Shah Rukh not keen on contesting Lok Sabha poll

Congress Rajya Sabha member Rajiv Shukla today sought to dispel speculation about Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan’s entry into politics, saying the actor has no intention to contest the elections.

“All these are rumours. Such reports are baseless. It is true that Shah Rukh is close to Congress and the Gandhi family but that does not mean that he would enter politics,” Shukla told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.

“He will focus on films and no one from Congress has approached him for the elections,” Shukla said, adding that Shah Rukh has not evinced any interest in Congress ticket.

The comments by Shukla, considered close to the Gandhi family, came amid reports that King Khan may get a ticket for Mumbai North Lok Sabha constituency.

Remarks by Mumbai Regional Congress Committee president Kripashankar Singh at a press conference earlier this week were construed by a section of media that the party would be open for Shah Rukh’s foray in poll arena, if he desired.

One night in Shahrukh Khan’s ‘Mannat’

The buzz is that Bollywood King Shahrukh Khan helped Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra during Mumbai terror attacks. priyanka-and-sharukh-300x268 One night in Shahrukh Khan’s Bungalow ‘Mannat’: Priyanka Chopra

It is said that Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and other members were busy in shooting of Vishal Bharadwaj’s upcoming film ‘Kaminay’ at Marine Drive on November 26 when terrorists attacked several places of Mumbai. All the unit members cancelled the shooting and left for home.

If reports are to be believed, When Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra were going home, they came to know about another attack in Juhu. Shahrukh Bungalow Mannat was near. They rang up Shahrukh Khan, he told them to come home and they spent night at Mannat. It is learnt that Shahrukh Khan and her wife Gauri Khan are very kind hearted to others.

A close friend of Shahid Kapoor revealed, “Shahid and Vishal left at 10.30pm but they had to face many problems while coming back. Priyanka Chopra and Shahid decided to spend a night at Shah Rukh’s place because they could not move further. They left in the morning when situation was normal.”

FLASH BACK 2008

As we gear up for the NOKIA 15th Annual STAR-Screen Awards, here’s a replay of who clinched the trophies in the year gone by.

The New Year heralds new beginnings and last year this time the industry was abuzz with the nominations of Nokia 14th STAR-Screen Awards. It was a rewarding box-office year as experimental, small-budget films worked as well as big-budget formula films. 2007 had seen diverse kind of films churned out by the industry and the Screen nominations aptly picked the different shades. From Chak De! India,which will go down in the history of Indian cinema as one of the finest sports films, to Life In A...Metro, one of the best films to bring out the ethos of an urban life and Taare Zameen Par that simply raised the bar for Indian films, the nominations netted a neat spread. Guru, inspired by the illustrious life of industrialist Dhirubhai Ambani, Om Shanti Om, a commercial blockbuster and Saawariya, a box-office dud got their fair share of nominations. In fact, OSO and Saawariya were running neck-to-neck in the list with nine and eight nominations respectively, which just shows that excellence is the sole benchmark for the Screen Awards.

It was King Khan who walked away with the Best Actor (Male) award amidst a thunderous applause for his understated but determined hockey coach act in Chak De!India. It was also adjudged the Best Film. However, it was Aamir Khan’s Taare Zameen Par that bagged the maximum number of awards, eight in all, with Aamir himself bagging three trophies for Best Director, Most Promising Debut Director and Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Child artiste Darsheel Safary who wowed one and all with his outstanding performance as a dyslexic child, won the Best Child Artiste as well as the Special Jury Award for Best Actor. Amole Gupte, the writer and creative director of the film walked away with the Best Story and Best Dialogue awards. The heart-rending song Maa rightly fetched Prasoon Joshi the Best Lyrics award.

Chak De! became the nation’s catchphrase, thanks to Shah Rukh Khan and his all-girls’ hockey team of Chak De! India. On the awards night too, one could hear the war cry every time the film bagged an award and that was one too many. Even our hosts Sajid Khan and Shreyas Talpade did a spoof on the film, dressed as girls, which brought the house down.

SRK’s hockey team won the Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Female) award – the first time in the history of awards that so many girls were nominated and won together. Shimit Amin shared the Best Director award with Aamir Khan and Amitabh Shukla won the Best Editing award.

The other SRK film Om Shanti Om bagged three awards. In fact, Shah Rukh stole the thunder with his energetic performance on Dard-e-disco in the grand finale. He also won the STAR Jodi No.1 with his OSO co-star Deepika Padukone who won the Most Promising Newcomer (Female) award beating Sonam Kapoor nominated for Saawariya. However, co-star Ranbir Kapoor won the Most Promising Newcomer ( Male). In fact, Sajid did a hilarious take on Ranbir’s hit number Jab se tere naina, draped in a towel. Needless to say, that was the highlight of the show and had others aping it at their functions.

Life In A...Metro and Guru,which had 15 and 14 nominations respectively, bagged three awards each. Anurag Basu’s take on life in a metropolis earned for him the Best Screenplay, while Irrfan Khan’s subtle and dry humour won him the Best Actor in a Comic Role and Soham’s haunting melody Inn dinon was the winner for Best Playback Singer (Male). Mani Ratnam’s Guru dominated the music category winning three awards including Best Music, Best Background Score (both for A R Rahman) and Best Playback Singer (Female) - Shreya Ghoshal for the lively number Barso re megha.

The star-studded evening was memorable also for the scinitllating performances by Shahid Kapoor who danced to Mauja hi mauja, Katrina Kaif, who grooved to Soni de nakhre, Riteish Deshmukh who arrived atop a truck and gyrated to his hit song Dil mein baji guitar and Urmila Matondkar who did a medley of Lifetime Achievement awardee Manoj Kumar’s songs.

'Om Shanti Om'

Together, they rocked in 2007 with Om Shanti Om. Now, Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone and Farah Khan are back again in Billu Barber.

Farah, of course, is getting SRK and Deepika to dance to her tune again.

The film, his home production, is much hyped already and slated for release on February 13. And the Bollywood Badshah and his OSO leading hottie sizzle in a song Love Mera Hit Hai Hit Hai. “It was great fun doing this song,” said Farah who was dragged out of post-maternity recuperation by SRK to choreograph the film. “I didn’t have any sense of deja vu because it is very different from OSO which mostly had retro moves. This song is very hip-hop, it has a futuristic look, and the moves I have given them are like that. I couldn’t say no to Shah Rukh even though my babies were just born.”

Deepika, who has always been an ardent SRK admirer, added, “Working with them is special because Shah Rukh and Farah are the two people I have started my career with. I am glad he asked me. Farah these days has become very selective and will not take up anything unless it excites her, so it’s all the more reason for me to be a part of this song. We relived so many memories, I felt I was going back to the sets of OSO. My costume designer is Manish Malhotra even in this film, and we had the same caterer — Mutthuswami, serving us. It was so much fun.”

Meanwhile Shah Rukh, who credits the success of his previous hit to newcomer Deepika, is happy to work with her again. “It was sweet of her to agree. She is very talented and works hard. Working with the younger lot is really a learning process. They are so much fun, confident, and aware. They are all my future investments,” he laughed. Besides Deepika, there are two more sexy cameos with Priyanka Chopra and Kareena Kapoor. SRK has created onscreen magic with these three girls before in Asoka, Don and OSO respectively.