The magazine had carried a cover-page article on her in which she said "My brother and I were schooled at the British Al Ain English speaking school. I was here for eight years from 1979 to 1987 — we were earlier in Muscat. There were children of all nationalities in the school-everybody had his own accent, and trying to talk to each other, especially when you are that young and you are barely learning how to talk yourself was really fun and interesting."

However, Yukta’s parents decided that higher education was best pursued in India, and thus relocated to Mumbai, the two children had a rough time."Both of us had a British accent... We were fair, lovely looking children, because we had not gone through the Mumbai rough and tumble, and our faces were glowing. The others thought we were snobs, and no one would talk to us "firangs" (foreigners). We used to literally sob, like small children going to nursery for the first time. Things changed gradually and it took a year to settle down", she said.

Yukta was quoted as saying that "the best part about school in Dubai, which I realised when we went back to India, was that there was no homework. There were no school bags to carry, no tiffin boxes — lunch used to be in canteen. We used to do plays and lots of fun things — school was fun, and I used to do very well, as I realise now when looking at my reports".

MTV put under the Federal microscope

Also under the microscope are MTV’s exclusive deals in which the cable company buys up broadcast rights for high-profile superstar clips. This includes MTV Network’s alleged manuevering to secure similar access for online programming, a hot-button issue now that the Web is considered by many to be crucial to the future of video promotion.

Nobody in the music business would argue with the fact that MTV is one of the industry’s true eight-hundred-pound gorillas (not to mention one of its wealthiest), or that along with mainstream radio airplay, it is the most important means for breaking platinum acts today. But some major-label execs suggest the probe may not amount to much, since MTV brass have essentially left The Box untouched since the purchase, and MTV’s exclusive deals for videos are largely a thing of the past.

"I’m thrilled MTV has done nothing to change The Box," says Emily Whitman, vice president of video promotion at Island Def Jam Music Group. "That was my fear, that they would roll it into MTV." At the time of the purchase, one theory was Viacom would simply insert its still-growing M2 channel into The Box’s cable outlets. That hasn’t happened. Whitman says the programming staffs at MTV and The Box remain entirely separate and that she can pitch new video to both simultaneously without any fear of repercussions. "MTV’s smart enough to know the [channels] have two separate audiences," she says.

As for MTV’s exclusives, a channel spokesperson points out that MTV only signed up four for all of 1999, as opposed to the early days of the network when multi-million-dollar deals were made with major labels to secure the network first-run rights to dozens of videos. Granted, all four exclusives this year were guaranteed blockbusters: "Nookie" by Limp Bizkit, "Freak on a Leash" by Korn, "Goodbye" by the Spice Girls and "Why Don’t You Get a Job?" by the Offspring.