The much-awaited big budgeted film ‘Robot’ marked its music launch at a suburban five star in Mumbai with the honor of having two superstars of the Indian film industry - Amitabh Bachchan and Rajnikant sharing the dais after a long long time.

The two iconic stars were all praises for each other. Rajnikanth said, ‘Amitabh is my inspiration, role model and guru. I have always valued his advice while taking important decisions. We have done so many films together like ANDHA KANOON, HUM, GIRAFTAR, and I can never forget the love, affection and care he showered on me’

A humble Big B too praised Rajni saying, ‘Rajnikanth is truly a son-of-the soil who is admired and loved by every Indian. I am just so honored and happy that I met a personality like Rajnikanth. And I am so happy that I was able to spend some time of my life with him and learn so much from him. His simplicity, honesty, and down-to-the-earth nature has always impressed me. I admire him because of his tender heart and humility. He is so grounded despite the adulation and fame he has enjoyed throughout his career.’

‘Many a times there were some very tough decisions to be taken, at that point I always remembered him as a colleague and a very dear friend and tried to think what Rajni would have done if he had been in this particular situation and I’ve always found a capable answer, despite of the tumult circumstances & stressful situations,’ he further added.

The gathering could not have asked for more with the entire Bachchan family - Amitabh, Jaya, Abhishek and Aishwarya, Media magnate & Producer Kalanithi Maran of Sun TV Network, Hansraj Saxena, COO, of Sun Pictures (a division of Sun TV Network) along with the lead cast & crew of the film consisting of Superstar Rajnikanth, Oscar winners - music maestro A R Rahman & sound engineer Resul Pookutty, Music moghuls Ganesh Jain, Ratan Jain, Champak Jain of Venus Records & Tapes, director Shankar, Sabu Cyril, legendary Danny Denzongpa, gracing the affair.

Aishwraya Rai Bachchan, looking as gracious as ever said, ‘ROBOT (ENDHIRAN) is a sincere effort. It is a landmark film in cinematic experience. Rajni sir is a legend. He is just an incredible artist, so dedicated, so committed and above all a wonderful human being. It’s truly humbling to be working with such a phenomena and I am grateful. I had the privilege of working with director Shankar very early in my career for the film JEANS. Though it was ahead of its time but I felt enriched as an artist.’

It was ironical when Kareena Kapoor who was voted as the best dressed celebrity along with Karan Johar faced a wardrobe malfunction at the unveiling of the 1st anniversary issue of the Starweek magazine. The actress was attired in a blue short dress teamed up with red shoes. However, as the actress sat cross legged at the event, little did she realize that she had raised quite a few eyebrows then.

However, this is not the first time that an actress revealed more than what was desired as she sat cross legged at a public event. Hope this makes Bebo a little more careful next time with a short dress!!

Spain is bubbling with the cast and crew of Zoya Akhtar’s ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ who are there for the shoot of the first schedule of the film. Being shot in Spain, the movie will feature many of its local customs and traditions.

The ‘running of the bull’ ritual is very popular in Spain and Hrithik, Farhan and Abhay participated in it to shoot a scene for the film. Looking their handsome best in the traditional costume of red and white, the three actors ran along with a group of locals while being chased by running bulls and this scene is supposed to be one of the film’s major highlights.

Every year from July 7th-14th thousands pack into Pamplona to start Spain’s most famous bull-running fiesta to honour Navarre capital’s patron saint, San Fermin. Spain stages more than 3, 000 fiestas (festivals) each year but the seven days of bull running are the favorite in terms of spectacle and excitement.

Zoya also shot another popular custom - a tomato-throwing match where opponents douse each other in tomato pulp- with Katrina Kaif and the three male leads of the film.

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.

Time and again Bollywood film makers have drawn inspirations from real lives of real people though they abstain from claiming the story to be based on anyone. After Kasab and Sania Mirza and Abu Salem, the next in row is Haji Mastaan who is said to be the inspiration behind Ekta Kapoor’s ‘Once Upon A Time In Mumbai‘.

However, the connection of his late father with Ekta’s flick has not gone down well with Sundar Shekhar Mirza, Haji Mastan’s adopted son who has taken action against the daily soap queen by serving a legal notice to Balaji Telefilms and director Milan Luthria for making a movie based on the life of his late father without taking Mastan family’s consent first.

In addition, Mirza has objections to the fact that the flick hints at the link between Mastan and Dawood Ibrahim, a declared terrorist by the Indian government in the March 12, 1992 Bombay blasts and against whom the US Government too has issued a red alert.

Seems, Ekta Kapoor is stuck up in legal hassles this time.

Despite controversies and boycotts, the 11th edition of the IIFA Weekend kick started in Sri Lanka with the host country rolling out the red carpet for glamorous Bollywood actors. The ceremony has been boycotted by the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce as a mark of protest against the alleged mistreatment of the Tamils in the country. Bollywood biggies like the Bachchans and SRK are also giving the extravaganza a miss. While Big B is currently shooting in Gujarat, Abhishek is in Istanbul for a film shoot and daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai is in Paris to promote a brand. SRK is busy with the post production details of his forthcoming ‘Ra 1’.

Stars such a Hrithik Roshan, Salman Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Bipasha, Lara, Neha, Kangana, Dia, Jacqueline, Riya, Sophie and many more were given a warm welcome by the Lankan fans as they arrived at the Bandarnaike International Airport.

Check out the glittering and dazzling stars as they attend IIFA red carpet on June 5, 2010.

After Sudhir Mishra made Kareena Kapoor go through rehearsals and some solid background work for her role in ‘Chameli’ director Madhur Bhandarkar has come up with a unique idea to gear up Kareena for her role in “Heroine”.

Madhur has chosen four legendry Hollywood beauties, Eva Gardner, Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe and Vivien Leigh, and has roped in their lives in a three hour documentary for Kareena’s reference. However, he couldn’t get enough visual material on the classical Indian screen beauties to put into the documentary for Kareena’s reference.

“When I set out to put together a documentary chronicling the lives of the screen legends I was also simultaneously enhancing my own knowledge of them to make Kareena’s character of Mahi Khanna more rounded complete and contemporary,” Bhandarkar said adding, “For example, take Vivien Leigh. Her stormy relationship with Sir Laurence Olivier is so eventful, dramatic, passionate and romantic. Unfortunately there’s no valid and substantial footage on Madhubala or Meena Kumari revealing their relationship with Kishore Kumar and Kamal Amrohi respectively. I do want Kareena to refer back to our great actresses like Madhubala, Nargis and Nutan. But I can only brief her verbally on our screen legends. It’s really sad.”

However, Kareena will be able to see the documentary only when she’s free in September-October as she is shooting for ‘Ra.1′ and ‘Golmaal 3′ now.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali has long time back announced his plans to make a film titled ‘Heera Mandi’, apparently based on the famous red light area in the walled city of Lahore. However, he had later shelved the idea, but the grapevine has it that Bhansali has now decided to start this project soon and the lead roles in the movie will be played by the cream of Bollywood- Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Preity Zinta and Kareena Kapoor. Sanjay had initially wanted Madhuri Dixit, Rani Mukherjee and Sonam Kapoor for lead roles.

Sanjay will start working on the film as soon as he wraps up with his ambitious project ‘Guzaarish’ starring Hrithik and Aishwarya. With three beautiful and very talented actresses sharing the screen space, the project definitely seems to be a promising one!!!

The volcanic ash has not only crashed the private plans of some of our Bollywood stars but have also given sleepless nights to our prodcers. One such producer is Said Nadiawala whose summer comedy ‘Housefull’ which is set to release this 30th is facing a filemma as the commerical flights have been cancelled and  as per release rules the delivery overseas has to be made a week in advance of the release day.

So, Sajid Nadiawala is left with no other option but to hire private jets to take the prints of his movie to England and other European countries.

“This is most unforeseen. In all my years as a producer I’ve never encountered such a a crisis. There’re about a 100 prints to be taken into the Europe. Air traffic has come to a standstill.

I’m hiring private jets to carry the prints to the nearest city with an open air base. From there the prints will be taken to various Euopean cities by train or road. I’m so desperate I’m ready to employ any means of transporation…planes, trains, automobiles, whatever is available,” said Sajid.

Apart from the extra expenditure, Sajid also has other things to worry about. He says, “It doesn’t really matter how much money it would cost. The important thing is to get the prints to the European centres on time. Or else the entire overseas release would be affected.”

Sajid is in no mood to celebrate the completion of his movie ‘Anjaana Anjaani’ and says, “Ranbir Kapoor had a wrap-up party for Anjaana Anjaani. But I wasn’t able to attend because of the these two back-to-back crisis at my workplace. Now I’ll celebrate only when Housefull is released properly everywhere.”

Both of them are best in their respective fields. Both of them have contributed a lot to the film industry. Now, both of them are finally coming together for the forthcoming “Ferrari Ki Sawaari”.

Talking about filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra and actor Shahrukh Khan, the former had  offered the actor roles in many of his previous films like `Kareeb`, `1942-A Love Story`, `Munnabhai MBBS` and even `3 Idiots`, but it did not work out owing to the differences between the two.

However, the differences seem to be fading away now and the two are very friendly with each other. This can be understood with the fact that the superstar has finally given a nod to Vidhu’s “Ferrari Ki Sawaari.” The film revolves around the story of how an Indian cricket legend’s Ferrari makes a young boy’s dream of playing cricket at Lord’s come true.

Madhur Bhandarkar who has been known for his films dealing with real time issues like ‘Fashion’, ‘Page 3’, ‘Traffic Signal’ has always been fascinated by the life and awe of legendry Merlyn Monroe and has been planning to do a movie on her since a long time. He has also done a thorough research on the life of Monroe to understand her better.

Finally, he has come up with a script based on the life of Merlyn Monroe and the actress who has been chosen for this role of a lifetime is none other than the fashion diva of Bollywood, Kareena Kapoor. With Kareena finalized to play the role of this Hollywood actress, Bhandarkar is on a search for the male lead of his film.

Pankaj Kapoor had a number of options in his mind for the female lead of his project ‘Mausam’ opposite his son Shahid Kapoor right from Shatrughan Sinha’s daughter Sonakshi, Govinda’s daughter Narmada, to Alyque Padamsee’s daughter Shazahn Padamsee and Anil Kapoor’s daughter Sonam Kapoor.

Among all the star daughters who were strong contenders for the role, the one who bags in the role is Sonam Kapoor who has the vote of not only all the unit members of the film but also of Pankaj’s wife Supriya Pathak who had developed a fondness for the girl while shooting for ‘Delhi 6’ along with her.

It may be mentioned here that Sonam was chosen for the film without an audition.