Bollywood

A flash mob and dance moves from a Bollywood musical right at the Cairo International Airport kickstarted the second edition of the annual Indian cultural festival ‘India by the Nile’ in Egypt.

For the first time in the history of Cairo airport, several dance sequences from the musical ‘Bollywood: A Love Story’ were performed by the members of the cast within the premises of Terminal 3 of the airport Sunday, a press statement issued Monday by the Indian ministry for external affairs here said.

Actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha’s daughter actress Sonakshi has found a unique way to campaign for her father’s re-election to Patna Sahib Lok Sabha seat.

Though Shatrughan’s elder son Luv has been giving father company during his campaign, daughter Sonakshi is not finding time for it because of her shooting commitments and thus has taken up the social media for the purpose.

The ‘Dabaang’ heroine has been sending messages through her Twitter account, mother Poonam Sinha told PTI here today.

A Delhi court today slapped Rs 20,000 as costs on Bollywood actor Suniel Shetty for his failure to appear before it and warned him that it would issue a warrant against him if he did not mark his presence next week in a defamation suit filed against him by a stuntman.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Savitri allowed the plea of 52-year-old Shetty for exemption from personal appearance and gave him a last opportunity to appear before her without any fail on next date of hearing.

Actress Sonam Kapoor, who had teamed up with Salman Khan in her debut movie “Saawariya”, will work with him once again in Sooraj Barjatya’s next directorial. She praised the superstar as “hot” and said the film will be “double dhamaal”.

Sonam told IANS: “He is hot. It’s double ‘dhamaal’ with Salman since he is in double role. I am super excited to work with him. I am not allowed to talk about it. You will see. He is looking good in the film.”

The film will be directed by Sooraj Barjatya.

Director Ram Gopal Varma (RGV) is known for making crime-based films, but he has surprised the makers with the sentimental touch he has given to his forthcoming Telugu release “Rowdy”.

“‘Rowdy’ is different. It is something that the audience would not expect in RGV’s films. Though the director has included lots of action and drama in the film, we admired the sentimental scenes between Manchu Mohan Babu and Jayasudha,” read a statement from the production house AV Pictures.

Director N.S.R. Prasad, who has teamed up with actor Navdeep for upcoming Telugu comedy “Natudu”, says he is grateful to Navdeep for agreeing to work with him despite his recent streak of failures.

Prasad, who has directed two Telugu films “Nireekshana” and “Shatruvu”, hasn’t had a single hit in his career yet.

Sonakshi Sinha has a soft corner for children of an NGO that she supports and she plans to treat them with a special screening of the Hindi version of Hollywood film “Rio 2”, for which she has lent her voice.

Sonakshi will organise a fun evening with an exclusive screening of the movie for the underprivileged children that the NGO supports, and she will also interact with them for sometime before the film’s screening.

Superstar Salman Khan, who watched actor-producer Riteish Deshmukh’s Marathi production “Yellow” recently, is so touched with the film that he is now keen to remake it in Hindi.

“We are speaking to Riteish (Deshmukh) to make this film in Hindi,” Salman told reporters here at the screeing of “Yellow”.

Salman also said that he will have film’s director Mahesh Limaye on board for the Hindi remake and will also have Gauri Gadgil – on whom “Yellow” is based – in the film.

Actor Arjun Kapoor was almost 140 kg before he forayed into acting, but leading a “balanced” lifestyle helped him lose excess weight. He laments how fitness has become more about the number of pack of abs that one has.

“It’s unfortunate that now fitness has become about how many abs you have. But health is equally important,” the 28-year-old said here at Body Power Expo.

She may have walked with elan in Madhur Bhandarkar’s 2008 release “Fashion”, but actress Kangana Ranaut was unable to move forward smoothly as the showstopper for designer Namrata Joshipura at the grand finale of Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WIFW) autumn-winter 2014 here.

The five-day fashion event concluded Sunday and the “Queen” star was invited to sashay down the ramp as Joshipura’s showstopper.

With her curly locks tied up, Kangana made her entry in a strapless floor sweeping black gown with metallic embellishment on the side.

Actress Kajol who attended the Hindi trailer launch of “Kochadaiiyaan” here Sunday said she is Rajinikanth’s biggest fan.

“I am super excited for this …. I am Rajinikanth’s biggest fan. He is the original superstar I look up to him. If I get an opportunity to work with him there are no two thoughts about it,” Kajol told reporters during the curtain raiser red carpet of Kochadaiiyaan.

Directed by Soundarya, Kochadaiiyaan features Rajnikanth and Deepika Padukone in the lead.

The trailer was launched by megastar Amitabh Bachchan.

He has been wearing grease paint for over three decades and actor-producer Sunny Deol describes his journey as an actor “satisfying”.

The 57-year-old began his journey with “Betaab” in 1983 and in the past 31 years, he has worked in about 90 films with the titles including some of the big hits like “Arjun”, “Chaalbaaz”, “Ghayal”, “Damini”, “Darr”, “Gadar – Ek Prem Katha” and “Yamla Pagla Deewana”.

Sharing his experience, he acknowledges that “acting is a very satisfying profession”.

Filmmaker and social activist Ashoke Pandit, who has worked on shows like “Heroine – Zindagi Ke Panno Se” and “Filmi Chakkar”, will be honoured in the capital by the All India Kashmiri Samaj.

“Receiving the Kashmir Gaurav Samman by All India Kashmiri Samaj in Delhi. Thanks for all your love and affection,” he tweeted Sunday.

All India Kashmiri Samaj is an organisation for Kashmiri Pandits and helps to voice their issues.

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan is all for saving planet earth. He turned off the lights for an hour as part of the global environment campaign.

“Had put the lights off at 8:30 p.m. till 9:30 pm for Earth Day, environment campaign last night (March 29) at home … did you?” he tweeted Sunday.

As part of their commitment to the planet, people are asked to switch off the lights for an hour on Earth Hour, held every year in March.

-*-

Alia Bhatt hits the road, again

The `Badhshah` of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan, posted on his Twitter account about missing his parents.

“Talking to boys on the sets…we talked of our parents. Miss my parents now on the drive back from the shoot. They went too early,” Shah Rukh posted on the popular social networking website.

SRK`s father had died of cancer when he was just 15, while his mother passed away in 1990 after prolonged illness, just before Shah Rukh made a stronghold in the industry.

Model-actress Gauhar Khan today turned showstopper for designer Mandira Wirk on the day four of the ongoing Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WLIFW) Autumn/ Winter 2014.

Gauhar, who recently won the celebrity reality show ‘Bigg Boss’ and also finished shooting her next TV project “Khatron Ke Khiladi’, looked stunning in a black dress with thigh-high slit.

“I have been in the modelling industry for six years but I still get jitters when I walk the ramp. But the outfit which Mandira had created for me is simply awesome,” Gauhar told PTI.

Actors Ajay Devgn and Sonakshi Sinha were announced the worst actors of 2013 at the Golden Kela Awards held here Saturday. Even Aamir Khan won an award for his performance in “Dhoom:3”.

Now in its sixth year, the Golden Kela Awards honoured the worst in Bollywood at an event held at the India Habitat Centre here.

Ajay won the worst actor award for “Himmatwala”, which was also named the worst film and Sonakshi was cited for “R…Rajkumar”.

Katrina Kaif says she has had no discussion about joining in Rahul Dholakia’s “Raees”, starring superstar Shah Rukh Khan.

“I don’t know where this news has come from. There is no discussion as such,” Katrina said here.

Last seen on the big screen in “Dhoom 3”, Katrina’s forthcoming movie projects include the Ranbir Kapoor-starrer “Jagga Jasoos”.

-*-

‘Kukku Mathur Ki…’ to release May 30

Comedy film “Kukku Mathur Ki Jhand Ho Gayee” will hit theatres May 30, its co-producer Bejoy Nambiar said Saturday.

Filmmaker Feroz Abbas Khan, who earlier directed the critically acclaimed film “Gandhi, My Father”, is currently busy promoting his new film “Dekh Tamasha Dekh”, which has a socio-political flavour to it. But he assures that he will make a mass-appealing movie sometime soon.

“I can assure you that my next film would be a massy entertainer. I do believe I want to do a film where I can connect with a large number of audience. I want to connect with the audience in a huge way, so I am excited about it,” Khan told IANS.

Superstar Shah Rukh Khan was in a nostalgic mood Saturday as he missed his parents, who he feels “went too early”

“Talking to boys on the sets…we talked of our parents. Miss my parents now on the drive back from the shoot. They went too early,” the 48-year-old posted on his Twitter page early Saturday morning.

The actor’s father Taj Mohammed Khan, who came from Peshawar, had died of cancer when SRK was all of 15, while his mother passed away in 1990 after prolonged illness.

Superstar Salman Khan feels India should aim to produce medal-winning athletes by encouraging sports and help the talented ones to unlock their potential through coaching.

Salman was speaking here last night at the music launch of ‘Khwaabb’, a sports drama film showcasing the struggle of our athletes. The album is available on Junglee Music.

Over his film career, Sunny Deol has been recognised as the ‘action hero’ with the ‘dhai kilo ka haath’, but the actor says these are merely tags, which he can do nothing about.

“My persona has become such because of the films, but I am not like that in real life,” the soft-spoken Sunny said here.

“I don’t like tags like action hero and ‘dhai kilo ka haath’, but we (actors) can’t do anything. The characters that I had portrayed were strong, so maybe because of that (I have been given these tags),” added the 50-plus actor, who featured in films like “Ghayal” and “Gadar – Ek Pram Katha”.

Superstar Aamir Khan has written a letter to the Election Commission (EC) clarifying that he is not endorsing any particular political party, including the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Apparently, it was brought to Aamir’s notice that a social campaign doing the rounds that he was supporting AAP.

Some candidates of AAP allegedly took to twitter and used Aamir’s image in one of their campaign posters, claiming that the 49-year-old ‘Dhoom 3’ star was supporting their party.

———PTI

Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt today said she does not think her filmmaker father Mahesh Bhatt will have any objection to her doing intimate scenes on-screen.

Alia shares a few intimate scenes, including a lip-lock sequence, with Arjun Kapoor in their next film ‘2 States’.

When asked if her father is comfortable with the intimate scenes she does on screen, Alia says, “Have you seen my father’s films (as they are bold)? On screen I am not his daughter. I am an actor. I don’t think he will have any problem.”

Bollywood actor Aamir Khan Friday shot off a letter to the Election Commission, declaring that he is not endorsing any political party in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

He has also sought the poll panel take action to rectify rumours hinting that he has been associated in any manner with the Aam Aadmi Party headed by former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

“Aamir Khan, from day one has made it clear that he will not be endorsing a particular political party. He is not supporting or campaigning for any political party,” said a statement issued on behalf of the actor.