It was quite an eyeful when music maestro A.R.Rahman came together with Bollywood’s reigning beauty Katrina Kaif. The occasion was the launch of ‘Rhymeskool’ in Mumbai, the music album of nursery rhymes for kids released under Sa Re Ga Ma. The rhymes in the CD have been composed by Rahman and rendered by Katrina Kaif.

The master Rahman expressed his humble gratitude saying, “I want to thank Sa Re Ga Ma for trusting K.M.Music Conservatory with this project. I want to thank Selva who has been mentoring the kids, Johnny my band-mate and also all the staff, teachers from my school who have been working on this project. I would also like to thank Katrina for her kind gesture and for being part of this project.”

Katrina, too, expressed her joy on being associated with the project and said, “Education for children is something that is very important for this country. It’s a topic that is very close to my mother’s and my heart. I would like to thank Sa Re Ga Ma for coming up with such a noble initiative. For me, it was a great honour to be associated with something Rahman saab was doing. I feel really happy being here and hope that we can achieve what we set out to. If the kids like it, we can may be come out with more such interesting concepts in the future.”

Katrina will be distributing the CDs at the Mercy Home orphanage in Madurai that she and her mother are closely associated with.

Hrithik Roshan’s fans have yet another reason to wait his mega project ‘Kites’ as the actor makes his singing debut with the film. As such, the music of the film is being launched on 40 television channels by airing Hrithik’s debut song ‘Kites in the sky’, in English, along with some behind-the-scenes footage on 29th March at 9.30 p.m.

Talking about his feelings as a debutant singer, Hrithik said, “I was nervous to make my debut as a singer, considering I come from a family that is well known in the world of music, but for this very reason my chacha [Rajesh Roshan] and director Anurag Basu were most certain that I could sing. I have given this song my best and honest shot, but I still don’t consider myself a professional singer.”

“Early in the morning, I would start with my sa re ga ma… right from the time I would wake up to brushing my teeth to taking the shower, all the time I sang with hand movements trying to reach the highest scale and the lowest note,” he added.

Talking about his experience of recording the song he said, “I had fallen in love with the art of shutting your eyes from the world and going in meditative state where you just sing. But when I went to the studio, it was a totally different story.

They put you in this little compartment and you are not allowed to move because the mike is fixed. While practicing I had been so mobile. And now I was locked up in one place where I couldn’t even move my legs because the breath shifts in different direction.

Finally, I told them to just switch off all the lights of the studio because I wasn’t being able to get my best out. So they just blacked out the entire studio. I could not even see my mike because it was so dark. This blackout worked and helped me to come out of the inhibitions in the mind. That’s how I finally worked.”

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.

Many Bollywood biggies like Salman, SRK, Big B, Farhan Akhtar and Sanjay Dutt have sung for their films. Now, Ranbir Kapoor has joined the list as he has recorded a song for music director Vishal Shekhar in ‘Anjaana Anjaani’. The recording for this peppy number took place at Vishal Shekhar’s studio in Bandra at 1 am on Wednesday and Ranbir took everyone by surprise as he completed the recording within 45 minutes and was on his way back home before 2:00 a.m. Both Vishal and Shekhar were taken aback by Ranbir smooth, comfortable and confident singing.

The composer Dadlani confirms the news saying, “Yes Ranbir has sung for a sequence in the film. He is going to blow away a lot of people when they hear him.”

Reports also have it that even Priyanka Chopra who stars opposite Ranbir in the film has been proposed to lend her voice for a song in the movie but she is yet to muster up the courage to sing.

Says Dadlani, “Shekhar and I have been talking to PC about singing for us got a long time. It will happen when it happens. We’ll see.”

After displaying his acting and dancing skills, actor Hrithik Roshan is now bent on making his singing talents known. He has crooned for a song in ‘Kites’ and now will also exercise his vocal chords for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Guzaarish’ along with Aishwarya Rai.

Again, this is not the first time for Ash too where she will be experimenting with singing. She has already done a song for Josh along with Shah Rukh Khan. The song has been composed and directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali himself and it was he who wanted the actors to try out the song themselves. Initially both were a little apprehensive but after sitting with the director and talking about the song, both gave a green signal. Apart from singing the duo are also learning Portuguese for the film.”

In Guzaarish, Hrithik plays a paraplegic suffering from impairments of the motor and sensory functions of the lower limbs. Aishwarya Rai plays his nurse in the movie. Given the kind of sparking chemistry displayed by Hrithik-Ash jodi in “dhoom 2’ and ‘Jodhaa Akbar’, this one seems to be the one to watch out for!!

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.

Yanni is the only artist who has had the honors of giving a concert performance in India’s pride Taj Mahal and our Bollywood sex kitten Mallika Sherawat had the pleasure of meeting this talented music group while she was at the Ivy restaurant in Los Angeles with producers of her first American-Indo film “Hisss”. The actress had been there after being invited as a VIP guest to the Kuala Lumpur film festival to present some of the awards.

There she met the legendary multiple Oscar and Grammy winning music producer Ric Wake and world famous New Age composer Yanni. The duo is on a world tour now and will be performing at LA’s Nokia Theatre on June 23 with their current musical tour de force, “Yanni’s Voices”. Mallika was in talks with them to perform in an upcoming special concert in India. The concert may see Mallika doing a snake goddess dance from “Hisss”.

Finally, Himesh Reshammiya has realized that his acting skills are not quite up to the mark. So, even if he hasn’t quit acting, he has decided to attend workshops beginning to shoot for his films. This composer-turned-singer-turned-actor has already finished a major portion of John Mathew Mathan’s film “A Love Issshtory”, and now has moved on to his next project titled ‘Radio’. As the title suggests, Himesh would be playing a radio jockey in the film which is basically a romantic comedy. Beginning 25th May, Radio would embark on a non-stop 60 days schedule.

Before starting the shoot for the film, Himesh attended an acting workshop to get a grip of the charater. “Yes, the character of Vivan that I play in Radio is such that I thought of doing some serious workshops with theatre actors. I’m feeling on top of the world to perform in front of the camera now. The workshop has helped me loosen up further,” said Reshammiya.

Himesh had also attended the workshop for Studio 18’s ‘Ishq Unplugged’, which is directed by Swapna Joshi.

“Henceforth, I will be doing workshops for every film, like I did for Ishq Unplugged and the one I’m doing for Radio. I have completed the shooting of Ishq Unplugged in a 65 day non-stop schedule and now realise how much the workshops have helped,” said Reshammiya.

The funny, witty and the chat show with a uniqueness, “Oye! Its Friday” has come to an end after 15 weeks of entertaining episodes and what better way to end the show than to have the gorgeous lady Shilpa Shetty as the celebrity guest for the last episode.

The episode had Shilpa sharing her experiences with Farhan on meeting Queen Elizabeth and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown after she shot to fame on winning the UK based reality show ‘Big Brother’. She also got candid about her relationship with beau Raj Kundra, the Richard Gere controversy, her team ‘Rajasthan Royals’ and her height being an issue in Bollywood. Farhan also learnt Shilpa’s famous U.P. ‘Thumkas’ at the show.

The episode also had Sukhwinder Singh perform of the Oscar winning number ‘Jai Ho’ and also ‘Haule-Haule’, and ‘Marjaani’. There was also the the breathtaking act of UK’s Delia Du Sol popularly known as Ms Flexible where she left everyone gaping as she squeezed herself into a 21″x 17″x 17″ cube.

It was very thoughtful of Jim Beanz to perform for underprivileged kids from our very hard-up section of the society. Motivated by the “Slumdog Millionaire”, Timbaland productions brought glitter in the eyes of these real life children by hosting a live show at Dharavi, Mumbai.

Timbaland Productions brought cheer among the children, although short lived, by Production crew along with the Accorn Foundation putting in joint efforts. And some of the most wanted performers ascended to show their support. The artists who performed live at the event were- Jim Beanz, Rebel of Timbaland Productions, Apache Indian and Amar. A local band named Sout Dandy Squad also volunteered to contribute their performance for the children.

We applaud Timbaland’s efforts to take some time out of their hectic schedule to do such an impressive act for those less fortunate. Here are some pictures from the live show that was especially for those special kids in Dharavi.

This time, the foruth series of popular TV show ‘Indian Idol’ was unique as the show finally got its first female winner in the form of Sourabhee Debbarma, who won title of ‘Indian Idol 4′ on Sunday ruling out her close contestants the Bengali girl Torsha Sarkar and army man Kapil Thapa. The 22 year old girl who surprisingly has had no professional training in music walked away with a Rs.10 million contract with Sony TV and a car. The result was based on public voting.

The celebrity guests of the finale included Bollywood stars John Abraham, Katrina Kaif and Neil Nitin Mukesh, who had come to promote their forthcoming film ‘New York’.

Others from the Indian film and music industry, including judges Javed Akhtar, Anu Malik, Kailash Kher and Sonali Bendre, too were present to cheer the finalists.

This time it is the item girl and singer Susheel Jangira who is accompanying Mika in his new album which Mika has termed as humorous. In one such song of the album, that is about boys roam about coffee shops and date with girls. Get the meaning of Mika’s words from the shots below from the song.