Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi wins Aaj Tak’s Movie Awards

The viewers of Aaj Tak have voted Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi as the best film of the year 2008.

This year end, Aaj Tak’s Movie Masala awards, which bases its honors’ on the votes of the viewers have also declared Anushka Sharma as the debutante of the year and Aditya Chopra as the best directorial return of the year.

Sharma says, “It is honor enough to work with Aditya Chopra, Shah Rukh Khan and the entire Yash Raj Films team. To win any kind of recognition on top of that is just like icing on the cake. I hope that my subsequent work will live up to the expectations that viewers have of me after this kind of a stellar launch that Yash Raj Films has given me.

Shah Rukh Khan to start promoting Billu Barber

Shah Rukh Khan will start the promotional campaign for his home production, Billu Barber on 25 January, after his return on from Los Angeles where he is shooting for Karan Johar’s My Name is Khan.

Prior to his departure, Khan already shot with the media partners of the film like CNN IBN and MTV along with two special episodes as making of the film.

The making of the film will feature SRK and Irrfan Khan, both seated on chairs used by barbers to talk about the film.

Directed by Priyadarshan, the film has Irrfan Khan and Lara Dutta in key roles, while Khan will make a guest appearance essaying the role of a superstar. The film is set to release on 13 February.

'No more guest appearances!'

Guess what’s Shah Rukh Khan’s New Year resolution? Not to do any more guest appearances or cameo roles in films for friends!

Yes, the Bollywood Badshah has come to this reluctant decision even though his short and special appearances have often proved to be the good luck factor for filmmakers close to him. It’s done always as a gesture of love and goodwill — at no charge, and, at best, takes just two days out of the superstar’s busy schedule. Yet SRK has said enough is enough, “I always end up hurting myself.”

The actor, who is busy shooting for Karan Johar’s My Name Is Khan in LA, admitted that he’s going to stick by his resolution. He’s done many guest appearances recently, including films like Achanak, Army, M F Husain’s Gaja Gamini, Har Dil Jo Pyaar Karega, Samar Khan’s Kuch Meetha Ho Jaye, Saathiya, Boney Kapoor’s Shakti — The Power, Khalid Mohammed’s Silsilay, Alag and Karan Johar’s Kaal, Sajjid Nadiadwala’s Heyy Baby, Rakesh Roshan’s Krazy 4, and Ravi Chopra’s Bhootnath. But, he dislikes being mentioned in the publicity of the films because it sends the wrong signal and viewers then expect him to have a larger role in the films.

If sources are to be believed, the big fallout between Salman Khan and Shah Rukh last year came after the Bollywood Badshah refused to do a guest appearance in Sohail Khan’s film Main Aur Mrs Khanna starring Salman and Kareena Kapoor. But Sohail’s dates clashed with Vivek Vaswani’s Dulha Mil Gaya which was already awaiting a guest appearance by SRK to be complete. He might just bend his resolution for Vivek Sharma’s Kal Kisne Dekha because Vivek has worked in his office for 14 years. But that again depends on Shah Rukh’s schedule once he returns from LA. And how strong or weak he is about keeping New Year resolutions.

Why Shah Rukh Romancing debutants

Shah Rukh is the King, no doubt. He’s proven this on several occasions. Even Newsweek, in its recent Most Powerful Men in Entertainment list, put him at #41.

Yet, in his last two films, he’s acted alongside debutants. In 2007, he romanced Deepika in Om Shanti Om and last month, we saw him dancing with Anushka Sharma in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi.

So, why is the Baadshah not acting with established heroines like Rani and Priti Zinta? Well, the King does have an answer. He says, “Well I have crossed 40, and will soon have to retire. The senior actors will also have to do the same. So I thought I’d work with some younger girls. So later, when I’m old, they’d still want to work with me. Now do you understand why I am launching these new girls?”

Well, the workaholic Shah Rukh certainly has his retirement plan figured out.

Girls want to marry Shah Rukh Khan

Shah Rukh Khan is currently in LA with his upcoming film MY NAME IS KHAN gang. And the girls there are simply going berserk.

Every girl seems to be going up to Shah Rukh and telling him, that they want a husband like Surinder Sahani. 'One person even came up to him and said 'tujh mein Rab dikhta hai...,' informs a unitwala, 'All they seem to want is to marry Shah Rukh, their Surinder babu!'

Well, the movie seems to have Rab-bed them the right way. About Shah Rukh's reaction to all this, it's a simple and humble 'thank you'. But shaadi... no suri...oops, sorry, we mean!

'Marjaani'-- 2009's big item song

They tried to set the silver screen on fire 7 years back in 'Asoka' but failed. This time around Shahrukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor are back and with a bang. The year 2009 has the much-awaited 'Billu Barber' set for release and the sizzling hit song 'Marjanni'.

King Khan tells us a little about the tracks, "All the songs have been made in the same way as one would expect in a Hindi movie, so the song Marjanni is done with lots of dancers and then shouts of Marjaani which is a bit Punjabi and Sufi-ish, if I might say so but has more of a Punjabi beat to it.

"The album has a fun mix of songs that help take the movie out of the small town to a different world and brings it back. So there are these spikes in the film and I think they happen mailny because of the songs." Shahrukh added.

While its too soon to judge whether the film will be a hit or not, the groove does get going with this high octane track.

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.