuts but one can certainly object to road muddles,” complains Saira Malik who claimed to have stayed stuck on an artery for a long time.

She said if the outlets had offered rate cuts and were expecting this kind of rush they should have coordinated with the traffic police or the police should have forgotten issuing tickets for an evening to concentrate on traffic.

“How one can manage this madness? It started growing in the afternoon and then went out of control by evening. Every traffic warden is working at his designated point. But rush, along with rash driving, has made things difficult to manage,” said a traffic warden on a Gulberg road who wished not to be named.

LAHORE-The three day Faiz International Festival 2016 ended on a high note. The event featured thought provoking sessions and panel discussions on Pakistani film and music industry. Leading personalities from the film industry called for collective effort to revive the cinema. 

Revival or Rebirth? The state of Pakistani cinema

This session was conducted by the gorgeous actor Mira Hashmi and the panelists were Sarmad Khoosat, Nabeel Qureshi, Jami and Vasay Chaudary.  Mira Hashmi began the discussion by saying when they were planning this session they thought they would add the word rebirth with revival of Pakistani cinema. She said her first question to the guests today is that our cinema moving towards revival, is it a rebirth of our new cinema?

Sarmad Khosat said, “I think yes we are moving towards the revival and it is a new birth of Pakistani film industry. From the year 2012 the cinema and film making in Pakistan did a wonderful comeback. I remember where films like Namaloom Afraad, Jawani Phir Nahi Ani and Moor were showcased. Manto was a big challenge for me but I don’t know how it happened. It worked as people loved my work and Manto made a good business on the box office. I believe some things you see as a director and others like a producer. In our country the film makers, directors and even producers all are confused.

“They should understand the actual phenomena to establish a film industry. We believe it or not the audience didn’t love to watch that Gandasa culture films where the actresses are dancing in the grounds of village. Today that audience is appreciating our films which are the considered the rebirth of Pakistani cinema. If you talk about film making in the past time making films was a technique in itself, now things are getting better day by day and thanks to the digital technology. We could do something like Iran, which has had to face similar issues as far as its film industry is concerned. The Iranian government offered to provide incentives and infrastructure to their filmmakers to make good films. “And their efforts bore results in the form of their first Oscar win in 2011 when such improvements will start coming in Pakistani cinema our films will surely beat every industry.”

Nabeel Qureshi said, “I actually don’t understand the phenomena of what is Lollywood & Bollywood? Because we speak same language, wear same clothes otherwise I don’t think so there is any difference between both the state. That is a stupid concept if I start saying India wears right T-Shirt we should wear it in opposite way because we want to be different from them .

The most important thing I would like to mention today in this session of Faiz International Festival is  the concept of Item Number. Dance is actually an art form. When we bring it in our films people watch them but at the same side they start talking about Islamic concepts’. In my film Namaloom Afrad I added item number song by Mehwish Hayat people started saying this movie did business on the box-office because of the item number comparatively many other films released at that time even they had item number songs but flopped badly on the cinema houses. “After then I made Actor-In-Law and proved those people rather than arguing with them. It was my desire to put an item song in Actor-In-Law so, that when awards show should happen we would have our own song to perform rather than performing on Indian songs.

“The concept of filmmaking is so tricky these day you can’t make fool to the audience. When the film will be released audience will come to watch if the script will appeal them they will appreciate and clap otherwise they will criticize simple.

Vasay Chaudary ended the session by saying that he wanted to clarify that the films being made in Pakistan these days are not the style of Bollywood but were an adapted style. “Yousaf Khan the first hero of Pakistan film industry when he was lip singing was it Bollywood style? Waheed Muraad Sahab dancing on ‘Coco rina’ was not dancing in Bollywood style. It was for all for the Pakistani audience.  From the year 2003 to 2013 our film industry had to face downfall and in between that time period two films appeared which fascinated the audience which was Khuda Ke Liyae and Bol. The films which we are doing are not Bollywood style but our very own. The technology may have changed but otherwise the culture and traditions all are the same. Our very own,” Vasay maintained.

KARACHI-Pakistan’s biggest fashion icon, Hassan Sheheryar Yasin proudly introduced the launch of the brands CSR project, the “HSY Mentorship Program”.

Indeed HSY’s Mentorship Program or HMP will endeavor to discover aspiring talent in the field of fashion designing from all over Pakistan. The yearly activity will select and train a handful of designers every year at HSY’s Karachi Mansion. The program will not only train the designers on a creative level but will also mentor on how to run their businesses and launch it in the market, by training them in every department necessary to run a successful brand through hands on experience.  The criteria and mode of selection, date of program commencement and subsequent iterations will be announced in 2017.

“As we celebrate our 24 Years and continue our expansion and segmentation of businesses, we reach out to the very fabric of our brand which is great pride in Pakistan and our commitment to give something back to a country which has given us so much.

Indeed the aim of HMP is to provide aspiring talent a platform from which they reach their true potential. When I started, I and so many of my fellow design fraternity members felt the need to be trained and mentored commercially. We learnt fresh out of school through pure trial and error with no one really honing us and guiding us. I now want to develop a sustainable and committed platform to reach out to and help the best talent Pakistan has. The time has come for us to create more pillars of strength and structure to build the fashion business and this is where my passion is- putting my experience into mentorship” said Hassan Sheheryar Yasin.

LAHORE: The second day of Faiz International Festival (FIF) 2016 on Saturday received marvelous response as thousands of people thronged to Alhamra to attend a number of sessions on the life of Faiz Ahmad Faiz as well as other topics.

Versatile actor Fawad Khan grabbed the attention of the audience on day two. Fawad shared his life’s experiences as well as the several questions, which the audience had asked him through social media websites.

Speaking on the occasion with Adeel Hashmi, Fawad Khan lamented that our drama industry is showing what is not happening in the country, as it only depicted romantic stories rather than showing the reality of society. “For last 15 years, the drama stories were too similar. However, with the addition of drama serial ‘Udaari’ changed the trend,” Fawad added.

Lahore – Pakistan`s biggest and much anticipated family festival, Masala Family Festival 2016 Lahore organized by Pakistan`s premier entertainment network, HUM Network limited culminated with thunderous applause by the audiences in appreciation of the organizers. The two day festival provided families with an opportunity to plan a perfect day out, meet their favourite Masala chefs, shops to their hearts content, watch live cooking demonstrations by Masala chefs and purchase autographed copies of their favorite cookbooks. This year audience`s favourite Chef Shireen Anwar celebrated the 7th anniversary at HUM Masala.