MUKOYAR

It is not very common to see the Bachchan Bahu at the audio release of a film. But the occasion was special here as it was the audio launch of Tamil film “Rettachuzhi” produced by Shankar, who is directing her in “Endhiran: The Robot”. Aishwarya looked ravishing as ever in a white saree at Sathyam Cinemas Monday evening. “When we explained to her the significance of ‘Rettachuzhi’ and the cast of the film, she immediately agreed. It’s not just her beauty but her commitment towards her profession, which has made her a great actress,” said Shankar who was obviously thrilled to have her at the occasion. Ash released the audio cassettes and CDs of “Rettachuzhi” which were accepted by noted lyricist Vairamuthu. Ash had once been described by Vairamuthu as a “Taj Mahal weighing 50 kilograms” in one of his lyrics for the film “Jeans”. The fans were elated when Ash spoke in fluent Tamil and later switched backed to English. “It’s an honour for me to have been present at this place among legends...

In the style of Hollywood’s Razzies, the second Golden Kela awards was held this Friday night where actor Harman Baweja won the Worst Actor award for his performance in “What’s Your Raashee?” and Kareena Kapoor got the worst actress title for her role in “Kambakkht Ishq”. Interestingly, even Hollywood stars Sylvester Stallone and Denise Richards won the “Baawra Ho Gaya Hai Ke” (Have you gone muts) Award for participating in “Kambakkht Ishq” alongside Kareena and Akshay Kumar. The movie also won the worst film award, thus bagging in the highest number of ‘worst’ awards. Abhishek Bachchan won the Dara Singh Award for worst accent in “Delhi-6″. Sporting as Abhishek is, he posted on twitter, “Another milestone in my career. I won the Golden Kela award for worst accent in ‘Delhi 6′. Chalo at least ‘Delhi-6′ won something. I’m overjoyed!” The chief guest of the evening was Bollywood funnyman Cyrus Broacha, who was awarded the Cyrus Broacha Memorial Award. “It’s great. I’m thrilled. I hope to...

The movie deals with the story of a young warrior Theseus who leads his men into battle with the immortal Greek gods to defeat evil and the powerful elder gods of the Titans in order to save mankind. Freida here plays Phaedra, an oracle priestess joins Theseus to prevent the cataclysmic war from erupting. Freida Pinto’s role as Latika in Danny Boyle’s multi-Oscar-winning film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ has done wonders for Freida Pinto’s career who is now getting fame, recognition and plum roles in Hollywood projects. She has already completed shooting Woody Allen’s ‘You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger’ opposite Josh Brolin and Naomi Watts, and Israeli film ‘Miral’ under Julian Schnabel’ direction where she plays the lead role. Now, she has bagged in yet another project where she will play the role of a Greek priestess in War of the Gods. The film, about the Greek mythology, will be directed by Tarsem Singh and begins production in April. The film will be produced by Gianni Nunnari of Hollyw...

After spending many lonely years post her breakup with Vikram Bhatt, Ameesha Patel found solace in her NRI boyfriend Kanav Puri and they were into steady relationship for the past three years. However, since past eight months, trouble has been creeping into their relationship. The reason for this trouble is that while Kanav wants to settle down with marriage, Ameesha wants to give another try to her sinking acting career. In fact, he had proposed marriage to her when he had come down to India to celebrate her birthday in June last year but to his dismay, Ameesha has been evading this topic by and again. Currently, there is so much tension that both have stopped speaking altogether. Insiders also say that since Ameesha has patched up with her parents, she is feeling emotionally secure and does not need her boyfriend’s shoulders any more. So, while Ameesha wants to concentrate on her sinking career, Kanav wants to move ahead of a relationship which seems to have no destiny.

Katrina Kaif made her Bollywood debut with ‘Boom’. The film bombed at the box-office, but Katrina created stirs with her hot skin show for the flick. Nevertheless, her career soared high slowly and of late, she has refrained from much exposure in her recent films. But as she is set to exude appeal for ‘Dostana 2’, she will don a bikini for the film. Priyanka Chopra had impressed everyone with her goldne bikini in ‘Dostana’ and now, Manish Malhotra is designing Katrina’s beach wear and selecting the colors that suits her the most. Dostana 2 will have Katrina in a more sexy look than her cute look which she has been seen with in her recent flicks.

There was double reason for Shreyas Talpade to celebrate at Kino Cottage amidst the glamour and glitter of Bollywood fraternity and media. The occasion was his birthday as well as the pre-release party of his original debut film “The Hangman’. The party was thrown in by his better half Deepti Talpade along with producer of “The Hangman’ Bipin Patel. Among the eminent Bollywood beauties attending the party were Amrita Rao in a tiny strapless black dress, gorgeous Mugdha Godse and Celina Jaitley in jeans and boots. The other attendees of the party were Suniel Shetty, Tusshar Kapoor, Sohail Khan, David Dhawan, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Javed Jaffrey, Rohit Shetty, Vatsal Sheth, Vikram Chopra and Piyu Sheth. The party went on till wee hours with the guests dancing the night away.

‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’ had created stirs 22 years back as it exuded the essence of unity and nationality of India. This year, as India completes 60 years of its Republic, the song has been re-created as ‘Phir Mile Sur’ featuring more than 60 known personalities, including actors Aamir Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone, Ranbir Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor, Salman Khan, Shilpa Shetty and Juhi Chawla. In all, the song features 22 superstars, 18 musicians, 13 artistes and singers and 15 other known personalities. The song has been composed by jazz artists Louis and Geno Banks. The earlier version of the song featured vocalists Bhimsen Joshi and Balamurali Krishna, sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, tabla maestros Allah Rakha and Zakir Hussain, sportsmen Narendra Hirwani and Prakash Padukone and film personalities like Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Lata Mangeshkar, Mithun Chakraborty, Jeetendra, Hema Malini, Shabana Azmi, Javed Akhtar, Kamal Haasan, Sharmila Tagore, Tanuja an...

Boman Irani is one actor who has gathered praise and critical acclaim from all and sundry alike for his acting skills. So, when the very talented actor threw a bash to celebrate his 25th wedding anniversary, all his well-wishers made it a point to turn up and brighten up the evening. Among all the guests, the couple who made its presence felt was the Junior Bachchan along with his pretty wife Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. The Iranis served delicious Parsi food for the guests and the party was a big success. Boman is currently busy with his next movie in which he is set to play a character not too different from Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner. The comedy “Fruit and Nut” tells the story of Harry Holkar, an aging Maharaja of Mumbai who lives in a mansion with young, sexy ladies. Check out the pics from the event.

On her Twitter page, Bollywood actress and IPL team owner Preity Zinta recounts how she got stuck in a toilet at the Delhi airport for about 10 minutes. She was there to catch her flight to Mumbai. The toilet door got jammed and finally, Preity had to jump off the wall to get out. Recounts Preity, “Spent 10 minutes stuck in the toilet at the airport…Finally had to climb the wall and jump over… People were calling out my name. Thought I was going to die as I am claustrophobic. Pulled a muscle in my arm but did provide entertainment to all.” “Being a tomboy when I was younger definitely helped. Trying to climb a wall is never easy. Phew! Happy to go home now,” she added.

Rakhi Sawant and controversies go hand-in-hand. So, when Rakhi Sawant comes up with her first production venture under her banner Faith Inc., something or the other had to crop up. It went as such that censor board has objections to the word ‘Kamini’ in the song ‘Bhoot’ from IshQ Bector’s album. However, Rakhi is in no mood to do away with the word. Instead, she has given a week’s time to Censor Board and has threatened to go on a ‘Bhookh Hartaal’, if they do not give in. Rakhi says, “I’ll wait for a week and then I go on a bhookh hartaal in front of the Censor office. I’ve sent a legal notice to the Censor Board. This is the first time something like this has happened. The members of the Board have done me an injustice by deleting the word ‘kamini’ from my song. Dharmendra has been saying the word ‘kaminey’ for years. Vishal Bhardwaj’s Kaminey came, were they asleep? If Rakhi Sawant sings Kamini Tera Bhoot Chad Gaya Re, they get stung. The song has been produced by my company Faith In...

Kangana Ranaut seems to be on seventh heaven as she wins the National award for best supporting actress in Fashion at the 56th National awards announced on Saturday. An elated Kangana said, “There’s a mini-celebration in my house, though my parents were crying when they heard about it. At 23 I seem to have cracked the highest cultural award for the country. What more can I do? I should just pack up and go back to my home in Himachal now with my parents.” Not only her parents, but her fans too are overjoyed at her achievement. In fact, a Delhi-based fan of hers, Sameer, sent her a huge gift hamper to congratulate her for her National Award win. The hamper contained three boxes – one that had 22 wine bottles, one with 22 cakes of different types and sizes, and one with 22 accessories like earrings, bangles, bracelets, etc. Attached to the gift hamper was a note from the fan which read, “22 because you are 22-year-old and a National Award is no mean achievement at such a young age.” What ...

The 56th National Film Awards on Saturday, handed over as many as 13 awards to Bollywood. However, the Bengali film ‘Antaheen’ stole the show by winning the best feature film award and three more awards. Priyanka Chopra bagged in the best actress award and Kangana Ranaut got the best supporting actress honour, both for Madhur Bhandarkar’s ‘Fashion’. Farhan Akhtar’s ‘Rock On’ got the best Hindi film award and actor Arjun Rampal won the best supporting actor award for the same film. The Indira Gandhi award for the Best debut film of a director went to Neeraj Pandey’s ‘A Wednesday’, Yash Raj Films’ ‘Roadside Romeo’ bagged award in the best animation film category. Dibakar Banerjee’s satirical ‘Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!’ was awarded the best popular film award. The award for best direction has gone to Bala for Tamil film Naan Kadauul, while the best actor is Upendra Limaye for Marathi film Jogva.

Vindu Dara Singh may have created nationwide stir after winning the season 3 of the reality show ‘Big Boss’, but his better half, wife Russian model Dina Umarova, wins everyone by her stunning pics in bikini for the 2010 Cloud Nine calendar of the famous fashion photographer Manish Chaturvedi. Last year, the calendar was shot in Mahabaleshwar. This year, the setting was the sun-kissed beaches of Naigaon (on the outskirts of Mumbai). Vindu Dara Singh had been earlier married to the Bollywood actress Farah, the elder sister of actress Tabu. They have since divorced and have a son Fateh Randhawa. After 7 years of his divorce with Farah, he got married to Dina Umarova, a Russian model with whom he has a daughter Amelia. Check out Dina in bikini for the calendar and also at the launch of the calendar in Mumbai.

Actor-turned-director Parmeet Sethi has put in, not one but three intimate lip-locks between the lead pair, Shahid Kapoor and Anushka Sharma for his forthcoming YRF film and according to sources, the kisses are not the brush-of-the-lips type. They are full-on smooches.” However, initially Anushka was not comfortable with the idea. Parmeet had to do a lot of cajoling. He explained to her in detail how the scene would be shot and how it was important to the story. Once the camera was rolling, Anushka left her inhibitions behind and delivered a smashing scene. But things took an ugly turn when someone from the set captured the smooching scene between Shahid and Anushka on their phone. When Anushka found out she was quite furious. She immediately asked for the cell phones of everyone present on the sets to be checked and the clip to be deleted. The shooting of the film has been completed and the film is in the editing stages. It is for us to wait and watch if the three smooches go unedited...

IPL Season 3 will be held in India during the months of March, April and May. Though there is a lot of hullaboo over banning Pakistani players from playing IPL, Shilpa Shetty and Preity Zinta, the respective owners of Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab have successfully gone through the auctions in Mumabi. Later, they also attended the press conference in Mumbai. IPL commissioner took the seat between Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty. During the event, Shilpa greets business tycoon and owner of Royal Challengers Bangalore, Vijay Mallya. Present on the occasion were also Tina Ambani for Mumbai Indians. Check out the pics from the event.

Sexy Neha Dhupia may be missing from limelight for quite sometime now, but that in no way means that the lady is sitting back. She is very much active and involved. This time she has decided to go bold and topless for the environment. She has appeared in different avatars of the elements of nature in a calendar which is a part of a Go Green Initiative launched by Franchise India Holdings Ltd. Ace photographer Jatin Kampani has successfully brought out the sensuality of Neha. Neha is very happy that she has done her bit for the environment and says, “I grabbed this opportunity of making people aware of today’s need to protect the environment. This initiative is very close to my heart”

Deepika Padukone has created stirs when she was a part of the Kingfisher Swimsuit Calendar in 2006. Now, this Sunday, the actress unveiled the 2010 edition of Kingfisher’s swimsuit special calendar and she is very proud of it. She says, “In the beginning of my career, I was a part of the calendar and it’s becoming better every year. Girls in this calendar have done a fantastic job. It’s of international standards and it’s one of the best calendars in the world.” “I am very proud of 2010 edition of the Kingfisher swimsuit special,” said Vijay Mallya, UB group chairman, adding that the calendar has given an opportunity to many young models from India and the world, and he hoped to continue the trend. This year, noted photographer Atul Kasbekar has taken the photographs for the calendar which will feature five stunning models and has been shot in the exotic locales of Soneva Fushi and Soneva Gili at Six Senses resort in Maldives. The calendar will be launched in January 2010 in Mumbai.

Last year, ace photographer Dabboo Ratnani had shot with 48 stars celebrating the completion of a decade of his calendar. This year he is back with usual count of 24 stars, but in black and white shades. Besides some of his old favorites, there are quite a few new names added to the list. Talking about the calendar to NDTV.com, Dabboo says, “All the stars are comfortable with whatever I decide. They never question me, because we have faith in each other. So whenever I discuss a concept with them, they are happy to go along. I usually share three or four different ideas with the actor. If they are not convinced, we work on it. It is important to be confident about each other; only when the model is able to relate to the picture will he or she be able to give 100 per cent to it. I have been doing the calendar for many years now. It makes me push myself to the next level. Way back in 2000 when I first shot the calendar, I gave away just a few to my close friends and people I worked with. ...

The 16th annual Nokia Star Screen Awards was held with usual glamour and glitter. Amitabh Bachchan won the award for best actor for his latest film “Paa”, and Vidya Balan won the best actress award for ‘Paa’ again. Best director award was won by Rajkumar Hirani and the best screenplay award was won by Abhijit Joshi each for the film “3 Idiots” which won the best film award. The best female singer award was won by Kavita Sethi for her song “Ek tara” from “Wake Up Sid”, and the best male singer award was won by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan for “Aaj din chadeya” from movie “Love Aaj Kal”. Imitiaz Ali bagged the best story award for “Love Aaj Kal”. A.R. Rahman won the best music award for “Delhi 6?. The award for the best performance in a comic role went to Omi Vaidya for “3 Idiots”, while the award for the best actor in a negative role went to Boman Irani for “3 idiots”. ‘3 Idiots’ was undoubtedly the star of the ceremony as it bagged the awards in most of the categories. Check out the stars as t...