Prince Harry, Meghan Markle set for first royal duty

Prince Harry and his American actress fiance Meghan Markle will visit a World Aids Day charity fair in Nottingham on Friday, as the couple's first royal engagement.

The couple announced their engagement on Monday, reports the BBC.

The couple, who are due to marry at Windsor Castle in May 2018, will also meet head-teachers at a the Nottingham Academy after attending the fair hosted by the Terrence Higgins Trust.

Prince Harry has spent time in Nottingham both publicly and privately since he first met young people there in 2013, when he was exploring issues around youth violence.

A year later, he established the Full Effect programme, which aims to stop youth violence in the city.

Harry's communication's secretary, Jason Knauf, said the Prince was looking forward to introducing Markle to a community that had "become very special to him".

On Tuesday, it emerged that Markle, an actress who until then had been a UN women's advocate and worked for World Vision, was to start royal life with a "clean state", the BBC reported.

Knauf said she planned to focus her attention on the UK and Commonwealth.

"This is the country that's going to be her home now and that means travelling around, getting to know the towns and cities and smaller communities," he said.

She will also become the fourth patron of the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry.

The foundation is behind Prince Harry's Invictus Games - the Paralympic-style competition for injured servicemen and women and veterans - and also the mental health charity Heads Together.

Padmavati row based on rumours: Bhansali tells Parliamentary panel

In the midst of a raging controversy over his film Padmavati, director Sanjay Leela Bhansali on Thursday appeared before a Parliamentary committee and maintained that the row over the yet-to-be released movie was just based on rumours, strongly rejecting charges that he had distorted historical facts about the 16th century Rajput queen.

Bhansali was grilled for over two hours by members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT as he appeared before it in Parliament House with Prasoon Joshi, who heads the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).

Sources told IANS that the filmmaker was asked why he had screened the movie for a few select journalists even before it was cleared by the censor board.

"All the controversy over the film is based on rumours. I have not distorted facts. The film is based on a poem by Malik Muhammad Jayasi," Bhansali said, referring to the 16th century Indian sufi poet's epic poem Padmavat.

"We don't intend to hurt anyone's sentiments," Bhansali told the 30-member panel headed by BJP MP Anurag Thakur. Among those who attended the meeting were Congress' Raj Babbar and BJP patriarch L.K. Advani.

Kamal Haasan shoots at military academy for Vishwaroopam

Veteran actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasan has resumed the shooting of his long-delayed project Vishwaroopam 2 (Vishwaroop 2 in Hindi). The final schedule of spy thriller film is taking place at the Officers Training Academy (OTS) .

Haasan, who has written, directed and is playing the lead role of a RAW agent in the film, shared a photograph with few army officers on Twitter on Thursday.

The film, which has been delayed over multiple reasons for past few years now, is a sequel to 2013 hit film Vishwaroopam. It also features Shekhar Kapur, Rahul Bose and Pooja Kumar.

The movie has been simultaneously shot in Hindi and Tamil. A release date for the same is yet to be announced.