MUMBAI: Lakshmi Mittal was cast into the international limelight when he began negotiations to merge his own company with Europe?s Arcelor into a US$34 billion entity. The world‘s fifth richest man speaks to Talk Asia‘s host, Satinder Bindra, about the Mittal-Arcelor tie-up, family involvement in his company and his own business future.

Mittal talks frankly to Bindra about the merger process with Arcelor. It was a drawn out affair with Mittal describing it as being something akin to a boxing match, "?it had several rounds, and this process required that you win every round. And there were many rounds where it was kind of a draw because no sides were winning," he says.

The merger was also not without its share of critics, from both business and political spheres. Mittal takes us inside the merger process which threatened to be constantly derailed. He describes his reaction to criticism to his of own company by the CEO of Arcelor who cited Mittal Steel as a company "?manufacturing sub standard products" compared to its European counterparts.

Despite fears of how these comments might have affected the success of the merger, Mittal is candid in his assessment of the tactics used by Arcelor management. But he also displays a pragmatic outlook on how to get things done in today?s high-stakes business world. "That?s how the game is played" he says, "?always if I have only supporters, there would be no fun and no challenge."

Bindra questions Mittal on the accusations of racism surrounding the deal with the French steel maker. Mittal is forthcoming on his reaction when questions of race became a part of a deal making process.

Motivated from a humble childhood, the multi-billionaire says his approach to managing the Mittal global business is to "?have a lot of commitment and dedication to the business, deliver a better product than our competition, and to have better productivity."

He also speaks about family involvement in the company. Through a mutually respected relationship, Mittal is grooming his two children with the same care he puts into the business. As a result of his training, it was actually his son who advised Mittal to take over Arcelor in 2005. He adds that he is confident of "?what they are doing and my son has been very successful as a president and CFO of Mittal Steel."

MUMBAI: After the mega successes of Maine Pyar Kiya, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, Rajshri Productions joins hands once again with HMV Saregama to release the music for their forthcoming film Vivah.

The production house known for making blockbuster family entertainers like Maine Pyar Kiya and Hum Aapke Hain Kaun returns with Vivah which will be hitting theatres in November 2006. With an ensemble cast comprising Shahid Kapur, Amrita Rao, Anupam Kher, Alok Nath, Seema Biswas and Samir Soni and directed by Sooraj Barjatya, Vivah is a traditional love story in the Rajshri tradition - a journey from engagement to marriage.

Vivah marks the return of melody with ten tracks composed by Ravindra Jain in typical Rajshree‘s approach with focus on melody and tradition. The songs have been rendered by Udit Narayan, Shreya Ghoshal, Kumar Sanu, Sudesh Bhosle, Babul Supriyo, Suresh Wadkar and Pamela Jain. The music of Vivah is melody focused Ravindra Jain style. Lyrics by Ravindra Jain have further commended the music of Vivah to create a powerful overall package.

According to CEO Music Business, Saregama India Ltd, Kulmeet Makkar, "We are delighted by being associated with Rajshree Productions once again. For us at Saregama it is a comeback with one of India‘s best film producers. The music is built along Rajshri traditions of strong melodies. We hope with Vivah, the Rajshris, Ravindra Jain and Saregama together will be able to recreate the Hum Aapke Hain Kaun magic once again".

In a first of its kind endeavour, Saregama has launched the music for Vivah, first on the internet, before the launch in the physical format of cassettes, MP3 and CDs. The launch has been done on NDTV‘s music site, called www.ndtvmusic.com.

MUMBAI: Come September 29 and you would see Supriya Pathak, wife of Pankaj Kapoor change her garb to someone completely opposite her name! Brash, reprimanding, loud, domineering and bold, she pencils the character of Mahabali for a special episode of Naya Office Office to be aired on Star One at 8:30 pm. The real life couple will be acting after a hiatus of 8 years for the small screen.

From rising fuel prices to problems with the BMC. From corruption to bribery? tackling issues will never be the same again! And neither will comedy on television. Arriving on Star One this Friday, Naya Office Office returns with its sterling star cast, brand new episodes and stupendous comic plots! Catch Mussadilal Vishwarkarma, facing trouble at the passport office, this Friday, September 29th, at 8:30 pm.

This week, Mussaddilal receives intimation from the Passport Office that his Passport is ready for collection and he must come with relevant proof to collect the same. Happily he arrives and gets his new passport for which Bhatia has to be given Mithai and Shuklas paan his due. Mussaddilal happily gives them their due and proudly goes through his newly acquired passport only to find mistakes in Address, Age, & Gender. According to this he is a she, much younger than he should be, and stays at a place which is no where close to his locality.

He is dumbfounded when told what all he will have to do to get it all in order. As this is going on in walks Mahabali (Supriya ), raging with anger ready to take the whole department to task for issuing her passport with her as a male, living at some address unknown to her, and an age which is closer to her uncles. Mahabali , the only daughter of the famous Mussaddilal Pahelwan(No relation of our Mussaddilal) is not ready to accept any of this nonsense, and one slap from her, leave alone her Pahelwan relatives is enough to send our Five crooks reeling.

What happens next??? Does Mussadilal eventually get his passport? To find out, mark your diaries and meet ‘Mussadilal and his gang on ‘NAYA OFFICE OFFICE‘, this Friday at 8. 30 pm, only on Star One!

MUMBAI: The team of ‘Hindustan Motors & Mudra Communications, Delhi‘ won the Radioactive Awards at the Radio City studio in Delhi. Radioactive is a nation wide creativity contest announced by Radio City, India‘s FM network to recognize excellence in radio advertising.

Radio City awarded Mudra Communications - for their creative spot ‘Distraction‘ with a trophy and a cash prize of Rs 50,000 while Hindustan Motors were awarded with a trophy and a free airtime of 10,000 seconds across Radio City‘s 7 stations.

Radioactive was judged by an esteemed panel of judges comprising of CEO Universal Lodestar Shashi Sinha, Saints & Warriors Founder Pushpinder Singh, Cadbury Director Marketing, Sanjay Purohit,
Everest Brand Solutions Managing Director Mahesh Chauhan, and Radio City Head-Programming Vikas Varma.

The contest received an overwhelming response from leading creative agencies across India. The panel of judges initially screened all the creative pieces and benchmarked them against the 5 parameters, followed by a rating for every piece of work.

The jury also analyzed each creative, matching each piece of work with their respective objectives (marketing objective, communication objective and the target audience).

Saints & Warrior Founder Pushpinder Singh said, "It was a clear sweep for Mudra Communications with highest number of points from all judges. Their spot, which carried the message ‘Do not talk on the mobile while driving‘, was very well packaged and by far the best radio creative till date."

This piece was developed specifically for those driving. The prime objective was to promote safe driving. The spot remains unreleased till date, but now will be played on Radio City across stations. Close contenders were Indica V2 Turbo (Church) - FCB
ULKA, Sprite - Rediffusion DYR, Dygex (Forest)- Rediffusion DYR and Father‘s Day- Mudra Communications.

Vice President Mudra Communications Sanjay Sharma said, "We are ecstatic to have received the first ever Radioactive Award. It‘s a proud moment for Mudra. My team has worked very hard and they have done a good job. The concept for the creative was derived from the fact that radio is normally heard when people are commuting by car or any other mode. This gave the team an impetus to come up with the entire concept."

Receiving the award, a senior spokesperson from Hindustan Motors said, "Hindustan Motors is grateful to receive this award. ‘Customer Safety‘ is a top priority for us. Through the story line, we have tried to educate our brand users of the same. Radio for its twin advantages of reach and immediacy, serves as an important communication medium."

Presenting the awards to the winners Rana Barua, Radio City National Head Marketing, said, "Radio City has always introduced pioneering initiatives to develop the industry as a whole. Through ‘Radioactive‘, our objective was to excite the advertising fraternity to use radio as a medium for reaching their target audience and improve the lot of Radio Ads overall in the country. I am glad to say that the first edition of the contest has been super successful and we hope to make it an annual affair."