After featuring in blockbuster films like Gold & Kabir Singh, Nikita Dutta is now winning hearts with her performance in The Big Bull. On the day of the film release on Disney + Hotstar, Nikita Dutta joined NewsX for a candid interview as part of NewsX India A-List.

Talking about her incredible journey so far,  Nikita said, “If I go back into when I was in school & college, I actually didn’t have acting on my mind. Like every other very academically-oriented kid, I had plans of sitting and preparing for the IAS. It happened to me with Miss India when I just randomly decided to take part in it and I think from there my journey started. Right after that, once I was done with college, is when I got into television. Television was one of those things that came to me and it seemed interesting. I didn’t want to say no. After I said yes to my first show, I think that’s when I, kind of, fell in love with acting. Slowly & steadily, after doing three shows on television, I said yes to my first film Gold, which of course worked well and that’s how Kabir Singh also happened. From there, I started getting more chances to be a part of some really beautiful films and that’s how it has come along all this while.”

When asked about her time on the sets of The Big Bull and working with Abhishek Bachchan, she expressed, “Well, I had a fabulous time on the sets of the Big Bull. Abhishek, as a person, is extremely entertaining, especially off the camera. I think you can catch him in his best elements off the camera. He is out there to make sure everybody on set doesn’t feel left out. He’s going to pull everybody’s legs. He’s gonna make sure he rags you a little bit. I’ve been a victim of that but I think that is what makes shooting so much more fun with him around. There’s so much I got to learn from him because he is, of course, way more experienced than me. Overall, working with Abhishek and Kookie sir and shooting for The Big Bull was fabulous.”

Nikita tested positive for Covid-19 before the release of the film. Sharing her thoughts on the experience, she said “I don’t know if I should say fortunately or unfortunately, I don’t know how to put it, but I was actually feeling very sick before I tested positive. I was shooting for something and that’s when my co-actor tested positive and we decided to halt the shoot. That’s when I got tested for the first time. It came negative. But, just within a day , I started feeling very unwell and when I got my second test done, that also came negative. It was only in the third test that i tested positive for Covid-19. I got it done just for safety because I wanted to travel. So, by the time I tested positive, I already started to feel much better and now with every day I am getting better. But yeah, it’s something you can’t escape. I think it is inevitable now. Everybody who is out there working outdoors, is somehow going to catch it.”

Expressing her views on the vaccination drive in India and whether it should be rolled out to every adult in the country, she stated, “If you see. India is a highly populated country, so it is right to prioritise, how they have been doing. Though, I also feel it should be really fast because, at the end of it, you know we all want to make a livelihood. We all step out to make money, to earn, make our bread and butter so the soonest this can be done, the better it is for the country and for everybody.”

On doing ‘Rocket Gang’ opposite Aditya Seal, Dutta expressed, “That’s something I am damn excited about. We started this project back in 2019. Then, the pandemic happened. In December 2020, we were in the last leg of finishing the film but, unfortunately, we had to halt it again because of Covid cases on set. But, it is something I am really looking forward to as it is out-and-out dance-based film. I have never danced in front of the camera and this is going to be completely dancing. So, that’s something I am really really looking forward to as it is something different.”

Throwing light on her other upcoming projects, Nikita said, “I am doing this horror film called Ezra with Emraan Hashmi that’s scheduled to believe this year itself. So, again that is a completely different genre again even that is a completely different character I m playing. So, again I think I m very happy with the kind of palette that I have in the coming year that the audience is going to get to see.”

On a concluding note, Nikita shared a piece of advice to all the young girls who wanna make it big in Bollywood. She said, “I have always followed one principle, i.e  go with what your heart says, don’t get influenced by anybody who is coming to tell you how something needs to be done. Do what you think is right. This is one principle I have followed from day one. When I had said yes to television, there were a lot of people who came up to me and said ‘You were making a big mistake and don’t do this. You were gonna stuck over here and you will never be able to be a part of films’. In fact, when I wanted to do films and I took a break from television, I had people coming to me and saying that ‘You are saying no to a constant source of income. With films, you have to be patient and you just never know when you will get the next film.’ So, I have heard all those kinds of things and I think one thing I have always maintained is just follow your heart, do good scripts, do good work that’s all that matters in the end. I think success, or whatever you do in the future, will follow accordingly.”

Founder of Trainedbyyvs, Yash Vardhan Swami, recently participated in a candid chat with NewsX as part of NewsX India A-List. He is a well-known health and fitness trainer as well as one of India’s top health coaches. He is also well-known for his expertise,  which includes everyone from teenagers to celebrities. Yash Vardhan is popular in the industry due to his extensive knowledge of physical exercise routines and diet plans, as well as his successful outcomes.

Tracing his inspiring fitness journey While studying law at Punjab University, he said, “It started with my own transformation, back in 2012, when I lost 44 Kgs, made a lot of mistakes at that time. But somehow I was able to achieve my goal. After that, I started pursuing law but while pursuing law, I helped a few friends of mine. And while helping those friends transform and change their lives, I realized that this is something that I enjoy doing. Then I started educating people around it”.

When asked how he dealt with problems in the past year where people might have lacked motivation when working out at home, he said,“Having a coach would always help you during hard times. But most of the time, it’s the client who has to put in efforts or it’s the person who is following the plan, who needs to put in efforts. Talking about 2020 Yes, it was a very different year in the sense that we could not go out, everyone was scared for the most part and gyms were closed but still instead of working out, we actually started working in and improving our health. So we have done nutrition work around home workouts and have worked on mindfulness, which was a big one for us, and me and my team and that’s how I do it”.

Talking about the risky problems of losing weight by eating the wrong food and going on crash diets, Yash Swami said, “I always like backing everything up with science, anecdotes and experience. Still, the cool part about my coaching processes is that I have made massive amounts of mistakes, which my clients would potentially make. So they can actually relate to me. Apart from that, I like backing everything with science and evidence because it’s easy to not trust a person, but it is not easy to not trust science if that makes sense. Apart from that, yes, there are a lot of facts or a lot of people propagating wrong stuff due to misinformation or maybe lack of knowledge”.

“Every transformation is special to me, every client is special to me. We have helped people from different niches, different people having different kinds of issues. So transformations are very versatile from the age group of 16, to we have people up to the age of  60 years” he added. 

Speaking about the fitness modules he offered, Yash mentioned,“If someone is coaching under me, my goal is that everything in their life should improve, not just the way they look. So from health markers to mental health, I’m a big fan of mindfulness, meditation, and all these things, I try to implicate each and everything. ”

In response to a question related to the rising stress in people’s lives due to the job loss in the covid, he suggested, “First, make sure you are inhaling deep and exhaling even deeper. The second pointer is managing your thoughts, whenever you have a stressor, you need to address it because sooner or later it will actually catch up. So basically finding the stressor and working around it. And if we cannot work around it, then maybe not stressing over it. Third, a big one, it’s more like spiritual staying in the present moment because all of our worries come either from regrets of the past or anxiousness about the future. So, staying in the present moment meditation is essentially doing that.”

On a concluding note, he shared his fitness mantra and said, “One thing which I would say is that fix your nutrition and honestly, I cannot sum it up by just saying that. It’s nutrition, training, sleep mindset, managing stress, these would be the ones and also working on mindset because like I mentioned that this is something which has on you can, this cannot be gifted, this cannot be bought.”

Samar Vijay Singh, Director, Hotel Udai Kothi recently joined NewsX for a special conversation as part of NewsX India A-List. Recognised for excellence in the hospitality industry, Udai Kothi is a stunningly modern hotel with all of the amenities and luxuries that a 21st-century traveller might dream of. Though Udai Kothi is modern at heart, the concept has gone to great lengths to provide all of the architectural and decorative features that make living in Udaipur so enjoyable.

Samar shared the concept behind the Udai Kothi and said, “So it’s an old property and the land was given to my great grandfather, but it was from 1928. So that time, it was all in ruins, nothing was there like no architecture, nothing. So my father shifted to Udaipur from Chittorgarh in 2000. When he came over with an idea that we should start a boutique hotel, so he made everything from a scratch”.

When asked about the USP which made Udai Kothi different from others, Samar said, “ I think Udai Kothi offers a very futuristic view of all the major attractions, for example, city Palace, Lake palace, Sajangarh even Bagore ki haveli. You can see all from the rooftops and especially Udai Kothi’s main USP was rooftop swimming pools. So we were the first one to start the rooftop swimming pool concept in Udaipur, so that was the main USP. You got featured on your feet also featured in Conde Nast that even New York Times feature us in 2003”.

Speaking about the Baromasi, which is already gaining a lot of popularity among the youngsters, he describes, “so basically Baromasi means 12 months in Rajasthani, so Baromasi basically the name was given by my mother so it’s a concept is about you know our star signs and a bar was is basically a Tapas Bar which started in 2019 we can throw an idea so this is basically a roof just lying bacon like nothing was happening there. We made a bar and then me and my dad had a crazy idea that we thought let’s make a see-through glass floor with a pool. We only had a pool barracks. We should see guys like a glass floor people can walk through. So that’s how it became a nice good selling point, it’s almost 200 covers the restaurant a lot and it’s the only place which is like opening till around 2 am to 1:30 am the only pub you know the biggest in the city.” 

When asked about his journey in the hospitality industry, He expressed, “Earlier, I was never interested in Hospitality, that was my family being into, like politics, everything from the thought so they always wanted me to be like inclined into politics, but my father always had a passion for hospitality, but I’m more of an event sort of programs”.

He added, “2020 has been the toughest year like you know, nobody imagined how it would be especially for the tourism sector, Udai Kothi was always popular with foreign nationals, especially French clients and till we used to get from like in six different cities. So 2020 happened and like, fortunately, we had Baromasi which had the youngsters are buzzing about it in all are so famous place, they’re so used to government or wedding just to happen, but the good thing was like with Udai Kothi being a 60 room property, not a big property or like not many rooms inventory is that so, we were fortunate enough to have thought of like wedding venues or sangeet”

On a parting note, He talked about his inspirations and said, “ I’m a being big comic book fan always. So I think I look up to especially Batman being my role, especially my father, of course, like, you know, he’s made me everything and I see values and great Maharana Kumbha. Everyone knows about Maharana Pratap but people don’t know how great Maharana Kumbha was, so I see these three people.”

Colombo Police on Thursday arrested the current “Mrs World” on charges of assault over an on-stage fracas in which she pulled the crown off the head of the new “Mrs Sri Lanka”.

Caroline Jurie snatched the crown off Pushpika de Silva minutes after she was declared “Mrs Sri Lanka 2020” at a Sunday gala at Colombo’s Nelum Pokuna theatre.

Jurie was previous year’s “Mrs Sri Lanka” and had gone on to win the “Mrs World” competition organised by a California-based company.

Pushpika de Silva needed hospital treatment after the incident, seen by stunned spectators in a packed theatre as well as a live social media audience.

“We have arrested Jurie and (her associate) Chula Manamendra in connection with a charge of assault and causing damage to Nelum Pokuna (theatre),” senior police official Ajith Rohana said.

As seen in the video posted on YouTube by Colombo Gazette, Pushpika was announced as the winner as Caroline Jurie crowned her. Seconds later, Caroline appeared on stage again and said that Pushpika was disqualified since she is a divorcee and only married women can hold the title of Mrs Sri Lanka.

“There is a rule that you have to be married and not divorced. So, I am taking my first steps saying that the crown goes to the first runner-up,” Caroline said as she snatched the crown from Pushpika’s head and presented it to the first runner-up.

Pushpika, visibly upset, walked out. The video has gone viral with over 12 lakh views so far.

In a lengthy post on Facebook, Pushpika narrated the incident and said, “I think, for the first time in the history of beauty pageant, not in Sri Lanka but in the world, even though my crown has been snatched in front of everyone insultfully, I will keep my head straight at this moment of writing and say that I am proud and proud as before. This is just another incident for me.”

She also added, “On the other hand, I’m not a divorced woman. I say with great responsibility that I am not a divorced woman even at this moment of writing. If I was a divorcee, I would dare them to submit my divorce scripts.”

Pushpika told reporters outside the Cinnamon Gardens police station in Colombo Thursday that she was ready to drop charges if Jurie made a public apology, but she had refused. “I tried to end this out of court, but she has refused,” Pushpika said. “I can forgive, but not forget.”

There was no immediate comment from Jurie or her lawyer. Police sources said a court hearing was likely next week and Jurie and her associate who crashed onto the stage on Sunday could be granted bail later Thursday.

Jurie had claimed that Pushpika was divorced and therefore ineligible for the prize. To qualify for the title, contestants must be married. Pushpika is estranged from her husband, but they are still legally married.

Organisers said they were claiming compensation from Jurie for damages to the stage and backstage dressing rooms where several mirrors had been smashed. Jurie has also been accused by organisers of bringing disrepute to the event.

With agency inputs

Yash Sardesai, CEO of Sri Lanka Legends, and Tillakaratne Dilshan, Captain of Sri Lanka Legends, recently joined NewsX for an exclusive conversation as part of the NewsX India A-List. Sri Lanka Legends is currently competing in the Road Safety World Series 2021. Sharing his journey as the CEO of Sri Lanka Legends, Yash described how it happened, but had to stop in between due to the pandemic.

“Everything is in the ongoing continuation. It has been a great and wonderful experience altogether. I had got a wonderful platform and a good learning background from Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara,” Sardesai added.

Talking about getting back on field post retirement, Tillakaratne Dilshan, former captain of the Sri Lanka national cricket team, said, “It’s a great feeling because after a long time, we are sharing the same dressing room with past cricketers and official cricketers like Sachin Siva; we used to play IPL and it feels like we are playing international cricket again, especially in India.”

Often regarded as one of the most innovative ODI batsmen of all time, Dilshan shared how it feels to be playing post the pandemic,” It was little hectic because we are stick to the room. We can’t go outside due to the Covid rules but it was the best time to build up our team. We are altogether playing outside, going to gym, pool, meetings. This is the bonding time I feel.”

Speaking about his bond with Sardesai, Dilshan said: “Yash and I has really good bond. Yash is everything to us. We are doing really good as a family. Tomorrow we have cooking session where Sri Lankan and Indian players are going to make lunch together. Moreover, Yash trust us a lot. Sometimes I call on him regarding what is the plan for upcoming match and he says cricket is not in my hand. Go and play cricket with your team.” He further mentioned that only the finals and semi-finals are left and the team is really looking forward to win.

Talking about the sport and how it is helping to raise road safety awareness, Sardesai said, “Cricket, which is watched all over the world, is helping create awareness by following the particular cricketers, they follow the rules as well.” Dilshan added, “Nowadays cricketers have fan pages and following them means that the message is going strongly to the people. Life is valuable to this world so we can pass this message through cricketers and it’s the main aim. I am so happy that the organisation come up with these safety measures, especially for Asian countries.”

“Last game we had with England was really amazing. We bowled out them and we chase them in seven overs. Post that game, we were all pumped up and everyone heighten up to go in semi-finals. So, we did bowl and bat really well. We are looking forward to perform in the same pattern,” Dilshad said.

On a concluding note, Yash Sardesai said that it saw really a good fan moment seeing players winning the game. “I am a big fan of cricket, but never played it on big level. And I am passionate about the game. So, this particular series helped me a lot in gaining experience. It’s a constant fan moment for me.”

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented upheavals in personal, economic and financial, and political lives. Stringent lockdowns have thrown the global economy off gear. Numerous predictions were floated about the trajectory of the virus and the resultant path of the global economy as the business situation remained volatile and uncertain.

The general sense is that the rate of global economic revival would depend upon the course of the pandemic. The manner in which the global vaccine programme is scaled up will be one of the crucial factors of such recovery. The World Bank’s latest projections of January 2021 peg the global output growth at 5.5% in 2021 and 4.2% in 2022.

At home, a prudent mix of fiscal stimuli and monetary policies, announced in 2020, have helped the economy witness a V-shaped recovery, with the GDP in Q3 2020-21 estimated to have grown by 0.4% over Q3 2019-20. The OECD’s forecast for India is revised upwards by 4.7 percentage points to 12.6% for 2021, while the IMF’s projections indicate a growth of 11.5% in 2021, after a dismal -8% in 2020.

Some economic parameters are ameliorating. From 54.0 in April 2020, monthly IIP rose to 135.9 in December 2020. Agriculture, the only sector not subjected to lockdowns, is also the lone sector to have a projected positive GVA of 3% and a projected positive GDP growth (0.9%) in 2020-21. There are signs of revival in trade too. The decline in exports from 2019-20 to 2020-21 has narrowed down from 36% in Q1 to 5% in Q2 to 4% in Q3 of 2020-21. FDI flows in Q2 2020-21 were 2.4 times the Q2 2019-20 figures and 3.6 times the Q1 2019-20 level. Bank credit to agriculture and service sectors has witnessed some resumption. According to a recent FICCI survey, India Inc’s business confidence has reached its peak in the past decade, with FICCI’s Overall Business Confidence Index witnessing a decadal high of 74.2 following an improvement in present business conditions. The Index had stood at 70.9 in 2020 and 59 in 2019. The release of pent-up demand built during the lockdown has improved capacity utilisation and key operational parameters, thereby boosting business confidence. A big positive is that stock markets are performing well, reflecting investors’ confidence in the strong fundamentals of the economy. The Budget announcements have rightly endeavoured to tackle both demand and supply-side issues for economic resumption.

Despite positive movement on the economic growth front, the challenge remains since it has to not just recuperate, but accelerate as well to more than offset the low base. It needs to be noted that despite the slight improvement in the GDP in Q3 2020-21, estimates for the financial year 2020-21 remain bleak at -8%, compared to 4% in 2019-20. In absolute terms, while Government Final Consumption Expenditure (GFCE) is estimated to record an increase in 2020-21 over 2019-20, Private Final Consumption Expenditure (PFCE) is still low. All sectors other than agriculture and electricity are projected to record negative GVA in 2020-21. The outlook for global FDI flows, rising fuel prices, unemployment, especially in the informal sector, and a slowing tourism, hotels and transport sector are sending out disconcerting economic signals. Direct investment made by India overseas fell by 31% to $1.85 billion in February 2021. There has been subdued lending by banks to large industries. Inflation reached a 27-month high in February 2021. The combined Index of Eight Core Industries in February 2021 also declined by 4.6%, compared to February 2020.

The evolving situation is further exacerbated by a recurrence of Covid-19 cases, along with new variants being found. After registering a peak of more than 98,000 daily new Covid-19 cases in September 2020, the number of cases dipped to around 9,000 in February 2021. However, as soon as we were celebrating our success with controlling the pandemic, a second wave, riding on our complacency, hit us hard. The number of daily new cases has climbed up to above 80,000 now and another round of localised lockdowns is being resorted to, bringing along the imminent hazard of a debilitating effect on the economy.

The global financial crisis of 2007-08, which stretched till around 2011-12, had witnessed long periods of dampened growth and high unemployment. A full revival of the global economy after the Great Depression of 1929 had taken a decade. The IMF’s projections indicate that the global medium-term loss in output growth, due to the pandemic, is expected to be lower than that after the global financial crisis, yet sizeable, at an expected 3.5% lower than the output projected for 2024 before the pandemic.

Thus, while early green shoots are visible, it is too early to let our guards down and become complacent. A sustained economic recovery would require us to be cautious about the potential surge in infections, the resultant compelling lockdowns, and impending threat to employment and incomes due to a potential increase in corporate and individual insolvencies.

With regulatory forbearances slowly lifting across countries, the impact on indebted business and individuals will now be visible. In the Indian context, the Supreme Court has recently decided in favour of lifting of the standstill on the classification of NPAs and granting no further extensions on loan moratoriums. The suspension on filling for corporate insolvencies under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code also ended on 25 March 2021.

So, are we out of the woods? Not quite. The road ahead for the economy is precarious and needs to be trekked with great caution. We have some kind of solution on the health front, wherein the proactive contribution of citizens would be of utmost importance to sustain gains from the ongoing vaccination programme. However, getting the economy back on track will be an uphill task. Balancing forbearance with austerity on the fiscal path ahead would be a tightrope walk. This is a once-in-a-lifetime event. There is no known policy prescription available to fall back upon, especially when any economic solution is crucially linked to the highly uncertain path of a virus on which we seem to have little control. However, think tanks and governments are earnestly engaged in addressing economic and health issues in tandem.

The authors belong to the Indian Economic Service. The views expressed are personal.