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Top NRI doctors heading home |
It sure is a healthy sign. Indian doctors, who went abroad to nurse better career prospects, are now boarding the return flight home. The Bangalore-based Manipal Health Systems, which owns and operates 11 hospitals across the country, has already roped in 20 top NRI medical consultants for its hospitals in the last one year. R. Basil, director and CEO, Manipal Health Systems, said, “Every week I get at least four e-mail messages from Indian doctors in the US and the UK, expressing interest in returning home.”
Wockhardt Hospital and Heart Institute receives close to 40 CVs every month from NRI doctors. “I wouldn’t be surprised if in the near future, doctors of foreign origin also show a similar interest,” says Vishal Bali, vice-president, operations, Wockhardt Hospitals. K. Sudarshan, managing partner, EMA Partners, said, “Brand name doctors can command upwards of Rs 1 crore, while mid-level doctors are placed for salaries ranging from Rs 30 lakh to 45 lakh per annum.”
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Gurinder among 18 directors to declare ‘Paris Je t’aime’ at Cannes
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| NRI film maker Gurinder Chadha is here, not in connection with her ‘’Mistress of Spices’’, which is not in the Cannes list but as part of a unique film, ‘’Paris Je t’aime’’ (Paris I Love You), which was put together by 18 international film directors. A collection of romantic encounters, one in each of the 18 districts of Paris, the movie has episodes helmed by different directors each not exceeding 5 minutes. Many of the directors are Cannes regulars such as Gus Van Sant, the Coen Brothers, and actor-director Gerard Depardieu. The stars acting in this omnibus include Natalie Portman and veteran Hollywood actor Ben Gazzara. Addressing a press conference, Chadha revealed that when approached, she didn’t take time to accept and even had the outline of her script in mind quickly. She said that she wanted to make a shot on a Muslim girl in Paris, and being allotted the 5th District, she found that it even had the Paris Mosque located there.
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Bollywood success fuelled by booming NRI market |
It appears that the secret behind the success and popularity of the Indian movies abroad is the over 25 million NRI and PIO population.
Studies indicate that this audience mainly resides in the United Kingdom, the United States, in South East Asian countries, South African, the Indian Ocean islands, Caribbean, Pacific Ocean islands like Fiji, and in countries that do not want to miss any Indian movies.
Bollywood churns out more than 1,000 movies a year, and it is estimated that the combined annual ticket sales of the Indian film industry is over 3 billion.
“Rang De Basanti,” a film about a young British woman who inspires a group of Indian friends to shed their apathy and take pride in their country’s heritage, has raked in $24 million at the box office since it was released last winter.
That may not seem like much by standards set in Hollywood—where a blockbuster’s takings are measured in hundreds of millions of dollars—but it, nevertheless, is a huge amount in a market where film budgets are typically less than $10 million. |
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NRI Gujaratis to pressurise Bush for Modi’s US visa |
| The US-based Association of Indian Americans of North America (AIANA) will pressurise President George W. Bush to grant a US visa to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, enabling him to attend a Gujarati conference in New Jersey. The three-day ‘Chaalo Gujarat’ conference will be held at Edison, New Jersey, from September 1 to 3, said Pranav Amin, member of the international committee of AIANA. The organisation has approached several US senators to take up the issue of Modi’s visa with the US administration, he said, adding the chief minister was invited as a representative of five crore Gujaratis. AIANS is one of the organisations that had invited Modi to the US in 2005 to address a conference. Modi, however, could not attend it due to cancellation of his visa on the basis of his role during the Godhra riots in 2002. Modi had addressed that meeting via videoconference from Gandhinagar. |
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