SoggyCornflakes - Bollywood

Has anyone actually thought of Shah Rukh Khan in any way beyond being an actor? My point is, Bollywood is pretty secular and very few actors and actresses bring their religious beliefs into the limelight.

Shah Rukh did however, taking advantage of the fasting month to send out a few messages to the Muslim youth. On Sunday morning, Shah Rukh went to the mosque in Bandra to pray and then attended a ‘Davat-e-Sehri’ where he addressed Muslim children, encouraging them to denounce terrorism and spoke about the recent blasts in New Delhi.

Kudos to him.

And by the way SoggyChums, since tomorrow is Eid, I’ll be AWOL for the day but should be back in action on Thursday. To all our Muslim readers, we wish you Eid Mubarak. Hope you have a joyful and peaceful Eid. To everyone else…just take the day off and say you’re supporting tolerance and understanding between religions.

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I know it’s a bit early in the week for some Shahid Kapoor news, but did I ever need an excuse? Sorry for the crappy quality picture, it was the only one I could find of them together. Not for long though, since the principle shooting of their still-untitled movie has begun.

We’ve discussed Rani Mukherjee and her increasing age in various comments and most people have pinpointed that as the reason she can’t churn out the hits anymore. Although Rani turned 30 this year, she’s been playing roles that might be better suited for someone a bit younger…and it sounds like she’s pretty aware of this fact.

While I understand that Shahid is now a big name in Bollywood and acting in a Yash Raj film is quite an achievement (well, it was 5 years ago, even though their current crop of movies have been rubbish), I don’t see why they’re putting him with older actresses now. We’re a bit too used to seeing the older actors with young co-stars and even though movies like Kismat Konnection were sweet, there was always something a little bit off when you knew that Vidya was a few years older than Shahid…or maybe that was just me.

Anyways, back to the actual story. When Shahid joined Rani and Anupam Kher on sets recently, Rani joked around with Shahid calling him ‘Shahid Sir’. While Shahid found this funny at first, it was eventually picked up by the rest of the crew who also began calling him that.

The annoying jokes culminated when Rani invited Shahid to have lunch with her and one of the crew members was sent with the invite. Shahid was not amused when the man called him ‘Shahid Sir’ again and yelled at him. Obviously, he didn’t meet up with Rani for lunch either. The matter was concluded when Rani came and spoke to Shahid later on…needless to say, they’re now on first-name bases and shooting can continue without any more problems…I hope.

I just noticed, when I write about Shahid, I write way more than usual.

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And he’s doing it without Scarlett Johannsen on his arm.

Rahil is currently in New York, supporting Oxfam in the Oxfam Summit and the media has picked up/made up a story that he recently had dinner with fellow ambassador Scarlett. He says that’s a completely false story because Scarlett isn’t even at the summit.

“I know the Indian media needs its glamour quotient to spice up my life before putting it in print. But I’m sorry. There’s no Scarlett Johansson. In fact there’s no dinner. The Oxfam summit which will launch a poverty-eradication initiative called ‘In My Name’ will happen on the morning of September 28 and Scarlett who ’s an Oxfam ambassador is not coming, for whatever reason. The celebrities are economist Jeffrey Sachs, Kristin Davis of Sex & The City and Mary Robinson, who’s the first premiere female president of Ireland. Are these not glamorous enough for the Indian media? Then how about this? The hip-hop singer Will I Am will be singing a song specially composed for the ‘In My Name’ initiative with all of celebrities signing a pledge to fight hunger and poverty in our country.”

Nah, Scarlett would still be the media target there…the others are just too boring to sell papers. Imagine the headline “Rahul Bose feeds hungry children with the President of Ireland”, which would never sell compared to “Rahul and Scarlett in Love!?”. On the pother hand, Scarlett just got married so that headline wouldn’t sell either.

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We haven’t heard any Saif Ali Khan news in a while, maybe because he finally worked out that people weren’t that interested in him and Kareena anymore but guess what? He’s back and he did something stupid to get himself in the tabloid pages.

While shooting for 3 Idiots, Saif managed to get himself and members of the crew booked for assault and intimidation…and Saif didn’t even touch the guy.

Apparently a photojournalist (AKA paparazzi) was taking pictures of Saif at a railway station, which he didn’t like and Saif told crew members and his private security to remove the man. They did that but they also gave him a hiding for his trouble.

The photographer has filed the case now and according to the railway police inspector general, they are making plans to arrest Saif.

While that is so not going to happen, I’d like to point out that Saif really is fitting into his character by acting like a moron…and at least Hollywood actors punch the paparazzi themselves. Can’t you throw a punch Saif?

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And no, there wasn’t any double meaning in that title. Happy Monday SoggyChums and another week begins. Where did the weekend go?

Genelia D’Souza, before really coming into the spotlight in Janne Tu Ya Jaane Na (although she did do other Bollywood movies) has said that while she enjoys Bollywood, she won’t give up doing Southern films because that’s where she started her career.

She also wants to become a complete actress and says,

“I’m sure I’ll be able to dub in all the South Indian languages soon. I know I can do it. I just need to get the slangs and colloquialisms correct. Honestly I need to dub my own lines in the South to give complete performances.”

When asked about her relationship with Ritesh Deshmukh, she laughs them off as just rumours and insists that she and Ritesh have been friends since they first acted together but they still are only friends. Well, obviously that’s what they would be since Ritesh is rumoured to literally be playing for the other team…remember his reaction on ‘Sajid’s Superstars’?

But don’t worry Genelia fans, she’s still going to be acting in Bollywood as well.

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Hey guys. Unfortunately, I’ve been really busy today and haven’t had much time to update. But I could never leave out the Shahid Kapoor Friday post…so here I am.

The really sucky thing is that there isn’t any major Shahid stories doing the rounds this week. Actually, there are no stories basically…if I had the time, I would do a feature article but I’m busy with other stuff tonight. Sorry.

So here’s the crappy not-really-stories of Shahid.

One is that Indian women prefer clean-shaven guys like Shahid Kapoor and Shah Rukh Khan. They had to do a survey to get that information…some people have way too much time on their hands.

The other story is that Shahid lost out in some survey to Ranbir Kapoor as the next star of Bollywood. Now I have to call these stats into serious question here. Firstly, Ranbir sucks. I don’t know how he is as a person, but as an actor, he is annoying as hell. Just because BAH did relatively well compared to Yash Raj’s recent flop films, but that does not make it a hit and it doesn’t make him a star.

Secondly, seriously, who would pick Ranbir over Shahid or even Imran Khan? Someone do a survey on the net and it’ll be easy to see who has the biggest fan club.

And that’s it. Those don’t qualify as stories, do they?

Oh well, I’m out of here. Have a good weekend all.

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It makes sense that co-stars would become friends on the sets of a film but apparently Imran Khan and Minissha Lamba have become awfully good friends that Kidnap director Sanjay Gandhvi has a hard time separating them when it comes to scenes.

Apparently, Minissha and Imran joke and talk between scenes, which is great for their chemistry but makes it hard to shoot serious scenes where Minissha’s character is supposed to be angry at Imran’s. Sometimes Sanjay tells them to stay away from each other just to achieve the right feel to the scene.

Imran is taking his new bad boy avatar a bit too seriously though and while shooting for Kidnap, insisted that he be allowed to do his own stunts, one which consisted of jumping from a 20-story building. While Sanjay wanted to use a stunt double, Imran convinced him not to and was getting ready for the scene.

However, the other Sanjay on set, Sanjay Dutt, decided enough was enough and called Aamir to tell him what exactly his nephew was doing. Needless to say, Aamir soon called Imran and convinced that he was still too young to do a stunt like that.

Old people…they always ruin the fun.

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Ah, Bollywood is just a beautiful place to be. Just full of love and trust and that kind of crap.

Recently, before Salman Khan went to London to shoot for London Dreams, he supposedly had a very romantic dinner with Katrina Kaif where he presented her with a special gift. No it wasn’t that ring, it was a painting.

A source reports,

“Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif were having dinner at home, where Sallu surprised her with a painting that was gift-wrapped. Katrina opened it to find that it was of her! As she gazed at it spellbound, Salman smiled at her lovingly and said, ‘It’s you’,”

I have no idea how the source would have this kind of info, so you can assume it’s tabloid rubbish. But if it was true…does the fact that Salman had to tell Kat was the painting was of her show the true level of his skill?

But Katrina has a gift of her own when Salman returns from his shoot. She’s signed on to do a film with Shah Rukh Khan…Salman’s current enemy. I wonder how he feels about this development? I wonder if he’ll ask for the picture back and set it on fire in front of her to show his rage…

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Himesh Reshammiya’s new film Mudh Mudh Ke Na Dekkh Mudh Mudh Ke (freakin’ hell, that’s a mouthful) recently stopped shooting because the crew had not been paid for quite a while.

While the workers had been working for quite a few days without pay, eventually they couldn’t take it anymore and shut down the sets, demanding their wages before they went back to work.

A source reports,

“There was clear resentment amongst the workers as they were constantly demanding money to be paid to them for their work over all these days. They had approached people at the levels reachable to them but to no avail. Eventually, they couldn’t take it anymore and called it quits. They declared loud and clear that the work would resume only if they were paid for the days they had spent on the sets.”

“Was it ethical on the part of the makers to keep their own crew members unpaid? Don’t these workers have to run their families? All said and done, it never seemed to be the case of shortage of money. These workers were just being shortchanged all this while”

Eventually however, the crew was paid and shooting continued the next day.

I thought if someone stopped a Himesh movie it would be in protest of the fact that he isn’t an actor and shooting a film with him is a travesty.

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It must be hard for a couple to stay away for long periods but when you’re an actor and being away is part of the job, you end up missing your spouse more and more…and when something goes wrong, you’re liable to expect the worst.

Recently, Abhishek Bachchan was shooting near Connaught Place in New Delhi where a series of bomb blasts took place. Needless to say, Aishwarya and the other Bachchans were very worried about Abhi’s safety…at least until he told them that he was OK.

Ash is in Brazil shooting for Robot but she’ll be back in time for the release of Abhishek’s Drona.

He says,

“I do miss her, but I believe that absence makes the heart go fonder. And she will be back on the 1st of October.”

So he’ll have someone to support him when the film flops? What do you guys think, Drona, hit or flop?

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