Bollywood Bites Plus

Kolaveri Di fame Dhanush signs first Bollywood film

Kolaveri Di fame Dhanush has signed his first Bollywood project, Raanjhnaa.

Dhanush, who is the iconic hero and Rajinikanth’s son-in-law, has won the National Film Award for his role in Aadukalam and recently has become famous by Kolaveri Di from his Tamil film 3, which went viral online.

After receiving all such laurels, Dhanush has now signed his first Hindi film. The 28-year-old will be seen in director ‘Tanu Weds Manu’ fame Aanand L Rai’s upcoming film ‘Raanjhnaa’. Aanand L Rai says he chose Dhanush for his simplicity.

“For the past six months, I’ve been looking for a simple boy to play the lead in Raanjhnaa. My requirement was a man who could look vulnerable on screen. When I saw Dhanush in the Tamil film Aadukalam, I liked him immediately. He looks very ordinary and honest, and that was the demand of the character,” Rai said in a press statement.

Talking about the film’s storyline, the director said, “The film is an intense love story. Just like my film Tanu Weds Manu, the film and its characters will take you to Delhi, Punjab and Chennai.”

Dhanush too is very excited about the project. The director had approached him for the movie before ‘Kolaveri Di’ happened. The Tamil star liked the fact that Aanand wanted him in the film even before Kolaveri Di happened.

“It’s a big deal to get a launch like this at the beginning of my career here. Aanand’s script is different from regular cinema; it’s one of those ‘made to make a difference’ kind of films,” Dhanush said in a statement.

Dhanush is not too well-versed with Hindi. But, it won’t be a barrier for his Bollywood career. According to Dhanush, the problem is not the language, it’s the culture. The actor says he will learn the culture and the language will come automatically.

This article first appeared HERE.

Meet the Sexy Brit in Bollywood

British actress Amy Jackson talks about her first Hindi film, Ekk Deewana Tha, opposite Prateik.  

"It hasn't yet fully sunk that I am in a Bollywood movie," gushes Liverpool-raised English model-turned-actress Amy Jackson.

"Even as I now have a second Bollywood project, a far bigger movie Ekk Deewana Tha, I still feel like it is all a big dream," she continues.

She is not authorised to announce the second Hindi film yet but she says she would be working in at least three films, including those being made in the South this year.

The original Tamil version of Ekk Deewana Tha had Trisha Krishnan in the lead. Though her work in the hit film was much appreciated, director Goutham Menon decided to cast Amy Jackson in the new version. 

Ekk Deewana Tha was not her first brush with the camera. She first played a British girl in the Tamil film, Madrasapattinam, directed by A L Vijay.

At that time, she had been apprehensive of how she would be welcomed by the industry --- and then by the general public. "I thought, after all there are so many wonderful Indian artists around and not to forget those who are looking for a break, I thought," she says. "So the fear was that how I would be accepted."

But she decided to take a plunge. She was just about 17 then.

She had caught the attention of Vijay when she had won a teen beauty contest in England. Travelling had fascinated her and the wanderlust played a role in coming to India over two years ago.

The fear went away with the first release, she says. "Now that I have felt very much at home in Chennai," she says with a chuckle, "I am getting to fall in love in Mumbai."

Amy was also aware when she signed for her first film that many foreigners come to India seeking small roles in Indian films. So it looked surreal for her for some time that a girl from Liverpool would be in a big film made in Chennai.

"But I was in the hands of an excellent director, who got me to be natural in the film and made sure that I knew of the basics of Tamil language," she says, adding, "Then I began to learn Hindi for Ekk Deewana Tha."

She plays an orthodox Christian girl in the film, being distributed by Fox.

Madrasapattinam was a big hit and she got rave reviews. 'If you know Amy Jackson is a Brit, she is,' wrote a blogger, 'and if you know Amy as a Tamil actress, she is very much a Tamil actress who can put on a sari and act in a Madurai film. Well, that may be too much but anything can happen. We are bored of our heroines and now one or two like Deepika Padukone and Amy Jackson have come forward to spice up our movie-goer lives.'

"I had to get used to not only the daily rhythm of life but also the food," Amy says.

Liverpool has, like many British cities including Birmingham and Glasgow, dozens of restaurants that serve the food from the Indian continent. "Though they are spicy, the dishes are still toned down for British consumption," she says. "I had to get used to much spicier food in Chennai."

As she was enjoying her work in Madrasapattinam, she was also getting a strong feeling she would be doing more Indian films and playing a variety of Indian characters.

She is paired with Prateik in the romantic film Ekk Diwana Tha. How did it work out and was she aware of her costar's famous reticent behavior?

"He is shy and reserved," she says. "But once he gets to know you, he just won't stop talking!"

                                                                                                                                                           

This article first appeared HERE.

Bollywood's 'most violent film ever' cut by Indian censors

A horror movie cited as Bollywood's most violent film of all time has been cut by Indian censors, according to reports. Members of the Central Board of Film Certification, the country's regulatory film body, balked at scenes in Puja Jatinder Bedi's Ghost in which an evil spirit in female form is crucified, citing concerns that is would offend members of the country's Christian minority.  

Bedi has attacked the cuts to what she described as one of the film's most important segments. "It's a scene where the ghost gets crucified like Jesus Christ," she told the Times of India. "The scene was very pivotal for the screenplay."

The director added: "The censor board felt that the crucifixion would hurt religious sentiments of the Christian community. Also, the brutality was being perpetrated on a woman. The blood and gore content is high enough for Ghost to be rated as the most violent film ever. So, the censors have toned down all the murder sequences."

However JP Singh, the censor board's regional officer at Mumbai, denied the crucifixion sequence had been entirely removed, insisting that it remained in truncated form.

"That scene is still there in the film," he told the Times. "Only its length has been shortened to reduce the impact of the extreme brutality shown on a girl. The examining committee has given five-six cuts. All of them were extremely brutal. There was a scene showing a dead body's legs being cut. Another excessively violent scene showed a girl being beaten for a very long time by many people."

Ghost stars disgraced Bollywood icon Shiney Ahuja, who was jailed for seven years in March for raping a domestic assistant. The Central Board of Film Certification has a history of censoring Bollywood fare in line with attitudes in a country that continues to maintain deeply conservative sections of society. In 2003, it banned the film Gulabi Aaina (The Pink Mirror), Sridhar Rangayan's film about Indian transsexuals, labelling it "vulgar and offensive". The movie remains banned in India nine years later, despite having been shown at film festivals around the world.

This article first appeared HERE.

Sunny Leone looking forward to her Bollywood debut

People may have known her for different reasons, but Sunny Leone, whose real name is Karen Malhotra, gave the Indian audience a glimpse into her other side - the fun-loving girl, who loves to cook and dance.

"I am who I am," says Sunny Leone. The Indo-Canadian porn star is the latest to be evicted out of reality show "Bigg Boss 5".

Even if she was evicted just a week before the grand finale of the show, Leone says she has no regret because it is all a part of the game.

Her bigger victory has been in the form of a movie offer from one of Bollywood's most formidable filmmakers, Mahesh Bhatt, for "Jism 2".

"I am really very excited about working with Mr.Mahesh Bhatt. He has told me a bit about the first instalment of the film, and said how it was very bold, controversial, and of course edgy. So, yes, I am excited about Bollywood," said Leone, who says she wants to stay in India till "Bigg Boss 5" comes to an end.

"This show was so much fun! Thankfully, as you all must have seen, 'Bigg Boss' kept giving me dancing tasks one after the other. So my dancing skills are better, especially some Bollywood moves."

"Also, week by week, my Hindi kept improving, and it is a lot better now. But I was happiest about learning how to cook a variety of Indian food. I made really good dal and learnt how to make potatoes in 10 different ways! I think that's amazing, and I am definitely going to cook an Indian meal once I am back home," she said.

The bisexual girl, who was born to Punjabi parents in Ontario, Canada, caused a flutter when her entry into the show was announced. But she dealt with it quite well. She came with an aim to entertain Indian audiences, and she did that successfully.

Among the three men left on the show, she says she made good pals with Akashdeep Saigal aka Sky, and she also found a friend in actress Juhi Parmar.

For the time being, she hopes to enjoy her freedom out of the precincts of the "Bigg Boss 5" house, and watch TV in a hotel room with lots of good food!

This article first appeared HERE.

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/sunny-leone-looking-forward-to-her-bollywood-debut/1/167032.html

Worst Bollywood Movies of 2011 - Part 2

Comic strip movie critic The Vigil Idiot's 10 worst Bollywood movies of the year: "Ra.One" and "Desi Boyz" included. You can check out Worst Bollywood Movies of 2011 - Part 1 HERE.

By: Sahil Rizwan, CNN GO

'Chitkabrey'

Speaking of my favorite movies this year, "Chitkabrey" ("Shades of Grey") would rank very high on that list.

I mean, there really is no way not to love this warped revenge saga centered on the seven deadly sins ...

"Centered on" being a term used very loosely here, because what this movie is actually centered on is unintentional laughs and some of the most amazingly bizarre sequences ever to be put on celluloid.

 

'Bodyguard'

"Bodyguard" released this past Eid to the biggest opening of any Bollywood film ever made.

Fittingly, this Salman Khan epic beat the record formerly held by "Dabangg," another Salman Khan epic.

Of course, that isn’t a testament to the quality of his films so much as the stratospheric standards of Indian audiences, who would even flock to the theaters just to see Salman Khan flex his muscles to dhol-based music for two hours.

And let me tell you folks -- that movie would be infinitely more bearable than the interminable dross that was "Bodyguard."

 

'Mausam'

"Mausam" ("Seasons") starring Shahid Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor, was an epic love story spanning a decade and three continents.

It was also a nonsensical script that could’ve prevented the central conflict of the story from ever materializing in the first place, had any one of the main characters been given the tiniest bit of common sense, or an IQ above 25.

'Ra.One'

If you were in India for any amount of time in the last half of the year, chances are you know everything there is to know about "Ra.One" (Pronounced Raavan, after the mythical supervillain).

With a promotional blitz that had Shahrukh Khan endorse everything from reality shows to F1 cars -- you couldn’t miss this movie if you tried.

Of course, this isn’t to say anything in the movie actually justified the amount of money spent on getting people to see it.

By far, the most torturous investment of US$25 million in Bollywood this year.

 

'Desi Boyz'

There’s suspension of disbelief and then there’s "Desi Boyz."

Akshay Kumar and John Abraham star as people who got into Oxford University and the London School of Economics respectively.

It also had them strut around as the best escorts in all of London, with Sanjay Dutt as their pimp.

Any one of those things would have me scoffing at the screen. But put them all together, and they explain the palm-sized imprint on my face.

This article first appeared HERE.

 

Worst Bollywood Movies of 2011 - Part 1

Comic strip movie critic The Vigil Idiot's 10 worst Bollywood movies of the year: "Ra.One" and "Desi Boyz" included.

By: Sahil Rizwan, CNN GO

 

2011 will go down as an eventful year as far as Bollywood was concerned.

We’ve seen all sorts of records being broken.

These include Salman Khan releasing two movies that shattered all-time opening week box-office numbers.

"Ra.One" establishing itself as the most expensive Bollywood movie ever made, and Shahrukh Khan conducting the world’s most elaborate Pavlovian Experiment, where you now want to slap him every time you see an ad for one of the gazillion products he endorsed this year in an effort to promote this movie.

And of course, amidst all this awesomeness, was a bunch of movies that never deserved to see the light of day.

Some were bad compared to the hype they got before their release, and others were just bad, no matter what standard you put them up against.

Presenting, in chronological order, The Vigil Idiot’s worst movies of 2011 reviewed for your viewing pleasure.

'Game'

This Abhishek Bachchan starrer aimed at being a murder mystery that would have made Agatha Christie proud.

It had all the elements: four strangers summoned to a remote location by a mysterious stranger, a death under shady circumstances, and an earnest cop who tries to bust a drug smuggling cartel -- by starting a bigger drug smuggling cartel.

Yes, it’s a true wonder this story didn’t work.

'Haunted 3D'

The promos for "Haunted" boasted much about it being “India’s First Stereoscopic 3D Film.”

Which was ironic considering how one-dimensional the acting and the story actually was.

This film had everything from frisky ghosts to time travel. Alas! When your leading man is Mahakshay Chakraborty, the man who shows fewer emotions than a wooden board, chances are that you’re not looking at a very good piece of cinema … ghost sex, notwithstanding.

'Love U … Mr. Kalakaar!'

When I first heard that "Love U ... Mr. Kalakaar!" ("Love U... Mr. Artist!") was a movie about a guy with my namesake -- Sahil -- who also just happens to be a cartoonist, I thought to myself: "How do you rip apart what sounds like it could be your life story, right?"

Of course, that was before I saw the film.

So you know how you always wonder who will play you in the movie of your life? Take it from me, folks. You do not want that guy to be Tusshar Kapoor!

 

'Murder 2'

Where do I start about the cinematic behemoth that is "Murder 2"?

For one thing, it stars Emraan Hashmi donning a wet mop for a wig, with a story copied from a random foreign language film, and posters copied from other random foreign language films (sample here and here).

I could go on, but the true genius of the movie is epitomized in the following sequence.

 

'Gandhi To Hitler'

Ah, "Gandhi to Hitler"! Gun to head, I would pick this as both the worst movie of the year, and my favorite.

I mean, how do you not love a historical movie so factually inaccurate that it is offensive to literally every group represented in it?

We have entire sequences with Gandhi’s entourage which was, apparently, dominated by young female groupies and the Himalayas doubling up as the Swiss Alps.

The writers’ best stuff, however, was saved for ze Germans!

This article first appeared HERE.

Stay tuned for Worst Bollywood Movies of 2011 - Part 2!

Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao Welcome their Baby Boy

Actor Aamir Khan may have been secretive and superstitious about his little bundle of joy that was born on December 1.

However, the actor now thinks its time to be magnanimous and share his happiness and news with the media whole-heartedly as he expresses his unparalleled joy in a personalised letter to the media.

He wrote: It gives us the greatest joy to share with you the good news of the birth of our baby boy. This baby is especially dear to us because he was born to us after a long wait and some difficulty. Due to medical complications, we were advised to have a baby through IVF-Surrogacy, and we feel very grateful to the Almighty that all has gone well.

We are humbled by the greatness of God, the miracles of science and the kindness and love of our families and friends in being there for us while respecting our privacy. We seek your good wishes and blessings for our child.

The letter was hand delivered to media-offices along with a box of chocolates, a sign to join in the celebrations.

This article first appeared HERE.

 

Bollywood to get its own 'Walk of Fame'

The Indian film industry is known to take a cue or two from Hollywood and the latest example is the iconic Walk of Fame.

Mumbai's overcrowded but posh Bandra suburb will soon be home to a Bollywood Walk of Fame, thanks to a branding initiative by the UTV Stars TV channel.

The Walk of Fame in Los Angeles has more than 2,500 terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalk honouring celebrities in Hollywood.

In Mumbai, a part of the pavement in the sea-facing Bandstand area, home to several stars like Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan, will be turned into a Bollywood Walk of Fame.

"We thought it would be good to honour some of our biggest stars, so we will have hand imprints on brass plates and embed them in the pavement," said Nikhil Gandhi, Business Head of the channel.

More than 60 of the biggest stars in Bollywood, past and present, have been identified and will be honoured next year, he said.

"Getting hold of a piece of pavement was difficult, but the residents' association was very co-operative," Gandhi said.

The Bandstand area is often frequented by Bollywood tourists, visitors from out of town, hoping to catch a glimpse of their favourite stars, and Gandhi said he hoped this stretch would become another landmark.

This article first appeared HERE.

Bollywood gets risqué with "The Dirty Picture"

Several years after soft porn films nearly died out in India, mainstream Bollywood has now shed its inhibitions to make a movie about a former sex symbol.

"The Dirty Picture" is said to be based on the life of Silk Smitha, a south Indian actress who became a household name in the 1980s and 90s with her semi-nude scenes and brazen on-screen persona.The film is scheduled to be released December 2nd, 2011.

Check out this interview between Director Milan Luthria and Reuters India about "The Dirty Picture" and why mainstream Bollywood actress Vidya Balan was his first choice for the lead role.

Q: Why did you decide to make a film on Silk Smitha?

A: "There were a lot of women like her, this movie is not just about her. Like Nylon Nalini or Polyester Padmini. So we found a slice of life which was unique. There were ingredients which excited me. Yes, it is a very brazen, bold life -- an extra who carved a niche for herself in a male-dominated industry. I like the fact that there were men who were superstars at that time, they would wait for months so that they could put a song by her in the movie. There were a lot of beautiful women around at that time, so why her. What was it about her that set people's imagination on fire."

Q: And what do you think it was?

A: "I think it was the fact that she chose to walk where nobody had walked before. She decided to make a career out of selling sex. And yet there was an emotional quality to her, which the film explores in the second half. I did not look at her as a B-grade actress; I looked at her as a survivor."

Q: The risqué rushes have created a buzz...

A: "See, we are selling sex and we are not ashamed of it. I think it is time we all came of age and accepted it in our movies. I think when you are making a movie of a woman and her sexuality; it has to be out there on display. This was a risky proposition, to make a movie without a conventional story or conventional casting. So we will use every device to stand out and catch viewers' eyeballs."

Q: How did you try to capture the nuances of the 1980s?

A: "The 80s was a very flamboyant era. So we had a good time, we saw a lot of films and we had to work extremely hard. This is by far the toughest film I have done, in terms of research, in terms of getting Vidya (Balan) to put on weight, in terms of convincing her to do the scenes that she has done. It is a difficult film to do. What I am happy about is that everyone is appreciating it looks authentic."

Q: How different is it from any other film you have done?

A: "Working around a woman's body, and a woman's emotion, sets this film apart from anything I have done. And Vidya is extremely sexy in the film, we have to get the viewers to go past that at some point and connect with her emotions.

"Also, there is an element of the South (of India). We did not want to make a spoof. We did not want to make our characters look like baboons. We want it to look real."

Q: Why Vidya Balan?

A: "She was my first choice. She is a quintessential, voluptuous Indian beauty -- the kind of face and figure that is disappearing from Indian cinema. She has it all. She is reminiscent of the Hema Malinis and Vyjayantimalas (yesteryear Bollywood actresses). Also, it is unexpected of her to do something like this -- and we are counting on that impact. Seeing her do it is a lot more newsworthy than anybody else. Also, she is one of our most talented actresses and lastly, she is a south Indian."

Q: What was your favourite bit about making the film?

A: "The favourite part was gaining Vidya's confidence. It was not easy, but it was very heartening to see a woman who was hesitant at the beginning, learn to trust her director -- and give completely to it, and not hold back. I could see her slowly dropping her reservations, week by week she began to trust more and enjoy herself more. It went from her not happy at all to her coming in with a hundred ideas every day, which eventually were shocking to us. So it was a complete turnaround and that is where as a director I found a lot of success."

This article first appeared HERE.

Click HERE for showtimes of "The Dirty Picture" at Albion and Woodside Cinemas in the GTA.

Baby B is here!!

The birth of actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's first child nearly overshadowed all other news in India, a country obsessed with Bollywood celebrities. Aishwarya, 38, who is married to actor Abhishek Bachchan, 35, gave birth to a baby girl yesterday.

In the age of the social media, the pregnancy has triggered off intense interest on Facebook and Twitter. Easily accessible and entirely reliable, tweets from super star Amitabh Bachchan, father of Abhishek, has led to media reports on Aishwarya's every move. The elderly Bachchan in fact broke the news of Aishwarya's pregnancy on Twitter leading to delighted responses from his fans, many of which the actor either retweeted or replied to.

The feverish interest in the lives of celebrities is not is a new phenomenon in a nation that idolizes its matinee stars. With the advent of social media, the level of involvement has become more intense. Once-secretive actors now adjust to the new-found freedom of talking directly to their fans round the year, instead of surfacing on television and specific interactions at the time of a film's release.

The intense interest in the Bachchan baby, christened 'Baby B' and 'BayB' on Twitter and Facebook is a trend the country's infotainment media is still coming to terms with. Never before has a celebrity birth gripped a nation as Aishwarya's pregnancy and delivery has in the past five months.

"Aishwarya Rai and the Bachchan family is perhaps the closest we have to royalty in the Indian context. She is a former Miss World and India's bona fide, legitimate female superstar," columnist Shobhaa De said. De earlier tweeted: "Little Miss World has arrived! Jai ho! Big B over the moon about Baby B. Someone sign up Ash as Ambassador for Girl Child, please? Worthy cause."

Considered Indian cinema's first family, the Bachchans have always stayed in the limelight, be it Amitabh's illness or the high profile marriage of Abhishek and Aishwarya. Aishwarya has acted in several Hollywood projects and is perhaps one of India's most prominent global faces in the present. She is also a spokesperson for the beauty brand L'Oreal and one of the few Indian stars whose billboards adorn the cityscapes of major global cosmopolitans.

However, De feels the controversy surrounding filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar's project 'Heroine', which was announced at the Cannes Film Festival in May, has fanned much of the interest in the birth. Bhandarkar had signed up Aishwarya as the protagonist of his film Heroine but had to let her go after learning of her pregnancy. He accused the actor of hiding the news of her pregnancy at the time of signing of the film.

It sparked a debate over whether Indian actors should sign a disclosure of pregnancy in their contracts like their western counterparts.

The Bachchans pride themselves for their lineage. Amitabh's father, the late Harivansh Rai Bachchan, was a noted Hindi poet. Abhishek's alliance with Aishwarya cemented two families of stars. But for Aishwarya it also meant proper conduct in the public as a step out of the ordinary will make the front page of news papers in a country where stars are judged by their behaviour in the public eye.

"Aishwarya handled her pregnancy extremely well and behaved like any discreet, expectant mother," De said, referring to the star's few public appearances during her pregnancy covered up from neck down in ethnic clothes. While the media captured her growing girth, there were no shots of the exposed baby bump that has become a fashion trend world over.

Abhishek and Shweta were themselves once star kids, as were their co-actors Ranbir Kapoor, Kareena and Karisma Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan, Karan Johar, Kajol, Shahid Kapoor and Akshaye Khanna, sons and daughters of prominent Bollywood stars of the 60s and 70s. The birth of the third generation star children, such as Nysa (Kajol and Ajay Devgn daughter) and Aarav (Akshay Kumar and Twinkle Khanna's son), did not generate as much media frenzy as Aishwaryas child did.

The reason behind this is also the larger-than-life image of Amitabh, whom a large section of Indias cinema-obsessed audiences still worship as demi-god and are acutely interested in his family life. Aishwarya too has a legion of fans around the world.

De feels the Indians have an emotional connect with their stars and the curiosity in the pregnancy and the gender of the baby is understandable.

Although India's news channels were unusually restrained in their coverage of the birth, people on Facebook and Twitter shared the news of the birth.

The emotional connect with our stars is evident in the social dramas that the film industry churns out every year. On his popular reality game show, a young fan addressed Amitabh as 'Dada' the Hindi word for paternal grandfather.

While the senior Bachchans, themselves huge stars of the 60s and 70s, could protect their children Abhishek and Shweta from early exposure to media, the baby will grow up in the spotlight at an age when stars are more easily accessible and the media more prolific and resourceful.

This article first appeared HERE.