Bollywood News

It is a very bad situation for both marketplace owners and Bollywood producers. They are engaged into a deadlock situation about revenue share and no new movie is being shown in multiplex for the last few weeks because of this problem. There is no solution at this moment and it is not clear who will compromise first.

This problem has come at a time when the film industry in India is happening a lot from the economic recession. Also, most people in India are now busy with either general election or Indian premier league 2009. So, it is a very Bad time for Bollywood and the conflict between multiplex owners and the producers has made the situation or much worse.

Via: South Asia Blog

Rani Mukerji is still in top form. Her movies still draw a large number of crowd and she is still among the leading actresses in Bollywood. However, we have no news of her for sometime now and it seems that she had some quality time in New York. So, some people thought that she was hiding. Now, she has come into public and stated that she was not hiding or running away from anything or anyone. She just needed a break.

NowRunning wrote:

Rani Mukerji, who has resurfaced after a long hiatus, says she was not in hiding but doesn’t like “intrusions” into her personal life.

“I really don’t like to let the world know what I’m doing every day of my life. I was not hiding anywhere. The truth is I was shooting in New York for (Siddharth Anand’s) ‘Tara Rum Pum’,” Rani told IANS.

“Do you know, Siddharth was with me in school? He had earlier assisted Kunal Kohli on ‘Mujhse Dosti Karoge’. And now he was directing me! As for Saif Ali Khan, how he has evolved since ‘Hum Tum’! He’s such a focussed and committed actor!”

Explaining her suddenly reclusive status, Rani said: “I was completely cut off from Mumbai in New York. It was fun to be on my own. And when I got homesick, my parents visited me. When I’m on location abroad, I generally like to remain totally cut off.

“This time my absence seemed glaring because I was not present for the release of a major film like ‘Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna’ (KANK). Everyone wondered why I wasn’t here to promote it.”

Far away in New York, Rani really bonded with choreographer Vaibhavi Merchant.

Poor Rani! Some people even do not let her to run away and stay in peace. I wonder what will happen if she really runs away from Bollywood in future?

Asha Bhonsle is the legendary Indian singer. She is going to participate in a show with the classical Jazz group Kronos Quartet in Sysdey, Australia. The show is set to be held in March. The show will be arranged at the Sydbey Opera House. At the program, Australian will give their tribute to another famous singer Rahul Dev Burman, husband of Asha Bhonsle. Regarding this news I am quoting some lines from a Internaitonal Herald Tribune report:

The concert at the Sydney Opera House will follow a Bollywood album “You’ve Stolen My Heart” that the 73-year-old Bhonsle has done with the quartet, the Hindustan Times daily reported.

It was not just the group’s music but also their reverence for her late husband and Bollywood music director, Rahul Dev Burman, that touched her, the daily quoted Bhonsle as saying.

“It is incredible to see the kind of respect they gave to Burman … They wanted to know how he lived, what he ate and everything about him,” she said.

Bhonsle is one of the most recorded singers with more than 20,000 songs in more than a dozen Indian languages.

It seems that Australian people will have a great time at the Sydney Opera House as they will experience an outstanding performer of Indian songs.

A R Rahman is surely the most talented Bollywood musician of our time. He has brought fresh wind in the music industry in India. His works are now appreciated all over the world. There is a strong chance that A R Rahman could make all the way to Oscar! Why not? 3 out of the 56 songs of Oscar list belong A R Rahman. Indiafm reported:

It’s a double celebration time for music director A R Rehman as he will celebrate his birthday with the pleasure of being selected in Oscar’s short list. Three of his songs have made it to the Oscars short list of 56 songs.
‘Khalabali’ and ‘Lukka Chuppi’ from Rang De Basanti and ‘Chan-Chan’ from Water have been short listed for the 56 songs on the Oscar list. Lagaan’s music, however, has been eluded from the Oscar, something on which Rehman had more hopes.

That is quite an achievement. A. R. Rahman has taken Indian music to the global stage. He really deserves recognition from Oscar. An Oscar award will inspire Rahman to create more great music for Bollywood. He is really a terrific composer.

Bollywood stars are good at acting and dancing and even fighting but it is clear that they are not skilled when it comes to Foreign Exchange Management. Herald Publications wrote:

Enforcement Directorate (ED) would issue show cause notices to 35 Bollywood personalities, including top actors Aishwarya Rai and Bipasha Basu, for alleged violation of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), ED sources said here today.

The notices would be issued soon to the Bollywood personalities who have come under ED scanner for allegedly receiving hawala payments, ED sources said.

Besides Aishwarya and Bipasha, other Bollywood personalities to whom ED is likely to issue notices are actors Akshay Kumar and Dino Morea.

These are some of the top guns of Bollywood. I guess they are not happy when they have to deal with tax. After all, they earn a lot of money and they are extremely rich. You know that rich people do not like to pay tax anywhere. Well, for this Bollywood stars, it is not a matter of just paying tax. It is much more than that. To find out more, just read the report.

Sanket Vyas has written a great article in Desicritics and the title of the article is: Devika Rani – Bollywood’s First Lady. Achut Kanya (untouchable girl) created a lot of controversy when it was made 70 years ago. Well, I like to compare this movie with Huckleberry Finn of Mark Twain as Achut Kanya challenged the oppression of the Indian society against the untouchable people. Here is an excerpt from the article of Sanket Vyas:

This year marks the 70th anniversary of one of the landmarks of Indian cimema, Achut Kanya (The Untouchable Girl). The star of the movie was Devika Rani, co-founder of Bombay Talkies and an icon of Indian cinema herself. She was the grand niece of the legendary poet and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore who was knighted but resigned his commission out of protest to British rule in India.

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The earliest (and still one of the only) film to deal with the Dalits/Untouchables, it was the fledgling Bombay Talkies first bonafide hit. This film about a Brahmin boy and an untouchable girl who fall in love generated quite a bit of controversy during the same time that Mahatma Gandhi was crusading for the rights of the Dalits in Indian society.

We should always respect the pioneers. Devika Rani was surely a pioneer in Bollywood. I do not know if Bollywood stars of today would do anything to celebrate the memory of this pioneering actress.

No, I don’t think it is yellow journalism. However, in a bid to get the breaking news, Indian journalists are now in a rat race to publish and broadcast stories that are more fiction than fact. Subhash K. Jha has written an excellent article in Indiafm.com. Here is an excerpt from the article:

But not everyone in the industry wants to be in the vortex of sensational write-ups. Believe it or not, a lot of prominent actors mean it when they say they don’t want to be in the sensational kind of news.

We should respect their need for space and not violate their right to privacy. And let’s not be shy of accepting our mistakes. Let’s not be afraid of being answerable. If we can question Amitabh Bachchan or Lata Mangeshkar let’s not do so from a pedestal. Give them the right to countrer-question you

If we can ask Lataji why she objects to the flyover, grant her the right to ask us, ‘Why not?’

So many times misinformation remains virtuously lodged as a news report only because it has been pushed into a position of unquestionability. I remember an actress was repeatedly linked with a married man until her husband and her alleged lover’s wife began to believe the mythic liaison to be the truth.

Two marriages nearly broke up.

Do we really want that kind of responsibility on our heads?

No, we really do not need any kind of sensationalism. The media played a role in the death of Lady Diana. Hopefully, we will not see the same thing in India. After all, it is awful and disgusting if the media cause marriages of Bollywood stars to get destroyed.

Salman Khan may be the sexiest man in the world but he is also the most troubled celebrity in the world. When there is Salman Khan, there is trouble. Chennai Online wrote:

A police team today questioned actor Salman Khan at his home in suburban Bandra in connection with a case on the alleged nexus between Bollywood and criminals.

“He is not an accused in the case and due to media hype, we found it better that he is questioned at his residence,” Salman’s lawyer Dipesh Mehta said.

Police earlier issued summons to Salman, asking him to be present for questioning after his name cropped up during the interrogation of Anjum Phajalani, an alleged Chhota Shakeel aide who was deported from Dubai last month, DCP (Detection) D T Shinde said.

Salman Khan has to be busier with dealing with this kind of problems than focusing on his acting. He was not a bad actor but he made a mess out of his life. I guess, we will not have to wait long for hearing the next news concerning Salman Khan falling into another trouble.

Leslie Lewis is a famous name in Bollywood. He is going to perform in Bahrain next week. Gulf Daily News wrote:

BOLLYWOOD music director, composer, arranger and lyricist Leslie Lewis will be performing in Bahrain next week, to help raise funds for the Indian Club.

The club, which is undergoing renovation work costing BD80,000, is organising the concert to be held on December 21 at the Gulf Air Club, Salmabad.

The event, ‘Vibrations’, is expected to be attended by more than 5,000 fans.

Mr Lewis, son of veteran choreographer P L Raj, is popularly known in India for his work in the musical hit Colonial Cousins with Hariharan.

He started his musical career as a guitarist regularly playing in Mumbai while recording jingles for television and film.

His work has won him several awards, including the Indian Viewers’ Choice Award, MTV Viewers’ Choice Award and Channel [V] Award for Colonial Cousins.

I am not Bahrain now and I never went there. However, if I were there now, I would attend the program. What about you?

Why bother to open a blog about Bollywood? Bollywood films are very popular and over 1 billion people watch these movies. So, a blog on Bollywood is surely a cool idea. This blog is going to be updated regularly by a team of bloggers. They were not experts on Bollywood films but you can expect to have honest reviews written in plain and simple language.
Don’t just expect praises about the beauty and glamour of Bollywood stars. You will find candid criticism too. So, enjoy your stay and start reading.