NEWS

Sonam Kapoor, recently had made a guest appearance in the TV show for the promotion of her latest film ‘Aisha’. People seldomly know that she had a crush on Shaan (a well-known singer) for a long period of time.

Coincidently,both of them happened to make a guest appearance on the set of Chhote Ustaad. Sonam Kapoor was seen blushing sitting right next to the singer. She was looking gorgeous in the traditional outfit ie, saree.

“I used to have a huge crush on Shaan since the longest time. And I was lucky as I was sitting next to him on the judges table for ‘Chhote Ustaad’,” said Sonam

Legendry Kishore Kumar is one of the most well loved names of Bollywood. Today is 4th of August and its Kishore Kumar’s birthday though he is not among us but he is a man who will never be forgotten. Today Bollywood celebrities and his fans are celebrating his birthday to pay him tribute for his contribution which he made. No doubt when his name comes there is no need of introduction because his work and achievements are enough to recognize him.

Last night Asha Bhosle , twitted to wish the legendry Kishore Kumar in such words, “In a few hours another genius will be born. The one & only Kishore Kumar.”

Indian film playback singer was born on August 4, 1929 and he was also an actor, director, producer, composer and lyrists. He was a fantastic achiever who achieved success in every field and after his death a lot of people are trying to follow his footsteps. New singers and actors want to copy his style and have a wish to rule over Indian Film Industry like him. During his career he worked with fantastic stars like Mukesh and Mohammed Rafi.

One of the leading singers of industry Lata Mageshkar also wished him and called him a fantastic and versatile singer. Kishore Kumar was not only a fantastic artist he was also a fantastic and loving person.

He sang in many languages including Oriya, Kannada, Bengali, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi and many others. In 1946 he started his acting career from film Shikari and appeared in the main role and in 1948 he sang his first song for the film Ziddi. He won many award for his extraordinary singing and acting performances. Pleased Birthday Kishore Kumar.

Kishore Kumar, the well-known Bollywood playback singer and actor was born on August 4, 1929. His original name is Abhas Kumar Ganguly. Apart from singing and acting he tried hands on various things like writing lyrics, film direction and production, screenplay writing, script writing, nearly anything and everything that was related to films.

Kishore Kumar’s singing wasn’t limited to just Hindi, he sang songs in different Indian languages like Bengali, Marathi, Assamese, Gujarati, Kannada, Bhojpuri, Malyalam and Oriya.

Kishore Kumar married four times. His first wife was Ruma Ghosh, then he married the well-known film actress Madhubala, who died after nine years of their marriage due to some deadly disease. The third wife was Yogeeta Bali another film actress and the one who remained with him till his death in the year 1987, was Leena Chandavarkar.

His two sons, Amit Kumar and Sumit Kumar, both have followed their father’s footsteps while choosing their career. Amit is giving his voice for playback since many years now, whereas, Sumit has recently launched himself in the Hindi film industry.

Together they have given hits like Dekha Ek Khwab To, and Gum Hai Kisi Ke Pyar Mein — and on Kishor Kumar’s 81st birth anniversary, legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar remembered him as a multi-talented artist.

‘Aaj, 4th aug ko Kishore da ka janmdin hai, kishore da, bahurangi kalakar the, wo sirf ek mahaan gayak hi nahi the, wo utne hi acche sangeetkar, kavi, abhineta, film director, producer bhi the’ (Today is Kishore da’s birthday and he was a multi-talented artist. He was not just a wonderful singer, but a fantastic poet, actor, musician, producer as well),” Lata posted on her Twitter page Wednesday.

Fascinatingly, both Lata and Kishore da were born in the same year and in the same state – Madhya Pradesh.

‘Shayad hi aap sab ko pata hoga ki Kishore da aur mera janm varsh 1929 hai, wo mujhse 1 month 24 din bade the, hum dono ka janm Madhya Pradesh me hua tha, unka Khandwa aur mera Indore’ (You might not know but Kishor da’s and my birth year is the same and he was one month and 24 days elder to me. We both were born in Madhya Pradesh – he in Khandwa and I in Indore),” posted Lata, whose birthday falls on Sep 28.

Lata also mentioned that the first duet they had sung together was for the movie Ziddi.

The Indian government is to spend more than $140 million restoring thousands of rare films, including silent Bollywood classics, that have been left to rot in public and private archives.

The 6.6 billion rupee effort to preserve the country’s rich film heritage also seeks to rescue documentary footage of independence leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and India’s first prime minister Jawarharlal Nehru, the Times of India reports.

A total of 2,500 films have been earmarked for restoration, including 1,450 from the silent era, the newspaper cited a ministry source as saying.
Many of the prints have been lying in various film archives and societies around India and have decomposed over time due to neglect and wear and tear.

The film titles include classics such as Mrinal Sen’s Antareen (The Confined) Mani Kaul’s Nazar (Sight) and Bimal Roy’s Do Dooni Char (Two Twos are Four)

The well loved Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif will soon have a poem devoted to her written by renowned lyrist Javed Akhtar.

The poem will be a song written for Katrina on the lines of her character in Zoya Akhtar’s ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’.

Fascinatingly in the flick ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’, Katrina plays a lead character of a free-spirited bohemian girl who inspires the three men in the film to follow their dreams. The three main lead in the film includes Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar and Abhay Deol.

Fan’s poem inspires Zoya
Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif’s angelic face had inspired one of her fans to pen a poem on her beauty and charm.

After reading the poem posted on the Internet, Zoya Akhtar, the director of the film ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’, came up with an thought to have a song specially written on Katrina’s character in the film. So, the filmmaker questioned her dad, Javed Akhtar, to write a special song on Katrina.

“There was only a vague thought for such a song in Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara. But when the poem by Katrina’s fan surfaced on the net everyone felt the lyrics describing Katrina’s character beauty and zest for life was needed.” added insiders about the song on Katrina.

And now with the inspiring poem being penned by her fan, the actress is completely elated as she stated, “It’s flattering to have people write such wonderful lines for you. I can’t pretend to be unaffected by all the attention I’m getting. At the same time I can’t let it go to my head. There’s so much more to be done.”

Katrina the next dream girl of Bollywood?
Katrina Kaif will be donning a double role for the first time in the remake of the 70’s film ‘Seeta aur Geeta’. It looks like Katrina will be following the footsteps of the Bollywood dream girl Hema Malini.

The 70’s flick ‘Seeta aur Geeta’ was a box office hit. In the movie, Hema Malini played twin roles; one with character of a shy and modest girl and another of a wild and boisterous girl.

The legendary yesteryear’s actress, Hema Malini, was hugely appreciated for her performance in the flick.

Fascinatingly, it’s been rumored that Zoya is writing the script of the film which will be directed by Anees Bazmi.

Mani Ratnam’s “Raavan,” whose tale and characters are inspired by the epic ‘Ramayan,’ opens worldwide today. It centers around the triangle between policeman Dev (Vikram), outlaw Beera Munda (Abhishek Bachchan) and Dev’s wife Ragini (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan), whom Beera kidnaps.

Early reviews are in and most praise the film for being perfectly shot but are mixed on the acting, particularly Mr. Bachchan’s. American reviewers seem to like the film much more than Indian ones do. A separate Tamil version “”Raavanan” also opened today in which Vikram plays the role of the outlaw opposite Ms. Rai Bachchan. India Real Time presents a round-up:

U.S. entertainment trade publication Hollywood Reporter’s Ray Bennet describes “Raavan” as a “pan-Indian saga with epic sweep, intense emotion and gorgeous images.”

Cinematographers Manikandan and Santosh Sivan, production designer Samir Chanda and editor A. Sreekar Prasad come in for high praise. THR says they “serve Ratnam superbly with images, settings and vitality that take one’s breath away.”

Both Bachchans do well in their roles, THR says. Mr. Bachchan’s kidnaps the character played by his wife.

“Bachchan has fun with a character who is fierce, passionate and perilous but also comic in his self-doubt over whether to kill his captive or make like to her,” says Mr. Bennet, describing Ms. Rai Bachchan in this movie as “a force of nature.”

Courtesy of Reliance Huge Pictures
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan plays Ragini, a policeman’s wife, in “Raavan” and in “Raavanan.”

In this mini-review, the Guardian’s Cath Clarke, but, finds this a film of “innate sexism” and says Mr. Bachchan hams it up excessively in an “absurdly extravagant melodrama.”

On the web site India.com Mihir Fadnavis says the film is a crushing disappointment and gives it only two thumbs up out of a possible (if anatomically impossible) five thumbs.

“Mani Ratnam’s epic retelling of an ancient tale is amalgamated and cut to make a stylized but characterless piece with some spectacular imagery,” writes Mr. Fadnavis. “The film is too celebratory of Bollywood’s excellent guy-versus-terrible guy, buddy-buddy ethos to rise above the limitations of the genre, and too obsessed with its own seriousness to be a truly ’serious’ film.”

In another mini-review, the Los Angeles Times says “Raavan” belongs to Mr. Bachchan’s “exquisite real-life wife Aishwarya Rai” but laments that “it takes a couple of hours to learn whether Beauty can tame Beast.”

On Indian portal Rediff.com, Raja Sen is miserable with the way the film draws on the epic, saying Mr. Ratnam is excessively literal in his interpretation at times, and gives the film just two out of five stars.

Mr. Ratnam “takes a huge chunk of larger-than-life Indian mythology, sloppily swaps antagonist with protagonist, and ends up giving an earnest Bachchan far too much scenery to chew in far too much spotlight,” says Mr. Sen.

“It’s one thing to mask familiar characters with grimy grey, evoking empathy for the villain and giving the hero some flawed ambiguity,” he adds. “Here Ratnam falls prey to sensationalism and turns Raavan into a schizophrenic Robin Hood, and Ram into a bloodthirsty, consistently amoral cop.”

The New York Times’s Rachel Saltz is a small kinder, even if a few of her compliments are a small back-handed.

“The real star, though, is Mr. Ratnam, a talented visual storyteller who directs action crisply and fills the screen with striking images,” writes Ms. Saltz, “(One, of Ms. Bachchan’s falling body landing gracefully on a tree branch, is so excellent he uses it three times.).”

Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan is now trying his hand at video editing.

“After an entire morning of learning how to edit a DVD on my own, I have finally managed a small snippet,” Amitabh wrote on his blog.

“That small snippet was an attempt to know the business of editing,” he added.

The actor posted the video on his blog. It shows him waving to hordes of people assembled outside his Jalsa home.

While describing the video, Amitabh wrote, “This is me in the red SUV coming into my house Jalsa on a Sunday evening. And this is a recurring scenario every Sunday, every evening. Then waving to the crowds accepting their like and affection, in my track suit and skull cap. The security having a tough time keeping the crowds from charging in. As I had mentioned a few days back.”