The ‘Smack That’ singer Akon is on a three-day visit to Mumbai to compose and record a song for SRK’s ‘Ra 1’ and Shahrukh is leaving no stones unturned to give the singer a very warm welcome. Akon got a traditional Indian welcome from Shah Rukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor during a press meet in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Akon has also worked with A R Rahman on the album Freedom is Beautiful.
Asked whether he plans to work with other artists too, Akon replied, “I have worked extensively in America and after America, India will be my next big focus because I have got so much support here. Soon you will see me working with other groups too. I am planning a world tour and hopefully we will have a number of shows in India.”
For Ra One, I will be composing and singing a song. I will also appear in it. I want to give Shah Rukh different versions of the same song to choose from,” he added.
Again, SRK hosted a bash at JW Marriot for Akon. The party was more in news due to the absence of SRK’s one time very close friend Farah Khan. It was Gauri Khan who approved the guest list and insiders have it that the Morani brothers, who organised the party, were specifically told to leave out Farah’s and her husband Shirish Kunder’s names.
However, as soon as Khan became aware of this blunder, he told Moranis to invite Farah, but it was too late by then.
The party had glittering celeb list including Sherlyn Chopra, Riya Sen, Poonam Dhillon, Claudia Ciesla, Aarti Chhabria, Gauhar Khan, Anushka Manchanda, Sonal Chauhan, Rannvijay Singh, Madhu, Gaurav Chopra and Vidhu Dara Singh among others.
Freida Pinto’s role as Latika in Danny Boyle’s multi-Oscar-winning film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ has done wonders for Freida Pinto’s career who is now getting fame, recognition and plum roles in Hollywood projects.
She has already completed shooting Woody Allen’s ‘You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger’ opposite Josh Brolin and Naomi Watts, and Israeli film ‘Miral’ under Julian Schnabel’ direction where she plays the lead role.
Now, she has bagged in yet another project where she will play the role of a Greek priestess in War of the Gods. The film, about the Greek mythology, will be directed by Tarsem Singh and begins production in April. The film will be produced by Gianni Nunnari of Hollywood Gang Prods, Mark Canton of Atmosphere Entertainment and Relativity topper Ryan Kavanaugh.
The movie deals with the story of a young warrior Theseus who leads his men into battle with the immortal Greek gods to defeat evil and the powerful elder gods of the Titans in order to save mankind. Freida here plays Phaedra, an oracle priestess joins Theseus to prevent the cataclysmic war from erupting.
It seems like Bollywood has lost Mallika Sherawat completely to Hollywood. The latest project bagged in by this sexy bombshell is ‘Love Barack’ where she is cast opposite none other than AVATAR co-star Laz Alonso. The movie is a political romantic comedy set during the frantic and intoxicating days leading up to 2008 U.S. Presidential election to be directed by Doug McHenry. The script has been written by Los Angeles Times contributing writer Gary Goldstein and Francis Kenny is the Director of Photography.
Mallika Sherawat will play the female lead and central character Aretha Gupta, a devoted, local Obama volunteer coordinator. The story is based on a romantic and political rollercoaster that develops when, the month before Election Day, Democrat Aretha unexpectedly falls for her Republican counterpart (Alonso), a handsome, dynamic African-American working for the local McCain office.
Other stars that make up the cast include veteran actress Ruby Dee (Best Supporting Actress Oscar Nominee for 2007’s American Gangster) has also joined, comedy veteran Gerry Bednob and Loretta Devine.
No wonder an elated Sherawat says, “Laz Alonso is a talented and exciting actor. I’m very lucky to be working with him.”
Shahrukh Khan is leaving no stones unturned to make his superhero flick ‘Ra 1’ from his production house Red Chillies Entertainment a grand one. After roping in Kareena Kapoor as the female lead, he has now his eyes set on the Hollywood action legend Jackie Chan. The production house has sent him a detailed script with the action scenes and a brief synopsis of his character and is awaiting an affirmative nod from him. Jackie is being considered for the role of a scientist who helps SRK in fighting off the bad guys.
Ra1 will be shot in Miami and Hollywood crew is being used for the film. Cinematography is by Ueli Steiger (”The Maiden Heist”), while David Benullo (”Shadow Man”) is screenwriter.
Anil Kapoor has made his debut on the American television through the 8th season of the Emmy awards winning TV series 24 which premiered this Sunday on 17th January. In This action-packed drama, Anil plays the leader of a middle-eastern country depicting a 24-hour period in the life of a government agent fighting fictitious terrorist threats to the US. Anil will be seen as an Indian counter-terrorist cop who works with Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), an agent for the Los Angeles Counter Terrorist Unit.
Explaining the reason for playing the middle-eastern character, Anil says, “I am very clear that I won’t play Indian characters in international projects unless they’re really special. I’ve told my agent to seek out parts that are not culture-specific, but have character.”
In a recent interview to Fox News, Anil said, “It’s the first time that I’m doing television. I’ve been doing feature films for around 30 years. Not only was I excited that I was doing 24, but I was also anxious and nervous that I was doing something for the first time in my life.”
“People told me, `No matter what happens, you have to be on 24! My son, my daughter, my friends. 24 is very popular in India. Five or six years back, I was introduced to it by my colleagues who would watch it in their trailers,” added Kapoor.
24, that went on air in 2001, is the second-longest running espionage series, after the Mission: Impossible series.
The Pretty Woman star and Oscar winning actress, ‘Julia Roberts’ is at present in India for the shoot of director Ryan Murphy’s film ‘Eat, Love and Pray’ along with co-star Richard Jenkins. The film is being shot in a Haryana village, around eight km from Pataudi which is the royal seat of Saif’s family.
Julia met Saif’s mom Sharmila Tagore in Patuadi and when she came to know that Kareena would be playing her part in the Hindi remake of the Hollywood hit ‘Stepmom’ starring Roberts and Susan Sarandon, she expressed her desire to meet her son Saif and Bebo.
Bebo is at present busy shooting a song with Aamir Khan, Sharman Joshi and Madhavan for ‘3 Idiots’ in Mumbai and has apparently asked for a day off so that she could fly to Pataudi for the planned dinner with Julia Roberts.
So, may be we would see Saifeena have their dream dinner with this Oscar winning pretty actress.
Seems that Bollywood has lost its bombshell Mallika Sherawat to Hollywood completely for the babe is being seen more at Hollywood’s prestigious events than in Bollywood’s desi events. It has just been a few weeks when she was seen brushing shoulders with Hollywood’s who’s who on the red carpet for the Brad Pitt starrer ‘Inglourious Basterds’.
Now the sex siren has proudly announced on her Twitter page that she has been invited to the premiere of Jane Campion’s ‘Bright Star’ in Los Angeles. Mallika added on her twitter page that she adores Jane Campion’s critically acclaimed film ‘The Piano’.
For her desi fans she tweeted on to say that she plans to return to India very soon, but only for a few weeks it seems. Currently, she is keeping her fingers crossed for her maiden Hollywood venture, Hisss, which she revealed is in the editing stage and is set for release later this year.
The Terminator hero, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who presently is decorating seat of Governorship of California, has invited Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan to meet him on September 20 in Washington as an effort to diffuse tension resulted from the alleged detention of Shah Rukh Khan US border officials in a New York airport last weekend.
Shah Rukh, who is featured in the list of ‘50 Most Influential People’ told experience at the Newark Airport to be embarrassing. It is still uncertain whether Mr. Khan would accept this invitation. In meantime he has signed £125 million deal with Fox-Searchlight in US to distribute his latest movie ‘My Name is Khan’ that is based on racial tension as erupted aftermath of 9/11 terror attacks.
After retuning back to India, he said, “I am scared of authorities and rules, so I try to follow the rules of the country I travel to,” he said. He again said, “Whenever I am in America, I have to report at least two hours in advance while traveling within the country for security reasons - they ask me to take off my clothes and shoes, and I do that. “But I never experienced this kind of treatment.”
With her forthcoming Hollywood project ‘Hisss’ on its way to completion, the bosom beauty Mallika Sherawat is more seen in Hollywood these days than in Bollywood. Be it the premieres or the red carpet, twitter headquarters or private parties, she seems to be everywhere brushing shoulders with who’s who of Hollywood.
Recently she was seen in a titsy bitsy revealing black dress at the premiere of Brad Pitt starrer ‘Inglourious Basterds’ in LA. There she also seemed to have bumped into director Quentin Tarantino on the red carpet as she has since put up pictures of her meeting with Tarantino on her Twitter profile. On the day of the premiere, she had posted this on Twitter, “What should I wear to the Tarantino premiere tonight? Would something scandalous be appropriate?” On the way to the event, she posted, “Hanging out in the limo on the way to the Inglourious Basterds premiere.”
Seems the beauty is enjoying all the attention she is getting. Check out her skimpy dress and the joyous glow on her face in the pics from the event.
They might be denying the rumors of their romantic linkup, but just one look at the glowing couple exuding warmth and joy in each other’s company and there is no doubt about the fact that they do share something special between them. Still basking in the success of their Oscar-winning debut venture, ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, Dev Patel and Freida Pinto made an appearance on the stage before the Film4 Summer Screen screening of ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ at Somerset House in London.
The couple were so glued to each other all night that it seemed that they no longer cared anymore for keeping their romance under wraps. Insiders also have it that Dev has been paying visits to Freida’s London hotel. Freida is staying at The May Fair Hotel and, even though Dev doesn’t have a room there, he has been there constantly.
The music and glamour world suffered a grave loss in the late afternoon hours of this Thursday on the 25th of June as it witnessed the death of 50 years old legendary star Michael Jackson. He breathed his last at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. His death probably took place due to an overdose of drugs followed by a cardiac arrest.
There was large scale mourning on the death of this superstar with people gathering at Harlem, Apollo Theatre and Times Square in New York, his home town of Gary, Indiana and everywhere else in the country. Jackson was preparing for an epic 50-concert program in London, the first of which was on July 13th, but now the star will never be seen performing again.
Michael Jackson was born on Aug. 29, 1958 in Gray, Indiana. He started his musical career with his brothers, at the age of 11. His greatest creation which tasted the highest success was his album ‘Thriller’ in 1982. By touching a record sale of 65 million copies it has been the highest selling album of all time and is still going.
Definitely, after a number of Oscar awards nomination for ‘SlumDog Millionaire’ it must have developed an interest for Hollywood stars to act in a movie produced in India and many have started working on projects. Among the stars, who are inline for shooting in Bollywood, the most noted one is ‘Basic Instinct” star Sharon Stone!
51 years old star has agreed to work in a movie titled, ‘Lost Love’ that would be directed by Tapan Saha. Her role is based on character of Maxine from Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, “The Namesake”. She soon would be busy in shooting for movie in Mumbai and Kolkata to be produced either by Lighthouse or Lionsgate productions along with Sampurn Entertainment. For the shooting of the movie, Tapan Saha would also be co-coordinating with Hollywood script writers as well. Sharon’s character is about a daughter of a rich business family settled in Los Angeles and duped by her Indian boyfriend and her efforts to search for her love on her journey to India.
