Shahrukh finally says yes to 3 Idiots maker

After a number of hurdles, Shahrukh Khan will finally be working with Vidhu Vinod Chopra on a film.

Vidhu has wanted to do a film with Shahrukh for years now and each time, things didn’t fall into place. Vidhu wanted SRK in Kareeb, then in 1942 - A Love Story, and even Munnabhai MBBS and 3 Idiots but something or the other went wrong each time. They even had a fall out after SRK couldn’t do 3 Idiots.

Shahrukh, who had agreed to do 3 Idiots, pulled out of the film when Vidhu condemned his film, Paheli. Vidhu then went on to say that Shahrukh was trying to get Rajkumar Hirani to work for his production house, Red Chilies. This led to further animosity between them.

The troubles seemed to have ended when Shahrukh and Vidhu came together in June last year during the disagreement between producers-distributors and multiplex owners. According to sources, there is no hostility between them anymore and they are now on good terms.

Now that the two are friends again, it had to be marked with them doing a film together. Titled Ferrari Ki Sawaari, the film is about a young boy who aspires to play cricket at Lords after he is inspired by an Indian cricket legend’s Ferrari. It is loosely inspired by a bestseller novel.

The film had initially been offered to Aamir Khan but he turned the offer down as he wanted to work on the post-production of his home production movies – Dhobi Ghaat, Peepli Live and Delhi Belly.

Shahrukh has agreed to star in the movie. It will be directed by Rajesh Mapuskar, a longtime associate of Rajkumar Hirani.

India will emerge as global player in films soon: Shahrukh Khan

Noting that the young generation of Bollywood is more exposed to western cinema, superstar Shahrukh Khan has said India needs to make

movies that impress global audience and expects to achieve the level in near future.

"To be really proud, we need to make films which make a mark in the world. I can see it happening in the next five or six years, very easily," Shahrukh told CNN at an interview with Farid Zakaria.

He said Bollywood films are using "Hinglish" - a liberal use of English in spoken Hindi.

"Because see, also the problem is that the language that we use in our films is Hindi. So, I don't think Hollywood, that's the only advantage that they have is that they speak in English -- they're great filmmakers also -- but I think that's a big advantage, that we don't make films in English yet," Shahrukh said.

"But the time is coming now, because I have kids and they're all watching, you know, language in Hindi films, if you see a new Indian film, you'll realise that the language is more Hinglish.

You know, we're using, and we don't have to translate it anymore, everyone understands it. And everyone uses it every day," he said.

"They (the young people in Bollywood) have learned the technique and technology, and writing from the western world, which is a more developed science.

As far as screenplay writing, it is a more developed science in the west. And they have been able to take those ideas and say OK, we can bring them into our films.

Though many a times they fail at it, but the youth here in India now is also understanding different kind of cinema, because they're also exposed to television, Internet," Shahrukh said.

With globalisation and growing amount of communication and information sharing, language and culture as a barrier will start breaking down, Shahrukh said.

"You go on to the Internet -- I go on Twitter or you know, I hang with kids and chat with them. And I'm realising that, they're trying to figure out what my culture is and talking about it. So, all that will break down and other cinemas will come over, will come, and they'll use the technology -- and a lot of technicians from here.

But stories, every country has a story to tell. And once it reaches a certain standard in terms of technique, I think the world would like to watch it," he said.

Indians by nature are tolerant & understanding: SRK

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan said that Indians by nature are more tolerant and as such by and large religious radicalisation is not accepted in India's society.

"I think Indians by nature like people and they're compromising and understanding. Is what I'd like to believe, really," Shah Rukh told in an interview when asked why Indian Muslims are not radicalised as that in the neighbouring countries.

"I think the secret lies within the way Indians are. We as people are more compromising and understanding. We do give a chance to everyone to say their point of view, listen to it, and not react really radically.

Of course there will be sections which do it and that permeates to the Muslims, to the Hindus, to the Christians, to every, you know, section in our society

I would like to believe it's like that. But I think that's the main reason," Shah Rukh observed.

"Yes, of course," he said, when asked if he thinks that there is a tendency towards radicalism, violence, within Islam right now that worries him.

"I mean, somewhere down the line, religion can be very easily misused. And I think I would like to really believe as a modern person that it's the lack of education that is there in large sections of the Islamic world.

I think the youth needs to be educated in world matters, apart from their religion. I mean, it's really wonderful to learn your religion.

I think it's fantastic for everyone to have a discipline whichever that maybe, and respect each other that way," he was quoted as saying by CNN.

"But I think it's also very important to be educated in worldly affairs.

If they do, they will not be misled.

I think, most of these places that we'll talk about and radicals coming from, you would know this, that there's a huge gap between the educated and uneducated.

Most of the uneducated may be falling in the category of, you know, having a religion, by religion being Muslims.

So, I think that is the main reason," Khan argued.

Shah Rukh to play the lead in Vidhu’s ‘Ferrari Ki Sawaari’

After waiting endlessly and churning some of the biggest hits in filmdom, filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra has finally got Shah Rukh Khan onboard for one of his esteemed project.

The director, who has been chasing King Khan for years now, had offered the actor roles in films like `Kareeb`, `1942-A Love Story`, `Munnabhai MBBS` and even `3 Idiots`, has got his wish granted as SRK will be seen playing the lead in his next film.

And if sources are to be believed, the mega blockbuster ‘3 Idiots’ would have been made with SRK in the lead had it not been for the differences between the two. Nevertheless, since June last year, Shah Rukh and Vidhu have come closer and are now ready to put to let go off their differences.

Confirming the news, a source said, “There is no animosity between them now. In fact, they are very friendly with each other. The renewed friendship is now set to be cemented with a film called Ferrari Ki Sawaari.”

And even though the two are yet to confirm the news, industry is abuzz with reports that Shah Rukh has given his nod to the project.

As for the film, it tells the story of how an Indian cricket legend’s Ferrari makes a young boy’s dream of playing cricket at Lord’s come true.

Shahrukh Khan: What’s with the Magic Tape on Knee?

Recently Shahrukh Khan has been busy with the shooting of his home production film ‘RA 1’, directed by Anubhav Sinha. The film, which had its first schedule in Goa, had a lot of action sequences to be shot. Shahrukh Khan, who plays an action hero in the sci- fi, had the maximum number of action sequences to perform.

In the process of doing the high action drama, King Khan happened to injure his knee nastily.

The pain had been so menacing that he had to get help from the physiotherapist and the trainer of his IPL team, KKR.The two experts, Andrew and Adrian, gave him the necessary treatment and a magic tape was put on to his knee, this magic tape is normally used on sports people, to help them heal their injuries or cure pains faster.

Shahrukh has written in his microblogging site about this pain and how he got the magic tape on his painful knee.

However, the good news is that according to insiders, director Anubhav Sinha is very pleased with the films first schedule, which has got completed successfully.

Now, we await the news for the next schedule to begin, and where it is to be shot. Hopefully, SRK would have recovered by then.

Shahrukh Khan in the race for world’s most influential people

As their annual ritual, the Time magazine will soon give us the list of world’s most influential people of 2010. The voting has started and Bollywood badshah Shahrukh Khan is one of the top contenders from India. And guess with whom he is competing? The US President Barack Obama!

Well, SRK is not the only one among the 201 iconic personalities; there are other five Indians too. Actress Preity Zinta, cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and writer Chetan Bhagat along with our PM Dr. Manmohan Singh are vying for the world’s top 100.

According to Time website, Shahrukh is “one of the Bollywood’s richest men, with an estimated net worth in excess of $500 million.” And behind him is the force of Bollywood as actresses Priyanka Chopra, Mallika Sherawat and good friend Karan Johar are supporting him.

On Saturday, even SRK voted for himself. He tweets, “…went & voted for myself on the Time poll 2010 for most influential. Can’t think of a more cheesy thing I have done lately.”

Have a look, who else is there: Filmmaker James Cameron, Apple CEO Steve Jobs, R&B diva Beyonce Knowles and actress Meryl Streep. And who is leading? It’s the pop artist Lady GaGa with 1,39,284 votes.

Incidents of racial profiling affects America's image: SRK

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan who was allegedly subjected to racial profiling at a US airport last year, on Monday said such incidents cast negative impact on America's image globally.

"Oh, yes. I think so. Yes. I think all over the world," Shah Rukh said in an interview when asked if such incidents of racial profiling affect America's image in a country like India.

Shah Rukh said not only him but also his kids are several times subject to special screening at the US airports.

Recollecting his experience at the Newark Airport last year, Shah Rukh said, "Normally I am kind of used to having extra security checks, perhaps because of the name or the way profiling is done, even my kids, so I'm used to it. It's not something new."

Suddenly the immigration officials started asking questions," he told CNN.

"What are you doing here and do you have a telephone number? I took out my phone and they were a little angry about me taking out my phone.

So I said, I can't give you a number until I find them out," he said.

I gave a few numbers and then they would go in, check, then they came and said what are you doing here? And so I said I have came here for a film.

There were some strange questions like if you're a film actor -- I've come for a live talk, and they said if you have come for a talk, how can you be a movie star? So I said, you know, I talk also," Shah Rukh said.

"So it just got out of hand, and I guess it was a process, so they went on and on -- and it took a couple of hours," he said, adding that this was the first time he was experiencing such a thing at an US airport even though in the past there instances when he was subject to special screening.

Shah Rukh said even his kids have been subject to special screening.

"Oh, yes, yes," he said in response to a question. "They get very excited, because, you know, they get to put their feet on those little marks and stand like that. So they think they're being special, he said.

I just had an issue that for a country which has such outstanding processes and systems for everything, and they have a process and system for profiling people who are perhaps on a marked list, they should also have a system where people who come regularly, they should also be marked positively," Shah Rukh said.

IPL 2010: I will dance naked if KKR makes into IPL final, says Shahrukh

Bollywood king Shahrukh Khan has come out frenzied during a party and affirmed that if his team Kolkata Knight Riders would make it into the final; he will dance naked at the DY Patil stadium in Mumbai.

During an interview to the ‘M’ TV, the actor said that he is promising to each that if his team would get through the final, he would dance without wearing any clothes. Next to him Lalit Modi, IPL Commissioner made distance from him and said that he would not hold him during his performance in such manner.

Shahrukh was in party after the match played between Kolkata Knight Riders with Deccan Chargers.

IPL 2010: SRK, the sport!

Shah Rukh Khan has quite a few reasons to smile these days. For starters, having won four of the eight matches they’ve played till date, his team is performing far better in this season of the IPL versus last year when they ended the season at the bottom of the table.

Now, the Badshah doesn’t make a personal appearance at every match his team plays, but whenever he does, one can see him and his entourage busy cheering for the boys. But that’s not what caught our attention at a recent match. The venue was Kolkata’s Eden Garden grounds and his boys had just beaten the mighty Hyderabad team, right on home turf. Of course, the crowds were ecstatic but even more obvious was the joy on SRK’s face as he hugged captain Saurav Ganguly. But instead of sporting the deep purple and gold colours of his team, SRK was wearing the jersey of the team that his boys had so convincingly whipped. He even pointed it out to the people around him. Guess being on the winning side does bring out the true spirit of sportsmanship in SRK.

´My Name Is Khan´ DVD May Release On 14th June!

Karan Johar's Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol starrer, 'My Name Is Khan', is now ending its run in India. The film is likely to finish after netting around 75 crores from India. And is the only hit of the first quarter of 2010.

'My Name Is Khan' is already Bollywood's biggest Overseas grosser with $16.50 million, and is still to release at many other un-explored markets.

The good news for those fans of King Khan, who want to add the film to their collection or who reside in countries that have not yet seen a theatrical release, and also is that the official DVD is likely to release on June 14, 2010.