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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Movie Review : What's Your Raashee

What's Your Raashee

Film: What's Your Raashee (Romantic Comedy)
Cast: Priyanka Chopra, Harman Baweja, Anjan Srivastava, Dilip Joshi, Darshan Jariwala, V Badola, Manju Singh
Director: Ashutosh Gowariker
Duration: Three hours and 30 minutes
Critic's Rating:

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Akshay madness spreads over

Recently, the Khatron Ke Khiladi-Fear Factor Level 2 girls along with host Akshay Kumar decided to come out of the screen at an event held by Colors.


Rupali Ganguly said, “There wasn’t any time for groupism as we were all so bothered about our performance. ” Shveta Salve and Anushka Manchanda jokingly cut in, “She’s lying! There was a lot of groupism but then that happens everywhere especially when so many girls are there.” Nauheed Cyrusi, Bruna Abdullah, Rosa Catalano, Sushama Reddy and Jesse Randhawa, too, were there and it was a tussle when it came to getting pictures clicked with Akshay. Everyone wanted to stand beside him! Lucky Akki!

Missed: Though Mandira Bedi was supposed to attend, she couldn’t as she had to be rushed to the hospital with a fractured ankle.

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‘Rekha was ego trip for Amitabh’

Susmita Dasgupta finds Amitabh Bachchan an interesting subject to study. Here, she decodes the superstar, the subject of her PhD and a book
 
Is there an Amitabh ‘before’ and ‘after’ ABCL?  
There is definitely a before and after ABCL Amitabh. The ABCL tragedy, like all stupendous failures have split Amitabh into a before and after image. The trauma of having failed appears to have drastically changed the person whose image was that of the invincible.

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He’s alive in each word of his songs

Manoj Kumar remembers Gulshan Bawra, who gave us the legendary song Mere desh ki dharti.

Average-wise, Gulshan Bawra was the Don Bradman among lyricists. We had the pleasure of knowing each other before we entered the world of cinema. He was almost a family member for me. Meri desh ki dharti from the film Upkar happened when we had gone to a shrine to pay our respects. When we returned to the car, he was singing Mere desh ki dharti sona ugle… jawanon bhar bhar lo jholiyan… khushi se bolo boliyan… I had remained quiet as he hummed these lyrics.

A couple of years later when I made Upkar, I went to music composer Kalyanji and narrated the script. I called up Gulshan at home and told him the situation from the film. I recalled the lyrics I had heard him hum as we were returning from the shrine. They had stayed in my mind… I thought that it was a great idea for my film, given a bit of improvisation. I did not like the lines: jawanon bhar bhar lo jholiyan… khushi se bolo boliyan. I had them removed from the song finally. Instead, I insisted on: Mere desh ki dharti sona ugle ugle heere-moti. Both, Kalyanji and Gulshan were hesitant about the change. They advised that the mukhda of a song cannot have just one line. But I remained adamant about the song and suddenly, an hour later, Gulshan jumped in his room where he was sitting. ‘This is great!’ he exclaimed with joy.

Every filmmaker, while writing the screenplay arrives at a landmark point in the plot where he believes that the scene can be narrated musically. The situation is then explained to the lyricist and that’s exactly how Mere desh ki dharti happened.

Gulshan had written another song, Har khushi hai wahan tu jahan bhi rahe for Upkar. Now, he could not finish writing the whole song because he had to escort my brother to a college in Ajmer. Later, Gulshan himself confessed to the media that the second stanza of the song was not written by him, but was penned by Aziz Kaifi and me.

Gulshan was a jolly good fellow. I got to know about his illness some two-and-a-half months ago. He had told me that he was undergoing the last radiations and was all right otherwise. When we had met at Shakti Samanta’s chautha ceremony, he had said that he was doing absolutely fine. In fact, he was truly excited about a new car he had purchased after 27 years. He was proud to have paid the money to buy the car. I was thankful to God that my friend was doing well then… But again, he’s alive in each word of Mere desh ki dharti. That song is imperishable!

When Mahendra Kapoorji, who sang Mere desh ki dharti, passed away, our Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh said that he would always be remembered for the song. It hurts to know that so many people associated with the song — Kalyanji, Mahendra Kapoor and Gulshan Bawra — are no more. Gulshan worked very well with Prakash Mehra on songs like Yaari hai iman mera. Before he became well-known, Gulshan wrote songs under a pseudonym.

Gulshan was also an entertaining comedian. Hardly brooding, he always had everyone in splits with his act of mimicry. I don’t understand when he used to sit and write. He always seemed on the move. When I would ask him how he was, he would often hum the lines of his hit song, Iss gulshan ko ujde huey ek zamaana beet gaya… Gulshan and I were from the same village near Lahore, Pakistan. My chief assistant Sikandar was Gulshan’s cousin. So we bonded on much beyond just cinema. Filmmaker Kewal Sharma, cricket player Manmohan Sood, Gushan and I we were good friends.

Gulshan has only gone away physically. He was a wonderful man. He was a friend to everyone and would never spread gossip. God bless his soul. My love to his wife.

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Shiney Ahuja gets judicial custody till July 2

In a relief of sorts for Bollywood actor Shiney Ahuja who is facing a rape charge, a Mumbai court Thursday did not extend his police custody and sent him to judicial custody till July 2.
Shiney was arrested Sunday after his teenaged housemaid complained to police that he had raped her. His police custody ended Thursday.

Making a plea for extending his police custody, the police lawyer said it was necessary to carry out further investigations and to prevent the accused from tampering with evidence or influencing witnesses.

However, Shiney's lawyer Shrikant Shivade argued that since the investigations were almost completed, there was no need for his further police custody.

Accepting the defendant's contention, the magistrate of the Andheri court sent him to judicial custody.

Shivade later told mediapersons that he would appeal against the court order and seek bail for the accused actor.

The lawyer clarified that Shiney has not made any confession of rape as speculated in a section of the media.

The actor's wife Anupam, who was present in the court, expressed her satisfaction with the court ruling and said: 'Shiney's one step closer home.'

Anupam had put up a spirited defence of her husband Wednesday, telling the media that Shiney was being framed in the rape case as he is a celebrity and a soft target. She, however, declined to name who was behind the frame-up.

Under judicial custody, the actor will be lodged in the high-security Arthur Road Jail in south Mumbai.

The jail also houses Pakistani terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir alias Kasab and the Special Court where the Mumbai terror attacks trial is being held by Special Judge M.L. Tahilyani.

The Oshiwara police late Sunday picked up Shiney from his Versova home after his maid lodged the rape complaint.

Later, the investigators searched Shiney's house and sent him and the victim for medical and DNA tests.

The complainant-victim hails from Kokbaan village in the coastal Konkan region of western Maharashtra, and lived in Vasai suburb of neighbouring Thane district. She commuted daily by train from Vasai to Andheri to work at Shiney's residence for the past one year.

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