SoggyCornflakes - Bollywood

Man, Karan Johar is really trying to make this movie work by mentioning past hits...KKHH, K3G, KHNH, KANK...by the way, did you notice, even though this movie wasn't directed by Karan, it doesn't start with a 'K'?

Happy Independence Day Indians, today it's your turn. Maybe you'll be the next superpower in 10 years time.

Karan Johar is already looking forward to the shooting of My Name is Khan and is looking for relevant locations to shoot the film. He's decided that since the movie is about Muslim tension in the US, the most brilliant place to shoot would be the White House. Yeah, that White House, where Bush hangs out with other world leaders eating burgers. The movie is supposed to star Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol.

He says,

"I`m currently working on pre-production. The story of my film takes the lead actors from San Francisco to LA and eventually to Washington DC. I am trying to figure out permissions including locations in and around Washington. I still have a lot of time till I achieve these permissions as I only start the shoot of the movie from February next year."

For the last time Karan, I'm begging you, don't make this movie! We need good fluffy films, not serious racial dramas!

With the consecutive flops of Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Laga Chunari Mein Daag, Aaja Nachle, Tashan and Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic, I think Yash Raj will be seriously rethinking their next few movies. Until they come up with some new gimmicks to make a film work, they've decided to maybe go into the filmi business. That is, they are now going to buy films from other producers.

So the first movie to go on sale is Karan Johar's new film Dostana, that stars Abishek Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra and John Abraham. I guess Yash Raj are hoping that the K-Jo connection will be enough to make a film a hit...I guess they could try that, but here's the list of gimmicks that didn't pay off.

Jhoom Barabar Jhoom: Throwing together 2 A-listers and 2 B-listers is not a good combination. They are all annoying!
Laga Chanari Mein Daag: How many hits can one girl churn out? So much pressure on Rani.
Aaja Nachle: Bringing back an old Bollywood actress? Nah, that doesn't work either.
Tashan: A new couple dragging in the publicity for their new movie. That backfired badly.
Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic: Rani doesn't have the magic, Saif doesn't have the pyaar.

Guess how much Karan sold Dostana for? A measly 50 crore rupees. Yeah, other studios offered to pay much more for it but I guess Karan decided that he still owed the Chopra's his friendship.

Finally, pics are back up. That doesn't mean I'm a wordpress genius, just means I got lazy of trying and used another source for the photos. If the pics are a bit blurry or something...I don't know why! But at least they're back up!

So happy Monday all, I hope you had a brilliant weekend. Mine was extremely relaxing, except now I have to catch up on all the work I didn't do over the weekend. Maybe it's just me, but campus got a lot harder this semester!

So the latest story today, and to add another twist to the Katrina Kaif birthday fiasco, is that boyfriend Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan started bickering during the party. When will these guys ever grow up?

Even though the fight sounded very petty, it seems that Bollywood is breaking apart down the middle, with Shah Rukh supporters and Sallu supporters. It seems that Salman first took aim at Shah Rukh with a bottle of champagne and Shah Rukh retaliated with an evian water and even Aamir Khan got involved with a bottle of oil, so he could pour oil on troubled waters...get it? Heehee...Ok, I'm sugar high. Bad joke.

Salman did start the fight though, by comparing the ratings of 'Dus Ka Dum' and "Paanchvi Pass' and laughed at King Khan for not even pulling decent ratings. SRK was supposedly silent for most of the attack, until he retorted by saying something about Ash, which set Salman off again. And Aamir did try to intervene, to no avail. Unfortunately, there weren't any eyewitnesses, so no one can tell me if they had a food fight or not.

So now Salman's and Shah Rukh's supporters are coming up from the woodwork, with actors such as Fardeen and Zayed Khan, Ranbir and Kareena Kapoor all throwing in their lot with him and directors like Sajid Khan, Karan Johar, Farhan Akhtar and Yash Chopra supposedly siding with Shah Rukh.

Honestly, I don't care who wins, as long as there's a Bollywood-wide food-fight!

In other words, Mike Myers wants to come to Bollywood.

Mike Myers, of Shrek and Austin Powers fame, is in the recently released The Love Guru. The movie has an Indian theme and Hindu terms scattered throughout the movie, which has led to the protests of some Hindu groups.

Mike says that the movie is not offensive and has similarities to Bollywood movies, in the sense that they're musicals and the pallette is supposedly similar. Mike is also up for acting in a Bollywood film, saying he'd love to document the experience.

"If a Bollywood director wants to hire a 45-year-old Scottish-English-Canadian actor, who does comedy, I'm their man."

Call him Karan Johar!

Rani Mukherjee has still hasn't decided what she's going to do with the money she and Karan Johar won in 'Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass se Tez Hain' with Shah Rukh Khan. The last time she won money from Shah Rukh was on 'Kaun Banega Crorepati' and she donated that 25 lakhs to build an ICU to the Holy Family Hospital In Mumbai and she'll be inaugurating the finally completed unit today.

Nestle seem to piling on the insults however as they have not renewed their contract to have Rani as a brand ambassador, an official says,

"Our contract with Rani Mukherjee was due to get over and we were in the midst of planning new marketing strategies for our brand. It is then that we decided that we won't be renewing our contract with her,"

"Our new strategies include targeting the youth and Rani ceases to be any kind of a youth icon anymore. Her films haven't really worked out at the box office and we are looking out for someone who is very popular in this category. We are working out on a few options and a final announcement shall be made very soon."

Fanta has also dropped Rani from their campaigns recently...this probably makes people quite bitter as one of her friends announced,

"Rani is extremely disappointed by Nestle's unprofessionalism. They knew well that once the contract came up for renewal, Rani would increase her price. They wanted to go in for someone cheaper perhaps. They should be thankful that Rani has got their product noticed in last four years."

While I like Rani, but this just sounds like sour grapes. Also, since the chocolate only sells for 5 rupees, I see why Nestle might wanna cut some costs.

While Priyanka Chopra and Harman Baweja hope that Love Story 2050 will be a hit, they may be hoping that they both flop for their next movies.

Ironically enough, their films following LS2050 are set for the same release date so Harman and Priyanka will be facing off, to see who can bring the most crowds into the cinema's. Harman's Victory and Priyanka's Fashion are both to be released 14th November and it looks like it was director Ajit Pal who pulled the trigger as Fashion had already set it's release date several weeks ago. Hmmm, or maybe Harman heard about it from Priyanka and told Ajit who decided to make a competition out of it?

Victory is about a young cricketer from a rural area who strives to become a successful cricketer for himself and his father (Anupam Kher). Harman's leading lady is Amrita Rao and cricketers such as Brett Lee and Brian Lara are set to make cameo appearances.

Fashion is a story about the fashion world, focusing on cat-walk models and not much else is known about it. Kangana Ranaut also stars with Priyanka and Karan Johar and designer Manish Malhotra will be making cameo appearances.

Which one will you be watching?

Shah Rukh Khan has apparently given up on getting an audience by using real people in his show 'Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass se Tez Hain' and is relying on one celebrity couple after another to bring the ratings up.

After Priyanka and Harman, Karan and Rani, the next two on his show are Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor. The show involving them will be telecast this Saturday.

Saif was apparently tutored by his daughter but was teased by Shah Rukh when he had trouble answering and an impromptu interview was taken with Saif and Bebo revealing where they met each other, how did they fall in love and what do they do when they fight.

Obviously it's a charity event and Saif has pledged his winnings to the Naaz organization (Delhi), which takes care of HIV positive kids, while Kareena will use the funds for the aged and lonely parents from St. Anthony's Old Age Home, Bandra. Nice causes, contributing towards the young and old.

And for those of you who can't understand my delightful Hindi, Shah Rukh Khan is saying "You people are very bad kids"...which now sounds very grammatically incorrect as soon as I wrote it in English. Damn...oh well.

In a bid to increase his ratings, Shah Rukh is pulling in celebrity guests again for his reality show. Having already had Harman Baweja and Priyanka Chopra on, now he's brought in Rani Mukherjee and Karan Johar.

If you check out the promos, it looks really cute. Unfortunately, I can't embed the promo here for you (-bleep- theme) I'll send you to the source, so check it out here.

There's a bunch of songs in there (from Karan's movies) and Rani and Karan managed to win a decent amount, although the promo doesn't show any actual questions being asked. I did find Karan's clinging to SRK's legs quite funny as he begged for the answer. Obviously the proceeds are going to charity...

Rani and Karan were also punished for cheating and told to stand on their chairs and hold their ears while Karan confessed that if he hadn't become a director, he would have liked to be a hairdresser...um, can anyone say they're surprised?

Maybe I should start calling Amitabh, Abhishek and Aishwarya Bachchan the 3 A's or AAA. Ok, I'm calling them AAA from right now and I'm copyrighting the phrase. Yesterday morning, while most of us were still warm in bed, the AAA's took a walk...a long walk...a four hour walk...a bare-footed walk...across Mumbai to visit the Siddhivinayak temple. I'm not exactly sure what was the purpose of the walk, although it's not for the success of Sarkar Raj. Amitabh Bachchan writes on his blog,

The walk last night or rather early this morning to SiddhiVinayak was fulfilling. Walking bare foot has its own hazards but where there is faith and resolve, obstacles seem to dwindle away. The tar roads, still warm from the aggressive sun in the day are fairly comfortable but the cobbled portions due to its uneveness causes some discomfort. The people were lovely. They come around, hundreds of them all walking in the same direction towards a common goal. There is excitement among them and smiles and a certain decorum. Intermittently, shouts of ‘Ganpati Bappa’ break the general silence. And the entire mass of people join in in unison -’Morya !’

Even I have to say, his post conveys a whole range of spiritual feeling. Read it, it sounds good. And basically, he did that whole walk because he wanted to thank God... In other AAA news, the 'Unforgettable Tour' is kicking off on the 18th of July and no, there is no Shahid Kapoor involved, but Akshay Kumar, Preity Zinta and Madhuri Dixit will participate. Abhishek talks about the tour,

"Aishwarya will be performing on some of her most popular numbers, including on the 'Dola re..' number from 'Devdas' with Madhuri Dixit. I am particularly thrilled about performing on the item number 'Kajra re' from 'Bunty Aur Babli' with my dad and Aishwarya,"

And finally, the stories about the Bachchan and Khan rift continues, as Karan Johar celebrated his birthday a few days ago, inviting both the Bachchan's and the Khan's. Big A and Jaya didn't attend, but Abhi-Ash were around. But Ash refused to acknowledge Shah Rukh Khan and made her own little group in the corner, didn't circulate and Karan had to keep running from one place to another trying to be a good host... Poor guy, and it's pathetic how supposed "big stars" act like petulant kids.