The Congress on Wednesday asked the government to bring a legislation to provide compensation of Rs one crore to families of security and defence personnel killed while fighting anti-national elements.

Congress spokesperson Ajoy Kumar said there were different norms followed by different states in providing compensation to the kin of those who died in operations against terrorists and insurgents.

"We will support any legislation brought by the government to provide Rs one crore compensation," Kumar said.

The Congress leader urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to overhaul the anti-Maoist strategy of the government.

"There are no patrol vehicles in more than 130 police stations in Chhattisgarh. There were two mine protection vehicles with the Chhattisgarh Police, but now there is only one," he said.

Kumar said there is no coordination between the Central Reserve Police Force men and the police in gathering and sharing intelligence.

"This is reflected by the fact that 300 Naxalites attacked a 99-member CRPF party going for their afternoon meals.

The police modernisation programme in Chhattisgarh has completely failed. Only few hundred crores have been spent in the last 14 years, since the state was created," he said.

"There are 12,638 police posts vacant in Chhattisgarh. Money spent on vehicles, weaponry and equipment for training, forensic and policing has been abysmal."

The Congress also accused the government of diluting the Integrated Action Plan which was launched by the previous government to combat Maoism.

"The funds for this scheme was sanctioned directly by the then Planning Commission and provided to the districts through the Home Ministry. Rs 13,000 crore was earmarked specifically for these districts in 2013-14. But the Finance Ministry and the Home Ministry of the BJP-led government diluted this scheme," said Kumar.

"For security forces related infrastructure, the revised estimate was Rs 1,309 crore in 2015-16 but it was reduced to Rs 1,222 crore for 2017-18," he added.

Kumar said: "Although Home Minister Rajnath Singh had promised to double the budget of police modernisation, but in the 2017-18 budget, it has been reduced by 9.5 per cent."

The Indian Cricket Board's hegemony in world cricket on Wednesday came under severe threat as the richest board was comprehensively out-voted on governance structure and revenue model at the ICC Board Meeting in Dubai.

India was checkmated by former BCCI boss Shashank Manohar, who now helms the ICC as its first independent Chairman.

The BCCI was thrashed 1-9 when representatives of all other member nations, except India's Amitabh Chaudhary, voted in favour of a change in the financial structure.

Their opposition to change of the governance structure was also rejected 2-8 by the ICC board with Chaudhary only finding support from Sri Lanka Cricket's Thilanga Sumathipala.

The BCCI were opposing changes on two counts — ICC's Governance model, which required a change in its constitution with review of full membership, and a two-tier Test structure.

The bigger issue was the contentious revenue model, which is set to bring India's share down to half from USD 570 million. Manohar has advocated a more equitable distribution from the earlier 'Big Three' Model where India, Australia and England were the primary earners.

"Yes, the voting is over. It was 8-2 in favour of revamped revenue model and 9-1 in favour of constitutional changes," a senior BCCI functionary present in Dubai told PTI.

"The BCCI has voted against both as we had, in principle, maintained that all these changes are completely unacceptable for us. At this point, we can only say that all options are open for us. We would have to go back to our SGM and apprise the members of the situation," he added.

It was learnt that since BCCI outrightly rejected the additional USD 100 million pay-out in revenue, it was once again given the original option of USD 290 million which is a USD 280 million cut from the USD 570 million India had been getting till last year.

A peeved senior official today said that while it was expected that there will be resistance with current BCCI dispensation's bete noire Manohar at the helm, they were taken by surprise when Zimbabwe and Bangladesh — the two votes that BCCI thought of as assured — never came their way.

It is also a sort of embarrassment for the Committee of Administrators (COA) as it was dealing with a lot of member nations and was extremely confident of pulling it in India's favour.

The heavy defeat indicates that the COA failed to read the minds of the likes of Nazmul Hasan Papon, David Peever, Haroon Lorgat, all of whom came to India to discuss the changes.

"Zimbabwe have been promised USD 19 million by the ICC.

On what grounds has Manohar made this promise? But strangely Bangladesh also went the other way. Today at the meeting, Manohar, in fact, said that the USD 290 million is a 'take it or leave it' offer," the fuming BCCI official said.

"Now at the SGM, there were only two resolutions passed.

Our representative had two mandates. Propose for deferment of the decision which was rejected. And the next option was voting against during a floor Test.

"Our aim was to protect India's interest. Our tone was extremely conciliatory at the meeting for the best interest of the game. But what was shocking was Mr Manohar's stance," the official claimed.

Asked about whether India will now withdraw from the Champions Trophy, the official said, "All options are open.

They have basically disrespected the Members' Participation Agreement that was earlier signed.

"As of now the joint secretary will go back and an emergent SGM will be called. He will then apprise the General Body about the developments and an appropriate decision will be taken."

The head of COA Vinod Rai however refused to comment on whether India will pull out of Champions Trophy.

"I would not like to comment on a hypothetical situation as none of the BCCI officials have spoken to me," Rai told PTI today.

The official said that BCCI still does not consider it as a setback as it is "the vendetta of one man (Manohar)".

"The ICC is yet to tell us what is the basis on which a nation like Singapore stands to gain more. What exactly are the grounds? Can they explain how are they trying to cut down the Operational Costs of ICC which is USD 160 million?" he questioned.

It is expected that majority of BCCI SGM will vote in favour of a pull-out from Champions Trophy but it will be easier said than done. One of the marquee tournaments – a sort of mini World Cup is something that cricket loving public is looking forward to.

The COA is still in power and it does have the authority to veto a decision by the General Body in case they are mulling on a pull-out.

As the results of the April 23 voting for the three municipal corporation elections poured in on Wednesday, the party supporters did not break into a rapturous celebration, as is the normal practice, due to the Monday killing of 25 CRPF men in Chhattisgarh.

However, it did not fail to take a dig at the AAP. A poster outside Delhi BJP office said 'Delhi vasiyo badhai, Kejriwal ki hesiyat batai' (congratualtions citizens of Delhi, put Kejriwal in place).

There were no bursting of crackers at the Delhi BJP office at Pandit Pant Marg since morning, or dancing to tune of drumbeats by party workers and supporters, or splashing of colour and distribution of sweets.

BJP leaders and workers paid floral tributes to the Central Reserve Police Force men killed in Maoist attack in Sukma. Union Ministers M. Venkaiah Naidu and Jitendra Singh were among those who came visiting.

Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari on Wednesday announced there would be no celebrations in view of the Chhattisgarh attack.

"We won't celebrate this victory and dedicate it to the CRPF personnel who lost their lives in the Sukma attack. We are with their families," Manoj Tiwari told reporters later.

The BJP won 181 of the 270 wards that polled on Sunday, way above the halfway mark to secure control of all the three Municipal Corporations of Delhi – North, South and East. The BJP won 64 of 103 wards in North, 70 of 104 in South and 47 of 63 in East.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal could manage wins in just 48 wards and the Congress was way behind with 30 seats.

"We have decided not to celebrate the victory. We want to dedicate this victory to the CRPF jawans," said Sunil Yadav, President of the Delhi unit of Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha.

Huge LCD screens were put up in makeshift tents where mediaperons and party workers were seated in groups, watching the counting trends.

Meanwhile, the AAP office at Rouse Avenue wore a deserted look as only a very few party volunteers could be seen there.

Barring national spokesperson Ashutosh, the party office saw no other AAP leader in the morning. There were no signs of preparations for any prospective celebrations either.

AAP top brass congregated at Kejriwal's house following the party's debacle in the civic polls, while the party office wore a desolate look.

Besides Kejriwal, other leaders present at his house included Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Dileep Pandey, Gopal Rai, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha and Deepak Bajpai.

Later, several AAP MLAs and ministers including Satyendar Jain, Kapil Mishra, Imran Hussain, Alka Lamba, Nitin Tyagi, Rajesh Gupta, Sanjeev Jha reached the CM's house and reviewed the poll results.

As poll results showed the AAP coming a distant second in the polls, Rai emerged from the house to tell the media that the BJP win was "due to EVM tampering".

Even at the Delhi Congress office, which a few hundred meters away from the AAP's, there were no top leaders except for some party volunteers.

Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir played his hundredth match for the two-time IPL champions, facing Rising Pune Supergiant at the MCA Stadium in Pune on Wednesday.

Adding to the joy, Gambhir stole all the limelight when he set an attacking field for RPS’ star wicketkeeper-batsman MS Dhoni, who came to bat in the 14th over.

The KKR skipper positioned fielders at slip, leg slip and silly point for Dhoni when RPS stood at 112/2 after losing both the openers Ajinkya Rahane (46) and Rahul Tripathi (38).

Gambhir’s effort was commendable as he dominated the powerful hitter, who managed to score just 23 runs with a six and two boundaries.

“I simply love Gambhir's captaincy….slip, leg slip and silly point for MSD. Teams couldn't do it in Tests. #IPL #RPSvKKR,” former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra tweeted, hailing the KKR captain Gambhir for field setting.

This wasn’t the first time when Gambhir did this to Dhoni as earlier also he has positioned the similar field to control the aggressive middle-order batsman.

Captaining Delhi during a domestic cricket clash in 2015, Gambhir set the same field for Jharkhand batsman Dhoni.

In the IPL, he did this thrice before Wednesday – KKR vs Chennai Super Kings in the 2015 edition, while RPS vs KKR and KKR vs RPS during the 2016 season of the cash-rich league.

Senior West Bengal Minister Amit Mitra on Wednesday dismissed as a "blatant and motivated attempt to distort the truth" BJP National President Amit Shah's allegations that the state was a poor performer in development indices.

Accusing Shah of "misguiding" the people, Mitra gave a point-by-point rebuttal of the allegations levelled by the BJP chief.

On Shah's comment that the six years of the Trinamool Congress rule has disappointed those who had hoped that an era of development would begin in the state after the end of the Left Front regime, Mitra said: "They are comparing a government of six years with 34 years of Left rule. They are like seasonal birds, coming and going, so they cannot see the development."

He said during the first five years of the Mamata Banerjee-led government, state plan expenditure had increased from Rs 14,615 crore to Rs 54,069 crore, capital expenditure rose by seven times and the state's own revenues doubled.

Countering Shah's comment on the declining share of West Bengal in the country's GDP, Mitra said GSDP (Gross State Domestic Product) of Bengal more than doubled from nearly Rs 4.61 lakh crore in 2010-11 to Rs 9.20 lakh crore in 2015-16.

Mitra said Bengal had a debt of Rs 1.9 lakh crore when the Left Front was voted out of power in 2011 and it now stands at Rs 3 lakh crore.

Of the Rs 113,000 crore increase in the state's debt stock during the past five years, around Rs 94,000 crore went into debt servicing of the debt left behind by the previous government, he said.

In fact, Bengal's debt-GSDP ratio has improved from 41 per cent to 32.58 per cent, the minister said.

Shah alleged industries were shutting down, only bomb-making factories were booming.

In reply, Mitra said: "Industry growth in India is 7 per cent while in Bengal the same is 10 per cent. Furthermore, 40 per cent investment proposals received at Bengal Global Business Summit are in the process of fructification while figure for the same in Gujarat is 2-3 per cent."

"The facts speak for themselves and falsehood stands exposed," Mitra added.

Opposing Shah's allegation against the Trinamool Congress' "appeasement politics", the state minister said the schemes are for all and the government "works for all".

Mitra also said after demonetisation, the BJP claimed the measure has eliminated fake notes in the country. "Everyone knows what the truth is," he said.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday said that it will soon issue new Rs 10 and Rs 5 coins in circulation.

According to the RBI, the central government has minted new Rs 5 coins to commemorate the "150th Anniversary of Allahabad High Court" and Rs 10 coins on the occasion of "One Hundred Twenty-fifth Year of National Archives of India".

Besides, the Reserve Bank said that the existing Rs 5 and Rs 10 coins shall continue to be legal tender even after the issue of new coins.

The apex bank said that the reverse side of the Rs 5 coin shall bear the image depicting "Centre facade of Allahabad High Court Building emerging from the book".

"The year 1866-2016 in English numerals shall be written at the bottom of the image," the RBI said in a statement.

It said that Rs 10 coins' reverse side shall bear the image of "National Archives Building" in the centre.

"A logo of 125th Anniversary Celebration shall exist at the centre and above the image of 'National Archives Building'. The year 1916 and 2016 in international numerals shall be written respectively on left and right top of the image," the statement said.

A family court in Ajmer, Rajasthan, on Wednesday annulled a child marriage that was held about 18 years ago when the girl was only two and a half years old.

Kavita Gujar, originally from Alwar and presently studying in Ajmer, was married off to Subash, son of Hardaan Singh Gujar, of Kotputli town around 18 years ago.

Kavita filed a petition in the family court to annul her child marriage with the assistance of Kriti Bharti, rehabilitation psychologist and Managing Trustee of Saarthi Trust of Jodhpur, an NGO.

"Kavita did not want to remain in the knots of child marriage," Kriti Bharti said.

The court of Judge Raj Vyas pronounced the decision just before Akha Teej, a Hindu festival popular for the solemnisation of child marriages in the state. This year Akha Teej falls on April 28.

The trust has so far been successful in getting 32 child marriages and stopped hundreds of child marriages in the country.

The AAP, which emerged as a major political force in Delhi's politics, will have a tough time ahead after facing a humiliating defeat in the city's municipal polls and it will now be a challenge for the party to keep its legislators united.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which had come riding on the anti-corruption plank and swept the Delhi assembly polls in 2015 by winning 67 of the 70 seats, received a drubbing in the civic polls, making it clear that the party's popularity has dipped over the years.

That AAP's popularity has slipped was clear right after the latest round of the assembly polls, when it failed to perform in Punjab up to its expectations and drew a blank in Goa. It also finished third, behind the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, in by-election to the Rajouri Garden assembly seat in Delhi earlier this month.

According to the Delhi State Election Commission, the BJP swept the municipal polls winning 181 seats, the AAP got 48 seats, while the Congress was restricted to just 30.

A win in the municipal polls would have been a big morale booster for the AAP, which has national ambitions, and would also have helped the party affirm its claim that people of Delhi were happy with its government's performance in two years in various areas, including heath, education, water and electricity, feel experts.

Political analyst at the Centre for Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) Praveen Rai said the by-poll results were a signal that the AAP's popularity was going down and that the results were "very damaging" for the party.

"The party would now be under tremendous pressure to keep its MLAs united, as they may opt for other options seeing no bright future for AAP. It will be quite a challenge for Kejriwal to keep them united," Rai told IANS.

He also said that the Delhi civic polls results would also strengthen the voices of dissents in the party.

Rai said that blaming electronic voting machines (EVMs) for the BJP's win was merely an excuse, as the AAP did not want to accept the defeat.

He said the way out for the AAP was "introspection" and "engagement" of the party's top leadership with its grassroot workers.

"Kejriwal will have to listen to his MLAs and other party workers to strengthen the party at grassroots. Now AAP government will have to focus on working for Delhi because it is only the performance that matters," Rai said.

The poor performance of the AAP would not only lower the morale of the party workers but also shatter its ambitions to contest assembly elections in Gujarat later this year.

Political analyst Neerja Chowdhury termed the civic poll results as a "big blow" to the AAP.

"AAP has became more vulnerable now. These results ring an alarm bell for the Delhi government, too. Kejriwal will now have to focus more on Delhi's governance," she told IANS.

Chowdhury speculated that if 21 AAP legislators facing charges of holding office of profit get disqualified, the BJP would spare no effort to topple the AAP government.

"This possibility can't be ruled out," she stressed.

She added that Wednesday's results were set to have a bearing on the ambitions of the party for other states.

"Kejriwal will have to focus on keeping united and strengthening his cadres, especially in states beyond Delhi," Chowdhury said.

Several officials, including Newcastle club's Managing Director. were arrested on Wednesday as part of a probe into tax fraud in English football launched by the UK's Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

The wide-ranging raids, in which 180 agents were deployed, included searches in France and the United Kingdom, mainly in the north-east and southeast of England, reports Efe.

During the raids, several officials, including Newcastle United Managing Director Lee Charnley, were arrested and business and financial records, computers and mobile phones were seized.

"HMRC has arrested several men working within the professional football industry for a suspected Income Tax and National Insurance fraud," HMRC said in a statement.

The statement pointed out that the French authorities are "assisting" the investigation and have already made arrests, with several locations searched in France.

"This criminal investigation sends a clear message that, whoever you are, if you commit tax fraud, you can expect to face the consequences," the note stressed.

The note concluded that HMRC cannot give more details at this time as the investigation is still ongoing.

The raids, by UK tax officers, were conducted at the offices of West Ham United and Newcastle United.

As many as 38 of the 270 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidates and 92 of the Congress forfeited their security deposits in the Delhi civic polls, State Election Commissioner (SEC) S.K. Srivastava disclosed on Wednesday.

Only five Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates lost their deposits this time round. In 2012, 18 BJP contestants had lost their deposits, while the figure for the Congress was 26.

The security deposit is forfeited if a candidate fails to garner a minimum of 1/6th of the total number of valid votes.

In all, 1,790 candidates of the total 2,516 candidates in the fray lost their deposits in Sunday's municipal polls, votes for which were counted on Wednesday, the SEC said.

In all the three municipal corporations, the BJP candidates won by the highest margins. BJP's Sanjeev Kapoor left the AAP's Naveen Gupta behind by 9,332 votes in Krishna Nagar (East DMC) seat.

In Dwarka-B (South DMC) ward, BJP's Kamaljeet Sehrawat defeated the AAP's Sushma Bansal by 9,866 votes.

In Saraswati Vihar (NDMC), Neeraj Kumar of the BJP defeated the AAP's Desraj Aggarwal by 7,895 votes.

Anita Tanwar of the BJP won by two votes in Chattarpur (SDMC), while Gurjeet Kaur of the same party won by 58 seats in Bhajanpura (EDMC).

Seema Tahira of the Congress won by 259 votes from Bazar Sita Ram (North DMC).

Interestingly, as many as 49,235 voters opted for NOTA this time around, which worked out to 0.67 per cent of the total votes cast. Of these, 10,283 (0.58 per cent) were recorded in EDMC, 19,762 (0.74 per cent) in NDMC and 19,190 (0.71 per cent) in SDMC.

"This is quite a high number of NOTA. This means the voters were not happy with any of the candidates in the fray and they expressed their displeasure through NOTA," Srivastava observed.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday congratulated the BJP for its victory in the civic polls and assured his party's support for Delhi's betterment.

"I congratulate (the) BJP on their victory in all three MCDs (municipal corporations of Delhi). My government looks forward to working with the MCDs for the betterment of Delhi," Kejriwal tweeted.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was set to sweep all three – east, south and north Delhi – civic corporations. It had so far won 143 seats and was leading in 31 seats.

The Aam Aadmi Party was a distant second having won 35 seats and leading in 16, while the Congress had won only 22 seats and was leading in 4.

The government on Wednesday appointed senior IPS officer Rajiv Rai Bhatnagar as new chief of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), two days after the force lost 25 men in a deadly Maoist attack in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh.

Bhatnagar, a 1983 batch officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, was appointed to the post nearly two months after the retirement of previous incumbent K. Durga Prasad on February 28.

Additional Director General Sudeep Lakhtakia, a 1981 batch IPS officer, was handling additional charge as CRPF Director General. 

Prasad headed the force as its chief for one year from March 1, 2016 to February 28, 2017. 

Bhatnagar is currently serving as Director General of the Narcotics Control Bureau – an ADG rank post which has temporarily been upgraded to a Special Director General rank.

India on Wednesday called for united global action in strongly resisting "opportunistic" efforts of some states to support terrorist groups by facilitating training, funding and providing safe havens to them.

Addressing an international security conference here, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said terrorism is being "reinvented" in newer and even more dangerous manifestations and that the challenge must be dealt with effectively.

Without naming any country, he said terrorism will recoil on those who nurture it, adding distinctions are still sought to be made between good and bad terrorists, despite all the evidence and experience to the contrary.

The sixth Moscow conference on international security is attended by defence ministers of a large number of countries.

"We should also resolutely resist opportunistic efforts by some states to support terrorist proxies by training, funding or providing safe havens to such groups for their limited objectives," he said.

On the positive side, he said, the territory acquired by ISIS in the Middle East has begun to be effectively challenged by several countries.

"It is reassuring and should be taken to its logical conclusion. Cooperation between major powers in this effort can become a template for similar steps elsewhere," he said.

At the same time, he said even work is on to eliminate the breeding grounds of terrorism in the Middle East, the dangers of such elements returning to their home countries has become a major challenge.

"We need to encourage closer information exchanges and intelligence cooperation to address this threat," he said.

The defence minister said the scourge of terrorism remains the primary security challenge for all peaceful countries, asserting India will steadfastly partner all friendly countries confronted with the challenge of terrorism.

"We have successfully addressed this threat for over three decades. We will continue to strengthen ongoing cooperation in counter-terrorism with our partners," he said.

Rajasthan Assembly on Wednesday passed the Goods and Services tax bill 2017. A special session of the assembly had been called for the bill and on concluding day of the session the bill was passed with voice vote. Rajasthan thus becomes the third state after Telengana and Bihar to pass the bill. 

"Complications of taxation are a tax in itself, thus through this bill the complexities or Tax system are being simplified" said industries minister of Rajasthan Rajpal Singh Shekhawat while presenting the bill at Rajasthan Assembly. 

"The difference in taxation in different states creates parallel economy within one economy of country, this also creates uncertainty. The GST will help bring uniformity and clarity in taxation and help the country and state to progress" he said. 

The minister also informed the house that till date 4 lakh 24 thousand tax payers of the state have migrated to the GST system and the district level and state level committees have already held meeting for the purpose. The training of trainers for further awareness programs have also been held. 

The escalation of cost of learning and corrosion of trust are few factors impinge on administration of universities, President Pranab Mukherjee said on Wednesday.

Addressing a function, he said sustaining and reinvigorating the higher education in India as well as in the world, has become a major challenge, especially in the public institutions.

The president said at least four distinct factors impinge from outside as well as inside on the administration of an institution of higher learning, that includes escalation of costs of learning and corrosion of trust.

Mukherjee said narrow pragmatics, i.e. market-oriented fast-track skill acquisition, as the sole goal of learning; and the allure of invasive dominant communication systems depleting attention span, are other factors affecting administration of universities.

Any attempt to build or re-orient the higher education in such a situation requires administrative acumen, the president said in his address on the first convocation of the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) here.

"Cynicism is an easy alibi to evade responsibility. Any institutional future is dependent upon enabling the faculty, students and the staff to overcome cynicism. One way of achieving this is making everyone a stakeholder in collaborative institution-building.

"Immersive teaching supplemented by intensive research alone can advance the vision of the university in generating new knowledge and sharing it with everyone," he suggested.

The Ministry of External Affairs entrusted the EFLU with international responsibility for training diplomats and for designing trainer training programmes.

The university has set up centres for English language training in ASEAN countries and five new centres are coming up in African nations.

Telangana Governor E S L Narasimhan and other dignitaries were present during the function.

Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua on Wednesday once again denied consular access to alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, sentenced to death by a military court on charges of espionage.

During a meeting with Janjua in Islamabad, Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale requested that consular accessto Jadhav be granted, Radio Pakistan reported.

However, pointing out the legal aspects of the case, Janjua told Bambawale that Pakistan maintained its decision to deny consular access to Jadhav.

Janjua told Bambawale that "Jadhav was a serving Indian naval officer who was involved in terrorist activities in Pakistan and thus would not be given access".

This is the second time the Indian High Commissioner has called on Janjua since the death sentence was handed to Jadhav on April 10.

Jadhav, a former Indian naval officer, was arrested in Balochistan in March 2016. Pakistan has accused him of being a spy. 

India has sought consular access 15 times but Pakistan has denied this every time.

Indian authorities say they have not been informed about the whereabouts of Jadhav and the condition he is in.

Actress Anushka Shetty, who essays the role of Devasena in Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, says that the film's director SS Rajamouli has given her a whole arc of a womans life.

During an interview on CNN-News18's Now Showing, she said that people rarely get to play a character who transforms from a young person to an old lady, read a statement from the channel.

"I feel Rajamouli has given me a whole arc of a woman's life… from being a young girl to a woman, a mother… it's beautiful," Anushka said.

Asked about why Katappa killed Baahubali, Anushka said it would be unfair to let out the answer to the million-dollar question before the movie releases on Friday.

"It would be unfair only to let out the why… the way the story has been scripted, the screenplay and how it's been shot has such lovely moments. The emotions and all are so much deeper. Even those of us who have worked on it are looking forward to watch the magic on screen," she said. 

In the film, she essays a dual role — wife to Prabhas's character and his mother.

Anushka says initially such roles do feel awkward but "it becomes easier when you have a director like Rajamouli, who is so clear about what he wants and he guides you through it".

The interview will be aired on Friday.