Katrina goes Missing

Katrina Kaif with sister Isabella

On the set of Zoya Akhtar's ZindagiNa MilegiOobara, the ac ress and her ister vamoosed to explore the mountains of Spain

Last Sunday was quite a dark one for the unit of Zoya Akhtar's Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. They were all shooting in Andalucia, south of Spain, when Katrina and her sister suddenly went missing.

On Sunday morning, when the unit gathered for breakfast, Katrina didn't tum up. Presuming she was sleeping till late, Farhan Akhtar and others started joking about her laziness. But people began panicking when Katrina and her sister Isabelle (who had joined the crew some time ago) were nowhere to be found. When the sisters did not surface by evening, some people thought about informing the pOlice. The unit decided against it and chose to send out a search party to find the two women. But just then, Katrina and her sister emerged from nowhere.

Says a source from the unit, "This was late in the evening. We were all wondering what to do when Katrina suddenly showed up with her sister. The girls had lost their way in the mountain."
When contacted, Katrina confirmed the incident with a nervous giggle, "Yeah, Isabelle and I did get lost in Andalucia. It was the day off from shooting.

We both love the mountains.We took off early in the morning, on our own, thinking we would be back by breakfast. But while exploring the enchanting Little town, we were hooked on its beauty." Both the girls were mistaken for locals because they didn't speak at all with people on the way. Katrina continues, "Somewhere during the day we lost our way on a deserted stretch. We had no map, no water, no food. On this stretch,
there was not a single soul in sight. It was scary but fun."

Reminiscing the incident, Katrina is far from looking distressed; she longs to go back to Andaluda. "Not for work, just to have fun . Me and my sisters," she says. Sure Katrina, just carry a map next time.

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Shruti in sexiest Asian list

Who is the sexiest Asian girl of them all? Well, it may be Katrina Kaif, who topped the annual World's Top 50 Sexiest Asian Women list published by Eastern Eye, a UK magazine.

But one name that made it into the list for the first time is none other than our Ulaganayagan's daughter Shruti Haasan, who has been given 49th place in the list.

The gorgeous star child, who debuted in Bollywood with Luck opposite Immran Khan, has shown off her multitasking skills time and again.

She is a singer, actor and with Unnai Pol Oruvan, a music director too. Now the actress is busy in a Telugu film opposite Siddharth, directed by National Award winning director Prakash Rao. Like father, like daughter!

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Bollywoos the black lady

At the 54th Idea Filmfare Awards, the night was forever young at Yash Raj Studios — even at 1.30 am yesterday when the dance floor pulsated with the energetic feet of GenNext’s stars , Ayush Khedekar, Tanmay Chheda, Azharuddin Mohammed, Ashutosh Lobo, Rubina Khan and Tanvi Ganesh. Recognise them?

The Slumdog kids of Mumbai, new to Bollywood, but world-weary already after their trip to Hollywood for the Oscars. All smiles and bubbling with enthusiasm, they had superstar Shah Rukh Khan earlier describing them as the fresh and new talents of Bollywood’s future”. The Bollywood Badshah generously included emcees Ranbir Kapoor and Imran Khan, who replaced Karan Johar and himself at the glittering function, in his felicitation of the Slumdog Millionaire team and said pointing at the duo, “They are the future, we must nurture them.”

You could see that onscreen rivalry was replaced for Bollywood bonhomie at the 54th Idea Filmfare Awards. Ranbir and Imran, with a wicked sense of humour, ran through the audience like liquid fire, poking fun here, making a jibe there, pulling a leg, raising laughs all the time. When they hit the ‘gay’ note, Dostana filmmaker Karan Johan joined in, with the stunning Deepika Padukone and Konkana Sen Sharma adding the glam bit to the onstage compereing. But it wasn’t only about fun. There were feel-good themes and moments — the need of the recession-hit hour. Hope was the underlining theme and underdogs really stole the show.

Hrithik Roshan and the most deserving Priyanka Chopra bagged the Best Actor and Best Actress award respectively, and Jodhaa Akbar was declared the Best Film, but small budgeted films like Mumbai Meri Jaan (Best Film for Critics Award and Best Screenplay), Oye Lucky Lucky and Rock On also made the grade and took away several honours. Then there was Oscar winner and veteran costume designer Bhanu Athaiya going up at 82 with much grace to collect the Lifetime Achievement Award. “It’s better late than never,” she smiled adding, “costume designers were never taken that seriously in Bollywood even after we got the Oscar home. But young designers are changing that.” The Lifetime Achievement Award was also given to Om Puri by Amitabh Bachchan. And Puri, on a emotional note, recalled his days as “scrawny, long-haired, funny-looking fellow” who dared to dream.

Image via Wikipedia

The nail-biting moments onstage were challenged by scenes offstage that couldn’t be caught by the camera or emcees. Like the Bachchan clan walking in majestically and heading for the front row where already was sitting Bollywood’s grande dame Rekha! And Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan discreetly going backstage when Shahid Kapoor stepped out front to dance; then, sneaking out when he returned to his seat after the performance. Also, the audience thinking Kangana Ranaut in her Best Supporting Actress speech meant boyfriend Adhdhyan when she mentioned “someone special”... only to find the hot actress was describing her sister Rangoli!
Performance wise, Abhishek Bachchan, the lovely Katrina Kaif, newcomer Jackie Bhagnani and Shahid Kapoor set the stage on fire. Bipasha, Rekha and Katrina complimented Shahid. “You rock,” Bips told him. And Rekha added, “You’ll come to collect your Best Actor Award in ten months’ time.” The entire audience put in a performance for double Oscar winner A R Rahman by giving him a standing ovation: he won the Filmfare Award for Best Background Score. Anil Kapoor missed the event but daughter Sonam made up as she came, gave an award and quietly left.

Shah Rukh Khan summed up the feeling of the moment at the 54th Idea Filmfare Awards when he said, “Om Puri recalled his struggling days, and I remember my days when I was also scrawny, long-haired and funny-looking ... but we dared to dream and we made it. So there’s hope for everyone who dreams.”

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Cohen praises Katrina

Rob Cohen met Katrina Kaif at a private dinner party recently. 

The director who has directed movies like The Fast and The Furious, Dragon Heart, Stealth and XXX, was all praise for the beautiful actress. An eyewitness said, “Cohen kept praising her and also showed a lot of interest in the work that she had done so far.” Now will that translate into a role in his film? Over to you, Mr Cohen. 

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Aamir was invited on board Ghajini by film's villain

Aamir Khan's Ghajini may be running to packed houses, but not many know that it was the film's villain Pradeep Rawat who got the superstar interested in the movie that was originally made in Tamil.

"Aamir Khan usually has Diwali parties at his house. It was at one of these parties that Pradeep Rawat, who has worked with him in a couple of films like Lagaan and Sarfarosh, told him about the film," said Madhu Mantena, one of the producers of Ghajini.

Rawat had played the villain in the Tamil version that starred Surya and Asin Thottumkal in the lead roles.

"Rawat told him that he had just worked in a film down south that had become a huge hit and now the producers wanted to remake it in Hindi. Mr. Khan saw the film, liked it and was immediately on board," Mantena, who is COO of Sa Re Ga Ma films division, said.

Rawat, Asin and director A.R. Murugadoss are the common links between the Tamil version and the Hindi remake.

Then why is Surya, the lead actor of the Tamil version, not part of the film?

"If you have a chance of producing a film with Aamir Khan, would you go for producing it with Surya?" the producer quipped.

Mantena, who worked as CEO of Ram Gopal Varma's Factory for four years, said being a producer was his long-term ambition and he could not have thought of a better project for his maiden venture.

Allu Arvind, one of the biggest producers down south, had bought the rights of Ghajini and was planning to remake it in Hindi.

"As we have been partners for a long time, Allu Arvind offered me to produce the film and I thought it was the best offer to venture into my long-time ambition of being a producer," Mantena said.

Mantena said he now plans to dub the film in Spanish and release it in the US and Spain in about two months' time.

"Usually most big films are dubbed in German and released in Germany, but we are dubbing Ghajini in Spanish because I feel Spanish emotions are very close to Indian emotions."

He said that though Spain has a small market, it would get good play in the US.

"The Spanish community is the second largest community after the Americans in the US. So we plan to give it a mainstream Spanish release in the US. We are mainly targeting the west coast and Mexican borders that have a huge Spanish population," Mantena said.

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Katrina Kaif's 200 gown trial

 

Actor Katrina Kaif may be in Philadelphia at the moment, but we get to learn some wonderful things about the girl from friends back home. Apparently, the girl tried on over 200 gowns when she flew down to Delhi last. Were they wedding gowns?

Naah! Kat went all the way to Delhi to spend an entire day with designers Gauri and Nainika, and tried over 200 gowns for her role in Subhash Ghai's Yuvraaj . Her look in the film can best be described as classic and regal, so much so that her dress code included empire line waistlines and Grecian gowns! Of course every gown gave a different effect, and Kat was keen to zero in on her costumes way in advance. It looks like the effort has paid off!

It can be remembered that for a song in Singh Is Kinng , the actor had flown all the way to Dubai to shop for a dress she thought would be 'perfect'. And producer Vipul Shah was thrilled at her enthusiasm. It's another thing altogether that Sallu had co-incidently taken off to Dubai, too. But what's the harm in mixing some business with pleasure, huh?

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