Mugdha laughs away rivalry with Rohit Shetty

The news has spread like wild fire that hot-n-happening Mugdha Godse has been roped in as a female lead for Rohit Shetty's next film (yet untitled) which is an Ajay Devgan production.

While Mugdha is grinning from ear to ear after bagging this true blue multi starrer that stars the likes of Ajay Devgan, Sanjay Dutt, Bipasha Basu and Fardeen Khan, there was a time when she was in rivalry with Rohit Shetty.

Well almost, and for a brief period! Says Mugdha after a hearty laugh, "Omigawsh, you make it look like a big scandal when there was hardly anything like a rivalry between Rohit and me. Come on, why would a newcomer like me have problems with an established film maker like Rohit?"

Well, let us bring out the reason then. Last year when her high profile film Fashion released on 29th October, even Rohit Shetty directed Golmaal Returns arrived on the same day. Fortunately for both the films, they survived well at the box office and did the kind of business that was expected out of them.

Apparently, Mugdha had made it a point that she won't watch Golmaal Returns in theaters since that would have meant joining the competition. "Come on now, stop finding so much of 'what's happening behind the curtains' thing here. Ok, so I didn't go to theaters to watch Golmaal Returns but I did catch it eventually on the DVD"", says the glamorous young woman who has been making quite a name for herself ever since she began work on Fashion last year.

If she says that she loved Golmaal Returns, it hardly brings with it a surprise element. "I really loved the way Rohit involves his audience in the narrative. He kept the gag element on throughout Golmaal Returns which says a lot about him knowing the pulse of the audience. In real life also he is quite some fun to interact with.

He is very humorous", she talks fondly about her director, "He is someone who has Bollywood deep into his veins. He thinks completely commercial. Whenever you talk to him, you realize that he is so filmy. No wonder, I am looking forward to begin shooting for his film".

Shilpa Shetty all set to shoot the music video for her IPL team

When Shilpa Shetty stepped into the IPL arena along with her beau Raj Kundra, it was quite evident that glamour would seep into the cricket field. Shilpa has kept her promise of making a music video for the team and the theme song for the Rajasthan Royals will be composed Anand Raj Anand who is a close friend of the lady.

Apparently, the basic song of the Rajasthan Royals (’Halla Bol’) will remain unchanged, but the music that accompanies it will be changed. The lyrics of the anthem will be some what like, ‘Phir vahi lalkar hai, phir kanon mein goonj rahi jeet ki jhankar hai.’ The song will be sung by Anand Raj Anand himself along with Monali Thakur with Shilpa shooting a sizzling music video to promote her cricket team on the choreography of Ken Ghosh. The buzz is around that approx. 3 crores will be spent on the music video.

Says Shilpa excitedly. “I’m so glad Ken is making an exception for me. We chose Anand Raj Anand because he’s an expert at catchy folk songs. I first worked in a film with his music when he scored for Pardesi Babu. I was simply bowled over by the numbers. Today when I hear the song he has composed for our team I feel deeply enthused.”

Lekha Washington steps into Bollywood

It is the time for South beauties to rule Bollywood now. After Asin took everyone by surprise bagging some plum projects with big Khans of Bollywood, Lekha Washington is the latest south side actress to join Bollywood. Lekha has been chosen to star opposite Rajeev Khandelwal in UTV’s new film, ‘Peter Gaya Kaam Se‘. She was chosen since UTV needed a heroine who could play football, ride the bike, look like a super model, do martial arts, and be everything from cold-hearted to a girl next door.

An NID graduate, Lekha is a powerhouse of talents being associated with theatre, adventure sports, sculpting, and hosting travel shows. Apart from being a qualified documentary filmmaker, Lekha co-hosted the first season of the Indian Premier League with Ajay Jadeja on Sony Max. A Maharashtran Burmese Italian Punjabi hybrid, Lekha Washington is quite a known name in Tamil Cinema.

In October 2008, Lekha had hosted the Al Barakha Canada Cup Twenty20 tournament on international television. She has also hosted travel shows around the world, and been an active theatre enthusiast for much of the last eight years, directing her theatre group Khel.

Juhi Chawla in a new blonde look

Juhi Chawla is one actress who is known for her versatility and bubbly nature and this time again, she is there to shock everyone with a completely different blonde look for her role in Zoya Akhtar’s ‘Luck By Chance’. In fact, it was the look of the character which impressed Juhi more than the length of the role in the film. Her blonde look has been designed by B Blunt’s Avan Contractor.

Juhi plays the character of Minty Rolly, the producer’s (Rishi Kapoor) wife.
“When Zoya offered me the role I was extremely thrilled, even though I was told it was not a big role, I dint mind, it was different from all the other characters I have played before, and that was the most exciting part. Playing Minty was so much fun! And moreover I got to color my hair blonde, which also was something I had never done before.” says Juhi.

Luck By Chance is produced by Excel Entertainment in association with Big Pictures and marks the directorial debut of Zoya Akhtar and stars Farhan Akhtar, Konkona Sen Sharma, Isha Sharvani, Sanjay Kapoor, Juhi Chawla, Rishi Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia and Hrithik Roshan. It is slated to release on the 30th of January 2009.

Payal Rohatgi at the launch of her website

Payal Rohatgi shot into limelight from the oblivion with ‘Big Boss 2’, though we need not mention here the cat-fight she had with Sambhavna Seth and the way Sambhavna gave her the hell of a time on the exit interview with Pooja Bedi on Bigg Boss 2 . Sambhavna had written down the names of her notorious movies and was defending her “down market” remarks made by Payal during the show.

None the less Payal swore that its all in the past and now has buried the past by launching her official website. This was just the right time to launch her website when ‘Big Boss 2’ made her noticed and her role as a ‘full of life’ yoga instructor in the movie ‘Dil Kabaddi’ got her critical acclaim.

Check out the pics of an all green Payal Rohatgi at the launch of her website..

Kingfisher airlines gone global with release of Calendar 2009

As Vijay Malaya name is synonymous to the life style and fashion in India, thus it would be routine exercise for Malaya to host glamour event like 2009 Kingfisher Calendar release party as attended by celebrity from the glamour world like Arjun Rampal, Ritu Kumar and Rahul Dev.

Like other year’s calendars this year models were also dressed in designer wears from Jean Paul Gaultier, Dean von Furstenberg, and Moschino. Atul Kasbekar shot the calendar at exquisite locations of, Thailand. This year’s calendar featured models e Moni Kangana Dutta from India, Tamara Moss (Holland and India), Nargis Fakhri (Czech Republic and Pakistan), Suisa Jongsawat (Thailand), Katya Melnikova (Russia), and Mimi Blix (Norway and Uganda).

In the own words of Mallya, “As one of the most well known and respected consumer brands in the country, Kingfisher has become synonymous with a lifestyle that encompasses some of the finest things in life. With our airline going global, this was the right time to present some of the finest models from around the globe. I am sure this year to the calendar will be a much coveted possession for one and all.”!

Just have a glimpse of some of the models from the fashion calendar.

siclub Swimsuit Calendar, a cheering welcome to 2009

New air arrival comes on fashion scene with glamorous calendar release showcasing models in either swimsuit or Bikini at least each model for a month to be hanged around on the wall of your drawing room. After the so talked about release of Kingfisher fashion calendar’s release. Next is the number of Desiclub Swimsuit Calendar designed by desiclub.com, a leading networking portal for Indians in the United States.

This year’s calendar has models of ethnic Indian origin. According to the words of Tania Mehra one of the models in this calendar, “Ask me about the Krebs cycle or various Biological processes and I’ll be sure to fill you in but ask me to figure out how to put those intricate swimsuits on and you’ll have me stumped”. She seems quite frank about her appearance on the calendar.

Anyway enjoy the hot pics form the calendar.

Adhyayan Suman celebrates his birthday

Adhyayan Suman celebrated his birthday in style. First, it was a surprise birthday gift from his parents, Shekhar and Alka Suman, a brand new car, which was gifted to him the night before his birthday. Then, it was a grand party at piano bar to celebrate the birthday as well as promote Adhyayan’s forthcoming film Raaz 2.

The impressive guest list included Imran Khan, Emraan Hashmi, Shekhar Suman, Mukesh Bhatt, Mahesh Bhatt, Monica Bedi, Mohit Suri and others. And of course, there was Kangana Ranaut who was spotted standing very close to Adhyayan all the time.

A golden ‘Ghajini’ statue for Aamir Khan

‘Ghajini’ had everything new about it- be it a very unique storyline, be it Aamir’s new hairstyle, be it the innovative way of promoting it, be it the launch of Van Huesen ‘Ghajini’ line and the latest being the never before heard gesture of appreciation from producer Madhu Mantena to Aamir Khan.

Madhu Mantena presented a solid-gold statue to Aamir designed specially to resemble Aamir’s Ghajini look at the party held to celebrate the film’s success earlier this week.

“8 abs included. We can see all 8 of them on the statue,” Mantena states proudly.

The statuette is pure gold and probably cost the producer close to Rs. 70-80 lakhs though he isn’t telling.

“It has certain amount of other metal to make it malleable. Solid gold wouldn’t allow the identical Ghajini shape to be done in gold. But the idea was to create an Oscar-sized statue exclusively for Ghajini. Aamir knew he was getting a trophy. But he didn’t know it would be golden and with his Ghajini’s look. He was overwhelmed,” says Mantena.

Director Murugadoss was also given a statue, though far less hefty and golden than Aamir’s, but of course including the 8-abs.

But is quality suffering?

Image Coutesy : nriinternet.com

Bollywood over the last decade has made some great strides as far as theme and quality of movies goes. Over the same period we have also seen an avalanche of movies catering to the Non Resident Indian market. With a very large Diaspora of Indians all over the world Bollywood has gained by playing to these audience’s sentiments about their homeland. With mushy patriotic fares which preach about Indian values and culture Bollywood has managed to hit the nail bang on the “heart” as far as the NRIs are concerned. But is it all at the expense of quality?

Bollywood began catering to the NRI market with movies that dealt with large Punjabi weddings. ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’ (or more popularly called DDLJ) showed the vast possibilities of the NRI market to Bollywood. But the movie that really exploited its true potential was the movie ‘Taal’, which did more business overseas than in the domestic market. From then on we have seen movies made specifically for the NRI market especially the US and UK sectors. We now have movies about the lives of NRIs, shooting locations all over the world, premiers and award ceremonies all over the world with the intention of giving Bollywood more exposure globally.

Image Coutesy : tribuneindia.com

But have we really made any inroads globally? Indian cinema still fails to capture the imagination of audiences who are not of Indian origin. It is still looked upon as elaborate song and dance, melodramatic affairs with little meaning or substance. The only mainstream Bollywood movie to make any sort of inroads in the west was ‘Lagaan’. The reason it did was because it had the technical brilliance and the backing of a brilliant screenplay to make it big anywhere in the world.

In the last one year alone we have had movies like ‘Kabhi Alvida Na Kehana’, ‘Namastey London’ and ‘Ta Ra Rum Pum’ based on the lives of NRIs. All these movies have had varying degrees of success. This is all fine. But what Bollywood should realize is that movies make it big not by targeting a particular audience but by telling good stories. Movie makers should be more concerned with telling a good story in as entertaining a way as possible rather than being concerned with what their audiences would and would not like.

Image Coutesy : sawf.rg

Please do not get us wrong. We are not saying that Bollywood should never make movies about NRIs. What we are saying that they should not be trying to make movies for NRIs alone. By concentrating on a particular market segment alone they are foregoing the opportunity to grow. Such short sighted methods may yield dividends over the short run but it could be harmful in the long run. By concentrating solely on the lives of the affluent classes of the society Bollywood is denying itself the chance to explore the rich and vibrant stories from the other strata of society.

Currently Bollywood is selling itself short by jumping onto one particular bandwagon or the other. They should try to break free of the submissive mindset that has been dogging them and should try to take some calculated risks. For that first of all the industry needs to start dreaming big. Bollywood is just one step away from making it really big internationally. All it needs is just one breakthrough and then the floodgates would open as far as good quality movies go. And they should also learn that the word international does not mean the NRIs alone. We should dream of a day when our movies too are able to break geographical and linguistic boundaries and is watched by everyone and not just NRIs all over the world.

"Tout le monde veut épouser Barbara Mori" Hrithik Roshan

Barbara Mori, cette beauté mexicaine qu'on verra faire ses premiers pas à Bollywood aux cotés de Hrithik Roshan dans Kites, aurait charmé toute l'industrie du cinéma indien d'après commentaires de notre cher Duggu.

Hrithik et Barbara sont dans une série sans fin d'interview et de conférence de presses à but de promouvoir le film, les médias obtiennent pas mal d'occasion de leur poser diverses questions sur leur vie professionnelles mais également personnelles.

Quand on a demandé à Barbara, comment elle s'est sentie accueillie à Bollywood, Hrithik ne l'a pas laissé répondre et a rapidement expliqué,

"Elle a rencontré des amis à moi travaillant dans l'industrie mais également de l'extérieur... Ils l'aiment tous. Ils veulent tous épouser!"

Barbara n'a fait que confirmé les phrases de Hrithik et a rajouté qu'elle a été accueillie à bras ouverts par les personalitées de Bollywood et s'est déjà faite pas mal d'amis.

"oui, oui, oui! Shahrukh Khan et Gauri on fait une petite fête en mon intention, ils étaient toujours aux alentours à me demander si tout me convenait, si je me sentais bien. J'ai trouvé ça très mignon. J'ai rencontré notamment Priyanka Chopra et pleins d'autres acteurs, à la fête d'anniversaire de Hrithik. Ils sont tous très doux et gentils."

Priyanka Chopra en deuil, sa grand-mère est morte

L'actrice qui est actuellement en tournage pour son prochain film, Saat Khoon Maaf, de Vishal Bhardwaj, a du retourner d'urgence à Delhi, car sa grand mère parternel venait de déceder.

Dimanche soir, alors qu'elle était en tournage à Coorg, on l'a informer de la mort de sa grand mère.

Personne n'aurait su à propos de la perte de Priyanka, si elle n'avait pas eu à se déplacer pour les funerailes à Delhi.

Un proche de priyanka a dit :

Priyanka est comme ça. Elle ne laisse jamais ses problèmes personnels, affecter son travail. Même quand elle a appris que son papa était souffrant du cancer, elle n'a informer personne à propos de sa tristesse, alors qu'elle tournait pour Bluffmaster.

Mais cette fois-ci les circonstances étaient différentes, elle n'avait pas d'autres choix que d'informer Vishal. Le faite que son absence pertube les dates du tournages à vraiment dérangée Priyanka, mais Vishal lui a dit de ne pas s'inquiéter et qu'ils attendront le temps qu'il faudra.

Mais il n'y avait pas de vol depuis Coorg elle a donc eu à aller jusqu'à Bangalore et depuis là-bas elle a pu prendre un vol.

Dans le chagrin, Priyanka a dit à une amie “C'est si étrange. La famille entière était ensemble le mois dernière quand j'ai eu l'award national. Ma grand-mère était si heureuse. Personne n'aurait su que ce serait la dernière fois que j'aurai eu l'opportunitée de la voir"

L'actrice a également annoncé la nouvelle à ses fans sur sa page Twitter.

En janvier dernier. la belle indienne, avait déja perdu son grand-père.

Je lui souhaite plein de courages, et quoi qu'il arrive maintenant ils l'a surveilleront de la haut, tel des anges gardiens.

Malika Serawhat et Divya Dutta au festival de Cannes

Les deux actrices indiennes,Mallika Sherawat et Divya Dutta seront toute les deux sur le tapis rouge du Festival de Canne 2010 qui se déroulera du 12 au 23 mai.

Elles seront présentes à l'occasion de leur prochain film internationale Hissss qui sera projetté en première.

Divya a nié les rumeurs comme quoi les deux actrices se seraient battus pour savoir qui serait présente au festival.

Elle a également dit qu'elle portera quelque chose d'indien et sensuel pour l'occasion.

Hissss, l'histoire d'une femme serpent, jouée par Malika, qui se venge sur un explorateur américain qui a tué son bien-aimé.

Le film a été tourné en hindi et anglais et produit par le frère de Malika.

Le festival de Canne ça ne sera pas la première foi pour Malika, elle avait déjà été présente pour son film the Myth dans lequel elle a joué aux cotés de Jackie Chang.

D'autres stars ont déja fait honneur de leur présence pour présenter leurs films comme Amitabh Bachchan pour Cheeni Kum ou Aishwarya Rai Shahrukh Khan & Sanjay Leela Bhansali pour Devdas.

Sushmita Sen au concour "I Am Princess"

La belle Sushmita Sen était au concour 'I Am Princess' organisée dans 1école de la ville d'Andhéri.

Un événement organisé par sa propre initiative, elle a passé un moment avec les jeunes filles en leur donnant quelques conseilles et surtout leur a conseillé de toujours rester sois-même.

Les photographes ont également eu droit à "Sushmita la maman" , car la belle a amené sa petite dernière, Alisah, qu'elle a adoptée.

Sushmita et Alisah :