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Sunny Deol sheds his inhibitions in London
06 months ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
Shaheen Parkar (MID-DAY; November 7, 2012)
Sunny Deol is a changed man. The actor, well known in B-Town for maintaining a low profile and being reticent, has suddenly shed his inhibitions.
The dhai kilo ka haath hitting star is letting himself go — and how! He’s turned party-hearty and displaying his fun streak to all.
The brawn icon has been in England for the past two months shooting with father Dharmendra and brother Bobby for Yamla Pagla Deewana 2. The buzz from the sets of the Sangeeth Sivan directed film is that he is keen to change his serious tag image.
For someone who detested being the centre of attraction, it has come as a surprise to see the Punjab da puttar wanting to be the cynosure of attention! Says a unit source, “It is clear that Sunny has become extremely forthcoming. For a man who always shunned media glare, he is now loving the attention and does not mind the publicity blitzkrieg. He is no longer holding back and seems to have decided to go the way the other stars go — be in the media glare.”
One look at Sunny’s recent snapshots amply denote his metamorphosis. On November 1 at his co- star Russia- born model Kristina Akheeva’s birthday bash, Sunny was in the thick of things including lifting the birthday belle. He even insisted on plastering the newbie’s face with cake.
On his birthday (October 19), Sunny had a blast celebrating his big day as well as when it was director Sivan’s birthday in September.
As the source says, “Sunny has been in the More >
Newbie convinces Bhatt to produce his film
011 months ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
Debut director Siddharth Sharma has persuaded Mahesh Bhatt to produce his next film
Shakti Shetty (MID-DAY; June 5, 2012)
Mumbai-based filmmaker Siddharth Sharma’s upcoming project is yet to release but he has already managed to convince Mahesh Bhatt is produce his next. In fact, the project is already underway, with its screenplay already in place and the casting in process. The thriller has been tentatively titled Darinda and is an international co-production.
“When I was graduating and had made my first short film, I showed it to him to get a feedback. That was then. Recently, when I met him and shared with him an idea of making a thriller with a love story embedded in the plot, he was positive and assured me that I have his support,” Siddarth adds on his only existing connection in Bollywood.
His debut film as director, Arjun & Allison, deals with racism and hate-crimes prevalent in England. Interestingly, the story reflects on his own personal experiences when he visited the country after completing his filmmaking course. Spanning across three countries — UK, India and USA — the resulting action-drama is scheduled to premiere at the awaited London Indian Film Festival. Later, the film will be screened at Toronto.
I’ve achieved the peak of physical fitness-Anil Kapoor
01 year ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
Anil Kapoor, 53, has attempted the demanding sport of parkour for the first time
Upala KBR (BOMBAY TIMES; April 18, 2012)
Anil Kapoor returns to the big screen (his last outing being Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol in 2011) as Counter Terrorism officer Arjun Khanna in Tezz. Needless to say, he is charged about playing an upright officer who stops at nothing to achieve justice. Ajay Devgn locks horns with Anil in the film; one man is out to get back what was unjustly taken from him, while the other is willing to do whatever it takes to stop him.
The action has been directed by Gareth Milne and Peter Pedrero, who have executed stunts for films like Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, Quantum of Solace and The Bourne Identity. Says Anil, “It is very heartening that our productions are now world-class. The action was meticulously choreographed and the film was shot across England. Tezz is closest to my heart among my recent works as it is high on emotions, an edge that we have over Hollywood.”
The film has been directed by Priyadarshan, whose last film with Anil — Virasat — was a blockbuster. Adds Anil, “Tezz is fast and gripping, taking Indian thrillers to a new level. It is unlike anything we’ve done till date. With minimum resources and economic constraints, we’ve created the same impact of a Hollywood action film. Made at one-tenth their cost, some of the chase sequences have been brilliantly picturised. This film will also see me returning to action after many More >
Anil Kapoor-Priyadarshan to never work again?
01 year ago
by Fenil Seta
in Rumour has it
After “Viraasat”, it took 15 years for Anil Kapoor to say yes to Priyadarshan’s film “Tezz”. It is unlikely that they will ever work together again as they do not approve of each other’s working methods.
By Subhash K Jha (MID-DAY; February 29, 2012)
Priyadarshan likes to work without a script, while Anil does projects only when he is given a hard-bound script.
Anil Kapoor
“To put it bluntly, Priyan and Anil do not see eye to eye. Anil is a studied actor who likes to come fully prepared to the sets.
For this, he needs the script beforehand. Priyan, on the other hand, seldom, if ever, prepares a full script. Most of the time he likes to improvise and work out his scenes on the spot. This is not how Anil likes to work. He turned down every single offer from Priyan until ‘Tezz’,” said a close friend of Anil.
Priyadarshan
For “Tezz” apparently, Priyadarshan had no choice but to write out a full screenplay before shooting. “Priyan needed to shoot in various parts of England, including Glasgow on subway and railway stations where permission had to be taken from various authorities.
Priyan needed to submit a screenplay to the British authorities for each location that he needed to shoot on. That’s how Anil was given a script this time by Priyan,” said a source. Priyan constantly improvised and altered scenes at the last minute, thereby throwing the pre-prepared Anil Kapoor off guard.
Reportedly there were constant arguments between the actor and director caused by their More >
Indians at Oscars get ignored in global coverage
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
Prithwish Ganguly | TNN (BOMBAY TIMES; March 1, 2011)
The 83rd Academy Awards saw some of the big names of Indian cinema grace the red carpet at the Kodak theatre but the people waiting to see Indian faces shine on it were disappointed again this year.
Our stars barely got any screen time in the global coverage. Bollywood, , has stamped its authority all over the world but Hollywood treats our stars like foster children. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan regarded as the mascot of Indian films globally, and husband Abhishek Bachchan were the only two who were covered in the global coverage. They have also been written about widely in the international press. In the Indian coverage, they were given their due time though with a full fledged interview.
The case of Mallika Sherawat is most curious. She hollers about her LA connections, and how she hobnobs with the best in business in Beverly Hills and even puts up details on her social networking site. But that’s all it is. Talk, talk, talk. At this year’s Oscar’s coverage, even in the Indian broadcast, there was just a fleeting shot of her — she wasn’t even asked to give a byte. The global coverage too did not give any attention to the Hissss actress. It’s time the actress stopped boasting about the AListers she dines and parties with, and to start concentrating on her flagging career in BTown, where she would get a little attention.
Ashutosh Gowariker and his son Konark were also present at this More >
Another Indian in Oscar race!
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
Prithwish Ganguly (BOMBAY TIMES; February 12, 2011)
Lucknow-born film editor Tariq Anwar, who has been working in Hollywood for years now, has been nominated at this year’s Academy Awards in the Best Editing category. Tariq has been nominated for his ground-breaking work in The King’s Speech that is expected to definitely take home the Best Actor award too with Colin Firth the clear favourite. The 83rd Oscars also has AR Rahman vying to win home two awards with nominations in Best Song and Best Original Score category. Indiaborn British film producer and editor Tariq’s credits include Center Stage, The Good Shepherd, Sylvia, Oppenheimer, Revolutionary Road and American Beauty, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award and won two BAFTA Awards. He is now based in the United States and England and is the father of actress Gabrielle Anwar (who incidentally plays Micheal Westin’s girlfriend in the TV series Burn Notice). Having spent 18 years at the BBC, Tariq learnt his craft by cutting a huge array of programmes for almost every department.
Movie Review: PATIALA HOUSE by TARAN ADARSH
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in External Reviews
By Taran Adarsh, February 10, 2011 – 13:54 IST
A while ago, I posed a question on Twitter and Facebook, asking people what their expectations were from PATIALA HOUSE. The reaction ranged from encouraging and affirmative to unenthusiastic and unexciting. A wide number of caustic and scathing comments were a consequence of Akshay Kumar’s last year’s releases, namely KHATTA MEETHA, ACTION REPLAYY and TEES MAAR KHAN. Also, a few called it similar to DHAN DHANA DHAN GOAL, while some even compared it with NAMASTEY LONDON.
In fact, a lot many factors go against PATIALA HOUSE. Director Nikihil Advani and Akshay’s last outing together, the infamous CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA, remains a favorite punching bag to this day. Besides, PATIALA HOUSE comes at a time when people have had an overdose of Akshay starrers. I reiterate, there ought to be at least six months’ gap between two films of a major star, while this is Akshay’s fourth release in six months [KHATTA MEETHA - 23 July, ACTION REPLAYY - 5 November and TEES MAAR KHAN - 24 December]. Moreover, the film opens exactly one week before the keenly anticipated World Cup cricket matches and coupled with that, it will have no breathing space as the very next week witnesses the release of another much-awaited film 7 KHOON MAAF. Expecting PATIALA HOUSE to overcome these hurdles is tough, mainly when the chips are down!
BY BOLLYWOOD HUNGAMA.COMThe chips are down also because people assume PATIALA HOUSE to be More >
Famous cricketers also star in Patiala House
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
While insisting earlier that Patiala House focuses on a father-son relationship, its makers have now revealed a huge list of cricket biggies who will act alongside Akshay Kumar
Kunal M Shah (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 06, 2011)
Nikhil Advani and the makers of Patiala House have been saying that their film is not about cricket; that it’s actually about a father-son relationship and that cricket is the reason for conflict.
But looking at the enormous line up of cricketers, the “relationship” bit seems like the backdrop, not the focus of the film.
Our source said, “There is a huge list of cricketers that will put any IPL team to shame. Cricketers like ex England captain Nassir Hussain, New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum, South African dashing opener Hershelle Gibbs, IPL’s most expensive player Kieron Pollard, the controversial Andrews Symonds, Pakistani wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal, Sri Lankan’s Tilakratne Dilshan, England’s legendary Graham Gooch, Pakistan’s Wasim Akram, and Australia’s Mathew Hayden are all part of the cricket matches that feature Akshay as one of the team members.”
When contacted, Bhushan Kumar, the producer of the film confirmed, “Nikhil Advani was very keen that we do justice to the script, in which Akshay is a player from the England team and they are participating in the World Cup matches.
So, the film needed to have a lot of known faces. That’s when we approached these guys, sent them the scripts and got them on More >
Patiala House is not a comedy-Nikhil Advani
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
By Subhash K. Jha, December 30, 2010 – 11:22 IST
Nikhil Advani had a major dispute with the rest of his team over the content of the first trailer of Patiala House. The dispute caused a critical delay in getting the trailer ready to be attached to Tees Maar Khan (TMK), as per plan. Consequently, the trailer couldn’t make it to all the theatres in Mumbai.
When Nikhil Advani visited a suburban theatre to watch TMK on Friday, it wasn’t only because he wanted to check out his own film’s hero’s latest offering. Nikhil wanted to see the first trailer of his own film Patiala House that was attached to TMK.
To his shock the trailer of Patiala House was missing from the film since it couldn’t be attached in time to all the prints of TMK.
Laughs Nikhil joylessly, “All the prints of the trailers for the Dolby theatres couldn’t be ready in time. So only about 70 percent of the Dolby theatres could show the trailer of Patiala House with Tees Maar Khan. Unfortunately, I landed up in one of the theatres that didn’t have my trailer attached to the film. Can you imagine? The world saw it. I couldn’t.”
Was it a last-minute decision to peg the Patiala House trailer to TMK?
Explains Nikhil, “No no. We had decided long ago to attach our first trailer to Tees Maar Khan. Akshay is a co-producer on both projects. Since Patiala is not a comedy we decided we’d wait for the release of TMK before starting the campaign.”
Then Nikhil blurts out, “All the Dolby prints of the trailer couldn’t be More >