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Bhanwari Devi was Rajasthan’s glamour girl-Rakhi Sawant
01 year ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
The lass is all set to play the role of the slain nurse from Rajasthan
Richa Bhatia (BOMBAY TIMES; April 17, 2012)
Rakhi Sawant has done it again. The item girl, who claims to be from the Mallika Sherawat school of marketing, will receive the Dadasaheb Ambedkar award in Mumbai for the best item number and for being the most controversial person in the industry, and the actress is all set to receive it dressed in a Sonia Gandhi get-up. “I am looking for a sari — the kind that Sonia Gandhi wears. I will be dressed like her, as she is a huge inspiration to me. I admire the work she has done for the country,” says Rakhi.
The award apart, Rakhi is also gearing up for a film that will see her take on the character of the murdered nurse from Rajasthan, Bhanwari Devi. But the buzz around the project has already landed her in a spot, with industry insiders decrying the news as making light of a serious issue. Rakhi, though, remains unperturbed. “Logon ne to Vidya Balan ko nahi chhoda to main kya hoon? The Dirty Picture was Vidya’s best recovery,” she says, adding, “I will do the role with honesty and hard work.”
While nothing in her profession would have prepared Rakhi for this role, (she is overtly sexy, even when covered up) the actor retorts, “If you have seen pictures of Bhanwari Devi, you will see that she was the glamour girl of Rajasthan. Woh apne culture mein sabse aagey thi. I am saying all this because I have already researched her character. With this role, I will More >
Citizens Alliance to appoint Aamir as creative consultant
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
The actor has flown to Delhi to meet Sonia Gandhi and PM Manmohan Singh
Kunal M Shah (MUMBAI MIRROR; December 01, 2010)
Aamir Khan has recently flown to Delhi to meet Sonia Gandhi, PM Manmohan Singh and many other political dignitaries to discuss how he can help create general social awareness in public.
Aamir is a part of a group called Citizens Alliance, comprised of MPs across parties, NGOs, and others. The Prime Minister, who looks into their work, has now offered him a chance to be a creative consultant on the social awareness programmes that they make.
The first programme that the group will work on is on malnourished children and they want the actor to help them with it.
From now on, Aamir will have a say in all the social awareness programmes that Citizens Alliance will work on.
Our source said, “The Prime Minister feels that Aamir is very good at communicating with people and putting his thoughts across in an effective manner. He has a brilliant connection with people since they admire him and are most likely to revere his thoughts and messages as well.
The PM feels that the social awareness ad films that the group makes are not reaching enough people. The group members of Citizens Alliance also feel that the visibility of the social awareness ads is limited and with the help of Aamir they would be able to get a lot more attention from people.
There are many vital issues that the group needs to address and the first one is More >
Movie Review: RAAJNEETI by FENIL SETA
32 years ago
The present-day Indian political scenario is infested with corrupted netas and mantris with goondaism, rigged elections and dynastic partiality a regular feature of it. Raajneeti deals with all this and much more. However, let me break the myth that Raajneeti is not only for the intelligentsia or for serious cinema lovers. This is a complete entertaining film and those having no interest in politics will also love the goings-on. There’s so much happening in the film and the turn of events at each and every point is so sudden and unexpected that one won’t get a chance even to blink. This and the award winning performances are the strengths of Raajneeti and enough reasons to go and watch the film ASAP!
The story of the movie: Prithvi (Arjun Rampal) is the heir apparent to the throne of the Rashtrawadi Party. His ultimate rival is his cousin Veerendra (Manoj Bajpai), a fierce and impatient man who can do anything to reach the top. On the other hand, Sooraj (Ajay Devgn), born and brought in a Dalit area has strong political ambitions and wishes to secure the election ticket from his constituency. Veerendra uses him to thwart Prithvi. Soon, a family tragedy forces Prithvi’s younger brother Samar (Ranbir Kapoor), a person miles away from politics, to enter the corruption-infested waters of his family conflict. He’s pursuing a Ph.D from US and even has a girlfriend (Sarah Thompson) there. Indu (Katrina Kaif), Samar’s childhood friend loves him to death. More >
‘Raajneeti’ gets U/A certificate, Jha to snip scenes
12 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
Film Overcomes Political Hurdle
Bharati Dubey | TNN (THE TIMES OF INDIA; May 27, 2010)
Mumbai: The Film Certification Appellate Tribunal in Delhi has overruled the decision of the Censor Board of Film Certification revising committee and has given a U/A certificate to Prakash Jha’s Raajneeti. The film was cleared on Wednesday, albeit with a few cuts.
A film usually takes a couple of days to get the censor clearance, but Jha’s Rajneeti had to wait for a week. Film industry insiders said that Jha should consider himself lucky that the tribunal cleared his film in two days and insisted that he would not have had to go through the wait had the film been screened for the Congress.
Three persons with Congress affiliation were flown from New Delhi to Mumbai for the revising committee screening where a U/A certificate was refused. Congress media coordinator Tom Vadakkan is believed to be part of the revising committee and Pankaj Sharma, editor of Sandesh (a Congress mouthpiece), confirmed that he was in Mumbai for the screening.
“We had told them to cut a few scenes and come back to us, but they preferred to go to the tribunal,’’ Sharma said.
Jha denied this.“They didn’t ask us to come back. We kept begging them, asking what could be done for the film to get a U/A certificate, and they told us to come back with the revised version,” he said. “The changes they were asking for would have meant changing the entire film, which was not possible. More >
‘Raajneeti’ producers unhappy with ‘A’ certificate
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
Bharati Dubey | TNN (THE TIMES OF INDIA; May 21, 2010)
Mumbai: The producers of the film Raajneeti may move the appellate tribunal of the censor board and are looking at other options as they are not happy with the ‘Adult’ certificate the film has got.
The film was cleared by the revising committee of the censor board on Thursday with an ‘A’ certificate with a few changes in some dialogues. The examining committee of the board had referred the film to the board’s revising committee on Wednesday as members were divided over the type of certificate to be issued.
“Some members wanted to give an ‘A’ certificate without cuts while some wanted to give it a ‘U/A’ with cuts,’’ an insider said. “So it was decided that the film be referred to the revising committee for a final decision,’’ he added.
The revising committee, consisting of six members, saw the film on Thursday and issued the film an ‘A’ certificate with some changes in the dialogue. A member said, “We have asked them to delete the words, ‘Vidhwa vote le jayegi’. There is a lot of violence and foul language in the film and intimate scenes between Ranbir Kapoor and Sarah Thompson, Katrina and Arjun Rampal. So we had to issue an ‘A’ certificate.’’ When asked if the producers were happy with the certificate, the member said, “They asked what they should do for the film to get a ‘U/A’ certificate. But we had to tell them the film would have to be truncated a lot and go with major More >
Raajneeti in Censor board row
03 years ago
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The Censor Board is unsure about clearing Prakash Jha’s Raajneeti, refers the film to a Revising Committee
Vickey Lalwani (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 20, 2010)
Prakash Jha’s ambitious political drama Raajneeti has run into some more trouble, only this time from a source it least expected. The Censor Board, which viewed the film yesterday, has refused to grant it a certificate. The Ranbir Kapoor-Katrina Kaif starrer will now be referred to a Revising Committee before a final call is taken.Apparently the Censor Board feels that the ‘hard hitting’ political drama is a little too hard hitting in some portions, where the difference between real politicians and reel characters becomes uncomfortably thin.
After a lengthy debate, the screening committee decided that since it was a sensitive issue and could snowball into a major problem, it was only prudent to get a second opinion from more members of the Censor Board before issuing a certificate.
A source says, “The Censor Board seemed divided. While some officials felt that they could go ahead with the certification, others cautioned against any hasty decision.”
While regional officer Vinayak Azad remained unavailable for comment, Raajneeti’s director Prakash Jha too seemed hesitant about speaking on the matter.
While he initially maintained that there was “no problem”, even putting the delay down to technical reasons. “It is just that the screening could not be completed because of More >
KRK sends legal notice to Prakash Jha; claims to own rights to title Raajneeti
03 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
By Subhash K. Jha, May 15, 2010 – 14:30 IST
The problems for Raajneeti seem to be getting more pronounced. Earlier this week, there was a Mumbai-based social worker Naseem Khan who filed a petition in court against Raajneeti asking for its release to be stopped because one of the central characters apparently resembles Sonia Gandhi.
Now one hears that actor and self-styled star Kamal R Khan (or KRK as he likes to be called) has sent Prakash Jha a legal notice claiming rights over the title Raajneeti.
When contacted Jha admits Kamaal, known to generate publicity for himself through various controversies, has indeed sent a legal notice claiming copyrights over the title Raajneeti.
“But my lawyers are looking into it .There’s absolutely nothing in this claim. We shouldn’t give any importance to people who jump into the picture at the time of release for whatever reasons. Look at the way Rakesh Roshan is being harassed over Kites by some person claiming to be entitled to crores of rupees. Earlier we had someone making claims over Ram Gopal Varma’s Rann days before release. This is not done!”
Speaking on Mr Naseem Khan’s claims that Raajneeti casts aspersion on one of the most revered politicians of the country, Prakash Jha retorts, “Let all these self-styled supports of Soniaji come forward to show their loyalty. Am I an irresponsible citizen and filmmaker who would do something so foolish as to portray Soniaji in a bad light? No one has seen a More >
Ranbir-Kat to adress students on politics
03 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
By Subhash K Jha (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 22, 2010)
What better way to promote a political film than have its popular lead actors directly connect with today’s youth to discuss cinema and raajneeti? That’s exactly what Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif will do all of April by touring across the country to address students at hand-picked campuses to promote Prakash Jha’s Raajneeti.
Prakash Jha said, “We’ve chosen eight cities and colleges.Yes, Ranbir and Katrina will debate on politics and the youth as part of the entire endeavour to take Raajneeti beyond the world of entertainment. Today’s political icon is no longer a 70-something veteran politician. It’s Rahul Gandhi and my stars will be addressing a generation which understands the language of Rahul’s politics.”
The filmmaker will also be meeting Rahul and his mother Sonia Gandhi to dispel the prevalent notion that Raajneeti is based on their lives. He will then invite Rahul to join the debate with the stars at Delhi University. The names of the eight cities and colleges are being kept a secret to avoid a security problem.
While Ranbir wants to speak extempore Katrina has started reading up as much as she can on current affairs and has also been closely watching the news so that her role as a politician in Raajneeti comes across convincingly in real life too.
Interestingly, while Katrina likes to rehearse her scenes and dialogue, Ranbir is known to be a spontaneous More >
Union textile minister visits Bharatmata, says no to razing
03 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
RAY OF HOPE: Union textile minister Dayanidhi Maran (third from left) with Milind Deora and Ashok Chavan at the Bharatmata theatre on Tuesday Prakash Joshi & Yogesh Naik | TNN (THE TIMES OF INDIA; January 20, 2010)
Mumbai: Union textile minister Dayanidhi Maran on Tuesday assured Mumbaikars that the historic Bharatmata cinema in Lalbaug will continue as it has played a significant role as a cultural centre for Marathi cinema.
Maran, who took a round of the area and visited Bharatmata, said he would respect the feelings of the Marathi people about the theatre as he belongs to Tamil Nadu, where films are respected.
Mumbai Regional Congress Committee president Kripashankar Singh had called on Maran and UPA president Sonia Gandhi to demand that the National Textile Corporation must respect the sentiments of the Marathi people and stop the demolition of Bharatmata.
Gandhi had promised to look into the issue and direct the government accordingly, Singh told TOI. The Shiv Sena and MNS have also taken an aggressive stand to save Bharatmata.
Chief minister Ashok Chavan, who accompanied Maran during the visit, was very happy with the Union minister’s assurance.
“Bharatmata cinema has become a cultural symbol respected by textile workers residing here for generations. We are happy that such symbol will be retained for future generations,’’ Chavan added.
There was strong demand from textile workers, Marathi film personalities and cultural bodies to save Bharatmata More >