KUNAL KHEMU "99" DOES WELL AT BOX OFFICE

Recently released "99" starring Kunal Khemu, Soha Ali Khan, Boman Irani, Cyrus Broacha, Vinod Khanna is doing wonders at the Bollywood Box Office, cashing the opportunity of the strike between Multiplex owners and Film Producers.

Initially the film started slow, but later on crowds "99" B.O earnings went up with positive word of mouth.

In its first week at the box office, the film has garnered Rs. 7.24 crores, which seems to be a good money, considering the film was not promoted well and also IPL T20 was also on.

"99" is directed by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK and produced by Anupam Mittal and Aditya Shastri of People Pictures. The film is set-up in 1999 and is based on cricket betting scandal which was prominent during that period.

KATRINA KAIF, SHILPA SHETTY TO PERFORM IN IPL T20 CRICKET FINALS

KATRINA KAIF, SHILPA SHETTY TO PERFORM IN IPL T20 FINALS IN WANDERERS, JOHANNESBERG, ON SUNDAY, MAY 24

Bollywood and Indian Cricket connection can’t be kept separate. As we all know, film stars as Shah Rukh Khan, Shilpa Shetty are the owners of Kolkatta Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals.
Now Bollywood Tadka is here again to show it’s presence in the CLOSING CEREMONY for the finals of ongoing DLF IPL T20 Cricket tournament to be played in Wanderers, Johannesberg, South Africa on May 24, between Hyderabad Deccan Chargers and Royal Challengers Bangalore, who incidentally stood the last 2 in the first IPL T20 staged in India last year.

Bollywood Hottie KATRINA KAIF who is supporting Royal Challengers Bangalore, will light up the stage with her dance performance including a medley of songs (including the Slumdog Millionaire track ‘Jai Ho’) . Also, SHILPA SHETTY will set the stage on fire with her performance. The dances will be choreographed by famous Indian choreographer Shiamak Davar who will be here with his dance troop. Plus the audience will be mesmerized by the drum beats of No. 1 Indian Drummer SHIVAMANI from Chennai and who incidentally is strong supporter of Chennai Super Kings Cricket team.

Also, Miss Bolywood IPL South Africa will be announced who will get a chance to act opposite Shah Rukh Khan.

Caribbean music legend Eddy Grant and American R&B singing sensation Akon are other names who will sizzle in the concluding ceremony.

We are eagerly awaiting for the IPL T20 FINALS as well as the CLOSING CEREMONY.

PRAKASH MEHRA – BOLLYWOOD LEGENDRY DIRECTOR DIES

PRAKASH MEHRA – BOLLYWOOD LEGENDRY DIRECTOR DIES

Legendary Bollywood Producer Director of yesteryears Prakash Mehra died on May 17 in a Mumbai hospital after prolonged illness due to multiorgan failure.

Prakash Mehra was instrumental in introducing ANGRY YOUNG MAN AMITABH BACHCHAN to Bollywood fim industry thru’ his super-duper hit “ZANJEER”, in 1973. After the success of Zanjeer, they both came together and gave a series of hits as - MUQADDAR KA SIKANDER, LAAWARIS, NAMAK HALAL, SHARABI AND HERA PHERI. Their last film JADUGAR was incidentally a flop in 1989.

Prakash Mehra started his journey in the industry as a production controller in the late 1950s. He later on shifted to direction with his first film HASEENA MAAN JAYEGI in 1968, starring Shashi Kapoor. His last film was BAL BRAHMACHARI in 1996, thru’ which he launched Puru Raajkumar, son of veteran actor Raaj Kumar.
May his soul rest in peace.

LATA MANGESHKAR UNDERGOES KNEE SURGERY

LATA MANGESHKAR GETS WELL AFTER HER KNEE SURGERY

Melody Queen Lata Mangeshkar who was operated upon for her knee surgery in her own Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital at Pune on Jan. 18, is recovering fast.

Lata was suffering from Chronic Arthritis and was unable to walk properly. She got the surgery done by replacing her knee caps, thru’ Doctor Hemant Wakankar. She will undergo physiotherapy for next few months.

She returned to her Mumbai home last week from Pune.

EMRAAN HASHMI GETS INJURED

EMRAAN HASHMI – GETS INJURED DURING FILM SHOOT

Emraan Hashmi whose recent horror flick – RAAZ 2 was a hit, recently injured his right eye, while shooting for Kunal Deshmukh’s film TUM MILE.

As per the reports. it was a flood scene (representing 26/7 Mumbai floods), for which the set was constructed in a studio in Mumbai.

While shooting for a particular scene, Emraan slipped in the water and smashed into a wooden ply, as a result he seriously hurt the portion above his right eye. But inspite of the pain, Emraan carried on and finished the shot.

It is heard that he might have to undergo stitches, all the best Emraan and keep up your good work.

AR RAHMAN - JAI HO IN OSCAR AWARDS

AR RAHMAN just gave live performance at OSCAR for JAI HO for his SLUMDOG Song. And he just gets award for JAI HO, we Indians are proud of you.

AR RAHMAN giving live performance at OSCAR for O SAYA for his SLUMDOG Song.

Following OSCAR AWARDS have been presented, with SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE winning 6 AWARDS.

Best Picture - To be announced

Best Director - To be announced

Best Actor - To be announced

Best Actress - To be announced

Best Original Score - AR RAHMAN for SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

Best Original Song - AR RAHMAN for "JAI HO" in SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

Best Supporting Actor - Heath Ledger for 'The Dark Knight'

Best Supporting Actress - Penelope Cruz for 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona'

Best Original Screenplay - Dustin Lance Black for 'Milk'

Best Adapted Screenplay - Simon Beaufoy for 'Slumdog Millionaire'

Best Cinematography - Anthony Dod Mantle for 'Slumdog Millionaire'

Best Animated Feature - 'WALL-E'

Best Animated Short - 'La Maison en Petits Cubes'

Best Foreign Language Film - To be announced

Best Art Direction - Donald Graham Burt and Victor J. Zolfo for 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'

Best Costume Design - Michael O'Connor for 'The Duchess'

Best Documentary Feature - 'Man on Wire'

Best Documentary Short - 'Smile Pinki'

Best Editing - Chris Dickens for 'Slumdog Millionaire'

Best Live Action Short - 'Spielzeugland' (Toyland)

Best Makeup - Greg Cannom for 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'

Best Sound Editing - 'The Dark Knight'

Best Sound Mixing - Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty for 'Slumdog Millionaire'

Best Visual Effects - Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron for 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'

Waiting for AR RAHMAN to have his hour of glory. He just got it for Best Original Score.

SALMAN KHAN - VEER SHOOTING STALLED

SALMAN KHAN - VEER SHOOTING STALLED, PRODUCERS FINED Rs.20 lacs.

Please refer my blog of Feb. 15, http://indianmoviestvmasala.blogspot.com/2009/02/salman-khan-veer-shooting-stalled.html, thru' which i have detailed about the stalling of SALMAN KHAN'S FILM "VEER" at Jaipur AMER FORT, due to an accident which occured while shooting for the film, thereby causing damage to the historical fort.

The Rajasthan High court finally gave its nod for the shooting to start, but before that the Veer producers have been asked to pay a fine of Rupees 20 lakh for damaging the wall of the protected AMER Fort. The amount will be used to restore the damaged fort wall and also will be utilised for the those who were injured in the wall collapse during film shoot. PLUS, the film crew have been allowed to shoot for 4 days only, after which they will have to leave the city.

DELHI-6 : ABHISHEK ON PROMOTING SPREE

DELHI-6 : ABHISHEK PLANNING TO ENTER GUNNESS BOOK

As written earlier in my blog Abhishek Bachchan taking cue from Aamir's aggresive promotion of GHAJINI, is on a promotion spree for his film DELHI-6.

He seems to be entering GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS, by way of making a maximum number of public appearances that too in a short span of 12 hours, while promoting his film 'DELHI-6'.

Starting, Friday Feb. 20 morning, when "DELHI-6" gets released, Abhishek plans to travel to around 6-7 Indian cities covering "New Delhi, NOIDA, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Chandigarh, Vadodara and Mumbai", that too within a span of 12 hours.

The current record in this category of the greatest number of public appearances by a film star is in the name of a German Actors Jurgen Vogel and Daniel Bruhl, who have made 5 appearances in 2006.

All the Best, Abhishek, we know you can do it.

Photo Courtesy : DELHI-6 official site

SALMAN KHAN - VEER SHOOTING STALLED

SALMAN KHAN - "VEER" SHOOTING STALLED

Shooting of Salman Khan's 'VEER' was stalled on Friday the 13th by the Rajasthan High Court, reason being, several people who were Standing on a wall to witness their star shooting on Thursday at HISTORIC AMER FORT at JAIPUR, got injured, when the portion of the wall collapsed.

It is learnt that on Thursday afternoon the shooting of a wedding scene was going on when sudddenly the wall over which around 200 fans were standing gave way and collapsed, thereby injuring around 15 people, including two television cameramen.

As a result the Jaipur bench of the court immediately issued notice to the Rajasthan government asking for explaination on as to why norms related to protected historical monuments were not followed. The court has asked the state government to reply by March 3. Also, the shooting of VEER was stalled owing to this incident.

Salman as a gesture, went to the meet the injured in hospital on Thursday evening.

VEER is a periodical drama and is directed by Anil Sharma. This pet project of Salman has been written by Salman himslef and his father Salim Khan.

AAP KA SURROOR - PRODUCER IN JAIL

AAP KA SURROOR PRODUCER SENTENCED TO JAIL

Hope you remember the film “AAP KA SURROOR”, thru’ which our singer/ actor Himesh Reshammiya made his successful debut in 2006. Well, the news is that the film’s producer Vijay Taneja, is behind bars on the charges of money laundering in USA.

Taneja who was found guilty of this monetary fraud has been asked to pay $33 million to four financial institutions, besides 7 years of jail term.

Taneja was also actively engaged in promoting shows of Bollywood film stars in USA. He has agreed to the charges and has apologized for his undoing.

SHAH RUKH KHAN - BILLU

SHAH RUKH KHAN - BILLU

As we all know now that BILLU BARBER is now BILLU only, courtesy the objection raised by Hairdressers’ Association on the word BARBER and King Khan has taken it sportingly and agreed to remove BARBER from the original title.

Now the latest is that Producer SRK is now planning a Premiere of his film BILLU (probably weekend) especially for various Barbers and Hairdressers, so that they can review the film and come to know that there is nothing wrong in the film and that it doesn’t make fun of Barbers. This news is revealed by Director Priyadarshan.

KATRINA KAIF

KATRINA KAIF - WORKING HARD

Continuing her success streak, looks like Katrina is not going to rest on her laurels. She is working hard and is shooting back-to-back for almost 20 hours for her forthcoming films.

It is learnt that after finishing her shooting for Rajkumar Santoshi’s AJAB PREM KI GAZAB KAHANI late in the night, she rushed off for a photo session shoot for Prakash Jha’s RAJNITI, which seems to be inspired by Sonia Gandhi's story.

Good to see Katrina, keep it up.

HARMAN BAWEJA - VICTORY FLOPS

HARMAN BAWEJA – BAD PHASE CONTINUES

After the failure of Harman’s debut film LOVE STORY 2050, he was heavily banking upon VICTORY, but it seems that bad luck is still following him, since VICTORY has also not done well at the Box Office.

And the impact of his failures was such that, he was on the edge of losing his forthcoming important film – WHAT’S YOUR RASHI ?, being directed by Ashutosh Gowariker and produced by Ronnie Screwvala of UTV with his ex-girlfriend Priyanka Chopra starring opposite him.

Ronnie was so much disturbed by Harman’s FLOP FILMS that he and Ashutosh were considering him getting replaced, inspite of the fact that almost 50% film has already been shot. Bt as per the sources, Harman’s father Harry Baweja stepped in and discussed the issue with Ronnie and finally things are all fine now.

All the Best HARMAN, we know you can do it !!!

AKSHAY v/s SHAH RUKH KHAN

SHAH RUKH KHAN v/s AKSHAY KUMAR

It seems that that cold war between Akshay & SRK is on the boil. Well it just happened that both were invited by Preity Zinta on her birthday party at her home on Jan. 31.

As per the sources, Akshay came early to the party with her wife Twinkle. Akshay wanted to leave early before the arrival of Shah Rukh Khan, so as to avoid their meeting. But when SRK arrived, they however greeted each other, but then were seen avoiding each other, adding to the awkwardness.

As all know, that Akshay’s rising stars and then Aamir’s superhit Ghajini had given some sleepless nights to SRK and had evoked a sense of insecurity in him. So much that now all are seen making digs at each other, especially Akshay & Aamir has joined hands and have become close. It may be recalled that during the recent Star Screen Awards, Akshay Kumar had offered his Most Popular Actor award to Aamir, saying that he deserves more than him.

AKSHAY KUMAR REFUSES AWARD

STAR SCREEN AWARDS : AKSHAY REFUSES AWARD

Another highlight of that Star Studded STAR SCREEN AWARD Nite was the refusal to accept “THE MOST POPULAR ACTOR” Award by Akshay Kumar.

Akki threw a shock and surprise to his wife and the audience by saying that he recently saw GHAJINI during his promotional visit of CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA in NEW YORK. According to him he was greatly floored and impressed by AAMIR KHAN’S hard work and performance. Then on his return to India from London, Akshay saw his own film “SINGH IS KINNG” during the flight and found that his film stood nowhere in comparison to GHAJINI.

Akshay was emotional during his speech and said that he had waited for long to get this award, but he thinks that AAMIR deserves this award more than him and requested Aamir to accept this award as a symbol of love that his fans have shown towards him. Thus Akshay left the stage leaving the award momento on the podium to everyone’s shock.

We take a bow AKSHAY.

STAR SCREEN AWARDS - SAJID, ASHUTOSH FIGHT

STAR SCREEN AWARDS : ASHUTOSH GOWARIKER V/S SAJID KHAN

During the recent "Star Screen Awards" function Nite, there was a showdown between the compere Sajid Khan and Producer Dircetor Ashutosh Gowariker.

We all are used to Sajid Khan’s audacious remarks, which sometimes cross the barriers. Well this time, during the awards function, Sajid’s funny remarks aggravated so much that, Ashutosh Gowariker who came on to the stage to collect Best Director’s award finally could not resist and gave a good scolding to Sajid.

What disturbed Ashutosh was that Sajid was not giving much time to the award winner Technicians to voice their acceptance speech and hurried them off from the stage.

Ashustosh was so much disturbed that he even remarked “SHUT UP” to Sajid, at which Sajid said that “ Nobody’s father can shut me off”.

Hope this incident calms down Sajid for his forthcoming compering jobs.

AKSHAY KUMAR CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA

AKSHAY KUMAR – “CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA”, A SUPER FLOP

Finally we can say that Akshay Kumar can also be a FAILURE and can deliver a FLOP FILM. Akshay himself admitted during ZEE TV MUSIC SHOW “SA RE GA MA
‘ FINALS, which took place near GATEWAY OF INDIA,Mumbai.

Akshay who was the chief guest when came to the stage was very low and humble and spoke that he is a failure in the form of CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA, but he also promised that he will come back again with his hard work and dedication.

CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA (CC2C) has been rejected by one and all and has been termed as a SUPER FLOP, even worse than “DRONA, TASHAN & LOVE STORY 2050”.

We all have heard the recent remark by SHEKHAR SUMAN asking Akshay to refund his ticket money and adding that CC2C is the worst movie of Indian Film Industry.

Experts and Trade Analysts have also thrashed Akki’s CC2C, saying that if Akshay goes on to do such Crap, his career will over soon.

I myself being a great fan of Akshay wish him all the best and I am very sure that our Khiladi will strike back with vengeance.

JOHN ABRAHAM - HOOK YA CROOK

HOOK YA CROOK - JOHN HURTS HIS LEG

JOHN ABRAHAM, while shooting for David Dhawan's film "HOOK YA CROOK" has hurt his leg badly. John had to slide down a 20 feet long pole but unfortunately he landed directly on his leg. But Inspite of the injury John Bravo immediately got himself first-aid and re-shot the action sequence and got it right this time. Hats off to John for his professionalism.

JOHN ABRAHAM - HOOK YA CROOK

JOHN ABRAHAM – HOOK YA CROOK

The latest is that John Abraham is learning to play cricket for his new film HOOK YA CROOK, to be directed by Hit Machine David Dhawan. And he is taking the coaching from Dinesh Lad, who is the coach of Indian Cricketer Rohit Sharma.

David has confirmed the news, who seems to be quite excited about his film, which is a thriller and based on Cricket. The film is to take on floors from Jan. 10.

RAB NE BANA DI JODI

RAB NE BANA DI JODI – GOLDEN TEMPLE TURNS LUCKY MASCOT

After the recent hits from YASH RAJ FILM’s banner – BACHNA AE HASEENO & RAB NE BANA DI JODI, which incidentally had the sequences of GOLDEN TEMPLE, Amritsar, it seems that YRF has decided to feature Golden Temple (their Lucky Mascot) in all of their future films.

It makes sense since both these films had come out winner after the series of FLOP films from YRF Banner.