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Shahid Kapoor celebrated his 27th Birthday without his beau Kareena Kapoor as now his sweet Bebo is in the arm of Chhote Nawab of Bollywood Saif Ali Khan. But how could Kareena forget this precious day as for the last five years she has been celebrating this day with Shahid. On February 25, Kareena called up Shahid and wished him a very happy birthday. We can say that Kareena is going Saif’s way because few days back when Saif’s ex Rozza Catalano celebrated her birthday, Saif called her up repeatedly and wished Rozza on her D-day. And this time, Kareena has done the same. When she called Shahid, he was in Goa with his close friends, Ahmed Khan and Lovely Singh. Both, Kareena and Shahid conversed with each other quite comfortably and their light-hearted conversation continued for a long time. Though Kareena is no more Shahid’s sweetheart, still she cares for his life and career. Many a times, she calls up their mutual friend to find out how his career is progressing. Kareena has taken five years to write a successful romantic script ‘Jab We Met’ but she has taken very little time to write their splitting story ‘Jab We Split’. She has now started a brand new love journey with Saif on the sets of Tashan.

“Indian film awards lack credibility, that’s why I do not attend them,” Aamir Khan told me last year in London at the Baftas where his film Rang De Basanti was nominated in the Best Foreign Film category. It was no surprise therefore that the Oscar nominated producer-star did not attend last Saturday’s 53rd annual Filmfare awards in Mumbai. Khan has a point. Bollywood has as many as six film award functions, organised by the gossip magazines: the results are frequently accused of being rigged as the winners are often ‘good friends’ of the organisers. Khan’s directorial debut, Taare Zameen Par, swept the Filmfare awards winning him Best Director and Best Picture. Held at the posh Yash Raj studios in north Mumbai, the glitzy event was co-hosted by best buddies Shah Rukh Khan and Karan Johar. Most of the Bollywood elite attended including the Bachchans with Aishwarya Rai. Why did Aamir’s film win and not Filmfare’s golden boy Shah Rukh Khan, nominated twice for his Chak De! India and Om Shanti Om? It is clear that Filmfare is trying to mend bridges with the talented actor who has stated that he will not give interviews to the publication as he dislikes the current editor.

Back to Bollywood

Meanwhile, over at the Oscars, Indian director Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth: the Golden Age picked up the award for best costumes. Kapur is pleased: “The Oscar is not a surprise at all. Clothes are as much a character in Elizabeth as in Jodhaa Akbar.” The Bandit Queen director is currently in Mumbai working on his first Bollywood film in fourteen years, Paani. Will it be a massive massala entertainer like his classic Mr India? “There won’t be any stars, only newcomers,” Kapur states.

The Cricket King and ‘the starlet’

Not content with acquiring the franchise for Kolkata in the newly formed Indian Cricket Premier League for £38 million, Shah Rukh Khan splashed out a further £3.1 million on acquiring players like Ricky Ponting, Brendon McCullom and Shoaib Akhtar at last week’s player’s auction in Mumbai. The King Khan is not the only Bollywood cricket-lover: Preity Zinta is the £39 million co-owner of Mohali, another of the ‘Super Eight’s. Since Zinta is one of the top 3 actresses in Bollywood, it irked me to see her described by the UK press as a ‘Bollywood starlet’ in their reporting of the event.

Bracelet Bonding

What do Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan and Kajol have in common besides immense star power? The beautiful trio are all sporting amulets made of coloured stones displayed prominently from their upper arms. This is the work of the newest astrologer on the block, Dr Dilip, who has managed to convince superstitious Bollywood that these ornaments ward off illnesses and will keep them healthy and fit forever.

Choosy Beauty

Unlike other actresses, sultry Bipasha Basu is turning down Hollywood offers. The Bengali beauty, soon to be seen in Race, revealed that she refused a part in the hit Amercian TV series Lost as “it would have taken more than six months out of my dates.” Further, Basu rejected the Indian female train attendant’s role in the recent The Darjeeling Limited. “I want to play mainstream characters in the West, not an ethnic Asian person.”

Comic Queen

Another week, another Bollywood remake of a Hollywood original. This time it is My Cousin Vinny (1992), repackaged as Banda Yeh Bindaas Hai. It stars ageing funny man turned politician Govinda and Lara Dutta. The former Miss Universe is excited: “Yeah, that’s one film I am looking forward to. It would be a great challenge matching comic timing with Govinda.”

MAMI

The 10th annual MAMI (Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image) international film festival kicks off in Mumbai on March 6th. It will showcase about 140 films from 45 countries including Andrej Wajda’s Polish Oscar nominee Katyn and last year’s Grand Prix Cannes winner, The Mourning Forest. British based female Indian director Meneka Das’s debut, ‘Little Box of Sweets’ will get its’ Indian premiere. She tells me: “I am so excited. Let me but you a drink in Mumbai, it’s more exotic!”

All the children in India must be dieing to work in Shahrukh Khan’s film which is going to be dedicated to his son Aryan and the latest buzz is King Khan is on the look out for a talented child artist. After Aamir’s tedious process of auditioning over 300 kids for ‘Taare Zameen Par’ , it’s now Shahrukh Khan who is on the hunt for a talented 12 year old child artist. The film apparently will be Shahrukh’s tribute to his son Aryan. The film which is to be directed by Anubhav Sinha is high on FX and is supposed to be the most expensive film ever produced in India. The film will have Shahrukh share screen space with a 12 year old and will be produced by Red Chillies Entertainment. It has also been reported that that Shahrukh has been actively involved in the scripting process. Anubhav has been in talks with Shahrukh for over a year now, courtesy Mustaq Sheikh. Let’s hope Shahrukh Khan too finds a kid who leaves behind an impact a la ‘Taare Zameen Par’.

Emraan Hashmi was the celebrity guest for the reality show ‘Voice Of India’ on Monday, 25 February. While recording, in the middle of the shooting a female member of the audience ran to stage to kiss the serial-kisser on his lips. Whether it was a planned publicity stunt or not is unclear, but the entire turn of events left the judge composer Pritam Chakraborty so upset that he walked out of the show in disgust. “If the whole thing was planned then all I can say is, the show is digging its own grave,” says the appalled music director Pritam Chakraborty about the bizarre event. Recalling the embarrassing episode Pritam says, “It was all so sudden and disgusting. Voice Of India is a show about children, and encouraging children’s talent. We can’t have such cheesy behaviour on this show. Also, the Bhatts and Emraan Hashmi were my special guests. I had to make my displeasure very clear. So I did walk out.” Pritam also added, “Voice Of India has the potential to give us deserving winners. I don’t want it to end up being just another TRP-hungry music show.”

Saif-Kareena relationship has done wonders for both of them. Both are bubbling with energy, both their transformed their image and appearance dramatically and both are soaring high in popularity charts. As for Kareena Kapoor, it seems that all the fashion and film-based magazines just cannot resist from having the newly discovered diva image of her on their covers.
The latest one to cash in on this is the Indian version of Vogue, for whom Kareena has shot some really breath-taking snaps with some of the most desirable dressings to go with the various moods of the shoot!
This interview is yet another affirmation of the fact that Kareena is one person who is the same on and off screen! She is so very sweet enough to confess that she had done films in the past for money or for mere greed. She also speaks about the similarities between ‘Geet’-her character in Jab We Met -and the real-life Kareena. And guess what, she also reveals the secret behind her hour-glass figure.
If you are looking for more on her private life, this Monday Bebo called ex-beau Shahid to wish him on his birthday. Says a source close to Kareena, “Though Shahid and Kareena have parted, they have kept in touch with each other. Kareena remembered his birthday on February 25 this year and called to wish him. When she spoke to him, he was in Goa with close friends, Ahmed Khan and Lovely Singh. Bebo wished him and then they continued to talk for sometime. The conversation flowed very easily, just like in the past, when they used to have long chats.”

After the termination of Priyanka Chopra’s contract as brand ambassador with Spice Group December this year Katrina Kaif will replace her as new advertising Tycoon for the company that operates in number of areas like Spice Telecom, Spice Mobile Phones, Spice BPO’s and other ventures of the group. Katrina would start campaigning for the group from the start of next year. Priyanka is brand ambassador for the group since its launch.

Even a perfectionist like Aamir Khan couldn’t resist the charm of the new rage Ranbir Kapoor. Aamir might have his share of disagreements with Sanjay Leela Bhansali over his film Black but he definitely seems impressed with Bhansali’s discovery Ranbir Kapoor ,who Bhansali launched in Saawariya. Aamir is all set to sign Ranbir for his next venture Delhi Belly which will be directed by Swedish director Robert Nylund and will be made in English. Our source reveals, “Aamir was very keen to sign Ranbir for Delhi Belly and spoke to him. The director Robert has already met him and Ranbir has loved the script. He has given his go-ahead for the film and will be signing the film soon.” The source further says, “Aamir Khan will not be starring in the film which is an action comedy, set in the backdrop of Delhi. Although initially Aamir was very keen to play the role of a character called Nitin in the film, later he excused himself from the film as he plans to go on a vacation with son Junaid and daughter Aira after completing the shooting of Ghajani.” The film is set to go on the floors in a couple of months and a substantial part of the cast and crew will be imported from Hollywood for it.

One of the world’s biggest composing, production and musical names A R Rahman spoke exclusively to BBC Asian Network’s Gagan Grewal this week sharing his views on war and his career.
Rahman, the man behind the musical score of countless Bollywood films as well as West End productions like Andrew Lloyd Webber’s BOMBAY DREAMS and LORD OF THE RINGS spoke to Asian Network about his latest projects and war - something he’s rarely spoken about in public.

We have already told you about the original fitness icon, Salman Khan, having imposed self-discipline in order to achieve peak fitness to execute the action scenes for the Hindi remake of the Tamil and Telugu blockbuster, POKKIRI. Here is more on the same. The hot and fiery Khan recently did what is expected and associated with him. No, he did not bash up any journos or fought with his girlfriend, as he has matured with age! As per trade sources, Salman Khan, while shooting for a portion of the climax of the POKKIRI remake at Mukesh Mills (Colaba, Bombay), was spotted without his shirt as he revealed his perfectly tuned and enhanced six-packs, much to the delight of the onlookers! While on Boney Kapoor’s much-awaited WANTED DEAD AND ALIVE (tentative title of the POKKIRI remake), directed by ace choreographer, Prabhu Deva, the action flick is due to release during the latter half of the year.

Tips Industries and Raj Kumar Santoshi will make a film together and it will feature the one-film old Ranbir Kapoor in the lead. Rajkumar Santoshi met with Rishi Kapoor last week to sign Ranbir on for the same film. Says a source, “Santoshi shares a good relationship with Rishi because the two worked together in Damini many years ago. Sensing that Rishi’s son is hot property, Santoshi has planned a meeting with Ranbir at his house and locked the actor for the film. The acting fee Ranbir will receive is four crores, the highest a newcomer has received till date.” In talks

Ranbir Kapoor begs to differ, “The amount you have quoted is untrue. I am in talks with the makers but nothing is confirmed as yet. I am meeting various directors and producers but I haven’t committed to them as of now.” As of now, the actor only has Yash Raj Films’ untitled film on the floors, which is being directed by Siddharth Anand.