Remembering Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson with his stop-on-a-dime dance moves and sensual soprano influenced generations of musicians. The King of Pop stood for much more than pop greatness or tabloid weirdness. One of entertainment's greatest icons, he was a ridiculously gifted, equally troubled genius who kept us captivated at his most dazzling and his most appaling. Jackson had announced a series of comeback concerts at London's O2 arena before he passed away on June 25. Here's a look at the most important things that surrounded the life of the King of Pop.

Critics all praises for Ranbir Kapoor’s performance in ‘Rajneeti’

Ranbir Kapoor has successfully displayed his diverse acting skills successfully portraying various shades as a chocolate boy, a spoilt brat, a salesman, and now, a mature Samar Pratap Singh, the ruthless manipulator in ‘Rajeenti’ who reminds you of the strong performance of Michael Corleone in ‘The Godfather’.
‘Ranbir is fabulous in ‘Raajneeti’… He has a natural talent for acting. His screen presence is strong and engaging and he interacts very well with the camera. The best part about Ranbir is that he has no artifice,’ said film critic Anupama Chopra adding, ‘He is young and should do every role - from that of a psycho man, romantic hero, action star, negative roles, everything.’
Despite the presence of stalwarts like Nana Patekar and Ajay Devgan, Ranbir Kapoor stands out with his performance. ‘He is actually the backbone of ‘Raajneeti’. He brings a reined-in, steel-edged ruthlessness to his character. For sure there is no other actor from his generation who could have played this character,’ said critic Subhash K. Jha in his review.
Another film critic, Omar Qureshi, says, ‘If one looks at Ranbir’s career graph and pulls out any review, he has always been praised universally. He takes a very intelligent choice of script whether that is of a goofy romantic in ‘Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani’, an unconventional pairing, a coming of age story in ‘Wake Up Sid’ or a grey character in ‘Raajneeti’. He is here to stay. He is the future.’
However, Ranbir Kapoor is keeping his head in place and says, ‘I am too new to have an image and I really don’t care for it also. All I am doing is working in good stories, with good filmmakers, playing interesting characters and then leaving it for the audience. There is no plan in my head; so I am just going with the flow and enjoying the journey.’

Rains disrupt the shooting schedules of Bollywood stars

Though rains bring a wave of relief for the scorching heat of Summer, they have nevertheless spoiled some of the shooting schedules of Bollywood stars. Shahid Kapoor’s ‘Mausam’ shoot, currently going on in Scotland, had to be shifted from outdoors to indoors, thanks to the heavy incessant downpour. Again Priyanka Chopra’s plans, too, went for a topsy turvy as her shooting of ‘Saat Khoon Maaf’ faced a long delay due to the wrath of the rains.
At present, Shahid Kapur and Sonam are shooting in Edinburgh, Scotland for Pankaj Kapur’s ‘Mausam’. Shahid plays an Air Force pilot in the film and will be seen sporting a uniform for most part of the film.
Check out some of the snapshots from ‘Mausam’ which got leaked into the cyber world with Shahid sporting shades and a blazer decorated with stripes and medals, and Sonam dressed in a bright red dress and a wig giving a hint of yesteryear beauty Madhuri Dixit.

John Abraham mobbed by 2000 Girls

When John was delayed Shankar Mahadevan kept the audience entertained with songs from Nagesh Kukunoor's films."And then it happened," Elahi recounts. "John sang Ab mujhko jeena. There was a deathly silence and then the roar 'Once More Once More' began.- until it grew into a deafening crescendo.Salim-Suleiman's band had already packed up and left. They had to be called back to unzip their equipment and accompany John's singing."Yes, John sang an encore on the audiences' request.A playback singer in the offing?The other surprise of the evening. Nagesh Kukunoor joing John for impromptu singing.By then the audience had got more than what they had bargained for..The unconventionally-planned music release of Aashayein at the Heritage Property in Bandra turned it to be far more unusual than planned.After John sang the number he had diligently rehearsed, the girls forced him and the band back on stage."It was simply crazy," says the executive producer of Aashayein Elahi Hiptoolah."We hadn't planned a big music launch and we certaintly had no clue there was another music launch (for Love Story 2050) the same evening. We just wanted to do something different.So we thought of making all the singers including John perform their tracks from Aashayein live on stage. We never thought there would be such a massive turn-out, or that John would take his first live performance so seriously."Laughs Elahi, "I think we underestimated John's pull. And his pursuit of excellence. I thought he'd come on stage croon a few lines, shake his hips in tight trousers, blow kisses and melt into the night. No way.John arrived at 3 in the afternoon for the technical rehearsal. By the time the evening came he was fully prepared. And so was the audience. It was all calm peaceful and romantic with a 3,000-strong audience waiting quietly by the seaside.

John refuses to work with Asin

John Abraham has refused to work with Asin in a remake of a Telegu movie to be directed by to be directed by Vipul Shah.
Looks like John has started getting choosy about his female co-stars.
John would be playing the role of an encounter specialist in the movie.
A source reveals, “Vipul Shah was very keen to have Asin as the lead actress of the film. She and Venkatesh were the lead pair in the Telegu original. Vipul was also impressed by Asin’s performance in London Dreams and hence spoke to her about his forthcoming venture. But on suggesting the same to John, he was shocked as the actor refused to be paired opposite Asin.”
A source also revealed that, according to John, Asin is not fit for the role and prefers a sexier looking actress for the movie. He would ideally prefer Deepika Padukone, Sonam Kapoor or Bipasha Basu.
However, Vipul Shah says that John has no issue with Asin and that it is purely a date problem and he is hopeful that it can be worked out. He also confirmed that Asin will play the lead actress in the movie.

Aamir-Kareena’s magic to be revived soon

Kareena-Aamir’ on screen magic will soon be seen in Mani Ratnam’s passionate period film Lajjo.
Mani, Lajjo was earlier set aside because of some budget issues.However, the songs had already been written by Gulzar and composed by AR Rahman.
As Aamir and Kareena’s jodi in 3 Idiots proved to be a rage, there were discussions with Mani to look into the project again. According to a source, Mani plans to go into Lajjo before he begins his film with Ranbir Kapoor.
An elated Kareena says,
“I will be too happy. Giggly, girlie, Barbie doll roles don’t bring out the actor in me. I want to be challenged. I can’t play the singing, dancing mannequin any more. I’ve realised that as an actor, playing varied roles is what I enjoy the most. I’m starving for good roles. My characters in Ra.One and Saif’s home production Agent Vinod are powerful roles,” .
Bebo actually took basic tips from her sister Karisma and co-star Kajol to play a mother in Ra.One and Stepmom.
Kareena says she feels being an aunt to Karisma’s kids has prepared her for a more mature phase in her career.

vivek urges bollywood to come to sri lanka

Vivek Oberoi

Vivek Oberoi has urged Bollywood stars to come to Sri Lanka.
Amidst reports that after the request made by Tamil groups both in India and Sri Lanka asking more and more stars to boycott IIFA awards, no big star plans to be in Colombo this week, Bollywood star Vivek Oberoi has come forward in support of the organizers and asked the Hindi film industry to come to Sri Lanka and attend IIFA awards ceremonies between June 3-5.
While promoting IIFA awards, Vivek, who has already reached Colombo said, “I request all Bollywood stars to come to Colombo since I do not believe in boycotting awards. Bollywood films believe in building bridges, not putting up walls against people."
Vivek said that by its presence at the event, Bollywood can play a significant role in building the economy of the country that has seen an internal war and also do something for the Tamil people of Sri Lanka, who are in desperate need of help.
Though Vivek does not hold a position of  influence in any case, his urging stars to come to Sri Lanka to attend IIFA awards has not made much difference as more and more Bollywood stars including Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan have already made clear that they have no plans to book their tickets to Colombo this week.

Ajay Devgan to direct an international action film

Ajay Devgan

Ajay Devgan is getting ready to direct an international action film.
Despite the failure of U Me Aur Hum at the box office about a couple of years back, Ajay Devgan has not given up on direction and is getting ready to direct another film. And this time around his plans are even bigger as he is working on an international action film with Bollywood stars in the lead roles.
Ajay, who is the son of a noted action director from Bollywood, is said to be very excited about this project. He has already finished writing the script of the film and has finalized Sanjay Dutt for the role of one of the lead male characters.
Sources close to Ajay say that unlike U Me Aur Hum, this time around Ajay will only be behind the camera and will not act in the film. He feels that the burden of acting and directing at the same time is rather too much him to handle and if he takes up both together, he cannot concentrate on either of the two jobs.
With Ajay getting ready to make this international action film, this time he wants to focus only on direction. But, with his good friend and the lead actor of the film Sanjay insisting that the film is a story of two lead male actors and Ajay should face the camera in the film by taking up the role of the other male lead, whether he gets his way or not is yet to be seen.

John Abraham finds tough to tone body

John Abraham

John Abraham is finding it very tough to tone his body for different roles.
Though the world of Bollywood is known for its glamour quotient and those who work here are called stars, sometimes even they have to work very hard to keep their body updated. If you don’t believe this just ask John Abraham, who is finding it extremely difficult to tone up his body and get it into different shapes in no time for different roles that he is to take-up in near future.
Though being a professional actor, John realizes his responsibility to get into shape for every role as quickly as possible but the needs of the two roles, which he is about to take-up next are so diverse that even a fit actor like him is finding it very hard to cope with this situation.
Reports suggest that whereas John is suppose to have a beefy look for a Vipul Shah film, which is a remake of a South Indian film, he needs to have a perfectly slim body for Dostana 2. The problem John is facing is that after shooting for the remake of the South Indian film for which he has to put on some weight, he has just 10 days to get into shape before he starts shooting for the second film, which happens to be Karan Johar’s Dostana 2.
Reports suggest that John right now following a strict course of diet and exercise under the strict advise of a trainer to get his body in shape for the Vipul Shah film and then he will work under another trainer to lose weight and get into shape for Dostana 2.
So, with different requirements for the two films, John is finding it very tough to get his body shape accordingly.

nana Patekar disassociates himself from Raajneeti

Nana Patekar

Nana Patekar has disassociated himself from Raajneeti.
After his relations with director Prakash Jha deteriorated recently, Nana Patekar has disassociated himself from all promotional activities relating to Raajneeti just days before the film hit the cinema halls.
Nana has become the second star from the impressive star cast of this multi-starrer film to become unhappy with Prakash Jha just days before the release of Raajneeti. Before this Ajay Devgn had shown his displeasure with the way the film is being promoted as he was not happy with only Ranbir Kapoor  and Katrina Kaif’s face being shown on most of the promos of the film that had gone on air till recently.
Though Prakash tried to impress Ajay by giving him a lot of importance in the first dialogue promo of Raajneeti, it seems it won’t be easy for him to please Nana so quickly and put the record straight with him because he doesn’t even know the exact reason behind Nana’s unhappiness.
If Prakash is to be believed, he came to know about Nana’s displeasure when he recently called-up the Bollywood actor to invite him for the special screening of the film, which was kept to show the final edited version of Raajneeti to its star cast. To Prakash’s surprise, Nana told him that he had nothing to with the film anymore and he will neither attend the premier or any other event related to Raajneeti and nor will he see the film.
When asked Prakash added that he has no idea why Nana is so upset. Prakash added, “Given the way Nana has behaved off-late, rather than him, it should be I, who should be upset.”   
Whatever may be the reason, Nana has now disassociated himself from Raajneeti and you will not see him at any event related to the film.

shahrukh to miss iIFA

Shahrukh Khan

Shahrukh Khan will miss IIFA awards function this year in Colombo.
Here is bad news for all of you, who were either waiting to see Shahrukh Khan perform at this year’s IIFA awards or were eagerly waiting for his face-off with Salman Khan at this event to be held at Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo in the first week of June. Reports suggest that Shahrukh, who along with taking part in the cricket match and attending the award ceremony was also suppose to perform at the event, will now be totally missing from this year’s IIFA. Citing personal reasons, Shahrukh has said that he has decided not to go to IIFA this year.
In a post on social networking site Twitters, Shahrukh wrote, “I don’t think I will be able to make it to IIFA. I have too much work here but I will miss Colombo.”
Organizers of IIFA have confirmed that Shahrukh has communicated to them that he will not be present at the event. They added that since Shahrukh has more important commitments to attend to at that point of time, he has informed them that he won’t be able to make it to the event.
Shahrukh absence from the event not only comes as a disappointment in general but is also a big disappointment for all those, who were waiting for him to come to face-to-face with Salman Khan for the first time after the two allegedly had an argument at a party and stopped talking to each-other.
Meanwhile, the organizers have also confirmed that Abhishek Bachchan and his wife Aishwarya Rai Bachchan will also not be seen in Colombo this weekend.
Shahrukh Khan is the biggest star of Bollywood right now and his missing the IIFA awards function this year is a big disappointment for his fans in Colombo, who were eagerly waiting to see him.