Actress-VJ Sophiya Haque passes away in London

Former VJ-turned actress Sophiya Haque died on Thursday in London after being diagnosed with cancer

Actor, model and former VJ Sophia Haque, who was suffering from cancer for some time, has passed away in London on Thursday.

Haque was believed to be suffering from pneumonia and had been undergoing tests during which she is believed to have developed a clot in her lungs and passed away in her sleep.

Some rare images of Sophiya Haque from the MiD-DAY vault...

The model-actress, who lived in London with her partner and musical director David White, had fallen ill just before Christmas and was diagnosed with cancer.

Sophiya haque
Sophiya Haque in a still from the film 'Snip'

Haque, 41, was born to an English mother and a Bangladeshi father, shot to fame in India during the 1990s during her stint as a video jockey for a couple of popular music channels.

Haque was a popular stage and television actress in Britain. She recently made her mark on prime-time TV as barmaid Poppy Morales on the well-known soap 'Coronation Street' and was in the midst of a West End production called Privates on Parade.

"Sophiya was a wonderful actress, a wonderful client but so much more than that a wonderful friend. She was adored by everyone she worked with and will be deeply missed," said her agent, Oliver Thomson.

He described Haque's relationship with White as "very happy" and the couple were in the process of building a houseboat together when she fell ill.

Haque hit the big league in Britain when she bagged the role of a Bollywood actress in the Andrew Lloyd Webber and AR Rahman musical ‘Bombay Dreams’. This led to a number of plum roles in musicals, including as Janoo Rani in Far Pavilions and most recently as Soraya in Wah! Wah! Girls, described as a good-natured Bollywood musical by critics last year.

In Privates on Parade, which opened in Britain last month, she was praised for her role of Eurasian Sylvia opposite one of Britain's leading stage actors, Simon Russell Beale.

She had acted in Bollywood films like 'The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey', 'Pehli Nazar Ka Pehla Pyaar: Love at First Sight', 'Snip' and some others. 

The news of her death stunned the entertainment world and they took the micro-blogging site to express their grief and shock.

Urvashi Dholakia wins 'Bigg Boss 6' title

Urvashi Dholakia beat Imam Siddiqui in the finale to win the season 6 of Bigg Boss, hosted by Salman Khan

 The show came to a star-studded end as Urvashi bagged the Rs.50 lakh award. She emerged out of the locked house after three months, and her family - her mother, and two children, stood in the audience to welcome her.
Urvashi Dholakia

Urvashi, best remembered as Komolika of "Kasautii Zindagii Kay", was in tears. She is the third female winner of the show in row, after Shweta Tiwari and Juhi Parmar, who won the fourth and fifth seasons, respectively.

"Thank you," she said upon her exit.

She was among the 15 contestants who entered the "Bigg Boss" house in October 2012, and managed to stay in the top four, with Imam, Sana Khan and Niketan Madhok occupying the remaining positions respectively.

Urvashi displayed a strong winning chance ever since she entered the show. She was appreciated for her upfront and honest attitude, was a smart player and always stood up for the right.

She often got involved in verbal spats with Imam, Sapna Bhavnani and Delnaaz Irani, but she patched up with them, creating amicable relations with everyone on the show.

The finale, hosted by "Dabangg" hero Salman Khan, had celebrities like Prabhudheva, Emraan Hashmi and Tusshar Kapoor in attendance.

It was high on entertainment quotient with Salman's spicy performance on popular number "Pandeyji seeti" from his movie "Dabangg 2".

Prabhudheva, who had directed the superstar in "Wanted", appeared on the show with choreographer-turned-director Remo D'Souza to promote their upcoming film "ABCD: AnyBody Can Dance". The trio shook a leg together on the music from "ABCD...".

Emraan used the platform to promote his new film "Ek Thi Daayan", while Tusshar and actress Neha Dhupia came to promote their new reality comedy show "Nautanki: The Comedy Theatre".

The former contestants of the current season of the show also entertained viewers. While celebrity hairstylist Sapna Bhavnani and Bhojpuri actor Dinesh Yadav, Vishal Karwal and Karishma Kotak performed a water act together, Vrajesh Hirjee went inside the house and mocked the contestants.

Item girl Yana Gupta entered the "Bigg Boss" house in a cage and performed on the song "Aa zara", from "Murder 2". Popular TV actresses Rati Pandey, Keerti Nagpure, Pooja Gor and Rashmi Desai also performed on the show.

Unlike previous seasons, the sixth season of "Bigg Boss" promised to be 'Alag che' (different), by catering to a family audience. Though it lived up to the promise to a considerable extent, the show indeed saw some ugly spats between Rajev Paul and Imam, and Delnaaz and Urvashi.

Fare War: How much does SpiceJet gain

The airline will improve its cash flows to the extent of Rs 200 crore from advance bookings done at a magnum opus scale. Travel agents assert that going by previous trends, there are atleast 30% cancellations by customers due to inability to travel and the amount is not refunded for tickets purchased during offers.

 The rapid promotional fares announced by SpiceJet  may have pleased costumers who are logged on to travel websites to grab seats, but the airline too stands to gain from the initiative.

The airline will improve its cash flows to the extent of Rs 200 crore from advance bookings  done at a magnum opus scale. Travel agents assert that going by previous trends, there are atleast 30% cancellations by customers due to inability to travel and as a policy, airlines do not refund amount for tickets purchased during offers.

SpiceJet wants to create brand awareness as it competes with bigger rivals Air India and Jet Airways on domestic routes.

Travel agents and industry watchers say that at least 3 lakh tickets were booked in few hours post the announcement of the offer on Friday evening. On any other given day, the airline books around 30,000 seats.

With a market share of around 20% and plans to add Colombo, Male and several Gulf destinations to its network, the airline needs to create brand awareness. Such campaigns do help popularise brand.

However, travel agents say that many other carriers like GoAir and IndiGo followed suit and put up a sale tag on select fares but later on, rolled back the offer.

At a time when the sector is bleeding and predatory pricing is considered a sin, SpiceJet's offer surprised customers, but nevertheless the airline announcing grand sale to beat lean season lasting till April, cannot be ruled out.

Insiders say, SpiceJet has upset rival carriers for its prompt strategy to ensure loads during the lean season. However, slashing fares to lure customers cannot be sustained in an industry loaded with heavy losses.

The initiative may help the airline increase market share. Also this festive season, demand ( Oct-December ) was not as strong as earlier years forcing spicejet to drop prices.

SpiceJet's promotional offer: 10 lakh seats at Rs 2K

New Delhi: In a move that could be followed by major Indian airlines, no-frill carrier SpiceJet today slashed air fares substantially by offering a limited-period sale of 10 lakh seats across its domestic network for an all- inclusive fare of Rs 2,013.

The promotional offer, which follows similar schemes like 'Jaldi Jaldi' of Air India, is valid for sale till January 13 from today, for travel between February 1 and April 30, a SpiceJet spokesperson said.

The SpiceJet's move could force other airlines to follow suit, thus initiating a fare war, industry sources felt.

The 'Big Sale' offer would be valid for bookings made through SpiceJet's website, online travel agents and other travel agencies only, the spokesperson said, adding the fares are available for direct flights only.

"The offer truly provides an opportunity for all air travellers to fly at such a low price. The scheme offers an opportunity for travellers to fly even at lower than train fares," SpiceJet CEO Neil Mills said.

The sale was announced a day after rail fares were hiked by the government.

Through a major part of the day, the SpiceJet site remained busy, with visitors getting the message, "Our online booking site is currently experiencing heavy traffic. Please try again later."

Similar schemes have been launched in the recent past by some airlines to boost their passenger loads.

After receiving a good response to a similar promotional offer for its domestic air tickets in November last, Air India had launched a special all-inclusive promotional return fare scheme on its international flights last month.

Obama Re-elected as U.S President

President Barack Obama has won re-election to a second term in the White House. According to the CNN he won 303 electoral votes , with Romney ending up with 206 votes. After securing the 270 votes in the electoral college needed to win the race, Obama gets another 4 years in the White House.