Hot Manisha Koirala is Back in Bollywood

February 9th, 2009

Manisha Koirala once stopped many heartbeats with her stunning looks in Saudagar and avowed the audience with her acting prowess in Dil Se. After a long hiatus, and having lost oodles of weight, Manisha is all set to dazzle the silver screen once again.

Manisha makes a comeback in Bollywood with the film, Ek Second..Jo Zindagi Badal De. The film is a drama about importance of time and how one second can transform one's life.


Manisha Koirala, looking fit as a fiddle and every bit a glamorous girl, energetically matches the steps to the dancers, as they shoot for a song in the film. On a break from the hectic shooting, Manisha explains about the story of the film, "The theme of the film is basically about how one second can transform one's life. Each person makes a certain decision at every moment of his or her life, that decision can completely transform one's life. In the film, my character misses a train, which leads to a vortex of events, which eventually changes her life."

The film directed by Partho Ghosh stars Manisha Koirala, Jackie Shroff, Nikita Anand and Rosa Catalano amongst others.

Amisha Patel forgives Kareena Kapoor

February 9th, 2009

While Saif and Kanav bonded at Tusshar Kapoor's bash, their ladyloves, kept their distance from each other

Building Bridges: Ameesha Patel and Kanav Puri going to Tusshar Kapoor's party. Kareena Kapoor and Ameesha Patel have shared cold vibes ever since Ameesha replaced Kareena in Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai.
At that time, an angry Kareena had made potshots like, "Hrithik's dad spent five hours on every frame and close-up of his son, whereas not even five seconds were spent on Ameesha. There are portions in the film where she has pimples and under-eye bags on her face.

If I were in the film, I would have definitely got a better deal, but I still feel that the attention would have been divided between us. So, I'm glad I didn't do the film."

Though the two actresses met at events over the years, Ameesha and Kareena never warmed up to each other. So when both met on Friday night at Tusshar Kapoor's party at his Juhu bungalow, the vibes were thanda to say the least.

Says an eye-witness, "Kareena and Saif had already arrived and were seen chatting with people when Ameesha and Kanav arrived with a gang of friends after Kanav's birthday party.

Kanav and Saif know each other well so when they met each other, they started chatting like long-lost friends. But though Bebo and Ameesha exchanged cordial greetings they didn't speak at all after that. Their vibes were freezing."

Ameesha says, "I have no problems with Kareena and will always be polite to her though it's true we didn't chat but just exchanged hellos.

I am very fond of Saif who is extremely well-mannered, a thorough gentleman and a gem of a person. He's also a friend of Kanav's as Kanav and Soha used to study at the same school in Delhi.

So when Kanav and Saif met up again at Tusshar's party, both got along like a house on fire. Last year, when Saif and I were shooting for Lazy Lamhe and Saif and Kareena were dating, Saif had wanted to do something special for her so I went out of my way to accommodate him and wind up early. I even attended the music launch of Refugee.

I don't belong to camps nor am I part of industry battles. I know Kareena earlier said that she hadn't given as big flops as I had but I don't hold anything against her for saying those things about me."

Ameesha adds that she would love to do a film with Bebo if offered. "If we are offered good roles together I would love to act with her. It's immature to hold grudges.I forgive Kareena for all the negative things she said about me. Even then, when she had said them, I didn't retaliate.I know five years later when we are both married and I am sitting with Kanav and three chubby kids in London all these fights and patch-ups will sound so silly and immature.I have not been brought up to snub people or be nasty to them. Nor do I believe in catfights or holding grudges. I am not here to make friends and enemies in the film industry. The only true friends that I have here are Sanju and Maanayata and for me, that's enough.'

Lara Dutta wears dirty sarees

February 9th, 2009

The fact that Lara Dutta is essaying the role of a village housewife in Shahrukh Khan's home banner production Billu (earlier titled Billu Barber), is known to all who follow regular Bollywood news updates. But her character is so real and in keeping with the story line that any common village woman can relate to it.

As per the latest news, Lara wore a no make-up look throughout the film for the first time. Her sarees were old and crumpled, soaked in tea and dried. And she wore them because that fitted the character as she is essaying the role of a simple, in fact, poverty ridden wife of a common village barber. She also had to walk bare foot (which was very difficult) as her character could not afford to buy proper footwear.

Apart from Lara's (much talked about and reported) chance encounter with a snake, she also had to put up through some extremely hostile terrain when they went on location for the picturisation of a song. The unit had to walk through muddy water and pot holes since there was no proper road to the desired location. But when they reached the locale, the effort was worth it as the scenery there was breathtaking. Talk about perfection, this is as perfect as it can get! And we thought that this kind of dedication is only seen in off - beat movies!

Well, for that we must commend Lara (for putting up with such difficult situations), and the director Priyadarshan for giving so much thought to her character, as also the large hearted producer Gauri Khan. We are sure that apart from Shahrukh's extended appearance and his scintillating item numbers with top heroines and Irrfan Khan's characteristic but much loved style of acting, Lara's character will be one of the highlights of the film. And, for those who thought Priyan only makes senseless movies, Billu will surely prove to be an eye opener for his detractors.

Zakir Hussain wins Grammy Award for “Global Drum Project”

February 9th, 2009

While A R Rahman won BAFTA award in London, Indian tabla maestro Zakir Hussain won Grammy award in Los Angeles.

Tabla maestro Zakir Hussain won the prestigious “Grammy” for his collaborative album “Global Drum Project” in the Contemporary World Music Album.

This marks 2nd Grammy for Hussain. His first, in 1992, was also the first-ever Grammy in the World Music category.

The tabla maestro had worked with Mickey Hart of the rock band Grateful Dead, Nigerian percussionist Sikiru Adepoju and Puerto Rican jazz percussionist Giovanni Hidalgo for Planet Drum.

“Global Drum Project” is the second collaboration between Mickey Hart and Hussain after their compilation “Planet Drum” which was released in 1991 and went on to win the first-ever Grammy Award in the World Music category.

Preity Zinta Collects Waste at Carter Road Seafront - Spreads Environmental Awareness

February 9th, 2009

Preity Zinta visited Carter Road sea front with volunteers and helped in the cleaning drive. Preity Zinta is the brand ambassador of The Greenathon, an initiative by NDTV & Toyota to spread environmental awareness.

Several Bollywood celebrities participated in the NDTV & Toyota initiative to spread environmental awareness.

Papa Randhir angry with Kareena

February 9th, 2009

Kareena Kapoor is the busiest gal in Bollywood today. She is running fast to complete the number of assignments that she has signed. Today, she is occupied by films, endorsements, award functions and parties and hardly getting time to spend with family. Though she is the achiever of prestigious awards like Rotary and FICCI, youth icon of the year, woman achiever of the year, youngest achiever of film industry, her father Ranbir Kapoor is neither feeling proud of daughter Bebo nor appreciating her talent. To him, if Kareena cannot spend time with her family what is the use of those awards and achievements? In irritation, he said, "I'm going to put a stop to all this. What is the point of all these awards and adulation if I don’t get to have one meal with you?"

Bebo too agreed with pa. She has the same opinion that due to her hectic schedule, she is unable to devote time to her family. "I can't begin to explain how I'm managing all this. I must have met my niece, sister and parents for hardly four hours in one-and-a-half years! But I've promised my Dad quality time post June."

Kareena has ample films lined up for release and the much talked one is Renzil D’Silva’s film where she is paired opposite beau Saif. Interestingly, they will do a lip-lock on screen. Speaking about the lip scene, Bebo remarked, "I'm a director's actress and both Saif and I do things according to the requirement of the script."

Dev D Box Office Report | Dev D Collections

February 9th, 2009

Dev D has managed to tot up fair business on its first day in terms of nett business. The seat utilisation is low but it has been released on 500 cinemas which is huge for this type of film and this has enabled to film gross a reasonable 1.45 crore net on day one

The figure is more commendable as the terms with the multiplexes were settled very late and therefore its release ads did not appear in entertainment ads which led to the public not being aware of release at multiplexes.

There are some badly informed sources in the trade who believe the collections declined on day one but the truth is that collections were lowest in the morning shows and improved throughout the day with late shows having the highest collection at most places around the country.

It will be interesting to see what happens over the weekend and if the film can manage over 5 crore nett business it would a fairly good result for the film considering the cost of the film.