Shahrukh Khan in Danny Boyle's film

If all goes well, Bollywood top actors Aamir Khan and Shahrukh may act together. It was reported that Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle had signed Aamir for his forthcoming film Bombay Velvet. Now, another news is doing the rounds that the Oscar winning director is keen on roping in Shahrukh too.

It seems Danny can't have enough of Mumbai city. Like Slumdog Millionaire , Bombay Velvet is also based on the city. It is a film based on real life incidents and Anurag Kashyap will direct it.

The new film is said to have three parts with a new comer playing the lead in the second part while Aamir Khan takes over in the third part. It is said that Danny is looking forward to sign Shahrukh for the lead role in the first part.

Let's wait and watch if Danny will succeed in casting the two Khans together!

For Orissa villagers Shah Rukh is a hero, not just a star

Laxmi Mondal of Banhipal village in Orissa’s Kendrapara district has never watched any of Shah Rukh Khan’s movies, as the village has been without electricity all these years. But for this poor village woman the Bollywood actor has turned into a real life hero by lighting up their lives.

Shah Rukh has funded a solar power harnessing project which provides light to the village after sunset.

“There is no electricity in our village and we don’t expect it to be provided by the government in the near future. So the electric lanterns have become very handy for us. Though we used kerosene lanterns earlier, they couldn’t be relied upon due to the brisk breeze throughout the day as our village is just a few kilometres away from the Bay of Bengal,” said Mondal.

Banhipal is not the only village which is a beneficiary of Shah Rukh’s largesse. There are six other villages - Ahirajpur, Okilapala, Palachua, Rangani, Denlasahi and Gupti in Kendrapara district which have benefited from this solar harnessing project which has been fully funded by Shah Rukh Khan.

The project is part of the Greenathon initiative of NDTV called ‘Lighting Billon Lives’. Technical assistance has been provided by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).

Each village has been provided with about 50 solar lanterns with a single charging point. The lanterns are charged every morning through solar panels set on rooftops.

The charging of lanterns, distribution and collection of money are mainly manned by women members of the village.

Though Shah Rukh has borne the installation cost, the maintenance cost is taken care of by the villagers themselves.

“We have a corpus to meet the running expenses of these lanterns. We raise the corpus by charging just Rs.2.50 from every villager. We charge extra if one takes the lanterns for use during festivals and special occasions. And if a person from a neighbouring village takes it then he is charged Rs.10 per night,” said Biraja Prasad Pati, of Nature Club, a local NGO which implemented the project.

These villages are primarily small clusters of Bengali-speaking people. The villagers use these lanterns not only to light their homes but also for other purposes.

“We use these lanterns for different purposes. Our men take these lanterns to scare away wild boars during night as they often destroy our standing paddy. The fishermen take these lanterns for fishing during night and our children study with these lanterns,” said Urmila Modal, from Okilapala village, adding that they often give these lanterns free of cost to meritorious students of the village.

Apart from these seven villages, Shah Rukh’s generosity has helped in bringing light to two other villages - Jadapala and Tarajodi in Mayurbhanj district of the state.

SRK's Delhi visit

Shah Rukh Khan was in the capital Friday evening to attend a promotional event.

He performed to the song, Haule Haule, posed for pictures and signed autographs, with life-sized cutouts of the star providing good company to those who couldn’t get enough of him! Says one of the guests, “SRK’s the real hero. He’s so well mannered and so attractive. He has no starry nakhras at all.”

Shah Rukh, an honorary professor now

After getting an honorary doctorate, Shah Rukh Khan might soon be on his way to being an honorary professor too!

Routes to Roots, the NGO that got him the honorary doctor's degree in arts and culture from Britain's University of Bedfordshire, is now planning to get the actor a professorship from the Coventry University in UK.

The secretary of Routes to Roots, Rakesh Gupta, confirming that this honour will be conferred upon SRK "very soon", said, "Shah Rukh has done a lot for charity and helping people out. There are some villages in Rajasthan, Orissa, etc., which have got electricity because of SRK. People in these villages don't even know SRK, because they don't see many movies. Secondly, the electrification of the village is by alternative sources of energy. So, while it's good for the human beings, it's also good for nature."

Shah Rukh salutes his make-up dada

Shah Rukh Khan knows how to show respect to his elders and he didn't shy away from showing that at a public platform.

He was invited as a guest along with other celebrities such as Jaya Bachchan and Juhi Chawla to attend a function to award the film industry's noted technicians.

Shah Rukh gave an award to his make- up man, Ravi dada.

In his speech, SRK spoke very fondly of Ravi.

"He is a father figure to me. He was the first makeup man I ever had. I had borrowed him from Hema ji (Malini) and I told him to make me as pretty as her. Later, he stayed with me, but couldn't make me pretty," he quipped.

He showed respect for his make-up man, who has been with him through his long Bollywood journey, by touching his feet on stage. Ravi couldn't hold back his tears.

Shah Rukh Khan´s Red Chillies, With TERI Launches ‘Lighting A Billion Lives’

Red Chillies in association with TERI (The Energy and Resource Institute) recently sponsored the launch of the ‘Lighting a Billion Lives’ campaign in five remote villages namely Jadapal, Tarajodi and Ahirajpur villages in Orissa and Panchpadi and Bhanwata villages in Rajasthan.

The majority portions of these villages were un-electrified and used kerosene as their source of energy. As a part of the campaign solar lanterns are begin introduced in these villages.

The implementation of this project will be done by the end of April. Once the implementation process is completed, updates will follow in a month's time.

The implementation of the campaign was also helped by NGOs such as Society for People’s Awareness and Rural Development Action (SPARDA) and Forum for Integrated Development and Research (FIDR) in Orissa and Humana People to People India in Rajasthan. Red Chillies is proud to bring smiles and touch lives through this initiative.