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Shilpa Shetty shines in 'Hi! Living'

Now that the much awaited IPL has started in full swing, can Bollywood be far behind! Even though the cricket tournament isn't being held in India this year, it just hasn't failed to dilute the Indian populace into a frenzied sports driven mania. One can only wait and watch the 'resultant' of the marriage of Bollywood and cricket.

One such initial 'resultant' is in the form of the latest issue of 'Hi Living', which has got the Shilpa 'Miss Long Legs' Shetty, on the cover. Keeping up with the extreme pace of the game, Shilpa drapes herself in some exquisite clothing, thus raising the temperatures on field as well as off it! One must say that, the Shetty girl has really gone all out to promote her team 'Rajasthan Royals', with a music video et al.

Making this month's issue of 'Hi! Living' a must read is Shilpa Shetty and her style quotient that can give the even the most glamorous of the models a run for their moolah!

Ranbir Kapoor plays an NRI in Rajneeti

Ranbir Kapoor plays an NRI forced to return home to take over the family business (in this case, politics). Sounds familiar? Abhishek Bachchan played a similar role in Ram Gopal Varma's Sarkar.

And both characters are inspired by Al Pacino's Don Corleone in Francis Coppola's The Godfather. Ranbir of course plays a mixture of Rajiv Gandhi and Don Corleone in Rajneeti.

And as coincidence would have it, both Abhishek and Ranbir had Katrina as their co-star, but with a difference. In Sarkar, Katrina's anglicized voice had to be dubbed although she played an NRI and could've easily used her accented voice for the character. In Rajneeti, Katrina gives long speeches in shudh Hindi all in her own voice.

Katrina Kaif's two-minute speech in front of a 10,000-strong attentive crowd at a public rally in Bhopal for Rajneeti, has whetted Ranbir Kapoor's appetite for getting right the speeches that he needs to deliver for Prakash Jha's film when he starts shooting in August.

There's just one hitch. Ranbir doesn't need to learn shuddh hindi, like Katrina did. He already knows that. He needs to cultivate an accent to sound like an America-returned Delhi boy who suddenly needs to go from monosyllabic rashtra bhasha to full-speeches.

Prakash Jha has planned intense reading and speech therapy sessions for Ranbir for him to get the accented Hindustani right.

To play a Harvard educated US-based NRI who must suddenly return home to look after his mother's political empire, Ranbir Kapoor in a role that Al Pacino would have liked to play, is not just all set to start shooting, he's raring to go.

Ranbir won't play the reluctant politician in the usual khadi kurta-pajama dress code. "Ranbir will be very trendily dressed. He plays a young man of today," informs the director.

Apparently, the character is a mix of Rajiv Gandhi and Michael Corloene from Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather.

Ranbir who joins the cast in August has been regularly calling and talking to the entire cast in Bhopal.

Says Prakash affectionately, "He even offered to leave whatever he was doing and join us in Bhopal although his shooting starts next month. I remember one day Ajay, Nana, Arjun, Manoj were working together and missing Ranbir. So in the evening we got together in my hotel room and called him. Ranbir spoke to each of us individually. He wanted to leave everything in Mumbai and join us Bhopal."

Prakash starts workshops with Ranbir after the Lok Sabha elections. Says Prakash, "Ranbir is so excited about his look, and dialogues. He needs to play a character who defines democracy in today's world. I wouldn't describe it as a multi-starrer. It's a multi-actor film. Katrina Kaif is such a revelation. She was so nervous giving a speech in front of 10,000 people. After she gave her speech I hugged her on stage and shouted out to the junta, 'Bhopal ka ticket de de kya?' As for Naseer, if I hadn't worked with him I wouldn't have been a complete filmmaker."

Book-reading disappearing in India: Javed Akhtar

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London, April 21 (IANS) In the middle of a bustling Indian book bazaar at the London Book Fair, India's most famous film lyricist said the culture of reading books is disappearing in India.

"That's the real issue, but nobody here is talking about it," an animated Javed Akhtar said on the sidelines of the fair.

"Do you know how books are selected in some of the homes in my city of Mumbai? They are chosen by interior decorators... by interior decorators! If you have brown-coloured furniture and carpet, you must have brown-coloured books," the award-winning poet told IANS.

Akhtar is a leading member of a contingent of 50 Indian writers and 90 publishers that has come to the British capital to attend the London Book Festival, which has an India market focus this year.

But while some here have stressed the booming Indian publishing industry, Akhtar said there was also a "sad story" of disappearing languages and book-reading habits, which are being rapidly subsumed by English and television.

"Urdu publishing, to the best of my knowledge, is dying out," he said.

"There was a time when there were so many brilliant lyricists and poets in Mumbai - Majrooh, Sahir, Rajinder Krishen, Shailendra... But today, the poets of the past have been replaced by non-poets.

"So, it's not only in Urdu but also in Hindi. That's the real tragedy."

But Akhtar said he expects his interactions with other writers in London, as well as the fair's writing-centred events, will give him inspiration and refresh "the well" of creativity.

"In Mumbai, I end up spending far too much time writing for films.

"At the end of the day it's the same well from which we draw the water - whether to write film songs or poetry.

"I am hoping that after meeting people here and attending some of the events and coming across new ideas, I will be able to draw from that well to write some more poetry," he said in Hindi.

People Akhtar met at the fair include a large number of Indian writers - "Ironically, we hardly get to meet in India. It's either Paris or London these days," said the poet, who sat in the front row to hear economist Amartya Sen speak Monday morning.

Sponsors of the India focus said India is a booming publishing market and they hope for greater book commerce between India and Britain. They said the Indian book market is worth 625 million pounds and is growing at 10 percent per year.

Sponsors British Council said India is the world's third-largest producer of English language titles, with over 15,000 titles in English published each year.

Indian publishers are at the fair to sniff out opportunities for publishing outsourcing, which, sponsors said, will be worth 1.46 billion dollars by 2010.

Indian writers attending the April 20-22 fair include Amartya Sen, Vikram Seth, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Shankar, Daljit Nagra, William Dalrymple, Prasoon Joshi, Y.D. Thongchi, Namdeo Dhasal, Bhalchandra Nemade, Jiwan Namdung, Suketu Mehta, Tarun J Tejpal, Amit Chaudhuri and K. Satchidanandan.

Kareena postponed New York trip to celebrate her mother's birthday

Kareena was supposed to leave for a month-long schedule of Rensil D'Silva's film. But she opted for a sudden change of plan. April 20 happened to be Kareena's mother's birthday. Mama as usual insisted that Kareena must not allow her work to suffer.

But while shooting an ad with Imtiaz Ali in Chandigarh two days prior to mom's birthday Kareena suddenly decided to make April 20 a special day for her mom.

Quickly wrapping up her work in Chandigarh she rushed back to Mumbai, postponed her and Saif's trip to New York by a day to arrange a small family get-together over dinner at her swanky new place in Bandra.

Says Kareena, "It was just family for my Mom. That's the way she likes it. That's the way I wanted it to be. Yes, my dad was there too. And of course Saif. He's very much part of the family."

Reluctant to reveal any more detail about the magical evening, Kareena says, "My mom is my world. I'd do anything with her. Postponing mine and Saif's trip to NY was nothing. What did I give my mom? My time and my love. That's all she wants."

Incidentally, Saif had the cozy gathering on Monday night in splits with his jokes anecdotes and mimicry.

Seeing him blend with the Kapoors at Kareena's mom's birthday, it is easy to see Saif is now the unofficial son-in-law of the family.

Yet another singer faces camera

After Sonu Nigam, Himesh Reshammiya and Abhijeet Sawant, yet another singer is ready to try his luck in movies as a lead man - Raghav Sachar. To start with, Raghav plays himself, Raghav the singer/composer, in Kabir Sadanand's TUM MILO TO SAHI, which stars Nana Patekar, Dimple Kapadia, Suniel Shetty, Vidya Malvade, Anjana Sukhani and Rehaan Khan. "I wouldn't say it's my launch pad. It's an integral part and will only enhance my brand value," Raghav tells me.

However, Raghav, who scored the music in KABUL EXPRESS, SUNDAY, ONE TWO THREE and HAAL-E-DIL, is keen to make his big screen debut in a film like GREASE. "I would love to work in a musical like GREASE. It holds tremendous appeal for the youth," he says, adding that he would love to work on the script if at all the project takes shape.

But singers/composers like Sonu, Himesh and Abhijeet haven't been lucky. "I've always taken risks and gone the unconventional way. Also, I wouldn't like to work in films that demand six pack abs or bulging muscles. I'd love to work in a youth-centric entertainer, which should appeal to its target audience," Raghav says.

Sumber: https://bolliwoodstories.blogspot.com/2009/04/news_22.html