Indian President Pratibha Patil Loves ´My Name Is Khan´!

The President of India, Pratibha Patil, who saw Karan Johar's Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol starrer, 'My Name Is Khan', earlier this week, has loved the film so much that she has asked for another screening.

As per reliable sources, "The President has loved the film so much that she wants to show it to the other members of her family. Another special screening will take place soon."

GOA goes crazy for King Khan

Shahrukh is busy these days shooting for his upcoming flick’ Ra One. Recently in order to shoot a sequence he was in a village in Goa called Aldona in a colonial Portuguese-styled house.

There were traffic jams all over the city but Shahrukh’s diehard fans were not complaining. They just wanted a glimpse of their favourite star.

As reported the grandchildren of the elderly house owners came over in the hope of seeing SRK, but no matter of pleading helped them.

The poor kids had to go back home empty-handed without even a glimpse.

WATCH EPISODE 06: Living with a Superstar - Shahrukh Khan

PART 01

PART 02

Aishwarya Rai digs the past, talks about Shahrukh Khan

It wasn’t a simple interview but a candid tete-a-tete with India’s famous socialite and writer Shobha De for the third anniversary issue of the Hello magazine. And Aishwarya Rai seemed in a mood to bare her soul.

What exactly did she reveal? Well, the actress, who is now happily married to Abhishek Bachchan and is certainly in the best phase of her career, talked candidly for the first time about Shahrukh Khan and why they stopped doing films together.

As a tabloid comes up with the extracts of the interview, let’s read through:

It was the time when both SRK and Ash were offered Munnabhai MBBS, “When SRK decided he was not doing Munnabhai MBBS, they (Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Rajkumar Hirani) did come to me and say (Sanjay) Dutt saab had agreed to do it.

“But because I was attached to SRK’s company, I said my dates will be decided by him, if he is doing Munnabhai I will do it. But once that incident happened with SRK (when Salman created a ruckus on the sets of Chalte Chalte and SRK threw her out), and I was out of his movies, I dared to make the choices I did.”

And, what happened after that?

“It’s really weird with him. Whenever he would meet me socially during those days, he’d apologize which was never taken up in the open. Never in public.

He said it wasn’t right and he couldn’t tell me all his reasons for what had happened... he was awkward about it.”

Now, she doesn’t want to judge SRK.

Is SRK a better investor or an actor?

Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo Re Korbo Lorbo Re Jeetbo. This is the theme song of the high profile team Kolkata Knight Riders owned by the King of Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan. Juhi Chawla Mehta and her husband Jay Mehta are co-owners of the team. The theme song has been composed by music composer duo Vishal-Shekhar and since then this song has been played in all the stadiums where KKR has played.

Even before the auctions of IPL were initialized and it was in the stage of planning, SRK was sure who he wanted as the captain of his IPL team. Team India was playing an international match against a visiting team and SRK was also there to watch the live action. When Team India was batting, a television grab of Saurav Ganguly walking from the pavilion to the VIP stand to meet SRK seemed normal as the actor had been friends with many cricketers. Well, rest is history. Shah Rukh Khan bought an IPL team and made Saurav Ganguly the face of the team.

There were loads of expectations riding on KKR as Shah Rukh left no stone unturned in making his team a high profile brand, with theme song, TV commercials, tie-ups with other brands, thus earning a huge fan following in the process. One of them being Shatrughan Sinha’s son Luv Sinha, who debuted inSadiyaan. Luv says, "Mr Khan is great at whatever he does because he does it with passion”.

Brendon McCullum was not even in the playing 11 for his national team, New Zealand. But at the opening night of the first season of IPL, he smashed the ball at all the corners of the park scoring 158 runs. This record is still not broken by any cricketer in IPL. Also, this knock guaranteed his place in the national side.

SRK jumped with joy when his team did well. He threw lavish parties for his team when they lost. Also, television TRP’s were considerably high during KKR matches as SRK ensured his big family of Bollywood was also there at the stadium. Sometimes, he also used to sit with the team in the dug out but ran into trouble when the ICC (International Cricket Council) issued a notice that no team owner will be allowed to enter the dressing room when the match was in progress.

With such hype around the team, controversies were bound to happen. A fake IPL player blog helped many electronic and print media to fill up their spaces as lot of inside information was leaked through the blog. There were also rumors about rift between SRK and Dada. However, the blog died with the end of the first season of IPL and KKR finished at number of 6 out of the 8 teams. Too bad for a team where the owner has always been a winner. That year, SRK only had two release; Bhootnath and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, both of which failed to set the cash register ringing at the box office.

If IPL season 1 was bad, IPL season 2 was worse for Shahrukh Khan’s team. Team not performing well was just one side of the story. The team was in the news for all the wrong reasons. Saurav Ganguly was stripped of his captaincy and Brendon McCullum was made the captain overnight. Australian coach John Buchanan also introduced a new concept of multiple captains, which was completely thrashed by the experts. The fake player blog returned again with lots of more sensational information from the dressing room.

However all this did not stop SRK from what he does best, marketing his brand Kolkata Knight Riders. He also organized a talent hunt show and picked cheer leaders through that show. SRK has been known for coming up with unique marketing ideas be it in films or for his IPL team. Yes, he was grilled with questions about the controversies but he tackled all the problems with his chin up. The second season of IPL was shifted from India to South Africa due to security concerns. In the first quarter of 2009, the actor had only one release, Billu.

In spite of nursing a shoulder injury, he didn’t leave the team alone. He travelled with the team to South Africa and cheered them all the way. This time, it was a different Shah Rukh Khan in the stadium. Unlike dancing in the stadium in India when the team did well, this time he was calm. He clapped when the team put up big runs on the score board and did the same when they lost.

Shah Rukh Khan is someone who follows his heart and is not scared to take risk. That is clearly visible from the kind of roles he chooses to setting up a production house with VFX technology. Chandan Roy Sanyal, Kaminey fame says, “I have always been his fan for being the entrepreneur he is. He took a risk by acting in Baazigar opting for a negative role unlike other hero's who would have gone for a positive one. So it comes as no surprise for his IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders. He is a risk taker and he also gains benefit from it, something to take a leaf from his life”.

It is not a cake walk to keep the fans happy and also maintain consistency in doing well all the time. But he makes it so easy inspiring millions of people. It is the humor that he has in himself which helps him sail through troubled waters.

A nation where cricket is considered as a religion had reason to cheer for. IPL grew bigger year after year and the big news was that the third season was going to be in India and not in some foreign land. After the 26/11 attacks Pakistan players were kept away from the IPL action. Not that any rule was passed, but none of teams bought any Pakistani player during the auction. It was only Shah Rukh Khan who voiced his interest to include players from the neighboring country.

Shah Rukh Khan starrer, My Name is Khan, one of the most anticipated movie of the year was dragged into problems by a political party in Mumbai. They demanded an apology from the actor but he did not bow down. Even though he couldn’t include any Pakistani player in the team, he had his way by hiring Wasim Akram as a bowling coach for Kolkata Knight Riders. He held his ground and gave a loud message stating sports is above all religion.

IPL 3 came in with a lot of changes. Firstly, Saurav Ganguly was made the captain again and secondly, the team jersey changed from color black to purple. So far the team is doing decent winning 50 percent of the matches played so far. “The weight of huge expectations is off KKR’s shoulders and the good thing for the team is that Dada is back with a bang. As for SRK, he is just better than the rest at everything he does”, says Vaibhav, one of the young actors in Teen Patti.

The league matches are going to end soon and now it is at the business end of the tournament, each team eying the semis berth. Saurav Ganguly and his team are on a winning streak and he himself is back in form. In a week’s time, it will be clear which four teams will be in the semis.

Shah Rukh Khan attended most of the matches until lately where he is Goa shooting for his next action thriller. But he is not out of action. His tweets are more than enough to generate breaking news. He wrote on his twitter that he will dance naked if his team enters the finals. It was all said in humor, but the big question is, will KKR make it to the finals? For now, we can only wait and watch.

Coming back to the big question, is SRK a better investor or a better actor, have your say...

SRK offer prayers with Tabu for Juhi Chawla's ill brother

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan offered prayers along with actress Tabu for the speedy recovery of actress Juhi Chawla's brother.

Bobby Chawla, CEO of Shah Rukh Khan's company Red Chillies Entertainment, was taken to a hospital on Sunday after he collapsed while dining at a restaurant.

"Offered namaaz with tabu the wonderful friend & actress she is, atop the hospital. she is so beautiful and kind to do that with me (sic)," Khan wrote on his Twitter page.

The 44-year-old actor was also elated with the victory of his IPL team Kolkata Night Riders over the Delhi Daredevils.

"I pray & hope both my boys...bobby & kkr want to keep winning the next few days. we can fight life only with belief in positivity," Khan wrote in a post.

"Good news all around. bobby my friend is stable...the kkr boys did awesome. actually its all about who wants to win more on a day (sic)," he added on the micro-blogging website.

Shah Rukh Khan suffers a knee injury

After his long battle with back pain and then a shoulder surgery, Shah Rukh Khan is now dealing with a recurring pain in his knee. The actor had injured his knee some time back and it has been troubling him ever since. This time, he’s not in a mood to take any chances with any quick fix measures — Kolkata Knight Riders’ physiotherapist Andrew Leipus has been assigned the responsibility of treating SRK’s knee.

Earlier, physiotherapist Ali Irani was treating the actor’s knee. Our source said, “SRK is doing some high energy stunts in his home production Ra.One which will be filmed soon. The last two days of the shoot were cancelled because of Bobby Chawla’s (CEO of SRK’s Red Chillies) health scare. The next schedule of Ra.One is drawing near and SRK hopes the exercises Andrew has prescribed will fix his knee problem in time.”

Earlier, Shah Rukh’s back problem had given him a lot of trouble during an energetic song sequence he did for Boney Kapoor’s Shakti.

“Ra.One is a superhero film and Shah Rukh’s character will have to do several high risk stunts and he really needs to be physically fit to pull them off,” added the source.

SRK remained unavailable for comment.

IPL 2010: Knight Riders back in the hunt

Kolkata Knight Riders snapped Delhi Daredevils' four-match winning streak with a 15-run victory in their DLF-IPL III match at the Eden Gardens here on Wednesday.

Needing a victory to stay in contention for a semifinal spot, Knight Riders rose to the occasion to win its fifth match in 10 games. It was Daredevils' fourth loss in as many games.

Batting first, Knight Riders put on a challenging 181 for three and restricted Daredevils to 166 for eight.

Disastrous start

Daredevils' chase began on a disastrous note as David Warner was castled by Ashok Dinda off the fifth ball of the innings. Skipper Gautam Gambhir joined Virender Sehwag and the two took the attack to the Knight Riders camp. Angelo Mathews came in for harsh treatment, conceding 30 in his first two overs.

At 99 for one in the 11th over, Daredevils seemed well on course when Knight Riders captain Sourav Ganguly, who had a delightful day, ran out Gambhir.

Sehwag, however, continued in characteristic fashion. He made 64 off 40 deliveries with six fours and three huge sixes. The Daredevils opener had earlier enjoyed a reprieve on 35 when Iqbal Abdulla, playing in place of the injured Murali Kartik, spilled a sharp chance at deep midwicket off Ajantha Mendis.

Turning point

The game turned on its head when Ajit Agarkar bowled Sehwag with his team still needing 48 for victory. Daredevils then kept losing wickets at regular intervals and eventually finished 15 runs short.

Earlier, Sourav Ganguly won his third successive toss and opted to bat. He also began the innings with a flurry of boundaries as Knight Riders raced to 22 in two overs. Daniel Vettori, bowling the second over, conceded 15.

Chris Gayle, content to play second fiddle, opened up in the seventh over, sending Amit Mishra over the long-on fence and hitting two more boundaries. Rajat Bhatia, introduced in the ninth over, provided Daredevils the breakthrough by dismissing Gayle. The openers added 94 in 10.2 overs to set a solid platform.

Ganguly reached his 50 off 42 balls with eight fours and a six off Paul Collingwood before falling for 56. Brendon McCullum, playing his first match, survived a run out chance as soon as he arrived at the crease before being dismissed in the same fashion.

Brisk scoring

Mathews and Manoj Tiwary scored at a brisk rate in the closing stages, adding 51 off the last four overs. The former smashed two sixes and three fours in his 28-ball unbeaten 46 while Tiwary was not out on 26 (18b, 1x4, 1x6).

The two strung together 70 in 6.5 overs for the fourth wicket to give Knight Riders a total that proved beyond Daredevils.

The scores:

Kolkata Knight Riders: S. Ganguly b Vettori 56 (46b, 8x4, 1x6), C. Gayle b Bhatia 40 (21b, 5x4, 2x6), B. McCullum (run out) 6 (7b), M. Tiwary (not out) 26 (18b, 1x4, 1x6), A. Mathews (not out) 46 (28b, 3x4, 2x6); Extras (lb-1, w-6): 7; Total (for three wkts. in 20 overs): 181.

Fall of wickets: 1-94, 2-104, 3-111.

Delhi Daredevils bowling: Maharoof 3-0-30-0, Vettori 4-0-30-1, Sangwan 3-0-30-0, Mishra 4-0-41-0, Collingwood 2-0-19-0, Bhatia 4-0-30-1.

Delhi Daredevils: D. Warner b Dinda 0 (5b), V. Sehwag b Agarkar 64 (40b, 6x4, 3x6), G. Gambhir (run out) 47 (29b, 6x4, 1x6), P. Collingwood c Mathews b Mendis 2 (3b), D. Karthik c McCullum b Dinda 20 (17b, 2x4), K. Jadhav c Ganguly b Mendis 5 (8b), F. Maharoof b Abdulla 2 (3b), R. Bhatia (run out) 1 (3b), D. Vettori (not out) 12 (6b, 2x4), A. Mishra (not out) 4 (6b); Extras (b-1, lb-4, w-4): 9; Total (for eight wkts. in 20 overs): 166.

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-99, 3-103, 4-134, 5-144, 6-147, 7-149, 8-152.

Kolkata Knight Riders bowling: Dinda 4-0-21-2, Agarkar 4-0-36-1, Mathews 3-0-43-0, Mendis 4-0-22-2, Ganguly 1-0-12-0, Abdulla 4-0-27-1.

SRK to dub 'My Name Is Khan' in English

Shah Rukh Khan and Karan Johar’s My Name is Khan is on a roll. The film that has reportedly touched the life of scores of people across the globe, plans to continue with its winning streak overseas.

The original Hindi version is the No.1 grosser in the UK and it has also broken several records in the regular diaspora markets across the US. Now, Karan and Fox Star Studios will release a re-edited, two-hour long version (that’s minus 45 minutes!) in 25 countries like Germany, Poland and France between April and June, with SRK dubbing his lines in English.

Karan says, “Right from the beginning we had plans to release a fresh cut meant mainly for the non-diaspora markets in North America, Russia and certain parts of Europe. We will have a platform release in the art-house circuit. MNIK is the first global movie with the ethos meant for a world audience and Phase II was designed to take it to markets where no Bollywood film has ever been.’’

In Indonesia, the film is said to have broken records of all previous Hindi movies with a box office of 1.5 million USD. And the local distributor Harris Lasmana says, “My Name is Khan has appealed to the Indonesian audience, where Islam is followed by the majority of the population. Moreover, the film reviews have been excellent.’

Delirious with the praise that has been coming his way from across the globe, Karan says, “It’s humbling and heartening at the same time to hear from people almost every single day as to how MNIK has touched their lives in so many ways. It has empowered SRK and me to continue with releasing this film in markets where Bollywood has never had a presence. The cumulative gross of MNIK makes it SRK’s biggest hit overseas.’’

Speaking of the accolades that have come to SRK for his outstanding performance as Rehan Khan in MNIK, Karan says, “It is and will remain one of SRK’s most special and memorable performances. And, I’m happy that I made this film for him and with him. You have no idea how encouraging the feedback on the film has been.’’

Shah Rukh Khan MNIK in English, shorter for Germany, Poland, France!

Shah Rukh Khan, the badshah of bollywood who played the character of Rizwan Khan in Karan Johar’s ‘My Name Is Khan’ and earned the goodwill of the UK, US audiences with his seasoned performance, is all set to woo countries like Germany, Poland, France with English version and a shorter duration film (about two hours) this April-May.

In fact, the flick has been totally edited again keeping in mind the tastes of these countries where Indian audiences or NRIs are not present in large numbers. To this end ‘My Name Is Khan’ has been trimmed of its flab and song numbers and now will not have the portions of about forty five minutes.

Sources close to Karan Johar’s production house say that the plan was to release the film after Shah Rukh Khan completes the dubbing of his lines in English language, which is easily understood in these countries. The buzz doing the rounds in the industry is that Fox Star, which has the distribution rights of the flick, was elated by the response to the film and wanted to tap the areas which have been traditionally out of bollywood’s ambit so far.

The industry watchers say that the main factor which has been aiding Shah Rukh Khan-Kajol starrer flick in different countries is its humanistic theme. The storyline of the flick, which is based on problems of Muslims in the US after the New York bombing, is such that people everywhere feel sympathetic towards the plight of the beleaguered religious group.

Shah Rukh Khan plays the part of a person who is suffering from Asperger’s syndrome and is detained by the US security agencies at an international airport due to his name having the word ‘Khan’ and his unusual behavior. Kajol plays the part of his wife and supports him during this ordeal. Shah Rukh Khan’s efforts to meet the President to save his love, is touching.