Monday, November 10, 2008

Celina Jaitley floored by Kiwi attention

It was an experience of a lifetime for Celina Jaitley when she appeared for the premiere of her first international film, Love Has No Language, in Auckland on Nov 5. Though it was raining cats and dogs, though it was freezing cold and though our lady was down with stomach infection, meeting the glittering celebs of Hollywood was the reward worth the pains.

“It was the grandest premiere I ever attended. 800 Asians turned up to meet me besides the 325 formal invitees. We had the crème de la crème of New Zealand attending, including television film and sports personalities,” recalls an awed Celina.

Gorgeous as Celina is, it did not come as a surprise when New Zeland’s rugby star Monty Beetham seems to be quite impressed by our beauty.

Laughs Celina, “I’m no stranger to male attention. Though I met Beetham only briefly, I believe he was quite taken up by what he called the Indian beauty. I was just floored by all the attention I got.”

Celina talks about her illness and her experience at the premiere saying, “I was down with this acute tummy infection. I was doubling up with cramps and pain. I really thought I wouldn’t be able to attend. But at the last minute, I squeezed into my Manish Malhotra gown and dragged myself to the red carpet. The effort was worth it.”

The best part of the entire episode was the fact that her movie was admired by all and even got a standing ovation.

“Not only that, people stood in the pouring rain for autographs and pictures. I tried to oblige everyone. The New Zealanders are extremely warm. As I shook hands with them, the freezing cold melted away. Never mind my gown shrank into a mini-skirt, ” adds Celina.

Referring to her co-star Ben Mitchell as scary and horrifying, Celina says, “He scared the hell out of me with bugs and butterflies all the time. Believe it or not, I’m terrified of butterflies. And although the film is called Love Has No Language, I couldn’t understand anything he said because of his Kiwi accent. Maybe because I wasn’t really in love with him.”

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Bipasha Basu’s ‘Lamhaa’ facing odds at the Kashmir valley

Seems the shooting of ‘Lamhaa’ in the Kashmir valley has not been a very pleasant experience for producer Bunty Walia and actress Bipasha Basu. There have been many unpleasant experiences and disruptions during the shoot of the film.

On Wednesday, during one shoot Bipasha with a band of Kashmiri women in burqas was moving in a van. The local Kashmiris got apprehensive and demanded the shooting to be stopped.

Recalls Walia, “It wasn’t a pleasant experience for Bipasha to suddenly see a mob of locals descending on the unit. We were shooting on the CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) compound, which was supposed to pass off as a street in Kashmir because there are a lot of Kashmiri Pundit houses in the compound.

One sequence had a band of Kashmiri women led by Bipasha moving towards one of the houses in a van. When the local Kashmiri men saw so many women in burqas, they wanted to know what was happening. They got increasingly agitated.

We realised that when it comes to mobs nothing works…not the police, not the CRPF. We decided we had no choice but to quickly pack up for the day for the sake of the unit’s security.”

There have been incidents before when last week, Kashmiri fruit traders had intervened to stop the shooting of the film at the fruit market as they feared the movie might portray them in a bad light.

Again on Monday, the principal of a college asked the shooting to be stalled when students of a college in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district posed objections to some of the portions being shot inside the campus premises.”

Bunty Walia is very disappointed and worried at the same time. He said, “I realised quite early in our schedule that shooting the entire film in Kashmir would be impossible. The minute the locals saw a 150-strong unit in Srinagar they got suspicious and excited. There have been recent film units in Kashmir but none in Srinagar before Lamhaa.

They are apprehensive about the guns. But the gun culture has been a part of Kashmir for years. I was not showing anything unreal. This is the real Kashmir. But unfortunately their reality in a film is not acceptable to the locals,” Walia said.

After Wednesday’s disruption, director Rahul Dholakia called a press conference in Srinagar to explain that Lamhaa wasn’t projecting the Kashmir valley incorrectly.

“Rahul was very upset about the disruption. He asked the locals not to become a mob,” Walia said. “Why did the Jammu and Kashmir government promise us all cooperation and protection? I’m anxious and irritated. I’m losing a lot of money because of the disruptions. I can’t shoot beyond November 21. I don’t have my stars’ dates beyond that. The light starts fading at 4.30 pm. I’m working against all odds. We feel pushed against the wall,” he added.

Now almost 80 percent of Lamhaa will be shot in Film City in Mumbai. “We’ve rescheduled. We’ll shoot vital scenes with our stars as fast as possible and quickly move out of Kashmir. My entire film was to be shot in Kashmir for 60 days. Now we can only shoot in Kashmir for 20 days. The rest of the film will be shot on a set erected at Film City (Mumbai),” Walia said.

The set for Lamhaa will be constructed by Wasiq Khan. “He’s done other Kashmiri films like Tahaan and Yahaan. We’re shopping for Kashmiri artefacts and furniture right now. We hope to create an authentic Kashmir in Mumbai,” Walia said.

“The administration in Kashmir was cooperative. The local people were hostile. They misinterpret anything we shoot. I’m not going to explain every shot and action to the mobs. Sadly I’ve to announce that the dream of Kashmir being a paradise for film units remains just a dream.”

bipasha basu

Raima Sen does it for ‘Maxim’


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Rahat Fateh Ali Khan to feature in ‘Dil Kabaddi’

Payal Rohtagi is very excited about her forthcoming ‘Dil Kabaddi’ as she feels her role in the film will make a big difference to her status in Bollywood. The film has Soha Ali Khan in the lead role. Also, the film will have the famous composer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan appear on-screen. Khan will play himself in the film and will be seen lip-syncing his own number. It was Soha’s idea to have Khan’s presence in the song that he was offered to compose. Though the singer was reluctant initially, he finally agreed to be a part of the film. It may be mentioned here that Khan’s guru and uncle Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, too, had made a fleeting appearance in the Bobby Deol-Aishwarya starrer ‘Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya’.

Director Anil Sharma said, “When we were discussing on the sets that we had approached Rahat Fateh Ali Khan to sing the song, Soha said we should request him to also feature in it.”

Rahat Fateh Ali Khan says, “We singers are used to performing live, but to shoot for a film is different altogether. When Anil Sharma approached me to compose and also perform, I was apprehensive, but then I thought why not?”