Entertainment: Parineeti becomes 1st Indian woman ambassador for Australia Tourism

Parineeti Chopra has been roped in to be Australia’s first Indian woman Ambassador to encourage Indians to visit the country.

According to Tourism Australia (TA), she was presented the Friend of Australia (FOA) recognition by Australian Consul General Tony Huber for her contribution to promote Australia recently.

Prior to Parineeti Chopra, famous chef Sanjeev Kapoor and cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle have been great advocates for Australia, encouraging Indians to visit Australia.

In her new role to promote Australia as a tourist destination, Chopra will be visiting Queensland and Northern Territory, exploring Australia’s aquatic and coastal experiences, rugged outback, unique wildlife and its incredible variety of world-class food and wine offering.

“I am extremely delighted to be appointed as a Friend of Australia, since Australia is one of my favourite holiday destination. I had visited the country last year and I feel there is so much more to explore that one trip is not enough. The country has much more to offer and I’m fascinated by its warm and welcoming people, spectacular nature, unique wildlife, world-class food and wine options and smorgasbord of adventure activities,” Parineeti said.

In 2016, India was Australia’s ninth largest inbound market for visitor arrivals and 10th largest market for total visitor spend. Visitors from India generated USD 1.2 billion in total expenditure in 2016 and Tourism 2020 strategy estimated that India has the potential to grow to between USD 1.9 billion and USD 2.3 billion in total expenditure by 2020.

Darsheel Safary chosen for face of The Harry Potter Film fest

Taare Zameen Par actor Darsheel Safary has been roped in as the face of &pictures’s “The Harry Potter Film Series” festival, reported a news agency.

The magical adventure of the Harry Potter movies, based on author JK Rowling’s Harry Potter novels, will be showcased as part of ‘The Harry Potter Film Series’ in Hindi every Sunday on &pictures channel.

“Like any other kid, I have been a huge fan of the Harry Potter series since childhood. There was a time in school when I would enact casting spells with my pencils and wooden sticks,” said Darsheel.

“The Harry Potter Film Series” will kick-start on September 17.

Bollywood condemns Gauri Lankesh’s murder

Bollywood celebrities such as Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Sonam Kapoor and Dia Mirza have condemned the killing of senior journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh, calling it an attack on independent press.

The Kannada journalist-activist, known for her left- leaning outlook and forthright views on Hindutva politics, was shot dead by unidentified assailants at her residence.

Citing a pattern in the murder, Akhtar wrote on Twitter, Lankesh died a similar death as rationalists Narendra Dhabolkar, Govind Pansare and M M Kalburgi.

With inputs from PTI