Paris has a new tourist attraction: a lifesize wax statue of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan has been unveiled at the the Grévin Wax Museum here, indicating the popularity of Indian cinema and the superstar in continental Europe.

As Khan, dressed in a pair of jeans and a black leather jacket, stepped out of a limousine in front of the museum, he was welcomed by African and Indian dancers outside the museum amid cheers from a crowd of fans Monday morning.

Accompanied by wife Gauri and close buddy Karan Johar, a filmmaker, Shah Rukh signed autographs for the fans but when some of them tried to embrace him, the matinee idol was whisked away by security guards.

A ceremony inside the premises was restricted to invitees and tickets to the museum were sold out at least for the day.

This would be the second wax statue of the star, after the one included in the Madame Tussauds’ museum in London.

Mahatma Gandhi is the only other Indian honoured with a statue in this museum established in 1922.

Elke Mader of the Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, a Bollywood researcher, told IANS she was part of a crowd of about 500 fans who waited outside the museum to catch a glimpse of Shah Rukh.

The Austrian professor heads Bollyglobal, a global research project that studies Indian popular cinema in transcultural contexts. Mader flew to Paris soon after wrapping up a presentation at an international workshop on Reflections on Visual Culture at the University.

In the presentation titled ‘Images of the Imaginary: Shah Rukh Khan Fanart and the Internet’, Mader talked about the growing love for Bollywood across the world and the birth of a range of other activities that go beyond simply viewing films. The professor’s research concentrates on Shah Rukh and the rise of the star and producer as an icon of audiences and fans of diverse cultural backgrounds.

Nasreen Munni Kabir, a British Indian filmmaker who made documentary “The Inner/ Outer World of Shah Rukh Khan” and introduced the star to the Grévin in 2007, is glad to see the French people taking to Indian cinema.

“As the popularity of films is based on the appeal of stars it is only natural for the Grévin to display (a wax statue of) Shah Rukh,” Kabir wrote to IANS in an email.

Kabir who studied films in France spoke about many immigrants in France who love Indian cinema.

“Think of the many people of Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria living in Paris who know Shah Rukh and love him. The gesture by Grévin is a recognition of the influence of non-white personalities around the world and their huge fan following. It is a positive sign in Europe to include acknowledge the contribution of non-white cultures,” Kabir said.

Shah Rukh’s frequent visits to Europe have resulted in a group of ardent fans on this continent that Mader compares to pilgrims who perform rituals similar to devotees of gods and goddesses like waiting for hours often even in discomfort in order to get a glimpse or a touch of their idol.

“Bollywood and more specifically Shah Rukh fan communities form part of the rapidly growing ‘digitally empowered active audiences’ that have become active and visible on the net during the past decade. Such internet activities are a typically global phenomenon. They are focused on Indian movies and Shah Rukh and are locally or regionally based at German, Japanese or Spanish speaking networks,” Mader said.

Giving the example of a forum called planet.srk, devoted to the Indian superstar, the professor counted 9,200 members, 9,717 threads, and 459,907 posts on April 20.

And this is only the beginning of Mader’s research on Shah Rukh.

The life of murdered journalist Shivani Bhatnagar would soon be made into a movie “Judgement” starring Sunny Deol and Sameera Reddy, director K.S. Adhiyaman told reporters here Monday.

“I decided to make the film after sustained study of the subject and meeting family members of Shivani besides understanding the role of politicians in the tale,” Adhiyaman said.

Deol and Reddy play the investigating officer and lawyer respectively. Actress Nitisha Patel plays the victim Shivani, the director added.

After completion of the project, Adhiyaman is slated to remake his Tamil hit “Thoondil” (fishing hook) into Hindi.

Adhiyaman has directed the Shah Rukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit combination in “Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam,” Salman Khan, Shilpa Shetty starrer “Shaadi Karke Phaas Gaya Yaar”, and “Hot” featuring Neha Dupia and Bikram Saluja.

Delhi-based Bhatnagar was found murdered Jan 13 1999 in her home. A former top police official R.K. Sharma was recently found guilty of organising her murder. Bhatnagar was allegedly having an affair with the top cop. The case hogged media headlines as Bhatnagar was also allegedly involved with then senior minister Pramod Mahajan.

The life of murdered journalist Shivani Bhatnagar would soon be made into a movie “Judgement” starring Sunny Deol and Sameera Reddy, director K.S. Adhiyaman told reporters here Monday.

“I decided to make the film after sustained study of the subject and meeting family members of Shivani besides understanding the role of politicians in the tale,” Adhiyaman said.

Deol and Reddy play the investigating officer and lawyer respectively. Actress Nitisha Patel plays the victim Shivani, the director added.

After completion of the project, Adhiyaman is slated to remake his Tamil hit “Thoondil” (fishing hook) into Hindi.

Adhiyaman has directed the Shah Rukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit combination in “Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam,” Salman Khan, Shilpa Shetty starrer “Shaadi Karke Phaas Gaya Yaar”, and “Hot” featuring Neha Dupia and Bikram Saluja.

Delhi-based Bhatnagar was found murdered Jan 13 1999 in her home. A former top police official R.K. Sharma was recently found guilty of organising her murder. Bhatnagar was allegedly having an affair with the top cop. The case hogged media headlines as Bhatnagar was also allegedly involved with then senior minister Pramod Mahajan.

Mumbai Police Monday suspended the licenses of 35 cinema halls of the city for not adhering to the Maharashtra government’s order for mandatory screening of Marathi movies for minimum of four weeks a year.

Seventy-nine of Mumbai’s 138 cinema theatres, including those in multiplexes, have been served show cause notices for not strictly following the order framed in 1968 and last reviewed in 2005-06, according to Mumbai’s Deputy Commissioner of Police (Theatre) V.M. Jadhav.

The Mumbai Police action Monday came following the orders from the state home department.

Jadhav told IANS that the action was initiated against the cinema halls as per the decision taken four months ago at a review meeting of the state government’s order convened by the Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil.

Marathi filmmakers have for long been complaining that most of them cannot release their movies in Mumbai as the cinema hall owners, including the multiplexes, are reluctant to screen them on one pretext or the other.

They have been urging the state government to take stringent action against the defaulting cinema hall owners.

The owners of these cinema halls have been given eight days to reply to the show cause notices. Within this period, the cinema hall owners, whose licenses have been suspended, can also appeal to the state government.

President of the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Chitrapat Nirmata Mandal Satish Kulkarni lauded the Mumbai Police’s action. He hoped that the government would not be as lenient on the defaulting cinema halls as in the past.

“Despite a standing state government order, Mumbai’s cinema halls avoided showing Marathi movies on one pretext or the other. At present, as many as 80 Marathi movies are produced annually. But most of them cannot be released in Mumbai for lack of exhibition outlets,” Kulkarni said.

There are only seven to eight single-screen cinemas in the city, including the Plaza and Bharatmata, which show Marathi movies regularly. As these cinema halls are overbooked, they cannot accommodate many of the 80 movies made in a year, so most of the Marathi movie distributors cannot release their movies in Mumbai.

According to Kulkarni, a house-full week of a Marathi movie in a single cinema hall in Mumbai fetches revenues that are equivalent to the box-office earnings from a city like Pune and Aurangabad. That shows how important Mumbai is as a market for Marathi movies.

“But all these years, Marathi filmmakers and distributors have not been able to avail of this lucrative market as there are only few cinema halls which are willing to show Marathi movies. So, the Mumbai Police’s action, though belated, is appropriate,” he commented.

R.V. Bidhani, president of the Cinema Exhibitors’ Association, Mumbai, however, felt that the police action against 79 cinema halls of Mumbai was uncalled for.

“All exhibitors of Mumbai are willing to show Marathi movies, but not at the cost of their business,” he said curtly.

Retorting to Bidhani, Kulkarni said that no Marathi filmmaker is asking for charity from the cinema halls of Mumbai.

“As per the state government’s standing order, Maharashtra’s cinema hall owners are obliged to screen Marathi movies minimum for four weeks a year. Considering that 80 Marathi movies are released in a year, they cannot complain of paucity of movies worth releasing in their cinema halls,” fumed Kulkarni.

Rituparno Ghosh had planned to remake the 1960s classic “Kaagaz Ke Phool” in Hindi with Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi but is now making it in Bengali and has named it “Abaho Mann”.

“I wanted to do this subject for a long time. It was to be done in Hindi. But it didn’t quite work out. I’m far more comfortable doing it in Bengali with a cast that understands the nuances of the culture where I’ve located the drama,” Ghosh told IANS.

Veteran actor Deepankar De enacts the role played by Guru Dutt in the original, Mamta Shankar is the wife and Ananya Chatterjee plays Waheeda Rehman’s role in this real-life love triangle.

“Kaagaz Ke Phool” was based on Guru Dutt’s own troubled marriage with Geeta Dutt.

In addition to the distinguished cast playing the protagonists, Ghosh has roped in late Utpal Dutt’s wife Shobha Sen as Deepankar De’s senile mother.

“Somehow I saw her in the role. Utpal Dutt and I seem to be linked. Last year I directed a film based on his play (’Last Lear’). Now his wife is working with me.”

The glamour quotient is provided by Riya Sen, who plays the love interest of Deepankar’s and Mamta Shankar’s son, played by Jishu Sengupta.

Said Ghosh: “I’ve worked repeatedly with Riya’s sister Raima. I was looking for an opportunity to cast Riya for a long time. She has got lovely features like her mother Moon Moon. In fact, Riya has just completed her work and left for Mumbai.”

For the Hindi version, Ghosh had planned to cast Naseeruddin Shah as the filmmaker-husband, Shabana Azmi as the estranged wife, Farhan Akhtar as their son and Vidya Balan as the actress with whom the husband falls in love.

Having got masterly performances out of Tabu and the Big B in “Cheeni Kum”, director R. Balakrishnan may be expected to recreate the same magic in his next feature film. But he is on a different track in his second directorial venture titled “Pa”.

“Pa” features father-son Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan, but no Tabu.

“But that’s because ‘Pa’ has no room for Tabu at all. This time the story is a father-son one. Amitabh has no love interest in the film and I am sorry about that. Abhishek does have a girl though,” Balakrishnan told IANS.

For the female lead, the director has roped in Vidya Balan - the first time that Abhishek is being paired with the lately out-of-sight Vidya.

“We’ve already approached Vidya and she has more or less agreed. I can see her as a pair with Abhishek, can’t you?”

Vidya comes into the picture through her sister Priya, who works with ad man Balakrishnan at Lintas.

“In fact, it’s Priya I know well. I got to know Vidya only when we started talking for ‘Pa’,” said the director, fondly called Balki.

After being paired with Preity Zinta, Rani Mukerji and Priyanka Chopra, Abhishek is on the look out for fresh collaborative opportunities.

Vidya is someone the Bachchans have admired from the time the Big B saw her in “Parineeta” and then worked with her in “Eklavya - The Royal Guard”.

The Big B had compared Vidya with his favourite actress Waheeda Rehman.

So is Balki looking at the prospect of directing a new pair?

“I don’t look at it that way. Vidya suits the role. I’ve known her from her ad days. Though we haven’t done any ad together she has done ads for my company Lintas.”

Hrithik Roshan has put all his travelling plans on hold because Suzanne is pregnant with their second child. The baby is due any day now and the actor wants to be with his wife.

“I’m just not stepping out of Mumbai for some time now. That’s why I had to say no to the Zee awards. Right now I can’t focus on any work that takes me outside Mumbai,” Hrithik told IANS.

The award function was held Saturday in London.

Hrithik is at the moment shooting for Zoya Akhtar’s directorial debut “Luck By Chance” in Mumbai. The actor has a guest appearance in the film - a commitment he made long ago and is only too happy to fulfil since Zoya is not only a close friend of Farhan’s sister but also the first female director Hrithik has worked with.

“We’ve been shooting nights for the last few days. And I’ve one full song to do before I am done. That will keep me busy till the end of the week,” said Hrithik who acted in Farhan’s “Lakshya”.

Hopefully, by the time Zoya’s shooting is done, Hrehaan will have his sibling and Hrithik will be able to travel again.

Numerologist Niraj Mancchanda talks about the relationship between Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone.

1) Ranbir is number 1 born on 28 September & Deepika is number 5 born on 5th Jan.

2) Ranbir is ruled by planet sun and Deepika is ruled by planet Mercury.

3) Sun and Mercury togather make a yog called surya buddha yog.

4) That’s why 1 & 5 get along like house on fire.

5) Even Aishwarya is 1 and Abhishek 5.

6) But both mercury and sun are practical planets, business oriented and very less emotional.

7) The name Deepika Padukone comes to number 64=6+4=10=1+0=1.

The name Ranbir Kapoor comes to number 40=4+0=4.

9) 64 is an outstanding number and vibrates with Deepika. The reason she became overnite star not only in modelling circuit but also as an actress. 64 is the number of sudden huge success. Amitabh Bachchan’s come back in ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ and the huge hit ‘Dhoom 2: Back in Action’ comes to number 64.

10) Number 40 is a cyclic number. It takes you to huge heights and throws you down in a big way too. One of the biggest hits of all time ‘Mughal-e-Azam’ and one of the biggest disasters of all time ‘Mera Naam Joker’ both come to number 40.

11) Thus Ranbir should change spelling of name or he will have very high and very low cycles.

12) Presently he is going through a very good cycle.

13) The relationship between Ranbir and Deepika is absolutely practical one and if anything ever goes wrong then blame it on number 40.

Meanwhile what’s up with Ash’s secretary, the guy by the name of Hari Singh?
 
Of late, though Ash has been missing in action from all the filmi parties, her manager seems to have taken her place. He is often seen happily posing for the shutterbugs. And besides that Mr Singh has been spotted with a rather strange looking ponytail a la, SRK.
 
It goes well with King Khan, but certainly not with middle age secretary whose teenage daughter will soon be debuting in a Bollywood film. We actually survived to share this hairy choti se tale of horror!

Saif Ali Khan looking for a new girl?! Well, he has changed a number of girl friends in the recent past. He is a much married man too. He has just recently started going steady with a new girl in his life – Kareena Kapoor. The two are also ready to tie the knot some time soon.
 
You must be wondering as to where from this new girl is coming. The girl we are now talking about is the heroine for his forthcoming film. Saif Ali Khan is doing a new film and the sexy hot Deepika Padukone has already been signed up as heroine. Saif is now looking for the second heroine for his film. When asked if Kareena will be playing that, Saif said ‘No’.
 
He is looking for a fresh face and indications are that he might choose a girl from the south, Tollywood or Kollywood.  We have to wait a little longer to learn s to who that lucky girl is.

click on the Images to get full page image

Abbas-Mastan’s action thriller “Race” has set the mood and Yash Raj Film’s first release of the year, “Tashan”, seems set to reap the dividends. Experts say that the most awaited film of the year will keep the audience on the edges of their seats.

“The highlights of the film are its star cast and the packaging. It is surely going to rock,” Saurabh Varma, chief marketing officer Reliance Entertainment, told IANS on phone from Mumbai.

The action thriller stars Saif Ali Khan, Akshay Kumar, Anil Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor and is directed by Krishna Acharya. The film will have its worldwide release Friday.

Vikas Mohan, editor of Mumbai-based trade magazine Supercinema, said: “This is a perfect time to release the film. The holidays are starting, so people will throng the cinema halls.”

After a long time Akshay has teamed up with Saif in a film. The duo had worked together in Yash Raj’s “Yeh Dillagi” for the first time in 1994 and later featured in the hit flick “Khiladi”.

With four hits under his belt in last year alone, Akshay is considered a bigger and more bankable name now and with his versatile performances Saif too has stronger box office prospects.

However, many feel Saif and Kareena pair would be the main highlight of the film, but Mohan differs: “People will certainly come to see Saif and Kareena. But don’t forget that the film also has Akshay, who is a bankable actor. He gave four hits last year.”

The audience, as well as the exhibitors, are eagerly awaiting the release of “Tashan”.

The film is expected to have a good start, said Mohan and added, “The initial earnings of the films are so good these days that most of the filmmakers recover their investments. Being a Yash Raj production, ‘Tashan’ will get good initials. It is a commercial film, so it will work in every centre.”

Just like “Race”, censor board has given U/A certificate to this film as well.

The story of the film goes like this:

Jimmy Cliff (Saif Ali Khan), a cool call centre executive, Bachchan Pande (Akshay Kumar), a desi-wannabe gangster and Pooja (Kareena Kapoor) are thrown together and embark on a journey to explore the spectacular India, a journey that alters the course of their lives.

And to top it all there is the evil eye of Bhaiyyaji (Anil Kapoor), a maverick gangster who enjoys killing people as much as he enjoys speaking English.

Keeping up with the Yash Raj tradition, the trailer of their next film “Bachna Ae Haseeno”, will also be unveiled with “Tashan”.

Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan was hurt on the sets of Sujoy Ghosh’s mega fantasy “Alladin” while doing an action sequence. He was rushed to a hospital. He is back in action now.

This is the superstar’s second injury on the sets of the film.

At first, the 65-year-old actor tried to brush off the incident but later admitted that he was in excruciating pain.

“Yes, I’ve injured myself doing an action scene for ‘Alladin’. I had to go to a hospital for an MRI test. But I’m not hospitalised. I’m back on the set, heavily drugged to assuage the pain so I can complete crucial work,” Amitabh, who hurt himself Monday, told IANS.

Ghosh said: “He was doing a kick for a fight when something gave way in his back. We don’t quite know what happened. But Amitji was in unbearable pain. He had to be taken to hospital for MRI tests. But he was back on the sets right after the tests. I’m half Amitji’s age. But I’ve half his energy and grit.”

About this being the second occasion when he was injured on the sets of Alladin, Sujoy said: “Yes, earlier he hurt his wrist. That’s because Amitji is doing a full-on actioner after ages. The special effects in ‘Alladin’ have nothing to do with his action scenes.

“I wanted him to perform the stunts the same way he did in all those films like ‘Zanjeer’ and ‘Deewaar’ that I grew up watching - live and raw. It was a wish, and I didn’t want anything to come between my dream and me.

“I do caution Amitji before every action scene. But he just goes for the kill each time. I don’t want anything to happen to him for selfish reasons. I want to make at least 20 more films with him,” he said.