Fashion week in Delhi – Day 2

Big star cast helping its cause

Massive stage settings, rock concerts and music as a binding factor, Ajay Devgn-Salman Khan starrer "London Dreams", which releases on Oct 30, relies on the bond of friendship more than its rock background.

Produced and directed by Vipul Shah, the movie stars Asin Thottumkal in the female lead, while Akshay Kumar will be seen in a cameo. Rannvijay Singh and Om Puri too feature in the movie.

“’London Dreams' is a drama about two friends and their relationships, their roles, individuality and problems," Ajay told IANS.

Added Asin: "It is a musical with a lot of emotions and twists in the story. But it's something that heavily relies on music."

Shot extensively in Paris and London, the story revolves around childhood friends Arjun (Ajay) and Mannu (Salman) who have a music lineage in their family history.

Arjun dreams of being on stage as a performer to live up to his grandfather's unfulfilled ambitions while Mannu has little interest in the instruments of his father, a music teacher.

Arjun's determination takes him to London where he forms a band with Priya (Asin) and others. But his friend Mannu tries to make his livelihood as a wedding band performer in the village.

Arjun eventually invites Mannu to London to complete his band contrary to his own belief that the latter can create a competition.

But Mannu surprises him by turning out to be an entertainer. With his unique style, he becomes more popular with the audiences leaving Arjun envious. His insecurity increases when he realises Priya is smitten by Mannu.

The band embarks on a three-city tour where Arjun deceives Mannu into promiscuous sex and illicit drugs. As the tour concludes, the band heads to London to perform at Wembley Stadium where Mannu comes to senses and chooses the righteous path and supports his friend.

"London Dreams" has managed a good buzz, courtesy the big names associated with it.

She makes uncharacteristic effort to hide cracks in relationship

Rumours of trouble between Salman and Katrina are stronger than ever. More tongues wagged after Saturday’s incident, when Salman apparently did not include Katrina in his guest list for a bash at his residence.

This prompted Katrina to make an uncharacteristic effort to mend her strained relationship.

On Sunday (May 31), before flying off to Malaysia to shoot for a shampoo ad, Katrina spent considerable time with Salman on the sets of his movie “Wanted Dead or Alive” at the Film City in Mumbai.

She was with Sallu not just in his vanity van but also on the sets, in full public view. This behaviour is quite unlike her because normally she is not welcoming of even being photographed with Salman in public.

The couple even had dinner together along with other unit members, including Boney Kapoor, Vashu and Jackky Bhagnani and Arjun Kapoor.

Katrina was with Salman till pack up, after which he personally went to drop her till her car and she drove off to the airport.

It is up to us to read between the lines and decide whether all’s well between them or are they making an effort to paint a rosy picture to hide the cracks caused by the John-Katrina linkup, which has left Salman furious.

One thing is sure though, Katrina will have to continue making the effort and giving Sallu comfort. After all, she is likely to be working in Dostana 2 opposite Sallu’s two pet hates – John Abraham and Abhishek Bachchan – and we don’t even want to think of how angry this will make him.

Banks, consumer help equity funds better benchmark in Oct

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - All but one of diversified stock funds posted negative returns in October, tracking the benchmark's worst performance in a year, but their exposure to financials and consumer goods softened the blow.

Around 320 such funds, which form the largest category of stock funds by number and assets under management, saw their unit values fall an average 4.5 percent in the month, data from global fund tracker Lipper, a Thomson Reuters company, showed.

But nearly 90 percent of such funds fell less than the benchmark stock index which fell 7.2 percent, its worst monthly fall in a year, as weak quarterly earnings from some large corporates dented investor sentiment.

"Mutual funds shifted to defensive sectors like consumer, healthcare and financials anticipating correction in equities, given higher index levels," said Chintamani Dagade, senior research analyst at Morningstar India.

Morningstar data showed such funds had around 5.76 percent of their assets in cash at September-end but Dagade said it is likely that they increased cash holdings in their portfolios during the last month.

Banking stocks fell 5.2 percent in the month helping limit the fall as stock funds had investments of more than 250 billion rupees or 14.3 percent of their overall assets in such companies at September-end, ICRA Online data showed.

Funds which invest in consumer goods clocked an impressive average return of 6.4 percent during the period, making them top gainers among equity funds, as the BSE FMCG index rose 9 percent.

Microsoft CEO eyes Yahoo partnership outside U.S.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Thursday the company could look to extend its search engine partnership with Yahoo outside the United States, if it gets regulatory approval.

Earlier this year Microsoft and Yahoo signed a 10-year Web search partnership to challenge Google Inc, a pact that U.S. and European antitrust regulators are evaluating.

"It's possible that we will extend that partnership (with Yahoo) outside the U.S.," Ballmer told reporters at a news conference. "We will have to wait and see if we can get approval and consummate that partnership inside the U.S. first."

Microsoft has said it believes the deal will close in early 2010, and that they can make significant progress on integration in one or two major markets next year.

DETROIT/PARIS (Reuters) - The global meltdown and resulting implosion in vehicle sales over the past year have pressured everyone in the automotive se

PARIS (Reuters) - From the Soviet-era production lines of Togliatti to the assembly plants of Antwerp or Sicily, politics is driving -- and more often obstructing -- the sorely needed restructuring of the global automobile industry.

Despite chronic production overcapacity, notably in Europe and the United States, politicians of all stripes are deeply reluctant to let a single manufacturer go to the wall.

As a result, alliances of car makers such as Renault-Nissan or Fiat-Chrysler are more likely than outright takeovers or failures. Consolidation is likely to be concentrated in the suppliers sector, where there is less national prestige at stake and less political sensitivity.

Why did the German government commit billions of taxpayers' euros in an election year to rescue stricken car maker Opel while simultaneously refusing to spend less than half as much to save twice as many jobs at fallen retailer Arcandor?

The answer is that heavily unionised workers in the auto sector wield political clout out of proportion to their numbers. Since the industry controls the fate of towns or regions, politicians are deeply reluctant to see car factories close.

Reuters Summit - Slowdown pressures entire auto sector

DETROIT/PARIS (Reuters) - The global meltdown and resulting implosion in vehicle sales over the past year have pressured everyone in the automotive sector, creating opportunities for some players while leaving others subject to bankruptcy, consolidation or concessions.

The heads of auto suppliers Valeo SA and Dura Automotive Systems Inc said at the Reuters Auto Summit in Paris and Detroit on Tuesday that their companies intend to buy assets in the sector's continuing consolidation.

Meanwhile, pressures faced by factory workers on both sides of the Atlantic were on display as the United Auto Workers rejected concessions for Ford Motor Co, while those in Europe agreed to cuts for General Motors Co's Opel unit.

Valeo CEO Jacques Aschenbroich said the French supplier was looking at acquisitions in safety and comfort, vision and energy savings, saying the global economic crisis would lead to consolidation in the parts sector.

"After every crisis, there's a wave of consolidations.

There are more OEMs today than a few years ago," he said in Paris, referring to major automakers. "Of course, we want to be an actor of this consolidation in the years to come."

Financial results will be better than previously expected by the end of 2009 due to car scrapping programs implemented across Europe, Aschenbroich added.

Auto sales in Europe and the North America have been hurt in the past year as customers tightened purse strings amid a weak economy. The economic meltdown came on the heels of already-weakening vehicle demand amid record-high gasoline