I am not the hottest: Kareena Kapoor

Kareena Kapoor seems to be at her modest best at the moment. After proclaiming that she did look like a ‘hanger’ according to Saif, Bebo told us how she found Denise Richards the hottest when it came to sporting a bikini in her film Kambakkht Ishq.


Since all three actresses Amrita Arora, Kareena and Denise sport a bikini in Kambakkht Ishq, when we asked Bebo as to who looks the hottest amongst the three she said, “Of course Denise. The way she carried off that bikini was simply brilliant. She looks the hottest in swim wear in Kambakht Ishq.”

Kareena stunned everyone by news of her appearing in the promotional video for FIFA World Cup 2010. Apart from FIFA, Bebo had also shown keen interest in owning an IPL team earlier this year. A Lot of Bollywood actresses are turning towards sports now. Be it Aishwarya's presence at the French Open or Deepika's obsession for Badminton and football, actresses have been talking of their love for sports more openly.

Aamir Khan to finally join Twitter July 1st

New Delhi, June 18 : After much persuasion from megastar Amitabh Bachchan, Bollywood actor-producer Aamir Khan has finally decided to join micro-blogging website Twitter July 1st.

"Aamir will be on Twitter from July 1. He was not on Twitter till now because he thought he won't be able to give enough time to it. But since Mr.Bachchan insisted on him joining it, he gave it another thought and has decided to join it. He cannot say no to Mr.Bachchan," said a source close to the actor.

Aamir met Amitabh and his actress-politician wife Jaya over a casual dinner in London last week and Amitabh started persuading him to join the site. He even taught him how to send Tweets through his phone.

The actor's username on Twitter would be aamir_khan.

Mani Ratnam Speaks About His Film Making Journey

June 18, 2010 : From Pallavi Anu Pallavi in Kannada in (1983) to Raavan in Hindi (2010). It has indeed been a very long and fruitful journey for Mani Ratnam.

Most cineastes regard him as one of the most significant voices of commercial Indian cinema. Straddling the world of high aesthetics, mass orientation and some say, simplistic politics, Mani has created a spiral of work whose impact resonates across the face of Indian cinema no matter what the spoken language of his characters…Kannada, Tamil or Hindi. Remarkably soft spoken and possessing a wicked sense of humour, Mani Ratnam who turned 54 on June 2, speaks to Subhash K Jha

It's been a long tough journey for you. Would you say Raavan was your hardest film to make?

Ah let me think, yes, you could be right, but that is the exact way I felt about the last film and the one before that. When i did my first film i said to myself just a film or two you will know enough about filming and then it it would be a piece of cake. And I believed it. And I love cakes. But No. it is still as tough. Gets worse by the film.

The rugged jungles and the severe climate...how integral were they to the plot? Could the hardships faced by the cast and crew have been diminished if you had shot in less severe locations?

As a story teller, you try to use every tool at your disposal to tell the story better, to stage the scenes effectively. The terrain and the climate is a very huge tool. They are the stage on which the drama is mounted. They help you to transport the viewer close to the character, to the action. And gives the actor a pre-set stage on which he or she can perform. So the location and the climate is not a hindrance, we seek it. We planned Raavan in the monsoons, so that we could benefit from the helping hands of nature.

A film by Mani Ratnam is considered a cinematic event. How would regard your journey from your early Tamil films to Dil Se in Hindi, Yuva and now Raavan?

Tough and hard journey. The terrains we shoot in are nothing compared to this path. It just doesn't get easy. The struggle has increased because you don't have excuses to fall back on. You can't claim it is first film and therefore errors and omissions are expected. You can’t hide behind your own clichés that you have exhausted by now. And world cinema is growing at such a clip that you’ve got to keep changing to stay within the reasonable distance. It is not so much the film or the logistics but your own creativity you battle against.

You suddenly suffered a health scare during the shooting. How did that experience change your perception of art and life?

Ha! The scares are just reminders to stay fit and healthy. Once this ten- headed Raavan is out of my system I shall be back on course and fitness.

To answer the second part of your question…How does it affect art and life? Well it is romantic idea to think that when you go into an ICU and come out come out with a changed perspective on everything. Not true. Though what it did for me with this film was made me get Raavan meaner and fitter. What I did not do to myself i did to my script. Cut the flab and got it leaner.

Raavan was shot in two languages simultaneously. Did that mean double the toil?

Yes, I am afraid. What we got right in the first place, we had to battle all over again to get it right again, and if that by chance became better, we had to re make the first one again. When we made mistakes we made them twice. We will never forget the mistakes we made in this shoot because we already paid for it. To be honest it was a bit more than double toil. More like 2.5.

Considering the difficulties you faced in making Raavan would you say shooting a film in a studio is far more manageable, if less authentic?

When I watch a film, I have never been bothered about how difficult it must have been for the maker to put it together. That is the problem of the director. As a viewer we just see if the film connects. Finally that is the only thing counts. And makes the distributor count.So when you make the movie - where you do, does not matter, as long as you are able to make the connection. Where you shoot is your personal call.

Earlier people spoke about your comfortable equation with Madhavan. Now do you share a similar comfort level with Abhishek Bachchan?

Comfort is a bad word during shooting. If you become comfortable you tend to become complacent. The struggle phase is much better, because then, there is this stress and effort to reach for more. With AB I could do a few films only because we were tackling very different characters each time. Lalan was a far cry from Gurukanth and Beera now is way away from Gurukanth Desai. Which means the actor and I are back to square one. Which is - not having a clue as to how to bring Beera alive on screen? Square one is a good place at the start of the shoot.

And Aishwarya? She did her first film Irruvar with you? Now Raavan. How far has she emerged as an actress?

Ash was good right from Irruvar. She was doing in a language she did not know, was doing two different characters and she was doing a film that was being shot in lengthy - and slightly complicated style. it did not have any comfort of a launch film. She was pushed into the water. Like we have done with her several times in Raavan. And she had to shout in tamil for help. Ash just swam. In Raavan, Ragini is the key. She is one who drives the film. She is the one who treads the path that is unwritten. Beera(abhishek) and Dev(Vikram) are roles that are set - and the actors stand tall in them. Ash had to make Ragini her own. She had to find a Pitch, a Sur that would make you connect with her and the film. She really carries the audience perspective in the story telling.

Please describe some of the most memorable and frightening experiences of shooting Raavan.

Memorable moments are the struggle each day, the torture that I put the entire crew into. If I was going to battle why make the rest comfortable? Let them share a bit of my anxiety. The frightening ones are answering your unending questions. How do you keep on grilling, Subhash?

What next? Are you doing another Hindi film, this time with Ranbir Kapoor?

What next? Honestly, don't know. At the beginning of Raavan I thought that Ii would retire after this film and settle in Kodaikanal and play golf every day. At the end of the film I am ready to start my next one soon. So let’s see..I should become very good in either golf or film making. Can’t struggle with both. That’s for sure.

Abhishek Bachchan says Bollywood is bigger than Hollywood

London, June 18 : Abhishek Bachchan, India's leading actor, has said that it is Bollywood, not Hollywood, that leads the world's film industry.

Bachchan was speaking at the world premiere of his latest movie, ''Raavan'', at London''s British Film Institute.

"India has the largest film industry in the world. We sell twice the amount of tickets that Hollywood does," Sky News quoted Bachchan as saying.

"They are at a threshold where people have suddenly developed this love for Indian cinema. But I don''t think it''s going to be this huge rage in the English-speaking world. There is always a language barrier and that is something that has to be respected," he added.

Mallika Sherawat to work with Salma Hayek

It seems Mallika Sherawat is in no mood to return to India anytime soon. After bagging Love, Barack with Laz Alonso, the buzz is that Mallika may soon share screen space with Salma Hayek in another international project.

Both the actress got friendly during the Cannes Film festival and had a chat about cinema. A source reveals, “Salma Hayek was extremely impressed with Mallika’s film Hisss and complimented her for it. Even after they returned to the US, they were in constant touch and arranged to meet each other for dinner few days back. That is when Salma narrated a script of a women centric film and suggested that Mallika play the main protagonist. The movie deals with the abuse women face in various parts of the world. That is the basic gist of the script - it still needs to be worked on. Mallika has really liked the idea and would love to be a part of this film,” adds the source.

Mallika’s official spokesperson neither confirmed nor denied the news and said, “We haven’t received any such information as yet, but we will be making an announcement if anything is finalised.”

Manoj Bajpai to play coal mafia don in Kashyap's next

Mumbai, June 16 : Manoj Bajpai is all set to don the garb of a bad guy for Anurag Kashyap's 'Gangs of Wassipur'. The actor says he has verbally agreed to play a coal mafia gangster, but has yet to sign on the dotted line.

"The story, of course, has a gang involved in it. It's not like 'Satya' because there that was Mumbai mafia. This will show the coal mafia of Dhanbad (Jharkhand)," Manoj told IANS. "I haven't signed the film, but I have verbally agreed to do it."

Manoj is still remembered for playing gangster Bhiku Matre in Ramgopal Varma's underworld drama "Satya" (1998) - the film was a huge success at the box office.

Though he hasn't signed the contract, Manoj has already started making preparation to tone down his body for his role in "Gangs of Wassipur". "I have to lose three kgs in one-and-a-half month for the film. I have to look lean," he said.

Right now he is basking in the success of his recent release "Raajneeti" where he played an aggressive politician Virendra Pratap Singh, which was modelled on Duryodhan of Mahabharata.

Katrina Kaif Plans To Start A Film Marketing Firm

June 16, 2010 : Bollywood beauties are not dumb they have brains for business too. One of the leading Bollywood actresses has proved it.

She is none other than Rajneeti girl, Katrina Kaif. Katrina has revealed a very different side when it came to acting. Now, she is planning to launch her own business firm for the marketing of films.

Katrina Kaif, is busy shooting for Zoya Akhtar's Zindagi Na Milegi in Spain. She is missing the Mumbai rains as she loves the smell of the wet earth on a rainy day. Thereafter, she will leave for London to shoot for Dostana 2 with John Abraham and Abhishek Bachchan.

However, Katrina is not just keeping herself content with a handful of films. She is very serious about starting the film marketing firm. In fact, she has started looking for an appropriate location for her office. She is on a look out for an office area located, somewhere between Bandra and Andheri.

Speaking about this new business, Katrina said, "I am just waiting for the guidance of my friends and colleagues about the project. I want to start the marketing division as soon as possible. Film marketing will be a challenging job for me. It is very exciting and I am eager to know how strategies are made for selling the products to the audience as well as the market.

Why this decision of movie marketing? The Bollywood queen said that her love for numbers has inspired her to take this up. According to her, she can easily remember the collection data of movies by heart. It helps her to know, which films are doing good business at the box office.

Katrina is planning to appoint experienced people in her firm, those who can help her. She is confident of bringing a 'highly professional attitude' to the business.

The lady is also very aware of the importance of film marketing these days. She said, a lot of movies are released every week, in the theatres, which also include a good number of Hollywood movies. Marketing it properly is very important because it helps to bring in a good opening collection and make it stand out.

I can't direct 'Agneepath' remake: Karan Johar

New Delhi, June 14 : Bollywood filmmaker Karan Johar is scared to direct the remake of his father's 1991 hit "Agneepath", famous for portraying megastar Amitabh Bachchan as the "angry young man".

The 38-year-old says action isn't quite his thing.

"I am happy directing films on love, romance and drama. That's what I do best. I don't think I will be good at an action film. So I am not taking the reins of the film in my hand," Karan told IANS.

He has roped in director Karan Malhotra to helm the movie. Currently, the team is working towards giving final touches to the script, after which they will approach the cast before finally launching the project.

Sanju Baba Is Going To Be Dad Of Twins!

June 15, 2010 : Sanjay Dutt, also known as 'Sanju Baba' among his fans, is flying high these days. The beloved Munnabhai is going to be a proud father of twin babies in the beginning of 2011. Confirming the news, Dutt said, 'God has listened to our prayers, I am very happy.'

This is going to be a double bonanza for Sanjay, who already has a daughter named Trishala from his first marriage to Richa Sharma.

Manyata Dutt is reported to be three months pregnant already. Earlier, the actor had expressed his aspiration to become a dad again while addressing various press conferences.

Dutt is very much excited to have twin babies but he is worried about the health of his wife as he needs to be out of India for two weeks in June. He will be traveling the interiors of Morocco, Istanbul and Turkey for his home production, Rascals, which also stars Ajay Devgan.

However, he has assured that all his friends and family members take good care of the would be mother in his absence.

Manisha Koirala to get married on Friday

Mumbai, June 15 : Popular Bollywood actress Manisha Koirala would marry businessman Samrat Dahal in her home country, Nepal, on Friday.

Reports said the wedding is going to be a low-key affair and not many stars from Bollywood would attend it. The chief reason for that is the country's image as an unsafe place to visit.

The Nepali-Indian actor, who began her film career with Nepali film Pheri Bhetaula in 1989, became one of Bollywood's favourite faces in the 1990s with popular films like 1942: A Love Story
(1994), Bombay (1994), Akele Hum Akele Tum (1995), Khamoshi: The Musical (1996), Dil Se(1998) and others in her kitty.

Manisha and Dahal met on Facebook, fell in love and decided to get married. The wedding ceremony would take place at Gokarna forest resort in the outskirts of Kathmandu, the Napali capital.

Manisha has reportedly said she would host receptions for her Bollywood colleagues in India after the couple is back from their honeymoon.

Composers bring out the best in singers: Sajid-Wajid

By Radhika Bhirani, New Delhi, June 15 : A singer might be proficient at Sufi, rock, pop or jazz, but a music director can make him or her sing songs of every genre, feel composer duo Sajid-Wajid, who are set to judge Zee TV's reality show 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Singing Superstar'.

"It is up to a composer to bring the best in a singer. But yes, the capability to sing has to be there. No one ever thought Sukhwinder (Singh), who is known for his Sufi or mastana (jolly) kind of songs, could sing a romantic number like 'Haule haule'? But it was the composers who saw him with that eye," Wajid told IANS.

"We had composed a ghazal and we made KK sing it. He doesn't sing ghazals, but we felt he was perfect for it. We practised rigorously and it came out beautifully. Unfortunately, the film wasn't released. That's what we will do on 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa' -try to bring out the best in each contestant and then groom them," he added.

The duo, who have composed songs for films like "Veer" and "Wanted", is on the lookout for versatile playback singers on the show, but they want to first groom them and point out their strengths and weaknesses.

"We want singers whose basic structure and foundation of singing is right because such talent can be groomed. Once we know their strengths, we can show them the right way. But essentially we are looking for a good and versatile playback singer which is hard to find," said Wajid.

His brother Sajid said: "We are not looking at meeting star singers on the show. We will make them stars during the course of the show. We will give them right feedback and help them recognise their weak points and work towards improving it."

Many shows were offered to them, but they chose to be part of "Sa Re Ga Ma Pa" for certain reasons.

"We used to come as guest judges on 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa' when Sonu Niigaam and even later, when Shaan used to host the show. The base of the show has remained the same through the years. It has produced some great singers for Bollywood like Kunal Ganjawala and Shreya Ghoshal, reinforcing that it is a genuine show with immense talent," said Wajid.

"Sa Re Ga Ma Pa" has been running successfully for the past 15 years, and the success rate of its participants has been much higher than most shows of its genre.

Sajid agreed saying: "'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa' is different than most other such shows. The selectors have been good, the executors are nice and talent is loaded. It has been rocking since so many years and we are very proud and lucky to be associated with this sort of a show."

At the same time, the duo strongly feel such shows do not guarantee long-term success.

"No stage promises another stage. These shows can give you the first push and platform, but then it's entirely your journey and up to the contestants to chart it. How else would you explain the success of Shreya (Ghoshal) and Shekhar (Ravijani)? Sanjivani (Bhelande) had also won this show, she sung a few songs… but could never make it as big as these people.

"Some people climb up the charts, few give up… their success is up to them provided they have their basics right," said Wajid.

With music composers Vishal-Shekhar and bhangra-pop singer Daler Mehndi also on the judges' panel, "Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Singing Superstar" is expected to go on air in August.

The auditions for the show were held in 12 cities - Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Lucknow, Nagpur, Guwahati, Indore, Baroda, Bhubhaneshwar and New Delhi.

3 Idiots: Idiots in a box office

The year 2009 marked a major milestone in the history of Bollywood. Smashing box office records, one of the biggest releases of the year and the
much talked flick—3 Idiots—turned out to be the highest-grossing Bollywood movie of all time.

The film caught the imagination of people across generations and continents, with their 3 Idiots: Aamir Khan, (Rancho), R Madhavan (Farhan) and Sharman Joshi (Raju), making you laugh, cry or at some exceptional scenes do both together; crooning to all-time hit Aal Izz Well; moving on in life with individualistic thought-process and rebellious attitude and inviting their engineering college principal’s anger.

Well, the excitement doesn’t seem to settle. For all the 3 Idiots fans, there’s a big surprise. The comedy film will now be published in a book that one can cherish all life. Titled 3 Idiots: The Original Screenplay, the book will have the minutest details of a script.

Starting from a detailed introduction of Rajkumar Hirani—his journey from a typist to a director with some exclusive and never-seen-before photographs from Hirani’s personal album and from the film, screenplay writer Abhijat Joshi talking about the ‘DNA’ of 3 Idiots and more... With this initiative, the producer of the movie Vidhu Vinod Chopra has converted his long cherished dream into a reality.

Says Chopra, “The idea of archiving has been my dream since my days at the FTII. As a film student, I could read about filmmakers from all over the world except for the ones belonging to my country. This bank of films will not only serve as a document for filmmakers but will also be made available to students and cinema lovers.”

Right now their priority is the legacy of old Hindi films that needs to be preserved and documented. As said by Rajkumar Hirani, “This book is not just the screenplay; it is also a peek into the minds of its makers.”

So if you really are a cinema buff then you can be part of the genesis of the various scenes, the different points of debate and the serendipitous manner in which the cast of the film came together.

Having published Lage Raho Munnabhai— The Original Screenplay last year and 3 Idiots this year, Mr Chopra plans to continue this tradition by releasing books of not just films made under his banner but also of timeless classics that his company will catalogue, compile and conceptualise.

Headed by author Anupama Chopra, the team of writers based in Mumbai, will target Hindi classics which will have rare pictures from the filmmakers or those associated with the films.

“We have spoken to Arun Dutt, (Guru Dutt’s son) and have started working on three films—Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam, Kaagaz Ke Phool and Chaudvi Ka Chand. All three are classics and need to be documented,” says Chopra.

Unlike the West, where it is extremely easy to get books featuring the screenplays of popular and not-so-popular films, in India, the trend is not too common. The idea of archiving the Indian cinema has not been carried out successfully. Shibani Bathija, the screenplay writer of My Name Is Khan applauds any move in support and thinks that, “We haven’t done nearly enough to archive Hindi films.

Over and above for cinema’s sake (which is imperative on its own) films are a reflection of a country’s cultural history and demonstrative of attitudes and ideas one can’t find in history books. The government has been charging heavy entertainment taxes for decades.

Where is that being used to benefit cinema? I’d love to see funding available for archivists to create a truly comprehensive collection of Indian cinema.”And so goes the saying, “Golden words are not repeated again”, but what if they can be treasured?

India to make Bollywood Hitler movie

INDIA'S Bollywood film industry, famous for its lip-synched singing, exuberant dancing and wet sari scenes, is set to stray into unfamiliar dark territory with a film on Adolf Hitler.
According to the director's description, the movie appears to have more than a passing resemblance to the critically acclaimed 2004 German film Downfall starring Bruno Ganz.

"The film will recapture the last days of Adolf Hitler, including his life in his Berlin bunker and Germany after his death in 1945," Rakesh Ranjan Kumar, who is directing the movie, told the Mumbai Mirror this week.

The film will focus on the German dictator's personality as well as his relationships with his lover and other close associates during the final days of the Nazi regime.

Its makers say the title - Dear Friend Hitler - alludes to two letters written to him by India's independence leader Mahatma Gandhi.

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Hitler will be played by veteran Bollywood actor Anupam Kher, who once played Gandhi on television, while former Miss India Neha Dhupia portrays Eva Braun, whom Hitler married hours before they committed suicide in April 1945.

"Yes I play him. Shoot starts in August," Kher wrote on his Twitter feed while on his way back from last weekend's Indian International Film Academy awards in Sri Lanka.

He asked fans to send him suggestions for books to read on the German leader.

Anil Sharma, the biopic's producer, said it was "an analytical portrayal of the ideologies followed by Hitler".

"We will try to show his fears, insecurities and pressures he faced while taking crucial decisions," Sharma said, adding that though the movie would have some similarities to Downfall it would be an entirely original work.

Sharma said he was still uncertain whether to include any song and dance routines, but ruled out any musical-style routines by Hitler or Braun.

The film, budgeted at between $2-3 million, will be shot in studio and on location in India's forests and mountains.

No release date has been set, but the movie is intended for international release.

Bollywood often reprises the theme of a foreign film with virtually identical plots and characters, but intense material such as Oscar-nominated Downfall rarely attracts Indian producers.

In 2008 Bollywood released a film called Hari Puttar despite a lawsuit by Hollywood studio Warner Bros, which owns the rights to the blockbuster Harry Potter movies.

Confusingly, the film was loose remake of Home Alone.

Bollywood has also moved into more realistic, hard-hitting subjects such as terrorism, internet privacy and physical disability in recent years, but with limited success.

In 2006, a Nazi-themed restaurant called Hitler's Cross opened in Mumbai, but was soon closed after a storm of protest from Jews in India and abroad

PreityZinta Sign off.

Preity Zinta, the bubbly girl of B-town as she is fondly known, is a powerhouse of talent and now, a budding businesswoman too. She started her career in the late 199s with Dil Se, opposite the King of the industry and soon started threatening the reigning queens! Although quite a lot of her movie sank at the box office, she managed to prove her metal with films like Koi Mil Gaya, Mission Kashmir, Lakshya, Kya Kehna, Kal Ho Na Ho and the award winning Heaven On Earth, which got her, her very first international award.


Preity’s career has been a plateau and highs and lows have been extreme! Born on the 31st of January, Preity is an Aquarian. Watch the video to know Preity’s traits and characteristics that make her the bold, witty, talented and proactive human being she is today! Watch the videos on her Hand Writing Analysis, her Chinese Astrology sign, her numerology and her future predictions to know more and compare if you’re an Aquarian as well!