Bollywood latest news

The rumour that Shahid Kapoor and Sherlyn Chopra are starring in the lead in a Yash Chopra film, has been doing the rounds. The actress has been claiming that she has signed a film opposite Shahid. But this news has miffed not only the Jab We Met star, but also the entire unit associated with the forthcoming Yash Chopra film. Insiders from the Yash Raj camp clarify that Shahid has been paired with Rani Mukerji. “Sherlyn is just making a brief appearance in the film. The report of Shahid acting opposite Sherlyn is false. Sherlyn is doing it just to gain mileage for herself and some cheap publicity. Starlets like her will go to any lengths to create news,” says a source.

The actor, who is busy shooting for Ahmed Khan’s Paathshala, does not want to talk about this news. All he says is, “I want to concentrate on my work right now. I am looking forward to better films. I have cut down on my work too. I am trying to focus on one film at a time and plan to do only good movies.  Fortunately, this strategy has worked, and Vivaah and Jab We Met have proved that,” says Shahid.
Recently, it was also reported that Shahid is going to star opposite Sushmita Sen in a Shemaroo film to be directed by debutante director Rohit. A source close to the actor says, “He is just doing a walk-in appearance in his childhood friend Rohit’s film.”

Shahid, who is being very selective about his films, says, “I have my hands full now. There’s Kismet Konnection produced by Tips Films, followed by a Vishal Bharadwaj film, a Yash Raj film, and last but not the least, my father’s (Pankaj Kapur’s) directorial venture. I want to complete these films before I take on anything new.”

Multi-faceted director Karan Johar has been really busy of late. Just back from settling things for his under-production film Dostana, starring John Abraham, Abhishek Bachchan and Priyanka Chopra, which is being directed by Tarun Mansukhani, Karan is now neck-deep in kicking off production for his next directorial venture, Khan, starring who else but best friend Shah Rukh Khan.

Filming should start towards the later part of the year and the buzz the film is creating even before going on the floors is astounding. But then, it’s the great combination of Johar and SRK after Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna and is, thus, understandable. Despite so much, KJo is taking out time for himself and his friend Shah Rukh. Recently, he was spotted enjoying a game of cricket between SRK’s team — the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Bangalore Royal Challengers. The 35-year-old director went all the way to Bangalore to support Shah Rukh’s team, though cricket is not his cuppa tea.

Sonali Kulkarni plays the role of a Bangladeshi immigrant in Revathy’s directorial venture for Mumbai Cutting.  To authenticate her role, Sonali went without makeup and even borrowed a dress from her maid to suit the part. The actress floored the director with her presence on the sets. Revathy says, “The role demanded a fine actress and therefore I could not think of anyone else but Sonali. And the moment she entered the sets in the getup, she completely floored me. She has a deglamourised role. Being the confident actress that she is, Sonali performed exactly the way I wanted.”

Revathy’s short story in Mumbai Cutting is an exposé on the issues of moral and human injustice. The buzz that’s going around is that Sonali has given a stellar performance.
After seeing the rushes of Mumbai Cutting, the producer of White Cloud Production, Niyati Shah called up Sonali to congratulate her. A stunned Sonali said, “This was the first time a producer called to appreciate my work. It’s extremely satisfying to hear compliments from a producer especially for non-technical reasons and that too after portraying such a deglamorised role.”

Jiah Khan is making her presence felt in the film industry in more ways than one. And her dusky looks and sensuous body language only help. She is slated to start work on director Ken Ghosh’s film starring Shahid Kapur soon. “My film’s cast has gone through a roundabout but now, I have finalised Jiah and work should commence soon,” says Ken.

Apparently, Katrina Kaif was supposed to do the film but she couldn’t due to reasons best known to her, so the role then went to Jiah. Anyway, Jiah seems to be letting her work speak for herself nowadays and has not been keeping a low profile of late.

Krazzy 4 seems to be driving its stars batty. As if a sulking Arshad Warsi was not enough, Irrfan Khan has joined him. Irrfan’s grouse is pretty much the same as Arshad’s. While Arshad is angry that none of the three item numbers in the film feature him, Irrfan felt that the presence of stars like Shahrukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan will pull attention away from the main leads, of which he is one. Rubbing salt to their wounds are the promos of Krazzy 4, which focussed on the item numbers and the controversies about them as well.

A multiplex wanted the stars of the film to attend a premiere of the film. But Rakesh Roshan regretfully informed the multiplex that Arshad and Irrfan were not part of the promotion team. One of the item numbers has been picturised on Bollywood loudspeaker Rakhi Sawant too. Sadly, what both Arshad and Irrfan are not ready to acknowledge is that their presence in the film is not enough to lure audiences to the theatres. Besides, even Heyy Babyy and Bhool Bhulaiyya with the extremely bankable Akshay Kumar had to depend on item numbers to get eyeballs. Business is business, guys. Grow up

Anurag Kashyap, Sudhir Mishra, Shashank Ghosh, Ayush Raina, Jahnu Barua, Ruchi Narain, Manish Jha, Kundan Shah, Revathy, Rahul Dholakia and Rituparno Ghosh — these 11 directors from Bollywood will be sharing the same platform on April 27 for the world premiere of their joint venture. The film, Mumbai Cutting… A City Unfolds premieres the IFFLA (Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles) at Arclights, Hollywood.

“All the directors have portrayed the myriad flavours of the city in 10-minute story capsules. It is extremely challenging to tell a story in the span of 10 minutes that too in a film format, but the directors have simply outdone themselves,” said the CEO of White Cloud Production Niyati Shah.

Arclights Theatre will witness the rare combination of two highly competitive directors — Rituparno, who gives his view on the seductive pull of Mumbai and Jahnu, who explores the effect of the city on a stranger. Not to be left behind, good friends Anurag and Sudhir will be sharing space for once not being able out do each other! Adding variety to this get together, will be debutant directors Ayush and Shashank. Shashank’s viewpoint in Mumbai Cutting portrays the “life of a Mumbaikar but also of refugees like me, who’ve left their homeland and found a new home here”. Ruchi feels Mumbai Cutting will give an out-of-the-box experience to the viewer.

The up close and personal approach of Revathy finds the fact interesting that “this film has a thread called Mumbai that is running throughout. I’ve shown a facet of Mumbai where human rights are taken for granted by the victims of injustice and where sexual favours are just a way of life and not an eye-raising issue.”

For Manish, the whole idea of making a film on Mumbai is what got him excited that too with directors of such high caliber. And the highlight is that veteran director Kundan brings with him his enviable sarcasm and black comedy style in the film. Festival director Christina Marouda of IFFLA says, “To close with a unique project such as Mumbai Cutting …A City Unfolds, simply underscores our dedication to provide a platform for films that we feel deserve to be seen by audiences in Los Angeles as well as throughout the US.”

According to reliable sources, Shilpa Shetty —the Big Brother winner and “the new face of Bollywood in the international market” —  has been offered a whopping Rs 5.25 crores by an American NRI producer for an international film to go on floors in mid-2008. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is said to have received Rs 6 crores for her forthcoming venture, Shankar’s Robot opposite Rajnikanth and Kareena Kapoor is being offered Rs 3.5 crores for her new movies after Jab We Met. So this film will catapult Shilpa into the big league as far as her price is concerned.

When we contacted Shilpa, all she said was, “I get what I deserve”. Her publicist Dale Bhagwagar was a little more forthcoming, though he also asked us to be patient. “Let time unfold the news. I can’t divulge figures, but why would anyone be surprised at them?” He added, “Since her transformation from actress to diva in the international arena, Shilpa has been offered astronomical amounts by all kinds of filmmakers from all over the world, including Bollywood. But what matters most to her are hard-hitting roles which can satisfy the actress in her.”

True. After Phir Milenge, Dus, Apne and Metro, Shilpa has become extremely choosy. She is doing Sunny Deol’s The Man now. Her character portrays the meteoric rise of a simple but dedicated girl to instant international stardom. Shilpa’s next project would be Uru Patel’s international flick Hanuman, featuring her in the role of Goddess Sita, with Hollywood actor Keanu Reeves being tipped to play Lord Ram.  The actress is currently in Miami, shooting a “special song” with Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham in Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions’ Dostana.

It took music maestro A.R. Rahman three years to finish the album for the stage adaptation of The Lord Of The Rings, working with 200 musicians and technicians for every song. The album, which has pushed up his international status, was released in February.

Irrfan Khan has been signed to play the role of a rebel Pan Singh Tomar in UTV’s forthcoming venture to be directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia. His official spokesperson confirmed the news saying, “Yes it is true that Irrfan is playing Pan Singh and is very excited about the project. But it is too early to talk about it.”

UTV sources revealed that Irrfan has been signed for the role and Tigmanshu Dhulia is directing it. Pan Singh was a soldier by profession. But he had also won an Asian Games gold medal in a track and field event. After retirement, he returned to his village, became a victim of injustice, and finally took to guns. His end too was typical for a dacoit. After his death, his picture appeared in a few papers with an identification tag tied to a toe. The film put forward the question of whether the display of his remains was part of his punishment and penance.

Sources reveal that the subject of Pan Singh’s life intrigued UTV and Tigmanshu so much that they decided to go ahead with the subject. Tigmanshu felt that it would be interesting to watch incidents of Pan Singh’s life on film. One source informs, “Irrfan Khan plays the main protagonist but the rest of the starcast is yet to be decided. The film will go on floors in October and it will be completed by December.

Om Shanti Om hard work result boy got name.Director Farah Khan who was looking for a name for her son, has finally found one. The Om Shanti Om director has finally named her son Czar which means “emperor” in Russian. “It took a lot of time for us to shortlist a name for him. We have named him Czar, which means emperor.”

Farah, who gave birth to triplets in February 11 with her husband Shirish Kunder, had already named her two daughters Diya and Anya. The director, who will be seen judging a reality show on television soon says, “Shah Rukh Khan did not help me out with naming my son, I am quite angry with him. But I know he is too busy with his IPL matches and I don’t blame him. I was just kidding.”  Farah also said that she won’t direct any films until her children complete their first birthday