Monday, December 29, 2008

Akshay Kumar & Priyanka Chopra break the ice

It was a long icy gnawing emptiness when the pair which gave hits like Suneel Darshan’s Andaaz and climaxing in Abbas-Mustan’s Aitraaz stopped working with each other for reasons unknown. So deep was the cleft between the pair that Suneel Darshan had to scrap an Akshay-Priyanka starrer after a song featuring them.

But finally, after the long gap of three years, the fans of the duo were enthralled to see them together when Akshay and Priyanka performed together on stage on Thursday for Christmas at the Convention Centre in Hong Kong for a show called ‘From Chandi Chowk To Hong Kong.’ As an icing to the cake was the Bong beauty Bipasha Basu’s performance who was earlier scheduled to perform in Mumbai for New Year’s eve.

“Yes, I performed on stage with Akshay Kumar in Hong Kong. It was great fun”, says Priyanka.

priyanka chopra

Salman Khan’s gesture of love for Aamir Khan

This is another addition to the gestures of friendship between Aamir and Salman Khan. Salman is all praises and best wishes for Aamir’s ‘Ghajini’ so much so that he himself painted out two paintings of Aamir from ‘Ghajini’.

The paintings, in keeping with the somewhat dark theme of the film, are in black and white and a noticeable aspect of both the paintings is the fact that both of them depict Aamir’s by-now-famous Ghajini hairstyle.

Asin, the leading lady of “Ghajini” on last Wednesday unveiled the paintings at a special function at the Inox at Nariman Point in South Mumbai. Asin said she was “highly impressed” by the creative talent of the star “who can paint so well”.

Not to mention, both Aamir and Asin are keeping their fingers crossed as their film goes into Janta’s court this Christmas.
asin london dreams

asin

asin

asin

Rajesh Khanna does a lip lock with Saara

Former Congress MP and grandfather to Twinkle Khanna’s son, Aarav has surpassed Big B’s act in ‘Nishabd’. The ageing actor, who is ready with his new flick Wafaa, will be seen lip-locking and even biting his heroine Saara, a Pakistani actress, in an intimate scene. The act is sure to leave his fans, relatives and friends speechless with embarrassment. The film has been directed by Rakesh Sawant, brother of Bollywood bombshell Rakhi Sawant. But the director says the scenes are not just fitted in rather they are an important part for the film’s flow. In the movie Rajesh and Saara play husband and wife so the scene was put in. The movie revolves around a business tycoon marrying a young air hostess who has eyes on his enormous wealth.

rajesh khanna kissing sara

rajesh khanna kissing sara

Prachi Desai takes another leap

Her big leap from smaller screen to the silver screen proved to be quite successful with Farhan Akhtar’s ‘Rock On’. Talking about Prachi Desai, the young lady is already geared up for her second Bollywood venture.

Prachi is all excited about her next project which is a part of director Abbas Mastaan’s and Vashu Bhagnani’s co-production venture under Burmawala banner with Rumi Jaffery directing the movie. Titled ‘Life Partner’, the movie has Prachi opposite Tushar Kapoor along with Fardeen Khan and Genelia.

Says Prachi ” Yes I am doing this film and can’t talk more about it as it is not the right time to talk about it.”

prachi desai

Vikram Bhatt hires ‘Ice Maiden’ for 6000 pounds per day

Who can forget the lavish spending made by filmmaker Vikram Bhatt for the magical European castle which was the setting of his horror flick ‘1920’. Now, Vkram Bhatt is repeating his lead couple of ‘1920’, Rajneesh Duggal and Adah Sharma, in ‘Phirr’ and he has gone ahead and done something for the film which very few producers would dare to do.

Vikram has recently shot some portions of the film in UK and during this schedule, he hired a beautiful and gorgeous ship called the ‘Ice Maiden’. Shooting aboard the ship cost Vikram a whopping 6000 pounds per day. “It was the costliest shoot that I have done,” he says.

However, Vikram is quick to defend his spending and says, “I am not a fool to spend that amount on hiring a ship, if it wasn’t required. I can’t reveal much but the ship is an essential aspect in the climax of the film. The temperature was freezing… It was below zero… in weather conditions like this it becomes difficult to shoot action sequences. But it was worth the experience.”

The investment will definitely prove to be worth only if the film sets the cash registers ringing at the box-office.
adah sharma

Friday, December 26, 2008

Kangana Ranaut Keeps Maun, finds Tehrav!

KanganaRanaut.jpg

Kangana Ranaut is unfazed by things around her from the time she has moved on to Yoga. She admitted she was going through tough times (thanks to Aditya Pancholi) but Yoga helped her sail through. She says,

“I got everything very soon in my life but personally my life was going through too much of trauma. I was really trapped by dirty people and they wouldn’t let me concentrate on my work. They tried to harm me both physically as well as mentally.”

She is quite vivacious and effervescent in nature and the practice of Maun or Silence helped her find ‘tehrav’ or harmony in life.

“Initially I found it very difficult to stay silent; however through perseverance I did manage to develop this as a regular part of my yoga practice and have benefited ever since.”

“When I am working, I have to give it 100%. So that’s why I took a break for my personal work to sort out all my issues and only then got back to work. I did not want to struggle between work and personal issues. I am not that kind of a person. I can do only one thing at a time”, she had stated earlier.

“Now, through Silence, I feel I’ve discovered my Soul, the very centre of my being, which is the source of all my energy - creative, spiritual, emotional and mental. I’ve always been a very focused person, and I’ve chosen to portray characters in my film that are challenging and strong. This awareness and practice has given me greater ability to channel my energy effectively to deliver even better on these performances”, she says in an obvious relaxed tone.

Perhaps that means there would be no co-star rivalries for Kangana anymore.

Ghajini was not for Salman Khan: AR Muragadoss

ghajinidec21_full1.jpg

Ghajini is getting appreciated all around the world for Aamir Khan’s knockout performance and Muragadoss’s superb direction. It is surprising to know that Aamir had initially thought Salman is the best person to do the lead role in Ghajini.

Murgadoss says, “Actually, when I was making the Tamil version of the film by the same name, it was Pradeep Rawat (who plays the main villain in both the versions and also happens to be Aamir’s close friend) who recommended that I approach Aamir to star in the Hindi version of the film.

However, at that time I didn’t take it seriously as I thought that Aamir was a chocolate hero, and, hence, he wouldn’t suit the role. But after the release of the Tamil version of the film, I got a call from Aamir himself saying he had watched the film and that he really liked it.

With the confidence that I got from this, I immediately approached Aamir to do the film. Aamir was a bit reluctant initially. I remember him saying “The perfect person for this role in Bollywood is Salman Khan”.

However, I managed to convince him saying that if Salman did the film it would be just another Salman movie. But if he did it, then it would give a different perspective to the film and story.”

He says Aamir left the entire film to him and did not interfere in his work, “Contrary to what you say, Aamir was not at all involved in the making of the film. Not even once did he ever interfere with the filming. In fact, he said that he wanted the film in entirely my taste and that if I had any problems with the language or anything else, only then should I call him in.”

Talking about Aamir’s perfectionism he says,

“For Aamir to be called as a perfectionist is seriously an understatement. He is so very observant and hard working, that rarely have I seen anybody like him. The dedication level that he has for whatever he does is insanely high.

Even to get into his much-talked about physique, he had worked out for 3 to 4 hours a day. I have worked with Surya who in the south is considered to be the best, but Aamir is way better than him…he is simply in a league of his own.”

Indeed!

I’m a Perfectionist Like Aamir Khan: Asin

asin-thottumkal01.jpg

Debutante Asin who made her debut with superstar Aamir Khan in Ghajini says she had no problems matching up to Aamir’s perfectionism.

“People often call Aamir a perfectionist and a tough taskmaster, but I didn’t have any problem matching up to him because I’m also quite a workaholic. We gelled quite well as far as the demand of perfection was concerned. Even I like things to be the best,” Asin told IANS

Talking about working with Aamir she says, “Shooting with Aamir was great fun. He isn’t as serious as he is projected to be. He is highly dedicated to his work but is very cool and easy to work with. He’s a simple person, very genuine and frank about his opinions despite having such a good stature in Bollywood,” said Asin.

Did she ever feel overshadowed by Aamir in the promos of the film? She says,”I have not felt overshadowed by Aamir’s publicity at all. Actually, I’m not used to all this really because we don’t have it in the south film industry. The marketing team for ‘Ghajini’ has its strategy to promote the film in the right manner. If Aamir is promoting the film in the north, I am doing it in the south.”

“Aamir has got a huge fan following and he is the highlight of the film. In fact, since a lot of people down south have seen the Tamil version of the film, they will now probably come to theatres just to watch Aamir.

“I have no issues about that as ‘Ghajini’ is the story of Sanjay Singhania, played by Aamir. So the fact that his presence is being highlighted is completely justified,” said Asin.

Asin says she is “excited but anxious” of how her “new audience” will react to her performance when “Ghajini” hits theatres worldwide.

We wish her goodluck for her career in Bollywood!

I’m accident prone says Katrina Kaif

Katrina-Kaif-Photos-068.jpg

Earlier this month Katrina Kaif suffered a nose injury thanks to Ranbir Kapoor’s tight slap. Her face swelled and her shooting had to be cancelled. This time she injured her leg while shooting for another flick De Dhana Dhan.

Unit members report that Katrina was doing an underwater sequence with Akshay Kumar when her foot got tangled under water.

“The more she tried to extricate herself the more her leg got tangled. She tried to scream for help, but because of the noise on the sets including the stunt co-ordinators who were shouting instructions to the entire cast, no one heard Katrina’s screams of pain,” a source told IANS.
“Akshay saw that Katrina was in trouble. He quickly swam to her and got her out of the tangle,” said the source.

Katrina’s leg was badly hurt. “It could’ve been worse,” said the source, “but tetanus shots and sedatives have eased her pain.”

When contacted, Katrina tried to downplay the incident saying: “It was nothing. I hurt my leg. There was a cut that hasn’t healed as yet. So I’m in pain.”

The Most Bizarre Thing That Happened To Bipasha!

Bipasha.jpg

Bipasha Basu suffered for three long hours when she a tiny piece of gravel went right inside her ear.

She confirms saying, “We were doing a heavy duty action scene when this gravel went right inside my ear. I had to be taken to Leelavati hospital, where it had to be sucked out.”
“It wasn’t on the surface. It went right in and I couldn’t move because there was the danger that it would go in deeper and pierce the eardrums. First I tried to shake it out. Then when that didn’t work I decided to let a doctor do the needful,” she added.

“The producer and director tried everything. We finally headed towards Leelavati. It was John (Abraham) who got an old ENT specialist friend of his to check me out. The sweet doctor was at another hospital but drove down to Leelavati. At 4.30 p m, he finally put me out of my misery,” Bipasha said.

“Who would think such a thing would happen? Normally during an action scene you protect your knees, head etc. But ear? It went straight in with a thud.

“I wasn’t moving, I was so petrified the gravel would go deeper into my ear. My parents were petrified. The minute the doctor said it could be taken out I was okay. It was the most bizarre thing that ever happened to me,” the she said.

We hope she is okay now!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Sonam Kapoor signs her first endorsement deal

Her first film ‘Saawariya’ was a disaster, but she managed to get a huge fan following owing to her freshness and beauty. Talking about Sonam Kapoor, the gal has had no other releases as yet post ‘Saawariya’. She is busy doing Omprakash Mehra’s ‘Delhi 6’ opposite Abhishek Bachchan and has just signed in her first endorsement deal.

Now, the young actress will be the brand ambassador for international cosmetic brand L’Oreal and will launch its new range of products targeted at the young generation. Aishwarya Bachchan has been the brand face of L’Oreal for three years now. However, looking at her age and status, the company has decided to sign in young face Sonam Kapoor for their new product to be launched soon.

Ash will continue to be with the brand but she will represent only women of her ages and Sonam, the younger groups. Sonam was signed for a huge amount commensurate with what the actresses of today like Kareena Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra are charging. The deal was brought about by celebrity management company, Atul Kasbekar’s Bling. Sonam has already shot for her first L’Oreal ad which will be launched sometime in January next year (2009).

sonam kapoor

Katrina Kaif dazzles at Nakshatra event

That Bollywood beauty Aishwarya Rai lost the deal of jewelry brand Nakshatra to Katrina Kaif a few months back had already been informed to you at our space. And undoubtedly, the decision of the company seemed to be apt as we saw Katrina sizzling and dazzling at the promotional event for Nakshatra.

Katrina Kaif has been tagged as the Goddess of Luck for promotions and brand endorsements in the industry. A firm believer in destiny, Katrina feels anyone can be what he wants to be and destiny plays a major part in it. God has of course been very kind to her, adds the actress. In a recent interview Katrina had also confessed that she is most comfortable in front of 300 people on a set. Otherwise, she is lost, says Katrina.

However, even after replacing Ash, Katrina feels that she is no comparison for the Bachchan Bahu as she has an iconic status. Katrina has a series of projects lined up for the coming year - there’s Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani , De Dhana Dhan and the soon-to-be-released New York with co-stars Ranbir Kapoor, Akshay Kumar and John Abraham respectively.

katrina kaif nakshatra

katrina kaif nakshatra

katrina kaif nakshatra

2008 - Bollywood movies which top the list

bachna ae haseeno
Produced by Aditya Chopra and directed by Siddhartha Raj Anand, this had all the magic like other Yashraj films. Ranbir Kapoor played the lead role against three co-stars Bipasha Basu, Deepika Padukone and Minissha Lamba in this film.

Jodhaa Akbar
jodhaa akbar
Produced and directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar and excellent scores from A.R.Rehman, this film did not fare very well at the box-office but does receive a mention here because of the superb chemistry between Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan. Jodhaa Akbar is a love story, it portrays beautifully, the defiance of Jodhaa, the Rajput girl who is asked to marry Akbar, a Muslim Emperor.

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
rab ne bana de jodi
Yet another one from Yash Raj Filsm, this one marks the debut of Anushka Sharma with the superstar SRK who plays two different shades in the film as Surinder Sahni, a simple, clean hearted, honest man working for Punjab Power, and Raj, who is what one calls a flimi ‘macho’ man

Singh Is King
singh is king
Produced by Vipul Shah and directed by Anees Bazmee, this is by far the biggest hit of 2008. This is a by and by masala entertainment film with Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif in the lead roles.

Fashion
fashion movie
Directed by Madhur Bhandarkar, the film shows the darker aspect of World of Fashion, glamour and ramp shows. The film revolves around the life of three models played by Priyanka Chopra, Mugdha Godse and Kangana Ranaut.

Golmaal Returns
golmaal returns
A sequel to ‘Golmaal’, this Rohit Shetty directed film is no match to its original but has some hilarious situations and commendable performances from Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor, Tusshar Kapoor, Shreyas Talpade and Celina Jailtey enough to set the cash registers ringing at the box office.

Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na
jaane tu ya jaane na
Directed by Abbas Tyrewala, this film has been produced by Aamir Khan to launch his nephew Imraan Khan who delivers promising performance alongwith newcomer Genelia D’souza. The film has a simple story about a group of friends and focuses on the couple that is in love.

Race
race
Abbas Mastaan are masters when it comes to thrillers. This thrillers of theirs was a superhit at the box office with Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Anil Kapoor, Bipasha Basu and Katrina Kaif in the main roles.

Rock On
rock on
Once again the team of Dil Chahta Hai, Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar is back with director Abhishek Kpoor for a suberb delivery. The film marks the debut of director Farhan Akhtar as an actor and rock star. This film is about friends and friendship and deals with the love for music in the band called ‘Magik’. As a band, Adi (Farhan), Rob (Luke Kenny), KD (Purab Kohli) and Joe (Arjun) were a treat.

Ghajini
ghajini
The movie is yet to be released but the list would be incomplete without inclusion of Aamir Khan’s much awaited ‘Ghajini’ which marks the Bollywood debut of Asin and also stars Jiah Khan and Mohit Ahlawat

Monday, December 22, 2008

Sangeeta Ghosh pictures from upcoming movie ‘Bhanvraa’

Director Dharmesh Darshan who has experience of directing the movies acted by stars like Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar and Abhishek Bachchan is set to produce his first movie under his banner titled as ‘Bhanvraa- Love In Aggression’. However, in this movie he has enrolled popular television artist Eijaz Khan, Manav Gohil, Sangeeta Ghosh, Shweta Salve instead of Bollywood Stars.

sangeeta ghosh

sangeeta ghosh

sangeeta ghosh

sangeeta ghosh

sangeeta ghosh

sangeeta ghosh

What makes Mugdha Godse homeless?

Mugdha Godse is homeless at present and is staying at each of her friends’ place for a day. No, she has not been thrown out for some bizarre reason. It is just that the gal who has just tasted success with ‘Fashion’ has decided to fashion up her house a bit and has workers spread in her entire house doing it for her.

Though Mugdha decided to spend some days in a 5 star hotel, her friends did not allow her to do so arguing even if her family was in Pune, she was to treat their homes as her home.

So, for at least next 15 days, Mugdha with her luggage in her car is living life hippie style stopping for a day at each friend’s house. That’s a foreign lifestyle in India!

mugdha godse

Bipasha Basu has a day full of mishaps

Last Sunday was a day whose memories bring shudder to sultry Bong beauty Bipasha Basu. The gal was shooting an action scene last Sunday and then a mishap took place and she had to be taken to the hospital.

No, it wasn’t a fall or a leg or back injury. It was just a small flying pebble which landed right in her ear. Though the actress tried to shake the pebble out, but it did not help. To save her eardrum Bips decided to take the medical help but unfortunately, it was Sunday and all clinics in the vicinity were closed.

Now, it was John Abraham, who as a true boyfriend, came to her rescue. Receiving Bipasha’s SOS, he immediately called an ENT doc friend of his. Bipasha rushed to Leelavati hospital where the ENT specialist took out the pebble with a suction machine.

A relieved Bipasha went home with her parents, but another trouble awaited her. She, her parents, and her claustrophobic sister got stuck in the lift of their building. It took some time before the Basus were rescued.

Phewww! What a day it was!!

bipasha basu

Yana Gupta Spotted Dancing and Singing at Bootleggers

Yana Gupta, who is the model and actress of Czech nationality, was recently seen performing at Bootleggers a hip pub in Colaba. Yana during the performance was playing flute, whereas, other members of the bands were Mikey Mclarey on guitar, Tanu on the bass, and Abhishek Arora on percussion.

Though Czech, however, Yana got her Indian sir name after being married to an Indian artist Satyakam Gupta. After three years, the marriage disengaged between and currently it is in news that she is in affair with Abhay Deol. She had worked in a number of stints in Bollywood movie as well as in leading advertising campaigns.

yana gupta bootleggers live music

yana gupta bootleggers live music

yana gupta bootleggers live music

yana gupta bootleggers live music