Actress Sheena Nayyar is all set for her Bollywood debut with the suspense thriller ‘Mallika’. Following the path of super sexy bombshell Mallika Sherawat, Sheena too has some sizzling scenes in the flick where she stars opposite Sameer Dattani.
The movie, made under the banner of PPC Horrotainment in association with Glorious Entertainment, is directed by Wilson Louis, who is known for making horror thrillers. The movie also stars Himanshu Mallik, Suresh Menon, Rajesh Khera, Arjun Mahajan, and Pooja Ballutia. The flick is all set to hit the screens on 3rd September 2010.
Sheena plays the role of Sanjana who is an arrogant and pricey girl coming from a rich background. Sanjana is haunted by nightmares and vivid visions of a murder that took place in the house years before she moved in. She has a special gift or rather a curse to see the unseen… to witness the dark past of any place she inhabits. Sameer Dattani plays Saahil, a creative director at an Ad agency and a keen violinist.
Check out red hot Sheena at ‘Mallika’ press meet……
Even as ‘Aisha’ is all abuzz about Sonam Kapoor, there is another beauty who is set to making her presence felt with the movie. This is Amrita Puri who is seen in the promos of the flick as the one moaning in pain at a salon, as even getting her eyebrows shaped is alien to her!
In the movie, Amrita plays Shefali Thakkur, a simple girl who gets transformed into a chic modern female with Aisha’s (Sonam Kapoor) help.
Amrita comes from a modeling background and has also done some plays. Her father, Aditya Puri is the HDFC Bank head honcho and Amrita has completed her studies from Bombay Scottish School and St Xavier’s College.
“Acting is not considered a long-term career option and there is no security. Dad did have his reservations, but after completing my postgraduation in mass communications with a stint in an ad agency, when I told him that I wanted to follow my dream, he said:, ‘If you are hellbent on it, follow it, ‘” says Amrita.
Aisha came her way through an SMS. “A friend of mine, I had done theatre with, forwarded me a message informing me about the auditions for this particular character. I found it appealing and sent my portfolio photos to the casting agent. After a round of auditions, I was on! This was followed by grooming sessions in voice, diction and dialogue delivery.”
Talking about the project and her role in it, Puri says, “I am the film’s second lead and did think about it. But the role is such that wherever there is Aisha, there is Shefali. So I had no apprehensions about doing the film.”
“My family and friends are excited to see me on screen. Aisha is my first step in Bollywood and I hope to take many more such steps in it,” she adds.
It is time for the foreign beauties to invade Bollywood world this season. After sizzling Barbara Mori making a much hyped debut in Hindi cinema with ‘Kites’, director director Imtiaz Ali is all set to launch a New York based half Pakistani, half Czech supermodel Nargis Fakhri in his upcoming movie Rockstar. Imtiaz already owns the credit of launching Brazilian supermodel Giselle Monteiro in ‘Love Aaj Kal’. Rockstar will see Nargis playing a dancer with Ranbir Kapoor as her male counterpart in the lead. 21-year-old Nargis has already made her fans vow to her beauty and appeal with her sensuous photo shoot in the 2009 Kingfisher Calendar.
Releasing this Friday is debutant director Vikramaditya Motwane’s “Udaan” which revolves around the story of Rohan (Rajat Barmecha), a teenage boy, who returns home after spending loathing eight years in a boarding school. He finds himself suffocating under his authoritarian father who forces him to work in his father’s steel factory and study engineering against his wishes, thus leading to Rohan’s abandoning the house to pursue his dream of becoming a writer.
Co-produced by Anurag Kashyap, Sanjay Singh and UTV Motion Pictures, this small budget drama features many popular TV stars like Ronit Roy and Ram Kapoor.
“What ‘3 Idiots’ has said, this film will take that forward. The perception of people is changing in society. ‘Udaan’ has a good story to tell,” Kashyap said.
Talking about the film, Motwane says, “a very simple, straightforward film… more than that it’s a very emotional film. It’s about a boy’s journey. The father wants the son to do something and the son wants something different and what happens at the end of the film is the culmination of that relationship.”
“My script was ready in 2003. It took five years to take the picture off the ground. It took so long to get producers, as no one was ready to take the film. It might be because in 2003, multiplexes were not in existence. Today it has become easier…,” he added.
“Udaan” was selected for the Un Certain Regard category at the 63rd Cannes International Film Festival this year.
Having made his mark in Bollywood and proving himself yet again with ‘Rajneeti’, Prakash Jha has rolled up his sleeves once again for his magnum opus ‘Draupadi’, which is touted to be an adaptation of the great Indian epic Mahabharata.
Jha wanted to take Madhuri Dixit for the lead role in his Hindi version but could not do so. Now, for the English version of the movie, Jha has Angelina Jolie in his mind.
Talking to a news daily, Jha said, “‘Draupadi’ is the ultimate tribute to womanhood. I’ve wanted to make it for years. Yes, Madhuri was my choice earlier. But now I’m going to make it as an international film with an international cast on a budget that would make the film a grand epic.”
“The actors have to be exotic in their features since my ‘Draupadi’ would be set in the mountains. If you’ve seen Peter Brooks’s celebrated stage adaptation of the Mahabharata it starred Mallika Sarabhai who does have exquisite features,” Jha said.
Whether or not, Prakash will be able to convince Jolie for the role, only time can tell!!
Bollywood film makers are keen and quick to cash in on any story which creates sensation among the mass, be it Ajmal Kasab’s death sentence or Carol Gracia’s wardrobe malfunction. This time a small time filmmaker has come up with a low budget Bollywood film, ‘Hyderababdi Damaad’ based on the story of pre-wedding hullaboo around Sania Mirza and Shoaib Malik. To top it, the filmmaker did not consider it necessary to even inform Sania about it, rest aside taking a permission. Directed by Jaiprakash, the film has the TV actress Debina Banerjee play the character inspired by Sania with Amar Upadhyaya and Ali Merchant in the cast along with her.
Debina Bonnerjee assured that the tennis star need not be worried. “The film is not a biographical piece of work on Sania. Hyderabadi Damaad will be adequately fictionalised,” Debina said. “Whether it is Jawaharlal Nehru or Indira Gandhi, inspiration can come from anyone. Since Sania is a star tennis player, she will inspire people. We are not going to depict Sania’s life exactly as it is on the screen.”
“We will start shooting the film next month,” said Debina, who has already started working hard to get in shape for her role. “I have lost weight that I had put on to play Sita in the Imagine TV serial Ramayan. Plus, I have hit the gym and am toning my body with horse-riding and kickboxing sessions,” Debina said.
Like with many other Miss India winners and contestants, Miss Universe ‘I Am She’ 2010, Ushoshi Sengupta, too, eyes on Bollywood as her ultimate goal.
“This would be a cliche to say that I don’t want to be an actress. I have grown up thinking of being an actress. I want to do a film with Shah Rukh Khan and given a chance, I would like to do a film like ‘Main Hoon Na’,” Sengupta said.
Sengupta will represent India in the Miss Universe 2010 contest to be held August 23 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, and she is proud of this fact..
“Everyone says that this is a journey, but for me this is the destination and trust me, the feeling of reaching this destination is amazing. When I participated in this contest, I was not thinking of the goal, I was thinking that I have to do it. I must and I will,” Sengupta said adding, “I am so proud to believe that I am going to represent India. I got this opportunity and will make the most of it.”
Sengupta is a humanities graduate from Kolkata’s St Xavier’s, and her father is an ex-Indian Air Force officer and is presently working with the State Bank of India while her mother is a homemaker.
“Kolkata is waiting for me. My parents and friends are super excited. My inbox is inundated with mails, my mobile is buzzing every minute and Facebook has been flooded with messages. To know what’s love, you have to be in Kolkata,” said Sengupta.
The Pakistani gun man Ajmal Kasab had taken the entire nation with the hatred vibe and Bollywood is now all set with its latest movie on Kasab which will hit the screens this May 28. Kasab has been sentenced to death last Thursday and the movie, too, shows Kasab being hanged to death. However, the climax of the movie was shot even before the death sentenced of Kasab was finalized. The film, which is titled ‘Ashok Chakra’ was ealier titled ‘Total Ten’.
“In our film also the terrorist is hanged. We didn’t know that Kasab will be sentenced to death. Keeping the public sentiment in mind, we shot the ‘hanging’ of the terrorist in our film, ” said Rajan Verma, who plays the lead in ‘Ashok Chakra’.
This 2.5 crore film is directed by S P Munishwar and produced by Sapna Films Production.
Even before the Hrithik Roshan- Barabara Mori starrer ‘Kites’ hits the screens, the movie is creating ripples enough about the sensuous and flirty scenes between the two actors, but the international version of the movie seems to have far bolder scenes than the desi version. The international one has a sizzling liplock between topless Barbara with Hrithik Roshan which is censored to the Indian audience. With Nandana Sen’s ‘Rang Rasiya’ already clearing off the censor with topless scenes, the question arises that do movie makers still doubt the maturity of Indian audience.
Payal Rohatgi, who is known for her ‘bold’ image says, “I think the Indian audience is not mature enough. Men download images to gratify themselves but movies are a different genre. Movies are meant for family watching and a raunchy promo will insure that family audiences don’t pull in. So movie makers are also vary,”
Film critic Taran Adarsh says, “At the click of the button you can access information. Technology cannot be curtailed. Anything can be seen online even if you try to keep it away from film prints.”
Eros International and Sajid Nadiadwala are coming up with ‘Housefull’ this summer which is supposed to be re- weaving the magic of hit film ‘Laawaris’ with a remix of the hit “Apni Toh Jaise Taise” featuring none other than hot Jacqueline Fernandez with Akshay Kumar and Riteish Deshmukh.
The makers of the song are quite hopeful for the song to top the charts with the great combo of Jacqueline’s sex appeal and Akki and Riteish’s unmatched comic presence.
The song has been composed by musical duo Shankar Ehsaan Loy and choreographed by ace Farah Khan.
Sri Lankan Jacqueline Fernandez a.k.a Jackie made her Bollywood debut with ‘Aladdin’ opposite Riteish Deshmukh. Once, again she has paired with Riteish to play the role of an alien in ‘Jaane Kahan Se Aayi Hai’.
Jacqueline is not quite comfortable with Hindi. She was told that her voice would be dubbed by a professional once the film reaches the editing stage.
“Exactly, that was the plan”, recollects Jackie, “I had shot all of my scenes while being very comfortable all this while that there would anyways be dubbing happening at a later stage. I just concentrated on getting my act right without really worrying much about pronunciation, spacing etc. because that was far from being perfect.”
However, since her character in the film is that of an alien, director Milap felt that her uncomfortable Hindi would just go right with her character and so he suggested Jackie to dub for her dialogues.
“Being shocked would be an understatement”, laughs Jackie in mock horror, “I pleaded Milap to get someone else on board in the dubbing studio. This is just my second film and I felt that I would ruin it all if audience hears me speaking Hindi in my own sweet accent.
Talking about her dubbing experience, Jackie says, “I wanted to kill myself. Period”, adds Jackie in an animated tone, “I felt that this was the end of it. I wanted to go back to the shoot and re-do everything that I had done as far as mouthing dialogues was concerned.
Come on, I have no qualms in admitting that Hindi is not something that comes naturally to me. But then what can one say when your director feels that it is this ‘not so natural’ trait that he wanted in his ‘alien’ character.”
He was one of the suitors in Rakhi Sawant’s Swayamvar show and despite being a strong contendor he lost. However, Rishikesh-based Manmohan Tiwari has no regrets as the show gave him recognition and he has bagged a role as Awadh Thakur in the soon-to-be-launched show “Jamunia” on NDTV Imagine produced by Beyond Dreams Entertainment Limited. The show will go on air this March.
The show deals with the story of an orphan girl called Jamunia, whose maternal uncle marries her off into a rich palace for money. The palace has a curse that no woman can survive there but Jamunia is unaware of the fact.
“‘Jamunia’ is a tale dedicated to every Indian woman who loves her family dearly and is ready to help and support them in any given situation.
It portrays the power of a woman who can go to any extent to save her family from any harm that befalls them. ‘Jamunia’ exposes the territories and locations never seen on television,” said Yash Patnaik, producer of the show.
Nevertheless, Manmohan gets irritated when he is reminded of the fact that Rakhi’s Swayamvar helped him get a foothold in the glamour world. He says, “But why is the finger being pointed at me? Even Rakhi was playing a game and if she was not questioned, then why me? She fooled 16 men but thankfully God spared me.”
