Ekta Kapoor Too Busy This Year

On Friday morning a self admittedly nervous and anxious Ekta Kapoor left for Tirupathi, as she does each year, on the eve of her birthday.

This time, however, she has a lot more to pray for. Two of her most prestigious projects are about to take off. And Ekta can’t think straight. Let alone party.

After buying herself a whole wardrobe and slimming down to fit into them for her planned birthday Ekta has decided to postpone the proposed party. Something she has never done before. Read more

Hrithik Roshan On Small Screen

After actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Govinda and Salman Khan, it is now Bollywood heartthrob Hrithik Roshan’s turn to join the reality show bandwagon.

Hrithik has been named the goodwill ambassador of NDTV Imagine’s new musical reality show ‘Junoon - Kuch Kar Dikhaane Ka’ scheduled to start June 6.

‘I am very pleased to be associated with this show. I can identify with the participants and their desire to achieve success. I can relate to their positive and exuberant spirit because I believe I have a similar enthusiasm - be it for my work or my personal life,’ the Bollywood star said.

The actor would neither be hosting, judging or performing on the show. Hrithik would instead be a support system for the contending participants and teams on the show.

Commenting on the association, Shailja Kejriwal, executive vice president of NDTV Imagine, said: ‘Hrithik epitomises the passion, which is present in all the talented artists that are part of the show.’

The show, being hosted by Annu Kapoor of ‘Antakshari’ fame would have three teams - folk, sufi and filmy - contesting to become the country’s most popular genre of music.

The teams, each having six contestants, would be mentored by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan (sufi), Ila Arun (folk) and Anand Raj Anand (filmy).

Ayesha Takia Vs Intimate/Hot Scenes

Young and chirpy actress Ayesha Takia considers Nagesh Kukunoor’s ‘Dor’, a poignant tale of two women, as the path-breaking film of her career. She says after the movie, people started taking her seriously as an actor.

‘After ‘Dor’, viewers showed the confidence that I could play serious roles too and so I was offered roles in films like ‘Eight By Ten’ and ‘Wanted’ and many other big movies,’ Ayesha told.

Ayesha is on the verge of completing another Kukunoor film titled ‘Eight By Ten’.

‘Ten days of shooting is left. It also stars Akshay Kumar,’ said Ayesha who plays Akshay’s wife in the supernatural thriller.

Her next release is ‘De Taali’, which will be showcased at the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards, starting June 6 in Bangkok.

Talking about the film, the dimpled actress said: ‘The character is totally in contrast to what I am in actual life. I play Ammu who is a complete tomboy. She is a complete brat and grows up with Aftab Shivdasani and Reitesh Deshmukh. She does what normally guys do.’

Apart from ‘De Taali’, she has Boney Kapoor’s ‘Wanted Dead And Alive’, which marks southern dancing superstar Prabhu Deva’s entry into Hindi films as director.

The film is a remake of Tamil film ‘Pokkiri’, which was also directed by Prabhu Deva. In the action movie, Ayesha is paired with Salman Khan. Mahesh Manjrekar and Om Puri too feature in key roles.

The actress is also doing Ahmed Khan’s film on four children titled ‘Pathshala’ where she and Shahid Kapur play teachers.

Though ‘Tarzan - The Wonder Car’, for which she won the best debutant actress award in 2004, was released before ‘Socha Na Tha,’ Ayesha considers Imtiaz Ali’s romantic comedy as her debut film.

She said: ”Socha Na Tha’ will always be my first film and close to my heart. ‘Tarzan’ was an entertaining film but ‘Socha Naa Tha’ had a lot of space for acting.’

Was she approached for Imtiaz’s second film ‘Jab We Met’?

‘Initially, Bobby and I were supposed to do the film, but the dates did not work out between us. But, I look forward to working with Imtiaz.’

The actress faced the camera for the first time when she was four years old for an ad and later she did quite a few commercials and music videos.

How difficult was it to gain entry into films? ‘It was not at all difficult. I did not go looking for work. Imtiaz went through my audition tapes and called me to his office.’

Ayesha feels that making an entry is not at all difficult if one has the talent and is ready to work hard.

So far Ayesha has worked mainly with new directors - does she have a preference for them?

‘I don’t have any preferences and I cannot afford it. It is just that the offers came from them. And it is always an exciting experience as new directors are always enthusiastic and hard working and give everything for the project as they know that their life depends on the project.’

Did she plan to be an actress as a child?

‘I was raised in a normal Gujarati style with all the restrictions and reservations. As far as plans are concerned, I did not have plans to become an actress in my childhood.’

About a favourite co-star, Ayesha said: ‘I am not being diplomatic, I enjoyed working with all of them. Also, I am a very professional type of person. I finish my work and go home. I have no favourites, I enjoyed working with all of them.’

Apparently Ayesha makes producers sign a contract on her reservations about intimate and steamy scenes.

She said: ‘Yes, I do sign a contract with every producer and mother has nothing to do with it. I have lived life according to my own principles and ideologies and I adhere to it.’

The 23-year-old has done various roles ranging from comedy to serious characters, but prefers romantic movies.

‘I would like to do romantic films most and my second preference would be serious roles. Though I am not comfortable with stunts, I would definitely like to do an action film like ‘Tomb Raider’.’

She is dating Farhan Azmi and has started a boutique hotel business with him, but has no immediate plans to marry him.

‘I want to work and don’t have any plans to marry now.’

Rukhsar To Go Nude In Upcoming Film

Rukhsar, who was last seen in Ramu’s Sarkar playing a docile Bahu is all set to shock the audience with her dare bare avatar in Manish Gupta’s Stone Man. We hear that the comeback lady has already shot a nude scene for the film and the most uncomfortable person on the sets was not Rukhsar but the director Manish himself.

 

“Rukhsar was quite bold about the nude scene. She went through the shoot as calmly as possible while director Manish Gupta seemed slightly hassled. In fact, he was too conscious while the shooting was taking place,” says the source.

In fact, Gupta asked all the crew members to leave the room while the scene was being shot in order to make Rukhsar feel comfortable. However, Rukhsar was quite okay with the people being present and even asked why the place had to be evacuated.

Adds the source, “Manish was uncomfortable about asking Rukhsar to expose herself before so many people. So, he made sure that none of the crew members except him and the cameraman were present on the sets while the scene was being shot.”

On top of it, Rukhsar was given a backless bra that did not fit her properly. Thankfully, her make-up man did some improvisation and made a makeshift bra from a chunari.

While Rukhsar calmly posed for the camera in this bra, director Manish Gupta says he felt embarrassed asking her to expose her body parts to the camera. Manish took an entire day to shoot the scene.

It’s Saif And Kareena…. Finally

Finally, they have said it. At Manish Malhotra’s fashion show for the Lakme Fashion Week, Saif admitted to his relationship with Kareena saying, “Yes, we are not exactly shouting from the rooftops but yes, clearly we are together. And we are happy together.”

The couple was spotted together in public for the first time.

Reports of a romantic linkup between 27-year-old Kareena and 37-year-old Saif Ali Khan first surfaced while the two were shooting for Yash Raj Films Tashan on locales in Ladakh and Rajasthan.

Then came the news of Kareena celebrating her 27th birthday last month with a small party for select friends including Saif. Saif and Kareena also hit a night club in Delhi on October 5 where when a photographer clicked Saif and Kareena hugging they bullied him and deleted the photograph.

Saif had been single for months now, since his break-up with girlfriend Roza. The actor has, since, been linked to Bipasha Basu and Dia Mirza.

As their romance intensified, Kareena unceremoniously dumped former beau Shahid Kapoor August end while he was shooting for Aziz Mirza’s Lucky Charm in Toronto, Canada.

However, Shahid Kapoor who had been stoically maintaining silence for sometime also quipped on the sets of the Sony show Jhalak Dikhla Ja in the course of an interview, “For all ye girls out there, I am single and ready to mingle!”

Priyanka Chopra Proposes Harman For Marriage

They may be a low-profile couple, but nevertheless, Priyanka Chopra and Harman Baweja have never tried to hide their relationship.

While Priyanka is steadily climbing the popularity charts in Bollywood, Harman is being touted as one of the most promising debutants this year. And at such a stage of their careers, it came as a surprise to Harman when Priyanka recently popped the question.

Sources say the couple was in the company of friends when Priyanka suddenly proposed marriage to her boyfriend. However, Harman is not really prepared to tie the knot right now. He wants to stabilize as an actor before taking the plunge.

But whatever be their decision for now, there is no doubt that the pair is quite a cute one. They often drop in on each other’s film sets and chat over the phone during breaks in the shoot.

When Priyanka sustained minor injuries while doing action scenes for film “Drona”, Harman reportedly rushed to the sets. So hope this jodi enters wedlock soon.

Tulip Joshi’s Craze For Diet Coke

The sets of Shree Ashtavinayak’s new untitled film, directed by Rohit Jugraj and starring Tulip Joshi, Kunal Khemmu and Aushima Saawhney in the lead saw quite an unusual happening late at night every day!!

Pretty actress Tulip Joshi it seems is quite addicted to diet cokes and such was her intense desire to guzzle them post midnight that she used to even finish off Kunal and Aushima’s share too! The three of them used to have a blast sitting together and watching Tulip imbibe diet coke pe diet coke from the other two’s ice boxes as well!

Says a laughing Tulip, “Yeah at that time I used to have this intense craving for diet cokes and I used to raid Kunal and Aushima’s ice boxes in front of them at late night! They used to laugh but thankfully now I have lost that obsession!”

Adds Kunal Khemmu, the major provider of diet cokes! “Yeah we used to hang around all three of us after the shoot, sipping diet coke and red bull and my ice box was full of them, so tulip used to finish off my stock once hers was over!

It was quite a lot of dhamaal and we got to see quite a quirky side of Tulips!!”

Well, now we know where Tulip gets all that energy from… Or probably had she be continuing with her obsession, she might have moved onto the next face for Coke’s advertisements. Who knows!!!!

Vidya Balan Won’t Just Kiss Any Actor

Vidya’s new shoulder length hairdo has made her look breathtakingly glamorous. She seems to have suddenly stepped out of the Parineeta era into the contemporary world. But it’s just her new makeover that is western, not the pretty lady herself.

So if you read a recent report that she is ready to kiss on screen and were disappointed as a fan of hers or elated as a future co-star of hers, carefully listen to what she has to say.

“Someone misquoted me as saying that I will kiss any actor on screen. I never ever said such a thing!” she told.

But she defends her lip lock in Guru saying, “Here was a girl who was dying and here was a man who was breathing life into her…It was nothing less than a Osho moment!”

“Outrageous” Sherlyn Chopra Influenced By J.Lo

After failing to woo the audiences with her skin show in “Red Swastik”, Sherlyn Chopra is all set to give it another try with her new album “Outrageous”.

It remains to be seen whether her hopes of boosting her image with the album will stand the test of time. As of now, Sherlyn is raring to go a step ahead of Bollywood bombshell Mallika Sherawat.

When asked about Outrageous, she said that it is a compilation of my closely-held thoughts and emotions which I had penned down when I was 16 years old. Those days, I used to scribble down on a loose sheet just about anything that used to come to my mind.
Later, I put all these loose sheets in a file. A year ago, when my career was on a downslope, I decided to take from some of these thoughts.
Gradually, some of these thoughts and emotions of mine turned into lyrics and got woven into five-six songs. I wanted to make a video of these songs and then release it, but I was not getting a suitable director. Then, during a chat show I met Prahalad Kakkar.
I told him about my video and he was impressed by my work. At first, he was just not ready to believe that an Indian girl could possibly have such a mindset. By the way, I am quite influenced by Jennifer Lopez.

Well hard luck for Red Swastik, Sherlyn. Good luck for Outrageous!!!!!

Manish Malhotra Apologized To Vidya Balan

Lately, Vidya Balan has earned a reputation for getting into controversies over refusal of roles or disagreeing with costume designers.

She had a huge problem with Aki Narula’s clothes while shooting for Ramesh Taurani’s film in Canada.

Says Vidya, “Such things happen. It’s not a big deal. I don’t know why the media went ballistic about it. Aki left the clothes and came away to India. I didn’t like some of the clothes because I felt that they didn’t go with the character. So, I went to shop on my own. That was fun.”

In Sajid Khan’s Heyy Babyy too Vidya received a lot of flak for her styling skills.

But this time her designer Manish Malhotra took the entire responsibility and even sent a message apologising for going wrong with her look in the film.

However Vidya holds no grudges. “The onus isn’t his alone. He sent me a very sweet message saying, ‘I’m sorry I messed up. I hope we get another opportunity.’ He needn’t have apologized. He got a lot of flak for my look. So did I. I accept the criticism as much as I accept all the praise that comes my way”

Vidya is sure she can break free of the sari mould to look Western. Her new shoulder length hairdo makes her look breathtakingly glamorous. She seems to have suddenly stepped out of the Parineeta era into the contemporary world.

She has also shed a lot of weight in the recent past as well.

“I think I had allowed things to drift. I should have looked after myself more. But it’s fine now. I am gyming a lot now and keeping as fit as a fiddle,” she tells with a broad smile.

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