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Posts tagged asrani
Bollywood mourns at Rajesh Khanna’s chautha
010 months ago
MUMBAI MIRROR (July 23, 2012)
Almost the entire film industry attended Rajesh Khanna’s Chautha ceremony held at Mumbai’s Taj Lands End on Saturday, July 21, 2012.
Pictures of the superstar brought back warm memories as colleagues, friends and family reminisced about the times spent with the actor and how he had touched their lives in different ways.
Singer Shubha Mudgal rendered a beautiful prayer song as a mark of respect for the late actor. After which, Khanna’s grandson Aarav thanked her, going on to present a special video to all those gathered. Edited by Akshay Kumar, the video featured excerpts of various interviews with the late actor in them.
Aamir and Kiran Rao, and Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan were among those who came in quite early. The Kapoor clan was in full attendance, including Rishi and Neetu Singh, son Ranbir Kapoor, Randhir Kapoor and Shweta Nanda along with her mother-in-law. Rakesh Roshan came, and so did Hrithik and Susanne Roshan.
Among the superstar’s contemporaries who were present at the ceremony were Prem Chopra, Jeetendra, Asrani, Reena Roy, Bindu and music composer Anandji to name a few. Shashi Kapoor, who had undergone a cataract operation just the day before, came in a wheelchair to pay his last respects.
Yash Chopra, who was partnered by Khanna, when he first decided to become an independent producer and start his own banner Yash Raj Films, looked emotional.
Akshay Kumar was busy looking after the guests while wife Twinkle, who is pregnant with More >
Now there’s no lap; there’s just laptop-Kader Khan
01 year ago
by Fenil Seta
in Interviews
At 65, Kader Khan has opted out of the film industry to be an educationist. We revisit a few fond memories with him
Indu Mirani (MUMBAI MIRROR; February 26, 2012)
As an entertainment reporter in the 1990s, travelling to Hyderabad to cover the shooting of a Govinda film was as common as travelling from Bandra to Churchgate. More often than not it would be for one of the No.1 films (Hero, Coolie, Anari) and another fixture on the sets would be Kader Khan, who would be there as a co-actor and dialogue writer. We didn’t realise it then, but the combination was writing film history as they ad-libbed and smart-assed their way to creating a whole new genre that is still known as the Govinda genre. Dialogue from those films is still repeated and everyone who has cracked up at them has a favourite.
All this is in my mind as I go to meet Kader Khan (65), who hasn’t been seen in the movies for some time having seemingly passed his sell-by date as have so many wonderful entertainers of that decade. I couldn’t be more wrong. Kader Khan is neither down, nor out. He has just seamlessly progressed to the next phase of his life with the very ambitious project of creating an entire syllabus from nursery to post graduation in Islamic studies which will be taught in Madrasas. For this he has taken all the Urdu and Arabic texts written in a form not easily understood and created a simplified version; in some cases, with translations.
He will also be opening an institute in Canada (he is a More >
Akshay and Sonakshi dance in mud for Joker
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
By Bollywood Hungama News Network, March 29, 2011 – 16:39 IST
Here is presenting an exclusive still from Joker on which we have managed to lay our hands on. As can be seen, the still pretty much gives an impression of this being a fun film, what with Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha leading the bunch with a dance in mud.
Though the makers (Shirish Kunder, Farah Khan, UTV) are unwilling to share any details around the situation in the film that involves this mud dance, it is pretty obvious that the song setting is rural here with Minissha Lamba being the sole individual to have stepped in from a city (look out for her chic Western outfit). As for Sonakshi, she appears to be continuing her ‘gaon ki gori’ act from Dabangg, something that should keep her established fan base happy. With Shreyas Talpade seemingly in a fun world of his own, other characters like Sanjay Mishra, veteran Asrani and Vindoo Dara Singh are filling the frame as well.
What is surprising though is to see Akshay Kumar in an altogether different get up from what one has been seeing of him in films like (upcoming) Thank You, Tees Maar Khan, Housefull, Action Replayy or Khatta Meetha – his last few releases. Though he has played a villager in Singh Is Kinng, he was in Sikh attire there. However in Joker, he seems to have entered the interiors of the country and gone authentic with his villager act.
With all the talks of aliens, sci-fi, Alice In Wonderland fantasy world look and feel and now a More >
Big B to copyright his voice?
02 years ago
If he does so, he can sue people who use imitations of his voice for their own purposes
Chandna Arora | TNN (MUMBAI MIRROR.COM; November 09, 2010) Amitabh Bachchan
You’re not an aspiring actor unless you’ve tried your hand at an Amitabh Bachchan imitation. From radio to ads to comedy shows, good/bad/downright criminal copies of his voice and mannerisms are everywhere, and he’s not alone. Many actors and celebrities are spoofed or have their voices copied pretty much everyday – in fact, so often that we barely notice any more.
But recently, Big B took deep umbrage at a gutka company copying his voice for their advertisement, especially “for someone who does not smoke or propagate smoking or any kind of intoxicant, by keeping away from endorsing such products, it is most disgusting to find someone conflagrating the law of the land and the law of ethics,” he wrote online.
He’s also said that he’s going to copyright his voice so that it’s not copied in this manner anymore.
Kis kis ki copy?
He’s probably the most imitated star, but there are a bunch of others whom we’ve heard being spoofed endlessly over the years – in both commercial and non-commercial spoofs. These remain the favourites when it comes to copies. Says mimic and TV comedian Suresh Menon, “People like Sanjeev Kumar, Shotgun, Dadamuni, Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan remain the most copied stars, and it just shows that our present day actors are not as iconic or as stylish More >
Salman has a Sholay moment
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
The actor mouths a dialogue in Dabangg inspired by Asrani in Sholay, which was co-written by his father Salim Khan
Mauli Singh (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 31, 2010)
Salman Khan, who plays a cop in Arbaaz Khan’s maiden production Dabangg, will be seen mouthing Asrani’s memorable lines from Sholay in one scene.
Abhinav Kashyap, who is a great fan of the seventies era of Bollywood and Salim Khan films, has incorporated Asrani’s famous dialogue from Sholay, “Aadhe idhar jao, aadhe udhar jao, baaki mere peeche aao” in Dabangg, but with a twist.
The director says he used the dialogue as it suited to the situation in his film. “We haven’t lifted the dialogue from Sholay but it has the same flavour. It’s very situational. In Sholay, Asrani who plays a jailor tells his sepoys to follow him.
In our film there is a scene in which Salman goes for an investigation and he gets off his jeep and tells his sepoys to follow him.
He instructs them, ‘Mote wale iss taraf, patle vale uss taraf, aur jo fit hain wo mere peeche.’ Then he looks back and sees no one behind him and adds sarcastically, ‘Kya ho gaya hai police force ko?’ We have taken the dialogue a step forward and related it with the current situation. It’s a comment on the fitness level of the police force today.”
Movie Review: KHATTA MEETHA by FENIL SETA
02 years ago
The Akshay Kumar-Priyadarshan combo has worked wonders in the past and hence a lot was expected from Khatta Meetha. Although it surely engrosses in those 2.30 hours, the film falters as it is promoted as a comedy and satire and both of which the film is not! Moreover, the film has a nice story to tell but doesn’t offer anything new. It throws light on the corruption that is rampant everywhere, something that is seen umpteen number of times in our cinema. Nevertheless, Akshay’s performance and Priyadarshan’s direction ensures that the film keeps you hooked from the first scene to last and doesn’t let you leave the theatre dissatisfied even with a flawed product!
The story of the movie: Sachin Tichkule (Akshay Kumar) is a road contractor in Phaltan taluka of Maharashtra who’s struggling to make ends meet. The municipality isn’t delivering him the cheque for his services while Sachin has to pay the due to his workers and owes money to every tom, dick and harry. To make matters worse, the new municipal commissioner Gehna (Trisha Krishnan) turns out to be his ex-girlfriend with whom he had an ugly break-up in college. His father (Khulbhushan Kharbanda) is ashamed of Sachin while his brother-in-laws laugh at him. Still, Sachin dreams big and hopes that he’ll be successful one day. Will he?
Khatta Meetha begins wonderfully with Akshay Kumar singing bhajan that sets the mood. In the next 20 minutes, almost all the important characters are introduced and More >
Movie Review: KHATTA MEETHA by TARAN ADARSH
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in External Reviews
By Taran Adarsh, July 23, 2010 – 12:02 IST
When Priyadarshan and Akshay Kumar join hands, you expect the cineplex to reverberate with laughter. Let’s not forget, the team has regaled us with some terrific entertainers in the past. Naturally then, you expect KHATTA MEETHA to take the legacy forward.
Unfortunately, KHATTA MEETHA is noise [the actors scream a lot in this movie], more noise [the great promotion] and only noise, while the content takes a complete backseat. Although KHATTA MEETHA shouldn’t be compared to this combo’s earlier works, since this one’s a satire, I have to add that this is their weakest film to date.
BY BOLLYWOOD HUNGAMA.COMThe first question I asked myself once the movie got over was, what’s the story? Okay, okay, neither did Priyadarshan’s last few films had a story to tell, but when you attempt a satire, when one talks of the hardships faced by the common man, when one talks of corruption in society, there HAS to be a story in place. That goes without saying!
KHATTA MEETHA raises a finger at the corruption in government establishments, but what it tries to say, or expose, has been witnessed over and over again. In fact, it’s the writing — sorry, the absence of it — that makes matters worse. The beginning is good, the middle falters and the end is exasperating.
Final word? This one’s far from being meetha. It’s a khatta experience!
Struggling road construction contractor Sachin Tichkule [Akshay Kumar] is doomed. There is no More >