Kangna Should be highest spot in Bollywood

Having directed her in upcoming gangster film ‘Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai’, Milan Luthria can`t stop raving about Kangna Ranaut`s acting skills and says she is yet to have her moment of glory in Bollywood.

The 23-year-old has bagged critical acclaim for her performance in movies like ‘Gangster’, ‘Woh Lamhe’, ‘Life in a... Metro’ and ‘Fashion’.

"Kangna is undervalued by our industry. She is immensely talented but has yet not touched the highest spot. But we`ll see her there in a very short while," Luthria told reporters.

"She brings to the screen a lot of sensuality and glamour. She carries off even skimpy outfits and different kind of looks. She is someone who has the body and the face to carry that," he added.


"Both Emraan and Kangna are very flamboyant in their approach. They`ve lived very dangerously with the kind of roles they`ve done and have always pushed the envelope...

"That`s what has given them a very commercial connect with the audience. They are like underdogs and do things that others don`t," the director added.

Katrina Kaif want to play a typical love Film

Katrina scaled tremendous heights in her seven-year-old career, and pushing the boundaries with her performance in `Raajneeti`, she wants to do a typical Yash Chopra-type love story.

Currently shooting in Spain for Zoya Akhtar`s tentatively titled "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara", which also features Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar and Abhay Deol, Katrina is also looking forward to the release of Farah Khan`s "Tees Maar Khan".

"In fact, right now, I would love to have a one boy-one girl Yashji type of love story in hand or, say, play a loud, boisterous girl - something on the lines of Hemaji`s role in `Seeta Aur Geeta`. Those are fun and interesting roles too. Why limit myself?" asked the 25-year-old.

She is basking in the success of Prakash Jha`s "Raajneeti" where she wowed the audiences as a young, madly-in-love girl who becomes a pawn in the game of politics. In the last 10 minutes of the film, she is seen playing a chief minister and manages to leave a strong impact on viewers.

So far the actress has managed to deliver hits. But Katrina is quick to counter the notion that she is a "formula" for filmmakers in search of a hit.

"I am no formula. It isn`t true that a film becomes a hit because of me. I always put a script above my own role. I always see a film in totality and not just on the basis of my role. The film comes first, the role comes second for me. It`s just that god has been very kind and my choices have mostly turned out be right," said Katrina.

"I don`t get scared. It`s wrong if people say a hit is expected of me all the time. Of course, everyone fears failure, but for me there is no added pressure to succeed. It is up to the audience to accept or reject a film and I am happy my audience has supported me so far," she said in a confident tone.

John with moustache in Tamil Film remake

John Abraham is playing in the Hindi remake of Tamil action movie "Kaakha Kakha" and may emulate Suray, who played lead role in the original, and keep a moustahce for his role.

John is playing a cop for the first time in the film and isn`t taking any chances. He wants to get the spoken language, body language, personality and tone just right.

For this, John has not only changed his food and exercise habits and repeatedly watches as many cop films from Clint Eastwood`s "Dirty Harry" to Om Puri`s "Ardh Satya" to Amitabh Bachchan`s "Zanjeer". He has also been socialising with cops, trying to understand how their minds and bodies move.

"I`ve always dreamt of playing a cop. I`ve watched Mr. Bachchan in `Zanjeer` so many times that I`ve lost count. One of the main reasons I wanted to do the Hindi version of `Kaakha Kaakha` was to get into a cop`s uniform. To my disappointment, my director Nishikant Kamat decided to do away with the uniform in my film," John said.

So disappointed was John that he tried to argue with the director. "In this matter I am like a child. If I`m playing a cop, I want to wear the cop`s uniform and feel like a cop."

So adamant is John to get the uniform back that the script is now being re-worked again.

John has also been chatting with the Tamil superstar Suriya. "Suriya is a great guy and a buddy. Yes, we`ve been bonding about `Kaakha Kaakha`," he said.

Co-incidentally, John and Suriya are neighbours in Mumbai. Suriya`s wife, actress Jyothika, owns a flat next to John`s residence. And whenever Suriya is in Mumbai, he stays a stone`s throw away from John.

I am an INDIAN : Amitabh Bachchan

While the debate over caste census intensifies with most parties rooting for it, Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan is clear where he stands on the controversial issue. If ever asked to mention his caste, he says categorically, he would be ready with the answer - Indian.

Census enumerators came calling on the Bachchan household, prompting Amitabh to express his views on the issue of caste census.

"Wary of the sensitivity that this has raised recently by politicians, they keep away from it. They reason that they would wait for some government decision on this. I tell them irrespective of what the system decides, my answer is ready - caste, Indian," he wrote on his blog bigb.bigadda.com.

Big B says that his father, Harivansh Rai Bachchan, a noted Hindi poet and litterateur, never believed in caste system.

"My Father never believed in caste and neither do any of us. He married a Sikh (Teji Bachchan), I married a Bengali (Jaya Bhaduri), my brother a Sindhi (Ramola), my daughter (Shweta) a Punjabi (Nikhil Nanda), my son (Abhishek) a Mangalorean (Aishwarya Rai)... in his autobiography he (Harivansh Rai) had expressed that future generations of his family should marry into different parts of the country. So far that tradition has been kept alive!!"

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said the government will soon take a decision on caste-based census in the country.

"From the morning a consensus on the census. Officials from the BMC, the Bombay Municipal Corporation, troop into Prateeksha to detail in on information that shall for the first time in India develop for every citizen the UID - a Unique Identity Card.

Darsheel Safary in `Bumm Bumm Bole`

Child actor Darsheel Safary returns to the big screen with `Bumm Bumm Bole`, which releases Friday. A remake of Majid Majidi`s Iranian film `Children of Heaven`, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, "Bumm Bumm Bole" has been re-modelled as per Indian standards.

Produced by Percept Picture Company and directed by Priyadarshan, it also stars Atul Kulkarni, Rituparna Sengupta and newcomer Ziyah Vastani.

"The pivotal essence of `Bumm Bumm Bole` is a unique brother-sister relationship. It depicts an innocent and poignant story of two siblings and the dilemmas they face in life and how they fight their way to overcome it," Priyadarshan said.

The story revolves around Khogiram (Atul), his wife (Rituparna) and their children Pinu (Darsheel) and Rimzim (Zia) who live in a terror-affected region. The couple work on a tea plantation and it`s a hand-to-mouth existence for them.

With their meagre income, they can barely manage to arrange for their basic needs, but Khogiram sends his children to a respectable school because it is his ambition to educate them. But their financial crunch makes it difficult for them to match the standards of the school.

A time comes when they don`t have enough money to buy school uniform and shoes and things become worse when Pinu misplaces Rimzim`s only pair of shoes in a vegetable shop.

Rimzim can`t go to school without her shoes and the brother-sister work out a scheme where both of them can share the same shoes. Pinu, however, always gets into trouble at school while waiting for Rimzim to give him the shoes.

The title "Bumm Bumm Bole" is based on one of the songs from Darsheel`s debut movie "Taare Zameen Par".

Sri Lankans are huge fans of Bollywood

Sri Lankans are huge fans of Bollywood. Indian cinema has a large following in the country with Hindi films shown in theatres throughout the year. There is at least one shown on local television almost every day.

"We love Shah Rukh Khan, I have seen many of his films like `Kal Ho Naa Ho`... He is too good. I am even fond of Amitabh Bachchan," said a shopkeeper. Currently Shah Rukh`s "My Name Is Khan" is running in one theatre in the city.

A Srilankan student, said: "Bollywood is very famous here. Many Hindi films release here in theatres and we even get them on local cable TV with Singhalese sub-titles."

Posters of Bollywood actresses Madhuri and Aishwarya adorn many shops. As far as Sri Lankan`s favourite actors are concerned, locals swear by Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan.

The last Hindi film shot in the country was Ram Gopal Varma`s "Agyaat", which was filmed extensively in the Sigiriya Jungles of Sri Lanka in 2008. In 2004, Deepa Mehta came here to shoot her critically acclaimed "Water". She filmed the John Abraham-Lisa Ray- starrer just outside of Colombo.

Right now the Sri Lankan capital is gearing up to host the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) event June 3-5. In a country where there are fan clubs of Bollywood, the announcement of IIFA coming here has excited all.

"We need to develop greater association between Sri Lankan cinema and Indian cinema," IIFA brand ambassador Amitabh Bachchan said here when the announcement was made at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel last week.

"We share a lot of things in common. We have a long history of togetherness and friendship, of sharing culture and beliefs, and I think that artistically, too, we need to bring this together so that together we can form an absolutely strong force, which represents this part of the world in the forum of world cinema," he added.