Bebo dances with the King

Kareena Kapoor and Deepika Padukone will be seen getting jiggy for a hot item number in Red Chillies Entertainment’s Billoo Barber with Shah Rukh Khan. Irrfan Khan plays the title role in the film directed by Priyadarshan.

Billoo Barber is an adaptation of the story of the Krishna-Sudama friendship and is said to be a remake of the superhit Malayalam film Kadha Parayaumbol.

Says a source close to Kareena, “Though Kareena and Shah Rukh haven’t done any films together; after Asoka and Don, their chemistry has been sizzling . Bebo is also very fond of SRK.

When Shah Rukh, who plays a superstar in Billoo Barber, asked her to perform to a song with him, she agreed. Kareena is keeping dates aside and will soon be shooting for the song by next week.

Deepika Padukone is also being pencilled in for the song with SRK.

Kareena and Deepika will be the two actresses playing themselves vying for Shah Rukh’s attention in the song.”

Billoo Barber is a story based on the friendship between two friends — one, a rich city slicker and the other, a poor villager. SRK plays a big star while Irrfan Khan plays a village barber.

The two are friends since their schooldays; who drifted apart only to meet years later. Tabu was initially considered for the lead opposite Irrfan but now Ameesha Patel has been signed on.

While Gulzar has penned the lyrics, the screenplay is by Mushtaq Sheikh and Manisha Korde.

Upala KBR, Mid-Day

DILWALE DULHANIYA... enters 650th week!

The third time pairing of mega director Aditya Chopra and Bollywood's global superstar Shah Rukh Khan, RAB NE BANA DI JODI, is all set to take off on 16th May 2008 and release on December 12, something we have already told you about. The latest is that the hunt is still on for a fresh face opposite King Khan and contrary to media speculations; neither Sonam Kapoor nor a new face has yet been officially finalized.

However, the first Aditya Chopra and Shah Rukh Khan project, the trend-setting DILWALE DULHANIYA LE JAYENGE is still running at Mumbai's Maratha Mandir in a matinee show. The super blockbuster achieved another milestone last week as it entered the 650th combined week of its run.

Just for records, the Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, (late) Amrish Puri, Anupam Kher, Farida Jalal and Mandira Bedi starrer has netted more than 11.80 crores in 649 weeks from Bombay. And that excluding Thane!

Abid, Bollywood Trade News Network

Shah Rukh Khan walks out of TV show?

The smoke was not emanating from his trademark cigarette but from Shah Rukh Khan’s ears yesterday. A furious SRK stalked out of the sets of Star’s ‘Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hai?’ a television gameshow featuring him. Apparently a 10-year-old student sprang up and fielded a question which left the actor flummoxed.

In the show, based on the international ‘Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader’ in which grade-school level questions are put to adults. Contestants are presented with the chance to win up to Rs 5 crore by answering questions taken from the syllabus of the fifth grade level or lower. Children are part of the show and are the contestant’s ‘classmates’. The show is to air on Star Plus soon.

SRK was filming at the Haji Ali studio Letsroll yesterday. All seemed well five minutes into the shoot with the parents of the kids watching intently in the audience, adult contestants and the children all eating out of SRK’s hands already.

Then, a student got up and asked SRK rather insolently if he knew to which cricket writer one could attribute the quotation: ‘What do they know of cricket who only cricket know.’ SRK was taken aback. He said hesitantly, “Neville Cardus.” He was hooted down and some students who shouted, “No. It is CLR James.” A voice shouted from the back: “People who do not know their cricket should not own teams.”
This referred obviously to SRK’s acquisition of the Kolkata team for the Indian Premier League (IPL).

As SRK protested that he did know his cricket, other bouncers were hurled at him: “When did Graham Gooch lead a rebel tour to South Africa?” and “Which cricketer was forced to flee Zimbabwe fearing Robert Mugabe’s wrath?” SRK did not know the answers to both which were incidentally 1982 and Henry Olonga. More booing followed, with somebody shouting, “Go and dance at weddings.”

The superstar stormed out and has left the programme in the lurch refusing to return today for shooting. The buzz is that SRK has left the show for good. The actor refused to comment on the issue yesterday.

Meanwhile, the student who was later identified as Amit Buch from Eklavya High School, Cuffe Parade, told MiD DAY that he was a big fan of SRK and thought he could earn some brownie points by asking questions. “I have seen all of SRK movies and one day want to enter movies. I thought this is a way to impress him. I had studied up stuff for the shooting. I hope he is not too angry with me.”

Buch’s parents said that King Khan had behaved rather immaturely in front of the children and should learn to take jokes better.

Hemal Ashar, Mid-Day

Charmed, by SRK

Whether talking about each other or otherwise chatting, the two had a lot of fun. And so did the audience and SRK’s fans. But why does King Khan always wear black and white ensembles? “I love black and white.

I don’t like experimenting much. I’m perfectly fine with this,” he replied. Perhaps he thinks he’s reached an age where one should only wear subdued colours, because he certainly was rather grandfatherly towards almost everyone he met. “How are you? Take care of yourself. You should watch your health,” he told many of the people he handed out golf awards to. And each of them loved it so much that they all wanted to stand on stage and chat with him, even after they’d received their prize and the next awardee’s name had been announced!

But it wasn’t just the awardees – people like Simar Duggal, Charu Sharma and Rajiv Bal were charmed by SRK too. His fans had heard he was coming, and they were at the venue six hours before he arrived – little kids clutching their autograph books, asking the menacing-looking bouncers, “Shah Rukh uncle aayenge. He’ll give us autographs. Hamare saath photo bhi karenge?” The bouncers, of course, remained stone-faced and silent.

During the stage announcements, SRK turned to Karun, who was standing next to him, and said, “He’s done the country proud, and he will continue to do so. Because convincing a cricket-crazy audience to watch another sport is tough. He will be much more famous one day than Schumacher... and that’s the only name I know from motorsports!” To which Karun said, “I’m a little conscious endorsing brands because brands are usually endorsed by good-looking people like SRK, who know how to do it perfectly and they don’t have to do or say much. I’m very conscious.”

Times Of India