Renowned director Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding, The Namesake) brought her latest project "AIDS Jaago" to Dubai this year. A collection of four shorts directed by some of the biggest names in Bollywood (Santosh Sivan, Vishal Bharadwaj, Farhan Akhtar and of course Mira herself), each short tackles the impact of AIDS in contemporary India.

Funded by the Gates Foundation (that would be Bill Gates of ahem, Microsoft), Mira took on this project because she was shocked to hear that the rates of HIV / AIDS infections were growing at an alarming rate in India.

By making films about how HIV affects everyday citizens of her country, AIDS Jaago's goal is to get the message out to as many people as possible (online, free dvd's etc). 

Luckily I was able to have a chat with Mira about this project, a possible collaboration with Johnny Depp and her feelings about screening the film in Dubai. Eloquent and honest, I could have spent an hour talking to this talented and passionate filmmaker.   

Check out Mira's segment of the film below (Starring Sameera Reddy, Shiney Ahuja, Raima Sen and Irfan Khan)

If you want to see all the other films, check them out here.

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Posted by Brian on December 21, 2007 2:26:00 PM HKT #

Look at the goodie bag we got from Alvin and the Chipmunks!

The singing trio finally get the theatrical treatment this Christmas and we've got some sweet stuff to pass on to you (cause we're so nice like that).

All we ask you to do is watch the trailer below and then answer the following question:

What are the names of all three chipmunks?

Now wasn't that easy?

Please send all answers to hkmarketing@startv.com with your name, daytime contact information and mailing address.

Each goodie bag contains the following:

*   Plushies
*   Phone tags
*   Notebooks
*   Hooded tops
*   Stickers
*   Micro Voice Changer
*   Key Rings
*   T-shirts

5 lucky winners will be selected at random, so good luck!

Of course, if you want to find out more of Alvin and the Chipmunks, remember to come back to this site to see my full interviews with the cast and creators of these cute singing critters!

Before I go, let me leave you with a bit of classic Alvin and the Chipmunks magic.

Singing the Christmas Song, here they are with the late creator of the characters, Ross Bagdasarian. Happy Christmas people!

[Click on to read the rules and regulations of the competition.]

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Posted by Stevie on December 21, 2007 1:47:00 PM HKT #