SRK's Dulha Mil Gaya in 'BIG' trouble

Vivek Vaswani's Dulha Mil Gaya seems to be jinxed, after the much delayed shooting thanks to Shahrukh Khan the movie is financial trouble now. Anil Ambani's BIG Pictures which had brought the rights of the movie has given up on the deal due to the financial losses the company suffered in wake of the ongoing recession.

Vaswani on his part plans to re-offer the movie to BIG Pictures and if doesn't work out look for another potential buyer. The film stars fardeen khan and Sushmita in the lead and has a Special role by Shahrukh. Sources close to Vaswani say that some of the sequences with Shahrukh are still pending as King Khan is in South Africa promoting his team in the ongoing Indian Premiere League.

Dada is a dude for Knight Riders: Shah Rukh

Durban: Sourav Ganguly may no longer be the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders, but team owner Shah Rukh Khan feels the former Indian skipper is still a "dude" and pivotal in the side's scheme of things in the on-going IPL.

"Dada is fantastic and there is no two ways about it. He does not need to prove it to anyone how great as a player he is. We know it in KKR. He's the main cog of our team. He's the guy the team centres around," Shah Rukh said in praise of Ganguly.

"(Brendon) McCullum, (Chris) Gayle, Brad (Hodge), David (Hussey), Ishant (Sharma), (Ashok) Dinda, Laxmi Ratan (Shukla) all feel the support from him, feel his intelligence, feel his winning ways. Dada is a dude," said the Bollywood superstar.

Shah Rukh also felt that Ganguly's two wickets for 24 runs tilted the match in his team's favour against Kings XI Punjab.

"Against Kings XI Punjab he was amazing with those couple of wickets. When Dada came on and got those two early wickets it changed the match in our favour and after that also he sort of kept them quiet and scared. I think that made a lot of difference," he was quoted as saying by IPL official website.

Shah Rukh said it was too early to start celebrating after his team posted its first win in two games by beating Kings XI Punjab.

"It's good for the team that it has started coming together. Our top-order whether it's Ishant Sharma (in bowling) or Sourav Ganguly, Brendon McCullum and Chris Gayle (batting) all are coming good together. We did not play too hot on the first day. I think the first match would be considered as a practice match and we are working on the mistakes committed on day one. The team is working together and that's what makes me feel a little more firm and good. But there is still a long way to go," he said.

Shah Rukh had a tough choice when asked who he thinks is bigger hitter between Chris Gayle or Brendon McCullum. "It is very difficult to say that. With Gayle we have a bet that he has to send one ball from South Africa to Kolkata and with McCullum we have that he has to send one back to New Zealand. We'll find out who is going to win. "I think both have their different strengths. Gayle has this timing and strength, McCullum has all timing and bliss.

McCullum is more like (Virender) Sehwag who times the ball whereas Gayle has got this strength like Yuvraj Singh. You can't really choose between them, they are both fantastic and when they both get going it is fantastic to watch."

All's fair in love and cricket, says Shilpa

But match against friend Shah Rukh's team will be emotionally difficult for her

Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty whose co-owned Indian Premier League (IPL) team Rajasthan Royals faces her friend and superstar Shah Rukh Khan's team Knight Riders in Cape Town on Thursday (April 23), says "all's fair in love and cricket" despite it being a "difficult" match emotionally.

"We play on the 23rd in Cape Town against the Knight Riders, that will be a difficult one, not the match but the emotion... it's terrible to play against a friend's (Shah Rukh Khan) team but all's fair in love and cricket, I guess," Shilpa posted on her blog on Wednesday (April 22) from South Africa.

"Hope we have luck on our side this time... I've realised winning in this format (Twenty20) of the game has a lot to do with luck as well," she added.

Knight Riders hit by mental blog

CAPE TOWN: Shah Rukh Khan has spent a lot of money building up PR for Kolkata Knight Riders. He’s hired the right firms, been out there in the public just about all the time; there’ve been parties, press conferences, cheerleaders, music and almost all the right kind of bytes given by the superstar himself.

Yet, he’s a troubled man. That’s not just because KKR got off to bad start or that relations between ex-captain Sourav Ganguly and coach John Buchanan continue to be strained. It’s mainly got to do with an unknown blogger - who claims to be a KKR team member - bent on letting the cat out of the bag all the time.

The blogger - calling himself Fake IPL Player - is sure he’ll never be a part of the playing XI. "But, there’s one thing I do very well. Serve drinks. And that’s what I am expecting do in South Africa," he writes.

Evidently, he’s doing much more. The day begins with posts on what KKR did at the breakfast table to what Khan had to say to his team, who listened, who smirked, what the coach did the whole day, how’s Ganguly coping with lost captaincy and of course, what the rest of the teams and their players have been up to.

The blogger uses names coined by him to refer to these people. So the pieces are about "our megalomaniac owner", Badshah d****, Coachie, Skipper (Brendon McCullum), Calypso King (Chris Gayle), Lord Almighty or Lordie (a former skipper) and fast bowlers Kaan Moolo and Little John.

Then there are non-KKR personalities like a commentator, Kishen Kanhaiyya, a star batsman, Prince of Patiala and a pacer, Appam Ch*****, among others.

KKR camp slams ‘poison-pen’ blog

An unknown blogger who claims to be a Kolkata Knight Riders team member is letting out what he claims to be KKR team news, giving co-owner Shah Rukh Khan a big headache.

The blogger claims to bring "news" straight from the dressing room. Sample: "Lordie ( a former skipper) took over the match briefing, and boy, was he charged up or what. He just let loose, telling the boys what is expected of them - imagine the slowest member of the team chastizing guys twice as fast on matters such as agility, speed and throwing."

The blog has become such a rage that almost all players in the tournament are clued in, wanting to know who partied where the last night, who went out with whom, and so on.

There’s more. The blogger claims that there’s now a ‘witch-hunt’ to nab him within the next 24 hours and he’s convinced that that will just not be possible.

The team seems to be rattled. Kolkata Knight Riders arrived in Cape Town on Thursday morning for their match against Team Jaipur on Friday.

However, on Thursday, at least till late afternoon, there wasn’t a clue what the team was up to. No training session, no press conference. None of the players or officials were seen moving out of their hotel rooms. Phones were either switched off or put on voice mail.

There was just a buzz that there’d be a team meeting presided over by SRK. But that remained a buzz till the time of going to press.

KKR CEO Joy Bhattacharya has called the blog "poison-pen writing of the dirtiest variety". According to him, there are far too many factual errors and far too little information or insight for the writer to successfully pretend to be a KKR member.

The KKR management’s response itself has provoked several pieces. Like this one: "In Cape Town. Laptops hv bn banned. I’net removed fm rooms. But posts wl continue thru SMS, relayed by my bro in India."

There’s serious gossip doing the rounds not just within the KKR camp but among other teams as well.
There are rumours that there’s quite a bit of infighting inside the team and that a few players and coach and the owner don’t see eye to eye. One of the blogs says how Ganguly is waiting for that one big knock to get back at SRK.

The latest one also talks about senior players being questioned about the blog.

So, who’s Fake IPL Player? That’s now a subject of intense speculation. Is he actually a KKR member or just faking it? The blogger describes himself as a "perennial no hoper" Ranji cricketer who bowls and bats a bit, and fields "like a maniac". There are several personal references - but these could well be red herrings.