Aishwarya’s father honoured at Sailor Today Awards

One can easily imagine the glow on pretty Aishwarya Rai’s face when her father was given a Life Time Achievement award for serving in the maritime industry. The event was Sailor Today Awards and to complete the event was pre recorded videos of the entire Rai family talking about their relationship with Krishnaraj Rai who is a marine engineer.

To add to the glamour was sizzling performance by Kim Sharma, Pooja Bedi & Aditi Gowitrikar. Aditi, Shawar Ali, Freddy walked the ramp in Sailor outfits. Also present were Rakesh Paul and Sunaina Paul, Delnaaz Paul and Rajeev Paul, Aditya Hatkari and Divya.

Khali to make his big entry in Bollywood

‘The Great Khali’ aka Dalip Singh brought India into limelight in the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) arena. Now, this ‘beeeeg boy’ is set to enter Bollywood with ‘Ramaa — The Saviour’, a children’s adventure film.

The film, to be produced by actor Sahil Khan (of Style fame), will have Khali playing super human, while Sahil will play Lord Rama opposite Tanushree Datta. To be mentioned here, that this 35-year old has already appeared in a Hollywood film, ‘The Longest Yard’. He will also be seen in a prominent role in another project ‘Get Smart’ starring Steve Carell, Bill Murray, with yet another wrestler, the Rock.

Anyways, Khali is determined that he will work only for positive roles, as he has a huge fan following among kids in India and does not want to leave any negative impact on the young minds!

Bollywood Biggies to Teach Stress Management in NZ

The 2000 Miss Universe Lara Dutta and famous Actor Kunal Kapoor of Range De Basanti fame will be teaching stress Management in Auckland this month by correcting breathing linked to India’s leading spiritualists Sri Ravi Shankar Art of Living Foundation that conduct courses on eliminating stress in life.

Lara Dutta who after winning the Miss Universe title in 2000 becomes foremost actress of Bollywood is involved deeply in Art of Living. She and Kunal Kapoor in association with teacher Sangeeta Jani will promote the movement combining and spreading knowledge on meditation, yoga and breathing exercises with leadership development, physical training and communication skills.

According to the New Zealand Art of Living teacher Neha Bhatia their technique has helped in rehabilitation of prisoners, troubled youth, victims of natural disaster and war in the world’s hot spots.

Deepika Padukone Of High Opinion About Rishi Kapoor

Deepika Padukone was quite impressed with him and if one believes was not pampering when she met Rishi Kapoor- nor as fan but his son Ranbir’s girlfriend. She went long in comparing his father of at young age (Badminton Champion Prakash Padukone) with Rishi, she said, “ It’s amazing. But in his younger days, my dad (badminton champ Prakash Padukone) was often told he resembled Rishi Uncle. I grew up as one of his fans, saw Karz and Kabhi Kabhie a number of times. When Ranbir took me to meet his parents, I was reliving my childhood images of the most compatible couple I’ve ever seen on screen.”

She praised quite a lot of Ranbir’s parents she hailed Rishi Uncle warm and Neetu aunty poised and articulated .She has plans to work together with Rishi in many forthcoming movies and is quite eager to learn from him. She is also seemed impressed by the upbringing of Riddhima and Ranbir Kapoor, however, about her relationship with Ranbir she said that they both were focusing towards their career and yet not in mood to think of marriage anyway.

She refuted any tense nerve between her and cricketer Yuvraaj Singh’s mother”I really don’t think she said anything against me. If she had a grudge, she would have called me. I always say no outside source can know what kind of relationship two people share.”

Katrina Kaif reveals all for ‘Maxim’

She has already scorched the book stores posing for the covers of ‘Cosmopolitan’ and ‘Maxim’. She does it again for the March, 2008, issue of ‘Maxim’, the popular men’s magazine. Well, talking about all so gorgeous and all so poised, Katrina Kaif, she is one woman who has been in the news for all the right reasons. Now adding one more feather to the list of right reasons is her interview for the mag that simply takes your breath away as it simply sways you off the ground!

Maxim has Madame Kaif speak all about her, right from her role in the her debut film Boom to her the in-famous Rs 6-crore deal, her definition of hell, and also the sexiest place in the planet, according to her!

So, stop staring at the screen and grab your copy of the issue, pals!

Saif and Priyanka in ‘Voice From The Sky’

Farhan Akhtar has set upon his new project ‘Voice From The Sky’. He has cherished this project from a long time back 2002-2003 but was waiting for the right time to happen.

The film is primarily the story of a little boy who meets two people, i.e. the main leads of the film. Farhan has chosen Saif Ali Khan and Priyanka Chopra to play the main lead and is on the lookout for his child protagonist. First, Irrfan Khan was supposed to play the lead, but then Saif happened.

Says Akhtar,”I thought of Irrfan for the lead. But then Saif seemed a more natural choice. He’s amazingly apt for the part. After Dil Chahta Hai we wanted to work together. We did come close to working together in my sister Zoya’s film. Finally ‘Voice From The Sky’ turned out to be the right film.”

Farhan is also very kicked about working with Priyanka Chopra. “She’s really hassle-free, and according to me still has lots of untapped potential. Her role in Voice From The Sky is very different from whatever she has done so far.

Although the movie will have both English and Hindi dialogues, Farhan retorts, “It won’t be in Hinglish. There’re certain people who will speak only in English. Others will speak in Hindi.”

Priyanka Chopra walks out of Pepsi deal

You will not see gorgeous Priyanka Chopra luring you into having a grab of Pepsi on the screens any more coz the lady is not Bollywood’s face of Pepsi any more. Reportedly, Priyanka has quit the endorsement she was not happy with the money being offered to her.

Lately, media was abuzz with the news that Priyanka was thrown out of the deal, but a friend of hers claims that it is all false and Priyanka herself chose to walk out of the deal.

“Priyanka just couldn’t agree with the price that was being offered. The Pepsi people wanted her to work for the same fee again that they paid her earlier. Priyanka wanted to re-negotiate the deal. When the company didn’t budge, she opted out,” the source said.

Adds the friend: “Priyanka is flush with endorsement assignments. In fact, she’s at this very moment shooting an ad with Saif Ali Khan in Bangkok.”

Stars shine at the launch of Gravity system at Watson Fitness centre

A new fitness regime, called the Gravity system was launched at the Watson Fitness centre at Khar in Mumbai this Thursday night. Bollywood Superstars Hrithik Roshan, John Abraham, Bipasha and Lara Dutta were present there to grace the occasion. Also present at the event were Mallaika Arora Khan, Lara Dutta, Kelly Dorjee, Hrithik’s wife Suzanne and Perizaad Zorabain.

Watson Fitness is the brainchild of fitness expert Zarine Watson who is personal trainer to many bollywood stars….John, Bips and Hrithik are among them who train under her.

It may be mentioned here that Kelly Dorjee, Lara’s ex-boyfriend, was also present there. Though the duo were completely at ease in each other’s presence and were quite enjoying themselves, they refused to greet or see eye-to-eye to each other.

10th MAMI International Film Festival

This Thursday night, the 13th of March, saw the 10th MAMI International Film Festival’s awards ceremony. The Spanish Director Carlos Saura was felicitated with the Global Lifetime Achievement Award. Chief Guest of the event Dev Anand, veteran Actor-Director, presented the Lifetime Achievement award to Dharmendra.

The other awardees at the Festival were Rishi Kapoor for Significant Contribution to Cinema over 25 years, Gulzar for Outstanding Contribution to Indian Film Music as Lyricist and the Kodak Award for Technical Excellence to Hitendra Ghosh.

In order to nurture talent and provide a platform to new generation of filmmakers on its 10th edition, Jaya Bachchan, one of the trustees of MAMI, introduced a new initiative called ‘Dimensions Mumbai’.

On the Closing Gala Night, which was honoured by the esteemed presence of film directors from Mexico, France and European countries along with Shyam Benegal, Chairman of the Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image (MAMI) and other Trustees of MAMI, the Japanese film The Mourning Forest was screened, a film that won the Grand Prix at the 60th edition of Cannes Film Festival in 2007.