Mar 8, 2011
Nikhil Dwivedi to wed Gauri Pandit today
Remember Nikhil Dwivedi? Well in case you don't, let's remind you that he is the same actor who debuted in My Name Is Anthony Gonsalves and was also seen in Mani Ratnam's Raavan. Nikhil is now in the news as he is all set to tie the knot with the love of his life Gauri Pandit. Nikhil and Gauri would be having their marriage ceremony today in the presence of close friends and family members at Nikhil's Versova home. The duo also plans to throw a grand wedding reception in the coming week. We wish the newly weds all the happiness in the world.
Shashank Ghosh directs first TVC of IPL-4 for Raju Hirani's Canvas Films
The ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 has not yet finished and already the promos have started of another cricketing extravaganza namely DLF IPL- Season 4. The IPL this year is scheduled to kick-start on April 8 and goes on until May 28. The very first TVC of the IPL-Season 4 has just been launched and it's been created by Rajkumar Hirani's ad division Canvas Films. The ad, which focuses on the concept of Bharat Bandh during the duration of the IPL in a quirky and humorous way, has been directed by Shashanka Ghosh (of Quick Gun Murugan fame). Speaking about the ad, Sanjeev Kishinchandani - Head of Canvas Films says, "The concept of the ad is that there is confusion between politicians across the country that who has announced the 51 days Bharat Bandh. Everyone denies it when they finally realise that Bharat will be bandh for 51 days automatically due to the IPL fever in India. The ad has been directed by Shashanka Ghosh, director of Quick Gun Murugan, who, I think was a perfect choice to direct the ad with a dash of humour."
Karan Johar has long queue of directors waiting for narration
Siddharth Malhotra's next film would be antithetical in mood to the earlier film. "If We Are Family made people cry, this one will make everyone laugh. It is a full-on Manmohan Desai kind of entertainer with four heroines and a hero." The one person confirmed in Siddharth's cast for his second film is Kajol. "Yes, Kajol is definitely doing a cameo. She has to." Now Siddharth waits to narrate his script. Karan Johar has no time for his directors. At last count, there were 11 directors at Dharma Productions waiting to narrate their scripts. These include Siddharth Malhotra, Rensil D'Silva and Punit Malhotra, all of whom are ready with their next scripts after their maiden film for Dharma. But Dharma's boss Karan has no time to hear their scripts. If you are a director, it isn't easy getting to meet Karan Johar to have a say. Not even if you are a director employed and affiliated to Karan's Dharma Productions. There is a long queue of Dharma-employed directors waiting to narrate their scripts to the boss-man who tragically, is so much out of Mumbai that he gives his gallery of directors ulcers as they anxiously hold on to their ideas wondering if their next film is approved. One such anxious hopeful is Siddharth Malhotra who directed the Kareena Kapoor-Kajol tearjerker We Are Family for Dharma. Siddharth is now ready with his next script - a full-on musical masala entertainer written by Yunus Sajewal, who's currently scripting the Hindi remake of the Tamil hit Singham. Unfortunately, Siddharth will have to wait until the end of March before he gets a hearing in front of the Dharma boss. Says Siddharth, "I am ready with my script. But Karan doesn't have time to hear me until the end of March. There is a long queue of directors waiting with their narration. And Karan is in and out of Mumbai most of the time. So we all have to wait." Karan admits there is a backlog of narration from directors at Dharma awaiting his attention. "It can't be helped. This is one of the busiest years for Dharma and I'm so frequently out of the country that I don't even bother to pack my suitcase any more."Rati Agnihotri's son Tanuj Virwani to debut in Luv U Soniyo
A while ago, we had informed you about veteran actress Rati Agnihotri's son making his Bollywood debut. Now the details of the project are finally out in the open. Rati's son Tanuj Virwani will debut opposite Femina Miss India Neha Hinge in a romantic comedy called Luv U Soniyo. While newcomer Tanuj plays a Catholic boy in the film, Neha plays a Punjabi girl. The film will be directed by debutant director Joe Rajan. Luv U Soniyo will be shot in Mumbai and Mexico and is produced by Harvey India Productions and co-produced by Beena Hemanshu Mehta and Pradeep Goradia of Odyssey Corporation Ltd.Grand launch party of Big B starrer Bbuddah - Hoga Terra Baap cancelled for cost-cutting
Small is undoubtedly big in Bollywood these days. UTV and Reliance, two of the biggest corporate houses operating in Bollywood, reeling under the failure of their big-budgeted juggernauts in 2010-11 are now focusing on cost-effective projects rather than prestigious directorial names.But the corporate house that has really and truly belled the costly cat is Viacom 18. Their filmmaking affiliate Studio 18 rejoicing in the budget-friendly success of Aanand L.Rai's Tanu Weds Manu this week has decided to let the axe fall on their biggest project Bbuddah - Hoga Terra Baap, bringing together Amitabh Bachchan with Jagannath Puri, one of the hottest directors of Telugu cinema. Viacom/Studio 18 has cancelled a huge event that was planned last month to introduce the entire cast and director of Bbuddah to the media in Mumbai. Says a source, "It was planned by Viacom as the mother of all mahurats. Mr. Bachchan was going to appear in his cool-dude tinted hair and dyed-bearded avatar with his leading ladies. Puri Jagannath was going to be introduced as Telugu cinema's hotshot filmmaker. All plans for this mega-event were suddenly aborted. After the release and success of Tanu Weds Manu, Viacom/Studio 18 has realized that it isn't the hype or the budget that sells a film to the audience. They immediately instructed Puri Jagannath to follow cost-cutting measures in Bbuddah." Puri who starts shooting in Mumbai this week is reluctant to open up on the issue of the annulled event for Bbuddah. "Yes, Viacom had planned a big event. But it has been called off. You'll have to ask them why." Vikram Malhotra, the COO of Studio 18, admits the Bbuddah event has been called off. "But for no particular reason. The dates didn't match as Puri Jagannath was overseas and Mr. Bachchan was starting his current film." Malhotra goes on to add, "I am a firm believer of the fact that right budgets and good content projected big in marketing, is the way to work. Our line-up of movies at Studio 18 will reflect that." It remains to be seen whether the aborted jamboree for Bbuddah will herald a new era of sober unostentatious filmmaking in Bollywood. At the moment this cutting down of costs does reflect a new awareness of the changed fortunes in filmdom.
Slumdog Millionaire actor loses home in Bandra blaze
With all the hype surrounding Slumdog Millionaire, the till then diminutive stars in the movie, shot to instant international fame. However, few things changed since then and the child actor Rubina Ali, who featured in the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire still remained the way she was. Sadly, the devastating blaze that gutted several shanties in suburban Bandra has also affected Rubina. Now with the blaze extinguished, child actor Rubina has lost almost everything including the film memorabilia. The 12-year-old was apparently inside her home when fire broke out in the Garibnagar slums on Friday night. But what's more troubling is that she hasn't yet received help from either the government or the public.
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan to be honoured by the Karnataka Chief Minister
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan will be honoured by the Honourable Chief Minister of Karnataka B.S. Yeddyurappa at the 2nd Vishwa Kannada Sammelana to be held on the 11th of March in Belgaum. She will be at the inaugural of this 3 day celebrations which are being held in Belgaum. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan will be honoured for her contribution and achievement in the arts and culture segment her in India and World over.The objective of the Vishwa Kannada Sammelan is to showcase the developments achieved by the State in the field of Agriculture, Irrigation, Information Technology, Bio technology, Industry, Arts and Culture etc. and will also be honouring the people of Karnataka origin who have made it big outside the State and abroad in any of these fields.
Salman's Being Human aims to save lives through healthcare initiatives
The Being Human Foundation has partnered with Marrow Donor Registry India (MDRI) to create a world - class registry of marrow donors in India for patients who have blood-related illnesses like leukaemia, thalessemia, aplastic anaemia and congenital immunodeficiency states. MDRI was set up in 2008 as an NGO at the Tata Memorial Centre with the sole purpose of creating a registry of committed, voluntary and unrelated donors for those patients requiring bone marrow transplantation and without an HLA- matched donor within their families. However, for the registry to be functional, more than one lakh donors need to be registered. People from the age group of 18-50 years are eligible for donor recruitment. MDRI and Being Human have reached out to generation next by working with colleges to create awareness of the need for a world-class registry in India. One of the first colleges to participate in this initiative is K. J Somaiya Institute of Engineering and IT, Sion, who as part of their annual college festival, Surge'11, conducted a marrow donation drive on their college premises along with 'Marrowthon' - a 6 km. run showing support for the cause. Stressing on the need for more committed donors, the MDRI spokesperson said, "We are glad K.J Somaiya has come forward. We hope that this will pave the way for more colleges and their students to come forth and register with MDRI and thus make their contribution towards saving many more lives." Surge '11 will be held from 3rd March to 5th March 2011. On 23rd February a class to class presentation was conducted for the inhouse college students who come forward to show their whole hearted support towards the cause and a whopping 335 names have already been added to the registry in a single day. For now students are encouraged to step forward to volunteer to give someone a tomorrow -Just 10 ml of your blood could save a life."Thank You is not No Entry Part 2" - Anees Bazmee
The prolific writer-director Anees Bazmee has never been busier, so much so that he has been flying back-and-forth between Bangkok and Mumbai shooting Ready with Salman Khan in Bangkok and supervising the post-production of Thank You in Mumbai. In fact Anees had to leave the shooting of a song with Salman and Asin in the hands of choreographer Raju Khan in Bangkok to be in Mumbai.
The last thing Anees needs is for party-poopers to rain on his parade. Upset with stories about certain irregularities on his sets Anees speaks out. "I read that my script for Thank You is actually the script that I wrote for the sequel to No Entry. Ab aap bataayiye, am I so foolish that I'd just mix 'n' match scripts with projects like women colour-coordinate their clothes? And if I had actually given over the script of No Entry Mein Entry (No Entry 2) to another producer would Boney Kapoor (the No Entry producer) have been happy with me?" Not waiting for an answer Anees continues, "For the record, the script of No Entry Mein Entry is in progress. The idea for Thank You came to me when I was shooting a song with Akshay Kumar and Katrina in Egypt. We decided then and there to make Thank You." The film was to originally star Katrina with Akshay before Sonam Kapoor stepped in. Continues Anees, "Some people are spreading these baseless stories about my projects. They won't spare a bachcha like Aarya Babbar either. Some people wrote he abandoned my location in Bangkok for Ready to join Shirish Kunder and Farah Khan in Chandigarh for Shirish's Joker because they are like his family. For the record, even our unit is like one big family. Aarya did not desert our shooting. He left when there was a break, and with my permission. Please spare the boy. He's trying to establish himself." Says Anees angrily, "I've two big back-to-back releases first Thank You and then Ready. I suppose that's too much for my well-wishers to digest. I request them to let me do my work in peace. The rest I leave to God and the audience."
Chelsea too strong for Blackpool
Frank Lampard scores twice as Chelsea's Premier League revival continues with a comfortable 3-1 win at Blackpool.
Dundee United 3-1 Aberdeen
Dundee United move into the Scottish Premier League's top six as they convincingly end Aberdeen's unbeaten run.
Blackpool v Chelsea as it happened
Chelsea defeat relegation-threatened Blackpool to keep up the pressure on the sides at the top of the Premier League.
FA will back Blatter challengers
The Football Association will back any credible challengers to Sepp Blatter in the Fifa presidential elections in June, senior FA figures reveal.
Ness agrees Ibrox deal extension
Rangers midfielder Jamie Ness signs a two-year extension to his contract with the Ibrox club.
Attempt to suicide must be decriminalized: SC
The SC has recommended that Parliament decriminalize attempt to suicide, punishable under section 309 of the Indian Penal Code.
China has five airbases, extensive rail-road networks in Tibet: Antony
PLA is also rapidly upgrading several other airstrips in Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) as well as south China, to add to the five airbases.
No comfy office, this IIM-B graduate is an 'aam' admi
Ashutosh Sawant, an IIM-B graduate, has started a firm which looks at exporting frozen fruits like alphonso mangoes and cauliflower florets.
After match, Irish team now loses its willows
When the Irish team checked out of a star hotel on Vittal Mallya Road on Monday morning, the team realised their bats were missing.
SIM cards new national security risk, warns MHA
Many of the SIM cards being used by nearly 700 million mobile users in the country may have malevolent embedded software, which has put India's security agencies on tenterhooks.
Aruna lives, but others can die with dignity
The Supreme Court on Monday allowed passive euthanasia — involving withdrawal of life-sustaining drugs and/or life-support systems — for patients who are brain dead.
Sonia takes exception to DMK brinkmanship
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Monday expressed displeasure over DMK's brinkmanship, telling M Karunanidhi's emissaries that the party's behaviour had been discourteous.
Operators get deadline for Skype, BlackBerry info
Telecom operators in consultation with providers of services like BlackBerry, Skype and Gtalk will have to inform the government by March 31 the deadlines by which the security agencies can intercept their services.
Mizoram might get its first woman pastor
Mizoram might get its first woman pastor more than a century after Christianity first entered the hill state. A definitive 90 per cent of this state's population is Christian.
BJP, Left unite over divorce law
The passage of Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill 2010 to include 'irretrievable breakdown of marriage' as a ground for divorce could be the next battle in Parliament with both Left and BJP opposing the proposed legislation in its present form.
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