SRK and Deepika Padukone as Krishna and Radha

MUMBAI: For Stuart Pearson Wright, a painter from England, life has been an eventful one.
A few more shades were added to his colourful persona when he was given the responsibility of drawing sketches of some Indian cricketing legends — Kapil Dev, Dilip Vengsarkar, Bishen Singh Bedi and Sachin Tendulkar — as part of Marylebone Cricket Club Potrait Project, London.
The portraits of the cricketers will be put up in display in the Mecca of Cricket — the Lord’s museum along with other international cricketers.
The 39-year-old painter, who is in the city for two weeks now, is delighted to be a part of the project.
“It is an honour to be a part of this big project where I got to draw the portraits of so many legendary cricketers. I am almost done with my project. I have a couple of sittings left with Kapil Dev and it will be done soon. I will give the finishing touches in England,” he told DNA on Wednesday.
Wright is not a sports buff but he enjoyed painting the sportsmen. “I have never drawn the sketches of sportsmen before. It was a challenging and completely new experience.
I have done the portraits of JK Rowling, Prince Philipe and other British actors, but this was a different assignment,” he says.
“It is easy to make portraits of actors because they can show the emotions. But it is difficult drawing sportspersons’ sketches because they are not used to it. It is difficult for them to show the same expression.
However, they really cooperated with me. Sachin was so modest and amenable. I went to his home and the painting was completed in only one sitting,” adds Wright.
Was he nervous while drawing the sketches of the superstars? “No. I didn’t even know who they are because I don’t follow cricket. And it is easy for a painter if he doesn’t know who is his subject. I was not nervous at all,” he says.
Wright is eager to draw the sketches of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and actress Deepika Padukone, on the themes of Krishna and Radha.
“My dream is to bring Shah Rukh as Krishna and Deepika as Radha on my sketches. He has the charisma and a blue face while Deepika has the qualities of Radha, because she is probably one of the most beautiful women in the world. I was inspired on this when I saw the paintings of Radha-Krishna at the Prince Charles Museum,” he says.

Taus Rizvi, DNAindia.com

Emma thompson and Laxmi Mittal will walk the red carpet in London for 'Om Shanti Om' premiere

Leisceter Square in London will be glittering with glitterati on Thursday night at the premiere of ‘Om Shanti Om’. After all it doesn’t happen often that you get to see Hollywood actresses like Emma Thompson and steel tycoon Laxmi Mittal at the premiere of a Bollywood movie. Well, it appears that they just couldn’t ignore a personal invitation from SRK.

“There will be some very special people at the premiere on Friday, including Emma Thompson and Laxmi Mittal. They are dear friends and I am so glad that I will get a chance to catch up with them,” Shah Rukh said just minutes before leaving for London.

“Basically, the idea of having a premiere in London is to attract the global audience, not just the Indian diaspora. Also our distributors, Eros International are based out of London. And you know what, I really want to get away from it all and just enjoy the film,” Shah Rukh added.

SRK has fond memories of Leicester Square. After all, he had held the premiere of his home production ‘Asoka’ also at the same theatre (Empire theatre) in 2002, again at the time of Diwali.

“‘Chak De’ also premiered in London. In a sense, having a premiere here in London has always been special to me.” In spite of the fact that arch rival ‘Saawariya’ having its premiere in Mumbai last night, the OSO team is unperturbed, and will go all out to celebrate the event.

The red carpet event before the screening is also going to be a grand photo opportunity with the entire star cast of the film, including Deepika Padukone, her parents Prakash and Ujjwala, Arjun Rampal, and of course Shah Rukh Khan walking the red carpet along the ‘special’ guests.

DNAindia.com

Om Shanti Om vs Saawariya : Bet and See!

A couple of leading licensed horse-racing bookmakers based in Mumbai said for the first time, odds are offered on films, thanks mainly to the two mega movies, Om Shanti Om (OSO) and Saawariya , releasing on November 9.

"Normally, the producers of big movies avoid a clash of release dates, but in this case it is projected as a big fight. Since both are being released on Diwali day when most people like to gamble, a couple of bookmakers are offering odds and the exercise will hopefully generate more betting interest," a bookie said.

It is learnt that Shah Rukh Khan's Om Shanti Om is the favourite at 75/100, while Saawariya from Sanjay Leela Bhansali's stable is quoted at 5/4. "After regular betting on cricket and polls, betting on films was on the cards. Now that two blockbusters are releasing on the same day, the bookies were quick to seize the opportunity," said Dayanand Mandre, distributor of Om Shanti Om for Karnataka.

A couple of bookies accepting bets said this is a fun trial and that volumes will be low. Nevertheless, a sizable number of supporters of both camps have placed bets and are encouraging their friends to follow suit on Diwali day.

Bookies said King Khan is a big draw and OSO will lead the collections race in the first two weeks. The old Bollywood hats said OSO publicity team had done a tremendous job and comfortably won the pre-release round.

They have played a couple of master strokes. Linking newcomer Deepika Padukone with ODI skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and with the other stories floating around in the media that Yuvraj Singh has also fallen in love with Deepika, the OSO publicity heads have stolen a march. Deepika, supermodel-daughter of Prakash Padukone, has provided OSO a definite edge. The 48-hour countdown has begun, and the betting volumes are already pegged at jaw-dropping Rs 25 crore.

Ikram Khan, TimesOfIndia

King Khan wants to make animation films

However, the mega star of Hindi cinema doesn't have any immediate plans of venturing into it.

The idea must have occurred to him from his own experience as a father. "Mobile games are the best way to keep children quiet (while driving) in a car. If you have kids you would know."

Flaunting his new look (six pack ab) and clad in jeans and open necked white shirt, the boyish looking Khan appeared to be in a light mood, joking with media persons shooting questions at him about his forthcoming Diwali release Om Shanti Om .

"I am sure you guys are sick of seeing me everywhere these days. I am even wearing the same white coloured shirt that I wore for a previous event."

Asked about his options on promoting his film, he retorted, "I am planning to write on journalists' forehead. That way, you would publicise my film wherever you go, even if it's not my event," he gleefully declared to reporters.

Not to be sidelined by another film which is to be released on Diwali - Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Saawariyan , starring new comers who also happen to be star kids Ranbir and Sonam, while extending his best wishes to the cast and crew he added, "Diwali is all mine," indicating that his last year (Diwali)release Don was a huge hit.

"The year has been an eventful one for me from KBC (game show) and Chak De India to OSM , (moving a step ahead with variations)," he declared. Reacting to a question he said, "People think I always over act with the exception in the role of Kabir Khan in Chak De India ."

Shah Rukh was speaking at an event to announce Nokia's association with Om Shanti Om . Bollywood is the most popular downloads mobile content besides sports and fashion in India. Hence, Nokia has created a special OSO Crazy Mobisode', animated character of OM (played by Shah Rukh Khan) that can be downloaded exclusively on all Nokia GPRS enabled handsets. OSO Crazy Mobisodes are five different animated characters of OM in OSO. These include OM- the Cowboy; OM-the friend; OM – The Dacoit; OM –The Thinker: and OM – The Super star. These will be short video episodes dubbed in Shah Rukh Khan's voice himself.

Vasundhara Sanger, TimesOfIndia