Finally, Kangana Ranaut has bagged her first endorsement project, and that too opposite none other than Salman Khan. Kangana has been chosen by a leading international shoes company Red Tape to endorse their brand of footwear which had been endorsed by Salman Khan so far.

Until now Red Tape manufactured footwear only for men with Salman as their ambassador. Now, the company is launching its female lineup with Kangana, who has already shot spots for hoardings and magazines and will soon be doing a TV ad with Salman Khan for the brand.

Apparently Red Tape has paid Kangana a whopping figure and has promised to enhance the amount by thirty percent in the next financial year. On being questioned about the reason for she being chosen for the brand, Kangana explains, “It was my my casual looks, I guess. The brand isn’t associated with formal shoes. Only sporty footwear, sneakers etc. They want me to endorse their shoes in my jeans and with my curly hair.”

Kangana is very excited about working with Salman, “It’s a good thought. I’m excited about the ad with Salman. I’ve always been his fan. I think he’s the only rock star in our cinema. I had watched him dance at an awards function and thought I’d be paired with him one day. It’s happening sooner than I thought.”

Big B has bought some land from private farmers in the district’s Daulatpur village, about 40 km from state capital Lucknow, on which he is setting up a high school for girls. He will lay the foundation stone for the school on January 27. Hectic preparations are on at the 10-bigha plot that Big B recently purchased from different farmers in Daulatpur village to build what has been christened the ‘Aishwarya Rai Bachchan Girls Intermediate College’, a school for higher secondary students.

The foundation day will have Amitabh accompanied by wife Jaya, son Abhishek and Aishwarya. To add political spice to the show, there will be Bachchan family friend Amar Singh, the Samajwadi Party general secretary who was instrumental in getting Bachchan the earlier government land allotment in violation of laws.

They made it public this Wednesday when they placed half-a-page advertisement in a marathi newspaper ‘Saamna’ wishing Bal Thackeray on his birthday by Mr Sanjay Dutt and Manyata Dutt. Media is all abuzz with the news that Sanjay and Manyata had tied the knot on October 19, 2006 and that Dutt has her name tattooed on his body.

However, sources close to Dutts say that these are all rumours and that it was Manyata and not Sanjay who is away in Hyderabad shooting, who personally vetted the advertisement before it was sent to print

What is undeniable, however, is that the lady is at present completely in charge of Sanjay’s life and his household and that his sisters, Priya and Namrata and daughter Trishala are not particularly enamoured of her. Recently, one of Sanjay’s close friends points out, Manyata insisted on having the house she shares with Sanjay painted in pink, a fact that did not go down well with the rest of his family. Well, his family may not be in a mood to accept her, but tis true that Manyata has stood by Sanjay through his thick and thin and that Sanjay is completely in love with the lady.

Sohail Khan’s next production ‘Mr. & Mrs. Khanna’ has finally settled with Kareena Kapoor as the female lead opposite Salman Khan. The film to be directed by debutant Prem Soni plans to follow the current trend of Bollywood where a host of big stars do cameos out of their mutual friendship.

The little birdie informs that SRK has agreed to do a cameo for the film owing to his friendship with Sallu Bhai. Sohail is also hoping that Salman will be able to help him get Preity Zinta, Priyanka Chopra and even newcomer Deepika for cameo roles in the film. The shooting for the film is supposed to begin some time in March this year.

Yes, she finally does it- the act which almost all the top Bollywood heroines have done. Kareena Kapoor dons a bikini for Yashraj Films’ ‘Tashan’ which has her off-screen love Saif Ali Khan pairing opposite her. The scene, shot in Greece, was kept under wraps and not many were aware of it. But Kareena was preparing for it for months end. She was on a special diet and power yoga to lose weight.

All the efforts have given their results and reportedly, when Kareena appeared wearing the bikini, jaws dropped on the sets. As for her new beau, Saif, he was cool about it and was happy for Kareena, as she has never looked so sexy and hot. The single shot that shows Kareena in her bikini coming out of a swimming pool is going to be the main USP of the film.

A lot of buzz is there about the remake of Subhash Ghai’s 1980 film about re-incarnation. To be produced by Gulshan Kumar and Krishan Kumar the film is titled ‘Karzzzz’. We had provided you with the first look of this Himesh Reshammiyan starrer and now the latest one is about the female lead who will play the role played by Tina Munim in the original movie. The movie will launch a fresh face named Shweta for the role. Shweta is the daughter of Producer-director Indra Kumar who has given us blockbuster films like Dil, Beta, Ishq, Masti and the recent laugh riot Dhamaal.

Directed by Satish Kaushik, the film also stars Urmila Matondkar, Gulshan Grover, Danny Denzongpa and Rohini Hatangadi. The shooting is scheduled to commence from 25th January and the film will be shot in South Africa, Kenya & Mumbai. T-Series has bought the remake rights from Mukta Arts for the original film ‘Karz’ directed by Subhash Ghai.

Sunday, January 20, saw an array of Bollywood stars on the streets of Mumbai adding glamour and glitter to the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon. Apart from John Abraham and Bipasha Basu, Tina Munim Ambani had gathered Arshad Warsi and Shabana Azmi and Bips to cheer for her Harmony team. Also seen was Priya Dutt among others. Milind Soman and Anil Ambani participated in the marathon.

The top spot went to Kenya’s John Kelai who was awarded the medal by yesteryear actor Vinod Khanna. The 31-year old defending champion proved a class above the rest, covering the gruelling 42-km course in two hours, 12 minutes and three seconds.

Saif Ali Khan is rocking these days, both professionally and personally. With the name of her lady love, Kareena Kapoor, tattooed on his hand (The tattoo goes Kareena in Devanagri script), Chhote Nawab has other new ventures on too. After hotting up the stage in Capital and down South in Bangalore, he has performed live at the Andheri Sports Complex on Sunday with India Rock and Roll Band, ‘Parikrama’. Saif had developed a passion for guitar and rock music at an early age of 13 when he was at the boarding school in the UK.

All the Saif-Parikrama concerts are being held in Jan and Feb 2008. Saif says, “I’ll rehearse in Alibaug. We’ll play in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore. My shootings won’t be affected because I’ll be rehearsing on the weekends. This is something I want to do. It gives me a great high to be on the stage playing and singing.”

Sherlyn Chopra who displayed her outrageous side with her music album ‘Outrageous’ is now set for a noble cause but not without her sensuous image. Yes, the gal will wield whips and chains not to realize some kinky fantasy, but to do an ad for PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals).

According to PETA India’s chief functionary Anuradha Sawhney, the ad will feature Sherlyn in a Victoria’s Secret kind of outfit on a set that would resemble a bedroom. Sherlyn would wield whips and chains in the ad.

The theme of the ad, conceptualized by PETA, would be, “whips and chains should be left to the bedroom and not used on animals in circus.”

Actor Govinda slapping the visitor, Santosh Rai, on the sets of ‘Money Hai To Honey Hai’, this Wednesday has been causing quite a stir lately. The victim Santosh has demanded an apology from Govinda and threatened to drag him to court. He has also filed an FIR at Goregaon police station, accusing Govinda of “physical assault”. A case under Sec 323 has been registered against him.

However, Govinda has no regrets for his action and pleas it as a case of self-defence saying that the man was misbehaving with the artists. Govinda’s action is also being supported by two female artists alleging that Santosh had assaulted them on the sets and that Govinda was right in rebuking him.

“I was just standing with another girl on the sets of Money Hai to Honey Hai. That guy was pushing us around. When he was standing near Govinda and started doing the same things, the actor hit him,” said one of the girls.

The actor’s secretary Shashi Sinha told agencies that Govinda “was provoked by constant disturbance created by the visitor. The man was seated behind Govinda and would continuously hit the chair with his toes whenever the actor would sit down to take a break from the song sequence he was shooting”.

Sushmita Sen may not have been commercially as successful as her contemporaries, but the lady sure is known for her determination and no-nonsense attitude. Recently, Sush returned the signing amount of Rs.2.1 million to producer Vijay Galani who had signed her up for a movie on the ground that she did not get a detailed script of the movie on time as she had been promised.

The actress had initially agreed to do the movie to be directed by Dharmesh Darshan after hearing its narration from the director in August last year. When she was paid advance money out of her total fee of Rs.10.25 million, it was agreed that a bound script would be sent to her in November.

But instead of a script, what she received was a piece of paper in which the director had briefly outlined her role in the movie. Moreover, the role therein was totally different from the one briefed out to her earlier.

Moreover, with Sush backing out from the project, Govinda, the movie’s leading man, also walked out of it saying without the actress playing the female lead, the whole concept of the movie would change. And he would not like that.

Hope, this make everyone clear about about Sushmita’s don’t-take-me-for-granted attitude!

‘Grounshaker 2’ is there again with an impressive line-up of artists like Jazzy B, Hard Kaur, Sukhwinder Shinda, Apache Indian and Aman Hayer. The album also has a hot music video from the Babuji girl, Yana Gupta, who has been out of limelight for quite sometime now. The Czech beauty will rock for a song titled ‘Chad Gayi Daaru’ by Bhangra rapper Jazzy B. Shot by Ajay Jain, the video features Jazzy B, Yana, Aman Hayer and DJ Kendall.

The ‘Groundshaker 2’ album will be launched on February 1 at the Second City Suite, Sherlock Street in Birmingham. The event will reportedly have live performances from some of the artists featured in the album.