NEW DELHI: Tom Alter, a well-known Indian theater, television and Bollywood actor of American descent, has died in Mumbai of cancer. He was 67.
A statement issued by his family on Saturday said Alter died Friday night at home with his family around him in Mumbai, India’s financial and entertainment capital. He had been diagnosed with skin cancer last year.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his grief and recalled Alter’s contribution to the film world and theater.
Alter acted in more than 300 films in several Indian languages, including Hindi, Bengali, Assamese and Telugu. His popular movies included Shatranj Ke Khiladi (Chess Players), Gandhi, Parinda (Bird), Kranti (Revolution), Aashiqui (Love) and Junoon (Obsession).
Alter also was a cricket enthusiast and had written for several sporting journals. He won the Indian government’s “Padma Shri Award” in 2008 for his contribution to the fields of arts and cinema.
Alter was the son of American Christian missionaries. His grandparents had migrated to India from Ohio, the United States, in 1916 and settled in Lahore, now in Pakistan. After the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, his grandparents stayed in Pakistan, while his parents moved to India.
He had schooling in the northern Indian hill resort of Mussoorie and later joined the Film and Television Institute in the western city of Pune from 1972 to 1974. He made his Bollywood acting debut in 1976.
He is survived by his wife, one son and one daughter.
Alter’s body was cremated on Saturday in Mumbai, the Press Trust of India news agency quoted his son Jamie Alter as saying. A memorial service will be held next week.
Indian theater actor Tom Alter dies at 67
Indian theater actor Tom Alter dies at 67
Fans bid farewell to Japan’s only pandas
TOKYO: Panda lovers in Tokyo said goodbye on Sunday to a hugely popular pair of the bears that are set to return to China, leaving Japan without the beloved animals for the first time in half a century.
Loaned out as part of China’s “panda diplomacy” program, the distinctive black-and-white animals have symbolized friendship between Beijing and Tokyo since the normalization of diplomatic ties in 1972.
Some visitors at Ueno Zoological Gardens were left teary-eyed as they watched Japan’s only two pandas Lei Lei and Xiao Xiao munch on bamboo.
The animals are expected to leave for China on Tuesday following a souring of relations between Asia’s two largest economies.
“I feel like seeing pandas can help create a connection with China too, so in that sense I really would like pandas to come back to Japan again,” said Gen Takahashi, 39, a Tokyo resident who visited the zoo with his wife and their two-year-old daughter.
“Kids love pandas as well, so if we could see them with our own eyes in Japan, I’d definitely want to go.”
The pandas’ abrupt return was announced last month after Japan’s conservative premier Sanae Takaichi hinted Tokyo could intervene militarily in the event of any attack on Taiwan.
Her comment provoked the ire of Beijing, which regards the island as its own territory.
The 4,400 lucky winners of an online lottery took turns viewing the four-year-old twins at Ueno zoo while others gathered nearby, many sporting panda-themed shirts, bags and dolls to celebrate the moment.
Mayuko Sumida traveled several hours from the central Aichi region in the hope of seeing them despite not winning the lottery.
“Even though it’s so big, its movements are really funny-sometimes it even acts kind of like a person,” she said, adding that she was “totally hooked.”
“Japan’s going to be left with zero pandas. It feels kind of sad,” she said.
Their departure might not be politically motivated, but if pandas return to Japan in the future it would symbolize warming relations, said Masaki Ienaga, a professor at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University and expert in East Asian international relations.
“In the future...if there are intentions of improving bilateral ties on both sides, it’s possible that (the return of) pandas will be on the table,” he told AFP.
