It's SRK vs Mallya

B-Town brigade will turn up to cheer King Khan and the Knight Riders at the opening ceremony match against Vijay Mallya's Royal Challengers

Though IPL’s opening ceremony on April 18 at Bangalore will have performances by Zayed Khan and Katrina Kaif on behalf of Vijay Mallya’s team, Shah Rukh Khan’s team won’t be left behind.

Although Khan isn’t planning any acts, he’s carting B-Town’s glamorous brigade to boost the morale of the Kolkata Knight Riders. SRK’s Kolkata Knight Riders is being led by Sourav Ganguly while Mallya’s Royal Challengers is being captained by Rahul Dravid.

Event manager of BCCI, Venkat Vardhan of DNA Networks, admits, “Katrina and Zayed will be performing for both the Bangalore and Kolkata matches for the Royal Challengers while Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy will be performing at Bangalore. I don’t know about Kolkata Knight Riders’ plans. Being the home team, they will have an event in Kolkata.”

Says an actress on condition of anonymity, “SRK has invited lots of stars to attend the first few matches of his teams including the opening ceremony and the match at Kolkata on April 20. Karan Johar, Gauri Khan, Arjun Rampal and Mehr Jessia, Sanjay and Maheep Kapoor, Chunky and Bhavna Pandey, Riteish Deshmukh, Queenie Dhody, Kajal Anand, Karisma Kapoor and Malaika Arora will be attending the matches. Priyanka Chopra, Amrita Arora, Kareena Kapoor and Farah Khan were invited too.”

The Morani brothers were to do a grand event for the opening ceremony in Bangalore but that had to be cancelled after instructions from Bangalore franchisee. So the Moranis will only be doing firework displays.

Sanjay Gupta, who will be directing Katrina Kaif and Zayed Khan in Mallya’s IPL music video, sums it up, “I know Katrina is performing. I will be shooting the video with her on April 15 in Mumbai. She’s being presented as a rock star diva in it. She was No 1 on my wish list and Vijay made it happen. The opening matches are in Bangalore and Kolkata with the two most hyped and celebrated teams Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers it will be fun!”

SRK’s close buddy Farah Khan says, “I was invited too but I couldn’t go as my babies are too young at two months. I can’t leave them for 24 hours.”

Karan Johar says, “Yes I will be going for both the ceremonies to cheer Shah Rukh’s team. It’s like my own.”

Upala KBR

‘It's my team dude, and when I attend matches my team wins’

Shah Rukh Khan has reduced ticket prices for IPL matches in Kolkata, the cheapest ticket will be only Rs 100

Barely a few days before ticket sales start for the present season of Indian Premier League (IPL) matches in Kolkata, Shah Rukh Khan of Knight Riders Sports Pvt Ltd has managed to keep the ticket prices considerably low compared to other cricketing facilities in the league. Of all the team owners, Shah Rukh has been making constant efforts to make the matches, starting on April 20 at Eden Gardens, accessible to the students and the masses. While the most expensive ticket has been priced at Rs 5450, the cheapest available ticket is for Rs 100. Shah Rukh explains, “Ticket prices are kept like that because I was very clear that the matches should be accessible to everyone, especially the students. The idea is to encourage people and the audience to participate in huge numbers.”

The superstar and cricket enthusiast is hosting the matches at Eden Gardens, one of the finest and largest cricket grounds in the world, and therefore, he will ensure his profit from the bulk ticket sales. “Being a star we at Knight Riders like house-full. Our stadium is twice the size of any other in the country so our outlay is quite big anyway,” he says.

The bookings have just opened for members of the Cricket Association of Bengal, and the actor is hoping that the sales will be good once it opens to general public. Interestingly, the actor intends to personally interact with the 1000th individual buying the ticket. SRK tells us, “Right now the ticket sales have just started for cricket association people. I hope the sales will be good once it opens for the general public. Every 1000th ticket bought will be given personally by me.”

Shah Rukh wants the fast-paced three-and-a-half-hour Twenty20 match a complete paisa vasool for the audience. Apart from watching cricketing legends running between the wickets, the audience will indulge in star gazing and witness live gigs at the stadium. The actor, who will be present at the stands to cheer up his team, will be accompanied by his celebrity friends. Talking about his plans, he says, “I will be attending all the matches in Kolkata and will be present on the following day as well. It's my team dude, and when I attend matches my team wins. Always… My family and friends will also be present.”

Sandipan Dalal, Mumbai Mirror

I’m feeling proud, says Shah Rukh

-In between appearances at the Eden Gardens, honour for the superstar in France

Calcutta: Two months ago, Shah Rukh Khan brought traffic to a halt in Berlin. Something similar could well happen once the Kolkata Knight Riders’ home matches begin in the city. In between, traffic may come to a standstill in Paris.

For, come April 27, Knight Riders’ owner Shah Rukh will be in the French capital to unveil his own wax statue at the Gevin Museum, which has been in existence since the late 19th century.

“I believe I’m the second Indian, after Mahatma Gandhi, to be honoured in such a fashion… It’s going to be a big event in my life and, naturally, I’m feeling proud,” Shah Rukh told The Telegraph in Mumbai on Wednesday.

Laughing, he’d added: “I’ll, of course, wear my best black suit… One befitting the occasion.”

Shah Rukh, incidentally, has already been presented with the Insignia of Officer in the Order of Arts and Literature by the French government.

He features in Madame Tussauds, yes, but the Gevin Museum honour is clearly something very special for him.

The Knight Riders’ first home game (against Hyderabad) is on April 20, with the next being on April 29 (versus Mumbai). Shah Rukh, who has promised not to miss a single home match, intends inviting the Tollywood brigade during the game against Mumbai.

The naach-gana issue in the break between innings is still unclear, because of the impasse over the entertainment tax, but there definitely won’t be a dearth of stars even off the Eden turf.

The Telegraph - Calcutta

SRK is really busy!

Actor Shah Rukh Khan is too busy making fancy his Kolkata Knight Riders.

The Badshah, we hear, is leaving no stone unturned to promote and perk up the spirits of his team, and win the nation’s hearts.

For this, the man with the marketing mind has already pumped in one crore for his first music video which was choreographed by Ganesh Hegde.

Talks are that Shah Rukh will make two more music videos and will record a total of five songs. And, this will result in the most expensive music album of all time! No one seems to be ‘pitching’ in as much as apna Shah Khan.

TNN

Krazzy 4 to release, with songs

NEW DELHI: Krazzy 4 will release with all the songs on Friday. An out-of-court settlement was reached between music director Ram Sampath and the Roshans.

Sampath, who has composed thousands of ad jingles, had dragged Bollywood hero Hrithik Roshan's father, Rakesh Roshan, his uncle Rajesh Roshan, their film company Film Kraft, Super Cassettes, Sony Erricsson and Saatchi & Saatchi to court for alleged infringement of copyright of his music.

Earlier on Thursday, the Bombay High Court ruled that two songs in forthcoming Hindi film Krazzy 4 are a copy of earlier compositions by jingle composer Sampath and restrained Rakesh Roshan from releasing the movie with the songs. ( Watch: 'Krazzy 4' in legal trouble )

The movie can be released without the songs in question, Justice D G Karnik said.

"To my untrained ear, the music (in two works) appeared to be similar," Justice Karnik, who listened to both of Sampath's works for a Sony Ericsson cellphone advertisement, and the two songs composed by Rajesh Roshan for the film, said.

In a battle that's rarely fought in the film industry, the 32-year-old composer had alleged that the 60-second music titled The Thump he created for a mobile phone television advertisement last year had been copied into four tracks in the film Krazzy 4 .

A legal notice, he sent the Roshans and others though his lawyer, said that "the malafide intent is manifest as there was no credit given to our client for the song and instead, credit was given to Rajesh Roshan''.

Rajesh Roshan, who is shown as the film's music composer/director, had earlier said that the music is an independent creation.

TOI

Will SRK's Krazzy 4 song have be deleted?

Rakesh Roshan's film Krazzy4 will be released on Friday 11 April with its title track deleted.

Music composer Ram Sampath, who sought legal recourse for his 60-second music titled 'The Thump' being copied as the title track of Krazzy 4, has also been granted interim relief of Rs 25,00,000 by the Mumbai High court on Thursday. Sampath had dragged Hrithik Roshan’s director father Rakesh Roshan and composer uncle Rajesh Roshan, to court, alleging that they have “directly lifted” his music for the Krazzy4 album, seeking damages of Rs 20 million.

The court instructed the Roshans to delete two songs if they want to release the film on Friday. While delivering the verdict, Justice Karnik of the Mumbai high court said, "To my untrained ear, the music appeared to be similar," after listening to both Sampath's work for a Sony Ericsson cellphone advertisement, and the two songs composed by Rajesh Roshan for the film.

The verdict implies that the much hyped Hrithik Roshan number and Shah Rukh Khan's Break Free item numbers in the film will have to be removed, reports say. This is easier said than done as the film prints have already been dispatched for the overseas release, as well as territories outside Mumbai.

Sampath’s lawyer Virendra Tulzapurkar told the court that mere monetary compensation would not suffice, adding that “The SMS-s sent by Hrithik establish that they knew the music was not created by them. They have done this knowingly and deliberately,” reports say.

The lawyer also presented the opinion of Shiv Mathur, an independent expert, who confirmed Sampath’s allegation of plagiarism. Tulzapurkar added that the defendants were earning Rs 70 million per month simply from ringtone downloads and Rs 25 million per month from the sales of the music.

Sampath, 32, who has composed music for over 3,000 advertisements, music tracks of films like Khakee and Let’s Talk, and even done a remix for pop sensation Justin Timberlake, had filed a suit for copyright infringement in Bombay High Court. He alleged that four tracks from Krazzy4 were “direct lifts” from the music he had composed for an advertisement titled ‘Thump’ for Sony Ericsson phones in March 2007.

While Sampath remained unavailable for comment, his singer wife Sona Sampath said, "as the matter is subjudice, anything we say will affect us adversely. One individual against so many institutions is tough and we don't want to jeopardise the case , but believe the truth shall prevail."

Indian Television

Expect Yuvraj, Dhoni, Ganguly on SRK's show

Mumbai: Shah Rukh Khan is all set to prove he is the king of both the big and the small screen.

After grabbing TRPs with the popular Kaun Banega Crorepati, King Khan is geared up to woo audiences yet again with another quiz show Kya Aap Panchvi Pass Se Tez Hain?.

“I like quizzing, I like the company of Sidharth (Basu) and his team. It's intelligent, it's smart, it makes you earn money. It's educative and will tell people how to mix study and games well,” he says of the show format.

Keeping in tune with the IPL craze, SRK also has plans to invite few cricket stars on the show. “I have asked Yuvraj (Singh). He is keen. I will speak with Saurav (Ganguly) and others from my (IPL) team. I will speak to Dhoni as well. But Yuvraj is more or less confirmed provided it doesn't disrupt his match schedule. We don't want to disturb any player,” he says.

But does the king khan consider himself to be smarter than a fifth grader? “Even after passing Vth standard, I am no smarter than a fifth grader,” he signs off.

SRK will sing for his IPL Team

Shifting goals and stretching boundaries comes easily to a restless Khan. It’s official now. A quintessential entertainer, Shah Rukh Khan will now sing for his IPL (Indian Premier League) team, Kolkata Knight Riders’ video. Bappi Lahiri is composing the tune for the song. Our well-placed source in the industry says, “Bappi Lahiri was very keen that Shah Rukh should lend his voice to at least one of his tunes. After much discussion and persuasion, Bappida convinced SRK to sing. Bappida has composed two rocking numbers for Shah Rukh which will set the adrenalin flowing.”

Confirming the news that SRK will indeed sing to Bappi Lahiri’s tune, Bappida says, “I am composing two songs for SRK’s Knight Riders one of which will be sung by Shah Rukh and the other by Usha Uthup.” SRK and Bappida are expected to record the songs this week.

Shah Rukh has planned five music videos to go on air before IPL sets into motion. Apart from the two songs by Bappi Lahiri, Pritam will compose two more numbers. The fifth number by Vishal-Shekhar is already on air. According to our source, SRK is taking active interest in the making of the videos.

Pritam too confirms and says, “Initially I was supposed to do one song, but now he has given me one more, so now I’m doing two songs for Shah Rukh’s IPL.”

Vickey Lalwani, Mumbai Mirror

SRK's IPL video costs Rs 1 crore

Shah Rukh’s IPL song on the Kolkata Knight Riders is said to be the most expensive music video ever made.

The video costs Rs 1 crore, has been conceptualised and directed by Ganesh Hegde and the music has been composed by Vishal-Shekhar.

Manish Malhotra and Anahita Shroff Adjania have designed the outfits. Says Shah Rukh, “I don’t know if it’s the costliest video ever made but it is expensive as we had to use a lot of props, dancers, costumes and VFX etc.”

About the lyrics of the song, he adds, “The words Korbo Lorbo Jeetbo were suggested by Sujoy Ghosh. The idea was to tell everyone that you can desire the highest prize in life. In this case, symbolically, the golden helmet.

As long as you have the will to do, to fight, to win... life will give you all you want from it.” Of the team’s colours, he says, “The colour of victory is gold, the colour of power like Maa Kali is black...

so the essence of the video is black and gold... fire signifies the constructive agression the youth should instil in them-selves to succeed in life.

The team is for the youngsters as it stands for the ideology I believe in... starting from Kolkata, it should reach out to every youngster in the country”

Rakesh Roshan goes back on word to SRK

When Shah Rukh agreed to do the Krazzy 4 song, producer Rakesh Roshan promised him that if Hrithik’s knee healed, and if he did shoot the same song, then it would only be part of the end credits of the film, and not be used to promote the film.

However, both the songs are now being aired on all channels. Dancing is Hrithik’s forte and pitching King Khan against him in a song is an unfair advantage to the former.

There are bound to be comparisons that aren’t favourable towards SRK, who did the song as a goodwill gesture.

Says a distributor, on the condition of anonymity, “There was an unspoken understanding between Shah Rukh and Roshan Sr that Hrithik’s dance number would only be seen in the film.

But the other song promos were not catching on and the film was looking thanda, so at the distributors’ insistence, he released Hrithik’s song for publicity.

Rakesh doesn’t like putting in dialogues or film scenes so the only other alternative was to use Hrithik’s number.”

The source adds, “SRK did the song in good faith helping out a friend as Hrithik’s knee was in bad shape but now he is probably feeling cheated. A similar thing happened to Shah Rukh even during Heyy Babyy.

Sajid Nadiadwala had promised the actor that they wouldn’t use his special appearance in the Mast Kalandar song to promote the film; but they did. It’s time SRK stopped doing favours to people because ultimately, it’s only about business here and making money.”

Shah Rukh stated that he hadn’t made any conditions about only using his song to promote the film. He said, “I don’t do conditional work for friends.” When asked if he was upset that Hrithik’s song was used to promote the film, he chose to remain silent.

Upala KBR, Mid-Day