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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