New Year’s eve happens to be a big time event for everyone- for the urban crowd who gets to do some hip-shaking with the view of his or hers favorite Bollywood star’s performance and for the Bollywood babes who pocket in a lucrative sum for a few minutes performance. Take a look at this:

Dusky beauty Bipasha Basu (who is making a new year performance for the first time this year) is reportedly charging Rs. 90 Lakhs for her performance at J.W.Mariott, Juhu.

The Drama Queen Rakhi Sawant alongwith her boyfriend, Abhishek Awasthi, and DJ Whosane will also be performing on New Year’s Eve at Tulip Star Hotel, Juhu. Rakhi is reported to have charged the organizers a whopping Rs. 51 lakhs for her performance.

Next in the queue are Koena Mitra and Tanushree Dutta, who will be joined along with the songster Mika in Sahara Star, Mumbai. Koena is supposedly charging the organizers Rs 27 lakhs for her 16 minute performance whereas Tanushree Dutta has been signed for Rs 15 lakhs for her 24 minutes performance.

There are other celebs too performing at different cities and charging as per their popularity. Amrita Arora (performing in Bangalore) is charging 12 lakhs, Malaika Arora (performing in Delhi) is charging 25-30 lakhs, Neha Dhupia (performing in Ahmedabad) is charging 15-20 lakhs, and Mahima Choudhary (performing in Kolkatta) is charging 5 lakhs.

With the start being this, the year will definitely bring further surprises for these Bollywood bombshells!

Things seemed starry for the newcomer Deepika Padukone when she was chosen for Hrithik Roshan’s next after a dizzing success of her debut ‘OSO’.

However, the film which is based on Latin dance, requires the leading lady to be skilled in Salsa. Where Hrithik’s dancing skills need no mention, Deepika failed to impress the Roshans on the dance floor. So, Deepika was opted out of this movie which will be directed by Anurag Basu.

To cheer up the lady, Rakesh Roshan has promised her that she would soon be signing their next production. How very kind of Mr. Roshan, right!

‘Nach Baliye 3’ has done to Sanjeeda Sheikh what ‘Jhalak Dikhlaja’ did to Prachi Desai. The winner of the dance competition has bagged in her ticket to Bollywood.

White Feathers team is producing ‘Paankh’ and they have roped in Sanjeeda for the movie. Bips will be adding star value to ‘Paankh’, and Sanjeeda will be seen playing a teenager, who is forced by her mom to join Bollywood.

Sanjeeda began her career as an ‘extra’ i.e. as a supporting dancer to the main lead. Then she got her break in the small screen with the lead role in Ekta Kapoor’s ‘Kya Hoga Nimmo Ka’. Now, after winning ‘Nach’ she gets a break in Bollywood.

Meanwhile, the director is reconsidering the script to rope in a dance number for Sanjeed in the movie. With her dancing talents receiving rave reviews, the director surely would want to cash it in.

She has just finished her shooting as a battered wife for Deepa Mehta’s ‘Heaven On Earth’ and now, actress Preity Zinta is off to Phuket, Thailand with her friends to welcome the new year.

Shooting for the film has drained Preity emotionally and she needs a break badly. “Deepa Mehta and ‘Heaven On Earth’ have proved eye openers for me. But the film was tough on me emotionally. In the month that I was in Toronto, I went out just twice and that too to maintain my sanity. I really need a break now,” says Preity.

Preity had only one release this year, “Jhoom Barabar Jhoom’ which bombed at the box-office. Preity will return from her vacation in the second week of January with a clear date diary.

“I haven’t said yes to any of the scripts I’ve heard. I’ll take a call when I return from my holiday. But yes, 2007 has been my year of unconventional films. So 2008 will probably be a year of hardcore masala movies,” adds the bubbly actress.

The little birdie is carrying it around that Bipasha Basu walked out of ‘Raaz 2’ because she did not want to pair opposite Emraan Hashmi. This has obviously hurt Emraan who has just returned from a 45-day schedule in South Africa for his forthcoming project ‘Jaanat’.

Emraan retorts, “Once the script is approved, we will start shooting. As far as Bipasha is concerned, it’s her creative liberty and decision who she wants to work with. My life doesn’t stop with her not being a part of my films.”

“I don’t care in the least who does Raaz 2. I am doing the film, I like my role and the film will do well with or without her!” adds the serial kisser of Bollywood.

Anyway, the actor beams talking about Vishesh Films’ ‘Jannat’, “Jannat’s tagline says in search of heaven he found hell. It’s a love story and will go down well with the youth.”

National Award winning director Shyam Benegal is busy these days in completing his romantic comedy ‘Mahadev’. After this project, Benegal is keen on making a big budget film based on the life of Gautam Buddha.

And guess who with play this lifetime role of Lord Buddha? It will be none other than the actor who will hit the screens soon in the role of ‘Akbar’. Yes, Benegal is interested in signing Hrithik Roshan for the role as he thinks that Hrithik’s face has a calm serenity and he is perfectly suited to play the role of Buddha.

Roshan has been approached by the filmmaker and the actor has expressed interest in the project and has asked for its script. Benegal and his team of writers are now putting the script together.

Shyam Benegal wants to start the film next year. By then, Hrithik also would have recuperated from his knee injury because of which Hrithik has taken 2-3 months’ break from work.

These days it is all about promotion of films. Now, the team of Ajay Devgan and Vidya Balan starrer ‘Halla Bol’ has come up with a unique way of promoting their film. Instead of holding press conferences in five-star hotels or visiting plush multiplexes, the stars of the film will come down on the streets and perform plays to promote their film.

The plays will have subjects in tow with the film dealing with some social problem - be it eve-teasing, corruption, municipal problems or lack of proper healthcare for the poor. The plays will be performed on the streets of main cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata.

This unique promotion idea comes with the fact that the movie has Ajay Devgan and Pankaj Kapur as theatre actors who perform plays on the streets on several social issues. So the producer thought of promoting the film in the same way.

Directed by Rajkumar Santoshi, ‘Halla Bol’ will hit the theatres on January 11, 2008.

Things are finally happening for the Sherawat girl. After receiving applauds for her performance in the hit ‘Welcome’, the jat girl is being considered for a leading role in director Kundan Shah’s political satire that he has been working on for many years

The film will be a satirical humour dealing with the story of a prostitute who is on the run. She goes through many testing circumstances and eventually becomes the chief minister of a state.

However, Mallika has not yet signed the dotted line. Even, Shah hasn’t yet confirmed Mallika’s presence in the film. All he says is that the cast is being finalized.

The debutants made a cute on-screen couple in ‘Saawariya’. Now the star kids Sonam Kapoor and Ranbir Kapoor are heading towards an off-screen romance too.

Insiders reveal that Sonam and Ranbir are seeing each other. Recently Ranbir and Sonam were spotted at a five star hotel walking in together, holding hands. A source claims “Ranbir and Sonam were absolutely not conscious of the fact that they were holding hands. They were completely at ease. It was obvious that they are in love.”

The duos families’ friendship dates back to a long time. However, the love-birds built a rapport during the shooting of SLB’s ‘Saawariya’. Now-a-days Sonam makes frequent visits to Kapoor House and has grown quite comfortable with mom Neetu who admits that the kids go out together often.

2007 was a great year for Bollywood at box office with big banners taking most of the cream. If we look at the hits of 2007, OSO definitely is quite a few leaps ahead of all others. Let us brief it out along with the others:

Om Shanti Om

This was a mega hit of 2007 both within India and abroad. It’s perfect marketing strategy, the hype of reviving the golden past, the magic of SRK, the perfection of Farah Khan and the surprise package of Deepika Padukone oozing freshness and diva like appeal- all added up to make the film a huge hit.

Chak De India

This was another hit from SRK. The film is unique in itself owing to the fact that it has no female lead to add glamour and also dealt with a sport (hockey) which is not a big craze among an average Indian. Nevertheless, the perfect handling of the subject made it a surprise hit of 2007.

Partner

The magical combination of Govinda and Salman Khan worked wonders and this unofficial comeback of Govinda set the cash registers ringing for the producers. The film had foot tapping musical scores and gorgeous Katrina Kaif to add up to the factors contributing to it’s success.

Heyy Babyy

2007 was definitely an year of Akshay Kumar who emerged as the king of comedies in the year. Though Vidya Balan’s makeover look aroused negative critisicms, the film managed to come across as a majot hit of the year.

Namaste London

Talking about Akshay Kumar, this again was an average hit which dealt with the subject of romantic comedy. Along with Partner and Welcome, this added to make a hattrick of hits for Katrina Kaif in 2007.

Bhool Bhulaiyan

The magic of Akshay Kumar and Vidya Balan worked yet again in ‘Bhool Bhulaiyan’ which was an experiment in the sense that it successfully managed to balance thriller with comedy.

Guru

This was undoubtedly the best movie of 2007 which gave a lifetime performance from Abhishek Bachchan blending well with a mature delivery from Aishwarya Rai (Bachchan). The year also saw this on-screen couple tying knots in real life too amidst much hype making them the most talked about couple of the year.

Jab We Met

Last but not the least, making it’s way to the top 10 was this love story from Imtiaz Ali. How much and in what way, the breakup of Shahid- Kareena affected the movie, is still to be worked out, but the movie managed to carved it’s niche at the box-office owing to the freshness and a superb performance from Kareena and Shahid.

After losing the Best Jodi title in Nach Baliye 3, prime contender Rakhi Sawant burst into tears and vanished away with her boyfriend. They did not even listen to special guest, Salman Khan’s request when he requested them to show some sporting spirit and come on to the stage. She did not even accept her silver trophy.

Later Rakhi went crazy and started blabbering, “I have been used. My name has been used. The results were pre-decided. It was fixed. I gave my everything to the show.”

Rakhi also complains that she did not win because she is not a ‘bahu’ in any serial, “I wonder why outsiders are taken if a serial’s bahu is only supposed to win. Even if Aamir Ali takes seven births, he cannot compete with my partner Abhishek Awasthi.”

A suburban Mumbai’s 7 star hotel was in news recently for denying entry to three Marathi actors because of their Kolhapuri chappals. Now, Celina Jaitley faces a tinge of racism in the same hotel where she went into the sports’ lounge with a gay foreigner friend of hers.

There a German guy made obscene gestures at her. Later he came upto her to tell her in German in picturesque detail what he’d like to do to her. Celina asked the hotel’s authorities to deal with the situation, since they hadn’t allowed her bodyguard in, but they coolly said that they did not even know him.

That was it. Celina left that day but returned the next day with three vans of cops, got the man out of his room and confronted him.

“He fell to his knees and cried and begged saying he has a wife and children back home. He should’ve thought of them when he treated me to such vulgar intentions.

I made him write an apology and then for his family’s sake decided not to press charges. The worst thing was, nobody in the hotel wanted to co-opearate with me in dealing with this situation,” says a fuming Celina.