Saturday 10 December 2011

Shilpa Shetty confirms pregnancy

Shilpa Shetty has confirmed that she and her husband Raj Kundra are expecting their first baby together. The actress posted on her Twitter page today (December 10, 2011), “Tweetos,”YES”an addition 2 r family is r confirmation 2 all queries:) We seek blessings from all in this very beautiful phase of our lives.”
Rumours of Shilpa being pregnant had resurfaced again recently, just a few months after they first began. In June 2011, Shilpa posted on her Twitter page, “Sick and tired of all the congratulatory msgs and calls, so for the last time ‘I AM NOT PREGNANT’. All this is so annoying…grrrrrrrrr.”


Aamir Khan names son after Maulana Azad

Bollywood couple Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao have named their newborn son Azad Rao Khan after scholar and freedom fighter Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Aamir’s “great grand uncle”.
“Hey guys, most excited to share with y’all that we have finally chosen a name for our baby boy…Azad. Azad Rao Khan. I left the final choice to Kiran, and she has named him after my great grand uncle Maulana Azad, the great freedom fighter, whom the family is most proud of,” Aamir revealed on social networking site Facebook.
“Azad means free or liberated. We want to thank everyone for their warm wishes and blessings, and needless to say we are absolutely overjoyed and feel most blessed. Much love,” added the actor-producer.
Aamir-Kiran’s son was born Dec 1 through IVF to a surrogate mother at a private clinic in Mumbai. The couple resorted to IVF due to medical complications.


‘Chammak Challo’ most downloaded song

Chammak Challo”, the popular number from Shah Rukh Khan’s production venture “RA.One”, has been named the most downloaded song and video of the year in a new survey by wireless telephony Airtel.

Performed by international singer Akon, the peppy number featuring Shah Rukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor topped the list of the most downloaded songs followed “Dhinka chika”, “Senorita”, “Zor ka jhatka haye” and “Teri meri meri teri”.
In the Hello Tunes section “Kolaveri Di”, topped with 210,000 downloads within 18 days of its launch.
Bollywood celebrities Katrina Kaif and Shah Rukh took the leading position in the category of most downloaded images of the year.
Deepika Padukone, Kareena Kapoor, Jacqueline Fernandez and Priyanka Chopra wrapped up the top five in the list of most downloaded images of Bollywood actresses, while Salman Khan, Shahid Kapoor, Imran Khan and John Abraham made it to the top five among the actors.

Success media meet: The Dirty Picture

Vidya celebrates the success of the film ‘The Dirty Picture’ with Ekta Kapoor by meeting the media.
The film has so far collected around 40 crore nett in five days and is likely to have a 48 crore nett week one. Adding the regional version collections and it will be a 50 crore nett week.


Vivek not to apologise to Salman anymore

It was one mistake that cost him his career and his social currency in Bollywood. And now Vivek Oberoi, with numerous projects finally in his kitty, is just about recovering from it.
When he took on Salman Khan at a press conference in 2003, talking about the alleged SMSes and the harassment over his ex girlfriend, Vivek did not really know how it would haunt him for the rest of his life.
A lot of water has flowed under the bridge and the person, for whom Vivek had taken on the mighty Khan has moved on with her life. So has Vivek. Well almost.
Over the years the beleaguered actor has repeatedly tried to make peace with Salman. At public functions he had also approached him with folded hands – the very picture of regret and apology. Yet, Salman remained indifferent.
And now at a family dinner at the Oberois’ home in Juhu, it was decided that there would be no more public apologies to Salman from Vivek. An eye-witness present at the dinner revealed to this diarist that the family has had its share of humiliation. “Vivek is not going to apologise to Salman only to be cold shouldered or humiliated by him,” said the guest at the dinner.
Knowing Salman Khan, we can only say is that don’t think Salman cares any way.


Friday 28 October 2011

RA.One gets mixed reviews

Mayank Shekhar, Hindustan Times
Rating: **

Mayank Shekhar, our in-house editor's review doesn't give RA.One a thumbs up. "For most parts, this doesn't seem a super-hero movie at all. It's more of a weirdly boiled, Bollywood please all: vaguely soppy romance, Salman-type sasta comedy, narcissistic SRK set piece. Die-hard fans of all three genres are likely to be disappointed. Neither here nor there, everything appears so visibly constructed and all over the place that you can look through the wires, rather than blend in with the experience. The latter may be necessary if you're not playing this film's version, available on Playstation 2," says Shekhar.

"A year of relentless hustling, hype and expectations inevitably numb achievements, whatever they are, into the obvious. You wish to figure if this was worth this much fuss," Shekhar adds.
Rajeev Masand, CNN-IBN
Rating: ** 1/2

Rajeev Masand feels RA.One is ambitious but flawed: "Every time we're drawn into the simplistic but intriguing story of how Ra.One can only be vanquished by the game's superhero G.One (also played by Shah Rukh), director Anubhav Sinha feels the desperate need to inject a dance number or a comical sequence or a melodramatic interlude into the narrative. It's distracting from the superhero theme and more importantly, it makes the film clunky."
Shubhra Gupta, Indian Express
Rating: **
The Express critic doesn't think too highly of the film either: "Can a film which boasts some of the most boggling special effects ever seen in an Indian venture, and a couple of Bollywood’s most jiggly, shapely navels—one male, the other female, one pierced, one not but oh-so-hot—be a slurry sludge? 'Ra.One’ goes one better. It is a superstarry slurry sludge, with just the occasional consolatory sparkle. Shah Rukh Khan’s shout-out to superheroes is a Three Part Something : borrowing from past superhero outings, imbuing them with a worn mix of action-tragedy-comedy-romance, and flattening them into a storyline which seldom manages to escape the clutches of clichéd story-telling."

Raja Sen, Rediff
Rating: * 1/2

"Ra.One is a subpar superhero film with a mediocre soundtrack and occasionally terrific effects. For those of you looking to compare, it's well below Krrish [ Images ] on the superpecking order, and far, far below Robot. The film's narrative, as a result, is disjointed and sluggish, with a mere handful of good scenes. The rest is not just filler, but lengthy, exhausting, filmi filler -- the kind of kitsch a film like this should really have left behind," writes Raja Sen.
Abhishek Mande, Rediff
Rating
: **

Mande writes: "RA.One, on the one hand, has special effects that no Hindi movie can boast of so far, but on the other, it is saddled with an almost 1990s-style treatment with songs popping out of nowhere and dialogues that make you cringe. Even as Shah Rukh Khan flies over buildings, jumps over cars and even stops an out-of-control train with his bare hands, his valiant efforts to wow his audiences somewhat fail thanks to a weak storyline, some rather juvenile acting and a poor screenplay."

Taran Adarsh, bollywoodhungama.com
Rating
: **** 1/2

The movie critic is all praises for the superhero film and is being criticised for over-rating it: "RA.ONE raises the bar, takes not a step or two, but a giant leap and adheres to international standards, in terms of execution. But the soul, I wish to add, is very desi. That's precisely the reason why RA.ONE emerges trumps. RA.ONE is beauty [read good looking film] with brains [read content]."

Komal Nahta, koimoi.com
Rating: *** 1/2

The critic has praised stars' performances, visual effects and action sequences but feels some portions in the film were boring.. Nahta's verdict: "Ra.One has novelty and great visual effects to see it through at the box-office and ensure profits in spite of its very high cost. Definitely watch Ra.One for the superlative performances and the grand visual effects and the 3D effects."

Kaveree Bamzai, India Today
Rating: *** 1/2
Bazmai has mainly praised the film: "Welcome to a movie as a gigantic open house. Shah Rukh is the host and he will make sure your VFX canapés are delivered at regular interval; your emotion goblet is kept topped up; and there are enough homilies about being careful-what-you-wish-for that you can take home as back presents. This is film-making not so much as noble passion but as grand indulgence, not so much as a marathon magic show but as an event to be managed. No effort is spared."
Nikhat Kazmi, The Times Of India
Raring: *** 1/2
"Ra-One works on several accounts. First because it has some interesting clashes betwen G-One, the good robot(Shah Rukh Khan) and Ra-One, the bad robot, who can take the form of anyone he wants. Secondly, the bond that G-One develops with the family he is supposed to protect, Kareena and her young son Prateik, is warm and winsome. The film falls back in the emotional quotient. Also, considering so much money has been poured into the film, the special effects and the hi-tech gadgetry lacks the glitzy feel of Hollywood sci-fi," he writes.
INTERNATIONAL REVIEWS
Rachel Saltz, New York Times

NYT reviewer is far from disappointed with RA.One: "Full of digital effects, wire work and things that go flying (cars, men, supermen) the movie is technically as sophisticated as anything Bollywood has produced. A standout is G.One’s rescue of Ms. Kapoor on a runaway train that crashes rather spectacularly out of Victoria Terminus in Mumbai," says Rachel Saltz.
"You can see the money on screen, if not in the screenwriting. The exposition is longwinded and confusing, as are the rules of the game, in the virtual and the real worlds. The bumbling Shekhar is too clownish; Ra.One is a dud demon (Raavan is invoked to little effect) who disappears for chunks of time; and you probably won’t hold your breath as good fights evil," says Saltz.
"But if the storytelling disappoints (shocking!), the film mostly doesn’t. It relies on action and effects and Bollywood’s trump card, star power, to carry the day. This is Mr. Khan’s movie, and once he sheds Shekhar’s droopy locks, he shines as the deadpan, action-hero robot with digital snot and smooth moves on the dance floor, adds the critic.
The Hollywood Reporter

Excerpts from  the review: "The film, directed by Anubhav Sinha, is gloriously silly, with stunts, CG animation and music numbers bursting out all over yet its beating heart lies in a commonplace story of a family and most especially a father and son who don’t understand one another. Oscar Hammerstein II once said something to the effect that you have to believe in whiskers on kittens and warm woolen mittens to get away with writing about such corny banalities in a lyric and so Shah -- SRK as he is known to billions of fans -- really does believe in family values and the power of cinema."
"You don’t have to be an enthusiast of Bollywood to embrace RA.ONE, but it sure would help. The “item” numbers and cultural references come fast and furious with little concession to Western audiences unfamiliar with South Asian cinema. But --  sign of our times -- the videogame milieu and computer technology that back up the fantasy will score big with youngsters across the globe. And the stunts and FX work -- the final credit crawl lasts over 10 minutes -- move Indian cinema to a new level of technological expertise."
"During the credit roll, the film makes a point of showing a behind-the-scenes EPK of the stunts and effects, driving home dual points. One is that SRK did, as advertised, his own stunts. And two, that India can compete in the big leagues of stunts and fx. SRK, whose company Red Chilies Entertainment made the film with Eros International, has poured a lot of money into creating his own Mumbai special-effects house and RA.ONE is nothing if not a calling card to the film world."
The Wall Street Journal

Roundup has this as the intro para: "In case you’ve been living high in the Himalayas without access to YouTube, a cellphone, the Internet, or even word of mouth, let us bring you the exciting news that a new Shah Rukh Khan movie, Ra.One, debuted in cinemas on Diwali. This was newsworthy for a number of reasons: A top Bollywood actor seeking a global megahit with effects that would impress Hollywood; probably the most promoted movie ever in India; and a sense that, regardless of whether the critics like the film or not, it is headed for box-office gold."




Tuesday 25 October 2011

Shiney Ahija once again accused of sexual harassment

Trouble and Shiney Ahuja, walk hand-in-hand. Yet again, Shiny lands himself in hot soup.  The actor has been written off from Bollywood, ever since he was involved in a rape case. Now, the latest accusation he faces is of sexual harassment from actress Sayali Bhagat.
An upcoming horror flick Ghost has Sayali acting opposite Shiney Ahuja. The actress recently revealed that during the shooting of the film, Shiney used to make indecent passes at her. Buzz also has it that Shiney even pinched her butt. However, Sayali denies it.
“During an intimate scene, he (Shiney) took me to the makeup room and made me hold his hands and look into his eyes and feel the ‘warmth’. I chose to ignore,”Sayali Bhagat says in a interview.
It also happened that during a scene where Sayali teaches him to chop vegetables,Shiney forced her to feel up his arms n number of times. Not jus Sayali but the light-man too got frustrated and walked out. Even between shots, Shiny used to whisper in Sayali’s ear that they should hook up.
Sayali is now looking forward to file a police complaint against Shiney.


Manisha Koirala arrives drunk at event

Manisha Koirala made a drunken appearance at an art exhibition in Mumbai recently.
Wearing a casual white tee, with sunglasses perched on her head, the actor looked completely out of sorts as she mingled around at the art exhibition at Flora fountain fort, Mumbai.
The Bollywood actor could barely talk coherently but still answered queries by the media.
Squashing rumours of her comeback in Bollywood, she said, “I’m in Nepal right now, whatever you’ve heard my coming back to Mumbai for an acting career, that’s not true. I will only say one thing; I’m living a very good life. With India and Nepal becoming closet friends, I’m in a blessed situation.”
On being asked whether she is living a happy married life, she candidly said, “Yes and no, I can’t lie too much,” revealed the actor who tied the knot with married Samrat Dahal in June last year.


$7 million ad deal for Freida Pinto?

If rumours are to be believed, the ‘Slumdog Milllionaire’ star has signed a two-year endorsement deal with a high fashion apparel brand for $7 million.
She is expected to get $3.5 million a year.
“Since it is a two year deal, it makes it a $7 million deal. In Indian rupees, it comes out to be approximately Rs.35 crore. It is higher than what any Indian female celebrity has ever been paid,” said a source close to the 27-year-old Indian model-turned-actress.
When contacted, Anirban Das Blah, managing director, KWAN, the agency that handles Freida’s endorsements in India, said, “It’s a policy never to comment on brand deals. We’ve witnessed Freida’s phenomenal growth in such a short span, and that too on a global platform. Brand Freida stands for very rare, unique and irreplaceable values and imagery, making her the ideal choice for a brand with a global appeal and an Indian focus.”
Freida made it big internationally post her appearance in Danny Boyle’s Oscar-winning film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. Since then, she has featured in films like ‘You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger’ and ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’.



Everyone wants to be on ‘Swayamvar 4′

The fourth season of Swayamvar has reportedly garnered plenty of competition among celebrities eager to tie the knot. A source informed us that Veena Malik, Mika, Raja Chaudhary and Rakhi Sawant were among the contenders vying to be on the show. However, the source revealed that the Pakistani actress Veena won the battle.
The source explained, “Singer Mika and Shweta Tiwari’s estranged husband Raja Chaudhary had approached the channel to be a part of Swayamvar season 4. Even Rakhi Sawant, who was selected for the first season, wanted another chance to find herself a husband.”
Apparently, Rakhi agreed to sign a pre-nuptial agreement with the groom and a contract to ensure she would get married this time.
The source added, “She also told the channel that she would want to run a background check on the candidates, after her experience with Elesh. Finally, the channel decided on Veena, who rose to fame through her connection with Pakistani cricketer Mohammed Asif and her stint on Bigg Boss.”


Vidya Balan is back shooting after fainting spell

Vidya Balan’s back shooting for ‘The Dirty Picture’. Around Dussehra, the acctress had fainted and had to be rushed to the hospital. The unit welcomed her with banners and balloons on the sets.

Jackie Shroff to enter ‘Bigg Boss 5′

How interesting can a show with 12 femmes and 1 nobody-cares ‘star’ Shakti Kapoor, 1 nobody-knows-his-real-name Mihir? Its a boooring kitty party!!
Well, here’s more – here comes Jackie Shroff, for those who still remember. Now that should make Bigg Boss interesting!


Aishwarya borrows mom-in-law’s saree



Aamir Katrina Dhoom 3 to release in 2013

The release of Dhoom 3 has now been scheduled for 2013.
While the film shoot begins from November-end 2011 onwards, Yash Raj Films anticipates 10 to 11 months of intense shooting with concurrent post-production, reports Taran Adarsh.
As a result, producer Aditya Chopra and director Vijay Krishna Acharya (Tashan), in consultation with Aamir Khan, have decided to schedule the release date in 2013.


Film on Deepika & ex Nihar Pandya’s love story

The film will be directed by Prashant Chadha (Aap Kaa Surroor, Aazaan) and will star Deepika Padukone’s ex-boyfriend Nihar Pandya.
Director Prashant Chadha told Mumbai Mirror, “Nihar is like my brother. I was very close to Deepika as well once upon a time. In fact, I had launched her in a music video. Everybody knows how she walked out of Nihar’s life for Ranbir. Nihar was heartbroken. He had done everything by the book. He looked after her for three-and-a-half-years. In fact Deepika stayed in Nihar’s house with his parents for three years. Nobody knows that Deepika actually came crying back to Nihar after breaking up with Ranbir the first time. Nihar went looking for Ranbir, intercepted his car and asked him what he was doing with Deepika. Ranbir shot back, ‘Ask your girlfriend that’. Even after all this, Nihar took Deepika back. And then the same thing happened with Yuvraaj Singh.”
“Deepika heard about my plans for the film and asked me if it was true.”
“The film starts with Nihar’s monologue where he says, ‘I loved Deepika and wanted my name to be associated for her for eternity’. Nihar then wonders what went wrong. The film then goes into flashback. The film is about Nihar’s quest to find out where Romeo went right, and he went wrong in love,” claimed the director.


Hrithik hospitalised in Breach Candy with bad back


Hrithik Roshan, working non-stop for Karan Johar’s Agneepath has now hurt his back.
He has been advised complete bed rest for about fifteen days, which in turn has put the project, Agneepath on hold. The shoot of the film directed by Karan Malhotra has been cancelled until Hrithik gets back on his feet.
Hrithik was spotted at Breach Candy Hospital undergoing MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). A source informed, “The actor entered the hospital, visibly in a lot of pain. The doctors attended to him almost immediately.”
However, senior radiologist Dr Anirudh Kohli from Breach Candy Hospital refused to divulge the details of the various tests conducted on Roshan Jr. “I cannot share any information about my patients since there is a privacy issue,” said Kohli. Another official from the hospital (name withheld on request) said, “We have been strictly told not to talk about Hrithik to anybody.”
While the hospital officials refused to part with information on the actor’s health, a source revealed, “Hrithik was supposed to lift a burly fighter, who weighs nearly 110 kg during the Agneepath shoot.
This is a very important scene in the film. Perhaps he got a little carried away and decided to do it himself (without using a body double). Kar to diya lekin uske immediately baad uske back mein bahut dard hone laga.”
“He was in a lot of pain and needed medical help. Lifting 110 kilos of a man obviosuly put a lot of pressure on Hrithik’s back,” added the source.
When contacted, Hrithik’s father, Rakesh Roshan, said, “Fighter ke scene ka koi problem nahin hua. Hrithik has been working almost continuously on his TV show Just Dance and Karan Johar’s film Agneepath. He is back home, he just needs a little rest since he is overworked.”
Hrithik Roshan remained unavailable for comment. Karan Johar too did not reply to our text message.
According to sources, a song and a few important scenes of Agneepath still remain to be shot.


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