Nawab Shah or SRK: Who is the villain in 'Don 2'?

New Delhi: Shah Rukh Khan is not the only villain of Farhan Akhtar's 'Don 2'. Nawab Shah, who has been doing small roles till now, will also be seen as a baddie in the film. Apparently every member of the crew including Shah Rukh and Farhan Akhtar has prises for Nawab Shah's hard work.
Shah Rukh Khan has been showering accolades over the actor for his good looks and acting. In fact, he has compared Nawab Shah's performance and screen presence with Arjun Rampal in 'RA.One'.
Rampal's performance as 'RA.One' had emerged as one of the highlights of the film. Therefore Nawab Shah will also be hoping for a good show at the box office.

Superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who began his 'Don 2: The King Is Back' multi-city promotional tour, is impressed with the final cut of the movie - and hopes the audience likes it as much.
IBNLive
Although 'Don 2' is a big break for Nawab Shah but his face is not unfamiliar to the audiences. His career in Bollywood is 11 years old.
Shah had debuted in the year 2000 with director Rajeev Kumar's 'Raja Ko Rani Se Pyar Ho Gaya'. The film had Arvind Swamy and Manisha Koirala in the lead. Nawab Shah had nothing much to do in the film and thus he went unnoticed.
His next film 'Be-Lagaam' also failed to create any stir at the ticket window. Ujjal Chattopadhyay's 'Escape from Taliban' was the first film which had given Nawab the chance to prove his talent. The story was more or less centred on Sushmita (Manisha Koirala) but Nawab did a satisfactory job as Jaanbaaz Khan. Unfortunately the film bombed at the box office.
'Parwana', 'WOH', and 'Dukaan' also met with the same fate and Nawab's wait for recognition prolonged. Farhan Akhtar's 'Lakshya' and Saurabh Shukla's 'Chehraa' fetched some admiration for the hard working actor but he was still not getting pivotal roles.
Bollywood is known for featuring stereotypes and Nawab Shah understood it the hard way. Nawab's muscular built and distinguished face inspired the Hindi film directors to cast him in typical roles of Pakistan funded terrorist or a hit man. There couldn't be a more suitable example than 'Aagey Se Right' to prove this typecasting.
Finally the actor has got the meaningful role of a central villain in 'Don 2', that too against Shah Rukh Khan who himself is playing a gangster in the film.

Source : http://ibnlive.in.com/news/nawab-shah-or-srk-who-is-the-villain-in-don-2/211949-8-66.html

Ghajini takes lead on the internet too

This year's best kept secret just upped the suspense quotient on the web! The makers of Ghajini are capitalizing the potential of the web to create maximum visibility for the film. Hungama, the largest aggregator, developer and publisher of Indian entertainment content globally, has created a innovative website www.rememberghajini.com. However, in addition to this website are the two virals: www.findghajini.com and www.wallofsuspects.com that grip the user and give him an experience like the movie, over the Internet.

The official website of the movie is one of a kind. For the first time, a movie website does not talk about the movie. That's right! The website maintains the suspense of this movie and does not provide a synopsis, while keeping the user engaged in a multitude of videos and images. What even further differentiates the website is that true to the theme of the film, the website refreshes itself every fifteen minutes. No matter which section the user is accessing, every fifteen minutes you are driven back to the homepage. To support it, there is a timer that runs at the bottom of each page.

The producers of Ghajini and Hungama believe this initiative has all the elements that will attract the online audiences to the theatres. Exclusive videos of Aamir Khan have been shot and used for the viral www.findghajini.com. In this viral application, the user plays the role of Sanjay Singhania (character played by Aamir Khan) and tries to find Ghajini through the clues provided. After the user finds a clue, he/ she is given a hint about where one might find the next one. After one finds all the clues, the user needs to dial a phone number on which one can hear Aamir Khan talking to them.

Commenting on the new route explored for Ghajini, Madhu Mantena, producer of Ghajini says, "Ghajini is a film with tremendous potential, and therefore we felt we owed it to the film to invest time and creativity in the marketing program. We strongly believe in giving each and every film the maximum attention possible to create a space in the audience's minds that merely does not create awareness but instead goes a step further to ensure a 'buy-in' to the film by creating a sense of anticipation and excitement. To achieve this thrust, promoting the movie online was extremely important. And it is for all to see that the website has fabulously brought forth the interesting elements of the film, giving viewers a complete experience of the film without revealing the plot and simultaneously engaging the viewer."
Source: http://entertainment.oneindia.in/bollywood

Aamir and Salman not conspiring against Shahrukh Khan

Aamir Khan has always maintained a steady relationship with both Shahrukh Khan and Salman Khan. He has never gone overboard with his friendship like the other two Khans nor seen his relationship with either of them hitting a rock bottom. But over the last few months Aamir and Salman are seen getting closer which may have a ripple effect on Aamir's relationship with Shahrukh.

Aamir has rubbished rumours that he and Salman are teaming up against Salman. The Ghajini star added that both of them were his friends and he treated them as individuals. He categorically denied being a part of any camp in Bollywood. Shahrukh and Salman have been at loggerheads after they had argument during Katrina Kaif's birthday bash.

Aamir Khan had appeared on Salman's television show 10 Ka Dum while Salman returned the favour by making a portrait of Aamir's character in Ghajini and unveiling it with Asin. There are talks of both the stars wanting to make a sequel of their hit movie Andaz Apna Apna. Only time will tell whether Aamir's relationship with SRK remains the same considering his closeness to Salman.
Source: http://entertainment.oneindia.in/bollywood

Michael Jackson's 'personal invitation' to Shilpa Shetty

It was a poignant moment for Shilpa Shetty when she received a personal invitation from the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, who, these days calls himself Mikaeel Jackson... What was the invitation all about? Well, it was for his brother, Jermaine Jackson's birthday bash, a bash that Michael himself was planning.

Jackson's brother was one of the contestants of Big Brother along with Shilpa Shetty and Jade Goody. Besides Shilpa, Jackson has also sent an invite to Jade. We're told both these foes-turned-friends had been specially invited as 'Chief Guests' for Jermaine's birthday. Can you 'beat it'?

Needless to say, Shilpa was very excited to get a personal invitation from the King of Pop himself. But the big question is: Is she going?
Tab: Shilpa Shetty, Shilpa Shetty, Shilpa Shetty, Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson,
Source: http://movies.indiatimes.com/

Bollywood King: SRK goes on power trip

Actor Shah Rukh Khan has been labeled the world's biggest movie star by the US based magazine Newsweek. SRK has been rated among the 50 most powerful people in the world along with Sonia Gandhi, Dalai Lama and many more.

SRK has been ranked 41st in the 50 most powerful people in the world by Newsweek.

King Khan is ahead of international biggies including Oprah Winfrey, the Dalai Lama and Jim Rogers among others.

Newsweek described Shah Rukh as the 'King of Bollywood' and applauded his secularism. The magazine quoted "Khan makes devoutly secular films where love trounces bigotry".

"I've never thought of myself as that special. I just thought I'm a mere actor who is doing his job. But this is quite amazing. I just happened to be at the right place at the right time. I just have maintained that I have already got much more than I deserve, so I need to be returning back by doing more work," said SRK.

"I tell everyone; don't give me numbers, only telephones have numbers. Don't give me stars, only hotels have stars so I'm neither of the two. I just try and do my best and work as hard as I can do and entertain people. I've always like sports. So I've always said that if I do any kind of social work. Socially relevant work more than social work it will be towards sports in India," he said.

With his latest release Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi winning the audience over, SRK indeed is the King of Bollywood.
Source: http://ibnlive.in.com/news

Movie Review: Ghajini - Aamir Khan at his explosive best, two thumbs up

Actor Aamir Khan's latest film Ghajini rocked the box office, taking in 100 per cent collections across the country on its opening day Thursday, an executive of the movie's India distributor said.

Aamir Khan, who was present at the trial run of the movie at a preview theatre in Mumbai Wednesday, reportedly said that "Ghajini" has created a record by becoming the first Bollywood movie in recent times for which the tickets had been sold in advance for all five days of the opening week across the country.

According to trade reports, in view of the unprecedented audience expectation for the film, the multiplexes are asking the distributors to increase the number of prints. The decision in this regard has not yet to be taken.

The movie has been released within the country with 1,400 prints. Reliance BIG Pictures has released 213 prints overseas.

Meanwhile, Ghajini raked in Rs 70 million during 650 paid previews at multiplexes in India on Wednesday. "Although the movie has not received uniform favourable reviews, the hype created around it has worked wonders and there is little doubt that the movie will turn out to be a superhit," said trade analyst V Verma.

Aamir Khan has surpassed himself in terms of acting in his latest movie Ghajini, which is not surprisingly being billed as the Bollywood blockbuster of 2008.

In Ghajini, Aamir fans will not be disappointed, for this is perhaps the first movie where Aamir successfully combines the two images of a hero - the chocolate boy and the macho man - in a film woven around tragic love and vendetta.

In other words, Aamir excels himself in this Bollywood remake of A.R. Murugadoss' Tamil film Ghajini (which itself is an adaptation of Christopher Nolan's Memento).

So what is the story about? Well, Ghajini revolves around the lives of Aamir Khan, a shy business tycoon (Sanjay Singhania) bored of bureaucratic nonsense and running a business empire and Kalpana (played by Asin who was in the original Tamil movie too), who is the girl every man would like to take home to meet his mother. For she not only has a great sense of humor, but also has a heart of gold helping everybody out of the way.
Source: http://movies.ndtv.com
http://in.ibtimes.com/

Ghajini in court over copyright violation

In an instant-replay version of what happened with Yashraj Films' Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic, the producers of Ghajini woke up on Monday morning to a court summon from the producers one KBC Pictures, claiming that they've the rights to remake the Tamil Ghajini and that Aamir's film is therefore an infringement of their (KBC's) copyright.

The film titled Kahani Ghajini Ki has an Amitabh Bachchan lookalike in the lead. Hassled and frazzled by the pre-release procedures, Ghajini's producer Madhu Mantena rushed to court on Monday morning where the honourable judge allowed him to go ahead with the release procedure, arguing why the allegedly aggrieved party waited till a few days before the release of Ghajini to express his grievance. But the producers of Ghajini have been asked to return to court on December 24, a day before the film's worldwide release.

Says Madhu, "This is such a blatant and crude method to stop our film's release. Obviously, the honourable judge saw through it and asked us to proceed, though we are supposed to present ourselves again in court on December 24. But it's a rather sad misuse of the judiciary by people who have nothing better to do than harass others. Where do they get the time to indulge in such transparently-fraudulent efforts? I mean, who had ever heard of Kahani Ghajini Ki until now? At least, I hadn't."

Iqbal, the producer of Kahani Ghajini Ki, claims that KBC Pictures made a film by the said name, which has the same story as Ghajini, and that it cost them Rs 10 crores. Says Madhu, "It seems to me that this is nothing but an effort to make money by putting out a false case." Fortunately, Ghajini's release is unlikely to get affected. "We're holding special previews on 24 December before the release, but no premiere. The only time Aamir Khan had a premiere was for Imran's Jaane Tu...Ya Jaane Na. He's a better producer than I am."

Aamir Khan doesn't approve of premieres. Madhu adds, "Even the mood at the moment is not conducive for celebrations. A premiere is too much of a hassle at the moment with so much happening around." All efforts to locate Iqbal of KBC Films failed.
Source: http://entertainment.oneindia.in/bollywood

Aamir Khan markets Ghajini, people get bald look

Ghajini is next week's big release and Aamir Khan is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the film releases with a bang. Among the innovative marketing drives for Ghajini was this attempt to get people to copy his now famous bald look from the film.

Over a 100 employees of a leading multiplex chain got themselves Aamir's bald look from Ghajini and Monday morning saw Aamir himself posing with his look alikes.

“I think that the staff and the chain are being a part and viewing this film as an event, I'm very happy,” says Aamir Khan.

And it is believed that the staff members were not forced to go under the barber's scissors.

“My girl friend was opposing this but I said I will do it,” says a staff member from the Big Cinemas.

But if you don’t get to meet Aamir, you can catch a full sized Aamir Khan statue with his 8pack intact at any mutliplex near you.

“The intention of the statue is just like that of a trailer for the movie,” adds Aamir Khan.

Hopefully the film delivers much more than the trailers promise.
Source: http://ibnlive.in.com/

Rab Ne Di Jodi sees heavy booking

Success is synonymous with Shahrukh Khan. He had two releases last year and both were big hits. Chak De India was a hit and Om Shanti Om also did very well at the box office. This year, he has only one release in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi but the situation is quite different this time around.

Many promising Bollywood films including Yuvvraaj and Dil Kabbadi have succumbed to the recent terror attacks in Mumbai. Many choose to avoid public places like theatres and malls after the barbaric incident. Moreover, the economic recession has hit the country hard. This has cast doubt in the minds of the people if Shahrukh's Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi would survive the test. It is in fact his biggest challenge ever.

This may not be the favorite time for film releases but the makers of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi are sure of their product. In the film, Shahrukh Khan plays a common man, who transforms himself in order to fulfill his lover's ambition. He makes his girl fall in love with him over and over again. Newcomer Anushka Sharma plays Shahrukh's love interest in the film.
Source: http://entertainment.oneindia.in/bollywood

Bollywood set to take on Hollywood

Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester in London's tony Park Lane is the kind of pricey restaurant dealmakers go to when they want to shake hands on a really big one.

That's where Fox Filmed Entertainment Co-Chairman Jim Gianopulos, Fox STAR Studios India CEO Vijay Singh, and producer-director Vipul Shah met earlier this month before announcing to the media Fox Star Studio's first of a series of co-production and acquisition partnerships in Bollywood.

At about $25 million for two films over the next 18 months, it's small change for a Hollywood studio whose parent company made $28.7 billion in revenue last year.

But a small step for Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is a giant leap in the ongoing love affair between an embattled Hollywood where revenues are plateauing and a cash-rich Bollywood with a growing domestic market.

Part of the increased interest from Hollywood is because despite efforts to dub their films in Hindi, running a blitzkrieg marketing them, and even going big with the release (for instance Sony is releasing over 600 prints of the new Bond film, Quantum of Solace), foreign movie revenues have not grown.

As Siddharth Roy Kapur, CEO of UTV Motion Pictures, puts it, "They've realised they need to be a long-term player here and build relationships." So though Murdoch may have been the prime mover in the West's chalo India strategy, having bought Star TV in 1993 from Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing, he is not the only media mogul to look east.

Akshay Kumar (left) and Deepika Padukone in Chandni Chowk To China

American majors are not new to Indian television but Hollywood is just waking up to Bollywood's potential, having put down $100 million in it cumulatively so far.

Walt Disney, after several false starts, including one bitter fallout with Indian Premier League's current hero, Lalit Modi, back in the days when he was chairman of Modi Entertainment Network, is a strategic investor in UTV with a 32 per cent stake bought for $200 million.

Apart from that, it has a three-animation movie deal with Yash Raj Films, the first of which, Roadside Romeo, releases this month. Viacom, apart from its interests in television, has a joint venture with TV18 in the Indian Film Company (IFC), which last year raised $112 million at London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market.

IFC is also in negotiations with CIT, a middle market lender that has done substantial deals in Hollywood, for a $150-million line of credit. That's not all. Warner Bros is waiting for the release of its first coproduction in India with Ramesh Sippy Entertainment and Orion Pictures, the extravagant Chandni Chowk to China, even as Sony Pictures Entertainment is recovering from the tanking of its first Hindi film, the $8-million Saawariya, and has announced a co-investment deal with Eros International.

Walt Disney has signed a three-animation movie deal with Yash Raj Films

And, oh yes, big shots from talent agencies such as the powerful CAA and the pedigreed William Morris have made several rounds of movie producer offices in Bandra and Andheri.

Add to that interest from a whole range of banks and hedge funds which are in the market for co-production deals, though less so after the global meltdown, and clearly everyone seems to want a piece of the India action.

Not because of Hollywood movie revenues in India certainly, which even in the best of times are not more than 3 per cent to 5 per cent of the total annual box-office revenue, compared to 88 per cent in a nation like Britain, but also because of the domestic market, which sells 3.7 billion tickets, compared to just 1.4 billion in the US.

The revenues currently from India may seem puny, but the studios and film funds are betting on an India of the future where ticket prices will be more than the current average of 20 cents (the US average is $6), where there will be more than 12,000 screens, and where there is huge potential of growth of the home video market (which currently contributes 8 per cent to the market, compared to over 40 per cent of the total revenue in the US).

As Sanford Panitch, president of the newly established Fox International Productions, puts it, "Hollywood studios will become the force for transparency in India." They will also, he believes, be able to raise the bar on scriptwriting and visual effects. Or as an agent at William Morris puts it, "Bollywood will make more westernised movies but in the Indian genre, culture and language."

Chris Rock (centre) in I Think I Love My Wife

Is it any wonder then that News Corp chairman Murdoch, Walt Disney chairman Bob Iger and Time Warner Chairman and CEO Richard Parsons have officially declared India to be the winner in the India vs China debate for Hollywood?

In 2005, Parsons, while speaking at a lunch with the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, called China "a very tough market for a media and entertainment company. It's hard to make long-term investments if you don't exactly know what the playing field is going to look like."

Globalisation is the order of the day in Hollywood. Disney, whose businesses range from movies to theme parks and resorts, made almost a quarter of its $35.5 billion revenues outside North America last year.

And only last month, Iger said, "the best way for Disney to grow in markets such as India, China and Russia is for those markets to have a sense of ownership". As for Murdoch, he has repeatedly pointed out the advantages of India's rule of law, despite it being an "imperfect democracy".

Source: http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in