I’m an inglorious bastard: SRK

The mercury's rising, and the October heat is just setting in, but Shah Rukh Khan is packing his woolies and preparing for a cold, bleak winter.

Not in Bollywood, of course; but in Berlin, where he is jetting off to in a couple of days to begin work on Excel Entertainment's Don 2. It is a two-month-long schedule,

and SRK will be away all the while, so if you want to wish him on his birthday on November 2, you had better go to Berlin like Karan Johar is planning to. After the success of Don, he is naturally excited to be working on the sequel, it promises to be bigger and better. And Don himself has grown, he's gone and done bad things around the world — now the police of 22 countries are after him as against 11 in the first part!

Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar, the proud producers of Excel, say that the Mayor of Berlin actually opened out areas in the ancient, historic city that were restricted to the Hollywood filmmakers shooting Inglorious Bastards and Val Kyrie there. "That's how big Shah Rukh is in Berlin," exclaimed Ritesh. "People there, and I mean not just Asians — but Germans also, have started taking leave to be working on this film as extras."

The anti-hero of this big budget action thriller also thinks Berlin is a "cool place". He would, he has a stronger fan base there than any Bollywood actor as he discovered when attending the Berlin Film Festival to promote My Name Is Khan. "Hundreds of people stood on the road in the snow, they treat me like a German star, and they respect and love me... like the energy I bring on the screen has filled up some void in their mechanised lives. I'm their adopted son, like Raj Kapoor was to Russia, it is a very humbling experience," SRK told me in a chat over Don 2. "I'm excited to be shooting in Berlin, I like the darkness of the buildings, the starkness of the winter, people dressed in overcoats and wearing mufflers and dark glasses, and black cars going around."

Right at the start of the schedule, Excel intends shooting an edge-of-the-seat, 14-day car chase next to the monumental Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Shah Rukh is glad to be getting back into action. He has begun exercising, getting back some of the muscle he lost for the parkour action sequences of Ra.One, though in Don 2 it will be slick gun action, fights with devices, a combo of James Bond and Matrix.

"But I'll be a completely in-your-face mean character, like Bond gone wrong, this is Farhan's creation. The victory of evil over good. Don is an unpredictable, edgy character. He in intriguing. A little bit of Mickey Rourke, Johnny Depardieu, John Malkovic and Clint Eastwood. He's romantic and sensual, he watches cartoon films, but he's also a mean, catch-me-if-you-can guy. I like Don's attitude. There's lot of scope for me to play him," he said excitedly.

Shah Rukh Khan's fans have accepted this "inglorious bastard" character — as he is fond of calling Don. The actor is delighted with that, even though he is glorifying evil, because nobody as yet has accused him of being a bad influence. Not even his children. He accepts that Don is a bit of a "badmash". "But he's also enigmatic. I wish he didn't rape women and do drugs. But even that, he does in style, there is no sleaze. Don is a base thought that we all have — that if I were to do bad things, I would do it with style. Crime doesn't pay, but it makes life cool, doesn't it," he argued. Well, on screen — certainly!

Shahrukh Khan to get athletic in Don 2

After losing weight for his home production, Ra. One, Shahrukh Khan will pile it on for Farhan Akhtar's Don 2. The man aiding SRK to gain muscle is fitness trainer Prashant Sawant, who had helped him build his six-pack abs for Om Shanti Om. Incidentally, Prashant is also training Boman Irani, SRK's co-star in Don 2.

Says a source, "SRK's role in Don 2 requires him to not just be fit but to have a tough, athletic and lean body -- something that can help him do high-intensity stunt sequences effortlessly. Prashant Sawant, his trainer of 10 years, is helping him achieve that. For over a month now, the actor has been undergoing extensive weight training along with a high-protein diet

that helps build muscle mass."

Khan's exercise routine includes working out rigorously at his gym at home for an hour. "He is concentrating only on weight training with no cardio. But all the exercises are done keeping his shoulder injury in mind. His diet includes eggs and steamed or grilled chicken." Don 2 producer Ritesh Sidhwani says, "Shahrukh is not beefing it up for Don 2. He's just building on some muscle for his different image in the film. He lost a lot of weight for Ra. One and will be putting on some for Don 2."

Currently, Ritesh and Farhan are in Berlin scouting for locales and beginning pre-production work. Riteish says, "A major part of Don 2 will be shot in Berlin. No Hindi film has ever been shot here before. We start shooting in 10 days."

Boman Irani (DCP D'Silva/Vardhaan in Don) has been training under Prashant Sawant for two-months now. He has lost quite a bit of weight. "Boman will look completely transformed in Don 2. He's building his muscles too as he has to look tough. He's doing almost two hours of cardio, weights and circuit training with a diet designed by Prashant's wife Maya (also a fitness instructor). Boman's diet is a high-protein one with little carbohydrates and absolutely none after evening with lots of protein shakes," reveals our source.

From Raavan to Ra.One , eyes are set on SRK's film now

The most anticipated ‘Ra.One’ is on its way to box office after the big flop of ‘Raavan’. This year two similar sounding titles ‘Raavan’ and ‘Ra.One’ are likely to be two big-budget films. Now the expectation is on Ra.One to be the big hit in Bollywood as the other one could not.

‘Raavan’ was co-produced by Reliance BIG Pictures and Madras Talkies at a budget of 450 million rupees and the movie was released simultaneously on 2,200 screens worldwide in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu versions.

It opened with an average opening and was soon relegated to the ranks of also ran. As per the figure disclosed by the distributors, on the opening day worldwide, it could gross 200 million rupees and the first weekend worldwide gross collection was 530 million rupees.

Now all the eyes are on King Khan’s home production Ra.1. A whopping amount of 300 million rupees is riding on SRk’s shoulders. The buzz in the trade is that Reliance Big Pictures has bought the rights of SRK’s Don2 from Excel Entertainment for 1,250 million rupees and it is also heard that Eros International has bought Shah Rukh’s home production ‘Ra.One’ for a whopping 1,750 million rupees.

‘Ra.One’ is reported to have a budget of 1,000 million rupees, making it the second-most expensive film in India, after Blue, and equaling the record of ''.My name Is Khan‘.

‘Ra.One’ istars Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Rampal in key roles. Shah Rukh Khan plays a famous scientist in the film, based in London and works on developing a robot.

In a twitter message, the star said, “Ra.One means random access version one, will understand when you see the film. Ra.1 site will be up soon/have no film with Kajol or Yashji right now/don’t dance too well, I just try hard/I am the hero in Ra.1.”

The two movies ‘Raavan’ and ‘Ra.One’ are two different as chalk and cheese when it comes to their plotlines.

While Mani’s Raavan is a modern-day adaptation of the mythological epic Ramayan, SRK’s flick is a highly stylise film with a lot of techniques and gadgets.

Though ‘Raavan’ failed to do well in the box office , ‘Ra.One’ is riding high on expectations.

Shahrukh Khan digs his teeth into some Khichdi

Khichdi-the movie that has hit theatres finally has got some bites of Shahrukh Khan who has graciously agreed to meet the cast and crew of the popular telly show that has been brought to the big screen.

Like SRK, Khichdi team, too, embarked on the showbiz journey from TV and the team is eager to fetch the mega star’s blessings and heartfelt wishes. The 1st look of the flick was unveiled at SRK’s mansion Mannat. The team had even penned a letter to SRK to fix a meeting and finally the Ra. One actor has relented.

The rendezvous shall take place soon at Kamalistan where the entire cast including the likes of Anang Desai, Rajeev Mehta and Supriya Pathak shall be present. The producer JD Majethia will also be there and an ecstatic JD gushes, “Oh yes, we are meeting Mr Khan at Kamalistan. We had written him a letter.”

He also applauds SRK for fixing the appointment despite the latter’s gruelling schedule. He also is determined to make SRK watch their film and hopes that the film shall draw some guffaws and chuckles from the King Khan.