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MUMBAI : CNN International’s, ‘The Scene’, an interactive
series of city profiles, takes you through the streets of India’s
capital city, New Delhi, with the highly acclaimed and award winning
actress, Nandita Das. The vignette will be aired on CNN International
during CNN Today - 04:30-07:30; 10:30-13:30 IST, Business International
- 13:30-14:30; 16:30-17:00 IST and Your World Today – 20:30-00:00
IST throughout the week starting November 20, 2006.
 Actor
Nandita Das relives her childhood and youth as she walks down the
streets of New Delhi. She strolls down the commercial markets, popular
eating joints and historical and religious places as she guides
the viewers through the city that she was born in.
Nandita is known for her critically acclaimed performances in the
films, Fire and Earth. She also holds a Master's degree in Social
Work and her work in social activism involves human rights issues,
particularly with respect to women and children.
While talking about Delhi she said, “It has a pace that’s
not too frenetic, unlike Bombay. It’s not too crowded and is
much more spacious and green because it can expand horizontally
instead of just vertically. People are a little more laid back,
and I think, so am I. It kind of works with my pace of life. Of
course in any city, there are different worlds that exist, and the
world that I belong to – primarily artists and people doing
social work in the voluntary sector – there is a lot of space
for that. It’s less commercial……”
Speaking about her well known cause to support traditional Indian
crafts, she says, “My father, who’s a painter and an artist,
collects handicrafts and hand woven things so it’s really something
I’ve grown up with. In those days there were no video games
– for us, entertainment was coming to places like the Delhi
Crafts Museum. You get to meet artists from all over the country,
you learn about their lives, buy little things and the great thing
is all the money goes directly to them.”
At India Gate, she reminisces about her youth “In my college
days I used to come here often. We’d come here and play, sit
around, romance,” she said. Nandita also visited Connaught
Place, the Crafts Museum, the Old Fort and Dargah of Hazrat Nizamuddin
Aulia, among other places in Delhi.
‘The Scene’ is built around a weekly series of city short
films, each hosted by a personality associated with that city. CNN’s
on air viewers and online users are invited to submit their views
about the featured personalities and cities at a dedicated website,
http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2006/the.scene/main.html, which
has an array of interactive features. Users can also access the
micro-site from their mobile phones where they can then view the
latest episode.
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